To Emilee and Adeline

Love,
Mommy

I saw this video on Design Mom and thought it was beautiful!

Announcement

I have a food blog!!! Anyone who knows me well, or maybe not even that well, will know that I LOVE food! I love talking about food, making food, watching other people make food, and most of all eating food!!

So come join me on my New Blog, and I'll try to share some of my favorite food from time to time!

See you there!

Mother of the Month

I am introducing something new to my blog! Every month I am going to feature a mother I admire. We will get to hear parenting tips, thoughts on motherhood, and basically celebrate the trials and triumphs of the toughest job on earth! It's going to be great...so let's get started!

Our Mother of the Month for January is my lifelong friend, Mindy Brown! We met in the fourth grade and were pretty much inseparable until high school graduation. Life has taken us in different directions, and to different places, but we have remained friends through it all. Mindy has been a mother for 13 years now. I have enjoyed watching her in this roll, passing along the magic of the childhood we shared together!

I love you Mindy! Your sense of humor and easy going approach to motherhood is inspiring to me! Thank you for your example.

Introducing......Mindy Brown!


1. Age - 31 (I think) I kind of lost track at 17!

2. Number of Children - 5 fabulous kids

3. What is your secret weapon (a good tip for raising children) - HaHaHa, I threaten them that they will have to clean "poo screws" if they keep disobeying or fighting. A little explanation, poo screws are the little screws on the toilet seat that gather lots of great smelling stuff. Suddenly my children are angels!

4. Personal thoughts on motherhood - Motherhood is the most difficult and challenging job on the planet as well as the most underpaid for all the abuse you take (I tell everyone that my pay check will come in the eternities, although the little I love yous and things are pay enough). It is also the most divine. I am honored to be the mother of my children and they prove to me everyday just how much I owe them. I feel it a great privilege to be a mother and most times feel inadequate. I pray that I am doing what my Father in Heaven intended of me by sending them to our home.

5. Favorite go to recipe - Chicken Fajitas (for recipe click here)

6. Favorite Movie - I actually only enjoy watching kids movies and Comedies. If I am going to spend the time sitting to watch something it better make me laugh.

7. Favorite book for children - Lots of them but most favorite is one called "Be Brown" by Barbara Bottner. A smallish explanation is in order. This is a simple book about a boy and his dog. The young boy gives his disobedient dog several commands in which he obeys none. The boy finally shouts "Be brown!" to his dog who is brown. I love this book for many reasons but mostly because my husband hates dogs and our last name is Brown.

8. Your definition of happiness - That's difficult seeing as how depression has been a major part of my life since the age of 12, but I would have to say that for me it is a state of mind that I alone control.

9. Favorite motivational thought - "The best reflection of ones self cannot be found in a mirror but by observing what those around you are becoming." Its not technically a motivational quote but for a mother what better words to help you to keep going, when as a mother you give so much of yourself to those around you that you yourself are often neglected.

10. Something you learned from your mother - I learned from my mother that a chocolate bar hidden in the cupboard is a lifesaver for any stay at home mom.

Wish List

I could really use this right now! My lips have been a nightmare all winter. They are in need of some TLC. Kisses are not as desirable when I'm coming at you with chappy lips!

If anyone wants to buy some for me, you can get it here! I'm sure my husband and children would greatly appreciate it!!! *wink *wink!

More Favorites

1. Peonies. They look like roses with feathered hair and I think it looks good on them! I love how soft and feminine they are. I wish I had a bouquet of them sitting on my night stand. I know they would make me smile first thing in the morning!

2. "You've Got Mail". It is my favorite movie. I watch it at least once a month and I love it every time! I wish THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER really existed. It would give me another excuse to visit NYC, and I would most certainly go in the fall....and treat myself a "bouquet of newly sharpened pencils"!!!

3. Toast. Hot buttery scrumptiousness! The aroma alone, takes me to my happy place! I am a toast junkie. It is top of my comfort food list.....and always will be.

4. DKNY Be Delicious. It is a perfume (the green bottle)....... and it makes me FEEL delicious!!!

photo taken from here!

Me and Adeline...

...We are pretty much friends by now! In case you were wondering, I've totally got her back!

P.S. I changed the photo on my "Triumphant" post to a photo of our wedding day (a little more applicable, don't you think).

I thought I would keep this darling one of Adeline up though. She is so darn adorable!

Halo

Beyonce - Halo (Official Music Video) - Click here for funny video clips

I love this song! It makes me feel all lovey-dovey for my manly man!!

Triumphant

Let me share an interesting tidbit of personal information. I have really struggled in my life to do anything hard!

I am certain when I got married back in December of 2005, a self inflicted boundary of difficulty was finally crossed. You see, getting married was a very, very hard step for me! As a little girl and a teenage girl I wasn't aware of my deep lurking fear of marriage. To this day, I'm not entirely sure why I was so afraid of something I really wanted and needed in my life. When Tyler and I were dating, I dreaded the mention of marriage, and it wasn't only with him.....if I dated anyone who seemed interested in marrying me, I would turn ill. Literally.

I would stew and fret, and my stomach would get all tied up in knots. I would have feverish dreams of being married to someone and not be happy about it, and feel trapped and overwhelmed and miserable. I think it came down to trust issues as well as worrying to much about all of the "what if's".

Tyler and I talked about marriage for a long time and to quote myself "I just couldn't do it"!

I was most miserable....loving Tyler and not wanting to lose him, but feeling crippled by my fears and thus stuck in a very sad place.

Not long before I took the plunge, Tyler was talking with his bishop about our predicament. His loving and inspired bishop said that if we know marriage is good and even the right thing for us, we should do it. There are special blessings we receive when we obey this commandment, and then he promised Tyler that someday my fears would go away and would be replaced with love.

Somehow that promise set me free!! Though I was still unsure in many ways, I knew that it was the right thing and I tried so hard to put my trust in the Lord.

On December 17, 2005 with knots in my stomach and a shaky faith, I knelt across the altar in the Salt Lake Temple and made promises to stick with Tyler for eternity!! I was happy....and terrified, but I did it!!!!

Victory!

Victory over my fears. Victory over the nay-sayers. Victory over opposition. Victory over myself!

Now, four years later, my fears of marriage are completely gone and my heart is full of love.

I am teaching myself that hard things are completely possible for me!! I am working on the weakest parts of myself now. Baby steps.

I am a mother now....hard. I am trying to be a good housekeeper.....hard. I am trying not to misjudge people....hard. I am trying to start good habits and get rid of the bad...hard. I am trying not to be so hard on myself....hard.

The point of all this is that I am not so afraid of hard things anymore. I know I can do anything....anything! It feels good.

Good Books

I am craving an evening spent in a cozy bookstore.

Walls lined with words bound in leather and linen. Heart felt writings, thoughts and poetry. Chronicling reality and imagination.

I wish to be sitting in a deep couch, leather and over-stuffed, sipping a creamy hot chocolate and savoring a pumpkin tart. Pouring over a story of someones life, full and adventurous.

The comforting hum of other patrons perusing the aisles and aisles of books. People laughing and whispering and buying stories that they will tell to their children before bed.

Maybe this weekend I'll take my babies and they can help me eat my tart!

The Gardener

Have you ever grown a diaper garden? I most certainly have. At times I am changing them so frequently that a small patch of them will appear, usually on the living room floor!

How delightful, one might think....to have a garden in the house! Oh...but not so!! The problem with a dirty diaper garden, is they do not have the pleasant aroma of a rose garden, and though they are ripe, they are in no way delicious, and thus need to be plucked and thrown away as not to take over the house!

And so I am off to harvest the huggies!!

My Space

In my brain resides a space, sweet, charming and all mine. In colors of ivory and blush with all of the perfect feminine touches! Kind of like Kathleen Kelly's apartment on "You've Got Mail". It will be light and airy, yet cozy, comfortable and inviting.

In this space is a desk. A beautiful desk where I create! I read and write and record all of my fabulous ideas and projects to beautify my life and my home. There on my desk sits a perfectly beautiful desk calender and it looks exactly like the one pictured above! Isn't it sweet?

To buy one of your very own go here!

Brand New Year

The Holidays were great and long and sick and tired! It was so fun to watch Emilee opening her gifts. We watched her climb up the stairs and run into my mom's living room, jump up and down at the sight of all the gifts and Christmas cheer!

I think she felt the magic!

Unfortunately the holidays were full of head colds, sore throats, coughing and achy bodies. We arrived home from our week and a half vacation even more exhausted than when we left.

I am sitting here in the middle of a huge mess, next to Emmy-boo, who keeps going pee-pee in her princess pull-ups! We started potty training today, and I'm not quite sure what I am doing! I'm feeling a little intimidated, I must say. I certainly need to watch the training video again.

I'm excited for the new year!!! I know my cold will pass in the next few days, Emmy will begin using her new potty chair, and I'll get my mess cleaned up.

I have been thinking.....I need a moto for the year, something to motivate and inspire me into action!!! I narrowed it down to two. "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" and "Just Do It". I can't decide between them, so I'm going with "Cleanliness is next to Godliness, so Just Do It!"

This year my home is going to be a haven of peace and cleanliness!! All of those things I always talk about doing, I'm just going to do!! It is going to be awesome! I am so excited! I really want to be a new and better version of my self this year! I want to try things I normally wouldn't have the desire or courage to do! I just know that 2010 is going to rock my world.

So say goodbye to the old lazy, tired, unmotivated Michelle and say hello to the new and improved!!!

I'm off to clean my kitchen!! Talk to you later!