Done and done.

Finally. I am done with that quilt that I started last summer or fall. I am quite pleased, after all. I did stippling (a technique for machine quilting) for the first time and it was REALLY scary (you freehand the quilting with the machine - it's complicated), but I did pretty well. Besides, there has to be a first time for everything, right? Anyway, the first picture is the front and the second picture is the back. I pieced the back with some more scraps and so that is why it looks like it does.

Helping Develop Independent Children OR Fashion Faux Pas

We feel it is important to foster independence in our children and sometimes it makes for very interesting experiences (imagine cooking with them...). It involves a lot of patience sometimes and also involves attempting to not care what others think. This comes primarily when it comes to dressing themselves. Sundays are the one day we get to choose for them, but even then, they get a choice between different Sunday outfits. From before Matthew was even 2, he was dressing himself and they are both very particular about what they wear. It is usually exactly what I would rather they didn't wear. However, we think independence is important. This results in many days where they wake up and put on pajamas for their daily apparel. So when I go to the store, I know that everyone there thinks I just didn't get them dressed that morning. However, it was their choice for the day and I honored that. I guess that the stares from others are just a reminder that I am trying to do my best at mothering my children.

Fortunately, the pictures below (a size 6 Christmas sweater and an inside out denim hat) are not representative of anything worn outside the house up to this point, but it is representative of Matthew's taste in clothing occasionally!

Note: A book that I LOVE about teaching your children to be independent is called The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Browne Boyack. You should check it out...

Is that my baby?

I know that it is hard to see with the dark background, but her hair was much flatter yesterday morning than usual. I hardly recognize her without it all sticking straight up. Not to worry though, by the afternoon it had revived to it's usual state. Phew...

Apparently it's working

So when my sister was watching my boys on Tuesday, Austin saw an ant and announced, "That ant is wicked." She was surprised. He continued. "Yes, wicked like Laman and Lemuel," and then proceeded to tell her all about Nephi getting the brass plates from a wicked man named Laban.

All this from sighting an ant. Maybe he's catching onto more than we know. I guess we'll keep reading those Book of Mormon stories to him...

Thoughts on motherhood

I am so grateful for both my mother and my mother-in-law and I spent much of the day thinking about how wonderful they are and how much I appreciate them. However, I have been especially grateful as of late to be a mother myself. I love my children so much and can't believe how much joy they add to my life. I am not as good of a mother as I would like to be but fortunately I have many good examples around me to try and emulate - especially my two sisters and my mother.

This was the first Mother's Day that any of my children have really been old enough to give me a gift that they actually made themselves. Austin glued pictures to a flower pot at a Primary activity on Saturday and was SOOO excited to give it to me. He even got to cut out the pictures himself he told me. Here is a picture of him with the pot (that he assured me was for a flower and not for cooking):


And here are my three beautiful children:

I love them tremendously and I love that they love me so completely!

strong babies

So it turns out that my children are large when they are born. They are also very strong. They do not have many other developmental breakthroughs early - they have been anywhere from the normal to the late end as sitters, crawlers, and walkers - but one thing that both Matthew and Elizabeth have done very early is roll over. At two and a half weeks old, both of them started rolling from their fronts to their backs fairly consistently. With both of them, I thought it may just be a fluke when they did it the first time but I was wrong.

So even though they may never win at any sports or do anything profound academically, my children can always know that at least they had herculean strength when they were born...

More pictures of the girlie!

Here are some more pictures of our little girl. I can't believe she is already 4 weeks old! It goes by so fast...

Austin with Elizabeth (he loves to hold her):

And some of just Elizabeth (crazy, crazy hair!):

This was just taken yesterday: