Mamalicious Monday- Spilled Milk

Last week I won the Mamalicious Monday post on The Gift Closet! I was so excited. I am going to get a great vinyl wall art from Inspire with Style for just writing a mom related post on my blog. I love to win things. Just ask my husband. He says that free is my favorite word. Here is my Mamalicious Monday post for this week.

I am the kind of person that doesn't often share my inner thoughts and feelings. This can make me somewhat boring to most people I presume. I have always been so shy and reserved from infancy on I think. But today I feel like sharing my feelings. I have a two year old and an eleven month old, and things don't always run smoothly in our house. This is not because my kids are wild, but mainly because I am trying to learn to be a mom. And on days like today I feel like I am utterly bad at it. All day I have these ideas about things I should accomplish, but don't. This morning I took the kids to Walmart to do some shopping. We really needed groceries. I think that one of the best inventions is the cart for two children. My son really likes the ones that look like a car, but I don't care what they look like as long as they work. But it seems that the ones at Walmart always have broken straps. The one we had today had one working strap and one broken. Leighton of course had to have the broken one. This would require him to sit down in his seat the entire trip. I will leave the majority of the experience to your imagination, but after about 20 minutes of fighting with Leighton, I had to take Savannah out, strap Leighton into the working straps and carry Savannah the rest of the time while pushing the cart. It wasn't exactly easy, but we did somehow make it home with a little popsicle bribery (I'm awful, I know.) I fed the kids lunch and got them to bed. Today I really wanted to clean my house because it really needed it. So I worked the entire time my two little ones were napping simultaneously on laundry, dishes, straightening up, and sweeping and mopping my floor. Now, I hate mopping. Well, actually I like to mop, but I struggle to get to it because I usually have to have everything else clean first and it is impossible to accomplish it with two little ones running around. So I have to spend precious time when the kids are napping to accomplish it. My 11 month old little girl, Savannah, has just started going to one nap, which has been helpful because she can nap at the same time as Leighton, my son. But this makes this nap time especially precious. So I finished all my housework today and was especially proud of myself. I finished just as the little ones were stirring upstairs. The day ended with some frustration resulting from numerous spills on my newly cleaned floor. I must say that you may not even know that I cleaned it. But at the end of the day, I look back and see that it didn't really matter. I end up wishing I hadn't fussed at my son for dumping the entire bag of popcorn on the floor. I feel incredibly selfish and humbled when I see others who have true difficulties, not simply a messy floor. I see that I could have been a little nicer, kinder, gentler. Hopefully tomorrow I can remember that there is truly no use in crying over spilled milk.

Easter

To kick off the Easter season we went to the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant the week before Easter. It was a wonderful experience. The performance didn't start till 8pm so we were tentative about taking the kids. Savannah did get really tired, but she fell asleep. Leighton loved the whole thing and was bawling when we left because he didn't want it to end. The pictures aren't great, but if you ever have the opportunity it is amazing. It really got me into the spirit of Easter. I took more time this year to reflect on the mission of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Here are a ton of pictures from Easter morning. The Easter bunny left a trail of eggs to the kids' baskets. Savannah woke up first. Savannah loved the eggs. She didn't care about the rest of the basket.

Savannah's Basket

Leighton's Basket

Then Leighton woke up.

These pictures are from after church. Leighton didn't wear this outfit to church. We just didn't get any pictures all together in our church clothes. The kids were digging in to the baskets.

We got to spend the evening at dinner with two families in our ward that were so kind to invite us. It was fun, but unfortunately we don't have any pictures of that. It is probably good since we were so full from all the wonderful yummy food.

Savannah is growing up...

As you can see from our pictures, Savannah is growing up. She is almost one and we cannot believe it. This has been such a crazy year, and time flew by. She is our little lady and we love her so much. She is very sweet, but she surely has a spunky side, especially lately. She has decided that she is too old for us to help her with things like feeding herself. It results in catastrophic messes as you will see in the following pictures.

I can't remember what she was eating here, but it was messy.

Here she was eating grits.

This was refried beans. Yep, she loves refried beans.

The funniest thing is that the worst messes have not been documented because I am too busy cleaning it up.



Here are a few more cute pictures from recently.

The Phoenix Zoo...

We took Jonathan's last day of spring break, March 20th, to go visit the Phoenix Zoo.

Savannah was asleep by the time we got there. But she woke up to see the animals.

Here is Savannah in the stroller, squinting in the sun. I was quite warm. I got sunburnt that day.

Leighton loved the tigers.

The orangutans were fun too.

This is Savannah and me as we were leaving. Savannah was wearing one of Leighton's old baseball caps. We need to get her some cute girl hats that she will keep on her head.


The kids loved the animals and were exhausted on the way home. It was a nice day.

Mamalicious Monday- Disney on Ice

On The Gift Closet, there is a give away for doing a mom related post on Monday. Well this is my mamalicious monday post. Thursday night we went to Disney On Ice with the kids at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. The show didn't start till 7:30pm so I was afraid Leighton might fall asleep before it started. Savannah I wished to sleep as much as possible. Well, Leighton made it and Savannah slept. Beautiful. The show captivated his attention the whole time, even at 2 years old. Leighton loved that it starred the Incredibles as the main characters. I mean what kid doesn't like the Incredibles? Leighton also has a new love for Mickey Mouse. He had a stuffed Mickey that we got that night, and whenever he saw Mickey on the ice, he would hold up his stuffed animal Mickey and scream, "Mickey Mouse." It was adorable. Even Savannah woke up for a little while and watched the show.

Overall I would say the kids absolutely loved it. I would recommend it to kids of all ages. And moms too. Once the story got started, the scenes were upbeat and captivating for the kids. I am so glad we went. Pictures will be coming soon. I forgot my memory card and had to get my friend to take some pictures for us.

I am so excited for the Barnum and Bailey Circus coming in June. I can't wait. One of my favorite things is to find things my children love.

And the winner is...

Steph Hughes!!!

I will try to contact the winner today. If I can't reach her or she can't go, I will choose another winner.

Sorry for those who didn't win.