Touché, Tyler

Tyler asked me for a "story, song, and secret" before bed per usual.
I thought of something off the cuff.
"Once upon a time there was a boy named Rufio. He picked up trash off of the street every day. A little boy named Ryan said "ew, why are you touching trash?" Rufio said, "well, why are you walking on a clean street?" Then Ryan said "thank you for cleaning so much. Can I help you now?" So we should all pick up trash so we can live in a pretty world, right Tyler?

Tyler said "does that really make sense mom?"
"Yes! We have a beautiful world because we pick up trash."
"But little boys aren't supposed to be in streets."
"You got me. Go to bed silly Tyler!"

And sleep like an Egyptian. 

Weekend Update

Sleeping babies. The biys like to fall asleep in our bed then we transfer them. Julia goes to sleep by herself. 

Relief Society visiting teaching motivational message before Steven played basketball.


My first time playing in the pool.
I had the girls make ice creal, a fruit salad, and messes.
Steven worked from home on Friday and bought me lunch. I like the saying.

Because the day before, I met a new friend who made the wait worth it at Tropical Smoothie Café. 

The smoothies were overloaded w supplements and were gross so I took the kids to a different one after school on Friday.
I got to go for a jog and smelled honeysuckles. So I stopped.
My parents took me to a play to see one of my young women perform. Briana was so good!

I stayed up until after 5am to finish a photo session.
The next day, Saturday, Steven took the boys to Soccer practice while I took the other half to Brynlee Vorwaller's 1st birthday party at the beach.





We jumped in the pool before going to Anthony, formerly known as Kyriakos's 1st birthday party.









He didn't taste his cake. He was confused and cute.

The Sound of Music made me want to have one of my own favorite things, "girls in a white dresses  with blue satin sashes."
Ti was a busy day at church. President Emery was released as the stake president and Bishop Bangeter was called to replace him. We parked in a ditch of the nursing home.

Now to make Dylan's litter bug school project...

Europe, Colombia, Naps, Maternity Leave

So. I do a lot of things. It is impossible to do all of them well all of the time.

My wonderful husband picks up most of the slack. I do not know how single parents do it. They are amazing. 

My cousin Bryson just got married here in the US (In Utah the day after they graduated from BYU.)

Then 6 months later, since it was not official in France where his wife is from, they got married there again.

 His blue Czeck Republic shoes :)

 Notre Dame

They came last weekend to see us and Grandma Rebeck. They came over in the morning when the babies were napping then we met up with them and took them to the Alligator Attraction so they could feed and hold alligators.

We are planning a trip to Colombia so I have been thinking about traveling some. 

The point of this is that other countries respect time. The French wedding reception lasted until like 1am because of the multiple courses of dinner and enjoying one another. 

Naps are pre-scheduled into the day. I bet people are more productive even with the down time. And maternity leave is way longer than 6 weeks. A mother should stay home a year. I've been thinking about that these last couple of days. Daycare is complicated this first year. It seems so unnatural to have somebody else be with my baby especially when she is mostly breast feeding. I pump in the car on the way to work and at lunch while eating and typing my notes while I keep my operatory door closed with my foot so nobody walks in on me. 

I may not have a sleep-trained baby, but I should not have to. If I could quit my jobs for a year, it would be okay. I could be a mommy and only a mommy. And I could do that one task really well. 

I can not quit my jobs. I like them. They satisfy me. I love the social interaction and the creativity with the dental job. I like the creativity and the positive feedback I get with photography. I help people with both. I would like to cut back a day at the dental office, but I can't do that to my regulars. Plus I really like winning over new patients too. I CAN cut back on photography this baby's first year. And I have. Not by an explicit decision. I find time to take the photos, but have zero time to organize them because of Julia baby. I am letting go though. Like the Frozen song. It is impossible not to. At night, I have big plans to stay up and go through a handful of people/client photos but then I fall asleep next to my baby after valiant attempts to get her to stay put by herself. In the day, I plan when she is tired for when she can just go into the car seat to sleep because I am not really just at home, and fighting w/ her is exhausting. At night, she does not just go to sleep. It is the saddest cry and it does not stop. So She'll fall asleep with me, but when I lay her down, she either wakes right up or wakes up within 15 minutes.  So it feels like I am more on "disability" than maternity leave. Not a disability leave, just having to live with the cutest disability ever. So cute.

Here're some photos of my sleeping baby. None of which include her in her crib. 

 Picking up Daddy from the airport after he drove Uncle JT to BYU.

 I do try.

I need a vacation then a nanny.