mother of the year

Holy freaking crappoli June kicked my trash today!

Aaron watched June while I was at work this morning (so nice!!) and when I was done, I was bringing our cousin's baby Emma who is the same age as June home with me because they were going to see a play in Salt Lake. It was going to be a fun little play date for June and Emma. . . right!?

WRONG!

Haha when I got home, June was so excited to see me and then luckily went down for a nap really easily IN HER CRIB!!!! for a little over an hour. I was able to do some dishes and clean up around the house, eat a salad, all before she woke up. Then Aaron left, Jake got home, and it was time for Emma to go down for a nap. I wasn't able to get her to stay asleep so I gave up and had Jake try. He got her to sleep in less than 5 minutes and she stayed asleep for over two hours!!!! I was amazed.

ANYWAY, while Emma was snoozing like an angel, June decided to wreak havoc on Jake and me. She has turned into such a little punk, but only randomly. She will cry and SCREAM (literal screams) if she doesn't get her way and I'm really trying to break that habit by redirecting her. She loves to bang on keyboards and was trying to get Jake's iPad keyboard, but I didn't want her to mess up anything with his personal statement so I closed it down to where she couldn't press the buttons. Holy crap she screamed so loud and for so long and not even cuddling would shut her down!

I gave her to Jake who gave her back to me after a few minutes of trying to calm her down in his shirt (which almost always works) and then I just wrapped her in a blanket, put her on my side, closed all the blinds and put on white noise. She finally calmed down. She didn't fall asleep, but she just laid there calmly. But when she was ready to get up again, something set her off and she did the same thing again!!!!

That time I just took her outside because it was so sunny and I let her practice walking on the sidewalk and she kept wanting to touch the snow. I don't know WHAT was going on with her, but it was so unlike her. Maybe it was because her first nap was really late in comparison to what it usually is, but man it was rough!! I was seriously so frustrated with her behavior and I was rethinking ALL of my parenting choices.

With that being said, she went to bed around 6:45 pm and I have zero regrets. She might wake a little early tomorrow, but we will both at least be rested and happy again. It's always nice to start a new day.

Motherhood really kicked my trash today.

New year and new schedule!

January is practically over! I truly do feel like this last month has lasted about 60 days haha. It already feels like Jake has been in school for forever, but maybe that's just because we both have a lot on our plates right now! But in a good way. We are definitely staying busy and happy.

We started out the year in Cincinnati and came home a few days after school had started. We were definitely ready to get back into the swing of things and find a groove that fit our family. Jake has been working night shifts at the local behavioral hospital and is enjoying it! He has already come home with a lot of crazy stories. I am really proud of him because working full time night shifts has got to be one of the most exhausting things. On top of that, he's a full-time student, teaching anatomy, and doing research with a professor! It's been interesting trying to find a rhythm that works for us where we don't all three feel drained and we are finally getting there.

I have been working at Jake's aunt's business M-F from 8-12. It's been the perfect amount of hours and it's nice making some extra money on the side! Most of the time June comes with me and plays with Emma, her little cousin that is about the same age, or I have a family member watch her. Luckily I never work more than a few hours so I don't feel like I am spending too much time away from June.

It's been nice to work and have something else to do besides be a mom and wife. Although I truly feel like those roles are my "calling" in life, I'm not quite busy enough to not go crazy with that being the only thing on my plate. So having a part-time job and one class to finish online before I graduate, I am feeling like this is my sweet spot!

June is growing bigger and smarter every day. This is definitely the best age yet. She's still cuddly, loves being with me (maybe a little too much sometimes), but I also see her gaining some independence. She has been taking more solo steps lately and I can seriously see it in her eyes when she realizes she can do it and feels confident. She doesn't take more than 4 steps in a row usually, but she truly does get better and more confident every day! On top of that, she learned the word "DOG"! We have two my little pet shop dogs and she loves them. They are the most random toys but she holds them and will just crawl around the house with at least one of them in her hand. Anyway, for weeks I would tell her it was a dog. Or I would point our a dog if we saw one outside and I always point them out in her books telling her they say "woof woof". One day I was asking her if she could say dog and she just said it! Now every time she sees her little toy dog or any kind of animal (like the cat on the bag of cat food at Trader Joe's) she says "dog"!

One activity that Jake and I have been doing together lately is working on redoing the entire Seven Brothers Farm website! It's been a really fun late night activity for us to do together while June sleeps, although we have definitely learned that we would probably not work well together ALL DAY haha but we do good work as a team. It's been really fun to learn a new skill with WordPress and gets me excited about vamping up this blog one day (probably switching to WordPress one day!). We have seriously learned how to make a very simple pretty website. It has taken us HOURS AND HOURS hahaha but it's been super fun.

That's about it on an update for us. We're trying to budget better and make more homemade meals this year so we can both be a little healthier. Jake started crossfit for the month with his brother Aaron. I've been doing at least 20 minutes of yoga daily. It's been great and I'm hoping we both keep it up with a little bit of a "healthier" life style (I still love my daily coke from McDonald's. I will probably never give that up lol)

Lisette's graduation!!!

June and I were able to go on a little trip to Kansas for Lisette's graduation from Kansas State! It was so fun to see my family and for them to be able to see June. It's Jake's family's "turn" for Christmas this year, so it was nice to be able to spend some time with them!

Lisette graduated in Early childhood ed and she's going to be so great. She has worked SO HARD the past couple years, but especially this last year, and I'm so proud of her and I'm glad she's finally done! She decided not to get her master's degree quite yet, so I'm excited that she can come visit us for a couple weeks when June turns 1!!

For the weekend, we all rented the cutest air bnb in Manhattan called the Sunset Cottage. They designed it PERFECTLY, but the only thing they didn't design well is the windows - I think they kept the original windows, because it is DRAFTY in there! Haha holy cow it was so freezing cold at night, I slept with pants, sweatshirt, and socks. I'm glad June is a little heater because I knew she was perfectly warm at night in her fleece pajamas cuddling me.

The whole weekend was so fun. We shopped at Target, ate black raspberry bean dip which is AMAZING and June loved it too! I got to see Carli, Allison, my Grandma and Cassie and all of Lisette's friends got to meet June. She did get a little overwhelmed, but really, she handled it all very well given the situation!! She is very much a mama's girl though and wanted to be by me the whole time which I am fine with! Haha she did let Lisette hold her a few times though because she looks the most like me, of course.

It was a really fun and fast weekend. The sun was shining, it was 40 degrees, and we pretty much just hung out the whole weekend, chatting and catching up with each other. My mom highlighted my hair with a box lol so it's much lighter now which I am liking so far, although it's different - I haven't highlighted my hair in over 2 years!

It'll be fun to watch Lisette's "next steps". And it makes me that much more excited to BE DONE with college!! One class left until I can finally get my degree!

Ben to Singapore!

Ahh, it's been a bittersweet week for a lot of reasons! First, June and I just got back from Kansas where we were visiting for Lisette's college graduation (more on that later). Second, it's the last week of school . . . ever! I'll never have to sit in a classroom again, write a research paper again, or ever give a presentation again! I'm so excited but it's also weird because . . . what am I going to do with my time now!? Haha. And third, because Ben and Ralph were visiting this week to take Ben to the Provo MTC. We are so, SO proud of Ben, but we are also sad to see him go and be away from our family for 2 years. We know that he will be well taken care of and really hope he will enjoy his time there learning Chinese and serving the people of Singapore!

Today, I woke up and went to work at the warehouse. I just started this week and it's been pretty good so far- but the learning curve is pretty steep if I'm being honest! Haha. I left a little early so I could spend time with Ben and Ralph before they both had to leave and as I was leaving, it was snowing and sticking like nobody's business. I was shaking the entire drive home. I'm so glad we bought new tires!

When I got home, everyone had eaten breakfast and they were just hanging out. Bob was in town for some work so he was there too, it was a party! We finished up some of Ben's laundry and then the Mauldins came over and brought Waffle Love - so good. After they left, it was nice to have just the 4 and 1/2 of us hanging out together. It's just a weird feeling - knowing this is the last time you'll see a person for 2 years . . . What do you say?! What do you talk about?!

We drove to the MTC with his bags in tow, parked, and walked out to take a couple of pictures. Ralph and Ben had a really genuine hug, and it was really sad to watch them part. You really could feel the love, and it seemed like Ralph never wanted that hug to end.

When we walked him over to the actual building, they are pretty strict and you can only walk to the gate. If you want to go in, you have to drive in, so we were saying our goodbyes at the most awkward spot but it was probably for the best. I got some super cute pictures of Ben, June, and Jake and I'm excited to look back on them in a couple years when he returns home.

I am really proud of Ben for serving a mission. I can only imagine how hard it is to make the decision to serve a mission, let alone actually do it. He is a great example for our little family. I'm excited to hear his stories and watch how his mission helps shape him. I'm also excited to hear him speak Chinese. I know he is going to be great.

We can't wait to see him in 2 years! xoxo