Words from a book I am reading... The Four Agreements

Personal importance, or taking things personally, is the maximum expression of selfishness because we make the assumption that everything is about "me."

During the period of our education, or our domestication, we learn to take everything personally. We think we are responsible for everything. Me, me, always me!

Nothing other people do is because of you. It is because of themselves. All people live in their own dream, in their own mind; they are in a completely different world from the one you live in.

Taking things personally makes you easy prey for those predators who try to send you emotional poison. They can hook you easily with one little opinion, and feed you all their emotional garbage. When you take it personally, you eat it up, and now it becomes your garbage. But if you don't take it personally, you are immune to their poison; you will not eat it. Immunity to emotional poison is the gift of this agreement.

When you take things personally, you feel offended, and your reaction is to defend your beliefs and create conflicts. You make something big out of something little, because you have the need to be right and make everybody else wrong.

You try hard to be right by giving them your own opinions. But what you say, what you do, and the opinions you have are according to the agreements you have made and these opionions have nothing to do with the people around you. Your point of view is something personal to you. It is no one's truth but yours.

In the same way, others are going to have their own opinion according to their belief system. Nothing they think about me is really about me; it is about them. If I understand this, then when you get mad at me, I know you are dealing with yourself. I am the excuse for you to get mad.

You may even tell me, "Miguel, what you are saying is hurting me." But it is not what I am saying that is hurting you; it is that you have wounds that I touch by what I have said. You are hurting yourself. There is no way that I can take this personally. Not because I don't believe in you or don't trust you, but because I know that you see the world with different eyes - with your eyes.

- The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Crap, I need to update this thing

Blog slackers, raise your hands! Lately I just read blogs more than I update them, but I have been slacking in that area too- just have recently re-priortized my time and I have not been making time for my cyber scrap book like I intended to this year. At the beginning of the year I was planning on doing what Amylee and my sister do with their blogs- put them into a book. But in order to do that I needed to keep up.
Well I'm making time for my lil' blog tonight and my couple of readers- so here is the recent happenings and going ons of our family:
Brody with our cute dude Cam Cam-

He's been, and I've been, drinking this...


and feeling so great, it is incredible! You may or may not know Brody has Crohns disease. He says he has never felt better because he has more energy, sleeps better, he can eat the food he wants including fruits and vegetables that he could not before, and he is not in pain. So for the last four months I have been a very happy wife, because I have a HaPpY husband!



I have been enjoying, and even my knees enjoying, RUNNING! I love it, I never really knew I was a runner until I started training for the Wasatch Back coming up this June. I'm on a team my sis' Andrea put together and I am so dang excited!
My track is just outside my door- right along this view :)

Makes me smile- this environment, and of course some good tunes to keep my pace.
This weekend I'm running in my first race ever- a 5K charity run down in Las Vegas. Good timing for a nice getaway Brody and I need. Road Trip! I think Brody and I have some of our best talks on nice long drives! Ha, he can't get away from me!
So Taylor has been up to:

Taylor's first time on a snowmobile. She and her dad had a great day together! Me and Cam missed out.

Kali and Taylor- this two year old does not cooperate for pictures

This girl is starting to really resist napping- please no :{
So when she finally falls asleep after what I would think an hour and a half of boredom, I find her in weird positions- not in her bed.

And this is what Cam has been up to- although I don't have many pictures of my cute man unfortunately- he is rolling all over, and startin' to rock on his hands and knees! His sister just makes him laugh so much- we LOVE it and to see them love each other is priceless!


Cameron James, why must you always have this weird look on your face. I swear this kid does smile, but when he looks at the camera he always pulls this face.



By the way

"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."
~ Gaylord Nelson, former governor of Wisconsin.

December 2009 Pictures (guess I'm lazy)

What a blessing!

We are so blessed to have this sweet Cameron in our lives! He is such a wonderful baby. Of course he has his fussy times everyday, but still I swear he just does not cry that much and when he does it is just so cute. Last Sunday my Brody blessed his little guy. He gave a very powerful blessing. We are also so blessed to have Brody as a husband and father and a priestood holder. I am so thankful to be the wife of such an amazing man!
Cameron wore the same outfit that Brody was blessed in 30 years ago.




Today Cam is 8 weeks. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. Now I am counting down the days though until he sleeps thru the night. Taylor was sleeping 8 hours by 9 weeks. He is only going 6, so we're almost there. But I really can't believe how much he has changed and that it's already been 8 weeks since he was born.




He is smiling lots more everyday now. It is so fun to see him smile at me and Brody, and his sister. Man, this kid makes my heart just melt!

Little Sweet Witch!

Taylor was the only one who dressed up in our family this year. Me and Brody just didn't have time to do costumes. This year we went down to my parents house in Fruit Heights. We had a great time! Taylor was such a cutie in her witch costume. I loved to hear her say "trick-or-treat" and "Happy Halloween"! It was really fun too to see my sisters and all their kids.
Typical expression on Taylor!

Oh, my little Cam is such a sweetie. This was kind of a poor set up for a picture. I try!
Just two cute witches! Another typical face Taylor pulls for pictures.
All the grandkids, except Cam of course. Grandma's house is always the funnest!

Aimee, Aaron, and Addie came up too to go trick-or-treating with us. The girls were loving all the candy they got and I think finally starting to get the idea of going door to door for candy about when we quit!

Cameron's official announcement

Courtesy of cuddlebugannouncements.com
Some of you will be getting his announcement via mail but I had to post how cute this announcement is. I worked with this lady at Cuddle Bug Announcements for Taylor's as well. She does a great job!

Sorry, finally some pictures... and TAYLOR's 2!

Surely you've all just been chomping at the bit waiting for some pictures of little Cameron. Sorry, I've just been lazy and enjoying relaxing while we hold Cameron all day! He is such a sweet baby. I feel like he is already so patient and mellow. He is so snugly too!

I can't believe he is already four weeks today. Taylor is such a sweet big sister. She just loves her baby brother Cameron.

So far I love being a mommy of two. Especially my sweethearts!
My awesome Grandparents. Cameron and Taylor's only Great Grandparents still here.
Nursery Pictures I finally got around to taking.

So Cameron really is a good baby. I am remembering some of the things that Taylor did at this age and in some ways they are similar like how Taylor was really gassy too so she would wake up after going down for a nap, before it was time to eat and I would try to get her to go back to sleep. But with Taylor I was a little more frustrated being a first time mom. Now I just expect it and know that he just has to burb. It is kinda hard in the middle of the night though, but that won't be for too long I'm sure. Hopefully he will be just as good of a sleeper as my Tay was and still is!
He definitely looks a lot like his daddy. He inherited his mommy's and daddy's dimple in his chin. I think he might have inherited his Grandpa Byron's blue eyes.

So my little Tator Tot turned 2 on Saturday! She was so stinkin' cute and funny about it. I just get a kick out of everything she does.
She looks a little like her brother. Well sometimes a lot, it just depends on the faces they are making in their baby photos. But this is Tay at two days old. These last two years have flown by. She is such a blessing in my life. I am truly lucky to be her mom. Happy Birthday Taylor Jean!
We had a pretty big day Saturday and I think she is still recovering today. Friday night my mom came up to sleep over because Saturday morning we went up to Logan to have pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids. Man was I glad my mom was there to help with Taylor while we got family pictures and Cameron's as well. All the pictures turned out so cute. I can't wait to get them all framed and in their rooms. Our family shot turned out really well too, I am so glad! So after pictures ( 3 hours later) we got home to finish getting ready for Tay's party and putting some toys together.
We gave Tay this 4 wheeler. Her grandparents got her a kitchen set with play food. Cousin Bryson got her Mega Blocks. And her cousins on my side of the fam got her a play dough set thing. We have been having tons of fun with her and all these toys. Oh, and we also got her a swing. I actually have been going to buy her a swing for awhile because there are no swings in Brigham City. But guess where we had to put it, over the dog run. It's hung on one of the beams in the kennel. Kinda funny but we don't have a big tree obviously so that was the only place. We'll move it I guess when we build a patio awning someday.
Taylor, I think feeling over whelmed, with her Winnie the Pooh cake.
Great Grandma and Grandpa Frandsen. She's got the best grandparents. My grandpa is so silly with her. They were playing babies together!
Thank you everyone again for making Taylor's birthday memorable. You might think she was spoiled with presents but hey, this kid was so bored with her toys before she really needed some things to keep her busy this fall and winter while we will be inside so much.
Love you baby girl!!!