Grandkids pic

Or at least trying to . . .

"I want that paci!"

The best we could get:

Why is this so hard?!

5 months old

Guess who took the picture of me with G? Probably better that way since it was first thing in the am. ;)

G-man is in the house

Back in the day at 4 months. You can see him barely squeezing in his 9 month clothes.



Sorry, E, another man has stolen a piece of my heart. How could you not want to eat those cheeks?!

Happy Birthday Cousin J!

So glad you came to our family 1 year ago!!!!

First Snow

First snow experienced this year in UT!

Snow angels, even if B needs new/longer snow pants and boots (she got them for Christmas).

What a trooper. Pure joy.

Admiring their creations. Can you feel the happy?

Happy Birthday Aunt A!

Love and have always loved her sooo much!

Too many beautiful memories to list.

Just one example of her thoughtfulness, holding G man while the rest of us eat Christmas Eve dinner. Wish I could reach across the ocean and give her a big hug right now!

Happy Birthday Aunt S!

What a gem among people. She has willingly served us so many times. Put up with my moods and just called to chat. Who knew I would gain such a great sister when I married E. Love ya S!

Why I don't use baby bathtubs:

Exhibit A: G-man just shy of 4 months

I was laughing so hard when I put him in this. I think only his tush is actually in the water.

Priorities

Sorry, folks, for the slacker blogging lately. It's a little low on the list of priorities right now:

1. Personal, family etc. prayer
2. Scrip study ( 15 min/day is goal)
3. Sleep ;) (hard to come by these days)
4. Taking care of the kids (feeding, clothing, cleaning up after them, etc. takes 80% of my time)
5. Exercise (goal is 3 times a week)
6. Household stuff that must be done (cooking, grocery shopping, etc. etc.)
7. blah blah....
8. ...
9. ... self improvement ? --maybe doing my nursing continuing education
......
FHE
....
13. .......
20. Facebook (sad but true)
...
...
31. Blogging


It just doesn't get done these days.

You'll know when I start blogging the other things are getting done. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll just do it and let other stuff go. (I should at least put it above FB!). I have so many great posts floating around in my weary brain. I'm also considering just uploading pictures, cause let's be honest, that's my favorite part.

To be continued . . .

2011 Recap

10. Pounds + is the birth weight of the newest member of our family, Gabester
9. Plane rides experienced by G-man BEFORE Christmas. (We were busy!--or had a lot of layovers)
8. Days we spent in Orlando on vacation!
7. More months until E starts his fellowship in pain management (and residency ends!)
6. Months we have lived away from Minnesota last year!!
5. States we lived in: AZ, Florida, North Carolina, UT, and Minnesota!
4. Roommates who reunited in Scottsdale/Mesa --after a way too long separation! Thanks for putting up with the grumpy, morning-sickness me.
3. Days overdue with a baby--believe me it seemed longer than it actually was.
2. Weddings in the family -- welcome Grace and Doug!
1. Wonderful busy year, filled with family, friends (you! and you!) and ending with us all back in Minnesota TOGETHER!

The kind of mother . . .

(p.s. S equates the word MOTHER as a bad person--thank you Tangled).

I have this friend who sometimes posts about what kind of mother she wants to be. She has great aspirations and has put thought into this.

I remember when I was pregnant with #1 I heard a RS lesson where the person was talking about what we did to prepare ourselves for marriage/motherhood. To be honest, I didn't and had no idea what she was talking about. I figured, people have been having babies for hundreds of years, this mother stuff will come naturally.

It did not.

I felt like clawing my way out of the house and rewinding my life and heading back to school. It was an adjustment to be sure. This screaming, eating, squirming body I was supposed to take care of? And there was hardly anyone to talk to for those first few months. I cried every day. Postpartum depression hit for a while there too. What had I gotten myself into?!?

I did have some preparation for motherhood if you count my stint on the postpartum unit and peds in nursing school plus a few years shared with siblings in cribs. Boy was I in for a shocker when everything that read so simply (i.e. feed newborns every 2 to 3 hours, what to do for diaper rash, eczema, etc. etc.----SOUNDS so SIMPLE doesn't it?) turned out to be a lot more complicated when you're dealing with your own living, screaming baby.

Our first was our hardest baby so far. Probably cause we were novices and she had all these health issues (food allergies, eczema, reflux, etc.). She would scream for hours and I came to understand why some people make a sad choice and shake a baby in the moment of frustration/sleep deprivation/craziness. A few times I had to just set her down and walk away to cool off from the crying. My mom says I was a bit paranoid about her crying but I seriously had a sort of PTSD that lasted for about 10 months after she was born from all the crying I put up with. If she got off her routine at all and was overtired, we were HAD.

#2 was similar, but luckily her "colic" (insert nightly screaming for 3+ hours) lasted only 2 months. The jury is out on #3 at this point. Let's just say we call him our "good boy"--knock on wood.

I've also come to learn that children are synergistically harder. I thought when B was about 18 months (super fun age but exhausting) that I could handle another kid so baby #2 was on her way. But I didn't account for the fact that B would CHANGE . . . Ahh . . . novice.

On the positive side, once the baby isn't so fragile, more kids = more fun. They are so fun to see interact and play together. They are my little friends day (and night). :) I love our little conversations and helping them learn everything new. It is so fun to see the light in their eyes.

Also, I LOVED growing up with lots (5) brothers and sisters. When the house was quiet it was Strange.

Anyhow, I figure we all find something or other to blame on our parents and nobody's perfect. So even though I am going to try my hardest to be patient, and play with my kids, and take them on fun outing, and teach them to be reverent, and how to go potty, etc. etc. and ALL the other things "good" moms do, I know I will mess up, (and I do). And that at some point one of my kids will say "I hate you" and I will just crumble inside because I have put so much into them. But then we will have fun times too and B will pinch my arm fat and squeeze my arm while we eat donuts and watch Finding Nemo and say "I love you" like she did tonight.

So, I do want to be the kind of mother who teaches her children patiently, and the kind of mother they can come to with any concerns, and the kind of mother they know always supports them. And Especially I want to be the kind of mother who shows her children that she truly really loves them and cherishes them no matter what.

So here's to trying my best and being the kind of mother I envision and God wants me to become. But also accepting and dealing with my humanity and trying to be better every day.

She's the Boss

We are Grateful For . . .

1. Jesus
2. Food
3. Stuffed Animals
4. Family
5. Friends
6. Nursery
7. Father
8. Watermelons
9. Chubby cheeks to kiss
10. Baby Gabe
11. A healthy body
12. Healthy children
13. Food again (Sisi)
14. Clean water
15. Comfortable apartment
16. Good job/livelihood
17. that my eyes can see
18. Nailpolish
19. Sparkly nailpolish
20. Burp Cloths
21. the Christmas season
22. My parents and their legacy
23. Pretty things
24. Minnesota--and all our friends there
25. Snow
26. Sunshine
27. Spring
28. Church
29. Christmas trees
30. Blankets
31. Caden
32. Presents
33. my tummy
34. Bugs that eat other bugs
35. Frogs
36. Fish
37. Preschool
38. Creatures and other animals that are babies
39. Eric
40. my skills that can provide if necessary
41. A clean home
42. Good neighbors
43. Friendly people
44. Everything in the world
45. Grandma Freeman
46. Oma
47. Beds
48. Jobs
49. Bella helping to put away the utensils without being asked
50. The girls helping to clean the windows
51. A washing machine so I don't have to scrub the wash by hand
52. Pictures and statues
53. Temples
54. A doggy
55. Pets
56. Foster dog program
57. healthy children and good doctors if we are sick
58. my grandparents
59. balloons
60. potty treats and candy
61. Polly Pocket
62. Toys
63. Warm clothes
64. A car that works well
65. Everything that is warm
66. a hot shower
67. that my body can grow and nourish babies
68. Showers
69. Cookie dough
70. Cute pjs
71. Baby monitors
72. Birthday parties
73. A good friend who just called me
74. Dad's night float is only one week
75. Airplanes to fly to see those we love
76. Children's museums
77. Cars
78. Helicopters
79. Heavenly Father
80. Babies
81. Good kids care at the YMCA so I can work out
82. Music that uplifts and inspires and motivates
83. Pain medicine
84. that I can have and bear children
85. being able to afford nice clothes and food
86. family night
87. healthy teeth
88. braces
89. pink and purple
90. rainbows that are in the sky
91. the pets I had growing up
92. bed time
93. quiet time
94. candy
95. that we all have 10 fingers and 10 toys
96. Dr. Holmes who operated on B
97. that E's work is within walking distance of our home
98. Bella
99. Sisi
100. Mommy and Daddy


This is a list that we came up as an activity for Family Night to open our eyes to see how blessed we are. You can guess who came up with what.

Good morning.

A look at what a typical moment of our morning is like . . . captured perfectly.

3 years and 4 months old

So, our little princess is 3 years old today!!

Happy Birthday SiSi!

It was a great day with a Tangled theme. Seeing a child's face so happy is priceless. I will have to post pictures as soon as I upload them.

But first, here are some pictures, in chronological order of our little man who will be 4 months old in a couple days!!

Here he is at 12 days old:

14 days:

1 month:

2 months:

I should have gotten a picture of him in his bouncer before we packed it away. That as at 3 1/2 months. He was definitely weighing it down so we would prop it against the couch or wall. Now just imagine him even more chubby and alert and cute. So smiley and happy to be held.

Thanks for reading my sporadic posts!

Happy Halloweenie Chubby!

Yay! My camera cord has arrived!

Here are pictures from our trick-or-treating escapades:

An angel, bee, and witch.

And look who's 3 months old!

Getting kind of chubby . . .

Love this sweet boy and his happy smile. He is such a big cuddler and his chub just melts into you. And although he hates his carseat, he has been quite the happy traveler as we have flown to FL, SLC, and back, gone to Walt Disney World, and head to North Carolina next week.

3 months old!

and he's growing out of 9 month clothes!
(I should've just skipped this size like I did with his big sis B)

22 lbs?!?

Disney Back in the Day

So, my bro just sent me this picture. Classic isn't it? We are children of the '80s. I'm pretty sure this is in front of the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse at Disneyland. I just had to post it since I was just able to introduce the kids to the world of Disney last week. So awesome.

And, wow (!), I didn't remember my hair being that blonde. It looks A LOT like S's hair now: blonde and wavy/frizzy. ;)

Sad News

So, I was all ready to jump back into blogging, when I realized I left my camera cord at home and can't upload pictures til January. Which also means, I either need to buy a new memory card (ours is full) or not take any more pictures til then.
Luckily, Kaicie is going to come to the rescue and mail me ours we left in Minnesota.
So, until then, no pictures of our adventures will be posted. :(

But you can imagine in your head pictures of us at the Magic Kingdom and Gabe in his swimsuit with his rolls of chub, man boobs, and cellulite cuteness of 2 month oldness. He is a TANK. Lately, he has not seemed satisfied with just milk. He will eat and eat and has started waking up more at night. But I tell myself it's a growth spurt. Or maybe a 20 lb baby needs a little more than milk. I am hoping to hold off on rice cereal til he's 30 lbs aka 4 months. ;)

In other news, S is a hitting machine. She hits when she is frustrated, excited, to get attention, etc. etc. Timeout, holding her arms, saying "don't hit," yelling "don't hit!", etc. etc. does not seem a deterrent. She hits everyone from grandma to baby G. Any tips?

Florida

Well, I have been a blog slacker lately. And I probably will continue to be, reasons being:
1. 2 month old babe
2. 2 year old terror (insert willful lack of potty training here and hitting/biting 2 month old babe)
3. moved to FL for a couple month stint
4. Disneyworld for a week--need I say more?!