FALL. . .

I try to come up with clever post title.  But ever since I became a mother, my creativity has been channeled differently.  Now I put all my energy into trying to come up with different creative things for Dexter and I to do throughout the week.  Such as, awhile ago, I let him play with pudding in his high chair.  It was great, but we will probably never do it again because it made such a big mess.

Anyways, as for September and October go, we have really been enjoying this amazing weather.  I wish fall weather could last forever.  The crisp, chill mornings sipping hot chocolate and don't get me started on boots/sweaters!  Oh and stepping on crunchy leaves.  I think the best part is the changing colors in the mountains.  The trees are beautiful!  I really love the aspens.

Anyways, here is our update for the month!  We are trying to be more adventurous and make exercise/getting outside an important part of our daily regime!

Dexter and I on a morning run up the Bridal Veil Falls Path.  This is probably my favorite path to run on with the stroller and with kids!  On a hot day, on the way back from a run, I will get Dex out and put his feet in the water so we can cool down.

We soaked up the last of the splash pad at the beginning of September. 

This is the view on the hike up to Stewart Falls from a week ago.

On our hike to Stewart Falls.  The trees and the view was spectacular!

My mom and Dexter enjoying the scenery after a yummy Costa Vida dinner.

We did a double date with my parents and went to Costa Vida (thank you buy 1 get 1 free coupons) and then we drove to Aspen Grove to eat our salads and enjoy the trees!  My parents look so young still.  They could pass off for Dexters parents in this picture!

Our cute family!

Derek and I went on a date to Park City and the trees were fabulous.  It was kind of gloomy but still fun to walk around and take pictures of the color!

M

Park City with my hubs!

I love the fog and the color in this picture.  

Get outside and enjoy this brisk fall weather!  

LABOR DAY LOVE...

Last weekend was bitter sweet. Labor Day was created by Peter J. Maguire in 1882. He thought there should be a holiday for the American worker. With that being said, Derek's grandma, who I think of as my own grandma, was a very hard worker. She went through so many things in her life. It wasn't easy, life isn't easy for any of us. It takes work to accomplish a life well lived.

Labor Day weekend was most likely the last time to have an actual conversation with her before she passes away. She has left behind a wonderful legacy to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I'm so fortunate that I get to be a part of her family forever. She has taught her family to love unconditionally and accept others with open and warming arms.

We are fortunate to live close to family so we can have these last conversations, learn our last life lessons from these stalwart people, hear their stories about the grandeur of trouble they got in, and give them last hugs and kisses on their wrinkly cheeks. We are prepared for Grandma to go soon, but we are at peace knowing there is life after this and she told us many times last weekend, "I feel at peace" with what is going to come.

We are so grateful we got to spend this holiday with the Nielsen and Hayes family and that we saw Grandma. In the back of my mind, any activity we did from dutch oven cooking to watching my husband and sister-in-law ride their dirt bikes, I tried to do so in honor and celebration of Grandmas hard-working life!  The pictures below sum up all our festivities.  We took it pretty easy but we did manage to get outside and have fun!

Dexter and I started out the holiday weekend playing the piano while Daddy was at work.

We then walked quite a ways up the Bridal Veils Fall Pathway.  It is starting to feel like fall!

BBQ chicken and cheesy potatoes from the dutchoven in Ephraim!  YUM!

I went to go watch Derek ride his dirt bike!  I've never seen him ride until now!

Derek speeding up the hill!  It look dangerous, but fun!

This was posed, but it still looks cool!

Lastly, with today being September 11th and as Grandma is not doing very well, my heart aches for those who have experienced loss of loved ones. The emotions of loosing someone you love are hard, they are real, and they can be scary. As I have seen others deal with loss and coped with the loss of loved ones myself, I find comfort in my Savior. He died so that we can live in this life and in the next!

This picture was taken about a month ago, but it is one of my favorites of Grandma Hayes and Dexter.  I need to print it and frame it!

DEXTER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY...

Dexter turned one last Friday!  We started out the day with breakfast in the high chair, we will get to breakfast in bed one day.  I made him one of his favorites, French Toast!  We then had some McDonalds for lunch.  Processed food on his birthday, what more can a kid want?  Right?  We took it easy on his actual birthday because we were having his birthday party the next day and I had lots of the "day before prep" to do.

The theme of the party was DOGS.  There wasn't a lot of dog party ideas on pinterest so I had to get creative and come up with a couple things of my own.  For the balloons, Zurchers didn't have any dog/paw print balloons.  But, did you know that Zurchers will fill up balloons they don't sell in their store?  It still costs like a $1, but this was a life saver!  I ended up finding paw print balloons on Amazon and took them to Zurchers before the party to be filled up.

For the food, I designed cute little cards to label our menu of:  ShiskaDogs (I used the Chicken Apple Sausage from Costco-so yummy), PAWsta Salad, Fruit Kibble, Dog Bone Chips, and Puppy Chow for the party favor.  It was quite a bit of work with preparing the Shiska Dogs, but I assigned people to bring other food so it wasn't too much work.

Setting up the party was fun!  Sometimes I think I should have gone into interior design instead of advertising.  :)  I love decorating and putting things together.  A few days before the party, I took an empty oatmeal container, toilet paper rolls, and a paper bowl.  I glued them all together to look like a fire hydrant and then I painted it red!  I found the most adorable dog balloon to set up on the food table.

For games, I thought it would be fun to do a dog show type thing.  I was going to have some kind of obstacle course that people would have to accomplish in a timely manner to win a ribbon.  BUT, I decided not because Dex doesn't walk and wouldn't have been able to do it.  So, instead our game was a drawing contest.  I had everyone color/draw a dog.  We then let Dex pick the top 3 dogs!  The people who won, each got a cheesy ribbon of first, second, or third place.  I'm going to put the pictures of dogs in sheet protectors and a binder so Dex can look at them.  His love for dogs is real.  He could look at dogs all day long!

 The cake...oh man!  No words to describe.  I could never make a cake that looks this cute.  My mom made it and I didn't want to eat it.  It was darling!  Dex didn't take a nap in the morning so by the time we had cake, he started eating it and then he started falling asleep.  Finally he got some cake in his mouth and the sugar rush kicked in.  He was such a happy boy and went absolutely crazy!

The party was a hit!  But, next year I think we will opt for Costco cupcakes and whoever wants to come, swimming.  That sounds much easier for me, the mom and party planner.  :) 

LOOSING YOURSELF IN MOTHERHOOD...

In just a couple weeks, it will be 1 year since I gave birth to my squishy, chubby, red-headed little boyfriend. Reflecting on the ups and downs is only necessary at this time; being a new parent created a dynamic change with my spouse, the responsibility of raising a human life, the list could go on and on. I am only a mother to 1 child, so far; with that being said, my thoughts may be incorrect when it comes to the title of this post. I lack experience, but I feel that my knowledge of motherhood has increased (& will continue) quite a bit this last year.

When I first became a mother, I was faced with horrible PostPartum Depression. Crazy hormones are a real thing after child birth. I was a bitch to everyone. (Sorry for the language, but I'm being honest.) My SO and I were also going through a difficult time in our marriage. I loved this newborn baby, but I started falling into a trap of thinking that motherhood was not for me. It was very boring trying to talk to a newborn whose only response was screaming at the top of his lungs, spitting up, or crying when I laid him to sleep in the crib. There was only so much "ooing and awing" I could do.

It was hard. The sleep deprivation was killing me. The stress of responsibility seemed unbearable. I was struggling. As a recent college graduate, I had a constant question in my mind of why I gave up a career and my four years of college to be a mom.

People would ask me, "What do you do for a living?"

My response was, "I'm just a mom."

I was always hesitant to blurt that out. I was embarrassed about my new title, I'm just a mom. I wasn't making phone calls to big shot companies, setting up important meetings, working on advertising campaigns, or talking to other adults using real words instead of made up baby lingo. My life took a drastic change. It now consisted of: wiping spit up off my shirt, getting peed on, people would come over to see "me" but they really just wanted to hold the little man. I shed lots of tears. I probably cried a lake. I was a mess.

Somehow God knew I needed an intervention. And He sent me a phrase that I heard from multiple people in their experience with motherhood. I've had to grow to love to be a mom. OMG. A light bulb went on. I chose to have this baby, so it is only obvious I need to choose to love to be a mom. So, that is exactly what I did. I decided to find joy in changing poopy diapers, to be okay with the spit up on my shoulder, to do a big outing once a week with my little boy, to smile and be patient while he is crying instead of passing him to my husband while I started crying.

This was great for awhile. But then I started feeling like I lost myself. I was so focused on my baby and my family, that a couple months ago, I felt like I didn't know who I was. I was finding joy in motherhood, and things were going much better, but who am I? Am I just going to raise children my whole life and not do anything to raise myself?  I started working on a balance.  I was working out again, going to the every so often lunches/dinners with girlfriends.  I found a great "in between", but I still wasn't finding myself.  I began to feel alone and afraid.

Again, God places people in your life and with these people are conversations. I have had numerous mothers tell me that their children's needs are more important than their own. BOOM. I was being selfish. I am not saying that you shouldn't do anything for yourself, but in the grand scheme of things, the needs of my little boyfriend come before my own. I have learned to accept the word sacrifice and its complete meaning.  The real definition of sacrifice is being the best parent you can to your children.

I have sacrificed my hair not getting highlighted as often as I would like. I sacrificed looking at friends in the workforce and being jealous because I didn't pursue a career. (I could work if I choose to and props to the moms that do, how amazing!) I sacrifice my sleep at night to rock a fussy, teething baby.  I sacrifice my shirts to the stains of boogies. I sacrifice the shows I like to watch so we can watch Daniel Tiger on PBS Kids.  Quite often, my husband and I sacrifice our Friday Date Nights to save money to the little guys future college tuition fund.  

I'm sure as the older my baby gets and the more children I have, the more I will give. It is hard. Very rarely do I find myself doing the things that I would like, want, or need to do. And you know what, I am okay with that. I have realized that as a mother, I need to accept these things.  Since I have come to terms with this, I felt a new-found confidence in my calling as a mother. I am loosing myself in the joys of motherhood so that my little guy can find himself. Loosing myself, so I can raise an independent person who can go out confident in the world and be successful.  That, right there, is the ultimate blessing of being a great mother.

THE CYCLE OF LAUNDRY LIFE LESSON...

So, today feels like the never ending day of laundry. While I hate putting laundry away, (ask my mother...I would have piles of laundry in my room growing up because I hated putting it away) I don't mind folding it. It is my time to reflect, to ponder, to meditate, and to pray.

I had this thought, life is like laundry. I know what you are thinking, "Oh geez. Another cheesy thought relating every day things like eating breakfast to life." You're right. This probably will be cheesy to some. But, now you will always look at laundry and think how similar it is to life. So, here it is: 

Life is like laundry. We start out as clothes, brand new, no stains. 

But we then get dirty, we make mistakes. Sometimes we need epic stain remover; I like Shout to get rid of the dirt. That stain remover is how we fix our mistakes.

We then get put through the washer or dryer, aka the refiners fire.

But, of course, we know that the cycle of laundry is a weekly thing. We will make mistakes again during the week.  And that is why it is important to go to church every week, just like it is to do your laundry every week.

I hope you enjoyed my fabulous laundry life lesson. Cheesy and inspiring all in one post, what more could you ask for?

THE GYM RING...

Oh yes. You read that title right. Finally, after 6 months of doing minimal workouts, I decided to to get a gym pass...again. I nursed our little chubster baby for that long (for personal reasons, I stopped...no shame in formula) and I didn't want my supply to disappear by working out all my calorie intake to make more milk. Yadayadayada....

So, back to the title of this post, now back to my saggy post nursing breasts, now back to the title of the post again. I felt it was time to really hit the gym. To build up my cardio, make my weak joints from 9 months of "joyful" pregnancy strong, get my iron man stomach back, slim down my thunderful thighs, and try to even out my biceps (moms you know what I mean by this...only thing that makes wish I had multiple children).

I've been pretty good at working out regularly. I started out 3 days a week and now work out 5 to 6 days a week.  I can't leave the husband out, he has been running like a champ. My body is already getting toned and THIS HAS BEEN A PROBLEM AT THE GYM. I'm starting to look good.

I do not like wearing my wedding ring at the gym. I do free weights and I don't want that precious, beautiful, sparkly, symbol of our love to get damaged. I had a roommate in college who damaged her ring at the gym...yeah, don't want that to happen.

So, this last week, I'm at the gym. And some older man, probably in his 50s, starts talking to me.

Older man: "Haven't seen you around here much?"

Me: "I just started coming to the gym again to get in shape."

Older man: "You're looking good!"

Me: "I just had a baby 6 months ago, thanks!"

When the guy told me I was looking good, I was creeped and knew I needed to give some kind of inclination that I was married...so the "just had a baby" came up. He seemed to get the idea, said a condolence, and went back to his workout.

I felt so awkward with this happening. So I ordered a fake wedding ring to wear to the gym. This way, when those 50 year old creeps want to initiate a flirtation, they will see my flashy ring and know that I AM MARRIED, YOU FOOL!

My predicament of going to the gym to workout and not be hit on is solved. I can workout in peace. Oh and my real wedding ring doesn't get damaged in the process.

The gym ring. If you are a married woman and haven't bought one, do so now.

*A note for men in this situation, we got Derek's ring off of Amazon for like 20 bucks, and it's tungsten. So he is fine to wear his at the gym...if it gets damaged, or lost, we will just order a new one. You can never go wrong with Amazon.*

NAMASTE.

MOMents. . .

I watched a movie the other day and a word kept being said on repeat, "moment".  There are so many cliche phrases having to do with this word that it really has never been my favorite.  Hence, (drumroll please) "aannnd now, for the MOMENT of truth!"  Or the cheesy, "life isnt a matter of milestones, it is a matter of moments".  You get the point.  I used to think that the word is a bit overused.  Moment...blah blah blah. 

So, I had this epiphany when I heard this word.  And its probably because God knows I have quite a few hard days being a mom.  I'm probably the most emotional mother there is.  I told my husband I don't want anymore children because it is too hard watching the little one get a shot.  The exhaustion.  Right now we are going through 4 month sleep regression.  My traumatic C-Section of a birth.  And to be honest, I am faced with boredom...you can only talk so much to a baby.

Anyways, back to this blessing of an epiphany...the word moment has a another word in it...mom. When I discovered this profound realization, this boring word became something else.  It sparked something in my mind.  It is not just a boring moment, now it is a MOMent.  I like this word now.  No, I don't just like it.  I LOVE it.  I REALLY REALLY LOVE IT.  You know that quote, "some of life's greatest treasures call me mom?"  I now like to think of it as, "my greatest treasure gives me MOMents."

So, I started a MOMent journal. Every month, I type up the MOMents I have experienced.  Like how the babe had his first smile, when he started discovering that crying makes it so he gets picked up from tummy time, his first laugh, how it is a blessing he doesn't suck a Binky and just sucks his fingers (he never looses them), I changed 10 poopy diapers in one day and I'm grateful they don't smell yet, etc.

Sometimes these MOMents consist of things I learn about myself.  For instance, "motherhood is a beautiful trial of patience." Or "I need to learn to still think I am beautiful when I don't shower for 3 days straight."  I am even learning that with having a baby, I have to remind my husband to ask me out on dates...there are things that he needs to remind me about, like to shower.  (Call me gross, but that is what motherhood does you).  When you have a baby, you are both so preoccupied with this tiny human life, that you sometimes forget about your spouse.  

Other MOMents are when I call my own mother and tell her how amazing she is for putting up with my siblings and me.  Yeah, I still don't know how all you mothers of multiple children do it.  Literally, I would go insane.  I feel like I'm going insane with just one baby.  But, one thing I do know is when I take the time to write down all the MOMents I go through each day, it helps me look at the positive side of motherhood.  It's a gift.  I have traveled on my own pirate map and this is my treasure right now.  My little man is the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow.  OK, I'm getting sappy.  But below are some of my MOMents.

 ^^Hanging out with my boyfriend at Fisherman's Warf in San Fran.  It was cold and it didn't seem to bother him.  He loved it.^^

^^First plane ride.  I was one happy mama.  He slept on the plane ride to California and on the plane ride home.  He is a perfect baby teaching his imperfect mama how to be better.^^

^^Why go to church at 1:00PM?  It is so hard.  The babe will not nap when I'm walking the halls with him.  He does nap when you lay him down in his crib and leave him be.  So, church consisted of hanging out in the foyer while he slept.^^

^^Love my family.  We go through some trials, but our little boy is our greatest blessing.  He is our best friend and has brought quite a bit of healing from past scars.  He gives us the strength to be the best version of ourselves.^^

-M