Life is Beautiful

Motherhood, Sewing, Family

Easter weekend

~ Etc.

Every year I research and plan accordingly so that we could go to as many Easter egg hunts as we can because the girls love it so much.  This year we were able to go to 5 Easter egg hunts!  After the hunt is over, I have the girls walk around and share with the other kids who are sad or crying because they didn’t get many eggs.  The first hunt started on Friday at Nu Skin.
my outfit detail: ruffle shirt | pants: at a local inventory sale(for $5!) | gold flats: romwe| diaper bag 
then the girls wanted frozen yogurt at the Nu Skin cafe.
Aiden eating his yogurt melts since he couldn’t have any frozen yogurt.
then we went to the Lehi Legacy Center for their egg ball drop.
On saturday we went to #3 Easter egg hunt at BYU fields.
then #4, at Orem.
#5 we went to the Spring Festival where they had many games and activities for the kids as well as Easter eggs.
my outfit detail: yellow lace tunic | white pants | blue ankle straps | bag 

then on Sunday we went to church and the kids woke up to some Easter goodies from the Easter bunny.
Have I told you I’m doing the whole30?  Well, I am and the Easter bunny didn’t give me ANYTHING since I’m doing whole30!  So I ate my frozen banana popsicle while the girls ate all their candy.  Who likes creamy, thick, smooth, sweet, melt-in-your mouth cadbury eggs anyway?  Disgusting! (They’re so disgusting I bought 3 bags that I hid from ma husband and ma kidz so I can eat them all by myself after my whole30, shhh.) 
Aiden was happy with his toy!
Ana’s teacher from church made this cute treat for the class, isn’t it adorable?
then the girls wanted to throw an Easter egg hunt for me and Jay since I told her I’ve never been to one as a little girl.  So they stuffed the eggs with all their candy and also invited the neighborhood kids over(because the kids told the girls they didn’t get to go to any).  I thought it was the sweetest thing and as a mother, moments like these are what you live for.  
they even put “a golden egg” ticket in one of the eggs and gave a surprise gift! our neighborhood boy found the golden egg and he received a fun dip. 🙂
outfit detail: green lace tunic | leggings: ?(old)
We finished our Easter weekend with some bingo!  Hope you had a great weekend!

Easter Sunday Best

~ Etc.

Her outfit: Mint blouse: H&M | Skirt | color-block wedges: Romwe
His outfit: Mint suspenders & bow-ties | white shirt: gifted | bunny pants: gifted
I planned on dressing him in a tan color suit with the mint suspenders & bow ties for church on Easter Sunday but Jay insisted he wear these pants because, “It’s the only day of the year he can wear these pants to church!”  So white bunny pants it was.  He looked like a cute little bunny, and I can’t get over how cute the bum is on those pants!  I know it’s meant to look like a bunny tail but it just looks like white gas(a.k.a fart) to me.  Haha!  I love it!

Date with my daughter

~ Etc.

My oldest daughter and I went on a mother-daughter date to Gloria’s Little Italy.  She got to pick out the desserts of her choice and I listened to her talk about everything that’s going on in her life.  She gets so excited to have one on one time with me and talks the whole time.  Seriously, she doesn’t stop talking.  And when she talks, she’s really loud because she’s so excited.  And I love it.
When we parked and was walking to the restaurant, she saw this sign for the play and immediately exclaimed, “Mommy, mommy!  Can we go see this show with the naked man with diapers?”  She thought it was the funniest thing.  I told her no so on our way back to the car, she demanded that I take a picture of it so we can go show daddy so she can ask him if he would take her to go see the show.  And everyday since whenever we pass by the street, she asks me to go drive by the “naked man with diapers” and starts cracking up.  She makes my life so much more fun.  I cannot imagine my life without my little boo.

What do mothers do all day?

~ Etc.

I was just telling my husband last night how discouraging it is that from the moment I wake up until he gets home from work, I am up on my feet and constantly moving, constantly busy and doing things for our children and yet when he comes home, the house is often times messy and I don’t have dinner ready on the table, and it doesn’t look like I did much that day.  That all the work I do can’t be measured or proven, there’s no charts or certificates to measure my accomplishments.  Before I had my 3rd child, the house was almost always clean and a hot dinner was ready on the table when he walked in the door.  Now with 3 children, especially with a very clingy infant, that just doesn’t happen anymore!  I know I should just accept it but I am having a hard time.  I feel guilty that the house isn’t spotless clean.  I feel guilty that the girls don’t get as much attention and time or one on one time.  I feel guilty that there’s always laundry to be washed, or laundry in the washer that I forgot to transfer to the dryer, or clean clothes that needs to be folded and put away.  I know I should relax and just accept the fact that I can’t do it all anymore with 3 kids, but I still try and feel guilty for failing every time because it really is impossible.  
So I told him that even though the house is a mess and the dinner isn’t made a lot of the times when he gets home, I promise I was busy!  I promise I was up and about doing productive things all day!  But he doesn’t see all the things I do, and comes home to a messy home and I wonder if he thinks, “What did she do all day?”  Then today my husband mentioned this video and told me it reminded him of me.  That even though I might get discouraged because no one truly sees all the things I do in the house, he knows I do a ton of work and he appreciates everything I do.  That he is so grateful to have a mother like me for his children.  It feels so good to have recognition as a mother because we don’t get much from the world.  I love my sweet husband and I love this video for making mothers feel pretty awesome!  And if you are a dad, this applies to you too!  My husband is just as dedicated and involved in the parenting, I just happen to stay at home with them while he goes to work.  But that’s not to say he doesn’t work very hard at work and at home.  So I wanted to share it with you and in case you are feeling guilty or not good enough as a parent, you are truly amazing.  Working parents and stay-at-home parents, we are the same.  We are all parents doing the best we can in trying to raise good citizens.  I promise you that God recognizes every thing you do for your family.  Every deed we do for our home will not go unrecognized in Heaven.  

90bb56f45d283894e827092415351e85f12b8a81490fad82de

When they go to bed I feel guilty

~ Etc.

It’s fifteen minutes past midnight on a Saturday night and my husband is still at work.  Let’s just say it’s been a loooooooong day(a long 10 days actually but let’s not talk about that, let’s talk about today).  
Earlier today in the late afternoon, my two girls and their friends went on a flower hunt and returned home with a bucket full of flowers.  I’ve had talks with them about how you don’t pull flowers from someone else’s house and they know better not to, and they told me they found these flowers on an abandoned lot(so they say).  They excitedly showed me all the flowers while I was chopping and blending food for my 8 month old baby, and demanded I look at all the flowers they were showing me.  “Mom, you’re not looking!” they would say.  Then my 5 year old daughter would grab two flowers and ask me which flower I liked best, then when I picked one, she would grab another flower and ask me which one I liked best, and so forth.  I was doing my best to glance for a sec. to tell her my preference, as I was warming up the baby food and getting it ready to feed my antsy, whimpering, hungry and sick with roseola 8 month old who was watching me like a hawk with his desperate eyes.  “Mom, which one do you like better?  Mom, mom, mom, you didn’t look!”  so I glanced down quickly and told her, “I like the pink one better.”  “Mom, mom, which one do you like better now?  mom! mom! mom! you didn’t look!”  “Ana, I cannot look right now!”  I snapped at her.  Then she quickly went away.  My eyes followed her to make sure she wasn’t sad or crying(she is very very sensitive and if I speak in even a tiny remotely negative tone, she usually cries), and she seemed fine so I resumed back to making the food for the baby.  Then Adi came with a bunch of flowers she’s holding with a rubber band.  “Mom, could you tie these flowers together?”  I grabbed the flowers and the rubber band and tried to put the rubber band around the bunches of flowers.  But with the flowers being all different lengths, and some being really tiny, the flowers kept falling on the ground as I tried to gather them to tie together.  “Adi! Don’t ask me to do this right now!” I snapped at her as I gave the flowers back to her.  “Okay, mom….” she said as she quickly went away too.  
We had a normal rest of the day, I made dinner and ate dinner with the girls, and then we had a little girls’ night by watching a movie and eating gelato.  I got them ready for bed and we did our bedtime routine and everything was fine.  I was able to put Aiden down for the night a little after 10 pm, and exhausted, I came to the kitchen to clean up.  Then I saw the bucket of flowers and my heart stung.  Adi had put all the flowers back in the bucket, just like how it was when she came back from the flower hunt.  I even saw the rubber band in the bucket, the one I tried to put around the flowers to make a little bouquet before I snapped at her and gave it back to her.  She never figured out how she could make little bouquets by herself so she gave up and put the flowers back in the bucket.  And now she’s in bed, too late for me to teach her or help her now.  Oh, what a terrible mother I was.  I feel like such a terrible mother sometimes.  Times when I snap at them and then after they go to bed, I remember how I became short with them and I feel the immense guilt and shame.  Then I cry and go to their bed and see their sweet, innocent faces sleeping soundly like angels and how much worse I feel.  Then I kiss them and kiss them with my tears as I whisper in my heart, ‘I’m sorry little one, I’m sorry I was mean to you earlier today.”  and vow to myself to make it up to them tomorrow, to promise myself to be more patient and loving next time.  To remember to tell them that I am sorry, and how much I love them.  
So past midnight here I sat in my kitchen, making little flower bouquets for my little Adi. Adi, I’m sorry I became short with you earlier today.  You too Ana buns.  Mommy is trying her very best to do it all, but it’s really hard for me sometimes, actually most of the time. But mommy is always trying to be better and I love you to the moon and back.  I hope you always, always remember that.