The Little Momma That Could ...

Have you ever read that book The Little Engine That Could? That's about how I am right now.

 I just keep repeating, "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." 

...

So this is me - I get this little, teensy bit of energy back last week and what do I do? Totally overdo it. I feel this small bit of energy and think I am SuperMom or something. I take all the boys grocery shopping, hit up LegoLand for a whole day, go to  a wedding shower and host a Station 7 Reunion at my house - all in three days. 

And so, what happens? I hit rock bottom again and feel like poo, depleted and in need to sleep for days and days. 

Pretty much, I am forcing myself to rest right now. Forcing myself to let the laundry be undone, dishes to remain in the sink and letting my kids eat cereal for dinner. After all, I am making a human right now. And this human or humans apparently require lots and lots  of this Momma's energy. I have to remind myself of that minute by minute.

This human making process has been very different than all the rest and I am still sticking to the thoughts of me making two humans right now. I will be completely shocked if there is only one little peanut growing in there when we go for our ultrasound in a couple weeks. I know - all pregnancies are different and I expect that. There is just something about this one though that is just extra ... weird I guess. Amongst other differences this go 'round, I have had major hip and lower back pain. It is worse some days than others and the last couple days, it has been so bad I can hardly stand to be up and about. My sweet Momma brought me a heating pad last night and that has been helping tons. In order to be on a heating pad though, I have to be sitting or laying. And for me, that is so tough. When I say I am forcing myself to let the house just be and rest, I literally mean it is killing me. I do for my boys. That is just what I do. I am a full time Momma with a full time student/working husband - in other words, I. do. not. stop. And now, I have to. And well, it. is. killing. me. 

On the total up side of this human making deal, I have started feeling the peanut(s) move a lot lately. I am telling you, there is nothing like feeling those flutters. I can't wait until the boys and the husband can feel the little one(s) move around in there. 

And it's a good thing Kohen is here with me. He reminds me everyday of what will come of this tough time right now. A sweet, precious baby. I have had so many people ask what in the world the husband and I are thinking: expanding our family while he is in school, while his jobs are all crazy right now. And well, we don't see more babies as added stress or just another responsibility. We see them as new joy, a new one to hold and cuddle. Babies actually lessen my stress levels. I know, I'm crazy. There is just something about bringing home a new baby that brings peace and comfort to my heart. We are so excited to be expanding our family with two (or four) more feet. Even if our lives are a little out-of-sorts right now. 

And I must say that if it weren't for my Momma, MawMaw and PawPaw here lately, I don't know how crazy I'd be. Between the three of them, I have been brought dinners, lunches, had the boys bathed and put to bed, been encouraged with prayers and sweet, exciting words, have been brought pacis because Kohen's went missing at bedtime, have had busted pipes fixed, have had laundry folded for me and I am sure there is more to add. So I say thank you to these three. You guys remind me everyday how blessed our family is.

Until next time week - I will keep resting, schooling the boys from my bed, watching Sister Wives and eating Ben and Jerry's daily. 

I will go fold some socks though. Poor Kollin ... earlier he said, "Mommy. I know you don't feel good right now. But Lord, could I please just get some socks in my drawer?"

The Post That Took Five Days ...

Hi y'all. I feel like I've been in hiding from this blog for the past week or so. Truth is, Disney took over my life for a little bit. And y'all. I have never been so exhausted in all my life. I would seriously put it pretty close to how tired I was after giving birth. Seriously. That place will run a Momma flat ragged.

Ragged and full of memories.

 Travis and I have officially dubbed this the guinea pig of our future trips to Disney. We learned to never underestimate the power of naps (to which our kids skipped every. single. day. we were there and we paid for it majorly), to never stay in a standard size room again and by day three I think we were in the habit of having a dessert at every meal. 

There are so many "top" moments, I don't even know where to begin. 

Our adventures from our first day can be seen here. 

Day two brought on a whole new meaning of the words roller coaster to Kollin when we coaxed him to get on Space Mountain. Y'all, that thing scared the mess out of me and I am grown. Kollin totally rocked it though. He was a little, um, anxious you could say. Then me, my cousin Hannah, Travis and my Momma all pulled the "Look, there are little girls gettin' on this thing" card. He rode it and when we got off he was begging to go again. Thatta boy! On the other hand, Travis looked like he was going to give back his lunch to everyone ... not so much like father, like son that afternoon. Mom and I had our dreams come true eating lunch at Be Our Guest, a restaurant themed after Beauty and the Beast - our favorite movie. I think it was my favorite place to eat there. We rode Dumbo, the Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz and more that I can't even think of. Going back to things we learned: Stitch's Great Escape scares little children. Just ask my own and the other family that completely freaked out in the middle of it.  

Day three we headed to Hollywood Disney. To be honest, not a whole lot was accomplished here other than an insane lunch at Pizza Planet and Blizzard Beach that afternoon. Oh and we met Phineas and Ferb. The oldest three boys got $50 each to spend and Kollin and Kolt spent their money on the stand filled with Phineas and Ferb stuff. I can't tell you how hard it was for me to hand over 100.00 for 2 t-shirts, 2 plush dolls and a small Perry football. Big gulp. We met up for Mother's Day dinner with my Bro and his family. TRex was a really cool restaurant. I mean, it was the coolest place I've ever spent Mother's Day. 

You know what is going through Kollin's mind ...

Day four left us six and Hannah. My Momma and MawMaw headed back home that morning and left us with four less hands. We worked it out though and left Travis in charge of the stroller that contained Kruz and Kohen, Hannah had Kollin and I had Kolt. We went back to Hollywood Disney and got just about everything done we wanted to. Kruz loved Disney Junior - Live on Stage, when that child's face lights up at the different characters - well, I simply melt. It makes that feeling of "Oh my goodness, I can't believe we spent this much money .." go away. Kollin and Kolt loved the Live! Motors! Action! Car Stunt Show. Love like, their booties-never-moved-from-their-seats kind of love. Of course, when we left we tried our best to answer the 1,001 and questions we were asked about how the man slid through the fire and didn't die. The Toy Story ride was all it was amped up to be and we could have all rode that thing another 20 times. The boys met Jake and Handy Manny, Kruz again was just in awe. And again, made my heart so happy. Kolt will tell you his favorite ride was Star Wars. Eh, me? It made me want to hurl, I've never been a big Star Wars kind of girl anyway. Kollin and Kolt loved it though. I also made the fabulous parental decision to let Kollin and Kolt ride the Tower of Terror. I totally had one of those moments of "Seriously Kelsey. What the heck are you thinking letting a four year old do this?" when the ghosts started appearing and screeching in the dark. It was a pretty cool ride though, I wish Travis would've done it. He opted to hang out with the babes though. Well played Travis. Well played. That night, Travis and I took the boys by ourselves to see the Electrical Parade and fireworks. It was pretty magical and made me super happy that our family did that together.

Kollin loved that Buzz "turned off" when he hit the power button. 

These were taken during the car stunt show.

I thought Kruz was going to go into cardiac arrest when Lightening McQueen came out. 

Day five was spent at Epcot. What a beautiful place! We were there while the HGTV Gardens were all over and it was simply gorgeous. I wish I would've taken more pictures of it all, but I mean c'mon. Like I had time to take pictures of pretty flowers. Pssh. We met Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. Kollin felt the need to act as though he was speaking sign language and refused to talk. Yep, that's my kid. Quite the character himself. Going through the different countries was really cool and I wish we could have spent more time there. What kids want to learn at Disney though? We loved the Grand Fiesta ride with Donald Duck, I thought it was pretty cute. We also played at the Radiator Springs playground, of course the boys loved that. Favorite thing at Epcot? Definitely Turtle Talk. Just when we thought it was some puppet show or something, this Turtle on the screen starts calling kids out from the audience. It was pretty cool. I mean, I was impressed and as far as I'm concerned that turtle is real. We also met Mr. Incredible, Frozone, Wreck-It Ralph and Penelope. I wish we could have got in Soarin' but it just didn't happen. Maybe next go 'round. We went to a campfire that night at Fort Wilderness and my pirate children loved it. I stepped on someone's already roasted marshmallow in the sand ... gross. 

These were just funny. 

There were a few things I would've done differently and several things we just didn't get to. But in the end I gained 6 pounds and left with a Toms tan line across both feet. I mean, that has to say something about how awesome it was.