Livin' MY Dream

of being a Mother full time. A year ago I would have never guessed in a million years that I would be where I am today, the Mother of two beautiful, precious babies. I feel so blessed each and every day and I cherish these moments, although they may be moments of chaos they are precious. My sister, Michelle, reminded me a couple weeks ago that one day these two boys will be 15 and 16 and no longer want me to hold them. In fact she shared this awesome quote from Elder Holland with me,

"In speaking of mothers generally, I especially wish to praise and encourage young mothers. The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. The young years are often those when either husband or wife—or both—may still be in school or in those earliest and leanest stages of developing the husband's breadwinning capacities. Finances fluctuate daily between low and nonexistent. The apartment is usually decorated in one of two smart designs—Deseret Industries provincial or early Mother Hubbard. The car, if there is one, runs on smooth tires and an empty tank. But with night feedings and night teethings, often the greatest challenge of all for a young mother is simply fatigue. Through these years, mothers go longer on less sleep and give more to others with less personal renewal for themselves than any other group I know at any other time in life. It is not surprising when the shadows under their eyes sometimes vaguely resemble the state of Rhode Island. . . . Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones"

IT'S TRUE.....so I have tried to take time every day to enjoy and cherish the moments I have with each one of my boys. Even if it is only 5 minutes, I sit and think about the miracle I am holding in my arms. I adore these boys, Craig and I both do and have absolutely loved watching them grow and develop with each new day.

These pictures were done for Zidane's newborn photo shoot and Landon's 10 month photo shoot. I think they turned out really good and captured the boys in the way we know and love them. Zidane is now 2 months old and Landon will be turning ONE YEAR OLD in a couple weeks. What a special time of year it is to reflect on the experiences and emotions we experienced a year ago when we learned he would become a member of our eternal family. It has been a crazy year for us but one we will always remember and LOVE to reflect on in years to come.

Zidane is a cuddly little guy and loves to be held. He is smiling and reacting to us now when we talk to him. He just had his 2-month wellness check-up and is doing very well. He is tall just like his brother Landon. Looks like I am going to be the short one in the family with all boys towering over me. He has just started sleeping in his own bed at least most of the night and is doing really well. He is sharing a room with Landon right now just so we can keep them both close to our bedroom since they are both still so young. Landon has loved having a new roommate and gets very excited when he knows his brother is in there with him. I think he is already thinking up ways and ideas on how to get to Zidane's crib in hopes of getting some playing time in at night. He is dying to play with Zidane and I can't wait until he is old enough to crawl around and get into everything like Landon does.

When he was born he looked exactly like Craig and his brother Corey. But then he started to look like my Dad. Now I think he looks like a JeNsOn and an IpSeN, he is a pretty good mix of the two families. And of course everyone is surprised to learn that Landon is adopted because he looks so much like our families too. In fact since Zidane is wearing a lot of Landon's clothes there are several photos of them in the same outfit and I can't tell them apart. I have been going through and organizing their baby books and photos and I find myself saying "wait is this LaNdOn or ZiDaNe?"

When I saw this photo my heart melted. He is so HaNdSoMe and so SwEeT. I ADORE this little guy and love it when he crawls over to me and puts his arms up for me to pick him up. He makes me laugh so hard every day with his bubbly personality. He has 8 teeth now and is starting to enjoy eating real food finally. He was so content with his bottle for so long that he wasn't interested in eating anything. He loves pear yogurt, bananas, pears, strawberries, wheat crackers, and he always wants to eat my protein shakes. He crawls and is very close to walking. He is very talkative and full of energy. Our days are very busy. We start our day with Craig feeding and dressing Landon while I feed and dress Zidane. Then the boys and I venture out in our double jogger for a walk/run to enjoy the fresh morning air. And since we have been so blessed with this GORGEOUS weather we are really trying to take advantage of it before the cold WINTER hits us.

Then Landon takes his morning nap while I quickly do dishes and pick up the house. Zidane will usually be awake and a little fussy so I just put him in one arm and work with the other. Then I feed him and try and get him down for a nap before Landon wakes up. Landon and I have lunch together and most often Zidane ends up joining us after his 20 minute nap. We play, laugh, tickle, crawl around and pull everything out of every drawer and off all the book cases. Once we tire of this Landon goes down for another nap, meanwhile Zidane and I quickly pick up the toys again and I feed Zidane again and try and cuddle with him for a little bit. Then when Landon gets up from his second nap we play again. Then we eat and await the exciting homecoming of DAD. When the door opens, Landon immediately stops what he is doing and crawls at his FASTEST pace straight to the door with the biggest GRIN on his face. It is the cutest thing ever and I think Craig really likes the WELCOME HOME he gets. Night time is full of family fun, bath time, story time and bed time. And then we wake up the next day and do it all over again. (We won't talk about the hours of Midnight to 6am because they are not our favorite hours of the day, if you know what I mean especially when we are already running on empty due to sleep deprivation) I do have to say though, I LOVE IT!! I love every minute and I look forward to each new day to learn something NEW from my babies. They bring so much JOY into our HOME that we hardly have time for feelings of exhaustion and stress.