3

How come no one told me how much more work 3 kids was than 2?  Oh wait, all of you did!  I mean, I am glad I ignored y'all or our tiny blessing wouldn't be here right now...  But seriously, where does my time go?  I am sure I'm preaching to the choir when I say that.  If I'm not breaking up an argument between older brothers, cooking, cleaning, or feeding the baby...  then I am at work in Wenatchee, ha ha.

But what was that, that John Lennon said?  "Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans"?  So I am working on recognizing that this is life right now -- in the weeds with an infant, figuring out finances and work and play and raising children and school and family.  This small stuff is life so I better figure out how to enjoy it!

A New Normal

Hi.

Meet John Brian Saugen.

fresh out.

milk drunk

Adorbs.

that's a big forehead.

vintage Zorn via daddy.

John's our newest, most precious, family addition.  2 months old as of December 7th!  I will have to post some newer photos (once downloaded off my phone) showing his sweet sweet smile that he shares generously these days.

And.
This is my dad, Brian.

He passed away on September 30th, exactly one week before John was born into our family.   Boy do I miss him...

Birth is amazing, and death sucks.  There's not really any other way to describe it.  Luckily, friends and family make life worthwhile in between.  I feel like there is so much I want to write about those two events, but I just don't have the energy to put proper emotion into it right now.  So...  I won't.  Though I am sure I'll touch on both as life carries on.

We are just settling into our new normal, whatever that is.

I go back to work full-time after the new year, and am working half-time this month, and so am enjoying the days that I am home with my family.  I can't say this was the most "restful" or "relaxing" of maternity leaves...  quite the contrary actually.  But I'm really enjoying the role of "stay-at-home-mom" for this abbreviated time period :)  Boy I can get a lot more done than usual!  Organizing!  Sorting!  Getting rid of stuff that has accumulated that we don't need!  And I've really enjoyed cooking, since I actually have time to do so during the week.  (Unfortunately for my waist-line though...)  The only real hard part of maternity leave is trying to see all the people I'd like to hang out with - the ones I said to "I can't wait to spend more time with you during maternity leave!"  And then I found I didn't have time, or I just haven't made time to do so...  oops.  Mostly because I love being in my home with my kids, and am really just treasuring not having to schedule every minute of every day.  So I am trying to not feel guilty for not seeing all the people and instead just focus on what is making me happy, which is just staying home and being boring.

I hope to keep updating this blog more.  I love that I have so much of Olaf's beginning stages recorded on the blog.  Sadly Forest (middle child...) doesn't have as much.   Hope to remedy that for all three of them in the next year!

I really do miss this space

I don't know why I have found it so hard to post these last few MONTHS!  I really have always enjoyed having this space to share updates and photos...  and then I keep forgetting to download photos.  And then I am pregnant and therefore exhausted.  And I sit in front of a computer at work all day so I don't really want to do that at home...  So anyway, I take un-intentional but needed breaks I guess.

Recently life has been full of busy busy times.  Olaf finished up kindergarten, yay!  Steve is working locally, yay!  I keep gaining weight and making a healthy baby boy, yay!  And Forest went an entire week without hitting someone at daycare, yay!  Little milestones for all :)  Really, there is so much to cover that I don't know that I even have the energy.  And clearly I haven't downloaded the photos yet, ha ha.

I am currently 26 weeks along with babytres and no, he does not have a name yet.  My mom's list of family name suggestions contained Valentino, so that's what we are calling him for now.  :)  Maybe one of these days we will actually find time to sit down and pick one... but like with Forest, it will probably be just in time for his delivery date.  I am finally starting to get excited about having a little babe join the house this fall.  Not that I wasn't before... well, actually that's true, I wasn't very excited for a long time, as I was so overwhelmed.  So it's a refreshing and welcomed feeling, to be glad there is a little one on the way!  The boys are pretty excited too, even Olaf, who adamantly wanted a sister at first.  Now he's happy about the little buddy and loves feeling him kick through my stomach.  I love my boys.

I'm up late and really should be in bed right now, oops.  But I am taking the rest of the week off to take the littles to Family Camp at TTR, woooohoooo!!! so I can sleep in until they wake up, 6:15am at least I hope!

Okay, random post is now over, back to your regularly scheduled blog reading.

marching along

Well life just keeps marching on and here we are in March.

In January we celebrated Sue's 60th birthday with a weekend in Leavenworth with the whole family.  As per usual, we loved spending concentrated time with everyone, especially since Josh and Mac were close to leaving for their grand adventure to Thailand/China/India soon!  We managed to squeeze in a family photo and watched a great Seahawks game together too :)

Bunch of nerds right here.

February was a banner month for snow, which was great, because Dec/Jan kind of sucked... but in the one month we tons of storm cycles, and the snow in the backyard got up to about thigh high before it all started melting last week.  Winter isn't over, oh no, but March is winter's transition month... The snow slowly melts between small storms and reminds us that it will be warm again...  we start riding bikes outside and I get all excited for the season to change.  I love winter, seriously, but I love spring too, and I am always excited to usher in a new season, whatever it is.

Olaf and Daddy go skiing!  (again.  That kid skis more that me!)

I escaped up the FS road with Charlotte, her momma, little River, Emma, and the dogs for a little ski/snowshoe time.  It was lovely!

Met up with Steve taking the boys for a little snow-bike ride :)

What else is new??  Well I got a new car!!  Woohoo!!  Not that I didn't love my WRX, but who doesn't love a brand new Subaru Impreza with better gas mileage and leather seats?

 I let Olaf make his own PBJ.  Why haven't I been doing this for years?  He was so proud.

Also something he was proud of -- putting reindeer antlers on Steve's head while he took a little evening nap :)  Pretty cute.

Recently we've had some nasty viruses in our house.  First Forest got caught for a full week, and now Olaf is in the midst of fever and swollen gland goodness.  Poor kiddos...  Never fun to watch your kids be so sad and sick.

Speaking of sad and sick, I've been pretty nauseous myself lately -- of course mine is for a much happier reason, as we'll be adding another kiddo to the Saugen clan in October this year!  I am slightly overwhelmed by the thought of our third kiddo at this moment, but I am going to blame first trimester exhaustion.  We are definitely excited to round out our family into a nice odd, kids outnumber the parents, five people.   No seriously.  We've been thinking about it for a while now and are so glad we decided to just go ahead and give it a try.  Life's an adventure, and from my perspective, the kids have made it a much richer adventure.  So here's to being crazy busy and loving life as a momma to 3!

tiny comedians

Kids are funny.  I was just scrolling through some of the "notepad" notes on my phone this morning and came across these two gems I had written down:


Olaf:  "I'm a mummy.  In agent Egypt."  (note -- *agent, not ancient)
Forest:  "Hi Egypt!"
Olaf:  "No, I'm not Egypt, I'm a mummy."
Forest:  "Oh, hi mommy!"


"Hey, Netflix is a sight word!"  -- Olaf 11/13/13

Just wanted to share.
Happy Seahawks Game Day!!!

mammas

Being a mom is...  different for each of us.

Moms that stay home -- Yes, your job is probably harder than mine.  You don't get paid.  The minions you deal with are messy and often ungrateful, they whine an awful lot.  You don't get a break and you don't get to leave at the end of the day...  I get it.  It's not easy.  It's been rubbed in my face on the internet often enough that I GET IT.  And I truly do respect that staying home with your kids is hard.  And amazing.  At the same time no doubt.

But I don't stay home with my kids during the day.  I never have (except for 6 months of glorious maternity leave) and may never have the chance.  And I have mostly made peace with that.  It is easier going to work now that the kids are older.  Once I had a chance to realize that I (and their dad) are still the single greatest influences on their lives and are leading by example.  Once I realized that though they are okay with going to school and daycare, they crave being home with mom and dad... we are their home after all.  And home is where the heart is.  Once I realized that they do indeed love us the very best, as we do them... I am finally more okay with leaving each morning.  I am just doing the best that I can for them.

It's still hard to watch my kids love someone else so fiercely.  It's hard to realize that I can't dictate to the caregivers exactly how I want my kids to be taught/cared for because you know what -- you can't force your own style on someone else. You just find someone who comes really close, who you respect for how they've parented their own kids, and you go with it.  Do I wonder sometimes if I could do better if I was around all day?  Sure.  Do I wonder sometimes if I would be way worse?  Definitely.  Then I stop wondering because all it does is make me feel bad about myself no matter what I am thinking.  So I go to work and I leave each day, I collect my paycheck, and I come home to the people who matter most.

A long time ago my favorite blog writer in the internets had a baby.  And then she had to go back to work (July 2012?) and she struggled with the thought of leaving that precious baby behind.  I knew that feeling.  She had asked for advice from other moms out there and her comment feed was immediately filled to the brim with advice.  I took the opportunity to sit down and really think about what it was like to work away from my kiddos and spent a few days writing an email to her.  It was totally cathartic for me to finally organize my thoughts.  I sent it off, hoping that it might help her, and hoping she might reply with a big thanks for the amazing advice!  Of course I was not realizing that she had probably gotten 4700 emails along with the blog comments... I never did hear back at the time :)  And I got kinda bummed about it.  It's funny how we pour out our hearts to complete strangers on the internet and then expect them to want to connect with us immediately??  Oh Jenn...  Anyway, I prayed about it and I did get over it, realizing that if I had written the email as a sort of therapy to myself (which it totally was) then my purpose was achieved, no matter what response I may have received :)  I'm always thankful when I can calm my own heart down through prayer.  And I always wished I had the balls to post the original email and thoughts on going back to work on my blog... but I was too afraid of offending people for that.

Last January the gal, Elizabeth, emailed me back a sweet response (you know the one I'd been previously stressing about).  What a confirmation that was for me, that the thoughts of my heart were well received and even helpful to her.  It was a real treat to get that email.  She asked permission to post my original email on her blog, and so of course I said okay.  Anyway, she recently posted some of her thoughts on mothering, working, and now again staying at home with her kiddo, along with some of my email (she wisely edited out my run-on paragraphs of nonsense at the beginning and end of it).  I thought maybe some of you would enjoy reading her thoughts (and mine).  Plus as a bonus you now have her blog address and I would recommend bookmarking it.  Girl has a way with words:

Elizabeth Ivie

So cheers to ALL my momma friends out there.  There sure are a lot of you wonderful people!  The ones who have a job away from home, and also those who's job is their home.  Those who are home, if I am grouchy towards you sometimes when you talk about the hard parts of your world, please give me grace.  The jealousy monster creeps into my head and it's not easy to get it out sometimes.  But know that I truly think you are all amazing.  And those that work away from home... Fist bump.  You get me.

Here's to 2014.  The year where I finally figure out this mothering thing.  Ha ha, yeah right!

It has come to my attention

Recently a friend of mine asked why I hadn't posted anything lately.  I had two thoughts:  1.  Someone actually still reads this?  and 2. Oh, hot dang, it has been awhile!  (ummm... two months... oops).

You know the whole reason I started this blog was to brag about and keep track of my insanely cute new son, Olaf :)  And I really had so much fun with it!  And then with poor #2 and less available time it just sort of dropped off.  Which is a bit of a bummer, because the best part of writing it is the ability to look back and see what we were doing, what we looked like, kids' milestones, fun photos...  Seriously, I love looking back at it.  And I have missed a lot of things that would have been fun to look back on I am sure.

All that to say...  I am still busy.  But I am going to put some photos up now that I can look back on in a few years and say, look how cute and little they were!  And look how random I was in posting them!

a little family photo on a visit to Steve while he was working up north

Olaf has learned many things in kindergarten.  Notably one of the best -- how to traverse monkey bars :)

Our first time on quads.  We like to teach the redneck part of our lives at a young age.

Look, Daddy bought us glow in the dark bat masks for our dance party!

Olaf and I stomped the yard and ye ol' Church square dance out at Stonewater Ranch. 

A typical fall Saturday afternoon of helping daddy with chores.

I ran another half marathon this year with a new group of ladies.  This is my friend Katie.  She's a keeper.  Let's all hope she moves to Leavenworth :)  (hint hint Katie)

Post race exhausted-ness.

I built Olaf a "fort" in the tree out front consisting of about  boards nailed up.  He LOVED it.

He still loves it.  However Steve has added numerous amazing features that only daddy's can do.  Like a platform WAY higher than any mom would ever allow.

Cuties at our school pumpkin carving night.

CHEESE!

Cutie cousins Olaf, Ingrid, Trygve

More of those 3 cutie cousins, catching the first flakes of winter while waiting for the bus.

So that takes us up to about... November 1st?  Ha ha.  Then we went to Florida.  I keep waiting for Steve to finish his sweet little video so I can post it on here... really I should just post a bunch of photos because who knows if the video will ever be finished :)  But it's late for this momma and I am heading to bed, so Florida vacation photos will have to wait!