IF THERE EVER WAS A VILLAN....

Dear January,

I loathe you.
But I will retaliate tomorrow. 

The end. 

I almost made it through the perils of a gloomy, cold, wet January unscathed. With less than 48 hours to  crossing the threshold into February,  the wrath of winter blues snuck in. My children and mother were the unsuspecting recipients of my tantrum. By 4:26 pm I had eaten through a half a bag of chips and cried all my makeup off. I knew the last 24 hours of January would be bearable because of my ski club and the glorious 10 inches of fresh powder I'll be shredding tomorrow morning... but getting to tomorrow felt like trudging through 45 miles of lava, uphill, and barefoot. So I did what any other defeated mother of three squalling toddlers would have done... wrestled the kids into their car seats and headed for freedom. Boondocks. I shelled out $15 for an hour of survival while the kids climbed around the indoor play zone. It was enough time to pull myself together,  buy a $5 pizza and chose to survive 24 more hours until the sweet relief of the sanity February brings. Good bye January. You scored one on me... but I plan to retaliate with friends, powder skiing, and a family date to Fiiz, the new fandangled soda shop in town.

IN BABY TALK - IT'S REALLY ONLY 24 MONTHS

Ohwee Bear is 2. 

I don't feel like talking about it. 

If I had my way he'd be a newborn forever. 

And if you ask him how old he is... he speaks the truth of my heart, "Baby." 

I love him for giving me pregnancy.

I love him for giving me labor and delivery.

I love him for being strong willed enough to ignore my infertility and demand to grow inside me.

I love him for giving me hope.

He is a force to be reckoned with...

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

This wild little man loves anything to do with bikes, outdoors and dogs.

When he's having a hard day I usually find him with his best friend. Kashi is so patient with Owen's energy. 

He cries a lot... always has, I'm sure he just feels stifled about 100% of the time because he likes to live larger than life and he's stuck inside a two year old size body. 

His spirit is bursting at the seams to bust out of the confines of a toddlers physical limitations.

Owen reminds us of an ever faithful and loving puppy, he wakes up bouncing and ready for fun at any moment of the day.

He rarely leaves our side and is most happy to go anywhere and do anything with mom and dad.

He loves to work. 

He's every bit me and every bit Kday, and how that works I have no idea. 

He's all things opposite.  (which is also me and Kday)

Stubborn and sweet

Hard and soft

Wild and snuggly

Non stop and sleep

Independent and needy

Fast and slow

Charming

Brave

Social

Open

Busy

Busy

Busy

But just like his mom... there's no such thing as too much love and attention. 

And just like his dad... there's no such thing as too much time on the bike or playing in snow.

Owen came to this life to live it to the fullest and we're merely trying to keep up.

xoxo - love to you little blondie.

Happy Birthday my Ohwee Bear. 

TRADE IN

My baby turns two in a few hours. It's making me a little crazy in the head, to say the least. I'm leaving the "baby" stage with a bitter-sweet taste as I'm already deep into the terrible two's with Rider. You could easily call the stage I'm in  - denial. Total denial that my boys aren't babies anymore. I'm certain I'll still refer to them as such, so don't be annoyed... it's a coping mechanism. The past two years have been the hardest, most challenging years of my life and it's really hard not to feel like I've missed out on  the greatness of raising two babies. I've tried to stop and smell the roses, but it's a lot easier to close your eyes, hold on for dear life, and forget about the scary parts. Two bouncing baby boys came hurling into my life and rocked my world. I miss snuggling newborn yumminess, I miss bottles, and baby bath chairs... I miss sleeping babies in my arms at church, swaddling, and bouncing and everything in between. I don't miss doing it with two babies at once and I've happily traded many of those things in for equally great tasks. I now enjoy hearing "good night mommy" and "wuv you too." I've traded bottles of formula for endless sippy cups of apple juice, sleeping church babies with nursery church babies, swaddling for tucking in and dance parties. With each birthday ticking by like a clocks hands, baby stages are being cashed in and the trade for toddlerhood is among us . Soon enough it will be backpacks and sack lunches and I'm positive I'll miss this super hard toddler phase. So I'm trying with all my might to see past the tantrums and time outs and focus on the fun loving wild boys nipping at my ankles.
So tomorrow we'll celebrate! I'll try to nitpick less and play more... and remind myself that I am blessed with three miracle babies and one day I'll miss this crazy stage.

DIRECTIONALLY CHALLENGED

We're still on the mend around here with residual coughs, headaches, sinus infections and such.  Cabin fever has hit an all time high for the kids, but for me.... it feels nice to be back in the routine of things and sticking around the house for more than 5 minutes. Holiday decorations are slowly making their way back to the storage room and preparations for my baby's birthday party are in the works.
People! He is turning two and it's freaking me right out. Looking foreword to toddler stages and a little sad to be missing the baby craze that monopolized every inch of my life the past 24 months.

Feeling a little like this:

LIVING UP TO MY POTENTIAL -- 2014

If you're a new reader to this here space on the world wide web, then read this to understand the whole idea behind my yearly declaration.

2013 Intention proved to be a success:

We lived it up for sure!

Camping trips

Running to swim lessons with the triple jogger

St George Vay-cay's

Bike Races

1/2 Marathons of misery :)

Nakey babies playing in the backyard sprinklers

Staycations and more... It was a fantastic year.

This years intention is about LIVING UP TO MY POTENTIAL. 

I told Kday that's it's like the switch has been flipped and the lights are back on!

2011 was about taking the crazy wild ride on the journey to surprises.

2012 was about surviving

And 2013 was about having fun and thriving instead of just surviving.

This year is about my potential to laugh more, my potential as a friend, the potential in being a fun wife and mom, my body's potential to feel good enough to play with my kids or race again.

I have so much potential that I'm not living up to - for various reasons we all shy away from things that could make life better! 

Sometimes fear gets in the way or lack of belief in oneself. Emotional baggage can weigh us down or just plain contentment with the day to day grind. 

But I want more! I have a great life, a beautiful busy family, and so many opportunities and I want to be the best ME in that picture. 

I'm not talking about the "super-mom" craze that's all the rage. 

It's not about fulfilling every moment of life to the upmost perfection and running myself ragged...

I AM intending to push myself and really bask in the delightfulness of this stage of life and live it to the fullest. I have 8 solid months before potty training and kindergarten begin and that presents me with a lot of time to relish in the freedom of a 4 year old and two 2 year olds! 

This promises to be a year of accomplishing big things and living the dream!

CHEERS TO THE NEW YEAR!!!!

2014

SHHHH.... IT'S A SECRET

Tonight we'll be doing THIS. Although I'm not sure how much eating and playing our clan will be doing because we've been struck down with the illness from the dark side. It's been a solid week of misery, coughing, headaches, stomach issues, aches, pains, fevers etc. etc.....
Regardless, Rita will throw a spectacular party as always and I will announce my intentions for 2014 tomorrow. Last year I never really settled on my intention and I sort of forced a topic,  and it's usually something that is so obvious I can't help but know exactly what the universe is telling me to focus on. This year is obvious. I know EXACTLY what I need to set my sights on - the universe and my spirit are making it very clear.

Cheers to a New Year celebration and criss cross that my "minute to win it" games will be a hit tonight!

A BLURRY MESS OF JOY

We are sooooo ready for Christmas! Are you? 99% of all purchases this year were made online. Yeah, like I could have made it through a single trip to any store this time of year with three kids.... and not lose my sanity. It's been perfect, each day the kids go down for a nap (well, we attempt, since now the boys get cheap thrills off climbing into each other's cribs and/or climbing out and destructing their room) and I open the front door to a surprise of brown packages just waiting to be secretly hustled downstairs into the "Christmas Closet." There the gifts await to be wrapped during the dark hours of the night when said naughty little kids have finally fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion and they are no longer energized enough to climb crib railings.

We tree shopped at our favorite tree farm again this year, which marks 6 years in a row (minus the year we lived with the folks). I of course only captured a few blurry shots of the children running in all different directions, at the same time. That's kinda how life is right now anyway so it was perfect... A fun blurry mess of smiles and laughter.



And if you're wondering why I have no pictures of my dearest daughter, it's a phase. We have to pretend to be texting to capture her, sans silly face making or hiding from the camera.
And if you're also wondering where our Christmas card is.... It will be a New Years card, because we're cool like that.

See you on the flip side!