Where to begin...

There is a lot to catch up on, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to do it all. I will do my best, but some of it I’m sure we won’t really want or need to remember later in life. I don’t want to give my children the idea though that everything in life is always peaches n’ cream- but I do want this blog to serve as a reminder of some of the fun things in life they got to experience if they can’t remember it on their own- and to know more of our family history while they are too young to recount for themselves.

Though, for Ben, I’m sure he’ll remember the one big thing that’s happened this year without any trouble, because it’s been pretty traumatic for all of us. Even Jonah, who, I’m sure won’t remember it, has felt the hardness of the situation. Daddy broke his leg in July. Daddy has a desk job for the most part, but has the responsibility of the security cameras and keeping an eye on them. On July 1^st he noticed one wasn’t working, he rewound the tape and found that someone in their warehouse at the steel company had hit the camera with some sort of tubing and so he went out to the warehouse with his hard hat and safety glasses on to fix it. He asked one of the warehouse managers to help hold a ladder for him, but for some unconfirmed reason - the ladder slipped, and daddy fell down with it. I have to note a couple of things, a couple of blessings hidden behind this because I don’t want us to sound like martyrs. One of them was right after he fell he called me. I was in a meeting, in a meeting room. A lot of my meetings at work take place over the phone, so it was kind of unusual for me to be in an actual room with people. So because of this, I saw he called once and I missed it- and then he called right back again and on my iPhone swiped up to send him an automatic response to say I’d call back. But instead, my finger inadvertently swiped to the right to actually answer the phone, something I did NOT mean to do-especially since I was in that meeting. I turned around quietly and told Ryan I’d call him right back, to which he stressfully replied “no Heather! Don’t hang up! I broke my leg, I’m hurt, and I’ve broken my leg!” I immediately left the room and talked with him and his coworkers to find out who called an ambulance, where he was going, what happened, etc. But I’m grateful for whatever it was that moved my finger to the side so that he could tell me himself what had happened and I could be “there” for him in those scary, painful moments right after his accident. He was taken to Grady hospital; someone from work rode with him and his dad met him there. I had to run home to get some things, and also to give his mom our car seats so she could pick the kids up from daycare that day. Also, his coworkers brought his car home from work so we wouldn’t have to worry about that later and I waited on them. I got to the hospital finally, and entered through the emergency room entrance only to have to provide all my personal items to the guard at the desk and walk through a metal detector (much like an airport)… remember, sketchy part of town. Later, Ryan told me that he also got frisked and checked when he got there, as a patient with a broken leg!  

in the emergency room

To sum it up, the fibula and tibia were both broken- the tibia (the bone on the inside of the leg and the bigger of the two) was broken in about 10 different places all in a cluster. It was (and is) a severe break and we were told the recovery time was at least 3-4 months. They had to put his leg in a temporary cast, and that was the hardest thing to see my man go through. They had to bend his leg and it was so extremely painful for him, and I hated seeing him go through that.  Sadly, this meant we had to cancel our trip to see my family in UT just a few weeks later. Luckily, we were able to cancel our tickets without a cancellation fee. That was another small blessing, and when we got home from the hospital after a surgery and a day later, there were either groceries we had just bought (like milk for the baby) or things we had just done that would’ve been really difficult for us to get to after he got home.  We’d even gotten to go to the pool (unbeknownst to us) one last time before it happened (which is one of our favorite summer activities).

I had to take work off for that whole week to nurse and be with him. We had a lot of help from Ryan’s wonderful parents, who sacrificed so much to help us with the kids. And also church members brought us meals and any kind of help we needed. The next week or two were really hard. I had to work from home and nurse Ryan, and his recovery was rough at times. He had a lot of blessings from our home teacher and friends, and after a couple of weeks was somewhat back to normal. Between that time though, he got dehydrated enough that during a shower at home he passed out- and then again when we went to our first doctor’s visit in the office. The doctor sent him to the ER to get hydrated again and to check for any blood clots as well. I could tell such a HUGE difference in him after he was hydrated that I did my best to keep him that way afterwards, but that man doesn’t love water. Ha! It was a difficult thing to do! The biggest obstacle about all of this was Ryan came out of his first surgery with an external fixator on. It was basically a cage on his leg, which was in the way, horrible to look at and painful to boot. That stayed on for a month total (a VERY LONG MONTH). The problem was this, when we were at Grady- he had the fixator put on. Before we left, they had scheduled Ryan for another follow up a week later and then surgery to get the fixator removed and plates and screws put in. What we didn’t know was that they’d already put a plate and screws in on the fibula when they put on the fixator. (We never even got to meet or talk to the surgeon that actually worked on his leg, only another doctor in the practice-so I suppose that’s why we missed out on that important piece of information!) And when we left the hospital, we were turned over to workman’s comp which has very strict policies on the doctor you see and so we had to go to a different doctor than the ones at Grady for the remainder of his treatments. Which was a good thing, because not only was it a sketchy area it was a long drive from our house. The doctors were WONDERFUL and it IS the main trauma center in Atlanta, so he was well taken care of- but it was overall better for us. When we visited the new Doctor, he showed us an x-ray and told us that he’d be keeping the external fixator on for up to 12 weeks- but wanted to talk to the rest of the doc’s in the practice. This was not the greatest news, devastating really… but the appointment was very rushed because Ryan had passed out and he wanted us to get to the ER, so when we didn’t get very many more details. Luckily, by our next visit, he had reevaluated things with his practice and decided to take off the fixator and put in another plate and screws. 

second surgery

This is what my man will have in his leg, forever.

We had to wait until Aug 1^st for surgery though, to allow the swelling to go down. He had surgery and it went well, it was outpatient so he came home that day. The doctor visited with me and said that everything went well, and that they put a plate in that pretty much is as long as the tibia, so he has a large plate and several screws alone on that bone. I asked if he’d have that in there the rest of his life and he said, “yeah… pretty much”. Here is the x-ray from right after his surgery! He has about 14 or so screws in that poor leg of his! Recovery since then has been pretty good. He had a splint on that was taken off 2 weeks after surgery. We’ve been patiently (me anyways…) waiting for the x-rays to show that the bones are healing well enough for him to start putting weight bearing on his leg. Because of the severity of the break, and in a whole lot of places- the bone has to heal correctly before he can do anything, and even then he will have to work slowly with his physical therapists to get it to where he can do it without using crutches or a walker. So… we’re going on month 3 now and there’s still a ways to go. Our goal is Christmas, because that’s when we’ve reschedule our flight to go see my family in UT.

Between the two surgeries, and about a week after he broke his leg, my wonderful and kind and generous sister drove down from Chicago to be with me and help us for a week. it was so good to have her company and support. It was good to have someone close to me that understands me and how I work to be there in my house to help out. Not that I didn’t appreciate anyone else’s help- it’s just… different with a sister. It was good for the boys too, because they got to play some. My older brother had to come to town for a couple of days to work and stopped by to see us too, which was wonderful- but WAY TOO SHORT.

Aunt DJ came to visit

and so did Uncle John!

During all of this, we had our kitchen remodeled because back in May we had noticed that there was a leak under the dishwasher and it had pretty much destroyed our floors and cabinets. So before Ryan had even broken his leg, we had a claim in with our insurance company- and we had chosen our contractor. It just happened to be that they started demo and everything 2 weeks after Ryan’s surgery. We have a nice new beautiful kitchen now, but it was an added stress I could’ve done without at the time. On top of that, our little (big) Benny Boy started KINDERGARTEN! I can’t believe it! I’ll post about that separately. Jonah turns 18 months old this week, and life has just been so crazy, busy, stressful the last 3 months. Work has been crazy for me. Our BFF’s little baby was born and had surgery, there have been some other health related issues in both of our families, it’s just not been a very fun year on some different levels! There have been a lot of good things too- don’t get me wrong. We are very grateful that Ryan’s fall wasn’t worse, and we are on the road to recovery and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Even though for him, it doesn’t feel like it. He’s back to work half days, which has been great for him- and he’s really doing well with Physical Therapy. This has been a trial at its best, but so good for us and our family in so many ways- as crazy as that seems. And MY perspective on it is probably a little different from Ryan’s as well (especially right now when all he wants to do is walk again and play with the boys and do the things he wants to). Don’t get me wrong- this has been some of the hardest months of my life. There have been a lot of tears and frustration, a lot of exhaustion and not knowing how I was going to make it from one day to the next. But what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, right? We have had tremendous support and love poured on us, and we truly have been well taken care of through it all.

Its fall now and the leaves are changing. The air is cleaner and crisper, and the skies are bluer. I feel like this comes along with things getting better and better (I hope) and am really looking forward to some time with my family in December and a much needed break, especially away for even a week. My nephew gets home from his 2 year mission in December so this will be the first time since my sister passed away, that we will all be together again as a family!

J-Bear is 365 days old!

Today, the littlest member of our family is ONE YEARS OLD! Happy 1st Birthday to our Jonah Bear! He's a ball full of energy that kid. He NEVER stops moving, unless, he's sleeping. But even then he moves around a lot. He wears me out, especially during church or anytime we have to sit "still" with him. He has just started making funny faces; fake crying, puckering up his lips and squishing his face up and breathing in & out funny, he'll roll his eyes or close them real tight if he doesn't want me to look at him. He's super silly. He's starting to eat more table food, which for some reason kind of trips me out- because even though i know he's old enough to do it- I get scared or something. Like he still feels too little to be doing that already. But man does he love to eat. He LOVES food. And he'll pretty much try anything twice, and if he doesn't like it- he'll spit it out. He loves pasta, he loves bread and crackers. Now I've just got to start being more diligent about getting him to drink from a sippy cup. I've tried giving him water and so far he doesn't dig it. I've also tried slipping milk in to his formula, and either I've just had really bad timing with stomach bugs or teething- or it really doesn't settle well with him. So we'll have to check with the doctor about that next week at his 1 year appointment. He doesn't seem to have any desire to walk, he's just in a hurry to get everywhere via crawling. And he's fast. He LOVES to go in to Ben's room and try and play with all his toys, especially the little tiny ones that are easy to put in his mouth. We've had to start shutting his door and the bathroom door. He LOVES Ally. LOVES her. I need to get him on video sometime how he calls for her. He gets this cute little squeely sounds and it sounds like he's saying "Ally", just like Ben used to... "Ah-yee". He loves to crawl around and "chase" her when she gets hyper and she likes to run from him.
He's gone from a momma's boy to a daddy's boy. If Daddy is around, he only wants him (Hmmm, sounds familiar, oh wait- Ben was the same way). I must be a mean person or something. I don't know what happens at this age with my kids. Maybe one day I'll have someone to love me... sniff, sniff. Just kidding. He at least only wants me to snuggle with at night.
Jonah blows kisses with the back of his hand, and just recently started making the "mmm-wah" sound with it. He also has a cute little wave bye-bye, but only does it if he feels like it. He LOVES his teach Miss Tamara at school. He will pick her over me, and to be honest- sometimes it makes me a little sad, but since he spends a good portion of his day with her I'm so glad he loves her. He apparently gets very jealous of the other kids she's tending to.
Jonah is a little more rambunctious and busy then Ben was, and we'll probably have to baby proof much more than we did with Ben. We've already had to put plug covers in and we never had to do that with Ben. He's starting to learn "no" but sometimes doesn't want to listen! We believe he will be our comic relief in the family, he already cracks us up on a daily basis.
We love you little Jonah Bear. You are a light in our family, and a very important part of it. We are so honored that you chose us to come to. 1 year down, many more to go!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY BOY!

De-doo doo doo, de-da da da

Things can get kind of rough. You know, being a mom is hard. Awesome, but hard. And work in to the mix and for me... that make things even harder. I'm not saying that being a stay-at-home mom is easy, by any means. I know from friends experiences that it's not. It might be a different kind of hard, but it's hard none-the-less. Last night I was pretty pooped. Everyone but me was asleep. Ally, the dog all through the evening kept going to the back door to be let out. Ally... doesn't really like to go out- even when we know she needs to. So when she begs like that, over and over again- we know she's up to no good. Like she found crumbs or some food we might've thrown out there while cleaning the table off or something. Or if Ryan's grilled out on the deck, she might sniff around extra and lick stuff in hope she might get one tiny morsel of human food. (As if we have never fed her before and she's starving.) So before Ryan went to bed (before I did) she kept asking to go out and finally we told her no. So I trapped her in our bedroom with Ryan, turned off the lights and went and got on the computer out in the family room. When I finally went to go to bed, the bedroom smelled... bad. But I just thought maybe it was dinner not settling well with Ryan, but I realized after stepping in POOP what the smell was. She had pooped about 4 times in our main walking area of our room.  GRRRRR Got it cleaned up and went to to bed. Didn't sleep good. Woke up to a mildy annoying email. Went to go change the baby after his bottle, because he had a stinker and realized he'd thrown up some of his bottle and there was poop... all over the place. Crib, blankets, changing table, my arm, my bra his back- up to his neck, his clothes... so, I had to give him a bath- which takes time out of my precious and very routine time in the morning. All the while, big brother still isn't feeling great after being sick the beginning of the week. It all worked out though, and it's funnier now than it was even at like 9am this morning. But you know what? I wouldn't trade it for anything. Well, ok maybe the poops I would. That was NASTY. He had a big one yesterday too that even HE thought stunk, he was making a face at me like "whoa lady! what is THAT!?"
That was my story for today. A lot of poop, sorry. Such is life. :)

My Birthday

Another day older, with the wrinkles to show for it.

 My birthday was on a Thurs this year. And I decided to take it and the next day off for a long weekend. I haven't had my birthday off in a while so it was nice to just have a "me" day. And that's just what I did. I did things I wanted to do, and wanted to eat. I shopped but didn't really buy anything, I laid on the couch for a lot of the morning. It was nice. My lovey brought me home flowers that were beautiful and Springy, and it totally made my day. He even brought me Cadbury eggs because he knows I love them. Ben made me an adorable birthday card at school as well. I am a lucky lady. I heard from all of my family in some form or fashion and felt very loved. It was a good day!

Over the weekend, we went to the Vortex again with our friends. I love that place. Their food is so freaking good. And then environment is pretty fun too, although some might not feel super comfortable there. It was a nice night out talking about music and fun things. I very grateful for our good friends we have.

5 years gone by...

I'm way behind. 

Really behind.

We've done a lot lately that I need to write about. 

I just need to start posting things about our weekends again like I used to when I had time to. 

Boring posts are better than none, right?

Well... maybe not. I take that back.

Look, I'm busy. Sometimes so busy I don't even really remember what happened two days ago.

I will do better... I really will give it a valiant effort. I know these days are important to remember- because at the rate I'm going at I might not in just a few years, or even months.

The first person in this world to make me a mother, Ben, turned 5 yesterday. I can't believe that it's been 5 years. But then again I can. I can't believe that in 5 months my Ben will be in Kindergarten. But then again, if feels like the most natural progression there could be. What's new with Ben? A lot. He's so handsome. He is! I'm not sure what gene pool he swam in, but he sure picked the right one! I don't know WHERE it came from though! He's doing really well in GA Pre-K. He's starting to learn to do Math problems and find sight words and learn about the weather and authors of books and all sorts of fun things. Last month he was made the Star Student for good behavior and got to do some fun stuff at school for a week. Like bringing his favorite snack in, favorite toy, having Mommy come for lunch at school... we were very proud of him.

Ben is an excellent big brother. He's very patient with Jonah, and Jonah just thinks he's about the funniest person he's ever met. I hope it stays that way forever. Ben still doesn't eat very many veggies, but if he does it has to be baby food veggies (a work in progress). He has developed a super sensitive sense of smell and things when any bodily fluids come out of Jonah it's disgusting. He's way in to Beyblades and Spiderman and kept asking for a skateboard for his birthday but he's still on the smallish side. He's still a sensitive soul... I think because he comes by it naturally- that will never change. He's such a good kid, he has his moments trust me, but he really wants to do the right thing. The other day when I went to pick him up, I wanted to see a family project we did hanging up- but the kids and families are not supposed to be in their classroom after school. There have been people going in and over feeding the fish adn moving things out of the closets and so they asked no one go in. But I really wanted to see this project we did and Ben acted VERY worried about it "mommy... Ms Abby said we can't come in here." me: "It's ok, we'll be really quick and I'm with you. I just want to see your poster" Ben "But mommy... we're going to get in trouble. She's WATCHING us..." I don't know how he thought she was watching us, but it made me giggle a little! We are having Ben's birthday party this upcoming weekend and he's asked for a Ninja theme. So me and Ryan are doing our best to create a fun little Ninja time for him and his buddies from church and school. Ben is in CTR4 in church this year! Can't believe it! He's not napping anymore. I can't believe I'm a mommy of a 5 year old! I am so grateful Heavenly Father sent me these perfect little boys for me and Ryan to take care of. I love them both so very much. We are truly blessed!

The Circus!

A few weeks ago we went to our usual jeweler (I swear it's not as uppity as it sounds) to get my rings cleaned and made to look prettier. The owners of the store have known Ryan's family for a very long time so they are nice to us whenever we go in. As we were leaving, he asked us if we might want to go to the Barnum and Bailey circus... he had vouchers to give away. None of us have ever been so we were excited when he offered. Plus he had tickets for the Friday before Ben's birthday. So it was kind of like a fun birthday activity we could do. I had already planned the day off anyway, so Ryan took the day off to be with us.

We had to actually go to the arena to get the vouchers exchanged for tickets and that particular arena isn't very close to our house. So by the time we got there, we didn't get the greatest seats. Or so we thought. We had the front row on the balcony and the arena is sort of "small" enough it didn't feel like we were that far away. They really were just right for us. We enjoyed the dancing, the clowns, the animals, the motor cycle stunts and acrobatics... Jonah was pretty good, he was tired but he didn't fuss or whine. He mostly took turns thrashing around on us, trying his darndest not to fall asleep. I think on a couple of occasions he did for like 45 seconds and then realized what happened and thrashed around some more. He was still very good, didn't like all the noise, but he did good. Ben said it was noisy, but he liked it. He said his favorite was the lions and tigers that did tricks. He liked the dirt bikes in the cage too. And he loved the spinning elephant head who's ears light up I bought him as a souvenir. I'm not sure how much he'll really play with it though. He's got way too many toys that kid. I need to get rid of some or put some away for him to play with later so he can appreciate what he DOES have.
After the circus we decided since we were out and about to go to IKEA, which is quite a drive from the arena but we needed some stuff. We stopped at Sonic on the way, Ben wanted a corn dog and chocolate milk for lunch. We ate, and then about half way to IKEA... he got sick and threw up in the car. Ryan frantically pulled off an exit and in to a parking lot and I rushed Ben out of the car to throw up on the side of the road. That was kind of the first time I was a little... embarrassed? It was even that I was that... it was just daylight, and he's literally puking on the side of the road while people are driving by and seeing us. Then some pigeons showed up and well... they enjoyed his lunch the second time around. It was gross and we left at that point. He didn't throw up again that day, although he didn't eat much dinner- which I don't blame him. But it must've been the Sonic food. We did eventually go to IKEA after the kids both had a rest.
It was a fun outing, minus the barf and pigeons.

Girl's Cabin Weekend- Year 2

Meghan Markham, Erin Alba, Ashley, Martha, Jennifer and I went to the cabin for our girls weekend again this year.
We went to Helen again for dinner and a stroll. We did a little shopping and then ate dinner at a cute little tiny pizza place. Then as usual we played card games, ate food, watched movies, slept... it was wonderful.

It's 2013

It's the 13th year of 2000... I can't believe that. And I can't believe that in 4 months from today, Jonah will be 1 and in 3 months from yesterday Ben will be 5. Happy New Year! We celebrated with the kids at Nana and Poppy's and we went to the Terry's for our annual New Year's party. We had Fireworks, Food, and Friends... oh lots of FFFFFFFFFUN!
So what's going on in our world. We've just finished the busy holiday season. I always kind of get down this time of year... the beginning of the year, after the excitement of the Holidays, not much to look forward to until the Spring. Luckily, I have an all girl's weekend to look forward to in two weeks. We are going to the cabin again and it'll be fun. I will miss my boys, and I'm so grateful Ryan will watch the boys so I can go and enjoy some quiet girl time.
I took Jonah to his 9 month check up. He's in the 25th percentile for height and weight. And 95th or so for his head, still. That kids got a HUGE noggin. Everything is good with him though, he's a completely wiggle worm... he barely sat still enough for the doctor to check him. We do need to take him to a specialist to check his eyes though because he keeps getting gookie eyes. It might be that he has clogged tear ducts. I hope not, but it's worth checking it out. He's 18 lbs 3 oz and 27 1/2 inches long.
About Jonah: he's head strong. And not just because his head is big! If he sees something he wants, he WILL get it. And if he doesn't feel like laughing, or saying something, or making a noise you want him to- he wont. He's army crawling still. Doesn't seem to be interested much in hands and knees crawling, not sure if he ever will. But he's fast enough doing it that way. He loves his mama still. He doesn't like to sleep that much, but when he does... he wants to be on his bed. He LOVES his big brother.  He loves to sit at the table next to him. And loves to hug him when he sees him. And honestly, no one makes him smile or laugh like his big brother does. He'll laugh at Ben before anyone else. I hope it stays that way forever. He's still a little fish in the bath, loves to be in the water and isn't scared of it at all it seems. And of course, it's always better if Ben is there with him. We can't wait to get him in a swimming pool. He really is a ball of energy... always moving except for when he sleeps! So I think we'll need to have him in a lot of activities... burn off all that energy! It's so true that each of us are born with our own spirits in tact, because Ben and Jonah are so different in so many ways. Ben's always been pretty laid back and easy going. And I think Jonah is going to be the exact opposite. And I love them both for their own little personalities. I am so grateful God sent them to us to love and learn from and take care of. Being a mommy is the most challenging and easy and frustrating and gratifying and scary and amazing thing I've ever done in my life! I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to do have this job. I am Ben and Jonah's mommy, and I love it!

booger bubble!

Well, Merry Christmas! Today we celebrated as parents of two handsome boys. Sometimes it's weird to think this is our 6th Christmas together, and that we've now got a little family to celebrate as. 

We started our celebrations on Saturday with our some of our friends and exchanged gifts. We got a picture of the kids together in their jammies. Cute little stinkers. Then Sunday we had a beautiful musical Sacrament meeting. Yesterday I baked. I made cookies and banana bread in our (MY) new KitchenAid stand mixer which I love. It made me giggle excitedly. Then last night we headed to Jonesboro to visit Ryan's Aunt Vickie as we have in the past. There were SOOOOOO many people there. Some who were not related or that I even knew, but we had fun and everyone was very nice and gracious. We had a wonderful dinner and then the kids opened their gifts from cousins and aunts and uncles. Then the grown ups played Dirty Santa. Poor Jonah isn't feeling too great again. I think his top teeth are starting their decent and is making for a miserable little man. So it was hard for me to enjoy it completely because he was not doing so great. We had a foggy drive home and me and Ben wrapped daddy's present, put out a cookie for Santa and he hurried to bed. He was afraid Santa would see him. He was SO excited and it was ADORABLE. It made me excited for him and to focus on the excitement of Christmas instead of feeling stressed about wrapping presents and all that stuff. 

We finally got settled in to bed around 11pm. Only to be woken up by the sick one, Jonah, at about 12:30am. Then again at 2.30, then again at 4:30.... we woke up at 7:30 and he didn't wake up until Ben had opened some presents already. We got Ben up and he was so excited to see his gifts! He kept saying "he really listened to my list!!" and "Santa gave me too much!" and "I like Santa". Like he really got it this year. Ally, our dog, ate Santa's cookie though much to our shagrin. And we didn't even know she'd done it until this morning. Santa brought Ben a cute little guitar, a scooter and a few other cool things. Jonah got a treasure chest and some clothes. I required that we all take naps, and when I got there... I couldn't sleep. I think I'm getting a cold and was feeling the affects of it, coughing and uncomfortable. Ugh. One of the only times I get the chance to nap, and I can't. So frustrating. Anyway, we rushed to get the house a little more presentable than a Christmas morning lends to, and Ryan's parents came over to spend the rest of the day with us. We made spaghetti dinner and opened presents and just hung out. It was super nice and relaxing and actually fun to be at home. We're usually somewhere else on Christmas day, so I was glad to be home today. Especially since Jonah wasn't feeling great this morning. After his afternoon nap though, his fever had gone away and he was much happier, not totally better... but happier. 

Now the boys are in bed, and we're just hanging out listening to the rain that could become severe weather (there have been tornadoes here in the South today, sad...). I am working tomorrow, bummer, but hopefully not for a whole day.

I sometimes tend to forget why we celebrate today, and need to do better at making sure my kids understand why. I am grateful for our Lord and Savior whose birth we celebrate. I am grateful for His sacrifice and teachings while on the earth. I am grateful for His love. Now, a week away from 2013! ACK! Where did the year go!? I feel as though having two kids makes the time fly by even faster!

Christmas exchange with our friends!

 

Aunt Vickie and Uncle Lanny's House- Christmas Eve

Nana and Poppy!

Tripping time

I'm sitting here next to my man, by the light of the tv and Christmas tree, listening to little Jonah in the next room over in his crib talking when he should be falling asleep. "mamamama" and "babababa" maybe even a "dadada". He's got his little blue doggy blanky and I'm sure is in a corner of the crib sideways, because he NEVER sits still. Ben is in bed, and I'm thinking of him and how I'm concerned a little for him. This has been a hard year for him. Life as he knows it has changed a lot. And I think part of it is because there's a new member of our family, but he's growing older and learning more and realizing more and more how things work every day, which is getting him in to trouble. He's pushing his limits, us, his teacher at school and causing some trouble. I am hoping it's just a stage and not something we'll have to always worry about. He's always been a pretty well behaved kid... but lately, he's been quite difficult. He's very smart and sensitive though... I guess both of those things are maybe not a good combo? I love him, so much, but get so frustrated with him. I have to find balance with him and remember he's a lot like me and if it were me how would I want to be treated? Anyway, that's on my mind right now.
Jonah and I went to go visit my family out in UT this past week. We flew to Las Vegas and met my sister Delinda. Jonah did pretty well on the flight out... I know it was hard for him because he is a wiggle worm. He slept a good bit though. And luckily I sat by two very nice guys who didn't mind him at all. We got there Wednesday afternoon, and Delinda picked us up. We went straight to Rubio's to get fish tacos... because we love them and never have them. After we were done eating, Jonah had a barf fest, (neither of us have seen a barf like the first one, shot out and my hand deflected it and his face was covered from above his eye brows all the way down... in his eyes, nose, all over the car seat, EVERYWHERE...) so as soon as we got that cleaned up we were on our way to St. George. Not long after we got there (and Jonah slept the whole way), Claudia and Nico and Missy came to see us, and then when John got off work he came over. We had Cafe Rio for dinner and then Jonah and I went over to John's to go to bed. Although, he went to bed and I stayed up to chat with them. I love them so much. I wish we lived closer. I love the talks we have with each other and I love their kids. Thursday we spent the day hanging out with my parents and went and ran errands and then that night had our traditional Christmas dinner of Roast, Yorkshire pudding, cream corn, roast potatoes and trifle for dessert. Mom and Dad had 3 of her 4 [living] kids there that night. We missed Greg and his family. Jonah unfortunately really started to feel sick... cold, yucky eyes, coughing and wheezing. He was pretty miserable the whole time. Not his cheery and happy little self. Poor thing! Friday, Delinda and I ran some errands, did a little shopping... I had Kneaders for lunch (there's a theme here, all the food I had been craving that we don't have out here I tried to get! haha). I tried to sleep for a little bit, but couldn't. So we ran a couple more errands to get prepared for our trip home and then we went to see Shauna's grave. I sat by her and just thought abouthow much I miss her. And how much I wish she was there to meet Jonah. The horses came to say hello to us though. On the way back to mom and dad's, Delinda and I talked about all the things we missed about Shauna. How funny she was, her pretty handwriting, her hugs, We sang Heart and talked about how she loved Anne Murray... I was glad to be with DJ to talk about it all.
That night, we went to John and Claudia's for dinner. Claudia, the angel she is, made us Empanadas. They were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good! I haven't had her empanadas in years and she was kind enough to spoil us with them. They are hard work to make. And they were amazing. And so is she. I am grateful for such an amazing family and awesome sisters in-law to take care of my brothers. After we ate dinner, we had pumpkin pie cheesecake and then all watched Elf together. Everyone sat on the couches and Nico and I listened to music on the floor and shared some of our favorites bands with each other sharing headphones. It was a nice evening together. Then Saturday it was time to go home. Delinda's flight was a lot earlier than mine, so mom and dad took me and Jonah to Vegas to the airport. Gave us a little more time together. It was a rough ride home, the plane had a malfunction and Jonah was a bit of a stinker- and at this point I was exhausted. Jonah didn't sleep well the whole time we were there, which means I didn't. So by the time we were about an hour from landing I was just DONE. Luckily, people were kind and generous and offered to help and were generally nice. I had a lot of offers to help me which I appreciated, and a lot of compliments on how well behaved Jonah was. I know that most of them saw us and thought "oh great..." when they saw me entering the plane with the baby. He fell asleep pretty fast though. But then we had the engine problem. He slept through most of that, but then woke up when they started making announcements. Right after our malfunction on the plane was taken care of and they alerted us that we would be now taking off, he pooped. AWESOME timing kid... I couldn't get up because we were starting the take off process. So, I tried to hold him on my lap as much as possible and held his shirt down as to block the smell, I just didn't want someone to smell it. BUT, there was nothing I could do. After we'd gotten in to the air, I asked the flight attendant if he could let me know when I could get up because the baby had pooped and I didn't want it to bother the people around me. As soon as he could, right before the drink service, he came to me and told me to go ahead. The only restroom with a changing table was in the back of the plane and I was 12 rows from the front. (sigh) So I took him and my purse back there. Got him on the fold out table in the tiny little bathroom and undid his diaper only to look in my purse and find I didn't have wipes in there, they were in his duffel bag in the overhead. Ugghhhhh. So I had to use wet paper towels. While I was getting said paper towels wet, he was getting his shirt wet by PEEING everywhere! (Again, UGGGHHHH) I yelped, he stopped, I got more paper towels, he peed more... WHATEVER... I can't do anything about it. Luckily, it was just a t-shirt and it wasn't his pants and it was just a section of his shirt in the back. So I got his diaper on, got MORE paper towels and sopped up the pee from his shirt. Then proceeded to go pee my self with the changing table still down and him still laying on it, which incidentally lays over the toilet. So I had to stick my toosh back there and maneuver the peeing business. All the while he's rolling around and I'm holding him up with my head, right arm, and shoulders! It was a circus in that little bathroom! But we got it taken care of. Phew. The rest of the flight was just... too long. I just wanted to get home. He fussed, fell asleep, kept waking up, and did this like 2 or 3 times. Oh well. We made it... and it was a great trip, I'm SO glad we got to see my family and visit, it was short but the perfect amount of time. I missed Ryan and Ben like CRAZY and was so glad to see them when we got home. Me and Ryan snuggled most of the night. I realize whenever I'm away from him how much I don't like it. haha! I love to have my partner around all the time, he's my best friend and I just love being with him. Jonah was SO glad to be home, so glad to see his daddy and big brother. Luckily, we ALL slept until 9am this morning. Jonah didn't wake up once... I think he was SO tired. He even took a 3 hour nap today! And the rest of us about an hour and a half nap. Now it's back to work... and I'm not looking forward to it. Things are going to get crazy. But Christmas is about 2 weeks away so we'll get some more family time together.
We are having a little shindig for Christmas with our friends this weekend I'm excited for. We also have our Relief Society dinner this week for church, and Christmas lights at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens next week... volunteering for work on the 21st at the Salvation Army giving away the Angel Tree gifts. Lots to look forward to.
And something to make me feel old, my nephew JC who is on a mission is turning 20. Weird.
Jonah's two bottom teeth have come out, right at 8 months old. He's army crawling and is in to EVERYTHING he can find. When he's not scooting around that way, he rolls everywhere. Loves to play with tags on anything. Calls me "mama", especially when he wants me. Says and waves "Bubuh" (bye bye). He's pretty serious, he's happy, but doesn't laugh much. He doesn't like to be tickled, he cries or gets mad if he's not in the mood. He'll laugh, but he really has to be in the right mood for it. He's big. Or at least I feel like he's bigger than Ben was, but I don't really remember right probably. He's starting to grow out of his 6-9 mo clothes though. He doesn't like to be told no, and gets pretty mad at us when we take something away from him he shouldn't have. He's my snuggle bunny. Mama's boy.
Well, I should go to bed. I will have to do better with updating this... I am so forgetful nowadays that unless I write it down, it will disappear in to the oblivion.
*photos to come.

It's been a long time since I've written, and I really don't have much time or energy for that matter to write much. But wanted to note that I'm still alive... barely. ha! I have to tell ya... I'm sure there are plenty of people who love it- but for me, being a working mommy of TWO kids is hard! I am WORN out. I know Ryan is too. We decided last week that being a grownup is pretty hard sometimes... but, we have the two most adorable faces to wake up to everyday! THANK GOODNESS!
Jonah is 7 months old now. His little personality is really shining through, and we just love him. He's another happy boy that's been brought in to our lives, and we are so grateful for that. He has the most contagious smile! He's making lots of fun sounds and noises... ba-ba, mama, dada and the "pfffft" sound with his tongue. Rolls all over...loves to bob his head when he's sitting upright. Loves his big brother and Ally the dog. Loves his mama. Is pretty stubborn. Loves his blue doggy blankie. He definitely looks like my side of the family.
Ben had a wonderful Halloween, he was Spiderman this year. He only wanted to go to a few houses to trick-or-treat, and had a much more entertaining time passing out candy and seeing all the other kids. He even gave up some of his candy for a trick-or-treater when I ran out of candy to pass out! He's doing well in Pre-k and is learning SO much. He surprises us everyday with things he's singing or talking about. He LOVES Show and Share Fridays. And occasionally still gets jealous of the attention Jonah gets. He's got a talking back problem right now, which I'm sure will probably be an issues for years to come (sigh) but he's got a heart of gold. I had a really rough morning last week and was crying because I was frustrated about something and he said "mommy?" and I kind of said in an annoyed voice "BEN! You need to leave me alone for a little bit so I can figure out how to do this okay?" and he said "But mommy? I just wanted to know if I could give you a hug?" Sweetest little guy. He's LOVED playing out in front with the two neighbor girls Sophia and Isabella. They're quite a bit older than him, but they are great with him and he always looks to see if they are around to play house with. Which I love, because kids are supposed to be outside using their imaginations and not getting their brains sucked out by the tv right?! I don't even mind when he gets super dirty!
Jonah and I are flying out to St. George, UT to go see my parents and brother (maybe both?) with my sister Delinda. I will miss my other boys but am happy I get to go be with my family too.
Okay, time for bed. I would love to say or promise I'll do better at writing but I struggle to find any time. We've got a bridal shower this weekend, wedding next, Thanksgiving... and then holidays. And work is INSANE right now on top of that. Life...
We had some family photos taken by a wonderful photographer who is a mutual friend of some of my friends, she did and amazing job and can't wait to get them. I will share a couple when we get the disc! Until then, here are the boys!

On the way to Trick-or-Treat!

Burt's Pumpkin Farm

Tender heart

Our Ben has the most tender little heart. Ben is a very sensitive kid and feels his emotions throughout his whole body. Whether it be that he's sad, disappointed, happy, excited... he FEELS it. I just had a great cuddle/hang out before bed session with him and it made me happy so I wanted to write about it while thinking of it. There's enough room for us to both lay on his bed, so we were just chatting... about who knows what. Who cares, right? He said his prayers, asked for Uncle Greg to feel good and "thankful for soccer that it'll get safely" and then I told him goodnight and I loved him lots. I put my hands back to back and said "I love you from here (one side of the hand) all the way around the world to here (the other side of the hand)" to which he replied "No.... I love you from here (point to his heart) to here (to my heart)". Is your heart melting like mine did? Even though my little guy drives me batty, for being a 4 year old he sure is wise and loving. When I got home the other night from a long day at work where I had to stay after hours he came out to the car to great me and hug me and said "mommy- you took too much long to come home". I love that little stinker. He is, as well as his brother, my SUNSHINE.

Big Headed Children

I guess it's inevitable. We have big headed kids. I took Jonah to his 4 month check up last week and he's doing great. Healthy, happy, on the right track. His head... 98th percentile people. We have a genius on our hands! I can feel it! I mean, you've got to have a large head to hold all those brains right? Right??? There is one hindrance to such a large head though, he doesn't quite have the tummy-time- head up-pushing up with hands-thing down yet. He'll get there though! He's average for length, but a little on the skinny side- but again, I'm not worried. His reflux is pretty well under control. He's been a little under the weather since going to daycare, but that's to be expected unfortunately. He's a HAPPY baby. Loves to cuddle with mama. Only wants a pacifier when he wants to fall asleep. Is playing and reaching for things. Rolls to his side, and can just about get to his belly. The girls at daycare says he does, but I wont believe it until I see it. :^) He LOVES taking baths, especially with his big brother. He loves to talk and make noises and suck on his little fists. He's found his feet. He likes to be sung to, he thinks it's pretty funny. He likes it when daddy scares him. He likes to "talk" to daddy too, Ryan will ask him a question and he'll smile and nod his head or sometimes shake it. I know, coincidence but it happens EVERY TIME. haha! He loves to watch Ben. He and Ben are starting, just barely, to interact with each other and it's awesome. I can't wait until they have that solid brotherly bond and when they get to laugh and play together. We both swear Jonah hates being a baby and just wants to play, play, play and be a bigger kid.
We fed him his first rice cereal, but he's not really in to it yet. We will try again in another week or so. He ate it- but he doesn't get it really. He's sleeping pretty much from 8:30ish-6am... on average. Not always, but most nights he does. We're finding it's harder to get him to sleep when we're out, he likes to know what's going on and see around him despite how tired he is. He snorts when he's mad. He's taking about 6oz in the bottle mixed with a little cereal for his reflux. Again, he's a very happy baby. I love his little cute cheeks and kissing them and he actually likes it when I do it too, which makes my heart warm and fuzzy. He's got beautiful eyes and a happy disposition. We are so blessed to have two beautiful sons of God that we "get to" take care of.

this photo melts my heart every time I see it...

Big Boy...

I think I'll freak out even more when he goes to Kindergarten next year, but for now- this is close enough. Ben started Pre-K yesterday! Luckily we are blessed to have both the boys in a good daycare, and ours has the Pre-K program there already! He loves his new teacher Miss Abby and assistant teacher Miss Dana. Both of them have kids at the daycare, and seem like nice ladies! He even gets to wear his backpack. I don't know... we might need to get him a cooler one, do you think Winnie the Pooh is a little too young for a 4 1/2 year old? No seriously... I don't want him to feel "un-cool". Anyway, I gave him a haircut and he's so handsome. I love my little smarty pants. :)

It's high time I update this blog thing. haha So much has happened in just the last month my head is still spinning. I'll get to that later, maybe even in another post. We have had a pretty fun summer though, and I wanted to write about it.

Because I had Jonah in April, my maternity leave covered May and June and so me and the two kiddos were able to do some fun stuff once I was feeling up to it and felt Jonah was "old" enough to be out and about. To keep myself from going completely insane, I tried to get out about every other day- even if it was just to the grocery store or for a ride or something. However, about a month, or maybe a little more than that, before I went back to work I was invited by a church friend to go to the playdates a group of ladies from church do every Wednesday. This proved to be very beneficial for not only Ben, who was getting super bored at this point at home with me and the baby, but for me as well. I have somewhat been a little introverted when it comes to friends or people I know at church. We have a good group of friends, but they happen to be in other wards (or congregations for those who don’t speak Mormon) and so I just haven’t made a huge effort to get to know people. Plus I’m a little shy believe it or not and maybe and just afraid of rejection? I don’t know… anyway, the play group not only helped me get acquainted to people I already knew I liked but to meet a few other women that I didn’t know. And it was fun to see all the things we could do for either free or really cheap. We went to a park near railroads tracks, so that every time a train went by the kids could run up and watch it. And just down the street from there is a free little splash park, much like the one at Centennial Park. So free and free= awesome. We went to another park at the DeKalb Peachtree Airport, a smaller airport here in the Atlanta area. The kids get to watch the planes take off, and again- it was free! We brought lunch and ate under the little covered table area and the kids played on the playground there. We went to the Splashpark near our house which is only $1 to get in… and all three places Ben had A BLAST. Jonah did pretty well too! We had a few other playdates with friends on the side which was really nice. We went with Kaela and Aubrey K. to a place called Catch Air, basically an indoor playground with tons of bounce house type equipment. Ben keeps asking if we can go back, which I hope to soon. Ben also learned to love and appreciate cold sandwiches and Lunchables during our summer together.  We typically feed him warm food, and he actually eats warm lunches at school too. And I figured that since he’ll be going to elementary school next year (EEEK!) he needs to have cold lunches a lot. Still not keen on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches though, which is so weird to me. Who doesn’t love a PB&J with a cold glass of milk? Apparently my child.

The week before I had to go back to work was our typical summer vacation week. Ryan takes off the week of his birthday every year, and luckily that was the week I was supposed to return to work- but instead I used a week of vacation and we spent the week as a family hanging out together. We went to the pool, we ran errands, we played in the rain, we filled up the little pool we have and the boys played in it, celebrated Ryan's birthday... It was just fun to do whatever, whenever. Ben and I had a date and we got to go to the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts one of the days that week. We went and saw the Pirate Princess which is basically the Little Mermaid story… only closer to the real version of it. He LOVED it. LO-VE-D it. It was really fun! They have a “museum” of puppets there we got to look at. And because he was dressed up like a pirate (I think one of the only kids there that was!) he got a coupon for a free cupcake, which we still need to get him. Anyway, I think he really enjoyed the alone time with mommy. Ryan and Jonah hung out at home.

We also were able to drop the boys off at Ryan's parents for an evening, and were spoiled thanks to a vendor working with Ryan's company. We had tickets to the SunTrust suite at the Braves game which included free food and drinks, as much of it as you want, valet parking and two awesome seats behind home plate. We were almost on TV, but we were like two people shy of it! It was definitely a lot of fun. Ryan had what we think was the flu unfortunately, but we still enjoyed each others company. I love my man and spending time with him alone. Ben is starting to get jealous of us spending time alone with one another, he thinks we should love him first instead of each other. One day he'll understand!  This summer we have also got to visit with my sister Delinda, our friends from the Northpoint Singles ward, which incidentally, a lot of us all had kids around the same time as each other, and also our friends the Christensen's. We try to see the Christensen's once a year, or at least have been blessed to have been able to. They moved from AZ to PA and got to stop in town to visit and we had a great, short, visit with them. We wish it could've been longer. We always find ourselves saying "I wish they lived closer, we would hang out with them all the time".
Going back to work this time was pretty difficult. Not maybe as difficult as it was last time with Ben, but for about a month before (I know, pretty pathetic) I was pretty down and out. Spending the summer with Ben and being the stay at home mom I really desire to do was so much "fun"... hard at times, but I loved being with my two boys. I miss them a lot every day. I just hope that one day they realize that we both want what's best for them and even though it's not my first choice to be working- we have a lot of reasons for it and feel it's what we need to do for our family. With that said, I decided to not be too mopey about it. I still have my days, but I have to make the best of our situation and so while I was out on Maternity leave I was presented with a new position opportunity at my work that I applied for and eventually got the job! I've been back to work since June 25th and it's been a bit of a crazy (almost) 2 months. I am excited for this new position, it's just hard for me to go from knowing my other job SO well to training on something new and not really knowing what to do next or how or what's the right way, etc. The lady that was doing the job before me quit while I was out on Maternity leave, so I don't have anyone training me. I'll get through it though. There are definitely some perks to this new position, although it's a lot more demanding and at times will be more time consuming- it was definitely a blessing. A pay raise and the ability to have the option to work from home occasionally will help out tremendously. Anyway... that's the update for our summer so far. It's almost over, and we will be ending it with a trip to Destin, FL to visit the beach! Yay! We have been waiting just about ALL year for this!

Cool Baby...

Swimming! Jonah enjoys (warm) water!

Lots of playing in the rain!