{Wonderful Quote}

* A friend of mine posted this on her blog. I fell so much in love with this quote that i had to share it with everyone i know. I would love to have this quote framed with a picture of my kids behind it....have the quote on transparent paper or something.

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd finger paint more, and point the finger less.
I'd do less correcting, and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less, and know to care more.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I'd run through more fields, and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd teach less about the love of power, And more about the power of love.
~ Diane Loomans

{How do i love thee...let me count the ways}

I LOVE fresh fruit. I can't tell you how much i love it. There are no words to describe the feelings i have for it. All i know is that if i am angry, sad, down, etc. all i have to do to make my life better again is eat fresh fruit. It's true. I don't know what it is OR how the fruit does it, but it happens. The fresh taste of it in my mouth is more delightful than ANY food or sweets in this world. I LOVE fruit. Together we make such sweet music. Literally. If only people could experience the same relationship with a food as i do with fruit, but i don't think its possible. Fresh Fruit just doesn't compare to any other food. I love you. Thank you for existing. hehehe. :)

Do you have a certain food that you feel the same way about?

{Gavin giving me a choice}

Gavin: "Mom, can i play on my nintendo ds?"
Mom: "Nope"
Gavin: "Okay, so i can either play on my DS or watch a movie. Which one will you let me do? Huh, which one mom?"
Mom: "neither".
Gavin: "uhhhh, nooo, mom."

The other night at dinner we were talking about how if you eat too fast then you don't give your body enough time to figure out your full before its too late. So if you eat slow then you won't eat as much. Then , the other morning i watched a little bit of The Biggest Loser with the boys. I explained to them how eating unhealthy can make you overweight and how all those people don't want to be unhealthy and overweight anymore, so that is why they go on the show...to lose weight and be healthy. So, shane got home later that day and this is the conversation...

Gavin: "Dad, do you want to be fat?"
Shane: "what did you say?"
Gavin: "Do you want to be fat?"
Shane: "Uhhh, no. Why do you ask that?"
Gavin: "Well, because you eat too fast."

It was hilarious. You had to be there to fully get a kick out of it.

{Tanner- 3yrs. & 4 months old}

Tanner will let me take pictures of him. As long as he and mommy are doing something together he doesn't care what it is. I said, "Can i take some pictures of you?" He got a big smile and said "Yeah!" So, we had fun doing that together this morning. He has to look at every single picture i take on the screen. It is so cute. So, here are a few pictures of Tanner lookin too cute. Some pics of Gavin to come soon.

{Snow Shoeing}

We went snow shoeing again with our friends. We went with them last year around this time too. We loved it and so we decided to go again yesterday. The adults put on the snow shoes and then we pull the kids in their 3 sleds and put the babies on our backs in a pack thing. It works out well and boy oh boy is it a good workout too!! :) It's beautiful out there and we just enjoy each others company. The sun came out right before we got there so it was such a beautiful day!
Gavin, Remi, and Broden being pulled on the sled. Remi and Gavin were laying down and they thought it was hilarious.

Here, baby Jaydon fell asleep. So sweet.

Remi and Gavin being pulled on the sled. Gavin really was having fun, but his face would tell you otherwise in this picture.

Asking a cross country skiier which direction we should go...

Tanner eating the snow. He doesn't care where the snow has been, he will eat it. That goes for everything else he see's on the ground. I know, gross. BUT i can't stop him until its too late. He is too quick.

After about 2 hours of snow shoeing we went inside and enjoyed some nice hot chocolate.

Shane and i...
Jaydon and mommy...

I said it in the last post, and i will say it again....I have discovered that i don't mind the snow as long as i have activities like this to do. Now i want to go snowboarding. I have been getting the itch to go for over a year now. I really wish i could, but oh well. Maybe next Christmas when we head back to Idaho we can go snowboarding....and that works out well b/c my snowboard is there. :)

Anyway, after the snow shoeing we went inside the place and enjoyed some hot chocolate for awhile. It was a perfect winter day b/c they had a bonfire outside and so it smelled like campfire. That combined with the snow and a nice sunny day was just wonderful. :) It was fun. I wish we could do it more often.

{Jaydon at 7 months}

I have been terrible about taking pictures of Jaydon. I finally told myself i HAD to take some. So, here is little Jaydon at 7 months old. It wasn't easy trying to get him under the lights. He kept wanting to roll off of the little table and i had cushion behind him and he discovered it was FUN to roll onto the cushion off of the table. So, here is how this went from start to finish. From top left, go to the right, and then down to middle left, to middle right, and then to the bottom. You can see how he went from being on the table to where he ended up....on the floor.

Here is one of my little chunk. Too bad he wasn't smiling!

{Blabbing...again}

I just feel like typing down a few things that i haven't mentioned...

1. Shane and i went cross country skiing in Minnesota. It was lots of fun. It was hilarious watching the both of us fall at least three times each. :) It was kind of icy, so that didn't help. That is also when i realized that the snow isn't a bad thing, as long as we have stuff like that to do, or snow shoeing or snowboarding.

2.I love Shane. He is so fun and i love that we have opportunities all the time for just him and I to enjoy one another without anything to worry about, but us. :)

3.I am excited for the future. I am so excited. I can't wait to move to Texas...whether or not i like the area we live in is a totally different story, but its only for a year. I will miss a few things about Cleveland, mainly the people and the ward, but i like moving which means i never miss any place very much. :) That's just me. And i am excited about the possibilities of where we will go after that one year in texas is up(if things go our way).

4.Tanner just started Sunbeams this last Sunday. He did GREAT...he didn't even cry. He loved it too. I think it helps him knowing that mommy and Gavin are in there with him.

5.We are getting tons of snow here in Cleveland! Holy cow. I wouldn't mind it if i could go out and do stuff in it. Soooo, the boys and i have gone outside a few times to play in it....I shoveled, and then i would pull them around in their sled. We also went over and shoveled our neighbors driveway. Gavin said "They are going to be so excited when they see its all done!" It's been fun.

6.We gave Gavin the Toy Story Yahtzee Jr. for his Birthday and we have been playing that thing at least 10 times a day for almost a week. The boys LOVE that game and i actually enjoy it too. I like playing games and i like that i can now sit down and play a fun game with the boys. I can't get shane to play games very much, but he will actually play this one. :)

7.We had our annual poker night at my parents house. We play Texas Hold'em. The first time we played(2007), i won. The second time we played(2008), i got second place. This last time we played(2009), i got third place. Sooooo, i still won money. My dad gives money to the first , second, and third place winners. It's tons of fun and i love playing that game!!! :)

8. Jaydon is the sweetest baby on this planet. He fills my heart with joy. I can't squeeze him enough. I squeeze him every chance i get. I suck his cheeks in, i kiss him all over. OOOhhhhhh, he is just a big bundle of sweetness. Sooooooo happy. The only time he cries is when he is hungry OR wants attention. He freaks out when he wants to eat. Its hilarious. If he wants attention he will start fussing and as soon as i go over to him....i don't have to say anything, i just look at him and smile...he completely gets this huge smile, starts kicking those legs, and just looks sooooo excited that i am there with him. He is perfect. I couldn't ask for a more perfect little baby. How lucky i am. :)

9.I am so glad to being back to eating healthy. All the vacationing made us put on a few pounds, so my body is loving that we are back to our way of eating. I am back into my exercise routine. It was hard the first couple days, but my motivation came back and i am loving it. Part of what motivates me is watching Biggest Loser. Those people on there are awesome and its inspiring and motivating to watch.

10. I have so much to do around this house. It's going on the market and i have to make every room clean. I try everday, but can't keep up with it. It is crazy. I am also going through junk to figure out what to keep and what to sell in a garage sale. We need to get rid of clutter! Soooooo much to do.

{Just a few things}

Here are just a few things that i am thinking about...

1. Graduation in May. Planning planning planning. We have tons of family coming out!
2. Jaydon is now 7 months old! Man oh man is time flying by.
3. When people say "If i could do it all over again, i would do it different"....would they really do it that much different?! I don't think so.
4. All of the ice fishers we saw on our way out of Minnesota and heading into Wisconsin. I want to try it.
5. Snow really wouldn't be that bad if i could go snow shoeing, cross country skiing, snowboarding, or sit in a hot tub outside in it(growing up we had a hot tub in our backyard and would sit in it a lot in the winter. We would jump out, roll in the snow and jump back in the hot tub. It made your skin feel like it was on fire) If i could do these things everyday, i could definitely live in a snowy place.
6. I need to go workout right now instead of sitting here doing this.
7. It is supposed to snow all week and we already have a lot of snow.
8. My boys are such good little boys.
9. Wondering what my grandpa, who just passed away a few days ago, is doing in heaven right now...?
10. I need to finish cleaning my house.
11. I would like to write a book about my own life's experiences.
12. I wish i were a nurse. No, the other day i realized....i don't have to BECOME a nurse, i just want to learn EVERYTHING a Doctor knows and then i could be happy. I just want to KNOW how the body works, and why it functions the way it does. I want to know it all.
13. There are so many things i want to see and do and become....a lifetime isn't enough time to do it all.
14. My dad said the other day, "Once you are older and you feel like you have finally figured life out, that is when it ends." True. I wonder why it is that way?
15. Aaahhh, Disney World.
16. Where are we going to settle down one day?
17. The older gentleman i saw at the grocery store this morning at like 7 a.m. that was soooooo happy and nice. He made my morning. It was a very contagious happy attitude. He smiled big at me and said "Hi sweetheart! You have a good day and A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" Everyone else at that store has a look on their faces like that is the last place they want to be, so he definitely stuck out in the crowd! I wonder if he is just a happy person OR if he had a good reason to be that happy at 7 in the morning?
18. I believe that everyone lives their life the best THEY know how to.
19. We think the grass is always greener on the other side, but is it really? I just think that people always think someone else has it better BUT if they walked in that person's shoes whom they think has it better, they would find it really isn't better. There are challenges that come in every single situation in life.
20. My New Year's resolution. 1. Drop 10 lbs by graduation 2. Be a better mommy.
21. I am done. I am now off to workout and clean.

{Gavin, our little photographer}

Here is what he did to us with his new camera...