From her mouth

We had the honor or having Natalie say our family prayer tonight. It was beautiful and totally made me cry.

Dear heavenly father,
Us grateful for momma and boots and momma and baby sister and boots. And us grateful for boots and daddy.
Us grateful for great grandma in the hospital that she will feel better and go home.
Us grateful for the bishop, and the prophet.
Us grateful for uncle Garrett.
Us grateful for boots that he will go on a mission and then find a girl.
And us grateful for my toy That it will grow.
Jesus Christ amen.

I love that girl. What sweet things that kids can think of.
Great grandma has been in the hospital. She had a heart attack and some other issues and has been there for just over a week. Today they were trying to get Her released. She is now being transferred to a different facility because she had a stroke today. We are praying for her and love her very much. So we hope she can come home soon.

On a much much happier and chubbier note, we decided to make cookies for a fun Sunday afternoon activity. WHY is that always so fun? And why is the dough always so stinking good? luckily the cookies didn't turn out, and I could throw them away, that is just not in keeping with my lose 10 lbs in 10 week goal. What I learned, AGAIN, while making them with the kids... My kids are so impatient, and they are not at all interested in helping, unless it involves sticking their fingers in the mixer, eating the choco chips, or eating the dough.

The half

Wooohooo!
Brian, his brother chase, and his friends Jake and brad ran a half marathon yesterday! I am so proud of Him for training and taking the time to do it right, even though he said he could do it without training. So they did it, Brian finished in 2;18 and we were all there to cheer him on.

"cheer! Cheer!" is what boots yelled as they all passed and I told him to cheer for dad!
Now I am onto my 10 week official training for my half marathon in April.

What a hooot

Courtney is the biggest hit around here. She is constantly being loved on by all of us. Boots is BY FAR her biggest fan, with Natalie in close second. Every morning when they wake up, they can not wait to see her. I keep thinking that it will die down and one morning they wont say anything to or about her, but they go nuts over her every day!

I was having a hard time this week with her. She is as angelic as ever, so it isn't her at all, it is me. I am feeling really anxious all the time, and really have been losing my temper a lot around the house with Brian and the Kids. I do not like feeling this way at all and really need to change what is going on. So the first step I took was to stop nursing. This was really a hard decision for me because she is an amazing nurser. She LOVES it and when I tried giving her a bottle, she was interested in it about 000.00%. Not good. So we tried at it and tried at it, and after not eating for a little bit, and buying a great new bottle for her, she gave in. She is using the bottle really well now and I am slowly trying to see that it is helping. I was going to have to have her done in the next 6 weeks anyway so I could go to girls camp, so I thought I would start the process early since it was effecting other things in my life too. When I sit down to feed her, the kids just go nuts... Especially the hellion boots. They think it is a free for all splashing in the toilet, and sooo much more I cant even get into! But it stressed me out when there was nothing I could do. So I think this decision, although hard right now, will benefit the whole family. But she is perfect and happy and sleeping through the night from about 9-7 and I couldn't be happier with her!

I set out today to try and find a program/class for Boots to get out his energy. I looked into a tot soccer league or baseball but the classes looked more like 3 little boys running around a gym, without a soccer/baseball... no thanks. I can do that at home. It isn't worth 200$ to me. So I think I have decided to try and find a gymnastics class for him and Natalie to go to and wait until the fall when I can put him in a real league when they actually practice, play and learn the sport! But I am willing to listen to any and all advice on from you moms have been through this before! It is tough because he is so independent and mature, but all the classes for his age are mom and tot classes, and that just ain't happening!

I love when the night finally comes, and the kids are actually tired, and they actually go to sleep. We have been battling sleeping here for months now. We get into a fight every night for bed, like they still dont think it is a problem to scream and play and giggle for HOURS. I mean HOURS. So when this busy little body falls asleep I just cant help but love him so much! And he finds the silliest ways to sleep, he is usually always falling off the bed.

The YW in our ward were doing a fundraiser and they were doing family pictures, so we took them up on it. I think we got a few really cute ones! EVERYBODY, you did an awesome job!! With Natalie being shy and boots being the goober he is, I was surprised we walked away with a few.

So I am now one week away from officially starting my half marathon training. I am stoked and really excited to kick it off with Brian's half this Saturday. I am so proud of him and Chase for all of their training and not being too proud to train for something like this! I hope this is the start of something good! So my working out leading up to now has been good and I am still doing well with my goal of working out more days than not this year. I am 15 for 25! I dont think I have lost any weight which sucks, but I dont know what I expect with the way I eat. I really have to be better at that!

Fam Pics

The Rawlins Clan had some family pictures done right when Garrett got home from his mission in November. It took us a while to get our hands on them and now for me to blog them! But here they are and I love them. I will try to be positive about the things I hate about me in these pictures and just say I love them!

Man I have some cute kids. LOVE these 3!!

As for our week so far, we had to take a quick trip down to Houston for tooth issues. I had a lump form on my already being worked on tooth/gum. It was a blister, so to speak, and it popped. Then it popped again, and all day. Every time I smiled it would pop and puss would run down my teeth. It was the nastiest thing ever, and I am so glad that is over. So anyway, we are trying the next step in my tooth process and hope it works without complications! Those are all the Gorey details you need to know!

I feel like I have been going a million miles a minute with my calling at church. It is all good, but I am looking forward to a Sunday with my family in my own ward this week! The kids are both "graduated" into new classes, and I haven't been there to see it.

And for the kids, I have a headache. I think that explains it all pretty good.

BLAH-ZA

I am really trying hard to not let a whole week go by without a post, but it sometimes is really hard! I was talking to mom tonight about things I want to get my kids into when they are a little older and I got to feeling really busy, I have 3 kids right now but only one of them is "in" anything. I already feel crazy busy. I guess you grow with your kids right?!
All week we have been very normal, with dance, Courtney's 4 month appointment, boots being crazy, cleaning, laundry, and a bonus this week... I cooked dinner 4 whole nights! That is big!

As for Court, she is growing good! 14 lbs and 72% for weight, 96% for height, and in the 40's for head. I don't really care about these, but just for my record purposes! She is darling and just so alert and attentive! She laughs at us all day and is always smiling. I did try to start getting her on a bottle this week, and she would not have it. I will have to work on that. Bottle tips? I need some!

On the way home from Church Natalie was asking for green Eggs and ham, so Brian made it for them and they loved it. Honestly though, it looked sick. No offense HUn, I know you are a great cook, BUT green eggs? Woof.

One of my favorite things about Courtney is her ability to sleep all the time. She falls asleep eating, and stays asleep until I change her diaper, she sleeps while playing, and just loves her sleep! I love it.

Here's to another week ahead of us, more tooth drama for me, boots' followup foot apt at the ortho, dance and more cleaning and laundry, and MAYBE some cooking... we will see how I feel.

As for my fitness area of life, I have been really sticking to my goal of working out more days than not this year. I am at 9 days out of 16. I am winning! I am excited to train for a half marathon. I used to do triathlons, and they were so much fun. I did about a dozen back before Brian and I got married, but I got into life here and out of that kind of life. I haven't ridden my bike since November of 2004. So So sad. So I am getting back into racing, and with 3 kids, I am going to have to start with Running. So in 12 weeks, maybe it is 11 now, Anna, Kathleen and I are doing a half marathon and we are all super excited!! I figure that is really good motivation to kick this last weight that will not come off my booty. I already wasn't at a good weight when I got pregnant with Courtney, so I just have more to battle.

I guess making cupcakes today didn't help that much!

My dream

on my way to church yesterday it was raining, the rain slowly turned into ice. This freaks the people here in Texas out. People instantly start crawling the roads and going home for good. Scared to go out, unless they are getting their food supply ready, just in case it snows!
So while sitting in sacrament meeting, I left with Courtney to find it was SNOWING heavy. Big white snowflakes coming down everywhere! All the kids got stoked and ran out to touch it and feel it. This is soo not a reaction I am used to in Canada! But it was refreshingly cold, and beautiful! The only down side, is that I don't carry a scraper in my car so I had to use an empty water bottle to get the 4 inches of snow off my car when it was time to go home, also I didn't bring a coat. brrr.
My kids do "snow" angels on our kitchen floor all the time, so Nat couldn't wait to get all bundled up and go do a snow angel. "BUNDLED UP" here is also a word we don't know, I doubled up pajama bottoms, rubber boots, and they were out the door. Lucky we had toques and gloves!Boots didn't like the cold for more than 5 minutes. After the snowman was done, and he ate his face off, he was ready to go back inside.

I have been trying to revamp my living room without spending a TON of money on it. We have gotten a new Lamp, rearranged some things, and gotten some new art work. My dream would be to do a WHITE living room, but I know that shouldn't happen for a while with Mr. Boots running around wild (especially since I was JUST cleaning up blue marker). So for now, my small changes are all I need. So this wall by my front entry was one I have been thinking about a lot. I have decided to do a letter wall, and I.LOVE.IT. I will continue to collect R's so if you ever see something cute and different, let me know!
On the weekend we got to celebrate Justin's birthday with he and Andrea. The cake she got was AWESOME. For those of you that live in my area, Jenny Layne Cakes is the place, not only are they ADORABLE AND DELICIOUS, but they are totally affordable. Love Love Love it. Happy Birthday J!

The kids LOVE surprises, so the other day when I was getting out a movie for them, I thought I would capture what they do all day, close their eyes to be surprised by something! I chose hunchback and they were not happy. haha. picky picky kiddos.

MOM, I know I am suffering from 3rd child syndrome(not getting enough pictures of her). So I am trying to do better. She may not be looking, but at least you can see how long she is getting. She is sleeping soundly through the night like an angel, and NEVER cries. My stress levels are starting to go down, but for some reason that anxiety is still here, so I am hoping it goes away soon. Maybe it is Natalie new found love for temper Tantrums, the ones that make she think she is a teenager with doors slamming, toys and clothes flying around, kicking, screaming, and calling me very inappropriate things! So maybe that will go away with my anxiety one of these days!

2 months later

AND A LOT OF PICTURES....

Here is our trip to Hawaii. It started out the week before me with Lib & Sean, Mom & Dad, and Robyn and her kids. The next week it was supposed to be a Miller girls trip, but it ended up just being Courtney, me, Mom, and Libby. We went to Kauai and had so much fun. It was a beautiful island! I have been to Maui, Hawaii, and Oahu before and they really dont compare to this island! Courtney was an angel, sleeping and eating... Not much crying at all. It rained a few days and Lib and I went out in the ocean during. That was kinda cool to be out there and see and feel the rain all around you. But what a fun week we had together.

We saw waterfalls, lighthouses, wet and dry caves, blow holes, and the most beautiful scenery ever! Chickens and cats run around wild there and they were everywhere. There was one corner where I swear there were at least 40 cats. It was pretty sad.

Funky Hair all week, pina coladas, and lots of sun made for TOO MANY LAUGH ATTACKS, as always with us.

Lets start it off with Courtney accomplishing "stiff as a gun" -2 months old.