Love

 

I love this picture: That is all. 

Yogurt and Cheerios

This deserves its own post. I know that we've mentioned it before, or in passing, but the longevity of this quirky thing alone demands it be documented. 

For years now, whenever we have yogurt and Cheerios for breakfast (which is at least once a week, and currently each Monday and Saturday and/or Sunday) there is a specific procedure to follow. The Cheerios go in on the bottom of the bowl, then the yogurt gets spread out over the top, completely hiding the Cheerios. 

Now here's the important part. Before the child can commence eating their breakfast a parent must say in mock exaggeration, "Oh no! I'm so sorry- you wanted yogurt AND Cheerios. I forgot and I only gave you yogurt. Sorry, no Cheerios today." Upon completion of the required phrases, the child smiles and scoops into their cereal showing the crunchy Cheerios below. This is immediately followed by "Oh my goodness! There were Cheerios under there after all. That was tricky!" The child can then resume eating their breakfast with a smile on their face. 

There are variations on this, of course. Sometimes they put in the Cheerios and yogurt and you have to say "I thought you wanted yogurt and Cheerios, you must have forgotten your cheerios!" and then say "You tricked me!" Once Austin even put the yogurt on the bottom and the cheerios on top in an attempt to be really tricky. 

I'm not exaggerating when I say that we've been doing this for years and each of the kids still regularly participate. It's funny how it has stuck and turned into a mandatory breakfast ritual. 

Lucy will often make her cheerios and yogurt then say, "Now say the thing that you say about the Cheerios." 

Sometimes we are more theatrical, and sometimes it's a cursory "Oh no, Lucy you forgot your cheerios." / "Oh wow, there they are - please eat your breakfast now!" But mostly it's a cheerful start to our day. 

It will be a sad day in the Peaden house when everyone just eats their yogurt and Cheerios like normal people and no one insists that the Cheerios must have been forgotten, just to discover them hiding under the yogurt. 

The 2.5 Comparison

I was writing Lucy's 2.5 post and opened up Caleb's 2.5 post to remind me what I wrote for him. His sweet chubby face gave me all the feels and led me to search out Austin's and Lydia's 2.5 year old posts, too. These darling kids, I love them all so much! Then, because I get to do whatever I want to do (ha!) I decided to do a 2.5 comparison post of all of our sweet 2.5 year old babies. 

I do also want to note that each of our other three kids had a baby sibling at this 2.5 post. I'm feeling really happy with the way our family is right now and seriously SO thrilled to be able to enjoy this stage right now with all sorts of energy that I wasn't sure I would ever get back. I love babies, and love my babies, but thought it was worth mentioning that I'm happy to not have a baby right now.

Now on to my sweet 2.5 year olds... I just copied and pasted the opening paragraph, photos, and one or two things from their post. 

---

Lydia Elise @ 2.5 Years Old

Oh this sweet, opinionated, loving, strong-willed two year old of ours. We love her so much and simultaneously wonder how we are ever going to teach her anything. She seems to have jumped into full fledged two year old mode, but even with the tantrums and stubborness - we still adore her and don't know what we would do without her. She still has the ability to absolutely make my heart melt and make me feel like the most special mother in the whole world.

--She gets joy from the smallest things. Olives on her fingers = the best thing ever. Building a giant tower = the best thing ever. Jumping on the couch cushions = the best thing ever.

--She's started holding her hands up to her eyes to "see". She uses her binoculars to "see you" and it's super darling. She also uses toilet paper rolls as telescopes and any other items with windows to look through.

Austin Scott @ 2.5 Years Old

Austin, my sweet boy. You are such a joy. You're opinionated, funny, and a wonderful ear! I'm completely torn because two and a half years doesn't seem nearly long enough to fit all the joy that you've brought to us, but at the same time I still think of you as my little baby and I can't believe you're so big!

-We wake up every morning to Austin shouting from his crib (which is now in Lydia's room that they've been successfully sharing for a couple months now) "Mom! I want oh-yurt! I want ohhhhh-yuuuuurt." He wakes up early and wants to eat immediately. That's a pretty good snapshot of our life right now.

Caleb Samuel @ 2.5 Years Old

Caleb Samuel. You're just the best of the best. 2.5 years has been good to you - and I submit that you're the cutest, sweetest 2.5 year old around. You're chatting up a storm, curious about everything, and have a natural ability to make people smile. You are really throwing yourself into the role of big brother. We love you so much and we are so happy to have you in our family.

 

He loves books. One of his favorites right now is "How to Train your Train" and if you pause at the right places he will fill in the words for you. Like, Let's make the call of the Wild Train... Chugga Chugga "Choo Choo!" and How do you know if the train you picked is the one? "You'll know!" I love him. He also loves "The Little Engine that Could" and he will say lots of those words, too.

Lucy Holland @ 2.5 Years Old

Lucy-darling. We love you so. At age 2.5 you are either delightful sunshine or stormy temper. However, at 2.5, it's all wonderful. The highs and the lows. Maybe it's because you're the littlest one and we've done 2.5 before, but even your tantrums or big feelings don't get us down. We just smile and wait for your cheerful face to reappear as soon as you work through whatever is troubling you. Now, sometimes you don't finish eating dinner because you're too upset about not having the purple plate - and sometimes you feel so angry that you scrunch your face and want to pinch someone - but most of the time you're just the most cheerful little person we know. We love this age with you and are treasuring each moment. (Except that you want to potty train, we are NOT ready for that.)

Two of the biggest things that mark Lucy at this age: 

1- She loves getting into my keys/wallet and pulling out all of my credit cards. It's really a problem but I like my wallet the way it is so I'm hoping that this is just a stage and I don't have to change. Unfortunately, I'm currently missing my driver's license, so that's not great. 

2- She loves babies. Like LOVES babies. She talks about them all the time and tucks them in at night under their blankets. She's the sweetest little nurturer to them. 

Good Friends

I have been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I am to be surrounded by the friends that we have. Although I am very friendly with A LOT of people, it takes me a long time and a lot of effort to make true, deep, friends. We've been in our house 8 years now and we have made some wonderful, wonderful friends. Friends who encourage us, who make us laugh, who leave us feeling better than they found us.

I was asked recently what age I would pick to stay at for the rest of my life and even though most of the other people around me were picking ages in their 20s, I firmly would pick my 30s. I feel like I'm more confident, happier, wiser, and surrounded by such wonderful people. I would absolutely pick 31-33 over any year in my twenties. I think that confidence, belonging, and happiness is really reflected in my friends. It's also interesting because as I've been compiling this post, I have realized that SO many of these friends have been brought to me by the visiting teaching/home teaching/ministering program of the church. Without that, I would not have these friends in my life, and how grateful I am for that! (I'll indicate with a * just for fun)

This post is part what I love about these friends but also just part what we've done this month notable enough to take pictures of. I don't have time to write all of the things I love about these people, but hopefully this post will capture a tiny bit of my gratitude for these friends plus a few nuggets of recent happenings. 


Ali Middleton
Picture from a recent virtual game night that we did. I often say that everything Ali touches turns to gold, and it's true - which is one of the reasons why I'm so grateful to be her friend because you leave hanging out with her feeling like pure gold yourself. This entire post was prompted because just a few nights ago after a late-night Marco Polo message, I came to bed just beaming and giggling and mentioned to David how grateful I was for Ali and the good friend she is. It's so nice to be able to share the struggles and triumphs of homeschool, mothering, and life with someone like her.


Karli Shields
We were in the same Thanksgiving Meadows ward before it split and there was much sorrow over the fact that their house was the first house in the other ward. This month I was able to skip homeschool for the day, let the kids play, and help Karli paint her bedroom. She's been cheering me on through my bedroom painting projects and it was so fun to spend the time painting together. (*)





Amy Perkins
The other night Amy texted me saying that she had a surprise for me. She showed up 1/2 hour later with a huge plate full of donuts. I think there were 10-12 different kinds of donuts. She hosted a donut taste-off with her family and knew I would love it so she took the time to make me a plate and bring it over to me. She's is thoughtful and kind and so insightful. The donuts were amazing (we both LOVE donuts) and I was left with the feeling of undeserved gratitude for Amy's friendship. 

I have a constant text thread with Amy and Karli and just this last week I was saying how grateful I was to have the two of them to talk to, who I can just be myself around, and who I don't have to overly worry about being awkward or saying the wrong thing. I had just had a VERY awkward meeting for my primary calling and was feeling self-concious about my awkwardness, but they were quick to cheer me up and buoy my confidence. It's just good to have good friends. 

Jenna

My sister. I love both of my sisters so much, but I have to include Jenna on here. We Marco Polo all the time about everything from potty training, to making dinner, to thoughtful questions about testimonies and faith and life. Our kids love each other, so sometimes they hijack our marco polos, but I'm just so grateful for Marco Polo to keep us close during these years where we are in the same stage of life (that can sometimes be so isolating). I'm even more grateful that Jenna lives in Utah now instead of Iowa. I love spending so much time with her. 

Leah & Andrea
When Lydia and Austin were really young, there was a group of women/kids that would meet up outside and hang out together while their kids played. I often would go out and let L&A play and try to visit with the women, but for whatever reason it just did NOT click. I remember one time one of the women turning to me and asking "So, Shantel, who are YOUR friends in the neighborhood?" And I was like "YOU! I'm trying to be friends with YOU!" Ha. I can laugh about it now, but I would always come inside feeling anxious and awkward. Fast forward to now when my kids are the age as those other neighborhood kids and now I am the one sitting outside letting them play all afternoon. Most of the other women have moved away now, but now I've gained my own pocket of women to spend our afternoons together. Our kids play while we visit and I'm grateful for them. Andrea is always so insightful and so building-up of others. Leah is faithful and funny and we also love playing games with them and swapping babysitting for date nights.  

Ashley

I met Ashley 9 years ago and although we live farther apart now and have much less overlap of our lives than we have in the past - I am just so incredibly grateful for her. (*)

Also, my friend Karen that I go on walks with regularly and who I have late-night texting conversations with (our conversations are always interesting, engaging, and don't shy away from politics and important world happenings) (*) and Stephanie who lives several doors down from me (who I used to serve with in the Primary presidency) and who is always encouraging and funny. (*)

I clearly can't include every friend that I have, but right now, this moment - these are the relationships that I am the most grateful for. (Aside from David, of course, he's my true champion and best friend.) 

I would be remiss in including a blog post about good friends without including screenshots of our 
Marco Polos. (I mentioned it so much above, I should probably include more info here.) 

Marco Polo is an app on my phone that allows me to connect with these friends and others in convenient and meaningful ways. It's a video chat app, but you can send video messages back and forth with each other. Phone calls are basically impossible right now. They just are. My kids need my attention and if I'm ever on the phone for longer than 5 minutes it's hard on them and the clean-up/fixing time is hard on me. But with Marco Polo, I can send a video message where I can talk about things that are light and funny or deep and meaningful to me and then whenever they have time, they can watch it and send a message to respond. The conversations are drawn out over days and even weeks, but they are meaningful and give such a sense of connection between me and these sweet friends of mine.

 

I also keep a Marco Polo chain with my family and David's family members both in varying groups from just the girls, just the utah siblings, just one or two in a group, just my parents, just his parents, etc... It's such a great way to keep connected and I love it all. I especially am grateful for Marco Polo keeping my family connected.

Snuggling

One of my favorite things about life right now is that in the morning, my kids come into my bed and snuggle me for 30ish minutes until we are all ready to get up for the day. Sometimes they fall back asleep with me while I'm sleeping. Sometimes they just cuddle up quietly while I keep sleeping. 

Sometimes we talk and laugh together. 

All of the time, I love it. 

It's such a slow start to our day. It feels unhurried and cozy.

I love this little family of mine. I love our life together. I love that Homeschool gives us the time to have this unhurried lifestyle where we can just enjoy our time together instead of having to rush around from one thing to another. (And I love I don't have to get out of bed until 7:30-7:45 in the morning lately!)

Dear Thursday: A list of things I love.

For today's installment of "Dear Thursday", how about a list of things that I'm really loving right now? Okay... go.

Things I really love right now: 

-My Contigo water bottle with a straw. (Gotten as a gift after Caleb was born.) I prefer to drink my water through a straw and this water bottle is so nice and makes me happy (and helps me drink more water.)

-My new can opener. After months of using a barely functional hand-can opener that you had to muscle your way through to open anything David surprised me with a hands-free battery operated opener. I've opened three cans today and my love for this opener grows each time.

-Regency Romance Novels. I go through phases with books, sometimes getting into science fiction, sometimes contemporary novels, once I really got into anything that had to do with the French Revolution, etc... Right now I just really really enjoy these Regency romance novels. Sarah M. Eden is my favorite Author right now and all her books are just sooo good!

--My scripture study. A while ago I bought a Book of Mormon Study Guide from the Red Headed Hostess and I truly love it. It has a small section for each verse, with probing questions like "draw what was happening" or "write about a doctrine or principle" or "record a phrase or lesson that stands out to you". It's really made me slow down and dig deeper into my Book of Mormon study. Instead of just reading it, and maybe writing down a verse that stands out - I'm thinking about each and every verse and what I can learn from it. I'm getting more involved in the story. I'm drawing stick figures and writing down take-away lessons and I'm really enjoying it like I've never enjoyed my scripture study before. Another thing that has helped with that study journal is that I also have the Book of Mormon Student Manual: Religion 121-122 and as I read the Book of Mormon, I've been able to read quotes that expand and illustrate the things contained in the verses. It helps me to think about what I'm reading and then I'm able to write down the things that are important to me into my study-journal. 

After the last conference, listening to Elder Nelson's talk about our Savior, I decided to buy another little journal and take his challenge to use the topical guide as a curriculum and read and mark every verse about Jesus Christ and record my thoughts and testimony. It's been a beautiful experience and I'm not even through the first section "Jesus Christ: Summary". I also pulled out my "Family Inspiration Journal" that I started in college before I was even married where I've recorded important inspiration that I've received about how I want to teach and love my family and quotes that have inspired and uplifted me regarding the importance of family. I've been making an effort to be writing in that more often as well. I do don't all of those study things every day, but I'll pick one area to focus on for the morning, then when I'm done- I stack everything up in a big pile and stick it under the desk in my bedroom. Then, the next morning, I pull it all out again. 

I write about this because I want to share my testimony that when you are making the effort to study the words of our Savior, when you're reading your scriptures and recording the things that you've learned - you truly do feel strengthened and uplifted. My testimony has grown and I feel more confident in my every-day happenings. When I'm faced with uncertainty, I can draw upon the things that I'm reading and learning and it fills me with strength. I've never really felt like I was "feasting" on the words of Christ. But now, I'm feeling like I have a taste of what that is like. I enjoy the time I have in the scriptures and often wish I could keep reading and studying for much longer than I am able to. (Sometimes I wake up before the kids are up to read, but most mornings I sit on my floor to study with Caleb laying out by me and Lydia and Austin playing with toys, Caleb, or each other nearby.) I hope that they know that their mama loved the scriptures, and that those scriptures helped her to be a better mother every day. 

--The Thanksgiving Meadows Babysitting Co-op. It's a babysitting swap where you earn popsicle sticks by babysitting other people's kids and then you can use those same sticks to "pay" others to babysit your kids. It's been such a lifesaver for errand running, visiting teaching, doctors appointments, etc... All those small little things that are difficult to take kids to but are during the day when David is at work. I love it! (We also do a Babysitting Swap for date-nights with two other couples where we watch all the kids on one night and we get two dates out of it. It's been the best thing for our date-nights, ever!) 

--I've been working on a paint-by-numbers painting over the past six months and although I can only work on it a little here and there, I've really really been enjoying it. 

-Watching Hallmark movies with David. The cheesy plotlines, the use of the same actors over and over, and even the terrible typography for the title at the beginning of the show that makes it seem like it was made in the late 80s. I'm glad that David likes to watch them as much as I do.

-I got to go to the temple one evening last month while David stayed home with all three kids and it was wonderful. I basically cried the entire time I was there because of how grateful I was to be in the temple that night. I'm so grateful to be able to live so close to a temple and to go and feel of the Lord's love for me there. Someday I hope to be a temple worker, but as for now, I want to try to go to the temple even more often.  

 -This bread is sooo good.

-Okay, so my van (a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country) is SO awesome. It's hands-down the newest, nicest, fanciest car I've ever owned. My one requirement when shopping for a new van was having a back-up-camera because we live on a street with SO many little kids. But it's got some other cool features. I just realized that you can download your music CD's to the van's hard drive and then select favorites from each CD. Austin would always request specific songs from different CDs, and now I have them all downloaded into one playlist and it's awesome. I also like that my phone is connected to my van and when someone calls me I can answer from my steering wheel and talk through the dashboard. You've got to admit that's cool. (I'm sure soon, that will be totally standard in every car - but for now it's pretty cool.)

--This is the prettiest illustration of a mermaid that I've ever seen. If I ever have to do a mermaid costume or anything, I'd want it to be like this.  

--Let's talk about Chick-fil-A's Frosted Strawberry Lemonade. I'm not one to spend a lot of money on fast food, especially for myself, but this cross between a lemonade and a milkshake is just soooo good. It's a limited time thing, which is good, because I've already had about five this summer. David's taken to asking how much I like something in relation to how much I like this drink. "If I were to come home would you like that more or less than a frosted strawberry lemonady" Ha.


--Listening to books on Overdrive. Both me and Lydia have really been enjoying this. Overdrive is an online library where you can download books and audiobooks to your phone. I used to watch tv shows while folding the laundry and such, but I've started listening to Audio-books on my phone because I feel like it doesn't make me so unapproachable to my kids but I'm still able to be entertained while doing something fairly monotonous. At night after we put Lydia and Austin to bed, we've been letting Lydia listen to the Boxcar Children books for 15-20 minutes and she's really been loving it, too.

-I love my laundry room. I love the window I can look out of, I love the counter that I can fold clothes on, I love the L-A-U-N-D-R-Y letters above the washer/dryer. I have a method called "don't start another load until the clothes have been folded directly out of the dryer" and it works for me. No baskets of clean clothes hanging around. It will be hard to ever move because I love this laundry room so much.

-Great Value Tropical Trail Mix. It's got dried fruit & nuts, including cashews. We've been eating a lot of this lately.

-I had a realllllly bad experience with a wedding announcement client back in September and I honestly considered shutting Red Ladder down and calling it a good run. I just recognized that there were times that I was putting too much stress on myself and my kids were suffering for it. (Seriously, it was an awful experience where I basically worked through the night for a week to get a rush order finished for a couple who originally said that they just wanted something simple, but then were easily the pickiest and most demanding couple I've ever worked with - only to have them be dissatisfied with the final product and ask for their money back, after I'd already delivered the announcements to them. I lost money on the order, not to mention the countless hours I'd put in, and it almost caused me to stop doing what I love to do.) However, after several months I've finally started to do a few announcements here and there again. I've made some new rules for myself (like NO rush orders) and I'm feeling really good about things again. I just recently did these announcements for a family friend (Mikelle Oliver) and I love the way that they turned out. Plus those envelopes, guys. I swoon every time I see them. (There are florals on the front, too.) They were originally going to be black and white (due to cost), and last minute I decided to print them in color anyway and for days I'd be doing something completely unrelated and I'd stop and say to David, "Remember those envelopes? They were so gorgeous!" I really love having something in my life that is so creatively fulfilling, and even though I've taken a huge step back to make room for my bigger priorities in life (aka- my family), I'm glad that this can still be part of my life. 

This was originally going to be a short-and-sweet post of a few things that I was liking right now, but it ended up getting a little longer than I had planned. In fact it took a full morning to finish it all up. Luckily, the kids were pretty happy to play with each other and let me blog - but at one point I looked up from my spot on the couch and saw this: an empty entertainment center and toy corner. The result is that my kitchen looks like this right now. #bloggingisworththemess At least they are having a good time while I get to blog, right?  

I'd be remiss if I didn't include these three (and their dad) in my things I love post. Because, although I'm not always the most patient, or the most perfect, I love them so incredibly much.