Believing

Haylee has mostly decided that she doesn't believe in Santa this year. I am pretty sure she has felt that way for the last year or two but this is the first year she has been really vocal about it. She gets upset if I mention that Santa is coming and reminds me that she doesn't believe. She is only NINE. :( She is my super logical and analytical child though so I knew her believing wouldn't last long. --quick break in my post it is snowing outside and Haylee is getting her boots on to go play in in and she just said well squealed "this brings back so many memories!" ha ha ha I love that kid. ---anyway back to believing... So even though Haylee says she doesn't believe, a couple of weeks ago she asked me for a handwriting sample so that she could compare it to the tags on the gifts from Santa - see what I mean about analytical? Anyway, today before she went out in the snow she was telling me that she decided to keep believing in Santa because "its fun" :) I am happy that she has a some Christmas magic in her heart even if her head tells her differently.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Answered Prayers

There are a lot of times in my life that the answer to a prayer comes so clearly it almost scares me. I am so grateful to know that Heavenly Father loves me and will help when I ask. Well, Sierra is having a similar experience just today and again the gratitude I feel is immeasurable. Last night I took Sierra to a babysitting "interview" for a couple who found out about her through some people we go to church with. The meet and greet went well and they asked Sierra to babysit for them November 13th, they told us they had had a hard time finding someone for that night and were so grateful Sierra was available. Almost as soon as we left we both realized that night is our Stake Youth Activity at church. Sierra almost cried realizing she would have to choose wether to let down the couple who said that needed her or to go to the church activity. I told her we would figure it out and I would be happy to babysit the three year old if need be so Sierra could go to the church thing. Sierra was really worried about what to do, as much as she wanted to go to the church activity she was having a hard time breaking her commitment to the babysitting job. I almost had her call the couple last night and tell them she didn't realize she had a church activity that night but told her to pray about it and she would know what she should do and could call them tonight. Sierra must have said a good prayer because today we got an e-mail noting that the church activity had been MOVED TO THE WEEK PRIOR! CrAzY! She won't need to choose she can stick to her commitment AND go to the activity. My mouth seriously dropped when I read that. I still cannot believe it. Just goes to show ya, Heavenly Father is listening and He does care even about simple things like a babysitting job. :)

Happy October everyone!

Longest day EVER....

5:00 woke up, decided to skip seminary because I was up in the night in pain

6:30 woke up again got ready

7:30 took Sierra to the doc ended up in radiology and in the pharmacy, she is ok just some wrist pain they put her back in her brace for two weeks and we have to go to occupational therapy

9:30 went to Burger King so Sierra could eat and take her Ibuprofen

10:00 drove to school and dropped her off

10:45 Commissary trip to get a few things for dinner

11;30 dentist to see why my face/teeth hurt -had some work done last week pain was getting progressively worse

12:00 dentist wants me to call the doc

1:10 take Haylee to a friends house so I can go to the doc

1:30 doc appt. diagnosed with sinus infection, go to pharmacy only get one of two meds go back to doc to tell them I need the other one still, I ask them to put the meds in at a pharmacy where I need to stop anyway and pick up a refill I have waiting, get to the other pharmacy and there are 15 people in line! Decide I can wait until tomorrow to pick up other meds.

3:00 pick Haylee up and finally eat lunch

3:30 make dinner so my family won't starve

4:15 leave for HD's game -get stuck in traffic takes me almost an hour to go 15 miles, miss first 10 minutes of the game

5:10-sit down it starts to rain, rains entire 90 minutes they play

6:45 head back to the school get there at 7:10

7:45 the bus gets there, D asks if I can give another guy a ride home he lives by the church 10 minutes out of my way

8:10 drop kid off

8:30 pull up at my house

9:00 shower

10:00 try to remember when I last took Ibuprofen because I am in lots of pain

10:15 say forget it and take it praying I didn't take it an hour ago

11:00 blog my day and go to bed!!!!!

Oh and two quick Haylee funnies before I forget:

The first one she was writing in her "personal" journal for school one day and she asked me if I would like to say hi to the people in the future. I told her she should write how smart and beautiful I am. When she is finished she reads me part of her entry: I was just talking to my mom Tara. She told me to write how beautiful and smart she is. I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 she's a 5. ----then she laughed herself silly. lol

The second one she was snuggling with me on the couch before bed,because she was cold, and she asked me what boobs were made of. I told her they were mostly fat with a little muscle. She said "well, I am going to start working out so I don't get them" LOL! I advised her she would change her mind about that when she got a little older.

Tomorrow morning 5 am will come awful early! Night everyone and happy fall!

had to post while I was thinking about it...

I love my kids. I know I say that all the time but I have a couple of "funnies" rolling around in my head and I have to put them on the blog or I will never remember

Today, I ran into the Sister missionaries from our ward. That is the third time this week. I have ran into them at Target, the grocery store, and today at the Amish market. After school Sierra and I were chatting about our days and I told her I was pretty sure the Sister missionaries were following me -ha ha- joking around she said you should ask them "what do you want? Food? Money?.....Converts?" I almost fell on the floor laughing.

A couple of days ago Haylee was doing some dishes by hand and while she was drying them she said -as she had the towel inside the glass and outside of it at the same time- "hey Mom, check out my two part drying system" She is definitely her Daddy's girl. :)

I have a few more but the fam is watching a movie and I am annoying them with my typing. :)

I will blog again soon.....

She's FIFTEEN!

Wow! Who would've thought that this girl, this one right here in these pictures started out her life weighing just 3 lbs. 5 oz. and only 16 and a quarter inches long. She had to come 6 weeks and 1 day early because she was making my blood pressure too high. You would think that as a fifteen year old we might have that same problem -ha ha- well we don't!

This girl, Sierra Nichole, is in a word SWEET. She is the sweetest teenager I know! She is fun to be around and is ALWAYS willing to help me no matter what it is I ask of her. If she sees that I am stressed out she is the first one to ask how she can help me and will do it with no complaints! I don't know what I would do without her!!! Sierra is a great friend, she is funny, she is just beautiful inside and out. I wish I could just freeze her in time so she wouldn't grow up anymore. But that would be selfish...she is WAY to amazing not to share with the rest of the world. So blessed that she is a part of our family.

This picture is from a couple of weeks ago

If I had to guess I'd say she's about 11? Maybe 12?

This picture she was 12 I think... (I didn't check the dates on the folders the pics were in) :)

She is 8 in this picture. She had just cut off her hair to donate to locks of love.

Such a sweet face!

I think this is her 8th birthday...I swear all the pictures of her when she was little she needs her bangs cut! Where was her mother???

This one was a couple of weeks ago to in the Library of Congress

Joe's girl

She was 6 and a half in this picture...it was right after Haylee was born.

The BIG haircut!

For about 6 months we have been talking about cutting Haylee's SUPER LONG hair and donating it to a company that makes wigs for cancer patients. Well, today was the day! The plan was to take off between 8 and 10 inches of hair. Well we ended up taking of ELEVEN! And as it turns out we should've taken off 14 or 15 inches! Here are some pictures....

These first ones are from a week or so ago, I was just trying to capture her curls. Her hair curls up on the sides and the bottom usually after a shower add to that super humid weather and wallah -extra curls. :)

The length out of a braid

OH and a bonus picture from last weekend. I LOVE this picture of HD!!!!!!! It is near perfection which is almost impossible for my non-photogenic child. Look how handsome he is with his real face -okay all the pics I take are his real face but this one is his NATURAL face not some tiny smile. He just got done surfing think that has something to do with it? lol

Back to Haylee and her hair...

getting her cape on

Scary moment! The cut!

Right after the cut

all smiles

that is a standard 8.5 x 11 piece of paper it is end to end with a braid and a curl at the end!

Her words to me after this pic "Mom will you please go sit in the waiting area now so I can talk to Michelle by myself?"

Wow not even a teenager and anxious to get rid of mom.

Are you sure we cut off 11 inches? Look at all that hair!

Proud of her braid

Still my goldilocks after the haircut.

Happy June everybody!

I'm so thankful for.....

....these guys! I have been a mom for just over SIXTEEN years and I cannot begin to put into words how much it means to me that my Heavenly Father entrusted me three of his most precious children. From the time I was a little girl all I ever wanted to be was a momma. I am so grateful for the blessing, challenge, trials, and joy that come from this particular calling. :) I am so, so, so -words cannot express how thankful I am to have a husband that works hard so I can be at home with these awesome people.

I only have two years and a few months left of being an everyday mom to my oldest and I have no idea how I am going to deal with him going out into this big wide world. I take comfort in knowing what a good head he has on his shoulders, he has a strong testimony of the gospel, he has firm goals and priorities, and best of all he has a great sense of humor ~ so important to get through this crazy life. But how I will miss him when he goes. *sniff sniff*

Bud- you made me a mom. I was way to young and made so many mistakes and yet somehow you are an amazing young man not a day goes by that I am not proud of you. Love you D.
And this one...she is almost FIFTEEN! What the heck are they trying to do growing up all at once like this! My Sierra is strong and confident and just as beautiful inside as out. Sis -you were so tiny when you got here and I was still too young to be a momma. Thanks for being patient with me all this time as I learned to do it better. What would I do without your help? I would be lost!!! I love you my sweet girl.
And then there's my baby -she hates it when I call her that. :) This kid broke the mold I tell ya. I have never met a more precocious, chatty, sensitive, too smart for her own good girl in my whole life. I am so glad I get to have her home with me for 10 more years...maybe longer, since she is last I may never let her leave!!! :) Bean- you are a such a joy to our family. What a personality you have. You are a light in my life little girl and I love you to the moon and back!
Hope you all didn't mind me getting that out. I use this blog as my journal -which is sad since I don't write very much! But like I told my young women - don't worry about when or what you are not writing just write when you can! :)

I am so thankful to be a mom!!!

Happy Mother's day everyone!!!