Fun in the...humidity

Pictures from Penny Park

Note the elephant in one hand, and the horse in the other. They are members of Tommy's new entourage, whom he insists on taking everywhere with him...

Okay, Jack is ADORABLE in person, but he always seems to have his eyes closed in pictures.

I think he gets it from his grandma Rae Rae...

(entourage members not pictured: Giraffe and Dinosaur)

My little Gerber baby

He could do this for hours...

(doesn't he look like his daddy?)

This week the boys and I took a trip to the park, because I figured they could use some "outside time." Little did I realize that it was the HOTTEST, most HUMID day of the week! It was overcast, but very uncomfortable. Luckily, the boys didn't seem to care. They loved being on the swings, and Tommy had a lot of fun throwing bark dust chips down the slide. They're cute little guys!

The End Result

Last weekend Logan and I finished our living room! Our new couch cover arrived, we put up the chair rail, and hung our family pictures. Soooo exciting! I love how it looks, and it's much easier to keep it clean when it actually looks like a room with a purpose :-)

I was able to hold my first lia sophia show there on Tuesday, and it was wonderful! It was the first time in a long time that I wasn't embarrassed to have somebody in our front room. I have to admit, I was pretty proud, and eager to show it off (as well as the jewelry).

(please ignore the laundry basket)

and yes, the couch IS a different color...

Don't the red and the gold look great together??

Next on the agenda: turning the playroom into the office. Logan and I have decided that we need a space for the computer that isn't in our bedroom, and my lia sophia supplies are beginning to grow! I'll keep you updated if we do anything major, but at least I don't need to paint the room. We just need to figure out how to get reliable internet in there...

Interlude

Today was one of those days where my stress level hit a high note and made me a bit grouchy. The kids were good for most of the day, but for some reason when Logan got home Tommy decided to yell at him (we don't know what he was yelling, but he was very emphatic about it), Jack decided to be clingy, Tommy began bouncing off the walls, and in the middle of all this my lia sophia jewelry kit showed up. I was very excited to get (and open!!) my kit, but it was a recipe for disaster. Since I was wanting to look at the jewelry, my two lovely boys wanted to look at it, too, but since my stress level was high the situation did not turn out well. Tommy was crying, Jack was crying, and I felt like screaming!

Anywho, I finally declared to Logan that I was getting too stressed out, and needed to just relax. He jumped right in to help as much as he could, and took Jack to another room to play peek-a-boo, and wrestled with Tommy to get some of his excess energy out. Such a relief! I plopped down on the couch to watch an episode of "Gilmore Girls" and let my brain unwind.

About ten minutes later, Tommy quietly came back into the living room and said, "Mommy, are you okay?"

It was soooo sweet! My heart just melted. Here I was, wallowing in my own stressed-out selfish pity mode, and Tommy noticed! He ran up and gave me a hug, and rested his head on my shoulder for a bit.

Those are the moments that make being a mommy--even on the not-so-easy days--worth it.

A Child's Prayer

Heavenly Father

Thank thee for this day

Bless the cat

Bless the dog

Bless Achilles (our cat)

Amen.

--Tommy, this morning at breakfast

Picture Post

Sunset from our kitchen window. I love this view!!

Tommy eating one of his new favorite foods--Pizza

Jack, eating one of his new "solid" foods--green beans. Lately he's been very determined to feed himself. He gets mad at me if I try to feed him with a spoon! Thank goodness for baths.

Awww....ain't he cute? 9 months old!

The new livingroom color! This room is about 85% done. We need to add a chair rail, and I'm waiting for the couch cover to come in the mail, and I need to hang the pictures back up. Sooo close!

See my color palette...

The first rose on our new rosebush! We also have a low climbing dark pink rose plant, and a bush that gets tiny white roses. This particular rose is called Jacob's Ladder.

Our flourishing plant!!!

Papa, Tommy, Jack, and Logan feeding the fish at Smith Mt. Lake

The crazy fish at Smith Mt. Lake. They were HUGE. And very aggressive.

Tommy loved feeding the fish! And Jack is learning to stand...

Tommy playing miniature golf at Smith Mt. Lake (an interesting experience...)

Jack, Grandpa Tad, Logan, and Tommy at a boxwood maze in Bedford

We at at a cafe that used to be a train station. Quite tasty, and CUTE!

The past few weeks... (Finally!)

Whew! What a whirl wind the past few weeks have been!

On May 26th, Logan graduated from the Cardinal Criminal Justice Academy in Roanoke, Va. We were so happy to be able to have his parents (as well as Nanna and Papa) there to celebrate with us! It was a nice ceremony, pretty short and sweet, and we were so proud of him! He received an award for being an "Iron Man" (receiving 100% on his physical test, which he did numerous times). After the graduation ceremony we drove up to Smith Mountain Lake, a retirement/resort area about 45 minutes from Roanoke, where we stayed in a house for three days to just sit back and relax. It was loads of fun! Logan and I took Tommy swimming in the lake, and we had some exciting adventures with the fish near one of the shopping centers (they were HUGE and very used to eating popcorn...) Tommy and Jack slept really well the whole trip, which made Mommy happy!

(Pictures will be in a separate post)

Sadly, Nanna and Grandma Rae Rae (my mom and Logan's mom, respectively) both got sick the last day we were at the lake! Still not sure how that happened, because it wasn't food poisoning, but it wasn't too fun for them. Logan ended up getting sick too, but not until just before he started work...luckily, the Lord seemed to be sustaining him, because he'd be fine at work, and then come home and sleep for hours, and his fever would go up, etc...he seems to be doing better now, but it wasn't a fun way to start out.

Other than the illness, he's doing well in Lexington. He's pretty happy to be done with school and moving on to the "real thing." He'll spend three weeks with a FTO (field training officer) on the evening shift, then he'll switch to a new FTO on the night shift, then three weeks later switch to another FTO on the day shift. At the end of those three weeks, he'll be ready to be on his own! Hopefully he'll be on the day shift, because that was his original shift he was hired for, but there's a possibility the new police chief might change the way the shifts work, so we'll have to see what happens when August rolls around.

Logan's parents stayed for 10 days, and we had fun playing with them, and working on some small house projects (I FINALLY painted my living room, and I actually like the color! It's getting so close...) Logan's mom also had the opportunity to do some family history work while she was out here, since she has some family dating back to the 1700s in Rockbridge county. Small world! Logan's dad took a ton of pictures while they were here (and I didn't) and I was hoping to get copies, but sadly he realized when he went to download them that he didn't have the right cable...sad...but he's going to send them later. It's always nice to have them come and visit us, and the boys certainly enjoyed getting to know them better!

In other news...

I have decided to become a Lia Sophia advisor! Lia Sophia is a fabulous jewelry company owned by the same family that owns Remington shavers (not that the two things are very related...). It's the type of business where you do parties and people can actually see examples of the product, as well as order items out of the catalog. I was hesitant to start up initially, because I wasn't sure how interested I would be in selling jewelry, but excitement is contagious! It really is a great product (and has a fabulous warranty...100% replacement on broken items, which is invaluable when you have toddler who likes to play with necklaces and/or earrings), plus wearing it makes me feel "girly" (which my husband likes). I love the energy of the parties, and the ability I'll have to run my own business from home! I'll keep you posted of how I progress, but if you'd like to take a look at the type of jewelry Lia Sophia produces, check out their website. And if you'd like to buy some pieces, let me know and I'll hook you up with some fabulous hostess perks...

And one last piece of small news: Logan and I bought three rosebushes a few weeks ago, which Dad helped me plant. We weren't expecting much out of them this year, but they've already started blooming! Each bush has bloomed at least once, which makes me happy. It's nice to look out the window and see a splash of color :-)

Great talk!

I remember hearing this talk by President Monson the year before I got married. The line that struck me the most was "Remember that ofttimes the wisdom of God appears as foolishness to men, but the greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and a man obeys, that man will always be right."

When I was searching lds.org for the text of the talk, I discovered that President Monson has been saying that for years! Must be true, eh?

LDS.org - Liahona Article - Constant Truths for Changing Times