Chaos and Cupcakes

For some reason, the layout that I previously had is broken and wouldn’t allow comments.  So this is just a temporary layout and Jared and I are working towards a new and improved look for this blog.

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming…

Today’s favorite child of the day is a 6-way tie. My kids are all my favorites because with their different personalities they all make me so happy in so many different ways.

Taylor makes me happy because he is so studious, intense, intelligent, kind, and helpful. I love listening to him tell me all about the company that he is forming and hearing about his business model. He is also such a great example for the other kids. I love his grin with his 2 front teeth missing.

Andrew makes me happy because he is so exuberant and has the biggest smile. He told me yesterday that I was the nicest mom in the world. This morning he came in my room and was in such a great mood and did the cutest little happy dance.

Cameron makes me happy because he is so full of life and affectionate, and because I love the carefree way he dances around the house saying, “Look at this new dance move, Mom!” He plays so nicely with all his siblings and loves to be my helper. He loves to give big hugs and is just happy all the time.

Olivia makes me happy because she is my sweet princess. She is so giggly and I love getting eskimo kisses from her little bunny nose. She is such a good friend to Sawyer. She is such a girly girl. She is so adorable and fun to be with. I am so happy she is my daughter and best friend.

Sawyer makes me happy because he totally makes my day with his huge hugs and his slobbery kisses. I love how he gets so excited to take his nap and then when he wakes up he is so excited to see everyone and goes around giving us all big hugs and kisses. He is such a sweetheart.

Parker makes me happy because he is my sweet, miraculous, adorable baby. I look forward to nights because I love to cuddle with his warm, tiny body tucked against me and smell his sweet baby scent and enjoy that quiet time together (well, semi-quiet as we have the lullaby of Jared’s snoring going on!).

And even though he isn’t my child and thus can’t qualify for favorite child of the day, Jared makes me happy because he is my best friend. I love to spend time with him. Even though we are together all the time, I never get tired of being with him. When he is in his office, I often go sit on the loveseat in there just to be near him. I love our time together after the kids are in bed when we watch movies together. He is such a wonderful dad and husband and provider. He is a hard worker and never (well, hardly ever) complains when I ask him for help.

Today, I just am filled with a feeling of great love and gratitude for my family. They are the best on earth and I am so thankful for them.

Jared got his belated Valentine’s present yesterday. It seems that he will be working from here now instead of his office (at least when he’s not in meetings). I’m glad because he tends to hole up in his office all the time and I get lonely. But now he is out in what is more of the hub of the home and I like that. So here we sit in the family room this morning, typing away on our laptops. When Taylor gets home he will pick up his laptop and and type away, and Andrew and Cameron will get on their computer and type away. We are a geek family.

The weather has been so constantly nasty this winter that the desire to just hole up is natural. Luckily the boys all get lots of exercise what with recess, PE, and Fitness at school. (In case you are wondering what the difference between PE and Fitness is, as I wondered, in PE they do physical games and sports and in Fitness they do things like yoga and sit-ups). But I have been feeling like a slug lately. So I have been trying everyday to either go walk on the trail along the creek across from our house (and I drag everyone else along with me so they get some exercise and fresh air) or go for a bike ride if the weather is semi-decent or walk on the treadmill. I really dislike walking on the treadmill. It is boring and not motivating to me. So I did a lot of research on Monday on exercise equipment. I kept coming across tons of people saying that they love the Gazelle Power Plus. It works and tones the entire body rather than just the lower body like the treadmill, and it provides both an aerobic and strength training workout in one. It does lots of different movements rather than just one like a standard elliptical so it works more areas. It doesn’t jar the joints like walking on a treadmill does. It is quiet so you can watch tv while doing it. Most importantly, people said that it is fun and that they look forward to their workouts rather than dreading it and that this keeps them motivated to do it. So I ordered one and it will arrive next week! I’m excited to try to get in shape before the summer arrives.  Hopefully Jared will enjoy working out on the Gazelle enough to get off his chaise for a little while to use it, too. We are getting old and need to keep our hearts healthy!

Just saw this post that I wrote in the fall and for some reason forgot to publish it or thought that I had but it didn’t post.  Oops!

Politics have been on my mind a lot lately what with the upcoming elections and also after I recently read Empire by Orson Scott Card. At least in Utah, there seems to be with many an attitude that every LDS member should vote for Mitt Romney simply because he is LDS, without even bothering to look at his stance on things. This bothers me. One should vote for Mitt because one is most aligned with his political views. It is scary that one would vote for a candidate simply based on religion, gender, race, etc. That is most certainly an ignorant and lazy approach that could have disastrous consequences. I’m not saying Mitt Romney is a bad candidate; I’m just using him as an example of the way a lot of people vote. When it comes to choosing whom you want to run our country, take some time and research the issues and make an informed decision! This isn’t the Homecoming Queen election!

Something else that has been on my mind is how so many LDS members think that a prerequisite for being LDS is that you must be a Republican. Some have even gone so far as to say that non-Republicans should not be able to hold temple recommends. Well, they might be surprised at how many leaders of the Church are not Republicans. The funny thing is that I have found that a lot of those with that attitude really have no idea what the Republican ideology actually is. They think that LDS=conservative morals=Republican and that if you aren’t a Republican you are automatically immoral. I find this funny because I would never consider myself or Jared to be immoral; in fact, we have very conservative morals. Jared is a returned missionary who graduated from BYU (with a Political Science degree!). We were married in the temple. We have (almost) 6 kids. Our 2 year old daughter is not allowed to dress immodestly. We have always been hard workers and achieved our success through Church-taught self-reliance. Now I am not patting us on the back; I am simply illustrating how we are a typical morally-conservative LDS family. Here is where the irony of this kicks in: because our political views don’t align completely with the Republican party, some may view us as, I don’t know, liberal hippies? It doesn’t matter that our political views don’t align completely with the Democratic party, though. Forget that we did vote for George W. This all refers back to my post with the quote from Orson Scott Card. Why is it hard for some to understand that politics are not black and white? They aren’t cut and dry. What one must do is find the one candidate who is mostly aligned to their views. Not all Republicans have the same stance on everything; same with Democrats. That is why they have debates within their party and several candidates within a party.

My husband happens to be one of the absolute smartest people I know. For goodness sake, he studied Political Science at one of the most conservative schools in the nation. He knows politics! He isn’t just trying to be different. Jared and I don’t really discuss politics that much. We didn’t at all when we were engaged. So it was just a bonus for us that we happen to have the exact same political views. But, no, I wouldn’t say that we are liberal hippies. I would say that we are educated and informed. That’s not a bad thing to be.

Parker took a 3 1/2 hour nap today.  Life is good.

Andrew said to me this morning, “Mom, will you tell me everything you know?  Because you are so smart.”  This kid knows where his bread is buttered.

Jared got me a MacBook for an early Valentine’s Day present! We went to Simply Mac to get some software for him for his MacBook Pro and I whispered to Taylor to tell Dad to get Mom a MacBook and that if it worked Taylor could have my laptop. I didn’t think Jared would go for it but he did! We looked at the new MacBook Air and I didn’t like them for a couple of reasons: they seem too flimsy for a mom of 6 little kids and they also don’t have CD/DVD drives. That is why they are so thin. You can connect them wirelessly to the drive on another MacBook to use that drive or hook it up to an external drive, but I want to be able to burn CDs right on my laptop. The salesguy actually didn’t recommend the Air. So I am going to have fun this weekend playing around with the new laptop. Taylor is going to have fun setting his new laptop up the way he wants. The first thing he wants to do is set up his own blog. His address will be http://taylor.ottleys.net. In order to protect him, it will not be publicly available so if you want the password email me and I’ll let you know what it is. He says to look for his first blog entry tomorrow after he goes to his friend’s birthday party.

Tomorrow is Jared’s birthday. We are going to go to dinner and a movie while my parents watch the kids. Since he was so generous for my V-day present, I wanted to get him an iphone for his birthday but he wants to wait for the 3G version that will be coming out. He didn’t want to get an iphone when they first came out because he wants to wait till they improve them and work all the bugs out. Supposedly this new version is going to be really good.