Merry Christmas!

If this doesn't make you merry, I don't know what will! Have a wonderful Christmas!

Portrait of a Sunday Morning

So recently...we have started getting to church on time. You wouldn't think this would be such a challenge for us SINCE CHURCH STARTS AT 11. I mean seriously. But all of this being on-timeness has required getting for church nice and early, which has left some time for getting beautiful pictures of our sweet girls.

Since I Didn't Deliver the Halloween Goods

Taken by the lovely Liz Evans.

If I Were a Good Mom You'd Be Looking at Halloween Pictures Right Now

But luckily I'm not a good mom, and I canceled Halloween this year. Yep, flat out vetoed it with my executive mom power after Lily threw an epic tantrum over not getting to eat candy before dinner. There was weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, and to complete the Biblical visual, me in sackcloth and ashes wondering what I did to deserve this. Oh right, I kept her up past her bedtime for like three nights in a row prior to Halloween. Woops.

So Halloween was canceled and we didn't get her in her costume or trick or treat, and I was such a buzzkill that I didn't even put a bowl of candy out for the other kids so now I have a bunch of Halloween candy that I don't want. So come to my house and eat some.

I'll try again next year.

Crossfit Observations

Almost a year ago Tim started working out at a CrossFit "Box". CrossFit is a workout that combines strength training, weight lifting, plyometrics, sprinting, power lifting, and a bunch of other hard stuff in varied interval-style workouts.

Basically it's the kind of workout that makes you cry, vomit, and then leaves you with a hacking cough for a couple of days after until your lungs recover.

Tim's words: "Sometimes I taste blood when I'm doing CrossFit."

You may not know this, but I married a very athletic and competitive man. This is ironic because I am neither very athletic nor very competitive. When you're as slow as I am, it's really kind of pointless to be competitive.

Over the years I have benefited from being around Tim's sometimes obnoxious athleticism. (Example: We buy cross country skis. Neither of us have ever cross country skied before. Tim is immediately awesome. We do a couple of Triathlons (this hasn't happened in a while). Tim does great. Extrapolate to any physical endeavor, and chances are Tim can at least keep up with the middle of the pack at the very least.) I have improved at running and biking and have gotten to the point where I actually enjoy working out more, which wasn't always the case. Having said this, I'm still dang slow and I can't do more than one full push-up.

So...on Saturday Tim and I headed out to "BoxtOberfest", a CrossFit competition that Neighborhood Smiles sponsored. A couple of things that made me think, "Um yeah...this isn't for me":
1. I think wearing makeup while working out is an abomination. Sweating? With makeup on? And hairspray in the hair? Sick. Not all the female competitors were made up but the two just don't go together in my book.

2. Someone decided that knee high socks and butt-short shorts should be cool in CrossFit. Obviously no one asked me.

3. Tats. Lots of 'em.

There were some pretty funny shirts and signs, like, "Intentions are not enough" (sorry!). Or "If you like my Rack you should see my Snatch" (sorry? I believe these are two different types of lifts?). My favorite sign was "Just Keep Going (that's what she said)".

Anyway, I watched some of the girls compete, and I have to say that I was duly impressed. There was something amazing about watching girls with serious muscle definition and lifting prowess. I mean, these girls were powerful, out there doing things physically that I would have thought before were "too hard" for girls. Silly, I know, and against my "Girls can do anything" lip service, but I guess I just hadn't seen anything like that before.

It made me start considering adding in CrossFit once a week...once Josie starts sleeping through the night so that I don't go dropping kettleballs on myself.

Grandpa was here!

My dad came to Albuquerque this weekend to visit and meet Josie for the first time. He was awesome about being on slow-moving baby/toddler time and mostly just hanging out. We hit up the pumpkin patch again since Lily has not stopped talking about it. "I see animals! I see sheep! I see goats! Pumpkin patch!" I'm taking her to the zoo tomorrow. Oh the excitement... Anyway, it was so nice spending time with my dad and watching him with my girls. We miss him already.





Isn't my baby beautiful? She'll be four months old on November 2nd. I can hardly believe it.

Pumpkin Patch

Lily had so much fun at the Pumpkin Patch today. It is so fun now that she is older and able to enjoy some of the fun of Halloween. Tim is out of town this weekend so I took the girls by myself and kind of felt like SuperMom navigating the double stroller while pulling a wagon full of pumpkins. Good times. Josie was a peach and napped the whole time. What good little girlies I have!

Baby Jo

I Have a Two-Year-Old

The nicest older lady was behind me in line at the grocery store today. Even though I just have two kids, I manage to elicit plenty of, "You've got your hands full" comments. My personal favorite is, "You've been busy". Really? I mean, there's two kids. And I've been married for 6 years. So shut your yapper. That's the only one that bothers me, others I really don't mind.

But anyway, back to the adorable lady today who said, "My, you sure are lucky." She then proceeded to compliment me on how beautiful my girls are and said that Lily reminded her of her late sister. She said, "I would have had a dozen kids if I could have." (I had a brief shudder/flashback to childbirth at that moment...a dozen? Ahh!) It was a sweet conversation, and I had to agree: I sure am lucky. So thanks to everyone for their kind comments and good advice during a tough patch. And thanks to the sweet lady in line today, who didn't look it but told me she was approaching "the 90s". I miss being around elderly people - even the cranky ones!

Let's get to what's really important about this post: Lily sporting her birthday Princess/tutu ensemble. The first thing she said when I put the tutu on her was, "Hi Princess". Oh dear... Just love this little two-year-old to pieces.



Thank goodness for tantrums. Sorry it's blurry but there was a lot of stomping and head tossing going on.

Whiner

Last night I was being a little whiny. "Sometimes I wish my life was a little more glamorous", I told Tim. Usually I try very hard to work at being happy in the moment and enjoying the many blessings that I have. Lately I have been pretty tired, and that makes me much less patient and, let's face it, a lot less fun. I told Tim that I think I need a creative outlet, but I don't want to take time away from him or our kiddos. I compare too much. This has always been a weakness of mine. I see other mothers, with more children, somehow seeming to manage so much more than I ever could. I think of friends my age that are busy traveling, building their resumes, or just putting on makeup and blow drying their hair every day, which sometimes seems like a huge accomplishment!

Then I think of yesterday. Yesterday was kind of a rough day kid-wise. Both girls have colds. Josie was up four times the night before. I spent the first 20 minutes of sacrament meeting nursing her and trying to get her to sleep (didn't work) and the rest of the time managing Lily who was having meltdown after meltdown. Then Josie spit up all over me and herself. She slept for maybe an hour and a half during the day yesterday. That's not enough for a 2 1/2 month old baby! Dirk also thought it would be funny to jump up on the kitchen counter and start eating some chicken that was fresh out of the oven.

But yesterday there were sweet moments, too.

Lily came into the kitchen, hugged one of my legs, then the other, then gave my leg a kiss. I could tell she was just feeling terrible yesterday, but there were moments where all she wanted was her mommy. And I get to be that mommy! It is so rewarding to have those moments as a mother where you are the only one that knows what your kid wants and needs and you can help them feel better.

I think of Josie's sweet smiles, and how she's starting to do this little chuckle thing that's killing me. I love her tiny hand wrapped around my finger. I love how she calms down if she's crying and hears my voice.

I laugh and think of Tim saying something about Josie refusing to go down for a nap and his look of concern when I said, "Yeah, it's killer" and he thought I said, "Yeah, let's kill her".

Forget being glamorous! I can be glamorous later.

I have to remember that deep down, I know I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing right now.

I have to remember that my beloved Nonna, my dad's mom, would always tell me her happiest memories were of the times when she was caring for her young children.

I have to remember how quickly the past two years of Lily's life have gone by, and how happy I have been to watch her grow and develop.

I have to remember that I really, really adore being a mom to these two little girls.

And when I remember those things, nothing else matters.

Although a little more sleep wouldn't hurt. Just sayin'...

My daughter is gross

So Lily is super gross. She's also absolutely adorable and really fun, but she's real gross. Moldy playdoh that got thrown away in the trash can at the church nursery? She'll dig it out and eat it, no problem. Drinking out of the dog's water bowl? Delicious! Playing with the toilet plunger? Yes please! Yesterday we were at the park and there was some standing water at the bottom of a slide. After watching Dirk try to lap it up, she did the same. Then today I went to get her out of her car seat and she had taken her shoes off and was licking the bottom of her feet. Normally this wouldn't really bother me that much, compared to the toilet plunger. But we had just gotten back from Chick Fil-A, where she'd been playing, barefoot, on the play structure there. Yum.

This doesn't keep me from letting her touch Josie though. When we took Josie in for her newborn check up, the pediatrician warned us about letting Lily touch Josie's face, since toddlers' hands are "petri dishes" of germs. Tim and I looked at each other like, "She has no idea." But I can't and don't really want to keep Lily from loving on Josie. So I don't. I'm hoping that both girls will have awesome immune systems.

Here's a family pic for ya. In case you're wondering what book Lily's looking at, it's called "Everyone Poops" (thank you Alison) and she insisted on bringing it to church.

And don't worry, we have bath time every night.

Oh it's been a while...

Sorry for the serious lack in posting but...I am dead tired. Tim was out of town this past weekend, Josie was up 3 times last night, blah blah blah. Other than the sleep deprivation, I have been enjoying my two little girls. I took these pictures today, hiding out from the afternoon heat in the shade. Lily still likes Josie, and Josie is becoming more and more aware of her big sister and is awarding Lily with her best smiles. We feel so blessed to have these two beautiful little girls. I am trying very hard not to wish these times to go more quickly just because of the sleep factor and stay in the moment, where Josie is so small and so very cute.