Don't you love good weekends?

In my last post I said I was gonna have one. And we did! We had a blast at the Magic House, so much in fact that we are considering an overpriced membership :)

Here is Nana with her favorite two year olds!

Here is my favorite one year old!

Always something food related going on with this chick!

What's Nana doing in a bubble?

It took him a little bit, but ended up loving their three story slide.

Isn't she the sweetest thing you've ever seen?! it's easier to agree knowing she sorta looks like me here  ;)

Here is our family photo...it's so creepy. It reminds me of the people that were buried in ash at Palermo.

They loved the water table! It's better than a bath (at least for Elijah) because he hates getting washed.

I love watching Elijah and Athena learning new things. I hope they're desire never stops, even into adulthood. My favorite thing they're doing right now is Athena blowing on her food after announcing 50 times that it's "haa". It's so unbelievably sweet. Elijah is talking just like a little boy. The majority of his toddler gibberish is gone. He's just learned the conjunction 'but', so sometimes he tries to make longer sentences by using 'but'. So cute. Most of the time is almost makes sense. :)

Sunday was a typical day. We went to church and actually started a new Sunday school class about building faith at home - I'm excited about that. After church we came home, made lunch and relaxed a bit before going to dinner with my side of the family. Most of us (minus Becky, Brad and Steph) - ok, so that's like half of us LOVE sea food. So my mom treated us to dinner. I love spending time with my family. It's getting harder as the little ones get older, but we are managing to stay connected as much as possible!

Me, George, Athena, Becky and my Mom

Me versus a king crab leg :) yum.

My goofy nieces, Emma and Allison

Yea, we love crab....anyway, I can't stop laughing at Becky trying to squeeze in!

Ha-HA...got you Steph!!!!! (a long running joke between us)

This is where my dad and mom were getting irritated for not getting a 'frame-worthy' photo, thanks to me and Steph :)

So that concluded our great weekend. Actually helped a lot to keep my mind off the fact that my academic package I sent is still not there. Tomorrow is Wednesday, so cross your fingers for me that it gets there!!

I might lose my mind soon

just so you know. Athena has created a new definition for 'separation anxiety'. I try so hard to remember that she is very sensitive and ever since we got back from Mexico, she has been very insecure. It doesn't help that I have recently joined a MOPS group, so she goes to the child care there, and at church, Thursdays for mothers-day-out and at the gym (which is most days lately -go me!). So in her defense that is 4 different places that she sees her mommy leave her. Oh my gosh...when I put it that way, it sounds horrible and heartbreaking!

It's going to get even more interesting when I start a Wednesday morning Bible study in a few weeks. Luckily the Bible study, MOPS and church are all at the same place. Anyway, lets hope that she gets a grip soon.

Elijah on the other hand can't wait to go somewhere and interact. Very rarely does he say he doesn't want to go somewhere. And if he does, he always has a blast once we get there.

Take a look at this....this is what it comes down to in order for me to make dinner or get something done in the kitchen!

 

 

You should have seen the place when they were done! Even after all that, I still didn't get dinner made :)

So it's been kinda rough lately. Especially today when I got the news that the Bradley Method - at the academy headquarters -  still has not received my academic package I mailed on the 18th! Really...!!! It should not take that long for something to go from St. Louis to Sherman Oaks! So I am REALLY bummed and stressing about that. I'm anxious to start teaching!!!

Regardless of the stresses around here, we are determined to have a great weekend. We are headed to the Magic House tomorrow (one of my favorite places) and then hopefully organize the basement.  (yes, organizing chaos IS a fun time for me)

There you have it. Not much happening around here other than expected toddler woes that most parents have encountered (or will encounter) at some point.

Elijah's a soccer player!!

I am so excited! Brad and I signed him up with a friend for Saturday mornings.

A midst everything going wrong, like my good camera missing a CF card, the video camera NOT being charged and my worthless Black Friday cheap-o Kodak being the worst camera ever created...we had a blast.

So, understand that the photos are terrible, because I am terrible for not making sure everything was ready to go the night before (I normally do, but we are in process of making sure Athena sleeps in her bed the whole night and not lazily bring her into ours at her convenience - so needless to say it's kind of exhausting around here).

 

Here he is obliging me with a 'cheese'. Why blogger won't rotate this, I don't know.

Even Athena wanted to get in on some of the fun!

Here he is with William. They are studs of the team! listen at my competitive 'soccer mom-ness' coming out already!

Elijah was the last kid to leave the field because he loved it so much!

Daddy and Elijah not paying much attention to the rules or the coaches...not a good start :)

It was so much fun for me. Being a mom just keeps getting better. God has it perfectly designed so when kids outgrow a stage in their lives you can recall it with love and thankfulness, but He doesn't leave you wishing for the past because the future holds so many great things you can't even fathom. And we are blessed enough to get to do it again with Athena.

The only thing we probably need to change is his Italia soccer jersey to a Greek jersey!

New year, new blog

 

Sort of….

Just a little face lift I suppose. I am so bad at keeping up with technology and I didn’t realize all of the ‘dynamic’ things blogger is doing. So I hope you can bear through all the confusion with me.

This year I plan to make a few changes. Firstly, I’d like to keep you included with my ambitions of becoming a Bradley Birth Instructor. Actually, I just mailed my certification off today!

I am beyond excited to change families’ lives regarding the birth of a baby. It’s more than that to me though, it is a birth of a family -  and to keep it as natural and unadulterated with social pressures is what I hope to contribute. – More about that as the time comes. Stay posted through my new blog: YOUR Intuitive Birth

I am also going to pursuit my DONA (Doulas of North America) certification later this year. I hope to be involved with couples and mothers giving them support during their birth experiences.

I WILL also become an awesome blogger and not make excuses about not having time. Or complain that it’s so freezing in our basement (as it is right now!!) that I won’t keep that from me staying faithful to my commitments.

Now it’s mid-January and I have to catch you up on ALOT of things. Including Athena’s first birthday. (How bad am I, that I haven’t shared that yet!?!)

The party was so much fun. We hired a balloon guy to make balloon animals and such. It was fun for kids and adults!

After her birthday Christmas came sneaking up on us!

My dad left for Greece just before Christmas, so we had a pre-party. I love when the family gets together, it is such a blessing to see how far we have grown and how much love there is squeezed into a room.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom and Brad’s family. They have a tradition of having “Santa” come by and giving presents to the little ones. Personally, I am not a fan of Santa at all. I think it is a horrible misrepresentation of Christmas and I do not plan on my kids to believe in him. However, it was incredible fun to see Elijah’s excitement with Santa – so I get why people let kids believe.

Here is my little lazy-non walker :)

Candy canes are ALWAYS a huge hit with these two…especially the littler one.

So that was Christmas Eve, on Christmas day we had a great time with Brad’s family in the morning and then my family at Becky’s house. It was filled with fun, love and too many presents – literally, I am guilt-stricken at the thought of all the toys when there is SO much need in our community.

     

There is a quick summary of the end of 2011. Like I said earlier, I am excited for 2012. I hope you stay tuned to my blogs and see what great things I feel are in store for this year!

My LIFE CHANGNING trip!!

I guess you could say that my life was changed when I had my beautiful kids. No doubt about that, right? Well, for me that experience has gone to a new level.

In April of 2009 Brad and I took birth classes. Not just any old “Lamaze” classes, specifically The Bradley Method. It was a long, fun 12 weeks for us to become educated about childbirth. I am proud to say (as many of you know) that the training equipped us with the knowledge to bring Elijah into this world completely unmedicated and as God intended.

Fast forward a few years later, beyond the unmedicated birth of Athena nearly one year ago, and I have a new INSANE driven and passion for unmedicated childbirth.

I had the privilege of flying out to Washington D.C. to attend the Bradley Method instructor training. I was surrounded by incredibly strong, motivated women that share my passion for childbirth as it was intended – without “professional” intervention.

Now…before you go and start calling me names and giving excuses why you chose to have your babies in whatever way you did, I just want to say that I don’t think there is a wrong way to have a child enter the world. It is a miracle every time. And some circumstances do require medical intervention. I do however feel that there is a best way to give birth, and the Bradley Method teaches that.

I have always been a bit of a chemical-phobe. I’ve worked around a lot of horrible chemicals in my pre-motherhood days in the environmental industry. So the Bradley Method was right up my ally.

The trip was 4 days long (long isn’t an understatement either) and I learned SO many things that it would be criminal for me to not share it. So I am extremely excited to start my journey as a childbirth educator. I have a few academic things I must complete first, so I am hoping in January to start changing people’s lives. Check out the website if you’re interested in the details. The Bradley Method

Through my blog I can’t wait to update experiences, information and tools to help couples have a natural childbirth. So stay tuned for that in the coming months!!! I appreciate your support and prayers, as I also find there can be no better way to praise God than through His indefinable miracle of life.

Halloween Fun!

 

How fun is Halloween when you have kids?! I personally despise the idea of the evilness and spooky related ideas that go along with it. But I decided we can make out of it what we want. I’m glad we didn’t boycott anything, because we’ve had so much fun in the last few weeks!

The above pictures were taken at a Daniel’s Pumpkin Patch in St. Charles. It was so much fun, it made me wish I was a kid again!

We never go to the Bass Pro shop, but stopped by because they had trick-or-treating in the store. Even more awesome is that there was a costume contest and our little pilot won 2nd place!

The night before Halloween we went to a trunk-or-treat at a nearby church with Brad’s family. How sweet is Logan as Scooby Do?! And probably my favorite is Athena using her charm on Grandpa to get more candy! And by the end of the night, I think our family picture says it all. They were TIRED!

The next photos are of Halloween evening in our neighborhood and New Town. They had a blast!!

Those two would not smile together to save my life!

My precious butterfly kept her hood on all night! SOOO sweet!

Elijah wasn’t so interested in getting candy in the beginning, he just wanted to run around. One time he tripped and fell (he was okay) and people were teasing of an airplane crash!

I love this picture of them together. Brad is an awesome dad.

She was working about 20 minutes to get the wrapper off of this candy….

I’m sure you guessed she finally did. AND threw her first temper tantrum when Brad tried to take it away. She is a feisty little thing!

(in the end she won, as you can see)  :)

What a blast we’ve had the last few days. I am SO thankful for all the blessing in my life!