Miss Lil's Hair

I told you we were going to do it.  Luckily she loves it.  I asked advice from lots of people on how to cut toddler hair because her first 2 times when she was younger didn't go so smoothly.  But I just plopped her on the coffee table, turned on Curious George, and handed her a lollipop and chopped away.  No problems whatsoever!  It's a miracle!

Skyler's Quote of the Day:  (after putting on a bracelet that a woman in church handed him to play with)  "I'm PRETTY!!!!!!"  Poor kid is obsessed with hats and let's just say that he thinks all of Lily's headbands are hats.... even if they may or may not have flowers on them....

Sorry I keep putting off Ben's wood project.  Things this past week kind of got chaotic and only a portion of it is mudded.  Although I'm sooooo soooo sooo excited to paint it because Ben and I have spent a good portion of our weekend drawing up our own stencils since I'm a cheapaholic (yes, I realize I could have put down "cheapskate" but that's just not nearly as much fun) and stencils usually cost about $50.  LAME. Our stencils will cost us a whopping 50 cents each.  If it works well maybe I'll do my own little tutorial.  

And let me say thank you for all of the sweet comments on my last post.  Y'all are so kind.  I was pretty sure that someone would show up at my door wanting to take me to an insane asylum after I'd written it, but it hasn't happened yet.  Not that I'm not still looking....

Pretty Much the Biggest Secret of My Life

So I've had a secret for a while now.  In fact, I've had it since the beginning of June of 2010.  I've been keeping it to myself for a LONG time.  Well, actually, Ben knows.  And my immediate family knows.  And that's it.  And normally I'm an open book (which I actually don't mind) so that says something.

I've been keeping this quiet because I have ridiculously low self-confidence in myself concerning this matter.  Now, this is not a BAD secret.  It's not something I'm ashamed of at all.  In fact, I think it's one of the coolest/funnest things I've ever done in my life.  But I still have major reservations in sharing this major part of my life with the world.

But I'm really sick of keeping this secret.  I actually don't like to wear any type of facade or give people false impressions of myself.  So I think it's time to blurt this out.  After almost a year.

When people first meet me one of the first questions is, "what do you like to do?" or "what are your hobbies?"  To which my mind always replies, "gotta keep it secret."  So I usually just say the typical, "spend time with my family and reading."  Woo - freaking - hoo.  I know.  So exciting.  So here's the truth:



I'm writing a book.



OK..... breathe in.  Breathe out.  Wow.  Glad I got that one off my chest.  I'm pretty sure I can hear the crickets chirping with this awkward pause.  Or maybe it's just quiet because I just put my kids down for a nap and I can sense all the weird looks coming at me through my computer screen.

So yep.  You read that right.  I'm writing a book.  A fictional book.  And it has been a total blast.  So if you ever happen to come over and I'm sitting at my computer and you hear me laughing out loud, I'm probably just brainstorming or writing an awesome chapter.

And let me say this:  I will NEVER EVER be published.  Being published is pretty much like winning the lottery.  It's harsh, but it's also reality.  Believe me.  I've done my research.  Lots and lots of research.  And I don't even know if I'll ever even finish writing this book.  Although it would be super awesome if I could because at the moment it's book #1 of a trilogy that I plan on writing during practically every nap time for the next few years (because let's be honest, I'm not going to do the laundry until it's absolutely necessary).

Maybe you're wondering why I'm doing this.  Here's why: because I needed something affordable and constructive to fill up my free time that was something just for me.  Nobody else.  Just me.  And I LOVE it.

So for now, it's just a fun hobby that I'm SUPER embarrassed to share with y'all.  But now I've done it so that I don't have to lie anymore.  I hate lying.  It's just not me.

So there ya go.  The biggest secret of my life.

Dear World

 Skyler's 3 comforts: his blankie, a ball, and Muffin (my favorite childhood stuffed animal.  I even took that dog with me to the hospital when I had surgery as a kid)

Reading Time.  It's so much more fun to hear HER version of books.

In my life, I've had a lot of time to wonder.  What if I turned left at some point in my life when I should have turned right???  Am I where I'm supposed to be?  What if I could have done better at something that I didn't try too hard at?  Is Heavenly Father pleased with where I'm standing?

One thing I have struggled with is embarrassment.  I'll admit that I have struggled for a long time with the fact that I got married at 18 and then had Lily a year later.  Then Skyler came a year after that.  My life pretty much hit the fast forward button as soon as I went to college.  I have only recently gained the peace that only comes when I don't give a hoot what the world thinks.  I don't care if the world thinks I'm insane and giving up my life for a strange reason like.... oh my goodness, heaven forbid!!!!...... MOTHERHOOD.  

So......

Dear World,

you, too, have a mother.  Yep.  Someone gave birth to you.  Someone carried you for 9 months through aches and pains, sleepless nights, countless mornings of vomit just to go through the most excruciating experience possible at the end and deliver you.  Yep.  You have a mom, too.  

And aren't you glad?  I mean, who tucked you back in when you had nightmares?  OK, maybe your dad did that, too, and honestly, they deserve the same respect.  Who drove you all around to school and piano lessons?  Who listened to all your high school drama?  Who kept your house and clothes clean?  Who made sure you actually ate something healthy?  Who finished that project that you were assigned that you just happened to forget about until 9 PM the night before it's due?  Oh yeah.  That was your mom.  In case you don't get my point, moms are kind of important.  

At the same time, who do you call when life hits its lowest low?  Who seems to know all the answers like how to treat some stain or how to get through heartbreak?  Who is one of the first people you call when you ace an exam?  Who gets to be one of the first people to hold your newborn?  Who gets to teach you how to coordinate clothes so you don't look like a complete goofball on your first day of school?  Who dressed you up for your prom so that you feel like everyone thinks you're gorgeous.  Oh that's right.  It was your mom.  

So, Dear World, despite what you might think, my job rocks.  I get to shape the future.  And isn't that better than sitting in front of a desk and computer everyday?  Yeah, I thought so.  

Love,

Heather aka "Mommy" to Lily and Skyler Macbeth aka the two cutest beings on the face of the planet

P.S.  World, go ahead and thank your mom for all she's done.  Maybe mention words like "false labor," or "refereeing," or "too many late night infomercials during night feedings."  She'll know what I mean.

Our Visiting Butlers

This week we had the privilege of having Butlers in our house.  As in Ben's sister's family.  Not actual butlers.  Although that would be cool too.  And I'm banging my head against the wall because I didn't get a picture of Trina or Robert, or, most importantly, Ben and Trina together.  Since some of y'all don't know what Trina looks like, imagine a much prettier, girlier version of Ben and there ya go.  Ben has told me that people have often thought they were twins.

 Twin set #1:  Lily (2 1/2) and Lindsey (4 1/2) 

They're pretty much BFF's now.  Their visit was full of tea parties and decorating Ben's wood project (which was put to GOOD use during this trip) in a very feminine fashion.  I think Lils was relieved to have another girl around.

Side story about Lindsey:  she was just a baby when Ben and I were dating.  I remember pictures of her spending her first Christmas in Samoa with Ben and thinking, "this baby is one of the cutest babies I've ever seen in my life.  And I'm not even related to her.  And I'm not a baby person, either."  So that was saying a lot.  So when Lily was born I thought it was interesting that Lily looked SO similar to Lindsey.  They were cute then and they're still cute now.

 Twin set #2:  Alan (2 1/2, only 3 weeks older than Lily) and Skyler (1 1/2)

Blake (only 5 months younger than Skyler)

You can't see his hair but it's red and curly.  One of my favorite quotes of the week was from Robert:  "Yeah, we have calico kids."

We took the kids out to Krispy Kreme for a little treat and they were oh so delicious.  

Trivia fact of the day: the original Krispy Kreme is located in downtown Raleigh.

We had a blast with Trina and Robert.  We stayed up way too late having fun with games and talking.  They've been living in Alabama for the past few years while Robert has gotten his PhD (oh and did I mention that he's only 10 months older than Ben and he's now a Psychologist?  Ummmm... crazy.)  They're going to be moving to Albuquerque this summer so we're grateful that they were able to squeeze in the visit before they left.  

When we came home from church today Lily was so bummed that they were gone.  She kept saying, "our friends are gone????"  I tried teaching her about what extended family was this week, like how Nanni and Papa, and Grandmum and Pop Pop are family.  And Lily kept saying, "sooooo, they're friends from church????"  We'll work on it.  

Gotta love family.

"Skylerella's" sleeping habits and other random things....

Everybody say goodbye to her hair.  It's going to be chopped off very soon.

So how's Skyler's 1 nap-a-day thing going?

Oh..... I don't know.........

He still falls asleep at the table, on the carpet, on the sofa, and (my favorite so far) the kitchen floor.  Crazy kid.  I just wish I could figure him out.  It's like waiting until after lunch to nap is impossible for him, but if he takes a 15 minute nap before lunch he can't take an afternoon nap.  Sometimes I wish kids came with an instruction manual.

Nightly snuggles.

The List of Randoms

• Lily's favorite movie is Cinderella.  She can't pronounce that so she either calls her "umbrella" or, my personal favorite, "Skylerella."  Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.  Kids say the funniest things.
• Ben finishes sheet-rocking today.  The kids are already obsessed with this new project.  Stay tuned!
• I am currently working on my own little project for the house.  You can find it HERE.  Although my wall is bigger and I think my frames are cooler.  But maybe that's my own personal opinion.  I'm pretty sure Goodwill is going to be very sick of seeing me soon. Anyway, I love just about everything on her blog.  You should seriously explore it.  It's awesome.
• Ben's sister, Trina, and her family are coming up on Thursday.  We're RIDICULOUSLY excited.  Oh, and maybe I should mention that it'll be in the 80's while they're here.  Yum.
• How was Carla kicked off of Top Chef??????  I want to cry.  Like, sit down with a half-gallon of ice cream and eat the whole thing until I need something salty and make way too much popcorn and then eat the whole thing until I need something sweet again and make a batch of brownies and only eat one because, dang, that's a lot of food.  Yeah.  I'm not happy.  One day I'm going to live between Paula Deen and Carla Hall.  And we'll all be BFF's.  Give me a few years.  I'll make it happen.

Church

Notice the dress.  This picture was not taken on a Sunday.  And really, this picture could have been taken any day for the past two weeks.  Confused?  Let me explain.  Lily loves church.  Like, when she's sick and can't go, I actually have to convince her it's not Sunday so she doesn't collapse on the floor in tears all day.  Yeah, that kind of like.

So 2 weeks ago I started letting Lily pick out her own outfits.  I'm not gonna lie.  The child has got plenty of clothes.  Each time I said, "time to get dressed," I'd stand next to her dresser and point to it, gesturing for her to pick out something.  But no.  She always goes to the closet, slides open the door, and starts tugging on a dress.  "Church today?"  "No, Lil.  It's Wednesday."  "Oh...." *now super gloomy*  But she still puts on a dress.  And when it's not Sunday, she puts on church for us.  As in she acts out Sacrament Meeting.  This is usually how it goes:

Opening Song (which Lily conducts while she holds one of those mini hymnals.  Sometimes it's a recognizable song like Popcorn Popping or Twinkle Twinkle but most of the time it's something she's made up)
Opening Prayer (which she always gives and waits until both Skyler and I are folding our arms)
2nd Opening Song
2nd Opening Prayer
3rd Opening Song
3rd Opening Prayer
Talks (All of course given by Lily.  The topic is always different.  Somehow Jesus has something to do with dolls, hair bows, and castles).

It's nice to know how much Lily loves church.  Now if only I could get my kids to be GOOD in church.  That would be nice.  Each FHE now we pretend that we're in church and we practice sitting reverently.  I'll let you know if it actually works once our whole family can actually go to church.  I hate having sick kids.

The List of Randoms

• Bless the person who invented the shopping carts with the race car in front.  I owe you my sanity.  And we will dedicate Ben's next wood project to you.  That's right.  Every Saturday I take the kids grocery shopping with me so that Ben can have his wood time (plus power tool noises freak out the kids).  And this is his biggest project yet.  As in, it has cost us a little over $100. Umm.... to me that's mucho dinero.  My guess is that we'll be revealing this project on the blog in 2ish weeks. The drywall is almost done.  Then it needs to be mudded.  And then I get to paint it. Get excited.  Or jealous.  Whatever.
• My old roomie Deanna taught me how to make some of the best cookies ever.  So simple.  Make peanut butter cookie dough, press it down into a pan (like bar cookies) and bake.  Then when they're cool melt a ton of chocolate chips and pour it over.  I am obsessing with them right now.  Try it.  Your taste buds will thank you.  
• I am loving this warm weather.  I hope it never goes away.  That is, until I start craving snow in October-ish.
• Ben and I have started to plant our garden (!!!!!!!!) in little egg cartons.  And they're sprouting.  I'm just a little excited that I actually OWN land and can plant whatever the heck I want.  Let me just say this: we will be eating GOOD (I know, horrible English) this summer.  Mmmmmmm.....

Our Story (4 Years Late)

April 2007  (both of us were a little bit skinnier back then....)

So I've been blogging for almost 3 years and I have never once shared Ben and my story.  Let's just say it's not super-exciting but I would like to have it written down for the record.  And today's a good day for it.  We got engaged 4 years ago today.

Ben and I met in a Church History class up at BYU-Idaho.  Honestly, I wasn't even going to take this class because I was planning on taking a Book of Mormon class instead, but I totally spaced it the day I was supposed to sign up for classes and when I finally remembered to sign up, BOM classes were full.  So my sister, Becca (who loves church history and now claims responsibility for me meeting Ben....), suggested that I take this Church History class.  So I did.

I met Ben really early on in the semester.  Ben can even remember me from day one but I can't say the same about him.  But we became good friends quickly.  He sat with me and our friend, Jessica (who sat between us during every class), for months.  He was dating a freshman at the time.  One day he came in SUPER frustrated, and he said, "UGH!  I HATE FRESHMEN!!!!!  THEY'RE SOOO IMMATURE!!!  I'LL NEVER DATE ANOTHER 18 YEAR-OLD AGAIN!!!!"  Jessica and I looked at each other in disbelief and faked being offended and then told him that we were both 18 and freshmen, thank you very much.  Needless to say Ben was embarrassed and told us to take it as a compliment that we didn't seem like it.  I obviously still make fun of him for this.  MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

 Then for a week and a half Jessica was sick so Ben and I were alone.  That's when I started to get butterflies.  Then one day when he was walking me to my next class I knew it was the moment. He was going to ask me out.  We were just standing there.  No one was around.  And then....... nothing.  We said bye so we could get to class on time.  I was so disappointed during that class.  I don't even think I paid any attention to the teacher.  So I started walking home still upset, and lo and behold who do I run into????  Ben, of course.  We had never run into each other after class before so it was bizarre.  Apparently he had been kicking himself for not asking me out so he finally got enough courage to do it, and we went out that night.  

So we went to one of Rexburg's local parks and just spent some time talking and swinging.  Then we went to the movies and saw pretty much THE WORST MOVIE IN THE HISTORY OF MOVIES.  Let's just say it involves penguins.  And dancing.  I have to laugh at that now.... but I sat through this movie going, "oh my gosh just end already!!!!!" except I didn't want it to end, because I was having fun with Ben.  That night he asked me if I liked the movie to which I replied, "Yeah!  Of course!!!" so that he would ask me out again.  Yeah, I know.  Bad Heather!  Bad!  Ben still makes fun of me for lying to him.

Did I mention that this was the last day of class before Thanksgiving break?  So I had a whole week before I could see him again and wonder if I was worth a second date.  When we got back he asked me on another date (this is where angels start singing).  We ended up going to Millhollow (a local restaurant) for hot chocolate and talked for 4 or 5 hours straight.  I would like to think of this as our first real date.  It was AWESOME.

That Christmas Ben flew to Samoa (his parents lived there at the time) where he got to meet some of my family for the first time.  My uncle Paul was mission president there at the time and knew Ben's parents.  He came up to Ben at church and gave him a nice little Are-You-Being-Good-To-My-Niece? talk.  It freaked Ben out a little.  Ha.  But at least he got to meet some of my relatives.  Then Ben got to talk to his Mission President from Venezuela who is good buds with my uncle Paul and told Ben that he approved.  It's seriously such a small world.

So Ben likes to cook.  He made me dinner maybe a good 50% of the time while we were dating.  It was awesome.  Every Sunday his roomies invited a different girl apartment from their ward over for dinner and of course, I was always invited.  I was seriously spoiled, y'all.  But since Ben cooked for me all the time, I was way too scared to cook for him.  Finally on Valentines Day I gave in and I made him ribs.  He liked them (and still does).  SCORE!

Then my parents came up for Mother's weekend.  They really wanted to meet Ben and he was starting to show signs of the flu while we were eating at Big Jud's.  We took him to an urgent care (since it was the weekend) and sure enough, he was sicker than a dog.  Then I got it.  So we're trying to have an awesome weekend with my parents (and the flu) and so Ben asked my parents' permission while we were wrapped in blankets with a box of tissues.  *sigh*  Aren't we so romantic?  Yeah... I know....

Ben proposed to me on March 7th when I was almost fully recovered from the flu.  

So there you have it.  A marriage that was formed from lies ("Oh yeah I loved this movie!!!!") and broken promises ("I will never date another 18 year-old again!!!!").  Dang aren't we just like a fairy tale or something?!?!  Haha... no..... but I'm so happy I'm married.  Seriously, being married is soooo much better than I thought.  It's also so much more work than I thought, but it's all worth it.  

One of my favorite parts about being married is just being able to say whatever the heck I want to Ben.  Nothing's too embarrassing or bizarre between us.  I love that we can tuck in our kids at night and continue to be amazed by how cute they are.  I never cease to be amazed that Ben is capable of handling my girly mood swings.  But do you know what my absolute favorite part about marriage is?  The friendship.  Seriously, Ben can tell you exactly when I'm about to roll my eyes and I can tell you exactly what he's going to say next.  Then we can burst out laughing about it later.  

Marriage seriously rocks.  Like, better than winning a life-time supply of chocolate.

Thanks Y'all

Lillers dressed in her princess dress with her Prince Charming.

"Can we snug, Daddy?"

Lily now likes to do my hair for me (which is awesome since I don't really ever do it myself anymore) and the other day she pulled two big handfuls of hair on each side of my head up in the air and said, "Mommy, you're a bunny!"  Love that child.

Skyler's Language Skills

• "Uh-uh" while he shakes his head means "no way.  Take a hike, Psych."  BUT....
• "Uh-uh" while he smiles and shakes his head harder means "HECK YES!!!!!"
• Bunneen = bunny  (my kids can't seem to master this simple word.  Lily called it a "bun-yah-bye" for FOREVER).
• Everything else falls under the category of balls, bubbles, apples (he likes round objects A LOT), or bark barks (aka dogs).
• His favorite song to sing is Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  This is how he sings it: "Row, row, ROOOOOWWW.............................SSSSSTTTTRRRREEEEAAAAMMMM!!!!!!"  And that's the end of the song.  Maybe I should make a movie of it.  It's dang awesome.  My child is probably the next famous music icon/heartthrob.  And I know where he gets his lack of lyric memorization skills from..... and it's not Ben......
• Loves to sing his ABC's except calls them his "KOP's" because that's what Lily calls them.

I just want to thank y'all for reading my blog.  I was talking to my sister, Becca, on the phone last night and I told her that I can't believe people would even give a hoot about my blog.  I mean, of course I just happen to have two children who earned gold medals in the gene pool olympics and are inhumanly adorable, but besides that, it's amazing that y'all are so sweet enough to read my pathetic ramblings.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.