Chasing Balls

Ian is now crawling! I can't believe how much he has grown and how fast time has gone. Ian will be a year old in about 5 months!

Ian is quite pleased with his army crawling/regular crawling skills. He can get toys and into other things that he normally couldn't. He loves this toy T bone steak. He is also obsessed with my cell phone. If he sees it on the ground by me, then he will crawl as fast as he can to get it. Thankfully, I'm still faster.

Tonight, he loved chasing this green ball around. It was so cute because he had to learn how to hold it otherwise it would pop right out of his hands. His crawling method makes me laugh because it looks like he is swimming on land.

Patrick is so proud of Ian and loves to get down on the ground with him and play. Patrick can't wait until Ian is older because he wants Ian to join in his adventures. I have to stop Patrick from pulling Ian around the house. Patrick thinks that is totally acceptable to do this! Silly boy. And, Patrick loves to copy Ian. I have pretty funny stories. I wrote about them on my other blog, the Howling Horn, so here is the link to Copycat.

Patrick is speaking so much more this last month, and I'm so grateful for this change. And, I think he has finally decided speech is a valuable skill. I have been so worried about him that I can barely think about other things. I think the preschool activities I have been doing at home have really helped him. We focus on a letter a week and do various activities to learn about that letter. It has been some work to do, but I love to see how much Patrick enjoys the activities.

Here are my posts that describe what I have been doing for the preschool activities.
Letter A
Letter C
Letter E

I sure have to say that we are one cute family!!! I sure love my boys.

Family Cuteness

So I know it has been a little bit since I have posted something about my family. It has been a crazy month because I have started up a blog with a good friend. Go here and check out the Howling Horn. You should totally follow it. Anyways, and I have been super busy with my two kiddos and have been under the weather for the little bit. And, I will get up my Family Home Evening plans for March because I need a little bit more time.

But, I told myself I needed to post something so I am going to share some cuteness of my family. Ian is getting bigger. I can't believe he is almost 7 months now!! We are just starting to do solids, and he is loving it. He doesn't eat tons, but we don't have to fight him to try it. We are introducing the solids through purees and soft chunks. Ian enjoys eating his peas, avocados, and squash.

Patrick loves being a big brother to Ian, and insists on trying out the things Ian does. He climbed into the high chair the other day, buckled himself in, and pulled the tray on. He wanted to sit in it like Ian and play with toys. He soon realized it wasn't as exciting as it looked and wanted out. And, Patrick quickly tells Ian that the trains are his. Silly Patrick! That toy train was given to Ian, but I guess it doesn't matter since Ian doesn't even care.

Patrick is enjoying his preschool activities we do at home, and I feel like it is helping me with his speech. In a few more weeks, we will be meeting with a speech therapist to get him tested. I have to say I am so nervous about this because it has been a very personal struggle for me. If you want the background of this story, then go to this post that I did on my mommy blog. I sure love Patrick, and he loves to help me out. He was a big helper when we got lots of snow. He helped dig and sweep the snow around.

I sure love my boys, and I am glad that they are here to bless my life even if it means that I don't get a good nights sleep!! All I can say is that I am hoping and praying Ian will sleep through the night soon because I am so exhausted. At least Ian is so cute that I forget my frustration with him pretty quickly. Who can be mad at this cute face??

Weaknesses Can Become Strengths

As a mother, I have anticipatde all the major milestones my children reach. It is thrilling to watch them grow and develop. I love seeing how they progress. My oldest boy, Patrick, has astonished me with his problem solving skills and mechanical abilities. Before he was 2 years old, he knew which keys went to which cars and he could unlock the door and turn the car on. He quickly learns how things work and how to take apart and put things back together.

Patrick is a burning ball of energy and is driven by his curiuosity to know and his desire to be independent. He is one stubborn boy. His stubbornness almost exceeds mine and that is saying a lot! I guess this is what you get when two stubborn people have a child together. He tries so hard to do everything on his one. I have encouraged him to be curious by not allowing him to watch TV/movies until he was well over 2 years old, and allowed him to solve things on his own without swooping in to show him how it is done.

However, my son struggles with speech. He has for some time now. I have worried about him for well over a year now because despite all my efforts (for example, reading to him for over 20 minutes a day, talking to him, explaining what I do,and doing various preschool activities) he still doesn't speak a lot. Part of his problem is a lack of desire to speak. This reason why I say this because he speaks when he wants to, and I will often catch him speaking and he will stop when he notices me listening. The other part of his problem is that I think speech and social skills don't come easy to him. I notice that he likes to say words he knows, but shuts down when he encounters words he doesn't know. It is almost like he doesn't want to fail. This behavior is something I am to familiar with because I hate failing myself. And, I hate having people see my failures.

For Patrick, his weakness is there for everyone to see and comment on. It is something that people notice right away and point out. It is a sore spot with me because I feel like I have failed my son. Plus, I feel some people feel I'm not a good mom because my son would rather play and explore instead of speak.

A couple of nights away while I was reading a few scripture stories before bed, I had an amazing experience with Patrick. One that I am extremely grateful that I got to experience. We were reading  about Joseph from the Bible Storybook - God's Love For You. The short story we read about how Joseph's unfortunate circumstances of being sold into slavery by his brothers was turned into something good by God. Joseph was able to interpret dreams of the pharaoh, and he eventually becomes ruler over Egypt. He saves grain so the people are ready to face the drought. Because he ordered food to be stored up, he was able to save his family from starvation. There is this quote in the story that just rang true to me:

"God cared about Joseph and his family, and He cares about us too. Just as God brought good out of the bad things the brothers had done, He will bring good out of the bad things that happen in your life."

After reading this part, the spirit came and spoke strongly to my heart. I took Patrick and told him that even though you struggle speaking and this is your weakness, God will make this weakness strong and he will make something good out of this situation. It was a huge comfort to me because I have been worried sick about my son and I have been praying so much about what to do about him. And these last few days have been completely different. Patrick has been speaking SO much more. Even though I can't understand everything he says and even though it is not a lot compared to other kids his age, it is more than he has done before. To me, this is a miracle and a blessing. I know Patrick felt something that night and felt his Heavenly Father's love. I know God does hear my prayers, and I know that He can make good things out of the bad things that happen in life.

Trains

My son, Patrick, just loves trains. I'm not too sure where he developed this fascination with trains from because we didn't have trains at home or have movies about trains. But, he is now obsessed with them to the point that he tries to make everything into trains. He will make trains by pushing chairs into each other, by connecting cars together using string, and the other day he wanted to make trains from cookie cutters using tape. He came up to me with the cookie cutters that are in the shape of various vehicles and asked me to tape them together. Of course, he brought the masking tape as well.

He is such a creative boy and a boy who has impressive problem solving skills! I have been worried about him a lot lately because he doesn't like to speak. I read to him for over 30 minutes a day, explain what I am doing, and try to teach new words. He knows the words because I catch him saying them, but he just doesn't like to speak. We are probably going to get him tested and start doing speech therapy. I feel like I have failed him because I'm his mom and haven't done my job. I have struggled with these feelings for almost a year now as I see so many children his age speaking in sentences, and then I see my son who barely speaks a few words at a time. Anyways, I have digressed and that issue is a post for another time.

The other day we were going shopping, and we got stopped by the railroad crossing signs. A train had to cross the road, and Patrick was so thrilled. If Patrick wasn't with me, I know I would be annoyed because the train delayed me. However, I'm grateful that Patrick was with me because I got to take a moment to sit back and enjoy the train through my child's eyes. Life has so many adventures and beauties in it! I just need to take a step back from my list of tasks to do and appreciate the little things. Patrick ended up talking about the train all day long, and I'm grateful we got to see the train.

What things do your children like? How do you appreciate the little things the life gives to you?

FHE Lessons

I have wondered the last few months if Family Home Evening (FHE) is even making a difference with Patrick. He is just so full of energy that sometimes I don't know if he even is learning something. Yesterday, I mentioned to him that we would be doing Family Home Evening and he quickly, "Jesus. Pictures. I go get them." I was so touched, and was so thrilled when he came by to the living room with the gospel art manual that I got from the Distribution Center (now a part of Deseret Book).

I attempt to do FHE with my kiddos every Monday night. It is really hard because Broden works evenings, and I struggle to keep both kids entertained while I try to teach them something about the gospel. I found that Patrick loves the pictures and I can talk to him about the stories behind the pictures for about 10 minutes. That is amazing considering my boy doesn't like to stop moving.

After the I got the kiddos to bed, I started to think about how I could make my FHE nights a little bit easier. Because I have started doing preschool lessons with Patrick, I decided why not do the same thing with FHE. So now I will plan FHE lesson by picking out monthly themes and planning the lessons according to that theme. I'm going to create a template where I can pick a theme, song, and scripture, and jot down quick little lessons for my family. I will start this up for February and I will post my lessons here on the blog. I'm mainly doing this so I will motivate myself to write the lessons, but I also hope that this will provide some help for others who are also in the same situation as me and struggle finding ways to teach your kiddos about gospel principles.

Be sure to come back and read about my FHE lesson planning experience and how my lessons went!

Its Official...I'm....

I bet there were many reasons why you clicked the link to see what this post was about. Hahaha. And, sorry folks, I'm not pregnant.

I just launched a blog with my good friend, Hannah Horne. We are joining the world of mommy bloggers. We wanted to do this as a way to share what we love to do and for a way to help our little families out. We are hoping that our blog will be successful! So come join our blog, Howling Horn, and see what we are doing each day and get some inspiration from us.You can also see what we are up to by visiting our Facebook page:

And, don't worry about this blog becoming obsolete. I will still be posting on my blog about my family and things we have been up to. This blog is my personal blog where I will post more intimate things about my family and about myself.

My Boys

I am completely surrounded by boys! But, I sure wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. They are just so cute and here is the proof:

I can't believe that Ian is almost 6 months old. Time has gone by so fast. He used to be so small, and now he is so interactive and expressive. He loves his bouncer. He will even bounce himself to sleep. This makes nap times really easy sometimes. I had to include a picture of Ian's wide eyes because it is just so hilarious. My one sister has nicknamed him "wide eyes" because he does this so often. Right now Ian is trying so hard to crawl because he wants to keep up with his big brother, Patrick.

Patrick is still a very curious and determined young toddler. He insists on understanding how everything works and wants to do things his way. He tests my patience on a regular basis and I' working hard on staying calm with him and not getting upset over trivial things that don't matter. On New Year's Eve, Patrick rediscovered his Halloween costume that he wore and he insisted on wearing it all day long. He even took his nap in it. He had fun playing in it all day.

Patrick will be 3 in March, and I want to cry about that fact. I am happy he is growing up and is healthy, but I miss those baby stages with him. I guess I have to be extremely grateful that Broden works so hard to provide for our family that I can be a stay at home mother. I'm thankful for the chance to see my kids grow up and get to share so many experiences with them. I only hope they cherish these times too. I worry that I'm not doing a good job as a mother. I'm trying so hard to do a better job at raising them and caring for them.

I'm so grateful that I have these boys in my life! There are days that are hard, but there are so many days that are so wonderful. I'm working hard on teaching myself to focus on the good and not the bad.  When I do this, then I start to see that there are many beautiful things that happen on the terrible days.