Bedtime for Mommy

I got this book from Kit for mother's day and I love it. If you have a chance to get it, do it. The story and illustrations are so sweet and it would make a great gift for any mom in your life...

note:

this is the same author of the books "little hoot", "little pea",

and "little oink".

Otherwise known as reverse psychology at it's finest.

big steps...

I recently bought a pedometer and am having fun calculating my steps. I was reading in a mom's journal that a good daily goal is 10,000 steps for the post partum mom. (I think that goal works for anyone...) I am interested to see how it goes. I was wondering if anyone else has any good mom and kiddo exercises that you could share. I would love to hear...

I love the Rookie Moms!

I have been following the Rookie Moms blog and just found their book and have loved going through it. It is definitely more for the first time mom but I am really enjoying it. If you have a chance to check it out, do it. You know how I love books...

The World Cup

Ryder loves watching the World Cup with his dad...

(Actually, he loves doing ANYTHING with his dad.)

Go USA!

note the matching toes...

smiles!

I love my guys...

Our favorite Ethiopian...

Just a little update on our baby girl.

She has been with us for a little over 5 months and she continues to be a delight in each of our lives. She loves giving smiles, snuggles, and kisses.

She loves food and still loves her coffee

(love those Ethiopian roots...)

When she sees Ryder, she always says "Hold it! Hold it!" Then she sits as sweetly as can be and just kisses his head, rubs his tummy and pats his hand. It could not be cuter...

She is definitely a nurturer.

She also wants to do EVERYTHING that her brothers do. If they are involved, she is all in. She misses them when they are gone and will call their names until they respond to her and then she just smiles at them. They are so good with her.

She also has, what should we call it... tenacity. For example, the other night her brothers had finished their dinner and they got a cookie called a JOJO. She was so distracted with wanting a cookie like her brothers had that she did not want to eat anything else and said, though tears and theatrics "JOJO" for almost 40 minutes. Yah, we'll call that tenacity, mixed with some fortitude...

But when she cries with her little curly hair and big eyes and cute little voice it just gets you every time, however, being the house of Italian mothers, we have some tenacity ourselves...

She has moments where she is taking in what is going on around her and will, in her methodical way, jump right in.

We love her so and are so proud to be her auntie and uncle.

We look forward to many years of watching her grow...

a gorilla makes a good gift...

A gorilla tripod that is...=)

I have shared that I do NOT do well with gift giving. I am learning and so I wanted to share something that I am really excited about.

Kit and I are currently saving for a camera. (It's amazing how having a little person makes you think that everything they do is photo worthy...)

So for Kit's birthday and father's day, I got this for him:

We love our little one for our point and shoot and we can't wait to use this one.

Plus, it weighs nothing, can easily be carried anywhere and it makes a great toy for a little person because the sucker is indestructible.

If you have a chance to try one out, do it, it makes group shots and stabilizing for still photos so much easier.

Happy Father's Day!

There are some pretty incredible father's in my life and I just wanted to wish them all a very Happy Father's Day!

Kit Rae~

Happy 1st Father's Day...

You do an incredible job and by far the best part of being a mom is sharing parenthood with you. You are an amazing team mate and I couldn't love you more...

April 6, 2010

First moments being a dad!

My prayer is that Ryder is the type of man that you are when he grows up.

(I mean look at how he does everything you do now...)

Happy 30th Birthday Kit Rae!

Happy Birthday Kit Rae! What an incredible 30 years you have had so far... I am so thankful to share life with you. You are the best friend, husband, confidant, lover, protector and provider that a girl could ever hope for. I am so thankful for you! Welcome to your thirties...I look forward to sharing MANY more birthdays with you! I couldn't love or respect you more...

ps: Imagine if I actually put 30 LIT candles on the cake, it would have set the fire alarms off for sure...

Ryder can't believe that BOTH of his parents are 30!

discouragement...

I wanted to share about some health stuff that has been really discouraging me lately. I have decided to breast feed Ryder, and with that has come mastitis, which turned into an abscess, which turned into the need for needle aspirations, which turned into the need for lancing which led to an open hole in my chest that needs dressing changes and packing. I have still been breast feeding but man, I feel like I just can't beat this thing. I feel like the first few months of his life I have had a hard time holding him comfortably and it just makes me want to cry. I have been on three types and four cycles of antibiotics. I am sore or in pain ALL the time and I can't tell you how frustrating that is. I know it could be so much worse, but for our family, in the life stage that we are in, I feel so defeated. Ryder has been handling it like a champ and Kit has really stepped in, but I just wish it would get better faster. I am trying to look at the bright side, and the best thing I can think of is being with this little munch before, during, and after feedings.

I wanted to thank all of you for loving on me with your kind words of encouragement, your thoughts and prayers. They have meant so much to me. I will keep you posted on our progress.

thirty years old...

I am thirty years old today, and it feels great! I wasn't sure if I would have a hard time leaving my 20's but overall, I'm ready for this new decade of life.

I got birthday doughnuts and Kit got me a Barnes and Noble gift card (best gift ever!) and brought me a fun coffee drink from Starbucks. We ordered food from our favorite place, Rutabegorz in downtown Fullerton and then rented a movie. It was so fun to spend the day with Ryder. He was full of smiles and just as delightful as could be. It was a really nice day. It was fun to have had a party on saturday and then to just lay low today.

I was journaling about today and it made me think about my life so far. I don't know about you but sometimes asking the question "Would I change anything in my life?" or "Is there anything that makes me want to live someone else's life?", is a pretty scary thing. But I really do have to say that I don't just enjoy living life, but I thoroughly love and enjoy MY life.

Here are the things that compiled my grateful list over the last 30 years:

1. My marriage to Kit

2. My baby boy and entering into motherhood

3. Our incredible families and close friends (Having incredible women in my life is huge for this one. Being close with my mom and sister is just the greatest thing ever...)

4. Our church

5. My job as a postpartum nurse that I love

6. Kit loves his job

7. Our health (though we both realize that we could stand to lose a tiny bit of weight...)

8.Our house that we have been able to turn into our home

9. Education (inside an outside of the classroom... the ability to learn new things)

10.Traveling and seeing things all over the world

11.The ability to DREAM about what the next thirty plus years will look like.

I wanted to share this list because I don't think I realize how good I have it. I complain all the time about the dumbest stuff and don't step back to see all the good things that I get to experience everyday.

I look forward to this new decade and all that it holds and I want to thank those of you that live life with me.

You make my life so good!

two months old...

Happy Two Months, little man!

We couldn't love you more...

celebrations

We had so much fun at our nephew's birthday party. I didn't get as many pictures as I had hoped, but all the kids got there and were given their pvc shooter and a bag of marshmallows, then they were sent to find 12 different targets that were placed all over the park. When they found the target, they got a sticker so all the kids were trying to get all the stickers and were running around as a group laughing and helping each other... it was really sweet. So with that, accompanied by some really good food, we had an amazing time celebrating our big kid.

Then, we headed over to my parents house to enjoy the pool (it was in the 90's that day), and I was surprised with a little birthday party with family, which was a huge surprise and I felt so loved and celebrated. (I can't believe I am turning 30 tomorrow!)

Thank you to everyone who made our birthday's so special!

boys and birthdays...

Our nephew is turning seven this weekend and I just can't believe what a big kid he is... it doesn't seem like that long ago that we were heading into the hospital for his delivery. I like to think that we have a very special bond because his birthday is on june 6th and mine is june 7th and I was with him when midnight hit and he was fast asleep in my arms... ok enough mush... well, that baby is now 7 years old and 100% boy.

I am not the best at gift giving (the understatement of the year...) so when we went to put his gift together this year, I actually became giddy because I just know it's right up his alley.

We got him this experiment book by Sean Connolly.

Then I got some of the common ingredients to go with it (vinegar, baking soda, corn starch, gun powder, matches, a really sharp knife...) Just kidding, I only got him the vinegar, baking soda and corn starch, the other stuff comes at his 8th birthday...

Then on the gift bag, I put :WARNING! CONTAINS EXPLOSIVES!

He's going to go ape!

DISCLAIMER: this book was approved by my sister and will be done with supervision, but the experiments all seem age appropriate.

I can't wait to share his birthday pictures with you.

Last year, when he was asked what type of birthday he wanted, he just looked at my sister and in a very matter of fact way said

"Lots of boobie traps"

This year, the theme is marshmallow shooters and so 24 kids will be armed with home made PVC pipe shooters and told to run a muck toward targets. (Did I mention he was 100% boy?) Here are the invites:

When Xander made his, the first thing he shot was his sister. Now she wasn't pleased, but when she realized she was being shot with marshmallows, she was conflicted. Our baby girl LOVES marshmallows, so it should be an interesting party. My money is on the she will be eating as much ammo as she can get her hands on.

I can't wait to share the events of the day with you!

were talking about the birds and the bees...

We're not talking about THOSE birds and bees... my goodness. No, we are talking about the fact that we had a bee keeper come to our house today and remove approximately 7 feet of honey comb and the bees that go with it from the bird house that our Grandpa Pierce made for us when we moved into our house. It was crazy! This woman has moxie, that's all I'm saying...

That's Melinda, the bee charmer, on a ladder, with a saw getting the bees out of the bird house. I am so thankful because we don't have to be scared to go in our backyard anymore.

It's the little things...

angels fan...

We love the angels, so it was just a matter of time for a picture like this to occur. We always laugh when he gets those really big eyes...

Well, Happy June everyone!