Noa's BIRTHDAY!!

Little Noa is 2! I can't believe how the time is flying by!

( Start from the bottom and work your way up.)

ok let's do it together. I love you Noa Thank you for letting us be your parents!
Blow out the candles
Make a wish my little angel...

Heres the daddy and he is so cute.

Here's the cake! Its so Cute!

To all you Beautiful Women

As I have had the special privilege of being on the Relief society committee I have had lots of opportunities to serve. One of the most recent opportunities required that I make a short film of relief society around the world. The link that I posted above is not my work, but I did pattern mine after it. I wanted to share this particular one because this whole project got the wheels rolling in my head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqfCXBsXGfQ

Women are beautiful by their very nature. We naturally are nurturing, loving and caring. We love to be needed. I thought this fascinating as Heavenly Father has instilled all of these qualities in women that He would also organize a society in which to grow and develop in so many other ways. I have always loved to be around women who are uplifting; it feeds my energy and soul. It is also interesting that if that same group of women choose to focus on, or spew negative things how the spirit or energy changes in the room. I continue to marvel at our power to do good and I admire those who (even when it is hard) choose to be good, to be a beacon of light and continue anyway to choose to be a great reflection of our Father in Heaven.

I am thankful for the wonderful beautiful women around me, whether it be at the grocery store in line at check out; or my sweet and wonderful family and friends. Thank you for continuously showing me the beauty that you posses. Its better than spring time blossoms. I love you.

Hilaree

Little Prayers.

It' s late. We just finished putting Noa to bed. I am actually not usually apart of his bed time as usually I am working at night. It was a sweet thing to see that Noa and Jarom have this special time together.

Routine goes as follows-

First bath time, Noa wants to put toys on mine and Jaroms head. Then its time to count all of Noas toes. It sounds like this, Mommy starts, "One..........." Noa," chtwooo, freeeeee, sixtxxxx, ten!" ( Pretty good for just turning two.) Then it's time to get out.

Pj's!! Tonight he has his bear footie pajamas and once he is dressed he jumps on the bed and says, "dad! Monkeys!!" Which means, "say the 5 little monkeys one." So Jarom started, "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bomped his head, momma called the dr. and the dr. said...............?" Noa " NO MONKEYS....... BED!"

At this point its time to wind down so Jarom takes Noa all around the room and points to his animal pictures. Noa, "Monkey, chomp-chomp (alligator), lion, giraffe and ppphhhhfeeeeeerrrrrr!!!'( which is the sound that the elephant makes.)

We say prayers, its my turn. Noa folds his arms and at the end there is a resounding AMEN!!!

Jarom then will wrap Noa up in a blanket, give him his bottle and snuggle him until he is almost asleep and then sneak out of his room with more grace than a ballerina!

I am always excited to have alone time with Jarom, I do also miss Noa when he is asleep. Bedtime is definitely a must when you have had to be on Mom/Dad duty all day. But I cannot deny that Im always so happy to see Noa first thing in the morning bright eyed and ready to seize the day.

I love my little boy! I love Jarom! They are my everything.

Good night!

Failure

Have you ever told someone about something and you think its awesome and they think its not? Or, you tell someone something and your totally dismissed? but then they hear that exact same thing from somewhere/someone else and they think that it's the BEST Idea in the world?

When I have something that I think is exciting and I am dismissed that is the BIGGEST form of failure in my mind. It makes me feel invalid, un-appreciated and discredited. This makes me not want to try. i.e. try to help, try to please, try to try. I often then will resort to avoidence and quite honestly a little bitterness

Since March has a project concerning failure and suggests that you enjoy it once in a while........ I guess I have already done the first part, I have succeded... in some wierd way. Now the question is, how am I supposed to feel joyful about my failed attempts? Especially when I love these people?

I guess no one can make you feel a certain way without your permission. Or at least that is what I have been told/taught. So I am going to practice this simple rule. I do not want to be bitter or feel, invalid, un-appreciated and discredited. And if this means sticking to the weather for a little while, then so be it. Its non of my business how you feel about me :)

Anyway, I wanted to be real about this progect and put the hard stuff up too. So hear it is.

your stuggling blogger, Hil

March Happines progect Theme 'Work'

Objectives for March Include:

1. Launch a Blog
2. Enjoy the fun of failure
3. Ask for help
4. Work smart
5. ENJOY NOW

For those of you who maybe wanted to get a head start. I launched my blog. I do not enjoy failure.... so this should be interesting. I am learning to ask for help..... but I have to admit it is totally against my nature. I prefer to do things my way or not at all. so yes, its a pride thing.
Work smart....... funny that this one should come up this month, I really have to decide what to do with my business....dissolve or take the next step. As for enjoy now, I love this challenge... I totally have the attitude of, When I get there I'll be happy, If We do this, when I weigh this then Ill be happy. You get the gist. What I will be doing is consciously looking for moments in the now that are special wonderful and ingrain them in my memory. I don't want to look back on ifs,whens, and thens. I know by doing this I won't.

My Arch-nemesis

CURSE YOU STARBUCKS!!!!


My
silent
comfort
drink

Pretty sure that I
have drank at least
this much
in my life time

by myself--->

Jarom doesn't love that
I slowly spend the wad on this stuff at 3.88$ a
pop. This is an expensive habit!
Jarom came up with this brilliant plan to help me quit.
for every day that I go without a chai he will add

3$ to a Hawaii FUND!
And if there is a day that is especially hard he will add 8$ if I don't give to temptation!

Sweet deal right?! here's the catch..... if I give in one day he'll take out 30 buckeroos.... not as cool.

Anyway! Great incentive!

I went to the doctor before I got pregnant with Noa and they said that, "Although I'm not diabetic, my sugar levels are through the roof!! If you want your hormones to work properly CUT out the sugar!!!" So at the time I was having at least 1 starbucks visit a day, I decided that This isn't worth it and I cut out that much sugar and with a little help and a little cleansing, I was happily surprised to see a positive pregnancy test.

Well now we are in the same boat and I really need to break this habit for more reasons than one.....

so with this plan, a lot of support and a little faith in myself I can kick this habit in the patootie.
Thus adding to my Happiness project of being free of this bad habit.

The End.

February HAPPINESS PROJECT

Since it is the end of February and I haven't listed my projects, I thought maybe today would be a great day to reflect on the months events according to 'The Happiness Project'


Tasks of the month include:

1. Quit nagging
2. Don't expect praise or appreciation
3. Fight right
4. No dumping
5. Give Proofs of love


I loved this chapter for several reasons. Mostly because studying marriage/relationships has all but taken over my life since last October. I went to a class called 'Celebrating Men Satisfying Women' This was a Saturday-Sunday class all about how society has changed women s relationships with men. Unfortunately, our relationships are greatly skewed, but the class offered great advice on how we can fix it. Some of the things that I learned-

Women are very powerful and sometimes we use our power for the wrong reasons.


Examples:

We take a mans power away by:
-with holding sex
-Criticizing them (i.e. Whats wrong with you???)
- We roll our eyes ( Yes, its true the only person who hates this more than your mom is your spouse.)
- Nothing is good enough (i.e. not being impressed, comparing to other men (especially dad), mothering them, interrupting them.


The better attitude is to empower men, especially our significant other since we chose them to be our prince charming, let them fill the job they intend to do.

To learn more about the amazing classes that I have taken and also some freebies, go to http://www.understandmen.com/ Click on the "freebies" tab for some nuggets of wisdom.


So back to the list of February's projects

QUIT NAGGING

Dr Robert Lund suggests that we women need to put a specific time line on what we ask our men to do.

For example " Jarom will you take the garbage out after dinner?"
Not "Jarom will you take the garbage out when you get a free second?"

Men are happy to do what we ask them ( especially when we ask nicely and maybe give 'em a little smoochie) because they thrive on seeing us happy.

Have you heard they saying "happy wife, happy life"? well its true. Men need DIRECT communication. If you want them to make you happy tell them SPECIFICALLY what you want. Don't hint that the garbage needs to be taken out. Any guy will tell you that they will not pick up on hints. And NO the phrase " If he loved me more, he would know what I want." does NOT apply. So, ask directly and (might I add) sweetly. You will also be happier knowing that you are not a nag.


DON'T EXPECT PRAISE OR APPRECIATION.

This doesn't mean you don't get praise or appreciation it only means you better be willing to hand it out and recognize what your husband does do for you. That way they are willing to return the gesture. But here's the little thing we women tend to miss. Men do show appreciation in ways that are valid to them. i.e went to work today so that the family could have a roof over their head. or filled up your tank or changed your oil. SO IF YOU WANT SOMETHING OTHER THAN FUNCTIONAL APPRECIATION START WITH, " Honey (big sweet sincere smile) tell me how nice the house looks today since it took me all day to clean it" Be cute about it. P.s I did this this month and Jarom stopped in his tracks turned around and gave me a big hug and kissed me and said, " Honey the house looks amazing! thank you!" Oh how I love him.



FIGHT RIGHT

Choose your battles! Is it really that important to say, "honey you left you socks right next to the OPEN hamper!!!"(?) GROWL!! HISSSS!!! FANGS SHOWING!! No, Not worth it.

The reason I bring up the sound effects is because I hear these in my head when the fight is going to be petty.

I had many chances this month to practice this part of the project. Here's what happened. I had just finished cleaning the whole house, Minus laundry and it felt GOOD!! well just as I was about to leave a very clean Bathroom, Jarom came in and put his deodorant in there. (that wasn't the problem, it belongs in the bathroom) He put it in the wrong place in the bathroom!

GROWL! HISSSS! FANGS SHOWING!! "JAROM, I JUST FINISHED IN HERE!!! BAHHHHHHH" ......Poor guy.

Jarom- " but it goes in the bathroom..."

me- " I know but it goes right here!" (as I move it 6 inches to the left on the counter..... )

I know like I said I crashed and burned, but the next time an event happened I just bit my tongue. That hurt less than hurting my loves feelings/pride.

"An uneasy conscience is a hair in the mouth" -mark twain

Ok

NO DUMPING

I know that this is hard for women but let me explain. Men Listen, "what's the point? What's the problem?" Women Listen to AAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the details and then empathize. The problem with this is that men will try to fix it when your telling him about a bad day. This tends to make us angry and feel like he isn't listening. So either you need to say, "Honey I've had a really bad day I just need you to listen and then at the end say, "poor baby/ Oh honey that was a bad day/ what can I do to make it better." or go tell your girl friends about it. Because men cannot take rehashing a day over and over again. Women like to go over feelings and manners and oh how dare that happened. Men don't.

I did do this this month with Jarom. This is actually something that I learned in October at the 'celebrating men satisfying women' class. So I have had a little time to practice. The first few times are hard, but I promise the practice is worth it.

AND LASTLY, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY:

We tend to fall into routines of daily life; and forget that or spouse was once someone that we got butterflies thinking about. We couldn't wait to see them and what fun, exciting things you would do or say. Find that again if it has been lost.

My try for this month is well... none of your business. Let's just say Jarom liked it and it was a surprise.

Thanks for reading this way too long post. I cant wait to tell you about March!