comparison & competition

It's what I do more often than not. My biggest weakness and hurdle to overcome.
I think as a woman I am especially prone to it, and my competitive nature only makes it worse.

Because I've been having a hard time lately with comparing myself to others and letting my competitive nature only worsen it, I need to start this post by saying two things:

1. This is my place to vent, organize my thoughts, and leave something for my myself, my children, and anyone else to look back on - either to learn from or to find someone who they can share common emotions with. I would love if this blog would serve as an uplifting aid, or a place to draw strength from, to even one person.

2. I, my family, my life, and my home are all riddled with the same common shortcomings and struggles of any normal family. I am figuring out life the same as everyone else. Please do not feel like you need to compare to anything I post. My heart would break if I have caused anyone the same struggles I have had with comparing myself to others. Realize, on this blog, I am naturally going to share the good and pretty things that make me happy rather than the messy house, spit-up covered everything, and days that I simply want to be over with. I will try and change this and to post not just about the pretty happenings, but the not so pretty, or very average ones as well :)

I am average, but also great.
I know it sound cliche, but it needs to be said. Not just to myself, but to others as well.
This is not a pity post or anything like that, I just feel like maybe I need to say these things out loud to help myself (and maybe anyone else that needs to read something like this).

I have a very hard time thinking I am good enough or that I am doing enough. Between the worlds bombardment of all we should be doing both as mothers in this world as well as how accomplished we should be as women in this day in age, I have a hard time keeping up. Then there are also all the amazing women I have the privilege of interacting with that seem they have it all together. They have kids, work out, make cookies weekly, have a job, a clean house, balanced meals every night in their perfectly DIY decorated house, around their beautiful kitchen table, all while looking fabulous with perfect hair and stylish clothes and a rockin' body. I commend these women who have it (or at least seem to) have it all together. I strive for this, but I am not this.
I laugh every time a thought of a workout routine crosses my mind, I love to craft but simply don't have the time right now, homemade any treat never happens in this house, nor does cleaning (I only remember laundry because I suddenly find someone doesn't have any pants or underwear or something vital to wear haha), if we're lucky Kevin and I might have a quick main dish on the couch while doing homework or work.
Again, I love my life and this is not a pity party, just the reality of my life. This is the stage I am at and I may even never become that magazine perfect mom or housewife - but I am learning that it is ok, and what I am comparing myself to is not very realistic.
I am a good wife and mother, a full time worker, a double major college graduate, a recently certified veterinary technologist, and a strong member of my LDS faith. I forget these things and forget how important they are. I need to remember who I am and how much I actually have accomplished already - not the things I haven't done, because that list is always going to be longer than the things I have accomplished.
I have a temper, I am no stranger to stress and frustration, I mess up, and I ruin things, I regrettably can hold a good grudge, and I have a hard time accepting help from those around me - but it's simply because I'm human and I need to learn from these things. You can't know the up without the down, and heck, I'm still alive!

I (rather, we) need to stop comparing other's strengths to our weaknesses.

I have so many more thoughts on this, but they have not yet organized in my head enough to put them into words, nor am I sure I want to share them with the web just yet, in permanent digital form.

From my heart.

Believe

This does not even begin to express my feelings about my faith, but it's a start to sharing one of my greatest possessions.

Please check out the tab on my beliefs up top ^^^^^

If you don't want to click it, that's fine! This is what it says:

Ok this is my life, what makes me who I am, and what gets me through this life.

I am a wife, a mother, a cowgirl, a veterinary technologist.

I am a Mormon.

A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

And I have no doubt this Gospel, and the modern day prophets that lead it, are true and sent of God, specifically for us in this time.

Please take some time to see what makes me, me!

(and maybe answer some of your questions!)

http://mormon.org

http://www.lds.org

Also, check out this great video explaining who we are!

Nitro Circus weekend away

So this is the face of parents getting away for the FIRST time. Alone. No child.

So excited and so lost. 

You'd think we could get away without worrying ... but nooooooo! Without the child we didn't even know what to do! Intelligent conversations, eating at our own pace, all foreign!

All because of our amazing brother and sister-n-law offered to babysit for the weekend!!!

So Kevin loves these crazy dare devils called Nitro Circus so as a birthday present I got him tickets to their show in Salt Lake City!

We parked across the street hours early and went shopping for a little bit then headed over a little before the show.

This is us just before the show, finding our seats.

Ok this show was so fun! I enjoyed it way more than I thought!

I would even go see them again!

We met with some friends the next day for lunch and then headed home to the angel we missed so much!

It's so funny how we finally got some time away to relax alone and all we can think about is Nora!

Well, to more adventures to come!

first foods for the baby girl

(Ok so ya this is WAY back dated, but I figured I'd try my best to still document Nora's little steps so I can remember them when I've lost all my sanity)

So here it is! Her first real meal of real food!

Bananas!

Took a minute to figure out ...

But LOVED it when she got it ;)

and couldn't get enough!!

(and she's been chowing down ever since!)

Nora bug is 6 months!!

And already another month has flown by!

This past month has definitely been the one with the most development! Nora can now sit up, has amazing control of her hands, can hold a bottle, reach for mommy and daddy, and is starting to eat pureed foods!

In our trips to CA and TX for Christmas and Lauren and Holden's wedding she seemed to grow more every day! This little girl sleeps like a champ through the night and can even put herself to sleep now. She just started sleeping with her little purple elephant and it helps so much! When you lay her down she'll roll over and hold her elephant. When you pull it's tail it sings a lullaby, and she'll close her eyes and she's usually out without a peep! She's such a great baby!!

She finally loves tummy time and pulling herself around to chase her toys. It's always so exciting to see her moving and figuring out how to get herself up on all fours and rock around! It's not going to be long before she's tearing our apartment apart!

As far as food goes, she now goes crazy over anything she sees on mommy or daddy's plate and is even more excited over anything in our cups! It's adorable! She LOVES bananas and yams (oh and bread from mom's plate), I can't feed them to her fast enough! She literally gags and shudders at avocados (so sad, and I am determined to change this)! And she is almost indifferent to carrots and green beans, but we'll keep working on those ones. And still no sign of teeth! (Thank goodness!)

She has also started a clingy phase, like an "I always have to be touching mom" phase. I can be cooking dinner and all Kevin has to do is literally let her touch my shoulder, and she'll go from crying to back to being as happy as a clam! Silly girl, makes me feel loved, but breaks her poor dad's heart! I keep telling him that when she's old enough to play, he'll be her favorite person. 

With this stage, she's also become shy! She'll burry her head in mom or dad as soon as a new person acknowledges her! It's adorable, but we really hope she becomes a social little girl - make park days and school much easier for everyone!

We adore our little princess and are so blessed to have her as such a light in our lives! It's so exciting being parents and watching her grow! 

She's such a babe!

Here's to a new year of learning a growth!

Christmas Vacation 2013

This year, as most, we were able to go home to California for our 2 week Christmas and New Years break, and may I say with the weather, family, and no work, it was simply perfect! It was what we all needed! We love nothing more than to be around family and enjoy the sunshine.

Of course we hardly saw our little bug because everyone else was fighting for snuggle time!

Nora spent most of her time in the kitchen with Grandma Lissa exploring new things!

Then came Christmas morning! Even though Nora doesn't get it yet, it was SO fun with a child! She was actually the one that slept in the longest of everyone! (granted she was up ALL night - she does not sleep well outside of her own crib)

She LOVED all the wrapping paper and as soon as she got her hands on it she could rip open any present! No toy was cooler than the cardboard or paper it was packaged in.

Grandma's amazing Christmas morning pumpkin cinnamon rolls. 

Clearly mom and dad had more fun with Nora's toys than she did!

We always have fantastic holidays at home and this was no different. We get early morning with my family, and with Kevin's so close as well, we get another Christmas later on with his. We are truly blessed!

Some of our favorite gifts this year were Nora's play saucer, my new sewing machine, a GoPro mount and gun case for Kevin, and a new iPad mini!

It ended too soon and we can't wait to see them again!

Nora 5 Months

And just like that another month has passed and our little princess is making leaps and bounds in her development! It's so exciting to watch!

This month we are headed to CA for Nora's first Christmas! We are so excited to share this with her and anticipate an adventure of a 16 hour drive home!

Luckily we are stopping in Provo and Salt Lake for a few days for a friends wedding so the drive may be broken up a bit for her :) We know she's a champ with flying but she's never been on a longer road trip than 4 hours.

She has just started tasting foods off of mom's finger so I'm thinking we'll try rice cereal/baby foods here soon!