Happy Day!

Woooo!

Man did we look young! Doesn't seem like 12 years ago!

Still remember the head spinning happiness of that day.

I was with you and that was all that mattered.

Happy to be sharing each day with you ever since!

Everyday Girls

I generally take more photos on special occasions or excursions. We love to get out and do something different and fun as a family. ...But sometimes you've just got to appreciate those everyday kind of days when you're not really going anywhere - the house is cluttered up with toys and laundry, the kids are just being silly and you're just enjoying the moment and (mostly) ignoring the mess!

If you know me you know I love to take pictures - of my girls especially. I could post a ton of photos (way more than I do) because I think they're so cute. It's really hard for me to delete even the blurry ones and the awkward facial expressions - sometimes those are the best! I have such a hard time choosing just a couple of photos to share - so what was going to be just a couple quickly turned into 20+ photos. Oh, well! They make me smile ;) Here they are in no particular order:

Fashionistas

Laundry and little ladies

...with big personalities!

Cheers to Dad playing Tea Party!

Socks!

Super girls!

Dressing up in doll clothes to play Camping

Strolling Lamby around the neighborhood

Stopping to look for buried treasure

Sweet :)

Wanting to match and both fitting in the shopping cart!

Little crack up

Mama Love

Daddy Love

Hats

More hats!

What could be more fun!?

The End!

Still getting the laundry put away...

I know I have been pretty absent from my blog here lately. I haven't felt like I could take much time to record my thoughts much for some time. Just managing to keep up with the day to day. Life is so busy - even when you keep your extracurricular activities pretty minimal like we do. Next year - with Lily starting school - is going to rock our world! I don't want to think about it too much! It will bring both good and sad changes. She is already growing up too fast! Sierra is too! I will miss our laid-back mornings with both my girls playing around me in their pj's. I am glad to have my baby still with me at home, but she thinks she's a big girl already and acts like it. She doesn't say many words yet, but she gets her point across, and she gets around, and up, and on to, and right in the thick of things! I just can't count on her to stay a baby for very long. I promise to do a blog post all about that little character the next time I can manage to stay awake this late. For now I probably have a busy day ahead so I should really just go to bed.

Just wanted to check in and update our family photo with the one we recently took from a visit to a nearby Lavender Farm. What a great place for photos! Mike wanted to practice taking photos of people (he mostly takes photos of objects in his studio), and it was just fun to check out this beautiful place as a family. He found out about the farm from one of his window clients. If you haven't been keeping up with us in person - Mike is learning photography and trying to transition over to being a full time stock photographer as soon as he can make it happen. We've been searching for the right career for him for some time and think this could be it. We hope and pray (and invite anyone who will to pray for us - we could use a little success)!!! This is just the business model Mike has been looking for and we are very excited about the possibilities it has to offer. Hopefully down the road it will allow Mike the time to paint again as well. And hopefully I can make a go at it too once our girls are both in school or not so demanding of my time. So far it has been pretty slow going, but if anyone can make it work Mike can. He is the hardest worker I've ever known, and while I am am talking about him - such an awesome dad! He's been working so hard at photography when he isn't doing windows, he is exhausting himself, but he still makes time for our girls and puts Lily to bed every night with a plethora of stories and more patience than I can muster with that girl who is so good at dragging things out you would just not believe how little we can actually end up doing in a day.... I love to watch him with our children, and love to see their eyes light up when he comes home. I am so grateful to have him in my life as my loving husband and the father of my kids! Thank you for all you do, Mike!!! 

Mother's Day

I was thinking a lot about being a mom as we approached this mother's day. It's the job I wanted ever since I was a little girl. It's presented as very important by my church, but I think also my mom made it look so appealing, and I probably thought I could do it even better - hah! I love you, Mommy! By the way, my mom is amazing - kids almost always think they know better - just so you know. Including my 4 (almost 5) year old. But I will try not to ramble on too long. Just been thinking about a few things about being a mom that I wanted to share.

Sometimes I feel like in our current fast-paced technology driven society parents are complaining a lot more about how hard it is to raise kids. Do you think that's so? Maybe the way the world is today it is harder, or maybe people just complain more? I don't know...but I know I don't always come across as all positive and having it down, and I sure hope my kids don't see me as ever regretting the choice to become their mother. But I want to be honest because if they have similar feelings to me when they reach this phase of life I want to be able to relate to them and help them feel normal about it and not all in gleeful grandma mode because being a mother is honestly so much harder than I ever imagined! Being a parent is the hardest job I can imagine because:

It's exhausting.
It doesn't ever stop.
You are so emotionally invested.
It most likely isn't anything like what you daydreamed it would be, but you can't just research and retrain like for any other career.
People told you about it, many people, many times but you just didn't understand until you experienced it.
You can never really be prepared for all you will have to do.
Once you get something down - everything changes and each individual child needs you in different ways.
It often feels thankless - like you work so hard and no one really realizes or appreciates just how much you do or how much you care.
You do the most, and the hardest tasks - you ask the slightest thing and they tell you "It isn't fair!"
As a parent - you are like the boss, but you can't fire your employees when they ignore or disrespect you - and you have to be really proactive and ridiculously creative to get what you want out of them.
If you had a bad day with your 'co-workers' you can't just go home to get away from them - you have to put them to bed, and maybe, sometimes, they will let you sleep through the night.
You don't have to just worry about your own health and hygiene anymore (wiping butts and brushing teeth and oh so much more), but your own plus (x-number of children that are probably not cooperative as you try to help them get a handle on theirs).
You can't just leave the house with your little ones without checking to make sure you have everything they might need in a fairly hefty go-to bag before you venture out.
It is easy to feel like sometimes you are losing your identity as you put your spouse's and children's needs before your own time and time again.
You continually question how good a job you are doing, if you're being too hard, or too easy, if that one thing you did will make them hate you forever or screw your child up for life!
Your heart is not your own anymore - and boy can it worry!
Do they know that even though you push them, and grouch at them, and tell them no, or not right now, or suck the fun out of so many dangerous exploits - you love them more than anyone you've ever loved, you're so proud of who they are, and you don't mind making sacrifices when it's all for them?

Despite all the hard things - I wouldn't give up being Lily and Sierra's mom for anything! I was thinking about how becoming a mother your focus becomes raising your kids - some might say mom's lose themselves in that work. It's all about the kids. ...But in reality motherhood...parenthood helps women and men become so much more themselves. It helps you grow and find out more about yourself. It isn't really about how the kids turn out, or just about that. Once you have kids you realize they are going to grow up with or without you, and they learn so much without you even really trying to teach them. (You can even be the best mom on the planet and your kid might choose to do everything contrary to what you taught because everyone is an individual with a right to free agency). Being a mother has taught me so much more than I have probably taught my children. Everyday it teaches me valuable lessons about patience, how to treat people, setting priorities, letting things go, expressing love... Much more important stuff than any job I could hold or any artwork, or nifty little nothing I could ever create. It is in serving others not seeking after our own pursuits that we become who our Heavenly Father really wants us to be. Matthew 16:25 It isn't easy - it's super, super hard, and I am far from that end goal ultimate me, but I believe my children are helping me get closer to it. Helping me become a better, less selfish person. And what could be more important than them? I'm so grateful for the sweet people that they are, and that I'm lucky enough to go through life calling them my family! Motherhood may seem like an unpaid job, but it has some pretty sweet bonuses :)

Children bring so much joy and really do make life so much better - celebrating their firsts and accomplishments, making you laugh right in the middle of a serious bad mood... Constantly reminding us to give to balance our lives (as we try to help balance theirs) and make time for fun! Showing us that little things can be really important. That we should love everyone, even if they've made poor choices (like you can't help loving your kids). That a lot of behaviors need to be taught, and we need to teach and be teachable, because we can still learn how to behave better even in our advancing years ;) I could go on and on, but I already have - instead I will just say - I love my kids more than I can ever say, and I can't imagine any job I would rather have than this one!

Sierra Turns 1!

Bet you thought I was never going to get around to this! (Actually posted almost a year later)

Sierra's first birthday - looking back

The invitation I made. We had family and a few of our sweet neighbors over to help us celebrate. I just had to use her birth-date for her first birthday party theme in southern California!

We got a few decorations, but the main ones were our girls in their Mexican dresses from the local swap meet. They were so excited to try them on and danced all about the house to the cd we also picked up there the night before. 

 


It was so fun watching Sierra walk around in her long dress since she was still pretty new to walking as it was - I couldn't get over the cuteness of it! But Lily's gestures and facial expressions in this video crack me up! Along with the classic Lily ending - she's always getting hurt.

Decoration/Party Game: Photos of Sierra from each month of her life. (Guess the closest correct order to win a prize.)

All ready to party!

Sierra actually fell asleep and missed the first part of her own party! But the games were really more for the older kiddos. Lily and Sierra's cousins: Evie, Isaac, Auji, and Audrey, Lily, and our neighborhood friends: Jake and Kianna, Tristan and Kira, Gabe and (the other) Lily. First we played the Sombrero Game - like hot potato, but whoever got the hat when the music stopped had to do a dance. It was pretty funny and the kids were pretty good sports, but I didn't really expect to last even as long as it did - I just wanted to use the hat!

Next we did the classic pin the tail on the burro.

There's the birthday girl! 

Sierra woke up just in time for the pinata! I can't remember if we let her have a swing at it...(I wanted to). But I do remember we bought so many goodies to go inside the pinata that when we opened it up to stuff it and discovered how tiny the inner chamber was - we had to alter it to fit everything in...and even though we duck taped it all over and added our own tissue streamers to cover it up - the result of that was not a very sturdy pinata! He unfortunately didn't last long, but he sure was cute :)

I don't remember how many kids got to take a swing or who brought it down, but I do remember not everyone got a turn before that burro was down!

In an effort to have no one trampled or left without loot, and because we bought mostly small toys and things this time instead of a lot of candy we told the kids to each pick 11 things. They were much more deliberate, and probably bargaining about it, so it worked pretty good!

Checking the guesses on the photo game.

An adorable card Sierra's cousin Isaac made her that I happened to take a photo of.

The birthday girl and me.

The cake! 

(I just kind of winged it at the last minute as far as cake decorating went
 - from some picture of Mexican embroidery designs I found online.)

Happy Birthday to you! All eyes on the birthday girl!

It can feel a bit overwhelming to be the center of attention,
 especially when the house was empty before your nap.

Big sister helped to blow out the candle.

Sierra was not too sure about her cupcake at first.

Hmmmm...This is pretty good after all!

Getting into the spirit!

Got some cute smiles, but she actually didn't end up eating much cake. I think it was too sweet for her. With Lily's first cake I used cream cheese frosting, but this was straight butter cream and the sweetest thing Sierra had tasted in her life to this point! I was OK with that. Trying to raise kids who don't overload on sweets. So far they want them but they can't handle a huge helping and know when to stop - for the most part :)

My cute man in a sombrero. Fiesta numero uno!

Time to open presents!

Lily picked out and bought this little penguin with her own piggy bank money. 
(You can see here Mike is not a big fan of pausing or posing for pictures.)

Sierra got loaded up! Thanks again to everyone for the awesome presents!

Pinata pieces always make good party hats!

Grandma and Audrey, Isaac and Lily hanging out after all the excitement is over.

Sierra was wiped out after the party she fell asleep right on the floor. 

Later she got a little fever, poor Birthday baby, but it didn't keep her down for long!

Playing with Grandpa in a cooler lid 'boat' later that night :)

I wish I had written this sooner so I could include more about Sierra's little one year old self (as I write this she is almost 2!) Sierra is such a sweet smiley girl and a delight to have in our family. She is so determined and independent. She started walking full on all over the place at 11 months, and started talking more and more at around 13 months, just the opposite of Lily who said "Airplane" at 11 months and walked at 13. Sierra's first word was "tickle tickle" and she loves to roughhouse with her sister and dad, and has the most delightful giggle. We are so grateful for our sweet baby-girl and love her so much! 

A friend inspired me to take a photo each month to frame to see my babies grow. I did it for Lily and for Sierra too, we have them hanging over their beds and that's what I used to make the game at her party. I think it's so fun to see the changes as my baby grew from day one to one year. Here they are for you to enjoy too!

Sierra's First Year Month by Month:

Happy 1st Birthday, Sierra-girl!