On Life, Love, & Laughter

Life

Life is hard sometimes. I look at where I am compared to where all my friends in high school are and I feel very envious sometimes. They aren't strapped down by all the responsibility that comes with a family. They have been able to devote all their time to school and fun. They get to spend their money on new clothes and going out and I have to spend my money on bills and diapers. Sometimes I wish I could just get away and spend a weekend not worrying about bills, mom and wife responsibilities and just have fun. But, at those times I'm reminded of something more important than fun....

Love

At those moments I always seem to get a huge smile and a kiss from my son, feel the life inside of me moving around, or find my husband looking at me affectionately. My life is filled with so much love. I have a husband who adores me, who I adore back. I don't have to deal with the stresses of a family by myself. We are there to support, encourage, and love each other. I have companionship in my life that I wouldn't have if I had continued my single life. I have a son who has an endless supply of kisses for me. His spirit brings so much love into our home. And even the baby inside of me has already brought so much love into our home. So while my apartment may not be filled with nice clothes and other nice things, it is filled with love and I wouldn't change that for anything.

Laughter

I am also so grateful that my house is full of laughter! Nothing cures frustrations and stress like laughter. I love that Chad and I love to make each other laugh so we're constantly finding ways to do so. And Jarek is quite the silly little dude. He is always doing things to make us laugh and he loves it! What a blessing it is to me that I have a family that makes me laugh so much.

So while I may not have the carefree life I sometimes wish for, I have a very abundant life. An abundant life that brings me so much love and happiness. The Beatles said it best, "All you need is love." :)

Update Since....May

As you can see, it's been a super long time since I have posted. Life is crazy and I just haven't gotten around to the blog (although I stalk blogs all the time). We had a wonderful summer full of family reunions and work and school. We also had a wonderful fall celebrating all of our birthdays, our 2nd anniversary, Thanksgiving with family, and finding out the arrival of baby #2 in May! Of course, the fall then was slightly unenjoyable as we had to deal with the morning sickness and moodiness that comes with pregnancy. But, overall, it was great! We had a wonderful Christmas full of family and blessings. And we have started 2012 off with a bang. I started school again, which I both love and hate. We found out the gender of baby #2. We are having a.....

GIRL!!! We are so excited! I wish I had gotten a picture of Chad's face when the tech gave us the news. We was grinning from ear to ear! He was really hoping for a little girl. And lucky for both of us we don't have to go through the agony of picking out a boy name as we have had our girl name picked out since we found out I was pregnant. Her name will be Hadassah Rose (Hadassah after Esther from the Bible. It was her Hebrew name. Rose is after her lovely mother and great great grandmother) and we are so excited to meet her!

Life is good and we couldn't ask for any better! We are so grateful to be able to give all of our love to our growing family and for the happiness that Jarek and Hadassah have brought into our lives. We have struggled the last little while but have been overcome with the protection and love we have felt from the Lord and are grateful for the things we have learned. We have also been immensely blessed in all of our endeavors and are anxious to see where life takes us. Hopefully I will be better at blogging so you can join us on our adventures!

And now to leave you with this little gem:

(He got in there all by himself one Sunday before church. His new favorite hang out!)

Update Coming Soon!

Sorry it's been so long. We went awhile without internet and then by the time we had gotten it, I had started school and I have been crazy busy! I promise to update soon! Until then...

...Check out my other blog here!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Bittersweet Moments

Gotta love the bittersweet moments of life. Chad and I are staring one right in the face this month. We are moving! We were able to find ourselves a two bedroom apartment in our price range and will be moving the first weekend in March. We are so excited!

The Bitter:

-The kitchen is teeny tiny. We have been so spoiled with our current kitchen and all the counter and cupboard space. It will be interesting to see how we make do.

-Leaving our very first apartment. We have lots of wonderful memories here and it has been a wonderful apartment to live in.

-We'll be living on the 3rd floor...with no elevator.

-Tiny bathroom. I love our sink and all the drawers and space. We'll have to kiss that goodbye.

The Sweet:

-We'll be living on the 3rd floor....with no elevator. Lots of good exercise!

-Two bedrooms! Chad and I will be able to have our own little sanctuary! And not have to worry about whispering and the lights when we go to bed.

-The storage space! We'll have a small walk-in closet in our bedroom, a closet in Jarek's room, a linen closet, hall closet and coat closet. And on top of all that, a little storage room in the basement! It's not very fun living out of only two closets.

-We get a little balcony. We have some space to keep plants and maybe get a little grill for the summer.

-We're on the top floor. No more noisy upstairs neighbors. I just hope we don't become the noisy upstairs neighbors.

-We get to stay in our ward!

Luckily, the sweet always out weighs the bitter. We are way excited for this next stage in our life! We can't wait to get moved in!

Jarek Trying Green Beans

Jarek has been eating rice cereal for a week and a half or so now so yesterday I decided to try something new. I decided to start with green beans. His reaction was hilarious! I knew Chad would be sad to miss it so I decided to video tape a couple spoonfuls. Enjoy!

Jarek is 5 Months!

Our little JP isn't so little anymore! It's crazy to see how fast he's growing! Some of the things he's been up to...

-He loves rolling around the floor, grabbing at anything within his reach.

-If he can't bring an object to his mouth, he'll gladly bring his mouth to the object. Luckily, mom and dad are always there to catch him as it sometimes turns into a nose dive off our laps.

-He's starting to move around and scoot a little bit on his tummy.

-He loves watching TV. What baby doesn't?

-We've started feeding him solids. After a week of not knowing what's going on, he figured it out and has been chowing down.

-He screeches at the top of his lungs all the time. It's always happy, but man is it loud!

-He's recently taken an interest in his feet.

-He can hold his bottle all by himself. Can't quite maneuver it yet, but he can hold it up really well.

-He's sleeping through the night! I haven't even had to get up and put his bink in his mouth the last few nights. I hope I didn't just jinx it, but it has been wonderful!

-He's starting to get a tooth! It's definitely starting to cut through. You wouldn't even guess it by the way he's acting. No extra fussing at all! He's a tough little guy.

-He loves kisses on the cheek. Which mom loves to give!

He definitely brightens up our life and we love having him around! And now for the recent pictures!

This is often what I find when I leave him to roll around. Things scattered everywhere, socks that have been kicked off and the blanket attacking him. Sure love that energetic little guy!

Love that rice cereal!

Showing off the new high chair. He looks so grown up!

Thanks for the awesome onesie, Aunt Andrea and Uncle Joe!

He kept making this face while we were eating dinner one night. We couldn't stop laughing!

What a big boy!

(Chad's expression makes me laugh in this picture.)

What a cutie! We are way excited for what 6 months will bring!

Christmas '10

Well, I was a horrible mom and only took a few pictures of Jarek's first Christmas. I really am a horrible picture taker. I am trying to be better.

The three of us were able to spend Christmas in Minnesota with mi familia. What a wonderful time we had! It was so great to be able to spend some time with my family. I was so grateful for the opportunity my family had to meet Jarek (and Chad's sister, Tiffani, and her family, of course!). We all had a blast. We spent a lot of time being lazy, which was a great break from the stresses of life. Chad got to spend a week away from work as a reward for all the hard work he's been putting in. And Chad got to spend some time getting to know and feeling more comfortable with my family. It was a wonderful trip all around. The only bad thing was the lack of Derek, Brayden, Makayla, Andrea, Joe, and Tali. We missed them all very much! Luckily, we don't have to wait long for us all to be together again! We've got a family camping trip in Moab planned in May and we are so excited! It will be the first time we've all been together since James and Jess' wedding. It's going to be so much fun!

And now for the few pictures that were taken at Christmas:

Jarek and his Omma.

Spending time with Bunga, my awesome grandma. What a beautiful woman she is, inside and out!

Hanging out with Bumpa, my awesome grandpa. My grandparents have been such a huge part of my life. It's hard to think that their years are numbered. I'm so grateful to have these pictures so I can look back on them with Jarek and tell him stories about their lives and my memories of them. I hope my children will be able to feel as connected to their great-grandparents as I did, even though I never had the chance to know them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!