Team Simon

Tough love

2011-12-08T12:46:00.003-05:00

Sydney LOVES giving hugs to Graham. And they always end up with Graham being knocked onto the floor :)

Best Kept Secret (or maybe it's a not-so-secret, secret)

2011-09-21T22:42:00.006-04:00

I don't know why it hadn't dawned on me before, but I just realized that I could make my own baby oatmeal. I made baby food for Sydney when she was this age but I only made homemade fruits and veggies for her. I bought rice and oatmeal cereal from the store. I never realized I could make oatmeal and rice cereal for her. Maybe since there was no information about it on Babycenter.com, I thought it wasn't possible?? haha I don't know.

Anyways, I was feeding Graham his very first bowl of oatmeal cereal (Gerber brand, from the store) when I thought to myself, "there's no way this has much nutritional content. There has to be a way I can make real oatmeal for him".

I searched online and finally found a website that taught me how to make it. Who knew?!! I seriously can't believe I didn't know this. And I couldn't believe how easy it was. All you do is put a few cups of steel cut or rolled oats into a food processor and grind them down to a fine powder and cook about 1/4 cup over the stove top with 1 cup of water for about 8 min.

Making oatmeal cereal at home is much, much more nutritional PLUS it's a small fraction of what the boxes of oatmeal cereal cost at Target. Maybe it's a sign of the season of life I'm in, but finding this out made my month!! Does that mean I'm lame? I think that might make me pretty lame.... Oh, well.

Anyway, on to some pictures of my little boyfriend.

I really don't know how so much preciousness can exist in one tiny, little boy :)

This is hard

2011-05-10T15:56:00.004-04:00

I wish there was a better way to prepare for motherhood.

I'm the oldest of four children. I've been babysitting since age 11 and I worked in a church day care during the summer in high school. I've taken child development classes and have read many books and articles pertaining to the subject.

Nothing can prepare you for the real thing.

There are some days I can't stop smiling because I'm so happy. But there are also days that end in tears. Actually, some days begin in tears.

Often I feel worn out physically, mentally and emotionally. The day to day tasks can be mind numbing. Growing up I thought that I would always feel this sweet, fulfilling feeling as a mother. The truth is, is that I don't.

For a long time I've been really disappointed and even depressed about that. Motherhood is such a noble and great calling, right? Then why don't I feel noble and great?!!!

I think I'm slowly finding some answers.
1- hormones
2- this quote by Elder Bednar-

"In my office is a beautiful painting of a wheat field. The painting is a vast collection of individual brushstrokes—none of which in isolation is very interesting or impressive. In fact, if you stand close to the canvas, all you can see is a mass of seemingly unrelated and unattractive streaks of yellow and gold and brown paint. However, as you gradually move away from the canvas, all of the individual brushstrokes combine together and produce a magnificent landscape of a wheat field. Many ordinary, individual brushstrokes work together to create a captivating and beautiful painting."

I feel like I'm just beginning to understand this concept. While each day might not feel like it was a noble, great or super fulfilling day, as I look back over the last two (very short) years that I've been a mother, I realize that what I am doing, as a whole, IS great and noble. And beautiful! I believe in what I am doing. I know it is so important to be with my children and to teach them. It can just be so hard to feel like you are making any difference at all some days.

So I'm trying to shift my paradigm. I'm realizing and trying to come to terms with the fact that each day will not feel like a victory or be super happy and wonderful. BUT the end result will be.

Little Man

2011-03-11T20:19:00.000-05:00

Here he is! Graham Travis Simon came into the world at 2:22 am, February 24th. And what a CUTIE he is!! (If I do say so myself. I AM his mom. It'd be wrong if I didn't think so.)

He looks a lot like Sydney did when she was born. Tons of dark hair.

Doesn't he look like he's doing some rap/gangster (or whatever you call it...) move with his arms in this picture??! hahaha

Travis is so excited to have a son. He introduced him to basketball (via ESPN) within hours of his birth. It was quite the bonding experience :)

My big baby with my little baby.

Still a little bit in shock that I'm now a mother of two. (and a little worried if I can actually manage it all.)

I'm typing this with one hand so I'm just going to report the Reader's Digest version of his birth.

Wednesday afternoon (the 23rd) I'm checked by my doctor at an appt. I'm 4ish (almost 5) cm dilated. I had also been having mild to strong, irregular contractions for a week or so.
My doctor strongly suggests that I meet her at the hospital that evening where she'll break my water and see if that can get things going.
On our way to the hospital my contractions begin to pick up more regularly. Yay!
We arrive at the hospital around 5:30 pm
The doctor breaks my water around 7:30 pm
Labor progresses while I dine on broth and jell-o :) (In the rush and excitement of things, I had forgotten to eat before we went to the hospital. Dumb.) Anything tastes good when you're starving and in labor.
I use hypnobirthing techniques to help me progress to 8 cm. They are really helping and I'm almost there!
After a few hours of great progress, nausea and vomiting kick in (that was the worst...) and I give up. Epidural Please. And HURRY!!
Epidural is given (ahhhhhh..... sigh of relief) and we wait just another hour or two before it's time to push.
I push for about 25 minutes and we finally meet our little GRAHAM!

All things considered, the experience was wonderful. I felt so much more at peace and was more calm this second time around. Labor, delivery and the recovery is so much easier the second time. Knowing what to expect and knowing that I had done this before gave me a lot of peace and confidence.

We were also really lucky to have Travis' mother out here for the birth. She helped so much during the days prior to after his birth. Some awesome friends that we met at church we're so kind and kept Sydney while we were at the hospital so Travis' mom could be with us for his birth. It was such a sweet experience.

Frustrated

2011-02-23T12:39:00.000-05:00

I've been dilated to 3 (almost 4) cm and 50% effaced for almost two weeks. Very inconsistent contractions also started about a week ago. I've had 4 episodes of consistent contractions that made me think "ok, this is it this time" only to lead to nothing.

A due date is more like a guess date. Babies come in their own time. Blah blah blah. I knooooooow.

The highs and lows of waiting are driving me nuts!

Diaper Check

2011-01-25T21:32:00.000-05:00

Sydney is starting to mimic a lot of what we do.

Today I was kneeling down to put some clothes away in a dresser. Sydney came up behind me, pulled the back of my pants open and said, "mommy, poop?"

How sweet of her to check for me :) haha

I'm thinking if she's willing to check for me now, hopefully she'll be willing to check my diapers (and change them) when I'm 90, too.

A side note from the Mr.

2011-01-17T02:15:00.000-05:00

Hello friends, family and web stockers.

The last month has been nuts! They say wisdom comes with experience. Don't move if your wife is 7-8 months pregnant, haha. Here's the deal, I asked Lindsay to move from an 1800 sq. foot huge town home into an 1100 sq foot 2 bed town home and we're getting ready for baby #2. I don't blame Lindsay one bit for freaking out :)

Sydney, Lindsay and I weren't very excited to leave our awesome friends in Acworth/Kennesaw and we weren't happy about leaving our first home, but things are looking up. We got our first call about the house (no word yet, but here's to positivity in a down market :)

Rubbermaid ROCKS!
I LOVE my new job at Rubbermaid! My new boss Betty is the coolest lady and is very considerate when it comes to family needs. Brand Marketing is my calling in life (for now) and I couldn't be happier to get involved with a solid brand like Rubbermaid. Recently I visited the International Builders Show in Orlando to scope out the competition. It was fun to sneak through competitor booths and check out what they have going on.

So far I've been able to compile spreadsheets to analyze sales data, build an entire trade brochure, rename most of the products within our product portfolio we're responsible for, and get to know some really great people at work.

Home life
Nice Lindsay has returned! haha, my wife has returned. I now eat awesome meals every night (sometimes I even help :), Lindsay is mostly happy with our tiny town home and we're getting to know great people at church. 2011 is shaping up to be a great year and I'm looking forward to the manliest step of all, welcoming a brand new boy into our home and equaling out the pink/blue colors within the Simon family walls.

Hope you all are doing well. Come live by us in Charlotte, jk. :)

Travis

Finally....

2011-01-16T23:17:00.000-05:00

I'll just skip the part where I'm supposed to talk about how bad I am at blogging because you all already know that. On to the fun stuff.

I was just re-reading over the last post and I laughed out loud when I read over what my dear, sweet Travis wrote. Especially this part, "I've felt many emotions ranging from confidence to hopelessness and Linz was steady through it all (at least outwardly she was. Haha)"
Ohhhhh, my poor, poor Travis. Little did he know that would be the last little bit of steadiness that he saw from me for a week or two! I was more than excited and thrilled that he got this job and I was actually looking forward to moving to a new place. Those things weren't scaring me. What was scaring me was having to find a place to live (which would be much smaller than where we currently were), packing up our entire lives and moving in less than two weeks. All while being 7 months pregnant and trying to keep up with an almost two year old. During this time all three of us also got stomach flu and we flooded part of our house. I WAS STRESSED!! I tried to be a good sport. I really did. But let's just put it this way, the two weeks leading up to our move were not my most graceful two weeks by any stretch of the imagination! The Lindsay monster may or may not have come out. Ok, it came out. I sure am grateful for a very forgiving husband :)

Here we are ready to start unloading.

Anyway, it's been over a month now since we've moved and things are beginning to settle in place and we're finding some normalcy. Overall, we are REALLY enjoying living in Charlotte (well, technically just north of Charlotte). The landscape is really beautiful. The people are nice and Travis' commute is 9 minutes. NINE MINUTES!!!!! After commuting an hour each way to work for a year, we couldn't be happier about that. Travis loves the absence of traffic and I LOVE having him home earlier. I love having so much quality time together during the week. Sydney loves it too.

After such a crazy and chaotic moving process, we decided it would be best to spend Christmas with just our little family. It was a really sweet, quiet Christmas. It was fun to just be the three of us and start some Simon traditions.

We have pretty limited space in our new home so we decided to go with the 15 dollar Walgreens special for our Christmas tree :) I love it. I think we'll end up keeping it forever. It will always remind me of our very first Christmas with just us.

Oh how quickly the mood can change at our house with a 21 month old around haha

Here are some pictures from our Christmas morning.

Sydney talking on a play phone from her grandparents
Sydney spending some quality time in the time out chair. She's a frequent visitor to this spot :)

My present from Travis. Check out that wrapping job. Somebody was obviously paying attention in principles of design class. He never disappoints!

My love :)

The week before Christmas the Bowen fam stopped by for a sleepover! We had so much fun chatting, catching up, eating and getting in touch with our 5th grade levels of humor :)

In other news, on Monday I will officially be 35 weeks pregnant. How is that possible? How did 35 weeks just go by? Ready or not, he's coming and he's coming soon. I better soak up all the good night's rest while I can. I'm excited to see what Sydney thinks about him. I actually feel pretty optimistic about how she'll adjust to having a baby in the house. She seems to be interested in other babies that we see or play with. But that's completely different than bringing another baby into the house to live and split attention with. We will see.

We're getting North Carolina license plates!

2010-11-21T14:16:00.000-05:00

Travis met a guy who worked for Rubbermaid this past summer while playing on a rec. basketball team. Travis casually mentioned to him one day that his goal is to work in marketing instead of sales (which is what he's doing now). The guy who works for Rubbermaid suggested Travis apply for one of the marketing positions that were opening up at Rubbermaid in Atlanta. He did, and soon found out that he wasn't selected for an interview.

When Travis was applying for the position he had me read over the description of the job. When I read the job description my first thought was, "wow, that is exactly what Travis has always wanted to do. This is what he has a love and talent for!" So we were pretty disappointed when he didn't even get a chance to interview.

A few days later we were talking about how awesome of a job that would have been for Travis. Travis got back on the website to check for more openings. There were no openings in Atlanta but there was one in Charlotte, North Carolina. I think we both figured it was a long shot, but Travis decided to apply anyway to see if he could at least get an interview.

He ended up getting more than just one interview :) After two phone interviews and one 4 hour interview at the office in Charlotte, Travis officially received a job offer Friday afternoon!!! We are so excited!! Travis is pretty much bouncing off the walls :)

They want Travis to start mid December so the next few weeks will be a little crazy around here trying to get our things packed and ready to go. We're still discussing details of exactly how to make the transition (do we try to sell our home? Rent it out? Do Sydney and I stay here temporarily?) but it's official....We're moving!

And yes, my head is spinning. I feel totally overwhelmed trying to sort out these details while pregnant (my brain is NOT the same when I'm pregnant. I feel like my brain functions at half my normal capacity. Boo.) So we're taking it one day at a time :)

Travis' take:

Hey to all you blogstockers out there; we're happy you decided to look us up. Waiting to hear back from Rubbermaid has been one of the most STRESSFUL experiences of my life (just ask Linz :) I've felt many emotions ranging from confidence to hopelessness and Linz was steady through it all (at least outwardly she was. Haha)

With each day that passed the window of opportunity seemed to be closing and then Friday at 5:30 I got a call and the job!

I'm excited about this new position in marketing and can't wait to get acclimated to Charlotte and find a way to sell our home in Atlanta.

Lindsay is officially excited/nervous/stressed and probably a few other things she's not telling me - HA!

Lindsay has been an amazing support while I've been searching/applying/interviewing etc. The past two weeks she has worked so hard to help me stay positive and moving in the right direction all while Sydney has been disgruntled because our "family time" has taken a hit. Sydney loves attention and is at her best when she has quality time with those she loves (me! jk, she likes her momma more than me).

THE END - T$

A new fall tradition

2010-10-05T23:13:00.000-04:00

I love fall. I love the crisp air, the colors on the trees, pulling out sweatshirts, cool mornings and evenings, football, the smells, and the FOOD. Apple crisp, all kinds of soups, cornbread, vegetables, ahh, it's all so good!

We've been taking advantage of the beautiful fall weather and have made walking up Kennesaw Mountain a new Saturday tradition.

A view of Little Kennesaw on the way up to the top.

What a hunk. Pushing Sydney all the way!

I love that smile!

She loves when we let her walk part of it. I think it makes her feel like such a big girl.

On the way home. Can you say too cool for school? Check out that look!

Sydney's first day of Nursery!

2010-10-05T23:00:00.000-04:00

Who do you think is more excited? Sydney or us?

Sydney's face cracks me up in this picture. She looks like she's going to prison! Travis and I were so excited to sit through Sunday school for the first time in 5 months. She actually was really happy once we opened the door to nursery. So happy, in fact, that she didn't even look back at us. We were calling her and saying bye and she did not even look back! Ouch! Talk about a blow to our self esteem ;) She was so happy to be with the other kids and play with all those toys.

When I came to pick her up at the end, her nursery teachers said she was great and the only thing they had to get on to her about was eating the other kids' snacks haha. Like mother like daughter :)

My second favorite place on earth

2010-10-05T21:51:00.000-04:00

My family has been making an annual pilgrimage to the Florida Gulf Coast for the past 11 years. Now that I'm grown and married they still let me come along :) They also let me bring a couple of important people too :) They are so nice to let us tag along. Here are some highlights from the week-

(It can be a pain to rearrange pictures on blogger so these are very out of order)

I'll start off with the two half decent pictures I was able to get of Sydney (at least you can see her face, right?)

Every other time (well, just about) I tried to get a picture of her she did this-

Or this-

Or she would just walk away altogether.

Ok, so I got more than 2 but seriously, for every picture I have of Sydney's face, there are about 15 of the side or back of her head.

My buddy :)

I'll save you the trouble of looking through the 45 attempts it took to get this picture and just show you this one :)

The original members of Team Simon

The awesome house we all stayed in. Thanks Mom and Dad!! Just a short walk to the beach. It was heaven!
Another attempt at a family picture...

This was Sydney's spot for the week. She loved this swing.

What a ham!
Catching ghost crabs

Sunrise
Our first day there. We couldn't wait to show Sydney the ocean! The water was pretty gross the first day but the next day it was gorgeous and clear!

Ahhh, blue water :) Sydney watching dad.

Sydney loved the sand and playing with all the toys.

My studly bro.

I mean, that's just ridiculous. I could spend all day swimming in that.

It was such a late part of the summer that there weren't very many people there. We practically had the beach to ourselves!

Eating breakfast with Grandpa (more like mooching off of Grandpa's breakfast). I love her hair in the morning. This is pretty tame.
My favorite people in the whole world.

On our way down. We couldn't wait to get there! (like I said, these are very out of order!)

Cruisin down to the beach! She was AWESOME on the 6 hour car ride down. Coming back was another story. She was not happy to be stuck in the car for 6 hours after spending a week at the beach!

The End :)

The Simon name carries on :)

2010-09-27T14:07:00.000-04:00

It's a BOY!!!!!!! We can't believe it! When the ultrasound tech told us we just couldn't stop laughing. She even had to tell me to sit still! I couldn't stop laughing! We are SO excited! Travis is still in shock I think. We can't wait to meet our little boy in a few short months!

Everything checked out just fine and on track. It's always a blessing and comfort to know that.

I don't think Sydney understands what's going on at all. I don't think she really will until we come home with a baby :)

It's a......

2010-09-26T18:42:00.000-04:00

We find out in the morning if Travis gets a fishing, car-fixin, basketball buddy or if I get a cooking, musical-watching, running buddy.

I feel like a 7 year old waiting for Christmas morning. And I think Travis is going to explode if I remind him about our appointment tomorrow morning one. more. time. :) heheh

Oh, did I mention we were going to be gone for a whole week? To the BEACH??! No. Because I didn't want any bad guys to know we were going to be gone and be tempted to break into our home and steal our 28 inch, 40 lb TV from 1998 :) Now that we're back I can let the blog world know. IT WAS AWESOME. More on that later. I have to run some no bake cookies to the church for a fireside. Travis made them and I must say they are quite delish!

We live, breath and eat this stuff

2010-09-10T17:09:00.000-04:00

Dave Ramsey teaches people how to be financial fit. And I LOVE the way he teaches people to do it. Some people might argue with it , but it works every time if you stick with it. He calls it "God's and Grandma's way of handling money". If you look at what the scriptures say about money and if you asked your grandma for financial advice, they'd say the things that Dave Ramsey says (that is if your grandma has some common sense).

We love the Dave Ramsey "diet". I think my favorite thing from Dave Ramsey's teachings and book is the cash budget. Since I don't earn an income for our family, being the manager and planner of the cash budget fulfills the need I have to contribute financially to our family. I love it. I don't think we'll ever go back to what we used to do. I totally recommend it to anyone.

Sydney's gonna be a big sis!

2010-08-22T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well, we like the first one so much we decided to have another one. We'll be a family of four sometime late February. We are so excited! I am a little nervous to be a mom of two but not nearly as nervous as I was to become a mom of one. We're just really excited to add another little person to our family. I'll be honest though... NOT looking forward to 3 hours of sleep for the first few months but I am so looking forward to more of this-

I'm about 14 weeks along and VERY happy to be done with first trimester morning sickness. Blah. I'm pretty useless the first few weeks (well besides making organs, nervous systems, etc.) I just get so nauseated.

Oh, and this was Sydney's reaction when we told her she wont be an only child in 6 months :)

Just kidding. I can't remember what she was pitching a fit about here. This is her face when she fake cries:) Love it.

Time Alone

2010-08-09T14:08:00.000-04:00

Travis got tickets from work for a Braves game last Saturday. We had a blast! It's been a while since we have gone out on a date like that. Can I just say how WONDERFUL it is to go out without Sydney? Of course we both love her to pieces but it was refreshing to just be us. I forgot what it felt like to just concentrate on him. It was wonderful. It's hard to give someone your undivided attention when there's a 17 month old running around.

There was a free Sara Evans concert afterwards that we stayed for. Pretty cool! She sounded great.

Last, but not least :) I call this picture "dazed and confused". This is typical Sydney in the morning.

The end :)

I'm still here!

2010-07-27T15:03:00.000-04:00

A man came to the house today. It was a man I've been looking forward to seeing at my house for a loooong time. The Comcast man :) (Heavenly Choir in the background) He might as well have been on a white horse. That's how excited I was to see him.

Ladies and Gentleman, the Simon family now has Internet access!!!

When we moved into our house, we told ourselves that we wouldn't add any other bills (like Internet) before we paid off Sydney's hospital balance. We figured that would take a couple months and we'd be fine without Internet for a while. I totally underestimated how much dependency I had on the Internet!

This is how Sydney and I felt about 4 months without Internet. We're going CRAZY!

How about 3 cheers for the man who brings home the bacon and makes it possible for his wife to now have an outlet to the world??

I love you Travis!!

Little Shoes

2010-05-11T10:49:00.000-04:00

I love Sydney. It hits me when I see something like this that she really is a part of our family.

During the day I usually don't feel like I've done anything magnificent or amazing. My day is mostly full of ordinary and uneventful things like feeding, changing, playing, picking up, laundry, reading and other small things.

But when I walked in our door last night and saw those little shoes next to ours, I realized what all the small things have added up to mean- having her in our family :)

Teeth!

2010-04-23T11:02:00.000-04:00

Here's an updated pic of miss Sydney:) At 13 months she's barely got 5 teeth. I've haven't been very good at taking pictures lately... I'm blaming that on our broken camera and moving. I took this one with my phone (which I haven't been able to find for 5 days now... man, what's wrong with me?!)

I'll have to borrow my moms camera or something to get some pictures of our house (townhome really) up here soon.

Does anyone else feel this way?

2010-04-20T11:40:00.000-04:00

Does anybody else out there almost have a mini panic attack when they try to figure out a good title for their blog post? Just wondering... There's a ton to update on and I have so much I want to write about and I'm always stumped when I have to give it a title. Anyway, on to updating.
We bought our first home! March 22nd we signed our lives away. We love, love, love it.The location is awesome (well for everything except for Travis' work). We especially love having our own room. As much as we love Sydney, its about time she had her own room. (The three of us have been in the same room for the first year of her life.) She sleeps from 8pm till about 8 or 9 am so that part didn't bug us. It was having to sneak back into our own room to go to bed at night that drove us nuts. I love being able to turn on the lights when we get ready for bed! I love being able to read before I go to sleep and not worry that I might wake up a baby.

In other recent heppenings, Sydney turned one and Travis and I celebrated our two year anniversary. (Never thought we'd be celebrating the birthday of a child before our two year anniversary but Wouldn't want it any other way :) )

Travis' mom came out to visit during the first week of April. We loved having her here. It was so nice to have her around during the day.it can get a little lonely around here. Travis' commute causes him to be gone almost 12 hours a day. We're both so grateful for his job. He's really begining to enjoy it. The commute just stinks. It makes me miss Idaho. There's a simplicity in Idaho that I love. In four years of living there I never once heard a traffic report on the radio (well maybe except for that one time cows got out on the highway. But can you really count that?? :)) We've liked living in Georgia ok, but I miss Idaho. I miss our friends. I miss Porter Park. I miss living 2 minutes from a temple.I miss walking to church in the summer. I miss shopping at Broulims. I miss the sand dunes. I miss the crisp air.I miss being where Travis' and my life began together. I miss seeing miles and miles at a time. I never thought I'd miss a place that I once completely hated. I guess that just goes to show that you can come to love anywhere you live.I'm sure Georgia will re-grow on me but for now I really miss Idaho.
I'll have to post pictures later of the house and Sydney eating her birfday cake :) ta ta!

She doesn't have a choice

2010-01-20T15:40:00.000-05:00

It doesn't matter whether she wants to be or not, this girl will be a Laker fan (thanks to her dad). One of my favorite memories of newly-wed life is watching Laker games while eating homemade pizza with Trav. I had never really cared to watch the NBA before we got married but I love watching with Travis (I don't know how he does this...he could ask me to watch paint dry with him and it would be fun).

Cute as a button!

2010-01-07T18:47:00.000-05:00

She couldn't wait to get these mittens off :) I think not being able to grasp things was freaking her out haha But this face just melts me :) I can't believe how big she's getting. Almost 10 months!

Mommy moment

2010-01-06T17:25:00.000-05:00

I LOVE Sydney. Really. I do. It's just been one of those days and I don't want to yell in front of her, so I'll yell at my blog. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Ok (sigh). That feels better :)

Christmas thoughts

2009-12-03T11:20:00.000-05:00

Christmas is supposed to be about Christ. Oh...is that why we all push truck loads of toys at children Christmas morning?? I don't know why this is bugging me so bad but I hate the thought of Sydney being surrounded by tons of gifts on Christmas. Birthdays? Sure. Go all out on Birthdays. But how am I teaching her that Christmas is about Jesus when she's surrounded by tons of toys and gifts? It's never bothered me until now. Probably because it's my first Christmas as a parent. I don't get how kids making Christmas lists and thinking about toys for themselves is celebrating the Christmas spirit. Sure, it celebrates the commercialized Christmas spirit but not the actual true meaning of Christmas. The cool part is that we are our own family and we can create whatever traditions we want. We can do Christmas the way society does it or we can do it the way we feel is best. I'm grateful for that. At the same time though, we live in society. It's discouraging to realize that even when you do things the way you feel best for your family, you're still fighting against so much of society. And it's everywhere.

I turned my back for 2 seconds...

2009-11-25T10:10:00.000-05:00

Pie making yesterday got a little messier than I had planned :) LOVE this little girl.

The Twilight thing...

2009-11-20T12:53:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm tired of being the only one who isn't going crazy over these Twilight books/movies. I have to admit.... the movie previews??? I think they're CREEPY! and WEIRD!! I just don't get it. Anyone else out there like me?

Travis got the job!

2009-11-04T11:32:00.000-05:00

We have received an offer letter! Travis will be starting work sometime mid November at Autotrader.com working for their advertising team. We are so excited. We were getting to be really discouraged for a while. It seemed like everybody and their mom was on a hiring freeze. What a blessing! We are really excited about the opportunity with AutoTrader. Travis was very impressed with the company when he went in for the first interview. They have grown a lot in the past few years. The job comes with some great benefits, too which is really nice. They do some tuition reimbursement so Trav is really excited about the possibility of continuing schooling while working at the same time. So now we're just throwing around ideas of where to begin looking for homes. What's the best move for us? Do we rent? Do we buy? The office building is just north of Atlanta so homes in that area are very expensive. But do we really want to be commuting 45 min -hour a day?? We've been creating spreadsheets like crazy trying to look at the numbers. Hmmmm....time and more research will tell.

Sydney is at an awesome age. She can entertain herself for periods of time, she is a pro sleeper and she knows how to give me just the right look to melt my heart. This stage is so fun. She is getting to be so interactive. I love it. The other day I was playing with Sydney and it hit me that I really enjoyed being around her. I got to thinking really about why it was so nice to be around Sydney when she can't even carry on a conversation with me or anything else like that and I realized that I liked being around her because babies are themselves. They aren't worried about what other people think about them. Babies don't even know HOW to be worried about what other people think of them. They are just themselves. They aren't afraid to try new things. They are just so genuine. When she laughs, I know she means it. She's never fake. She is so trusting. She isn't afraid to try things and look dumb. She's just trying to learn and explore. There are so many qualities this little girl has that I wish I had more of. OK, now Sydney's throwing a fit... (one of her not so good qualities I wish not acquire more of. I do enough of that on my own :) better run!

Sick

2009-10-24T13:57:00.000-04:00

A few days ago Sydney came down with a horribly runny nose. I mean, I literally had to crawl around behind her with a box of tissues. Her nose was like a faucet! She started to feel better and the next night I just couldn't sleep. I had a headache, body aches and of course, Sydney's runny nose! She was feeling better but I had definitely caught whatever she had. It seemed to effect/affect (I can never get those right...) me way more than it did her but secretly, deep down....i LOVE it haha. I love the excuse it gives me to lay in bed and eat soup or soak in the tub and read a book allllll daaaay looooong :) So on that note.... I'm off to start a bubble bath. I'm sick. *cough cough* ;)

Another mass update

2009-10-06T14:23:00.000-04:00

I still have yet to get the hang of consistent blogging so for now here's another 3 month catch up :)

Before we left Idaho we made one last Yellowstone trip.....

How cool is that? I love this place

I can't believe THIS day actually came!

I never thought I'd be, but I was so sad to leave the good ol' west. Sydney and I flew from Jackson Hole and Trav drove our things across the country! An entire 30+ hours. What a man! And what a gorgeous landscape to say goodbye to! This wasn't too hard to come home to though:)
She's a natural.... beach bum runs through her veins

Ahh! I LOVE it! West coast beaches do NOT compare!!

View from the condo

Our taco stand tradition on the beach!

Braves game with the Kovalskys!

We've started solids and booooy are things messier since:)

We are also starting driving lessons young.... :)

She's now officially a CRAWLER!

And beginning to get into everything.... oh life:)

Cooking?? No way

2009-07-21T20:12:00.001-04:00

Warning: This is a complaint post.

It is HOT!! I mean sweaty knee pits hot. Plus there's no air conditioner in our building. I thought about making dinner tonight and then I walked into our apt. I don't know exactly what temperature it is but I can tell you that it is hotter than 200 degrees in here. There's no way I'm cooking tonight. Everybody keeps saying "aren't you form Georgia? It's always hot there". The only difference is that everyone and their dog has an air conditioner. How do people not put air conditioners in buildings?? This is ridiculous. I'm sweating just sitting here. Looks like I'm going to be spending the rest of the evening outside until the apt becomes livable and I can re-enter my home.

Catch up!

2009-07-05T15:40:00.000-04:00

Alisha Siddoway, a friend of ours from church, is an AWESOME photographer. I had her take some pics of Sydney for us. I would totally recommend her to anyone! Here's her website: alishaphotography.blogspot.com

Here are some of the shots she got of Sydney

You can see that her toes are painted in some of these and I actually can't say that I'm responsible for that! I came home the other day and saw the nail polish out on the counter and thought, "hmmm... I don't remember getting that out." When I went to pick up Sydney, I saw that her toes were painted! I guess Travis has a more feminie side that I had realized! haha! He's such a good Dad, Sydney sure has him wrapped around her little finger:)

It is SO nice being a mom of a 3 and a half month old and instead a 3 week old. Holy cow, I have never been so sleep deprived, cranky or depressed than during the first two months of Sydney's life. I knew it would be hard, obviously, I just didn't realize how hard. I guess I had this unrealistic idea of how it would be. All my life I have loved kids and would melt when I held babies and all that jazz. Then when I had Sydney, I felt nothing! Not a thing! I wanted to feel those warm and fuzzies so bad and I just didn't. It took about 6 weeks before I had a moment like that. On top of feeling empty all the time, Travis and I were so sleepy (not good) and we're both pretty cranky and short with each other when we're sleepy. I just felt like my life went from happy to miserable so quickly. Hopefully, most people's experience isn't like that. I don't mean to complain or be negative, I just want to be honest. Especially for new or expecting moms who might feel like this, I just want them to know they aren't the only one's who feel that way! But on a happier note, 3 months + is a really fun stage. Sydney is sleeping really well, smiling and being pretty interactive. It's a good thing the first 2 months flew by because they sucked haha.

I hate that I can't keep up with blogging. Hopefully when I'm done with classes (less than 3 weeks away!) I'll be better at keeping up with it.

Speaking of being done with classes.... :)
I can't believe I'm almost done! So close! I can smell it:) Going to school while pregnant and having Sydney has probably been the most un-fun thing Trav and I have ever done, but now that it's just about over, we're so glad we did it. We'll be living in Georgia while Travis finishes his internship (ending in December) and if we find a job down there after the internship we'll stay. If not, we'll go wherever we can pay the bills! We're sad to elave Rexburg and all of our friends, but excited to be close to family and being down in the South:)

We got to hang out with Nick (Travis' brother) and his wife Jen the weekend of the 4th and had so much fun! They were down from Washington visiting Jen's family in Idaho Falls. We got to play a game of baseball with them and jen's family on the 3rd and played a games and watched fireworks with them on the 4th. We get so sad when we think about moving to Georgia and not being able to see them for a while. We would love to move to Seattle if we were able to find a good job out that way. The only thing we don't like is how expensive it is to live there.

The morning of the 4th we watched the parade in Rexburg. I've never been a parade person. I don't even think I've ever been to one. I've always thought they were lame and cheesy, but I really liked the parade this year. It was fun! There were these little boys in the parade that were on a float and on the side of their float it read, "Warning: obey your parents or you will have to do this next year." HA! haha

So there's our update. Hopefuly it wont be 80 years before I post again!

Videos for Mom

2009-04-18T16:19:00.000-04:00

TONS of pictures for grandma!

2009-04-17T00:56:00.000-04:00

These are just a few of the millions of pictures it seems we've been taking over the last few weeks:)
Before eating...

After eating...

She's so cute when she's all sprawled out!

Daddy's favorite snuggle buddy:)

Not the best pic, just wanted to show mom how long she's getting!

Sydney wth her uncle Sam and Grandpa

Simon family Easter Sunday!

Cousin Taylor and Aunt Jen Easter Sunday:)

Four generation picture!

3 more days!

2009-04-06T22:34:00.000-04:00

In 3 days Travis will be done with undergraduate classes, FOREVER! I'll be one semester away from graduating and we'll be moving into a bigger (and much better) apartment! Hello windows and sunshine, good-bye 300 square foot dungeon:)

Daniel is out here visiting for his spring break and is such a huge help. It's been fun to have family come out. I really miss them. I don't think I could live far away from my family permanently... that would be really hard.

Sydney has been here for over 3 weeks. I'm seeing more and more personality. Love her! She is such a sweet baby. I'm really thankful that she's been pretty easy to soothe. (let's hope she stays that way!)

Here's some video of Sydney. (this is for my mom. She's been begging for video:) but most people will probably find it boring haha) Just a side note...Travis is responsible for her hair in the second video :)

We've really enjoyed having this sweet little girl in our home, but I'll be honest, it's a tough adjustment. The most difficult part is going from 8 hours of sleep every night to 4 (if we're lucky). It's rough. Travis and I are both really affected by sleep so it's been quite a struggle to get back to "normal" life. A lot of people have told us that the first month is the toughest, so hopefully she'll be able to start sleeping for longer periods of time soon. I think I'll cry tears of happiness when that day comes!!

2 weeks, 110 dipers and 20 hours of sleep later....

2009-03-28T16:27:00.000-04:00

I can't believe she has been here for 2 whole weeks! They have FLOWN by. It has seriously felt like 2 days. Everything seems like one continuous blur (that's probably from the lack of sleep, haha). It's really cool how this little tiny person brings such a strong personality and presence into our apt. We love her! She's actually a pretty happy little girl (which is surprising...my parents told me I was either sleeping or screaming when I was a baby, so I was preparing for the worst, haha) She just loves lookin around and really likes the bath tub:)

Ok, so the FUNNIEST thing happened the other night. Sydney Grace woke up and was stiiiiinky! I was changing her on the bed and she started getting pretty fussy. Travis, still half asleep, wakes up and being his sweet self says, "aw come here" and he leans over and grabs the box of wipes instead of Sydney Grace and starts comforting and holding the box of wipes! It was HILARIOUS! I was cracking up so hard! I just had to take a picture!

My mom left today:( I miss her already! (oh, and look how cool my mom is, she's has a macbook! haha) It was soooooo nice to have her here but now we feel crippled! Niether of us have touched a dish or load of laundry in two weeks! She's done everything! How are we going to manage without her??!! It's been amazing having her help, especially the first week. Holy cow that first week was rough, just the emotions alone made it so difficult. But things have seemed to level out a little more as each day goes by (thank goodness). Even with all the roller coaster emotions, the 3 hours of sleep at night. stinky diapers and throw up, she is so worth it! We couldn't ask for a sweeter little girl:)

-This one's for G'pa Simon:)

She's Here!!!!

2009-03-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

We are so in love with this new little girl in our family! Sydney Grace was born last Friday evening the 13th (haha). She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and was 19 inches long! We can't get enough of this sweet girl!

We couldn't believe how much hair she had on that head of hers!

He's a DADDY!!
I love that little face:)

The story...

Things didn't exactly go as planned, but everybody is healthy and happy:) At my last weekly checkup (the 11th) the mid wives told me they were concerned because I had been measuring the same for a couple weeks and this week was actually measuring smaller than the last. They wanted to do an ultrasound the next day to make sure everything was ok. After the ultrasound they told us that they highly recommended that Travis and I go home, eat some dinner, pack our bags and be back at the hospital that night to being an induction! We were really wanting to have a natural birth, but were told that the drugs used for induction cause contractions to more strong and intense and the likelihood of pain medication was high. I still wanted to give going natural a shot but after a very long Thursday night and 8 hours on Friday of intense contractions (and STILL being at a 4 after all this!) I happily welcomed the epidural haha:) Even though things didn't go like we had hoped, it didn't matter one little bit the minute we saw her! Travis sure is one proud papa:) He adores her! I can't imagine having to go through everything without him. He is a great labor coach!

It feels like the past 5 days have flown by! It's still hard to comprehend that this baby girl is ours. I just love her so much!

stupid groundhog...

2009-02-23T11:31:00.000-05:00

If that dumb groundhog wouldn't have seen his shadow a few weeks ago then maybe the weather would be a little better. Actually now that I think about it, it probably wouldn't even make a difference! It probably would still be this cold and depressing because its Idaho. I admire the people who first settled here. After one winter I would have been outta here! Trav and I both feel it. It's like a mini depression. Everything outside is so discouraging and sad and dead. I don't know if I'm super sensitive to it because I'm from Ga or what but all I have to say is thank heavens this is the last winter to go through in Rexburg...ever. I really have a hard time with it.

On a lighter note, I finished my humanities class last week as well as my church history. Yea! Now my load is 12 credits. I'm really glad about that. I found out this weekend that my two brothers and dad are coming out in the spring too! I can't wait to see them!

Hypocrite!!

2009-02-05T16:26:00.000-05:00

So I guess I'm a hypocrite:) I said I would be much better at keep updated with this blog and I'm totally not. So here's to turning over a new leaf?? We'll say this is my February resolution:)

School is going wonderfully. Last semester I felt a lot like a chicken with it's head cut off (21 credits..ahhhh) and this semester I'm taking 17. You have no idea how much a difference there is in 21 and 17! Plus two of my classes are online which allows me to work as fast as I want. My goal is to have those classes mostly finished by the time the baby gets here. I'm also not working this semester (thanks Travis!) which frees up a lot of time to get ahead.

Travis is finished with classes this April and is pretty excited about it. He still has one more internship to do to technically graduate so we'll be walking together in July. So fun! We are totally excited this is our last winter to endure in Rexburg. It is just wrong how cold it gets here. Today it was 5. Five!! It's just wrong!

My mom's coming out!! Tuesday my mom called and told me she has bought her ticket! She'll be out here for 2 weeks and 2 days! I'm so excited that she'll be here. I miss my momma:)

I promise we take more than just prego pictures but here's the lastest shot of the belly. This is 34 weeks. I'm starting to feel pretty sumo-wrestler-like. Being pregnant is pretty neat but to be honest I really like being normal size much better:)

Let's try this again!

2008-12-21T16:58:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I started a blog back in the summer but for some reason it was missing the layout function and I wasn't able to really customize it or do anything cute with it (plus we didn't have internet at our apt so I hardly got on anyway!)

SO, the lovely Jen (sis-in-law) go me up and running on a new blog! yea! I'll do much better updating this one:)

We've been having a lot of fun visiting Travis' family over the Christmas break. I'll put up pics soon.

Belly!

2008-12-21T16:29:00.001-05:00

This was picture at 17/18 weeks

This one's at 26ish weeks

So far pregnancy has been good....I just don't know if I'm going to love having a belly for 2 and a 1/2 more months :) We've started to collect a few baby items like clothes and it's so fun to see them in the apt. It's crazy to think she'll be a part of the home in just a little while! Oh, and here is Travis' pregnancy shot. (He was feeling so left out haha!)