Macey Style

For as long as I can remember, Macey has had an opinion about what she wants to wear.  It used to make me cringe as I would see the outfits she would put on.  Often times I would tell her to change, but that would create so much drama.  Crying, fighting....it totally wasn't worth it.

So, I stopped trying to dictate what Macey wore and let her go at it. I wish I took a picture of her everyday to show some of the outfits she comes up with.  

I still have to bite my tongue at times.  

What do you think?  

 Skirt ...check
leggings...check
rainboots...you bet
Rainbow Dash Hoody...always

 She even liked to impart her stylish ways on her BFF Harry.

 Going out on an adventure?  Great, let me grab my tutu dress.

Classic Macey.

I love my girly Macey Mace.  

Mac and Cheese

It was the usual routine this morning.

Up at 6.  Feed baby.  Change baby's diaper.  Go for a run.  Wake up Lo and Isaac for school.  Make breakfast.  Make lunches.  Pack backpacks.  Scoot the kids out the door so we aren't late for school by 7:45.  Drive kids to school.  Try my best to fill their little buckets full before sending them out of the car door and into the school.  Kisses. Hugs.  Goodbye until 3:10 when school gets out and the excitement starts once again.

While I was making lunches for Lo and Isaac I had an interesting thought.

Lo was helping me make mac and cheese for their lunch.  Lo was doing most of the making and I was more supervising.  I told her after she added the water, the directions tell to stir the noodles and water together before putting them in the microwave.

 She responded saying, "Why do they have you stir it before you microwave it?  That's dumb.  I bet it doesn't matter if you stir it before."

I told her if they wrote it in the directions, its probably important that we stick to the directions.

But, that got me thinking.

How often do we 'skip directions' because we think we know best?  How much better could our relationship be with our Heavenly Father or Savior be?

If we skip the steps in making Mac and Cheese, who knows how much better that Mac and cheese would/could taste?   We are cheating ourselves out of some much more delicious tasting cheesy goodness.

Doing all we are asked (daily prayer, scripture study,...) might seem like a step we can skip and not feel a difference in our own lives.  But it matters.  I guess that's what I'm getting at.

IT MATTERS.

Don't skip out on those small things that can help bring you peace, comfort, love.

Now go make yourself some Easy Mac and Cheese.

Moments

I had a moment today while driving in the car with Isaac and Loraya.  A moment that doesn't happen often as a mom.  I felt prompted to tell them that I loved them and express how lucky I was to be their mom.  Such a simple thing.  To tell someone you love them.

 I was over come with emotion, and looking at them thru the rear view mirror I could see their sweet eyes filling with tears as well.

The moment came and went.

But, I'm so grateful I didn't let the moment pass and say nothing.  

I tell my kids often how much I love them, several times a day.  So, I'm not sure why I was, at that time, prompted to share my love to my beautiful children.  

But do you ever tire of being told you are loved?

Sawyer's arrival part 2.

Just to warn people, this might be tmi (too much information) for some.  I'll just say I warned you.

I was happy to have Sawyer out of me, healthy and in my arms.  Jacob left soon after Sawyer's arrival to pick our kids up from our friend's house and put them to bed.  I was really bummed to learn the kids couldn't come into the hospital room and meet their new brother and see me.  Because of flu season, all kids 12 years and younger aren't allowed with the babies.  I understood, but is was really disappointing for the kids and for myself.

After the delivery, I was happy to not have the effects of the epidural.  I could get up right away and pee and even take a shower if I wanted.  These were luxuries you don't have when you are numb from the waist down.  Sawyer had no problem latching on right away and started nursing.  Life was good.

Jacob called after he got the kids home and in bed to check on Saywer and myself.  I realized while talking to him I felt blood gushing out of me.  I checked out what was happening down below and there was a LOT of blood.  Too much blood.  I told Jacob I better go and called the nurse in to check things out.  I could tell by her expression that much blood wasn't normal.  I will always remember the pain of a natural child birth, but I will also remember the pain of the nurse pushing on my stomach as hard as she could to push out the blood clots.  Ouch.

They needed to clean up my bloody bed so they had me get up and wanted me to wash off in the shower.  Getting up was a bad idea.  As soon as I stood blood was just rushing out of me onto the floor.  It was crazy.  It looked like a crazy horror film. 5 different nurses rushed in.  I pretty much blacked out at that point.  The nurses were injecting me with fluid, medicine to help stop the bleeding and who knows what else.

When I was able to stand up again and the room was pretty much cleansed of my blood I got back into bed.  I remember thinking I didn't want to die.  I remember thinking there in no way someone can loose this much blood and live.  I remembered the blessing my husband had given me earlier that night.  It gave me strength and peace and I knew all was going to be ok in the end.  Later, after all was in control the nurse told me I had lost about half my blood.  She said for some reason, my hemoglobin counts went UP and not down during that time.  I know I was being watched over.  I know.

I was pretty weak after so much blood loss.  I was closely monitored and given several different kinds of meds to help control the bleeding.  They also did that horrible pushing on my stomach thing a lot to get rid of all the blood clots that were hanging around.  Oh, that was so so painful.  But those clots needed to get out of me.

My time in the hospital was like a vacation.  Well, minus the whole almost dying thing.  Someone was tending to my every need, bringing me meals in bed, lots and lots of cuddle time with my little man.  I missed Loraya, Isaac and Macey tho.  It didn't seem complete to not have them with me.

I was so excited to go home.  Because of my bleeding, I had to stay 48 hours in the hospital.  The kids were up waiting for us to get home.  I was so happy to have us all together and to be alive.  

Well, poop.

Adventures in parenting #531. 


Macey went potty before we left to wait in the after school pickup line, but of course had to go again once we had been waiting a few minutes. 

This time #2. Oh joy. 

Totally had Macey poop in the Tupperware box in the car. 

Pretty funny actually. Sheesh.

Before the poop incident.  

I told Loraya and Isaac the whole story when they got into the car.  I'm actually surprised they didn't comment on the smell once they got in.  We all got a good laugh at Macey's expense.  

A Letter

My Dearest Macey Lou,

 

 Your birthday was yesterday. 

Did you know that you woke up at 3:15 the morning on your 3rd birthday? 

Yes you did.

I couldn't get you to go back to sleep and we were up until 6 AM before you crashed.  I was just thinking that day how thankful I was that you didn't wake up in the middle of the night anymore.  I won't think such thoughts again.  Did you also know that I cried/prayed at 5:45 AM...because I was tired...and you weren't....I just really wanted to sleep. 

But guess what?  I love you more then you will ever know.  I love your kisses and hugs.  I love your giggles and smiles.  I love your I love yous and primary song singing.  I love your sweet and happy personality. 

 

So much to love. 

 We are so lucky to be blessed with you in our family.  Heavenly Father sent you to me and I thank him everyday for this blessing.

 

Happiest of birthdays to my baby girl!

 

Love you always,
Mom

Don't Carpe Diem

First, read this article.

I was thinking about this very thing as of late.....this idea of having joy in the journey.  I do.  Most of the time.  But, does having joy in the journey mean to enjoy every single second of every single day??  Is this even possible??

I can't find anything joyous about Macey not sleeping at night.  Is it possible to be joyous at 1:30AM with a toddler that won't stay in her bed?  No.  No it is not.

BUT, I do find great joy waking up in the morning to Macey opening my bedroom door, and climbing in bed with me.  I love our morning snuggles.  That i will miss, I won't miss our middle of the night hang out sessions however.

We have to take the good with the bad right?

So, here is me focusing in on the good, happy motherhood moments of today.

My 5 top mother moments for today include:

1.  Hearing Macey count from 1-11 all by herself.
2.  Lunch date with Isaac. (I won't mention that Macey spilled her entire chocolate milk all down the front of her....nope I won't say anything about it.)
3.  Loraya and I going grocery shopping just the two of us.
4.  Coming home from grocery shopping and having Macey and Isaac yell 'Mom's home!!' ....like me coming home was the greatest thing that has ever happened.
5.  Isaac telling me that I am a really good cook, just like the lunch ladies at school! 

All we can do is keep going...didn't someone say something about this life not being easy..... 

Microbio test Monday = No husband

We hadn't been to the Pittsburgh Zoo forever! The planets and starts were aligned: no sports games, the weather was a bit chilly BUT the sun was out so we headed up to Pittsburgh!  We missed Jacob being there. 

First thing we did was stop and eat lunch.  I always pack a tons of food when we go to the Zoo so we don't have to spend money on overpriced, gross food.  The down side to this is every 1.2 seconds the kids are saying they are hungry and asking for something to eat.

Looking at the springboks, and ostriches.

Loraya always loves touching the string rays.

Macey liked playing on this thing.

Slides were fun.

The trees still had leaves!  I enjoyed the beautiful fall colors.  It's looking pretty brown now around Morgantown.

Isaac took this pic of the girls.  Good picture Isaac!

The end.

PS I'm afraid I might be getting a new church calling...yikes!  I've been worrying about this since last Wednesday when the Bishop called and said he wanted to meet with me before church on Sunday.  We shall see... 

Life is busy

Just something I had on my mind tonight...

I always hate reading blog posts or facebook  updates where people are always talking about how 'busy' life is.  I'm not sure why it annoys me, because I do this all the time.  Maybe because sometimes I feel like it's a contest.  An I am way busier than you contest.  But, the fact of the matter is simply: life is busy. 

I fall into that category of being a busy mom, and I love it.  I'm not trying to win an award for busiest mom, but simply trying to document how my life is at this given moment.  I know kids grow and things change and one day I will miss all this day to day craziness.  This to shall pass right?

I hope my posts don't come across as complaining.  I love being a mom.  I love being busy and keeping my kids busy with different activities.   All I've ever wanted to do is be a mom.  I feel so blessed to do what I've always wanted to do.