What I've learned being a mom to 3.

Our beautiful baby girl, Briar Estelle Aiono, was born on January 24th at 7:56am. She is the cutest, sweetest, cuddly, most beautiful, little thing I've ever seen (I may be alittle biased:))...

Before she was born I had envisioned what life would be like with 3 kids. I thought I would bounce back to my normal self in no time and it would be a piece of cake. I was sooo wrong. I was literally in labor for 16 hours (that is a whole other story that I will share another time) and it definitely took a toll on my body. Briar is 6 weeks old and I am still not my "normal" self. I came home from the hospital and felt as if I had been hit by a train and all I wanted to do was lay down all day long and not move if I didn't have to. Lucky for me, I had my sister Erika and my mom here to help and the following week my MIL came. I realized quickly after everyone left and I had to be a mom again that it was not as easy as I thought it would be. It was so much harder. So here are a few things I've learned in the 6 weeks that Briar has joined our family...

• Blogging is much easier with 2 kids.. ;)

• Life is not perfect, I am not perfect And that is OK!

• I am enough (my kids love me regardleas of my flaws, I don't even think they notice them)

• I rely on our Savior so much more. Thank goodness for prayer.

• My house doesn't/ won't be clean for longer than 5 minutes, and that's ok.

• Dishes in the sink can wait until tomorrow.

• Sleep= more patience the next day, which is something my entire family needs from me.

• I need "ME" time. Time to myself. Time to reflect on the day, on the things I need to change or work on.

• Bedtimes are critical! They are my sanity.. 

• Sometimes its ok to sit my kids in front of the TV all day. It is literally the only way I will get things done. 

• It is perfectly ok to cry. I cry when I feel like it. it is amazing what a good cry session can do for the soul.

• Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you need it, ask!

• Baths are heaven on earth. They are my escape.

• I love my husband even more than I did with 2 kids. He is truly one of the greatest men I have ever met. I am beyond blessed to have him as my husband.

I feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to raise 3 of my Heavenly Father's most beautiful children. I can never fully express my gratitude and love toward him. I thank him every single day for this blessing. 

Potty Training..

It has been my own personal Hell! Anyone who has ever said it was easy potty training their son.. is LYING! or they don't have a son named Hawk. My son is exactly 2 years and 11 months old, which means it has taken me 2 years, 10 months and 27 days to potty train him. I cannot tell you how many times I have tried and failed.. miserably! I tried the "stay home for 3 days and let him run wild naked, asking every 10 minutes if he needed to go", the "cheerio in the toilet and have him aim game", the "I'll give you a treat if you go pee pee in the potty trick" and NOTHING worked. There would be pee and poop in places you never want to have to clean (walls included.. oh you didn't know that poop is the new finger paint?). It really was just awful! I finally decided that I was just going to wait, because he clearly did not understand the concept. I was actually fine changing his diapers and found it easier than always having to run him to the bathroom wherever we were.. Just call me lazy ;).. The problem with all of this?? I am due in 3 weeks, which means 2 kids in diapers, which means $$ and carrying 2 different sized diapers with me at all times, which equals one big headache for me! I decided it was time to give it another shot. I took his diaper off Wednesday morning and told him he had to go pee pee in the potty, that he was a big boy and Mommy was tired of changing his diapers. Let me be honest for a minute, I completely forgot that I didn't have him in a diaper, I never asked him if he needed to go potty or anything.. All of a sudden I hear a flush in the hall bathroom and run to see who it is. It was my HAWKY BOY! He did it! All on his own. I was so proud and so happy! Throughout the day he kept going to the bathroom all on his own. When Jared got home from work he took the boys to the park to ride bikes and I thought for sure he was going to have an accident. Jared kept asking him and he kept saying no and when they got home, he ran to go potty. We decided it was time to reward him for making it the whole day without an accident. We asked him what kind of treat he wanted, his response? "I wanna ride my fuad! (translation= quad)" My son, the redneck! If I am being truthful, It really hasn't been all rainbows and roses.. He has had 2 accidents in 3 days, one of them being a "number 2" accident, which led my husband to gag and just about die.. It was hilarious! The best part about potty training a boy? pee. on. the. toilet. seat. 

It is disgusting and just not right!

I am just extra careful when using their bathroom and have to be a bit more devoted to cleaning the toilet a few times a day. All in all, I am just so glad I will only have one baby in diapers, even if it means pee in places I never knew existed ;) Way to go my Hawky Boy! Mommy is so proud!

Confession… I need church!

The entire purpose of this blog is to be REAL and HONEST so that is what this post is all about. I am writing this because I have been in such a crummy mood all day long and I know why.. We had stake conference today and we didn't go.. I have no good excuse to offer, we just didn't go..
I was born and raised A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or as most people know us, Mormon. We went to church every Sunday for 3 hours. My parents made sure the Gospel was always a big part of our lives and we were raised with strong values and high morals. Although, I never liked waking up at 8am every Sunday to get ready for church and I was usually always in a bad mood before.. (literally every single Sunday was awful for my family because I was always so grumpy)  once I was there, I loved it! I grew up in the same ward from the time I was 7 up until I was 18. I had many friends from church and I pretty much knew every family in my ward. When I married Jared we went to his family ward that he had gone to since he was a baby. I absolutely LOVED that ward. Many people became family and we developed some lasting friendships that we will cherish forever. When Jared got a job in Arizona one if my biggest fears was going to a completely new ward where we didn't know anyone. I remember my first time visiting Maricopa 4th Ward, we had a lot of people come up and introduce themselves, and it was in that moment that I realized how shy I actually was. I wouldn't talk to anyone unless they talked to me first and the conversations were always a bit awkward. I never felt that connection that we had from our previous wards. Pretty soon after moving to Arizona, Jared had to work Sundays, which meant I had to go to church by myself with my two boys.. Reef was 2 and Hawk was about 6 months old. I started waking up grumpy every Sunday again and I literally made every excuse I had to not go. I can honestly say for the first year and a half we lived here I went to our home ward about 6 times. For the first year they had me introduce myself in Relief Society every time I was there. There were several times I would wake up determined to go, I would get the boys ready, get to church and they would be EXTREMELY naughty, which led me giving up and going home in the middle of Sacrament. I started noticing a change in our home and in our family dynamic. We became "that family" that would get little notes on our door and the missionaries/ members coming by to see how we were doing, we were "less active".. It feels so weird to even type that.. I never in a million years would think that we would have that problem, but it is the truth… I started going down to San Diego a lot after that and would attend church every single time I was there. I started to miss Sacrament and especially Relief Society and I felt horrible for my kids because I knew they were missing out on so much. Jared and I realized that we needed to get our priorities straight. We knew what was really important and what we wanted for our family, so things definitely had to change. I started taking the boys by myself since Jared still worked Sundays. It started to get a little easier as time went on. My boys started to learn how they are supposed to act in church and knew my expectations. A few months after our conversation, my husband was offered a position at work that would allow him to have most of Sunday off (He didn't have to go in until 9pm). It truly was an answer to my prayers. That first Sunday that Jared had off, we both couldn't go to sleep for some strange reason. We didn't end up go to bed until about 2 and had to be up at 7:30 to get ready for church. When I heard that alarm go off I was so tempted to hit the snooze button, BUT I didn't. We all woke up, got ready, and went to church. My boys were so good and they were both excited to go to primary and nursery. Later that night, my husband left for work  and I got a text from him saying, "Thank you for making sure we went to church today, it felt good to be where we were supposed to be. I love you." I always knew, but it was so much more apparent in that moment, that we could not make any more excuses and that we had made the right decision. We NEED church, we NEED the gospel in our lives, we NEED the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. I am so incredibly grateful to my parents for raising me in the gospel. I am grateful for the peace and calmness I feel at church. I am grateful for my Savior's atoning sacrifice and his unconditional love, I know that it is through him that I have the opportunity to be with my family forever. In October we had General Conference and one of my favorite talks was President Uchtdorf's. It is never too late to come back. Our Father in Heaven loves us and wants us to find peace and joy in our lives, and I can say without a shadow of doubt that it can be found through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope that maybe there is someone who needed to read something like this and that they find some strength and comfort in knowing they are not alone..

Confession... I hate working out… and I can't jump!

I absolutely HATE working out! It is painful and exhausting and I usually never see the results that I would like. It is really just awful! I always find great workout regimens on Pinterest or find workout DVD's at Walmart and swear that I will use them, but I never do..

This e- card is so perfect for me.

So, before I got pregnant with our baby girl, I thought I would give it a try, a real wholehearted attempt. I started eating better, running and doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (I really really dislike her for that DVD, by the way) And I can honestly say I was in the best shape I have been in since having kids. I was seeing results that I was actually really proud of. My BMI was going down (I am way too embarrassed to share that number..) and I was losing weight. I could actually run a mile without passing out, I could get through a session of 30 Day Shred without stopping, and I was actually able to jump higher than a few inches off the ground.. No, that is not an exaggeration. Sad, I know.. About 3 weeks into my workout routine I went down to San Diego. I was really excited to see if anyone could tell that I had been exercising, but even more excited to show my family how high I could jump after strengthening my leg muscles.

Insert weird family quirks here 

My family likes to have jumping competitions. My sisters were both cheerleaders and can do toe touches like its no big deal, my brother is a wanna be lyrical dancer and tries to do some crazy dance moves that involve jumping really high and my brother in law Lex uses his "jumping skills" as a weapon. These competitions usually end in me crying because Lex always likes to use his "jumping weapon skills" on me…

So, with all of that said, I'm going to share this very shameful embarrassing video that was taken while I was down in San Diego to show you just how high I could jump while in the best shape of my life…

Isn't that sad? After watching the video back I see just how bad I am at jumping and maybe I should just give up on that skill. As far as my working out goes, it is basically nonexistent, other than walking Reef to and from school. I will just have to give the whole "get in shape" thing another try after we have baby girl! ;)

Our week in a nutshell!

We have had a pretty busy week since last Friday. Lucky for all of you, we were able to capture some of the CRAZINESS!

While making this...

(I just have to add that I have the greatest husband ever.. He cut out every single attachment and made the ladders for me and Kimmie)

Our son Reef thought it would be a good idea to put the screws like this...

Luckily, Jared noticed the screws there while backing in. He is convinced that Reef purposely tried to pop his tires... I asked Reef why he would do that and his response was, "It was hard to make a circle so I made a line." Well, ok then, that makes complete sense. hahah

Later on that day we had a ward Halloween party to attend. They had a game that had donuts hanging from a string and whoever could eat the donut the fastest without using their hands won. Here are my sons attempts..

 Reef tried so hard to get the donut without his hands...

Hawk could care less about the game, he just wanted the donut!

My Husband went and bought these for our boys..

(Can you say death trap... for me!?)

Not pictured is me and my Mother in Law sitting on the grass almost getting ran over by Hawk which resulted in both of us peeing our pants. Yes, it really happened.. 

My Reefy boy was STAR of the week at his school!

 I asked Reef the questions and my husband got creative with the answers. This one is by far my favorite.. 

Is he not the cutest border Patrol Agent you have ever seen?!

And... So it begins! How does this even happen?? Oh, the things we go through to have our babies!

We had such a great time with my Mother in Law. We went up to Mother Nature's Pumpkin Patch and the boys absolutely loved it!

 Please excuse the fact that half of us are not looking (my boys), this was the fifth picture taken and they still could not look at the camera...

And last but, not least...

I just had to add this one. If you have spent an hour with my Hawkie boy, then you know just how appropriate this picture is with him standing next to that sign.. 

I hope all of you had a wonderful week! Even with all the "uh oh's" and the craziness we still had a blast!

Giveaway??

A few days ago, I get this picture and text from my sister...

Now let me tell you the story behind this message...

I was talking with Erika the other day and my blog came up. I told her I always notice other bloggers having these giveaways and I always wonder how the heck they find such cool things to offer their followers. They will offer some type of bag or shoe or scarf and all the potential winner has to do is "like" the product's facebook page and start following their blog. Who in their right mind wouldn't do those two simple things to get something for FREE?! I know I would do! So, I thought it would be funny to prank the people that read my blog (dangit, I told 1 person out of the 5 people that actually read my blog.. hahaha) into thinking I actually had something worthwhile to giveaway. I would make my post title "GIVEAWAY" which would hopefully spark everyone's interest.  In actuality, it was going to be a giveaway for one of children (obviously not for reals ;)), which more than likely was Hawk, because he had probably done something very naughty that day. Well, I never actually followed through. So when I got her message I literally laughed out loud. I can't lie, it made me so happy/ relieved to know I am not the only one that has those days with my kids! My sisters can always find a way to make to laugh or smile. I am so grateful for that! 

Confession: Sometimes I feel like JUST a stay at home Mom!

After moving to Arizona, I had a hard time making friends. I learned something about myself that I had never realized before... I am extremely shy. If it weren't for my husband having friends through work I probably wouldn't have had any friends at all. I went from spending all my time with my sisters and close friends who all had kids, to friends who were newly married and weren't even thinking about children yet. It was a little lot difficult to adjust to. I always felt like a burden if we went and did something and my kids had to tag along, so I usually just wouldn't go anywhere. I would often get asked, "Oh you stay home all day long? Don't you get so bored? I could never be a stay at home mom! I would lose my mind!" It made me start thinking that maybe I was JUST a stay at home Mom, that maybe I needed more in my life. It became a very lonely time for me. I had my husband (thank goodness) to spend time with, but it was really just a couple hours out of the day and he only had 2 days off out of the week. I had to learn to rely on him more, but the person I learned to rely on the most was myself. I had to be there for my kids ALL the time. (I'm sure some of you are thinking, "Uugghh, isn't that normal?" but it wasn't for me. In San Diego I was surrounded by loved ones and an amazing support system, who would drop anything to come help us.) I didn't have help, I didn't have family right down the street, I didn't have those close friends that I could call at any moment. It was me, my boys, and my husband. I had to become a cook (my poor husband had to endure through some pretty awful meals during that time, Sorry babe!) a maid, a nurse, an accountant (horrible idea, "opps, our water is shut off? I guess I forgot to pay it..") and a counselor (the list goes on) over night. There were often times when I felt inadequate. I felt like maybe my Heavenly Father had way too much trust in me to care for these little spirits. I started to feel like my life was straight from the movie Groundhog Day. I would wake up, feed the boys breakfast, clean, fold some clothes, take a shower, get myself (who am I kidding, I lived in pajamas..) and the kids dressed, clean, play some type of game with them or read them books, clean, feed them lunch, put Hawk down for a nap, start preparing dinner, eat, clean, get the kids ready for bed, go to sleep. That was literally my routine every SINGLE day.

This picture makes me laugh so I had to share.. Does anyone else ever feel like this??

I was starting to miss my working days and I was missing my family more and more each day. Then one day, it hit me.. I am sooo incredibly blessed with the opportunity to stay home with my kids. I know so many Mom's who have to work and put their kids in daycare so that they can help their husbands provide for their family. I was JUST a stay at home Mom, but it was what I had always wanted to be. I love my boys, I love waking up and making them breakfast. I love picking out their clothes for the day. I love making my husband dinner and sitting around the table talking about our day. I love laying down with my boys and reading them books before bed. Don't get me wrong, I still HATE laundry, there are still some days where I wish I had a job, an escape for just a few hours. I still have my "lonely" days. I still have my, "I don't know how I haven't gone completely grey or pulled all the hair out of my head" days. And BEWARE!! If you come over during the day without notice, you are more than likely to find me in my PJ's without makeup on and my hair a wild mess, but when it comes down to it, I have truly come to LOVE being a stay at home Mom. I am so extremely grateful that my husband has a stable (when the Government isn't shut down ;)) job, that he provides for our family so that I can stay home and raise my kids.

With all of that said, I have to share a blog post that I read last week.. Matt Walsh's Blog. I don't know the guy, I have never met him, but I seriously LOVE this man. I know he didn't write this blog post specifically for me, but it came at a time when I needed it most! So, Thank you Matt Walsh! I think you have won the hearts of all the stay home mom's across the world!