The Prodigal Shoe

A lot of exciting things have been happening around our house lately. Not really...but I thought I would blog anyway. : )

As you might have guessed from the title...I FOUND MY SHOE! If you don't know what I am talking about refer a few months back to my sister's wedding. I lost one of the shoes I was supposed to wear all day at the wedding festivities and had to wear ugly shoes that made me feel short and chubby. ( I am not vain enough to think that anyone but me noticed my footwear but girls you understand right?...ugly shoes at a beautiful event=not feeling my best about the way I look regardless of the rest of my outfit...which now that we are talking about it wasn't a great look on me anyway if we are being really honest. : ) I am sure that I was supposed to be learning a lesson in humility or something., or at least that is what it felt like. : )

I got home with one of my shoes and with no real hope of finding the other one. We unloaded the car, unpacked the bags but there was no shoe, so logically I should have thrown the other one away right? But I didn't because it just seemed too nice to go in the garbage, even if it didn't have a match and I had no use for it. So, I put it in the very back of my closet because I was pretty sure Tim would get rid of it if he found it. Then last Saturday we decided to rearrange the car seats and move Braxton up to one of the seats in the middle. Tim pulled the car seat out and then pulled out the car seat mat that goes over the seat and under that was my shoe!! He called me outside so I could see what he had found and I am pretty sure that I screamed. I am also pretty sure that I embarrassed him since some of our neighbors were outside. I ran and pulled the other one out of the back of my closet and put them on. Then I thought, I can't believe that it was in the car the WHOLE time I was wearing those ugly shoes. UGHHH!!! Oops...wasn't I supposed to have gotten over that? Apparently lesson not learned, since that was one of my first thoughts. I am fully expecting to have my favorite pair of jeans shredded in the wash or have my hair turn green or something soon. : )

Ummm, what else have we been up to... Tim has been really, really busy at work the last few weeks. Late nights, lots of hours, etc. and they boys have been really bored. It is still too cold and smoggy to go outside and we were all going a little crazy. So, I told them they could have a Valentine's Day party. They made the guest list, the invitations, delivered them, planned the games and treats, and picked out the food we would eat. Jace even cut out a bunch of hearts for decorations. They did a great job and had a great time at their party. And I, being the great mother that I am, didn't take one single picture of it. Not one. I had even set my camera out and still nothing. Oh well, good thing they still had fun. : )

Ashlyn had made it her life's mission to find a way to fall down the stairs. If she hears the gate snap open, she hurries over there as fast as her little body will take her and tries to go down, head first. If the boys are playing downstairs and we are upstairs she will just go over to the gate and pull herself up and gaze downstairs knowing she is missing all the fun. It is fun to see her little personality come through more and more all the time. She hates bottles and baby food but loves to drink out of a cup and eat anything we are having. She especially loves noodles, pizza, apple slices, and Oreo cookies, as you can see in the picture below.


We have also done a little redecorating lately. It was lots of fun and I love how it turned out, (thanks Shauna) especially what we put up over the stairs.

It was my design, but Tim had to be the one to put it up. Which means he had to stand on that little tiny ledge below and hang a heavy iron rod, 4 vinyl lettering strips, and three pictures; two with ribbon and bows involved. All without falling down and breaking something. It was a lot of work and I was a nervous wreck just watching him. I tried to help at one point, got both feet on the ledge and then froze. My hands were sweating and I couldn't move. And I was at the part where the fall would have been kind of small. It is kind of a blur I was so nervous, but I think Tim had to help me down. So, he was on his own. Thankfully he wasn't nearly as nervous as I was, I seriously don't know how he did it, but I am glad he did. : )

The ledge. I made it to the part where you can still see the railing, just call me braveheart.

What the fall would have been. I kept telling him encouraging things like "If you fall, try to land on your feet so you don't break you back." I am sure I was super helpful.

Ashlyn loves me. Granted she doesn't know that many people and I do provide her with most of her food. Now that she is mobile this is what I see a lot of during the day. She will crawl around after me and then get up on her knees and raise her little arms up for me to carry her around. How can I resist that cute little face though?

Here she is on the move. She is a speedy little girl now when she wants to be.

Jace is getting better and better at reading all the time. This week at the library he got Green Eggs and Ham and can read the whole thing by himself. He has to give a talk in Primary on Sunday and said he doesn't want our help. He wants to read it all by himself, so we will see how that goes... : )

Jace is a great big brother. He wanted me to take this picture of him and Ashlyn. He loves to carry her around and "help" her do things. I hope he always takes such good care of her.

Here is what Braxton decided to do one morning. Why he decided to pull all the Kleenex out of the box I do not know, but I do know that once it is out it is almost impossible to get it all back in the box. Braxton will get a whole post to himself soon. He is giving me a run for my money lately and I will need a whole new post to document all the things I want to remember and tell him about when he is older. Here is just a little preview. Today he wore three different pairs of pants, two of them backwards, because he insists on putting them on himself. He doesn't want any input or help and never wants to be corrected. I do realize that correcting and helping are two key parts of being a good parent, but I have to pick my battles. So today he went to the grocery store with backwards pants on, but he didn't get to put playdough in the toaster or wear one of Jace's shirts with his backwards pants. He has seriously been cracking us up lately. I have been writing stuff down on little scraps so I will have to get it all together soon to post.

Good thing he is so dang cute...it makes it easy to still love him even with backwards pants on.

But now Ashlyn is ready for bed and I have "The Biggest Loser" recorded on the DVR to watch. I love that show. The people are so inspiring. I like to think that if they can lose ten pounds in a week, I can lose ten pounds in two months, right? What's that? They don't eat leftover oatmeal cake for breakfast like I do? Well, good thing I can take it easy on myself and will give myself until the next time I have to wear a swimsuit to lose those ten pounds. : )