This Just In: Most Neglected Blog of the Year goes to...

Yes, that would be me. Last post was for Kearyn's 1 year birthday and she is just shy of the 20 month mark-you do the math. My biggest obstacle (besides lack of time) is that I don't want to share the same exact stuff/pics that I do over on Facebook (and I'm pretty sure I don't have a slew of followers that aren't already my FB friends).

But after reading back through some of last year's posts, I had an epiphany.

This blog is as much a personal journal (if not more), as it is a place to share with others.

So with that said: Let's play catch up. In the 6+ months since I last posted we have:

• watched Chip's Southridge boys soccer team win the League & Regional Championships & take 4th at State
• Chip & I celebrated 9 years of marriage
• Drays turned 3 & played YMCA soccer this summer
• went on our annual 4th of July trip to the cabin
• labored in the hot sun to transform our front yard!
• Welcomed our new niece Delainey
• girl's soccer season started and all house projects came to a screeching halt
• Caleb started 1st Grade
• Chip turned 31 (gasp)
• Caleb turned 7 (double gasp)
• Sent Grandpa Bob to Heaven to be with Grandma Sy
• Caleb started another season of hockey
• RHS soccer girls won the League & ended up going out in the Regional Playoffs
• House projects kicked back off with the install of our new mantle!
• Thanksgiving trip to Silver Mountain, ID.
• Assembly of the new Dyson vacuum & I-fit treadmill (2012 is looking cleaner & trimmer already)
• Preparing & decorating for our first Christmas in our new home.

So yes, a ton has happened. And I realize I actually have more to say (than just my Facebook status)--you are shocked I'm sure.

So for anyone still out there: it's good to be back, but mostly I can't wait to start capturing snippets of our lives again. Because if this year has taught me one thing--it's that time goes by way too fast.

Thanksgiving 2011. Silver Mountain, ID.

A Year Already?

Today is Miss Kearyn's 1st Birthday. I can hardly believe it has been a year since I packed my bag and left for the hospital to bring this tiny girl into our family. So much has happened since that day. For both our family and for Kearyn. It's hard for me to believe that she won't have memories of our old house, all her memories will start right here in this house. It is so fun to watch her learn something new everyday. Of course I think she is brilliant and beautiful, but help us, does she have an attitude on her. Some of her many talents include:

walking for the past month

waves hi and bye

blows kisses

climbs everything

says "hi-eee", dog, mama, dad, brother, love you, nigh-nigh

loves to wrestle with brothers and daddy

has four teeth and breaking four more-ugh!

is an uh-mazing sleeper

eats everything in sight

One of my most favorite times of the day is first thing in the morning. She wakes up so happy. I can hear her in her crib babbling to herself and playing with her lovies and dollies. I love the way her room smells like her, I wish I could just bottle it up. And its all warm from the heater and the sun pushes through her curtains. She gives me her best smile and "hi-eee." I lean over the side of her crib and she hands me all her best toys one at a time. Then she reaches up her arms and I pull her out and we snuggle. Just me and her. And I just breathe her in. And she is so stinking happy. And it is just what we both need before brothers rush in and hungry tummies need fed and the day swallows us up. Man, I love her.

Forever House.

So for the past several months it would be an understatement to say that I have been feeling unsettled. We were in such limbo with the sale of the old house and purchase of the new house. And we couldn't even really call it "our new house" because it wasn't really. Not until we signed on that dotted line. But I can say it now.

Our New House.

Forever House.

Even amongst the moving chaos I have felt a sense of calm. The peace that says "you are just where you are supposed to be." And it has been great. And worth it. I guess Husband was right (grrr). Though it didn't really seem like it at the time. But like childbirth, the bad parts just kind of melt away over time and you are left with the good & happy memories and a chubby pink newborn. Except in this case we are left with a 3100 sq. foot dinosaur that was built in 1978. And while the older people who lived here before us obviously didn't subscribe to House Beautiful or watch much HGTV, they did care for the house. You know when people say it has "good bones."And that's really all we need.

The need list looked something like this: at least 2500sq ft (yup), basement or bonus room (yup), at least 4 bedrooms (try 6--one is the playroom/craftroom), potential for open floor plan (yup), good neighborhood/school (lots of young families, awesome schools), good size yard (.3 acre and backs up to a park), in our not very large price range (yup). The want list looked like this: 3 car garage (nope), big master bath (nope), walk-in closet (nope). And just like that chic Sandra says on Property Virgins; it's all about the compromise. So we didn't get a glamorous master bath with a walk in closet right this minute (though we have some big plans later down the road to remedy that), but we did get pretty much everything and more on our need list. Did I mention we have a peekaboo view of the Columbia River, room in our yard for a pool later on, and direct access to the hardly used neighborhood park?

So if you couldn't tell--we're stoked. Feeling so freaking blessed its unbelievable. We have been here 3 weeks and Chip and I still go to bed and say "I can't believe this is our house." And that's why it was worth the wait, the looking, the ups and downs, the stress. Because, as corny as it sounds, this house has been waiting for us and us for it.

And as for the plans, we've got them. We've started on a couple, some will happen more like in 4-5 years, others maybe when the kids are big enough to all move downstairs, others when the kids move out completely--you get the idea. And I hope to document it all. As we transform this big old beast into our family's Forever House.

A Rundown & Tooth Fairy Markings (Swear)

My apologies for the sparse posting. Kinda some big things happening around here (or not) depending on how it all works out.

Don't you hate it when people write things like that---sooo mysterious.

So I won't do that. After all my talk about not moving, we might be moving. An opprotunity has presented itself to us. We are more than halfway there, but until they sign and we sign and someone hands me the freakin' keys I refuse to get my hopes up. I told Chip the other night, buying and selling a home is making me batty. A constant swing of emotions and the unknown is pushing me to my breaking point. Like an untrustworthy teenage boyfriend who says he will pick you up at 7pm for the movies, so you spend like 4 1/2 hours getting your bangs just right and trying on your entire closet twice, only to have him call at 6:59 to tell you that he is actually going to go hang out with his guy friends and play video games or some crap like that.

Confused yet? See...Emotionally. Unstable.

Anyways, in the midst of the chaos, life carries on. MLK weekend we spent in Seattle for a miniature person hockey tournament for Caleb. My parents graciously offered to keep Kearyn, which made things so much easier to navigate, but it was our first time leaving her overnight. So that also means I'm done nursing her, which means I am done nursing babes forever. I am confused about how I feel about this. On one hand I think it was time, on the other it seems like the end of an era (a tad melodramatic? maybe).

And she really doesn't seem to mind. She is taking the bottle like a champ. Grubbin' on more and more real food (despite only rocking the same 2 teeth for the past several months). From the pace of her crawling she seems to be training for something big. Pulling herself up on everything in sight. Attempting to stand unassited (not working out so well just yet). Waves and makes a sound that sounds very similar to "Hi-yee." Yells at her brothers. 9 months next week already. Where has the year gone?

While at the previously mentioned hockey tournament, Drayson fell into the pool without his wings on, so I did my best impression of Pamela Anderson Lee (or was she Lee Anderson then?) ala Baywatch and launched myself into the pool after him. Except for I was fully clothed, did not execute a mid-wave dive, and am not nearly as "endowed," eh hem. And as I walked my soggy-wet cat-self back to the room he had the nerve to ask me "why you not put your swimsuit on go swimming mama?" And since he was totally fine it's actually mostly humorous now.

Now on to these 'tooth fairy markings.' I'm sure you're dying to know (maybe you even scrolled all the way down to find out? or not. I'm going with not). Remember, Caleb lost his first tooth on New Years day. So we did the whole put your tooth under your pillow for the tooth fairy bit. In the morning Caleb woke to find a crisp $20 bill under his pillow (whoa you say. me too. I was informed that this is very reasonable for a first tooth. I disagreed, but Great Grandpa Bob got on board with it and pitched in the $20 bucks. I was thinking more like $5. Grandparents are cool like that). Anyways, along with the dinero, Caleb also noticed some whiteish markings on his navy blue sheets near his pillow. And with total sincerity he says to us "Look! Tooth Fairy Markings! She must have left these when she was here last night!"

Call it what you want. I'm calling it what it is: Drool. But who am I to say?.

So yesterday Caleb wakes up and says "More tooth fairy markings, she must have been here last night checking on my loose tooth." And Drayson freaks and yells "someone was in our room last night!" and starts looking in the closet. I was dying. One of those times you wished you had on tape. I figure journaling it would be second best. But it just seems to lose a little something in translation.

In other news. Remember back when I was delerious with Pregnancy? and I wrote the post lamenting about how I thought I had lost my humor? Read here to be reminded. Well I think it has been slowly returning. Or maybe that's just my other personality telling me lies. See again? Truly. Unstable.

What Say You, 2011...

...should we make it the best one yet?

Not saying I didn't have a good 2010. But let's just say I could do without quite as many challenges this year. Who am I kidding? We all know they will just be different challenges than the previous year. Instead of baking & birthing a babe, while rearing 2 others, I will be rearing 3 this year. (Now all of you other rockstar mamas with more than 3 babes are thinking "if only I just had 3, 3 would easy-peasy, she has no idea" just like I think of everyone with less than 3). But that's life for ya. Hindsight's 20/20 right.

At least there will be no 15 hour labor followed by a C-section, followed by anemia, followed by pure and utter exhaustion, followed by baby blues, followed by lack of sleep, followed by me questioning myself as a mother. Ok, maybe there will still be exhaustion & lack of sleep (but maybe not quite as much--insert crossed fingers). And I think I will always have times when I question myself as a mother.

But this past 2010 has taught me something.
That I can do more than I ever thought possible or gave myself credit for.

Even though I will always be hard on myself. Thinking I could have done better. When I look back on some of the things I have done, I'm pretty freaking proud of myself. I'm kinda awesome.

Maybe some people don't think it's a feat to get 3 kids to and from the grocery store without raising my voice, but I do. Preparing a nice meal and doing 5 loads of laundry?, check. Coaching 40+ high school girls while also mentally preparing the week's meal prep?, done and done. I'm going to celebrate the small battles. The everyday stuff. The stuff my kids take for granted, but hopefully one day appreciate.

I'm going to high-five people when my kid scores a goal. I'm going to post a ridiculous amount of pictures of my own kids to Facebook and shamelessly brag about how beautiful they are. I'm going to thank my Mom for going above and beyond and tell my Dad I love him. I'm going to teach my kids to be kind to others even when they might not be kind back. I'm not going to get caught up in bigger, better, best--I'm going to be happy right where God has put me. I'm going to go on more dates with my husband and smooch him in public. I'm going to pass around babies with my friends. I'm going to apologize quickly when I make a mistake. Swallow my pride and keep a handle on my mouth. I'm going to forgive myself and others and keep remembering tomorrow is a new day.

So if you see me in Winco patting myself on the back--well, you'll know.

Watch out 2011. I'm taking names and kicking ass.