Guest Post

I love the blog Or So She Says (oneshetwoshe.com). The amazing women who write this blog cover some of the best topics and write in such a fabulous way!! I have read it every day since I first heard about it from the gals on Good Things Utah. Not long ago I added them as friends on Facebook. Big mistake!! Okay, not really a mistake but when I got a message from one of the girls asking me to do a guest post on the blog I began questioning their sanity ;). Just kidding, I really was honored they wanted me to write on their fabulous blog!! I was so excited but extremely overwhelmed especially when I was told I had to come up with my own topic. Wow!! I am not one that is talented in one specific area. I really struggled but I survived. Here is my post for those of you who didn't see it on their site. Plus, I wanted it on my blog so I can include it in my book at the end of the year. Enjoy!!

My husband and I will be married 13 years this September. We have three adorable kids, ages 7, 5, and 8 months. I enjoy reading, exercising, playing with my kids and spending time with my friends. Although I am far from being a photographer, I love taking pictures of everything my kids and I do together. I also enjoy keeping our family blog (jimandcanmarks.blogspot.com), which is also our family journal and scrapbook, up-to-date. I love traveling and seeing new places! 

When I received the request to do a guest post on this blog I was extremely honored and very, very overwhelmed. I do not consider myself very good at any one thing but I guess I am pretty good at many things. We'll see how I do at this.

I know it is way late for resolutions but what can I say, I’m a procrastinator. All right, I’m not really just making my resolutions, (even I’m not that big of a procrastinator), but writing this post has helped me evaluate my New Year goals to see where I’m at with each of them. Plus, I believe you should never give up on bettering yourself.

Two years ago I quit working after 20 years to stay home full-time with my 3 kids. I have really struggled after quitting. My job was my identity; it made me who I was. I really enjoy being ‘just a mom’ but have really struggled with me and who I am. So, this year I decided to start a journey to not only find “me” but to better myself as well. I know this makes me sound selfish but I figure better me= better wife and mom. Okay, that’s my justification but it makes me feel better so it works. Here are some of the things I decided to do to find myself and make me a better me.

Face your fears, do something that scares you, like write a guest post for a blog that is a very popular blog ;) or take a pole dancing aerobic class when you are extremely uncoordinated (yes I did this and laughed at myself the entire time). I'm also doing a mommy models contest this summer even though I absolutely hate having my picture taken.

Set a goal to do something you’ve never done before and possibly thought you’d never do. I decided to run a ½ marathon before I turn 35. I don't absolutely love to run but figured this would be a two-fold goal. First, I'd do something I have never really wanted to do and second, it would help motivate me to work at losing my baby weight.

Take a leap of faith. After 20 years of working I quit my job to be ‘just a mom’. I really didn't know how I was going to do this, both financially and mentally. Luckily the financial stuff has kind of worked out on its own and I'm continuing to work on the mental stuff each and every day, even after two years.

Learn new things. Some things I am learning are to plant a garden, bottle the food from my garden, make homemade bread and rolls, and get food storage for my family. Some of these have been pretty easy to do and others have been quite overwhelming, but I continue to work at mastering each one.

Take time do something for yourself every day. Even if it’s just ten minutes a day to file and paint my nails, anything that’s just for me and makes me feel good about myself.

Exercise every day. Come on, when you feel good about yourself physically it makes it easier to feel better about yourself in all other aspects of your life.

Keep in mind I am not a professional at making myself a better person, far from it. And when I look at these goals that I set for myself, I realize I have quite a ways to go on many of them but I am a work in progress and as long as I’m working, I’m growing. 

How do you better yourself?? What do you enjoy doing??

(I would love to hear ideas from other women - things you do just for yourselves.)

Good luck to all of you on your journey as wives, mothers, employees, etc. 

- Candace

Why, In My Opinion, Golden Retrievers Are the BEST Dogs EVER!!

How many dogs will actually just lay there while a baby pokes them in the eye, pulls on their ears and pulls their hair? And in the end, Vanessa finally got the ball.

Ally's Preschool Graduation/Program

Ally's preschool program and graduation was last week. She was excited for it all week. She kept asking me what time the program was to make sure I remembered the time. Aunt Dorothy came out to watch the program. It was a really cute program and it was fun to watch Ally interact with her friends and teachers. I can't believe how much she has grown and she has learned so much this last year at preschool. I'd say she's all ready for Kindergarten.


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Ally is concentrating really hard on the hand motions for the song they are singing.



She's getting her certificate of graduation. Her teachers also put together a very cute CD of pictures from throughout the school year.



Ally and her cute teachers









Ally and her favorite friend Olivia



Vanessa loving on Aunt Dorothy. Vanessa got so tired during the program and fell asleep on Dorothy



she woke up as it was time to go but couldn't stay awake for long



She was officially worn out.

Ally with her certificate of graduation



It was a really fun preschool program. It was great to see some of the many things the kids learned throughout the year. Her teachers were fabulous!! She loved school this year! I only hope Kindergarten is as exciting for her and she enjoys it just as much if not more.

She's Moving!

Life as we know it is officially over! Vanessa is now crawling. She's been going backwards for a while now but yesterday she finally figured how to get where she wants to go.



Now she can REALLY torture the cat!

Andrew's First Baseball Game

Baseball season has officially started. Andrew has one more season of machine pitch baseball before he starts little league. Tonight was his first game. He had a lot of fun and is excited about the rest of the season.


I love how he stands with his hands on his knees.

Dance Pictures

Ally's dance recital is coming up so today was picture day. She was pretty excited about pictures and actually let me braid and curl her hair without a fight. Cory Adams photography did the pictures. I remember having the 'chicken man' take my pictures in elementary school. The kids loved the chickens! I can't wait to get the professional copies. The chicken got Ally to smile naturally and not her new goofy, cheesy smile she has started doing. She looked beautiful and had a lot of fun. I can't wait for the recital!

Two Hats

Jim was getting ready to go golfing and had his hat on, Andrew and Ally were being silly and put Andrew's hat on top of Jim's hat. They laughed and laughed at how silly Dad looked. The funniest part was when Jim almost left the house with both hats on. It's a good thing I was being a nice wife that day.

Worn Out!

I was in charge of the daily gifts for the teachers for Teachers' Appreciation week. This included picking out the gifts, coming up with sayings for each of them, putting it all together and then delivering them in the teacher's boxes each day. One day I watched my friend's son while putting together the gifts. Between entertaining him, Ally and putting together the gifts Vanessa was kind of ignored. Not really but she thought she was being ignored. She was rolling around and playing with toys. At one point she was quiet and when I looked at her she was sound asleep.



This is something she never does so she was either extremely tired or fed up with her mom.

Cinco De Mayo Family Night

Every first Sunday of the month we get together for family home evening with Jim's family. May was our month to host. Since it was so close to May 5 I decided to go with the Cinco de Mayo theme. We had beef enchiladas, chips and salsa, guacamole, seven layer bean dip, and Spanish rice. The best and most exciting part for my kids was the pinata, which according to Ally was a pirate. They were more than willing to help me out with filling it with candy



and asked about 100 times when we were going to do the pinata. Finally, it was time. Ally was first. She didn't know how to hold the bat so my sweet nephew Steven helped her learn the way a baseball player holds a bat.



She had a few good swings



and then it was Andrew's turn.



He took off the leg with his first swing. Then came Steven.



I made the mistake of standing on the opposite side of the pinata to get pictures. Steven took one swing and all the candy came flying at me. The kids walked away with HUGE bags of candy. They were all happy. All of the excitement wore poor Vanessa out.



I had planned on doing some 'Minute to Win It' games also but by the time some of the adults (me, Mel and Dave) got into the house the kids and Dorothy were downstairs playing Guitar Hero. They were having so much fun I didn't have the heart to pull them away from it. I really lucked out when it comes to in-laws, they don't feel like in-laws at all, they are my family and I feel like I have been part of their family always. My nephews are so sweet and amazing with my kids even though they are quite a bit older. My kids love being with them!! We are truly blessed!!

While Dad's Away....

The kids will take over the house!!! Jim went to California for work a few weeks ago. While he was gone Andrew got to sleep over at his friend's house and then go to Lagoon with his family. Ally was very sad 'cause he got to have a sleepover and she didn't.

Just a little side note, I do not like sleepovers. I don't allow my kids to sleep at other people's houses nor do I let other kids sleep at our house. (With a few (very few) exceptions). I just don't feel, with the way things are now a days, like many people can and should be trusted with my kids. Just my opinion! But, since we know this family very well and they were leaving at 5:45 a.m., I let Andrew stay the night.

Now back to my post. Since Ally was so upset I told her she and I could have a sleepover in my bed. Yep, I broke another rule. I have never, EVER let any of my kids sleep in my bed, even when Jim's been out of town but she was so upset I was willing to do just about anything to make her happy. We got Andrew off to his friend's house, Vanessa to bed, our teeth brushed and curled up in my bed. I told her I was going to watch a movie for a little bit before going to bed and she told me I could go watch in the front room. So much for our sleepover. I watched some TV and then decided to go to bed. I went into the bathroom to find she had moved her step stool, toothbrush and toothpaste into our bathroom. I walked back into my room and found...



These are her outfits for the two days Jim was going to be gone. I didn't realize she was sleeping with me both nights.

Another special thing she and Vanessa got to do with Dad being gone is to bathe in the 'big' bathtub. They loved it!








We also went thru McDonald's drive thru for breakfast. Okay, so this isn't really something rare and special but we rarely do it on Saturday. They enjoyed their pancakes.



It was fun to have a night and day just us girls. We had fun together. That night we went over and had dinner with a neighbor and friend. It was nice to sit as mom's and talk and the kids had a little too much fun together. It's so nice to live in such a great area with such fabulous friends and neighbors!!

Fun New Toy

When Vanessa was two weeks old our neighborhood had a huge yard sale. Our next door neighbors were selling a zebra jumpy thing that was super cute and looked brand new so I bought it. Never mind the fact that it would be quite a long time before she'd actually use it, it was cute and a steal, I couldn't pass it up. A few weeks ago Kelly and her kids were at my house so we pulled it out for Phin to play with. Andrew didn't like the fact that someone else was playing with Vanessa's toy before she got to play with it so he put her on there. The smile on her face says it all.

Story Time

One of my favorite things to do is to watch Jim with the kids when none of them know I am watching. One night while he was reading to the kids this is what I found...



I had to laugh 'cause not only were all the kids intently listening to the story but the cat didn't want to be left out.

A New Hat for Vanessa

Andrew and Ally have been at it again, they created a new hat for Vanessa. It's a good thing she enjoys all the attention from the kids and loves having her picture taken.

Getting Ready to Harvest

Jim's fabulous dad came over again this year to teach us more about gardening. This year on the list, how to trim our peach tree. He showed Jim where to cut branches and what to leave alone. He also helped us look for some bugs that attack peach trees (I can't remember what they are called). It's so nice having someone who knows what he is doing and is so willing to share his knowledge live so close. It was fun to have the entire family outside getting things ready to start our garden and get our fruit tree ready for the season.

Beautiful Girl

All I'm going to say is a GIGANTIC THANK YOU to Em of Winkfotos for these beautiful pictures. Other than that, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.