All things in moderation

Today has just been one of those days.... The kind of day you don't want to see again for a long time.

I started the day with a vow not to turn on the computer. (I didn't ban myself from my iPhone because, let's face it, I need to be connected and I'm not trying to make myself CRAZY here.) Sometimes when I turn on the computer, I find the time passing, and my will to turn it off dwindling. The other day, I was blogging (of course) and I thought the kids were acting a little grouchy, so I figured it must be lunch time and then time for Molly's nap. When I looked at the clock, it was after 2 pm. I had been on the computer nearly all day! Where does the day go when I'm stuck in cyberspace? I'm not going to lie, once in a while I like it when the day slips away and I'm just tap tap tapping away blissfully. But those are the days when I ignore my housework and my children. Those are very selfish days.

Today wasn't going to be like that! I wanted to get a lot done today, I had big plans for myself. The day started out just fine. Breakfast, clean up breakfast, start a load of laundry, make beds, make a chore chart for Benson, make a chore chart for me, fold a load of laundry, take out the garbages, straighten our bedroom, play "memory" with Benson, pick up all of the memory cards Molly threw on the floor, Pull the sheets off the bed to be washed, take the valances off the windows to be washed, help Benson with his bubbles, pick up the living room, snacks for the kids, switch laundry from washer to dryer, put sheets in the washer, cleaned out all of the clothes that don't fit them anymore from their drawers, picked up their toys, switch laundry.... And after ALL of that, I thought it must be time for lunch, then Molly's nap. When I looked at the clock, it was only 10:30. (Jeesh!) The rest of the day continued on. We blew bubbles in our socks in the freezing cold, had purple waffles for dinner and ended up with poop in the tub, using my bare hands to get it out, and gagging. This was an unselfish day.

Now it's 11:48 pm. Although I feel completely EXHAUSTED, I can't sleep. I'm thinking about my day. I didn't stop. It was go, go, go all day! This was a better day, but I hope I don't have to have a day like today for a long time.

P.S. Molly has stolen my heart. Benson gives the best hugs. Casey is my everything.

Thanks for reading. I know this was a lame post. I can't get my thoughts together!

Corduroy Dreams

Does anyone really read this blog anymore?

Well, as you know, I love to craft and create cute things for our house. I love to share the things I've done, but I don't want to take up our whole family's blog with all of my crafts. So, I've started a new blog where I can share all of those things. Please "follow" me on that blog and feel free to share my link on your blog or with your friends.

Here are some ideas I've share on my blog, Corduroy Dreams:

Crepe Paper Rose Wreath

Ribbon-wrapped candles

Mod-Podged lamp

TV table redo

For your birthday: A walk down memory lane.

Warning! This is pretty mushy stuff!

Today is Casey's 26th birthday. It's hard to believe that the first time I ever hung out with Casey, he was barely 16. 10 years ago tomorrow, Casey and I hung out together for the first time. Please join me as I take a little walk down memory lane.

From my journal that night (Jan. 19, 2001):

"Casey is cute!!! He is hot! But he's also a player, I could be interested, but mmmm-I don't know. He is funny and he does fun stuff, no matter who's there. He can do a very weird thing with his tongue and he has perfect teeth!!! He also plays the piano! WoW! But who knows...."

Isn't it funny what our first impressions are? I had a little "crush" on him right from the get-go, and it never went away. I remember the first time I saw Casey. I remember the first time we hung out. I remember dating other guys and still really liking Casey. He was my best friend all through high school and when I had dating problems or questions, I talked to Casey about it, and he talked to me. We would call each other in the middle of the night, just to talk. We would sit in the parking lot after school with our friends, just talking. And we would hang out every weekend. We had a big party when he left on his mission, and I shook his hand when we said goodbye, then I cried in the car all the way home. We wrote each other on his mission and just got closer and closer. I realized that when I was dating other guys, I wanted to be dating Casey. Writing him on his mission was awesome. He was 2000 miles away, and still made me feel so happy. As we wrote, we grew closer and closer.

From an email Elder Dalpias wrote to me March 16, 2005:

"It is going to be fun when we can actually all hang out together! I am pretty stinkin excited for stuff like that. In fact, I am excited about a lot of things in the future. There isn't anything that could make things better right now. I am where I am supposed to be, trying to grow up a little so that I'm not a goofup in life, and I have the best friend ever back at home supporting me being awesome. I really do love you Natalie. You are the part oft he future that I look forward to the most. Us hanging out, being best friends, calling you at all hours of the night, and maybe one day.... even holding your hand or something like that. We have got some really great things ahead of us! It is going to be awesome! It is awesome! I just love ya, a whole stinkin lot!"

When Casey got home from his mission, we did all of the things we had talked about. We stayed up late talking to each other, we went on some dates, and we even held hands! There is nothing better than falling in love with your best friend. Everything was as wonderful as we thought it would be.

Now we're living real life. Work, kids, and even a minivan.... It's not a dream we're just talking about anymore. We're living the life we wanted. Of course everything isn't perfect all the time, but we are happy together. I'm so glad I met Casey 10 years ago. He is all I could have ever hoped for. I'm so grateful every day that I haven't stopped falling in love with my best friend.

Happy birthday, Casey Michael Dalpias. I love you with all of my heart.

Christmas 2010

We had such an awesome Christmas! This year was a lot of fun because it was Molly's first Christmas, and Benson was old enough this year to know what was going on.

We spent a lot of time with our families, which was wonderful! Being with family is the best part of Christmas. We had a great party at Casey's parents' house on Christmas Eve, and then went to my parents' house and had a very late party. My mom made all of us girls the cutest aprons in the world. And she made some for the kids too. Molly's is TINY. After all of the fun, the kids didn't get to bed until just before midnight.

We dragged the kids out of bed at 7 on Christmas morning. We had to get them up early so we could open our presents before all of the other festivities of the day. We had breakfast at Casey's parents' house, then we spent the evening at my parents' house. The kids were SUPER tired by about 10:00, so it made for a very long and emotional day for everyone. After some naps, everyone was happier, and we had a wonderful day!

Casey got an xbox 360 and a kinect. The kinect is so much fun! We have had a lot of fun playing it. He got me a cricut and all of the things I needed for it. I love it!

Molly got this play kitchen. It's a little big for her, but hopefully it will be a fun thing for her for years to come.

Benson had written a letter to Santa saying he wanted a truck with a trailer and a 4-wheeler, so when he walked in on Christmas morning and saw this sitting on the couch, he said, "He got me just what I wanted!" Benson also got a leapster, which was supposed to be his big gift, but after he saw this truck, nothing else in the world mattered.

We have been really blessed this year. Even though our Christmas wasn't extravagant, it was a good year for us and we are very grateful for all that we have. Christmas is so magical for the kids and having them makes it all a hundred times more fun!

Introducing....

Our new 2007 Honda Odyssey.

Told you I wanted one.

I'll let you drive it sometime, you'll want one too!

My favorite feature: Automatic doors!

A very Late Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

If you haven't gotten one in the mail, we just FINALLY mailed them today (3 days before Christmas), so they may not arrive in your mailbox until after Christmas, or here is a digital version if we forgot about you.

Let it Snow!

This morning it snowed a lot. It was the good kind of snow, too. Perfect for sledding and building snowmen. We invited ourselves over to our neighbor's house to sled down their PERFECT sledding hill. It was a blast! We had so much fun with them. They are the best neighbors and we really adore them. Benson especially loves playing with them. Here are their 3 cute kids:

Boston

Tyton

Season

Benson was not shy at all. He went up and down the hill all by himself a ton of times! Molly, on the other hand, was not so sure about all of her snow clothes. She couldn't really move, so most of the time she just sat in the snow, although once in a while she bummed a ride down the hill. Thanks for letting us come over, you guys! It was so much fun!

He's the luckiest!

Casey is SUPER lucky!!!! Besides the fact that he's married to me, he is constantly winning prizes on the radio and such. Today he won an AMAZING prize from google. (Casey loves google. It pretty much runs his life). A while ago he applied to win a logitech review with google tv, worth $300. Wellp, today google gave away 10,000 of those babies to mostly current google web developers and a few android developers. And guess who was one of the few android developers to win? You bet it was Mr. Dalpias himself, the luckiest duck I've ever known. Good thing too, cause you know Casey would have had buy it eventually (since it's google).

About Molly

Last year at this time, we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of this little girl.

In just 2 weeks, she will turn one. It is amazing to me that she is already one! When Benson turned one, it seemed like it was about time. But Molly seems like our baby still, although she is obviously getting bigger. The time has flown by! I can't believe it's almost been a year since she came to join our family.

Here are some things about Molly:

She is the happiest little girl ever. Really. It is very rare to see her without a big smile! She hardly ever cries, and usually when she does, it's because Benson is squishing her or I have left her.

She loves people. She will let anyone who will, hold her. She isn't afraid of strangers and she get really excited whenever anyone pays attention to her.

She is starting to be very curious. She's starting to get into things and make messes. She understands NO, though. So far she has yet to really touch our Christmas Tee. Benson can't keep his hands off of the ornaments, and although she's curious about the tree, if we say "no", Molly won't touch it.

Molly is VERY sensitive. If she ever gets in trouble, her face melts into a big frown. She hardly ever gets in trouble, but once in a while she will, and it's always a tradgedy.

She loves Benson. He is getting better not to squish her, but sometimes he'll try to wrestle with her, and even then, she still loves him.

She's got her Daddy wrapped around her finger. All she has to do is flash her sweet smile, and he'll do whatever she wants. It's REALLY cute!

We all really adore this sweet girl. I love her red hair, bigs mile, and sweet giggle. She is the most precious little girl, but even precious girls love to get MESSY!

Here are her birthday invitations I made.

Am I "mom" enough?

I need some advice:

I have been thinking lately about maybe looking into a minivan. I have ALWAYS said that I would never, ever, ever in my life drive a minivan. But the more I think about getting one, the more I think I would love one.

Right now we have our Tahoe and our Malibu (classic). I LOOOVE my Tahoe. It is super roomy, and can fit 3 car seats in the back easy. Plus a stroller, groceries, coats, blankets, etc. without any problem. It's a little big to drive around town, but I really don't mind it that much. I love the 4-wheel drive and that we can go to the cabin or pull a trailer anytime we want without having to borrow a truck. Basically, our Tahoe is like a truck. And it gets super bad gas mileage, which is why Casey mostly drives it to and from work while I drive our car. So the whole point of our "family vehicle" is thrown out the window because anytime we go anywhere, we either pay a fortune for gas, or we have to drive the car and there goes any roominess or comfort we ever thought we might have.

The car is fine, but it's so squishy. I hate to take it to the grocery store because if I have the stroller in the back, which I usually do, I cannot fit many groceries. It gets cluttered so easily because with 2 car seats in the back, even just putting your coat in the back seat feels like claustrophobia (never mind 4 coats). Plus if I ever have to get in the back to referee or give Molly a bottle or anything, there is no way I can fit between the car seats, let alone ever thinking of putting another car seat or child in there.

But a minivan? Seems so mom-ish. I guess I am a mom, though, so maybe that's why I feel like I would love it. I think I would love that we could have enough room for all of us (and for future children), but we wouldn't be spending our live savings on gas. I need to know what you other moms think. Do you have a minivan? Do you love it? Which minivan do you have? What should I be looking for in a minivan?

Thanks for your help!