SAHM I am

I am a Stay At Home Mom and most of the time I really enjoy it. But lately I have had a few days that seem to wear me down to the point of.. well, like all moms, I felt overwhelmed and near my breaking point. In a near melt down after my hopeless attempts at having Family Home Evening like we're supposed to, Eric talked some sense into me that I thought that I would share with anyone who needs a shred of advice for times similar to mine today. I had this idea for a behavior modification system that stemmed from a book I borrowed from the Library and I spent most of my day creating the perfect chart for Kallyn, complete with cheesy clip art pictures that I thought would help her to understand our expectations of her. Sad story short-FHE flopped and I blamed Eric for his lack of support. Seriously! Like he has a hard life! (note the sarcasm) After tossing my hands up and storming off Eric cornered me and gave it to me good. He brought me to see the situation in a different light and not like "see it from my point of veiw", but it was a "DUH!" moment for me that really got me to understand my role in the family. He told me that I am their mother and as such I have NO right to be pessimistic!
I've always known that the mood of the home is influenced by the mom's mood and attitude, but here is the simple truth: Mom's have no right to be pessimistic! We gave it up the moment we became mothers and only with optimism and a bright hope for the future for our families are our children going to feed off of positivism and be inspired to try and work hard to accomplish in this life. So there you have it. SAHM I am and I will love it and be positive and optimistic about EVERYTHING that has anything to do with my SAHM career!

Happy Birthday Bug!

Allison turned 2!! Yipee! Now she can finaly act her age- Ha Ha!

Sweet sisters!

Kallyn picked out a doctor play set for Allison. As you can tell, it was the perfect gift!

This is the card from Grammy in Farmington....

Jackpot!!!!! She was so thrilled that there was something in the card. I'm guessing she had no idea what it was, but I did say it had her name on it.

She made out well for 2. from top clockwise:

Fisher Price chicken light-it died that night so we exchanged it for a cow-from mommy and daddy

foam bath dolls-like paper dolls- multiple outfits- from Grammy

Slip-n-Slide from Daddy

Puzzles from Mommy

Doctor set from Kallyn

Shape sorter from Mommy

Mr Potato Head + accessories from Grandma and Grandpa Payne

After opening presents we had Icecream cake. Mmmmmm! Yummy!

Curlz!

I love that my girls have curly hair! The majority of Kallyn's curls were cut off last winter, but she still gets tight ringlets around her face. Allison has the same curls that Kallyn had, only her hair has taken longer to grow than Kallyn's did. But here are her curls after one of our humid days:

And here is her hair all done up:

green thumb vs. brown face

This is the first year that I have ever been able to have my very own garden and I am super excited to see how I do. My parents both are green thumb gardeners and I have had success with most of the plants I remember to take care of. So hopefully I'll be sharing my plentiful garden harvest with friends this summer (I planted 12 tomato plants! A little overboard? Maybe, but i LOVE fresh garden picked, warmed in the sunshine, juicy, ripe tomatoes). What about the brown face? Well, if I end up without a green thumb and somehow all my seeds grow upside down or something I will at least know that I have a brown face. Not my own face, but Allison's! Check it out!

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frog

One thing I admire about Kallyn is her love for critters and bugs. While we were planting some fowers in my flower bed we noticed a frog hopping in the leaves. It had just gotten dark and even with the help of the floodlights on the house we still couldn't see very well. But Kallyn insisted on catching that frog so she followed after it back and forth in the flower bed. I gave up helping her after 7-8 minutes but then she jumped up and announced with such elation that she had caught it. She ran over to the light to take a look at it. She was so overjoyed with this new skill of catching a frog without an adults help! Allison was again just fine with looking at the frog from a far distance, but was just as excited as Kallyn that she had caught a frog. You have to watch her expressions on the video clip!