Working Mama

I have been doing some things for work the past couple of weeks and it has felt great!  We worked Ryan's schedule out so he worked a few long days to take the days off I had to go in to work so that he could stay home with the kids.  I think it was good for everyone!  I also worked a 12 hour night shift on Friday night.  Since Ryan worked the weekend, Sue came to play with the kiddos!  I tell you, I do not miss the exhaustion of staying up for over 24 hours, essentially missing an entire night of sleep and then only sleeping a couple hours in the morning.  However, it was GREAT to get back to the hospital and work with the new moms and their babes.  I have picked up a couple shifts already in the next month and am excited for them, too.  I even had the chance to go get my hair done (which is a 3 hour deal).  Ryan and I went out for dinner Saturday night and were going to go see a movie, but were too tired out so came home and watched the Olympics instead.  

The kids of course had a fabulous time with Grandma!  I don't think they cared much about Mommy the entire weekend.  They have colds and were a bit more sensitive than usual, so hopefully they didn't share the bug with Grandma!  Thanks for coming to help us out Sue!  We truly appreciate all you do!

P.S.  I can't usually get my children to sit this close to each other without fighting...there is something about grandma's!

Little Helpers

I have little helpers every second of every day of my life.  Sometimes the help is appreciated.  Sometimes the help is more of a hinderance.  This last week has been a long one with Ryan working a lot of 14 hour days and me having to do some things for work.  Those days get long when we are stuck in the house so I have had to get creative to keep my children somewhat occupied.  This is what we did the other night-the kids made their own little cheese pizzas.  I had a couple slices of each of the pizzas and Landon was pretty proud that he, "made mommy a pizza."  Landon is known for sprinting to my side if I am cooking-baking especially.  This picture illustrates why I get so much help.  They just want to eat the "unfinished" product!  What can I say, their mom is notorious for eating dough, batter-just about anything raw really.

This snapshot is from earlier tonight.  I can not believe they were laying this close and not fighting.  They were resting on the trampoline watching a movie.  Kadence has a cold and has been feeling pretty cruddy the last couple of days so I guess she just needed some loving from her big brother!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

What I Love About You

I love the way you look at me,

Your eyes so bright and blue.

I love the way you kiss me,

Your lips so soft and smooth.

I love the way you make me so happy,

And the ways you show you care.

I love the way you say, "I Love You,"

And the way you're always there.

I love the way you touch me,

Always sending chills down my spine.

I love that you are with me,

And glad that you are mine.

- Crystal Jansen -

Happy Valentine's day to my sweet Valentine.  Love you Ry!  

Happy Valentine's Day!  

Oh the things they say...

Oh Landon... Today after he had come downstairs and informed me that he "didn't want to take a nap, and was playing in his room," he also had something else to tell me.  He had been downstairs for a few minutes when he said, "Mom, I need to take a poop."  It wasn't the normal: mom, I need to potty.  It was plain and clear, "Mom I need to take a poop."  I couldn't help but laugh.  I wonder where he learned this expression-most definitely not from Mommy.

Hope this added a laugh to your day, it sure did mine.

A mother's beauty...

Being a mom means not always looking your best.  Somedays you hardly have time to eat let alone take a shower and put make up on.  When you decide to put your nice clothes on (nice just meaning clothes you would actually be seen in public wearing) they usually have some sort of stain on them within 5 minutes-food, drool, puke, pee.  As this picture models, mom's at times also look ridiculous in order to entertain a cooped up, tired of the house toddler (or two).  I hope that one day I will be able to look and dress the way I used to.

The greatest part of all is that no matter how horrible I may look, my children don't care one bit.  In fact, they probably like me better looking ridiculous with stickers all over my face because it means I have just taken the time to do something goofy with them.  Landon was quite proud of his artwork to say the least.    Let's just hope I remember to remove the artwork before I go out in public.

A Relaxing Weekend

My mom and dad came for a much needed visit last weekend.  They trudged through terrible icy roads for over 8 hours on Thursday night.  I think they are a little crazy, but they just wanted to visit that bad.  They arrived at our house about 2 am Friday morning and were woken up bright and early.  The kids were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa at their house!  I think I was more excited than anyone.

We had a fun-filled relaxing weekend.  The kids had a lot of snuggle and play time with Grandma and Grandpa and loved it.  Ryan and I even got out a few times by ourselves (this is almost unheard of in our lives right now).

There is just something great about having supportive parents around.  Ryan and I don't get many breaks or much company.  It is definitely a downfall of not living closer to family.  It is what we chose and the place we are at right now in our lives doesn't help, but knowing those things still doesn't make it any easier!  Enough of my sob story, we have a great life and in just one short year we will hopefully be on to the next step of our lives.  We had a great weekend with my parents, it just goes too fast!  I was glad they made it home safely last night.  Another long trek in crappy wintery weather!

Rough life...

Some days I envy the life of our sweet dog Emma.  She has no responsibility.  She sleeps most of the day.  She constantly gets treats from the kids.  She gets to snuggle with us in bed every night.  Her biggest worry is who her next treat will come from.  There are many days when I am leaving the house after the chaotic get out the door routine and take a look at her sulking because we are leaving and think, "if only I could stay home in the peace and quiet."

Emma is such a sweet, good little dog.  Even though you may not know it all of the time, even the kids love her very much.

I took Landon and Kadence to Petco the other day to buy some food for Emma.  They were pretty excited to look at all of the animals and fish in the store.  I was surprised how well the stop was going as it was our second stop after over an hour grocery trip to Walmart.  I had convinced them that it was time to leave and all was great.  As we were walking towards the door Kadence said, "c'mon Mommy" and pulled me to go through the door on the grooming side.  It was actually closer to our vehicle so I didn't protest.  I didn't realize what she was doing until I was trying to get them out the outside door.  She really thought we were coming to pick up Emma and was very upset that I was walking past the counter without stopping for our beloved pet.  I tried to explain to her that Emma was not getting a haircut today, but she just did not understand and kept crying "Emma, Emma, Emma!"  Luckily Petco isn't too far from our house and we powered through the crying and arrived home shortly...Kadence went immediately to Emma and gave her a big hug with a sigh of relief.  The funny thing about this whole ordeal is that she has only come to pick up Emma after a haircut 1 time, and it was quite some time ago.  I think next time we'll just bring Emma with us.