Sunshine

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away.

When I was a little girl, my mom used to sing this song to me. I understand, now, why. Man, I love my family. I'm so blessed. Here's a little sampling of the sunshine in my life the past couple weeks.

Laughter really is the best medicine. It feels so good to just let myself laugh out loud. You can bet my house has lots to laugh at with these crazy kids...

Gross!!!
Eewwww...
I've been thinking about how awesome my kids are lately. I am so blessed to have them. Sometimes they drive me crazy, yes. But when I look past the tiny bit of crazy, I see the huge percentage of awesome that they are.

How could this face not brighten my day? Oh my goodness I love this baby!
And these two?! Bryant is growing up so much. I love to watch him work side by side with his dad. He is loving cub scouts, eager to work on projects and sign things off. Don't you just love it when your kids are motivated?
Family Home Evening. It can be a huge ordeal, yes. But sometimes it just works out beautifully. Last week Bryant taught our lesson. He taught us about being a family, then talked about Noah building the ark. How his family supported him and they worked together. So, for our activity we built our own "ark" with our very own "Noah." Do you like his beard?

I know I tell you all this plenty, but what a blessing this man is to my life. Love him so much!
Have you ever put tape in the bottom of a cat's feet? Its pretty hilarious. Put Bolton down to crawl on the grass and its a similar reaction... am I mean that I think its so funny watching him walk/crawl?
Have I mentioned how much I adore this boy?

One thing I really love about my kids is the way that they love others. I recently taught a special lesson on this very topic and I realized what tremendous people I get to live with, such great examples to me. They don't think they are better than anyone. They are kind. They share.

Another thing I love is their generally positive attitude. Hanging out with some of my friends' kids helps me recognize how much I appreciate my own. I go walking in the mornings with a friend and her daughter whines a lot while we're out and about. Its a constant battle for her. Eliza and Bolton are just so happy to be there. They are delightful. I am blessed.



Together we're safe from the flood on our ark. Go team!

Jonas went around all afternoon Sunday like this. Cute little stinker.

I heard a story once about a man and woman who were getting married. The man told the woman that everyone has 80% good qualities and 20% bad. If she chose to focus on the 20%, their marriage would be unhappy. But if they chose to focus on the 80% they would be successful and happy.

I believe the moral of the story to be true. Focusing on the good (not only in people, but in circumstances) makes all the difference. And when the 20% just can't be ignored... go get the camera. You'll hopefully be able to laugh about it. Eliza's artwork sure made me giggle.

Here's hoping you enjoy the sunshine in your day!

Mother's Day Pictures

Sometimes the best gift you can give is pictures of the cute kids' faces. So here is my gift to all of you. These (and about 80 more) were taken in an effort to get a good picture for our moms for Mother's Day. Such sweet kids. But talk about an impossible dream to single-handedly get them all looking at the camera and smiling!

Ethan's choice below. This is the one each mom and grandma got a big copy of.

Pull a funny face!
Now laugh at your funny face!









My favorite. Each mom and dad got a small copy to take to work.

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely ladies in my life. My mom, my mom-in-love, my sisters-in-love, my dear friends. You are all such fabulous women. You set such a beautiful example to me. I am so blessed to have you in my life and I love you!

Hope your day was phenomenal!

FYI~ I am posting below the funky post some of our events in April. Be sure to check them out!

Get Funky

I am in a funk. A blogging funk, that is. Life is going by, so, so quickly. I want to blog, but for whatever reason, its just not happening these days. I know for most of you, its no big deal. But, for at least one grandma out there, its a disappointment day in and day out. Sorry mom.

Many things are contributing to my lack of blogging, but here are some examples...

I've been walking in the mornings with a friend. I was hoping to start running again, but after attempting it realized that running is not going to be a part of my life ever again. Just too much pain. Walking has been fun, though. I love chatting the time away with my friend, so great!

Many of you know that our future regarding Ethan's career is undecided. We are looking at all our options, staying in the AF, separating from the AF, moving west, staying here for a year or so. When I say we're looking at all our options, I mean we look, then we look some more, then we look from a different perspective, then we look again... you get the idea. This is kind of consuming us (me anyway). Perhaps that's why I'm in a funk. I don't feel in control of any of it and we don't have a plan and its stressing me out. Either way, when we know what's in store for the next grand Woodbury adventure, we'll let you know.

Church has kind of become more demanding recently too. It seems like I'm more involved in everything right now. Its good, but somewhat exhausting.

The kids are extra demanding right now. Bolton has basically had an ear infection since Christmas. I'm taking him to the ENT tomorrow. He is super cute and fun, but just takes lots of energy. I'm trying (trying is a good word to describe it) to teach the kids how to work and it is so much harder than just doing things on my own.

I got on the food storage band wagon (finally). I figured out how much we needed for a 3 month supply and have made a huge step in securing what we need. Also I've been working on 72 hour kits.

I have started working on some of my goals for the Pursuit of Excellence I talked about. I'm using a blog arena to record and collect ideas, thoughts, etc in accomplishing those goals. I'd love for them to be useful to others, even to people I don't know, so I started them under a different user name. If you'd like to check them out, feel free. One is hollidaisy cooks and the other is inspired hollidaisy. But here again, I haven't been able to update them as much as I'd like. I originally wasn't going to share them here until they were much more elaborate, but feel inclined to do so now. Feel free to share them, follow them, ignore them... whatever.

Let's be real, the total truth of the matter is that I'm totally overwhelmed by all the laundry in my life! I decided to let the boys only have 5-6 shirts each because it is all too much! I can't keep up! So with that, I'll bid you all adieu! I've got 8 loads to go fold!