My Beautiful Days

Awhile back I shared with you a song by John Waller called "While I'm Waiting".  This song is one that completely touched my heart, as it spoke clearly about the journey I was on.  Before we were pregnant with Ethan, Monte and I had been trying to conceive for quite a long time.  I had been doing some fertility testing with my doctor and was feeling extremely frustrated that this wasn't happening.  When I heard the song "While I'm Waiting" it spoke straight to my heart about the fact that I truly needed to trust God and keep running the race while I wait for my blessing. Fast forward to earlier today when I heard this song on the radio.  I couldn't help but shed tears of joy and gratefulness to God for our sweet little Ethan.  I really believe it was important for me to learn to put my faith and trust in God and know that He was (and is) in control.  It took me a long time to really learn that lesson - and it's often one that I have to remind m...

Yesterday was amazing!  As I'm sure you all know, yesterday was Valentine's Day.  My husband went above and beyond to make the day wonderful for me - and it was as wonderful as it could be, given the circumstances.  You see, I woke up yesterday morning with the flu and a bad cold.  I had already felt the cold coming on and had taken some preventative measures, but it was bound and determined to hit me, no matter what.  So, when Monte came to kiss me goodbye before he left for work, I mentioned to him that I really didn't feel well.  He gave me some medicine and promised to check in with me later that morning.  I fell back asleep and didn't get up until Ethan started to cry for his morning bottle.  I got up, changed his diaper and fed him - still feeling exhausted and just plain icky.  After Ethan finished feeding and burping, I put him in his swing and called Monte at work.  I told him I really didn't feel well enough to take care of Col...

There are some days when I feel like a headless chicken, running from here to there trying to get everything on my list accomplished.  Today is not one of them.  Today is a day that I am choosing to stay at home and do nothing but play games with Colin, love on Ethan and enjoy being a stay-at-home mom. Lately I have found that my "To-Do List" is often overwhelming.  Thankfully, my husband and my family don't see the list in the same light.  You see, Monte often tells me that it's okay that the house doesn't get cleaned today, or if he sees that I'm bound and determined to get it done at all costs, he will take care of the kids while I clean or he will ask me how he can help me to get it done.  We work wonderfully as a team, my husband and me! :)  Truth be told, I don't mind it when my "To Do's" are filled with stuff to do around the house.  I more mind it when they involve running from here to Timbuktu (figuratively speaking of course!) in ...

Today my sweet little baby boy is three months old.  As of right now these are the amazing things I note about him: - He sleeps solidly through the night.  We put him to bed around 9:30pm and he doesn't wake up until 6:30am.  This is a huge blessing from God!! - He sleeps almost all morning long (AFTER having slept all night long), waking up only every three hours or so for some food.  This is the time that I try to get some cleaning done or play with Colin. - Today was his first day in the childcare center at Lifetime Fitness.  According to the worker, he is a dream baby (I think so too!). - He loves to smile and "talk" to people and does it quite freqently. - He sleeps better when he's in a room full of noise than a quiet room (I guess this is expected when you're the youngest of five kids)! - Sometimes when he's fussy it's just because he wants you to uncover his legs and let him kick.  Monte calls this his "bike rider" move. - He loves the ...

"Come on, SHIMMY!" "Keep those arms up - I don't want to see you put them down!" "I want to see pretty hands." "This part is called seduction, I want to see seduction on your face, not exhaustion ... but not too much seduction either!" These are some of the many quotes I have heard over the past month on Monday evenings and Saturday afternoons.  You see, this is the time that I turn our household over to Monte, load up my gym bag and hit the road to go to the gym and take in a belly dancing class. Belly dancing?  Are you serious?!  Yes.  Completely, totally serious.  I was definitely skeptical of it initially, as my sweet friend, Trish , had invited me to join her in the classes.  I had mentioned to her how I am starting to spend more time working out in effort to rid myself of some of this extra baby weight, and she told me that these classes were an excellent workout.  So I decided to give it a try. The first class was a little bit ha...

Pretty much forever ago (and by forever, I mean about two or three months ago) I was browsing the aisles at Costco (which is a very dangerous thing to do without a specific list!) when I came across the most perfect bulletin board.  Why on earth would I get excited about a bulletin board?  I'm glad you asked!  You see, I have a rather narrow wall in my office that I've wanted to have a bulletin board on for awhile so I can use it to hang family pictures and different things of that nature.  So, when I came across this bulletin board and saw that it was very reasonably priced, I became extremely excited!  I bought said object and brought it home, showed it to my wonderful husband and asked for his help in hanging it.  I put it away in the corner of the office to keep it out of our way.  That was a very bad idea.  A month or more passed before I realized it was still not on my wall, so I politely asked my husband to hang it.  Unfortunately, he ...

As my husband and I sit here chatting, I'm realizing that it is now 10:05pm and this is truly the first time today that I have had down time to do as I please.  I just finished ordering our groceries (yes, with a 10-week-old baby and a five-year-old son who must come with me, I choose to grocery shop online!) after figuring our our extensive meal plan for the week.  I must admit that I wish I could contain all of my grocery shopping to online only, but alas with a family of seven people, we go through food much too quickly for me to make a once-a-week online order.  It's not uncommon for me to also stop by the grocery store several times a week amidst picking up my daughter from her after-school activity. Maybe I should rewind a little bit and let you know what a typical day in our house now looks like.  I wake up anywhere between 4:00am and 4:30am when Ethan first wakes for his bottle.  I feed him and do my best to stay awake myself during this time, as he us...

This morning I spent some time in reflection of the blessings that God has given to me.  It is so hard for me to believe that only three years ago I was single and living in the basement of my brother's home.  I was working full time and spending my free time with family and friends.  Only a mere year after that my life took a huge turn when I married my sweet Monte, the most amazing man I have ever met and the love of my life.  On that day, I also was married to the four most wonderful children I could have asked for.  Oh how my life had changed!  Now, fast forward two more years, and we are a family of seven.   Our precious little Ethan has only been in our lives for six weeks, yet it seems completely as if he was in the plans from day one.  God has directed the plans He had for my life, and though they didn't always go exactly as I had wanted them to go, in the end it turned out perfectly.  I can't imagine a Christmas filled with more...

I know that many of you who read my blog are moms.  You've been through the sleepless nights, the cries that won't stop, the endless dirty diapers and the fact that doing anything now takes you three times as long to get done as it would have before you had a baby (i.e. making dinner now has to allow time to pause and comfort my sweet crying baby!).  You also know the endless hours of cuddling, the moments of studying your baby's every feature so intensely that it is forever burned in your mind.  You know the kisses and sweet whispers of love to your baby, you know the lullaby's and the little things that calm your baby better than anybody else knows.  You are the one whose voice your baby recognizes and is instantly calmed by your touch. I never knew that motherhood was going to be this involved.  I will admit to my sheer naivety about becoming a mother to an infant.  My assumption was that there weren't many things in my life that were going to change, ...

While I know many of you are anxiously awaiting more updates on how life is going with our sweet little Ethan at home, I have decided to take the time to blog of an update to help out my brother, Tory.  You see, his sweet little baby girl, Abigail, is entered in the Gerber Photo Contest with the possibility of winning a $25,000 scholarship, which would be an amazing award to win.  Is there any way that you can help out and quickly visit the following link and cast a vote for Abby?  The first time you vote, you will have to verify through an email you receive that you are indeed a person and not a computer, but it literally takes only a couple of minutes - and those couple of minutes are rewarded by seeing this adorable photo of my beautiful niece!  Please visit the following link to vote for her .. and remember that you can go back and vote every day (and we would appreciate it if you did!)!! Click here to vote for Abby! In the meantime, things on the home front...