Jealous, who me?

My husband loves me, this I know.
I know there is no one else he loves more than me, this I am sure of.

I'm not the jealous type at all, really I don't think it's worth it to find things to be jealous about.

But after seven years of marriage I have found there is one "lady" I have to compete with for his attention, and I have found I can get slightly jealous.

This "gal" takes my husband away from me on many Saturday mornings and even some times on holidays ((GASP))!

He even took a 10 day "romantic" trip with her to Moab! Yeah, I know right?!

Five to six months out of the year he thinks about her often and takes every opportunity to spend as much time as possible with her.

She takes him away from me/us when he has a day off, and this gets me slightly jealous.
I was totally fine with her at the beginning of our marriage. This relationship seemed pretty harmless between the two of them. But over the years my tolerance for her has begun to dwindle and some times I find myself glaring at her as she sits up on her pedestal.



SO....
You want to see a picture of my competition?

Here she is, in all her dirty glory.

OK, I'm being slightly dramatic and very sarcastic.

I found this picture on our camera, that my husband had taken of his wonderful Mountain bike and thought it was funny that he would take time to snap a picture of this "love" of his, all dirtied up after one of his rides. But would he snap a picture of me all shower-less, make-up-less and unkempt? NOPE. (for that I am grateful).

I just thought it was funny and anyone who knows my husband and his love for his hobby will find it funny too.

I call this his shrine (my mom named it that, and it stuck with me), where he hangs his "baby" in our house. This is our stairwell in our house, where she swings from our ceiling.

He could NOT keep his bike outside to get all rusty and ruined. Since we live a town house with no garage and no decent sized storage he got creative and this is where "she" hangs out when she's not in use, from the ceiling in our stairwell. Creative, no?

Okay, so I don't even know if its a "she" and I'm really not jealous of this bike, I'm just being silly. I'm posting this mostly just to give him a hard time.

I like that he has a hobby that he loves to keep up with and that makes him happy and that gives him an "out", some time to himself to enjoy being alone, it's good for him. Plus right now in his life it's his only form of exercise he's getting so it's good for him in that way too.

Although some times I do have to remind him that he can't spend every Saturday and holiday mountain biking, that he does have a family that wants him around on some of his days off...... I'm still am okay with this other "love of his.

And over the years he has gotten pretty good at balancing his mountain biking time with his family time.

AND some day soon in the not too far distant future he will get a new "love", the one he has been dreaming of for years but has been unable to purchase because his mean awful wife has told him "NO, you cannot spend that much money on a new mountain bike!"

After years and years of schooling, getting his BA and finishing up Graduate school, I will finally be the nice wife I really want to be and tell him "Yes, you deserve it, spend too much money on a bike you will worship." And then he'll love ME the MOST for letting him buy it and there will be no more competition for me and I will have the shrine in our house :)

ha ha ha ha ha ((evil laugh)) my plan will work like a charm.
Okay I must be tired, I'm getting really weird.

Here he is with her again, ugh! J/k.
This was on his Moab trip with his best biking buddy AND, by-the-way, I LET him go on this 10 day trip, making me an awesome wife. (It was his Christmas present)

LOVE YOU SWEETY!

Baby blessing

While my Dad was here we decided to bless the baby. We were not planning on going home to have her blessed and not all our family could come out here for her blessing, so since we knew he could join in the circle for that we decided to do it while he was here.

Baby L's blessing day.
SO PRETTY!My Mother made this dress for E's blessing and I decided I'd use it for this baby girl as well.
I love J boy's face in this one.
The kids, all three of them.
Luv'n on little sissy.

Papa came to visit!

Papa came to visit so he could meet our sweety pie. He also came out here to help me by keeping the other kids entertained while I tried to get back into the swing of things (although I'm not sure I'm there yet, three kids is kind of a hard adjustment).

He loved snuggling our little ladybug

Not only did he bring lots of stuff for the baby, but he brought the kids new summer clothes. Although, we know it was G-ma that picked out the clothes ;) Here they are sporting their cute clothes, they wanted a to take a picture to say "Thanks Grandma!"

My children have been begging for papa to come out here to visit forever. You see, Grandma has come to visit, Aunties have come to visit, Grandma and Grandpa Harker have come out here, just he's never been out here the whole 4 years we've been here. It's hard for him to come out with work and all. J boy would say "I want papa to come so I can show him the zoo." E wanted to take him to the fun Children's Museum. Every year they have asked "Is Papa coming to visit us?" and I would tell them "some day he will." Finally that day came!

They planned every second of his trip out here before he ever decided to come visit.
So while Papa was here we did lots of things the kids have had planned for him for some time now.....

We went to the zoo (sorry no pictures) and showed him the dolphins there, which are E's favorite.

We showed him the fun Children's museum.

J boy took Papa to the race track (Tis the season) which they both enjoyed their boy bonding time :)

I went shopping BY MYSELF, while leaving the kids with Papa. It was only grocery shopping, but still it was nice.

The kids took Papa on a walk in the "woods" as they call it, where they collected sticks, found bugs, played with frogs and got really hot and sweaty.

(lots of sticks!)

She loves butterflies

playing with the frog

THANK YOU PAPA FOR FINALLY COMING OUT TO VISIT!

Kindergarden Graduate

A week ago or so E had her "End of the year program" along with a sort of Kindergarten Graduation. It was nothing formal with a cap and gown but they did shake hands with their teacher and get a Graduation certificate.

Her program was really cute and fun to watch. She was acting shy much of the time while singing their songs but it was still fun to watch her perform.

Our little Kindergarten Graduate

I can't believe how fast her first year of school went by. Just four more days left of school for her!

She's growing up so fast!

It's like love but more than love

E said to me yesterday
"Mommy, I just love love love my baby sister SO much. It's like I love her, but it's more than love."

As soon as she said that I totally got it. In fact I was just thinking about this the other day.

There is no word in the English language or any language that can possibly describe how I truly feel about my family...... my husband, my children and my family in which I grew up in.

"It's like love, but more than love."

When I see my husband scoop up our baby and cuddle with her, or when I watch my kids play and laugh together, or when I hold my baby for hours it fills me with a joy and love that is so much more than just that, it's hard to describe.

It was so sweet to see E recognize that feeling too.

If only words could describe our true feelings.....

Our little Ladybug

Our little Ladybug is one week old today. This has seriously been the longest week of my life. On Tuesday I was asking if it was Friday, yeaaaah.....it's been a long week.

C has had rotations up at the hospital for oral surgery this whole week, something he very well could not have skipped out on to stay home with us. I think this is why it has been so hard. BUT my little lady decided last night to give us a break and sleep for 4 hours straight last night, which is a great improvement from her not sleeping at all at night.

Counting my blessings here........4 hours is great (for now).

It has been almost 4 years since I had a newborn to take care of and I had forgotten what they were like. I think this is also another contributing factor to my week being so long. I was reminded by our sweet bug that newborns are indeed LOTS of work.

J boy has been great. He's not been the least bit jealous, more like inconclusive about the whole "new baby in the house" thing. For that I am also grateful.

As far as a nick name on here for this girl. I have decided she goes by lots of nicknames around the house, mostly by me.........

Sweet cheeks (my favorite)
Little lady
Ladybug
L(her name, which starts with an L) Lou Lou
Pretty girl
sweet pea
and lots more.....

So for now, on the blog she will be referred to as one of those names above. Then when she gets older we'll come up with something different, more grown up for her.

Here are some pictures for you all who have been asking....

The ladybug herself

So tiny. I forget how tiny they are.

E starts her day off by holding her sister and ends it the same way, precious.

All three of my babies. THREE?! Yikes I have three kids.

This is amazing that I got such a good picture of J boy with his baby sister.

There ya go family, more pictures of the newest grand baby, niece etc.
I must be going now, no time for editing this post. The Lady is calling me, what's new?!
Boy do I love her though.

She is here at last!

Well, for those of you who do not have C or I on your Facebook.....She is here! Our little baby girl came into this world on May 7th at 12:48pm. She weight 7lbs. 9.5 oz

As for her name, well as you know I don't put our family names on here. So if you'd like to know her name I have it posted on Facebook if you don't have me on facebook you can email me and I'll send you a quick email back with her name. I don't mind sharing her name with people I know but I'd rather not put it out there for just anyone. I'll have to come up with a blog nick name for her, but as of yet I haven't thought of anything fun or creative.

She came into this world angry! Neither of our other kids came out screaming like she did and it surprised us. Boy, was she mad. C and I looked at each other as if to say "Oh no, we have a screamer." But, now she is quite the opposite. She rarely cries, not even when she's hungry, she mostly fusses and has short little mouse squeaks. I have to let her get worked up to even hear her really cry and even then she's not even close to as loud as she was the day she came into the world. Crossing my fingers she stays this way! She really is an amazingly good baby, what a blessing that has been.The kids love her. E LOVES to hold her and has already gained too much confidence in her "holding skills" she has tried to move her to a new position, some times it works out and some times I find her and the baby in an awkward position. I have to remind E she still needs help with her. It's cute though, how much she loves her. E's favorite things to say about her sister "I just love her so much!" and "She is just so cute!" E even tried to play "sick" so she could stay home from school to be with her sister. It did not work.
J boy loves her too, in his own way. He doesn't sit there and obsess over her like E does but I catch him looking at her tiny features and saying "ooohhh so little" or "sooo cute!" His favorite thing to help out with is the diaper changing. He's weird, I know. He loves to hand me the clean diaper and take the dirty ones and throw them in the trash. He gets so upset if some one else throws the dirty diaper out, it's kind of funny.
As for me. I of course can't get enough of her. I fear that her cheeks will get calluses on them from me kissing them so much, but no, they are still as soft and chubby as ever.

I'm feeling good, tired but good over all. Right now we're just trying to figure out a schedule for us, which always takes a while but I hope to get her on one soon. Some times I feel like such an experienced Mom and other days I feel like I don't know what the heck I'm doing. So hopefully I remember the new born stage and can get this little girl figured out soon.

This has been so fun to have a new baby in the house but I don't think I would be doing as well as I am with out my amazing Husband who is always so helpful and I don't think I'd survive with out my wonderful friends around here who have been here and willing to help out in any way. I am truly blessed to have these people as my "family" when my family cannot be here (yet). THANK YOU! You all know who you are, and I love you!

We have taken plenty of pictures of her that I will hopefully find the time to post soon. Thanks for the well wishes, we're glad she is here and healthy.