.A merry, happy, snowy, lovely, rrrappy, simple day.

HOLY CRAP SHE LIVES!


Has it really been four months since my last update? why yes... yes it has.
And the reasons are 1. I am back in school 2. Danny is out of town 15 days out of the month. 3. I received a new calling as 2nd counselor in our primary and 4. I am doing another play. I'm not complaining in the slightest because I absolutely LOVE being this busy. However, I write enough papers to drain any thought of writing for actual pleasure and every spare second I have is usually spent cleaning my atrocious house or playing with my babies. (usually the latter) but in case you were wondering, we had a VERY....

MERRY CHRISTMAS,




A MOST HAPPY OF NEW YEARS,


Mascaraed party!



SOME SERIOUS SNOW DAYS,







A LOVELY VALENTINES DAY,


Valentines dance, aren't his parents adorable?


A RRRAPPY RIFDAY!


Scooby doo party, the $2 party favors were a hit. We had a houseful of Scooby's!


Cake, pinata's and a NEW BIKE!


WITH A FEW SIMPLE SUNDAYS IN BETWEEN.


studs.

We hope you are having as much fun as we are....

.Amnesia.

As humans, I believe we all experience bouts of amnesia of different events and happenings in our life. The one that stands out foremost to me, and perhaps all mothers for that matter, would be the entire process of child bearing...

I'm quite certain it must be a part of our genetic make- up. Other wise the world would be full of families with one child. Unless you were lucky enough for twins (lucky, unlucky?) ... You see, if we didn't forget the back-aches, the Middle of the night charlie horses, the never-ending vomiting and nausea. We would never opt to do it again. If the image of our expanding belly's and misshapen bodies was not somehow erased from our memories, the baby count would remain at ONE.

It happens almost instantly, when they place that baby in your arms... They say one look at bundle of joy makes it all worth it, I think its actually all part of the conspiracy. Something chemical happens when your eyes lock, and the amnesia sets in...

anywho... no, I'm not pregnant. Toddlers are the quickest cure of this amnesia. Its not that I don't want to be pregnant or give birth again, no. I just know babies turn into these creatures that now inhabit my home. THAT is enough deterrent for a few years.

The entire reason behind my theory here is to illustrate another amnesia that I seem to have developed.

SEWING AMNESIA

I really don't like to sew. I haven't done it all that often. Made a few baby blankets when Campbell was born, sewed Danny a jean quilt for fathers day last year... A few other projects here and there. But every time I do I swear I will NEVER do it again. I swear it as I'm picking out a 3 foot seam I mistakenly put in the wrong place... I swear it as I'm returning to the fabric store for the umpteenth time after running out of fabric, AGAIN. I swear it as I'm bandaging up my bloody fingers, sliced open from pins and scissors. But, as with the baby bundled into my bosom, as soon as I lay out my bundle of fabric to reveal the end result, that amnesia sets in and I think... "well lookie what I did!" All of the blood, cursing and tears, instantly forgotten.

There is one point during child birth where the amnesia is lifted. Its when they're wheeling you into the delivery room, your feet up in the stirrups when the first REAL labor contraction hits. Your body doubles over in pain. The contraction contorts you into positions you didn't even think your pregnant body could manage. you wish you could scream but you didn't catch enough breath. It all comes rushing back in an instant. There is a moment of absolute panic and remembering. "Oh my gosh this hurts as bad as the first time... WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING!?!?! LET ME OFF THIS TRAIN, I CHANGE MY MIND. I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!"

but by then its too late.

There's a moment similar to this in a sewing project, too. After you've spent way to much money on fabric, taken 17 hours to cut out all of the patterns, your fingers are pricked and bleeding from pinning all the pieces in the right place, and your feeding your piece through the machine when, your needle breaks! or you realize you've been sewing for 20 minutes without the bobbin thread. At this point, remembering that you promised yourself to never do this again, you curse the heavens and say "WHY AM I DOING THIS?!?! I HATE SEWING!!!"
but now you have too much invested in the project and now all that you can do is PUSH through the pain until the end... when your zipping up your pink princess peach dress, and it fits perfectly.

When you put the coordinating Mario and Luigi hat on your husband and son and watch them fight off an imaginary Bowser together...

...with a baby Toad trailing behind.

And suddenly it's all worth it...

I'm already planning next years costumes.

.The Sound Of Music.

I had a midlife crisis


at 21.



I have two beautiful babies. An amazing husband. An incredible life... But not my life.

I've said before... man plans, god laughs. (well, I didn't say it first but I use it enough) And When god through me a curve ball and completely demolished the plans I had laid out for my life, I tried to make new ones. I completely obliterated my bucket list and started anew.


word to the wise...


it doesn't work. it wasn't me. I lost myself.

You see, my life outline before I met Mr. perfect did not include a husband, and definitely not children. So when that was suddenly my life I could not fathom how the two could fit together. So I rewrote plans. made new goals. Became the best little Suzy homemaker you'd ever laid eyes on. I can get blood out of a white shirt, bake bread from scratch, sew on a button, feed a family of four on a budget, make dinner one handedly with a baby on my hip, change a diaper in my sleep (literally, whilst sleeping.... sleepchanging... its like sleepwalking) starch a dress shirt just as good as one hour cleaners. You name it, I perfected this stay at home mommy thing.

But I wasn't happy. And I hated that I wasn't. I couldn't understand why... I had it all! So I hated myself for it. What was wrong with me?


Like I said. a midlife crisis at 21. Which makes sense... When I was little it was always, "she's 13, going on 21" so now that I'm here Its 21 going on 32.... right? haha. Anyways...

Its a horrible thing, depression. a lonely, miserable thing. I can look back and say that's what it was. Postpartum? I dont know, but I have a very unhealthy habit of when I feel my worst I act my best. fake it till you make it. It usually works but ummm.... things just kind of imploded. Well, not things. Me.

Anyways this is a really weird post, and I'm kind of having a hard time with it. Its hard to broadcast your weakness in the intraweb. I think I've had about enough of that...

So lets get to the meat of this shall we. The fun stuff.

I tried out for a musical. I used to love that stuff... only problem was my resume had a big gap on it. The last play I did was in the 9th grade, Mrs. Hannigan in my Jr. Highs production of Annie. hmmmm. Being able to sing a lullabye that could lul a colliky baby to snoozery doesn't go far on a actors resume.

But I needed something. I heard about tryouts for the sound of music the week before. Decided to go for it the Day of... ha. I grabbed a song from another play I did in Jr. High "As long as he needs me" from oliver rehearsed a couple times that day. grabbed my outdated resume, a wedding picture to pass as a headshot, and I went for it.

I thought It would be fun to be in the onsamble... A nun, perhaps. Maybe I could dress down for the part of Liesel?

Well I made it to callbacks. Not the part I had written down, or even dreamed of. no. You can imagine my surprise when I searched the callback list to find my name under


MARIA

I almost threw up. And the list of women I was posted with? I didn't even qualify to have my name next to that talent.

But after a long, grusome callback with rediculously talented women all the while asking myself "what am i doing here?"
I somehow landed the part...


and got back my life.

sounds dramatic, but its true. I descovered I can still have my dreams and be a great mom. In fact, doing this play has made me a better mom. Made me love my husband more. Made me love life again.


at the risk of sounding discustingly cheesy...


The Sound of Music saved my life.

"The Hills are Alive!"



"How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?"



"These are a few of my favorite things!"



In the movie my favorite things is sung by Maria and the children, In the play she and Mother Abess sing it before Maria leaves the Nunnery...



"bless you, my child"



"I have confidence!"



meeting the captain...



and the children!



"Do Re Mi!"

"16 going on 17"
these two were adoreable



No puppet show in the play... we sing "the Lonely Goatherd" in the bedroom during the thunderstorm.

Little Gretle was sickeningly cute.



also different in the play from the movie... Uncle Max and the Baroness have two songs with the Captain!



The outfits made out of curtains...



The captain breaks into song!



"the dance" that changed it all....




... and the hardest part of the entire play :)


"Climb Every Mountain"




Maria returns!!!



The infamous kiss...
we seriously had to pay this guy to kiss me.
it was kind of ridiculous...
ask me about it, I'll tell you the story sometime.



The wedding.
5 ft train. AMAZING.



"16 going on 17 reprise"
love this girl.



The Nazi's come to take captain away...



The festival where we make our escape.




climbing every mountain!

.wherejago.

I'm sure you all must be asking the same questions incessantly over the past few months.

What ever happened to that Marcie girl?
and what of her cute husband?
those adoreable babies?



well....
Never fear! it's posting time!

my children did return from their G-BA's. Hands healed... blood sugar levels reaching record breaking heights... new toys and jammy's in hand... Sufficiently spoiled.

Aunt Jo Jo, G-BA and two grouchy boys

With the GG's!

I'd say this summer was a success. No gardening. However we did do a lot of....

Camping

We love roasting weiners! Riggdon, Mr. Independent insists on roasting his own and just about has a come apart every time I have to "help" him.

Campbell is quite inventive, like his father. He fixed the problem of not having enough hands... my little Einstein :)

CJ had a blast with his cousins up at the cabin this year. It was so much fun to watch him join in with the older boys...

"alright boys I want a picture of you two"

"smile!"

"Campbell, smile you goofball. Logan, put your hands down"

"Logan, look at me! Campell don't smile like a big dork."

"bahahaha she called you a dork, we're so funny, bahahaha"




I enjoyed the scenery.....

(ignore the mustard and mallows on this cute little face.)

Frontier Day Business


for those of you that dont know, Cheyenne hosts the biggest rodeo in America once a year.

"The Daddy of them all"
or
"Frontier Days"


This does not just entail bull riding and cow roping. basically the whole town is shut down for a week and everyone's lives are put on hold until the madness subsides.

This year, the boys were old enough to enjoy some of the festivities...

like the parades!!!

please notice riggdon collapsed on the ground... I'm not sure whats going on with that. kinda funny though.

hangin out.

another first for the boys brought to you courtesy of frontier days... THE CARNIVAL

I was so excited to take the boys and ride some good old fashioned carny rides. We went straight to the farris wheel to be certain we didn't use all of the tickets before we rode this classic.

we found out two things.

Riggdon loves rides.

and campbell doesn't.

My son is deathly afraid of heights. Screamed bloody murder for the entire ride and clung to me like a gust of wind might throw him over the edge at any given moment

Riggdon, however... is quite the thrill seeker.

at the top.

So we opted for a nice, calm, close to the ground, train ride next.

Campbell loved it.

Riggdon was bored.

We figured the prior tramatic experiance granted campbell the remainder of our tickets to ride his favorite thing right now...


"I ride the MOTEY-CYCLE mommy!"

Which was fine until the thing jump started and he started screaming "GET ME OFF! GET ME OFF! I NOT WANT TO RIDE THE MOTEY-CYCLE!" and crying histarically.

Einstien, maybe. Evil Kanival, nope.

and of course....Park Going

Campbell LOVES the park. he knows where to spot them while were driving around town and always asks if we can stop.


He doesn't like the swings this year. In fact, he's terrified.


but riggdon LOVES THEM!

Campbell sticks to the slides...

It's been a little chaotic this summer... for more reasons than I care to explain but I shall indulge you with my biggest under taking of the summer..... NEXT POST. when I have more pictures.




Its pretty cool, but definitely not as exciting as pictures of my babies.

STAY TUNED!