First Big Boo Boo

Last night KK wanted his nails done, this was his pattern idea.  He wanted to take a picture and send it to his Grandma in Virginia.  This morning when he woke up, he couldn't stop looking at his nails and he was happy.  

On this Valentine's Day I am grateful that I wasn't working.  We didn't have anything planned except to go to church and be with family.  Church was uplifting, I love my calling as a primary teacher.  Mr. H. and I are team teachers, which is perfect for when I am at work, he can teach the kids.  We teach KK's class, kids who are 9 and are going to turn 10 this year.  10 years old, I cannot believe that KK will be 10.  He has grown up so fast.  I have loved most every minute of it.  While I am thinking about it, ET will be 3 this summer.  He also has grown up so fast and I have loved most every minute of it.  Except for the Boo Boo's.  Tonight before dinner ET was crawling off our bed and his feet slipped from under a box he was standing on and he smacked his mouth on the foot board of the bed. I didn't see it, but Mr. H. was there.  He either bit through his lip, or when he hit the foot board with his mouth he bit his lip too.  Not quite sure, but he was bleeding pretty good.  He probably needed a couple stitches under his lip, but the trauma from the numbing shot and doctor and nurse in his face, I didn't think it was worth it.  More than likely he will have a scar.  The bleeding eventually slowed and he was eating and drinking normally so we didn't bother with an urgent care visit.  I've made the same decision with KK, click here.  I guess being a nurse, my kids will need to have bones sticking out and missing limbs in order for me to justify taking them to the hospital.  But, in all seriousness, ET seemed to have recovered nicely, but now has a swollen lip.  Tonight, sucking his binkie was hurting him, but his binkie still gives him that comfort so he's been just keeping it in his mouth.

Life as we Know it

Lately, I've been very overwhelmed.  Getting up to go to work is hard, working is hard, being a mom is hard, cooking can be hard, managing schedules is hard, LIFE...it's just hard.  I've gotten to a point in life that being overwhelmed and anxious has taken a drastic extent on my family.  At times I am debilitated, I CANNOT function.  There have been times that I can not leave my house and when I am out, I just want to go back home, but when I'm home there is cooking, cleaning, helping with homework, organizing, etc...it's been a never-ending cycle of feeling overwhelmed.  My husband tries, but he has a busy schedule too.  I'm not sure what a good balance is.  Mr. H and I talk about when he is done with school it will be better, when he finds a better job it will be better, when [fill in the blank] it will be better.  I don't want to wait for things to be better.  I need to see the BETTER in my everyday life.  I need to be ok with a house that is not sparkly clean 24-7.  I need to love life as we know it.  

This is what our living room looked like a couple days ago.  Clean clothes on the couch that ET has knocked down to the floor.  Toys scattered through the room.  KK comfortably watching a movie in his underwear.  School papers on the couch because we were either getting ready to go through homework or we just finished it and KK hasn't put it away.  Blankets all over the place because ET LOVES to wrap himself up with EVERY SINGLE blanket he can find.  ET is happily playing with only a diaper on.  I have a floor that only gets vacuumed once a week.  This is my life, no filters, nothing to be embarrassed about, no reason to make people think that I have it all together because I don't.  I love my family and play with my kids.  I make sure my family has food to eat and clean the dishes when I can.  I am learning to adjust my expectations, which is hard for me to do.  I am a "work in progress" and hope to find that peace within myself so that I can be a better wife, mother, and daughter of God.  I am eager to see where this journey takes me.  

My Handsome Boys

It's been a while since I have made an appearance on this blog, but I would like to start getting back into it.  I love using it as a means to record family activities and the things the boys are doing.  I thought I would start with these fun pictures.  I love the expressions they have and how much fun they have with each other.  KK was meant to be a big brother.  Look at ET's expression when he looks at his big brother.  I'm so happy to have my family and that I am their mom

KK's Special Day

Today was such a special day for our family.  KK chose to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  As a family, we have been planning this day for a couple weeks now.  It was a full family effort, thankfully my parents helped with the food (meat and cheese tray, rolls, veggies, and cupcakes).  I couldn't have done it without them, I think just having them there as a support and knowing if I needed more help they would be there helped to relieve some of the potential stress.  

KK brought pictures from home that he wanted to display.  This was the table leading into the chapel where the program was to take place.

These are the gifts that KK gave out as a thank you for coming to the baptism.  This is where I found the printable.   

Here is my handsome ET!  Drinking yogurt...man, he LOVES those things!  

KK received this awesome baptism towel from his Aunt JM.  She was able to use her new sewing machine to embroider his name, date, and the CTR symbol on it.  This was very thoughtful and a very awesome idea!  KK LOVES it!

So here is the infamous before baptism picture, when I took this picture I told them that they looked awkward, so....

 ...I told them they should at least look like they like each other!

 I REALLY LOVE this boy and am so very proud of him.  I can't believe how fast these 8 years have gone!  BTW, the necklace I am wearing is one that KK had made for me!

 I love LOVE my family!  I am so happy to have all of them in my life.  I am very blessed!

 I am so overcome with emotion.  When KK walked into the water font and being placed in the water I started crying a bit.  This was a huge step for him!  He is just growing up way too fast!  I am grateful for the people who came to support him and our family.  We are very blessed to have such a huge church family who loves us!  

E's 1st Birthday

I can't believe this year has gone by so fast.  E has such a fun personality, he is so independent and loves life.  My brown eyed boy!  I am so happy to see him grow up.  Here are some fun facts about E:

1. He has the longest eyelashes ever...can you say jealous!?

2. He is VERY independent!

3. He is a climber

4. He has no interest with walking, yet

5. He has weaned himself from nursing, his big brother nursed for 3.5 years

6. He LOVES his big brother

7. He loves blueberries, favorite food by far!

8. He gives the best open mouth kisses

9. It calms him if you clean his ears with a q-tip

10. He has to have a binky in his mouth and one in each hand at night for bed.

Updates

Mr H. -- Finished this semester with a 4.0 (again!).  He accomplished a goal of finishing a class above 100%, his psychology class, which he truly enjoyed learning.  This summer he was going to take the semester off, but decided to take real estate classes.  He's been in the auto industry for about 16 years and his body is tired...back always acting up, legs and hips sore, always tired.  He's hoping that real estate could help him continue making money by making his own schedule while he finishes school.  He's been very busy with odds and ends around the house.  This weekend he bought a riding lawn-mower, which he HAD to use the moment it came off the trailer.

KK -- We signed him up for coach pitch baseball.  He's had some practices, but now he has begun the games.  He's great in the infield, when he is in the outfield he starts playing in the dirt.  He's REALLY great with batting.  He's only struck out once, but he foul tipped that ball about 7 times.  His team is called "Lightening" and every game there is an MVP, who gets to take home (until the next game) the coveted wrestling belt.  KK received  it at a scrimmage because of his batting skills.  He was so happy and excited to take it home.  He slept with it every night.

This weekend, we bought a new bed for KK, Mr H. put it together.  There are drawers on the bottom and there is a pull out shelf in the headboard.  It's really neat, KK LOVES it.  Monday KK pulled out his 7th tooth, his right maxillary lateral incisor.  The tooth fairy almost forgot to give him money.  KK noticed the hiccup...I worry how much longer we can keep this up before he figures it out.  

Look how big he looks!  My baby boy is growing up so fast!  He will be in the 2nd grade in August, he will turn 8, and be baptized in December.  I LOVE the person he is growing into...he has such a great personality and loves his family.  I'm lucky to be his mom

ET -- He just turned 8 months at the end of April.  He is growing up so fast too!  He is a crawling champ, he pulls his self up, and tries to walk the parameter.  He's received a handful of bumps and bruises.  Yesterday he was sitting under the kitchen table and went to start crawling and bumped his nose on part of the chair and he started having a bloody nose.  He CRIED!  I felt so bad!  But all is well now, he has a scab right under his nose, but hasn't been complaining about it today.  

We recently expanded our family.  On the 25th, Amelia Jane "AJ" Maki was born.  We skyped so that the cousins could meet for the first time.  This is a picture I tried taking of all three of them.  I can't wait to squeeze on AJ.  I seriously want to fly out to Utah right now...dumb work!  

 Emron loves going to his big brother's baseball games.  He also loves wearing KK's sweatshirt.  The weather was perfect, but then turned windy and cold...good ole Ohio weather!

Me -- I'm working as a nurse.  Yay!  I honestly thought that I would be happier once I found a job and started working and I know that I said I couldn't wait to work and contribute to the family but to be honest, I HATE working and being away from my kids and being on 2nd shift makes it even worse.  I don't think it would be as bad if I were on 1st shift because then I would be home by 4pm.  But so far that's not an option unless I go to another facility, which I'm just now getting the hang of things here and I would hate to be the last man on the totem pole again, I hate the feeling of being new and not knowing how to do things.  I just need to win the lottery.  I'm just praying that a 1st shift position will open up sooner rather than later because I feel that I'm missing out on way too much and my family needs me.  So we will see how things work out.

So Proud!

A couple weeks ago KK had a talk in primary.  It was his first talk and he was really nervous but he did so good!  I'm super proud of him.  He read most of the talk and I only had to help him a couple of times.  I'm so super proud of him...I guess I said that already, but I really am!

This is KK's talk:



Each of us has at least one name.  Some of us have names that are special to our family.  Maybe you were names after one of your parents, grandparents, or a friend of the family.

My name is Caleb and I was given that name because it was a strong name that my mom liked.

In the scriptures, we can find over 200 names for Jesus Christ.  Each of these names helps us remember him and what he has done for us.

One of the very special names that we use when we talk about Jesus Christ is “Savior”.  The word Savior means a person who saves, rescues, or delivers.

As part of Heavenly Father’s plan, someone needed to pay the price for all of the mistakes that we make.  

Our older brother, Jesus Christ volunteered to come to earth and suffer and die for us to pay the price for our sins.  Because he did this, we call him our Savior.

Jesus Christ suffered and died for you and for me.  He did it for everyone who lives on the earth, even if they don’t believe in Heavenly Father’s plan.

Because Jesus is the Savior of the world, everyone who has faith, repents, is baptized, and obeys the commandments return to live with our Father in Heaven.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

We Bought a House!

A HOUSE is made of bricks and beams.  A HOME is made of hopes and dreams.

Here's to hopes and dreams and making our house more like a home!  We've been talking about buying a house for a while, but I am very stubborn with my criteria, the biggest obstacles being, I wanted a specific school district, I didn't want KK to leave the school district he attends and the other obstacle being our price range.  So we searched and looked online at houses.  I was totally fine with that and would have been for a while because I like to move slowly with big things like this, I like to take my time and make sure we're making the right decision because I tend to freak out with big purchases.  When I say freak out, I mean, I nearly had a panic attack when I bought a phone for $200+.  But Mr H. is NOT the type to just sit and wait for me to be ready, because I'm usually never ready.

So we looked at some houses and the search began.  It was hard to find houses that met MY criteria and I KNOW that it frustrated Mr H. but this is how I felt about it.  We would find a house that looked perfect only to find out that it had sold right before we could see it.  Some had A LOT of fixing up, I don't mind fixing a bit, but not gutting the whole house.  Finally we found one that could potentially be what we were looking for.  It was in the same school district, within our price range, AND about a half mile from my parents.  I know, most people try to move far away from their parents, but not us...

We toured the house and saw things that needed to be fixed, little things though...east to do.  We felt good about the house and started preparation with the inspection, there were some things that needed to be changed, fixed, and/or modified to the house.  Everything that we wanted was pretty much done or worked with us on.

On St. Patrick's day, a lucky day it was, we signed all of the papers to make this house our home.  On Tuesday, since Mr H. didn't have night classes and I wasn't working, we decided to go and take a look at the house and just take it all in.  When we walked inside, we saw some cookies and a card on the counter.  They were from the previous owner, the card was addressed to "New Homeowners" and in it was a hand written letter which read:

New Homeowners

A little history on this home.

My dear Aunt Alice lived here for about 50 years.  She was the most caring and loving person I have ever know.  I miss her so much.  While in this house (even though she had no kids of her own) she spent most of those years helping to raise her nieces and great niece.  We loved going to her house.  She made us feel so welcome.  Just though you'd like to know.  I believe she'd always watch out for kids here.

My daughter and her husband stayed here while she was pregnant and then for almost a year after "Lauren Alice" was born.  My daughter named her child after Alice because she was always such an inspiration in her life.

I'll always remember this house as one of really good memories in my life.  Lots of happy times and lots of love.

Good Luck in your new home.

Becky Borgerding

I was very sweet and very kind of her to write that note and let us know of the love that was spread inside of this home and I hope that it will continue.  I'm excited to call this MY OWN and not have to worry about anyone telling us what we can and cannot do, we can have a garage sale whenever we want, we have a huge yard for the kids to play around in.

It's been an emotional roller coaster for me, just ask Mr H.  I have been having a hard time with all of these major life changing events happening that I feel that I need time to just breathe.  Am I excited about this house, yes...do I show it, no...there's just too much on my plate right now and I think that I will slowly start to feel more excited as we adjust to our new home.  But if you ask those same questions to Mr. H, it would be yes to both.  He is super excited about the house and he shows it!

Yup...I have a job!

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
--Confucius

I hope that this quote is true...I hope that I have found a job that I love because this is going to be hard for me to leave the kids.  I have had a wonderful 10 months without school or working and it has been blissful.  If I could win the lottery and stay home...I would!  I would have more babies and continue to be the best mom ever!  I used to say that I would go stir-crazy if I were to stay at home, but for the most part I could totally rock the Stay-at-home-mom thing!  But I digress...

...Wed, Feb 12 my mom came over to watch the boys while I went out and networked and submitted resumes and applications.  Prior to this I had applied to about 50-70 jobs online and a couple around town with no hitch...no calls, no emails, no interviews, no anything, except a Correction facility close to home.  Most places said that I needed experience, but how am I suppose to gain experience if no one will hire me!?  So I've been frustrated with the job search.  So when my mom came over to watch the kids, I didn't think anything would come of it, except making myself feel better about trying to find a job.  SO I went to one place, a doctors office close to home, but they weren't hiring and didn't know of any place that was.  Mr. H suggested a place by his work but I had applied there already.  But I went in and asked if I could talk to the facility manager about a job, but she was in a meeting.  I was asked if I would like to fill out an application...sure, why not!?

When I was almost complete, the manager was out of her meeting and she asked if I had a few minutes...COMPLETE SHOCK...Ahhh yeah, sure!  So we sat and talked, I was relaxed after 10 mins or so, she said, "Well, I should probably ask you some of these questions!"  NERVES...I had to tell myself to just relax and answered her questions.  She got up and asked if I would like to tour the facility...yes, why would I decline!?  So she took me around and explained how things worked there...she tried to find another woman to introduce to me but she couldn't find her.  She walked me back up to the front, we shook hands, I asked when I should hear back from her, and I left.  I felt good...why would she take me on a tour if I was a no-go!?

Anyway, the next morning, on Thursday, I received a phone call from them asking when I could come in for fingerprinting and drug screen.  I told them I would be available Friday.

Once I got there the lady (never met her) pulled out a contract and basically ran through it with me.  "WAIT...I HAVE THE JOB!?"  My mind was racing, I was excited and nervous at the same time!  I was satisfied at the offering and so I signed the contract.  The shift will be from 3-11pm and I get shift diff.  The days vary, may be on the weekends and/or weekdays.  It's full time.  It's the med-surg side of the Nursing home...people who are not sick enough to stay in a hospital but too sick to go home.

One thing that I'm really concerned about is I won't see KK until he is already in bed.  We would only see each other for that short time in the morning before he went to school for 5 days a week!  It's going to be an adjustment for everyone.  I have orientation on Wednesday and we will see when I start and I will know more information about the job after the orientation.  One thing at a time...right!?  First thing up...DAYCARE!

Woodland Lights

Another tradition we have as a family during the winter is to go to Woodland lights.  One awesome thing is that it's literally in our backyard!  We can see our lights from our garage!  It's so pretty.  So we decided to walk to the Rec Center and KK rode his new razor scooter.  Here are some pictures:

There is a train that the kids can ride...it will be a sad day when KK is too big to ride in that thing

ET is just hanging out looking at all of the lights and watching his big brother on the train.  It was really cold, but we bundled him up really good!

After the ride

There are other rides that KK was able to ride on, this one went around on a circle.  There was another that you took a hay sack up to a tall slide and slide with the sacks.  KK went with Mr. H first and KK won cause he cheated...before Mr. H was even sitting down KK took off!  What a turd, so guess what happened when Mom went with KK down the slide!?  Yup, a little taste of his own medicine!  lol

Another ride, this one was kind of like a Ferris Wheel, but a lot smaller! 

This was the last ride and after the ride KK told us that he liked the rides at Disney World better!  lol.  

While KK was riding the rides ET got a little bored and fell asleep.  So he missed all of the bright lights while walking around!

There was a little cabin that people could come in and worm up by the fire.  KK loved sitting in here

There was also animals on display, such as foxes, turkey, reindeer, and wolves.  

Precious is still sleeping!

The boys likes looking at the animals

Looking over the pond, the boardwalk is closed off because of the ice and they don't want anyone to slip and fall into the pond but 4 years ago Mr. H wanted to take me across the caution ropes and propose to me on that little platform.  I wish he would have!

Hanging out with my KK

An airplane light display!

K's crazy hat hair and him getting a gingerbread man painted on his face

There were gingerbread houses that were displayed and KK liked this one, it was a Ninjago themed house and I think a family in our church ward created it.

Huge Clydesdale horses that pull a carriage.  This year we did not go on the carriage because we didn't know where to park our wagon with the carseat without someone taking it.  I'm sure it would have been fine...but I'm a little worried about things like that

KK wanted me to get a picture of the face painting before he went to bed.  The frog's name is Ribbert and he loves sleeping with it.  I got it for him for Christmas.