Yesterday

True love: when your husband willingly takes care of kid duty and dinner because you need some space. And sends you out the door to take a walk, and reset.

I realized that Corbin has an ear infection, is congested, has a bronchitis type cough, and is cutting his first tooth... Poor kid

I'm 27... weird

This year I turned 27, with each birthday that passes, the more perplexed I am that I'm actually an adult. I don't really feel like an adult. I feel like an 18 year old playing house.

The day started off with Waffles! Jonathan didn't tell me that he was planning on making them, but I was hoping there was some sort of plan for breakfast. Although I don't mind eating oatmeal every day, I didn't want to eat oatmeal on my birthday. One of the best gifts was given first thing in the morning. I walked into the kitchen, and Cambria said "Happy!" with a big smile on her face. Then daddy came over and helped her with the rest. She said "Happy birthday mommy!" That totally made my day!

Jonathan stayed around a little while in the morning, and that was so nice to have him around! When he went to work, it felt a lot like a normal day. Weird how when you get older, your responsibilities stay the same, even on your birthday...

I did get bombarded with thoughtful texts from friends and family, and lots of people wished me a happy birthday on Facebook. That made me feel good! I even got a call from a few people! I love talking to people so that was nice to have them remember me!

When Jonathan came home, he made Cafe Rio for dinner! (Actually he spent a lot of time both the night before, and in the morning prepping for it, when he came home, all he had to do was cut up some lettuce)

Look at that! Doesn't that just make your mouth water? I'm salivating, just remembering it...

Then he cleaned up dinner and we put Corbin to bed. We decided to let Cambria join in the birthday fun, so that she actually knows what a birthday is (I told her it was my birthday and she kept saying "I come! Shoes on...").

So we whipped out this beauty!

It really doesn't get much better than that! Seriously!! I have yet to find another food item that brings me more joy than Skor cake! (Side note, I was eating some earlier this week (after my birthday) and I had the most amazing bite! It really made me stop, close my eyes and melt a little... Then I had the thought, I sincerely hope everyone has a food item that brings them this does) Cambria really enjoyed her piece too. Then it was present time... Cambria really didn't understand that the presents were for me. 

Jonathan got me an Mp3 of Calee Reed's Cd... No big deal, I have just been obsessing over her for a month! He did a good job! He also gave me a choice to get a book I wanted or a gift card to a restaurant so I could go out to lunch sometime. 

It was a really good, chill birthday! 

This is Going Down in History

Everyone has stories that they will never be able to live down. Well, tonight we experienced one. You best be believing this will be told at Cambria's wedding.

So, Cambria can climb into Corbin's crib. We didn't think this was a problem (besides potentially keeping him up, which happened last night), but today she proved us wrong. After bedtime, the kids were laughing and playing with each other, a common occurrence. Since Cambria had gotten out of bed earlier, the door was closed so we didn't know what was going on til it was too late. We heard her get out (or in, we couldn't decide) of the crib, so we decided to open the door and remind her to stay in her bed.

When I opened the door she was out of the crib and walking toward me. The stench of poop filled the air. I thought that she had pooped, so I went into the room. Cambria said something (I don't remember what it was) and pointed to Corbin. I looked at him (don't forget that it was dark) and his pajamas were off... I looked at Cambria and said "You took Corbin's sleeper off?" and she responded "yeah, diaper too!" ... UUUMMMM.... I looked a little closer, and sure enough he was completely naked. When I walked over to the crib there was poop all over the sheet! Then I looked at my super happy, smiley boy. Yep, he was covered in poop!

Thankfully Jonathan was available for back-up. He took Corbin and cleaned him up. **side note** he was covered in poop everywhere but his butt! He had it on his face, arms, back, feet... but his diaper area was clean. Weird. I was on crib clean up. I turned on the light, and oh man! It was everywhere! On the crib railings, on the wall... but strangely it wasn't anywhere on Cambria, or on Corbin's sleeper which was in the crib. I took the sheet off, and remembered that I had JUST switched Corbin's sheet right before he went down to bed. Which means I didn't have a clean sheet to put on the bed (because we only have two sheets)...

You know when you are beyond the point of frustration? When you just have to laugh at the situation? Thankfully we were there, Cambria was in tears just at the reaction of surprise that I had, so I think she felt bad about it... So there was no lecturing, or yelling, or tears on my part. I was so perplexed, I didn't even know what to do to punish her so I turned it into a teaching moment (or something)... I told her to stay in bed, and that she should never do this again, that this was a bad choice. I told her to never take a diaper off of a baby, and explained why babies wear diapers. I think she got the point.

I sure hope so.

Corbin Month 5, 6, and 7

Corbin,
Mommy has done a really bad job at staying on top of your monthly growing pictures and milestones.

Month 5

You are starting to laugh... you get really close, you smile really big, and you kick your legs, and then there is just too much happiness for your body and you let out a little laugh. It's probably the cutest thing ever.

You have the most beautiful eyes! I could look at them all day! I'm really hoping you will have green eyes. Even if you don't, you have beautiful eyes!

You are starting to move, you still hate tummy time, you can't really lift your head for very long, but you sure can move your feet!

The biggest change that happened this month is that we started you on Soy based formula. You really have had a hard time with eating up to this point, and you have been quite uncomfortable for a lot of the day. So we tried it for a few weeks and the change was amazing! I felt like I had a consistently happy boy! I know you have a happy disposition, but you just seem so uncomfortable all the time! Now we know why!

 You love grabbing things. You have discovered mommy's hands, and sometimes you just grab them and stare at them. It's pretty cute.

Month 6

You are a CHAMP at eating solids! We were a bit worried because you have had such a hard time with nursing, and keeping food down, but you really like rice cereal!
You have started rolling both from back to front and front to back! You now can get off the blanket we set you on... Life beyond the blanket is quite an adventure :)
You now laugh a good belly laugh! It's so adorable!!! Cambria is definitely the best person to get you to laugh. Laughs don't come easy, (you often just smile really really big) but when they do come they are music to my ears!
You got your first ear infection this month :(

Month 7

I feel like the majority of this month both you and Cambria have had a cold, or some form of the flu bug... It hasn't been the best of months for us!
You finally started sleeping on your tummy (which I am so grateful for, because you kind of have a flat head in the back, and I would love for that to work itself out... but it can't unless you spend more time on your tummy)
You are also sharing a room with Cambria, most of the time you two don't stay up too late... You do pretty well sleeping through her screams (whether they be at night from a bad dream, or when she is trying to get our attention after we put her to bed)
You are still a champion eater!!! We have yet to find a food that you won't eat! I'm so grateful for that!!


These past few months have been major milestones. You still aren't sitting yet, but you sure are getting close. You love to play with toys! Actually, you love to play with just about anything you can get your hands on. Your favorite non-toy items to play with is any type of fabric or cloth, and crunchy plastic (like the movable plastic that makes a lot of noise. Like your wipes container. I keep a good eye on you when you find plastic)

You are such a joy. You are such an amazingly happy boy when you feel well. I'm so grateful we figured out the formula thing, you really are so much happier on formula, and mommy is much less stressed out!

Mom! Hair!

Corbin really likes to grab things. (I think you know where I'm going with this). He will grab your face and grab it off if he could.
Well, grabbing hair is no different. The other day he was in the exersaucer and Cambria went over to play with him (I swear, putting him in there is an invitation for Cambria to play with it. She won't touch it at all if he's not in there, but the second he is in there, she is all over that toy!) They were both happy, so I left the room to go do my hair. The next minute, I heard "mom... mom... hair", when I registered what she was saying I ran over... that could get bad, real fast!
When I came in Cambria was bent over the toy and Corbin had two fist fulls of hair!Yeah... There's no way Cambria was escaping that one...

Time Out For Women

I went to Time Out for Women this year and it was amazing! I have never thought about going (or even bringing it up with Jonathan, since it's kind of expensive), but then a friend was trying to get the group discount, and so I put some thought into it. That was the push I needed to seriously consider it.

I decided to buy myself an early birthday present and go. Oh, what an excellent pay off the initial investment was!

I was feeling spiritually warn thin, and heaven knows I needed some time away from my kids. It was a perfect bucket filler for both of those needs of mine.

Some of my take home messages:

- A true measure of how converted we are is how we love and treat others- John Bytheway
- Get on your knees, get help, then get up and go - John Bytheway
- Sometimes our work isn't our best work, and it's not something we are happy with. But it's sufficient for the Lord's work. - Heidi Swinton
- We all need to really realize who we are, and then act accordingly. - Elaine S. Dalton
- Strengthen your faith every day, even if it's just during a 5 minute prayer or scripture study - Elaine S. Dalton
- Service outside of the home is well and good, but DO NOT serve outside of the home at the sacrifice of the inside of the home. - Elaine S. Dalton
- Sometimes with motherhood we need to lower the bar and be awesome. - Lisa Valenteen Clark (stop expecting unrealistic expectations, just realize what you can do and be awesome at that)
- if we are responding to our kids, and filling their needs, then we are doing enough - Lisa Valenteen Clark
- A wise woman renews herself - Laurel C. Day (quote from Neil A. Maxwell I believe)
- There is a common theme in discipleship... in order to be a disciple, we need to leave and let go of something. - Laurel C. Day
- (in regards to working on weaknesses - "sometimes it's hard") Pick your hard - it's either going to be hard to live with your weakness, or hard to overcome it... either way it's going to be hard. - Laurel C. Day
- Weakness is weakness (so don't judge other's weaknesses) we all need to change
- Steps to overcoming weakness - Laurel C. Day
  - make a daily promise (something you know you can keep)
  - Just be patient
  - don't compare
  - just do something
  - Pick your montra
  - some parts of discipleship require a hard walk
Happy People: (Hank Smith)
  - surround themselves with happy people
  - think happy thoughts
  - spend money on others
  - have deep IN-PERSON conversations
  - laugh
  - use the power of music
  - exercise and have a healthy diet
  - unplug and go outside (even for as short as 20 minutes a day will drastically improve your mood)
  - meditate - take time to stop and breath
- if things were different... you would still be the same - Hank Smith (more on that later)

It was so amazing!!! I had such a great time with the ladies I went with too!

This is Calee Reed! She is one of my new favorite people! She was the guest singer and is AMAZING!!! I was so inspired by her! (more on that later too)

(I took other pictures, but for some reason they aren't where I thought they were, and it's late, so I'll edit this post when I can get them where I need them)

Labor and Exercising

So when I was in labor with Cambria, a technique that really helped me get through labor was to ask myself if I could handle one more contraction, don't worry about the next few hours, just focus on getting through one more contraction.

Today, while I was at Zumba, my body wanted to stop about 15 minutes into my work out (unfortunately, that's not uncommon for me... I'm not in very good shape). But I had an epiphany today! I asked myself "can you do one more song full out? Don't worry about the next 45 minutes.... just do one more song". Let me tell you what, it worked! I did a full blown, hard core workout for a good 45 minutes (when I usually poop out after maybe 15)! Go me!!

I felt so empowered throughout my workout... just like how I feel during labor. (I know... I know... I'm one of those crazy women who likes labor, and feels empowered by going through labor pains)