I adore you all

It's true, you know. Unless I don't know you, then probably not. But I also adore comments. I live for them. I read every single one of them, and I just wanted to let you all know that.

Okay, now I have seen these before, and I loved them at first sight. So I shall share them. I would probably only get Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre (two of my most favorite books of all time) but they are all so lovely. I love books. Oh and here is a list of 100 Best Novels. I don't like most books that folks say are the best ever, and that everyone should read them. But that's okay. We are not all going to love the same things. I like reading books from lists like this, though. I try reading books and often find out I don't like them. But I am willing to give them a try. What's your favorite book? Mine is The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. I've loved it since I was like 12. So good.

Now, on to what's been happening.

Dustin's brother, Jason, and his wife, Robin came into town! It was so fun to have them here. I knew Jason was flying in for the funeral, but had no idea Robin was coming. It was a lovely surprise. Dustin took Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday off so we could go and do stuff with them.

Dustin turned 32 on Wednesday. :) We spent time with his family. I made a photo book for him from Picaboo and he loved it.

Saturday was Jay's funeral. It was really lovely. I celebration of his life.
On Sunday I went to church and the kids and Dustin stayed home. The girls have been sick. Miaya is all better, and Sarah is pretty much all better. I hate not being able to stay home and take care of them. It makes me sad.

On Monday we went to Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon. The weather's been unseasonably warm so it was sunny and warm. The colors where bright, and it was a good time. We went to Cabela's after that, and it's always fun to see the fish and the animals.

On Tuesday, hmm. I can't remember Tuesday. Sheesh. It's been busy. OH yeah. Miaya had preschool, and I had a presidency meeting and Dustin mowed the lawn(in the morning). Miaya had school pictures and I completely forgot! Oh well. She looked like she usually does (unruly hair) and that's just fine. :) In the afternoon, we went to Dustin's grandparents house and spent a few hours there visiting with everybody.
And then yesterday we went to breakfast at Ogie's for Dustin's birthday and then visited Grandma Baker and then took the kids home. Miaya was having a really bad day. I'm hoping that getting back to our normal routine again will help. After naps, we went with Dustin's Mom and brother, Adam, to see Jason and Robin off at the airport.

Today has been much more quiet. Miaya had preschool this morning, and while she was there, I did a little cleaning, but then Sarah was fussy. So we snuggled (I have such a hard job. :) And then I went and picked Miaya up from school and we went to the library. She was being really good, and so I thought we should go to the store.  I planned to while Miaya was at school, but that didn't end up happening. : / Miaya ended up throwing a mega fit. It was ridiculous. Does your child do this? We didn't even get inside costco before she was freaking out. It was quite shocking if I do say so myself. I thought my ears were going to explode. It wasn't very pleasant at all. Hopefully this throwing tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants stops soon. I've had more than enough of it. :S Any ideas for curbing this awful habit?

Until next time.

Miaya waking up the elk on adventures.

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Sleepy baby on advetures.

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Cleaning

I have the hardest time keeping my house clean. I attribute it to having kids, and not being the best house keeper in the first place. Not a bad thing, but I do like to have a clean house. It makes me a little crazy to have mess all over. Which seems to be the constant state of my home lately.
Anyway.
So, I'm going to try to keep my house in order more and more. I have tons of junk that I need to take to the DI that I just haven't gotten around to, stuff that needs to be organized (our desk is atrocious) and I need to find a place for everything. Everything that doesn't have a place needs to be chucked or given away. Good times. I found these two cleaning thingies that seem quite friendly to humans as well as the earth.

All purpose cleaner

Natural cleaners
Very good.

On another note, late last night we found out Sarah is a Mamma's girl. At least right now. My guess is it's because she's sick. Because sick babies need comfort, and that often comes in the form of nursing. So last night after having birthday cake at Dustin's parent's house for his step brother's birthday, we came home, got the kids ready for bed, and I headed off to do some scrapbooking with the ladies in Dustin's family. I wasn't there very long when Dustin called me and I could hear Sarah screaming her little lungs out. I finished up what I was doing, and got a ride home. When I got here, Dustin was at a loss. Sarah was screaming herself silly, and then she saw me and gave me a big smile! A BIG SMILE. hahahahahaha. And immediately stopped crying. Poor Dustin had tried for a half an hour to settle her down. To no avail. So we have Miaya the Daddy's girl and Sarah the Mamma's girl. hahahahaha. Works out nicely. :D

Oh and don't these look yummy?

Girly headbands

Okay, so with having two daughters and being a girl myself, you would think that I would know what I was doing when it comes to hair. Not at all, unfortunately. My hair goes from really long to super short over and over every 3 years or so. When it gets too long, I like to chop it all the way to my chin. Anyway, I am going to start making cute hair things for my girls. Why, you may ask? Well, Miaya is 4 and doesn't like to have her hair done. She will sit through me combing it, but it takes quite a bit more coaxing to even do pig tails. I know this is in part because she hasn't had much hair to speak of until the last year or so. Sarah, at 3 and a half months, has more hair than Miaya did at 1 year. SO. I am going to make hair things that I can put in their hair, short or not, so we can have cute hair all the time. hahahahahahhahaahaha.

Thank goodness for fun blogs, right?

Here is some inspiration.
Rose thingies.
Pretty headbands.
More rose thingies.
Flower clips.

Do you guys have any ideas for me? If so, by all means, let me know.

Post number 181

No really, it's true. 181 posts. Kewl.

Anyway, so you know how Miaya is in dance? Well, her dance studio is having a fund raiser. If you're interested, check it out here. It's only for the locals, and I don't think anyone who reads my blog is actually in West Valley. Not sure, though.

Okay. That's all.

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.

A Mother's Prayer

I pray you'll be my eyes

And watch her where she goes

And help her to be wise

Help me to let go

Every mother's prayer

Every child knows

Lead her to a place

Guide her with your grace

To a place where she'll be safe

I pray she finds your light

And holds it in her heart

As darkness falls each night

Remind her where you are

Every mother's prayer

Every child knows

Need to find a place

Guide her with your grace

Give her faith so she'll be safe

Lead her to a place

Guide her with your grace

To a place where she'll be safe

These are lyrics for Celine Dion's song. I'd never heard it until yesterday. Many of my hopes and dreams for my little ones.

So it's been an interesting last little while. Dustin's been working less, and so we've been seeing more of him, and that's always good. :) Things with getting the Primary Program are getting done, so that's good. Miaya's doing well in preschool and dance has started again. We've also starting going to story time again. Sarah's got this weird thing going on, though, that had me concerned enough to take her to the doctor. She's okay as far as Dr Cannon could tell.  Then there was a large fire here in the valley. A friend of Dustin's and her family were evacuated last night, but I am pretty sure every thing turned out alright for them. It was really smoky last night, and we got head aches, but later last night, the smoke died down.

We got some really sad news yesterday too, though. Dustin's uncle passed away. It was a bit of a shock. He was relatively young. He wasn't in the best of health, but he seemed to be on a good path. I'm really glad we got to see him over Labor Day weekend. And I'm glad Miaya got to know him a little bit too.

I am so grateful for families being able to be together forever.

Happy Birthday Miaya

So I love this. I want to do this in my house. In my hallway! Okay. Maybe not, but maybe.

ANYWAY.

Guess what today is? Yep, that's right. It's MIAYA'S fourth birthday. She's one great kid. She stretches my limits in every way, shape, and form. And I wouldn't have it any other way. I have heard (from my Mamma) that she is a lot like I was as a kid. This is terrifying to me. I know many people hope their kids to be like them. Not me. I want my kids to be so much more than I am. To be wiser than I was and am, not make the mistakes I made and continue to make, you know?

She had her first day of preschool, and she is so amazing. She didn't have any one that she knew in the class, but she was so excited to go. No crying, no carrying on, no "Please stay". ::sigh:: Makes a Mamma feel sad. hahahaha. Just kidding. I'm proud of her! She's so tough. So brave. She loves people. I am truly grateful for that. I am more to the anti social end of the spectrum. She's alot like Dustin in that aspect. He makes new friends everywhere he goes. :)

When we were leaving preschool, and she tripped and fell and scraped her knees, her hands, and banged her head on the ground! Poor kid. The accident prone-ness comes from me. yeesh. She's alright, though. Cried a bit, and then carried on.

We went to Wendy's for lunch, and then we came home and made some cupcakes for her tea party/ birthday party tomorrow. And she was giving Sarah kisses. They adore each other already. Did you know? They do. Sarah watches for Miaya. And when she sees her, she laughs and smiles. And Miaya loves to make her laugh and smile. For this, I am so grateful. Sisters are great.

We're having the missionaries over for dinner, and then we're going to the Utah State Fair. Yay!

That's all for now.

Pining for furniture.

I am pining for a piece of furniture we passed up yesterday. I know, lame, and yet here I am. We drove past a house having a yard sale and I see this large china hutch and I'm thinking "That would be so great to have. I could paint it and make it my own." And then, THEN, I saw a big FREE sign on it!! I was so excited, because I loved it already. So I told Dustin about it. He said we could check it out on the way back, so I was content. On the way back, however, we got a phone call from someone interested in the Jeep. So we got sidetracked and headed back home to wait for the guy. Unfortunately, the guy came by and Dustin said it looked like he wasn't even going to get out of his car. He didn't want it (you could tell), but he got out, looked at it for like 2 minutes and said he was still looking. (Read: I don't want it.) This was after lowballing on the price, and Dustin said he would sell it for that. ANYWAY. So then we were going to go to Home Depot because it's our favorite place on earth. (Okay, maybe not, but we sure do spend a lot of time there. :]) We sent the neighbor boy home, and piled into the car. Off to Home Depot we went. We got what we needed, and were heading back home for the evening when I remembered the hutch! We headed back to the hutch and I was thinking *If it's there, it's a sign, and we HAVE to get it* and guess what?! It was STILL there!!! So we stopped and Dustin shot it down. :**( It was too big. I told him to give me a year, and I'd fix it up and find a place for it. He said it probably wouldn't fit in the garage, which I don't think it would have. It probably wouldn't have even fit in the truck. Boo hoo. And yet, here I am, still thinking of the silly thing. hahahahahahha. It just motivates me to get my house in order so that when I find such fabulous things in the future, I will be able to have a place for them. :D

Hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. And I hope you had an excellent birthday, Miriam.

Oh, and P.S. Sarah has discovered screeching. It's highly entertaining, but the effect on her vocal cords concerns me.

My quirks.

I have a few quirks. I would like to list some. Maybe I will make this an on going thing. hahahaha.

Okay.

-When I wash the dishes, I always wash all the plastic stuff first, and then porcelain stuff, and then cutlery, and then pots and pans. Always in the same order.

-We have the Ikea kids plates, bowls, and cups, and I don't like to have certain colors together, and so I will restack them to a more pleasing pattern.

-I have several grey hairs, and have since I was 16, and I really don't mind that they are there.

-I am pretty sure my t shirt is on backwards today. And yet, I haven't switched it around. hahahahahaha. It's one of those that doesn't have a tag, and so until I put it on, I don't really know.

hahahahaha. I am so self absorbed sometimes. This post is definitely one of those times.

:D

The Deer

Dustin went on the archery hunt a few weeks ago, and he got a deer! It was a 2 point, I think. 

He also got quite a few really beautiful shots of the wilderness he was in. The moon one is through binoculars. Lovely.

The first time Dustin went hunting several years ago, he got his first deer. He hasn't gotten one since, that is until this year. Yay for Dustin.

Warning, this deer is dead. Dustin shot it in the throat, and in the pic after this one, you can see it.