One Day...

The Thursday before I had to go back to work I took some random pictures of what my life had been like for the last 6 weeks...Dishes... I was doing dishes about 1-2 times a day. Usually I hate dishes, but this time washing bottles was a little therapeutic. I still, to this day, enjoy my dishes time... When I don't keep getting interrupted by crazy kids and other stuff I have to do.

Little Ashlee taking a quick nap on the floor while I get some stuff around the house done. She loves to hang out on her tummy. Laundry, lots and lots of laundry. One day I did 6 full loads... and that was just to get ahead. It seems like most days of my leave were spend doing some kind of laundry!

And then when I did the laundry I would have to fold it. I don't really mind folding the laundry, it's putting it away that really gets to me. Notice the TV remote in the middle of the piles of clothes... I catch up on my show while I fold, I think that's why I don't mind it so much!

Changing sheets. I forget how often you change a newborns sheets. Not that Ashlee is a dirty baby, just the spit up and explosions get everywhere!

Cooking, I didn't do this at the beginning of my leave so much, but started to get a good routine going in the end. This was our yummy lasagna before I cooked it.

As I finished taking all of these pictures I realized something...

I could get use to this...

I could get use to doing the laundry during the day.. I could get use to making nice dinners instead of ones that can be assembled, cooked and eaten within an hour. It was nice. I'm not going to say I'm wonderful at it... Most morning I didn't get out of bed before 8. Ethan and Katelee would lay in bed with me and watch TV while I dosed into sleep on and off. Chris took the kids to my mom's house many morning and then I wouldn't get out of bed until around 10... But for the first time in my "mother life" history I finally felt like I could do it. I was doing it, I was doing it successfully and I LOVED it! I think this realization made going back to work so much harder because I knew I could do it! I knew I was doing it!

I cannot wait to do it full time...

Blessings

The other day I heard this song on the radio and fell in love. I'm a thinker... Especially when it comes to music. I analyze and contemplate songs, their lyrics and the possible meaning of them. This song really got me thinking. We have all had trials, heartache, pain, loss and joy! Through this song I have been reminded that some of my greatest joy has been preceded by pain. It was put very well in conference, roughly they said...any mother can tell you that the pain of childbirth precedes the miracle of life. Oh how that is true and I don't even do it without the assistance of medication. :) It's amazing how my prayers go in cycles depending on what is going on in my life. When I'm pregnant I pray for a safe and healthy delivery, I pray for my unborn child to be watched over and come with no complications, I pray for strength to be a good mother to this special spirit coming to our earthly home. After the baby is born my prayers turn to thanksgiving for a safe delivery, for doctors that are trained, for a healthy baby and a wonderful support system. When a child is sick, especially when Ethan went through his ITP my prayers were full of pleading tears and a mother's deepest desire for that child to be healed. No matter how or where my prayers are said or cried I know that my Heavenly Father hears them. I know that I can cry, sob, mumble, beg, laugh or whisper and yet he still knows what I'm saying, he understands. When there are no words to adequately express my true feelings at that particular time, I am positive He knows EXACTLY how I feel. Some times it does take a thousand sleepless nights to realize that HE is there. Sometimes it takes a good cry to heal and sometimes it takes something so small to happen in our lives or someone else's life to realize just how blessed we really are. I have grown closer to my husband from trials we have faced together. I learned as a young mother how much a child can change your life. I have grown closer to my children by loving them through our tough times. Sometimes we don't really appreciate fully the special people in our lives until we contemplate or experience a life without them. How special we are then to our Father in Heaven that he was willing to be apart from us while we came to earth to experience the trials and joys of this life. And while we may all experience trials and tribulation in this life we can know that we have them to help us grow. To show us the joy that comes after pain. To see the sun and the rainbow after the storm. I have been blessed abundantly in my life to have such a great family, wonderful husband, beautiful children and special friends.... Those are all I need to face any trial in my life... I have been blessed, truly blessed!

Ethan's New Adventure

A few months ago we got a call from my brother telling us that we needed to get down to Wendy's and sign Ethan up for T-ball. The Central Little League was there and T-Ball started at age 4. After making him go ask the commissioner if it really was age 4, we packed up and headed down to Wendy's. Grandpa Blackburn had already paid for Ethan and so we just filled out the paperwork. I don't know who was more excited, me or Chris. Ethan was a little worried. We asked him if he was excited and he said, "Well... What if I'm not good?" We quickly told him he would be just fine and as long as he had fun that was all that mattered! Later that day we overheard him talking with Grandma Alberta about T-ball and you could tell he was excited about it. I have been waiting for the day when he could start playing sports forever, it seems. We were gonna start him with Soccer, but he was too young when they started the season so we were just waiting for the new season to start. Ethan had his first practice at the end of February. Luckily they practiced right by my parent's house, so Grandma stayed home with Ashlee so I could go with Ethan. His first practice was just throwing the ball around... Towards the end of practice I looked over and noticed that Ethan was running off of the field... We were on the opposite side and end of the dugout so I started running to get him... (mind you I had just had a baby a week or so earlier...) When I got to Ethan I said "what are you doing dude?" and he said "I thought practice was over." His coach had been running after him and came over then and took him back on the field. I thought it was quite funny that he was pretty much done with practice so it must be over. He gets his very long (joking) attention span from his mother! Practices have gotten better since the first few. Grandpa Blackburn signed up to help out the team and is an assistant coach. Some call him Coach Ethan's Grandpa! Too funny. This picture is from one of his practices...Chris and I were watching Ethan at one practice and were getting a little frustrated with Ethan. He wasn't paying attention, sitting down when in line, playing with the dirt and even filling his hat up with dirt and then putting it back on his head. My dad was my brother's baseball coach for many years and had some interesting kids. One of these kids was named Bruce. Bruce would chase butterflies, stare at the snack bar more than the field and not pay attention to anything. I quickly thought of him and smiled, great my son was the Bruce of this team... Fantastic! Since that practice he has started doing what the other boys are doing and pays attention a little better... Thank heavens, I don't know if I could handle it if he just got worse!

Isn't he so cute? I'll have more later on his games and a picture of him in his uniform!

Go Ethan!!!

Any Similarities?

Katelee's First BathAshlee's First Bath Same towel and that's about all... What do you guys think? Do you see any similarities?

Ashlee's First 'Real' Bath

On March 13th Little Miss Ashlee got her first real bath. Some of you might be saying, "wow, she was almost a full month old." But her cord took a while to fall off and sadly it was kinda hard to fit time in to do a bath for her. Anyhow, I wasn't sure if she would like it but I figured she would because this girl is so chill and go with the flow.... Well I was right. I put her in the water and she was an angel, she just sat there and seemed to enjoy every minute of the warm water! Of course when I took her out of the water she wasn't all too happy, but it didn't last long! I love how fat she looks in the picture below, but how she doesn't look that way at all in the top picture! The below picture is kinda how she looks now!

After her bath and after getting all lotioned up and clothed she was happy as a calm....

And she smelled DELICIOUS too! Ashlee doesn't have too much hair, but when it dries it is the cutest little puffy fro I've ever seen!

Anyone Want an Ashlee Burrito?

Doesn't she look so yummy? I could just eat her up she looks so delicious!!!

Katelee-Future Mother

Katelee is already practicing to be a mother one day.

She has always loved dolls and holding them, rocking them and singing to them. But now she has especially gotten good at feeding them and burping them. She even puts the burp cloth on them just in case they spit up. The other day I was driving and looked back at her. There she was in her car seat burping her baby. Not just burping her over her shoulder but with the baby sitting up on her lap. She already has such a good technique perhaps better than her real mother!

Along with being a mother to her dolls she loves to practice on Ethan as well. She is constantly telling him not to say certain things, weather he has said them or not. She will tell him to sit down, eat your food, no treat for you and many more things. One of my favorite things she likes to do is count him down. If we tell him to do something and start counting, well so does Katelee and instead of stopping when he starts doing what he has been asked she will continue up to about 12 and then usually follow it up with something like, "you don't get a fruit snack now" or "No book for you!"

Katelee is in tune with her divine role here on this earth already and if she keeps it up I'm pretty sure she is going to be a great mother one day!