It's time to count some blessings!

When I was little, my mom would always try to distract my pitty parties with the loudest, most obnoxious versions of this humbling song.

When upon life's billows, you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings; name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Count your blessings, name them one by one.
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.

JJ was saying his morning prayers, and I quote:
"Dear Heavenly Father, Please bless my mommy to find her mind. And please bless her not to lose it anymore!"

My knee-jerk reaction was something like, "hey! what the heck? I haven't yelled at you once today!" (mind you, it was 8am). Then visions of the night before and me running from Gibby while begging Grace and JJ to "please get along" and actually shutting the door to pee (how dare I) while saying to myself "I'm losing my mind" were clear and vivid. Maybe I have lost it because I really thought I was talking to myself!

My sweet mother in law saw the whole thing a little differently. She told me how grateful I should be that I have been teaching him how to talk to his Heavenly Father about things that matter to him.

I think I need to bump it to some church hymns..

It's a lot easier to update when I have pictures to remind me what I've been up to. But the pics don't exist, so I'll try this by memory..
Gibson in now in nursery, so church is much more enjoyable.
JJ has started preschool with his best cousin Nathan..and his best teacher, Miss Tara.
Grace is in first grade and already got Student of the Month. (so proud!)
We have fallen into a pretty great schedule since school started, but oh how I miss our summer days. With two wonderful sisters and their pools, our skin was sufficiently tan and our hair sufficiently green! We're beginning to resemble the albino family I knew back in May. Bummer.
Jared has been kept plenty busy..he's the busiest unemployed man I've ever seen! He's had a few hiccups along the way, but we are hopeful that this streak is coming to an end. Thank heavens!
I've wondered at the 'what I'm supposed to be learning' question a lot lately. I wish I had some deep, thought provoking answer.
***Screaming and fighting children, or my reaction to them, actually might be a part of that answer..if they are, I'm in serious trouble and my brain really has lost it's ability to learn.***
If you've got one, I'd be glad to hear it.

I'm still alive!

Okay, so a 1 year old can't KILL me..he can't even really hurt me (I take that back, my monkey bites). He can cause a HUGE scene, wander off, scream at the top of his lungs, bite anything looking tasty (unfortunately, he's a bit of a cannibal), repeat the same uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh,uh..you get the picture, clog any drain he meets, devour anything colorful (don't know the name for that), pinch like a crab, empty any basket or shelf or drawer or 5 gallon water cooler, beat down children 6 times his age, AND...
most importantly MELT MY HEART!

So how was yesterday, you ask? ROUGH!

If you ask me, 9:00 church is definitely the best. And I've got it. But that's like playing the 'Would You Rather' game and having to choose between eating boogars and earwax...not likely to get off easily with either. So I will admit the mad rush to get to church having everyone fed AND their teeth brushed causes me to seriously consider YAZ. Thankfully this borderline breakdown is countered by the hope that just after lunch I WILL have my Sunday afternoon nap.. But somehow, that hope is all but forgotten, when, in my attempt to teach my little loves the importance of reverence, I have to decide...take the little terror out or endure?
To summarize, Gibson is KILLING me!

Happy Birthday, Tiff!

We have officially begun a new tradition and I am SO excited! Our first annual Tiffney's Turning 31 Triathalon was held last Saturday. Leave it to Tiff to come up with something both fun and healthy to celebrate her "Day of Doom" ...(that was just for you, old lady). Tiff started out on rollerblades, but OOPS!

She forgot...she's 31, NOT 13!! After the spill, the bike-ride began..and the stroller pushing and the bike-guiding...



and we made our way to Dave and Bec's. There we stopped to Gatorade up and snap some shots of the girls and the guys.


Then we ran to Tiffney's,


where the third leg was completed in her swimming pool.


**all adults agreed no pictures of said adults in swimwear, thank you very much** After some splashing, Tiff provided a perfect breakfast of bagels, fruit, granola, yogurt and juice. All the kids had a blast and JJ was heard going down the big hills yelling, "THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! WOO-HOO!" Seriously, fun. Thanks, Tiff!

Freaking Long Friday!

I know the year is half over, so I've got a LOT of catching up to do...
January was a big month. My sisters and I ran the St. George half marathon and had a blast.
JJ started sunbeams and is such a little man. He LOVES wearing suits and ties and shoes just like his daddy.

We finished out the month with our littlest monkey's first birthday. He didn't quite know what to think.






He looks so overwhelmed, but within days he got the memo that his terrible two's are right around the corner. He has been practicing for them ever since. Green marker, anyone?


February was a fun month. Grace's school put on a "Moms and Muffins" breakfast and we had a really good time together. And all this time, I've thought Grace looked just like her dad and then we got this picture back. Do you see the resemblance? I was shocked!

The kids' super Aunt Sissy took them to the Shark Reef for a great time. Honestly, everybody needs an Aunt Sis!




Another great of our many greats, was the swearing in of my dad as a Henderson Justice of the Peace. We dooted up in our Sunday best and were so proud of him!



Unfortunately, I didn't get any shots of the actual swearing in. Keeping all those munchkins still was the task as hand...

February was also Grace's sixth birthday. I can't believe my little lady is 6 years old! We alternate party years. This year we celebrated as a family at Chuck E. Cheese's. And true to form, I forgot my camera! Thank goodness for the Chuckster Cam!

Yes, that's me, the brunette. It didn't last long enough to even have any other pictures taken..and next time I try to do it, I truly hope my sweet husband changes his answer from, "I like your hair every way" to "DON'T DO IT!!" Grace wasn't sure it was even her mom in the picture!

March marched on like every other month, too fast! We celebrated St. Patty's Day the way my momma raised me, on corned beef and cabbage and hash browns cooked in a whole lotta bacon grease. YUM! It got so warm mid-month that we had to celebrate that with a whole lotta water in the back yard!



That's mud, I sware!

We finished out March celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary! WHAT? It seems like just yesterday I was sitting waaaaaaaaay too close to a hot 18-year-old, dreaming of the day he'd be mine!



It's quite a sucky thing to be at the point where you can finally say, "Oh, we looked so young!"

April started out beautifully with a Gibson family trip to my dad's friend's ranch. We watched conference, ate like pigs and played like kids. My parents brought up the 4-wheelers and we all took our turn. There were horses, the best dog Duke (who JJ still talks about), a stage perfect for the kids to perform on, green grass for playing Red Rover and Freeze Tag and more than enough fresh air for all!

I am so thankful to be so close to family.

This was the last picture ever taken of Jared wearing glasses.

Thanks to Lasik Eye Surgery, he has 20/20 vision...no more flipping him off early in the morning...bummer!

May started out with a trip to California. Jared's mom was in the USC Hospital and was going to be celebrating her 44th wedding anniversary and Mother's Day all alone, so we drove his dad down so they could be together. If anything means anything to her, it's family. The relief on her face when we all came in made the trip so worthwhile. The trip to the beach was icing on the cake!




Anytime we stay at a hotel the kids are in hog heaven. Then you add in eating out for every meal and 24 hours a day with their dad, it's over the top! But you add in their Papa, and it's almost too much!



More and more school days have come and May is now almost gone. We had to stop and document our carpool..

..and the best kindergarten teacher EVER!

Grace is super excited for first grade, but I have a feeling she might have to drop by and check on Miss Mackinnon from time to time.

..And I should probably check on my little monkey from time to time as well...

Wish me luck!

WHY IS IT???-just joking! I have decided to quit asking that stupid question-for now-and just embrace my psychosis!

At least the contributors are super cute!