A Good Day

She's practically on top of him! He's just used to it, I guess. This is a very common scene. Libby just wants to watch Alex do anything.

Avery sparkles and shines.

A few posts back I mentioned the girls' hair. Libby likes her hair to be "mich-match," especially when she's wearing her Pippi Longstocking dress. Hey, at least it's done!

The Clayton Girls: Anoush, Aryl, Avery, Libby, Emma

Now Avery is starting to be a big girl and wants to be like Libby. They can color in the coloring books together now :)

Fake It Till You Make It

I'm a genuine person, the type of person who has fewer, close friendships. I've always been proud of the fact that I'm not fake. Everyone knows how I feel and where I stand because I wear my emotions on my sleeve.

Steve is the same way. We'd rather fight openly and get it over with than hold our emotions in and hope that it gets resolved later. Hopefully, we love openly as well to counterbalance the bad.

BUT, this morning I realized that I'm getting good at "faking it" (even though I didn't know I was trying), and I actually think it's a step toward maturity.

Let me explain.

Alex was off to a Scouting activity, Steve was on a business call in his office, it was just me and the two girls. I was feeling desperate for a shower because I'm hormonally imbalanced and my complexion is suffering because of it, also because I have hot and cold flashes so I'm sweatier and therefore greasier than usual. (Sorry if that's TMI.)

Libby is 3.5 and she wants to play, she has a lot of questions, there's a lot of drama in doing anything. Avery is 17 months, she woke up too early this morning, she's needy, she wants to nurse ALL THE TIME, she likes the toilet, and dumping stuff - anything - out onto the floor.
This was my bathroom when I came out of the shower, even after I took the precautionary steps of pushing back all the haircutting stuff and hair bow stuff and toiletries and...crayon basket?...to the back of the counter.

All I could think about was how badly I wanted the solace of a shower. And because my mind was consumed with this thought, I realized that I was being auto-pilot Mommy, I was "faking it."

And everyone was happy :)

See, when Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. But when Mama is a good faker, everyone is happy!

If I can just be fake for the next year - while I'm creating a life inside me - then we'll probably all survive.

This whole "faking it" concept is how I've interpreted the "Come What May and Love It" talk by Elder Wirthlin, specifically as it relates to pregnancy. It was an outright epiphany for me.

Why Roofing Companies Love Texas

Karina and I thought this crazy hailstorm was pretty cool. Our girls, not so much...

What is RSS?

In an effort to help family and friends connect more easily, I want to share this video that teaches the value of RSS feeds and readers. Using an RSS reader will save you a lot of time on the web and make it much more simple to stay in the loop with your favorite people.

Ready to set up your RSS reader? I recommend Google Reader. All you need is a Google (Gmail) account and you're ready to go.

99% Accurate

Heaven help us...

Mommy/Libby date for March

We went to see "Bedtime Stories" at the discount movie theatre, I fell asleep albeit only for 5 seconds, Libby couldn't wait to leave so we took a break by going to the bathroom.

But then, then we went to McDonald's for an ice cream cone. Now, that was worth it!

Science Day CO2

Saturdays are now Science Experiment days with Daddy. Carbon Dioxide Gas Cork-with-streamers Launch.

ZPizza

Our field trip to ZPizza was yummy. They gave us a tour, free pizzas, and soda!

And of course Alex found a tree to climb.

Look closer at the picture below in the shadows. He's shimmying up it, funny kid :)

Girls' Hair

I must confess that I'm horrible at doing my girls' hair. I never learned how to do anything other than the basics.

Avery gets compliments everywhere we go on her hair anyway because she has a lot and it's a pretty color. I've cut it every-so-often, and it looks the best down. But for the first time ever I did ponytails for her.

Libby likes her hair Pippi Longstocking style, meaning one side pony the other side braid, or "michmatch" as she calls it.

She usually doesn't want me anywhere near her hair but last Sunday she asked me for buns (not sure where that came from) and this is what she ended up with. We were both happy.

God's Laws of Finance Released!

Karina and I are very excited to launch the website for a book we're writing called God's Laws of Finance: How to Prosper Following Prophetic Counsel.

We've even provided a free e-book for you to download, which is a condensed version of what the book will be.

We're going to blog the entire book for free, so if you subscribe to our RSS feed, or have new posts delivered straight to your email inbox, you'll get to read the manuscript as it develops.

The idea for the book developed when we fell flat on our faces financially and realized that we hadn't studied prophetic counsel on personal finance like we should have. We had spent years and thousands of dollars reading books, attending seminars, and listening to the "wisdom of men," but we hadn't been as diligent in heeding authoritative teachings.

We began studying everything we could find from prophets and apostles on personal finance, investing, and preparedness. We were surprised at the mountains of materials that we dug up, though not surprised at the consistency of the counsel.

From our studies emerged a comprehensive model, which we call the "Prophetic Model of Prosperity."

We would love your help in creating the most effective book as possible. Specifically, we would really appreciate two things: 1) comment a lot on each blog post to give us feedback on what we're writing and help us fine tune the message, and 2) share with us your personal stories of financial failure and/or success. Personal stories, or case studies, are a critical element of successful books. The more you share the more you help others.

Start by downloading your free e-book, The Prophetic Model of Prosperity, then either subscribe to our RSS feed or click here to have new blog posts sent to your email address.

Thanks so much!