Green Thumbed?

I lived with my cousin for a while.  They had 5 acres with horses and various other farm animals and did a beautiful little garden every year.

I watched them prep and work it with little to no real strenuous effort. Sure, they'd work on it every evening and had a watering system and definitely weeded and worked on it in the evening... but it really only took 15 minutes a day after they planted everything.  So I figured I'd be able to do the same. Boy was I wrong!!

I quickly discovered that no green dwelt within my thumb natually!! I easily knew I was a bit of a blackthumb when it came to gardening!

Like, guys, I've killed herbs that are supposed to grow with little to minimal effort. You know, those ones that are supposed to sit in a windowsill and thrive with water and sun... yep.  I haven't been able to keep them alive long enough to use them... it's been a super depressing fact of my life.

Well, I really want to thrive at gardening and would love to be able to go out to the garden and pick a salad or herbs or onion for a soup!!

I decided that I was going to have to try my luck at pruning off my blackthumb and "growing" it back green (pun intended!) ... I knew the only way I was going to have any hope of a future gardening would be to start with gourds.

Gourds have larger leaves that help protect them from the elements and bugs.  They have spines like a cactus that help keep them safe and as long as you water them, they grow.

I know.  I'm pathetic.  But I'm smart enough to know that cause and effect can lead to success. And even easy success can mentally trick your brain into trying harder things! I figured it was worth a shot!

So I did! I planted,  watered, added plant food and had... some success!!!

And to my surprise, I actually had success!! I planted pumpkin, zucchini, yellow squash, onion, watermellon, and cantaloupe!!!

My onion didn't grow at all and my yellow squash became the grasshoppers' prime time special but my pumpkins, zucchini, and cantaloupe are all thriving and I feel like an absolute rockstar! Go ahead and laugh. It wouldn't be first time!

Here's the proof! My thumb may not be a luscious green yet, but it certainly is no longer black!!

Middle Child

My middle child lost my wedding ring and I kind of want to give the littles punk the middle finger.

If you're looking for me, I'll be deep cleaning and looking everywhere for my ring.

Give Me My Nap

My daughter has never been much of a napper. She's fallen asleep only about a dozen times during quiet time (and then stays up 1.5 hours later... to make me pay terribly for her mistake... or that's what it feels like.).

Before Teddy was born, I'd be hanging out for a playdate and the other kids would be melting down and the mother would say something like, "Gosh, these kids need their nap!" and I'd be completely dumbfounded. Like, I'd momentarily forgot that normal toddlers take naps on a regular basis. It just didn't cross my mind! By the time she was 2.5, I implemented quiet time for Justine and it was literally the only way I got a break from parenting. I've never looked back!

My boys, on the other hand, absolutely NEED their naps. And it's absolutely wonderful!!

Naps for my boys typically take precedency over pretty much anything. I've been known to skip fun activities I was really, really looking forward to because the boys were falling apart and I knew it just wouldn't be worth skipping their nap! I may come off as a flake but I'd have come off as an idiot if I had not canceled.

If we're not home and naptime rolls around, Teddy can and will sleep anywhere... after he's had meltdown... but cannot be moved or else.

My sister-in-law recently had surgery and Zack and I had the pleasure of babysitting her five kids! It was definitely busy but they were sweet and fun and helpful and it was such a delight to get to spend time with them! The cousins have such a fun time together!!

By about the second day, Teddy was clingy and crabby and was aching for his routine, so he did the only logical thing possible... he refused his nap... for a while.

I was curling my nieces' hair and when I was done, went to check on everybody and found Teddy asleep. On a solid oak bench. He basically crashed in no time.

And he slept like this for an hour!! Give this boy his nap!!

This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Crying. Whining. Pulling my pants. Refusing to let me even walk. Not hungry.  Not ready for a nap. Oh. My. Word.

My boys were in a mood. And no trick in my pocket full of my personal parenting tricks was working.  My sanity was wearing thin and I knew my  humanity was much, much stronger than my desire to be calm in the midst of their mood.

I didn't know what they wanted.  They didn't even knows what they wanted. I did,  however, know that I needed: a mental break before I snapped.

I took a break. I left the boys in a safe place and locked myself in my room for a breather...

All was silent. A bit of laughter. And I took a bit longer than I had planned.

And I paid for it.

This is why we can't have nice things. 

TeddyJam

Sometimes he's demanding and angry and trying and loud and wet and slobbery and messy.

Sometimes my patience is wearing and his temper is daring.

Sometimes he's undone everything I've done and demands to have more fun. 

But sometimes, just as quick as a switch,  his temper is calm and his behavior is funny and silly and chill and his belly laugh echoes, seemingly at will.

And this delightful and charming and sweet and fun little boy is what we work for.

I just haven't figured out how to bring him out on a regular basis.  

It Was FiVE Minutes of Unsupervised Play

The other day, I woke up Q-to-the-U-eezy!!! I was so sick that I took 2 pregnancy test that were big fat negatives!

The whole day, I just took it easy and hoped I'd feel better.

This is a jad-gad-spad-BAD, BAD thing. An absolute recipe for disaster per Teddy-James! He is smart and easily read the situation and in his Ted, Ted, the big white-head brain (yes, his nickname is a reference to a pimple. No, I have no intention of stopping and it's only ever said in an endearing tone), the planning of over the top mischief begins.  Luckily, in spite of my sudden -onset-feel-like-barfing condition,  I watched the little sucker like a hawk.

That was until dinner time,
when it dawned on me that in spite of whatever demon bug dwealt inside the depths of my digestive tract, I still actually needed to feed the kids and hubby!! I decided I'd make a quick meal that the whole family usually eats and won't lead me head-over-toilet and kids with-no-dinner. So I placed the baby on the patio in his outdoor exersaucer and a pile of food and hauled my queasy booty to the kitchen, in desperate attempt to feed my family asap.

I was gone for maybe 5 minutes, literally in the room directly leading out to the patio. FiVE minutes, folks. Cinco Minutos. Daseos uisalog. Cinque minuti. No matter what language I say it in, I wasn't gone longer that 5 minutes and Justine comes running in to report that her younger brother was feeding her youngest brother mud. Zack and I rush to save baby Alex's life and see clear as day that indeed, 5 minutes is all it takes to cover and be covered in mud. I quickly pulled rocks out of baby's mouth and then ran back to finish dinner, so I left Zack to clean Teddy's dirty work.

I couldn't snap a picture but Zack got this endearing photo of Teddy's antics.

Try not to laugh. 5 minutes. Nobody said two was easy.

And in case you're wondering, I'm not pregnant. The nausea was a minor food poisoning. I'm just fine!

Last Night

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away...

I only wish this story was that cool... but I regress, homie... it's actually pretty lame but I laughed myself to tears! Maybe you'll laugh too... or slowly back away mouthng, "this lady's loooooco in the cabasa!" That, or you'll think my standard of humor is sub par. Your call, homes!

So, last night, three kids were in bed and I really, really wanted to watch an episode of my current televisional addiction... House (don't judge, you know his narcissistic brilliance makes you want jump through the screen and both hug and smack him over the head with a rolled newspaper... yes, the latter is not Christlike!)  I blame Amazon Prime. But I decided to be a responsible adult and knew I needed to clean up the kitchen because Justine needs to have a good start to the second week of school and only cleaning the kitchen was going to do that because a messy kitchen just stresses me out and makes me not be patient or efficient... thus,  ruining Justine's good start to her second week. I know, so much power in a pretty mediocre mother!

So I'm cleaning and Zack comes out from putting Teddy to be and because he's my knight in shining armor (aka, I begged him... no shame to the double... I don't care if feminists think I'm weak... I'd been parenting all day and wiping butts and faces and wanted to watch a show but other people wiping butts in faces, darn you House!). Zack is wiping the table (much more pleasant than wiping butts) and says, "that son of ours has been hunting in my home office for cough drops... he found the bag and dumped it into a glass jar and has been helping himself to the cough drops. I found the jar and put it up but he found a way to climb into my chair and onto my desk and grabbed it. He also tried to rip open a bag of chips and has found my stash of snack and now there's no stopping him."

So, at this point, I'm laughing. Hard.  Zack is shaking his heads because he has found no humor or amusement in Teddy's ongoing successful thug behavior. And by thug, I mean raid and rob his father's office of controlled contraband in the form of menthol latent medicine and toxic chemical latent junk food (you know it's true  homie, why we be playin'?).

See, we bought this house and it has doggy doors that go from the garage to the backyard. Zack's office is part of the garage that's been converted. All 3 kids are currently able to crawl into the garage through the doggy door.

And this is where it gets humorous. Teddy has been doing this but I thought he was going into the garage to love on the kitty who often takes refuge from children and their smothering tortuous ways there! He'd go in and come back out relatively quickly. Then, he'd go to my bedroom (Zack keeps a small handful of cough drops in his nightstand drawer) and come back out with a cough drop in his mouth.  I'd roll my eyes with an "I don't care to battle you" eyeroll and we'd move on.  He'd repeat this a few times before I'd firmly tell him, "no more cough drops." and lock our bedroom door. Then he'd uncharacteristically obey and not return to the room. I can vaguely remember thinking once that Zack must replenish his cough drop stash daily because I couldn't recall seeing that many cough drops in the drawer. I never once considered that he was getting them from Zack's office. I was an idiot!! Way to pull a quick one on me, you clever little booger!! I'm keeping my eye on you!!

So it's your turn to laugh at my oblivion or roll your eyes at my lame humor. Your call, Homie B (B as in blog reader), yo!

And yes, the kitchen got clean that night! Justine had a great start to her second week of kindergarten! Thank you for the laughter, Teddy!

A Week With The Boys

Last Monday,  Janni started kindergarten at a private Christian school.  She's loving it and we don't regret our decision to put her in school.

I haven't been shy about Tru, 2.5 years old, being difficult.

He's demanding. Whiny. Into everything. And jealous of his siblings. Normal toddler behavior... but on steroids!!

By jealous, I mean he doesn't like me to give them attention and wants everything they have.  It's tiring and I thought it'd just be something I'd have to deal with until he was older.

And then, Janni started school and suddenly his whole disposition changed. He stopped being whiny and jealous. He's a delightful little boy when she's at school. And then Janni comes home and the negative behavior changes back.

I have a lot of research to do about how to address this unpleasant, unnecessary behavior (I assure you,  Janni is a sweet and delightful little girl and usually treats him nicer than most siblings I knows).

I decided to take the boys on a walk around a lake nearby. Tru was talking, pointing at the ducks, counting them, and just being such a delightful little boy. He's not a huge talker, so I'm teary eyed the whole entire time! What a change from the little boy I've known.

This is going to be a great year getting to know this delightful side of Tru!! I'm feeling beyond blessed that I get to be this little boy's mommy!!

AJ's Birth

It's no secret: I have csections.

And not because I want to but my first two were absolutely necessary (both breeched). Unfortunately, after you've had 2 csections, it's basically mandatory that the rest of your babies be born csection.

They. Are. Awful.

The morning of AJ's scheduled csection, I got up, showered, and did makeup.

My aunt and mom showed up at 5:30 am. It was still dark out but we were ready.  I gave them a rundown, showed them where breakfast was, and whatever they'd need and then we left to the hospital, which is only 5 minutes away.

We arrived, filled out needed paperwork, and we're taking to my room.

I was prepped and all that fun stuff.  They found my veins after a few tries and gave me my I.V.s.  There was a lot of running around by the nurses. We spoke to the OB and he met met husband for the first time (we changed to my original OB's partner later in the game due to availability for my scheduled csection and Zack hadn't yet met him).

The next thing you know, I'm being rolled to the operating room. I begin to feel anxious. They numb me up and I try not to stress. As I'm laid down, I feel the elephant on my chest and cannot breathe. I proceeded to yell at them to knock me out because I can't breathe and I cannot process idea of a 30 minute surgery feeling like I can't breathe. The elephant on your chest is very common during C-sections. Eventually the feeling wears off and I I'm able to relax for the C-section.

Baby AJ was born and cried immediately. They placed him on my chest and it was love at first sight.

AJ is the third 3rd born in our family! Zack and I are both 3rd borns!

AJ, we love you so!!

Why We Chose to Send Janni to School

I'm a teacher. I have a bachelor's in education, so I'd say that I'm more than qualified to educate my children myself. And that's what I've done with our first, Janni. She's reading and writing and great away math.

I had quite a difficult time conceiving after Janni and it wasn't until 3 days before Janni's 3rd birthday that we got to welcome her first sibling, Tru, home.

He was such a difficult baby, let alone pregnancy, that there's no way I would have chosen to have another baby.  But there's a funny thing about being married and growing your family... sometimes it just happens. And we welcomed another baby boy, AJ, into our lives less than 18 months later.

Now that Tru is 2 and AJ is nearly a year, it's becoming more challenging to juggle three children and keep thrill-seeking Tru safe! Because of this and the fact that Janni really loves learning,  and the fact that I can't teach her the way I want due to the busyness and neediness of the boys, we've decided that she'll start her kindergarten year in a private school.  The class size is 14 and there are 2 aides in her classroom. 3.5ish to 1 is about the ratio I could give her myself! This is as close to a homeschool experience I can give her this year!

Today was her first day of kindergarten!

We're hoping that in a year or two, things will become less challenging and I can homeschool entirely.

But until then, we're so grateful to have found the school and such a loving staff! She's going to have such a great kindergarten year! And look how cute she is in her tiny school uniform!!

I totally would have cried sending her off to the great world of kindergarten... but the baby blew out on me and I was covered in poop and clearly wanted nothing more than to get out of there and into clean clothes.  

Maybe I'll cry tomorrow!

Relaunching My Blog

I have decided to relaunch my blog. This will be a MomBlog that deals with life, struggles, and balancing a lifestyle that is simple and easy while still allowing my children fun experiences.

I have been away from blogging because I nearly died and then got pregnant really quickly after and struggled with really debilitating postpartum depression and I had/have a very strong-willed son. I would see these moms who had children around the same time I did and they recovered quickly and were doing amazing things like maintaining their homes and style and then I would look at myself and just feel like I didn't have anything else to offer in the realm of parenting because I was really, really struggling.

Now I know that that just ins't true and that I have gained a plethora of information and ways to help with motherhood and postpartum recovery. I'm really learning how to choose to take the sour lemons that come in life and motherhood and make them into the sweetest lemonade.

I am excited to relaunch my blog and have passion to bring about honest motherhood.  The good, the bad, the ugly, and how to learn from it.

Please come along for the ride!

My High Needs Son (Things I'd Like You To Know)

He's cute. He's sweet. He's fun. He displays what appears to be the epitome of happiness, joy, and a well-adjusted, well-rounded toddler. He'll squeal and melt your heart, blissfully enjoying the world around him. And more often than not, if you catch his eye, he'll even flash you an endearing, heart melting smile.

You notice us as we walk through the grocery store; I push him in the cart as he jumps and wiggles in his seat- high on life, my older daughter in tow- usually goofing off with him, and you gush at how adorable they are and how blessed I am. I politely smile (I know they are but don't want to seem prideful but in all honesty, you don't know the half of it) as I stop to grab a bunch of bananas and move on. I then realize that my cute and adorable son has managed to grab a glass bottle of some sort and I quickly take it from him right as he's getting ready to chuck it out of the cart . . . And that's when you hear it. . . A blood curdling, ear popping scream. His entire pleasant disposition has changed. He's red, angry, and loud and you take a double check to see if it's even the same baby you saw blissfully squealing moments before. I frantically look for something inside my diaper bag to distract him and give him a toy. Maybe he'll take it, maybe he'll chuck out the cart. Who knows. It's a guessing game but it's the only move I've got left in this game of laugh or scream that my son plays several times a day, on a daily basis.

But this is our boy. This is parenting a high needs child. They're not your normal child. Things that work with children who are not high needs definitely don't work with him. And guess what, we know we're not always pleasant to be around, we know he seems spoiled and catered to, we know it. Oh, do we know it!

Some have blamed me, saying that he's just reading me and responding to me. Some have tried to give me advice about how they handled their difficult child. Some have tried to encourage me saying their child has grown out of it.

But he's not responding to my facial expression, I'm responding to him; I'm panicked that his small display of discomfort or displeasure will escalate to full-on screaming tantrum that will make me never want to venture out of our house again. Your child is nothing like mine, and I saw you struggle the whole way through; please don't pretend to be an expert. And telling me it'll take 5 years for him to turn around makes me want to cry more than I already do.

Please know that I believe you are well-meaning but I don't need people telling me what I'm doing wrong or that I need to change my perspective, I already spend the majority of my time telling myself likewise. I need understanding, compassion, and a moment of prayer. I need encouragement for tomorrow, not for 5 years from now.. And if I sounds harsh, or rude, or unappreciative, please know that I'm not. I'm just already so broken about it all that I'm tired of feeling kicked while I'm down. It's hard enough to get back up without the constant reminder that I haven't figured my son out yet.

Please know, we're working on and with him and at 14 months old, there's very little we can do but weather this storm. I usually don't know what he wants or needs and I'm convinced that neither does he. There's no winning strategy at this point. And yes, we've taken him to our pediatrician (she knows him well) and a GI specialist, and we've pulled food out of his diet, and we've had his tongue and lip tie laser clipped, and still nothing. He's still difficult, and his mood is unpredictable, and my husband and I still lay in bed at the end of the day asking each other what else can we do?

Please know that we're not reinforcing bad behavior when we give him what we wants, we're simply surviving and when he's old enough to understand correction, we will work to stop it. But now, now it's just an uphill battle with weights on our feet, hands tied, sometimes with a blindfold, all the while carrying a screaming toddler and trying to guide and trying to help his older sister feel valued and important, too. It's hard. And we're usually just desperate to get through the day. Everyday.

But if you take anything from this post, absolutely anything, I want you to please, please know we love him, that he is a treasure greater than any ruby, diamond, or silver (we prayed 8 months for him and I nearly died trying to have him) and that we'd never, ever trade him for an easier, calmer baby.

It's beautiful. He's hard but so very, very loved. He's intense, but intensely treasured. He's loud, but his worth is louder than the loudest trumpet.

It's beautiful because we get to practice and live out unconditional love.

It's beautiful because we're learning (often failing) patience and gentleness and a peaceful spirit in the midst of chaos.

It's beautiful because even at our wits end, we're given a reminder of Gods faithfulness to our prayer and fasting for this baby.

It's beautiful because we know he was made specifically for our family and has been used to grow us and will continue to be used to grow each and every one of us in ways we currently don't even necessarily know we need to grow.

If you don't want to come over to hang out this season, I understand.

If he's obnoxious to you in the grocery store, my sincere apology. We're working on it.

If you think we're bad parents, that's fine.

If you have any kind of criticism, constructive or not, please keep it to your self. Especially the not part.

But if you're our friends or family and want to come give us a break or a date night or just check in on us or just offer us encouragement, please do.

And if you're reading this, are not any of the above (and at the risk of sounding hypocritical) but you're struggling to figure out your child, to read him/her, to have an optimistic view of tomorrow, to work through the judgment, criticism, impatience of the people around you, I understand. And I'm so very, very sorry that parenting is difficult, that your life is up in a dismay of tension and stress and unpredictability, that you're walking moment by moment on eggshells. I understand. And if I could give you even an hour of peace, I would. But take this encouragement, that tomorrow is a new day, rest (as much as you're able), and trust that God's mercies are new every morning, that you're not forgotten about, that life is just hard right now. It'll be OK. And I know this sounds cliché, but remember diamonds are made under extreme pressure and you can do this!

Health Issues

Hope everybody had a wonderful Chridtmas/holiday season!!

I've never, ever felt "great" for as long as I can remember.

In the last decade, I've really hit some major roadblocks that ended up leading to amisdiagnosis and medication I literally dreamt, more times than one, would end up killing me.

After Tru, I had a seriousll bout of postpartum depression and anxiety that ended with a significant diet change and a antidepressant that was nursing compatable.

It's never easy to admit that you have to go on an antidepressant, but sometime it's good to stand up to the taboo and admit that making a baby is hard, hard, hard on your body!

Any how, things haven't gotten better. As a matter of fact, they seem to be getting worse. One thing being that I have extreme muscle tenderness and I haven't at all worked out and my children are still so little, there's no way they caused it.

Essentially, if you were to even poke me in the arm, the pain level is about a 4 or 5 off the bat.  Like jump and almost feel like it was an attack.

It's like that all throughout my shoulders, back, and upper thighs; my hair is super tender and hurts when I brush... Like it's being pulled.

Any how, we've decided to see a chiropractor and if they can't resolve this pain, I'll start seeing specialists in an effort to test for issues.

Say a prayer.

Swimming Lessons

Zack's brother bought his family's dream home a year and a half or so ago.  It's honestly the most stunningly beautiful house.  It defines modern in looks, appliances, flooring, and all complete with a personal pool.  It's to die for.  And when we go for a visit, I usually take pictures if certain decor for ideas and leave with a million or so goals to improve our home.

The only problem is that, since their kids all know how to swim, they opted against putting up a fence around their pool.  Which is fine.  Except, Janni doesn't know how to swim.  Needless to say, you can imagine my stress when we're there.  I need to know where Janni is at all times or I can't even think.  I'm okay with being called paranoid, uptight, etc.

We were going to give Janni swim lessons two summers ago, but I wasn't feeling so well in June and missed the deadline to get her into lessons and the waiting list was a mile long.  Then, when July lessons opened, I had almost died and so lessons that summer weren't realistically going to happen.

I figured we would get her into lessons the following summer, but Tru was such a hard baby, that the thought of taking him and the risk of him screaming bloody murder made me want to cry, so for a second year, we put off swim lessons.

Recently, I was thinking about how much Janni really needs to learn how to swim, I went ahead and just signed her up.

Today, she had her first lesson and she did fantastic.  The teacher told me that she had strong arms and legs and that she would likely pick up swimming really quickly.  My momma's heart was just so at peace as I watched her swim.  Like, she will, God willing, be safe around water and living in a state where pools are almost more common than kids, that just gives me such a peace of mind.

Oh, Janni!  I am so proud of you!

Big Orange Kitten

We adopted a kitten in September. He was a complete surprise to my cat-loving husband.

He ended up being a bit of a terror and often climbed legs and hung there or ambushed your ankles from behind or bit or scratch and sometimes all within a 10 second period... He'd basically terrorize the household... Just typical kitten behaviors but more like he was on steroids. It. Never. Stopped. Even Janni, who just loved him, clearly got fed-up and started being proactive at fending him off!!,

He actually came from a litter of 7 kittens, so I'm sure they just played non-stop until his siblings were adopted out (when I adopted him, he was they last of two orange males). Let's just say I was a bit shocked and. Unprepared at his behavior.

It took two weeks, but he eventually warmed up to our dog, Frodo, and the dog actually assisted us in training him not to play too roughly!

Anyhow, he's really calmed down and is becoming more and more into his own spunky self.

Baby's First Lemon

Yes, yes, I know... Some people think it's mean to give a baby a taste of lemon... I am not one of those people.

Last week, we'd gone out for pizza and Tru was just bring ridiculous, grabbing any and everything on the table that could possibly be grabbed. He reached for Zack's water, that just so happened to have a lemon on the rim, and well... Just watch and see what it turned into.

I can't handle the cuteness!!

Changing Routine

Our church has 3 weekend services. The first one is on Saturday evening and catered to the doctors and other professions where having Sundays off consistently just isn't feasible.

The other two services are Sunday mornings. There's the early bird service where usually you see families with young children and senior saints. Then there is the late morning service where people who need to practice the day of rest by sleeping in and then having slow, restful, noon-rushed Sabboth mornings. This is, by far, the most popular service.

We are the family that attends the later... Except for the non-rushed mornings because we typically make it to church by the skin of our teeth.

Many of my friends with young children, however, attend first service and love it. They find that they're able to get fed spiritually and then be able to make it home for naps and then spend the rest of the Sabboth at home as they feel led. and we typically are able to say hi and visit in passing as they're leaving and we're arriving. And it's worked out fine for our family for several years now until now.

Janni has basically never needed naps. She does all get sleeping at night and if by chance she falls sleep during the day, she makes you pay for it by staying up past 10 that night. It actually had made me cry literal tears many a night. It's been one of the few incredibly difficult parts of parenting her.

But Tru oh, this boy knows how to nap. Two, three, sometimes even four hour naps and it's incredible! But if he doesn't get his nap on time, he falls apart and is off the rest of the day. The whole situation is entirely stressful.

The problem with our church service is that it starts right after Tru's first nap of he day and he's so excited to be at church that he won't nap while we're there... And then he falls apart and the rest of the day if so stressful. Many years shed. Ugh.

Last week, Zack was on the worship team and left before we needed to be there. As I waited for our service time to start, it dawned on me that I could start attending the first service

I rushed around like a maniac getting ready, got Janni ready, took Tru in his sleeper pajamas (the nerve!!), and made by the soon of our teeth (go figure)... But we made it. And then we got Tru home for nap and there rest of the day was peaceful.

This week we got up early, got ourselves ready, managed to get to church barely on time, sat through

.... But don't, Tru didn't get to go to church in his pajamas this week.

Killing Me With Cuteness

My husband will probably kill me for posting this, but Tru is killing me with cuteness.

He hasn't started crawling but he wants to stand up and walk!

Thanksgiving

For my husband's family, Thanksgiving has always been the big holiday where people travel and everybody gets together. Christmas is done by individual families.

My mother-in-law, Cheryl, always put it on and made everything and it was a giant feast. I'd seriously need to be rolled home every single year.

Then, just to top off the fun, the following day, everybody returned to her home for homemade Mexican food that was as authentic (and waaaay better) than any real Mexican Food Restaurant.

Cheryl really just loved to cook and have family together and perfected any of her families' favorites recipes. It was unreal. She was an gifted cook and even though relationships weren't always perfect, she really went above and beyond to express her love for her family this time of year. And her talents really shined on Thanksgiving.

Sadly, Cheryl passed away last year shortly, before Thanksgiving.  Her only daughter, Zack's sister, took on the torch and did a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner in honor of Cheryl's memory that year.

This year, Zack's sister is 8 months pregnant and just not feeling so grand and so everybody decided to go ahead and do their own Thanksgiving with their own families.

It's so odd to think that this family holiday is on hiatus while babies are born (one of Zack's brother's wife is due in January) but I'm so grateful for my family. I'm convinced that this tradition will certainly pick-up next year.

It's been so beautiful watching everybody come together and grow in unity since Cheryl's passing; I'm so grateful to be part of this family. Strained relationships are mending, we're making efforts to get together with extended family more often, and our family is growing closer than ever. Cheryl is surely looking down from Heaven beaming with joy that her family is growing so strongly. I married well.

And this year, I won't have to be rolled home... Just rolled to my bed.

Winning At Parenting... Or Not

Janni's first haircut was during a vacation to California when she was 16 months old, Zack's aunt had the pleasure of cutting it. And it was absolutely adorable. We saved the hair in a ziplock baggy. Milestone saved. I'm pretty sure I gave myself a pat on the back for winning at motherhood.

She's currently 3.5 and that's literally the only hair cut she's ever had. Ever. Not even an at-home trim.

That is until this past Saturday. Her hair was getting straggly and stringy and just ridiculous to work with, so I decided we'd both get hair cuts together on a day Zack was home and could stay with Tru.

And the results? Absolutely darling. Sadly, my phone wasn't charged enough to take pictures during the cut, so I had to take back that "winning at parenting" back pat.

This is also the first time she's ever had bangs and my heart my literally explode from all the cuteness!!

Now, if only she'd stand still enough for a perfect picture, I may have to give myself back that winning at parenting back pat.