Angel Lullaby

I used to love My Turn On Earth as a little girl. I always thought I would sing the Angel Lullaby song to my kids someday. I've sang little snippets of it to them in the past and thought about looking up the lyrics, but I never did until now. I found them on some random chic from Utah's blog. So, I thought I'd do anybody else who may be looking for them a favor. I've been singing this to my girls for 3 days now and I've had it requested at least 20 times because they LOVE IT.



You came from a land where all is light
to a world half day and a world half night.
To guide you by day, you have my love,
To guard you by night, your friends above.
(Chorus)
So sleep, sleep, till the darkness ends,
guarded by your angel friends.
So sleep, sleep, till the darkness ends,
guarded by your angel friends.

There's one stands softly by your bed
and another sits close with a hand on your head.
There's one at the window watching for the dawn,
and one waits to wake you when the night is gone.

Marshmellow Roast

10 Kids under age 6

9 people riding in the back of a truck to a park

8 adults to keep up with the 10 kids

7 Marshmellows eaten by Lydia (even more by Kiera)

6 Tin Foil dinners

5 Horses nearby that occasionally ran by to the kids' delight

4 squirt guns from the 99 cent store that were tons o' fun

3 Roasting sticks (very shared)

2 Rides in the back of a truck to a really fun park nearby

1 match to make a great campfire.

Missionary FHE

I'm trying to get a little more creative in my Family Home Evenings since we've been sort of dull for a while. So, being that we recently had 2 sister missionaries from our family go out, we decided to pretend to be missionaries. It *sort of* worked. I think we'll do it again in a month or so in order to get all of the concepts across.


Sister Karly Nelson Temple Square Mission

Sister Breanna Groneman Atlanta Georgia Mission

Mothering Goals

Someone this week gave me a compliment on being a good mom. It got me thinking about how all is not how it appears to others.

I'll admit that I do some mothering things well: I'm good with nap schedules, balenced meals, spending scheduled time playing with and teaching my children academic things. We do family prayer most of the time and I read them scripture stories every time I give them a morning snack (which is only about 3 out of 7 days or so--I could do better there).

But today I was thinking about the home in which I am employed as an RN for a medically-needy baby. The caregiver of my little patient does not do any of those things that I listed above that I "do well", however, she does 2 things well that I realize that I fail at:
1. She makes my little patient giggle every day.
2. She spends non-scheduled non-productive just-plain-old-quality-1-on-1 time with my little patient every day.

I realize this about myself: I'm way too type-A personality. I have to have a list of goals and every minute of my day must fit into meeting those goals. So I spend my scheduled 10 minutes of play with Kiera (trying to squeeze in academic moments)and then move on to the laundry or the dishes. I know, it is ridiculous. I'm hoping that by admitting this fault I'll be more aware and try to relax a bit and just enjoy my darling little girls.

I have great childhood memories of saturday mornings in my parents bed with my siblings. Not doing anything productive: just spending time together. Also, I would lay on my mom's lap on the couch and my mom would stroke my hair and we would talk. Productive? Not officially. Only productive for relationship-building.

Goals: 1. Spend non-scheduled non-productive time with my girls (and Steve) every day.
2. Do something to make them giggle every day.

I realize that the track I'm going on right now I'm more like a personal-trainer than a mother. Time to change.

Family pictures

My 2 princesses

All the girl cousins

Steve and his siblings/parents
The entire Nelson family
Look at all of those cousins!!
Lydia trying not to cooperate
The best we could do...I'll give it a 5/10...could be worse. I guess it will just get harder as we add more kiddos to the mix.

Lydia in a nutshell

Lydia refuses to wear anything but big dresses that spin out really far. Yes, she wears them for pajamas too. The throws the biggest tantrum you've ever seen if anyone tries to take it off of her. Her 3 dresses that meet her specifications are already getting lots of rips and stains. Oh well.

Lydia thinks she doesn't need to nap anymore. She'll sit in her bed for 2 hours without sleeping. Kiera will have finished her nap before Lydia even goes to sleep. What's up with that!!???

Lydia went "stinkies" in the potty the other day. I was sure it was a fluke. Today she told me she wanted to go potty so I pulled out her little potty. She sat on it about 10 seconds and announced "all done!" and stood up. I thought 'yep, she's all done playing potty time' But no, she actually went! No, I don't expect it to be this easy from here on on, but it is encouraging!