London's bed

London loves a little doll bed my mom got for her. She loves to be on top. We find her here most every morning after breakfast. She will be 16 months on June 11th she loves playing peekaboo and reading.

After church

We just got home from church. The girls were tired and had eaten junk at nursery. Poor Sydney threw up after. The weather has been great. Today we spent hours outside just swinging in our hammock. 

Tomorrow is Tyson's day off and we want to go swimming and being outside. 

Sydney + daddy

Update - virtual assisant

So I technically have my first client as a virtual assistant. I'm doing sponsorship for a online TV show. It's been about three weeks and its been a big learning experience. So far Ive been able to do most of the actual calling from 10-1130 while London naps and Sydney plays iPad games. Then I get the girls up and we have lunch. We play until about 230 for nap times. I get back on the computer and do more research and walk for 30 minutes. 

At night I've been doing more self improvement stuff. I'm reading tons on how to maximize LinkedIn and facebook. Last week I had two interviews for more possible clients. So the journey continues but I'm learning great lessons along the way. 

For example - menu planning has become a lot  more crucial. Since I don't have the mental capacity to do it on the fly. I'm trying out going/walking to the store once a week for just those weeks foods and of course I always shop my pantry first. We have been able to use so much more of our pantry food and food storage which I love!

I'm learning even more to simplify and to just put my phone down. After my calls I feel so tech exhausted. I just want to be unplugged. Ive been learning a lot more tech stuff and overall my sense of learning is going up. It's tiring but also really nice to feel again. 

So that's an update on my journey to help pay off a house. 

This last week the girls and I walked to Kings and we got caught in a rainstorm on the way back. A really nice lady named Christine stopped and offered us a ride. She was so random but so sweet. 

We fed both sets of missionaries last night and the Libberts. Sadly Sydney decided to start throwing up 15 minutes before they got here so Ty and I took turns being upstairs with her while Sydney laid down upstairs and threw up some more.

I've been on a weird open house kick. For date night we went to see an open house and then shared a meal at Happy Sumo. It was actually super fun. 

We hung out with the scottorns and got free hot dogs at Home Depot. 

It's been busy but fun. 

Saturday morning

Things we did this morning:

Tyson left for work at 845. 

We made forts out of the couch. 

I love how terrified London looks in the picture with Sydney lol

Had a little people bubble bath 

Read

Made ham fried rice

Played with books

Took an actual bath

Had to drag Sydney to her room twice because she needed a "minute" to calm down. 

Playing in the cool new slide we got for free !

It's been busy but happy. Finally the weather is warming up! 

Lately

Monday we had a super fun family day. We went to the playground at Paul derda rec center. This morning London woke up super cranky. We walked to the store and got some free samples at zinga. Both girls are non stop buggers. I'm shirts are covered with buggars at the end of each day ! It's so yucky. I gave them a Bath because their faces were all dry snot. Ah the realities of motherhood. 

I read this article and man oh man this it sing to my heart. Along my  journey of simplifying I've never been able to really express WHY I wan to be simple. Specially with kids, I feel this constant nag that I'm not doing enough for them, but this article speaks to me in so many levels!

I'm Done Making My Kid's Childhood Magical

If our grandmothers and great-grandmothers could see the pressure modern mothers put on themselves, they'd think we were insane.

Since when does being a good mom mean you spend your days creating elaborate crafts for your children, making sure their rooms are decked-out Pottery Barn Ikea masterpieces worthy of children's magazines, and dressing them to the nines in trendy coordinated outfits?

I don't believe for a moment that mothers today love their kids any more than our great-grandmothers loved theirs. We just feel compelled to prove it through ridiculously expensive themed birthday parties that have do-it-yourself cupcake stations with 18 types of toppings and over-the-top gifts.

For a few years, I got caught up in the "Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better" parenting model, which mandates you scour Pinterest for the best ideas, execute them flawlessly, and then share the photo evidence with strangers and friends via blogs and Facebook posts.

Suddenly, it came to me: We do not need to make our children's childhood magical. Childhood is inherently magical, even when it isn't perfect. My childhood wasn't perfect and we weren't rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my birthdays were still happy because my friends came over. It wasn't about the party bags, perfect decorations, or any of that. We popped balloons, ran around in the backyard, and we had cake. Simple. But when I look back on those times, they were magical.

Christmas. With four of us kids and a limited income, my parents bought maybe two gifts per kid. There was no Elf on the Shelf all month long monitoring our activities and getting into photo-worthy trouble. No special Christmas jammies. Very few decorations, if any. We didn't even make cookies. What made that time of year simply ethereal for me as a child was huddling in one bed with my brothers thinking we could hear Santa's reindeer on the roof. It was so much fun to try to stay awake, giggle together, and just anticipate the next morning. It was magical. I did not feel as if I lacked for anything.

I don't have a single memory of doing a craft with my parents. Crafts were something I did in preschool and primary school. The only "crafts" I recall were the ones my mother created in her spare time. The hum of her sewing machine would often lull me to sleep as she turned scrap cloth into hair accessories to sell and hemmed our clothes.

At home we played. All the time. After school, we'd walk home from the bus stop, drop off our backpacks and my mom would push us out of the house. We ran around with the neighborhood kids until dinner. Times are different now and very few of us feel comfortable letting our kids wander, but even when we were inside, we played with our toys and video games. We made blanket forts. We watched TV. We slid down the stairs on pillows. Our parents were not responsible for entertaining us. If we dared to mutter those two words, "I'm bored," we would be handed a chore.

I look back on those times and smile. I can still recall what it felt like to have carefree fun.

My parents made sure we were warm and fed, and planned the occasional special activity for us (Friday night pizza was a tradition in my home), but when it came to the day-to-day, we were on our own to be kids. They rarely played with us. Apart from the random empty refrigerator box scrounged from the back of an electronics store, we weren't given toys outside of our birthdays and major holidays. Our parents were around in case we needed something or there was accident, but they were not our main source of entertainment.

Today, parents are being fed the idea that it benefits children to constantly be hand in hand, face to face, "What do you need my precious darling? How can I make your childhood amazing?" You can't walk through Pinterest without tripping over 100 Indoor Summer Craft Ideas, 200 Inside Activities for Winter, 600 Things To Do With Your Kids In The Summer. 14 Million Pose Ideas For Elf on The Shelf. 12 Billion Tooth Fairy Strategies. 400 Trillion Birthday Themes. 

Parents do not make childhood magical. Abuse and gross neglect can mar it, of course, but for the average child, the magic is something inherent to the age. Seeing the world through innocent eyes is magical. Experiencing winter and playing in the snow as a 5-year-old is magical. Getting lost in your toys on the floor of your family room is magical. Collecting rocks and keeping them in your pockets is magical. Walking with a branch is magical.

It is not our responsibility to manufacture contrived memories on a daily basis.

None of this negates the importance of time spent as a family, but there is a huge difference between focusing on being together and focusing on the construction of an "activity." One feels forced and is based on a pre-determined goal, while the other is more natural and relaxed. The immense pressure that parents put on themselves to create ethereal experiences is tangible.

I've been told we went to Disneyland when I was 5. I have no memory of this, but I've seen the faded photographs. What I do remember from that age is the pirate Halloween costume I wore proudly, picking plums from the tree in front of my house, intentionally flooding the backyard garden to teach myself to skip rocks, and playing with my dog on my front stoop.

I have not one memory of the vacation that my parents probably saved for months for: the vacation that was most likely quite stressful. The "most magical place on Earth" in my childhood was not a theme park; it was my home, my bedroom, my backyard, my friends, my family, my books and my mind.

When we make life a grand production, our children become audience members and their appetite for entertainment grows. Are we creating a generation of people who cannot find the beauty in the mundane?

Do we want to teach our children that the magic of life is something that comes beautifully gift-wrapped -- or that magic is something you discover on your own?

Planning elaborate events, daily crafts, and expensive vacations isn't harmful for children. But if the desire to do so comes from a place of pressure or even a belief that the aforementioned are a necessary part of one's youth, it's time to reevaluate.

A childhood without Pinterest crafts can be magical. A childhood without a single vacation can be magical. The magic we speak of and so desperately want our children to taste isn't of our creation, and therefore is not ours to dole out as we please. It is discovered in quiet moments by a brook or under the slide at the park, and in the innocent laughter of a life just beginning.

We constantly hear that children these days don't get enough exercise. Perhaps the most underused of all of their muscles is the imagination, as we seek desperately to find a recipe for something that already exists.

Bunmi's first book, The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting, is available for preorder on Amazon.com now.

Mother's Day 2014

We had a very busy but fun mother's day. Tyson let me sleep in and fed both girls. An hour later he came upstairs to report he had changed the BIGGEST poopy diaper ever. It's was pretty funny. We went to church and talked in sacrament. It was really neat because I had never spoken about my mother before. We both felt really good about our talks.The sad thing was that BOTH girls freaked out the entire time so while one of us was up in the pulpet the other was trying to keep them happy. It' was a lot of work. 

After church we put the girls down and Tyson let me watch "knight and day"which was a great funny movie. After we got the girls up and had a skype call with debbie and my mom. We wished them a happy day. Tyson was great at taking both girls so I could talk to my mom. He put both girls down and I got to watch Downtown Abbey :) 

So no big presents or anything amazing but it was such a relaxing day. Part of me wanted to help out because it felt weird to have Tyson do everything but then I realized that I needed to take time for me and so whenever I started to get worried I started reading the book "Simplicity Parenting"which is a fantastic book. 

I'm really grateful for my mom and Abuelita. These two women have really suffered in their lives. They are strong and gutsy and loving. My abuelita raised me and has shown unconditional love. She is quick as a wip and is very aware of what happens around her - but she chooses to look on the bright side and have tremendous  faith. I will always remember her never being ashamed to pray. She will whisper little prayers all the time. ALL the time. Whenever she is slightly scared or grateful she will close her eyes and whisper a prayer. God walks with her everyday. 

My mom is strong. Life has handed a lot of pain but she has surpassed any trial that Satan could have put on her. She is loving and unbelievably happy - despite her pain. She thinks her kids are the greatest and still sees their faults. She loves us because we love our babies. She is vigilant of my girls and makes sure I remember how lucky I am to have Tyson as my husband. I  love her. More than anything I respect her. I listen because I know she knows what she is talking about. 

I'm grateful for  my mothers in my life. 

here is my sacrament talk:

After a lot of thought I’ve decided to name this talk “What I learned from the world worst mother”  Now before people start booing me off the pulpet and claiming blashtaphy, let me assure you this talk has a happy ending. 

I was born February 19^th, 1983 in Nicaragua, a third world country smack in the middle of central america, My mother, who’s name is also Martha, had just turned 15. In an attempt to make the best of a situation, my mom married my Dad. By the time she was 22 she had four children and was living a pretty miserable life.  In a courageous decision, my mom chose to leave her country and took her four kids to Utah to escape a very abusive and toxic marriage.  I can only imagine the fear she must have felt, going to a new country where she did not anyone but a handful of family, no English and knowing that somehow she had pull it together for her kids.  The first lesson she taught me was courage.  As mother’s we have the ability to teach our children a lot without ever opening our mouths.  Sherry Dew said this about mothers:

“Have you ever wondered why prophets have taught the doctrine of motherhood--and it is doctrine--again and again? I have. I have thought long and hard about the work of women of God. And I have wrestled with what the doctrine of motherhood means for all of us. This issue has driven me to my knees, to the scriptures, and to the temple--all of which teach an ennobling doctrine regarding our most crucial role as women. It is a doctrine about which we must be clear if we hope to stand “steadfast and immovable”2 regarding the issues that swirl around our gender. For Satan has declared war on motherhood. He knows that those who rock the cradle can rock his earthly empire. And he knows that without righteous mothers loving and leading the next generation, the kingdom of God will fail.”

I can only imagine the war Satan declared on my mom when she was raising a young family. I can only imagine the doubts and fears she had late at nights while the 5 of us slept in the same room. But my mom kept moving on. I bet Satan thought she would be “easy” to derail, but my mom stayed strong. Did she make mistakes? Absolutely. But she never let her mistakes keep her permanently down.

After a lot of work and with a lot of help from the church, our family started to get back on its feet. About 5 years after moving to Utah my mom met and married a great guy named Fredy. They have now been married 18 years and Fredy has been a huge blessing to our family. I have a lot of respect for his courage to marry not just my mom, but her four kids. Still, in those 18 years of marriage they have gone through some really tough times. I remember a particularly tough period for them. .I was 19 and a sophomore in college. I won’t go into details but things were really dark and hard for them as  acouple. It’s was really really hard to see my mom suffer. Of course her kids rallied around her and wanted to do whatever we could to help. I remember being so mad at Fredy for hurting my mom that I told her “leave him mom, we’ll help you pay for things, you don’t need him.”  But my mom refused and although it took a long time and it wasn’t  perfect, they made it out stronger than ever.  The second lesson my mom taught me is to be committed and tough.

Now that I’m a mom and married, I understand so much more why she stayed. God did not send us down here to try things, but to see things through the end. In the gospel we refer to as “endure to the end.” But no one talks about how hard that can actually be. Our girls Sydney and London are 14 months apart and I’ve felt so weary this last 15 months trying to take care of both of them. On especially dark days, I think of my mom. I think about her ability to square her shoulders and not quit.  President Hinckley said

“planted within women is something divine.”6 That something is the gift and the gifts of motherhood. Elder Matthew Cowley taught that “men have to have something given to them [in mortality] to make them saviors of men, but not mothers, not women. [They] are born with an inherent right, an inherent authority, to be the saviors of human souls … and the regenerating force in the lives of God’s children.”7”

My mom has saved me  on many dark days. Those memories of seeing her push through tough days and waking up the next morning to do it again.  She use to say to us growing up “tu no eres una victim” which means “you are not a victim”. She raised us to know that WE choose our attitude and our life. I remember going through an earth shattering break up when I was in college. I thought my life was over. My mom, who was never one for sweet words  of love gave me a  funny form of advice and she said “when your heart is broken,  work out and make sure you look good” which at the time I thought was so vain, but now I understand is that she meant “your value is not obtained by anyone else. You are worth appreciating and taking care of.” My mom taught me to remember who I am – I am a daughter of God.

The final lesson that I learned from my mom was the power of letting go. You see, after that earth shattering break up I began to grow a cold heart toward love. I began listening to Satan when he said “love it not real, people don’ make it, it’s too hard.” The best way I could describe it was that I was becoming bitter. And I think that’s an easy thing to do. Life can be full of challenges and sometimes we allow our hearts to become bitter because we think it will protect us from future hurt.  Whenever I’m tempted to do that in life I do two things 1. I pray so that my heart can be soften and 2. I think of my mom.

You see, in my opinion my mom had every right to be bitter. Her first marriage was full of abuse, infidelity and control. After managing to come here, she has had to take on very minial jobs for little pay and to this day she works 7 days,  she’s dealt with wayward children and the normal worries of any mother, however if you ever met her, you would never guess she has had such  harsh life. My mom has the sweetest attitude and outlook on life of anyone I know.

Story of the shrek, the sheep.

My mom taught me that although bad things can happen to you, YOU can let it go and start  toward something better.  When I was younger I remember a lot of our family blaming my mom for bad choices my siblings were making .  All of our family looked down at us as if we were some kind of left over puppy and did not think we would amount to much.

But my mom never believed that and she corrected anyone who dared say that about her kids. She always stood up for us and always reminded us that we were just as worthy, capable and smart as anyone else. 

So what are the results of the worst mom in the world?  All four of her children have gone and graduated from college, all are married to amazing spouses, three of which are in the temple, but more important we all respect her. She has left this amazing legacy of strength and determination.  

There are many days were I do something and I think “I’m the world worst mom” like when Sydney uses a tube of toothpaste and Tyson’s toothbrush to paint her babies face, or when we go to public places and I see London eating stuff off the dirty floor, or when 5 pm strickes and I’m on the floor with two screaming babies.  I bet my mom felt like this all the time, but the reality is that we never remembered that. We only remember her being a great mom. So my message to us this mother’s day is, as mothers, we are doing so much better than we think.  Heavenly Father is proud of what we accomplish or even attempt to accomplish every day. I thank GOD every day for my mother, the good, the bad, the ugly, I love ALL of her because she has always loved ALL of me

London

Ah the life of a 15 month old. London is mastering crawling up the stairs and I'm so proud of her. She is pointing at whatever she wants and it's so cute. We sure do love our little London 

Sydney Big Girl Bed

Well it happened! We moved Sydney to a big girl bed. It happened almost by accident and I have AMAZED how well she has been doing. So after the Geronimo's came to visit, Tyson was trying to take apart the white crib that we moved into our room so both girls could sleep. I was out helping Kayla Thompson move and when I came home at 830 Tyson told me he accidently broke the white crib while trying to move it. Yikes!

I was all ready to pull out the playpen but Tyson said "hey lets just put Sydney in her big girl bed." I thought "you are crazy." I've read and read things on switching kids over. Most of them were horror stories about toddler moving too early and then getting up all night or not sleeping. I was so scared and just thought we had until Sydney was three to worry about it. I kept telling Tyson that it was not a good idea but it was already late and we had to do something. So on a scared whim we told Sydney "you are a big girl now and get to sleep in a big girl bed". No running to the store for special sheets, no big ceremony. Just moved her in. It was not how I expected it to happen. So now it's been three weeks and I can honestly say Sydney is doing FANTASTIC. She stays in her bed, she sleeps through the night, she loves it. She sleeps with her baby and conejo bunny. Nap times are a little trickier and I've had to put her down pretty late - between 245 - 3pm. I only let her sleep until 430 so she has enough time to get tired around 8 pm.

Sometimes during her naps she started to get out and open the blinds so I have to go back up and tuck her in. Usually I say "if you stay in your big bed and sleep I will let you watch Dora!" and she usually get SOO excited that she stays put. Sometimes she just sits on her bed and looks at books but will usually get to bed pretty quick and take a nap.

Sydney is growing up and we are so proud of her. I know the next step is potty training and I'm hoping in the late summer we will tackle it.

We are so excited for Sydney's big girl bed.