things i'm lovin today

After waking up this morning with a bad cold, I'm not having the best day ever. But here's a list of things that are going my way!

1. My lovely friend, Benita of BRC Photography, who took some gorgeous photos of me yesterday. I had a blast, and am still feeling pampered!

Here's a teaser:

More to come! Don't worry, I am letting all the positive feedback go to my head.

2. My wonderful parents, who drove down yesterday to watch my babies so I could go to my photo shoot, and also cleaned my house while I was gone. It made a huge difference today when I woke up feeling miserable to have a clean house!

3. My sweet girlies quietly playing barbies in their room together for hours this afternoon! It gave me a bit of a break so I could veg on the couch.

4. The fact that my hubby is almost done with school for the semester, and coincidently, undergrad! Go Brandon!

5. Lastly, this guy right here:

yummmmmmmm

Strength

I consider myself to be a bit of a feminist. 

Now, when I say feminist, I don't mean burn-your-bra-in-public crazies who harp on and on about how all men suck. 

No, I mean that I am a firm believer that women are strong creatures.

I was born into a family of strong women for generations back, on both sides. 

There is a famous story of one of my mother's ancestors, who killed a panther with nothing but a soup ladle when it came after one of her babies. 

Then there's my grandmother, who raised my dad and his twin brother, who I am sure that J.K. Rowling used as inspiration for the Weasley twins.

And then there's my mother, who endured heartbreak and poverty and still kept going every day, raising my sisters and I to be talented, intelligent women.

And then there's me. 

I am strong.

I didn't always believe that, but I am. I have been through struggles and hardships, and I have never given up. I have borne two children and am doing my best to raise them. I am a good wife, and I am a good mom. I am smart and caring and confident and beautiful and I make really good cupcakes. There are a lot of really great things about me. I am not perfect, but I try hard, and that matters. 

I understand myself. I know that I have limits, but I also know that I am capable of incredible things. When I look in the mirror, I see strength.

Happy April 25th!

Half-Blood Prince of Bel-Air

I wrote this the other day.
Maybe I have too much time on my hands,
or maybe I'm awesome.

The attic room of the Burrow, born and raised, 
but Hogwarts is where I spent most of my days, 
Charmin out max and Transfigurin all cool, 
playing some Quidditch outside of school, 
when a couple of Slytherins that were feelin bored, 
started making trouble for the muggleborns, 
I got in one little duel, and McGonogall got scared, 
said "You're having detention in the forest with Fang and Hagrid."


That's all I've got so far, but I'll probably finish it, because it's so cool.

ma hurr

You may or may not know.

I love to change my hairstyle.

Whether it's cut, color, or style, I love to switch it up often. 

Here's some of my hairstyles in the past few years.

The first one is my High School senior picture, natural hair color.

The last is what my hair looks like now.

I think I know what I'm doing next:

Gorgeous.

The worst joke I ever told.

I've told you about my crowning moment when it comes to humor, now let me tell to about my worst. Oddly enough, this story also takes place during my pregnancy with Portia. Well, immediately following it, I should say.
Now,I have very few memories of this event. I've compiled the eyewitness accounts to tell you his, so if you're a bit confused, welcome to my brain.
Here's some backstory for ya. Portia was born on the 3rd of June, around 1 pm. The following day, June 2nd, I started feeling contractions. They were small and not consistent, so I went about my business. That night, I was kept awake by said contractions, and the thrill of not being pregnant anymore. I didn't sleep at all. At 6 am, my labor got serious and we headed to the hospital. 7 hours later, Portia graced us with her presence.
Now, the first night Portia was here was a real doozy. She wanted to eat constantly. Literally, I sat up in bed for hours upon hours trying to feed my cranky newborn. Night 2 of no sleep. I was starting to lose it. At one point, a nurse came in, took one look at me and said "Why does she look like that? Is she ok?"
Finally, at about 9 am on June 4th, Portia slept. So I hunkered down for a much needed nap. My parents, Carrie-sister, and Brandon all chatted quietly in the room.
As I settled into my coma, I heard them talking about how my sister, Jeannine, had called a few minutes ago.

Here it is. Brace yourselves.

I spoke up, saying "Yeah, she called to say you guys SUCK!" I thought it was hilarious.
Muffled by exhaustion and the Spirits of Humor trying to kill me before I embarrassed them any further, my voice was too quiet and no one but Brandon heard me.
Everyone else asked what I said, maybe thinking it was important, and Brandon tried to simultaneously tell them to forget it and tell me to shut up. But I couldn't let them miss my hilarity!
So I said it again, louder. And again. And again.
Finally they all heard me, and laughed. Not at my joke, but at how ridiculous I was. And how I just kept going with it. I couldn't let it go. I was certain that it was absolutely the funniest thing I'd ever said.
Finally, Brandon convinced me to be quiet and sleep, and everyone probably talked about how crazy I was. They were right.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is my worst joke.

Don't believe everything you read on Pinterest.

Guys, I am a Pinterest addict. I love getting ideas for DIY projects, and a lot of them are genius! Aaaaaand  then lot of them are crap.
As you may imagine, I spend a lot of my time in Hair and Beauty section. And I come across tons of DIY hair masks or treatments.
I laugh at them.
Here are some that I've discovered:

Apply for 1 month, 1 time per week. Hair grows about 10 cm! Mask recipe is very simple and is based on the fact that mustard bakes, warming the skin of the head and causing a rush of blood to the hair follicles: 2 tablespoons dry mustard powder, with hot water to dissolve, 2 tablespoons of hot water, 1 egg yolk, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons of sugar 

First of all, look at this picture. Hair to your knees, nasty stringy ends, does any one of us really want that? No. We don't. 

Now lets read the instructions. Mustard bakes. You are essentially baking your head? I think that's a bad idea. Not to mention the fact that there is not really a way to get your hair to grow faster. It's kinda impossible, even if you do fry your follicles.

If heat made hair grow faster, wouldn't our blow dryers do the trick?

Twist your bangs into a single mesh in the center of your face above the bridge of your nose and snip the ends. Twisting the hair before cutting will give your bangs a wispy look.

Ok. This one actually has a grain of truth to it. You can twist your hair to cut bangs, but it doesn't make them wispy. It's actually is a technique used by Sam Villa, and if you don't know who he is, then chances are you aren't a licensed hairstylist, and that means you shouldn't be cutting your own bangs.

Seriously, go to your stylist. We can tell when you cut your own hair, and we hate it.

To straighten hair without heat, just mix a cup of water with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, pour it into a spray bottle, then spray into damp hair and let hair dry.

This one is my personal favorite. Put sugar in your hair.

Really.

Don't do it guys. All this is going to do is make your hair sticky.

All in all, if you're reading something on Pinterest that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Siblings

Today is National Sibling Day!
I was blessed with three wonderful sisters, who I adore.
Let me tell you about them!

Daisy is the oldest, and is quite a force to be reckoned with. She is eloquent an organized, and absolutely gorgeous. Spitting image of Audrey Hepburn, no joke. Daisy is the fiercest friend ever. I know that no matter what happens, she will always stand by me. Loyalty at it finest. Plus, she has a pretty sweet house.

Jeannine is incredible. She can be quiet and soft spoken at first, but has the sharpest wit in the room. She is classically beautiful, intelligent, and probably the most gifted artist alive. Jeannine and I can sit up and talk for hours and never run out of things to say. She is awesome!

Carrie is pretty much my other half. She and I are only 18 months apart, and I consider myself to be the luckiest girl jn the world to have her as my sister. She is beautiful and clever and thoughtful, and has the most toned buns you will ever see. She's way cooler than me, way smarter than me, and way funnier than me. But we still hang out. The hardest I've ever laughed in my life is when Carrie and I were together. I loce you, Larry.

Plus Party Linkup

There's a new way to follow me!
Welcome to Bloglovin!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Also, I'm participating in a linkup!

 Along with And Here's To You, Mrs. Robinson

I have an obsession.

It's nail polish.

I have a lot. 

That's what happens to a gal when she gets it at discount prices.

This is one of my faves:

Shorts Story by OPI

Cute huh?

Staying Positive as a Mom

One of my favorite books for kids is Love You Forever by Robert Munsch. It's wonderful.

If you've never read it, here's a video of someone reading it aloud with the illustrations.


The thing I love most about this book is that even when the mother is exhausted, and "living in a zoo," she still takes the time to love her child.
I think this is hard to do sometimes. As a mom of two young children, there are days where I am stretched thin. My girls are very energetic and independent, and sometimes this makes me very tired. There are days where I can relate to the mother in the story, living in a zoo!
But I think it's very important to not let myself get frustrated and angry when my kids are just being kids.


There are several things I do to stay positive:

1. Never berate my kids, in public or to their face- I try really hard to never tell my kids that they're making me crazy. I want them to know that I love them, and I think they're good and smart and wonderful. The last thing I want is to say something in anger that will stay with them. Along with that, I try to never say anything bad about my kids in public, which includes social media. If I go onto Facebook, and post about how my kids are nuts, it makes it true. When in reality, my kids are normal, and I am tired and have a bad attitude.

2. Reset Button- When we are having a hard day, I like to do a reset. I ran across something a while ago with ideas. Usually, I stop what we're doing, and we go play outside for 10 minutes, or color a picture together, something like that. It really helps!

3. Put my phone away- A lot of the time, when my kids are being really rambunctious, it's because they are trying to get my attention. If I turn off the TV, put my phone away, and actually engage with them, we have fun!

4. Think of my blessings- I have a really great life! Sometimes, when I am tired and frazzled, it helps to stop and think of the things that are going right! Everything from the blessings of my family and home, to the fact that my lunch was really tasty. Actually, a lot of times, I post these lists on this blog, called Things I'm Lovin Today.

5. Find the good in the activity- One of my kids favorite games is something that seems destructive. They like taking all the cans of food out of the pantry and stacking them throughout the house. It's easy to look at the situation from my perspective: This is such a mess! What I try to do is look at it from theirs. They are learning spacial skills, playing together happily, having fun, and they are "building a Temple," they tell me. What sweet good girls! When I look for the good in what they're doing, it's no longer a mess.


At the end of the day, when I have taken the time to really love my children, it is really easy to forget all about the sticky walls, piled up laundry, and the fact that I haven't gotten out of my PJs all day. In taking the time, I have allowed myself to look at them with heavenly eyes. They are beautiful gifts from my Father in Heaven and I am so blessed to be their mother.