Reading Rainbow!!

Butterfly in the sky
I can go twice as high
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow

I can go anywhere
Friends to know
And ways to grow
A Reading Rainbow

I can be anything
Take a look
It's in a book
A Reading Rainbow

HAHA! :-D I rediscovered, again, my love of reading!! :-) In fact, I have read about 7 novels in the last 2 months! Such included are:

-Fablehaven (5 book series) and The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull

Very entertaining! I loved them! I particularly like how I didn't see the endings coming!

- Ella Enchanted by Gail Levine

Such an EASY read!! I couldn't believe how easy of a read it was. And it was so much better than the movie! It is a book that I would very much read over and over.

I LOVE reading!! I particularly love how when I'm reading, it isn't like I'm actually reading. It is more like I'm watching it happen while I'm reading. (I don't know if this is the same with other people...if not...I'm sorry... :-P ) Anyways, I HIGHLY recommend all of these books. If you haven't read them...you should! :-D

ONE ROLL TO GO!!

I have sworn to never buy toilet paper again!

Okay, that came out wrong...I refuse to be the one to choose the toilet paper.

A while ago, I bought a HUGE package of toilet paper. The kind that when I was a kid, was the "expensive" and the "good" brand. It looked so soft! And oh boy was it! The toilet paper practically shredded before you even got to wiping! I felt so ridiculous!! I mean I can't even buy a good brand of toilet paper...and on top of it...I bought a 72 roll package of it! It was so pathetic!

So we have one more roll left of the not so cheap "cheap" toilet paper! Never thought I'd be so excited to be almost out of toilet paper, but HEY! :-) Things could be worse!

On another positive note, Jim came with me the last time we went shopping, and...yes, HE picked out the toilet paper! WAHOO! Thank goodness for a good husband who knows his toiletries ;-)

FYE
In case you don't know...(which I did not) Toilet paper is used in TONS of stuff!!! look up pics of toilet paper on google and see what you get! ITS AMAZING!

7 MONTHS OLD

Angela Rose Clemens

at her 7 month check up weighed 14 lbs. 9 oz.

so close to doubling her birth weight but not quite yet...

But she is so great with taking pictures! She smiles real big!

BIG SMILE!

On the silky Ninny gave her.

Pretty blue church dress Ninny bought her.

Such a happy baby!

Posing for mommy

My favorite.

S he totally spewed on her new jean dress.

My favorite with the jean dress so far.

She wasn't very cooperative for the second half of pictures...

sweet baby!

"GO LONG MOM!!"

"I'm not so sure about this...."

Mommy's little girl!

haha she loves my kisses, she just won't admit it sometimes ;-)

see....she loves my kisses ;-)

she makes me happy, and I make her happy

I love the way she looks at me. She brightens my world!

Angela loves her mommy! And her mommy loves her too!! If these don't prove it...I don't know what does... :-D

FOLLOW-UP PHOTOSHOOT

"Please, Please, no pictures..."

"Why yes, I know I'm cute..."

"If only you knew what I was thinking..."

"What am I doin? Oh just chillin..."

"Mom looks so silly!"

This one is my favorite!

Angela is a great photo subject! She loves to smile really big for the camera and sometimes even poses on her own! It is adorable!

I'm a big girl now!

My beautiful girl is growing up SOOOO fast!!!

A lot has happened with Angela since the last time I posted about her!!

Where to begin????

We started feeding her solids. Jim is hilarious and dare I say, has a phobia of feeding her. haha I think it is just the typical baby flings food and spits it, and as brave as he is....doesn't wanna mess with that! haha We started her with pears...and I was definitely afraid that she wouldn't like her veggies after having fruit. But sure enough! she LOVES her veggies! It is so funny! So far she has had carrots, peas, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, and bananas. The only one she did not care for was bananas. Unfortunately, bananas were pretty much

what I stocked up on. Go figure. BUT a friend from home (Christy Wardle) send me a recipe for banana bread, using baby food! And it is pretty good!

She is not completely crawling yet, but she is not slow by any means. She hasn't figured out her hands and how they work with her legs. Resulting in a *scoot, scoot, flop* motion to get where she wants to go. Including, exploring the bathroom, her bedroom, and our bedroom. Once while I was in the kitchen baking, it got a little too quiet for comfort. When I went to see what she was doing, I didn't see her! Come to find out, she went into the bathroom and in her shuffle to get all the way in, shut the door. Well, when I went to get her out, she was too close to the door for me to open it. I stayed calm because there wasn't anything where she could get to, but for about 5 minutes I had to sit there slowly opening the door to see if she had moved yet. *All ended well :-)

She LOVES to find cords around the house. Luckily, we don't have many

out where she can get to, but every once in a while when we aren't completely focused on her, the cord will be pulled out of the laptop and suddenly go dark. It is actually pretty funny,

but we try to discourage her from doing so.

She LOVES her walks! She knows when she is put in the stroller

that she is going for a walk and will sit there patiently looking at the door. Unl

ess she is there for too long, then she'll squeal about it until she is either taken out, or the stroller starts moving. She also loves grass. She doesn't like to eat it, which is nice, but she likes to crawl and sit in it.

For the first time she reached out and actually pushed away from mommy to get to daddy. It made Jim feel pretty special. And seeing his face light up because she really wanted him made me smile really big! and it was so dang cute!

She LOVES to give mommy sweet kisses

She LOVES to give REALLY big slobbery kisses too!

And she can be pretty serious for a sweet girl sometimes.

We are doing better than we think we are, but we could be doing better

This was pretty much the theme of our Regional Conference. It was a great session! I was so glad that I could make it!

Julie B. Beck repeated, "You are doing better than you think you are doing." I took it to mean that these times are hard and trying. We have to work hard to stay out of the "flow" of the world. We recognize our inadequacies more frequently and more easily than others might.

She followed up by saying,"...but you could be doing better." Oh how true this is! I have realized lately just that. I'm doing pretty well when it comes to staying on the straight and narrow, but oh boy could I be doing better!

We went to the temple a while back and as I was in there, I remembered just how much is not right in my life. I am still a worthy and righteous member, but there are things in my life that I know I need to change.

I have such a testimony of repentance. I am so thankful that the Lord, Jesus Christ died for me. Were it not for him I would not be able to make it back to my Heavenly Father. I am so happy that our Father in Heaven knew that we would make mistakes, and does not think any less of us because of the mistakes we have made or will make. He made it possible to repent and to essentially start over because He loves us, and WANTS us to return to Him again. I am so grateful for a forgiving and caring God, who is aware of my needs and weaknesses.

I know that as we approach the trials of life, we need to rely on Him. Look to Him. I especially know that when asked, He will help us find the strength to fight through and make it back to Him.

For those of you who are having a hard time...remember...you are doing better than you think you are. I know that God loves you. I love you. Keep the Faith. It is never too late to get back on track.

Come thou Fount....ain ;-)

My sweet husband has wanted a fountain....for a LONG time. :-) I have too, but I never really put a lot of effort into finding one.

While we were at a Stephensen family reunion, Jim saw this fountain that is copper colored and has leaves that the water flows down from. It was really dusty a

nd cost $5. So Jim asked if we could get it, and of course being the loving wife I am, I said if it was something that he would like to have, sure. So....he bought it. Only to find out that it didn't work...haha. Ain't that a kick in the head... he looked so sad when he realized the fountain had no way to plug it in, but honored his purchase (of course from my family...haha) and took it home.

I don't think I have ever seen someone so determined to make something work in my life! It was adorable! He went to several stores to find the right cord and every time we found out the cord was $20. With that you can just buy a new fountain. Not worth it.

One day Jim came home and was REALLY excited! He tells me he found a cord at work that is the right one for the fountain!! :-D sure enough...IT WAS!! so he cleaned it off and with some helpful guidance from me, we got the fountain working right. I swear he glowed about it! I still catch him staring at it, and for a while he just kept saying..."I did it...I like our fountain...Its so pretty."

...like I said...HE IS ADORABLE! That must be where Angela gets her cuteness from too! ;-)

So now we have a fountain with pretty, shiny rocks in the bottom

that greet the water cascading down from leaf to leaf. He is so proud of his work, and I'm so proud of my honey.

Finished product. This lovely serene fountain now adorns our dining table.

Night vision ;-)

Its my life!

So, lately I've had a lot on my mind. I haven't felt the best about myself or my mothering. However, I know that with help from the Lord, I will have abilities beyond my own. It is a promise in my patriarchal blessing. I know that as life continues I will learn from my mistakes and from my children. I hope that I will be able to teach them what they need to know.

As I was thinking about some of the things that I NEED to teach our children, it became very real to me that my life will NEVER be the same. What occupies my mind and thoughts has completely changed, and I sincerely hope that it will never have the chance to become like it used to, either.

I realized that I have alot of responsibilities now. I need to do what I can to better my knowledge (spiritual and otherwise) in order to teach my children what they need or want to know.

As I think on how my life has changed I tend to dwell on what I never did. It feels as though it haunts me.

There were a lot of things that I wanted to do and other things that I loved doing but for some reason or another, I stopped...Like camping, hiking, canoeing, skiing, sewing, singing, my violin, swimming, biking, cross-stitching, soccer, softball, poetry, piano...

I would love to say that I am a sporty girl...I really would. However, truth be told, I'm not. I would like to be, but I'm not. I am quite confident in saying that the reason I'm not is because of my physical limitations.

Oh the physical limitations...what a joke! WHO SETS THOSE????? HA! Who sets ANY limitations on me????

I DO.

All of that stuff I never did or stopped doing...its because of myself. I chose to stop. And better yet...who says I can't do that now that I have a family? NO ONE! so I've decided...I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna do all that I can. Time to stop living in the past about what I never did...or stopped doing...its time to take control of my life!

WHILE THINKING OF THIS...A SONG COMES TO MIND...

This ain't a song for the brokenhearted
No silent prayer for the faith departed
And I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice when I shout it out loud

It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder, make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky, gotta make your own breaks

It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

You better stand tall
When they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break
Baby, don't back down

It's my life
It's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive

(It's my life)
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive

(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive

'Cause it's my life!

I started today. I'm getting in shape! Angela and I walked Jim to work. I've decided that I need to pretend that I don't have a car, while weather permits anyways. That way I walk every where! And walk my way back to size 12!! or smaller :-) I didn't complain even once! haha! GO ME!!!

I'll try to keep ya updated!