Anna's 13!

Anna turned 13 about 2 weeks ago. I can't believe that I'm a parent of a teenager. It makes me feel really old. She didn't have a big party this year. Instead, she had a friend spend the night and I took them (and Ellie) to see Race to Witch Mountain. She really wanted an iPod but it wasn't in the budget so I gave her mine. Bryan and I both had our own but they weren't getting used very much. So now Anna has mine and Bryan and I will share his. She also got some Aeropostale clothes, a gorilla Webkinz, and some money. She made out pretty good! Anna's turning into an amazing young women. We love having her in our family! Happy Birthday Anna!

CREATE

I saw this on another blog and loved it. I hope you feel inspired!

Bad air- again

That's what we came home to yesterday. We pulled into the garage after church and I could hear the smoke detectors going off inside the house. At first I thought that something might have gone terrible wrong with my crock-pot dinner but quickly realized that that was not the problem. It was carbon monoxide. I quickly packed the kids into the car and headed back to the church to get Bryan.

You see, this isn't the first time that our lovely house has fill up with deadly levels of CO, it happened in Feb of 08. It was a very windy day and the air in our home couldn't vent properly so it started filling up with CO. We're guessing that that's what happened this time too. I was hoping Bryan could come home and fix it without having to call for any help. We opened windows and turned off the furnace but still didn't feel good about having the kids in the house without knowing for sure if it was safe or not. So we ended up calling the fire department to come test the air.

They closed the windows and had us wait in the car while they walked through the house with oxygen tanks and air monitors. They found that the levels in the basement were fine, living room area was slightly elevated, but that the bedrooms upstairs had the most CO. They opened up all the windows again, turned on fans and the bathroom vents, and brought in a large fan to the kitchen. After 15 minutes or so the levels were down and we were safe to go back in.

We left the furnace off and the windows open for a while to play it safe. Shortly after we got back inside, Bryan and the older girls left for the temple dedication. Tyler, Kate and I were left in the freezing house. We laid on the couch with blankets and watched a movie. I was able to get Kate to take a little nap in my arms since she couldn't go in her room. I closed all the windows around 5:30 when the temp in our house got to 62 on the main level (a lot colder upstairs where the windows were open). We didn't turn the heat back on until about 6:30. It was still really cold upstairs when we put kids to bed.

I guess it's time to figure out what needs to be done to fix the problem so that it does not happen a third time. Every time it's windy (which seems to be often out here), we worry about if our CO alarms are going to go off again. It's a good thing that we have them or the outcome could have been a lot worse. I am very grateful that we are all safe and healthy. Test your alarms, make sure that they work. If you don't have a Carbon Monoxide alarm, get one- you never know when you're going to need it!

A lesson learned from Anna

Anna is an amazing daughter and she taught me an important lesson last night. A lesson that I have always (still to this day) struggled with. It might me a long story, so bear with me because it's worth it.
Anna found a pair of my shoes that I hadn't worn for a long time and thought they were cute. I warned her that they would be too big for her since I had gotten them while I was pregnant with Kate (I get big pregnant feet!). In fact, they're too big for me now which is why they hadn't been worn in a while. She tried them on anyway and confirmed my suspicion that they were indeed too big. But being the nice mother that I am, I told her that we could hold onto them for a little while to see if her feet grow anymore. But then I added "Lets hope, for your sake though, that you don't grow into them because I've always hated having big feet." To that she replied "Why? It's our differences that make us special. If everyone were the same, we wouldn't have anything to make us special."
Here is my daughter, who will be 13 next week, telling me that my big feet make me special. My daughter, who is at that age where most girls are self-conscious and too worried about everything to feel that they are special, knows that she is. I'm the mother, I should be the one teaching this to her, but it's something that I still have a hard time believing myself.
How can I feel that my differences make me special if I have a long list of things that I hate about myself... my big feet, crocked smile (from half of my face being paralyzed when I had Lyme disease), bad hair (the back went curly when I had Kate but the front stayed straight), extra weight, lack of fashion, shyness, bad teeth, bad posture, and my list could go on and on. I struggle with feeling that I'm not good enough or special.
So, thank you Anna, for the lesson you taught me. You are a beautiful girl and I love you. I need to follow your example and be more comfortable with who I am. I am a daughter of God, I know that he loves me for who I am, and I know that that makes me special. I need to remember these simple words from President Dieter F. Uchtdorf "As spirit daughters of our Heavenly Father, happiness is your heritage." Remember- your differences make you special!

Haircuts, budgeting, and random pictures

Those are about the highlights of this past week (if you can even call them highlights!).
Ellie was the lucky recipient of a haircut. She had been begging me for a few weeks, so I finally gave in. I took her over to the Super Cuts on Saturday morning and told the hair dresser that we wanted it cut in a bob a little below her chin. Well, this is what we got...Definitely not below her chin, but still a cute cut. She's a cute girl, and for some reason I like her hair better when it's shorter (maybe not this short- but oh well, it will grow)! Next will be Anna's turn. She's been begging just as much as Ellie, she just wasn't home Saturday morning to go with us.

We have some money saved up from tax returns and our monthly contribution to our savings account. Last night Bryan and I sat down and came up with a list of the things that we could spend that money on. The list included things like- the basement (trim & carpet), a treadmill, a deep freezer, a shed, a family vacation, a garden, and food storage. Now, one of the hardest things for me when it comes to budgeting is distinguishing between a "want" and a "need". So it was really hard for me to say "Yes, our food storage is more important than a treadmill". But in the end I think we got it all worked out in order of importance, with a good mixture of boring "needs" and fun "wants". So the treadmill might have to wait a little while until we either find a really good deal or a decent used one, but at least we'll get to take the kids on a small vacation.

It's not often that I find my kids playing quietly and nicely together. But that's exactly what I found on Sunday. Tyler was playing the Leapster and Ellie sat down to watch him- which usually results in someone getting mad. But not this time, I found this instead...They sat, head to head, playing together. I love it! It was so nice and peaceful in my house before church, which is not always the case. So thanks you two for being so nice to each other!

Kate is starting to figure out what the camera does, so now every time I try to snap a picture of her, she makes these crazy faces. She's such a fun little girl to have around!