Our Journey: 2013

Friday, December 6, 2013

November in a Nutshell

We started out my birthday month with quite a bang. By November 9th, we had the tree up, Christmas lights hung outside (thank goodness we did, since it is now -4 degrees outside), and stockings hung by the chimney with care...lol.

My mom was able to make it out to visit the new Miss Charlotte, and celebrate my birthday too! She was here about ten days which made for a really nice time. It was hard to see her go, but we are getting excited for our trip back to the mitten for Christmas and New Years.

Joey began walking this month, and is now off to the races. He is getting quite confident with his newly found skill, and it scares momma to death. lol. Silly boy. Along with walking, he has begun to climb onto EVERYTHING. We had quite a scare this month, when the little man decided to climb up onto a box of pampers diapers. Gary and I watched in amazement as the little guy so effortlessly made his way to the top of the box on all fours. We admired his skill and bravery. No sooner where the words "look how cute he is" out of our mouths, he rolled off the box and fell onto the floor. We both laughed, as it did not look like it hurt. Well, he began to cry, and I rushed to him to kiss away the ouchie...but as soon as I picked him up, I saw the blood gushing from his mouth. Lots of it. Too much. I freaked. Thank goodness Gary was there to help keep things calm. Gary got him an ice teether and the blood eventually stopped. When he was calm again, we looked in his mouth with a flashlight and saw that the little piece of skin that connects the upper lip to the gums was completely separated. I freaked again. A trip to Children's Hospital was our next step. Dinner still in the oven, could wait. By the time we got there, Joey was fast asleep in his carseat. The doctor confirmed that no teeth were harmed and the flap of skin would just heal itself, there was nothing they could do. Mommy and daddy felt better and we went home. This is when I wish I could drink! Lol, a glass or three of red wine would have done the trick...yet I opted for back rub, warm milk and lavender to calm the nerves.

While we were busy with Joey, Christmas decorating, and birthday celebrating, Thanksgiving snuck up on us! Jenna and Justin hosted, and we were able to gather with our Colorado family and friends at their house. We had a wonderful turkey, actually two wonderful turkeys (Secretly, I think we did this for Mara, since she has such an obsession with the number two). It was truly a day to be thankful for. We had a lot of friends come for dinner who are from other states/countries who don't have family here. We were so blessed with love, family and friends, a warm house, and amazing food. Life is good.

November would not be complete without a trip to go see Santa. We bundled up the kiddo's and headed to the mountains for a Christmas tree farm experience. I think we loved it just as much as those little ones did. (well except Joey, he did not take to Santa one bit). It was one of those parenting moments that you question yourself...you knowingly and willingly hand your scared and crying child over to a fat, bearded man in a red suit and laugh while he screams...then you keep him there til you get that perfect shot. Not proud of it. (but gosh it was adorable). Maybe next year he will be a little more comfortable.

That evening we met up with our great friends Kristen and Trev for a walk through the Denver German Christmas Market, stopped at the Octoberfest beer tent, and had dinner downtown. This month blew by in a heartbeat, we got some fun pics to prove it. Enjoy!

Loving his green chair

Playing with Cousin Mara

Workin' on his sports car

Just hangin' out

The Tree

First 5K as a preggo mommy

Rocking the new running shirt!

Mommy ran pretty slow, but I finished, and I was not last!

Love of my life

Playing in the leaves with Mimi

Somebody is just like his mommy!!!

17 weeks along

First haircut!!!

I did so good

Love Mimi

Last day with Mimi

1st real big snow this year

Yep, What can I say...Mommy's so proud.

Hospital visit...so sad.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Everyone is thankful for me!

Poor little man

no words needed.

This is a safer distance.

Friday, November 8, 2013

My Child, My World....

I am writing this in response to a very popular blog post that I saw posted on Facebook recently, http://themetzfamilyadventures.blogspot.com/2013/10/why-my-kids-are-not-center-of-my-world.html. I felt like something needed to be said. I don't want this to come across the wrong way, as I am sure it might. I do not doubt that this mother loves her children more than the entire world, as I am SURE she does.

I felt a bit uneasy after reading this blog post though, almost like it was a slap in the face to mothers who feel differently. See, although I agree with some of the points that she makes in her post, and I actually see a lot of truth in it.....MY CHILDREN ARE MY WORLD. The day starts and ends with them on my mind, my world DOES revolve around them. I guess my point is, even so, I do NOT agree that I am enabling them to become a problem to society further down the line. Just because my children are MY WORLD, does not mean I won't teach them discipline, or how to respect authority.

As a matter of fact, because they ARE MY WORLD I will do just that. I have to admit, that I WILL pick them up when they cry, and I will put "sunshine" on all of their ouchies...well, at least until they are old enough to push me away anyway. If my little man wants to play with toy guns, I will let him. I will let them figure out some of life's hard lessons on their own, and I will be there if it all falls through. I will be their safety net in this harsh world, a place where they can always come for TRUTH and love. I won't shelter them from the fact that our world is not a pretty place sometimes, most of the time actually. But you can bet that I will be there when that world turns its back, I WILL be there to run to.

I WILL teach my kids that they should be kind to everyone despite their race, social status, abilities, etc... and I will rep-remand them if I find out that they are behaving in ways that signal out and hurt another individual. "Bullying" as it's being called now-a-days is NEVER ok, and it's not wrong for me to teach them that. I will show them how to stand up for themselves and how to deal with "bullying" if it ever surfaces on their end. They will know how to deal with rejection and pain, as I did as a teenager. I won't sugar coat it, but I will be there if it happens to help them get through it. My parents were there for me when I was signaled out in High-school, when I felt like I did not have a friend in the world who understood what I was going through. My parents were there for me, they saved me. I will save my children. They ARE MY WORLD.

I WILL NOT ignore my children when they use bad manners, instead, I will teach them the correct way to behave. I will be strong and consistent, so they do not get mixed signals as to what is acceptable behavior and what is not. I will not ignore my children.

We see a lot of negative things these days. We see schools being shot up by students, we see the places we used to believe safe, becoming places we no longer want to take our families. We see a lot of children and adults who have been neglected having no where to turn, turning to violence. My children will ALWAYS be able to turn to me. I won't always be able to protect them, and I won't always give them all the answers....they will need to figure out a lot of that on their own. My children will be problem solvers, and self thinkers.....but they will always have their Mom and Dad when there is no one else, why? Because THEY WILL ALWAYS BE OUR WORLD.

Ok, I'm done now.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

October Excitement

This month was full of excitement. We started the month by announcing our news that we are going to be parents yet again! Our due date for this new bundle is April 22, 2014. We could not be more delighted. It was a bit unexpected, but the reality of it is amazing. Our God continues to show us how faithful he is.

The first trimester was kind of tough, I had quite a bit of morning sickness (all day sickness) and I was super sleepy all the time. That just doesn't mix well with an almost 1 year old. I am however feeling much better now and have even been able to exercise a bit, which feels amazing. It was something I struggled a lot with when I was pregnant with Joey.

Along with the news of a new little one, we ushered in Joey's 1st Birthday with a bang! It was wonderful. He was very social and loved all of the attention. Both sets of Grandparents were able to make it out to Colorado for the festivities. We were so blessed with love. While everyone was in town we got to explore the pumpkin patch and enjoy the beautiful Colorado fall weather.

I was also very fortunate to witness the birth of my new niece, Charlotte Reese Clifton. She was born on October 25th, at 7:28 pm after 24 hours of completely natural labor. My sister was a pillar of strength. It was such an amazing experience to witness such a miracle. She is super cute and looks just like her auntie.....lol. j/k, she does look just like her mommy with that thick pretty blonde hair.

This was a year of a lot of firsts, one of them being Joey's 1st time trick-or-treating. He loved it. He enjoyed grabbing candy out of the baskets and putting it into his bucket, or hanging onto it until the next house where he would deposit it into the people's candy tray. lol. What a stinker. Mara was a trooper too, she insisted on walking the entire block and carrying her pumpkin pale the whole time. Even when the pale got heavy with candy, she dragged it behind her and would not let anyone help. Miss independent.

Over all October was a busy, fun and beautiful month. I for one, am glad it's over though, so I can get on with Christmas and of course my birthday month. ha ha. Lots and lots of pictures this month...Enjoy!