Being a mom is hard....

Sometimes I think that people think that being a mom is not that hard. It comes so natural to most of us that we don't take time to think about what we are doing. Having Regan be my first child was delightful. She was an "easy baby" she always slept, ate, played etc exactly how I wanted her to and has been a very easy child to "manage." Lauren on the other hand was trouble from the start. She never slept, was fussy, crazy and all the things that Regan wasn't. There are different things that I love about my children, but sometimes I find myself treating them the same when they are SO VERY DIFFERENT.
I was observing them in school today ( there is a booth so they don't I was watching) I saw the way they interacted with other children as well as with themselves. I found myself crying, A LOT. When they are at home I do not take the time to watch them and really realize their personalities. I subconsciously expect the same things from them, even though they are different people and respond differently to things.
I was crying because I realized that all the things that I find annoying about Lauren is just how she is. I realized that I need to treat her differently then I do Regan, that she needs different things. I love my little Lolo and hate how ignorant I have been about her differences. Lauren always wants my attention and hangs on me all the time. I get so frustrated sometimes because I feel like I can never get anything done, but she needs me more than the dishes need to be done and more than pretty much anything else that needs to be done and that I need to be better about giving her that.

I aim to be a fantastic mom to my children, sometimes I just need to be smacked in the face once in a while and reminded how beautifully unique my daughters are.

July is over and I only have a billion pictures to show for it.

We have been busy outside... More hiking... which I think I am finally getting Cally to enjoy and the girls have fun. Last time we went up We went with some friends and their three little girls. My girls love them and would spend all waking minutes with them if I let them.
So I endured what no other wife would endure... right Heidi!! The Podcast slumber party... I mean campout. We went up to perception point up by Causy and at first I thought oh this will be fun all the nerds and their families having fun up in the trees... well turns out that after we burnt or weenies and toasted the mallows... all the girls ditched out and took their kids home. So there I was stuck with ALL THE NERDS BY MYSELF. Emily stayed ( friend of the muppets... not tech. family) thank goodness so that I was not the only girl with a boat load of nerdy guys. Anyway they thought it would be fun to do their cast from up in the mountains and tell scary stories and review horror comics. Jason from the Ogden insider came and listened in because he is doing a story on the guys for his magazine. Although I find all of this really nerdy it was cool that they took an interest. It was fun even though they made me talk... eak I sound stupid... don't listen to this cast. We put the girls down in the tent by themselves thirty feet away from where we were and they were perfect! They had so much fun in the tent by themselves and didn't even try to come out... I may have told them there are bears around, i am not lying there are signs! Anyway all was well except Cally forgot the bag with our clothes in it. HA! I was so mad. PMSing anyway and then not super happy about sleeping in my clothes and having the girls not have extra stuff... oh well all of my complaining was for not and everything was fine.
After we left there we headed down to Heber City to go camping with my family. Did I mention I was still PMSing... I was not a joy to be around the entire time we were there. I feel bad for everyone. Everyone but me had fun swimming in Deer Creek Res. riding on the ATV's and eating yummy dutch oven cooking. That I slaved over bitterly... I am not kidding I was not pleasent AT ALL. Cally had fun trying to take down my brother in law Cory who out weighs Cal by a hundred pounds. Cal can usually hold his own, but he looked like a rag doll out in the water. The girls had fun playing in the water with their cousins, and we got to know our new brother in law better. I past out before the fun started I was such a party pooper. Oh we did make a pit stop for our clothes... just so you know. But I was mad anyhow. Once we finally got home I just passed out. I got the biggest migraine ever and thought I was going to die. I learned I need sleep a lot more now that I am old. I just cannot go a week staying up every night until 3... I am old I used to be able to just keep on going... not anymore.




We hit up Lagoon again... the girls love it. We took Grandma and Grandpa along with us and all had a good time.


We had the opportunity to babysit cute little ANDY. I took so many pictures of that kid you would have thought he was my own. But he is just so cute. Yeah so what I might be a little baby hungry but I got that door slammed in my face by my dear sweet husband and well i am living vicariously through my friends and there cute kiddies. My girls love Andy and really he is such a good baby... their next one will be a monster guarenteed!

I just thought these pictures were cute.... Regan makes the funniest faces all the time and while Lolo was trying to carry Andy all over the house Regan was hamming it up for the camera.

Work has been good. I love tennis have I mentioned that before? I really do miss playing all the time and miss the competition, this last session I had a few students ( these super cute teenage boys. A whole class of em) They were good and pushed me a little more then usual. I love teaching Rec. but I sersiously miss competing. This is my week off and I have been trying to get all the projects done that I wanted to do all summer... goodness sakes I have made some messes and spent way too much money EAK!! I am about 75% done with all of them (ha I know I should finish one before starting another... but hey that is just how I do it... ease up a little) I will post when they are done... I am super excited about it all.

We got the Wii active game. It is the best!! I love it and it kicks my butt, just like I need it to. I made Cal try it and I got the best ab workout laughing at him trying to do the exercises. For such an athletic guy he is so uncordinated sometimes. He cannot do squats for whatever reason... so he resorted to lifting his leg up so the lady in the game would stop yelling at him for being retarded.

We have had fun with all the fun things in Ogden... we love the Monday night movies, and are excited for the art walk next Friday. We went to the 24th of July parade last week (sorry no pictures... Shelley you should e-mail me the ones you took) Regan got a purple wildcat from one of the WSU cheerleaders and carries it everywhere with her now, it's the coolest. Ah to be young again and amused by the simple things. We had fun though with our friends and the girls just love to see all the people, they are just like me I love to people watch, it is interesting to hear the things they notice. But by far their favorite thing going on in good ol O-town right now are the horses. They brought them out last year and then again this year and the girls know them all and get so excited when they see their favorites. I love Ogden I don't care what anyone has to say about it. I love the old homes I love that I can hike, go to an antique shop, go to an art gallery listen to a concert, play in the park... all within walking distance of my home. Anyway I am obviously tired and rambling on. I will try not to wait 3 weeks again... So I couldn't find my camera til just now... anyway here are the rest of the camping pic

Blog Lazy

So I have been super blog lazy, and well lazy in general really. i have been getting gentle nudges to update so here we go.
Nothing so super excited just regular summer time fun. Regan's sports class is done. I feel like I want to keep her in it all summer, but well... we are busy with other things. She is still doing piano, we had a couple week hiatus, but we are back on and going strong. We have had a lot of fun playing with our friends, having preschool with the kids in the neighbor hood along with me teaching tennis and give my girls and some friends girls tennis lessons ( really just playing). It has been a lot of fun. Lauren is obsessed with sun"scream" and wants to put it on about a hundred times a day and slathers it on me every time I leave the house as well. It's good for me, just a little bothersome. I have a mole that turned white! EAK... so I really should get it checked out as well as wear sun screen for my life outside.

For the 4th of July we went up to Pineview and had a blast with some fam and friends. The girls love the beach. Lauren loves the water and Regan likes to strut her stuff. Lauren really had to go to the bathroom... and we were no where near the bathroom so after a few minutes of crying she just peed on the beach. Don't worry I kicked sand over it :) She would not go in the port-o-potty type bathroom and cried for ever about going on the beach again. I don't understand that child. I am giving her permission to pee there and she won't , but she will pee on the bathroom floor like it is her job... anyway. We had fun building sand castles, seriously sucking up smashball and being pelting with a nerf football that weighed four pounds because it had absorbed so much water. We all came home and crashed before fireworks. So last year as many already have heard me complain. We were in Portland. I love Portland don't get me wrong, but we went up to Rocky Butte and looked over all of Portland and into Vancouver WA.... it was really pretty up there but trying to watch fireworks from that far away is like kissing standing ten feet apart. You can see them off in the distance, but there is no effect. Clearfield is just awesome. The fireworks rock and they always have and so I guess I got spoiled and nothing else is good enough. We went to North Ogden's founders day fireworks and they were bad, but we had good company, then we went to West Points fireworks and they were nice just only about five minutes long. Clearfields are just the best.... anyway enough ranting about how awesome the fireworks are. I also like going because I get to see so many people from growing up. We all sit in the same spots every year and it is just fun to see families grow and change from year to year. Our friends Luke and Amy came with us too with their SUPER cute girls and we all had fun enjoying the show and snuggling with each others kids. :) We were not very festive but Lauren did manage to steal a head band that made her look HOT! Cally and I had fun together like always... and Geez Cal could you ruin another picture? HA i know I look HOT. Oh and since I been getting a lot of questions about my hair here is a glimpse. Thanks to Liz and My sister Shauna for making it look a million times better. Ah there went 8 inches! That is like a year of growing it out.

We have been trying to hit the trails as well. Most of the time it has been pretty good but of course when we go with friends. They go up a lot and take their CUTE baby Andy. I think Andy might be the cutest little boy I have ever seen. And so sweet and quite! The best kind of babies. The girls complained a lot and we only made 3/4 of the way up before turning around. They did get to have their first experience with Beef Jerky... yummm. Our summer is going well and we are enjoy almost every minute of it. If only there was not work... we just had money and could go and do :( oh well. Life is good I cannot complain.
We did get new family photos done, but I will put them in a slide or something because I don't want to post all of them I like too many of them. But don't worry grandparents you will be getting copies soon.

More rain with small glimpses of sunshine.

Yeah so WHAT I am talking about the weather AGAIN!! oh and my week as well. ( I can use the rain analogy all day alright?!) More rain which messed up more of my tennis lessons... No week off for me this month :(. We were stuck in the house a lot and I lost my temper a lot along with my voice. I could not speak really at all. Then it came and went for days and still is pretty weak. I don't know what caused it, but it sucks. I have developed a cough a long with it and man am I SICK of coughing for nothing and not being able to speak.

Some good news ( or sunshine as I will call it today) We got a piano. The girls love it and I don't suck too bad I can play all of Regan's practice books which really does not say much for my skill. But hey it's gotta get played. Regan and Lauren have been loving it. They Take turns playing it while the other dances... This lovely one is Lolo breakin' she has mad skills. Regan does a mix of cheer, hip hop and a little ballet... thank you SYTYCD ! Practice is still a little bit of a struggle but I need to make it fun or else she is just going to hate to play.

We went to Lagoon! For Cal's company party. IT WAS SOOOO FUN... the girls are finally getting tall enough to ride some of the cool rides. Lauren LOVED the new Dragon ride and if you look close in the picture you can see her laughing, she laughed the whole time on every ride except the tidal wave! HA ! She tightened up every time we went up and was crying I felt bad for a minute, then I thought is was funny because I knew she was safe ( I am not a bad mom for laughing at my childs fears) They were sweet together and had fun riding around together. It was mostly nice and only rained towards the end of our day. The lines were short and we got to go on all the rides with no wait. When we got in the car to go home Lauren was so tired she feel asleep with a cookie in hand and some in mouth... I laughed so hard.

We tried to stay busy during the week, in between tennis lesson and things we did find some time to play. The girls got to go to the treehouse with Grandma and Grandpa Balls and I got a few NEEDED hours to myself. Between the hair cut last week and the newest mess... see pictures below, I have been tried by my sweet little bugger faces. I was cutting carrots for them for lunch and did not notice them grab the bag ( ALSMOST FULL BAG) of powdered sugar. Well they thought they needed to eat it all. and that the floor needed to be sweetened as well. The vacuum kept blowing sugar dust into the air and covered the chairs with a light dusting of sugar. I guess there are worse things that the vacuum could be blowing out... but still. I made them clean up some and they had a bath that turned into frosting... GROSS. The rest of the day Lauren was so wired I would have thought she was on crack. What a long day for a mommy with no voice, try getting your kids to do what you say when nothing is coming out of your mouth, NOT EASY.
We also went and had a tennis lesson. Just the three of us. Regan kept getting mad because she wasn't perfect and Lauren just wanted to help pick up balls the whole time, well she wasn't looking where she was going and walked right into a pole... more like the bolt on the pole. You cannot see it very well in the picture, but she had the grooves on her nose from the bolt. Yeah it gave her a bloody nose and well, it looks like I beat my kids because I had so many bloody nose pictures on this blog, I promise it is not me.

We got outside every sunny chance we got. It really has been a LOOONG week. But the forecast looks sunny.

AND since tomorrow is Father's Day I should take a line or two to say what an amazing man I married. As I blog he is wrestling with the kiddos and sharing his comics... I know I gasped a little too. My girls are so lucky to have a man that loves them so much and is not afraid to show them every chance he gets. He is fun with the girls and teaches them things that girls should know. He lets them know how amazing they are and I know that because of Cally my girls will grow up with good self esteems and will be awesome people. Cally I love you. Thanks for being such a good daddy, husband, man.