2012: A Standard of Grace, Not Perfection

I have been in a bit of a slump lately. 

I have been searching to find myself,  trying to find something that DEFINES me. I was reading some old journals.. you know the kind you never want anyone to read.. because they are full of whining and complaining. These will definitely not be ones that will be passed down to my children. I noticed that there is the same pattern, I make promises to myself that I am going to be better. 

Be a better wife

Be a better mother

Keep the house cleaner

Accomplish something (who knows what) 

Be more patient and kind

Read and Study the scriptures

Serve others more often 

Eat Healthier

Exercise

Tone my upper arms

Put money in savings

Pay my bills on time

Update my blog before something happens and you lose ALL of my pictures

Backup my Mac before I lose ALL of my pictures

(it so happens that I lost about 8000 pictures)

Man alive! The list can go on and on and on. It is actually quite embarrassing to take note that over the last 15 years my journals say the same thing yet I still feel like I am in the same place I was 15 years ago.. with the exception of a couple grey hairs. 

I blame it on perfection. I wear myself out, I can't imagine how my family feels. Running around in circles and not accomplishing anything is getting pretty old. A few months ago I ran across this from emilyley.com:

As I look around my house tonight and look at the complete and utter mess it is in I feel so blessed. I have this AMAZING husband who works so hard for me and the kids. He works 60+ hours per week, goes to school full time, fulfills his church calling, and makes time for each of us.. with a smile on his face.  I have 4 WONDERFUL kids who get compliments all of the time on how well behaved they are. They are so much fun to be around and they are so great with each other. Dustin works for an amazing company who takes such good care of us. We just got to spend two weeks with family, going to places that we never thought we would be able to go to. I have some really REALLY good friends that understand me and love me despite my faults. I have a Heavenly Father who truly loves me and is my biggest supporter, if I would just let him in I can accomplish anything. 

And I worry about how clean my house is.. seriously mental.  

I NEED A BIG CUP OF GRACE! 

Focusing on one thing at a time and not worrying about what is going on around me. Making things happen, following through, and cutting myself some slack. 

Remembering what is important: giving my husband my UNDIVIDED attention, playing with the kids (they are growing up way too fast). 

Living in the moment and realizing that time is no longer going to wait for me. 

Florida 2011 - Part 1

For Christmas this year we met up with Dustin's family in Orlando for a fun-filled week of theme parks. The parents wanted to come back to visit us for a week after the trip so we rented this thing to ride to Florida in so we could all fit on the way back. It was awesome!

The drive to Florida was 11 hours from our little home in Gonzales, LA. Easy peasy.. We are seriously blessed to have children that can be cooped up in a car for hours at a time. We were worried that they would get cranky without a DVD player but between ipods and iphones everyone was happy. 

We got to the condo late Friday night, I think Grandma Lisa was going to go crazy waiting for us to get there. Well, maybe we all were.. we were so excited to see everyone. Cassi and Cameron were on a Caribbean cruise and would be meeting up with us on Sunday. We were sad that there kids Camorah and Creeson did not come, but also just a tad jealous that they got to go away sans kids. 

Our first stop was to the Happiest Place on Earth.. Disney World!

We got to start of the day with none other then Mickey and Minnie Mouse. 

Tyken LOVED Minnie Mouse! I cannot wait until he is dating to show off this picture of him and Minnie. 

SPLASH MOUNTAIN  

Skyler barely made the 40" mark to make it on this ride. He was so short that once the ride started we would put him on our lap so he could see all of the awesome things around him. When we got off the ride to look at our picture, the attendant covered it up so no one could see what we had done. Oops. 

I have barely made a dent into everything that we did at Disney World. But the next part deserve a post all by itself. 

GREASE: Starring Kennedy Stibal as SANDY

Mr. Hahn's 7th grade class at Elizabeth Bagshaw put together a play for the movie Grease. Kennedy got picked to play the part of Sandy. For awhile our home only played the Grease soundtrack and the movie was constantly on. These guys worked so hard and the end result was amazing. It was so fun to see the look of accomplishment on there faces after the show was over. Mr. Hahn was so excited as well, Kennedy would come home from school everyday and say that is all he talked about and all they did during class.

Mother's Day 2011

I love days when you have nothing really planned and it turns out to be one of the best days ever! Thats what happened for Mother's Day this year. We went to church and snuck out right after sacrament. I really didn't know what I wanted to do, just that I wanted to soak in the sun and my lovely family. We drove along the escarpment (which the Canadians call The Mountain) and jumped out of the car and started walking, we ended up going on an impromptu hike.

I am seriously so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and kids.  Some days it seems that I might go crazy with all of the chaos around me and then one little moment will happen at any given point during the day and make it all the craziness worth it. I am so grateful for having a husband who works so hard to provide for us, letting me stay home to raise our kids. I am so grateful for each one of my kids and there unique personalities, there has never been a moment when I am not learning something new from them. They have taught me patience, kindness, joy so many things that I would never get to experience if it wasn't for them. I am grateful for a wonderful mother, grandma, mother-in-law, and so many other amazing mothers who have taught me so much about the joys of motherhood. I always know that I have a mother, no matter what country I an living in, who is just a phone call away and will help me work out whatever I need to work on. And most importantly I am grateful for my Heavenly Father who trusted Dustin and I enough to send us Kennedy, Tyken, Raigan, and Skyler. And we are so blessed to be able to be together for eternity. Seriously, what more could a mom ask for? 

Elizabeth Bagshaw Talent Show

Raigan, Lucy, and Tatyana
Dancing to Miley Cyrus' Fly On The Wall

This was a great talent show.. lots of fun dance routines and musically talented kids. The students had to try-out in order to participate. The girls worked so hard on there dance and were one of the few who were able to perform for the whole school and the parents.  I love that Raigan was able to become such good friends with these Canadian girls and make such wonderful memories.

Dome Inflation - P&H Hamilton Canada

Bright and early this morning was the inflation of Dome 2 for P&H. They will be using these domes for soy bean storage. Because of safety concerns us wives do not normally get to visit the jobsite, this time we have been lucky enough to be able to visit and see how this dome building process works. This morning was the inflation of the second dome. I dragged myself out of bed bright and early to go watch.

RAIGAN TURNS 8!

My baby girl turned 8 this year... She is growing up way to fast! She will be baptized as a member of the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS in July. We thought that since we are in Canada we might as well have her baptized in one of the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, Lake Ontario (the one we live right on) is full of yucky stuff so we will be going to Lake Erie. She is so excited!

Her birthday is on St. Patricks Day and she wanted that for her birthday theme..  The last 5 years have been princess themed so this was a fun change.

8 Things we LOVE about RAIGAN

1. She ALWAYS asks what she can do to help, and she usually does it with a smile on her face. 

2. She loves to learn new things and is always trying out new things. 

3. She is not afraid of anything (see the proof below) 

4. She is a great teacher to her little brother Skyler, currently she is trying to teach him out to do a headstand. 

5. She has nonstop energy. She is always doing cartwheels and back walk-overs... in the mall, on hikes, in the street. 

6. She is positive and uplifting, you can't stay in a bad mood for very long when she is around. 

7. She is funny, things come flying out a that cute little mouth at all hours day and night. 

8. She has a sweet spirit about her that makes everyone around her want to be nicer. 

Trip to Canada Continued...

When we finally arrived in Buffalo, NY we had to wait for the paperwork from the attorney before we could cross the border. We arrived on Monday night and thought we would end of staying a couple nights... It ended up being 7 days! We were sick of hotels and eating out by the time the week ended. The kids swam every single chance that they had.. this meant that we had sick kids every night from the the chlorine they inhaled. 

We went to the Walden Galleria (mall) and took Skyler to Build-A-Bear for the first time. He picked out a monkey and we named him Benny.. he is a New York Yankee.

The city of Buffalo has around 1.2 million people and it originated around 1789. When you travel through downtown there is a mixture of old and new buildings, it is full of factories and old churches.  

This is the arena where the NHL team the Buffalo Sabres play. 

Red Robin

And Buffalo is where the "Buffalo Wings" originated! We of course had to stop and eat at the ANCHOR BAR, home of the original chicken wing. But the pictures were on Kennedy's Ipod which froze and she lost all of her pictures! We are not having any luck.. time to buy a new camera!