November GBOMB

I can't really think of anything for the "On My Brain" section so this is really just a GB instead of a GBOMB.

G O O D
+We finally got Harley and Pancho Villa back. They lived at my brother Blake's house for the year while we were in California and then once we moved here, they lived at Blake's house for another six months while our fence was built. The kids are very excited to have them back although it took Olive a bit to warm up to Harley.
+Soccer finished up. I'm not sure if we'll do soccer again next year. Maybe for Olive since she'll be old enough and I think she would enjoy it quite a lot. Taylor really liked going to soccer practice, but soccer games were not his favorite. He tended to casually walk around the field during games and complain about what hard work running was. Honestly, can't blame him - I don't like running either.
+We started on our sand volleyball court in the backyard. It has been a lot more work than anticipated, but it has provided hours and hours of entertainment for the kids. They love playing in the sand. Hopefully by the end of December we'll have it finished up.
+We decorated for Christmas. I used to firmly be in the wait-until-Thanksgiving-is-over camp, but since having little kids that get so excited for everything Christmas, I can't help but put up decorations and start listening to Christmas music early.
+We had a great and easy Thanksgiving. We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family. Taylor and Olive got to go see Frozen II with Grandma and Grandpa Snow and cousins Josh, Jude, and Adele. And I got an afternoon of wandering Target on Black Friday. Just a few days
+Since moving into our new house, Taylor has been complaining about how small his toddler bed is and that he wanted a big bed. Well it only took 7 months, but we finally bought him a twin bed. This also meant the toddler bed was passed down to Olive. Both are excited about their new sleeping arrangements.

B A D
+We have been so, so busy. Between foster care classes for both Andrew and myself, soccer practice, doctor appointments, being gone for Thanksgiving, and general errands/to-do lists - November has felt incredibly busy. But when is life not busy?
+Eliza caught some sort of stomach bug. The poor thing couldn't keep anything down for the two days after Thanksgiving. Plus, she's getting the four top teeth in right now too. Hopefully she's on the mend.

I'm in shock that it's already December which means it's it's almost Olive's 3rd birthday and then it's Christmas and then it's 2020 and then Eliza turns one and then I'm off on a Twitter Mom Disneyland trip like last year and then I get to go on a trip to Italy and then we'll most likely start taking foster placements... and then and then and then. Life is a marathon sprint.

October GBOMB

G O O D
+The beginning of the month the kids got to spend a few days with cousins. It's always so fun to have all the kids together.
+We went to a very budget version of a pumpkin patch (if you consider 30 pumpkins pre-picked on a few hay bales a pumpkin patch). The kids had a blast even if it was a pretty lame petting zoo/pumpkin patch.
+Our church put together a really fun Halloween party that the kids looked forward to all month. The night ended with a trunk-or-treat that filled Taylor's and Olive's bucket to the top. When we got home, Taylor dumped out his candy and organized it by color. Olive took each candy piece by piece and asked me what it was called. I would tell her, "Those are skittles/starbursts/tootsie rolls/etc." and she would reply back after each one, "Oh, I love skittles/starbursts/tootsie rolls/etc!" I also taught her the "gimme a break" Kit-Kat song and for some reason I think it's the funniest thing that she'll sing "break me off a piece of that Kit-Kat bar" every time she sees a Kit-Kat.
+ We went to breakfast with Andrew's family to surprise his dad for his birthday. All of Andrew's siblings were there for the surprise and it was so fun to spend the day with everyone.
+The same day as the breakfast surprise, we went to a second trunk-or-treat in Andrew's home ward. Taylor and Olive weren't mad about more candy.
+Apparently two nights of Halloween festivities wasn't enough. We also went trick or treating around our neighborhood on actual Halloween. I was convinced that our little neighborhood wouldn't have anyone out, but there were tons of kids out and it was so fun to actually go door to door. Taylor and Olive are Halloween pros after this year.

B A D
+We all got sick this month. Flus and colds of various degrees.
+Andrew, Taylor, and Olive got in a car crash. No one was hurt (thankfully), but our minivan is totaled (unfortunately).
+All the Halloween festivities and quick travels led to kids who's schedules were thrown off and resulted in grumpy kids which is never fun.

O N  M Y  M I N D
+I've slowly been telling people about this, but Andrew and I are in the process of becoming foster parents. Andrew just started his state training (I'm taking mine in January) and our agency training together will start in November. It's a lot of time and very overwhelming, but I'm just trying to accept the fact that our lives will be hectic for the foreseeable future. Even though it's a stressful process, we're very excited to start fostering.

September GBOMB

Oh wow, I am very late with the GBOMB for September. For my sake, we're going to shorten it from a GBOMB to just a G (I don't even know how much of the Good I can remember, but I've definitely forgotten the Bad and what was On My Brain by now).

G O O D
+Taylor started soccer. He loves going to practices, but he isn't the biggest fans of the actually games. It is super cute to watch easily distracted, uncoordinated three year olds play soccer.
+Our wall is complete besides gates, but we're close to getting those up. We've already spent so much more time outside now that it's done (the cooling weather may also be a contributing factor). It might be a long time before anything else gets put in the backyard, but we're very happy.
+I got shelves up in our playroom/office area. My books have been in boxes for over a year and a half and they're finally out again. There's also cabinets under the shelves to store some of the toys that didn't have homes before. Our playroom/office was a big area of stress for me, but now it's *chef kiss* perfect. I plan to eventually put trim around all the shelves/cabinets to make it look built in, but for now I am content with the progress.
+Here's a memory I want to document: After Taylor's second ever soccer practice, we stopped by Dairy Queen on the way home and got the Taylor and Olive an ice cream cones. Since the kids' ice creams were dripping by the time we got to our house, we set up camp chairs in the driveway for them to sit in while finishing their ice cream without bringing the mess into the house. It got dark quickly and the kids were eating slowly so the stars came out. One benefit of living in the middle of the desert with only a few other houses around is how many stars you can see and all the background noises of nature. It was such a simple evening, but one I don't want to forget. Oh, and I also taught the kids how to wish on stars with the "star light, star bright, first star I see tonight..." rhyme and Taylor was enthralled with the possibilities of star wishes.

September is now very much over and October has almost come to the end as well. October has been a great month so hopefully my next GBOMB doesn't take quite this long.

Eliza Jane Snow: A Birth Story

I had wonderful labors with both Taylor and Olive so I guess it was time that something went a little wrong for me during delivery. If you're about to give birth and are prone to worry, maybe don't read this one. If you want to read a positive birth story, here is Taylor's, and here is Olive's. I mean we did end up with a perfect baby girl... the labor just wasn't as perfect as I hoped for.

I started getting Braxton Hicks contractions from about 22 weeks. I didn't have Braxton Hicks in my previous pregnancies so I was quite annoyed to have them from pretty early on in this pregnancy (and quite frequently). I tried to tell myself this was good because my body was practicing for labor and I'd be ready when it was go time. About two weeks before my due date I started having real contractions. Surely this meant I would have her early since contractions meant your body was prepping - I had to be dilating and my cervix had to be thinning. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. My doctor checked me at one of my appointments and said that I was maybe 1 cm dilated and that my cervix was still super high. This baby didn't look like she was coming anytime soon. I continued having lots of real contractions which now just made me angry. Why did I have to suffer through these contractions when they weren't even doing anything?

My mom came to visit us and be on call to watch the kids if we had to head to the hospital. I almost told her not to come at all because now I was positive the baby was never coming so her trip would be in vain. Again, I was having contractions and even some pretty consistent ones, but they would stop then start up again randomly so I didn't put much stock into them. I went to bed Sunday night then woke up from the contractions around 3 am. I started timing them since I couldn't fall back asleep and noticed that they were getting pretty close together. Around 4:30 am I decided it was time to head into the hospital. With Taylor, my water broke before I ever had contractions so I knew it was time to go. With Olive, I waited a really long time before going to the hospital because I didn't know if my contractions were bad enough and I didn't want to be sent home. By the time I got there with Olive, I was 8cm dilated and I had to be rolled into the labor wing so my water didn't break walking from the triage room to labor & delivery. So this pregnancy, I thought it would be a good idea to head in a tad bit sooner.

Once we were checked in and brought back to triage, the nurse took a peek and said that I was 3 cm dilated and my water was "bulging". We were admitted and taken back to labor & delivery. I thought that we would be there for a while, but the nurse reassured me that it being my third child, it would all happen quickly. I was still skeptical because my contractions didn't seem that close together yet and figured it would be about the same timeline as Taylor and Olive's labor.

Around 8 am, I was checked again and was told I was at 6 cm. I debated getting the epidural, but my contractions still seemed far apart and I didn't want to slow down progress so I decided to wait a little bit. I asked how long it would take to get my epidural so I wouldn't miss my window and was told it only took about 10-15 minutes to get an anesthesiologist to my room. I told the nurse that my biggest fear was finding out that it was too late to get my epidural so I'd probably be asking for it soon. She assured me that it never happens like that and there is always time to get an epidural (this is major foreshadowing).


My doctor popped in to see me at about 9 am. Only an hour had passed, but I was now 9 cm dilated! I told them to order the epidural stat. My doctor decided since he was already there, he would break my water and place an internal heart rate monitor (mind you, this is before my epidural). My doctor is nearing retirement age and is a little old fashion. I don't think many doctors place internal heart rate monitors anymore (it seemed entirely unnecessary at 9cm dilated). He also used his fingers to break my water instead of the usual amniohook. It took him a few tries to get my water to break and he was not gentle. I really would have rather waited for my water to inevitable break once I started pushing instead of experiencing the pain of a hand digging around in my cervix for what seemed like several long minutes. Anyway, once my water was broken and the heart rate monitor placed, my doctor told me that my baby was ready to come. The nurse said that I could still get the epidural, but I might as well go without one since it was time. I had not even considered an unmedicated birth so I still wanted that epidural. The anesthesiologist was called and we were told he'd be to my room in 15 minutes, but he ended up being late. It was time for this baby to come so now was not the time to be late! I mean, hindsight, he probably had other patients he had to attend to and I'm sure he got there as soon as possible, but try to explain that to a laboring woman who has a fear of not getting an epidural in time! The entire time we were waiting for him to arrive, my doctor was telling me I didn't need an epidural. In fact, when the anesthesiologist finally walked into the room, my doctor told him that we had decided to go ahead without the epidural. Being in extreme pain and also being pretty confused at what my doctor was doing, I was grateful my nurse stepped in and said, "Actually, she hasn't decided." and then looking to me for my decision. I was obviously still in favor of an epidural. He got me hooked up to the drugs fairly quickly once he arrived, but the epidural wasn't kicking in. I still felt every contraction at full force. Where were the effects of my magic drugs?!

My doctor told me it was time to push, but I was not ready. I had not prepared myself to give birth while feeling everything. I started pushing and it. was. so. hard. I started crying and just kept saying, "It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" Now I understand why they portray birth in movies the way they do. You know, with the woman screaming and howling almost in an animalistic way. The pain takes over and you can't really control how you react. You're not even thinking really. There's no space for thinking when every atom of you is screaming in pain and your body is telling you that the pain you are experiencing is physically impossible for you to endure.

When her head emerged I was told to stop pushing. I could not believe they would tell me to stop pushing when all I wanted to do was get that baby out of me. I couldn't take the pain, but somehow managed to withhold from pushing. My doctor kept saying, "Stop pushing, stop pushing, stop pushing!" until I finally yelled back, "I'm not!" Apparently the cord was wrapped around her neck twice, but they were wise not to tell me this information in the state I was in. Finally I was allowed to push again and I told myself to push as hard as I could so the pain would be over. It only took that last contraction and 3 consecutive pushes and she was out at 10:09 am.

She was placed on my chest, a moment I had been looking forward to for so long, but at that second, my blood pressure dropped and I couldn't even pick up my head to look at her or put my arms around her to hold her there. They kept asking me what was wrong, what was I feeling, etc. and all I could do was mumble back, "I don't feel good." over and over again. They suspect this was when the epidural kicked in because a blood pressure drop can be a side effect. Lucky me, the epidural kicked in the second she was out of me. They took her away to be weighed and measured (20.5 inches long and 6lb 10oz, my smallest baby) while I was stitched up. The nurse talked me back into reality as my blood pressure evened out. Andrew had to take a moment and sit down, not from seeing all the blood and gore, but from watching me in such intense pain.

Finally I started to feel okay and Eliza was placed back on my chest for some skin to skin. She almost immediately started nursing and nursed for almost an hour. She looked exactly like Olive, but had dark hair like Taylor. As she's gotten older, I think she looks a little like both of them, but still more of Olive. She also acts a lot like Olive too which means we have another child who feels ALL her emotions intensely (and wants to be held constantly).

I've been working on this post for a really long time. Every few weeks I write a couple more details and save it as a draft. It's been difficult for me to write about my labor and I still haven't been able to work through or elaborate on how I feel about the whole experience. I loved my labor experiences with both Taylor and Olive. I found it so empowering and fulfilling. I tell people that I love labor. I was so excited for Eliza's birth and had been anxiously waiting for that moment she would be placed on my chest, but it turned out entirely different than I imagined. I realize that my experience wasn't even that bad. Many people have terrible, awful, even traumatic things happen to them. It makes me feel a little silly to even complain knowing that. But I keep telling myself that my feelings are valid. I'm allowed to be upset. Especially since this was most likely my last pregnancy/labor. I really wanted a beautiful experience with Eliza that I'd be able to look back on with fondness. Unfortunately that's not the case. But that's okay (or at least I'll come to terms with it eventually). We are in love with Eliza and are so happy she's here with us, regardless of the details of how she got here.

August GBOMB

August seemed so busy, but looking back I can't really remember us doing too much. Even on the days when we sit at home doing nothing, it still feels busy when there's three little ones to care for. Here is what I can remember of the Good, the Bad, and what's been On My Brain for August.

G O O D
+We got a cat. That's not something I thought I would be saying. Not that I have anything against cats, but I'm much more of a dog person. I follow the local humane society on Facebook and thought that maybe one day we would rescue a dog (as in possibly a few years from now). Instead of that being the case, I saw a three legged cat pop up in my feed and within a couple hours we had adopted an eight-ish year old, tripod cat. We named her Big Tuna (as a nod to The Office) and she is quite the affectionate cat. The humane society told us that she would probably hide out for the first week or so, but she immediately wanted to be around the action. They also warned us that since she's an older cat and may have endured some trauma (they have no idea how she lost her leg), that she might not do well with rambunctious little kids. Luckily, she has been excellent with the kids and puts up with their constant need to be in her face. I'm pretty sure she was abused to some extent before because she does kind of cower if she's not expecting you to pet her or if you walk past her too fast, but she doesn't run and hide, and she doesn't let it stop her from being around all our rowdiness (she immediately starts crying/howling if she can't find what room we're in). I think she's a good fit for our family, and we hope she enjoys her time in our house.
+The fence around our backyard has started! It should be done soon and I'm excited to be able to send the kids to play in the backyard without worrying about what wildlife they might stumble upon. It's going to take a loooong time to get anything else in the backyard, but dirt will do for now. I mean dirt is peak play for a bunch of toddlers anyway. That also means that our dog Harley and tortoise Pancho Villa can come live with us again (they've been staying at my brother's house). Olive has been constantly pestering the cat and I'm always telling her to give the cat space. She's excited for Harley to join us because I told her that Harley loves attention and she can annoy Harley all she wants.

B A D
+Andrew sometimes has to travel for work. It's usually only for a few days each month, but in August he was gone a Sunday-Friday period, and then left the following Monday until Thursday. It was a rough two weeks for me.
+Eliza has been teething. It was at it's peak while Andrew was gone (lucky me). Her bottom two teeth are now poking out, but I'm sure more teeth will follow soon. That's the hard part about teething, once it starts you know you have a full year of teething ahead of you.
+I had a pretty bad cold. Luckily, it only came on strong one day before Andrew got home from his second trip of the month so once he was back I was able to take it easy. I always lose my voice when I'm sick which is pretty annoying. Then Eliza decided to make both teething and me being sick to new heights by getting Roseola. I have no idea how she got Roseola since we never leave the house. I don't think the Roseola was too bad for her, but it was hard to tell since she was already cranky from teething.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+I've been trying to come up with some regular chores for the kids to do. One day Taylor took his clean clothes and folded them and put them away in his dresser all on his own. Now that I know he can put away his laundry (very nicely at that), he is now responsible for that. Olive wants to be like Taylor so she attempts to put away her clothes, but really she just throws any and all clothes in whatever drawer she sees first. They will often "help" with things that I'm doing and they pick up their toys every day, but we haven't really established daily chores for the kids. I think they're ready for that step so I'm trying to come up with a system. Please share if you have a good chore system or ideas of what chores are appropriate/doable for a 4 year old and a 2.5 year old.
+I've come to the realization that life will always be busy. I mean I've always known that, but I've been thinking about it a bit more lately. A lot of days I feel like I get nothing done. I do keep three children alive which is so much work and pretty much the opposite of not getting anything done, but I still want to be able to accomplish more with my time. I'm trying to figure out what's important and beneficial in my life and and what fat can get cut. It's the whole good, better, best dilemma while also being realistic that life will always be a bit chaotic.

July GBOMB

It only took me two days to post the monthly GBOMB versus last month when it took me two weeks. July went by so fast and was full of family visits. I'm glad we filled our July up because August is looking pretty blank so far. So here is the Good, the Bad, and what's been On My Brain for the month of July.

G O O D
+Our 4th of July was so fun. There were fireworks here in Vail on July 3rd and then we drove to my mom's community pool on the 4th to go swimming. The kids love to swim and have been begging to go back to Grandma's pool ever since.
+Matt and Mimi (plus Josh, Jude, and Adele) were in Arizona to see their new house because they're moving here from Seattle in a few months. We stayed a night in Tempe to hang out and they came to us for a day trip. While they were here, we went to Colossal Cave for the first time (it's about 10 minute from our house) and then all got Bahama Bucks after the hot, humid walk through the cave. We even saw a Coatimundi in the parking lot of Colossal Cave.
+We were in our new ward for about a month before our boundaries changed. With this new change and many callings empty, I got called as a Mia Maid advisor. I've never had a calling in the Young Women's program and I'm really excited to work with the girls in our ward. (For those not familiar, wards are what we call local congregations in the LDS church and Mia Maids is an organization in the youth program that encompasses girls from age 14-15.)
+We got a brand new niece! Her name is Scout and she was a complete surprise! My sister-in-law Stephanie managed to keep her entire pregnancy a secret. We didn't know she was pregnant until she FaceTimed us AFTER the baby was born. We already love her so much.
+Speaking of our brand new niece, Stephanie is absolutely insane and drove by herself from California to Arizona with all 5 of her kids (with Scout being only a week old)! I don't know how she managed it, but we're so glad we got to hang out with them and meet new baby Scout. Once we found out she was in Tempe, we decided that day to get an AirBnb for the night and do a quick overnight stay with them. We had so much fun in the tiny condo we found and managed to take seven kids swimming twice in the 24 hours we were there.
+Michelle and Great Grandma Snow also visited Tempe. They drove down to Tucson with Andrew's mom and all of Stephanie's crew to see us for a day. We love when people come all the way out to our house in the middle of the desert.

B A D
+We did a lot of quick trips and saw a lot of family, all of which is on the good list. The bad part of this is late nights with kids who end up grumpy for lack of sleep and thrown off schedules.
+Andrew was out of town for work. All three kids decided to be little terrors while he was gone. Those four days felt like years. I'm guessing Eliza is going through a growth spurt or maybe getting some teeth. As for Taylor and Olive, I think they're plotting ways to drive me to the brink. It's the only explanation.
+Andrew's car is dead. We're replacing the engine because it's more cost effective for us to buy a new engine for our reliable Toyota Corolla versus buying a new car. It's not the worst thing in the world, but definitely not a cost we were anticipating. We have been without a second car for two weeks now and it looks like we have another week left of being homebound while Andrew is at work.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+Mesoamerica. I realize that seems pretty random, but I have always been fascinated with Mesoamerican culture, particular pre-columbian Mayan history. I've been reading a few books on it recently including the Popol Vuh and watching lectures by archeologists like George Stuart, David Stuart, and William Saturno so I've been thinking about it a lot. It's one of the things I get really nerdy about. I've decided that one day, when the kids are older, I'm going to go on a excavation trip in Mexico or Guatemala.
+I only have three more classes left until I have my Associates in General Studies. I don't know if I've really talked about my dilemma in picking a degree on here before, but here's the cliff notes version: I want a graphic design degree. It wasn't available online when I started, but the program I was in was new and there were talks of that potentially being available eventually. So I started a web design and development degree since that involved some graphic design work and could easily morph into the degree I wanted if it ever became available. I took a few graphic design classes that I enjoyed, but the bulk of it was a variety of different coding classes. I'm not good at coding. I can get by, but it's really difficult for me. With many more coding classes in my future that I was dreading, I decided to change course. I had enough credits to get a Web Design Certificate so I cashed in on that, but there wasn't any degrees of interest to me so I decided to get an Associates in General Studies and then hopefully be able to decide what I wanted for my Bachelors. Being only three classes away and having no desire for any of the Bachelor degrees available, I'm not sure what to do. I could transfer somewhere else, but my current tuition is highly discounted and will continue at the same low cost as long as I attend. I'm not sure I can justify transferring somewhere else and paying way more to get a degree that I probably won't use for much.

June GBOMB

Man, is this post late. It couldn't be skipped though since it's the only post that I seem to get around to. Without further ado, here's a quick rundown of the Good, the Bad, and what's been On My Brain for the month of June.

G O O D
+Eliza had her baby blessing on June 1st. We invited our immediate family to our new house so everyone got to be there for Eliza's blessing while also getting to see our new place.
+We broke ground on our backyard. We have all of the brush cleared out and are now waiting to hear back on a few estimates to fence it in.
+My dear friend Hannah got married! I drove up to Saint Johns for her bridal shower on Friday morning, her sealing in the Snowflake temple Saturday morning, and her reception Saturday night. It was fun to see Hannah as well as Jenna and Cassidy. We don't see each other often and we're all terrible at keeping in touch, but whenever we get together, it's like we've never been apart. I was also happy to be able to be back in Saint Johns since I don't have very many excuses to go back, even if it was just for a short while.
+We have loved watching the wildlife around our house. We see lots of quails, roadrunners, coyotes, and rabbits. I've been trying to film little clips of all of our animal visitors so I can put together a video.

B A D
+I had a cold in June which was no fun at all. Lots of body aches, sore throat, terrible congestion. Taylor and Olive had quick runny noises that only lasted 2 days which was good. But as hard as I tried not to breath on Eliza, she got it full force (I mean how could she not when I hold her 24/7). We all seemed to have recovered, but when I went on my solo weekend trip, my sickness reappeared. Sore throat, congestion, headaches. I think it's from my lack of sleep. It's been rough as of late and my body is not happy about it. The good thing about getting it when I was up at my friend's wedding is I was staying in a hotel and got two nights of uninterrupted sleep (my first full nights of sleep since Eliza was born). I got better a lot faster than my first time around. Hopefully we can avoid getting sick for the rest of the year (hahahahahaa).
+We have a wolf spider problem. We ordered some chemicals and sprayed our house so hopefully that takes care of them.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+I waited too long to do this GBOMB so I can't remember what was on my mind in June. I'll do better on my recap in July... maybe.

May GBOMB

May was spent moving into our new house. Not much happened besides settling into our new place so this is going to be a short GBOMB and more of a photo dump from the month of May.

G O O D
+Before we left California, we wanted to do a fun Disney event that we hadn't done before - a character breakfast. We did Goofy's Breakfast and it was so much fun. It was also our last day spent in Disneyland as annual passholders. I'm thinking of writing up a post about our experience having an annual pass.
+Moving went as smoothly as moving can possibly go (so still stressful, but nothing went wrong). We actually unpacked and got things in order in our new house relatively quickly compared to some of our other moves.
+The kids are thrilled with the new house. Taylor and Olive love their new rooms and being outside in the desert and most of all, the chimney for Santa to come down. It's fun to see the silly things kids notice and get excited about. Everything is new and entertaining for them.
+We have plans to break ground on our backyard! It's going to be many, many, many years before we finish everything that we want (i.e. grass, pool, a chicken coop, sand volleyball, other grand schemes) because landscaping is pricey. But we will hopefully have our acre cleared, graded, and fenced by the end of this year.

B A D
+There actually isn't anything I can think of to put in the bad category. Maybe just the struggle of parenting three kids? It's hard when Olive is screaming in the other room while I'm trying to get Eliza down for a nap or when Taylor is begging me to cut up an apple for him, but I'm busy feeding Eliza. I don't have enough hands because my hands are always holding Eliza, but I still have two other children demanding help. It helps to know this is only a season and soon Eliza will be able to sit up on her own and won't need me 24/7. But then we'll run into our next challenge because parenting never ends. Haha.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+Honestly, nothing is on my brain. My brain is barely hanging on. Newborns and lack of sleep really take a toll on my ability to think. See thoughts on mom brain in my March GBOMB post.

April GBOMB

G O O D
+Taylor turned 4! It was a lowkey event celebrated with pancakes and a giant cookie cake. Ready for the most cliche' saying? I can't believe Taylor is 4 years old! He is growing up so fast.
+Andrew and I celebrated 5 years of marriage! Well celebrated might be the wrong word since we didn't really do anything... because we have kids. Haha. I guess having a normal day is a celebration because our marriage has brought three beautiful children into the world. We wouldn't want anything else.
+I just remembered that we did do something for our anniversary. We all went to the LA Zoo. It was a little rough on me with a two month old, but the kids had fun. And it's always good to get out of the house because I hardly ever leave it except to pick up grocery orders at Walmart.
+We made a quick trip to Disneyland as a family which is something we haven't done in a while. We only did a few things, but made it on the new Jesse's Critter Carousel in California Adventures which is super adorable.
+The kids were really jazzed about Easter this year. We have the Easter Story Egg which is a nesting egg. Each day of the week leading up to Easter, you open an egg and read the story that coincides with that day of Holy Week. The kids looked forward to it each day and begged me to open eggs ahead of schedule. We dyed eggs a little last minute on Saturday night. I gave Taylor and Olive each four hard boiled eggs and they dyed them over and over again until the poor eggs were pretty smashed up. They were also super happy with their Easter baskets and searching for hidden eggs on Sunday.
+We closed on our house! We are home owners again! I'm so excited for our move and to be in a house we own.
+I went to Disneyland with six women I had never met before and it was the best time. I have a large group of what I call my internet friends. We interact with each other across social media and call ourselves the Twitter Moms. About 5 months back we started planning a trip to Disneyland and it finally came to fruition. I spent two days kid-free in Disneyland with these lovely ladies that have changed from just internet friends to real life friends. We're already discussing where our next mom trip will be to (and hopefully more Twitter Moms will be able to join us).

B A D
+We're going to be living on an acre of land which is fantastic. But it's unfenced and essentially the desert as there is nothing behind us. This makes for great views, but it also means our backyard is filled with rattlesnakes, scorpions, gila monsters, tarantulas, coyotes, javelinas, etc and so forth. That's something I could live with if it weren't for my itty bitty children running around. I want them to be able to run wild in the backyard without me having to worry about them receiving a life threatening snake bite. So we need to clear all the desert brush and put a fence around the yard to help keep the wildlife and the children separated. But man, is it expensive to fence an acre. And it's hard to arrange estimates to get the work started. And it's going to take a while once we get started. It's worth it for the land though.
+It seems like we're always struggling with something new when it comes to parenting (I'm sure this pattern will continue for the rest of our lives). Our usually smooth nighttime routine has been disrupted by a strong willed little boy who refuses to stay in bed. We're trying to figure out something that works for him before we go insane.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+Moving logistics. We're lucky enough to be getting movers paid for by Andrew's work, but that doesn't mean I stress any less. I can't stop the list of things that need to get down for the move out of my head.
+How do you keep little babies from getting sick? Eliza hasn't caught anything terrible, but she always seems to get a runny nose which I then assume means her throat is sore from the snot drainage at night. We hardly leave the house (I've only taken her to church twice since I'm so paranoid after Olive's stint in the ICU as a baby) and her siblings haven't been sick, but she still manages to catch some sort of illness. I feel bad that she's had a runny nose for the majority of her life so far.