Easter

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Unfortunately, Todd had to work, (which, sadly is becoming the norm for holidays) but we had a lovely time in the sunshine with our family!

Time to dust off the cobwebs...

Wow. It's been a long time. Sorry blogland! It's been kind of a crazy year. Residency began, baby was born, and I made the decision to begin grad school in the fall. The writing stopped, but the adventures certainly did not. Time to continue capturing these crazy and precious moments and resume my blogging! Stay tuned!

Being a stay at home mom is glamorous.

April fools.

The truth is, being a stay at home mom is hard. Every day you work your butt off for the ones you love- from cutting up sandwiches in to little shapes, to wiping butts, and you never get so much as a "Thank you, Mom. You're the best!"

It wasn't always this way. When I had a job (can we even remember way back then?), I was not only acknowledged for my achievements, I was commended and praised. It was a wonderful recognition that I now only hold on to as as memory. Sure, there's Mother's Day, but is one day really enough to appreciate and thank your mother? I think not.

Maybe I'm slightly narcissistic, but I missed that recognition of achieving the goals I had set for myself, and others set for me. I missed adult interaction. I missed using my brain for problem solving of things other than, what do I feed these kids instead of mac and cheese? I honestly missed feeling good about myself. All of these feelings led to a decision that I was absolutely going to go back to work when Todd started his residency. And I felt good about it. REALLY good.

Then, one day in February, I peed on a stick and saw two pink lines. Well, as joyful as I was, it certainly threw a wrench in my plans. (Is that an expression? If it's not, it should be) Now what? Do I try and work for a few months before I have baby, or do I just put the "going back to work" thing off again? After all things considered (cost of daycare, etc), I decided that my baby deserves to have me around just as much as the other two did, and I decided to continue to stay at home.

It was not easy at first to let go of that dream. You see, I am somewhat of a restless spirit- I am constantly looking to set the next goal in my life and achieve it- always achieving, but never satisfied. Perhaps I thought going back to work would fill that need in my life to achieve something else. God had other plans, my friends!

One day, He told me clear as day that I need to be joyful and CONTENT in what I am doing now. That staying at home with my kids is my calling for now, and His will for me. Wow, I had never thought of it that way before! Not that I wasn't happy with my kids before- I love the snot outta them and we've always enjoyed each other's company, but now I honestly can say that I have a new appreciation for being a stay at home mom. So many moms don't even have the option of staying at home, and I am so grateful that I can. It's not always a pretty job, but it's pretty darn beautiful.

So be encouraged, fellow stay at home moms who dream of your old lives longingly - just remember, in a few years, they will be in school and this precious time will be over. We should remember just how blessed we are to be able to nurture them through these first few years.


To my working mom friends- you guys work your butts off and I think you all are amazing! This is just a little pick me up for those of us stay at home mommas who get discouraged sometimes :)

Still alive!

Ok, I know I've really dropped the ball on the whole blogging thing, but I have a good excuse, I promise!

Since I last wrote you, we found out that we were moving back home to Washington! Todd was placed in a family medicine residency at Providence St Peter's Hospital in Olympia, WA. We were beyond thrilled, as it has been my primary goal to get back here since leaving. Having unlimited access to our families has been invaluable. I didn't realize how much so until we had children, and watching their relationships grow with their extended family has been wonderful. It definitely feels like we're back where we belong.

Secondly, we bought a house! We were going back and forth with whether to buy or rent, and luckily the perfect house came along for us to purchase, and we absolutely love it. It's a brand new house, in a wonderful neighborhood, and the perfect size for our growing family. We are going to be very happy here :)

Third, we found out that baby Curtis #3 is going to be.......... ANOTHER boy! Honestly, I was completely shocked. Not that I've had the best track record with predicting the genders of my babies, but I thought that because this pregnancy had been so different, among a bunch of other reasons, that this one for SURE would be a girl. Well, that turns out not to be the case, but since the initial shock has worn off, I've become pretty darn excited :) Three boys to love and be best buddies. Yes, this will be fun.

Now, we are throwing clothes together to get ready to head out to NY for Todd's med school graduation. I can hardly believe this. It seems like just yesterday that we were throwing clothes together to head off to England for a new and scary adventure... and now here we are. It's complete, we are back home, and 2.5 kids later, we honestly couldn't be more happy. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone and saying goodbye. It will be bittersweet, but great at the same time.

Well, time to pull the clothes from the dryer and get moving. Did I mention that our new house is only a 1.5 hour drive from the Ocean? Here's a pic of my awesome boys for your viewing pleasure :)

What to expect when you're not expecting to expect

Did you get that?

It took me a while, a few weeks really, to get used to the idea that we are expecting our third child! This sweet little one took us by surprise.

If you know me, you know that I am a planner. I have always been that way. My mom used to tell me that before we went anywhere I would ask her who would be there, what it would look like, etc. I wanted to be prepared! Not much has changed since then. I imagined this year to be our little family of four embarking on a new adventure in a new city, with mom going back to work to help support them, and Dad starting his residency as a doctor.

Wanna hear God laugh? Well I think you know the rest of that saying.... instead of my plans falling in to perfect place (as they hardly ever do anyway) I peed on a stick and there were TWO lines! Whoa! Time to change those plans!

The truth is, we have always wanted a third child, so we are extremely thrilled. I have been to the doctor, seen the little heart beat and I am already completely in love.

This year, I did not expect to be feeling morning sickness, fatigue, and welcoming a third child, but this is just a reminder that God's plans are SO much better than my own. We will meet our little bundle some time in October and I am just elated!

Catching up

This should be the title of my whole life right now. I feel like I am constantly moving from one thing to the next, while mentally being in the tasks of last week. I can't even keep up with myself anymore! This is going to be the case for the next several weeks as we make our transition from being in Bakersfield to wherever we're going next too.

January was a wonderful but also hectic month. We took the family to Washington for almost the entire month, as Todd had a few interviews and second looks up there. We had an amazing time staying with family, and catching up with friends. It was such a blessing to me to be able to watch the boys interact with their grandparents, aunts, uncle, and cousin. I love seeing them form these relationships. Todd and I were lucky enough to sneak away on a few dates- including an overnight excursion to Seattle! It was so much fun to just have a few stress free days to ourselves and reconnect with eachother. Birthday week was also during January. Jackson turned 3 and Noah turned 1. We celebrated with each of them on their actual bdays, and also had a family bday party for both of them. Jackson of course chose the theme- Spiderman :)

Now it's February and we are back in Bakersfield while Todd completes his LAST rotation. I can't believe it's the last one! In just 2 and a half weeks he will be DONE with school. The past 4 years have gone by in a crazy and amazing blur, and I can't believe it's almost over. We find out Todd's residency placement on March 17 and I will be trying to keep as busy as possible until then :) We are both so anxious to find out where we will be spending the next several years. Of course, we are hoping to be back in WA close to our families, but are content to go wherever God leads us.

I need to blog more on the day to day... on how the boys are growing and changing. I feel like if I tried to explain in all now, I'd be writing for days. They are both such amazing boys and I have never been happier.

More to come... stay tuned!

Christmas in California

As much as we wanted to go home this Christmas, we stayed in California to celebrate the holiday. As I have mentioned before, Todd had to scramble to land a pediatric rotation here in Bakersfield, and the catch was that he'd have to do it over Christmas.

We're at the point now in our lives as parents with children of our own trying to figure out traditions- what traditions we want to pass down to our children, and what traditions we want to create.

If we were home, we'd spend Christmas Eve with my family- going to church, going out to dinner, opening presents from each other, sharing a cigar by the fire, and listening as my dad read the Christmas Story. Well, we didn't think the cigar would be very appropriate with our boys, but we did attend a local church and go to dinner at CPK. It was a wonderful time! When we got home, we still opened presents from my family, as we would have if we were home. The boys had so much fun opening presents, listening to the Christmas story, and putting cookies and milk out for Santa!



Christmas Day, in Washington, would usually be spent going to my parents house early in the morning for "Santa" presents and stockings, and then off to Todd's parents house for the day of presents, dinner, and visiting. One tradition Todd wanted to keep was an orange in the toe of his stocking, as the tradition of his family :)

We decided to keep our Christmas Day very low key. We opened the massive amount of presents from all of our generous relatives and Santa, of course, ate lots of candy, and relaxed. I made a big breakfast of cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs and sausage. I was bursting at the seams, but dinner was still to come! A tradition that we started last year was making a huge pot roast with all the fixins and of course, my grandma's heavenly hash, for dinner. It was delicious!

The best part of the whole day was just relaxing as a family in our pj's and watching the boys enjoy the gifts that Santa brought for them :) We are so blessed in so many ways and the sweet moments together truly was the greatest gift this year.