Mommy Guilt

To state the obvious becoming a mom has changed me in ways I never imagined. Before I had kids I didn't have clue what it felt like to love someone the way a parent loves a child. It is still hard for me to comprehend that anyone else has ever felt the kind of intense love that I feel for my children. That being said being a mom also comes with a lot of self doubt and guilt. I often feel that I am not the kind of mom I should be. Often my patience is short, I second guess the choices I make regarding my kids, and I feel I fall short in teaching my kids all the vital things they need to know. Because of this I have a lot of mommy guilt. One big source of my mommy guilt comes from the very close age gap between Tori and Ella. Landon gets a lot of attention because he has the best communication skills and he can tell us directly what he wants. Ella gets a lot of attention because she is the baby and she needs to be fed and changed often. A lot of times that means that Tori gets the short end of the stick. Sometimes my heart just breaks for my middle child. I worry that I robbed her of her time as the "baby" by having Ella when she was just 13 months old.

But then I see scenes like this

Tori and Ella were playing together and they were just making each other laugh and laugh. When I witness these sweet moments my mommy guilt goes away and I realize that maybe Tori hasn't gotten the short end of the stick after all and that what I have given her is a really great gift.

Oh Snow!

Winter is here. It snowed last night, and this morning, and I think that it is probably snowing as I type this. It makes me sad that we have to bid farewell the beautiful Fall we had. It isn't so much that I don't like the snow...well actually that is exactly what it is, I really just don't like snow. I hate the extra time it takes to get people ready just to leave the house, I hate having to scrape the ice and snow from our car, I hate driving in the snow, really I could go on and on. However, it is pretty and the kids do seem to like playing in it so I guess it isn't all bad (just mostly bad).

5 months old

It seems as though the first few months of a babies life they don't learn or do a whole lot. The routine is eat, sleep, cry, repeat. Then overnight they start learning and doing new things at a rapid rate. It seems as though Ella is now in this stage. In the last month she has mastered the art of rolling over (she can move all over the place), started to "play with toys (by play I mean she grabs them and sticks them in her mouth) and she has started to sit up on her own(for very short periods of time)! When I look at her now I hardly see the newborn that was lying in my arms only 5 short months ago. It has been so fun to watch her grow and start to develop into her own little person!

The Gospel According to Landon

We have been working on learning the first Article of Faith as part of our Family Home Evenings the last couple of weeks. I was super surprised when today when he said he would recite the Article of Faith by himself. Here is the First Article of Faith according to Landon:

"We believe in God, Tori's a ladybug, and his son Jesus Christ, and Landon's a ghost"

This makes me Smile...

Right now it is warmer here, in Elkhart Indiana, then it is in Las Vegas. The predicted high for today is 72 degrees!! I'm LOVING the fall weather here this year. Stay away snow!!!

Tree Climbing

The other day Landon wanted to climb the tree in our yard. Jared, being the fun Dad that he is, decided to oblige.

Landon was so excited to be up in the tree

After Jared came down off the tree Landon kept falling on the ground and rolling around trying to imitate the action of Jared jumping out of the tree. It was pretty funny, I should of got a video but I didn't think about that until it was too late. Here is a picture.Random stuff:

I didn't want to leave Ella out so here is a cute picture of her from Sunday

Also here are some more pictures of some hair clips I made

And on one final note, vote!

Trick-or-Treating

We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating last night. Jared and Ella stayed home to hand out candy and Landon, Tori, and I headed over to my friend Lesley's house to trick-or-treat with her kids. I think that Landon really enjoyed trick-or-treating but after awhile he got tired of walking and wanted to ride in the stroller. Overall I think it was great success for his first "real" trick-or-treating experience. Now for the pictures:

Here is the ladybug

The ButterflyThe dragon with his preschool teacher

Cora, Jody, and Landon getting ready to go

Tori and Marcus

Action shotThere was a scary ghost skeleton thing at this house

Crossing the street

Just more pictures of Landon