Old Draft

While cleaning up my blog, I ran across several drafts - blogs that I started and never finished.  Below is one of those drafts - a blog I started in February 2013...and never finished it.  Why didn't I finish it?  Maybe I was afraid of offending people...or maybe I was afraid of the debate it might create...or maybe I was writing it for the wrong reasons...or maybe I just wasn't sure how to end it...but either way, I like where I was going with it. 

Reading it now, I have the urge to continue it - to end the post, but I'll just leave it.  Leave it as it is. 

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Being asked to decide between your passion for work and your passion for children is like being asked by your doctor whether you prefer him to remove your brain or your heart. 

- Mary Kay Blakely

  Collectively, after time off from each baby, I have had 36 weeks of being a stay-at-home mom. 

It is a hard job to stay at home day after day to raise your kids and it is also a hard job to raise your kids as a mother with a career.  Being a stay-at-home mom and a working mom are both hard...each in their own ways.

I love being a mother and I love having a career, and even though it is not easy, it is indeed possible to be  successful in your career and be a loving parent.  Just because I've chosen to raise my kids while also having a career, I still have respect for those mothers who choose the opposite - to stay at home with their kids.  I appreciate the respect in return.

I love my children and I love them more than anything else on this Earth. 

 I love the way Mason holds his spoon, the way Makayla plays house, and the sweet sound of Mia's voice as she squeals and talks. I love the way Mason snuggles against me when he gets up from his nap, the way Makayla applauds herself after practicing her letters, and the way Mia stares in amazement when she shakes her rattle.  I love the way Mason says "horse poop" every single time he smells something stinky, how proud Makayla is when she holds her baby sister, and the way Mia starts to excitedly pant with a smile on her face when she knows I'm going to feed her.  I love Mason's continued passion for bowling, when Makayla makes a club house under Mia's crib, and when Mia doesn't take her eyes off of me for one second when she's in the arms of someone else.  I love my kids' character, the strength of their hugs, and where their imaginations take them. I love to kiss their cheeks and hold them tight.
...I could hold them forever.

When I leave them to go to work, I miss them so much.  I miss every single thing about them -

but...

all of this is still waiting for me when I get home from work, and in the meantime, my kids are sharing their love and joy while soaking in the love from some of their most important role models - teachers, baby sitters, grandparents...

~ I love missing my kids all day long.
At the end of the work day, I love the way they greet me when I pick them up from daycare.  I love to see Mason's eyes light up as soon as I pull in the driveway as he is waiting for me at the front door.  I can read his little lips yelling "mommy!  mommy!  mommy!" and I get a kick out of how he sometimes pushes the other kids out of the way saying "MY mommy".  I love how Makayla prances over to me excited to tell me about her day and what she learned in school ate for a snack in school.  And I'm looking so very forward to seeing Mia's big ol' grin and her eyes beaming with excitement when I get to pick her up and finally hold her in my arms again at the end of the day.  

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, and to work, and to play and to look up at the stars. 

- Henry Van Dyke


...if there's one thing I hope for my kids when they become parents, I hope that they don't give up on work and education.

...after being gone from my kids all day, when we are together, it's about them. Always. i'm ready to give them my all.

...no matter what, my children always have and always will come first.

....challenging, chaotic, balancing act = great joys, rewards are sweet and rich

A Merry, Merry Christmas!

Mommy:  Do you like Christmas?
Makayla: Yes!
Mommy:  What do you like about Christmas?
Makayla:  Opening presents and eating cookies on Christmas and making cake for Jesus to celebrate his birthday on Christmas.

Mommy:  Do you like Christmas?
Mason: Yes

Mommy:  What do you like about Christmas?
Mason: Santa

Mommy:  Tell me about Santa

Mason:  Poop.

All the Curry grand kids!...except for Mia.
Where's Mia?
She's clinging onto me for dear life with a clenched butt.

Scared out of her mind.

Poor baby.

Mommy: Can you tell me about the birth of Jesus?
Makayla: Mary had Jesus in the stable because there's no rooms in the hotel.  The shepherds were there and the sheep and the cows and the cats were there.  People knew Jesus was born because they followed the star of Bethlehem.  The angels told them to.

We attended a beautiful and moving Christmas Eve service at our church.

Candle light, carols, and a live manger scene...with real cows! (the kids loved that).

Going to the candle light service on Christmas Eve...

it just does something to me... 

Mommy:  What's your favorite Christmas song?
Mason: Jingle Bells
Makayla: Batman smells, Robin laid an egg...

 Makayla with her cousins - Kyleigh, Gavin, and Memory

Great Grandma Mac passing out gifts to the kids.

Mommy:  What's your favorite place to be during the holidays?
Makayla: Home.

Baking cookies and decorating our rice krispy treats sent from Aunt Julie.

Mommy:  What's your favorite thing to eat during Christmas time?
Mason:  The bowling alley.

 Tossing out food for Santa's reindeer to snack on when they come by.

Mommy:  Why do we celebrate Christmas?

Makayla:  Because of Jesus' birthday.

Mason:  Because you can't ring the big bell.  You have to ring the little bell.

Mommy:  What does that mean, Mason?
Mason:  Everybody comes out and somebody rings the bell.  And that's it.

Mommy:  That's good.

The video below is one of my favorite songs...

I love this song each year and it never fails to move me.

It makes me want to do what I can to make this world a better place.

Merry, Merry Christmas!!!

2nd Week

Wrapping Presents,

Making Gingerbread Homes

Visiting Santa

and

Christmas Programs!

That's what made up our 2nd week of December!

(we would have been able to throw in there a piano recital and a birthday party, but there just wasn't enough time in our days)

I love that Makayla is very into wrapping presents.  She is a hoot to watch wrap.  She holds the tape in her mouth, holds the paper in place with her feet, and folds and wraps with her hands.  It's so funny and she always ends with a masterpiece!

...and, also, what makes her wrapping so creative is her choice of paper to use.  We have an array of paper...anywhere from Christmas to tissue paper to Princesses to Hello Kitty!

Making their gingerbread house was a lot of fun and super messy!!

While the big kids were high on pride from doing such an awesome job decorating, Mia was high on sugar from not being able to keep her little fingers out of the icing!

Santa Claus is anyone who loves another and seeks to make them happy; who gives himself by thought or word or deed in every gift that he bestows;

who shares his joys with those who are sad;

whose hand is never closed against the needy;

whose arm is ever outstretched to aid the weak;

whose sympathy is quick and genuine in time of trouble;

who recognizes a comrade and brother in every man he meets upon life's common road;

who lives his life throughout the entire year in the Christmas spirit.

-The Book of Santa Claus

...and I'm telling you - over the past couple of years, this particular Santa below has become one of my favorite things of the season

 He is SO good at keeping the magic alive and I love everything that he does for Lincoln!!

Thank you, Mr. Bell!

We had two Christmas programs for Makayla to attend this weekend -

One at church -

(a beautiful program made up of children, teens, and adults - the choirs and the hand bells.  

below is a picture of the children's choir)

And one at school -

(a very cute program about the story of Jesus' birth.  makayla played the part of a kitty cat that was living near the stable where Jesus was born.  all of the kiddos did such a fabulous job!)

Makayla getting ready in her classroom.  

With a room full of kitties, lambs, a cow, a shepherd, Mary, Joseph, wise men, an angel, and the star, Mia had this look planted on her face.  I'm not sure what was going through her mind!

Makayla's Pre-K class!

I thank God every day that she is at this school, in this class, and a student of Mrs. Sharp and Miss Martin.

We're getting closer and closer to Christmas!
This next week is going to be a busy week for us...and due to our schedule and circumstances, our Christmas Eve is one week from tonight!

...can't wait!

P.S. - I wanted to leave a little note about Glitter, our elf.  

One night, Glitter didn't move.  When the kids woke up in the morning, he was in the exact same spot, doing the exact same thing, he was doing when they went to bed that night.  (bad, mommy!)  Makayla started her day in tears! - so upset that Glitter didn't move and wasn't doing anything new.
A couple mornings later, when the kids woke up, Glitter had decorated our Christmas tree in the kids' underwear (an idea i stole off  of a Facebook friend).  Makayla thought it was so cool, but Mason was appalled.  He started his day in tears, repeating over and over again how disgusting it was!

What Mason Says

2 important conversations I had with Mason last night.

(i say important, because they're conversations that i never want to forget)

As I was getting Mason dressed in his pajamas, I was talking to him about how big he's getting. 

Mommy:  Mason!  Look at you, buddy!  You're getting so big!  Look how big your feet are!!

Mason:  (Beaming!)  I know, mom!

Mommy:  How do you get so big?!

Mason:  I practice (as he shrugs his shoulders...as in like it's not a big deal)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *   

We were sitting on the couch last night and Mason, out of the blue and with a puzzled look on his face, asked:

How is Santa going to get in here if we don't have a chimney for him to come through?

That question took me by surprise and I couldn't help but smile.  Who knew his 3 year-old little mind was worried about that?

It's magic, buddy!

...never stop believing in the magic of Christmas!

1st Week

What did the first week of December have in store for us?

...Searching for the "perfect" Christmas tree on a 60 degree day!

Yes, it was 60 degrees out, but I still  had hats, scarves, and winter coats on us.

I say it every year, and I'll say it again -

Searching for and cutting down the "perfect" Christmas tree every year are some of my favorite memories growing up...and I will continue on with that tradition with my kids in hopes that those few hours at the Christmas Tree farm every year will find a special place in their memories as well.

I wanted a really small tree this year.  

But...

I think it comes close to being one of the biggest ones we've ever had.

It's nice and round.

This week, we also had a surprise visitor.

We were all downstairs in the living room, laying on the floor and coloring.
All of a sudden we heard a "THUMP" and a "BUMP" and a loud "BOOM".
The noise was coming from upstairs and Makayla, the brave one that she is, stood up and whispered "I'll go see what that was."

So...we all followed behind her.

We tiptoed upstairs and to our surprise, the elf had made a visit!  After waiting patiently and the kids asking every.single.day why the elf hadn't come to our house yet, he finally came back all the way from the North Pole!  He had somehow (with his magic) sneaked into the house and decorated Christmas trees in the kids' bedrooms!

WOW!

That sneaky little elf!
The first year he visited us, his name was Elf and last year, Makayla changed his name to Princess.  Well, when she addressed him by the name of Princess this year, Mason FREAKED out.  Princess is a GIRL'S name!!!...and Mason wasn't going to have that, so they re-named him Glitter...

!

The kids have already colored pictures for Glitter to take back to the North Pole with him and they also wrote out their Christmas list for Glitter to take back and give to Santa.

We can't wait to see the excitement that Glitter is going to bring to our house this season.

Besides decorating our tree and getting to finally welcome Glitter back into our home, mommy and daddy got to have a little grown-up time together to celebrate the season.

We had a wonderful night out for the hospital's Christmas party! -  a theme of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" (with a Cousin Eddie look-alike contest and an ugly Christmas sweater contest), some of our dearest friends, one of our favorite restaurants to cater, one of our favorite bands to listen to, and some of my favorite drinks throughout the night...

It made for a great night!

...and one last thing we got to do - another one of my very favorite things to do during the Christmas season -

We had a date.
Just mommy and daddy.

We had lunch together and did our Christmas shopping.

...and to top it all off - it was snowing the entire time we were out and about!!

Aaaahhhh

'Tis the Season!!

It's December!!

Christmas Rules:

Be merry

Build a snowman

Welcome friends

Sing carols

Bake cookies

Make snow angels

Treasure Family

Trim the tree

No peeking

Drink hot cocoa

Honor Traditions

Hang stockings

*Believe*

With Aunt Nina living in Texas and Kevin & I both scheduled to work on Christmas day, this year is going to be a little different...and there's nothing wrong with that!  

It's all about  what you make it...!

(follow those Christmas rules above and it'll all be okay...

it's the most wonderful time of the year!)

Welcome, December!!

Stolen Camera

I was going through my camera, cleaning out all of the pictures.
I didn't realize how often my kids got a hold of the camera and all of the 100's of pictures they took.
As I was going through deleting all of them, I decided that I would keep the...

 "best of what's left".

already learning how to take 'selfies'...

bedroom...

it's what's important.

yep.  that's real.  

or maybe i'm the only one in shock by the color of her arubian tan.

i'm pretty sure this was taken because of the cat in the box...

i cracked up at this picture...

it appears that mia is gagging on my rotten breath. 

  brushing our teeth in the bedroom?  i don't think so...

funny, the things i learn by looking through my camera.

messy hair much, mia? 

 fish!

like is said - i guess it's what's important.

 aww, those lips.
*smooch*

What I like about photographs is that they 

capture a moment that's gone forever, 

impossible to reproduce.

- Kari Lagerfeld

Thanks, kids, for the fun pictures!!

Happy First Birthday, Mia Grace

Miss Mia Grace,

From birth...

 to ONE -

and all the weeks and months in between...

My, how you have grown over the past year!

Happy First Birthday, Mia Grace!!

We had so much fun yesterday celebrating you.

The weather was beautiful, the sun was shining, and we got to sing "Happy Birthday" to you with some of our favorite people!

This has been the quickest year of my life, because it feels like this

just happened yesterday.

With you turning a year old, I have been quite sentimental.
Knowing that you are my last of everything, I've been clinging on to these days with you that seem so fleeting.
Yesterday, was my last 1st Birthday Party...and while that makes me want to cry sad tears, I choose to cry happy tears - to rejoice that you are ONE!!  

Turning ONE comes with so many accomplishments -

Waving bye-bye,

Blowing kisses,

Giving high fives,

Devouring baked beans like you haven't eaten in weeks,

Getting so.very.close. to walking,

Climbing on mommy and daddy like we're your mountain,

Wrestling with your brother and sister like you're a big kid,

Doing puzzles,

Coloring,

Clapping when appropriate,

Standing on your tip-toes to play the piano with your sissy,

giving real hugs and open mouthed kisses,

and growing more teeth.

You've done nothing but amaze me every single day and I just can't get enough of you!
Watching you flirt with anybody who makes eye contact with you,

Seeing you concentrate so hard on picking up the tiniest pieces of fuzz or lint from the floor and giving it to me,

Reaching out your tiny arm to share a piece of your snack with the person sitting next to you,

Filling up and emptying out (over and over again) any container near you - your toy basket, bowl of cheerios, bucket of crayons...,

Beaming with pride as you finish climbing the stairs to your bedroom,

hearing your fake coughs to get our attention,

and most of all, making my heart thump as I witness the way you nurture that special bond between you, your brother, and your sister.

I am mesmerized by you, baby girl.

Your tiny little hands, your long toes, your sweet soft cheeks, your baby blonde hair that sweeps across your forehead, your big blue eyes and long eye lashes, your giggles...

You truly are fearfully and wonderfully made.

(your little newborn foot)

You are a precious gift to us and I am so blessed to be your mommy.

Thank you for this amazing and beautiful year.

Thank you for bringing so much joy to our lives.

Thank you for making me a better person.

Love,

Mommy