A day in the life of a Diva

 

Before I had Ada I don't think I had one thing of nail polish. Sad I know. But I just wasn't really into it. Well I tell ya, things have changed since then! I mean I'm not more into it, but things have changed in that we now have a whole bag full of nail polish. Ada has me do her nails and  she does my nails it seems like on a daily basis. Ada loves nail polish!

Even more than nail polish Ada loves to play with her Dora people and her Pretty Ponies. And seeing that she is surrounded by boys . . . Mommy is her favorite playmate. So I have certainly been brushing up on my Pretty Pony playing skills lately, and it is amazing how fast it comes back. You'd think that without practice for so long . . . it would be hard to just jump back in . . . but it really isn't. I have eased back into it just fine. I am pretty much awesome at it actually. The pretty ponies are mine and my sisters from our youth. So when me and Ada take turns dividing them out I find myself picking the same ones that I played with when I was little. When she picks one of my favorites . . . I totally am manipulative in somehow getting her to trade me . . . it's terrible I know . . . but their mine! Just kidding. Anyway . . . it's her favorite thing to do right now, and it's been fun playing with her.

Other than ponies and Dora, Ada loves to sing to herself in the mirror, and changes her clothes multiple times a day. She loves to color,be read to, and paint. I have to admit that it's hard to fit in cleaning and other household chores with that kind of rigorous schedule. But you know I am an advocate of putting first things first . . . Ponies come before dishes and laundry right? :)

It's hard to get rid of stuff!

 We have too many toys, plain and simple. My Mom saved all of our toys and gave them to us to keep as keepsakes, and so part of me feels guilty that I just want to get rid of my kids toys, but it is pretty ridiculous how many toys we have. There are plenty of kids who could use them who don't have as many toys as we do. So I went to the kids today and told them, "Kids . . . we need to get rid of some of our toys." And of course they were totally fine with this. Ya Right! But I reassured them that they didn't have to get rid of their very favorite toys . . . but to choose the ones that they don't play with as much.

"Let's start with the stuffed animals. Put all of the ones you want to keep in this bin, and the ones you don't want to keep in this pile."
Drew started going at it immediately. He started throwing animals into the bin. There was only one stuffed animal that he put in the give away pile . . . a monkey that was mine from when I lived at home. My favorite.
"Drew . . . are you sure you want to give away this one? . . . You don't like this one?"
"Ya . . . you can give that one to the DI. I don't want that one" he said.
Who came up with this idea anyway? I couldn't do it. I threw my monkey back into the bin with the rest of the animals. "Okay then . . . " So much for that great plan.
I need help!

Little boy of faith

I have tried to teach my children about what it means to have faith. And I think that if you were to ask my kids what it means to have faith, they could answer you. At least I think so . . . I will ask them . . .

Okay,  I just asked each of my kids seperately (so they won't influence eachothers answers) what it means to have faith.

"What does it mean to have faith?"
Ada: "It means to not be dead." Okay so there's some work to be done there. . . but hey . . . she's three. I'm pretty sure that comment probably had something to do with 'Faith without works is DEAD.'
Hayden: "It means to listen to God"
Andrew: "It means to believe in something that you can't see. You feel good inside and know that it's true."

Although Drew was closest to the textbook answer, I told them that they were both right in a way. Faith does mean believing in something unseen which is true. But if you have faith in God . . . you will listen to Him, and keep His commandments. So Hayden is right too. Faith without works is Dead. So there you go . . .
But regardless of whether or not they can give me a perfect definition of what faith is, they SHOW me what faith is. Sometimes I just need to close my mouth and let my kids teach ME what it means to have faith.

There have been quite a few incidents in the last few months where Drew has shown us what faith really is. In August we took a little trip to Scofield. The first night we were there me and Ada stayed at the cabin painting nails and doing girly things while the boys went out to do some fishing. The plan was for them to go for like a half hour, but a half hour came and went and they still didn't show up. Which isn't completely out of the ordinary. It wouldn't have been the first fishing trip that lasted a little longer than planned. But we waited and waited . . . and no boys. It got dark outside and still no sign of them. I was wondering why in the world they were still fishing in the dark!! Then finally I heard voices outside and I went out to find the boys approaching and they were all covered head to toe in mud.
     
They had driven the car out to the lake and were trying to find a good spot to fish when suddenly they got stuck in the mud. They never even casted their fishing poles, they spent the entire time trying to get the car unstuck. Lamon told me that he was frustrated and Drew made the suggestion to say a prayer. So they did. They did all that they could to no avail. The car still was stuck, and they ended up walking a mile back to the cabin in the dark. After we got the kids cleaned up and put to bed, Lamon went back to the lake and was able to get the car out of the mud. In the morning Drew was very excited to see the car back at the cabin. He was thinking that a miracle had taken place and that it had miraculously been transported back to the cabin in our sleep . . . but we told him that Dad went back while they were sleeping and got it out. We thanked Drew for his prayer and talked to him about how sometimes our prayers are not answered when and how we think they will, but God does answer our prayers. We did get the car out and God helped us. But sometimes we have to do some hard work before our prayers are answered!

There have been more incidents since that one where Drew has prayed to God for things and has had his prayers answered. There were a couple times that Drew lost toys around the house and said a prayer and was able to find them.

One time when we were on our way to the park it started to rain. I said, "Uh oh. Guys . . . if it doesn't stop raining we might not be able to play at the park."
Suddenly without any warning Drew starts praying out loud right there in the car. He asked God to please stop the rain so we could play.  . . .and he was completely confident that everything would be fine. The cool things was . . . that it did stop raining and we WERE able to play.

The last experience was probably the coolest one. It was a Saturday and being the crazy mother that I am I woke up all of my children at 6 in the morning and dragged them along with me garage saling. There was a huge Neighborhood sale in Lehi that I didn't want to miss. And boy was it huge!!! There must have been like  50 homes participating. We had fun and found some cool stuff, but Tilson was definitely done by the time we got home. We pulled into the driveway and all of a sudden Drew yells, "Oh no Mom! I left my light saber at the garage sale!" I did not want to drive all the way back to Lehi in search of a light saber that could have been anywhere and most likely had been picked up by some other kid or even sold by an unknowing garage saler. And we had no clue where he left it. There were more than 50 houses it could have been at! But this wasn't just any light saber. It was the light saber that Drew saved up for and bought with his own money. I personally was doing the math in my head and figured that with the gas we would be using to go all the way there and back . . . I could probably buy him a new light saber . . .but he was so sad  and I knew that we had to at least attempt it. So off we went. While we were driving Drew again thought to say a prayer. I can't even explain how impossible it seemed to be able to find this light saber . . . but amazingly enough we drove straight there! Drew walked up to the house we stopped at first and asked the homeowners if they had seen his light saber. And sure enough they went into their garage and came out with it. They told Drew that a kid wanted to buy it, but they knew it wasn't theirs. Drews faithful prayer worked once again. He was one happy boy. And I have to admit that for Drew to have an experience like that with prayer . . . I was one happy Mamma, and  it was worth every penny we spent in gas!