My Blog Has Moved

I have decided to switch to a new blog address because while we have loved being the DESERT monsons, we won't be desert people forever (for instance we are most likely moving to Detroit this summer). Plus, I was just in the mood for something new :O)

Our new blog address is: http://monsonmamamemories.blogspot.com

We Like Free!

Students around here make free entertainment an art form . I have to say Provo is a pretty wonderful place for family friendly and pocket friendly. We really dig that! Here we are at a UVU basketball game because Thais got tickets at school and we figured it was something fun and free to do on a Saturday night. One of my New Years Resolutions is to stay true to the student budget. This basically means don't spend money. I am really big on family outings so I've decided to join the club and see what FREE adventures we can embark on during our time in good ole' Provo. I will keep you posted :)

Crazy Mom

Sometimes I wonder if this is how my children see me. I mean Skyler did pray the other night that mom and dad would not yell at him anymore (sad!) This picture just describes how I feel sometimes. When Thais was born I felt sorry for moms who expressed feelings of how hard motherhood was. I would listen to them politely but deep down I just felt bad for them because I knew I would adore motherhood every single step of the way. Almost six years later I still love being a mom but man oh man this is harder than I thought. Sometimes I watch 19 and Counting and I think, " Why can't I be like Michelle Dougar!" She has NINETEEN children and she is always perfectly calm and sweet at all times. Granted she has never met Skyler the Rhino Monson :), but still something tells me she could still do it. I just had a day the other day where I cleaned chocolate milk up on the carpet, chased a three year old who ran out of the store three times and later scolded the same three year old for scratching his baby sisters face. I mourned over a $140 dollar doll house that was broken by my five year old who could care less because in her mind money really does grow on trees. There were ear infections, grumpy kids, late appointments and never ending dishes and piles of laundry. In the chaos of it all I am afraid that my own face mirrored this crazy mom picture a few times. It was a little bitter sweet to hear Thais declare at the end of the day, "Mom I am going to be so good for you because you are sad a lot because you have to do really hard things!" Ouch right!

Today I think I am going to bury the "crazy mom" in me and slow down. I am going to let "cool mom" take over and soak in the time I get to spend with my kiddos. I have a baby on my lap with the best kissing cheeks in the world and a cute little boy in a spider man costume who is asking me to play "spider man" with him.

Okay so I just went into the living room and Skyler has colored all over my couches with green crayon....wish me luck!

Things I love about Grace...

I love her smiling eyes.

I love how her lashes tickle her chubby cheeks while she sleeps.

I love how she communicates affection for us all without speaking

I love that she can stay entertained for almost an hour on the floor while I work out

I love kissing her face

I love that she looks like my baby pictures

I love her chunka chunk legs

I love her "tired" sounds

I love that she is going to be tall

I love watching her watch her siblings

I love the way she looks at her daddy

I love waking up in the morning to one of her smiles

I love dressing her up in darlin' girly clothes.

I love that her name is Grace

I love to sing Amazing Grace to her night

I love her dark eyebrows

I love having her in my arms

I love watching her roll backwards and forwards on the floor and underneath our coffee table.

I love watching her discover new things

I love how excited she gets when I give her something squishy to chew on.

I love that her thighs barely fit through the bumbo

I love how she smiles and laughs at perfect strangers

I love her calm spirit

I love how when I think about this beautiful baby I feel a love so profound that my heart could burst. I love babies. I love this baby and I am sooooo grateful for our Gracie Girl.

Skyler Boy Is Three!

Well here is a saved post that is LONG over due! My Sky turned three over Thanksgiving break and with a bunch of cousins in town it was a PARTAY!!!

We decided to do a lawn Mower theme because of Skyler's obsession with them. However as of late, lawn mowers are totally out and Spider Man is the new craze. Here I am getting wheels together to play pin the wheel on the lawn mower.



Here is a picture of the lawn mower thanks to the creative talents of Marianne, Nathan, Aria and Thais!



We played "lawn mower" races!


And musical chairs but the kids had to pretend to push lawn mowers as they went around the circle.



Here were the last three cuties left in the game. There was some tough competition!

Skyler loved opening his gifts. Here he got spider man shoes and shirt from Grandma Teresa!

A BYU football helmet and jersey from mom and dad. ( I am pretty sure we were as excited to give this gift as Skyler was to get it) He was sooooo adorable when he opened the present. He even sang the cougar fight song for us :O)

Nana gave his this awesome BYU hat which he absolutely loved! He wears it all of the time...

He is the cutest cougar fan I've ever seen!

Another gift...,

Sky couldn't wait to try out his new foot ball gear on Papa!

This was my first attempt at a home made birthday cake (sad I know!) Thanks to Nana we even got the handle to stay up :O)

Just another shot of our work!

Here's little Beck licking frosting off the wheel :O)

It was a great party and we were so happy we had family to celebrate it with us.

We sure love our boy!

Gracie In The Hospital

A few weeks ago little Gracie was put in the hospital because she had a Kidney infection and a UTI. I love this picture because she is all hooked up to everything in her hospital bed and still just smiling away. Gracie is such a good baby. If it wasn't for the high fever we wouldn't have even known she was sick. I sure love this little girl!

Another shot of this cutie. I have to say that I was so grateful to my sister in law Abigayle who came down from SLC to watch my kiddos. She played with Skyler and took him to the store and bought him gum so she is a big favorite around here.

Last picture. Love those green pacifiers!

I have to be still!

I decided to put a picture of the child that made me a mother, although this post is very much about all of my babies. The world is a scary place for a mom. I am always wary of watching the news because I usually end up mildly depressed and sad. The latest news has been no exception as Jordan and I have followed the recent Penn State Scandal. Stories like that have always deeply affected me but since becoming a mother it literally puts my heart into a state of panic. I am left wondering how in the world am I going to protect my children from it all?? The process for me is always the same. I cry. I ask a lot of hard questions that

there are no answers to. Then when I am on the brink of locking my children up in an underground cellar for their entire lives my answer of peace comes to me loud and clear, "Be still and know that I am God!"

I always fight this answer. How am I supposed to be still when there is no guarantee that my children will be safe in this life. We are told to have faith but I think Elizabeth Smart's mother was a good faithful person and she has lived every mother's worst nightmare. I don't understand why sometimes parents are prompted and are able to save their children from tragedies and others go through terrible ordeals having to trust that God's will was done. No one will ever have these answers and I can accept that we're just not supposed to in this life. There a couple of things that have helped my fears as a mother in this day and age:

1. The quote, "Faith is not knowing what the future holds, it's knowing who holds the future!"

It takes a lot of pressure of knowing that a loving Father in Heaven is in control of all things. I feel so strongly that I should only worry about the things I can control and let Heaven take care of the rest. There is so much power in the phrase, "Thy will be done."

2. It occurred to me one day when Thais was a baby (I was having one of my panic attacks about how bad the world is) that Thais isn't only mine to protect. What I mean by that is, I was thinking about how I would always keep her close to me... home school, lock her up, whatever it took to protect her and I realized suddenly that she wasn't only MY daughter. She is also Heavenly Father's daughter. The thought literally crossed my mind that He was willing to sacrifice his Son for me and I had to be willing to do the same with my child. That doesn't mean I allow my children to be in bad environments and let them do whatever they want, it means that I teach them to be IN the world and not OF the world because that is the only way for them to set an example and save souls. I have been told in blessings that my children are missionaries. I know the only way they can fulfill that role is by me letting them go. It's hard for me. I worry, even though they are still so small.

I drive Thais to the bus stop every morning and we have this tradition where she always takes a window seat on the bus and we wave to each other and give each other the I LOVE YOU sign as the bus slowly pulls away to school. This is such a reality check for me that my daughter is no longer under my control 24/7. She goes off on her own and I just have to pray I am teaching her everything she needs to know. A bit of sadness pulls at my heart every morning when I can no longer see her little face waving at me from the window but I also get excited to know that she is growing and every day I get to see more of this little person's spirit and personality.

It is true there is a lot of evil in this world. But there is a lot of good too. My children bring me so much joy and I am so thankful I get to be their mother.

I just have to remember to be still.....