Last Year...

Is it crazy to anyone else to think that last year, at this time, I was in the hospital?
January 2011 was crazy. I'm glad that January  2012 is nothing like it.

Goal

So, I know I said that I don't really do resolutions. But I am kind of doing one. I'm not going to deal with negativity anymore. I don't need to feel like I am a bad mother because I decided to go back to work. I don't need to feel inferior to other people because I don't live my life the way they want me to. Yeah. I'm just not going to deal with it anymore. I'll probably end up burning some bridges with this one but... I don't need it in my life. And if you love me, you'll support me no matter what and take this into consideration when you're talking to me or... you won't and we'll just stop talking. You choose.

That's all!  Have a good year everyone!

Happy New Year!

It's been a bit, dear bloggy friends, hasn't it? Life's been crazy. And strange. And good.

First, let's talk about 2011. I can't say that it was a bad year because it brought be a beautiful, healthy baby boy, a marriage, some self realization and a new job that I actually enjoy. But, it also brought a lot of trials and trying times for us.
January was spent mostly in and out of the hospital. Trowa was born 3 weeks early (it could've been earlier because of that dang placental abruption.) But he was healthy and that's all that mattered to us.

February brought us back to the hospital to have our poor little newborn operated on. Pyloric stenosis. That was stressful.

March was calm. (My divorce was finalized)

April was hell. Rick was in Germany. We barely made it. Our relationship wasn't as solid as we thought it was. There was a lot of cracks and hurt feelings and being apart made them that much worse. But, we both did some soul searching and obviously things worked out since we're married now. ;)

May we got engaged. :)

June and July were both good months. We had birthdays and fun times outside with our friends.

August... oh moving in 24 hours. Stressful. (Rick's divorce was finalized)

September... I stepped out of my comfort zone and volunteered to be FRG leader. It's been stressful and fun and hopefully i'll make some friends out of it.

November. We got married. :D

December- I got my new job. We made some changes with Chanel's visitations. Regardless of what my negative family thinks, I think it's for the better.

And that brings us to today. I don't really do new years resolutions. I just hope that this year brings us good things (and of course that it the world doesn't end in December. ;) haha. )

Happy 2012 Everyone!

Conference

The way we planned our wedding we would be at Snowbird attending a conference for our honeymoon. This actually worked out great as A) the kidlets would be with my Aunt and B) it was a free hotel room. I know, it wasn't the most exciting honeymoon but we enjoyed ourselves. (We also may have skipped out on some of the conference to go sit at the bar and take shots of tequila... and it was nice.) Anyway, the point of me telling you this is that I am implementing something I learned from the conference into my everyday life and I encourage you to try it out with me. In fact, I challenge you to do it for 30 days  ---

I am a very negative person. It's something that I've been trying to work on. I hold grudges and most of the time I don't really like new situations or new people. And I always am able to see that bad side of situations.  But, the thing that I am going to start doing in my personal journal is this:

Everyday name three GOOD things that happened and your reaction/emotions from each good thing. 

I'll share with you my three good things from today- (I had a terrible day that was filled with lots of yelling at people and running around doing errands and kids screaming from being tired and not wanting to be in the car. Soooo stressful. So, I think this is a really good day to start this, eh?)

1- Playing with Trowa and making him smile and laugh. I absolutely love making him laugh. His smile is so big and I love his dimples. It makes me happy when he's happy. When Trowa and I have our one on one play time it reminds me all over again how much love I have for my children. He is such a good child, even on his bad days, he is amazingly good. His happiness is a reflection of my parenting. I must be doing a good job. 

2- Chanel saying "I like to play with you, Mommy." It's been a hard struggle getting Chanel to connect with me, especially after the divorce, and so for her to finally say something so simple as "I like to play with you" made me so so happy. There was also a sense of relief - after trying to get her to understand that just because I won't let her do something it isn't because I "don't like her" but because I want the best for her. It was nice and fun to sit with her and play for a little bit earlier today. 

3- Rick telling me I'm gorgeous. I'm a girl so of course I am insecure but Rick is wonderful and tells me every single day that he thinks I'm pretty. Even when I haven't done my hair, put make up on or even changed out of my pajamas. It is something that has definitely helped with my self esteem. I adore being told I'm pretty and it brightens my day when Rick randomly tells me that I am gorgeous. It is one of the many things I love about him.  

Your turn. :) 

Thankful

Today, I am thankful for my husband. He truly is my other half.
I am also thankful for my family, especially my Aunt, without her this weekend wouldn't have been possible.
And I am very thankful for my kids- even when they drive me crazy- I love them to death.
And last but not least, I am thankful for my friend Whitney who watched my socially awkward dog all weekend.


For those of you who don't know, Rick and I were married on November 4th, 2011. We had a simple courthouse wedding that was just us and two witnesses. It was perfect. We had a mini honeymoon at Snowbird Ski Resort (The Cliff Lodge). It snowed. And we enjoyed spending some alone time together.

Chanel

Do you remember when she was a baby? I do. Now she is writing letters and learning the alphabet and counting. Stop growing up little Chanel! She loves "Phineas and Ferb" and "Max and Ruby" and "Team Umizoomi" and still sucks her thumb. 

And she's spoiled. 

Rick got her this-

Smush the Mini American Eskimo 

Well, if we're being honest- he really wanted her too. And I was hesitant... but again, fuzzy little white fluff ball... he had me sold pretty quickly. 

Appa the Cat ran away. And Chanel has been pretty upset about it. We seem to have bad luck with animals... But so far, aside from a minor case of kennel cough, smush has done pretty good. She's almost house broken... but she hates the leash. We're still working on that one. 

We love her. 

Teeth!

Trowa has cut two teeth in the couple of days. They're barely poking through but it explains his grouchy mood! I can't get a picture of them but here is a cute picture of him anyway- 

This little chunk is eat 2 jars of baby food per meal... so about 6 - 8 jars a day. Not counting his snacks of wagon wheels and puffs. He also loves eating rice and little bits of whatever I am eating. Can you believe he is already 8 months old? It's crazy! He is crawling all over the place and is already pulling himself up on our furniture - you know what that means! He is probably going to start walking soon. I can't even imagine what we are going to do with a little walker! Trowa still thinks Mom is the greatest and gets a big smile whenever I talk to him. He can say "Dada" and  "Baba" (Bottle) ... We're still working on Mama. 

Love him to pieces.