graduation?

Mya had a "spring sing" program the day before school ended. I thought it was kind of weird to do a spring concert so close to the end of school, but whatever. It did not occur to me AT ALL that it was a graduation ceremony for preschool. I didn't even know you "graduated" from preschool... Apparently it's a big deal. I brought my mom with me to help with Winter and the baby. Dan worked. I thought it was weird that Winter wasn't in the program because she goes to the same preschool but they said it was just for Pre-K. Okay... 

I saw a bunch of people with balloons and flowers for their kids in the program. I thought that was a bit much for a "Spring Sing" but ya know, to each their own. They had a slide show of all the kids throughout the year accompanied by songs that were very moving. Then the kids sang a few songs. Then at the end they presented them with little diplomas and bibles. I thought, how clever to kill two birds with one stone, give them little diplomas for completing another year of preschool at the same time as the "Spring Sing." 

I'm thinking maybe if they named it something else, people like me (in their own little mommy world) would realize what kind of program this was, a graduation ceremony.

Someone asked me the next day if Mya had a graduation program. I said, "No, but they did have a little concert type thing yesterday... and come to think of it, they did give them diplomas at the end... Was that what that was?!" 

I'm glad I ordered a video! This was a momentous occasion and I could have nothing to show for it! Shoot, that reminds me, I gotta pay for that video today...

I'm hoping this bonehead mommy stage is not permanent. I've heard it is... And I was already kind of a bonehead before I became a mom. I'm screwed.

This was the official last day of preschool for the girls. 

These are Mya's teachers, Mrs. Gloria (the seasoned pro on the left) and Mrs. Heide (the Uber sweet encourager) They're pretty awesome :) They make a great team. I am going to miss having Mya in such a great Christian environment. She really loved this school and the teachers. 

This is Winter's teacher. I LOVE Miss Monica. I was worried about how Winter would do in a school setting. I was expecting reports of bullying, not listening and potty accidents. Winter did really well this year and Miss Monica loves her. She appreciates her for the stong-willed little firecracker that she is, and that means so much to me. Winter loves her too. She lists her in her friends when asked who her friends are at school. Sometimes she says she's her best friend :)

i'm with you sister

To all of my mommy friends out there, whether you stay at home, work full time or are out of state. I love how unique you all are. And I love to see God working in your lives and growing you all in different ways.

It's time to get real. I have read a couple of posts like this on random blogs but I think that it means more when someone you know shares a bit about themselves. So here is a post from me to you.

Mama Friend,

You are not alone. I too have a never ending battle with dishes, laundry and clutter. I look at all I have to do each day and feel overwhelmed. I too feel like I'm losing more and more brain cells every day. I often feel lonely though I am rarely alone. I lose my patience and yell way more than I should. I often go to bed feeling guilty because I blew it  in the "training up a child in the way he should go" department once again. I know what it's like to long for a hot shower with no one yelling or crying in the bathroom. I too would love to spend more than 5 minutes a day on my appearance and not sport the "just rolled out of bed and splashed some water on my face" look once again. I would also love to get that wedding body back. The days of wondering around the mall for hours and meeting some girlfriends for lunch are long gone. I know what it's like to desperately feel like you need to run away for just a couple of days but then once you finally get the chance, you miss your kids after a few hours because everything reminds you of those little stinkers.

We've heard the constant reminders to enjoy our kids while they are young because they grow up oh so fast. Of course we enjoy our children when they are young! They are awesome. They are hilarious. We love them more than words can express and we would do anything to protect them.

But that doesn't mean they don't take every last ounce of energy and mental strength we have to give. It doesn't mean that they don't frustrate us beyond the point we thought possible. It doesn't mean we don't want to scream into a pillow sometimes because they are persistent little boogers and cannot sense when mommy is about to lose it. Or maybe they just want to see us lose it? I know what it's like to be a slave to little people who rarely notice the sacrifices you make for them. 

I SO appreciate all of the encouraging books and blogs that remind me of God's grace and slowly teach me how to learn to see my children as His children. I am thankful for the many bible studies, books and devotions that have shown me how to let Christ work through me. I have learned that I cannot do it on my own. 

My perspective has definitely changed with each child. I have grown a lot with each one in different ways. Some things have become easier, but being a mommy has also become harder in a alot of ways. And I know that we are never done growing up as moms. 

I just wanted to write you a little note of encouragement. You are not alone sister! We're in this exhausting, wonderful, frustrating, beautiful boat together. Don't think that there is one of us who has this mom thing down. Being a mommy is hard whether you have 1, 2 or 5 kids.

I hate it when Growing Up Mom ends for the summer because we have to wait 3 months until we meet and encourage and pray for one another. Just know that I am praying for you guys all the time! 

Sometimes I think social media makes us feel jealous of others because all we see are smiles and fun. We tend to sugarcoat things because we don't want to be a "Debbie Downer." 

I'm going to keep posting those happy pictures and stories because those are good times I want to remember. And the fun pictures help me keep a good attitude. But I also don't want to forget how hard this is. There will come a time when I rarely see my girls because they are off hanging out with their friends and they are too big to cuddle. I will have more time to myself. At that point, I will encourage the young moms in my life and tell them that they will get through this crazy time alive. I will not tell them, "Just wait 'till they're teenagers." I will babysit for them and cuddle their little ones because I will understand how much it means to them to have a second to themselves. 

So, if you are scanning Facebook and see pictures of all the fun things I'm doing with my kids and think to yourself, man Amie looks so happy. She must be having such a fun summer. And she has such a great neighborhood with all those friends with kids, just know that as you are struggling over there, I am struggling over here. And we're struggling through this mom thing together. 

night time

I love night time when the girls have finally fallen asleep and the house is quiet. 

Winter doesn't like to fall asleep in her bed these days. She is usually on the floor and Dan or I put her in her bed once she has passed out doing whatever it is that she does. Below, she is writing in Addie's baby book with a crayon. Busted. Little stinker. She filled out about 10 pages of milestones. I don't even know where she found it. Obviously I haven't been writing in it. Well, at least someone is :)

Often times, Mya has napped midday so she's not tired enough by bedtime to sleep. So she finds things to keep herself entertained... 

She's going to grow up to be a Molly Maid!

ready or not, it's summer

Sunday was officially the start of summer with the neighbors. I have mixed emotions about summers here. I LOVE hangin' with the spectacular people who live just yards away. I even enjoy their kids! ;) However, I spend way too much time with my children. There are no school days for 2 1/2 months... Bible study and Growing Up Mom are done for the summer too :( What ta do with my little angels...

But this was a SUPER fun day...

hangin' by the pool

picnicking...

waterfights...

roasting marshmallows

and... out.

memorial day

Memorial Day with the fam. It always seems like we should sit around and be sad for those who lost their lives defending our country, but I think if those brave men and women were still alive, they would be celebrating with their families... so here we are, celebrating those awesome people:

My mom is such a baby professional. She can put any baby to sleep anytime, anywhere. I remember when she came over when Mya was just a few days old and was talking to me while rocking her and she was asleep in like 3 minutes. I was like, "Seriously Mom, how did you do that?" 

I just wanted a nice picture with my girls...

This is baby "Efan" (Ethan) He fell asleep to my sister's disney music blaring in the backround. The boat and the rocking were just too much for his sleepy eyes to take. It was funny watching him try to fight it for a long time. Finally he was out. 

How cute are these cousins with their arms on each other...

6 months

This is the first time I've documented the 6 month mark. I get a gold star... or at least a cookie and a glass of wine for this!

baby day

I'm backtracking a little bit...

Every Mother's Day at COD (Church of the Open Door) there are baby dedications. This year there was definitely a record. There were 11 or 12 I think... The fam came out to route for their favorite :)

Here we are! The Wagenbrenners. 

These are all the babies that were born in the last year at Growing Up Mom. We were missing one. There are only 20 moms in the group so this is pretty impressive:

feet, babies and pigtails

I am not a lover of feet in general. For some reason, I've always had a kind of anti foot-fetish. BUT I love baby feet. 

The girls play baby every day. Mya is the mama and Winter is the baby. You would think that it would get old after a while but it has been months... still fun. I'm so glad they have each other. I would not play baby.

Once again, Mya has amazed me with her persistence. She taught herself to tie a ponytail. She did it over and over until she got it. She did her hair today. Not bad... (love the princess dress with the scarf belt too)

business in the front, party in the back :)

cleaning update

This week I did not do 5 days of cleaning like I intended. But I did 4! Good enough. No pics. I decided that it would be a waste of camera space and time. I dusted downstairs, upstairs, windexed downstairs and changed the bed sheets. My goal is still 5 days of 5 minute jobs next week.

surprise cleaning

solids

Yes it is boring to show these silly milestones like baby's first carrots. But I feel kind of a sense of duty having a blog. One day Adelyn may want to see this... 

She's nearly 6 months and VERY interested in food. She's always been an aggressive eater. I had pretty sore nipples for a couple of months when I started nursing her. Addie's baby zest for life has already amazed me. I think she's going to be one of those people who sees the fun in everything... like eating for instance :)

She has always intensely stared at me while I eat so I started sharing my applesauce and then my avocados. She insanely loved both. A friend gave me a bunch of carrots, green beans and squash baby food because her son wouldn't eat it. I had a hunch that Addie wouldn't care what it was she was eating as long as it was food. So here's a carrot play by play.

babysitters

I remember when I used to have to entertain my babies every minute of every day.

Now I don't have to...

Gotta love siblings.

okay that is kind of misleading. They actually aren't that big of a help. Winter needs supervision because she has on several occasions tried to shove things in the baby's mouth, wrapped things around her neck, picked her up by her feet, layed on top of her and is just all around too rough. Mya is a bit more trustworthy but not completely...she likes to squeeze her face 'till she cries. But who can blame her?

afros, trains, pancakes & swimming

Okay so there has been a lot going on and most of this is on Facebook but I always like to keep track of it all here as well. So this was an AWFUL game. We left when we were losing 12-0 in the 7th. It ended up like 13-3. Still lame. So needless to say I was bored and decided to people watch instead so take a look at these 4 people. The guy on the left has a wet towel on his head because even at night, it was in the 90's. The couple in the middle were interesting because I'm pretty sure they were on a first date. They looked pretty uncomfortable the whole time and they never touched and made small talk. The guy on the right is wearing a sweatshirt! What in the world? 90's. Yeah, crazy. I'm sweating just thinking about it. 

Then, haha, there's this guy. This guy and his hair remind me of one of my favorite Friends episodes when they all go to Barbados and the humidity makes Monica's hair double in volume with every scene and soon it just looks like a crazy fro like this guy. Oh and by the way, I love Friends. When I need a good laugh I just recall a funny scene and I'm good to go.  

Baby #3 gets to do WAY more than babies #1 & #2. I would never have ridden 3 trains to USC with the other two. However, it seemed like an adventure with Addie. She's so fun. I didn't travel alone. I went with my mom, bro and aunt. Way better than looking for parking for TWO HOURS like others who drove there. Literally two hours. 

Here's my big sis. I'm so proud of her. A few years ago she was like, "I think I wanna teach. Then she got her bachelors and got a job when nobody was hiring. Then she was like, "I think I want to be principal." And then she was. Then she was like, "I think I'll get my masters while doing the hardest job I've ever had." Done and done. If Wendy wanted to become president, she could totally do it. I'd vote for her. I would use this sign and follow her campaign around.

I wore Addie for about 6 hours. I don't recommend it. 

Pancake breakfast time again! Check out these photos from last year. I can't believe it's been a year already. Crazy. People always say that. But wow, time is a flyin'. 

He's so cute in his uniform feeding the goats :)

Addie's first swim. This girl is always up for anything. She is so happy trying new things. I can't help but compare my girls. Mya hated trying new things, even as a 6 month old. Winter didn't seem to care one way or the other and Addie thinks everything is a party :) 

cheeks

Mya:

Winter:

Adelyn:

Don't know where they get it from...

Here are some of me as a baby :)