Bye-Bye Holiday's

Hi!  It's been awhile.  I don't want to bore you with story after story so I'm going with bullets today.

• I did very last minute Christmas shopping this year... hated that
• Missed 2 trail runs ... hated that too
• Good times with good friends meeting the newest perfect baby of the bunch (Ang, send me that pic)

• Christmas = GOOD

• Family = Good - It's been years since my family (my side of the blood) has all gotten along and everyone feels completely comfortable around one another.  No one is being overly sensitive and getting their feelings hurt and everyone seems to be on the same page.  This is truly an answer to a long repeated prayer.  We finally feel like a happy family.  And, we are gaining a sister, well, we already consider her a sister, but welcome to the family name, Anna!  Love you guys.  Good job, Billy Sue! (You know I love you!) and I'm so, so proud of you. 
• Christmas sleepover complete with momma's biscuits and gravy in the morning.
• Eating = GOOD (as in taste and quantity)
• Working out = bad!  Took a break for my break.  It only made sense and it is helping me get back some motivation to pick it up again.  Only I'm waiting to start on a Monday because that is how my schedule works.  However, you will see that I moved around my heavy furniture multiple times and went sledding which consists of pulling the boys back up the hill in the sled.  I got my workout in that day.   
• Cleaned out toys - donated mucho boxes-o.

• Allergy stuff - Really bad.  I can't remember the last time I could breathe 100% through my nose.  I called the specialist this morning and I will be doing whatever it takes to be normal.  I wake up so tired and mostly cranky.  I know this is the culprit.
• Our shower has been leaking.  Dale demolished it.  Black mold all over the place.  I think this has a lot to do with my above issues as well.  We (Dale) are trying to get it fixed.  What a pain.  Home ownership can be so fun.  Our house is a little over 6 years old and I think we've had just about every pipe leak.  I won't mention the plumber. 








• Went sledding.
• Got irately mad at Dale for rearranging the stuff in the entertainment center as I was deep cleaning the house.  I mean irate.  No, it really wasn't that big of a deal but after a day of cleaning like mad it was like I had another area to deal with and I was hungry.  I guess I should have just said I was hungry.
• Date night with the hubs.  Shopped end of season sales $$$.  Saw This is 40.  Laughed a lot and then ate ice cream.

• Took Christmas down around the house.

• 23 month old drank a bottle of Children's Tylenol.  4 hour ER evaluation and a completely traumatic attempt to take his blood multiple times.  All is fine and it turns out he barely ingested any.

• A renewed appreciation that this has been the scariest parenting moment I've had so far and it is minor in comparison of what other parents out there deal with.  We are very blessed and now have an extremely high barely unreachable by me medicine cabinet. 

• Hair cuts, hugs, kisses, cuddles, a lot of late night movie watching with or without eyes open and eating popcorn.

• Moved furniture 3,459,478 times

• New Years, meh, just another day.  Me and Wyatt were the only ones awake for the ball drop.  Wyatt had extensive questions about what the heck the ball was in the first place.  I don't set resolutions.  Do you?

Good-bye holidays, welcome back reality! 

Just a little update

It's been a while.  I have a lot to write.  I can't find the words.  A lot to share.  So little time.  Our days are off because of our little vacation and the holiday right after that.  Hopefully I will share snippets soon.

I'm back to work for two days, but it feels like I've worked two weeks nonstop.  Our house is dirty and unorganized and I'm almost to the point where I want to stop everything and focus on nothing but cleaning every nook and cranny of it.  But I can't find the rhythm.  There are too many distractions.  Too much I want to do outside.  Too many smiles I want to mind click of the boys.  Too many demands from tiny toothed mouths.  The youngest is teething again.  I think all four eye teeth at once.  He's been a soaked shirted mess. 

I love vacation, but hate trying to get back in the swing of things.  My mind just doesn't want to do it, but it hates all the uneasiness. 

Dale has worked hard on some landscaping around the house.  Hopefully I'll share some of that soon as well.  Looks awesome.

Wyatt had a blast swimming without a life jacket recently and loved doing his own thing, but I honestly missed him even though he was no further than a couple feet from me at all times during our little mini vacation.

Waylon has been smiling a lot lately.  And growing taller.  He's sporting a faux hawk and is as adorable as ever.  His personality kills me.  I just find myself smiling as I watch him. 

Weston, like I said, is teething.  Still has no fear, especially of the lake and did better on vacation than I was giving him credit for minus the broken plate that silenced a Texas Roadhouse restaurant and my lap full of salsa - two different incidents.  He is running and smiling and talking more than ever.  My favorite word he says is "Bella".  And his brown eyes have my heart. 

But again, more to come on all that later along with some over due pictures.  The 4th.... oh my goodness, it was a good one!  But, I can't blog it without pics to go along so you'll have to wait until I get my act together and get pictures off of my camera and find my groove again. 

Me?  I had 4 days where I didn't work out.  That has been the longest since January, but I was back into the swing of things yesterday morning and will hit the second round of Insanity Monday morning once again.  Bring it!  I've also done well at keeping up with taking the stairs at work.  My feet haven't touched the elevator in a while!  I was proud of my meals while on vacation though.  I stopped eating when I was full even though the food was SO. DANG. GOOD!  I have to be next to my sister in a swimsuit in a couple of weeks and if that ain't pressure, I don't know what is!

Dale and I have had a few runs together.  That's a first.  He's never held back for me (we're kind of competitive), but I have really enjoyed it.  We have a run in a couple of weeks we are doing together.  Wyatt and I have ran a couple more times on early mornings where he rides his bike.  Such a great time with him and he feels so proud of himself afterwards.  Hopefully he will get rid of those training wheels soon!

Until I can find my way again, peace and hair grease!

Vacation - this is what I love

Vacation time with the family was spent at Branson again this year. It's been like a second home to me.  My grandparents lived there so I spent a lot of my childhood cruising that strip in a completely legal, non hooker kind of way.  Dale's mom was awesome enough to ask us to go along with her and my nephew.  My parents also were down there at the same time and to top it off my aunt and uncle met up with us.  It was a good, crazy, stressful, time. 

Weston's first ever dip in the lake.  I have a feeling we are going to lose count pretty fast.  He LOVED it.

The lake felt awesome.  We spent a HOT Friday on the lake in a pontoon boat with 8 kids.  There was a little melt down at first but once everyone calmed down and realized they weren't going to die on the boat everyone had a pretty good time.

Me, Wyatt, and my cousin, Gracie.

We did other things as well.  We stayed at the same water park resort we did last year.  We went to see a show at the Dixie Standpeede which you might think sounds corny, but it was pretty amazing.  We did not have to get on to ANY of the kids the entire 2.5 hours we were there.  It kept them THAT entertained.  And of course did the touristy ducks and go carts as well. 

My mom even got in on the fun with my other cousin, Hannah.

My dad and uncle Eddie

But Tristyn, I think he had the most fun with his cousin Neil aka Dale.  He kept calling him Neil and loved getting on the tube with him. So cute!

Love this!

and this!

ditto!

And OMG, this!  Classic!

(thanks Aunt Chillone for the awesome pics)

Like I said, it was crazy and fun and stressful, but it was a great vacation!  Thanks, Linda and Mom and Dad and Eddie and Chillone for making it so great.  And all the kids of course!

My MIL, Linda and nephew, Connor

Two of the best babies around, Houston, 11 months and Weston 6 months.  I think they each cried once out of the eight hour day.  Amazing!

That is one tired boy right there.

See!  He's out!

Love that hair, Tristyn! 

A long fun day!

I had one of those moments around this time where everyone was calm and peaceful, just enjoying the scenery and each other.  I remember saying to myself,  this is what I love.  Family, peace, quietness, and making memories that last lifetimes.  This is what true family is. 

I hope you all had as great of a vacation as I did.  If you don't already feel overwhelmed with my pictures you can see more in this post.

Want to show off your family vacation pics?  Link up your Summer Fun over at Things I Can't Say with Shell for a chance to win prizes from Ubisoft.

A peek at our vacation

I've been away on vacation with the kiddos.  I'm not complaining.  It was stressful, but I'm not complaining.  I'm so glad we got away even if it was GO all the time.  The smiles on their faces at times were so worth it.  We got home Saturday and spent Sunday doing nothing.  I purposely cleaned the house and had the laundry done just so I wouldn't have to do anything on my one day off before work.  The house was destroyed about 10 minutes after we walked in the door and it remains that way to this very minute, but I'm not complaining!

All by himself for the 1st time ever!

Trout fishing

He forgot his black suit

He's the king of the world and he truly believes it

My cousin Hannah and Mother-in-law Linda.  Look at that talent!

My little family.  Weston LOVED the water!  I was actually pretty blown away with how much he loved it.  He HATES the baby pool, but couldn't wait to get in the lake.

All these pictures are thanks to my mom.  I have a ton more from my camera and my aunt's.  I'll have to share those another time.

I really did have a great time, even though I was stressed for most of it.  I think Dale and I will be going back in the fall, just the two of us.  We have yet to celebrate our anniversary that happened two months ago.

That was a vacation much needed

I thought I would get on here and let you all know that I am still alive.  As if you all were holding your breath not knowing what to do with yourselves while I was gone.  I am still alive and had a beyond great time on vacation with my favorite 3 boys!  We honestly had the best time.  It is so far the best vacation we've had with just our little tribe.  (Dale is like 1/4 Indian, so I can say that) 

We went to the great Ozark town of Branson.  I spent a lot of time there as a kid because our grandparents had a house there just off the strip.  I don't ever remember having such a great time!  Sure the go carts and spending time with my grandparents was always a great time, but we didn't treat it like a vacation as we did this time around.  I don't have my camera with me today so you are going to have to wait for the pics. 

It was an emotional week, not that my current state inflated things.  We headed out on 8/4, which was the 4 year anniversary of losing my childhood home to a fire.  Story to come later.  That got the emotions going then just thinking about the drive and the hills and the times when we would do this drive as a kid came flooding back to me.  The sights, the smells, the fighting for more room with my brother and sister, hearing my brother shout out there were 4 red cars in a row, and "shirt happens" as he misread one of my grandpa's t-shirts, and the feeling of pulling up to my grandparent's house late at night and the anticipation to get inside to them.  It all flooded me and I could barely hold back the tears.  It is crazy how much I still miss them! 

Seeing my boys do things I spent my childhood doing was also emotional.  Walking the river my grandpa loved and Wyatt begging to go fishing (one of my grandpa's HUGE passions in life) pretty much topped it off.  My grandpa would have loved these boys to death!  And they would have loved him just as much as I did! 

I wasn't sure if I would still know my way around.  It has been quite awhile since we have been back.  Not since soon after my grandma passed.  Once we got into town it was like I had been there yesterday.  There were of course a couple of new things, but the strip to me was the same and we quickly found our way to the back roads once again after letting the boys see the strip.  We took a drive to my grandparent's house to see how it was holding up.  It made me sick to my stomach.  The place is falling apart like crazy and it is obvious the owners since hadn't put the love into the place like my grandparents did.  The deck that we spent so much time swinging with grandma was about to rot to the ground.  It was sad, but I felt some closure at the same time. I don't need a stinkin house to hold their memory!

Dale and I laughed together again like we used to before all this stress and life came about.  It was so nice enjoying each other so much.  I'm glad both of us let ourselves go and didn't stress about anything.  It was refreshing.  The boys had their moments, but for the most part did an awesome job and really enjoyed themselves.  I haven't seen Waylon talk or act so much like a big boy yet.  He was strutting around all over the place.  Wyatt did the same.  He was ordering his own food, talking small talk to the waiters, and even took several attempts at swimming underwater without a lesson behind him.  He was so proud of himself and I was so proud of him.  I loved it to say the least! 

And I figured out what is causing this nausea after my 1st trimester.  It is getting up at 5am!  I only had one day where I felt nauseous on vacation after eating some crap food.  The rest of the time I felt great.  Once the alarm went off yesterday morning at 5am the nauseous feeling returned and hasn't been going away until lunch time.  I guess I just need a permanent vacation to cure it!

Anyway, I didn't think this was going to turn into a huge sappy post, but that's where it has turned.  I have a humongous case of post vacation blues.  I mean HUGE!  I even cried at work yesterday!  Seriously!  Damn emotions!  I just wish we had more time together to be like that instead of the everyday rush, rush, rush on limited hours of sleep that invades our "normal" lives!  I have a huge urge for change and not the new baby into our lives change coming in a few short months, but to a change in our everyday lives right now.  I just don't know how to fulfill that urge.  And here we go right back into the stresses of life!