We are Fortunate

Just wanted to pop in to load a few pics of my brave Baby Bear.  You may remember this from Kindergarten

Beautiful stitched up princess who got hurt at school.  Well at least in First Grade we made it to Dec. before she was injured.  This time a buckle fracture in her wrist.  Look at this sweet girl. She fell off a slide and landed wrong at... you guessed it, school.  Am I wrong in being glad that it wasn't under my supervision that she was hurt? Sure, I like to be there if she is hurt but I can blame it on the school and not my own failings this way. Right?

 She hated this part of breaking her arm.  My girl who didn't blink twice having a huge gash in her head was worried to the point of tears that she looked weird with the black sling on.  For her the worst part of the injury was people seeing her looking like this.  She cried and cried because she thought people would think she looked weird.  The pain seemed like nothing, the inconvenience didn't bother her, but this did.  It broke my heart. She even wanted to skip school but, I wouldn't let her. Didn't want her to think that being self conscious was a reason to miss school.  We tied a sparkly ribbon on it to make it more bearable.

Now the hard cast... she loved.  She got a pink sparkly cast and Cam bought her a set of permanent markers to lug around in her backpack so people could sign it. 

She only had to wear it 4 weeks.  When she got it taken off she was pretty reluctant.  I think she would have loved to have it permanently  if it weren't for the fact that she couldn't take an hour long bath in it.

Miss Bear also finally lost her first tooth! Actually all four of her front teeth are loose at the same time. I hope they are lost gradually...  This is my super fun crazy baby girl and I just love all she brings to our Family.

One more thing before I go.  I wanted to add a pic of our 1st quarter Teacher Appreciation gift for the Primary Teachers I work with in church.  My secretary came up with the saying and it just evolved from there.  I think it turned out super cute.  I truly am fortunate to have so many great people helping me with my Primary calling.  I could never do it all myself!   I couldn't decide weather to write fortunate or "fortune-ate" I went with the  first because it just looked less weird to me.  I ordered the Chinese takeout boxes off amazon.  The pint size fit about 4 cookies which I ordered from Oriental Trading.  I made the tags myself in Photo Shop Elements. The boy and girl are stamps from Stampin' Up that were donated to my pre school a few years ago by a mom cleaning out her stuff before a move.  Nice.

WELL now I think I will go pin that image to my Primary board so I can remember what I did next year or maybe help another primary that is looking for a fun way to show their amazing teachers a little love.

Besides being a little burnt out at work and spending a lot of time at gymnastics things are going okay over here. Hope all is well with you as well!
Trina

Merry Christmas

I for one am ready and also not ready for Christmas to be over this year.  My husband works for a major shipping company and that greatly effects our life this time of year.  Peak they call it.  A time when Cam sometimes works 14 hours a day and drives 60 hours in one week.  While everyone else is getting family time, we are getting a lot less time together.  I look around blog land facebook and see all the fun family stuff that people are doing and I get disappointed. BUT... I like to take a positive skew on it.  I like to joke that I am married to Santa Claus.  I think of the numerous people out their who are anxiously waiting  for their packages to arrive. I'm glad Cam can help bring a little bit of happiness to them this holiday season. 
Because my husband has a job that is inconvenient this time of year it makes me think a little deeper about the many other people who sacrifice time with their families not just during the holidays but all year long.  I grew up in a family with a very  "traditional" schedule.  My dad was home for dinner, he was always off work on major holidays.  That was my world. I assumed that everyone had a life like me.  Now I know better.  I know how good I have it.  My heart goes out to all those who are giving up their time with families so that my family can have a good holiday.
 SO here's to the doctors, the police and security workers, to the retail and grocery store employees, the soldiers, the snow-plowers and many more who work so I can have a happy holiday season.  When you are stressed that your package hasn't come, or you can't find that one last gift at the store... please be kind.

Wishing everyone in blog land an Fantastic Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Trina

Remember That Time I Didn't Blog for 2 Years.....

I really want to start with the blogging again.  I stopped because life it crazy, but looking at old posts makes me want to do it again.  It is such a good way to document what my family has done.  It also a great creative and emotional outlet.  So here I go again....but I am not gonna tell anyone just so the pressure is off.

These are my amazing Babies.  They have grown up so much since my last post.  The tallness, the lack of baby fat, the fact that they are both in all day school  all makes me super excited and super sad.  It is so exciting to see them grow and mature.  It also makes me anxious.  I am very experienced with young kids, tweens and teens, not so much.  I am constantly sure I am going to screw this parenting thing up.

 Look at my kids with my awesome husband.  Yup, that is how he dresses every every day.  But I love him.  Who else would let me clip a flower in his hair before a mud run.   It has been 10 years now since we were married and many more years since I fell for him.  I love that even though we are young we have known each other longer than we haven't known each other, if that makes sense.

Wanna see a picture of him looking all hot? I do....

 Nothing hotter than a awesome dad and his girls.  Just for fun here is a pic of me and the girls.

 Now the whole family.  It was fun taking our girls to the same temple we were married in
10 years later.  Makes me nostalgic.

 Here we are then and now.

I know, I just like to show off my family. I feel so blessed to have these 3 people in my life.  They make me crazy sometimes but they also help mold me into a better person. 

Well of to bed
Trina

Real Love Stories Never Have Endings

These are my True Loves!
Here is my Banana all dolled up in her Valentines best for her "Tea" at school.


Here is a close up of her hair. I learned how to do these hearts from cutegirlshairstyles.com.
I practiced our Valentines hair on Sunday so we would be fast Monday morning but Bananas changed her mind. We went from 2 hearts to 1 heart so you would think it was easier. Not true. But I think it turned our cute!
Here is my Bear. She is so stinking cute with that candy covered face. We ran out of time to get her picture before school due to the extra time I had to spend on Bananas.....SO Bear got her picture done after snacking on Valentine treats. Speaking of treats remember how when we were little it was awesome to get a few conversation hearts in the envelope with your Valentine. Or getting one of those red suckers was a BIG deal. Now candy is the norm and people go WAY above that. CRAZY!
Miss Bear got 2 little hearts and curls. This look is so her. I was really happy with how it turned out. I am glad she left it in all day at school so I could still get a pic when we got home. I love my Ladybugs. I also love their Daddy. I love taking pictures of him with them. YOu know what the best part is? He is reading them a chapter book about Tinkerbell and fairies in Neverland. Isn't it great when daddies put aside their manly ways and connect with their ladies

I love them every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year of every decade of every century of every millenia......... this could go on Forever and I hope it will.

ps. I got the top freebie print form ficklepickle then I put it in photoshop and layered a black and white picture over it.

Never Judge Yourself by What Other People Think of You

Why is it that we are always so worried about what other people think of us. Is it because you know what you think about other people, and assume they are thinking the same kind of things about you?

When you're a teenager you are constantly worried about your image. It seems like back then those things were a lot more important to me. After I got married we were so poor. Cam only went to school and I worked at a Daycare....anyone who has worked in child care knows that is not a very big paycheck. I know I lost all sense of what was fashionable- I wore clothes that I already had. We couldn't afford anything new. Then I got pregnant. I bought 1 pair of maternity pants, 1 skirt and 2 maternity shirts. I wore them when I went out. The rest of the time I wore my scrubs and Cams t-shirts. I was staying home tending my niece at the time so this was okay. After giving birth my body changed so dramatically that I had to get all new clothes. We only bought a few things-again money was an issue. By the time I gave birth to Bear I had gone up another 2 sizes and none of my clothes fit right and I hated my body so badly that I just gave up. I wore whatever I could find and whatever was cheap. About a year and a half later I woke up and asked why I was doing this to myself. It was like I was punishing myself for keeping on the baby weight. I didn't feel cute. I didn't feel sexy. I felt blah. I couldn't stand to look in the mirror. All I could see was the negative about myself. I felt bad about my appearance and it showed. None of my clothes fit my body right. I had stopped making myself a priority and as a result my self esteem took a nosedive. We do that so much as moms. We spend oodles of time worrying about how our kids look and forget that we should take time for our own appearance too. We still didn't have much of a clothes budget but I changed my attitude. Instead of going for the cheap and fast I spent more time looking choosing better colors better fit ect. As I started to do this I felt a lot better about myself. Do I still hate my body-yes. But I have a better self image because I take more care in how I look. My main wardrobe is jeans and workT's but that will always be me....

So how does that relate. Well I don't think I worry as much about what other people think when I am taking the time to feel good about myself. If you find that inner harmony, what other people think matters less. Kinda like Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter books. To others she was an oddball but she was comfortable in her own skin. We need to all work to be comfortable with ourselves. Truth be told I am my own harshest critic. If someone else is thinking something about me chances are I have thought it about myself only 10x worse. I have found that when I find joy in the good things about myself, and try to always move forward and fix the things that I don't like, that I feel better about me and worry less about what others think.

I think this is long enough even though I have other thoughts about other aspects of this.
So speaking of judging people.... Please don't judge me on my poor grammar....it never was my strong point...I should fix that ;)
Trina

Advice from the young me.

I was looking in my High School Journal the other day. I have one journal that covers from 10th grade to when I got married. (Now you see why I am such a bad blogger...I couldn't even keep up a journal). I wasn't cool. I was never popular. I feel like I didn't have a very rough time as a teenager. Anything rough I went through was usually brought on by my own stupidity or lack of action. I made it through High School without any major screw ups. Just an average kid doing average things. That is me. I loved to spout off advice to others. Many a friend and room mate came to me with hard questions. I probably did a poor job of helping them....but I did find a list of advice I gave to myself on October 1oth 1999 making me 17 years old. I thought I would share it.
I called them my "Closing Remarks"

1-Never judge yourself by what other people think of you.
2-Always take time to relax.
3-Turn up songs you love and sing to them.
4-You're never too old for Disney Movies and Fairy Tales.
5-Dance in your bedroom whenever you get the chance.
6-You can't judge a book by its cover but, be prepared for people to judge you by your cover
7-Own at least 1 pink item.
8-Work to be comfortable with who you are but never stop learning and growing.
9-You always have someone to turn to. Someone always understands because someone has always been there before....not to mention Jesus who suffered everything so he TOTALLY understands.
10-God loves you no matter what you do.
The End

So I think that is pretty smart stuff for a 17 year old. I decided I am going to take this on as a blogging project. I don't promise much.... but I am feeling a little reflective lately. I thought this may be a good outlet. Over the next couple of weeks I thought I might take some time to explore this advice to myself and whether it does or does not apply to me today.
Much Love
Trina

Happy Valentines Day

Not a whole lot new to report in our neck of the woods. This winter has felt a lot like spring. Our girls really enjoyed riding their bikes yesterday. We were outside without our coats riding bikes in February....crazy stuff. But eventually winter will return.

Cam had his Birthday this week 29 years old. We are now approaching 30- can you believe it??
I certainly still feel like a 14 year old.

Lately I have been doing a lot of crafts for Valentines day. I have been so inspired by craft blogs with all their cute Valentineiness that I actually made stuff. Now I just have to start looking for St. Patrick's Day stuff to make.

I feel so boring.....but I think a lot of what you do as a mom is routine every day stuff. It is finding excitement and joy in the little things that really matters.

In closing I would like to express my love for you. If you read this blog chances are you have liked me a little at one point in my life....I want to say I LOVE YOU and wish you all the best!!
Trina