The Good with the Bad

We are asked to count our blessings, and to express gratitude every day. It starts to make a lot of sense to me when there can be days (or weeks) when the funk has settled in, and it can be a struggle to be grateful, because things seem poopy. I say "seem" because, c'mon it is most likely ok, and going to be ok, but it just feels so not in a certain moment. And sometimes, it really is poopy. So pray a little more, and a little harder. The phrase "take the good with the bad" came to my mind today as I was reflecting on the past week, and I look at my sweet boys and there truly is more good than bad.True, my hair is falling out in what feels like the thousands due to the homonies- ( cue to re watch "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") but, I have a very sweet little Josher pants now. Who needs hair? ( I would still like to keep some hair)

True, my computer broke. Did it take a bunch of my files with it? Absolutely it did. A lot of the writing I'd been working on went down with that ship, but hey the laundry dudes came over and fixed the washer yesterday, and I am just cruisin through the laundry. 

True, I am little more sleep deprived because I am trying to get Josh to sleep through the night, but soon (please) he will be in Kaj's room, and the tale of the brother best friends will begin.

True, this week Sam and my conversations seem to be hit or miss, and mostly miss, but that home run is coming, and boy howdy the crowd will cheer. ( aka me. I'm...the crowd)

I recently turned a years worth of memories into a book. I am excited to get it, and to have it in our family for as long as the kids will remember. It was funny reading back on the adventures we have had so far, and crazy to think we have been in New York a year. A year flies by. Times flies by. So, there is no reason to concentrate on the bad, when it will pass by so quickly, I don't want my memories tainted with the bad attitude I had at the time. So cheers to all the good! Heavenly Father will see you through the bad!

Pony Ride

Officially 4 months

So it's is official the newest member is now 4 months! Very exciting of course. He is sitting in the 50th percentile for everything except for his little head. The doctor was impressed with "how advanced" he was, and the way mom ears hear this kind of thing always results in a very proud mom. Haha! He is very attentive, very smiley, and a very "talkitive" baby. Which means, he is becoming one of my favorite people to gab with. I seriously am crazy about this kid Now, the way Kaj benefits from Josh's appointments is the amount of stickers he gets to wear on his shirt. The answer is 5. 5 stickers that he wears the rest of the day. I only wish I was that lucky. The two boys are just getting over a sickness, and today is the first day in along time it seems where Kaj has been acting like Kaj again. I'm soo glad!

Notice the stickers

Yeah "mister cool" himself haha

 a whole lotta boys! But love them all!



Tuckered out



Little Italy

To celebrate the 4th of July Kaj hit a milestone, he ate his first pizza. We have offered him tastes before, and he usually spits it out, disappointing Sam more than he could even describe. Afterall...Sam ..loves his pizza. Not just any pizza, New York pizza. So it was a very proud moment when Kaj happily took bite after bite of pizza. We enjoyed our holiday with lovely friends. We had a BBQ, and Sam got us burger the size and shape of baseballs, no exaggeration. The kids played on the trampoline, and the kiddie pool, which the parent in me that said on my many trips to the car "Kaj won't need a bathing suit, I doubt he'll even get in the water all the way" We was sopping wet. And he ran around happily for a really long time sopping wet before I finally decided it was time to remove the wet clothing. Sam is working a 6pm to 6am shift this week, so he wasn't able to stay as long, which is a bummer also because that shift seems like a nightmare. It was a very fun time to be with the friends. Good group of homies. Happy Birthday America.

On a very different note, mostly a need to get things expressed and off my chest so only continue reading if you want to hear about my tangent on the bloggering world otherwise you're better off jumping ship. As all the boys were sleeping today I decided to look on pinterest- which I like, and it led me to a a few blogs.

Later in the day I was feeling bad about myself. I didn't realize why, but I asked Sam if he liked me (his all time favorite question, of course) he insisted I tell him what he's doing wrong, and I asked for time to think about it. I realized it wasn't anything at all... it was a "trigger." A trigger is defined as a detail in the day that begins the process of picking yourself a part, only to find you're disappointed, if caught soon enough you can retreat that whole frame of mind, and start recognizing the reality. It was today I realized that what triggered me was the blogs I was looking at. I will lovingly refer to them as the "cookie cutter blogs" there are SO many of them out there, and they all are about the same, they like to blog about their outfits, their accessories, their hair, their diets, their food, their kids with the disclaimer of: are you blogging because you're a good mom or a good mom because you're blogging. Just because a person does not have pictures of their child/children doing every art project or every activity ever thought up does not mean a) they haven't done it or b) makes them lesser of a mom. I feel like these "cookie cutter blogs" are mommy competitions at it's finest. This is not to say that every one who has any of these elements in their blog is what I am clumping altogether it is the vain in which they are done. For a split second I thought "Do I need to be like this?" "Would Sam want me to be like this?" And the answer is an astounding, no. Sam answered the exact way I thought he would "Why would I want you to be a cookie cutter?" Honestly, I don't even want to be, but today it made me feel like that I should be. I am striving to improve myself every day. I am always looking for ways to be a better mom, a more loving wife, a kinder friend, a smarter homemaker, be a more sweet daughter, and a sister that any one in my family could turn too. Do I need to prove it? Nope.