Cocktails with Catfish

On Friday night we were invited to have Cocktails with our dear friend Catfish (Scott), so we got a sitter (I know date night!) and headed for one of our favorite areas in Denver, the Highlands.  We had been to cocktails with Catfish a few other times before we had kids and it was always a blast.  We always knew most of the people that came and would spend hours conversing and drinking and usually close the bar down.  Boy have times changed.  We knew a FEW of the people there, not a big deal, it is always nice to get to know other young Denver Catholics.  We only stayed a few hours because we knew we needed to be home to put Hannah to bed (our HS sitter really could not do it in the past) and to nurse Felicity again before bed time.  Even though it was short it really was a wonderful time.  Catfish really knows how to host a group of young people (he bought everyone their first drink) and just did a great job of making everyone feel so special and included and introduced everyone to everyone.  I know we both miss those times of going out and being with friends and having a pretty good buzz going by the end of the night, but I would not trade our life now for any of it.  It was a much needed night out for just Andrew and I, we were able to connect for the entire evening (it makes it much easier to do when you have a good night rest, thank you Felicity for finally sleeping thru the night!)  I do have to say that I sure can't drink as much a I use to either, after a few drinks I was pretty "happy", but the next morning was not so much fun.  Remind me not to do that again, especially with a little ones who think that the day starts at 7AM :)

Thank you little ones for keeping me grounded and reminding me that I am not 25 anymore.
Thank you for giving me a whole new set of responsibilities.

All my love,
Mom

Our Church and MOPS

Yet again to get caught up on my posting, it has been so busy this past week I really can't get upset with myself I really have had little time to sit at the computer for more than 5 min at a time.  Andrew is feeling a bit under the weather so I am taking this time to catch up on blogging.  So here goes :)

Thursdays our my MOPS days, well at least every other Thursday is, so we head out the door pretty fast and early for us to try and make it to the church by 8:45.  MOPS days are both wonderful because I get to spend the morning with so many wonderful moms and new friends and Hannah is finally not crying at all (yes that means not even a tear) when I drop her off at MOPPETS, it is GREAT!  But little miss Felicity does not really get to nap, unless it is in the BJORN (which when she does is only for about 20-30 min).  So when we get home we have a few little ones melting down and we hurry with lunch and off to naps (sometime for the entire house).  I do love MOPS and can put the non napping and meltdowns aside to spend time with my other fellow moms.  Back to MOPS though.  On this particular Thursday we got called on like 8th graders and told we were being to loud by a group of other parents that were learning about raising adolescents in the conjoining room.  Now mind you we had already gone thru the issue of not having the rooms for the kids me needed and our room not set up for us, so we were a bit on edge already. We were also being very quite all things considered.  My Co-coordinator got called in by Father Greg to have a talking to and in the end asked us to move rooms (because we don't pay to use this room and the other group did).  We graciously obliged, but realized how little stock the church is actually taking in our group.  I mean we are raising the future church are we not and offering a community for fellow moms to build their faith.  We have been left off the schedule, not had things set up for us (so we had pregnant moms moving tables and chairs to get the room set up), asked to move and be quiet because we don't pay and not given the space to provide adequate care for our children.  I have to ask, what is going on with our church/staff.  Is this something we should take personally or do they do this with other groups?  We are trying to grin and bear it, but each week it seem to be getting more and more difficult and we are feeling more and more like a burden and unappreciated.  We acknowledged that the staff is overworked and underpaid but at some point when we have confirmed and confirmed again the blame has got to go somewhere else.  I am wrong in feeling this way about my church?  They do offer so much to me and my family.  I guess the reality is that I need to look at the big picture and look at how much our Lord took in terms of being ignored, pushed to the side and under appreciated and give it all up for HIM.

I pray little ones that you know how much I appreciate you and that you one day will understand and appreciate all I have done for you.

All my Love,
Mom

Playdates

Have I mentioned how much I love playdates?  I mean it is so much fun getting together with your friends and your kids friends (if they are that stage of making friends).  We were graciously invited to one today with a number of my MOPS friends (a few of them this was one of the first time we had met outside of MOPS and really got a chance to get to know them a bit better).  We went to a gals house, which is always the best location for me right now with a little one that still takes a morning nap (although she did not today).  There were cribs and pack and plays available to put the little ones down if need be, we had coffee the kids had snacks and we really just spend more than two hours talking and sharing.  It was wonderful!  I guess I did not realize how important these relationship (and relationship building in general is) until I had kids.  I mean it can be pretty lonely as a firs time mom not knowing other moms.  Your single friends don't understand how much time and energy goes into this little being and your married friends don't understand why you can't just come and go as you once did, they don't get that routine and structure are now your life and at times it feel like there is very little room for spontaneity.

Getting to know these new moms and deepening my relationship with old friends has been a Godsend for me as a parent.  I sometimes can't wait for the next playdate or gathering just for that adult interaction.  So much that sometimes I find myself getting frustrated with Hannah when she does not want to play with the other kids and wants to just sit on my lap the entire time.  This too shall pass (I hope).  I was also sharing with the ladies today that I really wish I could be a bit more flexible, I find myself getting very anxious when Felicity does not take a good morning nap or one at all for that matter, all because I want to be out.  The thing is that this girls is so happy most of the time, I am the one that is irritated.  And as I was watching my other mom friends who have little ones the same age just let the time pass without batting an eye at that fact that their kid is not napped either, it made me really appreciate their ability to be flexible and in turn made me want to really try and be a bit more like that.  Letting go of the control reigns a bit and enjoying this time and letting them (the kids enjoy this time), and the reality is that if she was loosing it and needed to go to sleep, I know that I would sacrifice that time with the ladies and take her home, because this is my vocation and there will be other playdates and gathering and time to share with these lovely ladies another day.  I pray that I can surrender the desire to control each and every morning and enjoy this time I have with them now because it does go by so fast.

Thank you little ones for being patient with me as I continue to learn how to be a better mommy,

All my love,
Mom

Honorary Grandma

All of my grandparents live in Idaho and Illinois and now all of the girls grandparents live in Idaho, so needless to say none of us get to see our grandparents all that often (Andrew's grandparents have all passes on).  So there are a few older couples and ladies at church who just google over the girls every week.  They always make sure to check in and tell us how big the girls are getting, how good they were in church that day and of course how cute the look. One in particular has been coming up to us since we first started attending mass at IHM, her name is Mary Lue, and she is so wonderfully nice.  Now that the weather is cooling down and life is getting a bit less crazy and a bit more structured we invited her over for a morning of tea and conversation (just to get to know her better, and for her to spend some time with the girls).  You would not believe the excitement  in her voice when we asked her to come over on Tuesday.  She was so darling making sure she was not interrupting the girls naps, or lunch and making sure that it was not to early and not staying to long.  We had a splendid time talking about our lives (she to is one of 8, 6 boys and two girls so she can relate).  She brought Hannah a few books of stickers which kept her busy for about 45 minutes decorating anything she could find to put them on.  Mary also spent a good time holding and interacting with Felicity, it really was so fun to watch.  Then at the end of the morning Mary helped Hannah pick up all her toys and listened to a few of Hannah s "you know what" stories (that is for another post).  We decided at the end of our time to make Mary Lue our honorary grandma since we don't have our here to share these wonderful days with.  Hannah also kept saying after Mary left that "I had so much fun playing with Mary".  It really was so fun to get to know someone new and someone we would not typically spend that much quality time with; you don't really see many 30 somethings hanging out with the older folks unless the are indeed their parents or grandparents. It felt good to make someones day like that.  I look forward to the many more days we will spend with Mary Lue.

Thank you Mary for your openness and kindness to our family,

The Welps for Dinner

No we did not eat the Welps for dinner, but our very dear friends the Welps did come over for dinner last night and what a great time we had.  Unfortunately (for all those that know them) they will be moving in the next month to Chicago.  Meg and Jacob are two of the strongest people I know and so faithful (I have always said that Megan is the closest person to a saint I know).  They have had one hell of a year (they lost a newborn twin last November) and as you can imagine are still coping with this loss.  You have never seen a family handle something with such grace and faith as this family has, and the support they got from our Catholic community was beyond imaginable (at least from my perspective).  All in all they are just wonderful people, Megan is always there when you need her.  Now what I mean by that is not that she always picks up the phone or always has the perfect thing to say, but that whenever I have needed someone to talk to for any reason (happy, sad, postpartum, first time mom issues) for some reason I would be able to get a hold of her, or by Gods good grace she would randomly call just to say hello or see how I was doing. It was all the Lord I am sure, but none the less she is simply one of the kindest people I know.

Since having kids it has been hard to really focus on a lot of conversations, it seems like one of us was always running around chasing a kid (or two) so when we have been able to get together with the hubbys it is nice because I do feel like we can really connect and focus on what the other is saying.  Megan and Jacob have a son named Issac and a daughter Pearl, Issac is about 2 months older than Hannah and they play so well together.  This is such a fun age because they are beginning to actually play together and not just play next to each other.  They played really well most of the night, sharing toys and copying everything that each other did (some good and some not so good).  These are one of those families that you can not see for months even years and just pick back up where you left off.  I hope they know how much they will be missed.  I know they will be back sooner or later, but it will be hard to see them go.  Thank you Megan and Jacob for setting such an amazing example as to what it means to be wholly faithful and holy.  All our love,
The Barga's

Nathan's Birthday

Nathan was born on October 12th but we celebrated with him up at our house on Sunday the 16th.  It was nice and pretty simple.  We invited a few of his friends (CP and Matt Wiz) to come and have dinner and cake with us.  I do love entertaining, any excuse to have people over (I think I get that from my parents, they modeled that pretty well growing up, still do to this day).  Nathan did not know we invited some extra people, Allison did a good job of not telling him, so I think he was pretty happy with the two friend that showed to celebrate with us.

Before we had dinner Allison and I went to a consignment event called Just Between Friends, it is basically where anyone who wants to get ride of anything kid related (toys, clothes, etc) can consign it in this event and they open it up to the public.  Well the last day is always the 50% off day, which is when I go.  I was in the market for some jeans for Hannah since she can't wear 2T anymore because of her height.  I love this event (they have one every season in multiple locations) and you would not believe the amount of items they have, even at the end.  Most items are given to donations like Catholic Charities or ARC if they do not sell, and believe me there are a lot of items left.  Allison and I did pretty well I think considering  who overwhelming it can be going thru hundreds if not thousands of items looking for the best ones.  The reason I bring it up is because I found these pink shoes that are like ruby red slippers only bright pink for Hannah and she LOVES them, I think mostly because she can put them on herself (she is really trying to be independent when it comes to getting dressed, she can do most things outside of shirts and tops).  Hannah has been running around in these shoes for the last two days and she keeps saying "oh look at my pretty shoes, they are so pretty, I just LOVE them."  It is pretty run to watch her be such a girl (one after my own heart with a love of shoes and all) :)

We ended the night with one of Nate's favorite cakes (german chocolate) and Hannah could not have been happier, we try and do dessert (especially chocolate) as early as possible because if you have ever seen a child on a chocolate high like this one you would too.  It is almost like her body can't stop from moving and her brain is trying to process the movement but can't quite keep up and then she crashes, I mean really crashes; not pretty, not pretty at all.  Now Uncle Nate is the apple of Hannah's eyes, she loves to call him, go to his house, have him come up here, pray for him, and tell just about anyone she meets about Uncle Nate, so when she got to blow out the candles on his cake with him she was in heaven.  I love how she loves him, if we could all love as a child loves, so unconditionally, so freely and so intensely, could you imagine how life would be for us.

Thank you little ones for showing me how I should love,

Love Mom

Saturday YMCA of the Rockies

Time to catch up again! I will make these short so you don't get to bored :)  Saturday we decided to go to the mountains (the plan was to meet up with Nathan, Alison and her family, but ended up not doing that), we went up to the YMCA of the Rockies on the Winter park side.  If you ever visit Denver again this is a must visit place.  It was a 2 hour drive (not bad considering we did it during Felicity's nap), we wanted to make it to the mountains this month to try and see all the changing trees.  We were able to see a few trees changing but due to the snow a few days back most of them had already fallen.  The best part of the trip truly was the camping grounds at the YMCA.  They have so much to do there and most of it is free, and it changing with the season.  While we were there we went on a very nice pretty easy hike with the girls (both in backpacks).  Hannah tried to do a bit of the hike but her little legs just did not keep up ours.  On our way back down she got to see some horses up close, you should have seen the smile on that girls face when the horses looked at her and sneezed, so cute!  The facilities have a year round arts and crafts building where we go to help Hannah paint an apron to use when she helps us in the kitchen (she had a ball).

By the end of the day both girls zonked out for the two hour drive home.  There were so many other things that we could have done, from skating to swimming to mini golf.  They have two places to eat lunch and many parks to play and run in, as well as game buildings and plenty of space to host parties and weddings.  In the winter time they have snow showing, outdoor ice skating and a place where you can ice sled just for starters.  Needless to say we will be going back very soon (like next month), only this time we will stay the night so we can utilize the facilities to its fullest.  We talked about trying to get our whole family (Auth) up here for a summer family reunion, it is fairly inexpensive and so accessible and great for everyone who has kids (which we all do).  Maybe we should drop the idea at Christmas this year?  It was really a wonderful day and the 4 hours in the car with sleeping/quiet kids really gave Andrew a chance to catch up and connect, I love family filled weekends like this.

On a side note, it is much easier if I drive, I got pretty sick on the drive up, good thing I am not married to a man who must drive when we are both in the car :)  And to top off the day on our drive back home we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants that we had not been to in a while (Parisi's) and had some amazing Italian food and wine.  It was a family date, but a great one at that.

Thank you little ones for your joy in simple things, and Andrew for all your love and giving us this beautiful family,

Love Mom

It is official

I have decided to start my own business!  It is small, but it is doing something I love, Accounting/Bookkeeping.  I had a job offer from a local Bookkeeping company and when I was telling my parents about it my mom simply said, "why don't you just start you own and charge what you know you are worth", pretty simple mom and a great idea, why had the thought never really crossed my mind?  Well I will tell you why, because there is no guarantee, that is why.  I don't wan to put forth the money and really the time if I don't know that anything will come of it, I need a safety net.  Que Andrew (my love, my partner, my encourage r), for him it was simple, if you build it they will come.  "Don't worry about the money, don't worry about the time".   I can honestly say it was never a pride thing (mostly because if I did "fail" then I still had the hardware and software to use as I wanted).  For me it really comes down to the money, I wanted a return on my investment (can you blame me?).  I guess that is pretty good thing coming from a small accounting/bookkeeping start up, right?   Hardware, check.  Software, check.  Now we just have to put together some advertising verbiage and get that baby in the DCR. We are going to start there for a few reasons, it is pretty inexpensive and there is no contact for listings.  I hope to have this done by mid November at the latest that way it allows for any small businesses to finish up 2011 with their current provider and possible switch to me in 2012.  I will keep you all posted as to how it is going, lets pray for at least 4 clients by 2012 (I already have 1 that I have been doing for about 3 years), so if you know of anybody in the market for an out of house accountant let me know.

Time to catch up

I know I have been a bit behind so let me catch you up on what has been going on around here.  Life seems like there is not a lot going on, but then when I sit down to do something it feel like there has been so much going on that I just want to minute to sit still.  Lets see, Wednesday I spent out that evening with a dear friend Elizabeth. We chatted over beer at my brothers bar (if you have never been there it is a must on your next Denver visit).  Andrew and I decided it would be good for me to take all Wednesdays off and away from home in the PM.  I typically go to my Marian group every other and stay home the other ones.  The plan, though it has not worked out yet, is to go to the church and spend some time in deep personal prayer.  But you know what end up happening, I feel bad about leaving and then I stay later than I should and I never actually make it out the door.  I know control issues right, it is not as if Andrew can't take care of the kids, I just don't want it to feel like a burden to him (that is a whole other blog entry for another day).  For the record Andrew tries to push me out the door, it is my issue not his.  It was good to get out, I know I have said it before, but a night out is really good for me as a mother, it helps me appreciate my kids so much more the next day.  Gosh that sounds really bad saying it out loud, but I am sure many of you moms can relate; you know the saying absence make the heart grow fonder.  So so true!

Thursday we spent the morning at a pumpkin patch with the girls for MOPS, this really made it feel like a real fall day (even though it hit almost 75 that day).  Hannah had so much fun going thru the corn maze, though it was a bit difficult at times, she ended up finding her way out.  She LOVED the corn box (it was a sand box that had dried corn in it instead of sand).  A lot of kids were being buried in corn and just tossing it around and rolling it, I personally love this because there is no sand in the shoes when we get home, or in their hair for that matter.  It was so good to see some friend that both of us had not seen in a while.  Hannah slept exceptionally well that afternoon if you can imagine.  Felicity on the other hand has not been napping well in the morning at all!  We are trying a new approach that a friend Christy recommended called pick up put down.  We will see how that next three days go, but I can tell you last night from 12:30 to 2 she was up just screaming, and every time she stood up I was in there putting her right back down.  I finally caved after 2 hours and rocked her to sleep (well Andrew did at least).  I tried to say the rosary as I stood in there going back and forth with her, but there is just something that does not seem right about saying the rosary when I am so irritated.  I hope I am getting at least something out of it.  As for Felicity we will see how tonight goes, say a prayer for us and that this madness ends soon!  Truth be told I know that if I could just surrender this time, I mean truly surrender it, I would not be so obsessed with having this time pass.  Maybe pray for that instead, that good Lord had got to have a plan for all of this right?

Dear little ones, thank you for helping me rely more on the Lord and less on myself (especially at 2am),

Love Mom

A Walk in the Park

Today that is what we literally did, we went for a walk in the park, well at least Hannah and I did.  Andrew was able to come home early today, like 2pm early (Yippy skippy, I love having my husband home!).  Felicity was down for a third nap, she was not a good napper today (due to a 2 hour walk with morning with a friend, she missed her morning nap at home, it was all my doing).  I typically take a push car or a stroller to the park, but today Hannah said she wanted to walk, why not right.  I figured it would tire her out more for this evening, and hopefully make her pretty hungry (for the record it did both, she was asleep shortly after 8 and ate a whole hamburger, a banana, applesauce and some crackers).  When we got the park she played for a bit on the slides but then told me she wanted to walk to the tunnel that is about a quarter of a mile away if not further.  I was pretty impressed she did walk the whole way there and almost the whole way back to the park (after walking thru the tunnel and over some pretty big hills).  By the time we had to head home because the sun was going down she was pretty tired and kept telling me that her legs were tired and she needed holds :)  I did carry her for about 20 feet, I realized how hard it is to carry an extra 30 pounds after getting use to carrying the lighter Felicity at only 14 pounds.  Along our walk Hannah did pick up a few treasurers that she was able to share with daddy, the novelty of those quickly faded once she found the chalk that Andrew had brought home for work was in fact kids sidewalk chalk.  All in all it was a really fun afternoon just the two of us.

I got a chance to do a nice long walk with my girlfriend Sarah today, I love long morning walks and this weather makes it that much better, nice and cool in the beginning but once the sun really hits you your jacket comes off and you could almost swear it was summer (except for all those changing trees around you).  We spent a lot of time talking about our vocations and how to be better wives and mothers and how we love having such solid catholic friends (both wives and husbands/families) to keep us grounded and help hold us accountable.  It is so nice to have someone of like mind and personality to bounce some of the craziness that goes on in ones own mind to help you realize that you are not in fact that crazy and many moms (especially of toddlers) are feeling a lot of the same things.  It is so nice to have someone that we can relate to on a personal level but also on a faith level, someone that you know you can go to with question or thoughts and know that they are in a similar boat but a different boat and able to give you perspective on your thoughts.  I guess what I am getting at is that I simply love having the Catholic friends we have and not only that but I love being a catholic woman (mother and wife).  I love what I know about my faith now and where I am with it, but I am also excited about all the things to come, the new information, and the new understanding; and it all simply makes me HAPPY!

Having Family Close By

This will be a shorter post just because today was a pretty relax day and nothing to exciting happened.  I did laundry literally all day (at this point I am still not done, I should be by 9pm).  Allison called to see if she could come up for the day  (they are remodeling their kitchen) and she just needed some time away from the mess.  Hannah and I decided to make some brownies for auntie Allison and Uncle Nate.  Something you must know, Hannah loves these two, I mean loves, she talks about them all the time, wants to call them frequently and prays for them EVERY night (including baby Timothy).  You could say they are the cats meow in her mind.  She was so excited to make these brownies and from the moment they popped out of the oven she kept saying, "Auntie Allison and Uncle Nate are going to love these, Oh I love brownies, I can't wait for them to have them, they are going to be so happy we made them."  Yup we are pretty luck to have family that we are so close to, live so close to us.  We try and see them once a week, they come here more often than we go down there, probably because we have two kids and it is harder to go anywhere, but we should try and make it more even one of these days.  Allison came up in the early afternoon and stayed till after dinner and sure enough before she was able to get out the door Hannah had to (loudly) make sure Allison did not forget those brownies.  I told you her love language was service and taking care of other :)

Felicity and Timothy are very curious of each other, they basically go for each others faces when they have the chances.  It has always amazed me at how even at 6 months old they know that there is someone of similar size and quite possible age near by.  Maybe it is the similar or familiar sounds that little ones make.  It is as if they are drawn to each other.  Felicity can be getting attention for multiple adults but as soon as Hannah enter the room all eyes go to her.  It is so special to see how those sisters interact with each other, I hope that even with time they continue to be silly together and care for each other as they do now.


Thank you little ones for your caring hearts,

Love Mom

I don't want to poop my brains out

Ok so I know what your thinking, what kind of post is that!  Well as I am sure you know kids say the darnedest things, especially in response to a lot of things we adults say.  Yesterday Hannah was on a fruit kick, he had dried fruit with breakfast, apple for a snack, some pare with lunch and wanted more with dinner.  When she asked for it I told her that she could not because "If you eat to much more fruit you will poop your brains out", she looked at me with confusion and asked why, then Andrew proceeded to tell her why she needed her brain, it makes you do all the silly things you do, it makes you walk and talk,"so you don't want to poop your brain out, then you won't have a brain."  Hannah looked very concerned and said in a somewhat upset tone "I don't want to poop my brains out, then I won't have anything in my head."  After Andrew and I stopped laughing we had to try and explain to her that it is just an expression and you will most defiantly not poop your brains out, but still no you man not have anymore fruit.  Gosh I love the mind of a child.

 On a lighter note we had such a great day today spending it with the 4 or us, we went to Target just to get out of the house.  Hannah love to just be able to run around and see all the fun new toys and pick out a special $1 "surprise" as she calls it.  Today it was a jack-o-lantern trick or treating bucket.  We got a pumpkin spiced latte from Starbucks (wonderful way to kick off this true fall weather) and then came home ate and spent the next hour just playing and talking.  Below are a few pictures from the evening of hanging out with the kids.  This is pretty typical for us, we do dinner around 5:30 and spend from 6 to 7 up stairs finishing up random chores and playing with the kidos.  Tonight was a rare night where they both kept their clothes on, thus the opportunity to take and post some pics.

Felicity has been extra hard to put down, I may have stated this before in other posting, but OH MY GOSH!  I was pretty excited when she started crawling at 5 months and pulling herself up at 6, but this whole thing where she pulls herself up in her crib is for the birds.  Oh did I forget to mention it is such a huge annoyance because she cannot get herself down, so sleep is not really in the cards for a standing child.  I read some other blogs and got some information as to how other parents handled the same problem.  All of them said to let her cry it out, eventually she will fall over and not stand back up (from exhaustion I am sure).  This seemed like a good idea, not that I had many other options, so I told myself that this is how it would go down.  I would put her down after nursing (she is usually asleep) and if she pops right back up I simply say goodnight and walk out.  Man is that so much easier said than done.  She popped right back up and simply creams (at the top of her lungs so it seems).  And if any of you have ever done this CIO method before you know that 5 min of this crying feels like an hour.  After going in a dozen times and laying her back down giving her something to cuddle with, signing to her, and hugging her, I CAVED!  I was an hour in and I could not take it anymore, I nursed her and she did pass right out (who wouldn't after an hour of screaming and rolling around and standing up over and over again).  I guess I should pat myself on the shoulder and say better luck tomorrow?  I will also be teaching her during the day to try and sit herself down, so that we can move past this wonderful, amazing, frustrating milestone.  Lord give me the patience and the grace :)

Thank you little ones for the laughter and the tears you bring to my life,

Your mom

First Day of Fall

Fall has officially hit (well at least in my opinion), we had our first "snow" fall today, at least above 6000 feet did.  We got a bit of wet snow, but nothing stuck.  Hannah was so excited to see the "rain" coming down and she so badly wanted to go out and play in it, naked by the way.  That girl and her naked time :)  I love the changes of the seasons, it makes me so giddy and excited for the endless possible baking and cooking options. I don't tend to use the oven a lot in the summer time, as it heats up the house.  But fall and winter, I could bake every night of the week.  That is if I knew it would not wake the children directly above the kitchen.  Luckily Hannah enjoys being in the kitchen with me, so when Felicity is taking a morning nap, we get our baking fix (usually something she can taste right after it comes out of the oven).  Today however we made our first batch of homemade lentil soup, Hannah kept saying that she was so excited and loved lentils, she did not eat one single bite tonight though.  I guess we will have to see if she likes it tomorrow.

The weather today made me want to go thru my closet and put away all the summer attire and put the warm fall   clothes in their place, I got so excited for a whole "new" wardrobe, but alas the little ones needed me more, maybe I will be able to get to that tomorrow.  I had both girls by myself for most of the day today and it was hard.  I know what you must be saying, "you have them both everyday", and yes that is true, but I really do look forward to the weekends with Andrew and for the girls to spend time with him.   He was so gracious and went and helped my brother Nathan with his kitchen remodel (Nate has helped us out a lot, so I know we owed him).  I tend to get worked up over the weekends in hopes that we can get all the projects done that I was piling up over the week and as the time ticks by, I find myself annoyed and overwhelmed that we did not get anything done.  Lord give me the patience to be still, to cherish this time, this free time I have with my husband and kids.  I am tired so I think I will head to bed, Oh how I hope Felicity sleeps better tonight (I told myself that I would give her till Monday and if she was not sleeping better then we would try a different approach).  She is just much further along that where Hannah was at 6 months, this one literally stand, that is right pulls herself up and stand, in her crib and yells until we come in the room.  Oh how I yearn for the day she can learn to sit back down on her own.

I know I am doing a lot of complaining and venting, I was just telling Andrew tonight before he went to adoration, that I think if I knew these would be our only kids we would handle and address all of these thing differently  I know I personally would cherish these moments more (or at least I hope I would).  I pray that these are not our last and that we are just learning and gathering wisdom for the many more to come.


Good night sweet ones, rest well

Love Your Mom

Mastitis and slowing down

I know I am late yet again, but I am have a good excuse this time, really I do.  I ended up with mastitis yet again and felt like I was on my death bed yesterday.  So I am going to combine two days into one.  It all stared after we decided to let Felicity cry it out at night (so we can get more rest and she can get more rest and so on), this not nursing her for 6-8 hours.  I got up in the morning feeling a bit of pain in my breast and pumped over 4 ounces, which is huge for me.  I went to MOPS that morning (which by the way is such a wonderful group of mom, more on that later), I carried Felicity around in the Bjorn so she could take a nap while I at the meeting.  I was in pain most of the meeting, but it got really bad once I got home, I took some pain meds and did some hot compresses but nothing was working.  Luckily I had some meds my brother Jon prescribed from past mastitis time (I have had it a total of 6 times now with both kids).  Now if you have ever had mastitis before you know what kinds of pain I am talking about, it is like having the flu and then someone kicking you at the same time, while you feel like your breast is going to explode, not enjoyable in the least.   I thought I might be able to kick it, but boy was I wrong, while Andrew was out getting dinner with Hannah it really hit me, I had to confine Felicity and just lay on the floor in hopes that I really would not die and that Andrew would come home soon.  He is such a superstar dad and hubby, he came right in, got the girls dinner, go me all the med and fluids I needed and sent me to rest.  Now I am not a good patient, heck I usually just pretend that nothing is wrong and go along my merry way (that is until my body gives out on me and literally tells me to slow down), and that is just what was happening.  It takes a lot for me to give up all the control, but when you feel like hell, you realize it is the only thing you can do to survive.  Andrew did it all, cleaned up, took care of me, played with the girls, took care of me some more, put the kids to bed and then put me to bed.  Then in the middle of the night (while Felicity was still screaming at us), he got up to get me my meds and water.  What would I do without this man in my life, I hope to never have to find out.  I love him so!


Today has been a better day, the antibiotics finally kicked in and I feel like I can walk, talk and at least interact with the girls, I am still sore, but it is a good day.  Hannah is a child after my own heart, her love language at this point in her life seem to simulate mine.  She want to make you happy, if she sees you crying (which I did a lot of last night), she want to make you feel better, she always wants to make sure that what she is doing is making you happy, she loves kisses and to be touched and loves it when you play and spend time with her (doing things with and for her). She was so incredible the last 36 hours, making sure I was taken care of, that my boo boo felt better, and helping with Felicity where he could.  I am so glad she (both of them) are a part of my life.  I was just telling Andrew I could watch both of them smile, and laugh all day long, it bring such joy to my life.  


As I was sitting and nursing Felicity tonight, it dawned on me how important it really is to slow down, to absorb as much of this time as I possibly can, we really are here for such a short while that yes my children are more important than the dishes or the laundry or my email.  A friend at MOPS shared how her kids get up from bed or naps always a bit cranky and she tries to spend 10 min with them reading and cuddling with them.  This really made me think about how crazy it is when my kids get up and if I could just spend 10 min with them, loving on them and reading to them while we snack I bet it would make the rest of the afternoon so much easier.  So here is to trying yet another thing I would like to make into a habit.  Slow down, embrace this time, and love on those little ones as much as possible (the dishes can wait), this is your vocation after all have fun with it!


Thank you little ones for making me a mommy
Thank you Andrew for helping mend my broken body,


Love Mom

Late again, but needed the time out of the house

Yesterday was a great day, Felicity finally started feeling better, she was all smiles and just crawling all over the place.  We could tell she was feeling better because Hannah could get her to just giggle none stop if prompted.  Andrew did not have to leave the house till mid morning so we went for a nice long walk with my dear friend Sarah O'Connor (we try and walk weekly and typically talk 4 times a week).  Love her!  We just all around had a great day.

On the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month I go to my Marian group in downtown Denver, most evening I have to really pump myself up to actually get out of the house (having to figure out if Felicity has enough milk to take from a bottle, and just making sure Andrew has all the essential things for the evening. )  But boy am I glad that I go, it never fails, I always come way from our meetings feeling very validated in my vocation, encouraged to do better, and feeling so blessed to know so many holy women.   Right now we are studying "A mothers Rule of life", by Holly Pierlot.  Basically it really helps us moms figure out a way to get the most our of our days in the most holy of ways (thru reminder and encouragement that being a mother, like Mary, is a vocation).  Last night we cover one of the 5 P's, it was person and boy did I need to reflect on some of the topics that she brought up.  There are some days I literally feel like I have lost control of the house and that we are just surviving.  Holly gives some good pointers on how to change this, one of the biggest is really taking care of myself in terms of food and sleep, eating well and making sure I am well rested before all else.  If you have a chance to read this book, I highly recommend it.

I also realize how revitalized I am after being away from the house (I tend to be an extrovert, so the time away really powers me).  I am sure Andrew loves the fact that I get home a bit late and just talk his ear off:)  I feel as thought even if I got the same number of hours of sleep the night before, when I have a chance to get out and do some things for myself I feel that much more well rested.  I want to make a commitment to really acknowledge that and take Andrew up on his offers for me to get out of the house more often, and not just to do errands.

Thank you Andrew for encouraging me to get out, allowing me to leave without hesitation and coming home to two very happy (asleep) kids.

All my lover dear,
Rebecca

Two turned into four

Today I had the privilege of  babysitting a friends two little boys, one is about Hannah's age and the other about 6 months older than Felicity.  Titus and Max Gravell are two cuties.  Max slept for about half the time he was here, as did Felicity, so really it only felt like 2 kids most of the morning.  Now when Titus has come over in the past Hannah has been pretty shy and wanting to stick close to mommy, but today (maybe it was because his parents were not around and she felt he needed some comfort), she was so good with Titus, sharing all her toys, playing pretend with Titus, yes that was with him, not beside him, not in the same room but with him! It was so cute to see them jump all over the basement on the bed, read together, laugh and run together and just simply be kids, so innocent and full of joy.  It really made my morning so much easier because Titus kept Hannah occupied and vise versa, I got a lot of things done that I would have typically waited to do during naps time.  Thus making it so I could take yet another nap!  Which was nice since Felicity was up at 5AM.

We are struggling right now a bit with that, well I should say with Felicity not sleeping thru the night I feel like I am up every 2 hours with a very loud screaming baby.  I know that if Andrew and I just commit to doing it we can probably get her to sleep thru the night in a few days, but those three days are the most brutal days I just don't want to experience right now.  I just keep telling myself that if I could just have one night of good sleep this would not be so bad, but the reality is that we need to nip this in the bud.  So here is to hoping we can support each other at 2am when Felicity is pushing so hard and loudly that all you want to do is give in and go back to sleep yourself.  I will let you know how it goes.

Thank you Andrew for being strong when I am week,

All my love,

Hannah and Titus sharing Popsicle, look at the joy on her face, man I wish something so simple excited me this much.

Titus was not so sure about these Popsicle at first, but Hannah's joy soon rubbed off on him.

Felicity would eat anything and everything if we let her, the moment she sees anyone put food in their mouth she is right there watching you, see how badly she wants her sisters food.  She does the same thing when we eat dinner.  Pretty cute and funny, until she starts growling at us to give her something to eat.

Lack of Sleep

I am tired to say the least!  I am still up typically once sometimes twice a night nursing little miss Felicity and to be honest for the first 4 months it really was not bad, but the last couple of nights have been brutal, I know, I know you are saying, but she has been sick.  I realize that she needs me more (like every two hours if not less) right now because she is sick, but that is so hard on my body.  Last night was really bad, not only was she up often  but she was hard, really hard to get to go back to sleep.  I can honestly say I was cursing anyone who would hear me in the middle of the night, at 12:30, 3:30 and 6 am about how upset I was that I was so tired, not well rested and had to be up in 45 min because that is when Hannah would be up.  I am sure at one point I even expresses how upset I was with the Lord (because this is all His fault right ;)).  It is funny though that even after all my anger and frustration (literally feeling like I was taken to the end of my rope that the good Lord does give back 10 fold.  Not only did I get to sleep in till almost 8, Thank you very much Hannah!, but after a nice hot cup of coffee I really felt pretty good and much more rested than I thought I would being up so often.  To top it all off I also got an hour long nap this afternoon.  Now I don't typically nap, but after much deliberation whether to work out or sleep, I felt that I owed it to my wonderful husband (who was also up much last night helping me with a crabby baby), to put my sanity first.  This made me a much happier wife, a much happier and capable mother and allowed me to cater to my husband much better than if I had exhausted my boy more by working out.  Simply put I knew I needed to be mentally, physically and emotionally available to Andrew after he got home from work.  I had been putting so much time and energy into other things that our relationship felt like it was put on a back burning the last few days.  It felt good to see Andrew come home and be at ease because the house was at ease.  My husband is a rock star to put up with so much and put forth so much and work full time, sometimes it is easy to take him for granted. I pray that I can continue to put Andrew and our relationship first, because he/it really is what makes our family go round.  

On a side note, I got to take Hannah our for a little Target run tonight, she had a blast running thru target and literally climbing all over the "fun" cart as she calls it.  Felicity is still not her happy old self but it feel like she is getting a bit closer, I still get a bit nervous when illnesses drag on and on, but luckily Andrew is here to assure me that "everything is going to be fine", that is truly his motto.  :)

Thank you dear little ones, and my dearest Andrew for making me so happy,

Love Mom

October 2nd, a little late

I am hoping I will get better at this whole posting every day, this post is a bit late, I hope I can start doing the post after the kids go to bed and I have a little bit of free time to organize my thoughts for the day.  Any way on the 2nd of October we went to dinner at our friend Curt and Jerica's house (Andrew and I went to High School with both of them).  They live here in Denver and it had been almost 9 months since we had seen them.  Hannah did not remember them and this was the first they had met Felicity.  Going over to friend houses change once you have kids, we try really hard to plan to meet up right after naps and leave right before Felicity needs to go to sleep, it makes for a pretty rushed gathering, but at least we get to see folks that way.  Hannah was pretty excited that Curt offered to put on her favorite show Diego on netflix so the adults could spend some time chatting.

At the end of the evening Curt took Andrew and Hannah down into his basement to show them a few things, when they came up Hannah was wearing a super hero/Zorro mask and looked so cute (Curt kindly gave it to Hannah to wear for Halloween).  She woke up the next morning wanting to put it on, as you can see below. That kids is so cute!  Thanks Jones's for a wonderful evening.

Felicity is still getting over her roseola, her fever is gone but now following suit she has a rash all over her body, literally all over, you can see in the picture how bad it is on her face and head.  Poor thing, she is sleeping a lot and smiling a bit more each day.

Thank you little ones for bringing so much joy to my life,

Your Mom

The chicken dance

Today, October 1st we decided to take the family to the Oktoberfest at a mission parish that Father Greg is the pastor at in Mead CO.  Before naps today Andrew thought it would be fun to teach Hannah the Chicken Dance (you know the infamous song that they sing at all Oktoberfest, why is that anyway?)  Andrew and Hannah looked up the song and some folks (from Mt. Angel's Oktoberfest) doing the dance.  At first Hannah was not really into it, she kept saying she was scared, which I think she means nervous.  Then Andrew started doing the dance, which was so fun to watch, with the whole flapping of wings, and shacking his behind and clapping (that part Hannah liked the best).  She finally go the nerve to try, and it was pretty cute mind you, but that was short lived.

We figured with how much she shied away from dancing at home that there was no way we would get her on the dance floor, boy were we wrong.  As soon as she was done eating dinner she inched her way closer and closer to the dance floor (it helped that there were a lot of kids on the floor already).  She finally made it onto the floor to watch and participate a little bit, but decided that the hay bails were much more interesting.  Daddy decided to take her out for a few dances and boy did she love that, she kept asking Andrew, "what do we do next, spin me, and lets dance daddy".  Some of our good friends the Paukert's came along too, and their daughter Josephine kept going up to Hannah to ask if she wanted to dance with her.  it was so cute!   By the end of the night she was pretty danced out, which helped in aiding her to sleep quick quickly once we go home (and got all the face paint cleaned off her face).

Felicity was not feeling to well this evening, we think she got roseola from Hannah last week.  She has had a temp of 103F for 3 days now and we are beginning to see some signs of a rash on her bottom and chest.  She is typically a very happy (and mobile) baby but has been so sad and sleepy the last few days, it is so hard to see your little ones feeling sick.  Knowing that there is nothing you can do.  At the same time it is very humbling to experience this, it makes me really focus on my patience, especially when she is so winy.  It also helps me complain less about being up with her all hours of the night since it helps me check on her more frequently and helps me to remember that I am keeping her hydrated in hopes of a faster recovery.  Nothing like a little sick one to urge you to lean more on the Lord in prayer and remembering that this person was only given to you to watch over and not HAVE and KEEP for yourself.  They truly are a gift from God and I am so very thankful for them!

Thank you dear girls for reminding me how truly you are tied to my vocation,
Your Mom

My own personal challenge

I decided as of October 1st that I would take a 30 day blogging challenge (one that I made up myself).  I figured that since I am not on Facebook and I do not journal that this would be the best way for me to capture all of the funny, not so funny, serious and hard days I have with two little ones running around.  I am a mother of two little girls one is 6 months and the other is 2 1/2 and they make me laugh and small every day (granted there are some days they also make me cry).  I figured that with blogging I could eventually turn these post into a book or letters of some sort for them when they are older, so I wanted to start out by challenging myself to blog one a day for a whole month.  Now if you have children and run your house while your husband works, you know how much of a challenge this really is going to be.  I will be writing mostly about the things that go on around here, from the funny things the girls say and do, to my husband to cooking projects.  I will try and upload pictures with each post (because honestly who likes to read the blogs if there are not pictures, I know I don't).  So here is to reaching my goal, and just for fun if I reach it I will treat myself to one of my favorite bottles of red wine!  I hope this becomes a habit (blogging that is, not the wine part) :)