Las Vegas Natural History Museum - A great kids Dinosaur Museum!

Dinosaurs seem to have a universal appeal with young children, especially little boys.  My 4 and 5 year old are no exception to this phenomenon.  We've had dinosaur birthday parties, dressed up as a paleontologist for Career Day at school and read more dinosaur books than I can count.  Yet, we had somehow not made it to the local Natural History Museum, or as my boys now refer to it - The Dinosaur Museum.  

Bank of America offers a great promotion for debit and credit card holders the first full weekend of each month, providing free admission to select museums across the country.  One of those museums is the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.  I finally took advantage of this special a few weeks ago and we had a lot of fun.  

First, I should say that I grew up in Washington DC so in some degree being raised with Smithsonian as your "local" museums has jaded me for life.  I do try to look at museums and attractions relative to the location and the age of my children. The Las Vegas Natural History Museum is a Smithsonian affiliated museum. It is small and definitely shows signs of age but for a town like Las Vegas and most children it is a great experience.  

The Museum is open 9am - 4pm daily which makes it convenient for families. The museum offers free interactive programs on the weekends on topics related to their exhibits, check out the Weekend Science page for current topics and times.  When we went the traveling exhibit was Sea Trek and the program we attended was about to Creature Camouflage.  The presenter did a good job of keeping it interactive and involving the participants (there were about 3-5 families with kids ranging in age from 2-12 would be my guess).  After the presentation there was a craft activity and then a chance to get up close with two smaller animals - a mouse and a lizard.  My four year son especially liked that part. 

In addition to a traveling exhibit the museum has wildlife, early Nevada, Egypt and of course Dinosaur exhibits. My kids favorite parts were the Dinosaur Area and the Young Scientist Area which is the interactive part of the museum for kids. They loved digging for fossils, creating rubbings and checking out the computer stations.  A fun little mini-aquarium let them "get inside" and find Nemo; big hit with my Disney loving children. The Dinosaur exhibit features a variety of different models including a large Triceratops and T-Rex that are animated by push of a button. 

We arrived about 10 am and stayed for a few hours, which included attending the presentation and animal interaction.  The museum was very quite when we arrived and got busier by the time we left about Noon but was by no means crowded.  There is a smaller playground located on the same property, just "behind" the museum.  We checked that out after our visit and the kids enjoyed being able to really run off some energy before getting back in the van.  Overall a great low key museum that provides interactive opportunities for the kids and is affordable, especially if take advantage of the Bank of American promotion, or the two for one coupon they generally have on their website.  

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

900 Las Vegas Blvd N (by Cashman)

Las Vegas NV 89101

702.384.3466

www.lvnhm.org 

Wetlands Nature Center and Park - Free Family and Kid Activities in Las Vegas

It is our first Tuesday of the Summer Game plan and that means its time for Take a Trip Tuesday.   I decided to take the kids to a new place we have never visited, the Clark County Wetlands Park and Nature Center.  I've been hearing good things about the Wetlands for a few years, had seen some friends photographs from the area but until we arrived I honestly didn't know there was a full scale nature center at the park.   Although the temperatures are pretty good today, only a high of 100 versus the end of the world 116 degrees that it was on Saturday, it was still a nice surprise to discover an indoor exhibit area to explore!

The Nature Center was fabulous and turned out to be my kids favorite part of the visit. The Nature Center building includes both an exhibit area, a theater (we didn't stay for the movie) and space for a cafe (not currently open).  According to the staff, the Nature Center opened this April so maybe that is why I didn't know about it!  The Nature Center is a well designed, green building and also includes restrooms and water fountains you can access without actually going into the exhibit area. As a mom of young kids, I love when they make those types of things easy to access. My five year old was fascinated with the cool sink in the family bathroom!

The design of the center is very appealing, especially to children.  The lobby area features a mural with over-sized plants and animals.  There are a number of very large insects that move on the ceiling of the lobby and two fun sculptures they can stand behind, my boys are checking them out in the photo to the left.

The exhibit area opens with another great area for kids with a large mural and more over-sized animals that the kids can touch.  The bull frog even rabbits and the large snake features his most recent meal inside his stomach - yum!
The exhibit space is not very large but has quite a few different displays related to desert life including the plants, animals, water and flooding and early settlers.  There are 8 hands on children's activity tables in addition to the interactive features of the various displays.  My boys were especially impressed with the display related to animal scat.  But then, what little boy doesn't love a scientific display of poop?!?

 The Nature Center and Wetlands Park are free of charge, so this makes it an awesome option for families and kids in Las Vegas to visit.  In addition to the exhibit area there is a movie that is available but we didn't check that out, although I plan to on the next visit. It is located on the east side of town at the end of Tropicana, a few minutes east of Boulder Hwy. The trails are open dusk to dawn and the center is open from 9am - 3pm daily.  The staff were all helpful and friendly.

By the time we finished checking out the exhibit area it was getting close to nap time and much hotter so we only explored a very small portion of the Wetlands trail area. The Wetlands Park covers over 2,900 acres and some areas are still under construction.  The trails are both dirt and paved and those that I observed from the nature center and the parking lot seemed pretty easily accessible with a stroller.  We used a small umbrella stroller on the portion we explored by the small pond and it worked fine.  The kids liked checking out the pond and we were able to see insects, butterflies and what I think were tadpoles from the edge of the pond. We also heard many different wildlife that we could not see and the kids thought that was really cool.

You can access the trails without visiting the Nature Center.  There is also a set of bathrooms in the parking lot.  The entire area, both Center and Trails had very few other guests while we were there (Tuesday between 10am - Noon).  When we were driving into park, there was a sign for a neighborhood park.  I decided to check that out as we were leaving and found a fun little play area that we will check out on our next visit.  It has play equipment that blends in with the Wetlands park including a small climbing wall and large animal play objects.  There is a picnic table and benches, perfect for after you explore the area.  Overall I highly recommend this as a free option for kids and families in Las Vegas.  My kids are 2, 4 and almost 6 but this would be a good option for all ages or if you have a broad range of ages in your family.  I also love that it introduces city kids like mine to nature!  If you are looking for things to do with your kids or family this summer in Vegas check out the Wetlands Park.

Playground Area with small climbing wall -
follow signs for neighborhood park

Clark County Wetlands Park
7050 Wetlands Park Lane, Las Vegas, NV 89122 
(East side by Tropicana & Boulder Hwy)
Open 7 days a week - Trails from Dusk to Dawn, 
Center from 9am - 3pm
Closed New Years Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas

Summer Game Plan... or my attempt to not go crazy with small children in the Vegas Heat!

June has arrived, we are counting down the final days of school and I've been busy pinning all the amazing Summer Bucket lists popping up on Pinterest.   This year my three youngest kids are 5, 4 and 2 and I've decided it's time to create a plan of attack for our summer.

I don't like to schedule everything but I find that if I just "hope" we will do things and have fun, we end up spending hours doing nothing. {Correction, I spend time trying to figure something out while the kids go crazy or fight - not all the time of course but that is generally how it feels}.  Another problem with not having a plan is that we live in Vegas. If we want to go out and do some activities we need to start early before its 1,000 degrees outside.  Let's just say I'm not a morning person so hoping I get moving early without something scheduled just doesn't work so well. I decided it I needed to take all these great ideas I'm pinning and come up with the Garcia Game Plan for Summer.

First, I love the bucket list concept but I knew that wouldn't quite work for us.  My oldest son who just finished Kindergarten, loves check lists, but he also due to ADHD loves to hyperfocus.  He will see one thing on that list and I will hear about it non-stop until we do it, and quite frankly my sanity can't handle hearing about something twenty times a day that I know we can't do until August!

I knew both my ADHD self and my son needed something that enough structure to keep us on track and therefore having fun but also flexibility since life happens!  When I saw this idea, I fell in love! The idea comes from a Power of Moms post, a site that always has great support for Moms. I love the idea of having a "theme" for each day that I can plan for and my kids can look forward to but it also gives me flexibility to change it up easily.

Make Something Mondays - craft, bake, paint, build
Take a Trip Tuesdays - try a new park, museum, hike or activity
Wet and Wild Wednesdays - anything water related, pool, splash pads etc.
Thinking Thursdays - library, learning. experiments, practicing
Fabulous Fun Fridays - open day to pick anything fun to do together

After deciding on our schedule I made a big list of things to do including activities I know my kids like and choices from the summer buckets lists I'd pinned as inspiration. Almost all of our activities will be free or very low cost even our "trips".  Once that was done I started dividing the list into our "schedule".  This is my planning list, to keep us on track, not for the kids to see.

I also created another sheet that has a list of bonus activities - extra ideas to fill our days if needed, weekend activities - both scheduled and optional, and finally a list of "bored" activities I can suggest to the kids when they inevitably tell me they there is absolutely nothing to do! The bonus activities involve my participation while the "bored" list can be done individually with siblings.

I'm still deciding how to visually display our plan for the kids (it's not like school is over in two more days or anything - nothing like the last minute!). I thought about a take on an advent type calendar like we do for Christmas but I'm leaning towards just doing just one week at a time and using a card for each day that they can turn over and see what the activity for the day will be each morning. Once I actually create it I will try and remember to post it! My goal is to plan our week using my planning pages each Sunday when I do our family meal plan.  We will see how it goes.

I'm also still coming up with how to introduce this to the kids.  I'm thinking some type of celebration on the first day of our summer.  Any ideas?  Again, I've got lots of time to decide - you know a whole two days! 

Did you create a summer plan? bucket list? What's on your list? 

Happy Summer!  

Rebecca

Celebrating Random Acts of Kindness Week with Kids

This year our women's group at church has been encouraging us to plan for and celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week.  I love Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) because it helps me remember to be better. I'd love to say that I naturally think of others all the time but honestly I let life get in the way too much.  I've found that planning to do Random Acts of Kindness, especially around holidays, is a great way to help not only myself, but also my kids focus on being better.  Even the best of us can be kinder, more caring and considerate in our daily lives. The best part about kindness, it's contagious!  As we are kind to others it helps others pass that along in their lives.

Random Acts of Kindness Weeks is celebrated the week Valentine's Day. In 2013 that means it starts tomorrow, February 11th.  Today at church we were given cute little cards and heart stickers to track doing a RAK each day this week.

In the past we have incorporated RAK activities into our Christmas Activity Advent.  This past Christmas, we put on our best elf garb and put candy canes on people's cars and taped microwave popcorn to the redbox machines.  It was my teenage stepdaughter's idea to dress up and the little kid had so much fun with it (or course the photo below at the redbox my son doesn't look so happy!).

There are so many great ideas about how to do RAK activities out there.  A quick search on pinterest led to tons of great ideas.  The official website also has great ideas and even printables.  If you are an educator they have school based ideas you can implement.  I know my boys elementary school participates in the Be Kind program.


A few of the things we will be doing to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week -

Makes cards & a treat for the kids teachers - We are going to include the "specials" teachers like the Art, Music & PE teachers & aides in addition to the classroom teachers.  My sister is a Elementary Art Teacher so I try to remember to thank the specials teachers.  I know my kids love these other classes and the efforts of those teachers make a difference for my kids.  In addition to a card from the kids, I will also write a note.  Teachers often say that their favorite gifts are handwritten thank you notes.

Individual Kindness - I will be working with each of the kids to pick something they can do for another member of the family.  It will be their choice so I will have to report back on what they choose!

Microwave Popcorn on redbox - This is a repeat from Christmas but it is fast, easy and we are a redbox loving family so my kids think this is extra fun.

Trash Clean Up - Unfortunately we live in a neighborhood with lots of trash around.  We are going to go out and pick up trash and help make our neighborhood a little cleaner.

Bubbles on the Playground - A great pinterest find, we will be buying some bubbles at the dollar store, attaching a quick tag and leaving at the playground for kids to enjoy. Don't all kids love bubbles? Plus it's easy to do while also spending some time at the park.

Bring flowers to a friend - Surprise a friend or two with flowers.

Recognize Good Work - One other idea I love, although not necessarily child related, is to find a way to recognize people through their employers. This could be your child's teacher, a co-worker or even a favorite employee at the grocery store or gas station. As a former HR Manager, I know how much employees and volunteers love it when they are recognized for their efforts.  My kids school district has a Recognize a Valued Employee Award program and anyone including parents can submit an online recognition for a staff members efforts.  I did this for my son's wonderful preK teachers last year and they were so touched by it. Many companies have ways to submit recognition online, you can also post a compliment on Facebook or twitter.  I know one I am doing this week is submitting a compliment for an amazing manager at Target who helped me one day when my toddler was throwing the mother of all fits in his store.  I've needed to do it for weeks and will be submitting this week!


A few of my favorite ideas I found from other blogs include - 

Make them Wonder has a great free printable and lots creative RAK ideas. I found the bubble idea on pinterest and started exploring her site.  I love how she incorporates Random Acts of Kindness year round with her kids!

The Good Long Road shared ten ideas that are both free and kids friendly!

Loved this idea to make homemade coloring books and leave with crayons in hospital waiting rooms.

Toddler Approved's 100 Acts of Kindness series is a great resources with dozens of participating blogs that can help inspire you with ideas.  I wish I had discovered this earlier to participate for the whole four week project.  I hope to do it next year!

You have to check out the same sites 25 Acts of Kindness as a Mom.  This list is fabulous and I hope to incorporate more of these things daily.


Finally, some tips for celebrating Random Acts of Kindness with kids -

Plan - As someone with ADHD, sometimes planning is my nemesis and it does sound a little odd to plan a Random Act of Kindness but I find with busy family schedules that is the only way it will get done.

Be Flexible - Although planning is important you also have to be flexible. All mom's know there is a last minute appointment, a sick kids, an extra errand that needs to be done that can throw off your day.  When I make schedules of things like this I try to allow myself the ability to easily switch things out if I need to based on how the day is progressing.  I also avoid things that are time sensitive for the reasons I already listed!

Involve the Kids - Depending on the age of your kids you can include them in making cards or crafts, choosing what to do or who to do it for (you would be amazed at the ideas that even my 3 year old has come up with).  Kids will get more out of participating if they are involved in multiple parts of the process. My kids are also more excited about doing giving away something they help create, even if its as simple as helping cut out a printable you found on the internet.

Make it Personal - Although I think its good to include opportunities to RAK strangers for kids, especially small ones, including service to people you know can often make it more meaningful.  You could do a RAK week that was entirely limited to your family!

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Do you do RAK activities with your kids?  Have ideas or a post? I would love to hear or see. 

Mini Moments or That's Why God Made Them Cute!

Ever had one of those days where it felt like the kids were crawling the walls or the fighting and whining would never end?  One of those moments where if you heard, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" again your head would literally pop off?  Lately it's often my very destructive one year old that gets me wanting to tear my hair out.  If you hear silence, a scream or a crash you can pretty much be sure she is destroying something or beating on her almost 4 year old brother... again.

It's in the those moments, when let's face it you are really tempted to either A) Walk out the front door or B) follow Bill Cosby's comic wisdom and take them out of this world! Of course reality sets in and you realize you would never do either one of those but for that brief, brief fraction of a second when your last nerve's last nerve has been squashed on one too many times those thoughts do flash through your mind.  Or maybe that's just me???

It is in those moments that I always seem to say, "That's why God made them so cute!"  

Personally, I think I have some darn cute kids... 

Look at those two happy boys.  You gotta admit those smiles are pretty darn heart melting!  Bonus: my family room doesn't look like a tornado went through it either so I'm guessing company must have been coming over!

Baby girl rocking big brother's sunglasses and playing in her seat while I cleaned out my van one day.  Again - how could something so cute ever terrorize her brothers right? 

These are the mini moments of motherhood that I cherish.  They make up for those gross moments of cleaning carpets & car seats, the sibling fights that seem to never end and the whining that you can hear in your self!  These mini moments are what God gives us to remember how precious these little ones are and how lucky I am to be a mom.  After a few kids and a realization that one day the fighting, whining and destruction will stop, and my house will be empty, I've started to cherish these a little bit more! 

Yesterday I had one of those mini moments.  My little man coming home from preK all excited to tell me about Goldilocks & The Three Bears. School was a big transition for my 3 year old but just recently everything seems to be clicking and he is loving learning.  But honestly the best part - was his little voice saying the word porridge and explaining that they lived in a cottage, "which is like a whittle house". 

I'm hoping to start documenting these moments more and sharing.  What have been your mini moments this week? I'd love to hear!

Project 365 - January Highlights

The last few months have been an evolution for me.  You see, I had 3 kids in 4 years and worked out of the home for most of those years.  It felt like most days I was surviving and not trying for much beyond that!  In September I hit the one year mark of being a wahm (very limited consulting) and have been drawn to focus on those things that have slipped away in the chaos of the last few years.  One of the things that has been neglected is a deliberate effort to document our life.  I love taking pictures, especially on my on phone, but that's about as far as it goes.  Literally... the photos sit on my phone.     

I decided that January was a great time to change that and start documenting our life in a more deliberate way.  I like bite size, easy projects so I decided to jump on the Project 365 bandwagon and try to take one photo a day and share via instagram. I wasn't perfect but did about 95% {so that's still A range work right??}.

I thought I would start sharing a few of my favorites each month on the blog as another way to document and share the story behind the photos... 

This picture describes my little girl perfectly.  We had to go straight from church to a 
family birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  So here she is all dressed up, trying to 
play a car racing game. Didn't matter she couldn't actually do it, she loved it 
and would push off any boy that tried to play with her! 

New Year - Time to get back on track!  Luckily both myself and the kids love
green smoothies. Great way to start the day or as an afternoon snack. 

A not so fun part of life!  Our first experience with LICE... I wasn't messing with the nasty bugs
so the boys got their head buzzed.  An unintended consequence, you can really tell how
huge his eyes are and those beautiful lashes!  Why do boys always get the gorgeous lashes???

Living in Vegas normally means nice mild winters.  This year we got a true cold
front for several days.  Walking the kids to school in 27 degree weather was a
new adventure.  Hey, for once the kids didn't fight me about wearing gloves and hats!

January was the month of things breaking - cars, vacuum, pipes
(thanks to that lovely cold weather), flat screen TV and our washer!
This was after it got fixed - a great day for a mom of 4.
I would never have survived pioneer days!

Trying out a new system for organization.  I use my phone for a lot of things but there
is something about getting it all on paper than helps my ADHD brain get focused.
After several weeks I'm still liking it. 

Big sissy picked up little man from school and took him on an adventure...
Just a quick trip to the corner store, but when you are five that seems amazing.
He thought it was AWESOME and they brought home ice cream
for us all {everyone else thought that was awesome}. 

Little Miss finally has enough hair to put up and use clips!  Hooray.
It might be past her eyes by the time she is two. 

Afternoon cuddles with this little man - one of my favorite parts of the day.
His sweet spirit make me grateful I get to be his mom. 

One of my 2013 goals is become better at keeping a clean house.
First habit I am working on is going to bed with a clean sink.
It really does fell good, especially in the morning!

Noah was an old pro at the dentist.  Of course his favorite part was getting to watch cable TV
{we don't even have basic at home}. I love this picture - kickin' back, so perfectly Noah. 

This is disgusting - NOTHING like Starbucks! Enough said. 

A brief moment of cuteness on a morning of errands with the kids. 

So proud of my guy!  He wrote his name all by himself in his preK journal.
He was so proud of himself and his fabulous teachers made a big deal out of celebrating it.
{I know - hard to look at anything but the crazy tiger hat...
a Christmas gift he begged for! I'm hoping the weather warms up soon..}

Part of documenting, I started a "One Line a Day Journal" and completed January!
It tracks 5 years and I'm looking forward to seeing how life evolves.  

Housework & Chores - A Blessing or a Curse? Teaching children to work and be happy!

Recently I had the opportunity to attend an amazing Power of Moms retreat.  The tag line for Power of Moms is "A Gathering Place for Deliberate Moms" and that is the heart of what the retreat was all about. There were about 50 moms with a sum total of over 150 kids in attendance.  I hope to be sharing more lessons learned over the next few weeks and months but today I want to talk about work.

I hate housework. I hate cleaning. My mother is meticulously clean so I learned how to clean at an early age but it's just not something I enjoy.  Couple my dislike of the activity with my ADD and my house is normally far more cluttered and disorganized that I ever want it to be. Recently as my sons have been getting older I have realized this is not a trait I want to pass down to them.  One of the topics of the retreat was on Family System and the lunch discussion was about teaching children to work.

Something that April Perry, one of the founders of Power of Moms, said during the Family Systems training  really hit me. She said something along the lines of do you teach your children that it is a blessing to be able to take care of their home?  That is its not just a responsibility but a blessing to have a home to take care of?

Of course my immediate response was NO because that is not how I view housework AT ALL.  As that thought lingered I realized that maybe that is where my problem lies. I view housework as a curse.  Something to be endured rather than a blessing associated with the larger blessings of having a home and family.  I do feel that my home and my children (who are often the creators of the mess) are a blessing but I never thought of viewing the need to take care of my home and the subsequent mess as a blessing.

With this in mind I decided I need to do some reevaluation of my attitude at home.

I love how when you decide to change your focus opportunities to improve always seem to present themselves.

On Monday as I looked around at the post-weekend chaos at my home I decided to not get discouraged.  I don't remember exactly how or why but my 4 year old asked to help and I said yes. My boys (3 & 4) have to pick up their toys, help with laundry, throw their trash away, clear their dinner plate and other small tasks but I've never had them help with cleaning like sweeping, windows or even the dishes.  Some of that is do to me believing they won't do a good job and it will be a waste of time because I will have to do it again.  Acknowledging and correcting that attitude has been a many year struggle for me but one that I am starting to win.  

So as I said yes to my little Noah and gave him a task almost immediately my 3 year old Sam asked to help too.  Suddenly all three of us were cleaning together and my attitude of cleaning as a curse was slowly mellowing and I was finding a small measure of the joy that can come from working together with your kids.

Sam washing his plate after lunch.  Notice the Superhero outfit?
Ever since wearing a costume to a Superhero birthday party the other day
he thinks he needs to wear a Superhero outfit every day.

  

Noah ended up cleaning with me for over an hour.  He kept asking for more and more to do.  He did windows, dusting, mirrors and even did dishes for the first time in his life. Sam helped too but he still can't reach and do some of the things as easily as Noah.

Noah cleaning the sliding glass door.
He even asked to stand on a chair so he could get the  "everything". 

Now Noah asks what he can clean when he comes home from school.  Obviously I know this won't last forever but for right now - I'll take it.  And one more lesson I've learned - he actually did a good job! 

Noah was pretty proud of his work.  I'm also grateful that I use homemade natural cleaners so I  was able to  let them clean without being worried it was dangerous. 

Lessons learned from my kids: Prayer

I keep thinking of Noah, my 4 year old, prayer at Easter dinner.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for Kat and Sally (our guests), Papa, Big Sissy, Sam, Baby Girl, Mama, me and for my powers and that I'm Electric Company Dinosaur and Jesus loves me.  Amen. 

As you can imagine there were several snickers, especially when he thanked Heavenly Father for his powers...

But in my heart I was happy.  Why?  Because Noah wasn't worrying about what anyone else thought. He was talking to God and thanking him for what was important to Noah.

There is a lesson in that for us all.  Prayer at it's most basic level is a conversation with God.  I want my children to learn reverence and respect. But I never want them to forget that through prayer they can build a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father.  I want them to know that he loves them and will always listen to them even if its about something someone else may consider silly.

It has also made me think about my prayers.  Do I really share what matters to me or do I say what I think I'm supposed to say or do.

My gratitude for Poopy Diapers

I guess the fact that spell check doesn't recognize "poopy" should convince me not to use it in a title but if you read on you will understand {hopefully}.

The other day was one of those days as a mom where finding the joy in motherhood didn't seem very easy.  In fact it felt more like my children were finding their joy in driving me nuts.

Now I should back up a bit.  I have 3 kids ages 4 and under and then a 17 year old stepdaughter that lives with us full time and all this happened in the last 6 years.  I continued to work full time for the first two years and then part-time as a Non-Profit Manager for several more until I recently chose to be home full time.  I've officially hit the 6 month mark as a work at home mom and most days there is at least one, if not many more, moments I long to go back to my office for even just a few minutes!  A few hours of adult interaction, using my professional skills, heck I'd even do budgets again, just for a moment of not having a small child attached to my hip and another one or two begging for my attention.

So this was where I was at the other day... and where the "poop" enters the story.

My 4 year old who is completely potty trained had an accident for the first time in months!  My 3 year old who is about 90% potty trained had to have used the floor instead of the potty at least twice and my infant daughter needed to be changed at least every 30 minutes {or that is how I felt}.   It was reaching dinner time, I was frazzled, my husband had just gotten home and was headed upstairs with the boys.  I grabbed my daughter to put her in her high chair and discovered she needed to be changed, again!

"You have got to be kidding me!" I cried out {and I'm only partially exaggerating here}...

I walked to the changing table and began the process of changing my daughter and then suddenly it hit me.

In the midst of feeling sorry for myself and annoyed at having to change another poopy diaper I looked down at my little girl's face.  

In that moment I realized I had this all wrong. Suddenly I stopped thinking about the diaper and really looked at this little baby.  

I thought for a minute how fast she is growing.  She was just 5 lbs when we she was born, so unexpectedly tiny I had to borrow premie clothing for her and yet almost 11 months later, on this day, she was just a few steps away from walking {she's now a few steps away from running!}.  I thought of my sons who every day amaze me with how big and grown up they are becoming.  I thought of my teenager who is just over a year away from going to college.  In that brief moment it suddenly hit me, that if in fact I got my wish for no more diapers, I would also no longer have a baby girl.  My gorgeous little Lucy Luc would be on to the next stage and my precious time with her as an infant would be gone.  

Maybe this doesn't make sense to anyone else but that realization, on that day, while changing what felt like the one millionth diaper of my life, has made me look at what used to feel like annoying or useless tasks just a little bit differently.  Because although some days it drives me crazy to hear "mommy, mommy, mommy..." all day long, I know there will be a day when they are much older where I will hope that just one time in a day they will need me and call "Mom".  In my six short years as a mom I have become to finally appreciate how fast these early years go and so for today I say... give me one more poopy diaper because that means I still have a sweet faced little baby.  A baby girl that I can snuggle, kiss and love on all I want. A baby with bright eyes and giggles that warm this mom's heart even in the dark hours of the night when I would rather be asleep.

So for today I am trying to remember this... the good always comes with the bad.  I may not like the diapers or the tantrums or the fighting between my little boys but I love the learning, growing, giggling, snuggles and those simple moments when one of them cuddles next to me and says, "Momma, I love you."

So because of the sweetness of those good moments, I'm learning day by day to accept the moments that aren't my favorite and remember that its my choice if I focus on the poopy diaper or instead focus on my daughter's sweet face.  It's my choice to show love even when I am tired because in the end I chose to be a mom and it is the best job in the world.

After all, how could looking at this face not be the better choice? {and yes those kicking feet are exactly what I get each and ever time, I thought I would share an authentic photo}

Toys, toys, toys everywhere toys!

Look familiar???

 

Of course I want it to look like....

and this... 

Land of Nod 

and this... 

Pottery Barn Kids

 BUT....

Please tell me I'm not the only one with an unorganized gathering of toys... actually what's scary is this is it "clean"... it's even worse when my little ones are awake and playing.

As part of my brave new world I have decided that my house needs some serious reorganization and redecoration.  My house isn't big (1600 sq feet), there are 6 of us and my ADD combine to make me feel like everywhere I look is clutter!

One of my greatest challenges is that 1/2 of the family under the age of 4 which equals way too many TOYS!  I keep telling everyone to not buy my children anymore toys but their wonderful Aunties and Uncle just can't say no to my adorable little ones.  Thanks to wonderful pinterest I have found some great idea for organizing toys!

Check out my kids organizing board for some fabulous ideas!  Once I actually get some projects done I will start posting before and after pics.