Made me smile...

This morning as I shuffled the girls out the door to school I watched them walk to the bus stop like I do every morning, but today they walked all the way to the bus hand in hand. Man this made me smile and made my day! I LOVE that my girls are not just sisters, but best friends. They fight like an old married couple, but they love each other so much and it shows! It's little moments like these that remind me why I love being a mom.

Hi, my name is Brittany and I am a list maker...

I have a problem...

I make lists for EVERYTHING!

You name it chore lists, grocery lists, goal lists, Christmas lists, future home lists, food storage lists, etc...etc... Making these lists helps keep me on track (sometimes) but it also often times makes me feel defeated because I am constantly falling short in accomplishing my "lists". Life as a mom to 4small kids is most of the time just plain craziness. There is always something going on and someone needing something. Like usual I didn't even come close to finishing my to-do list yesterday. This always frustrates me because I really do TRY! I need to work on rolling with the punches more and realizing that I can't be a perfectionist. If you saw my house you wouldn't think that I am a perfectionist because there is always a mess somewhere, but really I am, I expect way too much out of myself. I have realized that part of my problem is that when I do something I like to do it WELL and when you have a busy life sometimes you just have to do things quick! I am going to try and be better about this(try).

Yesterday after feeling really discouraged that I didn't get much done on my to-do list I decided to sit down and write out what I had done throughout the day. So here it is...

1. did the girls hair/got them out the door to school
2. got J-man dressed
3. got the baby dressed/changed her diaper/nursed the baby
4. changed at least 8 more diapers throughout the day
5. nursed the baby every 3 hours throughout the day
6. had personal scripture study
(working towards finishing doctrine & covenants before the end of the year)
7. cleaned J-man's room with him/made his bed/put his clean clothes away
8. made J-man lunch
9. sent some important emails
10. worked on my Christmas surprise for my parents
11. took out the trash
(like walked the bag to the trash outside,yep I am counting every little thing I did)
12. unloaded the dishwasher/then re-loaded it
13. clipped J-man's fingernails (gross I know)
14. paid a medical bill
15. took the girls to gymnastics
16. started the girls on their reading
17. cooked dinner- garlic-lime chicken.rice-a-roni-.corn bread.mandarin oranges
18. planned all of our meals for December & printed a "meal calendar" aka- LIST19. went to the 8pm yoga class at the gym *ME TIME FINALLY*
20. clipped coupons/wrote my grocery LIST21. popped a bag of popcorn and watched 30 rock with Court
22. looked for tile online
(we are getting tile in our kitchen & bathrooms, HALLELUJAH)
23. sorted the dirty laundry into bins in the laundry room
24. blogged (my only form of journaling)
25. got ready for bed and hit the sack around midnight

I'm sure I did more then what is on this list, but this was everything that I could remember. It sure made me feel better at the end of the day to see what I had accomplished. There are SO MANY DAYS when I feel like I have gotten nothing done, but this list proves that even when my to-do lists aren't getting done as quickly as I would like, I am still accomplishing things!

I'm not going to stop making lists, I CAN'T(help me!!! j/k) but I am going to scale down my lists, make them more realistic, and not be so hard on myself!

p.s. J-man told the baby the other day that he wanted to marry her! It was so, so, so cute. He just adores her. He said it in the sweetest little voice too, totally melted my heart!!!

Say it isn't so...

Dear baby E,

I can hardly believe you are 3 months old already! These past three months have gone by way, way, way too fast. You have brought so much love and peace into our home. We all absolutly adore you. Not one of your siblings have been jealous of you at all. They each are completely in love with you and are constantly holding, snuggling, and kissing you!

Last night I was up really late, I just couldn't sleep, I held you in my arms and just starred at you. You are truly breath taking. You have such tiny, femanine features. Your eyelashes are incredible. They are so long and thick that they don't even look real! And your hair is so dark, thick, and silky. Everything about you is so precious! I am so grateful for you sweet girl, you are truly a gift from above!

You are still pretty tiny, exactly 11 pounds when I weighed you today. Although I'm not sure how accurate that is since I weighed myself and then again with you in my arms. You are long and skinny. You have the cutest little body, yout so petite!! The kids love your tiny little bottom.

You are very alert now and love to smile. You smile with your whole body. Whenever you smile you crunch in and pull your legs up. It is so cute to see how excited you get when we talk to you. You are cooing now too and it is so much fun. You are so cute when you get "talking". Your daddy loves to go back and forth with you cooing! I really need to get this on video.

I just cant get enough of you, I could hold you all day!! The house has become quite a bit more messy since you came along. Snuggle my beautiful babe or clean house??? I pick you!

I love you to the moon and back!
Love,

Mommy

Lunch Date

I had lunch at the Elementary School today with my favorite 3rd grader!! J-man thought it was so fun to eat lunch with the big kids. I truly love being a mom and getting to do things like this. Life is all about the little moments that make us happy :).

Attitude of Gratitude

Wow, 2 posts in one day, I'm on a roll! My post earlier was actually done from my phone, while in bed, feeding the baby!!! My hubby bought me a new phone last week for my new job. I really thought having Internet on my phone at first was silly, but WOW it has seriously come in handy. I get so much done while I am nursing (LOL)... scripture reading, checking emails, keeping up with my calendar, etc... etc...

I will be starting my new job in a few weeks. I am excited and nervous!! I am going to be assisting the owner of a salon downtown. I am extremely excited about the opportunity to learn from such an amazing stylist and salon owner. It is a perfect schedule for me since it is just 2 days a week, 8 hours total. I know everything with juggling the kids between Court and I, etc... will work out, it's just a little nerve wracking thinking about adding something more to our already busy schedule.

The past few days I have had the 'Holiday's' on my mind quite a bit. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Holiday's but normally I am not thinking about them much in advance. This year I am especially looking forward to the Holiday's because I want to do my best to make them memorable and special. I want to have a fun Christmas for my kids, but more importantly I want the Spirit of the Season to fill our hearts and home. I have learned so much this year about what is TRULY important in life after the sudden loss of my brother Jake. I feel like I have a broader perspective on life and more Eternal goals. My brothers death has been the biggest trial I have faced in my life (and I have had my share of not pleasant trials in the past) and the grief that has followed his death has often been very overwhelming and painful. The past few months I have felt and recognized the Lords hand in my life on such a deeper level. I would have never chosen loosing my brother for me to learn these lessons and to grow closer to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ, but I am so grateful that something positive has come out of such a tragedy. This Holiday Season I want to teach my children the TRUE meaning of Christmas. I want to teach them what it means to be Thankful, Charitable, Joyful, and Christlike. This year I am excited for the service our family is going to give and we can be an instrument in the Lords hands.

I have lots of ideas of how our family is going to GIVE this season and I am excited to see it all come together. I am working on putting together a fundraiser in my brother Jake's name as well, I am still working on all of the details, but I know with the help of family and friends it will be an amazing way to honor my brother on our first Christmas without him.

The girls just got home from school and I can hear them playing downstairs with J-man, so that's my que to get off the computer and go enjoy my children :). I promised the girls a Thanks Giving craft today, I have no idea what we are going to do, but we'll come up with something!!

ps- Before I forget for journaling sake, J. decided to eat his yogurt this morning with a medicine dispenser. It was quite funny. I was feeding the baby in my bed and he kept bringing me my "medicine" in bed. Pretty creative way to eat yogurt if you ask me!

This crazy thing called Life...

Wow life can really get crazy at times!! We had one CrAzY day at our house yesterday, it just seemed like the day just flew by and I don't feel like I accomplished much. Little J-man followed me around ALL day. I love spending time with the little stud miffin, but sometimes he makes it hard to get things done.

Last night I ended up taking all of the kids to the library to do homework and get books. I thought... "this will be perfect, the girls can so their homework, J.  can look at books, and the baby will sleep in her car seat." HA!!!!! Crazy is what I get for thinking that was a perfect plan! J-man didn't want to hold still and look at
books for longer then 5 minites, Lex forgot her homework sheet, some of Mac's homework even had me stumped (sad I know), and the baby got fussy right when we got there! Well, live and learn, right? I wont be doing that again alone with four kids!!

By the time we were done at the library it was late and we were all hungery. Court met up with us after he was done with scouts and we all went to iceburg for some burgers, fries, and shakes. Lex was not minding and we kept warning and warning her that she was going go loose her icecream, well once she disobeyed again we had to follow through on her not getting her icecream! Man it is so hard to not give in to your kids. Court and I are working really hard on following through on our punishments, somehow we have to teach our kids that they cant walk all over us :).

So there you have it, another day in the life of the Jones family! Being a mom is hard work, but I wouldn't trade it for all the money in the world!!!