Get LOST?

YEAH! It's on again. I've waited so long!

The weigh down.

Many many people I know are on diets. Some are doing a "cleanse". Some are cutting out sugars and wheat. I'm stickin to the see-food diet.
I thought it was about time I stepped on the scale this morning. Inhale. Suck it in. Even though that doesn't take any weight off, somehow it makes you feel skinnier to hold in your gut. I weighed the same as I always do. I fluctuate about 5 pounds (other than when I'm prego). I have had some skinnier moments than others, but all within about 5 pounds. I'm glad I haven't gained anything lately, but my body is pretty much a mess right now. It has no tone and just feels saggy. Gross. I need to hit the gym. I'm pretty convinced that more weight will come off when I wean the baby (as it always has in the past), and I have more freedom to run off and be active. So in one sense I'm waiting til then before I start some drastic weight-loss program. I don't have unrealistic goals. I just hope one day to pass that 5 pound skinnier mark and maybe be more like 15 pounds smaller.
A girl can dream.
Hit me up with some good ideas that don't involve starvation.

My 8 month old "Shea-Shea"

Oh, the family photo

I had wanted to take a family photo at Christmas.
Well it's a month later, so I thought I'd make the attempt today.
It didn't go so hot. Liam was being impossible, Shea was ready for his nap.

This is all we got.






We are going to try again later.

My son...in a TUTU

The other day when we were at my brothers house, Liam and Claire (my niece) come out of the back room giggling their heads off. Here is why...








I always imagined having a little girl in ballet class. I guess this'll have to do!

Moms are da bomb!

Who would you mind folding your laundry and sorting through your undie drawer?
Who can you find taking down your light fixture to clean out the bugs?
Who could handle standing at your side while you take forever to push out a baby?
Who do you allow to see you without makeup on in your totally dirty house?
Who else can make turkey dinner and go sledding with the grandkids?
Who do you call when your oven is on the fritz and you need to bake a cake?
Who is willing to come along to the dentist with you and your three boys?
Who would watch your kids while you flee to a sunny destination?
Who else would pack your entire kitchen and clean it til she was sore?

a yah...
that would be my mom.
Isn't she sweet.

Happy Birthday to you, mom!!

Bead for Life

Last night I went to a Bead for Life party. It was the largest home party I've ever been to (probably 40 ladies!), hosted by Jocelyn Baker...our friend who lost her husband this summer. Check out the link to see the cool story about the beaded necklaces. Jocelyn is going with a team from this organization for 16 days to Uganda. What an inspiration hey? Widowed mother of four going over to Uganda to see how this company is putting roofs over heads and providing incomes to many poverty stricken women.
Cool stuff.

Firsts

So I made it to the dentist today with the three boys. I brought my mom for backup as I knew it could get ugly, you just never know. I hadn't done this yet as we seriously had a cough or flu from October to December, so it was nice to finally all be healthy and get to the dentist. At Riley's cleaning appointment on Friday they found some cavities, so we got those filled today and it is all over with!! Hooray! He was very brave. Now he just needs to get impressions done for his spacer they will put in. They will also put in fissure sealants on his molars which have huge grooves, to hopefully prevent further cavities. Oh, I so wish I had those when I was a kid. Liam got to have his very first "happy visit", and he was quite enthusiastic (as usual) about the chair going up and down, and the "Mr. Thirsty" etc. The dentist saw his teeth and said they were so white and beautiful and that mom was doing a good job brushing them (yay me). So now I just need to get to the chiropractor and optometrist so I can scratch a few more things off my ever daunting list of things to do (other than keeping the kids alive!!) ha ha
Today was also a big day for Riley as he started piano lessons. For those who don't know, my mom is a piano teacher. I asked her if she wouldn't mind taking on Riley. She currently doesn't have other piano students as she's working a different job for a change, so he is her sole subject at the moment. I think he enjoyed it and will do well at it. I'm quite sure he has his daddy's natural talent for music, so will catch on quickly. He's also learning to skate and had his first downhill ski after Christmas, so he is experiencing many firsts lately. His reading is getting so good as well!
Anyway...supper time. I'm exhausted and apologize for lack of an interesting read lately, but all its been these days is boys boys boys.
Coming up soon though (I hope)...kitchen renovations!!!

Macbook selfportraits

I've showed you my crazy photobooth pictures before, but this time I'll just show you the "normal setting" versions....I think it is fun to look over a few of them taken over the last few months of Liam, Shea and I. See how we've changed. Liam loves to do photobooth!

Our Bed BUG

Our Bed BUG
Originally uploaded by Sarah Dzines

It's about 10:30pm when I took this picture, and doesn't he just look ready to PARTAAY? Oh oh.

Sometimes it is better to just admit defeat and then scrape yourself back up off the floor, gather up all the little pieces and get back to it. I think it gets really exhausting to keep that "I can hold it all together" and "life is just great" smile on that we tend to do. So thanks for hearing me out while I needed to just vent and whine. I had so many encouraging replies and personal emails, and I thank you for standing by me. Writing is definitely an outlet for me.
Although motherhood may not be how I expected it would be, it does have its really great moments...
here's the younger two today...

Oscar

As I just finished nursing and putting the baby down, raced to put away my last load of laundry, sent Liam to his room for pulling up threads in the carpet with a sharp transformer gun (too ruined to fix), and sat down on my unmade bed to open the computer for a sec...I feel like...
I am so not good at this. This mother thing.
I feel guilty all the time.
I took the boys to Jungle Mania to get us out of the house today. It was a lot of work to get the 3 kids out by myself and nurse while there, but it was good to get the stir-crazy boys out of the house. I wish I could do it more. I wish I had enough time, and money, and energy and creativity. I feel like they are always bored. I don't know how to balance the "keeping house" part of motherhood with the having fun part. I can't seem to find time to have a good meal on the table, groceries in the fridge, the kids dressed nicely, hair cut, appointments made and kept, school work and Awana work up to date, beds made, laundry done and still time to play games and be with them. I don't have a job outside the home, so I don't know why I find it so hard. Maybe it's the demands of the nursing baby? the fact that I'm still up once or twice during the nights? I don't know, but I'm dropping the ball. I didn't get Riley to the dentist in time. He had to get his tooth pulled out. I feel terrible about it. I haven't been to the dentist in a year either. I haven't found a new chiro in town. I didn't send out Christmas letters.
Basically, I suck. That's how I feel today...good way to start the year, isn't it.