Pause

I just wanted to take a quick break before I start drowning in advent busyness and document that ...

THIS GUY SLEPT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!

Granted, it was only once so far, but I was so proud and happy for him (and me!!!).  Maybe we're on our way to a full night's rest for both of us -- finally, at almost 9 mos old?  Of course, that same night, Tanner and Landon each made their way separately to my room and had to be escorted back to their own beds.  My gosh, it never ends!!! :)

THIS IS OUR RESIDENT ELF ... 

He likes to be called "Chippy."  Tanner's elf name is "Biscuit."  And Kellen's elf name is "Stinkypants."  Just FYI ... he's wearing our size 6 mos Santa outfit that he found in one of the Christmas bins.  I don't think I could fit this on Kellen if I tried.  Landon is my string bean, for sure.

He's on a mission to help Daddy find my Christmas gift.  I asked him today what he's going to help Jon get for me -- he said slippers.  (I have mentioned SEVERAL times that I want them.)  I asked him a few minutes later what size mommy wears -- he said "10."  What a good listener!  For the rest of the evening he kept asking, "Mommy, how will I know which slippers are a 10?"  Melt me.  He was the last man standing tonight after Tanner and Kellen were both in bed early.  So we got to snuggle and watch a movie in my bed together while we waited for Jon to get home from work.  My house was a complete disaster, but I'm so thankful I just let it go and spent that sweet time with my boy before bed.  I love this kid!

THIS GUY IS SICK -- BOO!

After two days of denying that he wasn't feeling well, he finally admitted to me this morning that his ears and throat hurt.  I noticed that his eyes seemed bloodshot, too, so I took him to the doctor.  Double ear infection and conjunctivitis.  Poor guy.  He was a mess before he went to bed tonight.  Gross eyes, feverish, crying.  I'm praying that he gets a good night's rest and recovers quickly.

Have I mentioned that he's the best big brother ever?  My little guys are so lucky to have him.  

I hope you're having a good start to the Christmas season!  We had our first evening drive around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights -- the perfect way to kill time when it gets dark here at 4:00!  Looking forward to lots of sweet Christmas memories with my crew this year!

Just a Little Complaining

Darn it!  I realized halfway through today that I forgot to blog yesterday, which means I already missed my goal of blogging 30 days in a row.  AHHH!!  Jon was right.  I hate it when that happens! :)

This hasn't been the best week for us, but we're hanging in there.  Prepare for a little negativity!  This is mostly just ME venting!!  It's been consistently cold and grey outside and I'm ashamed that I haven't taken the boys outside to play in more than a week.  I just want to stay cozy inside!!  The time changed on Sunday -- I abhor falling back!  It's so hard with little kids!  They just don't seem to understand that it's OKAY to sleep for an extra hour! ;)  Plus, it gets dark now around 4:15, which is the worst!

Just before trick-or-treating last week, I realized that Landon had hand, foot, and mouth disease.  Definitely NOT our first experience with that, but it sure took him a long time to get better!  Today was his first day back at school -- it took a full 8 days for the blisters on his hands to heal.  Poor guy.  I'll admit that it was nice to be home all day for the first few days, but by day 5, I was really missing the gym, friends, etc.  Glad that we can get back into the swing of things now!

Tanner has been super grumpy and whiney -- I wish I knew what was going on.  Part of me thinks he's just tired.  He's at that weird age where he probably needs a nap once or twice a week, but would NEVER willingly take one.  Despite his bad attitude, he and Landon have been playing SO WELL together all week.  I've been really making an effort to have the TV turned off from breakfast time until after dinner and bath.  To be honest, the boys haven't even noticed.  They've been playing with their Imaginext sets, Halloween costumes, board games, etc.  I'm so glad they have each other.

Last night we had Kellen's pre-op appointment for his surgery in a few weeks.  His circumcision wasn't done correctly at birth, so we are having to get it fixed.  I've been a little nervous about it since he has to go under general anesthesia, but talking to the urologist yesterday made me feel much better.  She explained all the details of the procedure and recovery.  All I can say is it's a good thing we're getting this out of the way while he's still a baby!

I stopped nursing about 2 weeks ago.  It really wasn't something that I wanted to do and I've felt such huge regret over it ever since.  Kellen hadn't been nursing well for several weeks, I was starting to feel really stressed about it, and I just felt like he was ready to be done.  The problem is that he hasn't been crazy about formula either.  I feel like he eats hardly anything all day, and then is hungry at night.  He goes to bed super early -- 6pm, and always gets up at least once at night to eat.  He's such a good baby, but MAN am I anxious for him to sleep a solid 12 hours at night with no eating!!   

He is sitting up really well now and army crawling all over the place.  The boys and I recently made space for the toddler toys in the playroom, and Kellen just LOVES to be in there with the big boys crawling around and watching them play.

I'm feeling very down lately about the last few pounds of pregnancy weight that I still need to lose.  I know I need to give myself some grace.  It's not like 5 pounds is the end of the world, but for some reason I've put so much pressure on myself to lose the weight since the moment I gave birth, I just want to be done with it.  I wish it wasn't so hard.  I wish I didn't have to diet off every single pound.

This weekend we are heading to Michigan to spend time with all of the grandparents.  I'm looking so forward to being with our parents.  They always fill my tank with words of encouragement and acts of love.  Here's to hoping that I come home with a better attitude than I have right now.

I'm off to bed in hopes of starting things off on the right foot tomorrow morning!

Voting Day!

I love an election year!  I look forward to the news coverage, the debates, all of the political talk.  I was excited to go in and place my vote last week during early voting.  And tonight I'm glued to my computer and the TV -- it's all so exciting!

However, one of the best things I read today was posted by my friend, Zeb, on Facebook.

"Don't put your trust in princes (or politicians), for when they die, their plans die with them. Blessed are those who hope in the Lord, the maker of heaven & earth, the God who executes justice for the poor and the God that gives food to the hungry." Psalm 146 EZV *


Politicians are Not saviors. Remember that tonight, no matter who wins.

*  BTW ... EZV is "English Zeb Version" -- LOL! :)  Click here for NIV if you're interested ...

Isn't that the truth?!  Every president or politician will always fail us in some way or another.  After all, they are only human.  Time to be praying that whoever is elected will make wise decisions for our country!  

Don't get me wrong, I definitely take this all very seriously.  I know we are all deeply impacted by who is/becomes president.  However, I'm so thankful that I live in a country where both candidates seem to be good men who have the best of intentions for this country, not evil dictators or radicals.  When it's all said and done, I will still be able to snuggle up with my boys each night in our home.  We are safe.  We don't have to live in fear of our own government.  We will most likely have food to eat and a roof over our heads.  For all of that, I am so thankful.

Can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and see what's happened! 

30 Days

Today I was hanging out with Landon while Tanner was at school. He wanted to see some pictures of himself when he was Kellen's age. I wish I could say that I pulled out all of our beautiful photo albums -- you know, the ones I've put together with all of the prints I've made from the 100,000+ pictures I've taken since becoming a mom. Sadly, those are nonexistent. Actually, most of our actual pictures are nonexistent as of right now since our external hard drive crashed! (Keeping my fingers crossed that we can recover those files!) 

Anyways, I pulled out the laptop and went through the blog with him. I got totally sucked in and LOVED reliving all of the memories and funny moments I had recorded. I was so thankful for the time I spent documenting the days when my older boys were babies. And it hit me how terrible of a job I've done these past few years keeping up. I REALLY want to do a better job at this. So, I'm going to try and do 30 days in a row of blogging. Hopefully this will help me to get back into the habit! Jon has already said I won't do it, so now I just HAVE to if only to prove him wrong :) 

So, to start, I want to tell you what Tanner said tonight in the bathtub. I was giving Kellen a bath after his dinner and Tanner asked if he could get in with him. Kellen was DELIGHTED, of course. He adores his biggest brother. 

Me: What did we do before we had him? We missed him and we didn't even know it! 

Tanner: I know. God gave us such a good one, huh, mom! 

Melt me.