Tears, and More Tears

I love being a mom, I love being a wife, and I love being a teacher...but all of those titles as amazing and wonderful as they can be, can also be so demanding and so exhausting. When Adilyn and Kacy are happy and getting along, the sound of their sweet giggles is the best sound in the entire world. Unfortunately, that sweet laughter that warms my heart so much turns into crying more often than not these days! Kacy has gotten into a violent phase. I remember Adilyn going through this about that age, but it's gotten out of control. Kacy will just walk over to her and grab a handful of hair! She will smack her in the face with her cup or hit her with a Barbie doll. Sometimes it is for attention, but most of the time it seems to be for absolutely no reason. When I yell at her or move her away from Kacy, she begins to cry. That leads to two crying kids... Timeout doesn't work, talking to her doesn't work, apparently it's just another lovely phase we need to wait out. Our other parenting struggle right now is sharing. Kacy has a complete inability to share, and she used to be easily distracted by a different toy. Now, she knows what she wants, and she wants everything that Adilyn has. Adilyn has her own issues with sharing, but it is getting a little ridiculous! Again, I know this will end soon, but it's so hard right now because I can barely leave them alone in the same room right now. I remember writing almost the same thing when Kacy was little, and Adilyn was beating her up. I guess what goes around comes around! I just can't wait until we have nights without tears. Seriously, I feel like our neighbors think we are the worst parents ever! We are outside all the time, and almost every time someone ends up in tears. I promise, we are loving parents! Loving parents with grumpy kids. :(

Favorite Sayings

Adilyn keeps getting stuck on certain sayings; while some of them are annoying, some of them are super cute!

Some of her favorites right now - "Awww, man!" Always timed perfectly and used in the best situations! Like when I tell her we can't go to the park, or when I don't let her paint.

"For real." She uses this one correctly sometimes, and sometimes not so much. Like, "Mommy, Kacy closed herself in the bathroom, for real." Or "I want some milk, for real."

A Fun Weekend!

We got back from Fort Worth, but we didn't want our Spring Break fun to end there! I had texted Sonja and Dana to see if they wanted to get together on Saturday, and coincidentally, they were both going to Zube Park. There was a little train that runs there every 3rd Saturday, and they were going to ride it. Since we were all a little sleepy, we slept in until 9:45! Unfortunately, that meant that we got a late start, and we missed the Hrobars almost completely! The Griffins were on the train when we got there, and we decided it wasn't worth standing in line for. The girls were not too terribly disappointed not to ride, so we just went to the park. It was the most beautiful spring day! Warm in the sun, but gorgeous in the shade. The kids ran around, and we chatted and ate lunch. It's great to have such good friends to hang out with so often!

WARRIOR DASH!!!!
A while back, Heather asked me if I wanted a race called the Warrior Dash with her. It was a 3 mile run that was filled with mud, crazy outfits, and silly obstacles. It was so much fun! We made shirts that said, "I may look sweet..." on the front, and on the back it said, "but, inside I am a warrior!" I made some for the girls, too. We got there a little late (as usual), but we ended up just fine. We ran in the first wave of the day! The obstacles were much easier than I had anticipated. It was much more just for fun than a real challenge, which was just fine with me! We had to go through a huge muddy ditch at the end, and we were super muddy when we finished. Adilyn and Kacy were totally freaked out! They wouldn't let me touch them or even get near them. It was pretty funny! Adilyn would only hold my one finger that wasn't very dirty. We watched some people finish, then we went to the "Warrior Wash" area. It was a part of a dirty pond, so needless to say, we did not get very clean! There was mud and mulch everyhwere! The girls both had to wear our "warrior helmets", and they thought everyone was dressed very silly. It was a hilarious time, and I am so glad that I did it! :)

Our "No Kids" Trip!

I will be totally and completely honest, I was anxious about our trip for a lot of reasons. I was, of course, nervous to leave the girls. I was afraid that something would go terribly wrong with them at my dad's hosue. But most importantly, I was most anxious about how Cory and I would be together. There was this thought in the back of my mind that we would be awkward together alone or that we would not have anything to say to each other. I feel like our life and our relationship has been so "crowded" lately. Crowded with noise, with kids needing us, with thoughts of our future plans, with a messy house, and all of the other things that we deal with on a daily basis. I worried that when that "noise" was gone, we wouldn't been able to connect with each other anymore.

As we we said goodbye to our sweet little girls as they were playing on the swingset in Pops's backyard, Adilyn yelled, "Bye Mom and Dad, I love you!!!!" We got in the car to drive to the airport, and immediately it was like we were back to our old selves. I thought it would feel like something was missing, but it didn't. We sat in the airport, and it was so relaxing. I didn't have to worry about Adilyn having to go to the bathroom or Kacy having enough snacks to keep her busy. All I had to worry about was myself. It was so nice.

We got to California and drove down to Monterey. Our hotel was really nice, and we drove the 17 mile drive around Carmel. Again, it was so nice to just worry about ourselves and our needs. We could wait for a late dinner until we felt like eating. We could eat anywhere we wanted to because we didn't have to worry about what they could eat there. It was wonderful to be able to reconnect with each other, have some great conversation, and fun memories. The next day, we went up to the wine country and stayed in Sonoma. The hotel was not exactly in the location that we expected, but it was still really nice. We had a great day of wine tasting and driving through the vineyards. That night we were really lazy and just stayed in the hotel and ordered pizza, but it was still amazingly refreshing and relaxing.

We talked to Adilyn every night on the phone, and it was great to hear her sweet voice. She is getting to be quite the phone talker! Most nights she was pretty happy, but the last night she started to cry. She said that she missed us and she wanted us. It was really hard to hear her so sad, but Cory distracted her by asking questions about what she had done that day. I was glad that we made our first trip a short one because I was really starting to miss them, too. I think as they get older, it will be a little easier to leave them. They still seemed young and not able to really understand that we were gone and that we would be back.

Overall, I was really happy with the way everything went! It was great to reconnect and have some time as a couple, instead of just Mommy and Daddy! I am really glad we did it, and I can't wait for our next trip :)

10 Years, Already?

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary! It has really gone by fast. I made Cory a little book of a picture for each year of our marriage, and I think that I had more fun looking for the pictures than anything else. It went through our different hobbies...rock climbing, boating and wakeboarding, triathlons, and now kids! I am so thankful for all the years that we had together before we had children. We had such a great time just doing different things and traveling. I think those years together alone really gave us the strong foundation that we have in our relationship. Raising kids is difficult, and I am sure that we will face many more challenges as they grow up, so I am glad that our relationship is strong enough to handle anything that comes our way!

I was never a girl who dreamed of her wedding day or played "mommy" growing up. I think if I would have dreamed about those things, it would look exactly like my life now. I have my prince, my two beautiful daughters, and our wonderful little existence. What more could I dream for?

We had a fun evening. Pasta dinner, a little wine, and then we busted out the wedding video. We had not watched it in years! I got a little teary-eyed as we watched our first dance, and Adilyn walked up to Cory and said, "Daddy, will you dance beautifully with me like you are dancing with Mommy on TV?" Of course, he did, then Kacy wanted to dance with me. So, here we were exactly 10 years later dancing in the living room of our comfy house dancing "our first dance" with our little sweeties in our arms. It was a simple moment, but so amazingly beautiful!

I cannot wait to see what these next 10 years and 20 years and on and on will hold for us. If it is anything like the last 10, I can hardly wait!