I love the Holidays!

There is nothing better then starting to prepare for the holidays! It's starts this week for our family. Every year, even before we had kids we watch "The great pumpkin Charlie Brown" and this starts off the new holiday season!! I do have to admit having the kids get excited about watching it and curling up on the couch with me is one of my FAVORITE things ever. I remember being a kid and watching it every year. Now my kids want to watch it! Just wanted to say how special a silly little cartoon is in my house. And thank you for it!

Hitting the gym

As most of you know I'm really really trying to drop some weight. It's been a little of a struggle for me, but I'm slowly getting there. Before Averee was born I went to the gym every night and LOVED it. It was a place for me to go and crank up my music and relax, it was special me time. then I got preggo with her and she had different plans on how she wanted me to spend the next 9 months.... I was sick to my stomach everyday and laid up on the couch most days. I have never got back to the gym but I think it's calling me back. I miss it! Can you actually say that about the gym? Well I have put in for a quote to see about the Redmond Athletic Club. Super excited about it!

Corvallis Photo Shoot

This last weekend my sister and I held a Christmas Photo Shoot together in Corvallis. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to go and take pictures in Corvallis, there is really nothing more beautiful then the Valley in the middle of Fall! So anyways we headed over there late Friday night and we did an hour shoot for families and they get 25 custom Christmas cards, made by me... Being that we were driving over, we really were a little concerned on how it was going to turn out. The weather ended up gorgeous for us, thank god cause it was raining Friday and Sunday when we left. Our day was a long long one but totally worth it. We had 5 families show up and I could not be happier with the pictures! Thank you, to all of you who came!!! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the shoot. :)

Is it over yet?

This has been a not so great week for me. Last week I had a cyst rupture and recovering from that has not been fun, lots of pain and sick to my stomach! I finally woke up today not feeling nauseous, Yay!!! Well it was short lived, although I don't feel that kind of sickness, I woke up with a horrible soar throat and am coming down with a bad cold. What in the world, I'm usually the healthiest out of everyone in my family. This sucks, I feel like crap, have a ton of stuff to get done and I have my daycare little girl for the entire week! (I usually only have her 3 times a week) We are supposed to leave on Friday for 3 days and do a photo shoot, and visit with some much needed family time. OH and did I mention that besides the fact that I am sick my children didn't sleep at all last night! I thought for sure they would be wiped out and out for the night but surprise, they decided to wake up about every hour for NO reason at all. Ryder has school tomorrow and a field trip on Friday to the pumpkin patch with his class. So I am crossing every finger and praying that this passes over the kids and we can make it to all our plans for the rest of the week and make it through the weekend away from home. This is starting to look a lot like last year around this time, Ryder was sick for Halloween last year and it was a start to a not very fun winter.

wow....

Yesterday I turned on Dr. Phil. It was one of those intense shows about Stay-At-Home Moms vs. Working Moms. So later that day I posted that status on Facebook and wrote under it, "why does it have to be one way or the other?" "Why can't we all just be happy with what ever that "mom" chooses to do?" This is what I honestly think... Well this status has got a few moms commenting back and forth and it is getting a little heated! I never really thought about the difference. To me some people work and some don't. For me, this has always been the choice. When Justin and I got married our plan was for me to stay home and he would work. We knew this would mean we WILL HAVE TO MAKE SOME SACRIFICES. But it was some thing we both wanted. We have made some huge sacrifices for this. I don't drive a nice new car and either does he, we don't have the extra money to go Vacation a couple times a year or even go stay at the coast for few days if we want, we don't have a huge screen TV or nice new furniture, BUT for us this is fine. Yes we would love to have it all and then some, but I enjoy and LOVE being home with my kids and wouldn't change a thing!! I know there are some moms that have to work and there is nothing wrong with that. My mom worked full-time and then some to raise us 3 kids, and if it got to where I have to go work I will. I still do work actually, just happens to be I have to work on weekends or evenings that way the kids can be home with daddy, do I enjoy this no not really but we can't afford to put them in daycare and we really don't want to. AGAIN OUR CHOICE! If you happen to be a mom that has to work or wants to work I totally understand!! It's tough out there right now and believe me I LOVE MY "WORK" TIME.. I never thought I could be just a stay at home mom, when I first got married I had 2 jobs and going to school. My life was crazy busy and we were always out and about doing stuff. Times have changed and so have I. My time away is NEEDED I will lose my mind if I'm home 24/7. I love my kids but I'm not even close to being a super mom! I always wanted 3 or 4 kids, after my two I'm SO DONE. I don't think mentally I could handle any more. I love them to pieces but some days I feel like I could run away and hide from the world!
It takes a very special woman to stay home with their kids, AND a very special one to go work and take the criticism that they get from every angle everyday. To me you do what is best for YOU and YOUR family. I watch a little girl and think she is very lucky to have us in her life and I feel like we are making a difference in her life, she has a single daddy and he has to work full-time to raise her. I think we all just need to take a step back and think about what each individual needs in their life and let them be the one to make the decision whats right and whats wrong.

A new season..

Is it really already starting?
Last week we got our fist official Cold to the start off a new Cold/Flu season. It started with Ryder and then a few days later moved on to Averee. Ryder had a day or two of bad coughing and majorly plugged up but after a couple days just had a little cough that seemed to linger for about a week. Then it hit Averee, she came down with a horrible nasty croupy cough the first night and then it just turned in to a cold. It seemed to be going away and she was feeling better. THEN... Last Thursday night she went to bed around 9 and just started screaming and crying. At first I thought it was just cause she wanted up, but after a little bit I got her up and she was kinda holding her left ear. She continued crying for about 4 hours straight. I know this sounds bad, but she really was fine all day no symptoms whats so ever and I gave her some Tylenol and that didn't seem to faze her due to the fact that she was crying so hard that she threw it up the minute it went down. So after 4 hours of screaming and crying I packed her up and took her in to the ER. After waiting for about 2 1/2 hours she finally got checked out and she had a double ear infection. The left side was completely closed up and pussing. My kids have NEVER had an ear infection before and honestly I would have caught it if she would have had some kind of symptom! She had nothing, no fever, no pulling until after she went to bed and even then it was really mild so I kinda just thought it was her molar that is coming in, and her cold was pretty much gone. I felt horrible the doctor said she was in an enormous amount of pain and that I did the right thing by bringing her in. While waiting for the meds to kick in (her double dosage of Tylenol, Motrin and her antibiotic) we got to know a very sweet old man who was in with his wife in the room next to us. My prayers go out to them and I hope she pulled through. Averee ended up loving this old man I don't know what his name was but I thank him so much for coming over and playing/talking to her, it was the only thing that stopped her from crying and it seemed to cheer him up a little too. We got home around 4 and she was out in the car on the way home ( we only live like 2 minutes from the hospital) she was super tired. She slept in that morning and took an extra long nap. I can't say the same for me I got to bed around 4:30 and was up at 7 with Ry. But I was just happy Averee was doing better.
All I can say is I'm really hoping this is not a glimpse at what our winter has in store for us... Both kids went in and got there flu shots and will be going in next month to get the H1N1 shot. Mommy and daddy are right behind them! haha.. I'm taking all precautions this year so we don't end up back in the Hospital like last Spring with Averee.