Jane turns TWO!

The day began with running through streamers on her door, following candy acorns down the hall and discovering her Totoro!!! What a fun 2nd birthday beginning! I remember so clearly the night/morning Jane was born. It is a very special memory and was the day I became a mommy. This little lady has brought our family so much joy! She is smart, clever, strong, adorable, caring, loving, adventurous and full of sugar and spice. She laughs, dances, swims, runs, and is full of more energy than a thunderstorm. Jane has a very keen sense of the world around her and enjoys exploring every bit of it!

This year we decided to do a Totoro party theme. It was a lot of fun! Jane loves this spirit of the forest and is the one movie she will sit all the way though. I love that it teaches imagination and has such a childlike way of teaching about family and love. I found a little picture of a Totoro stuffed animal and decided that must be her birthday present this year. So the past few nights I endlessly sewed by hand a little Totoro friend for Jane to enjoy. It was so worth it!!! She has played with him all day and cuddled with him for nap and bedtime. It is so fun to see her enjoy this gift so much! She even fed him at dinner time.

Look at that cheese Totoro grin :). I let Jane watch Totoro with her Totoro while I prepped dinner. It was really adorable to watch her holding him as she watched her favorite movie. For dinner we did rice, broccoli (her favorite!), wontons, and chicken. And of course did CHEERS with some apple juice!

Her cake was simple and had some Totoro acorns on top. He loves collecting acorns in the movie and the little girl follows a trail of them when she first finds him. So it was fitting to make sure we had some at the party. And chocolate and strawberry, mmmmm, you can't go wrong with that. Two of Janes other favorite foods.

I bought some special balloons for her birthday that say her name, and one that was a huge letter 2! They were sooooooo fun! I love balloons. Jane really is a special little lady and I adore her. I could not ask for a more bright and fun spirited little gal. She is my favorite 2 year old in all the land. Happiest of birthdays to my favorite girl in the world!

Oh, and her other favorite gift was her $3 bag of Legos. They are cheap, but surprisingly worked really well. She loved building towers with them. I think they will soon be her favorite toy like her dad. I see lots of building fun in our future.

Pompom Tube

Entertaining little little little ones while staying sane sometimes seems impossible at times. They seem to need some sort of attention at every moment and I don't like to just shove Jane in front of shows or iPad games so I have to get creative. Cardboard has proved to be the best tool on earth!!! I have made play kitchens and houses out of oversized boxes and little craft projects to. But the best discovery came this week as I finished a roll of wrapping paper. Jane has a jar of pompoms that she can play with and they are all sorts of colors. I poked a bunch of holes in the tube and drew corresponding colors to her fuzzy balls on them. It was so fun to watch her sort colors into these holes and say the color. She had a ton of fun swinging it around and watching them fly to ;)! 

If you need a cheap and fun way to entertain your little ones watch what you are throwing away, it can be some of the best entertaining out there.

Pool Time

Swimming, splashing and swimming some more!! We took the kids to the gym pool tonight and Jane was in absolute heaven. At first she clung to us like a little baby koala, but after we held her tummy and let her paddle and kick she was a crazy water lover! Each time she'd make it to the other side of the pool she would cling to its edge and shout "AGAIN!!" Her utter excitement made me remember how blessed we are to have children. They remind me daily the simple joys and accomplishements in life. James and I took turns helping Jane around the pool and letting her practice swimming and it was so much fun!! I think she's going to catch on pretty quickly, we were impressed by her coordination. She's such a joy to raise.

How often do we as adults stretch ourselves to learn something new? Or to face a challenge with courage? Children are amazing with how much they learn and how brave they are. No wonder we are asked to become like little children by the Lord. They really are amazing little souls. I can't wait to continue to watch Janes swimming skills blossom and to watch our children face life head on. I hope I can help them know that failure is just a way to learn to get back up and try again. All to often we put failure in such a negative light, but really how else do we learn the great process of picking yourself up after a fall and to try try again. I don't want them to fear "messing up" cause hey we're supposed to. What they need to know is to fix it instead of wallow in it. We all would do well to remember that life is one great big lesson in becoming our best selves! Through ups and downs. We have the power within us to learn and become great!!!!

Gratitude #7

Gratitude #6. My Baby Jane.

Words cannot describe how fun, beautiful, smart, energized, loving, creative and WONDERful this little gal is. She is such a joy in our family and makes us laugh all the time. Jane is a tender soul. She is quick to give a hug and kiss and loves to say "Good morning [insert daddy or mommy]", she has a high vocabulary and a great love of books, she loves being outside, in the tub, and to cuddle cuddle in a cozy blanket. She loves to scream "Wakey WAKEY!" at William and Dad. Bring out the coloring, play-dough or paint and Jane's in heaven. Jane is a mover and a shaker and likes to see how everything works. She loves to sing (currently knows; itsy bitsy spider, twinkle twinkle, love to see the temple, I am like a star, old McDonald, I am a child of God, and little bits of others). She enjoys counting, "123...8910". Her favorite little shows are Heidi, Puffin Rock and Curious George. Jane is amazing and rocks this world.

When I think of the day Jane was born I also think of my 'birth' into motherhood. She taught me the feelings of one of the deepest loves on this earth. Her birth was quick, hard, an incredible learning experience and something I will never forget. The way she looked at me the first time I saw her, how perfect she felt in our family, how patient she was with her daddy and me and our learning how to be parents! Jane was and is a beautiful baby girl. Her huge blue eyes, her golden hair, her toothy smile, and her button nose. Jane has a natural love for people and animals, and is drawn to be social and active.

There are little moments each day that I just gush over with love for this little girl. I love when she says, "bye bye, see ya, peace out" to her daddy when he's off to work, I love going in and getting her in the morning after her sleep, I love pulling her onto my lap for story time, I love when she'll hold my hand. I LOVE this little gal so much and feel so blessed to call her daughter and friend. I am so grateful for her.

Love you my Baby Jane!

Story Time

Story Times!! I have finally gotten Jane to a few story times this week and she loved them. She had so much fun (and sat still for a little bit). One was at a bookstore and the other the library. Jane really liked the fun songs sung at the library and adores the Thomas Train table at the store. This little gal has loved books I feel like from day one! We read on her little book couch in her bedroom every day and she has a blast picking them off her shelf. We love books here at our house!! They teach so much and truly can take you away from the world. I remember a few books when I was younger capturing my imagination and attention like nothing else. 

My favorite children's book illustrator/author is a couple. Husband and wife they do the most amazing stories and their pictures are out of this world!!! They are Audrey and Don Wood. To list a few of their classics I love; King Bidgoods in the Bathtub, The Napping House, The Red Ripe Strawberry and the Big Hungry Bear, Heckady Peg, Quick as a Cricket, Piggies and more. They are my favorite!

Then when I was older, Harry Potter, yes along with millions of others, really captured my imagination. I remember just waiting and anticipating when the next book would come out, like it was a holiday. Another series was by a church author called The Work & the Glory. I still need to read the last one, book #4 was the first book I ever cried in. And a few more....Mandy by Julie Andrews, and The Silver Crown which was the coveted book of Mrs. Stutzmans 5th grade classroom. The book one can read Over and over and over is the Book of Mormon!

Check out our side bar for a free copy if you'd like. The Book of Mormon truly teaches the lessons, values and principles one needs to live a life full of happiness. And it gives answers to life's hardest questions. There is power in the written word, especially the word of God. I am so grateful for good books and pray all of my children will have a love of reading instilled in them.

Dirty Joy

This weekend I had the big task of clearing our grow boxes in the back yard. Most of what I successfully grew this year came in the form of weeds. I sadly did not get to garden as much as I loved my garden last year. I hardly got anything in my harvest this year. And the even sadder part...I weeded each garden like 3 times in hopes of planting and then still grew mostly weeds. I really want to make sure I get the drive to plant an awesome one next year cause I really missed my tomatoes and zucchini this year!

I discovered while pulling up the beastie weeds that resided in my boxes, that these were the perfect play pens for jane!! She was in second heaven playing in the dirt. She'd sprinkle it on her head, smear it down her legs, dump it in her shoes and got it in every nook and cranny. It was quite hilarious when she decided to climb out of it and get cleaned up. She was covered, head to toe. Normally I'm not a humungo fan of letting Jane make huge messes. Every once in a while she gets to put paint all over her, or smears yogurt while eating, but for the most part it's controlled (well as "controlled" as they can be) messes in her high chair. This dirt experience was complete freedom! I didn't tell her to stop, I let her go as long as she wanted and she was filled with dirty joy!

We just had a beautiful women's conference with my church last evening. At it speakers shared amazing talks that uplifted my soul and gave me much to ponder on. My favorite talk was all about happiness and joy. Elder Uchtdorf of the first presidency of our church gave ab incredible message and shared an inspiring story. My favorite quote was, "God didn't design is to be sad. He created us to have joy!" How true that is, and I firmly agree! We are created to joyfully live life. We are meant to joyfully live life. There is great strength that comes from a joyfully lived life. That doesn't mean that your life is buttercups and rainbows. There are still trials, hard days and so forth....but they don't need to be the bulk of life or allowed to be the focus or the stumbling block. We truly are meant to have joy. I love watching my small children experience joy. Wee William has been so full of smiles and coos this month and it warms my heart to see him happy and curious. My Jane learns new words and phrases daily and is starting to pretend. How joyous that makes me, for pretending is one of my fondest pastimes. There really is great joy to be had in this life, good dirty joy!!

Family Time = My favorite time!

Tonight we had dinner outside pit style! My FAVORITE! We roasted some Italian chicken sausages that were so good, made s'mores, and had grapes and veggies. It was a delicious evening of being together! I love being outside and especially when it's with my favoritest people in the world!

Jane was an excellent kindling finder. She got pinecones, dry grass and twigs to help daddy start the fire. Mister James is a pro fire builder. Little William loves being outside and enjoyed some good vitamin D sunshine. He's sure getting to know the world around him and is just adorable. He has a great grin and inquisitive eyes, I love watching him look around and listening to his cooing.

Lately we have been trying to take a really good long walk at the end of our day to tire energy ball Jane out. It's been a really special time when we do it. Tonight we did our little round. We cross over a canal on the way and throw rocks in it to make big splashes and then we run through a huge field to the playground at our neighborhood elementary. It's quite the distance for Jane's little legs but she goes the whole distance! She and William really are so amazing. Children are incredible!! They learn so much, have incredible amounts of patience, and teach us the most important things. How grateful I am for my little family and all the wonderful special times we share together. Life is made up of moments, tons of them, and these are the best ones!

Eye balls...

Remember in my last post I said I'd tell you more about what we did with paint today. This was it! And it cost me all of $1. We collected rocks on a walk and then I had white and glow in the dark paints. The awesome eyeballs are from the dollar store here in town. Jane did a great job helping me paint, which means her paint covered her hands and arms :)! Then she helped me pick out which eyeballs went on each rock. I made a glue dot and she stuck them on. I think they turned out so funny and adorable. Mister James calls them the ancestors of minions. Oh the fun projects you get to do with kids. They make life an adventure everyday!!!

This is the rocks glowing, but you can hardly see them in the photo. They really do glow though, it's super fun!

Do the Hop.

The Happy Hop (scotch)!!! Jane and I have had a day of colors. I love to color and it's so fun to do it with my little gal. She enjoys it but doesn't stick with it too long, the amount of energy contained in little bodies is incredible! She can just bounce (literally) from one thing to the next. Today for our color day we used crayons, paint and chalk!!!

We colored a happy hop scotch outside on the front sidewalk to encourage those walking by to be happy! I love the bright colors of chalk on a dark sidewalk. Then we colored some of our favorite characters from a new little show we love to watch, "Puffin Rock." It is seriously the cutest little show and we love what it teaches her. The illustration/animation is adorable to! Jane loves peeling the paper off of crayons and watching them roll. Then we painted the rocks we had gathered a few days ago and painted them white. They will be shown later, it's a little spooky project we are working on for Halloween! Happy color day!!!