Our Simple Life: February through June 2015

Life is busy, so I will get right to it!

Molly turned 7, Ashley turned 4 and they both got taller, smarter and sassier. I said goodbye to my 20s with barely a thought since the months of March and April always go by in a whirl. (It goes Ashley's birthday, then mine, then Molly's, two uncles, with each respective birthday having a "Friend party" and "Family party", General Conference and Easter, with their respective celebrations as well).

We planned and ran a rally down at the Capitol, met with top officials afterward, made some noise for foster parents' rights for a little while, ran a fundraiser which turned out to be way more work than I ever thought it would be, but glad I got the chance to do it. I decided to take a step back from advocating and give 120% of myself to my family instead of whatever was left-over. The system will always be there to help, but my kids only have one childhood and don't want to mess up too badly with them.

Dan finished off his 7th year teaching special education to high school students and perfected his craft even more. He's awesome. He never stops giving of himself and is still patient and kind when I am overwhelmed and cranky with all of my obligations.

Molly is still timid, shy, smart, kind and insightful. I wish she wasn’t so sensitive and serious sometimes, but I am learning to love my kids for who they are instead of what would be easiest for me to parent. She is very forgiving of others which is a great thing since she has me and Ashley to deal with every day. Right now, she is really into coloring, writing plays and reading books. I told her she should consider being a screen-writer or movie animator. She just recently wrote a short play that was very imaginative and sweet, along with acting it out with Ashley and Dan's little cousin. We are starting at a brand new school this next year. We are not sure if we will like it, but I guess only time will tell, so why not give it a shot?!

Ashley is still a spit-fire. She says what she thinks and half the time I am worried about what will come out of that little mouth of hers. She talks to anyone who will listen. She has a solution to every problem. I told her she should be a lawyer, but she was very adamant that she didn't want to be one. She said she wants to be a mom. I told her she could be both, so she is currently considering that. She is very observant of others’ needs and does nice things when she notices they should be done. She has a memory like no other. She can recall anything you ask her, in detail and bring up past events or circumstances that you would never give a second thought to. Playing the card game Memory with her is suicide. I sometimes manage to get one to three pairs before she takes over the game! She has a mean streak in her though and enjoys taunting Molly, so we are constantly working on that. Molly is very sensitive and serious, so it’s a very delicate balance when dealing with these types of personalities together.

Molly and Ashley are pure , 24/7 entertainment for Emily. They are naturals with her and I am chop liver next to them. I don't know what I will do when summer is over. Emily will be so bored with just me.

Emily is the sweetest, happiest baby around. You just look at her and she smiles. She brings a sweetness to our family we never knew was missing. She is our easiest baby (or maybe we just finally got the hang of it!) Either way, it is way easier in many ways with her, but at the same time the sheer reality of having three kids is exhausting. I never stop until I fall into bed at night! My house has only been tidy a couple times over the last 8 months and those were times that we had guests staying in our home. I definitely am honing in on the re-definition of what "Clean" means to me. Emily loves the vacuum. When she sees it, she starts panting and waving her arms. She loves watching any sport and if you change the channel, she gets mad. Dan loves it because she will fall asleep at night, on his lap watching sports with him. It's super sweet. She claps, dances to David Archuletta "Sweet Caroline" and "Nunca Pense." If she's crying, all we have to do is turn on those songs and she's golden.

We also just celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Go us! Life is hard. Life is good. Life is happening somewhere in the middle of all this chaos, right? We are very blessed to know this is but a moment in time, and how we handle everything is truly shaping us into what Heavenly Father wants us to be!

There you have it. Our last 5 months in a few paragraphs. I will let the pictures tell the rest, because this mom is tired. Thanks for catching up on our simple life.

Seek for understanding before seeking to be understood.

We had some of our very best friends, the Clarks, come stay with us for a couple days.

Ashley was on her first soccer team and loved it, and below, Dan is sewing up Ashley's favorite monkey.

Ashley requested a "Trophy Cake" for her birthday. I had no idea what that was, so I searched around town until I found a Unicorn (she loves those) that could also pass as a trophy...I thought the cake was completely weird and awkward, but she loved it!

I had a meeting with Senator Nancy Barto and Emily, of course, tagged along.

Molly's First Grade Teacher, Mr. Hewitt

How it usually turns out playing "Memory" with Ashley. She is proudly displaying all of her matching pairs and my measly four pairs. (This is me really, really trying)

This picture below was right after I got a text from my sister asking how I was doing. It was also at the same time my baby woke up from her nap hungry and I had to be out of the house in 15 minutes to be somewhere. My reply to the text was, "Great! How are you?" That's being a mom. We do it all. Every. Minute. Of. The. Day....even though many will never hear of it.