Mysterious Ways

The Lord truly works in Mysterious Ways and I am just so full of gratitude.

As my last few posts have reviewed some of Bailey's Sassyness,.. And that's not including the most recent bum pinch and spank of a stranger in Cafe Rio,.. It may be safe to assume that her baby sister is starting to catch onto this behavior,.. thus making my life somewhat difficult.  Although some of her sass is pretty funny,.... I only usually share the funny stories,... there is a lot of that sass that is done at home,.. directed at her parents.  And mostly me.  It's hard.  It's really hard to listen to your daughter scream at you again and again, about how MEAN you are,.. or to hear her say she doesn't like me, or she hates me, or She wants to live at Spencer's house because his mommy is nice.  It truly rips my heart out somedays.  The irrational screaming and kicking and hitting just to get her down for a nap, or flying off the handle because I didn't let her see the inside of her sippy cup before I put on the lid.  I can usually handle it all, and not let it get to me too much, but the last 2 weeks have been EXTREMELY difficult for me.  LOTS of tears, LOTS of concerns, LOTS of yelling.  A lot of feeling like a failure.  And I know that is just part of being a parent,.. but that thought doesn't always calm the fears or heal the hurt feelings.  (Yes,.. my 3 year old has the ability to hurt my feelings)  Just when I thought I couldn't do it anymore, and was pulling out the crumbs of hope from the bottom of the barrel,... There He is,.. reaching out to comfort me.  

Monday, I was sitting in the ER(there to receive the last of my rabies vaccinations,.. story to come) and a few men, who were apart of an assisted living center walked in.  One was taken back to be checked, and the others sat in the waiting room with Chloe and I.  Chloe was be extra snuggly,... maybe she thought SHE was going to get a shot,.. and was being super cute and playing with me too.  I sat there,.. and being a people watcher,.. my attention was on this one man.   He was trying to use the phone, and was standing in front of us looking at the fish in the fish tank.  Watching him and the other people in his group made me remember doing the Special Needs Seminary,.. I LOVED that class,.. I had never felt the spirit so strong as when I was with those Special Needs kids.  They are SO close to our Heavenly Father and are much more in tune to the spirit than we probably give them credit. Anyway,...

After about 20 minutes of waiting, and him wandering,.. he sat down a few seats from us and I hear a very loud,...

 "Ma'am,.. MA'AM,... I just wanted to tell you, your daughter is very cute and you are so good with her,.. It's so good to see a mom out with her daughter and be so cute,.. I can tell you are a really good mom."  

I almost burst into tears right then and there.  

I know my Heavenly Father listens to my prayers,.. and is aware of my aching heart.  He knew I needed to hear those words at that moment.  I know that even though getting all those shots the last few weeks SUCKED,...  Heavenly Father put me in a place where I could hear him through those sweet spirits he sends to this earth.  I am so grateful for Him and His sacrifices for me, and His presence in my life.  

I share this story because I know I am not the only mom out there that has bad days, or weeks, or MONTHS,.. and I promise that if you ask your Heavenly Father for help,.. He will listen and He will do whatever it takes to make sure that you hear him, and know that he is there.  I know that He is REAL and that he is there for me, to comfort me in my darkest times.  Just ask, and he is there!  I promise!

The Sass

Yesterday being St. Patrick's Day,.. I decided to dress Bailey in a little bit of a crazy outfit,.. it wasn't TOO out of control,.. basically I put green tights and a green long sleeved shirt on under a cute little dress that had green stripes (and navy and purple)  What?  You can get away with a lot on St. Patty's day!  Anyway,.. I hosted a little shin-dig at my house last night for some of the women of PSI(Peter's work)and I needed to run and pick up a few things.  Mainly, amazing cupcakes from The Sweet Tooth Fairy.  We were standing in line behind a group of older women, maybe 50+ and this lady turns around and says to Bailey,

 "Well don't you just match from head to toe?"  

{It's true,.. she did match from head to toe.}

Well Bailey immediately folds her arms, shifts her weight to her back leg and with a very sour face looks at her and says,..

"Nofing on YOU matches."

OH NO SHE DIDN"T!

What do you do?  Mostly my mouth just dropped and I looked at Bailey and I looked that the lady, in total disbelief about what just came out of my daughter's sassy face, and I looked again,.. back at the lady,.. and I didn't know you could say SOO much with your face,.. but she just had this look like  

"Im embarrassed"/"What a rude little girl"/"What is your mother teaching you"/"Do I really not match?"/Total Disbelief.  

And I don't blame her,.. I'm sure my face said

"What did she just say"/"Yes my child is out of control"/"don't look at my baby that way or I will scratch your face off"/ "yes I will spank her when we get home, but probably I won't because clearly I am an inconsistent, inattentive parent"

shame.

my daughter is sassy, and I don't even know what to do.  

Laugh, Cry, Scream, Spank? 

Maybe I shouldn't have taught her to say "I'm a Diva" since the womb?  

mother of the year goes to,.... Mwa!

First Day of School

I know,.. It's not August 29th.  

But Bailey has out grown most naps(she still takes 2-3 a week).  And is driving me crazy because of it.  She is just BORED,.. and the kids in our neighbor hood that she plays with,.. all go to school.  So we put Bailey in,.. I kinda feel like I am feeding her to the sharks,.. because she is starting so late in the year.  I talked to her teacher and everything sounds like she is just going to be able to jump right in.  It's not like they are going to test her in Pre-school.  So I dropped her off this morning with her friends and she was just giggling with excitement and had the same face on when I picked her up.  I had forgotten to warn them of the Sass level,.. but it sounds like Bailey's true colors shinned when they went to singing class and Bailey screamed at everyone to sit down and be quiet.  (that's my girl!)  

that little turkey never looks at the camera anymore.  Much to my dismay.

Disneyland

Can I just say, we are obsessed with Disneyland,.. each of us, individually and as a whole cannot get enough.  By our last day there,.. we were planning out our next trip!  It's fantastic!

Also, can I just say how grateful we are to be able to do some of the really amazing, fun, memory building, time sharing, things we are able to do.  We are very blessed and we thank the Lord daily for our blessings,.. (and if you are Bailey you also pray for Heavenly Father to be nice) So with that said,.. here are the pics.

Chloe's new favorite person, Cousin "gabea"

Bailey and Repunzle were having a serious conversation and Chloe BOLTED out of my arms to give her a big hug, but she was afraid of Flynn(which is why he was laughing) These guys were the BEST characters ever!

One of these days she will have eyes for the Prince,.. but look at that stare,..she is just mesmerized! 

We LOVE Pirates!

Bailey would NOT turn around for a picture, so Mr. Incredible just turned around too.

We opted for the Princcess Meal again,.. A good investment  to spare the waiting in lines to see them!

Fish ride(Nemo ride) was a fan favorite!

We LOVE Minnie,.. and REALLY love her house!

The babies favorite thing was these stairs that they could walk up and down and not hold anything, or have to crawl.  Good thing their tickets are free!

Driving the Crazy Babies,.. while arguing over who gets to drive.  Gotta love best friend cousin fights!

Being a Cheeta in Tarzan's Tree house

Not very excited.

Princess overload,.. these cute girls sure LOVE princesses!  

Budding Hair Stylist,.. she's good!

When Bailey met Alladin she kept asking where Abu was,.. and Alladin asked her if she had any pets and she said she  told him she had a Pet Skunk.  Umm,.. yeah right!

There is just somethin about a naked baby bath tub that brings a smile to my face!

California

Last week we went on a wicked awesome family vacation to Southern California.  We had SOO much fun,.. spending 3 days at the beach(which was fun, but too cold to play in the water) and then 3 days at Disneyland.  We stayed in Carlsbad/Oceanside and had a blast!  We went with Peter's brother and his family.  They have 2 little girls the same ages as Bailey and Chloe, so they had their best friend cousins.  We went to the Mormon Battalion Musuem in San Diego, and on our way home stopped at the San Diego Temple, which is BREATH taking!  We had a lot of fun,.. and as I am typing this I am realizing that my dumb camera deleted our pictures of that whole day, and now I am crying.  Grrrrr.  But here is the mini photo shoot I did of my babies.  I suck at photography,.. but I still try.  :D  

Bailey wouldn't look at me,..so this was the only decent picture I got of her,... :(

Don't worry,.. I'm still crying about those pictures.