Happy New Year! Well almost.

aThese last few weeks have just been chaotic.  We left for our family vacation last sunday the 19th, and the trip started out really well considering we planned to leave at six in the morning and didn't end up getting out the door until nine. But hey lets face it with kids you're usually running behind schedule.  So we started the first leg of our journey to the Grand Canyon.  Our first official stop was in barstow at the marine corps base out there.  It was very desolate and we even saw some tumble weeds roll on by.  The wind was so strong that it knocked Chloe on her butt.  We stayed there for a bit and resumed our first day to Las Vegas.

        Let me just tell you that I'm not really for the whole vegas scene. I don't gamble and the place just gives me horrible vibes.  Anyway, so the grand plan was to go to a really good buffet.  I figure, hey I take the kids with Jenn all the time to a resturant, what's the big deal with taking them out to a buffet.  Well let me tell you what's wrong with taking three kids to a buffet in Las Vegas.  We get there, and get the kids situated with their food and drink.  I am sitting with the kids while Sean goes to get his plate, and after Andrew chugged his lemonade he promptly vomits all over himself.  I tried my best to catch as much of it as I could with the napkin.  Of course I forgot to bring the kids a change of clothes, and it's not like we could just leave we paid $80 for the meal!  So, Sean comes back and as soon as I get ready to take my first bite of food after cleaning up Andrew as much as I could, Chloe poops up her back. Luckily only getting on her back and a little on her pants.  I go to take her to the bathroom and there is a group of tourists taking a photo blocking the exit, finally they move and I can proceed to the bathroom which is lacking a changing station.  So I changed her on the sink, the rest of the dinner was alright considering how much we spent.  So the next time you're thinking of going to a buffet with small children remember that disasters happen usually when you're left alone.

   The next morning, Colin threw up in his bed around 3, and I was up at 7 sick myself throwing up and diahrea.  What a way to start off our trip!  That day we continued on to the grand canyon!  We stopped at the Hoover Dam.  It was really neat, had never been there before.  The wind was crazy strong and oh my gosh was it cold!  The kids were fussy so we didn't stay there too long.  I don't blame them I was cold and couldn't wait to get back in the car.  We checked into our hotel that night and had some jacuzzi time. AHHHH, relaxation!

        The next day was our day at the grand canyon!  It was so spectacular, photos don't do it justice!  It was a lot of fun and we met some cool people there.  The storm came in that afternoon, it had been a little behind us the entire trip.  San Diego and the base were flooded, Las Vegas strip was flooding from what I heard.  I'm glad to have missed all that weather.  So we saw some snow and the clouds blocked the view.  But we were able to see it more the next day after it cleared up. 

      The next day we went to my dear old friend Ashley's house.  I got to meet her son, Fiance and hairless cat!  Those things are so strange, but friendly.  We spent the night there and hung out the next day took the kids to the park and just let them have a kid day.  Then I bathed them loaded them up and we made the last leg of our journey, HOME!  I will say that it's not such a good idea driving at night.  Sure the kids are sleeping but it's sooo hard to stay awake for a 6 hour drive!  Luckily we made it home around 4 am, and I just dropped my head in the pillow and fell asleep.

    Overall it was a really wonderful trip, I'm glad to have had this time with my family.  I will forever remeber this trip and smile.  Now that 2010 is almost over, I'm looking forward to 2011 and hoping it will be just as fun and productive.  May you all have had a happy holiday, and be safe in the new year!!

                            Happy Holidays

                                                 &

                                                Happy New Year!!

So Many Reasons to Be Happy!!

Our Family 

I shall be blogging alone Jamie went on vacation for this week. Last week I wrote about things that irritate me during this season. This week I want to spread joy by sharing all the things that make me grateful for this season.

1. Christmas lights!! I love Christmas lights. Big display, small display it doesn't matter. I makes me extremely joyful to drive down the road and see them.

Kat hanging her ornament.

2. Decorating the tree with my kids. Sure my son hangs the ornaments too close together and my daughter would rather eat them it's still a great time. I love seeing the old ornaments and remembering when and where we got them. It's like family history on a tree!
3. One word: COOKIES!!!!!
4. Going to great lengths to surprise my husband. He is a present shaker and tries to guess what he is getting. This steals my joy cause then I don't get to see his happy face when he opens it. So now I find joy in wrapping his presents so that there is no possible way he can guess what is in them! How is he gonna know it's a movie when it's wrapped in a box with rice, pennies.and rocks. Take that present shaker!!!!!
5. Cookie caravan. Every year after baking ridiculous amounts of cookies my family, friends and I deliver them to police stations, fire stations,and hospitals on Christmas eve.
6.Armed Services YMCA. Every year they provide Christmas presents to at least 300 military families.
7. My daughter trying to learn to walk and dance to Christmas music. I am an experienced walker and I cannot walk and dance at the same time!!
8.Family coming over for Christmas dinner. We don't have much family here so it's nice when we can all gather together.
9. Presents!!!!!!!!!! Not necessarily for me. I love seeing the excitement on my families faces when they open their gifts.
10. Kat's first birthday! My baby is almost one!!
11. School Christmas shows. I love seeing my son in an elf hat.

School Christmas Concert

12.Christmas movies. Who doesn't feel warm and fuzzy after watching " It's a Wonderful Life"
13. My birthday. I have a complex cause my birthday is 3 days before Christmas. It gets forgotten a lot. I tell complete strangers it's my birthday so they will tell me happy birthday!
14. Christmas music


Well there it is my list of Christmas joy. I am sure I forgot some things. Overall this is a season for joy, family, and sharing. I wish you and yours all the joy and happiness of this season.

'Tis the Season......... I guess

Jenn:

First let me start saying that I love Christmas and the meaning behind it. It's just nowadays I can't help but be disgusted by people's behavior during the holidays! I have been run into, harassed by mall employees, and have even seen two people get out of their cars to ARGUE over a PARKING SPACE!!!!! All that I can kinda ignore and still try to teach my children better manners. The biggest problem I have had every year since being a military spouse is our battalions Christmas party. Let me explain. I volunteer with the battalion as a Family Readiness Assistant therefore I am involved in the planning of this party every year. The other volunteers and I spend time decorating, arranging for a Santa, and coordinating with a charity ( Words of Comfort, Hope, and Promise ran by Ms. Cynthia Martinez who is wonderful by the way!!) who has adopted our battalion. Usually the charity provides us with gifts for the Marines and there families and a dinner. Sometimes since they do sponsor other units they can only provide toys for the kids. This is no problem for most people, but this is where my irritation comes in. Every year while eating amongst the families of the battalion( most who don't know that I am a volunteer) I hear complaints about the gifts they got. On top of the complaints about the gifts not being good enough, my kids get trampled and shoved out of the way to get to the gifts people deem as cheap. Furthermore while eating the meal provided for us for free my family and I get to listen to the charming conversations ( I am being sarcastic here) of the single Marines. The whole experience is just very frustrating. Why can't people just appreciate the things given to them? Why do they have such a sense of entitlement? Why don't they know how to behave in public?  I am thankful that the battalion my husband is in cares enough about the families to even throw a Christmas party!! Let alone provide food a Santa and gifts for my children all for free!!! Apparently this is not good enough for some people though. It makes me sad that very few people are actually happy that they were thought of. There doesn't have to be an organization that provides gifts to us. These volunteers are providing us with these things because they truly are thankful for what the military does not because they are obligated too. Its is sickening to me that so many people are unappreciative. In this world we live in where so many people are down on the military it is heartwarming when people actually go out of their way to help us. Cynthia Martinez is not a military spouse. Neither are many of the people that volunteer with her organization. They are just thankful of the service our loved ones provide. So if they give me anything even just a simple thank you it warms my heart. They don't have to. I may not go to the Christmas party this year. It gets harder every year to hold my tongue around ungrateful people. The only reason I will go is because there are always people every year who actually do appreciate the things given to them.

Jamie:
This season really is one of those that makes you question what peoples real intentions are.  For the most part what I see is people trying to keep up with the "Jones'".  It's a bit ridiculous that it is expected to spend a obscene amount of money on gifts for people  that you hardly ever see and  half the time either don't appreciate it or like it.  My mother in-law has stopped doing Christmas because she used to hand make gifts for her family and they would look at her like she had given them a lump of coal in their stocking.  I love this holiday but too many times have seen the fight over the last tickle me elmo or whatever the hot toy is that season.  Coming from working retail basically since I could work I have seen the best and worst of people this time of year.  It is really sad that it's only a season where you're supposed to spread kindness and generosity, and half the time most people miss the point all together. 

Sorry just haven't had the time!

Jenn:

     I know not many people read our blog and if they do they don't wait with bated breath for us to post an entry. But I would like to apologize for the lack of timely posts. The reason is simple we were being moms and had lots of stuff going on. My daughter is sick, and has a birthday coming up. The holidays. My house never being clean enough. My sister getting married and staying with me until her house is ready. My husband playing too many video games. All reasons I haven't had time to blog. Kinda makes me think. Sometimes  as a housewife I am bored. Mind numbingly bored. Then I have a ton of stuff to do and don't have enough time in my day!!! It's like HOLY SHIT BATMAN!!! Why is everything happening at once!!!! Hopefully I will be bored again soon. Maybe. P.S. Having a sick baby sucks. Especially when you have tons of stuff to do. I am hardly ever sick so I get pretty irritated when others are. Even my kids. I am not very nurturing in that way. I think I even told my 11 month old to suck it up. I should work on my bedside manner.

Jamie:
  Ok the last few weeks have been chaotic.  My oldest son got sick which he so kindly shared with his brother, sister and me.  It's funny I never get over how hard it is to be sick when you have sick kids.  Thank God for my husband,  I was able to get a little sleep last weekend and recover enough to get throug the week.  For some reason this last week has been especially horrible.   My kids still aren't feeling well so they have been whining and throwing fits, my eldest is going through a phase of being glued to my hip and doesn't stop talking and I'm still not feeling 100%. Not to mention I'm dying for some time with adults and away from the house. I'm going bonkers!!!  It's a real relief to have a moment to blog, I still need to go get in the shower which I haven't been able to do in 2 days.  I feel at times like I'm running in  circles and don't get anything done.  It's absolutly frusterating!! Well thank you for letting me vent.  Hopefully next time it wont be so long between blogs.

Our First Borns!

Jenn:
  
     Well now that this blog thing seems to be sticking I thought it was appropriate to better introduce our various children. Starting with our eldest. This is my son Gabriel, he is 9. I have 2 children, both of whom I love fiercely. I have heard parents of multiple children say they love them all the same. Honestly I don't understand how. Each of my children represent a different part of my life so while I love them both immensely I love them differently. Gabriel was conceived and born in an extremely tumult time in my life. My mother and I had had a falling out. I was required to leave her home and find one of my own. I didn't graduate high school. So here I was lonely and seemingly with no future. So I decided to date a person who was completely wrong for me, just because he was kind to me. I had never really had a boy friend so I fell hard for this guy. Before you know it i was pregnant at the tender age of 18. Everyone who knew me was disappointed. I however was excited! I was going to have a baby! Even though it wasn't a well thought out plan. The pregnancy was what I wanted. I would have a beautiful little baby who would love me no matter what! At this time in my life love was desperately what I needed. My supposed "boyfriend" didn't really love me. I felt my family, who I know now will always love me, were too disappointed in how my life was going to love me. I didn't really have any one else. People have called my son a mistake or accident of which I take high offense too. He is neither. I knew exactly what I was doing. I had been taught that unprotected sex could cause pregnancy. Gabriel has always been wanted. At the time I didn't exactly know what I was doing, but I always wanted him. He is my savior. He saved me from myself. Without my son who knows where or who I would be. He made me responsible. I went back and graduated high school. I got a better job. I made effort to mend my relationship with my mother. Everything I have good in life I have because of him. I met my husband because of him. My life has been constantly enriched by him. He is a goofy, precious child. He loves to build his legos,play video games and watch tv. Everyday that I get to wake up and see his goofy smile and big beautiful green eyes I am a very lucky mommy!



Jamie:

So sorry for the hold up Jenn.  She's had her part of the blog ready for two days now and I'm barely getting a moment to where I can sit down and collect my thoughts long enough to write.  HAHA!

So let me see...                                    My wonderful son Colin

When I had Colin I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I had absolutely no idea the impact this little man would bring to my world.  I was young and naive, not realizing what a full time job this would be thinking it'd be easier than getting up and going to work everyday. Boy was I wrong!  So when I was about 4 months pregnant my husband deployed to Iraq, leaving me with the thought of not only having to go through the labor and delivery without him but raising him on my own for the first two months by myself.  I do have to say that was not easy but it did make me realize that I'm a lot stronger than I ever imagined I could be.  Colin has changed my world so much and shown me what a wonderful person I am too.  Through him I see the world differently.  It's really refreshing to have children, it shows you what really is important in life.  I do love all three of my children equally but differently.  Colin is absolutely amazing and smart, he makes me laugh at the things he says and does.  Everyday with him is a new adventure and it never gets old (except for the attitude and whining). Ha ha ha.  He is so energetic and full of life, he loves to dance and read books.  Go to the park or walk on the pier and look at the boats, surfers, and dolphins.  He lights up my world with one smile, and I can't say that I would know real love without Colin.  He was all I had while his dad was away and I still feel that strong bond with him now.  My only hope for Colin is that he grows up to be everything he could ever want to be.  I love you Colin!

Oh, I forgot to tell you he's 3 hahaha Gabriel and Colin have the same birthday. September 5

I don't know where it is!!!

Jenn:

"Mom where's my shoes?" "Mom I can't find my toy" "Mom where's my backpack?" Sound familiar? Why do our kids expect us to know the exact location of everything they have ever touched?! I usually have something smart to say like " I don't know I put it back when I used it" or "Maybe if you put it wear it belonged you would find it!" These obviously mean nothing to him considering this war has been going on for about 6 years. Why does this happen? Why hasn't my 9 year old figured out that I am not lo-jack for his stuff? It's so annoying! Everyday he has misplaced something else! Not only does HE lose it he expects ME to find it!!  I mean really what does he think happens? I sneak in and hide his stuff from him? Aliens come in and use lasers to move his things while he is sleeping!! Hopefully one day he will figure that he is responsible for his things. Not me!!

Jamie:

It's funny because my three year old has started demanding that if he can't find something that I go find it for him.  He'll say "you find it mom!", and I tell him that I don't have to find it and if he wants to play with it then he will have to go and look for it himself.  I can't believe that it starts at such a young age, and apparently never ends.  My brother who is now 30 still does it to my mom and gets extremely upset and blames everyone else for his misplaced item.  It's absolutly ridiculous!!  I don't know if it's a guy thing or what?  I don't ask my husband to find something that I lost, I simply ask him if he's seen what I'm looking for and if he hasn't I try to think of the last place I had it.  Is it really that hard to keep track of our own stuff?  I mean really!

Why do we always hurt the ones we love?

Jenn:

I think everyone has had a moment like this your frustrated,angry and your child says something to you. Anything, and you snap. You yell SHUT UP or LEAVE ME ALONE! Taking your frustration out on your innocent child. Why? Why do we do this? I have done this on more occasions then I would like to admit. I love my children more then I can say. But when I am angry they are the perfect little targets. They won't yell back. They offer no threat to me, and will still love me. Even after I have screamed at them. I feel awful after yelling at them. To my benefit, I have gotten a lot better at directing my anger at the correct person. Still sometimes I lose my patience too quickly. It's still a work in progress though.

Jamie:

So the other day I was having a dissagreement with my husband and was extremely irritated.  Well, I was getting the kids up from their nap and trying to feed them.  Needless to say they were fussing and my three year old comes up to me to ask for something and I lost it on him.  I screamed "SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!"  My  husband asked me what was wrong with me and I snapped out of it.  How could I just snap like that, on my little boy who wasn't doing anything wrong.  I felt horrible like I wanted to slap myself.  So I apologized to him and explained that he did nothing wrong it's just mommy was upset and took it out on him.  I have since taken a deeper look inside myself and realized that if I just take the time to breathe a few deep breaths right when I'm at my breaking point, I can control my sudden outbursts.  It's really hard for me to control my emotions and that is something I really need to work on.  It's so hard to admit that kids are an easy target and too often they are used as the outlet.  It's a horrible thing to think about.  I know I'm guilty of it and its sad because in the end they will love me and give me a hug.   Why is it that the one you should take it out on you don't?  There's the saying that we always hurt the ones we love, and I really don't understand why.

I love you child, but please shut up!

Jenn:

I must start this by saying my mom is going too laugh her ass off! Because I was a talker too (still am actually!) and she would say things like" God only gave you a certain amount of words and you are going to use them all by the time you are 25"!!! So when I had my adorable son and would look at him lovingly saying "I can't wait until he can talk". My mom would laugh, I never really understood why until now! My son will not,or can not stop talking! He will continue on and on about anything until I feel i might go crazy! Don't get me wrong I usually ask him to please be quite or to hush. But in the case of my son, who probably even talks in his sleep, I usually have to pull out the SHUT UP!!! Which I really don't like to say to him because no one likes to be mean to their baby. What other options do I have? I am repetedly polite and still he continues to chatter. Now I know why my mom was so cranky when she didn't get her alone time. We all need that time to think or to just hear the voices in our own heads! Just hold out for nap time or bed times mommas! It will be all right!!!!

Jamie:

So my three year old just started talking quite a lot these past few months.  There are times when he says the most adorable or hillarious things. But I do have to say that it is very frusturating when I'm trying to get a few moments to myself and he just won't leave me alone.  Like now for instance, I've been trying to write this blog for two days now and he's sitting practically on my lap talking to me about his airplanes.  It's understandable that I am his buddy and best friend, but gosh kid please give me a minute.  Also another time in the morning when I'm first waking up haven't had a chance to even get a sip of coffee and it starts mom, momma, mommy,  MMMOOOOMMM!!!! WHAT!?! What do you need!?  It just seems at times that it's never ending  My twins are just starting to talk and oh my goodness it's cute!  How mother nature really has us fooled.  Here I am trying not to yell at my three year old but oohing and ahhhing at the little ones for saying toes or other such things.  Ha! It's all an evil trick.

Where is the village?

Jenn:

So we ended our last blog questioning the supposed comradery between mothers. I thought about this subject a lot this past week. Why aren't we there for each other more? As mothers we all have our trials and rather then go through them together too many times we are alone. Why is this? Too many times I have felt judged by other mothers as not being up to par, leading me to to believe that we are no longer in this together. It's every mother for herself!! I find it sad that it has to be this way. Well I guess it doesn't have to, we could all suddenly stop judging each other and just be there to lend a helping hand. However I don't believe this is going to happen. In the past(the world of our grandparents!) people would willing help others. Now not just in motherhood, but in all aspects of life we are alone. Too afraid to ask for help for fear that we will be seen as weak, or incapable. What happened to the village? Why is it that we are so afraid to ask for help?

Jamie:

Anwsering Jenn's last question, for me, I'm afraid of being judged for not being able to handle what has been thrown my way.  I think that we are raised to feel like we can do it all no matter how impossible it may be.  If we can't we're scrutinized unfavorably among our peers.  It's sad really that it is this way, really we should be feeling like it's ok to admit when we need help and to ask for it.  There has to be some way to change this, to bring back the feeling of community.  I think a way to start would be the next time you're out in public instead of judging someone who has a screaming child and asking why they don't shut their kid up, try to be understanding that it's not always as simple as that. It's no easy feat being a mother and we really need to be more sympathetic towards each other instead of comparing ourselves and our children.  No two people are alike just like snowflakes, so let's embrace our differences and stop judging each other.

You don't get any sick days when you're a mom.....

Jenn:

So earlier this week I went to go pick Gabriel up from school because he had a doctors appointment, while walking back to the car I rolled my ankle and fell to the ground. After the shock of the pain, getting Gabriel to pick Kat up,and picking myself up I hobbled to my car. I then preceded to take Gabriel to the doctor the whole way being extremely angry at my throbbing ankle and happy that I had driven my truck, not the car which is a stick shift! See I was angry because I simply do not have time to be sidelined! After rolling my ankle I still had to go to Gabriel's appointment, the grocery store, and a meeting. Really how am I supposed to elevate my foot as much as possible to prevent swelling when I barely have a chance to sit somedays!!! Well my foot feels better now but this experience has made me realize that I don't have time to be sick or injured! Kids can't take care of themselves and sometimes that really sucks. Also your house won't clean itself, dinner doesn't magically appear,and laundry doesn't do itself! Sometimes it is nice to be needed that much but when my foot hurts and i can't walk it would be nice if I had a time out card!

Jamie

A few weeks ago I came down with this horrible sinus infection which created these horrible headaches that were sensitive to light.  So needless to say I could barely do anything around the house let alone take care of the kids.  Luckily they were pretty well behaved which made it a little easier for me.  So one day after having this horrible head pounding for 6 days I called my husband to come home from work to help me with the kids which he refused.  At that point I thought to myself that it would be nice to have a nanny at times like this. Luckily the doctor was able to fix the problem, but I do have to say that when you are sick with small children  it's near impossible to function.  Looking back I should have enlisted the help of my friends and neighbors, which all the books tell you to do.  That in itself is really hard for me to do because I like to feel like I should be superwoman able to handle any situation thrown at me.  That is something that I really need to fix about myself and admit when I need help and to not feel incompetent for admitting that I can not do it all, all the time!

After rereading our posts I thought of the old saying "it takes a village to raise a child" . Well were is our village? Why is it that too many times we are alone to face our trials and test by ourselves, too afraid to admit trouble until the problem has been resolved? Maybe these questions shall be addressed in another blog as we have 4 fussy children ready for naps!

Introductions

Hello! First of all let me say we are horrible procrastinaters which is why we signed up in August and we finally started writing in mid-September! Well my name is Jenn and i will be co-authoring this blog with my friend Jamie, who I will be telling you about in a few minutes. I am 28 and I am a stay at home mom. I have two children, one is Gabriel a 9 year old boy and the other is Katherine a soon to be 9 month old girl. We live aboard Camp Pendleton with Garrett my husband of 6 years. Now I shall pass it on to Jamie so she can tell you a little about herself and family.

Hello! My name is Jamie a stay at home mother of three.  I live on Camp Pendelton with my husband of 4 years.  My kids names are Colin a 3 year old energetic boy and Andrew and Chloe 18 month old twins which by the way came completely by suprise.  I hope that this blog can help some of you other mothers out there who feel at times that they're going crazy, or don't feel like they are being "super mom".  Nice to meet you all!

I (Jenn) thought to start this blog because of Jamie actually who would call at varying times of the day wondering  why her son couldn't count to 10 yet? or was it normal for her daughter to be throwing such horrible temper tantrums? and other various dilemmas. So I talked to her about starting this blog so that we would have a place to kinda vent our issues, and other mothers would know that they weren't alone. So here it is hope you enjoy our laughter, tears, crazyiness, pain,and frustration at figuring this whole kid thing out!