Hellz ya I made that!

Yeah, I did some cooking, like for real. Hard core. I'm pretty much awesome. You're lucky to know me.



Yes, I made everything on this table. I made it from scratch baby. I would say I picked the asparagus and butchered the pig too, but that would be a lie. It's too bad you can't see some of it so well. I should have taken better pictures. And it's really too bad you couldn't have tasted it all. It was pretty much my favorite home cooked meal ever.



And yes, I am humble. Thank you very much.

:)

Oh wait, I didn't do the gravy. I don't do gravy with the mother-in-law around. She's the master and you don't mess with the master!

Snow Fun

Jenna has really been enjoying the snow. Marah did enjoy it until yesterday when her fingers froze and they hurt. Yeah, she needs better gloves.










And here is Jenna. Doesn't she look like bigfoot? LOL




See:



And here's my sweet little boy in bed waking up with a big ol' smile for me :) He's a smiley baby.




And with my most favorite childhood possession- the sock monkey my mom made me. or maybe she made it for Ryan and I stole it, either way, I'm in love with it.



TTFN!

9 years and counting...

He's my best friend and the best looking guy I know. I love him very much and I am so happy that he is a part of my life. I just love being with Eric. :)




And picking through my photos has made me realize that I need to start taking more pictures of the two of us again.

I love you Eric. So much.

I wanna hide out for the next 5 months

I would like to go sledding if it weren't so dang cold!! This is the remnant of our storm this past weekend. Of course it's all been shoveled out at this point.

Anyway, I've been feeling blah today. I really need to get some cleaning done but of course I'm procrastinating as usual. Pretty much all I've done today is feed the kids, watch tv and make a scarf. How productive! :) I think part of the problem is the lack of sleep over the weekend, the abundance of sleep yesterday afternoon, and then the back pain last night which led to restless sleep once again.

I feel like there is so much to do before Christmas and I don't know if I'll get everything done that I'd like to get done. Typical.

I don't really have anything to say right now. Life has been fairly uneventful lately. So here are a few photos and that's about it for me today :)

Silly Jenna



12 weeks old (and yes, I enhanced this photo)


Finally all 3 kids together.

O. M. G.

seriously.



There ARE houses across the street, but you wouldn't know it from looking outside this morning. This is definitely the worst storm I've ever seen.

http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/58201?phenomena=BZ&significance=W&areaid=NDZ027&office=KFGF&etn=0003

This morning Eric was scheduled to work overtime from 9 to noon. I got up this morning at 7 to feed Alex (who, btw, slept from 10 pm to 7 am!) and I called his work's weather line to see if they were open and they were. So Eric got up to start shoveling the driveway. I told him that I didn't think he should try to make it to work but he was determined to try because he had someone waiting on him for a ride.

While he was out there I took a peek out the window to check on him and could not see him anywhere! I was starting to get a little worried, thinking maybe he passed out from the cold. But then I open the door and see him running toward the house from the street. I was wondering what the heck he was doing! Then I see someone running behind him. Apparently a young woman had gotten her car stuck in the middle of the street!

Eric invited her in to call a tow truck and we chatted for a bit. She is 8 weeks pregnant and was so relieved that Eric saw her! I was irritated with Eric for trying to go to work this morning but now I see that God had a plan and I'm so glad that Eric was out there and found her. Poor girl. I would have been totally freaked out! There's no way she could have stayed in her car. She was barely dressed warm enough and there are wind chills of -40 outside! I made everyone omelettes and coffee and just felt good inside. You know, it always feels good to be able to lend a helping hand.

The girl's boyfriend tried to come to her rescue and also got stuck! So they called their friend who has a big truck to come get them both.

Needless to say, Eric did end up deciding not to go to work after all. So we're officially snowed in... and we have no milk. We are dumb. I almost went out yesterday to grab some but was being lazy. I don't even know if we'll be able to drive around town until tomorrow afternoon. I'll have to figure something out for breakfast tomorrow because we don't even have any eggs left either.

Anyway, I better get going. Marah needs me to wipe her butt :)

blah

no thanks...

These Blessed Moments

These are blessed moments. I know I worry too much and I let myself feel overwhelmed often and I know I need to stop doing that. It's human nature of course, but still it does make a person feel inferior and that's what I'm trying to get away from.

Yes, I let the daily tasks overwhelm me to the point of getting absolutely nothing done sometimes. I wonder what's the point. That laundry is just going to be there again tomorrow. Those dishes will start piling up the moment I finish them. But then I remember, this is my job. Yes, my job is a 24/7 job. It does not end at 5 or 6 or 7... it never ends. Even when I'm completely away, I'm never really completely away. A part of myself is always here. Thinking about my family. Where I'm succeeding and where I'm failing.

I guess I didn't really think about how a new baby would throw off my groove. I knew there would be a period of adjustment, but surely it wouldn't be for long. However, I was wrong. It's hard. Harder than I imagined. Finding time for myself was tough before! Now it feels impossible. Particularly as a nursing mother, which I've never really been before (I tried with both, but didn't stick with it long), I feel attached at the hip to my little boy. I adore him with all my heart, and I don't regret choosing to breastfeed, I love it. It just gets exhausting sometimes.

However, in the midst of the chaos, I look around and see my many blessings and remember how quickly this will pass me by. So I'm trying very hard to savor the moments with my family at this stage in our lives. I don't always have dinner ready on time, the household chores may not be done daily, and sometimes I lose my temper, but I hope that my family knows how much I love and cherish them despite my shortcomings.

I saw this on a blog this morning and it is what prompted the above post :)

Lord, thank you for this sink of dirty dishes; we have plenty of food to eat. Thank you for this pile of dirty, stinky laundry; we have plenty of good clothes to wear. And I would like to thank you, Lord, for those unmade beds; they were so warm and comfortable last night. I know that many have no bed.

My thanks to you, Lord, for this bathroom, complete with all the splattered mirrors, soggy, grimy towels, and dirty lavatory; they are so convenient. Thank you for this finger-smudged refrigerator that needs cleaning inside and out. It has served us faithfully for many years and has enough food in it for several meals. Thank you, Lord for this oven that absolutely must be cleaned today. It has baked so many things over the years.

The whole family is grateful for that tall grass that needs mowing and the lawn that needs raking; we all enjoy the yard. Thank you, Lord, even for that slamming door; my kids are healthy and able to run and play.

Yes, I am definitely blessed.

11 weeks old

My baby boy. He's so sweet. We all just love him so much :)
I have been busy lately which is why I haven't posted. This time of year is just so crazy!

Anyway, I really don't even have time to post right now, but I wanted to share these new photos that I snapped real quick while Alex was content.

Isn't he a handsome little boy?









Yep, he's an angel. Sleeping through the night with no problems. Seriously, two days of crying it out and he's golden! Alright, I really have to run.

Love to all!

quick pics

I'm sorry! I said I'd post what, on Monday and here it is Wednesday night and still no new pics! I'm a bad blogger :)

Things are pretty good here. Had a fairly good day and I am starting to get used to letting Alex cry. It's still hard, but I let him do it all day for his naps and stuff (not ALL day, you know what I mean). Last night was really hard. I was in tears over it but I got through it. He cried for about 40 minutes before falling asleep and then slept from 12:30 til almost 8 am! I could not believe it!! We'll see if I'm as lucky tonight!

Okay, here you go, my cutie pie at 9 weeks. He's the cutest!!
















Love to all! Have a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving!

crying it out

I hate dealing with a crying baby. You know, Alex was SOOO good for the first like... 5 weeks. Then I think he realized how much I loved him, and he realized his love for his mama and well... now he's a spoiled brat LOL

No, really, he's just a baby who wants to be cuddled (all the time) and I mean, I can't blame him for that. However, a super cuddly baby equals a super exhausted mommy and I just can't get anything done anymore!

You see, I've gotten him used to being with me all the time. And as much as I love him, I have two other kids, a husband and a self to take care of too! So I have to do something. I think it was about this age that I had to let Marah cry it out too. She took to it like a pro, only going through about 2 days of really screaming before she figured it out and was able to fall asleep on her own. Somehow I don't think it will be as easy with Alex, but maybe he'll surprise me.

Basically he has grown accustomed to sleeping on me, even at night. I can really only get him to sleep in his bed at the start of the night (only after falling asleep while nursing) and when he wakes up in the middle of the night to be fed he will not let me lay him back down. He instantly wakes up and starts fussing. So I just have taken the easy route of the moment and held him on my chest where he falls asleep almost right away. I also will sometimes lay on my side and feed him which lets me half sleep and then he goes to sleep that way. Basically let's just say I have become a human pacifier.

Bored yet? LOL sorry, but I want to document this. If you don't want to read it I won't be offended ;)

I don't know if I'm quite ready to start, but I'm thinking about it.

I'll post pictures of the sweet boy in the morning. I'm too tired to deal with it right now.

Oh thank goodness

We have our computer back! I am so happy :) I was going through some serious withdrawals not being able to post pics of my sweethearts. And Alex is getting sooo big! Today he had his 2 month check up! Seriously! sigh... my days with a baby are numbered and it's bittersweet. I definitely look forward to his milestones and I won't miss the long nights and too little sleep, but oh he's such a cuddly boy and I will miss that so much.

So he weighs 12 lbs. and 8 oz. and is 22 inches long. So he's a little chub-a-lub and such a nice little boy. He's a healthy eater and keeps me busy with feedings every three hours, even at night. It's tough because it really is very hard for me to fall asleep, something I'm sure my mom can relate to. So I typically get anywhere from 1-4 hours of sleep a night. By the time I fall asleep he tends to wake up and the cycle just goes on and on until the weekends when I just crash while Eric takes care of things... except feedings. Alex does sleep really well in his swing so I put him in there and sleep for about 3 or 4 hours depending on how long Alex is willing to without eating. Yesterday I got in 4 hours with pretty much no interuptions and it felt so good. I miss sleeping. Alot. Alex is still sleeping in our room in a bassinette but I did get the crib set up last week and now we are just needing a fan to in his room for some white noise and I'll move him in there and start sleep training him. Kinda hard to let him cry it out when he's right next to us!

I took a bunch of pictures of him today. Isn't he hilarious? Oh and please excuse my unedited photos. that just takes too much time!



You can click the slideshow to view the images if you'd like.

Oh and before I forget... Marah had been saying "Holy sh*t", well except she said "Hold my ship" and so I nipped that right in the bud of course. Today she is watching Harry and the Hendersons and the little boy in the movie says "Holy sh*t" and Marah says "Uh-oh." and then comes to me and says "Mom, that boy said 'hold my ship' that's not very nice right mom?" LOL cutie

Well, I better get this place cleaned up! Have a lovely day!

quick post

I can't type much becaue i really can barely even see what I'm doing here. We have a real problem with our computer and my screen is so distorred that it's really tough to do anything. So excuse any typos here. :) I had to update with a few pics though.

Halloween: Marah was Snow White, Jenna was a "scary bat" and Alex was a cute baby :)




and here is a couple of Jenna feeding Alex. She's been begging to give him a bottle but we don't do formula so I happened to have pumped this morning and she was very happy to be able to feed him. She's really such a great help to me.




and finally one of Alex today (7 weeks old now)

sweetness

This morning Jenna came to me while I was changing Alex and she says "Mom, I wish Alex wouldn't grow up. I want him to be a baby forever. It makes me sad." and I look at her and she just has big tears in her eyes. sigh... me too, baby. Me too.

It's crazy how quickly he is growing. He's definitely my biggest baby. The girls were both on the small side as babies (well, Marah still is), easily wearing their clothing to the month on the tags. The 0-3 months fit til the end of the third month, 3-6 fit thru month 6 and so on. Alex is only 5 weeks old and already is filling out most of his 3-6 month clothing! What are we going to do? Geez, the kid is going to run out of clothing way too soon for my preference. I guess I'll have to start buying the little boy some new clothes soon.

I'm definitely feeling this lack of sleep thing now. I try to nap during the day as much as I can, but there really isn't much time for that. The housework has definitely suffered and the place that I was once easily keeping clean has become a bit of a wreck. So of course, in turn, my energy level suffers from that as well. My motivation drains out of me when the place isn't kept clean.

He still sleeps well during the night. I can't complain about that. And really, he's a great baby. It's just that having my sleep interrupted every night is difficult. Not only am I a very light sleeper, I also take a long time to fall asleep. So when he wakes up and eats that takes about 30 minutes but it takes me another hour almost to fall asleep most of the time. Plus everytime he fidgets I wake up. We'll be moving him to a crib in his own room very soon though, so that should help a little bit with that anyway.

Okay, anyway, enough with that. Here are some pics I took of the chubby babe today. We weighed him and he is 11 pounds already!




A little watery eyed after I picked a booger from his nose.






Okay, gotta go! Have a lovely day!

woe is my computer

Stupid computer crapped out on us. So we are unfortunate in that respect, however we are fortunate enough to at least have a spare computer in our possession. It is old and does not have near the amount of memory or whatever that we need, but I can at least get online now and share pictures.

I didn't get a chance to blog about Rye's visit or our visit from Angie, Dan and Zion... and I won't be doing so today either. I have to say, this having three kids deal is starting to get to me. I'm definitely more tired than before (and I was already exhausted). Alex is a great baby, but even still it's a lot to deal with. I don't know how I'd deal with having a difficult baby. Thank God I've been blessed with an angel so far :)

The only thing I really have the time/energy to blog today is this picture of Alex I took yesterday. He is officially one month old (already?!?!). So here he is with his cute little head and his double chin *lol*



Have a lovely day!

The Princess Turns Four

Hard to believe my baby turns 4 tomorrow... we had a nice little party for her. It was so nice and simple. For the first time I truly didn't worry about having great decorations or making the perfect cake. I just hung up some pink baloons and got a few princess things from the dollar store and a store bought cake and you know, Marah was so thrilled. She thought it was all amazing and I think I've heard "thank you for my pink birthday" about thirty times today. Ah, my girl.