Hello there...

Long time no write.

I have been debating what to do with this blog. I love my blog and I wish I updated more. There are a couple of reasons why I have not been active. One reason is because I am super angry at blogger (long story involving all my deleted pictures). The other is that, well, I am sort of random and really boring.

On the random note, should make this a mommy blog? A large family blog? A photography blog? A beauty blog? Or just stick with the random musings of a neurotic mom? Some weeks I am all about my photography obsession and the next I am all about my nail polish obsession and the next I am all about the mommy stuff. I do not know if that randomness is a good thing or a bad thing. I am not sure where I am going with this other than to say there are big changes in the works...I am just not sure what.

Well, hello there!

What's new?

Nothing new in my neck of the woods. Football ended and we went right into wrestling. Life is busy. I have decided that is just how it is when you have kiddos.

My little guy fractured his foot. Ugh. Poor kiddo. He slipped on wet tile in the bathroom. He bit his lip in the process and we were so focused on that we did not notice right away that he was limping. Luckily is just a tiny chip. He is in a half cast right now. We will take him for an ortho consult next week. But we have already been told they almost never cast this type of fracture.

I have been feeling down a lot lately. And I really think I need to take time to take better care of myself. I need to eat better, lose weight, sleep more...all the usual suspects. But I think I need to let myself enjoy life more. Of course this is all easier said than done. But I sincerely want to work on this.

Still plugging away with my photography hobby. I have even had some friends ask me to to take pictures. I suppose I will use this as an opportunity to build a portfolio. I really need to work on Photoshop skills. Photoshop is so overwhelming!

I guess that is all for now. I leave you with a lovely view of the Sandia mountain range. What a treat to wake up to these beauties everyday.

Radioactive

About 6 years ago my son begged us to play football. We were quite surprised as we are not really football fans. But he had some friends at school that played and he was interested. Evenutally we agreed and allowed him to play. In the end it was one of the best decisions ever. It was great for his self esteem, it keeps him in awesome shape (and away from the Xbox!), he is forced to have incredible time management skills and therefore has great grades. But one perk I did not expect was all the great friends I made along this journey. High school football will be a great experience but it was hard to say goodbye to this chapter.

The past two years were rough on our boys for various reasons. Last season ended 0-8 for them. And on a personal note, my son broke his arm during their 3 game. It was a rough season. But this season they came back fighting. The boys were in incredible shape and made it all the way to the semi-finals. It was a great experience for them and for us parents. I am so very proud of this incredible group of boys.

Oh how the years go by

Lately I have been feeling so melancholy. It has really hit me that my oldest is 14-years-old and in high school. 14-years-old! How does that happen? I feel like my time with her is fleeting and it just hurts my heart. I still remember that first time she was handed to me. My sweet baby girl, my only daughter. Now, she is a young lady.

My next oldest is 13-years old, my oldest son. He is tall as me now. This past week was his football banquet. It was so emotional because this was his last year before he starts high school and plays high school football. The end of an era and a new chapter to start...

Ugh, my heart just hearts lately. I know that is selfish because they are growing up and coming into their own. I should be proud and happy. I am so very proud of them. But for now, it hurts and I am going to be selfish about it for a while.

Hold your babies tight momma's. Babies don't keep.

IMAGE CREDIT

Balloon Fiesta 2013

I was lucky enough to shoot these at my office this morning. We have a fantastic view of the festivities.

More pictures HERE

October?!

It is seriously October? Where has this year gone? It cannot believe it is already Fall and the holidays are on their way. I sort of have this love/hate relationship with Fall. I love the holidays and the activites that go along with them. But I loathe cold weather. And in my mind, anything below 75 degrees is downright freezing. I want to live somewhere that allows me to wear flip-flops and sundresses every day of the year. Oh well, I will have to comfort myself with yummy Pumpkin Spice Lattes to make up for the cold weather.

BUT...you want to know what I love the most about October? In my city, October means it is time for the Balloon Fiesta! I cannot really describe the ballon fiesta...it is just really cool. I mean, hot air balloons are cool anyway but hundreds in the sky at once is an AMAZING sight. I cannot wait to take pictures with my big girl camera. Here a couple pictures taken from my son's school the other night (taken with my phone).

Speaking of my big girl camera...I am a project 52 dropout. I do take pictures daily but I am just really overwhelmed and really bad about getting pictures up here in a timely manner. I know, loser. :( But I am still plugging along. Always practicing and trying to improve.

Let's see, what else is new? Well my baby is 14-months-old now. Craziness. He just started walking about two weeks ago. I mean, who wants to walk when you have 4 older siblings that carry you around like a little prince? He is generally a really happy baby. He has been kind of crabby the last week which I believe is from teething. He has this lovely new trick where he sticks his hands all the way in the back of his mouth to rub his gums. Great job at self soothing, right? Wrong. When trying to self soothe he occasionally gags himself when self soothing..which has led to accidental vomitting on more than one occasion. Generally, it is not a bog deal. Kind of yucky and pain in the rear but puke happens right? Except it sucks when you are at large family gathering at Olive Garden. Here is my cutie moments before vomitting all over the table after attempting to rub his gums. Good times.

Happy Fall everyone!

The House That Walt Built...

Goodbye Breaking Bad, we miss you already!

Hello again

It's official. I am the worst blogger ever. The worst.

I could come up with all these excuses about how busy I am. But suspect if anyone even reads this blog...they are also a mom and therefore also very busy. So that is a crummy excuse, right? The truth is that I am just really overwhelmed. I have mentioned this before but I am the worst working mom ever. I leave the house at 7:15AM and drop my children off and school, go to work, take kids to practice and then get home around 8:00PM and then start my preparation for the next day. Sometime around midnight I collapse in bed and then start all over again. I am really tired and constantly feel like I am treading water.

I need to find a balance because right now, I am not very happy. My home is disorganized, I need/want to lose weight, I am always tired and just feeling pretty down.

But tonight I am trying to recharge a bit. We are having record rainfall the past few days resulted in the cancellation of football practice this evening and tomorrow's games were postponed a week. So I am sitting here on my butt drinking a glass of 2 Buck Chuck and watching Dateline. Tomorrow I will sleep until the baby wakes me (around 7AM if I am lucky!) and then we will leisurely get ready for football practice. Then I shall come home and attempt to relax some more (in between loads of laundry).

I am one tired momma and I am determined to unwind this weekend. I work really hard (both inside and outside the home) and I deserve some downtime. Now, if I can just stick to my word and really let myself relax...

My life recently as told through my phone camera...

Because I do not have enough chaos in my life I volunteered to bring water to practice for two weeks for my 11 year old's FB team

There have been after practice trips to the grocery store for Gatorade every now and then

Conor's favorite part of daycare is eating...

I forgot just how much crap I have to pack for game day

My baby is still adorable and makes this face when I take pictures now

I color coordinated my daughter's closet. She was not amused.

Again, I have a cute baby...

Back to School

I am the worst blog owner lately! I am so behind on my Project 52. Truthfully, I am taking pictures but not good at posting and keep up my blog.

I am just so overwhelmed right now. Between football and back to school madness I cannot even see straight. Work is also stressful right now (good but stressful). Some people love when the kids go back to school. I am not one of those people. The kids going back to school adds a whole new level of chaos into my life. And also back to school time means I am literally hemorrhaging money...the school supplies, the clothes, the gas driving back and forth from store to store. Ugh. I say boo to back to school.

This year I have a 3rd grader, two middle schoolers (6th and 8th grade) and a high schooler (9th grader). A high schooler! How in the world did that happen? Anyway, we are on week two of school and we are surviving. The 9th grader is not loving HS yet but it gets better each day. It is just a huge change.

But otherwise everything is going well. My house is a little messier and I am a little more exhausted (I did not even think that was possible) but we are trudging along...

My life recently as told through my phone camera...

Still playing catch-up, my past couple weeks as told through my phone camera...

Fall ball 2013 took over our home and wallets.

My purse looks like a toybox

My baby is still really cute

There was some some Chipotle action

Football homework?!

Again, my baby is really cute

Project 52-Week 29 and 30

Ok, so I am a bit behind. I actually took the pictures I just did not get around to posting them. Life has been a little crazy. My boys started football on July 22 and we have been in the middle of back to school preparations so I have not had a chance to actually sit down and write.

Week 29

The important thing about this picture is that it was incredibly overexposed and I salvaged it a bit. Pretty proud of myself.


Week 30

Again, another shot that is more about editing. It was shot during the middle of the day so that shadows were pretty harsh. I tried my hardest to fix it.

Here is where I warn you that the majority og my pictures will be football related for at least the next two months. Sorry. That is my only practice time during football season.

I will try to stay on top of this for the rest of the year!

Random Thoughts on Kindness and Compassion

“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant?”
-Henry David Thoreau
In January a friend of mine lost her husband quite suddenly to cancer. He was a great father and husband and left behind my friend and their four children. It is really hard to imagine losing your spouse, your best friend. She is sad and hurting but a really amazing mom. She holds it together amazingly well despite her pain. In April my nephew passed away. He was only 16 and it was very unexpected. As you can imagine it has been very devastating for the entire family. And it hard as it has been for all of us our grief is only but a fraction that my sister and brother in law are feeling. I just wish I could make them feel better. It is really hard to see them hurting.

I really cannot imagine the pain my friend and sister & brother in law are feeling. It is very hard to wrap my mind around that kind of grief. I am not lying when I say that I think about both these families daily. It is very bizarre that you got about your day...business as usual and meanwhile others are having to endure the most traumatic of events.

I used to work with this gal that everyone thought was so rude. People would talk about her behind her back. Come to find out, she was living with domestic violence. At one point I had a coworker that always seemed distracted. People would talk about her because they felt like they had to pick up her slack. Turns out, she was dealing with a teenage daughter addicted to heroin. I mean, you just never know what someone else is going through.

Everyone has different struggles and we live in this society of go-go-go and busy-busy-busy. Everyone always seems to be in such a hurry and annoyed. People just seem to lack compassion these days. We should all stop once and a while and remember that people have different struggles in their lives and we should try to keep that in mind at all times. It would not hurt us to be a little kinder to each other and have some more compassion.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately but I really have not been able to put it into words. I came across the following video on Facebook it really spoke to me. I instantly thought of my sister & brother in law and my friend.



I know I am kind of all over the place with this post. I guess my point is to be kind to each other. You just never know what the person next to you is dealing with. Kindness is always free and just takes a second.

Big changes going on in our household

I quit my second job. I know it was only one day a week but it was becoming too much. My mental health was more important and when I feel ready I will write about that too. Anyway, that chapter is closed for now. My "big girl" job is mentally draining. I love it, don't get me wrong. But it is a difficult job. Plus, I am a mom and that is a full time job too. And I know that having five children is not really considered a large family in the large family world but for me, it is a large family. I love my kids and would not change a thing...heck I would even add one more if I could. But managing five children is a challenge for me. Working 6 days a week was too difficult for me. I had to move on.

And the biggest change is that Conor starts a new daycare tomorrow. This was something we always planned on. My 8 year old (my Bear) attended this preschool/daycare from age 3-5 and we loved it. Sadly, they stopped taking babies a couple years ago so we were not able to start Conor there when we needed daycare. We found a back up solution knowing we would switch him around age one. We got to bypass the waiting list and get him as soon as his first birthday rolled around. I am thrilled, it is an outstanding Montessori daycare/school and we had the best experience with our Bear. BUT...I am feeling so guilty about changing up his routine. I feel terrible about putting him through this transition even though I know it will be fine. Even though I knew this was the plan all along, I can't help but feel worried about the whole situation. I just hope he adjusts easily and quickly.

Wish us luck.

Keep Calm...

Someday I hope my skill matches my passion

My life recently as told through my phone camera...

Once 4:25pm rolls around at work I am already packed and ready to go!

One of Conor's birthday gifts...really I wanted them for ME.

His favorite birthday gift

My 8 year old loved this gift as well...

I was a lazy mom at least once this week and fed my kids junk

My sister gave me a cute beer koozie. We are classy around here. ;)

I attempted an ombre cake

DH and I made TJ's run...I swear we are not alcoholics, just cheap.

Almost a Pinterest fail...

I was determined to make a simple ombre cake. Just a simple 3 layer cake and mini cake for Conor. My first mistake was not making my own icing. It is so warm here and the icing was oozing everywhere. It was a mess. But in the end it was a semi success and actually tasted good.

Conor was totally overwhelmed with all the singing so he freaked out an started crying. Poor kiddo.

Happy birthday to my littlest love...

Exactly one year ago today, at 11:35pm my sweet unexpected blessing entered the world. I really cannot believe just how fast this year has gone by. He really is a joy to have in our lives. He is the best gift that I never knew I wanted. I love you with all my heart sweet Conor Knox.

Please excuse the quality of these pictures. My camera was broken and I relied on my crappy phone until receiving my dslr in December.

This little gem goes out to any BBC mommas that might stumble across my blog...Conor and a Llama.