Let Them Be Little

My poor Sweet Girl has really had to endure the brunt of my learning curve of being a mom to three kids. Because she's the oldest and she's really smart, I often treat her like she's older than she actually is and expect more from her. Which is not fair to her. I'm really trying to improve in this area. I've been pondering about it a lot. The other day the phrase "let them be little" popped into my head. I've heard it a million times, but it really struck me at that moment. I NEED to let her be little! She's only 3, she's still little! She's still learning, she's still growing, she still needs my help. She can do so many things, but (as I often have to remind even her) she still needs help with a lot of things. And I GET to be that person to help her! I prayed to be that person to help her and love her and teach her.

This has really been a learning year for me and I've really noticed that the cleanliness of my house REALLY affects my mood. If it's total choas I feel so out of control so I'm often so focused on trying to clean it which in turn frustrates me because it is immediately messy again. But after "let them be little" popped in my head I've really tried to let her play. I do still clean, but I try not to be crazy about it. I let the mess stay until it needs to be cleaned up. For example, she's really into making tents out of blankets. Usually we make them in her room so they can stay up for a long time, but today she wanted it by the kitchen table. So I let her put it up. It stayed up all day until just before dinner. We had the sister missionaries for dinner and we need the space and the chairs, so I explained this to her and she was totally fine with cleaning it up! I let her be little and it paid off! I was happy and she was happy!

Another way I've tried to really let her be little is to let her wear whatever (within reason, she needs to be modest and not be super cold) she wants to things that don't really matter, like running errands and play dates. She dresses appropriately to church. But I remember how my mom would let my little brother choose these hilarious outfits when we went places and those are some of my favorite memories. Sweet Girl has this same effinity to accesorized outfits. I love it!

Letting her be little has really made us both happier when I remember to let her be little!

Also, another plug for the Happier podcast, I applied the one minute rule today and it really kept my house much cleaner so I was happier overall throughout the day!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning 2016

Christmas Eve was really productive at our home this year.

We meant to have a big dinner and read the nativity and watch a fun Christmas show together as a family,

but the day really got away from us. 

Sweet Girl and my Sweet Husband played in the snow for a while. 

Sweet Girl loved to eat the snow!

 Sweet Girl insisted on an entire family, 

you have to look closely but there is a mom, a dad, and a baby.

My Sweet Husband said she wanted more people, but he was getting tired.. lol!

 I went outside with them for a little bit, but since I don't have snow clothes that fit at the moment I opted to go in and make hot chocolate for all of us.

They still let me be part of the snowball fight.. lol, look above my Sweet Husband's head and you'll see the snowball they threw at the window at me. Plus the one that already left its mark on the window.

After playing in the snow we worked on texturing the walls, 

if I remember correctly, my Sweet Husband also worked on the counter tops.

And I think he worked on a few other things.

So we had a very special dinner of McDonalds and watched If You Give a Mouse a Christmas Cookie while we ate. Then we read the nativity in our New Testament Illustrated Reader.

And quickly put Sweet Girl to bed because it was getting pretty late.

Even though it wasn't exactly how we planned, it was a wonderful day together as a family!

Santa came during the night and we woke up early Christmas morning 

and opened presents before church.

 Sweet Girl was so excited about everything, it was so fun!

 We had plenty of time, so if she wanted to play with her toys in between opening more presents we let her.

 

 Then we tried to take a family picture with the Christmas tree

and remembered once again we forgot to take it before we opened presents.. lol oops.

Also, sometimes your belly is so big that's all that makes it into the picture.

 Take 2

It was a wonderful Christmas morning with our little family!

Our Little Goose

Sweet Girl makes us laugh so much!

She has a lot of personality, it's adorable!

Don't you often eat your cereal in the bathroom?

 I loved that she brought her shoes in and lined them up with mine

 No words.. lol!

Feeding her Little People goldfish.

 Lol, I asked her to smile for a picture to send to her Dad... this is what I got!

 She smiled for me a few minutes later.

 We picked the last of our bell peppers and Sweet Girl just ate it like an apple!

 Being silly one morning! 

 She loves to build towers!

 Lately she has loved to have bows and "colors" (as she calls them) in her hair!

 We put her hair in sponge curlers one Saturday night for church the next day!

 Being silly in the doctor's office.

 I couldn't believe how big a single pony made her look!

 We had hot chocolate and enjoyed the Christmas lights on our Christmas tree!

 Lately Sweet Girl has been very motherly, she loves to feed and take care of her babies.

 Lol, sometimes her mothering skills need a little guidance.

 More "colors"

 She loves having lunch on her little desk

 She loves to play dress up these days!

 Little Goose stole my glasses!

She loves tinker toys,

she likes to make lollipops, mirrors, phones, and airplanes out of them

 More colors!

 Building a snowman with a beach ball and fabric.. lol!

 Sleeping so sweetly!

"I go visitor center and see Jesus!"

Little ones are pretty amazing!

They can remember so much!

We are super blessed and my Sweet Mother-in-law will often meet us at the temple and watch Sweet Girl for us while we do a session. It's so adorable, it's become something that Sweet Girl will ask us about, "when I go with Grandma to the visitor center to see Jesus?"

She gets so excited when we pull up and she can see Jesus.

My Sweet Mother-in-law snapped this picture, I love it SO much!

We are so grateful for our Savior!

We are grateful for this time of year when we get to celebrate His birth!

Without Him we would be so lost, with Him we know the truth! We know that our family can be together forever! We know that we can live with Him and our Father in Heaven again! We know that we can be forgiven of our sins! We know that the pain of sadness, loss, loneliness, heartache, and trials can be lessened and overcome through Him! We love Him! And we are so grateful for His Atonement!

You can know too, visit mormon.org for more information!

Thanksgiving/Christmas Tree Hunt

Thanksgiving was DELICIOUS!

We had smoked turkey, which is my favorite way to have turkey!

And of course we had all the other wonderful things that go with Thanksgiving.

I am extremely grateful for these two!

We are also grateful for our extended family and friends! We are grateful for our Savior! We are grateful for His church! We are grateful from the blessings that come from His Gospel!

 After doing a little Black Friday shopping (we didn't go crazy early, but we did hit a few stores) we went and found our Christmas tree! It was so much fun and we found it pretty quickly!

I think Sweet Girl looks SO big in this picture!

 We saw this cuteness several times while we were at my parent's house.

The girls loved to play in the sand with Pa!

Halloween

We decided to plant our own pumpkins this year for Sweet Girl.

She loved them and played with them pretty much every day after we picked them.

 Five pumpkins grew.. just like our family!

Dad, Mom, Sweet Girl, Baby A, and Baby B!

Sweet Girl decided she wanted to be a pink bird this year.

First she told me she wanted to be a pine tree, but then changed her mind to be a pink bird.

She helped me make her costume and I think it turned out pretty cute!... even if she wouldn't look at the camera for a picture

 We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween,

we made a pregnant with twins pumpkin!

 We also went to a Halloween Carnival a few days before, Sweet Girl had fun but she was not acting like herself and then we realized she had a fever, dang molars and lack of sleep, so we took her home and she zonked out on the way home and slept for about 13+ hours that night and woke up good as new!

On the actual night of Halloween we went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, but Sweet Girl was a little unsure about going to strangers' houses... but she liked the candy they gave her!