My Birthday Celebration

Oh 35, I am not sure how to feel about this age. I thought it would feel bigger. Larry and I said we'd be growing our family until we turned 35 (originally I was willing to go until he is 35, but after 4 kids and feeling done I'm more content with saying I'm 35 and we're good) so I thought it would feel like I was almost leveling up to my next chapter. That doesn't seem to be the case this year.

I had hoped to celebrate my birthday on the 17th, but then I decided I wanted to do a family day that day and we had to do some non-birthday celebration things that morning (plus I figured it would be easier to celebrate after Christmas in case I wanted a mini shopping trip) so I had to push it back. I'm used to that, it's nothing new, I wasn't disappointed. 

The part that was disappointing, however, was the fact that on my actual birthday day I felt forgotten. Larry normally sets an alarm at midnight to wish me a happy birthday or makes sure to do it the second we get up. This year, it took him a bit longer and I was feeling sad about that. Then I waited for some family texts to tell me happy birthday or some from my close friends, but nothing. We got to almost lunch time and were headed out to Larry's family Christmas party and Larry was the only one who told me happy birthday. I was in tears about how my birthday is always so hard, you just want to feel special and I couldn't feel less special. I hated starting my day feeling so bummed and then I felt stupid for letting it effect me so much. Luckily, after the party, I started to get more texts and messages so it helped a little and I felt less stupid. 

So I had made plans that I'd clean the house on the 30th (because I NEED to start the year off with a clean house) and then on Saturday (the 31st) we'd go out. I decided I wanted Kneaders breakfast in bed (and to sleep in a bit), maybe go out for lunch, go see a movie (if there are any good ones playing in theaters), go out shopping for some new jeans and snow boots (my jeans are getting ripped up and I have no snow boots), and then do pizza for dinner since it's New Years Eve and that's what we always do.

We got the breakfast ordered the day before, I was so excited to try their breakfast sandwich and, of course, a brownie and orange juice! Unfortunately, I don't think I explained it to Larry well enough. He did let me sleep in, but then he brought me food and said "come down when you're done" and left. I expected the typical movie breakfast in bed where everyone comes in and brings me food haha. It was fine, I ended up going downstairs to eat with my family, the way it should be. 

I had decided against going to see a movie since there weren't any good ones out in theaters, but I got a Vudu gift card from work so I figured I'd shut myself in our room, close all the doors and drapes to black it out as much as possible, keep my phone across the room so I don't get tempted to distract myself, get my treats and enjoy a movie. I chose Smile :D I didn't want to go out for lunch since we ordered out for breakfast and we were planning on pizza for dinner and that felt like enough going out. After my movie we went out to get me snow boots. It ended up taking a bit longer than I expected (but I did find some really cute ones) so we couldn't get me new jeans, but we got our pizza and headed home for dinner. 

We put the kids to bed and started our New Years Eve celebration (for another post). Overall, it was a nice celebratory day and it almost completely made up for my actual birthday. I love the idea of watching a movie at home from now on. It's MUCH cheaper, more comfortable, and I feel like a lot more options available. I only used part of my gift card so more at home movie days might be happening this next year haha. We got some fun popcorn containers and I'm going to get a new drink cup (like an insulated tumbler that looks like a fountain cup so it feels like I'm getting popcorn and a drink and candy from the actual theater...it's all about making it like an experience!). These are signs you are getting old, when a new cup and watching movies at home are super exciting!

I definitely don't feel 35, but I'm not really sure how old I feel, but I'm now mid-thirties. Hopefully it's a good stepping stone onto the next part of our lives. 

2022 Assessment

January

-January was pretty typical, we celebrated our New Years, like normal. I hit the 6 month milestone in my pregnancy. and I had my birthday celebration (a really bad movie balanced with a good one, a couple shopping trips, and some yummy dinner). It was slow, but good.

February

-February was only filled with Valentine's Day and Larry's Spouse Appreciation Day. Valentine's Day was kind of more "Super Bowl Party" day with lots of yummy food made for the game. I was hoping to do a Trifle for Valentine's Day, but our food turned out SO good and I got some fun recipes to try for dinners or sides or anything else. And Larry's Spouse Day went okay, not as well as I had planned, but still a nice, relaxing day for him. I feel slower than usual as well, but still a good one.

March

-March was spent enjoying as much family time before adding another little one to the mix. I knew it was going to rock things a bit so I wanted to do as much as possible. We went to a reptile "petting zoo" type place and had dinner as a family. I can say I was "going out to dinner"'d out by this point (kids are so messy and loud and I'd rather just have that at home and feel less guilty haha). I also had fun with some gender predictions before finding out what we were having. That was fun to do.

April

-April was our biggest month, adding a baby AND finding out we had a boy! We also got to see my brother get married, which was so big for me. I was so excited to be able to celebrate with him and Pierce (and the other kids) did so well with all the chaos of someone else's day and someone else being center of attention haha.

May

-May was celebrating our first month with Pierce and celebrating Cara's fifth birthday!! We got the built-ins I've always wanted put in (finally!). Sadly, we ended the month saying goodbye to our Baby Girl. Our first loss of a pet and it was very hard!

June

-June was celebrating Pierce's second month AND Lucy's 2nd birthday (which didn't go as I had expected, but was done well enough). I went back to work at the end of the month, which means dad took night shifts AND I got to get back into working out. 

July

-Unfortunately, July was probably our least exciting month. Larry had his birthday, but it was probably the most boring birthday for him, we didn't really celebrate the 4th, and really had not a whole lot to report. I did write down some notes about being a completed family as well.

August

-August was a fun one. Pierce turned 4 months, we struggled keeping Lucy dressed at night (such a fun challenge!), and Cara started kindergarten! 

September

-September is when I feel we really started to get into the swing of family life again. We took the last couple weekend of August and first little bit of September to go swimming with the older girls as much as possible, and we took a family outing to the Gateway Children's Discovery Museum. It felt good to get out again.

October

-October is always a favorite time for me. This year we went on a fun train ride and to a train play ground. We also started our holiday season off with Halloween preparations. SO MUCH FUN!

November

-November was another fun one! I started a new sleep pattern to see if I could give myself more free time (an update on how that's going will come next year), we took a week off of work (where I got some shopping done, we crossed off dr appointments, and I visited Stace), I also saw the last Thriller performance (sad!). We celebrated Gwen's 4th birthday, and had a great Thanksgiving!

December 

-December was mostly filled with Christmas prep fun. We did celebrate Pierce turning 8 months, but also we made cookies, got our Santa picture done, went to our neighborhood party. I got to volunteer in Cara's class to help make ornaments, I got to see her Christmas concert as well. Now that we are done having kids I was able to order our final Christmas stockings (which I'm in love with!!). We made Christmas cookies as a family, visited with family, and then had an amazing (and way full) Christmas. We even got a date night to see Bill Burr. Since I got my shopping done early it was such a nice celebratory month (including squeezing in my birthday earlier than normal)!

2022 Goals Revisited

So it's my annual check-in on my goals I made. Here is how I did:

Less screen time. This was a little bit more difficult after Pierce was born, but I feel we made a small improvement on this. We definitely did more crafts and activities that are in our activities closet so we definitely had more fun with that. And I really tried to let them play with toys more than pushing a morning show. We also switched from doing a movie after nap time to just a show so they aren't just sitting like zombies for so long. We also started trying to read more books before dinner time and I let them color while I'm reading so the are entertained.

Definitely do my masks! This I definitely accomplished. I didn't do them as much after Pierce was born (I prioritized my sleep so extra things got moved to the back burner), but the second I felt like I had the time I started them up and I still do them 4 times a week, most weeks. I absolutely love them and got SO many for Christmas.

Get used to having a new baby and being a family of 6 (!!!).This was definitely tough at first, but at this point I'd say we are definitely used to being a big family and everyone is now in the swing of things. It's been the most fun year and holiday season because I realized this is the start of the rest of our lives and I have loved it

Clean and organize the house as much as possible I definitely got the toys organized as best as they can be at this point. I have a spot for almost everything so that we know where things should go when cleaning up. I still have other areas that need to be cleaned and organized or I'd like to do more with (like the toys and in the front activity room), but I made more progress on this so I'm happy where it's at right now.

Be more conscious of my spending. I would say I accomplished this more than I realized! I started tracking my extra money in (if paychecks were more than I budgeted, any bonuses, interest deposits, cash back rebates, etc.) and then extra funds I spent and it really showed me how much extra I end up spending. But I did reach my savings goals I wanted (and that's while being on maternity leave that I only got paid for half the time) so I call this accomplished.  

Learn more coding/computer language. I did this a bit before getting pregnant, then my nausea knocked me off course. I still have plans for this so this one isn't done, but of all the goals I'd say I didn't do this one as much as I had hoped. 

So I think overall I did pretty well. Obviously, adding a baby into the mix threw things off. But I have another year to work on any thing I feel I missed.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2022 (Christmas part 2)

Christmas Eve started the way it (mostly) should, with family! We planned to go to my mom's for breakfast and since we knew we'd have to leave fairly early we all went over in our pajamas. I thought that would be fun. Other than them starting the food much later than I would've liked, it was a fun time. We had great food, we opened some presents, and saw Cindy's family and Andy and Rachel so it was a nice time filled with family, food, and gift-giving. 

Other than Cindy's kids not loving these mystery mosaic / color by number things I think everyone liked their gifts well enough. I was hoping to get her family a Groupon for an escape room, but Groupon didn't have the one I found earlier so I figured I'd wait for it to come back to get it, but then I felt too guilty and ended up getting them a gift card to this ifly place that does the surf pool, rock climbing, and the skydiving tunnel thing so I figured they could decide what they wanted to do and have fun with it. I had it delivered to Cindy's email so they can use it whenever. 

Pierce also got a tad cranky, he had to miss his first nap of the day, but he actually handled that and all the people pretty well (he just had a sad, tired eyes look for a good portion of it). So once we ate and got to presents we left so we could be home in time to do a quick lunch and put him down for his midday nap. 

I took the girls with me to the grocery store to get our weekly shopping done while Larry put Pierce down. I will say in the future I may just do shopping one night in the week, because Christmas Eve is PACKED and too crazy. Luckily the girls stuck with me and it went fairly quickly. Then we went home and I let the girls do an hour of tablet time while I got cookie makings put together and the counter cleaned up a bit. I also got some dishes done so that the sink was clear. Once their tablet time was done we made some snickerdoodles. I rolled out some dough so they could use the cookie cutters and cut some fun shapes out of it. After we all did 3 shapes I decided to roll up the rest as regular cookies and baked them. The shapes kind of got melded together, but we were able to separate them well enough. The regular cookies also expanded a bit into each other, but they were fine enough. 

After the cookies cooked and cooled down I let the girls decorate their shapes with some decorative icing, sprinkles, and these unicorn confetti sprinkles. They, of course, all went a little nuts with those and so we had to stop them a while (and huge mess) later. Cara didn't love her cookies (I think she iced them too much), but the rest of us gobbled ours up. 

When those were done I started making the cobbler we planned to have with our dinner and sent Larry over to Ridley's to pick up our roast. I was assuming it would be cooked, but it turns out it was just a lump of meat. So since I had JUST put the cobbler in the oven for an hour we decided to just do a regular dinner and cook the roast for Christmas dinner (which is actually what I really wanted anyways so it kind of worked out). 

We decided to do our movie night that night and watched the Grinch with Jim Carrey. The girls really liked it and loved their treats. After the movie we got them ready for bed. They were super wired from all the sugar of the day (no surprise) so I told Larry our movie for the night should be the longer of the two options we had so that we could make sure the girls were really asleep. 

Once our movie was over I sent Larry down to grab the boxes of wrapped gifts while I printed out these Santa letters I typed up for each of the kids (I had bought a North Pole mailbox decoration and thought it would be fun to have letters delivered). I folded those up and put them in the mailbox and then we started loading the gifts under the tree and filling up the stockings. I went crazy with the gifts, but it was SO fun getting everything set out. 

We immediately passed out after that and just waited to hear that the kids were up. They actually stayed in their rooms for quite some time. Around 7 I heard them in the bathroom and decided we could get up and start things. My plan was to do stockings, eat breakfast, then open gifts under the tree so I figured with the extra time we had (before having to get Pierce up) we could do stockings, get Pierce up to do breakfast, and do tree gifts and we'd be right no track. 

The girls LOVED seeing everything and were so excited for me to read their Santa letters. They were antsy to open the tree gifts, but I told them we have to eat first (I think opening stockings helped them not be too antsy that they ignored their food). Once breakfast was done everyone ran into the front room and picked their spots to wait for gifts to be handed over. Cara was the quickest to open her gifts, enjoy what it was, and then move on to the next one haha. Gwen and Lucy opened a few and then wanted to just start playing. Pierce, obviously, couldn't open his so he just wanted to play with the toys he saw.

Mom, Will, and Grandma came over a little after lunch to bring their gifts and see what they got. We visited for a while and then they left to grab lunch and visit Andy and Rachel. So by this point we let the kids just play with their toys while Larry and I just tried to stay on top of the mess. Larry grabbed a garbage bag to throw away the wrappings, while I was trying to open all packages and get tags thrown away. I put on A Christmas Story to have on in the background, but then the Packers game came on around 11 so we put that on (what a great win!). It was a bit of an overwhelming day. There were messes all over to stay on top of, there were kids that were getting overwhelmed with everything, there were parents that were trying to keep a clean house. BUT the kids loved every moment of it, they got lots of great things and had fun playing with them, and we got some fun things to check out. 

I will say I was expecting to get books, I get some every year, so I was excited to see which ones I got, but I didn't end up getting any. At first I was a little bummed, but then realized I got some good things and I still have quite a few I need to read so I can look at getting more once those are all read. I was actually a little relieved I didn't have my usual "Christmas is just so commercialized and has become all about materialistic wants" feelings. I am pretty excited about the gifts I got people this year and it felt good to feel I did so well. 

We ended the day with our roast dinner that turned out to be the most amazing meal I've ever had (with rolls and my cobbler). We relaxed and let the kids play (and didn't get stressed out about the mess). We put the kids down, and then I watched a Netflix Christmas movie and relaxed. It was the best end to the best Christmas day.

Today my plan is to start putting gifts/toys in their spots and get things cleaned up. I'm hoping that by the end of the day everything will be in "their place" and I can start making sure the house is tidied up enough to clean this Friday (which means Christmas decorations have to come down Thursday...so early for me). 

The Christmas Build Up (AKA Christmas part 1)

Christmas this year R-O-C-K-E-D! I'm always a little nervous because, even with kids, I've loved the build up, but the actual day I end up feeling like it's just so commercialized and materialistic and why do we need all this stuff?? (a la early Grinch movie haha). I definitely went overboard this year so I am a bit surprised I don't feel that way, but I also am very proud of the gifts I gave to everyone. There's usually one person/family I feel I could've done better with, but this year I feel I did so good! But let's back up to everything about Christmas time.

We started the season with an early Santa picture. We went the Friday after Thanksgiving (the store was INSANE so I was glad we weren't there to actually buy anything haha), but the line for Santa was really short - even with reservations it can get a bit long - and we were able to do it quickly, with no tears. I had semi-coordinated outfits, but you can't really tell with the lighting in the picture, but it's okay because it's still cute. The funny thing is the "Santa" was the same guy from the first year we did the pictures so it's funny to see a kind the transition from that one to this latest one (definitely not our last one though) .The girls were so excited to see him and talk to him and we even got to pick out candy canes afterwards. I absolutely love this tradition and get so excited to do it each year. The fact that it's free at this store doesn't hurt one little bit haha. The only down side is Larry had to work that day and we were doing our own Thanksgiving dinner, so there was a bit of a mad dash between him being done with work, quickly basting the turkey, me rushing to make the sides that needed to be made early enough, getting everyone dressed and hair done, getting to the store, taking the picture, and then coming home to eat. I told Larry I definitely need to plan it a bit better next year, but at least it's done.

That weekend I tidied up the house (we had LOTS of dishes from our dinner and stuff just lying everywhere) and then got our Christmas put up. I forget how much we have, but at the same time I'm like "is that it??" I have certain spots I like to have decorated so that it feels like the holidays all throughout the house as you walk it, and I didn't feel I had enough for certain spots, but way too much for other spots, and I couldn't swap them for specific reasons. One spot that was really bugging me was the center of our table. I like to have a holiday centerpiece, but I couldn't figure one out with the decoration options (the specific decoration spots is a new thing this year so previously I just put things where I thought was best, but I'm trying to purge unnecessary items this year by only having specific spots...and boy did I get rid of a lot of items from our Christmas décor). We didn't end up putting our outside stuff up, but it's okay, we had our door hanger (a cute snowman) so it was fine enough. We also did a weekend of making paper snow flakes during nap time (might have been a bit early to start that as the girls didn't fully understand the concept of cutting it just right), so we had those hung up in the windows. I let Larry and the kids put up ornaments and fought EVERY urge I had to fix them haha. I did end up switching the "toy" ornaments to the bottom for Pierce to freely grab and put the ones with hooks higher up, but that's just a safety precaution. I also did end up finding a really cute tree and gift decoration to put on our table that I have LOVED having on there so that was a win. We also got some ornaments from Michael's that we could put the kids pictures in and those turned out SO cute. Larry asked if we were going to put new pictures in them every year, and I had to tell him nope, that's a representation of 2022 and I'm keeping those pictures in them. I love them and love the idea of pulling them out every year to remind us about this Christmas.

As far as shopping went I did SO amazing. We had taken a week off in November as just a fun little "lets stay in and do whatever that week" time. I ended up deciding to drive up to Stace's the later half of the week, I also scheduled some needed doctor appointments earlier in the week, but they didn't take up much time. The rest of the time I went out shopping, kid free. I got so much bought and got to go to so many stores. It was awesome. I had a great hiding place for gifts (under the stairs) so the kids didn't suspect a thing. I did almost shop myself out of the spot because I got them so much, but it was fine. It wasn't the EASIEST place to squeeze into to hid things and grab them to wrap, but it worked well enough. I also stayed on top of my budget from my shopping spree (not always an easy thing when I'm literally throwing money all around). I got my shopping and wrapping finished so early I ended up a little board for about a week, then I bought some more haha. Let's just say the stockings were SO full, but they were what I was okay going crazy on since they are usually filled with fun little trinkets and most things were cheaper than $5. But it was nice to just enjoy the couple of weeks before Christmas just being with family and whenever I'd go to stores I'd be so happy I wasn't shopping anymore and stressing out. Or when people would tell me they were still wrapping the week of  Christmas I was very happy to not be in that boat haha. Although I will say I absolutely love wrapping while watching Christmas movies.

I LOVE our new stockings which I was
So happy to finally get!

Speaking of movies, I got to watch all my regular ones and quite a few new Hallmark/Netflix ones. They are always so cheesy, but still so fun to include some of those in the rotation. I started with the cheesy ones before I got to my regularly owned ones, and so when I got to those ones it felt like it was finally Christmas season haha. Note: I have SO many Christmas movies I own I switch off which ones I watch each year (so like Santa Clause 1 & 2 are on my odd years and then Home Alone 1 & 2 are for my even years) I have it like that with similar movies so that I get the same feel good feelings each year and one year isn't heavy with my favorites while the other is filled with ones I just like or anything. 

Making snowflakes with the girls

Can't forget the Lego Advent
Calendar we got this year

One of my absolutely favorite parts of this holiday season was I got to volunteer at Cara's school. Her teacher was doing an ornament thing where you brought items to make an ornament with the kids. I wasn't going to do it at first, but I had some PTO time I had to get rid of and she was reminding us last minute she really needed someone. I didn't love that we had to come up with the idea. I'm not that crafty so it's like tell me what you want me to do and what I need to get and I'll do it, but then I surfed Pinterest and found this really cute Grinch ornament idea and thought the supplies would be cheap and easy. It wasn't as cheap as I had thought/wanted, but it was easy. So I separated everything into little baggies for the kids and put it all in a bag. I went to her school so nervous at the idea of teaching 22 kids how to do this ornament (I wasn't sure if there would be some kids who didn't know how to do part of it, or if the attention spans would be small, would I be boring? so many thoughts). Well, luckily the teacher made it easy by setting us in stations and only having to teach like 6 kids at a time. My first group had Cara and a few of the girls she's told me about and when everyone saw I was Cara's mom they all seemed to flock a little more to her. I loved getting to know the kids more, and every time I dropped her off after that some of the kids would recognize me and smile and wave and then say hi to Cara so I like to think it helped her make friends. As a bonus, I reminded her to hand out my number to her friends so we could schedule play dates with the parents and I ended up getting a couple texts and we scheduled some and I'm so excited to help her socialize more (I think that's a bit harder for the oldest to learn since they are the first to go out into these situations and it's just so unfamiliar). The school also put on a Christmas Concert that I got to take some time from work to go to and seeing her sing and perform was so much fun. It just really made this year so awesome!

Cara's Christmas Concert

As for our neighbors, we bought the gifts for them early, but I wanted to wait until closer to Christmas to give them out. We waited almost a tad too late, but we went out the night of the 14th to hand them out. Saying hi to them was so nice, we know most of them, but it was still nice to face them and just let them know who we are. One of our neighbors, who is a couple doors down, had sent me a picture of Cara at her concert (she was MUCH closer to the front and got a good shot) so I made sure she got one because she's just so sweet. Half of the neighbors weren't home, but we just left the goodies at their door. The neighborhood party was the 16th so we got to know even more at that. They said they were having an ugly sweater contest, but Larry and I were almost the only ones to dress up. A few wore ugly shirts, but they weren't as obvious as ours were. One kid came with a shirt covered in gift bows, so that was silly. He ended up winning 1st place in the contest, we won 2nd, and someone wearing a Die Hard shirt won 3rd, but all prizes were just a couple boxes of candy so it was all just in good fun. It was nice to win and I think it put us on the radar for some of the neighbors to know who we are. Cara also got a Jack Skellington necklace from one of the men, he was nice enough to give it to her when I pointed out who was on it to them (they had JUST watched the movie earlier that day) so that was a nice memory for them. That and the Grinch (instead of Santa) stopping by for pictures and a candy cane. Overall, it was SO nice to see so many neighbors, get to know them, have them get to know us, and just overall feel like we're more involved in our community.

We also got to see A LOT of family during the month. As hard as it can be for me to wrangle all the family up and go out, especially when I'd like to stay in and stick with my usual routine, I reminded myself the point of the season is to be with loved ones, think of others, and to be surrounded by those types of feelings/ideas. We got some bad news about my niece Lilly, she's pretty sick, so I took the girls out to go get some fun cozy items for her and then took them to drop them off to her. We got to see Nana and Papa Wilson and say hi for a bit and it ended up being a nice, but very quick, visit (not that I minded, I didn't intend it to be as long as it was to begin with, honestly). We had Larry's family part on the 18th. Even though it ended up being during the day when all the naps would usually happen, we were able to make it work and Pierce got a nice nap once we got home, and we got to see more if his mom's side than we have in a while so it was really nice to visit with them. We saw more Wilson's when they came out for their family Christmas. They were going to rent an AirBnB in St. George, but with Lilly's sickness they ended up staying in one by the airport so we got to visit with them on the 23rd and it was one of the more fun visits we've had. I know it's a tough time for them, with a sad anniversary, but we had a fun snowball fight, we talked a lot, we got to see almost ALL the kids and spouses and kids. I got to talk to Donovan about his engagement and sports, the shy kids came out of their shells quite a bit (at least mine did). It was just so nice. We had Christmas eve with my mom and them and although it was  VERY late start to breakfast, it was still really fun to visit with them. Poor Pierce really had to learn that the holidays mean he doesn't nap like usual and some bottles/food were a little later than normal or in weird places, but he actually held up really well. 

So that was our build up to Christmas, my next post will be Christmas Eve night and Christmas day because that deserves a post all it's own.

Bill Burr Comes to Salt Lake!

So Larry and I have always loved watching Bill Burr, the comedian. We both listen to his podcast and have enjoyed his specials on Netflix, we even have seen him at Wise Guys a few times. The first time we had a chance to say hi to him and get a picture. I took one of him and Larry, but it ended up being SO blurry it was completely messed up and I was so disappointed. I vowed to get a new picture the next time he came, but then he wouldn't do the meet and greet and now he's so big he performs at The Maverick Center. So I think our chances of getting a picture is out.

The only picture I could get

Anyways, back in June I saw he would be coming to Salt Lake in December. I knew Pierce would be old enough that he should be sleeping well enough so I text my mom and asked her if she'd be willing to watch the kids while we went if I got Larry tickets for Father's Day and she was all too happy to do that.

Fast forward, to last night when we got our chance to go. I was hoping to maybe go out to dinner before hand, but mom ended up showing up RIGHT as we had to leave for the show so that was out (which was fine, I was still a little nervous leaving all the kids for the first time). We got there in time to get our tickets (I had them on an app and they had to actually print them out), "deposit" our phones to some lock bag thing (which means no pics...lame!), find our seats, and enjoy the show.

The opener was some chick that I didn't love. She was a little vulgar for me, which is typical of most female comedians it seems. That was too bad, but it was okay, we weren't there to see her so no loss.

The shot one of his openers posted

Bill was great! We had some really great seats so we had a good show where we were. There were some jokes that were just eh, but overall he was hilarious. 

I will say the show went so much later than I expected and then getting out of the parking lot was a J.O.K.E! So that was annoying. It did make me realize that I don't think I need nights out like this so often, I'm so okay staying in and enjoying nights on the couch (call me old, that's okay). 

Pierce is EIGHT Months

  I am EIGHT months old!

I like: real food (not so much baby food), feeding himself food/snacks, trying to bite things now that I'm getting teeth, standing up (with help from our hands or a tote or something), moving and shaking, and Gwen (he smiles at all his sisters, but I'm pretty sure Gwen is his favorite, she'll get insta smiles from him every single time), and playing with noisy toys

I dislike: being hungry, tired, or left alone when I want to be in the middle of all the action. Oh and sometimes when I get put down for naps and just don't want to nap haha.

Getting wiped out at Gwen's party

I am now: No checkup, but he's in 12 month clothes (barely), size 3 diapers (wondering if we should move him up soon or not?), and the chunkiest ball of love you could get!

When you get so big so quickly you have to wear
Your sisters hand me downs

A Typical Day looks like: 

 

Wake up around 7:30. Whether he's already awake and chatting or trying to sleep, we get him up at this time.

7:40: Half a container of baby food (usually fruits)

8 get a 7 oz bottle

8:30-9:30 wiggle & giggle time. He likes to scoot/crawl around the house while the girls play in the front rooms.

9:30-11 nap time. Usually he does good with this, sometimes he cries a bit before falling asleep 

11 next 7 oz bottle

11:30-12:30 He gets 1/2 a container of a veggie based baby food for lunch. Then it's wiggle & giggle / hang out while we clean up time. I might give him a spoon of peanut butter or some veggie straws to keep him content...he seems to like feeding himself.

1-2:30: nap time.

2:30 next 7.5 oz bottle

3-3:30 play/hang out time

3:30-5 hang out with dad while he works out. Most of the time he likes it, but every once in a while he cries down there.

5 he gets a 4-5 oz breast milk bottle. Most days he'll chug this, but once in a while he takes a LOOONG time to drink it.

5:30 dinner time. He'll eat almost a whole small container at this point (I try and make this a more meat based food)

6-7:15 play time

7:15 7 oz formula bottle

7:40 start bedtime. Sundays and Thursdays start with a bath (around 7:30), then it's diaper change, pajamas, a little cuddle/rock while we read to him, and sleep by 8.

This Month: Pierce man really learned to move around this month. He figured out sitting up, the start of crawling. His first tooth turned into teeth and he has his two bottom teeth, they seemed to come in at once. It's funny because those are the teeth that Larry still has as baby teeth so I thought it would be funny if those end up staying baby teeth for Pierce too and that's why they came in together. I'm just glad they came in the weekend of the time change so we could just knock both out at the same time!

Getting ready for Christmas time!

This boy sure loves to smile and make us laugh. He loves being in on all the action and is the biggest wiggle worm if he sees everyone moving around him. He also seems to love laughing and being dropped (like a roller coaster). He loves when we pretend to eat his hand or mini scare him. 

He might fight his naps a bit, but he sleeps so well at night these days so I'm pretty happy. His smile melts me SO much and I swear I'd do anything to get that smile. I'm also convinced it's good we only had one boy. With our girls I felt like "the more the merrier", but with him I'm just not sure I could love another son like I do with him. He's my special bubs!

Crawling all over anyone in the way

With crawling/scooting everywhere he's found our springy door stops and he LOVES to make those go off haha. It's noisy, but he loves it and it's kind of cute to watch him get all curious about them. 

We also celebrated his first Thanksgiving. I thought he'd be all for the food, but he mostly just tolerated it. Other than deviled egg filling, that one he was gaga over eating more and more haha. We put some in a little container for him to have at meal time. We did have Gwen's birthday party during this last month and apparently he doesn't love strangers if  he can see us nearby. If he doesn't see us it's like he doesn't even realize someone else is holding him and he does better. He didn't have the same kind of stranger danger the girls had (once they had it it stayed for a while, with him he goes back and forth on if he likes other people and for how long) so this has surprised me.

He is also learning about how much mommy loves Football. At first my cheers would scare him, but now he knows I'm not screaming at anyone, I'm just happy haha.

Update on last month's goals:

• Introduce to Thanksgiving: Pierce did okay with Thanksgiving. We gave him bites, which he handled okay. He seems to prefer feeding himself so we'd have to switch to veggie straws or something he could feed himself.
  
  
• Work on sitting up and crawling: He can sit up SO well and he's still in the early stages of crawling where scooting is faster so he'll go back to that to get somewhere quicker.
  
  
• Adjust to the time change: Luckily we just happened to take that week off so we didn't stress about it and he actually adjusted pretty well. 
  
  
• Introduce baby food for breakfast with a bottle afterwards: Started this and it's going SO well. It does mean that right at 7:30 I'm like "okay get up now so we have time to feed him AND give him a bottle" so we don't get to relax as much in the morning, but I know this is just a temporary time and we'll be back to relaxing in no time.
  
  
• Enjoy a staycation with him: Check! We had a very nice week off. Granted, I did a lot of Christmas shopping and went up to Idaho to visit Stace and Pierce stayed behind with dad and Lucy, but other than that we had fun together haha.

Goals for next month:

• Start brushing those teeth he's getting!
  
  
• Get him in for his 9 month appointment
  
  
• Work more on pulling up and walking with our hands
  
  
• Enjoy his first Christmas and New Years Eve!

The Most Unexpected Feeling

So I know I've mentioned quite a bit that we're done having kids and how I'm so happy with that, but I have to say I didn't realize HOW happy I would end up. I really thought I'd miss being pregnant. Not, like, the sickness or achy parts, but the movements inside, the way people were so happy to help me when I had a big belly, the excuse I had to not workout or eat whatever I wanted or not have to do too much during the day and I got to be so lazy once the kids went to bed...it was a grand time! I also thought every time I saw a baby and it seemed like the parents were handling it okay I'd get a little baby fever.

That could not be further from how it really is though. I do not have one lick of baby fever. I see a newborn baby and I think "oh boy, those parents are probably going through the ringer right now" or "wow, they are so brave coming out with such a little one!" If I hear a baby cry or a parent trying to shush their baby, I want to offer to hold the baby for them and help them with it, but I don't want any more of My babies haha.

One of the best parts of not having any more babies is my anxiety has completely disappeared! And not just like the newborn anxiety I get. that always goes away. I mean my general anxiety. Now, I'm not one that gets so anxious I need meds. I have actually enjoyed my anxieties, they keep me going and pushing forward. They were little things, like rushing through my day or making sure I had things planned out well enough. Getting stressed if I forgot something or didn't keep to my schedule so now I'm falling behind. Or the mom guilt you get if you feel you didn't spend enough time with your kids or were yelling at them more than laughing with them. However, somewhere along the lines I feel I've gotten to be more patient, more confident and relaxed, more in the moment. 

New birth control put in.
The beginning of the end!

Part of this is from Pierce growing SO fast. He's at such a fun stage and it feels like he's going through them so quickly that I've been able to force myself to slow down and just enjoy the time I'm in. 

• Enjoy having a baby who likes to be by me and held by me and who smiles anytime I give him any sort of attention (and I seriously melt at that smile each and every single time!). 
• Enjoy the 5 year old who wants to be my shadow and do things exactly like me because she wants to be just like me (I KNOW one day that won't be the case and I'll be so mad I didn't just fully soak it in). 
• Enjoy the 4 year old who wants to give me hugs and tell me she loves me while also instantly crying because I didn't realize she wanted water and I didn't hear her ask for it haha. 
• Enjoy the 2 year old who gets naked all the time and wants to get dressed on her own even though she's putting the shirt on upside down and having a meltdown over it, but if we offer any help she yells out "no! I do it!" haha.
• And enjoy the husband who is in it with me every day, who helps me out and gives me breaks anytime I need it. Who wants to help out, even though he may not do it my way, but be glad he's offering to help anyways. Who loves to cuddle with me and rub my back and wants to get me treats when he sees I've worked really hard.

I'm also so much less stressed out, I don't get as angry about things, I'm more patient and easy going. I'm finding ways to teach the kids better and it goes over so much smoother. Sure I have my moments where I've told them a million times to clean up a room and they just aren't doing it. But instead of asking once and then yelling, I gently remind them a few times before I push it. Sometimes it's "okay, they either clean and get their tablets or they don't clean and keep playing and it's just not a tablet day. They can clean before lunch time." I also have more fun with the kids. Like the time we saw cows while we were driving and we started talking about the silly colors that cows aren't (a purple and orange cow? What?! Haha). 

My life is SO great right now. There are SO many things I'm looking forward to next year and I know they'll be great. My old self would constantly be looking forward to those things and wanting to do a mental countdown each day and just be looking at that metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel (that, honestly, never disappeared because I was always just looking forward to the next thing). But I know I'd get there and look back and think I didn't pay attention to this time, I just rushed through it. I refuse to do that anymore. I'll enjoy that future stuff when I get there, but for now, I'm loving these moments I have with my family, while I have them. And I'll look back, hopefully, and realize this was my happiest time and it just got better and better as time went on.

Thanksgiving 2022

Thanksgiving this year has been such a great one! It's been SO nice having my mom back so we knew we'd be spending it with her this year. She's been doing so much to get my grandma's house updated and she had just finished the front and dining rooms so we were excited to see more updates.

I love celebrating the holidays, I wish there were more Thanksgiving things (songs, movies, traditions that were more than just for the day), but I still do what I can. We put up our decorations RIGHT after Halloween to give it as much time as possible. I've watched all my Fall/Football movies already haha (there's only about 4 or 5 I like so I watch them every single year, but I still love them). We do our own Thanksgiving meal at home so we can have our own leftovers, so I've been making lists of what we need and getting all the food items for that. I also have about 95% of my Christmas shopping done (and maybe have started on my Christmas movies too haha) so I'm a bit ahead there, which is a much nicer feeling than realizing I waited too long and now have to rush like all the other last minute fools haha.

My favorite way to start the day is by watching the Parade. I almost forgot about it this year. I know it usually starts pretty early, but luckily when I realized I had forgotten to put it on, it wasn't set to start for another 15 minutes. The girls are only semi into it, but it's still fun to share it with them and watch the performances, point out balloons I think they'd like, and of course see Santa at the end! Dinner wasn't until 4:30 so we enjoyed a lazy afternoon and then headed over right after nap time.

Basically...the only shots I got the day of

We didn't have too much we needed to bring to my mom's, it was a low key dinner with just my mom, Will, Grandma, and Andy (poor Rachel was sick and decided to stay home) so that made it easy with transporting 4 kids, our diaper bag, and some toys for just in case. The new setup my mom had with the "formal" dining room and front living room was so nice, very cozy! We visited for a bit and then once the turkey was done we got to dig in. There were lots of food options AND I didn't have to sit at the kid table (a running family joke haha) plus the girls got their own tv in the kitchen to watch a movie while they ate. We put Pierce down with some toys to play with in the front room (within eye shot of where we were eating) while we visited with everyone during dinner. It was actually pretty peaceful, no real stress. I also was excited to help clean up (normally that's the part I dread when we go over to someone's house for dinner) and it ended up going really quickly. Dessert was amazing and at that point the girls ate in the dining room with us so I didn't feel like I was ignoring them. 

The only down side to our Thanksgiving experience, and it really isn't SO bad, but I had been so focused on Gwen's party that I didn't realize Thanksgiving was SO close afterwards so we didn't do our shopping for anything we needed until the Sunday before it. However, the store ended up having everything on my list so it worked out well enough and I didn't even really stress about it (which is so new for me!). Oh and I accidentally planned our Santa picture on the same day as our Thanksgiving AND I was trying to work a couple house and get the house cleaned up for our decoration switch this weekend so it's been a busy day, but I've gotten it all done. And our food turned out so yummy so I'm glad we have that to look forward to for lunches and dinner this week (more leftovers means I don't have to cook as much and that's just the ultimate win for me haha).

At least our picture turned out cute

Gwen is 4!

My little Gwen-Gwen is now 4 years old! I can't believe it! We had such a fun day celebrating her, but first I have to post my mushy stuff:

To Gwen, 

I love how sweet and silly you are. I wish I could fully capture it in video or photo, but your personality comes out at such spontaneous times all I can do is just soak it in when it happens. You are beyond smart and sassy. You are so logical, you throw it back at people without realizing what a smart ass you are. I love it! You adjust to things SO well, but you HATE being ignored, you mostly just go with the flow. You have a heart of gold and love to include everyone in things. You will randomly give us hugs and tell us you love us (which is one of my absolute favorite things ever!). You definitely like to be mischievous or get extremely emotional at times, but you mostly are a sweetheart. If you feel bad in any way, I love that you'll just take yourself to the couch, cover up with a blanket and relax (I'm sure that'll help you when you get older vs throwing a fit). I underestimate how brilliant you are and I'm doing my best to not do that. You understand a lot of Cara's school work without being there to learn it from a teacher. You understand when I read stories to pay attention because I will be asking questions after I'm done haha. You seem to love to draw and color, but you're not so much worried if you're drawing anything real haha. You love the kitties and your little siblings and are so good at playing with them. You don't ask "why" so much anymore, but do say you know why things are the way they are and I love that you understand things so well. It makes the whole "why" period worth it. I love how gorgeous your hair is too, I swear you have princess-like hair and it's the most beautiful hair I've ever seen (I love brushing it to see how long and naturally curly it is). I also love your little curves, with your full bum and belly and long legs. I'm literally jealous of your inward and outward beauty and know we're going to be in trouble when you get older and have school dances/dates. You also have that personality where you do what you like, you don't realize how silly and pretty you are. You are SO strong and brave too. I have loved watching you learn and conquer so much this past year! You are a rock star and I'm so excited to see you continue to grow (and to see how you handle being in school next year!).

If her personality could be summed up in a shot

Now onto her party! Ever since Cara's party at Chuck E Cheese she's wanted to go for her birthday, which I didn't hate because it was one of the easiest places to have a party and we had a LOT of leftover game cards and some tickets we found so it gave us an excuse to use those up. I'm glad her birthday was on a Saturday so we could plan the party for the actual day (makes it a little bit easier). We opened presents first and she was SO good at showing how excited she was for each gift. Gwen LOVED the attention she got from the family. However, when it came time to dance with the mouse she was the only kid who wasn't doing anything haha. Cara went up to start dancing with her, but came back to her seat pretty quickly (I think she started to get shy too haha). 

She blew out the candle on her cake like a champ (I was a bit worried when we practiced on a candle at home and she had trouble blowing that one out, but apparently cake ones are easier haha). When it came time to do the ticket blaster she asked Cara to go with her and it was SO funny watching them. Tickets were literally flying into Gwen's face and she'd take them off and throw them into the air. She was able to catch quite a bit, but then threw them down when it was over haha. Luckily, the workers grabbed a bunch and gave them to her. 

I was really excited that the kids got to play for a while this time. I hung out with Pierce, when he wasn't with Nana and the girls playing and riding the "rides" (I was probably cleaning or visiting with people at that point). Once everyone started leaving and time ran out on the game cards we exchanged our tickets for the prizes. They ended up forgetting to give us our big one (and we didn't realize till we got home...which I'm trying NOT to obsess over), but the kids still got lots of good things. 

Overall, we had SUCH a fun time celebrating our sweet girl and she seemed to have such a fun time. I think this is one of the last family birthday parties we'll do, I know I'll do a big one for Pierce's 1st birthday and MAYBE one more for Lucy? But I think the kids are getting to where we can have them pick their birthday activities and we'll just have a fun, low key family day together. Oh and let them do a friend birthday party as they get into school. 

Fall Adventures

Oh man how I love this time of year! It's taken me a long time to get back into Fall (what with constantly being pregnant and super sick during this time for the last 5 years haha), but I'm really starting to learn to appreciate it again. I almost prefer it to the summer right now. We've had a lot of fun this Fall so far, none of which felt like it needed it's own post, so I thought I'd throw it all together here:

I will always love the mountain views
During Fall drives!

One of my favorite parts of Fall is that the weather starts to get colder, which means HOT CHOCOLATE seasons is upon us! I still have quite a few hot chocolate items from last winter so I've been excited to get back into one of my favorite little treats. I know it's silly, but sweaters and hot chocolate are just so cozy and the fact that I get to stay home/inside during the day while it gets cooler outside is so nice!

Hot chocolate in a favorite mug!

Finding new Fall scents is hard, these two
Are my absolute favorites now!

Another favorite parts: Football! Go Pack Go is our Fall Motto haha. It's been so fun to get Pierce some cute little Packers outfits and have the girls sit with me as we cheer them on (they aren't doing SO great this season, but it's still fun to watch). I absolutely love that my girls call ANYTHING football related "Packers". So if they see a video with people in a stadium, they say "hey they are at the Packers" or if they see a football (on a shirt, sign, tv show, anything) they say "hey mom! It's the Packers like you like!" haha. I've looked forward to sharing my football obsession with them since Cara was about 6 months old so this is a lovely dream for me.

We took this last week off as a little staycation. Family vacations should start up again next year and not stop until we run out of money or places to go, haha, so staycations have been big for us the past couple of years (it's mostly been our only option with the Vid going on) and it's been so nice to hang out as a family. I've gotten almost all my Christmas shopping done, which might be one of my more brilliant ideas - to get my shopping done in November so I can enjoy  Christmas activities in December. We got some doctor appointments crossed off our lists, and we've just enjoyed not having to be so much on a time schedule. Plus this gave us some extra time to adjust to the time change, which I was dreading.

Zoo trip in the Fall are almost a MUST

Speaking of doctor appointments, I've officially gotten back onto birth control. I haven't been on anything since a year or so before Cara came along, but knowing we were done with having kids I was excited to get on something until I can get my permanent surgery taken care of. I decided on the arm implant and even though it's bruised like crazy and my arms is still a little sensitive, I'm very happy with my decision. They say it can mess with your periods, but to give it 6 months before you decide you hate it (IF you hate it, that is) and that works for me because I'm hoping in about 6 months to get my surgery so this just feels more right. They made me take a pregnancy test before hand and THAT was weird, but I'm glad for the reassurance. I also crossed off my general checkup/annual girlie doctor stuff with that appointment so it felt like a 5 birds, one stone type of deal haha.

The very last Thriller performance

While we had this last week off I figured it would be nice to drive up and visit Stacey. I hadn't been up there in about a year, maybe more, really, so it felt like good timing. I just went up Thursday and came back Saturday so it was real quick, but it was nice (also, she now only has 1 guest room, instead of 2, and since I was bring Cara and Gwen with me that meant I was on the couch so a short visit was really the only option). We made us a few shirts (which turned out SO cute), I got to see her boys wrestle (and Cara got to try it out for a bit), I helped her clean and organize some things, and we hit up a craft/gift fair while Cole took all 5 kids, by himself, to a fun play place (well fun for the younger kids, poor Ollie was a bit old for it and he didn't seem to have as much fun). We hit up Red Robin for lunch before heading back, which is one of my favorites, and had a great time! I was also able to fill up the gas tank, give the girls snack bags and a DVD play with a movie and get up there without making any stops! I even had enough gas to drive around for the couple of days and only needed to get gas to make it home without stopping. It was pretty nice (go little Kia Sportage!). I love that our friendship has lasted SO long and we've seen each other go through so much! 

I love seeing my kids interact with my friends

Her boys don't sit still so this is the best pic
I could get with one of her dependents haha
I love puppy cuddles!

So that's been our Fall so far, other than Halloween and Thanksgiving (which do get their own posts) and I have to say I'm having a great time so far! I'm still in the "I'm excited to do more next year" phase with a little one, but we're still soaking up what we can during this time in our lives and that's what's important!