Christmas Traditions: Part 2

Last year, I posted a fun Christmas tradition that we have implemented with our children. You can read about it here. We give the kids pajamas in their cute bucket every year. The only sad thing about that post was that it was labeled "Christmas Traditions: Part 1" and I never wrote another Christmas Traditions post that December.
But we are still a pretty new family and are trying to figure out some traditions throughout the years.
Well in this post you will find TWO more traditions we are implementing this year.
The first involves my cutie patootie daughter. :) We decided this year that she is old enough to write a letter to Santa.

Since she can't exactly write yet, I dotted out each letter for her to trace over to write her letter. She has been talking about a big girl bike ever since her cousin got one last year. Here is her letter, after she traced all of the letters. She was REALLY proud of her letter and we are going to mail it to Santa this week at Macy's (because for every Santa letter put in a special mailbox at Macy's, they'll donate $1 to Make A Wish foundation. Read more about that here.). Since our Spidey isn't quite old enough, we didn't have him write a letter this year. But next year, for sure. :)

The other tradition that I wanted to share with you was something my sister in law had brought up a couple of months ago. She found the blog post herel and she blogged about the way they are going to do the tradition herel (Yes, I know that says "herel" instead of "here"...my link tool is being dumb and the only way to keep the link was to not delete the last letter of the web address).

I have heard many people say that the commercialism of Christmas is getting out of hand and I completely agree. Christmas is a time to reflect on the birth of our Savior and we give gifts to celebrate his birth. So because we want our children to remember Christ during Christmas, we decided to focus on giving them 3 gifts that represent the gifts the 3 wisemen brought when Jesus was born.

Gold- Something our children REALLY want.

Frankincense- Something our children need.

Myrrh- A spiritual gift to help them grow.

Santa will still be bringing them a gift from him and their stockings will still be filled. When they get older, they will probably exchange gifts between each other (and hopefully by then we'll have some more kids to add into the exchange) but for now, 4 gifts (including Santa's gift) is plenty for them to enjoy. And hopefully, by organizing our Christmas this way, we can help them to focus on the main reason we give gifts.

And that's how Suze sees it.

Sick Boy & a Christmas Craft

I should'e known that something was up when Spidey fell asleep on his daddy like this yesterday.
It looks really sweet but my boy rarely falls asleep on someone or in weird places unless he is getting sick.
But this morning, I had no more clues so I still wasn't thinking that he could be getting sick.

He got a ride on Sister's pink blanket (One of the positives to having tile floors).

He got to pretend to have a sword fight with Daddy (Yes, we save our empty paper towel rolls).

And then, I decided to take down the Halloween craft the kids made (finally!) and make a new craft to hang in the picture frame.

I washed the kids' feet and then painted the bottoms of their feet with green pain. They loved it and were both giggling. Then, I just pressed their feet onto the red paper and voila! The start to our Christmas tree craft.

Then, I painted brown tree stumps to make them look more like trees and I let that all dry.

After it dried, I let the kids decorate their trees with pom pom balls and we just used Elmer's glue to glue them on. I handpainted the star on top of the tree and we were done!

Doesn't it look adorable up in that frame? We think so. :)

Back to my little sicky. Tonight, after our day of fun, Spidey started coughing and has a green, stuffy nose and started losing his voice. Hello, signs of croup. :( Then tonight, after being in bed for an hour, he woke up crying (more like croaking since he's lost his voice) and he fell asleep next to me on the couch. He is snoring up a storm, which sounds cute but it is so sad because he is all stuffed up.

I was hoping (Actually, I'm still hoping) to have a good winter this year, just like last winter and NOT like the winter of 2009 where my boy was on breathing treatments every other week. I guess we'll see how things go and hope he doesn't get sick too often this winter.

And that's how Suze sees it.

One time, I exercised

Ok, so I've exercised a ton if we are counting my whole life. But in the past few years, exercise has been put on the back burner as I've tried to balance pregnancy, babies, husband, work, and now staying home. Add onto that the irregular hormones of a woman with PCOS and you get overweight me!
Honestly, I kind of thought that when I started staying home, I would have SO much free time that I'd have the desire to exercise. But free time is at a minimum and when I do get free time, I want to sit on the couch and search the world wide web. :)
Well, tonight I was looking through Pinterest, which is always filled with weightloss/exercise quotes/ideas/pictures, and I thought to myself, "Suzanne, get your butt of the couch. Now!" So because I listen to myself, I went to Youtube and searched for some good music. After deciding on Pink's 'Raise Your Glass', I started to move to the beat. And I was sure if anyone would've been watching they would've made the same face my Bubs makes in the picture below...
...but I was alone. And because I knew I was alone, I moved enough to work up a sweat. And it felt pretty darn good.
It's quite possible that I'm going to make this a nighttime routine. It's also quite possible that that'll be the first and last time that ever happens. Who knows! But I did it tonight. And I'm feeling accomplished and not so lazy.
Now if only I could get up early enough to go running before the kids wake up in the morning...

You can't win 'em all, right? ;)

And that's how Suze sees it.

Thanksgiving

I have so so so SO much to be thankful for.
First and foremost, this cute guy right here. (Don't we look so young here?) He is THE BEST. He cooks, he helps with the kids, he goes to school full time, he works when he can, and he loves me so much.

My children. They love helping each other and they are super adorable. :) I am thankful to be their mom and get to stay home with them. I really lucked out with these two.

My sisters. I have 4 sisters and I LOVE it. They are my friends and we have so much fun together.

My in laws. My kids LOVE their Nana and Papa. And Nana and Papa love my kids. They are always doing special things for them, watching movies with them, and letting them have treats. :)

The many cousins and second cousins and others who entertain my kids. It makes my heart happy to see others interacting with my kids and treating them well. I know they will grow up feeling loved by so many people.

Yesterday for Thanksgiving, we spent the day with my parents and 4 of my siblings (we missed you, Karin!).

I am thankful for my parents' neighbors who have geese and chickens and let our kids play with them (Notice Bubs uptight shoulders. He didn't like the geese very much.).

I am thankful for Grandma's who write the exact name that my girly requests to have on her cup. "Mahayla Noelle Princess Maughan." (She really believes that is her full name.)

I am thankful for traditions and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

I am thankful for husbands who let wives nap for 3 hours on Thanksgiving. Notice the hospital tag? I was in the hospital the night before because I thought my appendix had burst. Apparently, when a REALLY big cyst bursts, it can make you feel like death has arrived. But I'm ok now. Just tired.

I am thankful for big cousins helping little cousins go outside to play on the swing set.

I am thankful for Grandpa's who make life fun for their grandkids.

I am thankful for silly...

...monkey children. :)

I am thankful for a husband that cooks.

I am REALLY thankful for a husband that cooks. I didn't make ANYTHING for our feast but Boss made sweet potatoes with candied walnuts, layered jello, and helped with the turkey. That's my man!

I am thankful for a son who loves to toss around a football on Thanksgiving with his momma.

I am thankful for a tired boy at 4pm who fell asleep 5 minutes into our Thanksgiving dinner. Such a silly, sweet moment.

Thanksgiving was amazing. We missed our Maughan family but were thankful we got to spend time with our Guthrie family. We love you all!

And that's how thankful Suze is.

Mani/Pedi's

Last Saturday, my {almost} SIL Katie (who is marrying my BIL Fatty in Dec) spent the whole day with us. The boys were going to a bachelor party and they decided it'd be nice to let us girls go do something fun before they left.
So off to Kathy's Nails & Spa we went!
Before we left, my little girly kept asking if she could come with us. I told her she had to ask Daddy if that was ok (since he sometimes doesn't like her to do things that aren't age appropriate for her...which makes sense). Well, Boss said yes!
The first picture is proof that Katie was there with us. She was getting a manicure so we didn't get to sit by her and I forgot to get a picture of her end result. She picked silver for her nails and I really liked it! I let Petey picked out the color for my toenails and of course, she picked the most neon orange I have ever seen in my life. So that is what I did. :)

They painted Petey's nails a sparkly hot pink (that she picked out for herself).

The nice lady even painted hearts onto her thumb nails.

And here is the finished product of her toe nails. Sparkly hot pink with flowers on her big toes.

She was nervous at first but that quickly turned to smiles when she saw what they were doing. :)

I am so glad we got to go have some fun for ourselves and thankful to have a husband that will let me do special things like that every once in a while.

And that's how Suze sees it.

His Creations

Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to head up to Tucson to spend time with my in laws without my husband (well...he drove up halfway through the weekend). I had such a great time and I think my spoiled children did as well.
Saturday morning, I got the kids' bikes out of the car and let them ride on the back porch. I captured this beautiful picture of Petey with my in laws view in the background and I couldn't help but think how amazing it is that God created this.
As I sat outside in awe of the beauty, I started to think that if God can create this among many other miracles, He is the only one who can make it possible for me to have another child.
You're thinking, "Duh!", aren't you?
Often times, I pray for a baby. I say often and not always because it is the truth. I don't feel that it is necessary or showing gratitude if the only thing I ever include in my prayers is a baby. But it is often enough.
I am grateful that so far, this fertility battle isn't running my life. I don't think about it as often as I did that first month. But the past three weeks have been hard.
People with infertility should never work at a pediatrics office. Seeing newborns come and go makes it harder to appreciate the miracles I've been given because I start thinking, "Wow, tons of people have babies. It is so easy. I should be able to do this right now." It may be unrealistic but it is true. I've learned these past few months that I ache most for a baby when I forget what a miraculous gift from God they are. Because when I am honestly thinking about all that it takes for women to have healthy babies, I no longer take for granted the two that I already have and I'm no longer angry about having this trial.
One of the hardest things about being diagnosed with PCOS, secondary to my fertility issues (which so far has been the hardest part), has been hearing of other's stories and battles with infertility. I don't like seeing others hurt. And I want so badly to give them what I already have---motherhood. I ache for you. I pray for you. I hurt and cry with you. Most of my sadness lately has been when thinking about you (and you probably know who you are). I get angry and think it isn't fair for YOU. And if I could choose between having more children or making you mothers, I'd choose to make you mothers in a heartbeat.

I apologize for rambling on tonight. I am beyond emotional from this round of fertility. It has actually been a HUGE blessing to be working during the first half of it because I have been a horible wife and mother and have been yelling moreso than not. :( I try not to make my fertility drugs the excuse but honestly, I can feel the difference when I'm on them and I hate it.

Tomorrow is my last day of working...just in time for the holidays to really begin next week. :)

And that's how Suze rambles and rambles and rambles ad rambles and rambles...

Time Out for Women

I know I mentioned that last weekend we went to Time Out for Women in Phoenix. What I didn't mention was that I do this every year (well, last year was my first year to go but still...) with my mom and sisters and we have a girls weekend. Andrea came in town from California and Karin came in town all the way from Virginia!
Friday morning, we set off on our kidless/husbandless adventure.

Booyah---I got shotgun. :)

We droe straight to our hotel to drop our bags off before deciding what we were going to do.

After a little snacking and tv watching in the hotel room, we decided to walk to the Arizona Science Center.

At first, I didn't really want to go. We hae taken our kids there many times and I did not know why us 5 adults would go by ourselves but we ended up having a blast.

We did wheelchair races (I'm pretty sure the right wheelchair was easier to use because whoever sat in that chair won every time).

My mom even had some passes to ride their tight rope bike. Hello, freaky!

Luckily, I couldn't go on it because I didn't have close toed shoes...

Wrong! They talked me into doing it and wearing my mom's tennis shoes. I got about halfway and then started pedaling forward because it was freaking me out.

Jamie was the last one to do it and just did the entire thing really fast, which was the smartest thing to do.

Then we headed to another section of the museum where you get to experience natural disasters. Sound like fun? Just take a look at the pictures and you tell me whether we had fun...

Hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme heat, rain, etc. We experienced it all. :)

Any of the picture that look super orange are from the "extreme heat" weather.

Then, we all layed on the bed of nails. You actually lie down on the flat surface and when you push the button, the nails raise you up. I was really scared to do it but it felt really cool!

In the picture of Jamie, you can see her lifted in the air by the nails. Weird!

I learned about graity and spun myself around on this little thing until I was ready to throw up. I really almost did.

After the science center, we ate dinner and headed to our program for the night. We heard some amazing talks and had a great time and after it was all over, we decided to go get ice cream...because that's what you do when you're walking around Phoenix when it's 60 degrees outside.

We got our ice cream and started walking back to our hotel when it started RAINING. At first, it sprinkled...then it poured. We did not know what to do so we just walked back in the rain. I ended up dumping my ice cream because the cup was just filled with rain water.

Andrea's belly took most of the brunt. :) Her back was dry.

It's hard to tell but I was soaking wet...head to toe. My flip flops actually kept slipping on the side walk and I'm just thankful I didn't fall.

The next morning, we headed back to Time Out for Women early enough for...

...front row seats!!!!!! I was really excited because we were only 6 or 7 chairs down from the speakers.

Contrary to what this picture shows, my mom sat up by Andrea and I. Jamie and Karin opted to sit back a couple of rows so they didn't have to crane their necks as much as we did.

I only got one picture during the program of Hilary Weeks singing one of her songs. It really was an amazing weekend and I'm already looking forward to next year. :)

And that's how Suze sees it.