"I love you anyway"

"I hate you!" The dreaded phrase no parent wants to hear from their child, but one that every parent can expect at some point. Or some variation thereof. For me, it's been, "I don't love you anymore."

Bethany was the first to come up with this one. She started off with the guilt-inducing "You just broke a piece of my heart." That one really affected me the first time I heard it. By the fifteenth, not so much. Then she started in with the I-don't-love-you-anymores, mostly when she was mad that I wouldn't give her something she wanted, or I wouldn't let her do something she wanted to do. It never really affected me all that much. I mean, I have friends who take it really personally when their kids say horrible things like that to them. Maybe it's just because she's only seven, and I know she doesn't really mean it, but it doesn't really crush me. That being said, I didn't really like her saying it, either.

For the first several times, I just ignored it. I figured if I didn't respond, she'd stop saying it. That didn't really seem to make a difference. Then one day, I had an idea. After she told me she didn't love me, I just said, "Well, I love you anyway. Even when you're mad and screaming at me." That's all. No real lecture or anything. It only took about three times, and she stopped saying that to me at all. It was pretty amazing.

Sean kind of picked up the habit from Bethany, though, but coming from a three-year-old, it's almost funny. Especially when our conversations run like this:

Sean: (angrily/defiantly/whatever)I don't love you anymore.
Me:Well, I love you.
Sean: I don't love you.
Me: I love you, though.
Sean: (contritely) Mommy, I love you.

"I love you anyway." Pretty powerful words.

Family outing--iPod photos

I've recently discovered the camera function on my iPod. It's kind of fun. It can take pictures of what's in front of it, or what's behind it. They're not super high quality photos, but they're good for candid shots...and entertaining kids, as I found out today.

We went out on a family outing this afternoon, mostly to run errands. We'd been in the car about two minutes when Nate and I noticed that both Meagan and Sean were asleep. I guess they were tired.

Yes, Sean is holding a sparkly, silver purse. Legacy of having two older sisters, I suppose. When I bought them purses to carry their money around, he had to have one, too. Hey, at least it's not pink.

Our last stop of the day was Target/Petco. I went into Target with the kids, while Nate went fish shopping at Petco (he loves this Petco, says they have a great coral selection). We finished first, obviously, and were sitting in the car waiting for Nate. The kids were getting restless. Sean wanted to leave without Nate. He said Daddy could just ride home in someone else's car.

So I started taking pictures to keep them happy. They loved it. When we got home, I was surprised to fnd that I'd taken 62 pictures. They kept pulling funny faces or doing silly things, just to see the pictures of themselves. Here are some of my favorites:

Sean's holding his new piggy bank he bought with his own money. It's a pig/race car bank. You can't see the front, but there is an actual pig face and it has the general shape of a pig, but then there are wheels instead of legs. He loves it. He passed up a Lightening McQueen pillow to buy it.

I love Bethany's smile in this one.

Sean's expression here is pretty funny.

Towards the end, the kids wanted me to take an upside down picture of them. When I told them it didn't really work that way, they decided that they would be upside down instead. That was the best Sean could do in his car seat, and Meagan was still buckled up, too.

It's all about perspective

I was sitting in the front seat of the van.  All three kids were buckled up behind me. We were waiting for Nate to finish up in the fish store, and the kids were getting restless (Sean even suggested leaving without Daddy). So to keep them entertained, I pulled out the iPod, and turned on the camera. The first sight to greet me was a horrible image of my fat, double chin. It was disgusting. I felt like a bloated toad. I almost turned off the camera. But then I lifted it higher, so the kids could be in the picture, too. From a different angle, I suddenly didn't look so bad anymore. Not runway model material, for sure, but heaps better than before. I guess it's all in how we look at ourselves that matters.

I was feeling a bit down this week, because I've hardly lost any weight this week (only about 1/2 pound vs. six pounds last week). I wasn't even doing anything different. It was enough to make me want to give up and go eat some cake...or that chocolate bar the RS gave me for my birthday...or something. But then I could see in the picture that my face does look a bit slimmer. So again, it's all about perspective.

My first wedding cake

So here are pictures of my first--and likely last--wedding cake. It didn't turn out quite the way I'd wanted it to, but still, I learned from it, and I'm confidant I could do better next time I work with fondant. Maybe I should've practiced more before I made the actual cake. Oh well. The bride liked it anyway.

I did this much of the cake all by myself. I've used fondant before, but not on a circular cake. I had trouble not having creases in it, especially near the bottom of each layer. And Valerie warned me about the frosting between layers of cake bulging, but I did went ahead and did it anyway. And yep, you can see bulges in the middle of each layer. In spite of all my mistakes, though, I was amazed at how many people loved it and told me it looked great.

Here's the final product. Another sister in the ward added the flowers on. The table looked so empty, I wanted to add a little extra greenery along the back, but got voted down.