So while I'm in a blogging mood

 I'm going to try and get a little caught up with my goal of posting monthly updates

  November

Jenna's last soccer game!

I don't have pictures of Thanksgiving...guess I was too busy cooking-lol! But we had a great day with family and friends, it is quickly becoming my favorite holiday! 

My parents and brothers stayed the weekend and it was great to spend so much time with them.

We celebrated my Mom's Birthday!

Chad being Chad

What a cute pilgrim! 

Jenna's girl scout field trip to the humane society

And on to the Jolly old month of December

Started off the season with a visit to Santa

Jenna's class Christmas party

This years gingerbread house

Jenna's primary class singing for the ward Christmas party

The L.A. Temples visitor center

Lights at the L.A. temple

LOVE not freezing while looking at the lights!
Instead of hot chocolate we went for ice cream after !

We had a cookies for Santa party

Justin and his Grandma Christmas Eve at his Uncle and Aunts house.

Christmas Eve with the Chavis family

Our house, I add this for two reasons:
 1. Justin almost got sprayed by a skunk
2. We may not be celebrating next Christmas in this house and
While I don't love this house I am going to be sad to say goodbye .

Yea!!!! Christmas morning!!!!!!!

Working hard at opening gifts!

Happy kids

Christmas dresses

Christmas was wonderful, we had such a nice day! Then that night we packed up and left for Utah for some more celebrating!

Cousins playing games

Opening even more gifts from Grandma!

Grandma V with a sleeping Kayla

New Years Eve, Jenna woke up right before midnight and decided
she felt well enough to welcome the new year!

That's the end of December and January well lets just say January flew by I have not had a moment to think clearly! I am working on Jenna's school year book and it is taking up so much more time than I ever thought it would, my deadline is in 6 weeks I can't wait to be done!  I am also in charge of a program called School Smarts it's held once a week for the parents of our students, we provide dinner and child care I coordinate both, we have 6 weeks left (yup I will be glad when the middle of March hits) I am also chairing our random acts of kindness week, it starts on the 14th.  We are teaming up with the 6th graders to do a book drive for a local doctor who provides free child care to very ill kids, each time they come into his office they leave with a book our goal is to collect 750 books.  I'm also working on the schools garden that has become rather neglected.  Our school was invited to apply to become a California Distinguished School, only a few schools every year are asked to apply for the honor and we are in the final interview process so the principle has asked the PTA to spruce up the school grounds a bit.  I volunteered to be Jenna and Kayla's team mom for softball because I'm crazy like that, but it's turning out to be my most favorite thing I'm doing. So far we all love softball much more than soccer!  Jenna is busy with girl scouts selling cookies, it's already been decided we will not hit last years numbers, I just don't have much time to devote to it, oh well she will survive!  I know this all sounds insane and I yes I will admit when I volunteered to do all this at the beginning of the year I didn't realize it was all in the same month, normally I am not this busy!  Did I mention it's also my birthday month whoohoo! My parents are coming out to help me celebrate and the girls are out of school on my B-day so we are all going to Disneyland for the day! Yup after this month I will need a vacation and a vacation I am going to get! I'm proud of my hard working hubby once again he won Presidents Club through his work! This year they are taking us to the Mayan Riviera in April (well they pay for him to go and give me a nice discount to tag along!) I can't even contain my excitement to see the Mayan temples it is a dream come true for me, plus we better go before the world comes to a end this year-lol!  

Whew I am now all caught up, I am determined to update this at least once a month life goes by too fast and I don't want to forget any of it!

A New Title

Yup I changed the title of my blog, something I have been wanting to do for awhile now. I have been so busy as of late I have not had time to even think about blogging, but today I logged in and re-read my last post and inspiration came...not that I think it's all that creative but it IS how I view our life.

For a little while last year I struggled with finding contentment with life. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I read other peoples blogs I am sometimes left feeling like my life is not all that great. Let's face it we all in some small way want our kids to be these amazing prodigies that are the best at everything...and well reading about others kids who are 5 and can read at a 6th grade level, get 100% on a spelling test without batting an eye and who everything just comes easy, it gets to be a little hard. Don't get me wrong I think my kids are amazing! I am so proud of how well they do, especially Jenna. She has to work hard to earn good grades. We spend hours a week studying so yes I am so proud of her, that through hard work she is right where a 1st grade girl should be!

I am happy to be in a much better place now, I find that now I can read all my friends and family blogs with contentment and happiness. They have their own trials that I don't and would never want, so yes I'm happy with the good life I have been given! I found this quote the other day and I fell in love with it so I thought I would share, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:)

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he’s been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to just be people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old time rail journey…delays…sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling burst of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.” ― Gordon B. Hinckley

The Good Life With Disney

Three years ago this month we moved to Southern California, and while I willingly agreed to move I did make one demand....Disneyland passes! The first time we took our girls I cried as I walked through those gates! I'm sure not too many of you know this, but to this day even though we go often I still get rather emotional! Yup if you look close you may see a tear falling. Um yeah I'm that weird, but I have my reasons! 1st I can not express how grateful I am that we are in a position to buy passes. 2nd I'm still a little bit in awe that we actually live in Southern California and that we can just go to Disneyland pretty much whenever we want. 3rd walking through those gates transforms me back into a child, all of a sudden the world is magical and anything is possible. 4th I'm with my girls and to see the looks on their faces and the excitement in their little eyes is truly priceless!

One of the benefits of visiting Disneyland so much is for whatever reason we seem to end up there when they are filming commercials, we have now seen them film 5 times.

On this day they were filming Mickey's new Soundsational parade

But my most favorite commercial and the inspiration behind this post is this one...

That commercial is my favorite! For me it captures all the feelings that I feel while I'm at Disneyland with my girls. I also love it because on the day it was filmed was one of the best days we have ever had a Disneyland. The park was closing really early, so not too many people were there. Actually it felt almost empty. We walked onto all the rides, we watched the ducks, we explored Tom Sawyers Island, we window shopped, the girls meet Pinocchio and Gepetto for the first time, and we took a nice long break and ate dinner while watching them film. Actually every corner we came too we would run into the film crew. It is fun to watch the filming, the actors and all the people who "make" it happen!

I know Disneyland isn't for everyone, but for me it has become a place where I can transform back into a kid and along side my girls dream of magical places and play pretend in lands far far away! Here are just a few of our favorite "Good Life With Disney" moments

I would say we don't just have a good life, it's a great life and I LOVE it!

Good Bye October!

Today was a great crazy day! It was so crazy that I actually forgot to take Kayla to speech therapy! Um yeah this is a little embarrassing because a half hour before we were to leave I was actually getting her ready to go, the next thought I had about it was at our neighbors house for a block party and it's 5:30pm! With my crazy schedule I knew this would happen one day! I'm just happy I didn't forget to pick someone up or drop someone off at the wrong place! Sooo other than me being absent minded, today was really fun!

We started our day at Jenna's "Literacy Day" parade

Then went to Kayla's school to hear her class sing Halloween songs

We decided to use Jenna's homework pass so we would could have a fun night stress free!

Our neighbors planned a fun block party

The girls had to model their costumes before the trick-o-treating got under way!

Justin took our girls trick-o-treating. I enjoyed staying home and passing out candy to all the cute kids. First time I have done this and have decided it's now my job forever! The girls came home, gorged them selves on candy and surprisingly went to bed without too much complaining!

Of course we have been up to a lot more than just Halloween this month!

Jenna is loving soccer

We went desert camping at the Whitney Pockets, I love this annual trip and think it's absolutely beautiful!

I was released from my young women calling as 2nd counselor only to be called back again under a new president. I am grateful beyond words that I was kept in, I love serving in Young Women and think our girls are amazing!

This is technically from September but I'm so proud of Jenna that I have to add it, she learned how to ice skate at her friends birthday party and loved it so much that she will be taking lessons after soccer is over!

That has been our month and now I say bring on November!!!

And speaking of November...

I love, love, love Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to having our friends and family over, planning the menu, the cooking, setting the table, decorating our house and figuring out how to fit all our loved ones into my not so big kitchen! Thanksgiving always makes me feel grateful for what I have and tonight as I look over my blog I'm feeling very thankful for my life, my friends, my girls and for Justin, my life is not perfect, but it's filled with happy things that fill me with joy and for me that's enough:)

Two more reasons I love my kids

1st. Kayla. While in the bath tonight she was washing her body singing a little song about the body parts she was washing..."washing my elbow's, now I'm washing my hands" but my favorite part was when she sang "washing my little boobies, that will be big someday"!!! yup that will keep a smile on my face for a few days!

2nd Jenna. As I was putting her to bed she asked why some people have less money now than a little while ago (her wording) she must have heard us talking about the economy. So after explaining to her that jobs are a little harder to come by now, and that a lot of people make less money than they used too. She asked if tomorrow she could take all the money out of her piggy bank and go to all our neighbors houses and ask if they are poor and if they are she will give them her money. Now that brought tears to my eyes because yesterday she counted out her money to see how close she was to buying a Rapunzel dress from Disneyland. I used this little moment to teach about welfare and helping the poor. I told her if she really wanted to help she could contribute a small part of her allowance to fast offerings and explained to her how that money goes directly to people who need food and help paying their bills....she enthusiastically said yes and asked how much do they need! I just love these small teaching moments that happen spontaneously:)

The real me

I'm not big on posting all my drama on FB. I really don't like to hear people whine on FB. I often find myself thinking suck it up and get over it. I just don't think posting negative feelings ever portrays yourself in a good light. Yes I know I have done this very thing a time or two, but I really try hard not to put those feelings out in the cyber world.
That said I realize that posting only the positive happy things in my life may give the illusion that my world is perfect, that we are just happy people going to Disneyland all the time and soaking up sun at the beach!
The truth of it is my life is a crazy chaotic roller coaster! This is my own fault of course! So to reassure you all that I'm not perfect (I laughed when someone told me that!) I decided to put her and everyones mind at ease and share some of my imperfections...so enjoy!
I'm not that great at making sure clothes, shoes, lunches are put out/made the night before school, you will often find me yelling and frantically searching for a missing shoe while shouting "How hard can it be! you come home, you take off your shoe, you put it on the shoe rack" I find I don't have a clue what to pack for snack time 1 minute before we are to leave for school, so my kids end up having odd things packed in their lunch bag. We are often searching for "matching" clean socks in the sock basket that holds most of our socks, it maybe gets matched and folded once a month (thank you btw to Little Mismatched you have truly made my life much easier!). I will wait till I have 12 loads of laundry to do before doing it. Yes I will wash one pair of pants just because nothing is sorted, it's 11pm at night and I just remembered my husband has nothing to wear the next day...I see the gasp of horror on your face at such waste! My house does get deep cleaned once a week and everything will be put away in it's proper place, but you come over a hour after I finish and you would never know! I don't always pick up the toys before my kids go to bed. I often leave dishes in my sink overnight. I'm horrible at planning menu's and find I'm constantly going to the store at 4pm to pick up chicken...and yes I have a freezer full them but well they are frozen and I have this whole thing about defrosting meat in the microwave (ya I probably could use some therapy over that) and well my list could go on, and on.
To tell the absolute truth I don't always feel like going to soccer games or helping out at the school. I hate homework and I become very grumpy while helping with it, thank goodness the kids have Justin because he is way better at homework than I am. He is patient and kind and I am yelling "what do you mean is that a 15??? we have been working on 15 all night!!!!!!"
And while I love my kids dearly and think they are wonderful they are not perfect, but I don't need them to be perfect or the best at everything. If they put forth their best effort and try their hardest then I am happy....heck I'm happy even if they don't I mean we all get lazy sometimes!!!
So if you read my super happy post about how much fun we are having and how great our life is know this
1. I blog about happy things because this is becoming my journal and I want to remember the happy times.
2.I know my kids will remember me being grumpy but maybe they will look back on these post and it will help them to remember that the good truly out weighed the bad.
3. I'm not always naturally happy person, it is something that I have to work at. I do have mornings when I force myself out of bed so sometimes when I'm struggling the most at working on happiness I write down all the good things in my life, it lifts me up, helps me to remember all the wonderful blessings I have been given and gives me the motivation to try harder the next day!
Yup this is me in a nut shell, don't believe me go talk to my neighbor she can vouch for me...I'm sure she hears our craziness on a daily basis!
But to sum things up I do have to say I love my crazy life, I may get overwhelmed and yell, but there is a whole lot of love in our home, we show kindness and gratitude for each other, we say sorry, we work hard together, play hard together, are always there for each other, but most importantly we say I love you to each other and really that's all we need!

Where were you?

I remember as a child my Mom talking to me about the day Kennedy was assassinated, she told me she would never forget the exact moment she found out the president had been shot and then proceeded to give me every detail of that day in a way that made me understand even as a small child what a terrible thing that was. I remember thinking that I hoped nothing in my lifetime would impact me in that way.

Now I am a adult of 33 and if you ask me where were you? I will tell you in my car on the way to work, I know exactly what you are asking. The morning of September 11 has been burned into my memory in way that I never thought was possible.

We were living in some apartments by Wal-Mart off Redwood road. I got into my car that morning and heard reports on the radio that the pentagon was on fire and speculation about it being related to the planes crashing into the twin towers. I wanted the radio to give me more information, I wanted to know everything! But the news anchor on KSL just kept saying I think our country is under attack, I'm sure he said more but that's all I processed. I got to work and went into the waiting room where the TV was. I watched with my co-workers the awful scene of the twin towers on fire, and then to our horror the first tower fell! Looking back that was worst moment, you just knew it was only a matter of time before the next tower went down. It's funny what stays with you in times like that....I remember going back to my office to put my things away and walking past my boss' office, she was on the phone laughing with someone, it seemed eery to hear laughing, hundreds of people just died before my eyes how could laughing be allowed? I went back into the waiting room and watched until the second tower fell. In that moment I just wanted to find Justin, while I knew I was safe I wanted to be safe with him. I don't know how any of us managed to get through that day. In the days that followed I remember almost every car had a yellow ribbon tied to it, our country had come together in a way I had never seen and I had never more proud of my country, to call myself an American.

10 years later the hurt is still there, the sorrow still consumes me this time of year.

I have not talked to my girls about what happened that day, I feared they were too little, how do you explain such horrible things to such innocence? The flag at Jenna's school was at half mast on Friday and as I sat waiting for the bell to ring I knew we needed to talk with the girls about 9-11. I asked Jenna on the way home what she knew and was relieved when she had no clue what I was talking about.

So tonight I have been pondering how I to tell them, wondering how much needs to be said. I have read articles on how to talk to your kids about 9-11 what to say, what not to say. Then I remembered that conversation I had as a child with my mom. It did not leave me scared or nervous just sad over someone dying. So I'm going to keep it simple, tell them about it the same way my mom told me about Kennedy's assassination. I hope that they will remember 9-11 the way I think about Kennedy from my mom's perspective .

So much has happened in the past 10 years and 9-11 changed our country in a way that I don't think anyone anticipated. I know I'm just one person, I didn't know anyone who died that day, I have never been to New York or to the Pentagon but it was my country that was attacked and therefore they attacked me as well. So today I'm honoring the hero's of 9-11. My prayers are with those who lost their loved ones and with our military who ten years later are still fighting for our freedom, may God bless them and bring them home safe.

Finally, my greatest hope is that my children's generation will be spared what so many generations before us have not, from Pearl Harbor, to Kennedy and finally 9-11, I pray my girls will never have a " never forget" moment.