Confessions of a she-man

Pregnancy does a real number on your body, it's a fact.
The first time I realized this was after Hayley was born. I went to the bathroom on myself and hadn't even felt it coming. True story. It actually happened.

The belly sometimes shrinks down to size (often times not) and the extra weight can sometimes be lost (often times not) but there are a whole SLEW of other special trademarks that pregnancy is known for leaving behind.

One of them is called "the Mask"
It's called such because the pigment in your face gets especially dark during pregnancy leaving splotches of darkened skin around your forehead, underneath your eyes, and here's my favorite: on your upper lip.

This time around, I got the mask, with extra emphasis on the upper lip.
Essentially I've been walking around with what looks like a mustache for weeks now. It's brutal.

"What are you looking at?" I want to say to people I'm talking to, "What, you've never seen a woman with a mustache before?"

I asked Jordan how he felt about being married to a she-man. I expected him to say something like, "You know, it's actually not that noticeable, you really shouldn't worry about it,"
but instead, he said

"I prefer to call you 'lunch lady'."

It's embarrassing and the source of much self-consciousness. I'm a little bitter that being pregnant in itself is not good enough. It's not enough to have to watch yourself get fatter every day and to not be able to bend down and pick things up off the floor, and to have to visit the bathroom every 5 minutes, and to not be able to sleep because you can't find a comfortable position. Nope, not enough.

Bring on the sore breasts, that will all but disappear when your baby is finally done with them a year later. (just sayin')
Bring on the loose muscles that no longer allow you to control your bowels.
Bring on the stretch marks baby. More! More!
Bring on the belly line...and the hormones, make sure they swing out of control as often as possible. Bring on the big veins, and the hair loss...

And finally, bring on the faux facial hair, certain to make you the center of attention at any event.

Of course you all know that I view pregnancy as a wonderful and beautiful thing. It is truly a miraculous event. But I think you'll forgive me for being slightly hesitant to want to get pregnant again, after realizing I could end up with a full on beard the next time around.

Summer days

A sweet moment between Tia and Ty. He loves it when she sings to him.

Concert in the park.

You're not a 'Smith' unless you're dancing.
And causing a scene.

J has a special way of holding Ty that puts him to sleep within seconds. I love it.

Since this baby loves to cuddle so much, I've had to learn to do EVERYTHING with him in the front pack. I call it multitasking.

But the kid is a beast. Anymore weight gain and I'm going to end up with a permanent
hunch back.

Our dear friend Nell

And my cute little ladies.

Beach day

'People watching' on the beach is the best, isn't it? I had to snatch a picture of this woman because I've never quite seen anything like what she was wearing.

Oh, and I was there too.
Someone remind me to pull my hair back next time I hit the beach.

This is real life

Our Anniversary was a little different than we both had envisioned....but as we are learning, most things turn out that way when you have three children.

Alone time is a luxury we'll get our hands on some day. Right now we're just living life, and trying our best to cherish the moments we know we'll never get back.

Here are some scenes from the end of our day...

Yep, that's our underwear scattered all over the bedroom floor

And this is J's gift, still waiting to be opened, since right now he's keeping the baby asleep on the couch.

It's a beautiful life.

Late night laundering

Oh nothing, just staying up late until our laundry is done.
I'm always nervous about going down to the laundry room late at night by myself because of the guy who lives next to it.
I'm not proud of this, but sometimes we refer to him as the uni-bomber.
He lives alone.
He's not particularly friendly
and the last time I went down there I heard him yell out a string of swear words at his t.v. that I haven't heard in a looooong time....

What, you think I'm over reacting?
You think those are silly reasons to label him as a cold blooded killer?

You're probably right.
He does own a Prius.










Now to go pick up my laundry...

Family :)

Look how tall J looks next to me! If you saw the rest of our bodies you'd see that I was leaning forward and kicking my foot up (you know, like in romance movies)

You'll also notice we that have three burned out lightbulbs in our light fixture.
Don't judge.

Sweet moments with my little prince

4th of July kickball game. J had no mercy on the little kids.

Primping before the BBQ

Awkward moment

Yesterday we went to the Farmer's market for one of our weekend outings. We love to walk by all the bakeries and look at the treats on display. Rarely do we actually purchase the treats, but it being a holiday weekend and all, we decided to splurge and buy one cinnamon roll for J and the girls to share. It looked delicious, but as usual I was exercising my self control. (Kidding about the 'usual'.)

After they were finished eating I handed J a water bottle that I had stashed in my bag, and then we all continued on our way through the halls of the farmer's market. As we were about to merge with the main-hall traffic, I heard a loud spitting sound and saw a splash of water fly through the air and land on the big burly man right in front of me. The orange shirt he had on was covered in water spots and he looked at his now-wet arms with the same expression I must have been wearing..."What the heck was that?"
I turned to find the source of the spitting only to find a gush of water spilling out of Jordan's mouth all over Ty's head (he was holding him in the front-pack).

Seriously?

Did my husband really just spit on this guy?

I remember looking from Jordan to the stranger (who had stopped walking and had identified the culprit by this point)
What was going to happen next?
Was there going to be a beat down?
When I looked back at Jordan he had already turned around and bolted back down the hallway toward the bathroom.

Thankfully the victim could clearly see that J was choking on his water and that the spit, although disgusting, was not intentional so he let it slide and continued on his way.

Whew! I was almost involved in the first ever farmer's market fight.
That was a close one.

Today was Ty's baby blessing, and it was beautiful. We didn't go with the traditional white outfit, but decided instead to have him wear his first little suit. (Thank you Linda!)
I think he looked dashing. He was a perfect angel during the blessing, although the men holding him did say he was on the heavy side ;)

Here are some pictures from our special day.