My New Years Resolutions

I want to be ahead of the game on this one and get these out publicly before I forget! Maybe if I type them out and actually post it for everybody to see, I will follow through with them.....maybe. So here is my list for 2013!

1. Be purposeful in bragging on my kids and husband. Everybody knows I love my family with my whole being. That should never be a question. But I am also very bad about being sarcastic, rolling my eyes, saying things that I think are funny but end up being a little mean etc...when I talk about my boys and Zack. I find fault in small things and then get embarrassed by them when we are out in public and end up apologizing more than necessary. This year, I want to be the biggest champion for my family. I want to share all of the wonderful and amazing things that they do with anybody that will listen. Instead of saying things to others that might embarrass Zack (all while rolling my eyes) I will brag about his commitment to his new job and the late hours he has been putting in to provide for us. Instead of apologizing when my kiddos are a little loud or crazy, I will laugh along with them and share something they did recently that was equally silly and crazy. I have been blessed with a tremendous family of boys and I need to make sure the rest of the world recognizes how awesome they are.

 

2. Make it to Sunday worship service more often. We are good about going to Sunday school as much as we can, but we rarely go to service beforehand. The main reason being baby nap schedules over the past 3 years. We went to service this past Sunday since there were no ABFs and I was reminded of why I love it so much. The number one way I connect to Jesus is through music. There has never been a doubt it my mind about this. As soon as the band starts playing, I just zone out. I feel connected. My heart literally feels happy. I feel closer to the Lord at that moment than at any other time. And yet, we rarely go to worship. This needs to change in 2013.

 

3. Get back in shape and be more healthy. Not lose weight, but get in shape. Before the boys were born, I worked out every single day. I drank lots of water, ate lots of fruits and veggies etc...When I was pregnant, I was even better. I was so conscience of what I put in my body and what I did to stay fit and strong for my little ones. The past year......not so much. I am not looking for a magic diet or crazy work out plan. I don't want to do P90X or Insanity or anything else along those lines. I just need to make exercise a priority again and make sure I am eating enough fruits and veggies. Less carb loaded snack foods and more protein rich, better for you snacks. You know....just be healthy.

 

4. And finally, I want to make a difference in the lives of others. I have an incredible opportunity to influence the little lives in my class at school, the little boys asleep in their bedrooms right now, my friends and other mommies....And I need to do something with it. I don't know how or what I should do, I just need to do it. I recently spent some time with some of Zack's family members and they are doing just that....making a difference in the lives of so many others. Mine and Zack's included. They are just kind, generous, real people. I want to be like that. I want to know that the way I behave, the words I say, the impression I give off.....that it influences others.

 

So there they are. In writing. The four things I am going to work really hard to accomplish in 2013. 2012 was pretty amazing, but I have even bigger hopes and plans for 2013 (And NO...they do NOT include more babies....)

 

Happy New Year! Here we go! 

My Christmas gift to you....a blog post.

Well, it appears that I forgot about this here blog....my bad.

 

Let's just recap the past few weeks, shall we?

 

(And I am fully aware that using a recap as my first blog post in over a month is a cop out.)

We got new laminate flooring in our living room (thanks to our wonderful families for all their help!)

Jonathan learned how to take up carpet...

 

 

 

Jonathan had his first Christmas pageant at school.

Someone started walking...and hasn't stopped since....

My little angel at the Christmas Eve children's service

Christmas Eve service

 

We hung stockings for Santa and put out carrots for the reindeer (although, Jonathan seemed to think they were more for him than for the reindeer....)

 

 

Santa came!

We ate. A LOT.

We tried to make our first gingerbread house....Nailed it.

Jonathan got his first bike! And then told me he didn't want it anymore.

 

Matthew agress that December was pretty much awesome.

 

Zack, Jonathan, Matthew and I all wish the very best for your family this season and the new year! May God bless y'all as graciously as He has blessed us!

Post Thanksgiving Confessions

Its been a wonderful week at our house. Lots of time with Daddy, lots of eating, lots of family fun, a billion errands (which, in case you don't know us well, is our idea of a fun afternoon!) and lots of relaxing. So here we are, Saturday. The back end of vacation. As we end Thanksgiving and embark on the holiday season, I need to get some things off my chest before we get any further into the festivities.

 

1. Even though I have been home from work and Zack has been home to watch the boys, I haven't worked out at all. A few walks to the park here and there, but other than that, nothing. And I am the Queen of Excuses, so don't try to top me.

 

2. I just ate my 4th box of Nerds. But they are the fun size, so it's cool.

 

3. For my morning "snack," I had leftovers. I justified it because I didn't have an entire plate, I just took a spoon to the Tupperware. Like 10 times.

 

4. When I am on the Pinterest food board and somebody "accidentally" pins their new workout routine to it, I get pissed. If I am lusting after fatty desserts, I don't need to know how you rocked out your post baby bod. In fact, I don't EVER need to know how you did it.

 

(Why are all these confessions about food??)

 

5. So, our Christmas tree looks like a super hot mess this year. There are no lights on the bottom, Jonathan helped me put the ornaments on (think 4 ornaments on a branch...) and our angel for the top has lost her wings. And you know what, I absolutely refuse to change a thing. Our tree is a symbol of us working together and I love it.

 

6. I vacuumed out my car today and had to empty the vacuum immediately because of the large amount of Cheerios and raisins. Some of them were fuzzy....it was nasty. Those carseats are like a big garbage disposal that just also happen to save lives.

 

7. My sister and I are watching Undercover Boss right now and we are both crying.

 

8. Zack and I are FINALLY replacing the horrible carpet in our living room. But we are so, so cheap. So, last night while were talking with the guy in the flooring department at Lowes, I was explaining how I really liked one style, but I didn't want to pay that high of a price. I basically wanted him to show me something comparable with a lower price tag. He pretty much made fun of me and laughed in my face. And for a split second, I wanted to punch him and rip his dangly earring out of his ear. Luckily, my kids were with me so I had to be on my best behavior. And yes, he had a dangly earring. I mean, that's cool and all, but it doesn't make you better than me. You chose to spend your money on flashy jewelry.....I chose to spend mine on everything else.

 

9. In the car, I force the boys to listen to Christmas music. This is non-negotiable for the next month.

 

10. Zack has a CPA conference (I know, don't let the excitement overwhelm you) in Las Vegas in a few weeks. Earlier this month, he had a conference in New Orleans. I am happy for him to be able to travel a little and get out of our crazy house for a while.....but.....I secretly hope the conference gets canceled and he doesn't have to go. Even more honest......I wish I could go instead.

 

And that's that. Hope you all enjoy the next few weeks with your family while you celebrate the holidays!!

One year ago today

A now, a trip down memory lane....One year ago, the day before Thanksgiving, our lives took an unexpected turn. I was 31 weeks pregnant with Matthew and had just come home from a family breakfast to IHOP (pumpkin pancakes are the freaking bomb you guys.) About 5 minutes after we got home, I got a call from my OB-GYN saying that my pre-term labor test had come back positive, I was officially on bedrest and there was a decent chance that my baby would be born within 2 weeks. Obviously, this phone call put a halt to all Thanksgiving plans, pregnancy plans, and most importantly, our plans to hit up the mall that afternoon....For the whole story, you can go back and read it here.

I spent the rest of the week on hospital bedrest. Everybody was pretty sure Matthew was going to come almost 10 weeks early. It was scary and stressful and pretty annoying that I was eating my Thanksgiving dinner in the hospital and not with my family. However, we made it past that first hurdle and I spent the next 6 1/2 weeks on strict home bedrest. If you need a reminder of how that super fun time was spent, you can refer back to my bedrest survival guide posts. :)

It was not the holiday season that I wanted. It wasn't the way I wanted the season to go for Jonathan and obviously not for Matthew! At the end of it all, Matthew stayed put just long enough. 7 weeks later, just 24 hours after being taken off the medication that was keeping me from going into labor, I was back in the hospital delivering a beautiful, HEALTHY, baby boy.

So this holiday season, I am vowing to make it memorable (in a good way. Not in a "holy crap, if I move a muscle the wrong way my baby will be born 10 weeks early and be in the NICU for weeks" kind of way...) We are going to sit around our table tomorrow and be thankful for our healthy babies. We will decorate our house for Christmas just a little more than before. We will spend the holiday season shopping, going to parties, making cookies, forcing the boys to make handprint art to put all around the house, eating more than necessary and just spending as much time possible as a family.

It's been an amazing year since that phone call last November. And this week, I am especially thankful for my wonderful, sweet, kind, nutty, super fun and most importantly, healthy little boys. Thank you Lord for protecting them, every step of the way.

Around Here....

You guys. I have not been feeling the whole blogging thing lately. I just don't feel like I have anything to say that hasn't already been said on Facebook or to you guys in person/on the phone. So, I am not going to make excuses or anything.....I just don't want to blog a lot right now. Maybe I will get back into it soon....we will see! As for today, things have been crazy around here the past few weeks. We made it through Crazy Sick Week 2012, celebrated Halloween, went to some fall festivals, had some visitors and Zack and I were even able to get away this weekend without the kids! Here are a whole bunch of pictures to show off what we have been doing!

 

My sick little Matthew

 

Jonathan enjoying his first corn dog at the Katy Rice Harvest Festival.

 

 

 

Insula play group Halloween party!

 

First time bowling at the Talan Holmes Bowl-a-thon! He loved it!

 

Carving pumpkins with Daddy.

 

Happy Halloween!

 

First time trick or treating

 

He was not thrilled that he couldn't eat all his candy that night....

 

It's been a fun month, but I am ready for the holidays and for my boys to be healthy! I can barely wait to celebrate the holidays with my sweet kids and family AT HOME and not in the hospital/on bedrest like last year! Oh, and I am already listening to Christmas music. Sue me.





What the crap is going on around here?

There is seriously some kind of crazy huge black cloud hanging over the Ley house right now. The last few days have been so ridiculous, I have to document them so that I can look back later and say, "well, at least things aren't as crazy as they were that weekend in October of 2012. Let me just hit the main points....

 

-Last week, Jonathan was sick for 3 days with a high fever and some other random symptoms. This resulted in me missing work and the boys staying home for 2 days.

 

-Sunday, Matthew woke up with a high fever. And it was pitiful.

 

-Sunday, Jonathan woke up with an ugly rash that covered his neck and arms. It wasn't itchy or anything, just strange.

 

-Because of these things, we had to cancel Matthew's 8 month pictures (keep in mind, Matthew is actually 9 1/2 months old already....) which I wanted to take at the same age we took Jonathan's when he was young.

 

-Oh, I forgot....starting on Thursday, I have had what appeared to be either a spider bite or the beginning of a staph infection on my leg. By Sunday, it was as wide as a tennis ball, super gross and really painful. I finally went to the doctor today and it is, in fact, a staph infection. 10 days of antibiotics. Yay.

 

-Monday morning, we realize that our ghetto washing machine is leaking all over the laundry room. After some super shady men came over (I am not exaggerating when I say they showed up in a beat up old truck with their company name on a magnet slapped to the side....crooked.) we learned that the drain was clogged. So now, I have to wait for Zack and his Dad to try and figure out what to do....

 

-Monday evening, our TV goes out. A phone call to U-Verse determines that it is a problem on their end and they won't be out until tomorrow, sometime between 8am and 8pm.

 

-And finally, Matthew's fever has been gone all day (Thank you Jesus!) and he was a happy little clam. I went through our bedtime routine as normal, bottle, cuddles, he falls asleep and I lay him down. About 10 minutes later, I hear him talking, so I go in to see if he wants to finish his bottle. I pick him up, he barfs. I lay him on the changing table, he barfs. Every time I lay him on his back, he barfs. But in between, he is as happy as always. He is playing, laughing, kicking his arms and feet etc...And it isn't gross, food barf. It is simply the entire bottle I just fed him. It was like the worlds worst reflux attack (without the pain) In the end, he changed clothes 3 times, I changed 2 times, he got another bath etc....Thank the Lord, he is asleep right now. And clean.

 

The only good thing from the last few days is that my parents were in town Friday and Sunday night. They are always such a huge help!! I think my Mom was ready to take me to the ER on Sunday when she looked at my leg. Yeah, it's that gross. All of this being said, please say some prayers tonight for my boys to get/stay healthy, my gross staph infection to go away, our washer and TV to be fixed etc...At the end of the day, we are all truly healthy, we have food on our table and a roof over our head. Please don't think I don't recognize our blessings. Even in the face of crazy, we are blessed!

 

 

 

 

Gross. Super gross.

We were at the park. Beautiful day, happy boys, yummy picnic lunch....life was good. And then Jonathan decided he needed to go to the bathroom. There wasn't anything super close, so I suggested he go behind a tree. I know this is controversial, but I feel as though it is a perk of having a boy. So he pees. But instead of pulling his pants up, he tells me he is still going.....with a look of total confusion on his face. And holy crap, he pooped. In the park. In public. Without toilet paper. The whole time I am screaming "NO!!!!! STOP! STOP!" He didn't stop. Instead, he did his business and looked at me like "Uh, clean this up so I can go play please."  So I cleaned him up (thank God for a diaper bag full of baby wipes) and used a ziplock (thank God for my picnic lunch) and totally doggie pooped our pile of shame. Jonathan didn't care at all about what happened. We had a little teaching moment and he went on his way.

 

Today, we had a play date at the mall. While we were eating at the food court, my little germ pod decided it would be fun to lay on the floor....of the food court. The same floor covered in old chicken nuggets and 10 year old, caked on ketchup. I told him to get up because that was super nasty and not a good place to play. And lo and behold, he did! Then he moved about 2 feet to the left and laid back down.

 

Later during our play date, we were at the play area (the same play area where Jonathan marked his territory about 5 months ago) and I picked Matthew up to let him "go down the slide." On our way over, he started barfing but I didn't realize it. About 4 feet later, a poor, totally traumatized mom was like "YOUR KID IS BARFING!!" I looked down, and sure enough, we had left a trail of spit up. Like, a big trail. This was no little spit up. This was like a "Mom, you shouldn't have fed me all that squash and then stuffed me full of crackers because you wanted to keep talking to your friend" kind of spit up. I cleaned it up, the best I could, and we went on our merry way. Note to all Katyites.....don't put your kids on the floor at the Katy Mills play area....

 

The other day, I was sweeping the 10 acres of tile we have in our house, and I forgot to clean up one of my piles. Before I found it, Matthew found it. And helped himself to 2 rebel Goldfish. Goldfish that were covered in dust, dirt, fuzz and probably a whole lot more that I don't want to think about. Jonathan is bad about doing this too if he spies a Cheerio. I could blame them, but I feel like this one is my fault for A) not sweeping up the pile and B) not sweeping often enough that it allows for that kind of nasty accumulation.

 

And you know what is funny about all this? They have a runny nose, but that is it. No crazy disease from eating off the floor, no contagious rash from rolling around in old chicken nuggets, no trauma from pooping at the park or barfing in the play area. So now, instead of freaking out when one of them eats dirt, I will just laugh and think "well, they didn't get sick from eating dirty Goldfish or playing on a nasty floor.....who cares about a little dirt?"

 

Being a mom is gross.