I have a school room and a coat closet!

I am soooooooo excited! We turned the room that Mike and Tiff were using into our school room, and turned my upstairs hall closet into a coat closet. Not having a coat closet is one of the things that has frustrated me about this house, (along with a small kitchen) and it was fairly easy to take out three of the shelves and add a closet rod.

A few years ago Darren and I listened to some cds about love language. My love language is time. That means the best way to show love to me is to spend time with me, or doing things for me. Darren and I agreed that I could make him a "honey do" list so he would know what projects I wanted done. Now, along with this comes another agreement, defining what is "enough", because honestly once he starts working I could work him to death on projects and it would never be enough because there is no end to the projects I can think of that need to be done. This also hold true for the way he recieves love, there has to be a definition of what is enough. So, back to my school room and closet. Yesterday we met my brother at the storage unit he shares with my parents to get McKay's old twin bed. We brought that home. Then Darren installed four more shelves in the closet of the school room. Then, he took Shelby's day bed apart, we hauled it to the school room (needed for a comfy place to read, and for the ocasional cousin sleepover), and put it back together. I set to work emptying the upstairs closet and moving the school stuff downstairs while Darren put the twin bed from the storage unit together in Shelby's room. When that was done he knocked out the shelves in the hall closet and installed a closet rod! I would say all of that work was more than "enough" I'm certain that he loves me! I love the new space, not only the school room, but in my closet now that coats are not hanging in there. It is also nice to have all the school stuff in one place, and not poking out from every available corner.

Sarah's Birthday!

Sarah's birthday was on Wednesday. She is now 7! True to Sarah form she had very clear rules about what should happen on her birthday. First, "the color of 7 is green". I had no idea, but this meant that we had to have green pancakes for breakfast. I guess she liked the St. Patrick's day pancakes so much she invented a reason to do it again. Next rule, I was supposed to wake her up. This was a bit of a problem since birthdays are like Christmas and she was up much earlier than normal, so I failed on that one. Third, the balloons have to be pink and white. Check. We got that one right. Fourth, we had to have lunch at McDonald's, "the one that is almost to Smiths, and I get to tell everyone where to sit(at our house this is a big deal)" Check. Fifth, we had to see Monsters vs. Aliens. Check(totally cute movie). Last, she wanted a pink unicorn cake with a rainbow colored main. I made one for Shelby when she turned 5, so I was thinking I had this one under control too. I should have shown pictures to Sarah first. When she saw the cake it took her a minute to even figure out what it was -ouch. She apparantly had something else in mind, I guess I'm just not the cute cake makin' kind of mom. The more she looked at it the more she liked it.
After the movie we went to Walmart to get her a brand new bike. She promised that when she turned 7 she would stop sucking her thumb. We have told her that when she stops we will get her a bike. Well, the jury's still out on the thumb thing. She can suck it at night, I can't really stop that, and she's trying to stop so that's good. Yes, she's wearing a different outfit. I took this picture today. It was snowing on her birthday, so I didn't get any pictures of her with the bike on her big day.

So there you have it. Sarah is a 7 year old, no trainig wheel bike ridin' opinionated girl, that is trying to stop sucking her thumb. I can't believe it!

My Shelby

I've been thinking I need to do a post that is entirely devoted to Shelby. I look back at these pictures and others (I would have put up baby pictures if I had any on my computer) and think how did we get here? Where did my baby go, and how did she go so quickly? Something happens as kids get older, they leave the cute little kid phase and move on to something else that seems to get forgotten, or at least not ooooed and awed over like when they are little. As a parent I still think she is cute and amazing, but in different ways than when she was little. Life is way more fun, and we have much more freedom, I love that!

The bond between mothers and daughters is interesting to me. (My major in college was Family and Human Development so all family relationships are interesting to me.) It is especially interesting when a daughter is also an oldest child. I know I am hard on Shelby I expect a lot from her, more than I expect from Sarah. Part of that is because I have Shelby that does so much, so Sarah doesn't have to. I can honestly say that Shelby does not let me down. Sure I get frustrated and disappointed, but I also realize that I expect a lot of her, so I try harder to look past the frustration and I find myself asking for her forgiveness A LOT.

I, too am an oldest child. I know what that feels like. I love that when my dad talks about my birth he says that he was glad they had a girl, because Mom would have a friend. I don't know what my mom would say about the kind of friend I am, but I like how my relationship with Shelby is changing. We can have interesting conversations, and I enjoy that. I know that my mom relied a lot on me, and I think I helped keep our house running. Shelby definitely helps keep our house running.

Shelby is awesome because she is her own person. She knows what she likes, and doesn't care if she is different from her friends. She is a lot like her dad in that way, and many others. She plays WOW with Darren (even though I don't understand what they are talking about, its fun to listen to them and see the bond that they have-it would be interesting to hear him talk about the bond between a father and a daughter). She is the dog whisperer in training. She loves to read, her favorite is fantasy-just like Darren. What can I say? She's my Shelby, my sweet girl, and I love her!

Sarah -No Training wheels

Sarah has always loved to ride bikes. She got a bike for her birthday (I think) when she was 3 (I think-what a bad mom I am that I don't remember for sure, or maybe I'm just getting old). She has outgrown that bike, and wants a new one. Well, Sarah sucks her thumb. Darren and I have told her she could have a new bike (or scooter) if she stopped sucking her thumb. Bribery worked with my mom to get her to stop sucking her thumb, we hoped it was genetic. Skip ahead, Carter moves in with a bike and a scooter. Sarah is in heaven! Carter's bike is bigger than her old bike so she would ride it when she could. She got very good at riding his bike, the training wheels never touched the ground. With the nice weather last week all three kids wanted to be outside. Shelby has her awesome bike, and usually Carter picks his scooter over his bike, so Sarah would ride his bike. Well Carter's scooter was at Jared and Liz's and then it was in the trunk of Tiff's car, so he wanted to ride his bike. Mike adjusted the training wheels for him so he could ride. Sarah, being the little thinker that she is pulled Shelby's old bike out of the garage and asked Mike to fix it up for her. He lowered the seat, pumped up the tires, and tightened the handle bars. What a nice uncle. She took off!

This is my first attempt at video on my blog, I hope it works.

Sarah says that she will stop sucking her thumb when she turns 7, which is on April 15. We are planning to get her a new bike for her birthday. I could do a whole post about Sarah's thumb, I'll save that for another day-maybe.



This is Shelby on her awesome bike that she bought herself.

I feel lost

I don't know what to think anymore. Hayley had an awesome post about how the blogging world has changed. It made me think back to when I started this blog about a year ago, I used to write a lot more of what I think. I loved that this was an outlet for me to put whatever thoughts ran through my mind, and then something changed. I'm not sure exactly what, maybe I felt I put too much out there. I do hate to feel judged, and I over analyze everything I say, and when I get feedback that I read as critical that makes me pull back. Right now I feel like nothing I do is enough. I've been trying to please a lot of people and I feel 'me' slipping away. I'm not really sure what to do, because no matter what I do, it always seems to be read wrong by someone, and I can't take it anymore. So to be safe I have resorted to the safe pictures of my kids, and basic updates of what's going on, but its not really what's going on. I guess I'm putting this out there in an attempt to get part of myself back. Hope you all still love me anyway.

I've been tagged!

Mandi Tagged me (thank you, I love that you thought of me!) The rules are, go to your fourth folder, and fourth picture, and blog about that. Here is my Sarah (she's 18 months old), and Shelby's foot. Where has my baby gone? If you talk to her today she will tell you that she is 6 and a half and she can ride a bike without training wheels! I'll post pictures of that later. She turns 7 in about a month. She says the craziest things, like when I asked her to put away something that was too high her response was "I just have these legs", and when we watch The Biggest Loser, she works out and says "Its all about the current weights". I video taped her at about this age saying all the animal sounds, and other talents and I'm so glad I did, they grow up too fast! My kids are so fun at the ages they are now, we can do whatever we want, and I can even leave them home alone, but when I see pictures like this I miss them being little.

I tag Tori, Garrett, Hayley, and Ashley.

I have a new Nephew!

You can see him here ! I can't wait to see him myself! Congratulations Jared and Liz!