Not ready for 8

We watched our friends' kids tonight for them to have a much deserved break. They have 6 kids and we took 5 of them since the oldest had gymnastics.

It was fun and crazy and messy. Definitely not ready for 8 kids. But I will say they all played well and I was super happy to do it. I also must say it was my awesome husband's idea. So big kiddos and brownie points for him!

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Headache

Tonight, more storms are rolling through. My head isn't so sure about them. I'm tired and grouchy. Hopefully, the Advil will kick in and Eli will go to sleep so I can crawl into my own bed and crash.

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Tried it

So I love Pinterest, but for as many things as I pin I probably try only about 10%. But here is one I tried today. The link for the recipe is

http://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2011/01/microwave-chocolate-peanut-butter-oat-snack-bars.html

And as she says it took only about 3 minutes. Then a little time in the fridge to set up. I used my silform to make little bite size pieces. I think they are pretty yummy- taste really close to no bake cookies only a little less sweet.(I didn't add the optional sugar but might next time). My picky little ones weren't interested. Too oaty for them I guess. So umm mommy may or may not have almost eaten the whole thing to herself already.

Surviving

People love to ask me how life with 3 kids is. And usually I reply- It's about as hard as I thought it would be.

And well I expected it to be crazy hard.

So yes, my brain is always only half working due to lack of sleep. My laundry isn't caught up. My kitchen is embarrassingly messy most days. Toys are everywhere. My to do list is super long- probably longer but due to fog brain I don't actually remember to put things on it. :). I feel like I'm always running. I haven't been able to lose much of my baby weight or tummy yet. And I usually only wear makeup on Sundays.

But we have some friends going through some pretty intense trials right know. And tonight as I snuggled my sweet baby, I was overcome with feeling so blessed. Yes my life is crazy but it is wonderful. I'll take the crazy and messy house. I have strong healthy kids. I have an amazing husband who provides so well for our needs. I have good friends who are there for me. I have a family who loves and supports me. And even though I'm exhausted about 90% of the time...I am blessed to have the life I have. I hope that I can remember that with my foggy brain!

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Long day

Well I'm not sure how this day/weekend so far became so full but it did.

Hoping the kids sleep well tonight!

I don't feel prepared enough for my lesson tomorrow so I need to rest and not have complete fog brain tomorrow.

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3 clean kids

I love squishy little ones all clean in the tub!

Letter to daddy

Sariah dictated a letter for her daddy to me tonight. Seriously, so cute!!

Daddy,

I love you! I love you more! You are awesome! I like to get presents for my birthday. And I love you. And I get presents for my next birthday. And I think you are awesome. And I love you. And I think I love my daddy. That is all I want to say. And I say I love you so much because you are my daddy.

Love
Sariah

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Expired

So I realized last night that my driver’s license expired in November- of last year!  Yikes!  I am used to getting a little card in the mail to remind me.  However, my address was still my old address (my parents’ house when we lived with them) so maybe that messed up the delivery of my reminder card.  Anyways.  I managed to barely make it to the DMV and get it renewed while Sariah had preschool.  It was her short day so I only had an hour and per usual the DMV was crazy busy and had like 6 people working on motor vehicles and only 1  working driver’s licenses.  So I was number 57 and they were on number 46.  Yeah, it took the whole time and I was 2 minutes late to get Sariah, but that is definitely close enough.  And yay now I can legally drive again.  Although today was the only day that I actually knew I was driving illegally.  Way to go mommy brain! 

Fight it

I'm not sure why kids fight going to sleep. I love it. I love to just be able to lay in peace. Yet tonight Eli just couldn't get comfortable I guess. He fusses and fusses and then finally just passed out. Of course he's super congested. Maybe that is part if it. Poor lil man. Now he's all cuddles and that makes it hard to lay him down. Maybe I'll hold him just a little longer. :)

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Quick

Late night. Hung out with our awesome friends- Rob & Jessi. Just getting home at 11. Hoping Eli will go back to sleep easy after he eats. What happened to the days where we just stayed out late and got to go straight to bed when we got home. Ahh the days before kids. I just didn't know that I should have appreciated little things like that more.

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Taking a chance

Well it may be a long sleepless night tonight. I don't know. I have a little bad mommy confession. Eli is almost 12 weeks and is still sleeping in his bouncy seat instead of flat on his back in his crib. It started when he was born. He just slept so much better in it. And with all his spit up problems, I just kept letting him sleep in it. It is one of those wide papason style ones. I have it clicked back so he is mostly on his back. And well I put it in his crib so technically he sleeps in his crib. Hehe.

But tonight James is doing a sleep study and I'm on my own. But it is a 3 day weekend because he has Monday off. So crazy me has decided to try to switch Eli to sleeping in his crib. He has established pretty good sleep patterns and soon he will be too big for his seat.

I may be exhausted in the morning. I may cave part way through the night and switch back but I'm going to try.

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Weight

Everyone always wants to know how much my chunky little man weighs. Well today he went to the doctor. And at 11 weeks Eli weighs 16.2 lbs. Gotta love the chubby boy!!

Debate

I always have these debates about doing a private blog.  I do use my blog as a journal of sorts.  It is a public journal.  Although I have posted blogs that are very personal and display a lot of my inner self, I do still know this is public and so therefore hold back or don’t post everything.  But I’m a lousy journal writer.  Yes, I have a journal in my nightstand and I probably write it in about 4-8 times a year.  Usually when I’m really upset and need to let it all out.  But I realize that I should do better at just writing out my thoughts and using journaling to clear my head.  Problem being when do I make time to do this.  Often I write my blogs from my phone as I nurse Eli.  But last Sunday, I taught a lesson from Nephi when he was having a discouraging time.  One of the points was that he took time to write.  Now for the lesson this was a fairly minor point.  But for me, it really struck a cord.  I find that I’m easily overwhelmed lately and need to find more ways to release stress and anger.  I say anger and don’t mean I’m an angry person.  But I find with my hormones out of whack still that I get anger or down a lot more easily than when I’m level.  And since I’m still nursing, well yeah I’m still outta whack.  So yes this is why I need a private blog.  So I can ramble like this and not have to proofread before posting!    I believe I will try it.  Worst case scenario, I don’t ever post to it either! hehe

Tummy time with sis

Ben Oh Ben

I love my son. Truly I do but some days Ben can be such a stinker!

Today was one of those days. I had finished Sariah's Valentines to take to preschool. I had told Ben he could not have a lollipop. I explained what they were for. A bit later I went to do Sariah's hair. Not thinking I left the cards on the table. You see where this is going don't you. I come back to find that Ben had removed, unwrapped, and begun eating FOUR of the lollipops!! I could have had some sympathy that the temptation was too great if he'd eaten one but FOUR??

Yep that's Ben.

Sledding video

Watch for Ben at the end. That kid cracks me up!

Valentine's

So tonight I'm starting to put together Sariah's Valentines cards for her preschool class. With out no spend month I couldn't just go buy them-even if they are only a couple dollars. So I let her pick a design on the Silhouette. And of course she picks a super complicated princess. Hehe. How fitting! Just kidding. It is cute. I put this one together tonight to see how it would turn out. I think I will do the smaller pieces but let Sariah do the dresses tomorrow on her own.

Hope

This has been a very discouraging week for me. I've been tired and that makes my emotions much more raw. Tonight, I had another testimony moment that my calling at church is truly what the Lord wants me to do. I'm the Gospel Doctrine teacher. It is daunting and intimidating and wonderful and full of feeling the Spirit all at the same time. As I prepared my lesson for tomorrow, I knew that this lesson was for me personally. It is about Nephi and a discouraging time in his life. It just gave me hope again. It brought back the reminder that there is joy, that there is hope, that I need to trust in the Lord. It filled me up when I have felt so empty.

I know that God is our father, our Heavenly Father. That he knows me and is well aware of my struggles. And he is there to love me through them and to restore hope and joy in my life when I can't seem to find it myself.

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Clean bathroom

Today the most eventful thing was my deep clean of the master bathroom. I'm talkin toothbrush on the shower grout.

It's all sparkly!

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Drained

Tonight, I feel drained. Not so much physically as mentally and emotionally.

My awesome mother in law kept our older kids yesterday and part of today so that James and I could take our midterms. Each one took about 3 hours. So 3 hour test yesterday and 3 hour test today. And not three I know what I'm doing hours. Three I have no clue and no confidence in my abilities in this class hours. Sucky!

And then this afternoon I heard a song that brought me to tears thinking about my dad. Most days I do pretty well with my emotions about this. But today wasn't one of those. It was a I miss him and I miss him a lot kinda day.

So tonight I'm drained. I'm just feeling down and spent. I'm hoping to find some more joy tomorrow because today was hard.

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Super mom

A friend referred to me as super mom today. I've used this term for several of my friends before but never for myself unless I was saying that I was NOT a super mom/super woman. I typically don't feel I have it all together. I get get close but not quite there. I have the kitchen clean but the bathroom is a mess. I got the checkbook balanced but there are still deposits to be made or bills to pay. My to do list never seems to end. I usually just say I'm crazy when I think about the things I have going on. Not that I'm super. But why not? Why don't I think I'm super and doing an awesome job. That is truly what struck me today when she made that comment. I really should give myself more credit. I'm more than willing to give it to others.

So yes...

I just had a baby two months ago.
I have three kids. Who are 4, 2 and 2 months.
I manage to get out of the house most days.
I drag Ben kicking and screaming all the way home rather than not take him.- he throws a huge fit when we leave places. Many times I have wanted to simply not take him but I want him to have fun and go to the park. Even if that means I have the embarrassment and physical workout of picking him up while carrying Eli in his carseat all the way to the car.
I am back taking classes towards my MBA. Currently struggling and putting A LOT of time into a Managerial Finance class.
My husband and I are doing a no spend month so I don't get to eat out or drive through at all this month and it is seriously hard!
I'm trying to keep up with my house and usually do a good job on at least one room a day. (even if all the others are trashed :)).
I have pretty much kept up my picture a day, blog a day, and 5 minutes scripture study a day, but not my craft time each week as part of my new years resolutions.

I'm not perfect. But I am trying to give myself some credit.

So yep I'm SUPERWOMAN. Not the crazy lady.

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Best part of voting

The treats and stickers!!

Tight fit

I keep telling Ben he's too big for this but it doesn't stop him from trying.

Stocking Pictures- Christmas 2011

Christmas in January

So I’m never really caught up on the blog.  Even with blogging everyday!!  I still take lots of pictures with the nice camera and then never pull them off so then it is a few months before I blog those.  So today’s blog is from ummm Christmas! 

So I have a lot of pictures of opening presents so I tried to just do the highlights. 

Santa came through with the much requested Sleeping Beauty doll for Sariah.

Daddy got the special treat of a new DS.

We had some fun with our new nerf guns.

Eli was also excited for the day…

Ben got more of his new love-----trains!

A special visit from some other “Santas”  Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Sean.

Mommy’s best gift--- A spa day

Daddy’s Best gift---- A “social gamer” shirt made by mommy

And Santa came through for Ben too with a new train table!!

Eli's little smiles

Brain fog

I think my consistent lack of sleep is getting to me. I'm having extreme brain fog. To the point that James ask me to think about 2 times 2500 and I seriously couldn't figure out the answer until he said you take 2 times 25 and then add the zeros. Yeah it's that bad. Also not helpful when it comes to our online class- Managerial Finance. I do the reading and can't understand a word. Ugh! Hope this gets better soon.

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Fingers

Every morning Eli has his fingers all through his nana blankie. He just looks so cozy!

Cutting back

So we've started a no spending month for February. There are lots of articles online about doing this. The first time I heard of it was on a blog which I can't find at the moment. If I find it again I'll post the link. Anyways. I've read other articles and I think it is best if you come up with your own rules depending on your family. But the rules I'm trying to keep are:
1) no money on anything crafty
2) $50 per week on groceries
3) does not include fuel, diapers/wipes, or other actual needs- for example I'm getting my oil changed on Saturday.

The main thing for me will be to not eat out. That is a super hard one for me. I often grab lunch when I'm out running errands with the kids. I originally planned a small budget allowance for this but I'm not going to include it. I'm really just going to try hard to not eat out and make sure it is a true need if I do.

Secondly and sadly I'm going to cancel my YMCA membership for a little while. It is a pretty big monthly expense. And since my back is still on the mend and Eli is too small for daycare, I figure I will cancel for a while. We are trying to eliminate some debt and so I figure I will reevaluate in 6 months and join again if I want. But for now- I will have to find ways to work out at home.

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Pirates

The first of the month is crazy day for James at work. So I knew he would be home super late. So the kids and I did an early dinner of Cream of wheat (per Sariah's request) and eggs. Then baths for all three. Then we snuggled up to watch Pirates- you know the kind that don't do anything. :). Daddy got home just in time to help put the kids to bed right as the movie ended. Here are pictures of all the kids- clean and snuggly.