Wanting a Worry Stick

We come to earth to do one thing.

Have a body.

And of course to get this body we have to be born. Some of us are lucky enough to come into this world to a loving family with a Father and a Mother.

Some of those Father's and Mother's are ready... waiting... wanting...
Others are taken by surprise. All in all at some point or another we each have the desire to become one of them.

My sister is no exception.

As Robbie and I decided to start "trying" for baby number two, I found out my sister Lisa wanted to start for their number one. It was such a thrill to think of us sisters being pregnant together... having our kids grow up together... share all those fun and crazy child rearing moments together.

But Heavenly Father had a different plan in mind.

I feel selfish now thinking it took some time to get pregnant with Tenley. My sister has been going through the "trying" roller-coaster to say the least. It's all she wants. A baby of her own.

Yesterday I came across a few posts on some wonderful blogs that reminded me just how challenging and rewarding motherhood can be. Once that precious babe is starting to form, we are handed what my mom would call a "worry stick."

I've got two worry sticks, and my mom has four. Once you are given a worry stick, it is yours forever....
It all begins by worrying about your pregnancy. "Is the baby growing, am I drinking enough water, did I take my pre-natal."
Then it goes into kicking reassurance... "I wasn't paying attention to the baby moving, what if something's wrong!"
But it doesn't stop there... oh no, that's just the beginning. You worry about labor, then if the baby has all ten fingers and toes, then feedings, and sids. After awhile it turns into new worries... "Why isn't my baby sleeping through the night? What if she has an ear infection?" and so on and so forth.

You'd think you'd be done carrying the stick once the child leaves home, heads off to college, or gets married.
Wrong! Think again.
My mom has plenty of worries infested in her worry sticks. P-L-E-N-T-Y.

As of this moment, my worry stick's are somewhat easy to carry around. I get to keep my children at home safe beside me to nurture and love. My main worry is what the heck am I going to do with them today so we aren't completely bored, with a side of getting Taryn to eat, and making sure Tenley isn't eating choke-able items.

At times when I feel frustrated and begin to lose my patience I remember my sweet sister and just how much she'd give for these moments. She wants to feel nauseous and tired and completely drained in pregnancy. She wants to wake up at all hours of the night to hold a newborn babe and nurse them back to sleep.
She is begging for a worry stick.... and I am praying hard for her to get one soon.
Now, it's not like Lisa is this old maid and her time is limited. Time is on her side, but that does not make waiting any easier.

I love my sister and all the fun times we have had together. I love our similarities, and our differences. I love that we look so much alike. I know her babies will come soon. I know once they are here she will understand why she needed to wait and go through this period of time. Life is hard, life is unpredictable, but life is beautiful in every season.

I love you Lisa. I am here for you as we wait for your season of motherhood to begin.

Brett and Lisa summer of '09

Tenley turns O.N.E.

I'm already feeling the guilt from not documenting each and every cute, funny, and priceless moment child number two has shared.

It was bound to happen... but man, I feel like a bad mama.

So... this milestone will not be forgotten!! Tenley is now the ripe age of ONE! My baby... my booga... she's a year.

Let me fill you in on a few awesome traits of Tenley Jane.

- her grin. It's cheesy, it's crinkly, it will make any frown turn upside down.

- she is the fastest crawler in the wild wild west.

- spunky... that would be the one word I'd choose to sum up her personality.
The girl is spunkerific!

- she has awesome hair. It's grown in even, it's fun and fluffy, and it's going to be bright blonde once the sun gets some rays on it.

- her toes. They are still those same goofy grandpa toes she came from heaven with... and let me tell ya, they look hil-ar-i-ous in sandals.

- eating is her all time favorite thing to do. So opposite of my other child. She will down a piece of toast, an entire banana, some cereal, and juice... just for breakfast.

- she loves the bottle. I nursed her up until a few months ago, then she decided the bottle was a quicker and (I'm sure) more fulfilling meal. Another new love my first born was never fond of.

- she isn't afraid of making a mess. Whether it's with food, toys, my jewelry, or all of the dvd's.

I got her this book for her birthday because I thought the monkey looked like her!

- she is adventurous and wants to explore everything around her, but still get's nervous if I'm not in sight.

- she absolutely LOVES her big sister. If Taryn laughs, she laughs... if Taryn's crying, she's starts too. One of my favorite things is seeing these two get so excited to see each other every single morning.

- she is a social butterfly. She will make sure she's noticed and can keep an entire room (or wedding party) entertained.

- she loves to flirt, and does with Daddy all the time.

Even though my girls look a lot a like, they definitely have their very own personalities. I am loving this adventurous, flirty, giggly, spunky gal of mine! She makes me laugh every day and keeps life fun and simple. I am so grateful to wake up to her gap toothed smile every morning. She keeps me on my toes, and even though she likes being on the go, she still has her snuggle moments.
I wouldn't trade those moments for the world.

...As for the Reno celebration....

We headed out to The Wild Island Adventure Park here in Sparks to have some fun and celebrate last Monday night. Next time we will have to bring some friends, but the girls loved climbing around and throwing balls around in the "High Ballocity"

Lucky for us there weren't too many kids so we had lots of room to play.

The next day was her actually birthday and Taryn insisted we make her a birthday cake. Luckily she settled for funfetti cupcakes. :)

What began like this...

ended like this...

told ya she could eat.

Taryn wanted to help document the event.

short, sweet, and to the point :)

A big hit has been the present from Grandma Go-go. The girls love this crazy ball popin' machine.

and I'm sure glad I stumbled upon this while visiting my happy place...

Target.

I'm sure she will be walking in no time, but I'm in no rush. Luckily she hasn't quite figured out how to push this walker around yet. She's more interested in the fun gimmicks on the front.

All in all we had a fun time celebrating Tenley's first birthday. I feel like I just posted her birth story! She sure knows how to make an entrance. :)

LOVE YOU SWEET TENLEY!!!

Party time at Mickey D's

While we were back in good old Utah... we celebrated the most spunky one year old's birthday.

~~HAPPY BIRTHDAY TENLEY JANE~~

This little lady is a crack up.
I love how adventurous and excited about almost anything she can be!




Taryn has been so excited for Tenley's birthday. According to her, we're still celebrating. Today at the grocery store she said we needed donuts for Tenley's birthday.
Tar loves donuts.


Tenley loves food.


She out eats Taryn (and sometimes me) at every meal. For reals.


These two are inseparable. Moving them away from one another has probably been one of the hardest parts of this move. I love Ava as if she were one of my own.




We did the best we could with a last minute Harmon's cake.
- if you're going with a theme... go all the way! -
(btw - our theme was "ghetto")




Best part of the night... sharing the celebration with the other play place kids! My mom said we should gather them all for a picture so it looks like we had an awesome party with a whole bunch of kids! (apparently she's familiar with that idea...)
I thought it was a nice touch, ya know... to our "theme"

Next post...
How we celebrated in Reno.

stay tuned!

Wedding Bells are Ringing

Last week was the week we had been looking forward to!

Home Sweet Home!!!

We arrived Wednesday morning and the very first stop was Cafe Rio. They seriously have something addicting in their creamy dressing. I practically drank the stuff while I was pregnant with Taryn.

After Cafe Rio, we were non stop busy. I did some haircuts. We met up with Kim and the kids. We watched Taylor's baseball game. Then headed out the door for the wedding dinner.

Thursday was the wedding. Emily's prayers must have been at the top of the list that morning cause the snow that was expected never made it. Lucky lucky!! It was a beautiful wedding, and it brought back many memories for me. She had her reception at Heritage Gardens, the same place we had ours almost 8 years ago. The same jazzy band played, and my mom's friends who arranged our flowers brought their magic to Em's night too. It was lovely. Taryn was in heaven. She said she really wants to get married right now! The other morning as I was fixing her hair she said, "mom, let's talk about the wedding, and Emily's hair, and her sparkly in her hair, and the pretty long thing that came out of her hair..." She doesn't miss a detail.

Friday morning we finally took it easy. Lounged around with grandma in jammies, then finally got ready and met Kim and the kids at the mall for some corn dogs and craziness. It's always craziness when we are outnumbered by our children, in the mall, on a day everyone else decided to hit the stores.

We didn't last long.

Then it was back to grandma's for some much needed naps.
After naps we got ready for Tenley's birthday shin-dig! We are totally high class and had a rockin party at.... McDonalds. oh yeah. It happened.

The kid loves to eat. Seriously, I think the big kid kids meal hamburger and fries was the highlight of the evening. This birthday celebration deserves an entire post of it's own, especially a catch up of just how fun loving and hilarious my Tenley Jane is.

Saturday morning went by quick. We had a photo shoot of Tenley (and some of Taryn as well) at Cactus and Tropicals for her first birthday pics. Jeanette worked the camera and got some amazing shots. I can't wait to get a sneak peek of them on her blog! :)

After that, Tenley napped, I packed, Taryn played and giggled with aunt Lisa.

We made another stop at the beloved Cafe Rio....
Then it was off to the airport we go.

So now we are back home. Back to reality. I'm already planning our next visit to Grandma's house. Taylor will be getting his mission call soon, so we definitely cannot miss out on that!

Tomorrow is Tenley's big day. I love that booga baby more than I ever imagined could be possible.

Next post: All about her.

Now here is an abundance of wedding photos for all those who want to see!!

Taryn jumped right in for a picture as soon as they came out the temple doors


All the McClellan girl cousins (minus Amy)


Cute flower girls!


She was sooooo excited!!!


Her little flower ball. She said it looked like Tinkerbelle's house.


I know it's blurry, but I LOVE Tenley's face!


My Girls


Me and the Bride



There was a lot of crawling going on


Some of the beautiful flowers


Amy made sure to catch the bouquet


Uncle Tay ROCKS!


Brett can always get a laugh out of her.


These gangsta's decked out the car




FUN TIMES!!

and this was my favorite....