Temple Square

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, McKay went to Evanston to help his brother with his Eagle Scout Project.  The kids and I stayed at my parents house while he went.  When he was done helping we met him in Salt Lake and we went to see the Christmas lights on Temple square.

The weather was pretty nice that evening, but it was really crowded too. 

Of course the lights were beautiful as always.  Perfect way to end our Thanksgiving weekend in Salt Lake.

Oh how the kids adore grandma and papa

Oh how Corinne Adores Stu :)

Family picture.  Kind of want to make it a tradition to take a picture here every year...

Tired tired kids by the end of the night.  Just in time for a 3 hr. drive home.  :)

Day of Thanks 2013

This year for Thanksgiving we joined my family at my Aunt and Uncle (Brent and Heather) house.  It was a smaller group than we are used to, but still VERY yummy and relaxing.  Well it was relaxing AFTER the 5k that morning that we all ran.  I also tried my hand at 2 more pies and a veggie tray, all of which turned out great (if I do say so myself).

The 5k was fairly competitive after a lot of bragging from my dad this past year.  Soon enough the race evolved into a boys versus girls race.  My dad realized that HE himself would probably not be super fast so he told McKay that he would be the competitor for the men in the family.  (Jensen certainly wasn't quite up for the challenge... maybe next year :).  Mykelti was the girls main player and even with the injury (knee surgery a few years ago) she quite well.

McKay won, and after having no training and not running at all our entire marriage I am impressed that he could run that fast.  He finished in about 22 minutes.  Needless to say he was hurting a little the day after.  Endless energy I tell ya (when will it catch up to him?!)

I got a personal record and ran the 3.2 miles in 27 minutes.  To some that is normal, but I was very excited and may not ever do that well again.  I came in 4th (behind McKay, Camden, and Mykelti)

The kids were on the race route too thanks to my mom and aunt Heather who were so kind to push the stroller.

Fun fun morning and so happy to be hanging out as a family. Larissa and Rusty you were sorely missed :(

The whole group for the race

Me and McKay in all our sweaty glory

Corinne and Stu.  Um yeah we like him and he spent the whole Thanksgiving weekend with the fam.  :) :)  That is ALL I will say... for now. :) 

Some more 5k fun

After the race we cleaned up and headed to Brent and Heathers house.  Food was so good!  Seriously everyone out did themselves and we ate tons. 

Everyone ate a lot except for this little girl.  Adalyn has started this new trend where she does not eat when we visit Utah unless it starts with C and ends with andy.  The girl is just too darn excited about all the fun and playing with the toys to sit still and eat.  We have tried everything and she has won out more times then not.  So Thanksgiving was no exception... Here is the 1 bite of mashed potatoes that the girl ate on thanksgiving.  Crazy!

What was her distraction at their house that kept her from wanting to eat?  The cute puppy that she and Jensen chased the whole time we were there.  But Leah was a very patient dog who did SO well with the kids. 

Jensen on the other hand ate like a man and thoroughly enjoyed his first Thanksgiving.  :)

Family fun!

That afternoon we napped and ate some more.  Look at all the pies!  (there were only about 15 of us there)

Thanksgiving night we put the kids to bed and headed out to do a little shopping at Old Navy.  McKay had a headache so he voluntered to stay home.  We weren't serious shoppers but it was a fun way to spend time together.  I got the CUTEST sweater that night so I considered it a success:)

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

The first REAL snow of 2013

One week ago we got the first snow of the year.  It surprised us in the middle of the night and we woke up to 4 inches of snow.  It was pretty fun showing it off to Adalyn again, since she did not remember it from last year.  We spent a while looking out the window and talking about it.  Adalyn was really excited about the snow at that point.    I had been sleeping still when she discovered it at first and she was SO excited to show it off to me.

Then we suggested that she go out and play in it.  Well this was her reaction to that idea...

What?!

 You want ME to go out there?!

I don't think so...

What if daddy goes with you?  ok... maybe I will go.  

Seriously she freaked out!  It took some good convincing to get her to try it.  So we bundled her up and she and daddy headed out to make a snowman. 

In the end she didn't love it, BUT she didn't hate it.  She would walk around in it, but not touch it much.  McKay was a good sport and made 2 cute snowmen (that melted before I got a good picture).  Hopefully the next time it snows she will be more used to it and enjoy it more.  I still haven't "played" in the snow with her yet so it will be fun to try it out sometime.  We need to get Jensen a real coat before I will be going out with them. 

Failed Photo Shoot

Recently I have been working on a little Christmas gift project.  For part of the gift I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in their new Christmas jammies.  Jensen is usually a very smiley guy when we pull out the camera and I thought that I could bribe Adalyn into smiling, so I didn't think that it would be too difficult to get some good shots.

After all, the homemade photo shoot that we did with Adalyn on her first valentines turned out so well I thought we could just do it again.  See how adorable she was at 6 months old...

No it definitely isn't professional but it worked well for my homemade valentines gift to the grandparents.

Well this time things did not go well.  Like worst photo shoot to date, and I have now swore that I will never try and take the kids pictures without back up.  I don't know how photographers do it all on their own.

Lighting was bad because it was getting late, props were terrible, and the kids just wanted to eat snacks.  Crazy!  In the end I got a couple good close ups that will work for my little project, but man the rest of the pictures just look like Ia good Pinterest fail.  So what do I do with the "bad" ones?  Share them on here so we can all see.  hehe

That was the best one in my opinion. 

Yeah, pretty much just a hot mess with those props, so we took them all away and brought out the snacks.  Luckily at that point I was able to grab a couple good shots and called it good.   Here is one of the better ones...  Do you like how their mouths are full of little puffs.  :)   

Oh the fun we go through for pictures!  Why do we do it to ourselves?  They aren't even real life.  The outtakes are more of a depiction of real life.  But when you get that one "good" shot it is SO cute and usually worth all the trouble it took to get there... usually. 

Oh and of course after all was said and done and I was doing laundry, Jensen couldn't stop cracking smiles for me.  A little late buddy!

Sleep isn't My Thing

Apparently I don't like to sleep anymore.  Why do I say that?  Because I am not doing very much of it these days and I am surprisingly ok with it (most of the time).

Folks, here's the thing.  You all know Jensen doesn't/ hasn't slept well.  The little guy is 10 months old almost 11 and he has not ever slept through the night.  I do vaguely remember him doing it one time many moons ago, but it hasn't happened since.  5 am is the closest that we have come to "sleeping thru the night", but most nights he wakes up around 12-1 and again at 5.  Adalyn wakes up around 2-3 and then at 6:30-7 for the day.  Both of them go back to bed fairly easily in the middle of the night, but they still wake us up and get us out of bed.  Adalyn just has to be walked back to her bed and Jensen wants to nurse, but then goes back to sleep easily.  McKay is a good sport and helps out when he hears them.  But many times he sleeps right through it thou (lucky).

If you would have told me that Jensen still would not be sleeping through the night at 10 months when I was pregnant I probably would have curled up right then and given up.  Because I lived for sleep.  Before Jensen I took naps everyday and still slepted for 10 hours a night.  I could not imagine waking up multiple times a night and I was scared to not have a good sleeping baby.

But now after living through the past few months I have realized that you can survive (within reasons) on less sleep.  And dare I say that it has been just fine.  Yes we go to bed earlier then we used to and we take turns taking a nap on the weekend but I don't even have to nap during the weekdays anymore.  My body has adjusted and I am used to the multiple wake up calls in the middle of the night.  I let him continue waking up a lot because it kept my milk supply up.  If you ever are struggling to keep your milk supply up, feed your baby a few times a night.  Really can help a lot.  Adalyn slept through the night at a very young age and I struggled to have enough to feed her through out the day.  Wish I had known to feed her in the middle of the night, we could have maybe nursed longer. oh well...

BUT

With all of that being said the time has come (for reals this time.   It is not our first attempt, but hopefully it will be our last) for Jensen to sleep through the night.  I have let it go on long enough.  I know he is capable of not eating for 8 hours straight.  So starting this weekend we will be "helping" him sleep through the night.  No more 12 am feedings.  We tried it once this weekend and he cried for 40 minutes off and on until I gave in :P.  I think the 1st night will be the worst, but then I think he will get the hang of it.  We will see.

Any suggestions on how we should go about sleep training him?  I know he is old, but I am grateful that he has been able to nurse.  Adalyn trained herself, no tools were needed so we are newbies at this.  Wish us luck!

Thank You and Good Bye

Hello my dear blog readers.  The time has come for me to stop writing on this blog.  It has been so fun interacting with all of you on this blog.  Thanks for all of your support and encouragement through the past 4 years.  I have loved writing it and it is so fun to look back at my first few posts and see how far I/we have come.  If you would like to keep up with our family please give me your email and I will add you as a reader on our private family blog.  Hope all is well!  Have a good day!

p.s. you may want to find a way to remember our private blog's address (idahopacefamily.blogspot.com) other than the link on this blog.  As the link may not always be available.  just sayin...

So Much Happiness

I don't want this post to be another "yay my life is so exciting, look at my cute kids!" kind of post.  I wish I could really explain to you all my thoughts and feelings.  Life with kids is hard.  I am one who loves children.  I thought I would be a perfect stay at home mom who would love spending my days with kids.  And I do.

But it is hard.

I am not a very good stay at home mom.  It makes me crazy most days!  I love my "me" time and often count down the minutes or hours until I get to leave and go do my things (so grateful for a supportive husband who helps a ton so that I can get away sometimes).  I sometimes get really frustrated when the kids whine, or will not take a nap, because they are messing up my "me" time.   I don't like that I act this way so I am working hard to find more joy in the journey.  To not wish my days away, but do things WITH my kids that we can all enjoy.  I need more patience, but we have had more relaxed enjoyable days.  Some of the things that I am trying to do so that I can enjoy my little ones more are...

- go to bed earlier.  That way I don't get frustrated when Jensen wakes me up a few times a night.

-Spend more time as a family.  This one involved me cutting back on my personal activities so that we could all spend more time together.  Less zumba, less piano, less girls nights, and less shopping for more family play time.

-Less online time.  Adalyn hates it when I am on the computer.  Like starts crying the second I walk near it.  Partly I think she is being a little dramatic, because she always wants mommy undivided attention (she crys when I do the dishes too) but she definitely has a point and I try to not go online while she is awake.  Less online time also leads to caring less about what others around me are doing, saying, wearing, etc. and less comparing myself to others.  It is very healthy for me and I could definitely still do better on this one.

-Do fun activities with them.  We have some fun things on the calendar in the next few months.  I am excited to share these experiences with them.  I think these things will help us all look forward to each day more and help the time while daddy is at work pass faster. :)

-Work out BEFORE they wake up.  My kids are early risers and I struggle getting up before them.  But this one makes a world of difference in our days and helps me be more productive.  Hopefully I can continue to do this!

-Cutting myself some slack.  I am SO hard on myself and beat myself up if things aren't perfect.  But really no one else cares but me if things aren't perfect.  And the kids think I am the best mom ever if I let them have spaghetti 3 meals in a row.  So I am trying to just let things go and not be so up tight.

In the end as hard as it can be to sacrifice so much for our children and husbands, it is oh so worth it.  It is amazing how much we can learn about ourselves when we are in the service of others.  And yes my kids are darling and make my day so beautiful EVERY day, even if I don't always appreciate it.

 Oh this picture brings me so much happiness!  Adalyn's is like a life size Barbie doll who is as sassy and sweet as ever and Jensen is so happy and they both love their mom to pieces (yes I am very lucky).  So thankful have these two in my life. 

Thanks for reading the ramblings of a stay at home mom!