Friends and Family and Life

One of my best friends, Mariana and her husband Todd, and two sons Gabriel and Nicolas came to town Friday night for a wedding.  They have been living in Kansas for the last year while she attends medical school.  It was sooo great to see them!  Keira and Gabriel were sooo cute together!  They totally played together and talked to each other.  

Todd, Gabriel, and Keira

I offered to babysit the boys while they went to the wedding since they weren't able to bring the boys.  But before they left at about 2pm, I was having doubts if I could watch two newly three year olds, an 18 month old, and a 3 month old, especially after realizing boys are a little crazier than girls.

But it went great!  Nicolas took the world's longest nap, about three hours and then we went to a church BBQ.  I was starting to really think I was crazy trying to get them all loaded up in carseats (thank goodness for a van!) and to cross the street to the BBQ.  But as soon as my friend Jessica saw me she took Keira and got her hooked up with food and helped me carry some things.  And a little later another friend took Sierra when she wanted to be held.  I am so thankful to have such good friends!  The kids loved playing at the park and luckily Keira and Nicolas wanted to swing for at least 30 mins so they were contained! 

I gave them baths and brushed teeth and then Mariana got home just before bed, thank goodness!  They had to leave when I left for church the next morning, so it was a short visit, but soooo great to see them!

And sorry Sweetie, I still want more kids!!!

That afternoon I picked Laurie up from the airport and we went to my brother's house to hang out.

My siblings sure do tease me a lot!

And now an update on us.  I think I'm a bit behind on that.  Chris started a new job in July, one of the ones he had applied for.  He is still working for the same company, American Medical Response, but now is working out of a fire station in Golden, only doing 911 calls.  The fire department is volunteer there so the station is not staffed with fire fighters.  So Chris and his partner Jennifer get it all to themselves.  He works 48 hours and has 4 days off.  It works well for us.  It's super close, about 10 minutes away and they're not super busy.  Chris loves it!  He sometimes gets to sleep all night.  They meet up with the EMT and paramedic at the north station every night and take turns making gourmet dinners.  (Not sure why he doesn't make them here anymore!)  We have visited them several times.  He did not get hired with Arvada Fire Department and has been taking a leave of absence from volunteering with them since right after Sierra was born.  So that's been nice.

I have been on maternity leave and loving every minute of it!  (Welllll maybe not every MINUTE of it!)  I dread going back next week.  I don't know why, I know it's only one day a week, but it brings tears to my eyes.  It has been so perfect being off for the entire summer!  It just went by waayyy too fast!  My work has some 12 hour shifts and 8 hours shifts, which I'd have to do two one week and one the next.  Chris wanted me to only work one day a week.  Unfortunately the night shift I'd planned on taking got snatched up by someone who worked full time so I'm stuck doing many day shifts and random days.  I'm kind of bummed.  I was excited about nights because it was only once a week and I wouldn't miss as much with the girls.  If Chris was having a really hard morning watching them, he could just wake me up earlier.  So I'm a little nervous to be gone allll day long while Chris watches the girls.  Remember that song (from Keira's 3 year post) she and Chris made up about the baby crying, give her to her mom.  In his eyes, if she lets out a peep, she's hungry.  Whew, we think she's chubby now... just wait!  ;-)   But I'm sure everything will work out fine.

Having babies is interesting.  All they do is eat, sleep, and have their diaper changed.  Yet they are a lot of work and keep you busy!  In the beginning I was spending four hours a day nursing!  Whoa!  And that doesn't include diaper changes and everything in between.  It's not hard work, I mean, I was doing great scripture reading, getting caught up on magazines and catalogs, and e-mails from my phone or iPad, but you can't just do whatever you want.  Now that she's three months, things seem a lot easier.  I guess that's why moms usually take three months off if they're going back to work.  I feel like I have things down better and I'm not quite as overwhelmed.  I even have had more free time, as evidenced by being almost all caught up on this!

I have recognized one unfortunate realization.  I just can't do everything.  I feel like I'm trying my best.  I have a pretty clean home, we have clean clothes, and I have clean kids at the end of the day (or two days sometimes), the lawn gets mowed and dog droppings picked up every 1-1.5 weeks, etc.  But I have not done all of the cleaning Chris put on my chore list.  I haven't cleaned the baseboards, only cleaned inside windows once, but not the outside part, only scrubbed kitchen cabinets once, and the list goes on.  I also have a huge list of things I wanted to accomplish during my maternity leave and most of them are still there.  But you know what, I have had a wonderful summer with my two beautiful daughters!  And down the road I'm not going to remember what I didn't get done, or that my house wasn't sparkling clean and clutter-free.  I'm going to remember all of the wonderful times I got to spend with my family.  One of the reasons I try hard at the cleaning is because Chris once made a comment about how he'll never want more kids if I can't be a better housewife.  But you know what, for a while I was so stressed about the things I wasn't doing, in fear that Chris will not want more kids, that I wasn't enjoying what I already have!  I felt guilty and stressed I didn't have more time to get things done.  So I realized I'm going to stop worrying about whether we are going to have more kids, and just enjoy the two I have to my fullest!

Although it seems like I have more free time lately and things have gotten easier, it seems like it's almost impossible for me to exercise right now.  I want sooooo bad to get up early, exercise, read the scriptures, and shower, before they even get up.  But I just can't do it!  I am too tired, or the baby hasn't eaten yet and I'd either have to pump, wake her to feed her, or be in a lot of pain.  Evenings are too hard to exercise because I have too much to do.  I think now that it's getting a little cooler I could exercise during the day during nap time if Chris is home.  But then I either don't shower for a long time or I'm sweaty for the rest of the day.  I don't know how people do it.  Any advice?  I feel so much better after I exercise but I just can't seem to fit it into my schedule.  I'd really like to start doing triathlons again, because it's just so much fun.  But I just feel like I don't have enough time.  We'll see what happens.  I was talking to my friend tonight and she sometimes gets up at 5:30am to wake up her baby to feed him and then go run and shower before her husband leaves for work.  That sounds great, but I can't do it!  I think I'm just not a morning person.  I do fine not getting much sleep, but I have a very hard time getting up early, even if I get eight hours of sleep (which doesn't happen.)  But maybe if I could feel more caught up, I wouldn't be tempted to stay up so late (especially when Chris is gone) and then I could get up earlier.  I just don't know what to do.

So yeah, that's about the highlights of our life right now.  I couldn't be happier with my two girls!  Although it would be nice if I could make more time for exercising and everything on my to do list!  ;-)