When I Grow Up...

I have always been envious of ambitious people; people who have known what their dreams have been since they were three. They knew what they wanted to be when they grew up and they went after it. Whether it is some grand occupational plan, to sing, play piano, be a competitive athlete or an artist. I wasn’t given any of those obvious talents and have always wished I had a dream since I was three of becoming something amazing.

One of my most treasured and favorite books as a little girl was a Little Golden Book called Baby Dear by Eloise Wilkin. It was a sweet story of a little girl who has a new baby sister. She was given a baby doll to care for while her mommy cares for the real baby. She would do all the things the mom would do with the new baby with her own little baby doll. They bathed them together, sang to them together, rocked them together, and took them on walks together. Side by side this little girl mimicked everything the mom did. I’m not sure why as a little girl I was so taken with this book. The illustrations are just precious and the story was so adorable. I had a new baby sister and maybe that is why my mom got me that book. My original book lost the front cover and is well worn. I have since bought another copy because it is that dear to me. It is clear to me now why I loved that book so much. It was who I wanted to be. I wanted to be a mom even when I was that little.

Last fall my mom came to visit and brought me a CD of songs that I listened to all the time when I was a kid called Songs for a Mormon Child. One of my favorites was called “I Want to be a Mother”. The lyrics are:

When I grow up, I want to be a mother and have a family

One little, two little, three little babies of my own.

Of all the jobs, for me I’ll choose no other! I’ll have a family

Four little, five little, six little babies in my home.

I put the CD in to listen to it and when that song came on I just started to cry. It dawned on me that from a young age that was all I wanted to do was become a mother. That was my dream and my ambition. And now I was doing it. I'm livin' my dream.

I do love being a mom. It feels like my soul purpose in life. I am not good at every part of being a mom but some parts I am. I look at my house and wonder what happened to the clean organized life I used to have. When it was just Ryan and I, I was clean and organized. I remember being pregnant with Aidan and being so desperately sad when I couldn’t lean over the tub anymore to clean it. Now, cleaning my tub is not at the top of my priority list. I’m just grateful for the days my kids are fed, have clean clothes and, are in bed at a decent time.

It is harder to be a mom than I ever imagined. I would like to say I gave up everything to be a mom but I really didn’t. It is what I always wanted so I don’t think I have sacrificed anything to be a mom. I have sacrificed my figure and my sanity but I had no other dream, no other ambition, no other career path other than this one. So sacrifice isn’t how I would describe being a mom for me. It definitely has shown me my weaknesses and my faults but it has also shown me some strengths and most of all the power and joy of love.

I am so grateful to be a mom. It truly is my dream and ambition. I am so happy I have such wonderful children and that I get to be their mom forever.

General Conference

We love General Conference at our house.  One of the biggest reasons we have satellite is so we can watch Conference on tv.  I always make sure we have good food  and lots of work sheets for the kids to keep them busy.  This year I saw a cute idea on one of the craft blogs I frequent.  They had little buckets full of candy with a key word on it.  Every time you heard that word in a talk you could pick a treat from that bucket.  We decided to make a tally and get the treats at the end of the talk so we wouldn't be disruptive.  It was a great way to get the kids to listen.  However, some talks totally drained out our candy supply.  I think LOVE was the overall winner.  By the end we would say "I'm sick of love, I want a different candy."  Cassidy was cute, each time she heard someone say Latter-Day Saints she would say, "Hey we go to that church." Glad to hear she was listening too.

It was a great weekend of relaxation and edification.

First time Snow Skiing

Skiing in Utah has somehow become a yearly excursion for Ryan and some of his friends.  This year we tagged along.  Ryan took just Aidan skiing one of the days we were out there.  Aidan did great!  He wants to be good at everything the first time he does it so I was a little nervous he would get upset and quit because it was challenging.  Ryan said he kept in good spirits and picked it up pretty well.  Here are their pics.

Look at that form!

                                                        

 Totally cool ski bums!

Here is a video as well.  I was so impressed when I watched it!

Portrait of Lacey at 100

On the 100th day of school they do a bunch of fun things.  Each kid is to put 100 things on a shirt and wear it to school.  She wore 100 butterflies on her shirt. Also, at school they make a self portrait of what they will look like at 100 years old.  Here is Lacey's. 

 

She had a note to go with hers.  It says "When I am one hundred I will have cool earrings."  Love the ambition!

They are "cool" earrings don't you think?

Here is a flashback to Aidan's self portrait. A classic as well.

Party with games and Challenges

Tonight we were just hanging out with everyone when Aidan handed each person this invitation:



I was truly surprised because I had nothing to do with this. Everyone were really good sports and accommodated Aidan's invitation. We all gathered at the pool table where indeed there were "games and challenges". Aidan had a bottle of water for everyone with their name on it. So when we arrived he said, "You can get a refreshment." So cute huh? Aidan first had us all play pool, each taking a turn. After that he had a target set up for us to shoot his nerf gun. I must say the girls were better than the boys in this challenge. Next was a challenge to fly Aidan's helicopter from the pool table to a landing site. We had fun with that one. Strangely Derek was a better pilot than Ryan. Hmmm.

The next stage of the party was everyone played a few minutes of Scrabble. We had two boards out. After that Aidan came in with a Bingo game that was called "AIDAN" instead of Bingo. We played with M&Ms. Somehow the game was rigged for Nick to win. We ended the night with a treat.

It was so much fun and Aidan engineered it all with Grandpa's help I think. It was just so cute to see him be in charge. I wish I would have taken some pictures of the games and challenges but we were having so much fun I didn't stop to do it.

A new reason for living...

A new reason for living in Louisville that is.

This morning Ryan told me he was taking me to a special place as part of my Christmas present that was of the same caliber as the Gap Clearance Center in Cincinnati.  He said it was 45 minutes from our place.  I was highly doubtful that anything in Louisville could compare to the Gap Clearance Center and if it did I would have heard about it by now.

So we drove for 45 minutes with Ryan the whole time building up this mystery place.  I was getting nervous that it all would be a disappointment.  As we got close to the exit he made me close my eyes.  I had to keep them close until he stopped the car.  When I opened them I saw this:

 Now if you are a shoe-loving woman like I am you would instantly know that I had just pulled up to shoe heaven.  I was shocked I had never heard about his place.  Seriously who has been holding out on me? Ryan found out from some flight attendants. We walked up to the door where people were waiting in line to get in the door since it was a few minutes before opening time and then I saw this:

Yeah, I love that!

Then the doors opened and I saw this:

Rows and rows and rows of shoes.  It was well organized which makes a big difference when shopping.  My biggest mistake was wearing my boots.  I should have just worn my flip flops so I could easily trip on shoes. I tried on a gazillion shoes.  I first narrowed it down to about 12 and then to 5 and then to 4.  It was so tough.   Some shoes were up to 70% off and to sweeten the deal they also were having a sale of 20% off your total purchase.  All the shoes are name brand designer shoes that you would find at Macy's, like Michael Kors, Steve Madden, Jessica Simpson, Eccos etc.  Everyone took a turn looking at shoes.  Ryan found a pair of dress shoes and Lacey found two pair of church shoes.  We found Aidan an $80 pair of North Face snow pants for $20.  Ryan was so jealous.  But all in all everyone scored.

Here are my new beauties!

 What a great Christmas present huh?  The man knows me and he knows me well!

Gingerbread Festivity

I wasn't sure our gingerbread party was going to work out this year. Every place we looked to having it was booked and our options for days to do it were dwindling. Luckily Alexis allowed us to use her home for the party. Someday, yes, someday we will host the gingerbread party in our own home. We just wanted to invite more than one family and our house just doesn't accommodate that very well. So thank goodness for good friends with big houses.

Four families came with all their kids and tons of candy. We had so much but we used a lot of it. We helped the kids first with theirs. Once we got a structure made we let them decorate as they wanted.




Miss Cassidy just wanted to eat the frosting which really isn't that good. After the kids were done and busy watching a movie, we sat all the adults down for the real show to begin.


I had high expectations for Ryan's house. When I first did gingerbread houses with Ryan's family 10 years ago, I had no idea how serious they were. I had started making a dinky kid looking house and looked over at Ryan and saw a replica of the White House. I soon realized this was serious and not just an excuse to play with candy. So over the years I have developed my talent and I think maybe I have officially won the right to carry the Gremmert name.


Ryan in the planning stages.


I think this was the Empire State Building and it was starting to lean so we hurried and took a picture.

Yep, moments later it all crumbled and this is what is ended up looking like. On the other hand........


Mine turned out so cute. My roof was falling a little but the candy canes came as a great structural element as well as decorative. Act like I planned it right?


So here is our side by side comparison just to rub it in one last time.