a three year old's prayers.

we've talked about peyton's prayers in the past.  they only get better.
with all the "bad dreams" going on around this joint (i swear, it's contagious!) prayers at all times of the day refer to bedtime and what usually happens.
at breakfast, it isn't uncommon to hear one of the girls ask that they not have bad dreams that night (like 12 hours later).
bedtime, they are down to business though, even making suggestions for what they can be blessed to dream about.
tonight at dinner, peyton asked to dream about princesses.
a couple of nights ago, she prayed that she wouldn't have bad dreams so she wouldn't wake up and have to come and get in my bed.
"and bless that i won't have bad dreams so i won't have to get in mom's bed."
it was sweet, funny, and, well, it made me feel like a bad mom.  i guess i have been complaining a little bit too much about my sleep being interrupted.

“pin”spiration.

so let me tell you how pinterest snagged me and hasn’t quite eased up.
a lot of my friends out there (you better know who you are..) have been talking all about it, saying how great it is, yadda yadda yadda.
knowing how I am, a rebel to all that is popular, I ignored it.  for a while.
you see, I had a routine for saving all those things that I found around the internet and blogs that I loved, and dreamed of making, that just wasn’t working out as well as it had been.
I began saving images in my picture file on my computer.  (good.)
my sister-in-law told me of a genius idea to put those things in their own folder on my computer, labeled, what else: “ideas”.  (better!)
but then there arose the issue of me not remembering exactly where I got the idea from.  (instructions are very important things at times.)  oh sure, I usually knew where I got the idea from, sometimes there was a watermark on the image, but to sift through hundreds of blog posts, sometimes months after I came across the idea, was a major time waster.
so I tried to save all the ideas I liked in my bookmarks folder.
until merrill made fun of me.
and really, before he mocked me, it really wasn’t working.  there were vague descriptors of what that bookmark was marking, no image, and the were forgotten.
enter pinterest.
I looked into it, and it made total sense.  it solved all of my problems in that, I could save the picture AND the link to where the idea was found.  no searching and pulling my hair out trying to find the original source!!
oh, but that is not all..
it does more!
I can sort all of my “pins” into neat little categories or boards (something that I am still trying to perfect).  so all my halloween stuff is on one board and christmas gets its own area.  photography ideas don’t mingle with recipes..  it’s order, not chaos anymore!!
I also love that I can follow people whose style I admire, people who have crazy ingenuity and creativity.
I am totally addicted.
(I have also found new blogs to stalk..)
so out of my love of pinning, and creating my own version of others ideas, I am officially coining the new word: “pinspiration”.
I saw this:
(click on image for source.)

and I LOVED it!!!
(it is so me, and a few others I know..)
I took the idea, tweaked it a bit, and came up with this:
(click on the image for full list of credits.)

I can see that this is going to be a long, beautiful relationship!

aaron+eli

here is a wedding that the bride took care of every single detail!

it was amazing..

and I felt so bad that a freak rainstorm came and dumped right before their backyard ceremony.

(good thing she had me there early to photograph all of those little details..)

this one thing I really wanted to do this summer, but didn’t, so I guess, I’ll get to it now.. maybe.

one of those awesome, “make life easier changes”, streamline life, and just plain change it up, things I was going to do this last summer, and, well, never found the time (or wanted to spend it in front of the computer long enough to execute it..), was to combine the three blogs, my three loves and identities.

yeah.

hasn’t happened, eh?

it is going to.

so when you stop by, you will understand why there might be scrapping one day, photography the next, a funny story or tow another, and then maybe some goodies posted for good measure.

it has been something that I have been mulling over for awhile, and it just makes sense!

(making sense and helping my mom to navigate and find the things she wants to..)

the archives will be up at those other two places for a while still, and excuse me if your google reader fills up with all the posts I will be importing here and re-tagging and sorting.

I know.

I am totally selfish.

I want my life to be easier! 

between diet coke and chocolate…

here I am, enjoying a diet coke and some hershey’s miniatures, and realize that I have other goodies to share today..

some new products at jessica sprague (available today) are getting me in the mood to scrap (more) and make some fun hybrid stuff for the halloween season.

first up:

carina gardner-

(click on layouts for list of full credits.)

and some cosmo cricket:

can’t you see a little banner, just like this, but in real life?

I can too..  hopefully I will get it done soon!

a chocolatey update.

success!!
(sort of.)
two of my three little ones actually stayed in their own beds the whole night.
(no wakie-uppies.)
i was able to...
sleep..
kind of..
in a bed.
not my bed, mind you..
but peyton at least got the idea that she is to sleep in her own bed, and not mine.
i needed to clarify that in order to earn a candy bar, i would have to be allowed to sleep in my own bed, all night, as well.
the kiddo got half of it!
she woke up "fweaked out", and asked me to snuggle her.
it wasn't her fault that while snuggling, i fell asleep in her bed, and stayed there the rest of the night.
i replenished my cupboards with a variety of candy bars from the fall-apart (aka wal-mart).  all children were paid (with the exception of the youngest, who didn't nap today and fell asleep early).
i think i might just pay myself for surviving yet another night in a twin-sized bed with my littlest who also enjoys kicking the covers off.
yup, mars bar for me indeed!
(moral of the story is: bribery works.)

i am placing all my hopes on candybars.

let me tell you what the nocturnal hours have been like  here:
bedtime.  not always on time, but pjs are put on, teeth brushed, a little girl with longer hair gets it brushed and loosely braided for the night, prayers are said, and three little girls get tucked in their own beds.  sometimes (most times) a second prayer is said with each little girl who is anxious and nervous for what the night will bring to them, all alone in their own little room.  tuck-ins and reassurances are generously given, and then night begins for the parents.
well, the night begins, as do the interruptions from three, nervous little girls.
they are not always all nervous on the same nights, just sometimes.  peyton in the only one who is consistently nervous, and she tells us everyday that she is "grateful when there are no bad dreams".
she usually ends up in our bed with us, after she wakes up crying.
now a bad dream isn't what you expect it to be with this little one.  she had a "really bad one" last week.  you  know what it was about?  she got something stuck in her toe at lake powell and it made a hole in her foot.  but in her little mind, that is awful!
last night, she fell asleep on the couch.  merrill was up late with an uncomfortable cyst swelling in his armpit (remember this?) so we left her there, tucking the other two into bed.  only the oldest of my bunch was worried last night.  bedtime went on for almost 2 hours due to the nerves of this child..
i was later awakened by ashley.
(i am unable to tell you at time, i used to look at the clock when these things would happen, and that is just a bad idea.)
lynn hijacked her bed, kicking her out, and into my bed.  i was all for sleep of any sort, so i welcomed her into my bed.
then peyton arose, crying.  crying and needing to go potty.
after we took a trip to the potty, i went to snuggle her in her bed.  sleeping there until it was time to start our day.
needless to say, i am one tired momma.  so tonight, before our circus of bedtime rituals, to try to insure one good night's sleep, i bribed my children.
"if you can all sleep in your own beds the whole night, i will give you a candy bar."
shall we see how this ends up?
let's do.
but let me say this:  i know it would be more than enough to keep me in my own bed the whole night.