Help!!!

So I'm stuck in this situation. I'm feeling like the worlds worst mother right now. I feel like all I do is yell orders, punish my kids, tell them no, send them to time out, put them to bed, and give them spankings when they're really acting up. I want to be a good mom that enforces rules, and has order in her house. But I also want to have fun and play with my kids and make good memories. This whole week hasn't been very good and it's taking me all of my strength to not burst out in tears. I hate crying, but when you feel like a failure, and feel like you're not living up to what is expected it's a little discouraging. I hate writing negitive posts and I hate showing my weaknesses, but I just don't know what to do to become a better mother. I am not happy with myself right now and I need some advice.
    I can tell that my grils get bored at home, even when I take them out side to play they're not enjoying it as much as they should. I admit I don't take them out every day, but it's been so hot and Kenzie has fair skin, sunscreen or not she'll turn bright pink within seconds of being outside. I've looked around for some fun craft Ideas to do with the kids, but most of them require money. What Ideas do you have that will help? I'm up for anything... I just want my kids to be happy.

The day has come!

Well it's Tuesday and if you've read my previous post, you know that today is Aliesha's first day of preschool.  She was SO excited to go. :) I cannot believe how much she has grown up, not to mention how fast!

Dear Aliesha,
    
     You have grown up to be such a beautiful little girl! You are such a fun, sweet person to be around. You are mommy's big helper at home. Your little sister loves you so much as well! When you left today Kenzie cried for about 5 minutes, she just stood down stairs and cried, Leisha, Leisha. :) It's so cute to see how much she loves you and cares for you. You are the best big sister. I know you will have lots of friends, and be a good example to those friends. You are such a smart girl and you will love this new adventure. Mommy and Daddy love you so very much and we know you are capable of great things. I love you and I am so excited to see you when you come home and talk about your first day of school. I love you so much, you are a great example to me, your dad and to you sister. Have the best first day of preschool!

Lot's of love Mommy and Daddy.

Here are some pictures of Aliesha on her first day of preschool. (Of course Kenzie had to get in some of the pictures.)

I love you Beautiful Girl!

School.

So a while ago I posted a post about trying to make decisions, specifically Aliesha's school. We had been wanting to put her into a good school that has a good curriculum, and that would teach her many things. She's a smart girl and I want a school that will fulfill her potential. One of Greg's co-workers puts her kids in Challenger, so we looked into that and decided that that's where we want Aliesha and McKenzie to go. It was spendy so we were really second guessing our decision, but we finally just went with it. We set up an appointment to go in, tour the building, ask our questions and get some answers. Aliesha loved it. We filled out an application and that was that. Aliesha was really upset when we left. Her exact words... "But I didn't even learn anything! And I wanted to play with friends!" haha. Silly girl. After we explained to her that we were just looking at the school, and that if they accept her then she can go to school, she was fine. A couple of weeks passes and then we got a letter in the mail saying that they accepted Aliesha! WAHOO! We were so excited! And so was Aliesha! :)

So yesterday Aliesha asked about school and when she's going to go. I walked her over to the calendar and pointed to the day we were at and the day her school starts! And can you believe it! Only two weeks left!!!!!! WHAT! I couldn't believe it! Every day she get's closer and closer to school, and every day she gets more and more excited. She'll tell people, "I'm going to challenger skoo..." Yeah we're still trying to get her to say, School, right since the "L" isn't as pronounced as, Love, Look, etc she often forgets that there is one. haha. We're working on it. And I'm mean and say to her if you can't say schooL right then you're not going to go to schooL. Then she starts saying it right. :) So mean I know.

Anyways, we are all excited for her to start, and learn new things. But most of all we are excited for her to gain a social life. So lets hope she learns and has a lot of friends.

Date Night!

Since last week was not a good week for my family. Greg and I decided to have a fun date night. One of Greg's clients bought him and me tickets to the Demolition derby up in Heber/Midway! We've never been and thought it would be a fun experience. So Greg's mom came over to our house to watch our girls, who are still sick. And we were on our way up to Heber. We ate at the Dairy Keen, which is really good! And the we went to the Derby. Here are some pics...

Some of the derby cars in the pit.

 As you can tell the car's aren't kept in the best condition.

That is a hose all duct taped up.

 One of the derby cars

 Greg and me

 These cars were really loud. I loved seeing them just slam 

into eachother. :)

 The first roll over! YEAH!!!

 Don't worry the guy was just fine. He even went over and hugged the guy 

rolled him over.

 One of our friends Andy! He had just gotten done running 26.2 miles!

He finished it in like 5 hours! Way to go Andy!

 These two guys rammed right into eachother, and then were stuck 

like that till the end of the round. They had to literally pry them apart.

 This purple truck rolled over the black one and was stuck ontop of it. 

They had to bring in a tractor to pull the purple one down

cause it didn't have reverse.

 This picture looks like it was a fire but it wasn't. Just a ton of smoke

coming from a car.

If you can't tell the back tire is off, and the car was still driving along slammin' 

into cars.

This was seriously a lot of fun! I would love to go again for the next time they do this. Now here's some videos for your own enjoyment...

The fun and the not so fun.

I'll start of with the fun part. 
My Grandparents came home from their 18 month mission, they served in the  Guayaquil, Ecuador mission. unfortunately I couldn't see them come home cause I was at Girls Camp. Their homecoming talk was on the 24th so Greg and I decided we'd go down to Monticello, where they live, 5 hours away from here, to visit with them and listen to their talks. Greg had to work Friday so we left here at 5am! We got there at about 10-10:30ish. Just in enough time for the 24th day parade that the small town was having. We got good seats and the girls LOVED running out in the road to grab the candy! After the parade we left to go to my Grandparents house so we could get all settled in. Everyone came over for a yummy dutch oven dinner. It was so great to catch up with family, especially those whom I haven't seen in a while. The girls did great the whole time down there. Which made it an enjoyable trip. After dinner we went back into town to watch some fireworks, which were pretty much awesome! Greg and I lost the family in some traffic, but in turn we found some pretty awesome seats that werer really close, so close that whenever a firework went off my pants would vibrate! Aliesha and McKenzie loved the fireworks. After that show we all went back to the house. The next morning was church we got all ready and left for church. That day Kenzie was so grumpy! I sat in the loby the whole time, and she was not happy with me. We went back to the house to eat lunch say our goodbyes and then left for the 5 hour trip back home. I am blessed to have very good girls, who love to travel, and who don't mind to sit in a carseat for 5 hours. They were as happy as can be!

And once again I forgot my camera! Grrr... I do that all the time!!!! These are a few from my phone...

 Two happy kids on the way up to Monticello. :)

 Old school tractor in the parade

 Kenzie sitting in Grandma's lap, in the shade.

 Aliesha's crazy face... Don't ask.

Erika and her son Elijah. And Shaylee

Now for the not so fun part.
On the trip back home both Kenz and Liesh were getting a slight cough, nothing serious, but I did notice it. On Monday Greg went back to work and the girls and I carried on in our routine. Everything was going good. Greg got home from work and I made dinner. While Aliesha was eating she was complaining that her ear was hurting her. I thought that maybe she was getting a sore throat and when she would swallow, since ears are connected to the throat, it was bothering her ear. She was also complaing that she was cold, so she wrapped herself up in her blanket and was fine. We went over to my parents house so Greg could help my dad work under the car, and while we were there I took the girls to the park that was down the street. Aliesha rode her bike there and Kenzie walked. They loved the park, but the clouds were getting a little dark so I decided it was time to get back to my Mom's house. When we got back I took the girls in, and started helping my Dad and Greg. Next thing I know my Mom is coming out and telling me that Aliesha feel's really hot and that she's crying. So we took her to the insta care and they checked both ears and said, "Yep she has an ear infection." So they gave us some Amoxicillin and ear drops and then we went home. We gave Leish her meds and went to bed. That next day she wasn't herself, she laid in my bed almost the whole day, watching movies. I kept up on the Motrin and the Tylenol, but her feaver was still 103-104. Greg came home and checked her temp and it was 104.8! So we called the on-call doctor. He said that she'd be fine, but that we do need to give her a cool bath and try to get her temp down. But everything we tried didn't work. We let her sleep in our bed that night, mostly so we could keep an eye on here just in case anything happened. The next day Greg got a call from her doctor saying he wants to see her. So I took both Girls in, he listened to Aliesha's lungs and heard a slight sound, and ordered her a chest xray. (Oh and she didn't even have an ear infection! The doctor at the insta care misdiagnosed her!) So down we went to the lab. One of the doctors said that she'd watch Kenzie while I was in the room with Liesha. So I handed Kenz over and took Leish into the room. Lets just say that Aliesha is one tough girl.... when she doesn't want to do something she will put up a fight! She punched the one lady in the face and then turned around and kicked her all because she didn't want an xray. We were in the stupid room for almost 40 min! I was trying to calm her down but nothing I was saying would help. I was getting frustrated and she was not happy. I finally said a little prayer asking for help. The doctor called up to Liesha's doctor and told him that she was putting up a pretty good fight. She came back and said that we have to do this xray and if she wont do it here they she'd send us up to Primary Childrens. And all of a sudden Aliesha finally went calm and said she'd be a big girl and get the xray. So once we got the xray's the doctor looked at them and said that he saw some streakage, but couldn't determine if it was pneumonia or not and that the only way he could tell was to stick a needle in her lung and extract some of the fluid. YEIKS! But he didn't want to do that to her. So he said to keep giving her the Amoxicillin and see how that works. Finally after 5 day's of a temp as high as 105.4 and never went down to only 103.7 she's finally at her normal 98.7 degrees! YEY! But bad news is she has a bad cough and a head cold, Kenzie has a Cough and a head cold, Greg has a cough and a head cold, and I have a cough and a head cold.... Crappy!!!!!!!!
 Anyways in this whole ordeal I found a blessing in it... Even though the doctor at the insta misdiagnosed her, the Amoxicillin that she prescribed her started beating off the pneumonia that was in her lungs. And since she had been taking the Amoxicillin for two days it was leaving her system when they gave her the xray. If we didn't have that Amoxicillin in her system it could have been much worse.

 Kenzie sleeps a lot when she's not feeling well

 Aliesha and Kenzie laying in my bed watching Princesses and the Frog.

 Cuddle time!

My poor baby, She look 100 times better in this pic than she did two day's ago.

Primary... The Mormon TMZ...

I saw this and since I'm in the primary presidency I thought it only appropriate to post.  And yes this is pretty much true... haha SO BE NICE!  

We have both had callings in Primary (LDS Children's Sunday school.) Every church calling allows you the opportunity to learn and grow. Here's a lesson we've learned through serving in Primary. If you are walking down the hall on a fine Sunday morning and somebody deliberately trips you causing you to fall on your face and break your nose. If you look up and the person that tripped you is your child's Primary teacher, just get up and keep walking. Don't even look em in the eye, you might even want to apologize to them.

Look, here's the thing...even if you are known in your ward as the Grinch who stole Sunday, have some sense and at least be nice to your ward's Primary leaders and teachers. You may think you know why we are offering this crucial piece of advice. It's not because they are the poor souls who take your kids off your hands for two hours on a Sunday. It's not because they are the ones entrusted with your most prized possessions each week. It's not even because Jesus said love everyone, treat them kindly too, when your heart is filled with love, others will love you.

The bottom line is this, be nice to the adults who serve in Primary because: THEY KNOW ALL YOUR BUSINESS! Yup, brothas and sistas, that's it. All of the information that you don't want to leave the house and all of the stuff that is supposed to stay in the family, forget about it, cause ya kids are spilling the beans in Primary. You may be thinking to yourself, not my children, my children are well trained, they know better than that. Nope, they don't.

You see it's not intentional, and it usually happens quite innocently. A poor unsuspecting Primary teacher could ask a question as simple as: Can anyone tell me of a time when you have prayed and received an answer to your prayer? The next thing you know your son raises his hand and says: Once my Dad forgot his and my Mom's anniversary and my Mom was really mad and was slamming all the doors in the house. The teacher at this point might try to keep the child on topic and say: So you prayed that your Mommy would feel better and she did. Then your son says: Nope. Then the teacher says: You prayed that your Dad wouldn't forget their anniversary next year. And your son says: No, I prayed that she wouldn't slam the doors anymore because it was making my ears hurt. And it worked because she went outside and ran over Dad's golf clubs instead, and that didn't hurt my ears.

 

A leader might ask, what did you do this past week? BAM! That's all the invitation your little bedlamite needs to explain how Daddy grounded her older brother for life because Mommy and Daddy had to go get him from the jail, and Mommy says he's irr-ray-possible and can't drive the car anymore.

TMZ, The National Enquirer, Google, they can all take a back seat, they can't get the scoop like these Primary reporters children can. Channel 8 news is probably lying when they say breaking news, we're bringing it to you first, cause chances are somebody in Primary told that headline weeks ago.

So now we are all on notice. The next time you see your ward's Primary presidency and teachers, smile, say hi, shake their hand, give em a peice of chocolate, some hush money, do something, cause brothas and sistas...THEY KNOW ALL YOUR BUSINESS!

For Ashley!!!!

When Aliesha first came into primary she was really shy and didn't really sing along to all the fun songs that were being taught.
Since then Ashley became the primary chorister. Now don't get me wrong the old chorister did a good job and we really liked her, but Aliesha LOVES Ashley! She always comes home and sings songs and says that her teacher, "Panna" taught her the songs. Thank you Ashley for your hard work and for teaching Aliesha to love these primary songs!

Even though she doesn't have every word right, they are the right words, just out of order. :)