Category Archives: Motherhood

Happy Birthday Bug

Dear Hyrum,

On your second birthday you woke up before the rest of us and laid down on the floor next to our bed, still gripping your little elephant on its matted trunk, as usual. I heard the quiet clicks of your binki clip as you walked, waking me just enough to see you fast asleep on the floor again. I scooped you up and tucked you into the covers between us. “Happy Birthday Bug,” I whispered as you tried your hardest to fall back asleep. “Happy birday,” you repeated, as you always do.

Grandma made us eggs for breakfast, fresh from the chickens you love to see in their yard. It was your cousin’s wedding day, and we had lots of errands to run and places to be. You were so patient sitting there in the backseat with your sister, falling asleep for a time, then playing with the little train you got for Christmas. At the temple I was busy taking family pictures while Daddy carried you around in your sweater and socks because we couldn’t find your shoes in the car. You just loved being out there and you loved being with him.

Then it was off to the restaurant to get food with family, and while we were eating you stood up in your high chair and pulled a candy bin from the shelf next to us. You just sat there with it for a while before we even noticed! You LOVE sweets, but you were a good sport when you had to put them back. You had plenty of them at the reception though. You sat under the table with your cousin playing with spoons and eating cookies. Then you were running around with your sister and your cousins, only stopping long enough for me to change you into your dragon pajamas at the end of the night.

Oh how I love you Hyrum. These days I can’t seem to soak up enough of you–your laughter, your quirks, your hugs. I love playing with you and watching you play. You are so sweet and so fun.

 

It is a few days after your birthday and our first day home from the trip.  Ava was so excited to celebrate your birthday today—to eat cake with you and give you your gift and make it special for you. She really loves you too.

Dad was also excited.  He drove you and Ava through a blizzard to the neighboring town to get you a special ice cream cake so we could sing to you and eat cake with you. (He may have been the most excited about that cake 😉 You love having him home, and he loves being home with you. Whenever you see him you run into his arms saying, “Daddy home! Daddy home.” Today he made a fort with you and Ava downstairs and helped you set up the train set that we got for your present. You really love trains, and it’s the cutest thing the way you say choo choo.

We love you dear Hyrum. We love you so much. We are blessed every day to have you with us!

Happy Birthday little bug!

New Year’s and Nerf Guns

“And thank you that we could stay in Utah longer than seven days, and please bless the twins that they will grow healthy and strong, and bless all the people of the world and bless Daddy’s eye and mommy’s lip that they will get better…” (Ava’s bedtime prayer tonight)

We drove home from our trip to Utah today. We pulled up to snow drifts up to our waist, a walkway shoveled by our kind neighbor, and a warm house that didn’t stink (no hidden diapers or smeltering garbages! 🙌) Jake hauled everything in from the car while Ava and I started unpacking inside. We cooked up some food from the freezer, snacked on Christmas truffles, and unwrapped the package of 200 nerf bullets that Jake ordered from China over a month ago (we just got the package.) And since we realized after ordering that they wouldn’t arrive by Christmas, Jake ordered another 200 from Amazon so we could all play with the four nerf guns we got on Christmas morning. 😂
So, we piled the new 200 with the other 200, strapped on whatever glasses we could find, piled up the suitcases and laundry baskets, and teamed up to shoot at each other.

I soon learned that those little foam bullets pack a punch!! I told Jake we should’ve just gotten those little guns that shoot soft, colorful rings but we settled on these eye poking, lip numbing, red mark-making foam bullets and had so much fun regardless. (After Hyrum shot Jake in the eye and he lost his peripheral vision for a while [somehow it got him WITH his glasses on] we decided shooting targets at the laundry basket would be a better way to end the night. 😬👍) It’s good to be home.

Cheers to a happy new year!
#mamanotes #welcome2017

Update: I ordered safety goggles! It was funny because when I was browsing on Amazon for some, many of the items in the “frequently bought with” section were nerf guns and nerf ammo. Haha! Why didn’t I see any safety goggles on there when we ordered our nerf guns!?

Well, we have them now. 🙂

The kids really like them, except Hyrum’s pinch his cheeks in half and cover over half his face so he doesn’t like to keep them on long. Totally ok, I don’t last long in nerf gun battles anyway.

You can fly

The other day I put Disney songs on Pandora for the kids to dance to and the “You Can Fly” song came on.  They’d never seen the movie so I told them what it was about and they spread their arms, racing around the room (and jumping off the couches.) Ever since, Ava has wanted to see what it was all about.  So, the other night we all went downstairs and watched Peter Pan.

When I brought down popcorn, the kids were so excited.  It’s funny how they can get excited about the smallest things.  They both squealed, “Popcorn! Yay! Popcorn!” Hyrum giggled and “hmmed” with the most satisfying grins while he stared at the popcorn and crammed handfuls into his mouth. Later he picked out orange after orange to have us peel for him (eating all of them in no time). When we told him no more, he went off and peeled them himself.

We turned on the kids’ Christmas tree and tucked them in bed, hoping they would settle and fall asleep in the same room (totally hit and miss with this).  In her bedtime prayer, Ava   mentioned, “…and please bless Hyrum that he can fall asleep and not refuse his naps, and please help him to not refuse new food, and please bless me to try new foods…and thank you for our warm house and helping us drive safely…”   I just love her prayers.

Later when Hyrum got out of bed (for the fifth time) and came downstairs, he picked up two little oranges and held them right up to his nose, just smiling at them. Jake and I just laugh, it is so fun watching them.

#mamanotes

Shaping Moments

Those of you who have subscribed to this blog, or even those of you who stop in here and there were probably wondering why I stopped writing or posting or sharing my mama notes here or on social media over the past few months…

…and then one day all these posts and notes from the past few months showed up on my blog. What happened?

Honestly, these past few months have been kind of rough (if you read the updated entries you can read more about it,) so I didn’t really feel like sharing much during that time–and quite literally I just didn’t have the energy to.  I did write in my journal here and there though–some notes and stories that I wanted to remember, and even just as a way to express how I was feeling.

When I started to feel better I wondered if I should share some of these more personal, vulnerable moments–as they definitely weren’t my favorite ones.

I did ultimately share them.  I shared them because they were real and probably relatable to moments we all have at times. And I think it’s good to be real. They were shaping moments, not shining moments, and that’s ok.  They are important too.

So for those of you who subscribe to my blog and get email notifications when I post something, sorry for all those emails a few weeks ago! I guess now you know why… 🙂

And thank you all for your support–of my family, my blog, my notes. Sometimes I just feel funny about sharing these moments, these mama notes or pictures or whatever on social media.  I wonder what good it does to let people in on these little pieces of our lives.  I really don’t like drawing attention. But I’m going to keep writing and sharing because I do think there is still good in it.  It’s a nice way for my family to look back on it too.

Anyway, thanks for reading all these wandering words!

Feeling Better

North Dakota Snow

I’m feeling much better lately. Every day seems to get a little better. It’s probably a combination of things (things I’ve already mentioned that have helped tremendously) and also getting further along in my pregnancy (thank goodness that nausea is gone!) But I’m finally feeling like I got this, I can do this! My head’s above the water (at least for now haha 🙂

Last night was long getting the kids all ready for bed, then trying to get them to stay in bed, (will I ever figure out how to make this work smoothly??) but then they were asleep and Jake came home and everything settled and I thought, I got this, it’s all good.  And then I imagine having two newborns on top of this busy bunch and I think, wow that’s going to be something else.  But just like the end of every day when sometimes I’m feeling at the end of my rope, they end up sweetly sleeping in their beds.  Each day is full of goodness and giggles and messes and meltdowns and many times it’s quite exhausting by the end, but we do it. We make it through. We just do it.  And all in all it’s a really great thing. I feel like having these twins is going to be like that.  I can wonder how we’re going to do it, but we’re going to do it. That’s it. We’re going to make it work.

And I am actually really looking forward to it! I am so excited. I think about them so much every day, I can’t wait to have them here with us.

Also, more snow pictures… before it was below zero. 🙂 (Look how cold it’s been!!) The other day we had a wind chill of -38. Brrr!! I must say though, I really love all this snow we have (and it’s A LOT of snow.)  It’s kind of fun to experience such cold temperatures too–to feel like we’re doing it, we’re making it through this cold winter!