My Family, My Life

I have said it before and I'll say it again. I feel like I lead a double life. I have my family/church life, and then there is my work life. I feel like I have to defend my ideals and morals and all my beliefs every day at work. This world is so different than I have ever experienced. Today at work I had someone belittle my family and my desire to have more children. She made me feel stupid and ignorant because I want a big family. She told me that I'll never be able to afford more children, I'll never be able to spend enough time with my kids, and I won't be able to love them enough. She made me feel bad for even considering it. I come from a family of 5 children and Kevin comes from a family of 8 children. I never felt unloved even with so many kids. WE have both always wanted a big family ourselves. I know it's ridiculous to let someone else make you feel bad but the way she was talking made me want to defend my decision to have children. Now I'm not saying that having a big family is right or even possible for everyone, but it's nobody's business but yours and the Lord's how many kids you have.

Sometimes I feel like I grew up very sheltered. I knew it was unusual for my parents to have 5 kids, especially so close in age, but I didn't know people actually frowned on it. I just thought we were an oddity. When I went to college I went to BYU in Utah, the land of big families. 5 kids was small potatoes there. Now that I live in Austin, I have had to explain my desire for many children time after time. And I always get the same answer..."How will you remember them all?...Are you crazy? That is way too many...That's ridiculous." Or something like that. I have a very hard time being excited about something when everyone around me is telling me it's wrong. Unfortunately the normal thing here seems to be to get pregnant, get married because you're pregnant, get divorced because you can't get along, and spend the rest of your life regretting the mistake of having a baby in the first place. Isn't that sad, that children are growing up knowing they were a mistake.

When I'm at work I miss being home so much I don't get to go to church as much as I'd like to because I have to work and I finally figured out why I hate missing so much. Besides the fact that it does make my week go so much nicer and I feel good and it's the right thing to do, but it's almost like a safe haven. It's my cool water after traipsing through the desert all week at work. I get to be with people who understand me, they have the same values and morals as me, They believe the same things and they accept me for who I am and love my family no matter how big or small or rich or poor. I feel safe and happy.

Let me tell you something. I love my family. Not just my husband and kids but my extended family and in-laws too. I'm proud to have such a big family. I like being with my brothers and sisters and parents. I love belonging to a church that preaches the sanctity of marriage and that holds the family in high esteem. I love my kids. I think about them all the time, especially when I'm away. I love how Landan runs into my arms every time I come home. He gives the best hugs. I love how Gavin's face lights up when he sees me. His eyes get all big and he has the cutest giggles. They are so precious to me and I wouldn't trade them for all the money in the world. And even if I have to work for the rest of my life, I will love every single one of my children and they WILL know it. And no one is going to make me feel bad about having kids. I may not be perfect, but I can be a mom, and that's the most important thing to me right now.

My baby is mobile...sort of.

My baby is starting to be mobile. He can't sit up yet but he can roll around and grab stuff. So, I was putting laundry away today and this is where I left Gavin... (notice the bed to the left)



And this is where I found him a few minutes later...



(in case you can't tell, he's under the bed and not very happy about it. he couldn't figure out how to get out.)

Another vacation

We had another 4 day weekend so we decided to go on another vacation to San Antonio. We were supposed to have a pretty full schedule but things didn't exactly go as planned. Here was our itinerary:

Fri: take Christmas pictures and go to timeshare resort and relax
Sat: go to a corn maze and then to San Marcos outlet mall
Sun: go to Sea World
Mon: go to the San Antonio zoo

This is what we really did:

Fri: Christmas pictures and relaxing at the resort
Sat: skipped the corn maze and just went to the outlet mall
Sun: Sea World
Mon: came home because everyone was sick

I was pretty excited while at the outlet mall because we found jeans for the whole family for really cheap. Sea World was really fun again, Landan had a blast. There's this clown that does all this funny stuff before the Viva show and Landan thinks he's hilarious. Kevin spent the entire time trying to be the official Sea World photographer. He had a lot of fun taking pictures of all the shows.

This picture of Gavin was the only one that we got to take because there's not much for a baby to do at Sea World. So while Landan was climbing on the pirate ship I was with Gavin in this little toddler area that is really soft. He was already starting to not feel good though so he's not so happy in the picture. He woke up with croup that night and Landan was coughing really badly and Kevin was still fighting a cold so we decided to just come home on Mon instead of going to the zoo, but it was great to be able to get away for awhile anyway.

More Sea World

I finally had time to put these pictures on the blog. These are from our little Sea World vacation a month ago but it took too long to download the pictures so it took me this long. These are some pictures of some of the shows we went to. There's a sea lion show that is really funny, the Shamu show that is my favorite (I love killer whales), and a dolphin and beluga whale show. The first set are from the dolphin/beluga wale show where our friend Valerie is an animal trainer. We thought it was really good. She actually took us backstage after to show to meet the whales and dolphins and we got to touch a beluga whale. It was great. We had so much fun seeing her do her shows and to meet her new hubby Adam. It made for a great weekend.

Gavin at 6 mo.

I call Gavin my little monkey because he always has his feet in his mouth. It's so funny. So, you know how I said during Gavin's 4 mo. update that I was glad one of my boys would be normal. Well, apparently I spoke too soon. We went to the doctor today and I found out Gavin isn't gaining weight or length properly. Here is a link to his previous stats in case you are curious. click here Here are his current stats:

Weight: 13 lbs 2 oz (from 30% to 0%)
Length: 25 in. (from 20% to 5%)
Head: 43.5 cm (75% to 50%)

So his head is still pretty normal but the rest of him is small. He only gained 5 oz since the last visit 2 months ago. The doctor asked if he could sit up by himself yet and I said no, he tries but he just falls sideways. The doctor said it was probably because his head is so big and his body is so small. So we're going to try some things to get him to gain more weight and he goes back in a month for a weight check. So far all my children seem to be really small. I wonder if the trend will continue.

Mommy's Little Helper

Landan was so funny today. I was fighting with Gavin because he's been really fussy today for some reason. I was trying to fold laundry but it was really difficult with Gavin crying so much. So Landan started helping me. When I tried to do some Landan wouldn't let me. He wanted to do it all by himself. So while I put Gavin down for a nap, Landan put all of the clothes away. Isn't he so sweet?

Trick or Treat

So of course, it's time for the trick or treat blog. I couldn't help but have a little pre-Halloween costume fest so I put Landan's old costume from when he was a baby on Gavin and let Landan try on his costume. They were so sweet.







Landan was so funny trick or treating. He had to have a small conversation with every person he saw. These are some of the things I heard...

"Trick or treat. Thank you for the candy. Bye. ....(as he's running down the driveway) "Mommy, I got it. I got the candy!"

"I love your costume. Do you like my costume?"

"I'm the new Bumblebee from Transformers. I look great. And I'm really brave."

"I love your Halloween decorations. But I'm not scared cause I'm really brave and strong."

He even had a 5 min conversation with one couple about his costume, their decorations, sports and the stone hippo that was in their yard painted with Texas A&M colors. (hippos are a big thing here in Hutto.) When we left, the guy said, "He's got quite the personality doesn't he." It was so cute. He was being so polite and sweet to everyone he saw. It was hilarious.

Gavin spent the whole time sleeping in the stroller. He was so cute in his little Bee costume.

There was this one lady dressed as a witch but she didn't have a hat. Landan asked where it was and she said she couldn't find it. About a block away another lady was wearing normal clothes with a witch hat. Landan walked up to her and said, "Hey, you stole the witch's hat!" She didn't understand so she said, "yeah I am wearing a hat. But I can't find my broom." So landan says, "I'll help you find it." and proceeds to start looking around her porch. He can be quite the charmer when he wants to be.

In case you can't tell, Landan is the yellow and black car named Bumblebee from the movie Transformers.