California

We took a week off and headed to Southern California the middle of June. It was GREAT! Relaxing, sunny, full of adventure. We're back home and there is SO much to do. I'm taking a break to post a few pictures:)

Laundry Woes

This is what my laundry room has looked like since I moved in. It has been driving me crazy, and after a lengthily and enlightening conversation with my cousin Tara, I decided to do something about it! Even though we are just renting, investing a little time and money is a good thing. I mean we know we'll be here for another 2.33 years. That's a lot of time spent in a horrible looking/functioning laundry room. Oh and you can see from our washer and dryer that "it don't matter of you're black or white!"

So, I assembled and installed my first cabinet. Hung shelves. Moved and added more hanging rods. I also tried to utilize the "1990's basket space" by adding nice sized Target baskets. And then filling them with clothes. All of Owen and Hannah's clean clothes now stay in the laundry room. No more dragging clothes up and down from their rooms. They get dressed in the laundry room and put dirty clothes right into the hampers. As clothes come out of the dryer, they go in the baskets, or hung up, and viola! I'm done. The laundry room is right next to the mud room so socks are right next to shoes. It's wonderful. I have saved so much time with this little adjustment. And I think my kids could even have less clothes, because it is so much easier to turn things over. No tramping through the whole house gathering up dirty clothes once a week.

I guess I need to take another shot to see the baskets. I send these to MaryAnn, whose house this is. I was sort of trying to hide the fact that a hammer hit one of the lower shelves to make room for the dirty clothes hampers. Oh and the view out the window is nice, I've seen multiple sunsets since I moved the hanging rod out of the way. Who hangs a rod right in front of the window!

Late night

I can't sleep, and I haven't done anything productive with my time. Finn woke up, he is getting his two bottom teeth. Things are not perfect, life is crazy. Sometimes when I look at everyones blogs, I feel weird, like I relate with my friends and family, and then at the same time, that I don't. ANyway no one really wants to read my ramblings, you'd rather see some pictures! Kids are so fun to photograph.

The kids have been great sports lately at eating what I cook. I was so proud of them I had to take a picture:) The look kind of moody. I guess that's normal.

Cancun Fun

We had such a great time in Cancun. The best thing was being with Ben and Tara. Tara is my cousin, just a year older than me. They live in Virginia, and we got together a lot while we lived in Pennsylvania. Tara and I share the same middle name, Beth, our grandmother's name. And the four of us just get along really well. We laughed a lot. We kept making fun of the drunk people and talking about how we were so much less embarrassing. But a few times we were laughing so hard we couldn't walk down the street. Jeff and I both tripped and almost fell one night after a walk back to from the convenience store. Tara was 5 months pregnant but super energetic! I miss you guys!

Ben and Jeff riding the waves.

Ben and Tara, the beginning of our private tour to Tulum and Chichen Itza.

All of us in front of the temple. There is another temple inside it that is the same, just smaller. They have excavations dated back to 200AD, and are continuing to excavate. Even though it was more expensive we decided to take a private tour with Alma's tour. It was great to have an LDS perspective. It was one of our best days there.

We got to go swim in a cenote, which is part of an underground water system. It was beautiful and I only wish we cold have stayed longer.

We ate some awesome food! This restaurant, Emara, was authentic Yucatan food. It was so delicious and a little adventurous. They only had one English menu and one young worker who spoke english. All part of the fun!

Jeff and I did an excursion at Explor. They have zip lining, jeep driving through caves, and some other touristy stuff. This is the beginning of our day, we had to leave the camera in the locker and were too cheep to buy the pictures of us actually zip lining. The highlight of the day was meeting my "tocia" or my twin, someone who has my same name. She was a cute mexican girl who worked there. Everyone was so nice. Especially when we tried speaking our terrible spanish. I think the only thing we mastered were our numbers. Mostly because we didn't want to get ripped off when we bought things.

Riding the bus

This is the beautiful hotel we stayed in. Thanks to Ben and Tara. I'm glad you guys are so rich. Lol

The Good, the Great, and ALL the stuff that comes along with them.

Jeff and I went to Cancun, Mexico for a week. It was so much fun. It takes no getting used to being together all the time without the kids. No interruptions, no work, no distractions. Traveling together, experiencing fun new things. Beautiful weather, the ocean, the beach. Have I said enough? It was GREAT!

When we got home it took a lot of getting used to again. Taking care of kids non-stop. The constant interruptions, the whining, the diapers, being woken up, trying to teach them while they give you every signal they're not listening or interested. Cleaning the house and doing laundry. Jeff going back to work. All the responsibilities in our church callings. Coming back to winter.

It got me thinking. I love my children, I love being a mom, but there are a lot of things that go along with it that I don't love. I let my thoughts wander to what it would be like for Jeff and me if we had decided not to have any children. It really isn't too hard to know what it would be like because we have known some people who have chosen just this. I would have been able to work while Jeff was in medical school, and we would have ended up with a lot less debt. We'd have more time and money to travel and hike and snowboard. I can imagine this, and for a moment it seemed very appealing.

But then I realized there would be extreme challenges that would go along with this. The heartbreak of never being a mother. We'd be used to being together, just the two of us all the time, and might get tired of each other. There would be loneliness as we aged.

I think while we are here on earth there is nothing that is simply Great by itself. (minus the Atonement and gifts of the Gospel) Everything seems to be attached: good times and hard times. There are a lot of things about being a mom that I don't love. And I'm ok with that. I'm not going to try and pretend that I love every moment. I can still love being a mom, and be a good mom, and admit I don' t like hearing my kids complain and being woken up in the middle of the night.

It's just a fact I can't have the moment where Finn giggles and giggles at me, and says "ma ma ma ma ma," without having the moment where he won't be content and he screams and whines.

Then as the week went on I realized this principle applies to almost everything. Even our trip to Cancun. I didn't like getting ready to go, I was exhausted and mentally taxed to my limit trying to remember everything . Traveling wasn't really that fun. But sitting on the deserted beach watching the moon rise with the humid salty air filling my lungs. It was worth it.

And when I think about my choice to be a stay at home mom, I feel the same: It IS worth it!

Benny

Benny, our huge fluffy cat decided to join Hannah for a nap on the couch the other day. When Hannah woke up she said "uh guys! What the...why is...he's too big, I can't get up!"

Finn is 6 months!

I am so happy Finn is 6 months old. He is a sweet baby. He smiles at everyone and loves to be held and played with. When he isn't receiving attention he is loud and fussy. He screams just like Hannah did, and I will have to stock up on ear plugs for the car because I can tell he is going to be a loud one!

He has always had some issues with eating and now that we're starting solids that is no exception. He was ok the first few times I fed him applesauce and rice cereal, but now he gags anytime I put anything into his mouth. So my new approach is to take things slowly, I give him little bites of the things I'm eating. But I'm not cooking squash and blending up pears just so he can spit them back out at me. As you can see, he's doing just fine, getting the nutrients he needs:)

Owen and Hannah love to play with him and Finn LOVES them. Owen is great at getting giggles out of Finn, and Hannah is good at keeping him entertained for quite a while. The thing I enjoy the most is right after Finn gets out of the bath. He has that yummy baby smell, and I love to play with him and make him giggle. (Because he spits up the smell doesn't last long). I am really happy Jeff and I are going on vacation in a month. These kids are a lot of work, and my new calling has been very time consuming too. I can't wait for a break!

Happy 6 months Finn!