Saturday, January 28, 2012

In Other News

This week at the Brady house:
Ty learned to roll over! 
(4 months 1 week old)
Jay and I made cookie cutter french toast.
 
For the record, naming your child a letter makes things like this SOOO much more exciting.

And so does eating it with "Fork-ceratops"! (Thanks again Traci!)

As you can tell, he's pretty stoked.
 
And if you're wondering where he gets his creepy happy face...

Um...
 I have no idea.

Jay still adores his little brother.
 Which is because he is adorable of course...

 And Ty is developing a strange spot on his cheek that makes me think his face is going to fall off.
That's all folks.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Dear Alli

I have a friend that recently wrote a blog post about feeling overwhelmed as a new Mommy. With home responsibilities crowding out work and church responsibilities, she wonders if she's alone in feeling like doing one thing right (taking care of her baby) shouldn't make up for neglecting all other areas of her life. Well here is my response to that:

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!

I'm sure that every Mom that reads your blog or mine can relate to that feeling. I am at this moment sitting in the messiest my house has ever been, I am tired from a middle of the night feeding, and I stopped looking at my to-do list because it's just depressing... BUT Jay is fed and (half) dressed, and Ty is peacefully sleeping in the next room. Sometimes it's hard for me to look at these things as accomplishments. Scratch that... 99% of the time I don't. But there are moments.. usually in sacrament meeting, the temple, or evening prayers... where the Lord allows me to see myself as He does. In those moments I am renewed. I can do this one more day, one more diaper change, one more tantrum. You know the expression "living paycheck to paycheck"? Well, most days I feel like I'm living prayer to prayer.

Maybe I'm glamorizing the life I had before kids, but I don't remember struggling to feel accomplished, talented, or appreciated. Any self-esteem issues were usually related to stupid boys... obviously before kids for me also means before marriage since Jay came so quickly. But I'm slowly learning that the words "Thank you" don't feel as good as, "I love you, Mommy." Feeling beautiful doesn't feel as good as the way my baby looks at me. Memories are vastly more important than a clean house. And I would rather snuggle up with a sleeping toddler, listening to his tiny breath than hear how awesome the world thinks I am.

Also, in my opinion, the internet is single handedly the most destructive force in tearing down a Mother's self-worth. No longer does Satan have to wait until church or social events for us to compare ourselves to our seemingly perfect colleagues and whisper in our ears that we will never measure up. Now, each and every day, at any given moment, we can peek into the filtered lives of our friends as a constant reminder of our shortcomings. My new mantra: People only post things on the internet that are out of the ordinary. So when Suzy Homemaker posts a picture of a dazzling Christmas wreath that she crafted from recycled toilet paper tubes and thumb tacks, I can appreciate her accomplishment knowing that she is probably blogging in her bath robe while her toddler is eating glue.

So Allison, yes I feel this way daily. I struggle to feel happy in the chaos of Mommyhood on days when all I've done is keep my kids alive. But the worst thing we do is then feel GUILTY that we feel that way. Not only are you under accomplished and under appreciated but now you are also ungrateful. That's two points for the devil. (Now do you feel guilty for feeling guilty?)

I hope this helps you feel a little less alone, my friend. Love you.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Cell Phone Gallery

I was going through Joe's phone last night and realized how many cute pictures he had. So I thought I'd share:

The Many Faces of Jay
(Go Broncos!)
(This next picture cracks me up)
Cute Ty

...and His Binky


Bedtime
(Jay wants to be just like baby Ty)
Brothers
(Jay giving Ty a blessing)
Jay's Style Inspirations
(Jay wearing Ty's 3 month old pants)
(Jay loves Joe's work shirt, so for Christmas he got one of his own)

And this list would not be complete without...

Joe
(no explanation here)

I am so lucky.

Monday, January 16, 2012

THE Bed

Over Christmas, I was in Boise for nearly a month! And do you know what I missed most from home?... (I should say Joe huh?) Okay do you know what I missed SECOND to Joe?

Our bed. Now, this is not any ordinary bed. This is a very special bed. Before you can appreciate the awesomeness of this bed though, you must know something about me. I have what is called a hiatal hernia and reflux that forces me to spend a lot of time sleeping in a recliner. That is until a Christmas miracle occurred and Joe and I happened to be at the right place at the right time. By chance we found out about a neighbor of ours that needed to sell his bed with only a few days until he had to move. We heard that it was a king size bed that could raise up and down and immediately I jumped in to ask how much. So get this: Our neighbor bought the bed for $4,000 a year ago but he was in such a hurry that he was selling it for $350! And it was still in the plastic until a week before!

Well now it's ours. Here's Joe's family trying it out.
(And loving it.) This bed is AWESOME! It is remote controlled, pillow top, and can massage you in 3 different modes. It's basically the best part of my day. Sometimes it makes me feel old though because it's technically two separate twin beds. Yes, Joe and I now sleep in two separate beds! Go ahead and make fun. I never get to think about that too long because I'm usually drifting peacefully to sleep with 30 minutes of massage mode #1.

Finally!

Have I mentioned how much I HATE having long hair? I do. I really do.
Well, did...
After probably 7 years of trying to grow my hair out to donate, I finally did it!
This is a pretty personal thing for me because, as most of you know, my older brother died of cancer almost 10 years ago when I was a senior. That experience left me wanting to make a difference in the lives of cancer patients and their families. This was by far the hardest thing I've done in that effort. Since I usually cut my own hair, leaving it alone for this long has been torture. Not to mention the fact that I made it through a St. George summer (9 months pregnant!) without hacking it off. Yeah, I'm pretty amazing.

But not amazing enough to ever do it again. Like I said, I hate having long hair. As a person who has spent the better part of my life with short hair (and I do mean the better part of my life) I can tell you that long hair changes you. For instance, I'm pretty positive that I learned to get in and out of a car differently than someone with long hair. Why? Because I cannot count the amount of times that I've shut my hair in the car door in the past year... or rolled it into the window... or how many times I've spit tooth paste in my hair... or zipped it into something. I felt like an amputee that suddenly grew his leg back. (Except maybe not so grateful and a little more willing to chop it off again.)

So there you have it. A long, hard journey finally come to a joyful end.

The Brady Men

Here's my boys a few days ago.
You know, I would love to have a baby girl someday but when I look at pictures like this I can't help but want more boys. I just love them. And Jay's facial expression... who wouldn't love that? I have no idea where he gets it. (Ha!)

Speaking of Jay I better record his latest stuff... and as always most of this was on facebook:

  • Today Jay told me that he always shares all his promises. Apparently if you can keep them, you can share them.

  • My mom was feeding Ty a bottle and Jay and I were in another room:
Jay: "Mom, why can't Ty be in here?"
Me: "Because he needs to be eatin'."
Jay: "He needs to be eaten?! By a monster?!"


  • Before giving Jay a haircut:
    Me: "Alright Jay, eat your pancakes and then I'm going to buzz your head."
    Jay: "Okay!" Then looking nervous, "Mom, what does buzz my head mean?"

  • Jay thinks the Book of Mormon is about Dinosaurs.
    Last month, he was carrying around one of those little military Book of Mormons and telling the cable guy, "This is the Book of Mormon. It's red. Red is my favorite color. Look I'll read it. Tyrannosaurus Rex is chasing all the dinosaurs. He eats the slow ones. Oh look... here's a Brachiosaurus dinosaur. That's my favorite..."

He's pretty fun to have around.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Brothers Part 2


Here's the latest comparison.

Ty is not used to having his picture taken every second of every day like Jay was. Smiling for the camera is not something he does which makes his face look thinner than Jay's. Really they are soooo similar it's scary. Jay just has a bigger nose.