In my personal scripture study I am reading in Alma and I just finished ch 49. These are the war chapters and I dread reading these every time. Mostly because I hate war but also because I feel like there isn't a while lot to learn. As I read today I did learn something based off of what's going on in my life right now.

Since I've been sick I feel like I've been taking a back seat in my parenting letting tv and everyone else do the job for me. Just the thought of sitting with them and doing anything is hard because they have a 5min attention span and they fight with each other or me.

In Alma 49 it talks about Amalikiah and Moroni. Amalikiah takes a back seat when it comes to leading his armies where Moroni stayed with his troops protecting them, building walls to protect them and fighting with them.

This made me think about parenting.
1. Am I building walls to protect my children? (teaching them and keeping them from danger)
2. Am I fighting with them, by their sides, or am I sending them in to fight alone without armor?

Interesting. Lately I have been thinking for the first time that I just want to be a stay at home mom. I want t be able to go on field trips with the kids. I want to be there at all the games and as many practices as I can. I love that Brandon supports me in this decision.

Shingles

A couple weeks ago I started feeling stressed and run down. I talked to Brandon about it and I decided that maybe now that Brinna was 6 weeks old that my hormones were getting back to normal. My back was also starting to hurt and I figured it was due to holding the baby. The kids were giving me a run for my money so I decided to go visit Brandon's parents and Jennifer (my sister) on the west side. I got there in Friday the 10th and was planning on staying there till Monday morning. My back started getting worse so I decided to go to a chiropractor. He said that it was tendinitis and I needed a few adjustments. Brinna got an adjustment too. I ended up staying till Wednesday in hopes that my back would feel better for the drive. When I got home mt inner arm was really hot and itchy. It felt like I had fiberglass in it. I also had 2 clusters of "bug bites" on my back. The next morning was worse. The last straw was early Friday morning when I couldn't even pick Brinna us for her early morning feeding because my back hurt so badly. I went to the Dr Friday morning. She told me the news...shingles. I cried. Lena had the kids so she just kept them till Brandon came home. Phoenix is the only one vaccinated against Chicken Pox so we worried about it spreading. Today is the first day I have the kids at home not because I feel better but because I miss them.

Phoenix Funnies

Lately Nix just cracks me up! Here are just a few things.

1. She likes to watch a show called Danny Phantom and she calls it Fanny Tamtum. I love the way she says it...makes me laugh every time. She knows too because she says it just to make me laugh.

2. Brandon tried to take a bite of her sandwich and she said that he couldn't. He said, "It doesn't have your name on it, if it's yours it would have your name on it." She said, "It doesn't have YOUR name on it!"

3. She has a super sniffer. She can smell things a mile away. She's the first to know if there's a stinky diaper in the house.

4. She saw a picture of little newly hatched eggs and she said, "Ewe grose!!" She was right...hairless and grose.

5. "Mom, I've been thinking. I think it's time for another baby."

6. Every time Branodn comes home she runs and hides...in the same place.

Brinna's Blessing Dress Preview

Brinna's dress is really special because my mom made it and added flowers and ribbon from Brandon's mothers dress. I used lace and ribbon to make the bonnet. Beautiful!!

Brinna's Bathtime

 I love giving Brinna baths and she loves it too. She loves the warm water especially when I run the water over her head to wash the shampoo off. I have to bath her more then I did the other kids because she has hair and everyone touches it and makes it greasy. (I don't mind because, like I said, I love giving her baths.) The kids like to help too.

 I just had to get a pic of her in her cloth diapers. I just love a cloth diaper bum!! She's a little too small for these so she leaks if I'm not careful, ugh.

 While taking pics of my little Brinna in cloth I looked up to see that Atti had pushed over a chair and was in the clothes washer. Silly boy!!

Atti in Undies!

Atti has been asking to go in the potty every now and again but he won't use the potty unless it's his idea. I decided to try him in undies...but all I had were Nix's old ones. Yes...they DO say "SWEET"

"You only think about yourself!"

 This morning we were watching a show called "Pinky Dinky Doo" where the little girl gets into a box and imagines a story by coloring on the walls with chalk. Phoenix wanted to to that too so I get boxes and started taping them together so that the kids would both fit in there. While I did it the kids jumped in me and the box and fussed because they wanted to play with it. After I finished it they got inside and started crying because the door doesn't have a doorknob. Then I gave them crayons to color but Atti didn't want to color in it so he started screaming. Phoenix wanted chalk so she started crying. I got the chalk for Phoenix but she was still upset because the chalk wouldn't wipe off the cardboard all the way. They left and went to play in their room.

 Then they were hungry...really hungry. Phoenix said that her stomach couldn't take it any more. So I made a really nice lunch for them to eat outside at the picnic table. A half sandwich, cheese stick, 5 pretzels, and 2 strawberries. This picture is their plates when they were DONE eating.

Last week Phoenix said "You only think about yourself!" to me. Yes, it killed to hear my baby talk to me that way. I put her in her room so that I could figure out what to do about that. I ended up talking to her about the meaning of what she said and asked her to tell me what things I do for each person in the family. When I asked her what I do for myself she said that I eat for myself. She's about right. Having her talk her way through it she realized what she had done to make me so sad. I am glad that I worked through the problem that way instead of my immediate reaction to punish her. I realized that she didn't even know what she was saying.