Frog Hunting!

I cannot believe it's already August 1st. I have failed miserably with these daily diary entries, but I'm going to keep trying! I think I will recap our weekend and the first half of the week in this post since I am not tired at all and everyone else in my house is asleep! Yay! Sometimes I crave the quiet. I wouldn't trade my life for anything, but does anyone else get this way? Some days the LOUD in my house can really just get to me and I need to step back and take a quiet moment alone. That moment is 10:48 at night in a pitch dark room writing this. I will tell you one thing though, I, without a doubt, would rather have yelling/screaming/fighting all day long than not have my children at all. And really, I am lucky, my kids get along great! They can just be loud.

So, let's go back to Friday, July 27th. Fridays are long days for me. My husband recently went back to school to get his Bachelors in Business Management. I could not be more proud of him and the opportunities he is opening up for our family. I honestly have the best husband a woman could ask for and I thank God for him every single day. But, like I said, Fridays are looooong. He gets up at 4 am to go to work and from 6 to 10 pm he is in school. He does not get to come home first and I don't see him for the day until 10:30 at night. I really thought it would be harder than it is and I am sure it will have it's moments in the next four years, but for now, it's been okay. I really give props to single moms/military wives though. You ladies are amazing! Our Fridays start out slow. In our pajamas, eating breakfast, watching cartoons, etc. This Friday was no different. I also clean every Friday all day long, so we can enjoy our weekend, which I also did on the 27th. It rained that day and it was exciting for everyone here. We live in Arizona and we soak up the rain when we can!

Friday was long, but it was uneventful. Lunch, snacks, playing, dinner, baths, pajamas, books, watch a movie. Simple and fairly easy. 

Saturday was full of FUN for the Conner family. We always look forward to getting together with our amazing friends Z and J. We hadn't seen them in weeks and we were invited over to their house to swim and have a BBQ with some other awesome friends of ours, A and H. First things first, Jon had to go meet up with his learning team int he morning for school. It was left to me to feed and dress the kids and get us all ready to head out around 2. We had to gather bathing suits and our awesome "floaties". My son is 5 and my daughter is 3 but neither of them know how to swim. This is something we really need to work on because they both LOVE swimming. They were busting at the seams to get to Z and J's house. Once Jon got home we all finally got out of the house around 2:15 and as we got closer and closer to their house, we knew a storm was inevitable. It was amazing to see. I texted J and told her I was pretty sure it was raining at her house. She was at the store and had no idea. Turns out, we hit rain hard and it rained for quite some time. It just poured and poured, but we didn't care. We looooove the rain and we were still excited to be with our friends and their kids. The rain did eventually let up and we still got to swim and BBQ.

A and H's little boy is 3 months younger than Josie and they always look so cute "playing"together. We all had a blast, had yummy food, a few beers and lots of laughs. My favorite thing to do is get together at our friends' houses and just hang out. We never have a need to go to a bar or do silly things like that. We have so much fun shooting the breeze and relaxing with great friends. And we ALWAYS stay there late haha. We didnt get home until after 2 am. The kids always fall asleep on the couches and us adults have fun talking even more. I always tell people this is our life and right now this is what life is throwing at us. It wont hurt my kids to occasionally stay up late or to fall asleep at a friends' house once in awhile. This is our real life.

 

Somewhere along the way Z decided they(as in my hubs, him and their friend Josh) needed to go hunt frogs. After the monsoon rain you can hear dozens of them croaking out behind their house and apparently Z wanted to catch some. At one point he was just gone for a really long time and we had no idea where he went until he came home with about 4 frogs! Then all the guys went to catch more. I think they had 14 frogs in a tank. I guess this was fun for them?? lol I have no idea. The girls did the sane thing and stayed home!

We seriously always have a blast and July 28th was no different! I cant wait to get together with them again soon.

Sunday we were supposed to go to the Lowes Build and Grow Clinic with Michael but he said he didn't want to go. We all ended up sleeping in very late and hung out all day in our pajamas. We literally did nothing and it felt nice. Our weekends are usually jam packed, so it felt good to relax a little besides normal chores and 3 kids to take care of!

 

Monday, July 30th, Jon had TWELVE hours of homework to do, but I am so proud of him. He did it! I took care of the kids and cleaned our house while he worked at the kitchen table. It's nice that he is going through The University of Phoenix though because he only goes to class once a week for 5 weeks and then he moves on to the next class. That DOES mean he has more work to do at home than a normal student, but I'm happy I have him at home if I do need him. And I can talk to him and kiss him whenever I want while he works. We were supposed to go to the store but decided to just do it Tuesday night instead. I didn't feel like going anywhere. During all that homework Jon did manage to fire up the grill and we have amazing lemon pepper grilled chicken, roasted corn on the cob and horrible guilty pleasure pastaroni. It was delicious and I love my husband even more for finding the time to help me cook it all even with all his work.

After that it was tubby time for the kiddos and then bed time for all of us. 

Tuesday morning came quick and I woke to a very clingy baby. She has been nursing NON STOP for the past 2 days now and this was day one. I swear she nursed at least 20 times on the 31st. She is nursing like a newborn and I cant figure it out. The only thing I can think is she is teething or growing. She has all of her top teeth but still only has 2 bottom teeth. Our dentist told us this is backwards lol but it's fine. Her mouth has a mind of it's own. Apparently, the bottom teeth usually all come in first and then the top teeth. We never had this problem with Michael or Violet, they got their teeth around4 months old and had a full mouth of teeth by a year. Thank God for amber teething necklaces though!

Seriously the BEST planner ever. I would be lost without it!

I spent my Tuesday working on our budget, home school schedule and cleaning. The kids spent it playing. Tuesdays are catch-up days for us normally since our weekends are usually so busy. This Tuesday wasn't needed as a catch up since we had a lazy couple of days. It was nice to get caught up on the random things I don't think of normally, like updating the baby books and organizing some papers, filing bills, etc. We had homemade calzones for dinner and then headed out to the store to grab a few groceries to get us through the week and we needed printer paper. As soon as we got home it was bed time for the kids and for us. We were all pooped!

One of the things I updated today. I hadn't written in Josie's yet! We buy each of our kids Your Birthday Book for their first birthday. Each year you can fill in things about them, store keepsakes and interview them to write down their responses. This is a MUST have in my opinion!

And that brings us to today. Again, not a very exciting day. Tuesday through Friday are usually pretty boring days in the Conner house. We woke up, got dressed, made my bed and headed downstairs to let the dog out. I changed Josie's diaper and got her dressed. And here's where I will add she has a sore on her inner leg/booty area that has me concerned. Violet was prone to staph infections and I am worried Josie has one. I will get a picture posted on here tomorrow. I think I need to try to get her in to the doctor on Monday because usually triple antibiotic cream works with the staph but it hasn't made it better at all after 2 days of slathering it on. Anyways, after that we all ate breakfast and then my kids proceeded to play with play doh for three hours at the table! I had to force them to go upstairs and play while I got Josie to sleep. I am so so so thankful I have such great kids. They listen well and they play so amazing together. They don't even watch t.v. or want to watch it. They just want to play and use their imaginations all day and I am so for it. Kids learn the most by playing!

I got Josie down for a nap and uploaded my VEDA(video every day in August) video on youtube, so go check it out! From there I picked up my living room, cleaned my kitchen, swept my entire downstairs, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher and started dinner. We had Alfredo pasta and an awesome bacon Caesar salad. We had dinner early tonight so we could get a head start on baths and bedtime routines, which we did! I got to take a shower and talk with my love for a good while before getting back to my mom work and it was much needed. Sometimes you just need to take a moment and talk about the things that are on your mind. For me it's talking about having another baby, which at this point we have no idea what we want to do lol. We talk about TTC in October and then we say December, other times we say next year. I really hope God just takes it out of my hands and decides for me! I do chart and right now we are using condoms, so God would have to intervene big time I think!

The BEST resource for learning how to chart your cycles and for getting pregnant. A must read for all women!

After we got cleaned up we all went downstairs and I made peach banana smoothies, had vitamins, brushed teeth and then it was bed time for Violet, then Michael and then Jon, Josie and I. So here I am! Sitting here in the dark thinking about how lucky I am and how I wouldn't change a thing about my life. I truly am blessed and I hope that God continues to bless us. We have an amazing home, food, and love I never imagined I would have in my life. 

One of the vitamins my kids take. They also take the same brand's vitamin c, omega 3 and pro-biotic. We love them!

Question of the day: Did your 15 month old become a nursing nightmare? What helped? I love being her comfort, but yikes! And also i just realized she is 15 months old TODAY! Wow. Where has the time gone??

Danielle