POGS!

I am trying to get used to using my fixed focus lens by forcing myself to practice with it.
Now you all get to look at oodles of pictures.




The children have been sick for a week.
A week.
I can handle 2 to 3 days of sick clingy children.... but a week?
No thanks.


At the point of wanting to rip my hair out, I was looking for any way to distract the girls.
I found a bag of Pogs in the hall closet.
Eureka!
I dumped them all out on the floor and let them go to town.



Now we all know, that anyone who was cool had a ton of Pogs.
Pogs were the shiz.


Sophie spent a good hour organizing them.
She was hunting for all of the Pokemon ones.



Even Igor liked them.



After Sophie finished organizing the Pogs, she decided to torture the cat.


Our cat is an attention whore, so he didn't mind.



Eventually Sophie moved onto something else, and he was left to rest.


This entire time Mya was off doing her own thing.



After being banished from the kitchen, Sophie went to take a nap in my bed.
Igor joined her.


And just to make sure you know just how cool I was as a kid...

Remember those make-you-own Pog things?
Ya, we had one.
Be jealous.

Including Myself

I rarely get pictures of myself. I have literally thousands of photos of everyone else, but not me.

When I'm old and wrinkled, I want to look back at all of these pictures and see myself too.

I have maybe 5 pictures of me from Christmas, none from the girls' birthdays, a few from Halloween. I don't exist in these family occasions!

So, I'm going to be using the self-timer a lot more.

Unexpected Perspective

One of the best parts about creating your own offspring is watching them grow.

While I may tear up when I look at their baby pictures, I love to see how far they have come.

Mya is learning sign language.

Sophie can write her name.

Even though the thought of having teenagers makes me cringe, I cannot wait to see the smart young ladies they will grow into.

Everyday Tools

In case you haven't noticed by now, I'm trying yet again (year number 3) to work my way through Let's Do 52. 1 picture every week, all year. I've only ever made it about halfway through the year, so we'll see how this goes.

Anyway.

Here are my "everyday tools".



These little pills are what kept me from ending up on the late night news.

I try very hard to be open about the struggles I face in life. I know how crushing it can be to need help, and feel like a failure. In our society, being sad is a weakness. Only losers need help.

Poppycock.

Truth of the matter, EVERONE needs help.
My help just comes in the form of a little sky-blue pill.

My hopes is that somewhere, someone will be positively affected by my openness.

What is life for, if not bettering the world somehow.

Random Pictures

I'm practicing messing with my camera settings more.
So here are some random pictures from this morning.

Enjoy.


I adore little bums.

Responsibility

I very strongly feel that my single most important responsibility in this life, is to raise my children the best that I can.

No one is perfect, I know this.
We make mistakes, and grow as people.

I felt awful for not taking Sophie to church more as a toddler. I wanted to go, I longed for us to be there as a family. It just didn't happen. Since Denny didn't want to go with us, I selfishly decided not to take Sophie on my own. I didn't want to be judged with looks (being the teenage mother there by herself).

When we did start going as a family last year, I was certain that I would be called out as a fake.

We would walk into the church, someone would point their finger at us and shout, "J'ACCUSE!" They would know that I didn't teach our daughter about Jesus. They would know that she only went to Nursery a whopping 5 times. They would smell the stink of bad parenting on me.

That was all insane. We have been lovingly accepted into our ward. Sophie adores the other children in Primary, and is an expert on all things Jesus.


My responsibility is teach these children the Gospel, and prepare them to face the world.
And by golly, I'd like to see someone try and stop me.

Au Naturel

There is just something about being naked that toddlers find intoxicating.



Bath time is like crack to my kids.