The Seven Days of Thanksgiving

A lot can happen in 7 days. Here's our last 7 days in a nutshell.
My parents set out to our house for Thanksgiving. Despite all the weather reports and huge nasty storms that are coming through Utah and New Mexico. They arrive a little before midnight, With stories of blizzards, black ice, and hitch hikers. While waiting for my parents, my baby who HAD been sleeping through the night was waking up every 20 minutes or so screaming her head off. I feel inside her mouth and sure enough her gums are swollen with not one, but two bumps. That explains the pain and the sleeplessness.
 Grandpa and Little Man built a snowman.

Said snowman melted a few hours later. Mom and I went grocery shopping for the big Thanksgiving dinner.  Grandpa stayed home with the kids. Grandpa found a cool car building t.v. show on Netflix. He will watch the entire season before he leaves. Little Man got mad at grandpa because he said he couldn't have an orange soda.
All the snow from our storm melts away and after 3 days of Idaho-like winds, they finally cease. Grandpa's allergies finally turn into a cold and he is up a lot at night coughing. Almost as much as I am with my poor teething baby. I am fighting off a cold with breathe, on-guard and anti-plague. I win the fight but spend one night with extreme chills that turn into extreme sweats, followed by a day of body aches. Then, I'm good. Little Lou refuses to take her afternoon nap unless she is being held in a certain position by grandpa. No one else will do. If he tries to lay her down she will wake up in a matter of minutes.
Little Man decides to get sick and throws up his breakfast. Grandma almost follows suit, but makes grandpa clean up the mess. (Yes, I was sleeping while this happened)
Little Man gets a much needed haircut. Little Lou gets her mullet trimmed. I get my hair trimmed, just a little. Okay 12 inches, isn't a little. I donated it to locks of love. I forgot to take a picture of my pony, sorry. This is the 3rd time I have donated to Locks of Love, that makes 3' of my hair that has gone to help those adorable little kids.
Two bumps turn into one and a tooth emerges. We go to the park in one car. We see two cops on the way there and surprisingly don't get pulled over. We play at the park until dark. (grandma has all these pictures)
We cook our Thanksgiving dinner (ok grandma did most of the work but I did help) We eat said dinner and as always it is delicious! We watch some more t.v. (a lot of t.v. is watched when the household doesn't feel extremely well.)
Mike and I travel to Walmart to indulge in some Black Friday shopping. He gets his movies, I get some things for my mom that are on her list.  About 20 movies later we head home. We eat dessert and watch more t.v.
 My mom helps me make some crafts she brought up for me.

My mom and dad get things packed and ready to go. They are leaving the next day.  Parents wake up early to leave for Idaho. I am already up, having had to feed the baby. We say goodbye. They leave. I go back to bed. Kids wake up. Little Man is sad that Grandma and Grandpa with the horses have left. He gets over it.
 I start cleaning up and wish they were still here. (I don't know how I could have survived the week without them) Mike goes to the ammo store to buy a box of .22 shells. Then he sends me because you can only buy one box per customer. I return,
Little Lou still only has one tooth, but you can see the second one right there at the surface just dying to break through. She takes her afternoon nap! I am in shock. Little Man still complains that his tummy hurts. We watch more T.V.  And to finish up the week the second tooth has emerged! Little Lou is doing much better, still not back to sleeping through the night, but I am hopeful. There you have it Quite and eventful week for the Smith's in ABQ!
Our seven days in a nutshell. I wish I could say I took my parents out and showed them all the cool things of ABQ. But I guess that will have to wait for another visit, when we are all feeling a little bit better.  Mike had school through Wednesday, so we never really saw him. He did take all of Thursday off from studying, which really surprised me, but I don't blame him. He got back to the books on Friday and we haven't seen much of him since. We are looking forward to the Christmas break which will be longer, and although he will have to do some studying, not nearly as much as he is right now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
I am so grateful for my family and friends. As I said before my parents couldn't have come at a better time and I really don't know how I could have survived the week without them. My mom came down for a little vacation, but yet spent her days cooking and cleaning up after us. I am so grateful for all her help!
I have had a great time here in ABQ meeting new people and learning new things every day. It's been challenging being away from all our family and friends, but I am grateful for these new experiences. Mostly being able to stay home with the kids. They are truly a blessing in my life and teach me everyday. I hope everyone was able to spend time with their loved ones this holiday season!

Happy Halloween!

Our first Halloween in New Mexico was a success! Little Man was the "Hulk Smash" as he likes to call him. It was a very tough decision. He could decide between the Hulk or a Ninja Turtle. So I decided for him. I went with the costume that cost half as much as the other. (Ya, I'm cheap like that.) He was okay with The Hulk. I didn't really look at the mask too much before I bought the costume, it was just one of those cheap ones he would break in less than 5 minutes. But I think maybe I should have. The first time he put it on he ran around the house yelling HULK SMASH, and pounding his fists together. We went up to Little Lou and she burst out in tears! I thought maybe Little Man had just startled her, but every time he would go up to her in the mask he got the same reaction. So I took a look at the face and it is pretty scary, especially for a 4 month old! So we had to put the mask up until the big day and then I let him wear it as long as he didn't let Little Lou see him in it.

I got Little Lou a watermelon costume. I really wanted the elephant costume they had at Costco, but they never had any in her size. She was just as cute though. She would make any costume look good!  Everyone thought she was a strawberry though. It was a little annoying correcting everyone, so finally I just went with it.

We went to our Library reading time which they turned into scary time, and Little Man had a fun time showing off his Hulk like moves. My Strawberry- uh I mean Watermelon slept most of the time, but woke up toward the end. Only the little kids knew she was a Watermelon. I heard several kids correct their parents and tell them no mom she's a watermelon! See her seeds! It was pretty funny.

We found out the mall here does trick or treating. So we decided to give it a shot. We've been here 3 months now, and I had never been to the mall. (Big shock I know) It was huge! Every time I thought we were getting done with the top floor there would be another corner to round! It was exhausting! Once Little Man saw the escalators, that is all he wanted to do. So we went down the escalator and went a to a few stores downstairs and all he wanted to do was go back up. He already had a ton of candy so we called it a night and went home. Little Lou slept in her stroller the entire time.  We did however see a baby about the same age as her in the same costume, and they looked so much alike Mike and I both lifted up our carseat cover just to make sure she was still in there! :) It was crazy!

Here are a few pictures of the kids!

 "The Hulk" was hungry and taking a bite out of the watermelon.

 I don't know how she slept through all the noise

 

My scary hulk and equally adorable watermelon!

Blessing Day

Little Lou was blessed on July 7, 2013. It was a beautiful summer day and we were blessed to have lots of family and friends to enjoy the day with. My wonderful sister-in-law and equally amazing niece took pictures for me. I haven't edited any of them, simply because I haven't learned how to use my photoshop program, but I wanted to share pictures of my beautiful baby girl with those of you who weren't able to make it to the blessing. One day when I'm not out chasing a little boy around, or snuggling with my beautiful baby, I will get around to learning to edit photos.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! It's hard to believe my baby girl is 4 1/2 months old!

Confessions

So, I have been debating on whether to post this on my blog or not. My friend is writing a paper on the LDS Mom and I decuded to help her with some thoughts and insights that I have had since making the transition from full time worker/mom to full time mom. Helping her out made me decide to just make a post out of it. So here goes.

I had my first baby 3 and a half years ago. At the time my husband and I were not in a position for me to stop working or to even go to working part-time.  My husband was still going to school and trying to get into Grad School.  It was a sacrifice I made, knowing that once he had accomplished his goals, I would be able to work on mine, and become a stay at home mom.

Working full time with a new baby wasn't easy. I always felt that guilt that I should be home with him, instead of out in the workforce. People at church didn't make it any easier. I felt like there were some out there judging me because I was still working and not at home. It was hard, but I knew my baby was in good hands. Probably better hands than mine. I was lucky enough to have my sister, sister-in-law, mom, and even my niece watch my child. I didn't have to worry about daycare because I had so many willing family members who were there to help me. That made leaving each day for work a little bit easier.

It was hard working all day, then coming home and only having a few hours to spend with my little one. That's probably why I let him stay up longer than I should, so I could spend as much time with him as I could before it was off too bed for him.

So Let's fast forward to today. I now have 2 adorable loving children, my husband is in Grad School, and I am at home with my kids.  My last day of work was May 31, 2013. I had all these grand ideas about what it would be like to be at home with my kids all day. Things would be so perfect, we would play outside, do crafty things, have fun together. The house would always be clean and there would always be dinner on the table when dad got home right?

It didn't take me too long to realize those were quite lofty dreams. I got quite depressed and angry with myself a short while ago because I didn't feel that I was accomplishing anything during the day. I mean there were some days I didn't even get dressed! I felt like I was failing at my job and that maybe my kids would be better off if I went back to work.

 Being at home the last four months has been THE hardest "job" I have ever had. I could work all day unloading the biggest truck with heaviest trees and plants and still not be as tired as I am after a day at home with the kids.  I mean these kids look to me for everything! At least when I was working I could delegate stuff (especially the stuff I didn't want to do myself) As a "stay at home mom" you don't have that luxury. It's all up to you. Those kids rely on you to get it together.  You can't call in sick, you can't play hooky, you can't check out 10 minutes early, you have to be there for them every day, every minute, every second of every day.

My cousin and I were talking at a family reunion and she said she has had a couple of friends who worked, then decided to stay at home with their kids, and ended up going back to work because they just could take being home all the time. I can totally relate! Now I don't know what their reasons for going back to work were, but if I were to go back to work it would  simply be because it would be so much EASIER! It would be so much easier for someone else to raise my kids, to discipline them when they are being naughty, to entertain them all day, to teach them the things they need to know to be successful contributors to this society. (Especially since my mom was doing most of the watching these days, I don't know of a better teacher than her.)  Yes, for me, it would be much easier to be back in the workforce putting my responsibility of mom onto someone else.

I have realized that having an immaculate house, every day of the week is not a realistic dream. While dinner is more important, it's not necessary that it be a home made meal made from scratch every night either. What I have learned the last four months is this: My kids are what are important. My house may be messy, with toys and clothes all over the place, but it is not dirty, it's not and unsafe environment them. Again, my kids are what's important, not my house. The time I spend with my kids is the most important time spent. They may not always behave 100% the way I would like them too, but they are still my kids and right now they need the love and attention, more than my home does. After all, I stopped working to be with them, not with my home. I have learned to let things go, which has been the hardest. So I didn't get anything accomplished on my to do list today, that's okay, there is always tomorrow, but my kids needed me today and I was there for them, so it was not a completely lost day.

As a member of the church we learn from the time we are young that it is a women's role to nurture our children, to give them a safe loving home for them to grow up in. I believe with all my heart that this is true. There is no greater calling than being a mother. And as a mother we have certain responsibilities that our ours and ours alone. I believe that the best place for a mother is at home with her kids. It is hard, and there are days that I wonder why I ever decided to stop working. But then there are days that I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

I know that there are reasons why mothers have to go out and work, I was in the same situation, and I will never judge another woman for working outside the home. I saw too much of that in my brief time as a mom working outside the home. I found this blog post the other day, that says everything I have been feeling the last couple of months. http://themattwalshblog.com/2013/10/09/youre-a-stay-at-home-mom-what-do-you-do-all-day/ here is a link to it for those of you who want to read. He says it so much better than I could.

I know that I am where I am supposed to be, no amount of money will ever change that. I am grateful that my husband supports me in this decision and he is working so hard to be able to provide for our little family. It hasn't been easy, especially since moving away from everything we have ever known, and entering the big world of the unknown, and it will probably be an uphill battle, but it will be worth it.  While I may feel very inadequate at times as a mother, I know in my heart that as a mom, the best thing for my children is to be at home with them.

For people who think stay at home mom's have it easy, I would invite you to come join any one of us for a day, oh how your eyes will quickly be opened, just like mine were.

Giggles

Not that she can do much, but I sure do enjoy those giggles!

Bike Riding

Normally we go out into our "green belt to drive" but Lady Lou was sleeping so I made him ride in our HUGE backyard! (I hope you catch the sarcasm here) He is basically riding the length of the back yard, minus where the trampoline is.

A whole Lot of Cuteness!

 Just chillin in my sister's chair eating a boiled egg.

 I love my sister!

 I have never seen such a happy baby, it's almost hard to get used to....Almost!

 He has mastered the bike! Only took a few days and Grandma's help!

 He is still a little timid, but getting more brave every day.

 Yes, she is ALWAYS this happy!

 She can't even touch the floor but still manages to get this thing bouncing like crazy!

 Little Man took this photo of his happy sister! One of these days I will do a post dedicated to his photos.

 Yes, I am adorable in my BSU head band!

 Photo by Little Man. He LOVES the camera, I am trying to see if they make real cameras for kids. I am a little leary of letting him use our good ones all the time.

My two adorable kids bonding in the crib!