As Seen On my Morning Run

This is Yuma:

Yes we have stores and other things that small towns have, but we also have fields. Acres and acres of fields. It's one of my favorite things about Yuma. I love watching the fields turn from dirt to little green sprouts, to rows and rows of recognizable lettuce, and wheat... and some not so recognizable other random plants.

I'm also grateful my baby woke me up at 5:00am this morning because I was able to go for an actual outdoor run before it got too hot. I could have snuggled her and fallen back to sleep, but I always regret it if I try to sneak in a couple more hours of sleep. I never regret getting out of bed and going for a run.

I had these deep thoughts while running the other day. This is my only chance to have a mortal body. One day, and who knows when, I will no longer be able to go for a run, ride a bike, hike a mountain, swim in the ocean, etc, etc. What an awful feeling it would be to no longer have this body, and feel like I wasted my only opportunity to really see what it was capable of. What if I died, and the only thing I ever really did was use my body for my own gratification, like eating Oreo's and laying around mindlessly watching tv, etc.  I don't want to get to the end of my life feeling like I've never really lived. I want to live every moment, not just pass the time! And so for some reason that to me equates to doing Yoga, training to run a half marathon, and basically just trying to carpe the crap out of every diem I'm given.

So yes those were my deep thoughts at 5:30 this morning. Now trying to live it, while also raising four small kids who try my patience every minute of the day.

Three Daughters

Look at these girls!

It is overwhelming to me that I have been trusted to raise these three beautiful little women.

I used to think raising a baby was hard. But I've learned it really doesn't get easier. In fact I kind of prefer the, "Just keep them alive - while they are trying to kill themselves" stage, to raising children who will soon be teenagers and you have to teach them about life, and you're constantly worried you are screwing them up stage.

I do enjoy it. It is amazing when they do these cute little things that make you realize you are doing something right. And not being needed for every single moment of their day is nice too. The moment a child can get out of bed and go to the bathroom and put themselves back to bed, is a game changer. And when that same child can wake up in the morning, turn on the tv, and make themselves a bowl of cereal... well Mom gets to enjoy freedom she hasn't seen in 6.5 years. There's also the plus side of having cheap labor. Although any parent can tell you, getting a child to do a simple task like putting away their clothes is ten thousand times harder than just doing it yourself. But of course you can't. Because no one wants to raise entitled, bratty children who never learned how to work. So instead of just doing it yourself, you nag, bribe, cajole, bend over backwards, to get your kids to do their chores. I am lucky though. There are times when Olivia randomly decides she's going to clean the toy closet. Or clean her whole room. Or do the dishes... all on her own. Of course these times usually coincide with bed time, but I am okay with that. If you're not tired, I always have a job for you.

Anyway I'm just rambling and not sure where I'm going with these thoughts. Aaron has been working a lot. We had Emily stay with us for a couple of weeks. Then we went to the family reunion in Heber, which was so much fun. Now we have less than a month until school starts, and since we've already spent countless hours with cousins, swimming, playing, hiking, I'm kind of okay with spending the next three weeks with video games and tv.

A post for my mom!

Pretty sure my mom is the only one still checking this blog... I have been busy and occupying myself with a million other things, that when I do have free time I don't think to blog. I also don't have the running thoughts in my head on what a great story this would be for my blog like I did at one point in my life. Funny things have happened and my kids have said hilarious things, but again I don't really remember them! I need to start writing it down as it happens.

Let's see what to write about... I'll check my phone for pictures to remind me of what life has been all about lately.

I try to wake up and run/walk at least 3 mornings a week. Every once in a while these munchkins are up super early so they join me, so we can get some fresh air before it gets unbearably hot.

This girl loves food. So far she's had peas and sweet potatoes. Definitely prefers sweet potatoes! That bottom picture is after I nursed her, then she downed an entire jar of sweet potatoes and was ready for a nice food coma.

I got my hair and I kind of love it. Aaron's Aunt Teresa is The Best. She seriously is amazing.

We had a really, really fun week up in Mesa where we got to spend a lot of time with cousins. We went to this awesome park and the kids had a blast.

This girl. She is so funny. I wish I could remember some of the hilarious things she's said lately but my mind is drawing a blank. She is the sweetest thing, and then out of no where will say these really dark things... like while playing video games, "I"m going to crush your soul and burn your heart!" ... o.O  Should I be worried? I'm not. I'm pretty sure she does it because we can't help but crack up. Maybe if she wasn't the sweetest child in the world I'd be worried, but it's Abigail.

Nathan has had a huge fear of his room and the dark and bad guys lately. Yeah bed time's been fun. And if this blog isn't already full of enough reasons for you to know what an imperfect mom I am, let me tell ya... last night the only thing that finally got him to go to sleep was to tell him if he went to sleep and slept all night without crying and screaming, I'd give him a dollar for the ice cream man in the morning. I am PAYING my child to sleep! There is definitely something wrong with this. But it worked, so I'll probably do it again.

Olivia had a random bout of puking last week. That was great. And I think the lack of our normal routine and all this traveling, and I honestly don't know what... but she has been a pretty whiny little stinker lately. Trying my best to be patient and figure out what she needs, but I'm kind of sort of, definitely counting down the days until August 4th.

Aaron has been working a ton. Lots of over time the past few weeks, and we miss him a lot. We feel so blessed though. It's crazy to see where we were this time last year compared to now. So glad all our sacrifice and hard work is now paying off.

And I've been working out and reading, and just trying to make myself a better person all around. Turning 30 in 3 months is doing things to my brain. I wouldn't call it a crisis, but I might be freaking out a little bit.

Life lately.

Eliza learned to do this... over and over and over again.

This cute little face is about to graduate Kindergarten.

We spend almost every afternoon, here. Although it's never as peaceful as this picture makes it seems.

This is a better idea of what it's like.

And I love Pilates. Am I spelling that right? Anyway I take a class 2x a week at the Y, and I really love it. It's challenging, but relaxing, and I feel so good afterwards. I'm also training for my first half marathon in October! Bring it 30, I'm ready for you.

And that's about it. Not much going on.  Next week is Kindergarten and preschool graduation. T-Ball awards ceremony. Children's choir recital... Getting ready to take a vacation to CA in a couple of weeks. Then in July is the Opie Family Reunion. And then in August we are heading to NJ? Possibly? Most likely?

Cute baby 4 months old.

I love this baby so much!!

Really what's not to love? She lights up every time she sees me, she sleeps all night, and is just everything you could ever want in a baby. We all love her so much, and she makes me want a million more!.... Quite the difference from two months ago!

Life is so good right now. Not much to write about when things are going so well, huh? Aaron works a lot, but we play a lot too. Tonight my big girls are sleeping in a tent they made in the living room. Things like that make me happy.

Nathan is a funny little guy. Tonight I asked him, "What's your favorite color?" And he said, "Uhm... dinner?" And I cracked up. He also says "4" if you ask him what his name is. He thinks he's four years old. Oh and the cutest thing ever... he wanted me to paint his nails with my new Jamberry stuff. I told him no it was just for Mommy.. and he stood up and stretched as tall as he could and said, "See Mommy! Bigger now! I'm bigger now." As in, he's bigger now so I can do his nails. I'm laughing as I type this. The cuteness just kills me.

Olivia was the ringmaster of her KinderCircus. She did a great job and was so confident and adorable.

Abigail is loving preschool and we will be so sad when it's over.

And that's about all we've been up to lately.

Mexico 2014

Little Liza hanging out.. she liked her cousin's toy.

But mostly she liked napping on the beach.

And can ya blame her? Cool ocean breeze, the calming sound of crashing waves, and a cuddly towel... She was so awesome the entire trip. 

The best part of going to Mexico is having a private beach. It's beautiful and no one around to have to share it with just adds so much to the experience!

I took this picture because I think it looks like a music note. This was just a random assortment of shells and seaweed and whatever... crazy, huh?

A sailboat. Just thought it was pretty.

Nathan wasn't so sure about the water. He liked it, but was scared at the same time. The first day the water was very calm and he really liked that. The second day the waves were a little bigger and noisier and he was happy just to watch.

Olivia saved my headband and sunglasses while I was doing flips in the ocean.

This girl spent every minute she could floating around in that tube, or collecting sea creatures.

I found a starfish!! My entire life of spending summers at the beach and I have never found anything other than ordinary shells... This trip I found a starfish... or as my husband would correct me, a sea star. It was really cool. It was alive and everything... until we accidentally killed it by keeping it in this bucket for hours. 

Here is it, dead. Poor sea star.

We also found a living octopus! It was so cool.... but we also killed that too. Apparently sea creatures don't do so well in buckets for long periods of time. Ooops.

 I was SO glad I got this non-alcoholic Pina Colada... It was delicious!! And served in a pineapple. 

It was an amazing relaxing weekend. So much fun and so rejuvenating. And at least when our car wouldn't start right before we left, all we needed was a jump. And at least when we got stopped at the scary military check point in Mexico they only made me and Aaron get out of the car, and let our kids stay in and then let us go without any trouble. And at least when we accidentally cut some people in line and they decided they needed to call the police on us, the police let us "pay them" in cash instead of whatever else could have happened. And at least the border patrol agent just gave us a warning for not having all the documentation for our dumb dog, even if she didn't do it very nicely it could have been worse.

So yes our drive home was quite eventful, but overall worth it for the amazing time we had on the beach!