Elevate your Blog

Why do I blog?  Why do I take the time?   What does it mean to me?

These questions have been racing around my head a lot lately.  Lately blogging has felt a little more difficult, even too much at times. As I drove to the Elevate Blog conference a couple of Saturday's ago, I went with a mixed bag of emotions.

I had nothing to fear as the day was wonderful. The Elevate Blog Conference is a mini conference not designed to teach you all about blogging, though I did learn some things, but it is designed with the hopes of building friendship and self-confdience in this crazy blogging journey.   There was a lot of discussion on the why's of blogging and telling your story in your voice.

I love loved Ashely from Little Miss Mama's talk where she admitted that almost daily she says she is going to quit blogging; but then she remembers her reasons for why she does it (which everyone has their own why and reasons) and she keeps going.

The conference was at the beautiful Newport Dunes resort- we were right on the water!

Picture from Lora Knight Photography

The ladies in charge set everything up beautifully- it was like pinterest heaven.

I sat by the lovely Maegen from SAHMeagen; she and I were instragram friends but had never met.  Somehow I never got the picture with the two of us (for being a photographer I sometimes really suck at asking people to take pictures with me).  She and I are already planning a girls night as we had a great time getting to know each other.

They fed us, with cute place settings of course

They taught and inspired us (the conference organizers and speakers from the day)

Left to Right: Summer of Made by Munchie Mama, Jen of Delightful Deets, Kimmie of Sugar and Dots, Sarah of Little Penelope Lane, Ashley of Little Miss Mama,  Erin of Living in Yellow, Nicole of Yeung Mother Hubbard

We crafted!

On the left, wearing the hat is Sarah of Little Penelope Lane, who was one of the speakers.  I have actually met her before at a Power of Mom's Retreat.  I love her!  She is so sweet and kind and her story and her daughter Katie's story is truly inspirational.  They are both so strong with such a great outlook on life despite Katie's "extras" in life.

The string art craft I made!

We even helped serve by cutting out material for shoes for  Sole Hope.

The desserts after dinner were all almost too pretty to eat!  But don't worry I ate a lot.

We ended the night with giveaways from all of the wonderful sponsors and played some fun minute to win it games.  My team didn't win but we still had a lot of fun.

The amazing Lora from Lora Knight Photography took pictures and video all day, the watermarked photos are courtesy of her, the rest I took, plus she made this awesome video that recaps the day-- you have to watch and see if you can find me, hint: I was wearing red pants and white shirt and you can easily see me.

When it was time to go home, I left really happy.  I left relaxed, uplifted, met new friends and mostly importantly with a reminder.

A reminder of why I call myself a blogger.  I started blogging over four years ago mostly to share things with my family but then it became a place for me, a place to share my voice, a place to share life and reality with the silver lining to it; a place to hopefully inspire and lift up others.

Now I still blog for those reasons but I also blog because of you.  All of you who come to my blog, who help me know I am not on this journey alone.  All of your blogs that I read who have become my friends, some who I have even been able to meet in real life.

It is the bond, the connection... knowing that we are all out there doing the best we can and can being there for each other by leaving positive comments, leaving some words of support, being a virtual shoulder to cry on.. that is why I blog and that is why I will continue to do so.

Thank you to the Elevate blogging conference for helping me remember.

Do I know my Daughter?

There is that special bond between mother's and daughters, something magical, something no one else quite understands... but what if it isn't quite there?

Talking about this today at my guest post over at Becca's blog Every Day Life,

I have read Becca's blog for quite a while now and truly appreciate her poetry as I am not a poet.  I have this hangup that I when I wrote poems I feel like they always have to rhyme.  

To any who have come over from Becca's welcome!  This is my little space where I blog about a little bit of everything from photography, my kids, crafts, every day life both the good and the bad all while keeping it real with a glass half-full approach.  

I have a few different memes, weekly Proud Mommy Moments, monthly 10 Things to Smile About This Month, and a monthly Heart Felt Acts.

I will be turning comments off on this post so you can leave you comment love over at Becca's!

Click here to get to my post.

Proud Mommy Moments: Racing and Flirting

Proud Mommy Moment Time!  This is a weekly meme that Kmama and I co-host telling the proud and not so proud moments of motherhood. For more information-click here.  Kmama and I have decided to take a break from Proud Mommy Moments this summer; so hurry and link up while you still can!  Grab the button and join us!

Every Thursday!
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Proud Mommy Moment Number 1:

Lucas first pinewood derby race!  He and Eric worked hard on the car, with engineering/design help from Pappi and lots of hard work.

His painted his car totally by himself, we printed off the decals (very convenient there is a Lucas Oil Company)

His car was fast- very fast!

He got 3rd/1st place (long story with a possible scoring error) - we were proud.   He also go "Most Unique Design"

The cake that he/we made took 1st place in the cake decorating contest!

Proud Mommy Indeed

Proud Mommy Moment Number 2:

The following conversation took place in the car on the way to school.

As we were driving, Lucas and Alex were talking about a boy Alex likes or her "boyfriend".

Lucas: "Well if he is your boyfriend why don't you just marry him?"
Alex: I can't marry him, he's not family.
Me: Miss we don't marry family.
Alex: Yes, well he is just a little boy and I am going to to marry a man so I when I am a grownup I will probably never be able to find him again.
Lucas: Maybe when you are teenagers you will find him. For some reason teenage boys really start liking teenage girls."
Alex: Yes they probably like fancy and pretty girls like me. And if I do this (she says while titling her head and batting her eyelashes) they will really like me.

Face slap!  I am in trouble and yes Lucas for some reason teenager boys do really start liking teenage girls.

What are your Proud Mommy Moments this week?

We Want to Know Wednesday: School Edition

As I recover from my day yesterday (picked up awards for Cub Scouts, made two cakes, celebrated Ryder's birthday and Lucas first pinewood derby...)  I thought it would be a good time to answer the "We Want to Know Wednesday Questions." from Kenzie and Scriptor

{no. 1} How were you as a student? 

   I was a good student, in fact I was probably even a bit of a brown noser; mostly because I was really afraid to fail or mess up.  My teacher's all liked me... well except for the couple of teachers I talked back to in high school when my fear of messing up started to diminish a bit.

{no. 2} What was your favorite subject and did you excel in it? 

    Probably English, just the reading/literature part of it definitely not the grammar sections.  Hated geometry and fractions, but the rest of math wasn't too bad.  I took Calculus my senior year and took the AP test, though I should not have bothered as I got a 1 on it.

{no. 3} What - if any - is your fondest school years memory?

  Probably the band field trips and theater camp.  I played flute all four years of school; though I was in the lower band the whole time as I liked it but I didn't love it enough to really practice and apply myself as much as everyone else.   Every fall we would compete in marching band competitions all over the state.  One year we even took 4th place in state; which was a big deal as our state took it seriously and it was hard to win. 

 

Band field Trip to D.C.  I am in the front on the right in white

   

{no. 4} Did you attend college and if so, how was that experience?

    I did- I went to BYU and loved it!  Not only did I meet my husband there but it was there that I felt like I could finally be myself.   When you grow up in the the same town your whole life it gets hard to change your image and who other's think you are even when you are changing.  My freshmen year was just so much fun and new adventures.

Freshmen year-- I am in the silver coat

  Then at the beginning of my sophomore year I met Eric and we began dating and to get all cliche, the rest is history.

Eric and I at a football game with the infamous horn hair-do

{no 5.} Would you go back to school- be it in person or online- if you could?
    I graduated with my bachelors in psychology from BYU and always thought someday I might get a masters.  Maybe I will someday, probably would just on-line; but honestly the desire to go back and study, write all those papers, and take all of those tests has diminished over the years.

Thanks Kenzie and Scriptor for the great questions.

Would you go back to school if you could?

My Baby is Three!

"We aren't totally sure what is going on, so we are just going to have to take him now."   Those words were spoken to me three years ago.

Three years ago when I was over 600 miles from home.   Three years ago when a simple family vacation turned into something so much more when my water unexpectedly broke at 32 weeks pregnant.

I lay in the hospital for two days, there was enough fluid for my baby to safely stay; hoping praying he would keep inside growing as big and as long as possible.  But on May 14th,  when a trip to the bathroom reveled that I was bleeding a lot, it was time.  Time for my little baby to enter the world 8 weeks too soon.

He came into the world at a big (for 32 weeks) 4 lbs 9 oz.  Every time I work out now and pick up my 5 lb weight it is hard to remember Ryder weighing less then that!

(You can watch his birth story and first year with a quick video here)

Now three years later looking back it all seems like a distant memory, a dream.

Ryder: Age 3

Height:  36 1/2" (I think)   Weight: 32 lbs (on a heavy day)    Shoe Size: 8

Nicknames: Rydee (ride-eee), Mr. T (his middle name start with T), Gus, and Gus-Gus

Loves playing with his brother and sister; everything from tea party to Legos he plays it all.  He loves any sport that involves a ball.   He can kick a soccer ball extremely hard and straight and can even hit a ball with a bat.

He loves giving kisses on cheeks- though he always thinks it's funny to get me right on the lips.

He loves poptarts for breakfast and asks for them everyday.  He hardly likes any fruit but does love avocado and will eat a lot of dried fruit and loves fruit smoothies.

He still pluralizes everything in his special way- "car-is" "bike-is"

He has no interest in going to the bathroom on the toilet but will tell me after he poops.  Though I always know anyway as he has a tendency to start knocking things over and hitting toys while he is pooping.

He can count to about 20, though messes up some of the teens.

He is obsessed with garbage-- not the actual garbage but laughing and joking about throwing things in the garbage or about things being the garbage.

Case in point; when I asked him to sing the ABC's- he sang "ABCDEFG now go potty in the garbage!"

He still sleeps in his crib and hasn't even thought about climbing out.   I never put him down for a nap anymore though he falls asleep about twice a week on the couch for a nap.

He is still definitely my cuddle bug and will ask to cuddle with me.  We will get a blanket and wrap up next to each other on the couch.

He will jump right in wrestling and tackling both his brother and sister-- he definitely thinks he is big.

So to my sweet, funny little Ryder -- I love you and hope you will always want to cuddle with me.  Let's make a pact and get through these 3's as nicely as possible.

Happy Birthday Ryder!