ABC School!

We had our official first day of "A Letter a Week" school! Livvy was so excited to "go" to school (even though it was at our house). We had a ton of fun with all 6 -2 year-olds, 1- 15 month old and 1 -2 month old. The kids did surprisingly well and loved learning all about the letter A and alligators. Livvy loved every minute and after everyone left she kept asking where the "kids" went!

Annoyed

That my neighbors have decided to put a living room in the courtyard outside our front door. Complete with lawn chairs, cigarette butts and a shopping cart. Oh yeah and don't forget the 4-5 homeless-looking middle aged men that grace this lovely space all day long.

I love Concord.

Don't worry though, we signed a formal complaint and our HOA is sending it along with fines to the homeowners. If they don't kick the renters out....then I might turn momma lion on them and do it myself. Don't mess with my kids' clean breathing air mmmk? Mmmk.

Also, I have a drawer in my kitchen that I can no longer get into because a measuring cup popped up and has jammed it shut. Three people have tried to un-jam it to no avail. Hopefully we can figure that one out...cause I kind of need my mixing spoons people.

On a brighter note, Lincoln came home early to help me get Jude's passport. Why would a two month old need a passport you ask? Welp, stay tuned.

Golden ticket of happiness.

Saturday night was just what I needed.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke to the women of our church. I felt like I was sitting in my living room having a conversation with him. His message was exactly what I needed to hear.

I loved the entire talk, but needed to be reminded to "forget not to be happy now" the most.

The past few weeks have been rough and I've found myself thinking after my eye is better or once Livvy is better then I'll be happy again. If I can make through this week then I can handle it.

I've realized after listening to the talk how many things I am blessed with every day.

"Don't close your eyes and hearts to the simple and elegant beauties of each day's ordinary moments that make up a rich well-lived life."

My ordinary moments over the past few days have been:

-Jude smiling at me and trying to "talk" to me

-Livvy walking around in her "beautiful pink dress" (a poofy princess dress)

-Jude looking over to Livvy when she talks

-Seeing Livvy's eyes light up when I tell her we're going to Grandma's

-Livvy's guilty smile after she ate the pasta off of my plate when I went to go get Jude

I hope that I can recognize these moments each day and remember that while much of being a mom is sacrifice there are a thousand tiny moments that make it all worth it.

I spoke to soon.

Livvy has herpangina (similar to hand foot and mouth just sores are in the mouth and throat) and Jude is a sniffling mess. We are in seclusion yet again. Man I can't wait for us all to be healthy again!

Some happiness.

The past week has been a little rough. Eye infection came, went, and then another came. Thankfully, I'm on the tail end of it.

Today we had a good day. Livvy walked around the house playing with ice cream scoopers (a mommy and a baby ice cream scooper that she put down for a nap). And Jude enjoyed some tummy time with his big sis. This week is looking a little brighter than last.

Nice thought.

So Lincoln called me at 4 pm yesterday and blew my socks off saying he was on his way home (thank you September 15th deadline).

After I picking him up from BART, Livvy insisted we hit the park. Lincoln thought that sounded great and I thought ok lets try spontaneous. However, Livvy needed to use the facilities and Jude would probably need to nurse soon. But ok, lets do a 10 minute park outing.

While enroute to the park we drove through the farmer's market. Genius! Lets do dinner and the market! By this point its 5:45 and Jude is SCREAMING. So I suggest lets just run home and get ready and then go to the market.

Such a nice thought.

We get home and after bribing Livvy with candy convince her to get out of the car, she starts crying. We finally make it inside and the smallest task of getting a jacket on Livvy sets her off again. Lincoln's dealing with a kicking, crying 2 year old and I'm trying to change a screaming newborn.

We surrender and stay home.

...we flip on "Ice Age" and soon the chaos is over and we have happy kids again.

So are we spontaneous? Nope. Do we run the show? No. No, we don't. But drinking hot chocolate and watching a movie together with happy kids made me realize that sometimes our simple, predictable life is a good one.

And maybe the next time we want to do something spontaneous we just need to plan it.

1 month

The Jude Dude turned one month (last) Tuesday. We had his doctor's appointment yesterday and found out he currently weighs 9 lbs 12 ounces! 3 weeks ago we was only 7 lbs 5 ounces! He jumped from the 25th percentile to the 50th.

He is already looking very different to me from how he looked when he was born. He usually a very chill baby and only cries when he needs something. And apparently he needed to not have his mom taking pictures of him...I'll try to get some happy pictures soon.

He loves looking at Livvy and Livvy loves talking to him. This is what she says:

"Hi, buddy! Good morning!" "You have your blanket? You nice and warm?"

So sweet.

On a not so fun note, the eye infection from you know where came back today. Remember when I had it for like 3 months after Livvy was born? Um...yeah it's back.

Thankfully though, I can still nurse and hopefully we caught it early enough it will be gone a lot sooner than last time. Without my mom I would have curled up in a ball and died today, but she was out here in a flash and made me feel like I can handle this again. There's nothing like having your mom there when you're sick.