Cooper Quotables

One of my friends has a little boy named Canon who says awesome things.  Often, when he says something funny, they will post it on Facebook with the title "Canon Quotables."  That got me thinking, I should have a little title when I post funny things my boys say.  So I am totally stealing their idea and going with "Cooper Quotables," cuz it just sounds cooler than anything else I could think of.

Today mass amounts of cars (mostly minivans) were pulling in and out of the modular homes across the street.  This happens every Monday and Saturday when kids are getting dropped off for EFY and when they are getting picked up.  Otherwise, all summer long it is pretty dead here. 

Josh (moaning): "Ugh!  These EFY kids are so annoying!  There are so many of them!"
Caleb: "Josh, it is good there are so many EFY kids.  It means they get to come and learn about Jesus."
Josh: "Well, it confuses Matthew, because he thinks they are coming to our house and then no one comes.  It is frustrating that no one comes here."
Matthew: "Uh huh.  Me think 'hmmm who dese cars?  Dey come me house?'  Den, de no come.  Uh huh, la."  (In case you are wondering "la" is just a word in Matthew's vocabulary that means "yes."  We are pretty sure that is what it means anyways).
Josh looks at Caleb pointing at Matthew with a look that says "see?  Totally proved my point."

Can you tell Tyson and I have similar conversations?  It is amazing how much little guys pick up on.  Can you guess which opinion I have and which one Tyson has?  :)

Stay Here Ever Ever

Oh bedtime.  It is the eternal fight.  I so look forward to the peace that comes when all the boys are slumbering, the few hours my house can rest and sigh from not being jumped on and thrown pillows at.  But I so love being with the boys too, especially when they are cute and happy and having a blast being friends. 

I especially love the cuddles that come at bedtime.  I know most of the time they are using me.  They know that me snuggling with them postpones sleep, just like asking for a drink of water or having to go to the bathroom does.  But sometimes that is okay.  Most of the time I respond in my worn out, frayed, I just need some time alone way: "no!  I am not going to reward you staying up forever by snuggling with you!  Just go to sleep!"

But last night, with little Matthew I caved.  I always seem to cave with him.  That child.  After snuggling for a few minutes and he showing no decrease in babbling or wiggling, I got up to leave.  He flung his cute little arms around my neck and said,

"No Mama, no go.  Stay here ever ever."
me: "You want me to stay here forever and ever?"
M: "Uh huh la."  (we still aren't sure where la came from, but to Matthew, it means yes)

And who could refuse such a cute plea?  I couldn't, for the first five times.  Then it lost it's intense wilting affect, and I left and he still took forever to fall asleep.  But still, I like to be told to stay "ever ever."  I hope they don't grow out of that ever ever.  They may be punks some times, but man I love them.

Do you ever feel like telling moments that?  Stay here forever ever?  All my kids are looking so big, acting so big.  Not all the time, sometimes they act like they are babies again, even the ones that aren't babies.  But other times, Josh will be so mature.  He will take care of problems so I don't have to.  Like today, he helped Matthew off the counter (because of course he had to climb up there and get the raisins "meself").  Or Caleb, who read the title of a book today because I just started at the first page.  Of course, reading is no big deal to that kid.  And then he gets the cutest little grin that shows his tiny teeth and his blue eyes just sparkle with pride.  And Matthew, heavens, he has to do EVERYTHING himself.  "Me buckle meself," "me pee meself," "me write it meself," "me sweep it meself."  The kid is so intense, and he may not know his colors or shapes, but he can do all kinds of things by himself because he takes pride in being independent.  And little Andrew, he is almost one years old.  How did a year go by so quickly?  He is almost standing by himself and he says "hi da" in the cutest little voice.  And today he started giving me kisses.  Which really are more like bites, but hey, he is trying to show affection and I will take that over screaming at me for not being held. 

And now we are trying to have another kid.  Another one?  How can our house, our car, our sanity hold another one?  I don't know, but I know my heart can.  It just keeps growing as these little ones grow.  I think I love them the day they are born, but then the next day I feel like the love has only doubled, and the day after that even more.  I am sure the days are coming soon where one of them will dislike me for some reason, or not think I am the coolest mom ever.  I just hope and pray that I won't have done anything to deserve their disrespect.  It is hard not to wish these moments to stay forever ever.  But how do we grow if we stay?  However, I don't think it is wrong to linger a little on these moments and savor them.  Because boy are they rich.

The Stress of Family Photos

Family pictures are so much fun.  I love that for years afterwards you can look at these gorgeous pictures and it captures your little ones in a moment in their lives that they change from so quickly.  I don't understand what it is, but every time I think about family photos, I get all sentimental.

However, don't get me wrong.  TAKING family photos is an entirely different feeling.  For days before I stress about what we are going to wear, what I am going to wear, if it will rain, if it will be too hot, how my hair should be, if I will look chubby, if I will have a giant zit or several, if the kids will be happy, if any of them will have cuts or bruises that will show in the pictures (if you have boys, you will understand what I mean).

For example, Caleb and Matthew were running around the house chasing each other a few days before our photo shoot, and of course, they fall and Caleb's head goes plunging into the corner of wall, hence leaving a giant bruise on his forehead.  Don't worry, I did worry about his well being first, then I thought about the pictures...I am pretty sure.

You can see the lovely bruise here

Thank heavens for photo shop.  ;)

magically photo shopped here.  Jess is amazing.

And then the boys don't want to be cute and adorable the hour before we are leaving to go get our pictures.  They don't want to wear the clothes I picked out for them, because of course they are itchy or ugly or short sleeved and "I don't want to show my freckles," or they spill food on it.  Then of course Andrew has a cold and has snot pouring from his nose and is drooling like a mad man and so his clothes are soaked by the time we get there. 

drool shown here.  I am so glad too because his nickname is "Drooly" so this is such a perfect pic.  I am just glad there isn't the snot.  :)

The place we went to get photographed is this amazing park, I guess you could call it a park.  There is a turtle pond, fields to run through, gorgeous trees and flowers and wild life/bugs galore.  A little boy's heaven.  (Boxerwood for local folks).  So the scenery was incredible and our photographer, Jess, is a friend so that was nice I didn't have to be nervous about her.

You can see the lovely background here, if you aren't too distracted by our cuteness.

Then during the pictures the boys didn't want to be super cute and smiley.  Well, they took turns.  Caleb, who usually wants nothing to do with pictures and looking cute when you want him to, was SUPER sweet and smiled and charming.  Matthew who is usually the camera hog and ham wanted NOTHING to do with the whole thing.  Maybe because he had to share his spotlight.  haha.  He was horrible.  Then of course Tys and I were annoyed with them and so we had a hard time for real smiling and not being super mad at the kids.  Because we can't really blame the kids, who would want to get pictures taken when you want to be playing around at such a cool place?

Matthew's whiny face can kind of be seen here

And this is his "I would rather not be here" look.  But Jess made the look turn great because now we can see how freaking awesome his eyes are.  The kid has crazy blue eyes, like looking at stars or a silver sun.

So by the end of the photo shoot, Tys and I were grateful for it to be over, but so worried that the pictures would turn out horrible because we would all look mad and frustrated with each other.  You know it is a good photographer that can turn cranky or crazy moments and make them look good.  I mean seriously, how do you get four little boys and their parents to all look at the camera at the SAME time and look happy about it?  I don't know...I just don't know.

Josh was a perfect angel pretty much the whole time.  His big brown eyes just melt me.

Not sure if this is my favorite

...or this one because there are so few pictures of Tys and I were we are both not making silly faces and we both look pretty good.  So I am really happy with these.

 

So, if you get a chance and want your family pictures taken, you should get them.  I know lots of great photographers.  Jess, who took ours, you can check out her website here.  Or if you are on the west coast, my sister and her husband are incredible, their website is here.  Now that I think of it, I have tons of photography friends.  They are all amazing.  Hooray for awesome pictures!  And hooray for current ones I can hang on my walls so I can smile at them during those days when things just aren't so smiley.

You Are Doing a Great Work

 

My little brother is serving a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Brazil.  (www.lds.org or www.mormon.org) I was writing him an email just now and the more I wrote, the more comfort I found.  I don't know if that happens to anyone else, but often when I am frustrated or in need of an answer, when I write, the answer usually comes to me.  I am not sure if it is the Lord's way of giving me inspiration or if it is just how my brain processes things, but either way, I am thankful.

In this email today, I was writing him to help him, but I found it really helping me since I have been really struggling with the day in and day out mom stuff.  You know, when you vacuum and two seconds later someone spills chips all over the floor, or when you wash all the sheets and that night someone wets the bed, so you wash the sheets and then they wet the bed again.  Seriously, my life has been like that constantly for the last six years, but for some reason, the past few weeks it has really been getting to me.  It didn't help that they were not the greatest of kids on Mother's Day.  The day that you really hope they will be adorable and cute and sing praises to your name all day.  Yeah, well, not my kids.  They weren't horrible, but just not the greatest.  And my attitude really didn't help them be any happier.

So as I was writing, I really started feeling better and better, and then when I hit "send," I thought, man, I need to read that again.  And I thought of my little sister and my sisters-in-law who I am sure feel the same way I do sometimes.  So for those of you that get sick of the mundane momhood stuff sometimes, this is for you:

"I read a scripture the other day that reminded me of you, so I thought I would share it with you: Doctrine and Covenants 68:6 (the Lord is talking to the elders called to serve missions) "Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come."
Pretty cool promise and instruction.  I love you lots Ammon, and I am so proud of the work you are doing.  There are many moments that I have a hard time remembering that the work I am doing is really important, especially when I feel like I am going insane with the constant chattering and fighting and snotty faces.  But my work is incredibly important.  I am raising God's children.  I am teaching them, helping them develop testimonies and faith.  And one day they will go out and teach hundreds of others about the Savior.  So I know my work is important, but sometimes it is hard to remember in the moment.

So what I am saying is, there may be moments, especially in your new area where you are tracking and searching and exhausted and people keep telling you "no thanks," when you feel like giving up or wondering why you are doing this.  So don't forget, your work is important.  It may stink sometimes, but it is worth it, and all those people will call you blessed and be thankful for the service you are giving.

We love you Buddy.  Keep smiling and sharing the truth that gives so much joy and light to the soul, just like the fiery red sunrise on a dark, cold world."

Eat to Live, Part 2

Eating healthy has been a different experience for us.  I have been uber cranky about it all.  The first few days I was psycho chipper and constantly talking about how happy I felt and great everything tasted.  But then I started bugging myself about being SOO spunky about it all, so I tried to calm down, but once I wasn't doing little cheers around the dining room table, I realized how much my body was craving sugar and cheese and comfort food.  It is not easy changing your comfort food.

It wouldn't be so bad, but we are making this change a permanent thing, or at least trying to.  So it isn't like, "for the next six weeks I can't have sugar and then I can splurge."  Nope. I want to be healthy for the rest of my life, not just for a few weeks and then get worse than I was before.  I am not saying I will never eat sugar again, cuz heaven knows that won't happen.  But I want it to be a special thing, not my main course every meal.  :)

Tyson is taking this all much better than I am.  So he is seeing amazing results.  He has already lost several pounds and he is looking much slimmer already.  His self control has always been incredible.  It is really only because of him that we were still virgins when we got married.  But, you really don't need to know that do you?

So back to food.  Our typical daily diet was like this BEFORE our eating habits changed:

Breakfast: bowl of sugary cereal and milk
Snack: crackers or toast or even candy
Lunch: 2 chili burritos with flour tortillas, occasionally part of an apple
Snack: same-ish as above
Dinner: tater tot casserole
Late night snack: ice cream or popcorn or some hidden candy we didn't want to share with the kids

Our typical diet this past week:

Breakfast: bowl of cut up cantaloupe sprinkled with flax seed
Snack: a few carrots and raisins
Lunch: salad with craisins and sliced almonds or a bowl of peas in Tyson's case
Dinner: black beans, red peppers in a whole wheat tortilla, salad or cut up veggies
Snack: apple or strawberries

This is more like what Tyson eats, I am doing better, but more often than not, I have granola and greek yogurt for breakfast because it is easier for me to feel like I am still starting off with cereal.  But I am doing better and adding more fruits and veggies through out the day.  If anyone has any great, easy recipes, PLEASE feel free to share.

It is a work in progress, but when I woke up this morning and was still cranky, I told myself, "self, this has got to stop.  You made this decision, so life with it and stop whining about it.  Enjoy it."  I am trying to and much happier since then.  Find joy in the journey, right?

I Like Being a Mom

Sometimes we get so caught up in all the things that need to be cleaned, and cooked, and cleaned again, and fed, and changed, and homework to be done and more things to be cleaned...that we forget to enjoy those little mess makers.

Little Andrew has been having such a hard time being happy.  Like following me around as fast as he can crawl, just crying and crying.  I pick him up and clean or cook one handed for as long as I can until I need to set him down and there he is crying again.  So I researched it, because that is what I have learned to do from my liberal arts degree.  (Research is amazingly very important)  And I found this whole section in one of my books about the "needy" child. 

Ah yes, I thought, this is my child.  It listed all these symptoms "cries often, wants to be held, clingy, hates to be left alone, picky eater," and on and on.  Yup.  Check.  Double check.  Check, check.  That is this one. 

So then this book has the audacity me I need to hold my child more and I am thinking, are you KIDDING me?!  How can I possibly hold my child more?  I have four other kids to take care of, and a house, and a husband, and myself. 

I continue reading.

Apparently they have done studies that the parents that held their child for at least three hours a day had children that cried less.  I think, "no duh, why would they cry?  They are being held."

It continues to explain they pick up their child BEFORE they start crying, never when they were crying (unless of course they were hurt).  That way the child felt loved, comforted, but didn't think that crying would get them picked up.

Huh.  Now that is an interesting concept.  Now for application.  Trial and error, right?

Today I tried it.  I got down on the floor and played with him for awhile, I picked him up and carried him, but never when he was crying, I got him to stop and THEN I would pick him up.

Wow.  What a difference it was. 

Until of course Matthew peed on the floor and I had to clean it up and then he peed again and I had to clean up that one and Andrew was trying to suck on the dirty rags I was cleaning it with and I pulled him away....but you know, other than that.  :)

It was so fun playing on the floor with my little ones.  Caleb, Logan, Andrew and I just rolled a ball back and forth for about an hour and they were laughing hysterically and it was so fun.  Who cared if dinner was made or the floor was vacuumed for like the millionth time.  It was fun to just be a mom for awhile.  I like being a mom.

The Eating Journey Begins

Life is a continual process of trying to better ourselves.  This weekend we took another pretty big step at trying to do just that.  And it is a REALLY hard change for me.

Anyone who knows me knows that my "love language" is food.  I love food.  I love sugar, I love chocolates, I love donuts, I love burgers and fries, I love ice cream and cupcakes, I love cheese and cereal.  Basically every junk food known to man, I LOOOOVE it.

But I really hate the feeling that my love of food has taken over my life and I am not feeling well, looking well or having healthy kids because of how we eat.  But I hadn't really been thinking much about it, just occasionally I think, "I need to actually eat a fruit today," or "I should exercise."  You know things like that.

Lucky for me, I am curvy, but still about the same size as I was when I got pregnant with Josh.  Four kids later, that isn't too shabby.  So I don't have a ton of motivation because I don't feel "huge" too often, because I've always looked this way and it isn't a horrible way to look, so I've been okay with it.  However, having muscle would be nice and not jiggling in certain areas would be nice too.  But along with my hair and lack of make up, I don't pay much attention to it.  I have a wonderful husband that sees me and loves me and that is that.  But his drive lately to live a healthier and better life has really got me thinking and inspired me.  He even ran a 5k last week even though just months ago he hated running more than anything.

Tys is the extremely attractive one on the right.  Dallin is his brother-in-law and personal trainer and Cassie is his awesome marathon running sister.  She has been trying to get us to eat healthier for a long time.  :)

I saw someone post on Facebook a few weeks ago about wanting to get in shape and if anyone had any weight loss programs that worked well.  One person commented something about a book called "Eat to Live."  Don't know why, but the comment stuck with me.

So, what did I do?  Went to Amazon and searched it.  I started reading the "Look Inside" section and I was hooked.  Could this be for real?  The author, Dr. Fuhrman, talked a ton about eating healthy vegetables and fruits and not eating animal products and how he has been able to reverse Type II diabetes and helped to prevent heart attacks and cancer and on and on.  Sounded crazy, but at the same time made SOOO much sense.  I totally checked it out from my local library, but I recommend buying it if you can, there are so many things I wanted to highlight and keep.  I did however buy another book he wrote called "Disease Proof Your Child."  I have just started reading it and I LOVE it.  Either of these affiliate links will take you right to them if you want to read snippets from them or read other reviews.

 

So as I was reading "Eat to Live," all the things I have been taught for years about how milk makes your bones strong, and meat is the best protein, were totally shattered.  I almost had this feeling like I didn't know what to believe anymore.  I couldn't put the book down and seriously, that NEVER happens to me.  I love to read fiction and happy love stories.  But never non-fiction, especially stuff telling me not to eat the food I love most in the world.

 

I kept telling Tyson all the info I was learning as I read it and was so excited about it, he couldn't help but learn and care.  Believe me, he tried to ignore me, I would not shut up.  I kept telling him about all the people that have lost a lot of weight on this new healthy eating habits and he said "might as well give it a try."

 

Well, if he was all for it, I had to stand my ground.  We were going to do this.

 

Dr. Fuhrman suggests giving it a six week commitment and the results will speak for themselves.  I looked through his recipes, but seriously, very little actually looked good that didn't take a long time to prepare.  And anyone that has a nine month old, a two year old, a four year old, and a six year old, or even one of those, knows that making dinner has got to be quick, simple, needs to look good, taste good, smell good, etc.  I hit a road block before we even began.

 

Being the wonderful husband that he is, as soon as Tyson heard my worries, he said, well forget to recipes, lets just buy tons of healthy stuff and we will just mix it together and make it work.  Sounded good to me.

 

My wonderful mom and my crazy little sister, Carmel, went with me to the store and I bought more veggies than I think I ever have in my life, I got lots of beans and fruit and nuts.  My mom helped me know how to cook certain veggies that I refused to even look at as a kid so I had no idea what to do with them, and Carmel provided the entertainment as she hopped on the front of my cart and waved to all the shoppers as I steered her carriage around.  Got to love the teenage love for life and all things crazy.

 

I was so excited to live this new life, to have more energy, to lose weight (maybe I could actually look hot in a swimsuit), to not get sick all the time, to feel good about the things I was giving my kids.  I unloaded those groceries with pride.  And this is all I will tell you for now, this post is getting much too long.  Keep checking for updates to see how this six week challenge is going!!