Our Valentines Day...

We thought we were never going to find a sitter, and knew for sure not overnight. I had a headache, the kids were in a fowl mood and I felt overwhelmed. But finally, my grandma came through and we got out of the house!
We also enjoyed a very nice romantic dinner at The Purple Potato and went to see Dear John. The food was amazing. we sat and talked about how much our relationship has changed and how much we have grown. We exchanged cards with letters inside. Joe wrote me the most beautiful letter, I cried a little. It was about as manly as a "love" letter could get, but that is what made it so special because it wasn't fake, it was Joe's language and how he would have said it face to face. Four years ago, I saw Joe at our farmers market. He asked me out, I said yes. Three months later we moved in together, 2 months later we got engaged, 2 months later we eloped, 1 month later I found out I was pregnant with the lovely London Rose. London was born, she was a perfect little girl and Joe was so head over heels in love with her. When she was 5 months old, I found that I was pregnant with Rowan. We have moved into 5 different houses in 2 different cities, and now are in a home of our own that is wonderful. We are spontaneous and live our lives to the fullest and try not to feel that we need to conform to anything. We are a good family and great parents of the best children but I do not consider us typical. We rushed into things, it was hard but now that I am sitting her on my computer with all of the kids playing on the floor next to me.....I wouldn't have it any other way. As gifts for each other, we each got tattoos. It turned out to be a day at the shop with Louis. Joe got a old fashion bomb with roses and a banner that reads "London" it turned out amazing of course. Did you know that he has a tattoo for Mason? it's a pirate skull that has a banner that reads "love is thicker than blood" ( he is Mason's step-father) How awesome is that? I truly found a nice guy thats for sure, he's been such a great role model for Mason and is a great father.
I finally got my owl. I have waited 6 years to get my first tattoo. Geez what a big fuss over how bad it was going to hurt for nothing, I feel so ridiculous. I am so glad I didn't get one when I turned 18, I'm sure it would have been tacky and horrid. I decided on an owl when I was 20, but then I got pregnant and have been consecutively pregnant since 2006! It's perched upon a back door key, and is absolutely perfect. I will eventually get some roses next to it, but it was a big piece and took 5 hours.
Here are some pictures, not that great they were just taken with the iphone, I'll take some better ones when they heal.

exhausted.

Tonight Joe had to work at night, which is normally fine. But all day, my kids must have been out of sorts with him gone and literally went crazy on me. I have never experienced so much crying in my life. I made spaghetti o's for lunch, a normal fav in our house, that went over horribly. They were hitting, and screaming and throwing stuff. Many time outs later, and a migraine pill, I thought I would please them by making London's favorite thing for dinner. She looked at it ( buttered noodles with cheese ) and said "no give me cancakes (pancakes) really? you are 2, don't bark orders at me! so she sat at the table for an HOUR AND A HALF and screamed and cried and cried, which caused so much drama for the baby that he started crying and didn't eat. So what did I do, I made can cakes. I'm spent, Joe come home now....please.

Buddah-pest

This is my wonderful dog Buddha, he's my oversized baby and loves to run around in the field by our house and I can let him be off leash without any flack from our neighbors. He saw his first rabbit and was super curious, he kept on looking at me to see if it was ok to go and figure the guy out, so finally I said go get it Buddha. He didn't even really run after it, he kinda pranced then stopped and then barked and then whined when he couldn't find it. It was pretty cute actually.

Lovies.

Today I woke up and was craving oatmeal. I love oats, when I go out to eat for breakfast, it's usually what I order. It's pretty much the only thing that doesn't come with a huge slab of ham, bacon or nasty sausage. I made mine today from steel cut old fashion oats, mixed some milled flaxseed in, added some brown sugar and raisins with splash of soy milk..YUM!

My 5 year old son, Mason...aka Lovie (super masculine, I know), is having a valentines day party at preschool on Friday. I was really looking forward to making homemade valentines with him but he and my husband informed me that real 5 year olds buy their valentines, not make them. He said quote on quote " thats not very cool mommy", broke my heart....I'm cool, I know I am! I guess I will just have to wait for London to get a bit older and we will make home made valentines, thank God for a daughter to do girlie stuff with.
So we headed down to the rite aid, and came home with Transformer and wild animal valentines, he was super stoked on them, I think they are alright.
I still got to get down with my mad homemaking skills, we made homemade honey whole wheat bread for lovies preschool teachers, Miss Stacey and Miss Cheryl.

I wanted something yummy and sweet to go along with the bread, but after looking at the grocery store's selection of jellies/jams and honey, they all sucked. I remembered this guy I went to KCS with had grandparents that were bee keepers and sold honey out of their apiary next to their home. I decided to take a drive down memory lane of many school field trips to their apiary and stopped by. We bought 3 jars of orange blossom honey, and it is so delicious!


My husband Joe does not cook. He can BBQ, but as for the kitchen....he makes frozen waffles for the kids. Before he met me, he was living off of the taco truck and fast food, GROSS! Joe loves two things, 1. my spaghetti 2. Brooklyn Pad Thai and of course me and the kids and God, but as for the food, those are his two main food groups. He asks for pad thai like every night, but its too spicy for the kids so I always have to end up making two separate dishes which is a pain when it comes to the time and having to clean up afterwards. Well tonight, he said "why don't I just make it" he looked up the recipe on his iphone and made it, and it turned out amazing! I am so proud of him, it was a sexy sight to see him cooking, I hope he keeps it up :)
Here's the result:


We had a lazy day today, it rained, so Joe didn't work...he works for his family's construction company. I kept on asking him this morning, are you sure you need to go in? I was looking for some extra cuddle time because it was FREEZING when we woke up. But he insisted. I texted him after he left and asked if it was going to be a short day, he texted me back with a picture of a starbucks cup. He pulled up, got out, handed me the cup and told me he was all mine for the day, yay me :) I'm a lucky girl.

nichole who?

Who am I? This is a question I have been pondering for 4 years. In my teen years, I remember always being a bit "different" than my friends, not always a good thing either. I was definitely more defiant, always questioned authority and religion. When I met my husband, I was going through a bit of a life crisis with my son's father. Ending that chapter in my life, opened a new door, a new life and I didn't know how to live it as Nichole. I still feel, after these 4 years, that I really don't know who I am. I'm not the "Preppy Nichole", the "Stoner Nichole" or "Depressed Nichole" I used to be. I feel like I am on a spiritual journey at the moment, finding what out what I truly believe and embracing it. I feel like I am trying to find out what kind of mother I want to be and being it. I am on a life journey with my husband, and I feel like I am trying to figure out how to be the wife he and I want myself to be. So much pressure. So much has changed in these last four years, my clothes, my music, my attitude, my f-in weight, pregnancies, losing friends, losing pets, moving, getting jobs, losing jobs, making friends, falling in love with my children and husband more and more every day. I know I can not possibly be the only person going through an identity crisis in their 20's right?
::sigh::

I have set out a list of goals for myself and family for this year, mostly including ways to spend more time with my kids, reading, losing weight, learning to sew, growing a garden, recycling more, cutting out all animal products, I hope I can figure these out and incorporate them into my life. And I hope that I can soon feel completely comfortable in my skin, and secure in who I am.

my tuesday

Rowan woke up at 3:30am and was ready to play, then ready to cry which then woke up his sister who wanted to wander around the house and find the cookies. Needless to say, we all fell back asleep around 4:30am and now I am completely exhausted. I was watching the news with Rowan during our little mid-night play session, Obama was addressing the deficit. I have had some doubt in him recently, just because bad press and it seems that most of the major things he has said would be finished have not been completed. My faith in the man was reaffirmed last night when he said, The deficit will have to wait till next year because our last administration for the past 10 years had has 2 wars and did not pay for them." We live in such a conservative area, where people just plain hate him, they say that he is not qualified, they love Sarah Palin (who is qualified?) and it's just hard to be open with your views here unless you are wanting the most mindless debate about it. This quote by him reminded me where we were coming from, and that this last year was probably harder than he thought and we are making progress. My husband works in construction for his families business, last year was tough and on the slow side, this year they are booked through July already.

On another note, I am really going to try to start blogging again, I am not really sure how to, but I read other women's blogs all the time so why not? I always have an opinion about everything. I have 3 kids, my days are sometimes eventful, sometimes boring. I seriously doubt anyone will read this blog, but at the same time it feels good to let out your thoughts, even if it is just to the computer screen.

Last month, Rowan turned 1 and Mason turned 5. Even though Rowan is not walking yet, I am thinking he is close because he is climbing on EVERYTHING!


We had some much needed snuggle time during our news watching session at 4am



Mason's preschool class made him a birthday book as their gift for him. I got to sit in on the class for the day, and it was wonderful. They made him feel special throughout the whole day, he is super excited about being 5 now. He goes on and talks about all the "awesome" stuff a 5 year old can do that a 4 year old couldn't. Like now he can run faster, jump higher and he said he is going to start eating more vegetables so that way he can be taller then me and put me on timeout. Whatever works kiddo. Also in the birthday book, Mason's admirer, whom he admirers also, left a very personal sweet note for him that they teacher wrote in for her. I know he will cherish this when he is older


Mason's requests for his birthday-day at schools was 1. To wear pajamas and 2. To not bring cupcakes, but to bring snickerdoodles. I planned on making homemade ones, but my best friend Hayley came into the town the night before and we made a homemade vegan chocolate birthday cake with chocolate ganache frosting for Mason and that was enough baking for my kitchen so I am a bad mom and picked up some cookies at the bakery and they worked, the kids didn't know the difference