By the Dawn's Early Light

By it's nature, motherhood does not provide for a lot of "me" time. This is not a complaint, it is just a fact. As is the solution to many problems, moms have to get creative in order to find "me" time. Some moms find it at Bunco, others at scrap night. Mine? My "me" time is in the early hours of the morning. And I love every minute of it.

I wake up before the sun. I put on my workout clothes and shoes, and I head out to exercise. Three mornings a week it's Zumba, to which I am an admitted addict. The other three, it's a run. I pray while I run, and I consider it a heavenly gift that I am able to witness the dawn - the start of a new day, the fresh beginning. When I get home from my run I kennel my running companion, our dog Star, and let out my chickens. I check for any eggs the kids may have missed the night before.
I walk over to the garden and check the water, pull a few weeds, and bring in any ripe produce. When I step inside my quiet house where everyone is still sleeping, I tiptoe over to where my scriptures are waiting. I open them and invite the Spirit to teach me. I study and I prepare lessons, but mostly, this time with God prepares me for my day. Soon enough it's time to get my sweaty, satisfied self into the shower. After that, the chaos begins. The sun is up and the day is in full swing. And I welcome the day, ready for all that will come, because of the gift that the morning has already been, because of the time I've already made for me.

County Fair Style

The county fair is a big deal at our house. I am a director on the County Fair board, so we think Fair all year long. Fair week began on Monday when Daisy and I had a Girls Night Out at the Queen Pageant. On Wednesday Levi competed in his first ever Mutton Bustin' competition as part of the Western Night Rodeo. At first he was really scared, but he cowboy'd up and had a great ride.

On Thursday, Isaac raced in the Toddler Tractor Pull and had a great time. He even made the "vroom" sounds as he was zooming around the course.

Thursday night I was in charge of our County Fair version on Minute to Win It. We had about 30 teenagers competing for $100 cash.


On Friday morning, the Desperate Housewives Bunco Tournament was off to a great start. That afternoon Daisy competed in Lead Line with her horse, Fancy. My super-talented friend Stephanie made Fancy her own tutu and even embroidered her name on it. Daisy and Fancy both did a great job.I've always said Daisy is the perfect combination of cowgirl and princess. After Lead Line Daisy and Levi both raced in the Bicycle Barrel Race, which I am also over, so I didn't get any photos. They were disappointed that they didn't place, but happy they got a treat anyway.

Saturday morning I competed in the biathlon placing 3rd in my age division. I had a lot of fun and it made me want to get a road bike so bad! We have spent a lot of time riding bikes this summer and I love that it's something we can do as a whole family. Right after the biathlon I had to race home to get ready for Daisy to compete in the walk/trot and show her horse. The boys were happy to have nachos for a mid-morning snack. Only at the County Fair.

Daisy was really confident showing her horse, and she placed fourth in the walk/trot.
When the boys got tired of watching the horse show, they headed over to the train while I took care of the RC Roundup and the Farmer's Market (which, unfortunately, was a miserable failure.) Saturday afternoon I did the Diaper Derby and Guitar Hero. Then we got ready for our pre-derby barbeque.We were so happy to have my sister and her husband and our friends Dan and Jessie over for dinner. But Levi was ecstatic when we finally got to the Demolition Derby. He is a huge fan. Suddenly a huge dust storm complete with some pretty fierce thunder showed up. They cleared all 10,000 of us out of the arena to wait out the storm. We didn't think it was going to clear, so we headed home. Levi was devastated. Then, to our joy and delight, the derby was back on. We were there till midnight and the kids loved every minute of it.

We cleaned up and took down on Monday and now the fair is over for another year. While it's nice to have done, the end of the fair means that summer is really over, which is nothing short of heart breaking. Sigh. In a few months, we'll start planning for next year!

Gimme Five!

When it's birthday time at our house, the honored family member gets to select birthday breakfast. It can be anything they want. To celebrate his 5th birthday, Levi chose doughnuts and chocolate milk for birthday breakfast. Easy for mom!
To celebrate, we headed over to the drive-in movie. It was the kids' first time at a drive-in, and lets just say it exceeded all expectations.



We saw Kevin James, who reminds us of Jeff's brother, in "Zookeeper." You could say the movie exceeded my expectations.

Throw open the hatch back, set up the camp chairs, and make a trip to the snack shack, and we had it made.
Our birthday weekend also took us to Fillmore where we ate at this most fab Route 66-esque roadside cafe.
There we not only enjoyed things like deep fried pickles, mushroom and blue cheese burgers, and lime rickey's, we also met up with Grandpa and Grandma Jones who made the trip just for the birthday boy!

Levi needed to open gifts before we even ordered our food because he had been waiting all day long.
Grandpa and Grandma surprised him with a cap gun, which was a dream come true. He can load it, shoot it, and it "even makes real smoke."
He was a natural. After target shooting during camping a few times this summer, he thinks he is quite the gunslinger.
Grandparents are the best!

Levi got a soccer ball and shin guards from mom and dad. His first game is this week, and he can hardly wait.

Our next celebration was at Grandpa and Grandma JoAnn's with the cousins. The best part about this shot of him blowing out the candles is that we didn't light them. Jeff tried, but the wind was blowing too hard, so we just started singing "Happy Birthday." When we finished, he bent forward and blew just as if he'd rehearsed it.
He got this cool camo overnight bag with his name on it from the cousins.

And a super cool builder's set from Jamie and Rian complete with real metal tools and a wood workbench. He was in heaven and hasn't stopped playing with it since.

We also gave Levi a photo book of his 4th year that I created on Shutterfly, which truthfully is more for me than him at this point, but I love it. I also love retelling each of my children their birth stories on their birthday. I almost feel that nervous excitement as I recount for them the details of the day they entered this world. I am so grateful that their births made me a mother, and that I get to celebrate the miracle of motherhood along with each birthday.

Splash!

Summer means swimming, and we've tried to do as much of it as we can. Sometimes we hit the pool solo, but it's usually more fun if the cousins get to go with us.
Isaac loves the water and gets so excited to go swimming, but he's still not ready to test out his fins. He sits on my lap or right next to me the entire time.
These two studs would swim as long as I let them. After we've been swimming for 3 or 4 hours and I announce that it's time to go, they inevitable ask, "Already? Why?"
Princess got a new swim suit from Grandma Jones. It's her first 'tankini' and she loves it.
A key part of swimming is the snacks during "pool check." Pretzels, Doritos, goldfish crackers, grapes, string cheese and juice boxes are favorites.
The best part about this little guy is his adorable tan line and stark-white bottom.
Isaac and Ashlyn share a birthday, and a special bond. He adores her and I think the feeling is mutual.
We even managed a group shot this time. Hopefully the pool will see us one more time before the summertime bliss comes to an end.