seederdai

this saturday started off fantastic!

jeremy let me sleep in! he is so good to me. he knows sleeping in is my greatest JOY! to top it off by the time i woke up the kids were already napping so i got to shower in peace and quiet. then i was trying to think of things to do on a saturday with the family. costco for pizza slices? the park again? when the kids got up jeremy left to get a hair cut and i took the kids on a bike ride. it was so nice out today! when jeremy got home he decided to wash the car. he told me to get the kids in their bathing suits. the day was quickly turning into a lazy day. conrad was obsessed with the hose and scarlet was helping jeremy wash the car. i sat outside watching my children play and it was this overwhelming feeling like, this is the best thing EVAR. this is a happy life. i'd watch conrad whip the hose around and laugh his head off. i can't even explain it. it was like, I'm going to have a heart attack, I'm so in love with right now. never had i been so happy to be sitting in the sun, watching my children play. after a rough week emotionally with all these things jeremy and i are dealing with, i honestly felt like it was heavenly father blessing me with this perfect moment. without sounding weird or cheesy it was almost a spiritual moment. my heart was bursting at the seams. i said a little prayer of gratitude, for having healthy children. for living in a house. for happy children. for wonderful moments like this that make life worth living.

we were out playing in the water for over 2 hours! conrad would pull scarlet in her wagon all around the neighborhood. up and down the street. its a long street too! he would throw a fit if scarlet would want out or if i tried getting him to walk back to our house. before i knew it, it was dinner time! i gave the kids a very bubbly bath. so splashy! we ordered pizza from this mom+pop pizza place. its the best pizza ever! a large for 8 bucks to. can't beat that. CANT BEAT IT I SAY! we put on a movie, ate our pizza and jeremy shared a bowl of girl scout thin mint ice cream with the kids. today was the perfect saturday. it didn't even feel like work taking care of the kids. sometimes when i read that people are just hanging out on a saturday i don't even think that sounds relaxing because guess what? theres no such thing as relaxing when you have kids. but it didn't feel like that at all. it felt relaxing and like it aint no thang. sook it.

and then i sent jeremy to the grocery store for a roast for sunday and he came home with these. :)

happy saturday!

family of 4.

jeremy and i decided to "take a break" from his parents and just keep it our little tight family for a while. his parents always watch the kids on fridays so we can have our weekly date night and we go to their house on sundays for dinner. and then all throughout the week as a way for me to escape the "witching hours" of my daily routine. it was getting a little much for me. it was really hard moving away from my life in california where all my friends are. i felt like if we lived there the kids would have such a wonderful life of play dates and activities (cough cough, disneyland and the beach, cough) so jeremys family was literally all i had. and lets be honest it takes a village, am i right people?!

but since we've moved back to arizona (from utah. thats a whole other post i need to write about) i have been hanging out with seriously, the most rad, down to earth chicks. I'm finally coming into my own and building a small simple life for us here. i can't tell you how great it feels to know that i can actually call someone to go to the park with me. i used to cry that before EVEN IF I WANTED TO i wouldn't have anyone to call to do that with. I'm really grateful for the few girls i know here who have gone out of their way to be my friend. i literally will not make friends because believe it or not, i am never the one to "make the first move" (wink) (non sexual pun not intended. what am i talking about?). okay but where am i going with this? I'm not quite sure.

today i went to the zoo with a really cool girl in my ward. then we met up with daddy (not MY daddy, but you know, DADDY) and went out to dinner as a family. ON A FRIDAY! and then the park. it was just so perfect. i felt so happy pulling into our driveway feeling like we had the most wonderful day as a family together. we spent our date night with our two little miniature sized dates and i hope conrad and scarlet call us because i really liked going out with them.

any way. I'm slowly writing in my blog more for me and it seems odd that other people can read about it. i just really wanted to remember today, because it was sort of perfect. :) (and, you may throw up now.)

(scarlet saying...dude conrad, are you seeing this turtle!?)

(this is how conrad smiles)

(from the other day)

(night bike ride!)

(today from the zoo)

scarlet knew we were leaving the zoo today so she plopped herself down in the middle of the walkway and simply said "No". everyone thought she was darling :)

ba-ba.

i think we can all agree that raising children is the most rewarding, heart swelling, heart aching thing a human can do. when I'm away from my kids i feel an emptiness. life isn't complete without my kids. but this weekend i left them for two (point 5) days (2.5) (thats two and a half) with jeremys parents.

now my kids still take a bottle. and i don't care. you know why? because i can't nurse them anymore and that makes me sad. i see giving my children a bottle as a form of comfort. is conrad 2 1/2 years old. YOU BETCHA. am i ashamed he still has a bottle before bedtime? NOT AT ALL. and for those of you mothers judging me, guess what, i don't care at all. in fact i hold my head high. at the end of the day we are all so tired. we feed the kids, bathe them, and then cuddle them in their warm clean pajamas, read books and they suck on their little bottles and sink deep into mommy and daddys lap.

while we were away i told jeremys mom to give the kids their bottles. she is anti bottles!! no bottles! "grandma doesn't give bottles". i told jeremy he better tell his mom my children will have a bottle if they want one or so help me! no one denies my children of something that is comforting to them while we are away for my birthday/valentines for two nights.

when we arrived to pick them up sunday i was informed my children were not given bottles, or conrad his pacifier. jeremys mom proudly bragged and praised herself in the fact that my children didn't have a single bottle the entire time. i was so upset. i strongly felt like its not her right or responsibility to take away the bottle from my children. i am their mother and only i can and will have that hanging over my head. i felt like my whole body went numb when she kept bringing it up over and over. she was proud of herself. she said "they didn't ask for a bottle the entire time!". i know thats not true.

did my kids ask for a bottle when we got home? of course they did.

i guess my pride is hurt because i wasn't the one to take away the bottle. i don't need someone else stepping in to do my job. she even told me she tried making him go potty on the toilet. i just...thast my job you know? even if she meant well, there has to be common sense in all this.

parenting is hard is so many different ways. its hard when someone steps in from the outside and tries to tell you how to even raise your own kids. the kids i carried for 9 months, gave birth to, nursed 80 times a day to keep alive. the same children i bathed, fed, and rocked every single night of their lives. MY OWN KIDS.

thats it. how would you feel moms?

SUNDAY FUNDAY!!

Jeremy and i were asked to speak this sunday in church.

the sunday we were asked we sat in the front row FRONT AND CENTER, NICE TO MEET YOU! bonus: we came in late. so as i walked from the very back of the chapel down that long, long, aisle to the VERY FRONT ROW i could feel everyones eyes burning on my christian louboutin six inch stilettos. Okay my shoes were from Marshalls but lets not get off topic here shall we? we are giving a talk in church for goodness sakes!

As we sat in the front row I tried to remain as incognito as I could. you know, lay down on the pew, putting my face in Jeremy's coat jacket, silencing my cell phone..what normal people do when they don't want the bishopric to notice you. oh side note: we came in late that sunday. oh but did i say that already?

Church is over. We're headed out the door. FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! after three very long hours in half nursery/half the hallway with crying kids/the opening prayer in sunday school before the nursery leaders dragged my sorry behind BACK INTO NURSERY. (i hate you guys by the way. jk i love you. jk i hate you. unless you're reading this then you're doing a great job not calming my kids down.)

okay wait, where was i? okay. walking out of church two girls stop me to chat. they talked to me so long that a member of the bishopric just so happened to grab jeremy by the neck tie and say in a cold deep smokers voice, "we'd like for you and your wife to speak this sunday". actually he had one of those machines you hold up to your throat when you lose your vocal cords, and I'm totally joking...

I finished up talking to the girls making pretend plans with them (in my head, because i hate making play dates with girls i hardly know, SO SUE ME!). My husband and the member of the bishopric are standing there and jeremy informs me "WE'RE SPEAKING THIS SUNDAY!!" to which i replied (this is a true story) "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" (and i threw my head back)(No seriously, i threw my head back. While this poor man was just standing there.) They both laughed and I did not. NO I DID NOT. I kept a straight face and said "Well didn't you tell him we'd be out of town?! Because we're going out of town remember?!" Again they both laughed. Again I said, "no seriously, i don't want to!" and then the laughs became just a half smile. Jeremy eventually walked away and it was just me and this evil man. So I said again, "no but really, thanks for ruining my Super Bowl sunday". To which he replied by looking down at his shoes and looking so uncomfortable he'd probably rock in the corner and cry if he wasn't in a public place. I giggled my feminine laugh and said "Oh I'm just kidding!!" and then he smiled and I walked away.

On the way to the car I told Jeremy "I told you we shouldn't have gone to church today!".

okay but on a more serious note. is it safe to say i have writers block? for a church talk. because i do. i can't even think of an introduction for ourselves. I'm at a total blank.

So far I have...

"Hi, im lauren but my friends call me law rhen, JK!!!!!!!!1 and we're the hoovers! like the vacuum!!! (and i'd whisper under my breath...)"at blogspot.com"...