Middle Child's Day

So August 12th is Middle Child's Day? Who knew? Not many, I'm sure. Figures.
I thought the following article about this was pretty funny!

Today is Middle Child's Day, so it'll probably be ignored

I suppose only middle children could truly understand this.
Refer to my previous post back in 2010 Two Stones and a Pebble: Middle Child Syndrome - Yeah Right!

And here's another pretty funny article about being a middle child.
Middle Child Characteristics: 21 signs you're a middle child

It's not easy being a middle child.

:)

I have come to the conclusion that nothing makes you feel as accomplished as a toddler makes you feel.

You close the front door.
Clap Clap Clap

You throw some garbage away.
Clap Clap Clap

You put your shoes on.
Clap Clap Clap

You change your toddlers diaper.
Clap Clap Clap

I have many skills. No one else may notice them. But my son does. And he lets me know how proud of me he is.

Goals

Apparently when I was about 10 or 11, I made a list of goals. Something, I think, everyone should do. Because we should all aspire to better ourselves. Which you will see from my list was clearly my intent. And for some odd reason, my mom had somehow got a hold of this list and kept it. She found it tonight and sent a picture of it to me and my sisters. Because, you know, my goals are awesome and should be shared.

Worthy goals.

But apparently the list went unfinished. 

For as we can see, goal #4 is blank.

It saddens me to say that I did not accomplish a single goal on this paper.

Epic fail.

First hair cut

Shalum has been on me for months to cut Jared's hair, and I finally relented the other day. It made me sad. I miss his wild messy hair. Since then, Shalum has been going off all the stinking time on how handsome he looks with his hair cut. Which of course he does look handsome. But he looked handsome with his crazy hair as well. And mom misses it.

The before shot 

The after shot

I can't even tell you how much I love his 'before' picture. Oh how it makes me laugh! When I showed the two pictures to some family, here were some of the responses:

He's like a little warrior!

He's like a different child... tame, calm, and well groomed... 

From devil to angel

How could you cut it when that looks so fantastic? 

Oh you cut the wild man out of him 

Loved the responses because that is totally what the pictures of him seemed to depict!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

I love Easter time! Despite what the world has turned the holiday into, I love it because it's the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through him we also have the opportunity to be resurrected after we pass on. We have the opportunity to have eternal joy and be like Him. I'm thankful for the great sacrifice that our Savior made. A sacrifice made because of the love He had for each of us. He took upon Himself our sins, sorrows, and pains so that we may live with our Heavenly Father again. It pains me to think of all the pain that I personally caused Him, but at the same time am so grateful for Him. I will forever be eternally indebted to Him. And I can only hope that I may live worthily enough to live with Him and our Father in Heaven again someday. 

I love that in our town, during the Easter and Christmas holidays, a cross is made of lights up on the 'E' above our town. It shines brightly at night for all to see. In a world that is quickly turning their backs from our Lord and Savior, our town still worships Him in this way. And I rejoice in this!

Even though our Savior's resurrection is the true meaning of the Easter holiday, we do still have fun with the kids, what with the Easter Bunny and hiding eggs. Thursday morning the Easter Bunny was visiting our local library, so we took Jared to get a picture with him! Kerry, Ella, and Sariah were there as well, and also Tamra, Tyler, Trestan, Taylor, my mom, and George. Out of all the littles, Jared and Sariah didn't seem to have a problem with the bunny. Although Sariah stayed in Kerry's arms for their picture, perhaps she would have had a problem if she were given over to the Easter bunny?

 

Jared is teething, so he's had his hand shoved in his mouth the past few days. Fortunately it isn't bothering him too much.

Trestan and Taylor were not happy about 

sitting on the Easter Bunny's lap

Poor Ella was scared of the Easter Bunny

Friday afternoon, we had an Easter egg hunt with Shalum's brother and his wife's kids. Each kid had their own color eggs to find. That way the eggs could be hid according to the age, and everyone got the same amount of eggs to find. Except for Jared and Sariah, they shared the same color and so each had half the amount of eggs as everyone else. But they're still at an age where they were more wandering around than anything.

Easter morning Jared got a few gifts. A soccer ball, apparently he doesn't have enough since we keep getting him more. A little spiderman chair, and an outfit. The moment we took him downstairs he went straight for the ball.

His Easter outfit. He looked adorable in it!

I was asked to help in the nursery at church that day, so Jared had a fun time with all the toys! So fun he kept trying to take all the toys away from everyone else! And sitting down to learn about Jesus's resurrection was not interesting to him. How could he sit when there were so many new toys to play with! Then we had a family dinner that evening with Shalum's family. All in all it was a good Easter! (Although Ella might disagree. Not only did the Easter Bunny scare her, Jared bit her really hard Sunday night. Naughty naughty boy! He's getting a little bit into a biting frenzy right now. Sigh.)

A little update on the fam...but mostly Jared!

So our little J man is 16 months old. Can you believe that?! He's getting so big now. His favorite toys are his soccer balls. He'll dribble them around the house with his little feet. It's the cutest thing. He'll put them to his forehead, heading it the way his dad does. He especially loves throwing them down the stairs to the basement. The moment I open the basement door he immediately goes in search of a ball. He is also sooo full of energy, and he is constantly climbing something. Usually something he shouldn't be climbing! I absolutely love this kid! Even though he's giving me gray hair! And yes, I found a couple grays a few months ago, much to my despair.

Yesterday evening I was watching Breaking Dawn part 2 and at one part the wolves were chasing a couple vampires and there was a lot of snarling, growling, and fangs (from the wolves, not the vampires!) and Jared was mesmerized and kept giggling. He LOVES dogs. Perhaps it is about time to get him one? We shall see. Or perhaps he was laughing at the violence. He does often laugh when I get hurt, or when Shalum threw his back out last month and could barely move he hurt so bad. Yeah, that made Jared really laugh, the crazy kid! But I'm pretty sure it was his love of dogs that was making him giggle during the movie. :) After all 'dog' was his third word he spoke.

Here are a few current pics of the kid

 Shalum claims he's in great need of a haircut. I totally disagree. He has a little mullet in the back and a little mohawk on top. 

Party in the back and party in the front.

I am not ready for him to have his first haircut yet. 

And what mom wants, mom gets!

 We were over at Aunt TamTam's house last week or so, and they (Jared and the twins) all love these chairs. But there's only two of them :( So Taylor went and sat on her brother!

 Hugging his giraffe. He loves that thing! 

It was a present from his birthmom, Kylia.

Having fun in the back of the deuce and a half with dad.

(Dad's to the right, out of the picture. He apparently wasn't picture worthy. Just kidding, he was sweeping all the leaves out)

Just a little update on me. I had my hair cut and dyed a couple weeks ago. A couple of patches were dyed blonde. And I love it! Here's a lovely pic of moi.

Shalum's much the same, won't change his hair style any time soon. He says his length is the perfect length. And apparently I'm obsessed with hair right now, since I keep talking about it. I don't actually have a current picture of Shalum (current as in, the last couple months). Shalum and I take more pictures of Jared than of ourselves. It's a rare moment when we find ourselves in a picture. The only reason I took the one of me from above was to show my pretty hair on facebook for all my friends to see! 

Crochet headband projects

I have been a crocheting machine lately. And what, do you ask, have I been crocheting? Flower headbands. They're easy and fairly quick to make. And I enjoy making them. I'm thinking about selling some, in fact I even have a few customers already. Here are some samples of what I've made already....

First off, are my four models: Tamra, Taylor, Mummy dearest, and Lacey. Each modeling the headband I made for them.

And here's me, modeling one of my own I made myself.

If you saw the post about the lights on Temple Square then you saw the pictures of me wearing this headband.

I love this headband! So pretty.

My cute niece, Ella, with her birthday cake on her face and a Fairy Princess Daisy Chain Crown on her head!

And no, I did not name this. I got it off ravelry.com the other night. That sight is awesome!

Now to learn more patterns and designs....