life lately.

our life has been really great lately.  i don't mean to brag, but things are going really well in this little family of ours.  of course hazel is a terrible eater, as always, but in many ways she is just as easy as can be to take care of.  things are great between john and i, and i get to eat more food than usual because i'm pregnant.  so, all things considered, i think we're doing pretty great!

here are a few pictures of life lately:

1. john got his new xbox game, advanced warfare, and has been playing it occasionally when nothing is going on.  secretly, hazel and i enjoy watching.  as you can see, she likes to "play" the game too.

2. i bought a new beanie, and hazel basically just steals it from me constantly.

3. feeding the ducks, as always, is one of our favorite outings.

4. on the plane ride to utah for the holidays!  hazel lucked out and got her very own seat... although she sat on my lap half the time anyways ;)

things i am loving about life right now:

my twisted peppermint candle from bath and body. 
watching john and hazel play in the evenings.
the way hazel calls me "bah", instead of "mom". 
putting up our christmas decorations wayyy to early.
diet barq's root beer.
putting on lipstick for no reason at all.
christmas cookie blue bell ice cream.
scarves and sweaters.

pics from this last weekend...

i just love weekends.  we get to recharge, do things with other couples, and spend time together as a family.  on friday we ate dinner and went to the galleria and walked around and saw their progress with christmas decorations.  saturday we went to the park with friends {froze our buts off i might add...} and then met some other friends at white rock lake on one of the coldest days of my life to take pictures?  i don't know.  we are crazy.  it was cold, so hazel wasn't having any of it:

poor henry.  he was so excited to be marrying hazel.  she wasn't so sure:

but afterwards, we went and got rusty taco, and then ate christmas cookie blue bell.  which basically makes everything better.  

sunday we had another couple over for fake cafe rio... which is turning out to be my pregnancy craving this go-around.  and i'm totally okay with it.

on raising a toddler.

i wish in some ways i could see hazel through someone else's eyes. because as her mother, i love her and am more proud and amazed at her than anyone else, but i am also the most sensitive to the things she does that are naughty (and therefore, i should conceivably try to change)

i wonder sometimes how other adults see her. is she sensitive? kind? playful? happy? friendly? obedient? i know i see other kids and i don't usually pass a lot of judgment unless they are really ill-behaved, and as we visited the children's aquarium the other day, there were a few minutes when she really didn't mind me and i felt compelled to apologize to the other moms with me.  the truth is, to me, she seems like the worst behaved child in this group of moms and kids that gets together.  now, is it just me?  or is that really the case?  and if it is the case, what do i do about it?  do i need to worry?  or just chock it up to her stubborn personality?  or is it my failings as a mother?

you can understand my frustration.  because i love her unconditionally, i want her to have the best in life.  and i think that kids who learn to mind their parents, be obedient, and choose to be happy, are ultimately more successful adults.  

today we went to the galleria playground with another group of moms from the ward.  this time, hazel actually did pretty great (minus refusing to eat - which is another frustration entirely). 

i guess, in many ways all i can do is my best.  i find that i am often comparing myself to others, and since becoming a mother, that comparison has only intensified.  but i pray at the end of each day that i will be able to give hazel what she needs.  as a mother, sometimes it is hard to figure that out.  in hazel's case, i never know if i am being too strict, or not strict enough... and the second-guessing yourself can get quite exhausting!

one mother i really admire (john's sister ashley) is always so relaxed and calm about mothering.  even if her child is being naughty, she is calm and collected.  i admire her laid-back, yet strong, guided mothering so much. (not to mention, her kids are extremely well-behaved and rarely act out). i know no one is perfect and i should never expect to be, but if i could change one thing about my mothering, it would be to become a more relaxed parent.  so for now, i'll work on being relaxed and patient.  that shouldn't be too hard, right?  

how to make your own christmas tree.

john and i had a discussion this season.  are we going to be one of those families that throws down $100+ a year for a fresh christmas tree, or are we going to be the family that buys a really nice, $250 fake christmas tree that will last us (hopefully) a few years?  it turns out - neither.  since we are going to be out of town for christmas for the foreseeable next few years, we didn't want to throw down the money on either type of tree.  at least not right now.  we threw around the idea of buying a tree once they all hit the clearance aisle at the stores... but we'll see.  so we made the decision there would be no tree in our house this year.  and i tried to come to grips with that.  i really, really tried.

but i couldn't.

so i started thinking about what i could do for a cheap alternative.  and i finally settled upon this:

i went to home depot and asked the nice man at the paint counter how many paint stir sticks i could take for free.  he was okay with 20, because i thought that it would do the trick.  then i went over to the lumber section and searched for a piece of wood of comparable color and thickness for the trunk.  i found a 4-foot piece of "hobby wood" that looked perfect, and bought the other necessary tools:

nails
wood glue
cheap lame saw

now for the fun part!  laying down your trunk and arranging branches how you want them.

while i was sawing paint sticks {which it turns out, are probably not meant to be cut} with the crappy, cheap saw, i thought that was going to be the most annoying part of this whole project.  and then, while i was gluing the pieces down in the places that i wanted them, i thought that was going to be the most annoying part.  but the nailing.  the nailing was it. but it was worth it!

after i got all the branches placed the way i liked them, i glued the main pieces on a few at a time.  the glue bottle suggests using a clamp to hold the pieces together, but who wants to take an extra trip to michaels for clamps?  not this girl!  no, what are our old textbooks good for if not makeshift clamps?  i placed a couple books on top of each piece of wood, and i put nails in the places i thought they should go.  there was no particular pattern, i just put them where i thought they would be best.

i used no-damage hanging strips to adhere it to the wall so i wouldn't have holes to patch up come january. the hazel and i enjoyed decorating the tree together.  {which mostly involved me making sure she didn't rip out all the nails as she took off ornaments}

the final project:

i think it fits pretty nicely in that little corner.  even if we end up buying a fake christmas tree at the end of this season, i will proudly put this one on display for the next few years :)

things to do in dallas: the dallas children's aquarium.

a bunch of moms from our ward went to the dallas children's aquarium yesterday.  it is small and simple, which makes it perfect for an hour or so long outing.  parking is free, and it's only $8 for admission for adults. children under 2 are free.  {that means you, hazel!}  

one of the best features of the aquarium is that the atmosphere is really relaxed.  for awhile hazel just ran from tank to tank saying "uphhhf" which i have come to learn is her way of saying fish ;) they have a great spot where you can pet lobster and sea urchins {the non-toxic kind}, which was a serious highlight.  hazel was surprisingly obedient with the "one finger" rule.

serves me right for trying to get her to take a picture with me after showing her the fish exploration ipad ;)

the shark tank was also pretty neat.  they just kept swimming past us in circles.  we had such a great time!  we actually ended up getting an annual pass, because it pays for itself after three visits.  so we have more children's aquarium in our future.

a video from the park.

making ourselves sick from Paige Brunt on Vimeo.