Xerox 2016

You made it to our blog! Oh I'm so happy! I now hope your make it through our xerox Christmas letter! If you like what you read feel free to share it. (Please also be patient with me as I put pictures in over time.)

2016 in one word: oiy. 

What a year! 

After finishing up a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, we kicked off January with Grace's FIRST BIRTHDAY! Oh. My. Gosh. The first year of her life zipped by, so fast, at warp speed (just like her!) We celebrated with presents and the traditional cake smashing, which was very satisfying; Starlet did NOT want to touch her sticky cake at all when she turned one. As soon as we got to know Grace's spunky personality, we knew that she would definitely smash the cake and eagerly looked forward to her first birthday. She did not let us down!! Following her birthday the doctor confirmed what we'd known all along: she's healthy, happy, and perfect! Grace has been such a delightful addition to our family, adding such energy, zeal, and love to Team Vaterlaus. 

January kicked-off another adventure: potty training Starlet! Potty training is the ONE THING I dreaded most about parenting. I HATE POOP so this was HUGE in my growth as a parent, not just in Starlet's growth. When Starlet left nursery and started Sunbeams at church, I felt such a urgency to potty train because I was embarrassed that my little girl was one of the only sunbeams NOT potty trained. Everyone told me to wait until she was ready, just wait, wait wait wait, and after two unsuccessful attempts in 2015 I decided we'd waited long enough. Starlet is one of those "kick out of the nest" children - you have to give a little push every now and then - and I knew she could mentally handle it and physically handle it, so I kicked the little birdie out of the diaper nest. My biggest help was the Holy Ghost who coached me on what to do and helped me handle accidents and such. (My mother was a huge help too! "MOM! This is hard!!") Within a few weeks, Starlet was a professional at #1! Success! 

January easily flowed into February with the usual cereal-on-the-floor messes: thank you, Grace. I ROCKED Valentine's day this February. ROCKED IT. Cool Apa LOVES Star Wars and after another inspiring Nerdy Nummies, I finally ordered some awesome Star Wars chocolate molds! All of Valentine's week I made chocolates and they turned out AMAZING! I surprised Cool Apa with a custom-made box of chocolates which he took to work to show off. I think I got some wives in trouble, oops. 

Valentine's weekend also brought a visit from my brother!! He came up, despite having just started dating his future wife, which was wonderful! Cool Apa and I took him on a tour of Micron, I made homemade pizza (which he loved), and he came to church with us; Uncle Oaoa even came to my Sunday School class to talk about preparing for a mission. (He used the analogy of preparing for the zombie apocalypse - a very hot topic amongst 12 and 13 year olds!) It was a great weekend and a last chance to be with just my brother before he got married! 

February ended with a wonderful dance date with Cool Apa. *Insert little pink heart bubbles here* Our stake put on an adult dance - so nice. I LOVE dances (even though I'm not a good dancer) and was so excited to go with Cool Apa. I got all dolled up, we got a baby sitter, and had the time of our lives! Every couple needs to date! We hadn't had a good date in a long time and it was so nice to get out of "mom mode" and remember why I love Cool Apa so much. We are such good friends! I love him so much. 

March passed with warm weather, projects, and cooking adventures - my most serious cooking endeavor: baking. I started this year wanting to hone the skill of cake making and decorating, again inspired by Nerdy Nummies. I managed to make a Death Star cake while my in laws were visiting during their spring break! It took me three tries, but I did it!! 
March turned into April with a delightful Easter. 

April came and went with a lot of "normal life:" drawing with chalk in the backyard, toddler messes, bedtime challenges, therapy for Cool Mamma (since fall 2015), and long, tough hours for Cool Apa. In August 2015, Cool Apa moved to a different department at Micron: difficult change for him and us. April zoomed in and out, as it usually does. 

May came with a perfect Mother's Day! Cool Apa's present to me: he made my FAVORITE dish from Olive Garden!! Oh! It was SOOOOOOO GOOD and I couldn't believe how spoiled I was! I wish the pictures could convey how delicious my Mother's Day meal was - so good. The other gift I loved was Starlet singing with the Primary during church!! Oh! I cried seeing her up there because the moment captured my fulfilled dreams: all my life I wanted to be a mom! And there was my little 3 year old, making a grumpy face, and glaring at the congregation with the rest of the Primary for Mother's Day! (She was so grumpy at singing and did not sing; Grace cried and yelled after her because she wanted to be with her older sister!!) Oh it was perfect! 

The weekend after Mother's Day came Vaterlarteger I: family reunion of which I was in charge! Being in charge was not as painful as it could've been thanks to a lot of delegation, yet I'm thankful that I don't have to do it again for several years! My father made all the food, my father and Uncle Oaoa took the family pictures, Aunt and Uncle Astute made the Vaterlarteger shirts, (Vaterlarteger is a combination of all the last names of the family members), Uncle Oaoa brought is girlfriend (gasp!), and I ran all the games: complete success! It was also a good opportunity to get to know Uncle Oaoa's girlfriend, now wife. ;) We all knew they were getting married so I had the interesting experience of saying, "I have no idea who you are but you're marrying my brother and you're gonna be family!" I can't believe my family accepted Cool Apa so quickly without really knowing him! Oh but you have never met someone who serves more than my sister-in-law. Oh and so good with children! Perfect woman for my brother. 

After some sickies (including chest cold for Cool Mamma that lasted forever) we enjoyed watching Cool Apa's youngest brother graduate from Westwood High in Mesa, AZ. The best part: we got to watch and virtually be there with out traveling the 16 hours! Graduation was broadcasted on the school's website! How stinkin' convenient! 

June kicked off with a birthday trip to Pocatello for funeral. We all zoomed to Poky on my birthday so I could attend a funeral the next day. One of the most influential people in my life, Skip Garvin, passed away on June 2nd. Mr. Garvin taught me astronomy in high school and it's because of his class that I studied physics. And little does he know how far reaching that influence was! His death hit me hard, harder than I expected. I loved that man and am so grateful for his influence. I need to finish my memorial letter/video to him. 

Somewhere in the midst of June/July, thoroughly tired of cleaning poop out of Starlet's pants, we knuckled down and tackled #2 with full-throttle bribery, thank you dollar store!! I'm happy to say she is completely potty-trained! Holy cow that's convenient! Having done it once, I can do it again. 

The rest of June passed and as Independence day approached, Micron announced a plan to reduce their workforce by 5-7% worldwide. Cool Apa and I began thinking of what we'd do if he got layed off, (we're STILL thinking) but made no definitive plans. 

This Independence day I felt SO GRATEFUL for my country especially the men and women who sacrifice so much to serve and protect our country and freedom. I've made it my personal mission to thank as many veterans as possible which has been incredibly rewarding! Every vet I thank deeply appreciates my gratitude and my gratitude for them increased in turn. 

Then July 13th came. A day that will live in infamy making the rest of 2016 a, difficult, adventure. 

Cool Apa got laid off. 

Oiy. Wrench in our cogs, no joke. Just when we were getting comfortable too! We were playing with the idea of moving closer to Micron, enjoying friendships in our ward, and things were starting to look up for me emotionally. Then, huge change. 

Well, as most of you know, we felt very strongly that we should move down to Arizona and live with Cool Apa's parents. So we gave our landlord our 30-days notice and started packing. The impression to go down was SO STRONG that we just had to obey. 

In the midst of packing we traveled across Idaho and into Utah for a couple weddings! My cousin and my little brother!! Uncle Oaoa and Aunt Matilda. Beautiful wedding! Beautiful bride! Oh and what a delightful family! I'm a little saddened that we don't live closer to any of them. We spent the night at my cousin's house and little Starlet made best friends with her 2nd cousin; Starlet cried so much when she had to say goodbye! They are only 2 months apart and she is the closest cousin Starlet has. (No first cousins yet.....) An exhausting but beautiful week/weekend.

August finished with painful goodbyes, doubts but firm convictions about our move, and packing that never ended, but did eventually. Grandpa Gnarly and Uncle Grits flew up to help pack and drive the moving truck. Our goal: get out Friday morning; we drove away Friday night, at midnight thirty. (Yes you read that right, 12:30 AM) Car troubles, long drives, tears, and a icky hotel stay finally saw us to Mesa, AZ. Hurray! We received such a warm welcome from everyone! 

And the real adventure began. (I shouldn't be the one to talk about this part of the year; I just didn't know what to blog during this time either.) As I've told many people within one week my stress skyrocketed and my depression nose-dived. After settling in, looking for jobs, and dealing with the heat (95, ninety blasted five!! in mid October!!) my conviction that things would be better and brighter dwindled. After a while, I was just surviving, barely at that. One day, Cool Apa snapped and said, "We're going to Idaho!" and we did. 

So, we're back in Idaho! *Embarrassed laugh.* We came up Halloween weekend and have been up here since. I can't tell you how healing it's been being here, in Idaho (in the cold!!), with my family! Soothing balm. It's amazing how shattering unemployment and uprooting your life is! It's also stressfully puzzling as to why things didn't work out the way I thought or hoped they would in Arizona, especially with our super strong impression to go there, but that is for another blog post. 

We enjoyed a fun Halloween! Cool Apa and I had a blast making Starlet and Grace's costumes! My personal goal every Halloween is to make the cheapest, fun, and recognizable costumes possible: they have to be recogizeable or it's not worth it, in my opinion. This year I think we got 2/3. As soon as Starlet saw trick-or-treaters she could not wait to get her costume on and go get candy!! After about three doors, Grace understood the system and loved it. We had a traditional Idaho trick-or-treating in the cold, and Mr. Arizonan, Cool Apa forgot to wear a hat and got sick the next week. 

November brought colder weather (*deep happy inhale*) and a share of sadness amongst holiday cheer. Uncle Lima, Cool Apa's youngest brother, left for the Peru MTC on the 15th. I didn't feel up to the journey so just Cool Apa drove down to hear his talk and see him off. From what I hear, he did an excellent job on his talk and says he's fine in the MTC! 

During the month of November, my grandmother took a turn for the worst. She'd been living in the home for 14 months and rapidly deteriorated. My uncle predicted that she would be gone before the end of November and he was right. I had the privilege of saying my own goodbye to her during a visit earlier in November. I wept at her sad condition: in bed all day with bedsores and recovering hip surgery, tired, and trapped in her frail body; I could not wait for her release. It's been hard on my mother, losing her own mother, which is to be expected. When she finally passed, I felt immense peace and joy. Not only was she released from her frail body, she is also reunited with her father, mother, and brother! I ache for my mother, but I am so happy for my grandmother. Her funeral was beautiful and it was really wonderful to see family I haven't seen for a long time. 

Thanksgiving proceeded my grandmother's funeral and it was a wonderful Thanksgiving. I ate so much food, including the prime rib my father made and the traditional shrimp salad that side of the family makes, and enjoyed wonderful conversations with my siblings, aunts, and cousins. Having looked for blessings all week, my heart was full of gratitude. I am especially grateful for the job interview Cool Apa got last week!! Pray that he gets it!! (Update: it was a no-go, but from what my uncle said about the company, that might be a blessing in disguise. Still looking!!) 

And now we are to December. Wow. 2016 is almost over! We decided to have Christmas up here, in Idaho, with my folks. The girls are getting some pretty cool presents for which I'm excited. Christmas is way funner when you have children. 

As we enter this Christmas time, I feel the Holy Ghost testifying of the reality of Jesus Christ to a deeper extent than years previous. He was born, He lived, He died, and He lived again and lives today. I'm studying His love and mercy with the intent to accept it and allow it to penetrate my heart. The miracle and reality of Jesus Christ is that He has done everything for us. He paid the impossible price for us to return to our Heavenly Father and He did it out of love. All He asks is that we have faith, come to Him, keep His commandments, and keep trying! And He's not out to punish us, He's out to bless us! And He loves everybody. Including me. Wow. And we celebrate this magnificent Being's birth this time of year! I love my Savior and I know He exists. 

Thank you for slogging through our Xerox Christmas post! We are grateful for the relationships we have with you. May God bless you and yours! 

-Cool Mamma and Team Vaterlaus 

P.S. For those of you who enjoyed the coloring Christmas card, here are the other four that we sent out for your printing and coloring pleasure! 

Conference Fire to Blog

General Conference, when the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, speak to the members of the church world-wide for two days, enlightens us and brings us to a higher place. In me, it lights a fire to be better and gives me a shower of ideas, and my zeal and enthusiasm takes over! My "change the world and be awesome continually" high lasts for perhaps a day, and then I sink back to "real life." I'm grateful for Elder Holland's words in last General Conference:

"none of us want tomorrow, or the day after that, to destroy the wonderful feelings we have had this weekend. We want to hold fast to the spiritual impressions we have had and the inspired teachings we have heard. But it is inevitable that after heavenly moments in our lives, we, of necessity, return to earth, so to speak, where sometimes less-than-ideal circumstances again face us."

I'm not alone in my mortal capacity to fall short from the spiritual enlightenment I've received and loose the spiritual fire a day or two after Conference. Later he talks about how we are judged on our efforts through the grace of God, as many other speakers in today's sessions talked about: God just cares that we TRY!That makes me feel good. 

Despite this, there is something I AM going to do after watching Conference: 

Share the gospel on my blog!!

For the past who-knows-how-long, every time I hear one of my leaders talk about missionary work or sharing the gospel, the Holy Ghost whispers to me, "Blog. Write on your blog." Last week after watching the Women's session of General Conference, especially Sister Burton's talk, I received the same impression: blog. Today, several times while listening to today's speakers: BLOG. Share the gospel on your blog! I've received this impression before many times; my blog was born because of this impression, but I have not written about the gospel of Jesus Christ nearly as much because of fear; I am afraid. I'm scared of saying something wrong. I'm scared of being one of the Mormon bloggers that inappropriately uses the church's teachings. I'm paranoid of being a Mormon blogger that completely misses the Mark, Jesus Christ. 

But NO MORE! 

My tongue has been loosed and I just cannot hold back anymore! 

So, here we go. Mamma's gospel ponderinngs and God's hand in our daily life.  I hope something I write helps someone out there. If you like what you read, share it. Pray that I have Help in my expressions. 

-Cool Mamma 

Holy Blasted Buckets: We Did It

We did it. We moved. To the currently sun-soaked, roastin degrees  land of (cue the music)

ARIZONA!

Mesa, Arizona, to be precise. Homeland of Cool Apa. I've pictured this day for six weeks or more and now we're here; I've thought about the Direction I've received over and over to come, and now we are here. 

Now the real adventure begins. 

For the next undetermined amount of time, we are combining two very independent, very different families into the same household. For then next while, Cool Apa and I need to share our room with both girls which requires alterations in our very comfortable, established bedtime routine. On that note, most of our 'very comfortable, established' life will change, not just in the little day-to-day details, but in many other ways as well; I'd like to think those ways are good. 

For example, I got to see and talk to Cool Apa's Aunt; she is the mother of his favorite cousin/best friend/brother who wasn't born into his family. I have always liked her and always feel comfortable around her. As we parted ways yesterday (actually last Monday), I had this neat feeling: I get to see you way more often now because we're here to stay: that's nice. 

Even with all the good things, this is going to be an emotional change for me: stress about living with in laws, being away from home, and getting a new routine down under someone else's roof; not to mention how well I don't do with change. The last move took me months to recover from and stabilize my emotions and mood. Add on that, I'm a newbie to Arizona. I did live south of Tucson in late June to early August 2009, but I don't think that was long enough to truly appreciate all the little nuances of living in this hot, hot, hot hot hot hot hot hot hot place!  

I'm still running on faith. I find that I need to exercise more and more faith with each step. I kind feel like this:

I have obeyed, I'm in the spot where God lead me, and I know I don't know where to go: there is still darkness and so many unanswered questions ahead of me.

When is Cool Apa going to get a job?
WHERE is Cool Apa going to get a job?
Will we be able to buy a house? Or should we rent?
How long will we live in Arizona? I don't want to move all the way down here to move all the way back up, but I have to trust in God.

I have to muster up more faith and keep moving forward, especially during this "storming" phase now and coming up.

But we're here! We did it.

-Cool Mamma

Hang Onto Better and Brighter

Written Friday 12 August 2016

I feel weepy. The reality of us leaving Idaho for good hit me hard tonight; we're leaving our little home and we're not coming back. We may not come back to live in Idaho ever again! Only God knows. I have a feeling we'll be there for quite a while. I love it here in Idaho. I love it here in Treasure Valley because it has everything I love about Idaho in one place. This is HOME.

CRAIG CLOUTIER / FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

It's moments like these where I, and all of us, need to exercise faith. Heavenly Father told us to go to Arizona and it's going to lead to something better and brighter. I  HAVE to hang onto that. It's going to be hard, and I'm going to have a very emotional few months, but I have faith.

While in our final stages of deciding, I thought a lot about the concept of something better and brighter than what you have now. I've wondered,"How will going to Arizona be better and brighter? "(Besides the fact  that it's hotter there - brighter, sun, ha!) and I'm reminded of when I couldn't imagine something better and brighter.

Throughout almost half of high school or so up until 2010, I loved this one boy. We had a great story, one right out of a modern-day chick flick, rife with conflict. When we met we did NOT like each other, but then became friends after going to the same high school AND in band together AND taking many of the same classes. Freshmen year I crushed on him, sophomore year he crushed on me, junior year we crushed on each other's best friends and became confidants and best friends, and senior year I crushed on him bad. I was heart broken when I found out he didn't return my crush, yet, I still liked him, a lot. The occasional phone calls and hangouts the following summer and during our freshmen year at BYU kept my flame and hopes alive. Even when I had a serious boyfriend I still liked this kid.

Smitten

While he was on his mission, he was my safety net, my back up. See, I'd decided, fairly early on, that I was going to marry him, if God approved. I mean, we were perfect for each other! Kids in high school would ask us if we were dating! His family loved me! My family liked him too! We could talk for hours and we had the same goals. I decided to accept him and choose him despite all his quirks and conflict we'd had in our friendship.

Right after he came home from his mission, I felt a strong prompting from Heavenly Father that I needed to be willing to put this boy on the alter and sacrifice him for someone better. That was HARD. I'd hung onto this boy and the meager possibility that perhaps he loved me too for years. This boy was my plan, my choice, my ideal. I thought he matched everything I wanted in a future spouse. I couldn't imagine anyone better. This boy was the pinnacle and all my dating experience agreed.

However, I obeyed and I prayed that if Heavenly Father wanted to take him and give me someone better that I would give him up. That night, I placed that boy I'd loved for so long on the alter. I gave Heavenly Father my trust and my old friend and love.*

As it turned out, Heavenly Father did have someone better and brighter in mind for me: Cool Apa. Six months later, I met this tall, handsome, clever, creative, intelligent, dream and immediately fell in-love. Oh! Every conversation left more and more hints that this man was the one for me. I was so comfortable and fearless around Cool Apa, and we became instant friends. He and I had the same goals, he was handsome, he was clean in mind, body, and spirit, and we could talk forever. Long story short, we'll celebrate our five-year anniversary next week!

Hindsight is truly 20/20. I didn't know it when I offered that boy to Heavenly Father, but Cool Apa is exactly who I wanted and who I needed. He is so much better and brighter than that boy. I know Heavenly Father loves me because He gave me Cool Apa! Heavenly Father heard all the prayers of my heart and prepared someone to make me so happy. Time has shown me how unsure my friendship with that boy were. I've seen with mature eyes how he treated me was not what I wanted in my husband. Now I know who was better and brighter. Someday I will look back and understand why leaving Treasure Valley was best.

I don't know how being in Arizona will make our life better and brighter. I'm comfortable here, I have friends here, I like it here. But Heavenly Father says that this is the next step to lead to something better and brighter. I have faith.

So, I'll cry and let my heart ache as we leave this good place. I will also trust Heavenly Father and move forward.

-Cool Mamma

*After a few months of awkwardly trying to be friends, that boy told me that he didn't return my feelings. (I learned that in deciding an eternal companion, both the boy and girl need to choose each other and then get God's approval - ha ha!) I tried to be friends with him after this rejection, but it just didn't work.

Trenches of Packing

Packing. Holy buckets.

This is really all I have to show for my efforts over the past week;
all the rest is just the 'mess before it gets better.'

Packing to move is hard! The hardest thing about it, besides getting the motivation to actually do it, is all the tiny little decisions: keep or throw away? put in storage or keep out to pack later? what container or bag should I use? pack now and do without or pack later? how do I pack this? do I want everything thrown in boxes or nicely organize? I think that's why making dinner has been SO HARD the past week; it's ANOTHER decision. Yeehaw.

As if packing and keeping a mental tally of everything that needs to be done, cleaned, asked, or otherwise taken care of isn't enough, I've put this great pressure on myself to get a lot done! We only have ....

7 days!! 

Poop. My lack of motivation and difficulty focusing on one task at a time is making this increasingly difficult. I need the shot in the arm that seeing my family at the weddings (see above) will give me so I can pack, but I really need to pack before we go to the weddings! Eiya! 

I will be asking for help from our ward and friends, but before then, I'm going to gather the grit I need and watch Star Trek: Voyager, You've Got Mail, and maybe some Olympics to get me through. 

-Cool Mamma 

Course Correction

Cool Apa getting laid off is a huge course-correction. Just as you get comfortable traveling through life's highway, God tells you to adjust course: either by giving you a slightly different route to your destination or by telling you to take the next exit and get on a different freeway, thereby leading you to somewhere you hadn't planned on going.

 This course change in our Vatervaar Journey is the latter. After cruising the good Idaho Interstate (figuratively speaking), Cool Apa's layoff has been the Divine GPS saying, "You need to get off this interstate at the next possible exit and get on a different freeway. And you'll be going to:

(Yes I know it says in the title, but please humor me and click play for the dramatic reveal. :D)




"What the stink is in Arizona?"

Well, in our mortal, finite, limited view, Cool Apa's family. (Hurray for saving money!) After that, hopefully it's the next step that will lead us to a job and a better, brighter life!

Yes this is our most recent family picture - five years ago.

It's not that our life here in Treasure Valley has been awful - it hasn't at all! Yes, it's had its hardships as everywhere does. It's that I've received the Impression from Heavenly Father over and over for the past, oh, six months or so saying, "There is a big change coming up and it will lead to something better and brighter." That's the thing I'm going to hang onto during the craziness in the upcoming weeks:

It will lead to something better and brighter.

-Cool Mamma

BIG CHANGE

It's been a hard couple weeks for the Vaterlaus Clan. Living up to its reputation of frequent workforce reductions, Micron is letting go 5% or so of it's employees, and Cool Apa was one of the many in that 5%.

Yes. Cool Apa was laid-off. 

We are currently unemployed. Between jobs. Celebrating our first jaunt of hobo life. 

"Wait. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did you just get hired by Micron? Like a couple years ago?" 

Yup. 

Ouch. Like ripping off a bandage.

I know. It's not personal. It's just business. 

In reality, I think this is a blessing, a gift. A course-correction of our life's journey to lead us to something better. What it is? Only God knows for sure, but He's been telling Cool Apa and I the next step.

-Cool Mamma

Család Vater Xerox July Letter

This post has been in the works for a long time. Updates will be noted.

Holy blasted buckets! I haven't posted on here for A LONG time! I'm pretty sure my lack of posting coordinates directly with when I got Facebook. Oops.

Facebook is an evil time vampire.

 I like being a regular poster. It's time to repent. 

In the Vaterworld since we last spoke:

Thanksgiving was really nice. My mother made sure that everyone planned to come to get together for Thanksgiving since it was the first one we could all be together for in 2 or 3 years. We also had Grandma and Grandpa Great (my grandparents) and delicious food.

Grandma Great (my grandmother), my mother (whom I will name later), and Scarlet,
playing tea. I love how Grandma Great makes EVERYONE feel important.

Traveling, even just to my parents', really wears us out. No stinkin' joke.

Part of the reason we're all worn out is that we all sleep in the same room
if my two siblings are home. I don't sleep well when Grace is with us. 

Couple selfie! We just don't do these anymore. We should do them.

We had a great Christmas. I LOVE making Christmas for my girls! (Even though I stayed up till 4 with last minute Xmas prep and Santa and Mrs. Claus time) You know you got good gifts for your children when they are more interested in playing with their opened presents instead of unwrapping more. I received three cookbooks - all of them were highly desired: I'm a good cook and love learning anything and everything regarding cooking. I once considered doing culinary school instead of physics, but decided to stick with physics. Turns out my love of science and cooking are very compatible.

I think this is about as much snow as we got all winter.
Not my idea of the perfect, white Christmas, but Arizonan Cool Apa loves it.

Grace trying to open her Christmas present She was really excited! 

Grandma Gracious and Grandpa Gnarly gave us a new set of BEDSHEETS!!
Nice ones too! This is a big deal because our bed is a California King and
new sheets are at least $50 a set. AND they match the quilt that Grandma Gracious's
mother made for us! WIN WIN WIN!! 

Starlet started SUNBEAMS!! It took a little while, but now she is comfortable going to Primary in our ward unless she's super tired and hungry.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam!

Grace turned ONE! I can't believe it. She'll be ready for nursery at church next month. Her cake smashing was much more eventful than Starlet's: Starlet touched the frosting once and was DONE. 

My brother came up to visit the week of Valentines Day, the same week he got a steady girlfriend! That week I made Star Wars chocolates for my husband and everyone I knew! It was actually really easy thanks to the silicone molds I purchased just for the occasion; I haven't used them since. The next adventure with the molds needs to be Star Wars Jell-O, according to Cool Apa.

I just had to get these silicone Star Wars molds
and got them in time for Valentine's Day.
 Here's what I made Cool Apa. I think I got some wives in trouble. 

Starlet is so beautiful. Look at how her red hair GLOWS in the sun!
I'm gonna paint this some day. 

And Grace! Oh! She has always been a beautiful baby.
This was the weather in February. 

We started potty training!! Starlet is an expert at #1 and rarely has an accident. Apparently the best place for #2 is not the toilet, but your pants. Erg. We're still working on it.

I HATE poop, but my gag reflex and germaphobe tendencies have calmed down.

My in laws came to visit during their Spring Break. Grandpa Gnarly helped Cool Apa fix our 4Runner, Grandma Gracious enjoyed playing with the girls, Uncle Awesome remained the favorite uncle, but by only a small fraction because Uncle Grits really started warming up to being an Uncle. (Holy buckets, I'm gonna need a family tree to keep track of all these names.)

Our 4Runner which is the more stable car right now...

Uncle Grits was on his mission shortly after Starlet was born and very freshly returned when Grace was born. As the middle child with only one younger sibling, he's not had much experience with babies. It took a while, but now he'll help keep Starlet and Grace safe, actually talks to Starlet and reacts to Graces's faces and noises, and just dies laughing when they do something funny. He's turning into an awesome uncle.

Uncle Grits before his mission. I think this captures his feelings before.

Mother's day was AWESOME! Cool Apa gave me a digital thermometer that has a probe you stick in the food in oven and it'll beep when it reaches the desired internal temperature, a very geeky food gift. AND he surprised me by making my favorite dish from Olive Garden: steak gorganzola alfredo! OH MY GOSH! It was so good! And was JUST like the real thing! So so so so yummy.

Drool. Oh my gosh. Just like the real thing! 

We had our family reunion!! Cool Apa affectionately named it Vaterlarteger - a combination of the three last names of the families in attendance. It was my parents' family, so just them and their children's families. I was in charge. Thankfully, I'd been thinking about fun games I wanted to play with my siblings and immediately knew what I wanted to do. After that, I decided on the central location (my parents' house), the food master (my dad), and t-shirt makers (Aunt Astute and her husband volunteered.) Basically,  I came up with the schedule and games and delegated the rest; the most popular game was the baby food challenge I'd seen on YouTube. OH MY GOSH -HILARIOUS! I think I set a high bar because Aunt Astute and her husband were already coming up with really fun ideas for the reunion next year, of which they will be in charge. (Whew! Glad I don't have to do it again for a while.)

Aunt Astute's husband who is trying to guess
the ingredients in the baby food I gave him.

Uncle Oa and his girlfriend (now fiance) - she's a little grossed out.

My mother was way grossed out and profusely apologized for feeding us such gross food!

My dad rocked this game, but he tasted every single thing he put in his childrens' mouths.
 He looked the coolest blindfolded.

Cool Apa trying to guess. He didn't get many foods right.

My sister working REALLY hard at the ingredients. This team won. 

Precious! Have you caught onto the matching shirts these guys made?

MY FAVORITE PICTURE! Oh my brother's reactions were the best! 

June hit and so did a nasty cough/chest cold. Thankfully, I've been the only one affected, but it's been mean and nasty!! I have never hacked up/blown out so much green/yellow/cloudy variations of both in my life! (Yes, I know you really wanted to know that.) It's Independence Day weekend and I STILL have a cough. I just finished my antibiotics so we'll see what happens.



My birthday week I learned that one of my favorite teachers, a very influential man in my life, passed away just a few days prior and the funeral services were on the day after my birthday. Once I learned about it, I called my husband and said, "I'm going to the funeral. I want to go to this funeral." It worked out because I got to spend my birthday with my folks and go to a bridal shower to my cousin the same weekend. The funeral was beautiful and I learned a lot about that wonderful man. I'll probably have to write a post on that.

My 27th which is a cubic number. The cake says 'Happy Nerdy Birthday,'
has different representations of the number 27 on the side, and
has 27 in binary in the candles, an old family tradition in my family.

I know this is gross, but I sliced my finger one Saturday which made me unable to
play the piano on Sunday for Relief Society! I felt so dumb
that I couldn't play on account of my pinky! 

We finally got on Grandpa's boat this year and went fishing. Last year we optimized fishing, meaning get up at 4 AM to be on the reservoir at 6 AM, and had a very grumpy 2 year old at about 7/8 AM. She caught a fish and thought it was awesome, but was very very tired and hated her life jacket. My then less than 6 month old did great! She got to sleep and was ok with her life vest. THIS year we tried to optimize kiddos comfort. That meant on the boat at 11 AM. After about an hour of being in the heat and in a life vest, my now 3 year old declared she was ready to be done. Hmm. My 1 year old did AMAZINGLY well with her life jacket and LOVED being on the boat. It was hot and the fishing was slow, but the day was redeemed when Starlet caught a fish by herself!! I was setting up the boat's portable potty and privacy pod so Starlet and I could go potty and the glimmer of the fish's scales caught my eye. I did a double take and shouted, "Starlet! You're catching a fish!!" I helped her net it, a tiny little perch, and asked her if she wanted to keep it or through it back. She opted to keep it, I think under the false pretense that it would be our pet, and I explained to her that we could try and eat it. Cool Apa tried to clean it, but ended up mangling that tiny thing. It's remains are buried in our super lately planted garden, currently benefiting the soil just beneath our basil.

Grace driving the boat - she LOVED it! She whined and begged to drive it again.

And now we're into July! Holy buckets. 2016 has flown by, more than I expected it too. All throughout this adventure I've worked on my depression, which will be a post, or five. Mental health is always on my mind. Always. That and improving my homemaking. That's why I need to blog more - to get out of my head.

I've also felt impressed to "let my light shine before men" (Matthew 5:16) and JUST WRITE: tell our family's story. I hope it blesses someone's life! More blog posts to come! There are .... three I have swimming in my head that need to come out.

Thanks for slodging through the long post!

-Cool Mamma

Images stolen from: 

http://warframe.wikia.com/
www.newhealthadvisor.com

Mamma's Musings: Progress

I haven't written for a long time. All of my blog posts start like that, let's scratch that and start again.

I just had a profound thought:

Progress is a yucky word.

"What? No it's not. It means good things are happening, plus it starts with a 'pro.' How can it be a yucky word? You're crazy." Don't go away, it'll be good, I promise. Let me clarify.

Progress is a yucky word for most of us.

Why?

Because we really don't want progress, we really want results* and we want them now. 

I'm results focused and find myself feeling like a failure a lot. For example, my house is a mess. "Oh Cool Mamma, everyone who has little children's house is a mess. You're FINE." Yeah.....but is it normal to have stinky laundry waiting forever to be washed? Crumbs from who knows what on the floor? Dirty dishes with MOLD on them waiting to be washed? I doubt it, but who knows? I want it clean and I want it clean NOW. Once it is clean, I want it to stay clean and never have to continue

After I loaded the dishwasher today, I looked at the sink, still full of dishes. My disgust flared and my hopes sank. 'Why do I even bother?' I thought. But then a thought Cool Apa had came to mind; he said, "You know what? Progress is being made. After all, we're working on a lot of things right now: moving bedtime earlier, potty training, Grace teething, but the house is getting cleaner, piece by piece, bit by bit."

Progress is being made. The the thing about progress is that it's full of 'ing' words, not 'ed' words:

cleanING
makING
doING
tryING

All those mean good things are happenING.

I think lot of my stress and discontent comes from wanting to see the 'ed' words come to pass. But life is all about progress, travelING, tryING, doING, continuING. PrayING. ComING unto Jesus Christ. TryING to be better. RepentING when I make mistakes. WorkING on goals. RaisING and lovING my children. ServING those around me. TrustING in God.

Food for thought.

-Cool Mamma

*I know that actually being results focused is a good thing. I know there are seminars and stuff, but I hope you get my point that you get results by making progress.