My Mom

In honor of Mother's Day I thought I would take the time and reflect on my my mom.

I think the older you get the more you appreciate your parents, especially your mom. After having 2 going on 3 kids myself I have no idea how my mom did what she did when it came to raising us. The house was always clean and she got up early. My house is a wreck 90% of the time and I don't get up before them. I try but I am always exhausted.

My mom and I have had a few rough patches together but thankfully we are closer now than I think we have ever been. I miss living close to her. I am thankful for text messaging and cell phones because we are able to communicate that way. At college I called her a lot and emailed her. Now I text. We also have a web cam which has been a huge blessing for us all. The kids can see her and my dad and love talking to them. In fact if it is not them they are talking to but somebody else they get a little confused and do not want to talk.

She is a wonderful Grandma. She is always sending them things and when she visits she spoils them rotten. I am thankful they have her for a Grandma. All in all I love my mom so much and am so thankful for her! I wish we lived closer and could see her more. She is an amazing woman and has accompolished a lot in her life. I am glad she is able to do the traveling she does now with my dad and also work towards having their dream home. They deserve it! They have worked hard and I am so thankful for that! Happy Mother's Day Mom! We love you and MISS YOU!!

32 Weeks

Last night we enjoyed a stroll downtown in our little town to watch the carnival begin to be put up. Eli has talked about this week since February. He remembered from last year and HAS NOT FORGOTTEN!! It is hard to believe it is that time of year again. He got home from Aunt Toni's last night and came in and I hear in the most excited voice, "Mom the carnival is setting up." I think those were the words he said. The point was they were setting up and we better be going to see! He has talked about it since Sunday as the trucks began making their way into town. We gave them baths and put their jammies on and away we went.

Mr. Big boy got to walk home. I was feeling the 8 months pregnant while we walked. Ari is getting heavy and I am sure I was a site. It was a good walk though.

Yesterday was the 32 week mark but today I finally got around to taking pictures. Hearburn is crazy lately. I have been having lots of braxton hicks. My appetite is back but thankfully it has been for good things. Nothing fits and its going to be time to get some clothes something I was hoping not to have to do. The countdown is on. At the most I will have 10 weeks left!!

I am HUGE!! Oh well at least we know he is growing well. Then we did our Embrace the Camera pictures.

Both kids like to pat my stomach and kiss it. Lilliana especially. Then she pats her belly and says belly and baby. So we had to show that off of us all patting our bellies.

     

Still trying to find the meaning in that word.............

...............................................................BALANCE!!!!



I still am working on trying to find this. I think we are once again in that change in our life that it is going to be a bit before we find it. I am frustrated some days. Personal pictures and editing have taken a way back burner lately. I blame it on pregnancy. I am tired. Taking pictures requires that I will have to sit at the computer and edit and my legs will swell. I also have had one session every week the past month. I am loving that my business is growing!!! I do love that! I need to find the balance that my husband, kids, and life does not get shoved out by other customer's needs. I struggle in trying to just get galleries done and out quickly when I need to take my full 2 weeks and work slowly. I am working on it! Hopefully soon I will have it perfected. To add all this mix I start working at the local cloth diaper store in June. It will be very part time, but it will be happening. I am excited about that. Then of course we will be adding another baby which means more laundry, sitting time for nursing, and of course sleepless nights. It also brings joy, snuggles, and more love. I think that is a good trade off. Hopefully in all that I am able to find better BALANCE!!!!



So in the essence of not having my own personal pictures downloaded and edited I will say the majority of these are from last Friday!! It has stayed continually cloudy and rainy until yesterday. The kids and I had enough of being couped up so we ventured outside on Friday afternoon to play in the wet grass.

Eli enjoyed blowing the dandelions and making more in our yard.............

Oh the many faces he made was just wonderful. Some were not ready to be blown but he tried.



Lilliana enjoyed the chalk and following her brother around.

Humidity may be uncomfortable for me but it brings out the best in her curls! I just adore this girl's hair. Anthony and I marvel the way God answered our request in this. We have ALWAYS said we would love a little girl with blue eyes and curly hair. So far we have gotten that. I am not sure if she will keep her blue eyes as Eli's changed at about two to a green hazel color. Either way I don't care. She is who she is. I just love that God gave us the desires of our heart with her curls!!!

Eli has this new game he loves to play. He watches for cars coming down the road and then hurries and hides. It is hilarious! Such a boy.

I had a session on Saturday and it went great. The kids were able to spend the evening with Grandma as Anthony was working. They love going to Grandma's. They just love going anywhere I think. I took these photos right before I left. Eli wanted to see my camera buddy and make faces at it. So I took their pictures. It makes them look at the camera so that is good.

Don't mind the snotty nose. I promise I just wiped it! It is a never ending battle it seems.

Sunday we spent the day with Daddy!!! Anthony was able to make it home and we had the entire day with him. It was absolutely wonderful. We got a lot of stuff caught up. I also had a huge surge of crazy pregnancy hormones and tore the house apart cleaning and organizing. Anthony said I was a crazy pregnant lady. We have had this discussion for a month as there are several guys he works with that their wives are expecting their first babies. He has warned them the hormones are crazy and makes them just go nuts about everything being clean. They didn't believe him. Finally he can tell them it happened this time with us. I seriously was crazy. Anthony was trying to get me to calm down and rest and I was freaking out about everything needing to be done. He even jokingly suggested I start wiping walls. Little did he know I had already done that in three rooms. LOL Needless to say it hit me and I got a lot done. I also have grown a lot in a week. Anthony really noticed too. I will post a picture tomorrow. I will say I feel huge. I have always been able to wear Anthony's  shirts towards the end as I don't ever feel liking buying more clothes. This week they don't fit:( I think it is the way Ari is sitting and and I have just gotten huge. Anthony is convinved he is coming sooner than anybody realizes just from my attitude, how big I am, and my mannerisms. He says I only get like this towards the very end. I am not convinced!! Only time will tell.

The kids have undone my clean and made messes. This being the favorite mess to make! Whoe knew two kids can put an entire wardrobe on the floor in 2 minutes flat! This happened while I was doing a load of laundry yesterday. They love to play in the pile of clothes!!!!!!!!!!

Finally the sun came out yesterday and it was so needed!!!!!!! We spent all morning enjoying it.

Farmer One

Farmer Two

As I was playing with the kids a bird pooped on my chair!!!! LOL I was so glad I was not sitting in it. Eli laughed so hard about it. He thought it was so funny.

Lilliana also joined the toe sucking group yesterday. She started doing this after I change her diaper. Silly girl

Needless to say they have been entertaining as of late.

They both have said and done some funny things.

~ Eli got up from his nap one day, and we are sitting on the couch together. Ari is kicking my ribs so I push my stomach in a little. Eli tells me, "Don't push Ari and touch him. You will hurt him and make him cry!" LOL I just about died laughing. Silly kid is so concerned about me hurting him.

~He told me the other day, "Mom your GORGEOUSSS!!" He loves his mama.

~Lilliana is my kid that LOVES to eat!! She will eat anything and everything and non stop. She was standing at the baby gate and clear as ever yelled while pointing to the pantry, "I want to eat!!" Now she just stands there and yells, "EAT, EAT, EAT!!!" LOL I call her Miss Piggy! She can smell food a mile away and just comes running.

~She also is fascinated with my belly. She will rub it and kiss it and then rub hers. My belly button does not look normal at all and she purposely will pull my shirt up to poke it. Then she just laughs hysterically. She will then look at hers and back at mine. It is adorable.

I was looking back through old posts. I have not been great about keeping up with the kids scrapbooks as of late due to sitting at the computer creates swelling for me. I am so glad I blog though! I may never get all their books done but the kids will always have this or I hope they will. I can't believe how much even in a couple months they have changed. It is wonderful! Now I am off to take a quick nap as Lilliana just crashed and Eli decided to go to Aunt Toni's. The carnival is in town this weekend so more on that later as Eli has been anxiously awaiting this day for months!

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She loves to dress up lately. I will be looking for dress up clothes fo her.

Cuddles with Daddy

Weekly Catch Up with Storyboards

I think it is my scrapbooking background but I like to make collages out of pictures. I always use my scrapbooking program to do so. In the essence of becoming better at editing I have been working to learn in photoshop. So I decided to make several storyboards. It was a good experience. Some are templates of others and a couple I made myself.

This week has put us in a haze of clouds. We have had some pretty good storms. Everything is wet and muggy and at one point it was almost 90 degrees. Anthony has been working at a huge job at UofM. This job is big. Originally he was going to stay out of town due to the fact he has a long commute and they are working 12-13 hour days from this past Tuesday until next Friday. Needless to say he has decided to come home every night. I am not complaining. It has helped. Him being gone so much has put a little extra work on me. I let the kids stay up later so they can see him. On top of it all it seems the storms need to happen at night. Eli does not like the thunder and wakes up in a bloody scream at night from it. I don't blame him. I don't like it either. So I am a little tired!

Thursday night Anthony's Aunt took the kids so I could go grocery shopping. This was the scene when I left.

Excuse the smudge on my camera. It was humidity. I followed this storm home. I got into the driveway and as I was opening the trunk the skys opened and I got drenched. I am sure it was a site with a huge pregnant woman carrying everything she could trying to get inside. As soon as I got in the door the sirens went off. My heart stopped because I could only think tornado!!!!!! Thankfully it was only a short siren but I still panicked. I bruised the banannas in the process. It was was a good storm that is for sure! I know the Flint area had some flooding.''

Play-Doh has kept the kids very busy this week. I finally let Lilliana play with it too becaue I felt she would not eat it. She did pretty good. Eli loves the play-doh and one day that is all he did. He would not do anything else.

We have played outside some days. Unfortunately it has been wet and yucky. I also have not had the energy to do a whole lot. The heat was killing me. Thankfully it is cooling down a bit so hopefully we can make it to the park in the next couple days.

Allergies have been pretty bad for Lilliana this week. She has not felt well. She likes to sit in the chair with her blanket and baby and rock. The blanket was actually mine as a baby. She has attached herself to it and drags it everywhere if we let her.

She has also decided untensils are not needed anymore. Just sticking your face in the bowl works so much better.

The other thing about the storms is it has made her curls stand out more. She is also a bookworm. She loves to read and all books!

I have had fruit and yogurt cravings again so I have been making smoothies. Eli hates fruit and veggies for that matter. He always has. He is my picky eater. He loves smoothies though so I have been making them for him also. We shared one yesterday. He loved helping me make it. He was very helpful and knew exactly what to do. He loved turning on the blender. He also was very specific about what I needed to take pictures of including making silly faces at each other. This is our Embrace the Camera photos this week. I love this little boy and his spunk. He is growing too fast. He is also become a big help and so responsible. He is rarely in trouble these days and very willing to help with whatever I need. I think the biggest problem we have is dealing with his constant repeating. Thankfully he is getting better and understanding to only say it once. He is a quick learner and such a joy. I could not think of a better person to share a smoothie with!

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Chalk Face

 


Who says a one year old can't curl up like a newborn to sleep. Poor girl was coughing so much. I went in to check on her and found her curled up like I pose my newborns coughing and sleeping. I tried to give her a drink and she put a blanket over her head.

All in all it has been a great week. I am tired. I am sad Anthony is gone so much. I can't complain because it is an answer to prayer and hopefully with all these hours we will be able to buy a mini van without taking a payment something that has been our prayer. We do not want to take on a loan as we have purposed to try to live debt free. It has taken us this long to get a vehicle because we have been saving. While it has been hard at times I am so glad we do not have a car payment. It makes it worth it. God is anwering our prayer and I am confident by the time Ari arrives we will have a vehicle.  As long as the weather holds I have another photo session tonight. We are hoping Anthony has tomorrow off and if not the kids and I will enjoy church together and have another fun day.

Have a wonderful weekend.