Taking a time out

I have been at my breaking point the past couple of weeks. I miss my husband and I think that the holiday season is only making me more lonesome for him. I feel like my kids have been out of control lately or that I have no patience for them... Or both!
Because I am feeling so overwhelmed with my kids I am trying to do extra to serve them (isn't that what we are supposed to do, serve the people that are the most difficult to deal with... Wow I am ashamed to feel that way about my kids). Anyway that is why I am trying to do extra for them this Christmas, I don't want the feelings that I am dealing with to ruin their Christmas.
Anyway I have an amazing best friend. She knows I have been struggling and checks in with me everyday. Tomorrow we are going to lunch and then she is going to take my girls for a little while so I can go to the spa for a facial and a massage (Ben's Christmas present to me last year). I am so excited! And I am so grateful for a good friend that cares so much for me. Thanks Beth!

So tonight I had plans to take the kids to our ward Christmas party. I was doing some laundry and Abbi was pulling on my leg wanting to be held. I picked her up, plopped her in a empty laundry basket and told Slade to push her around the kitchen so I could finish rotating the laundry. As he was pushing her around I heard her giggling and soon Slade was giggling, then Madie started squealing that she wanted a ride too. Before I knew it I was laughing too. So I got another laundry basket and had Madie hop in. Them we lined up and had races around the house. IT WAS SO FUN! Needless to say we never made it to the ward party, we were having fun and I realized that I would have to put real pants if I was going to leave the house.

This has me thinking. I know I need to take more breaks from my kids. It is healthy for me and them and I know I will be a better mom if I take a little time for myself every now and then. I also know that my job is not to be my kid's friend it is to be their parent, but I think sometimes it is important to play with them like I am their friend too. Our whole night went better tonight because I took 15 minutes to be silly with them.

How is it that I am just figuring this out now? I guess I just have to figure out how to better balance this parent/silly time thing. I just hope that I figure this out before I loose my chance.
I love my kids. They are my everything.

Anyway sorry to get so serious on ya but thanks for the talk. I am sure tomorrow will be great!

On a completely unrelated note... I am sure you think I am becoming a crazy cat lady but I just think this is cute. Our kitty, Twinkles, has decided that under our Christmas tree is a great place to nap. So cute!

On the 4th day of Christmas

This mornings response was way to good to wait until tonight to post about.

 

 

This morning the kids found Ralphie sitting on our plant shelf and he had stolen all of their underwear and threw them everywhere (their clean laundry was piled on the couch for them to put away this morning).

 

 

Slade found it first (because he gets up super early these days in an effort to drive me to drink), before I even came out into the living room Slade had already cleaned all of HIS underwear up and insisted that Ralphie had only got into Madie's. I kept making comments like "we'll that is weird he only took Madie's when all of yours were right here" and finally I got him to confess that he had cleaned all of his up because "it was SOOOOOOO embarrassing". When Madie got up she said in her firmest voice "oh Ralphie, you need a spanking!"

 

I have to admit that their irritation was really funny!

As for our Christmas activity for today we are planning to go to our ward Christmas party tonight and then if we have enough time we will watch a Christmas movie. I have been recording the Christmas shows on tv so we have a number to choose from.

On the 3rd day of Christmas

This morning we found Ralphie sliding down a zip line in our kitchen while hanging in a candy cane.

 

 

The kids think he is the best in the the world. They insist that they can see him moving. Every time Madie would leave the room today that sneaky elf would start sliding around on the line. She spent the entire day trying to bust him moving.

 

Tonight for our Christmas activity we read the nativity story. I love that they already knew so much of the story, it totally made me feel like a successful parent but let's face it - they have some amazing primary teachers so I can't take the credit.

On the 2nd day of Christmas

So first of all I have to apologize for the weird format of my posts. I am having problems with my home Internet so I have been making posts on my phone. The problem with that is that my blogger app lumps all the pictures at the the end of my post and won't let me do any formatting on my text. Well it might let me but I am not smart enough to figure out how to do it. Normally I write on my phone (so I can just speak my post into the phone) and then make it look nice on my computer, anyway you are getting the raw post until my home Internet gets fixed.

 

So today when we woke up (at 5:30 because Slade was so excited about finding our elf) Ralphie was hanging from the light in our dining room.

 

 

The kids also found a box under the tree. Inside they found the materials to make some snowmen.

 

 

When we got home from church we put our snowmen together. The kids thought it was the best!

 

 

They keep running into the kitchen to admire their work.

 

On the 1st day of Christmas

I decided that I was going to do something fun for the kids this year in the month leading up to Christmas. I totally stole the idea from my friend Annalee who did this with her kiddos last year. I tweaked it a little bit to work for our family but I am super excited about doing this. I am hoping all the fun stuff will distract them of Daddy being gone (we don't think he will be home until right before Christmas). Anyway I have the whole month planned out with activities, crafts, books, and movies.

So today we had to go to the store, I got the van all loaded up and then told the kids that I had to grab something in the house. I snuck this Elf on the Shelf book under the tree. When we got home and the kids found it they were so surprised and excited. They have been watching him all night and they insist that they see him moving. They named him Ralphie the Elfie.

It is so fun watching them be so excited about it!

 

Oh and I am also super excited about the Badgers going to the Rose Bowl! WAY TO GO WISCONSIN!!!!!

A text from Santa

So I found this idea on Pinterest that is pretty much genius. I apparently just saw it and did it instead of pinning it so I have no source for you, sorry.

Change the name on your own number in your phone and then send yourself texts from Santa.

Since Slade can read now he is totally eating it up. After I showed him the first text he looked at Madie and said "it's really from Santa!" So cute.

I sure hope I can ride this one out till Christmas... And maybe longer.

5 Years

This is us - 5 years ago.

 

 

Five years ago today I married my best friend.

 

I feel like we've been through a lot in the last five years. Some of the things we have had to deal with have really sucked! But more of the things have been totally amazing. Like building a happy family for Slade. And welcoming our two beautiful girls into this world.

 

Yesterday was a crappy day.

I felt lonely.

And just burnt out with everything.

 

It'd been almost 3 weeks since seeing Ben last, and we were planning on going all the way till Thanksgiving. Yesterday afternoon someone knocked on my door, it was someone delivering a beautiful bouquet of white roses Ben had sent to me for our anniversary today.

 

 

Then last night just as I was tucking the kids into bed There was another knock at the door. It was Ben. He came home for a few days to surprise us and totally made all of our day.

 

 

I lucked out with this one, I love you Ben, happy anniversary.