My Mommy Mission Statement

To create an atmosphere of laughter, learning and love in a clean home.
To encourage our family to live a healthy lifestyle. To value exercise as a fun part of life not as a chore. A cookie is a treat, not a snack, and one is enough. A bowl of ice cream should be small in order to really be enjoyed and savored. And to come to the conclusion eventually that the real treat is the apple.
To teach my children the benefits of hard work. Play hard, but work harder. Pull weeds. Fold laundry. Rinse dishes. Wipe off the toothpaste spit from the sink. Dust occasionally. Practice the piano.
To appreciate the sticky face, sticky table and sticky kitchen floor (and any other randomly sticky thing) and remember that the time is slipping by. The minutes and hours will continue to pass on. And remember someday I will miss all the sticky messes. Appreciate the sticky.
To behave my age. When my 11 year old is hitting like a 5 year old, and my 9 year old is calling someone a dumb dumb head, and my 4 year old accidentally pees her pants on the stairs, I will not have a 2 year old temper tantrum. I will act my age.
To allow my children to live their lives...not through a video game or a cartoon character, but through their own wonderful bodies. To see, smell, taste, hear and touch life everyday. By planting and picking flowers. By walking barefoot in the dirt. By picking berries then making something delicious. By watching birds with interest. By taking chances on new experiences and believing they will succeed. I will not allow them to waste their precious minds or bodies sitting slumped over on the couch with only their fingers feverishly twitching. Live. Live. Live.
To help them come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ by developing a testimony of the Atonement and a love for the scriptures.
To have an organized home; a house of order and peace. A home that is comfortable and clean. To delegate responsibility to my children so they learn how to "keep house" and so I don't have to do it all. I accept that this is a lifelong work in progress and will never be "done".
To give my children a happy childhood. So years from now, when they look back and recall their childhood, they will have warm memories of building a clubhouse together, making smores over the kitchen stove and going on treasure hunts. I hope to give them what I received; a happy childhood.

To create, encourage, value, teach, appreciate, behave, allow, help, have, delegate and give.

Emma and Eliza

I have been reading the biographies of Emma Smith and Eliza R. Snow. My father -in- law gave them to me for Christmas and said that these biographies were the most well done and accurate. I have enjoyed learning about these amazing women so much. I finished Emma a month or so ago and I'm almost done reading Eliza. I can't imagine enduring what these great LDS women endured. What strength. I don't have much spare time to read during the day, so I just read a few pages every night before bed. Last night I read a particularly funny paragraph I thought I'd share. Apparently Eliza was concerned about the young women of the church dressing immodestly...

This statement was given by one of Brigham Young's daughters Clarissa, "...but there came a time when Father called all of the girls into the parlor and announced that they were becoming entirely too adept in following the fashions of 'the world' and that he would like them to modify their manner of dress. Flounces were to be curtailed, bangs were no longer to be frizzed, bustles were to be subdued; in fact, they were to retrench in all the vanities and frivolities of the world and set an example for the rest of the daughters of Zion to follow."

I am just imagining this scene with all Brigham Young's daughters (the oldest 10 were referred to as the Big Ten, because I guess they were pretty hot and sought after by many young men...hmmm.) I imagine them gathered around with tight dresses and frizzed bangs. I was laughing out loud in my bed. Heaven forbid frizzy bangs! Amen Brother Brigham.

Little Lauren Leprechaun

Yes, we take St. Patrick's Day way too seriously around here. Here's the leprechaun we caught stealing all the gold.


Happy Green Day!!!

Spagetti anyone?

Here's Kurt with the famous baby spagetti pictures...

Before and After

Nicole and Lauren's Room before a deep clean...

...Here's their room after being rearranged and deep cleaned.

Family Bowling

Monday night we went bowling for the first time as a family.
(The Wii doesn't count does it?) We had a great time! I haven't bowled since my bowling class at Ricks...which was awsome. Dave and I did go on a date before we were married to the bowling alley at the Wilkenson center at BYU. Fun stuff!

Relaxing in Maui for the week

Last week Dave and I got to spend the week in Maui for a work conference. He spent the mornings in meetings and I...went shopping, did my hair and make-up, read a book and sat on the beach. It was very relaxing. After his meetings on Tuesday we went whale watching, which was amazing. The food in Hawaii is so yummy and since all the food was provided we ate and ate and ate. I am ready to fast for a week. We were scheduled to leave Thursday afternoon, so we packed up and checked out. We were waiting for our shuttle to take us to the airport when we got the news that the highway was closed due to a serious car accident. The highway would be closed for a few hours. Which meant we'd miss our flight for sure. There is no other way to get to the airport, so we had no choice but to book a flight for the next day. Even though I was mentally ready to go home and see my babies, staying an extra day in Hawaii is nothing to complain about. So we checked back in to the hotel. We took a bus to Laiheina the next morning for breakfast and to see the fun shops and art galleries. We missed the kids so much, but they were in good hands with Grandma and Jandi. Thank you!!!But I must admit, no matter how wonderful Hawaii is...we are so happy to be home!!!

With no one to take our picture, we did the best we could with Dave's long arm. And we met a few strange friends along the way. We had so much fun! Aloha!

Our Birthday Monkey!

Kurt has always reminded me of Curious George. My sister Ylfe made him a curious george rag quilt when he was a baby and gave him a big george stuffed animal that has been in his crib his whole life. So he loves and recognizes George as a good friend. When it came time for him to dig into his yellow hat cake he picked around at it, then siblings and cousins began picking at it and trying to show him to eat it. Whenever a bite of cake was put in his mouth he'd spit it out. I'm not sure what that says about my cake making skills...hmmm. Happy 1st Birthday Kurt!

Kurt was so happy with his birthday pizza. My sister Tess sent him a b-day card with some stickers that he became very attached to. He's holding them in most of the pictures. The stickers are now covered with pizza grease and frosting. And the wiggley eyes are long gone.

Taking a Sunbreak on a Happy Heart day

The other day I looked at the monster mound of clothes piled on the piano room floor (probably 7 or 8 loads worth) and I called everyone in for a laundry folding party. Nobody was very excited even though I called it a party. So the kids grumbled in and began folding. A few minutes into it Lauren surprised me and bounced up and said "I need a sunbreak". She walked over to the backdoor and sat in the sunlight that was shining through. Then she said, "I'm just taking a sunbreak on a happy heart day." It was so sweet and I thought to myself...'when was the last time I took a sunbreak?' We all need sunbreaks to make all the work we do bearable. So we went to the park.

Lucky 11

No, we aren't celebrating St. Patricks Day early...Nicole turned 11 years old this week and 11 has always been our lucky number. So we had a Lucky 11 party for her birthday. I cannot believe that our baby is 11 years old! How is that possible?

This year we had a surprise birthday party for Nicole. I contacted her close friends ahead of time and had them secretly meet at our neighbors house. I blindfolded her and put her in the car where her friends were quietly waiting. After a few minutes of driving her friends began to giggle and yelled surprise! Nicole was so surprised to see her friends Brooke, Audrey, Kirstin and Kyleigh in the van with us. Then we drove to Olive Garden and had a yummy lunch and dessert. Mmmm...fettuccine....We went to Party City and they picked their own party favors. It was so much fun!

I love these girls!!! Happy birthday sweetie!!!

Lauren Brady...the lost sister of Marsha, Jan and Cindy

Here's a clip of Lauren on youtube singing the BradyBunch theme song...Some things never go out of style!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRnOLGKWxzY

Baird family reunion

Christmas was extra special this year because we got to see all our Baird side siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles nieces and nephews. It was a crazy blast! Adam and Elida and their boys came from Yuma Arizona for a couple weeks. Ylfe and Shawn came with their bunch from California for a few days after Christmas. Tess came for a few days husbandless from Idaho. Jandi and Kenny blessed their little baby Myles. Brigham and Tyra and their little ones are just a hop skip and a jump over in Estacada as well as Mom and Dad. There was never a dull moment with all the cousins at play. We got to celebrate Dave's birthday all together. The most special moment I had was during sacrament meeting (we all attended the Molalla River Ward for Myles blessing). We were singing Away in a Manger and I looked around and saw my parents and all my brothers and sisters and my husband and my children. It was amazing. Here are a few highlight pictures.