Sunday, January 15, 2012

Soapbox

This is another of my sporadic motherhood posts that I sometimes feel compelled to share. I have been thinking lately and had some new ideas that I thought might be of interest to my fellow moms out there.

Soren and I bought a book a while back that has questions to ask each other that will hopefully promote interesting discussions and getting to know each other better. We have liked using it and learned some new things. The other night we had a question that really got both of us thinking and kind of bothered. The question was, “What quality do you currently possess that you most want your children to imitate when they grow up?”  WOW. Talk about a self reflective question. We both struggled to answer it because it seems like in the past we have been really strong in certain qualities, but since having kids those strengths have weakened. I honestly almost couldn’t of any area of my life where I would wish my level of strength on my kids. Does that make sense? I guess I realized I need to do better because I want more for my kids than I am achieving right now.

Anyways after pondering this for a while I had a totally new idea that really helped me feel like this problem was fixable. When I was growing up I had a list of qualities that I was looking for in a husband. I kept it for years and sometimes added to it. I knew that if I wanted to find a guy that added up to that list, I needed to work on that list of traits for myself. So really the list was more of a goal list for me than a recipe for the perfect guy. Anyways after getting married and having kids, my goal list kind of disappeared in general. I mean it kind of feels like you have “made it”. So far I haven’t made any new, BIG, near future, next 10 years goals. It often feels like I am living day to day, naptime to naptime.

So, when I thought about this question of what I want my kids to be like, I thought about that future-husband list. And I made a future-kid list. What do I want for my kids? What qualities and traits do I hope they have and achieve? What do I want to be important to them? This was really good for me to spell out and identify specifics. I’m sure I’ll be adding to this list too. But my point is that I have no idea how my kids will turn out, but I do know that my example will be their guide. I plan on turning that list for my kids around on myself. If I can work on all of those things and be who I hope my kids will be, I know I will have done everything in my power to teach them. This list gives me a new goals and adds a new depth to mothering for me. I feel motivated to be better for them than I would be on my own.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Happy New Year

This year has started out great for us!

We went to a fun mustache-themed party on New Year’s and my Mom was awesome and offered to watch the kids so we could go alone. Wish we had taken some pictures. We had a great night and it felt really good to have a real event to go to on New Year’s.

We have made and been working on some resolutions around here. One of mine for Easton has been to watch less TV and movies. We tried it all week and I feel like we were very successful. It was hard and took some creativity, but it felt better at the end of the day. I am hoping we can still cut even more out.

I am really enjoying my iphone; taking pictures with it is so easy!

Here is a shot from inside the tent Soren set up in the backyard. He built a fire in my frying pan with popsicle sticks and they roasted mini-marshmallows. It was really fun except that everything got that smokey smell.

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We have a few small trees in the back of our yard that Easton has figured out how to climb. It is really cute and he is quite capable at it.

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The only pet we have had for the last year is a goldfish we inherited from my parents. (The big one pictured.) I never feed it or clean its bowl and it won’t die. It is a source of constant guilt for me. Oh and it has blood red zombie eyes. I really think it is a zombie fish. Anyways while at Walmart the other day I picked up two more fish to keep it company. I figure they will either improve his quality of life or change things up enough to finally kill him. Easton was very excited about the new fish although he doesn’t quite understand naming things. He refers to them as the Daddy fish, Mommy fish and Easton fish.

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

I’m Dreaming of a Healthy Christmas

What a Christmas we had. It was our first Christmas in our new house and we really enjoyed decorating with our apartment-size decorations. We got our first real Christmas tree which made it really feel like the holidays. I was convinced I wanted a fake tree and lights on the house and pre-lit garland above the cupboards in the kitchen until I saw how much all of that costs. OUCH. So we went with a real $20 tree, lights in the bushes, and no garland. The real tree ended up being a great choice. It was a bee-autiful green color, smelled nice, and incredibly sharp which kept the kids away for the most part. Kesler managed to swipe and ornament or two, but it really was dangerous to try more than that.

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Easton helped decorate by watching and drinking his beloved milk.

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I am so glad I did most of my Christmas shopping and prepping early because a week and a half before Christmas Kesler started getting sick. He had a fever and mouth sores and was miserable for days. He also hardly slept at night. It was really hard to take care of him because there was almost nothing I could do to make him feel better. He was so, so miserable. Soon I felt his pain though because I came down with it too. It turned out to be one of the worst 2 weeks Kesler and I have ever experienced. My throat erupted in blisters that prevented me from pretty much eating or drinking for almost 10 days. I was praying I could at least eat on Christmas, but it wasn’t until about 3 days after Christmas before I got anything solid down.

Anyways, it was a trial by fire of motherhood and I learned a lot, but it was a really difficult holiday. Thus I have very few pictures. I wasn’t really feeling camera happy.

It was really wonderful to be so close to my family during the ordeal. My Mom helped as much as she possibly could and we enjoyed Christmas Eve and Day at their house. These are the only pictures I have of Christmas Eve.

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Soren and I were very excited for Christmas morning. Easton woke up at about 7:00 and we had him come in our room until we were dressed. We had found him a huge new Thomas the Train set at a garage sale and set it all up as his surprise. He was so excited!

He and Kesler also opened their stockings and enjoyed their little gifts. Easton got the Francesco Bernoulli car from Cars 2 in his stocking and he hyperventilated when he saw it. He LOVES Cars 2 and it was adorable to see the excitement about something so small. Kesler got a new horse toy and they both got candy and new toothbrushes.

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It was really nice to go to church on Christmas as a family.  Then we all came home and took a very nice much needed nap. The rest of the day we spent opening more gifts and spent time at my parents.

Here is a little bit of the gift line-up. Kesler got a Little People cars race track and shared some more gifts with Easton. Easton also got a Lightening McQueen remote control car which was a hit. Soren mostly asked for money for another bow that he is saving up for. My big excitement was getting my white iphone. I LOVE it. My parents also got me a new blow dryer and a cake decorating kit which I am excited to use.

We may have had some health difficulties this season, but we had and have so much to be grateful for. Gratitude definitely is what helps us gets us through the hard times.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Thrifty

 

Soren told me about his holiday work party back in September and ever since I was on the hunt for the right dress. Seeing as it was cocktail attire and needed to be modest and I have particular taste, this was a difficult task. Anyways, after searching and searching online, I didn’t find anything. While in a thrift store I saw this dress and loved the fabric. It was $2 and I thought, “I’m sure I could do something with this.” It was about 10 sizes too big and difficult for Soren to see its vision.

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My Mom offered to help me and we started cutting and sewing. It took about 5 hours and a lot of pinning and retrying it on, but I was very happy with the finished product.

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I also fell in LOVE with the shoes I found to match it.

Unfortunately Soren still didn’t love the final reveal. The vintage look and the blousy waist reminded him too much of all of his Mom’s old dresses. I had a really hard time with it (ie. I was VERY ANGRY), but eventually saw it from his perspective a little more and decided to save the dress for another event. I ended up finding a new black skirt and a sequin top the next day at Kohls that I was happy with. The party ended up being really fun and I enjoyed wearing my new dress to church on Sunday.

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The best part was learning more about altering clothes and I plan to try it again soon. It was so rewarding to see my vision actually come through.