Look Who is Walking!!

Ty is 15 months old! He weighs 27 pounds (80%) and is 32 and 3/4 inches (88%).He is a big boy!! He can say quite a few words but I feel like he put his language on hold while he was focusing on walking. Now that he is walking, just in the past few days he has been talking more. He can say uh oh, ni nite, nana, baba, dada, mama, cacker (cracker), allda (all done), appa (apple), bye, hi, danka (thank you).

He is really good at throwing tantrums and throws himself onto the ground sometimes when he doesn't get his way. Because he has hit his head on the ground when he does that, now he throws his body down, but then slowly lays his head onto the tile and then throws a tantrum. It is quite humorous.

Ty likes to get his way and is pretty stubborn. However, he has a very sweet side too. He loves to cuddle while he is watching cartoons. He loves to give kisses with his mouth wide open. He loves to be tickled and teased and has the most adorable smile and laugh.

Speaking of cartoons, he reminds me alot of Tate at this age. Even this young, if a cartoon was on Tate would always stop what he was doing to watch. Ty is the same way. He will easily watch a 30 minute show without hardly blinking! It's ridiculous that I have to limit his TV time and he is only 15 months old! :)

Ty is a bruiser!! He has gashes and scabs and scars all over his pretty face. He loves to climb on things and is quick! When Heather was babysitting him she looked a way for a few seconds, when she looked back he was on top of the electrical box (they were outside). As she ran toward him, he fell off the box onto his face. Almost weekly, the child has some new bruise, scratch or scab.

Ty is going through a very weird phase where he will only let 4 or 5 people hold him. He gets extremely shy and starts crying if someone else tries to hold him. It is quite annoying. My dad happens to be one of the few people Ty "allows" to hold him. It pretty much makes my dad's day to be Ty's favorite! My dad always says to Ty, "When your a big linebacker in the NFL remember papa was your favorite!"

A New Chapter

It has been 4 years since Bob has sat with us in Sacrament meeting. Last Sunday, he got released from the bishopric. It was bitter sweet to look back at the last 4 years of our life and know that we have been so blessed because of his service. But I will say, I have anxiously been looking forward to the day that he would get to sit with us.

I have anticipated that there would be a bit of a learning curve though. Back in June, we were at my brother's mission farewell in my parent's ward so obviously Bob sat with me and the kids. During the opening song, Macie wandered over to the church bag and went to pull out a toy. Bob quickly said, "Macie we don't play with toys before the bread and water." In typical Macie fashion, she started protesting very loudly to the point that most people around us were now staring at us. I shot Bob a dirty look and he quickly handed her the toy. I then said under my breath, "We don't do SNACKS before the sacrament, but we DO TOYS!" He realized then that having gone from one kid to three BY MYSELF in sacrament, I have a system that works and that he cannot mess with my system! :)

However, now that he is released I am willing to let him have a say in the "system". So yesterday was our first Sunday sitting as a family during sacrament. I'm sure it was a great relief to the poor elderly people who usually sit behind me that the Monroe Family Circus no longer exists. I told Bob that he was on "Ty Duty" and that the other two were mine!

I've always known that Tate and Macie could be more reverent during sacrament than they usually were. But with Ty on my lap demanding every second of my time, I could not focus on their reverence. I was in pure survival mode trying to keep Ty as calm as possible.

After talking to my good friend Niki, I decided that now that I could focus on my little darling 3 year old and 5 year old, uninterrupted, it was time to drop the hammer. What do I mean by that??!? Well, I decided no more toys, drinks or snacks at all during sacrament meeting. I've always known those items were more of a distraction than a help.

I was very nervous to undertake such a big task, but I knew Tate & Macie could do it. I did threaten them beforehand that if they decided to not be reverent I would be happy to drive them home and have them sit on the couch where we would then read scriptures for 2 hours instead of attending primary. They know I'm crazy enough, that I just might do it.

These were the rules of sacrament: They were allowed to look at their scriptures and the hymn book. Counting freckles on their arm was also game.

They did surprisingly well. Tate ended up finding a string in his shoe and wrapped and unwrapped it around his finger countless times to stay entertained and Macie discovered a clip in her hair that she snapped in various places on her dress. They fluctuated between looking at words in the scriptures and the hymn book. Tate can read some of the words, so it held his attention a little longer than Macie's.

All that matters is....they made it. They made it all the way through sacrament meeting without needing more than just a few friendly reminders that I would love to take them home to read scriptures.

It felt good. It felt good to give them the attention they need to teach them an important principle like reverence.

It felt good to not be the ring leader of the Monroe Family Circus.

It was good to have Bob back. Yes, as predicted, he spent most of the time in the hall with Ty. After 4 years, I think it's only fair!

Macie in January

Macie has a very soft heart. When she was watching Toy Story 3 there is a part where the mean bear said to the baby, "You don't need your mommy!" Macie was so upset by this. Every time she thought about this part of the movie she would start crying and say to me "Everybody needs a mommy!" It was so sweet!

When Macie was at the park she saw a lady sitting alone (I'm pretty sure the lady was there watching her kids play, so she wasn't REALLY alone). Anyways, Macie came up to me and said, "Mommy, I said a prayer in my heart that that lady would find a friend cause I don't think she has any."

Macie was not being very reverent during sacrament meeting yesterday. So, as threatened, I carried her out all the way to the car and drove her home. We then sat in the family room and she had to recite verses of scripture as I read them for 10 minutes straight. She didn't cry or throw a fit she just cooperated and did her "time." I was proud of her for doing it even though she didn't want to so I took her back to church to try again. She was much more reverent.

Tate in January

When I had a bad cold Sunday night. Tate & Macie were telling me how they were going to take care of me the next day while Bob was at work. Tate said, " I prayed that I'll remember to do everything I told you I would to take care of you...Unwrinkle your sheets, make you cheerios and give you the remote to the tv." As he walked up the stairs to bed he said, "I promise promise promise that me and Macie will take really good care of you tomorrow."

The Practice of Patience is Perpetual

According to dictionary.com, the definition of perpetual is: "lasting an indefinitely long time". So the practice of becoming patient lasts for a very long time!! I definitely believe it!! I sure have not mastered it yet.

The title of my blog post is the title of the chapter of a book I am currently reading. Although, the chapter I am reading is geared toward patience with children, I actually think that I STINK at patience in general!

Those who know me well, would agree, especially poor Bob. For example, if I have an idea to go to Ikea to buy Macie a dresser, then I want to go today even if it's not the most convenient day to do it. Today, right now, always sounds better to me than later.

At my doctor appointment on Monday, I had been waiting in the waiting room for 57 minutes. It felt like NO ONE was being called back and so I was sure I would be sitting there all day! I told myself that in 3 more minutes I would get up and kindly ask the receptionist how much longer it would be. I justified this to myself by thinking I needed to get back to my kids and start dinner, etc. So when the 3 minutes passed, I walked up to the receptionist desk and kindly asked how much longer it would be. I wasn't even done asking her the question, when the door opened and they called my name. I was so frustrated with myself. If I would have just waited 0.5 more seconds I wouldn't of had to ask and would have taken a big step in the right direction in my pursuit of patience.

With just these 2 experiences of MANY, you get an idea of why I feel hypocritical when I try to teach my kids patience when I struggle with it myself. At least I'm willing to admit it, right?

Back to PARENTING with patience...

I will admit it is hard to be patient after Bob & I spend 45 minutes doing the "bedtime" routine with 3 tired, little kids.

It is hard to be patient once we have them tucked in and Macie just has to tell me "One more thing", before I shut her door. The girl never stops talking. Which I love, but not when its bedtime.

It's hard to be patient when my children have asked for fruit snacks for the 15th time in the last 12 minutes and I keep having to tell them no and try to kindly remind them AGAIN that apples are available if they would like.

It is hard to be patient when my ever so stubborn baby refuses to eat the 3rd thing that I've made for him in one meal sitting, trying to find SOMETHING that this kid will eat.

It is hard to be patient, when I'm running late.

It is hard to be patient, when I hear whining instead of talking.

And the list goes on and on.....
Phew! That was quite cathartic to get that out! :)

Let's face it, it is hard to be patient when your a mom. Some days I feel like I am on my "A" game and can talk in a very calm soothing voice COME WHAT MAY. Most days I'm on my "B" or "C" game where I raise my voice more than I'd like to.

The author in the book I'm reading suggests to overwhelm your kids with calmness. Easier said than done. However, I've tried it for a few days and it kind of works. If I am somehow able to stay calm with my feathers unruffled amidst the whining, crying and screaming of my little children, it actually does rub off on them. I have found my tone of voice actually deescalates the situation regardless of what words come out of my mouth.

Also, in regards to patience, it helps to laugh. Like the example where I had made 3 different things trying to get Ty to open his mouth to at least TRY a bite of something and then he STILL refused. I felt my "typical" impatience boiling inside, but instead I smiled and looked at that little cherub face and said, "Well you must not be that hungry if you are able to be this picky." Then I got him out of his high chair, put him on the ground and off he crawled away to play with his toys.

It was a step in the right direction. A small step but a step.

It helps me feel better when I realize that practicing patience is perpetual. It is going to be something I will probably always struggle with. What matters is, that I am trying to overcome some of my tendencies in hopes of being an example to my kids that it IS possible to be patient.

House Progress in December

Who would have known that building a house could be so fun? Every weekend we go check the progress on our house! It's so fun to see what progress has been made the past week. Here are the highlights of the progress this past month!


Dec. 4th- We have windows!! One of my FAVORITE things about this house is all of the windows! I love the natural light pouring into the house making it so bright and cheery! When the windows were installed we were very excited. This is a picture of the great room..I love that from my kitchen I can keep an eye on the kids...notice they are already out there playing. The Graves Family came with us one weekend to check out the progress and the kids went straight to the backyard to play on the dirt hill.

Dec. 10th- We have roof tiles sitting on the roof & we have styrofoam.

Dec. 26th- We have the siding & we have drywall!!

This is the island in the kitchen.Rumor has it....that just in the past 3 days, they taped the drywall so it's ready to be painted and the stucco has been done on the outside of the house. We will go by Saturday to see!

Catching up!

As most of you know, I make a "blog" book. Basically I print out my blog each year in a book format. It takes a lot of work to upload the pictures into my book and cut and paste the text, etc. So the last month, I've been just updating my blog book because I'm getting close to the end of the year when I get to print it. It is over 300 pages and I'm not done yet!! Needless to say, I have neglected my blog and updating pics of what we've been up to. So here is a reader's digest version.. ENJOY!

At the kids Thanksgiving party, they had fun making turkeys, doing relay races and eating pumpkin pie. I LOVE this picture of Macie and her school friends!


Tate & Macie's preschool field trip was at Superstition Dairy Farms...I snapped lots of cute pics of them feeding the animals and enjoying homemade icecream and choc. milk, however, I am lazy and only uploaded a few pics. This is Tate's really good friend Hayden.

Me and Heather and Erin contributed "most" of Thanksgiving Dinner this year! It was fun to get to try new recipes!

Grandma making sure Ty didn't starve:)

Tate & Uncle Eric playing footballThe 3 Amigos.

Christmas at the Fast home this year looked alot like this! We all gathered around the speaker so we could talk to Elder Fast when he called home. We got to talk to him for an hour and a half. It was so wonderful getting to hear his voice!!

The first 30 minutes, Tate stood front and center listening to everything TT had to say.

Me and the kiddos


We had lots of fun at ammy's house too!


Macie insisted on sitting right next to Braden while she opened her presents. It was cute! Plus, I love this pic of her:) She looks so grown up!