Please Excuse My Mother Brain :0)!

My BRAIN is MELTING....
MELTING.....
MELTING!!!
(Kassi kept herself entertained while I was on the treadmill by putting this witch hat on Nathan. He liked it for a little while. In fact, before I got the camera, he had both hands grabbing the sides of it to make it go around his face - it was ADORABLE. I know as a mother I should intervene when my poor baby is being abused. But, if he is happy, I'm happy! And, if Kassi is happy too, that is a very good thing!)
This post is dedicated to my sister, Tami and her family! Thanks to her daughter Josie's baptism being the week BEFORE Thanksgiving, we took the whole week of Thanksgiving off! We loved being there! Tami gave a wonderful talk and it was so neat to see sweet little Josie baptized and confirmed! We also enjoyed spending another evening with them attending Conner's basketball game! We love to visit their fun family and always have too much fun. So I feel horrible that I only took video and neglected to get one picture of the time we spent with them (and my mom, Kim & Nicole who traveled there for the baptism as well) - thus the memory loss until Tami reminded me that I forgot to include these events in my Thanksgiving post. This explains why I take a million pictures - I know I will forget it if I don't have a picture (or maybe a journal entry - but face it - how often do I read my journals - and a picture says a thousand words, right)! I wish I could say my brain deadness is a rare occurrance, but it is WAY too common as of late! I think with every child I lose more brain cells. I recall the commercial ... some of you may remember it ... "This is your brain (an egg)...This is your brain on drugs (an egg in a frying pan)." Motherhood can do that to you. Maybe it is because it is so scattered between keeping everyone fed, dressed, clean, shuttled around, happy (that is a tricky one), dry (that is really tricky right now with potty training my two-year-old), involved in all kinds of activities to keep their minds and bodies active (school, scouts, swim lessons, piano, play dates, dance, sports), etc., etc. My sanity levels have been dwindling lately with trying to keep all of these things going, along with all of my other family committments (such as trying to be a good wife to Andy who is studying for his CFP - Certified Financial Planner - which requires 6 exams and a final 10 HOUR exam & who is serving as Elders Quorum President), keeping food in the fridge, being in charge of our neighborhood Mother's Group and Project Group (used to be scrapbooking group - but we wanted more people to come), teaching Relief Society (much easier than my former church calling - thank goodness), and all the other normal things that we all do day in and day out. I got to eat my words after my post about loving the change in seasons. All the kids got sick with a really bad cold and now I am SO ready for Spring!!! But anyway, from the bottom of my heart, I apologize and thank Tami and the rest of you for being understanding and not thinking that I have gone off the deep end. I really am not doing drugs :) - I promise. I try to stick with chocolate. Andy wanted me to try to stay away from chocolate with him this year. I told him that maybe that would work some year when I didn't need it so badly.
Lack of sleep and lack of sanity = NEED for chocolate :0)!

Thankfully the "treats" for Kassi going potty are not chocolate. Unfortunately, while my brain seems to be melting away, the baby fat is not. It would probably help if every time Mommy went potty, Kassi didn't say "Mommy, you a big girl ... you get a candy!" And, it would probably help if Mommy didn't think that every time Kassi didn't make it to the potty meant that Mommy should get 2 candies :)! - actually that means I need to raid the freezer and find some chocolate chips wherever they have been hidden from myself :0)! It is a very good thing that the candy is not chocolate :)! And, it would probably also help if every time I started exercising (no matter how early in the morning), Nathan didn't want to join me & Kassi didn't need to go potty every 5 minutes! But, I know that someday I'll have more time to devote to myself and I will miss being so desperately needed, throughout the entire day and throughout the night :)! I'm already dreading exercising without Kassi there to make me laugh! She likes to do the aerobic step with heels on to make it more of a workout! So, that is why I blog - to remind myself that the sweet, everyday moments with these sweet, innocent, adorable children make up for the temporary (lets hope) brain deadness and near insanity moments that may come my way through it all. In the above picture, Jesi is giving Nathan a zubert (how on earth do you spell that word- you know when you blow on their tummy)?!? He isn't quite sure what to think, but he loves all the attention. I hope you will all be as forgiving of me as these sweet children are. I don't deserve to be their mother, but I am so grateful I am. And, I am so grateful to Andy for being patient with me as I attempt this motherhood thing. I keep thinking I'll get good at it one of these days - but it still seems SO new :0)!
Can you tell he is a very patient little boy? He was colicky the first couple months, but has been a pretty happy baby since Thanksgiving weekend or so. Now if we could just get him to sleep! He still likes to get up a couple times during the night. He is just starting his first solids, so we hope that will calm his appetite?!?

He is wearing a big smile, some little slippers that Drew used to wear, and a handsome outfit from Andy's parents. He loves Drew & his sisters!

In the background of this picture you can see a marble statue of Christ that Andy gave me for Christmas. I love it. I told the kids that I put it with their baby pictures so that they would always remember how much Jesus loves little children, and how much He loves them. They have loved that reminder and I love the reminder that He lives and loves us and will forgive us of all our shortcomings and imperfections. I need to know that to keep my sanity as a mother and I know that I am a better mother for having that knowledge and I am so grateful for it! I think my next 4 posts will be catching up on each of these kiddos the last few months - what thay have been up to and how they have grown - this could be especially revealing for Kassi - who has stayed extra busy with her older siblings in school!!! I think that thought deserves some chocolate!