Sick of being Sick

The Huffman House has been so sick, and I am sick of it!  It started with our first day of Christmas vacation and my son having diarrhea while in downtown Salt Lake.  We were in the Macy's bathroom for over an hour, it was awesome.  Eventually we put Kori's size 4 diaper on my 8 year old to drive home.  Then we went into fevers, sinus colds, coughs, migraines, and finally two nights ago Kalli woke up in the middle of the night and threw up everywhere- which turned into 6 times that night.  I don't know if this is a "Utah" thing because we are indoors way more than we are used to?  I finally took my two girls into the doctor today and his professional advice was:  you should feed them some french fries so they will want to drink more.  Ummm, sure.  Keia hasn't eaten in two days and some greasy fries will do the trick.  Welp, off to In-n-Out!!!

Keia:  Mattix did you see Marissa today? (Keia missed school)
Mattix:  Yeah, she looked lonely.
Keia:  Did you tell her that I was sick?
Mattix: Yeah, I told her that you were hurling. (who says hurling?  love it)
Keia:  What?! Why did you tell her that, how embarrassing.  I already threw up in Target today and that was embarrassing!
Apparently my Fifth Grader has some "embarrassing moments" to write in her journal now!

Happy 2016

Hi.  I decided to give up on blogging, not sure if anyone was even reading my blog and it felt like one more thing to do... but tonight I spent the last hour and a half going back and reading old posts.  I thought to myself... self, your kids may enjoy reading these one day- keep going.  So here I am again to kick off 2016.

The Huffman House has moved to Utah.  We moved in August.  It has been hard, but right.  I am a California, sunny, beachy girl to my core, so this snow and cold weather thing is not going well for me.  The snow is beautiful to watch and very peaceful, but I have never liked being cold- I live for Summer time.  It has been quite the adjustment living in Utah- I had many preconceived ideas of what it was like here.  It has been way better than I thought, definitely financially better for my family.  I have learned many lessons while living here so far, but the most important is that I can be happy anywhere as long as I have my family.  So here we go to a New Year!  It is January, so I will be reading Seven Habits by Stephen Covey- its been my tradition for the past 6 years- can't you tell I am Highly Effective?!?

My 2016 goals:
*Study the life of Joseph Smith Jr.
*Make Sunday our favorite day

"What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals."  Henry David Thoreau

Lil' update

 Here is Keia on her field trip.  Keia just finished basketball season and still likes it (yes!).  She started learning how to play the guitar and is taking lessons at school- love watching her play.  Matt taught her a Bob Marley song.  Love our chats in the car when she can't stop talking, love her!

 Mattix just finished basketball and is now onto his favorite sport- baseball.  Matt loves to watch him play, so cute.  He is loving second grade and has moved on from tetherball to hand ball.  Still obsessed with his hair and won't let me shave it.  Love when this kid gets my humor and we find the same things funny, love him!

 What do we say about Kalli, who has grown up so much this last year.  She loves to be silly, but does not like to be laughed at when she isn't trying to be funny.  My little princess, still likes preschool and told me that Gunnar is her "boyfriend."  Matt and I have many moments when we just look at each other and know we are in trouble with this one.  I love her big brown eyes looking up at me or her cutest smile, love this girl!

Okay, cannot get enough of this mister.  He is literally crawling all over the place and is now standing all by himself- he is only 8 months.  I can no longer leave him.  Kori swallowed a penny last week and I almost lost it.  I felt like a new mom who completely freaked out.  This kid is so sweet and I am super protective of him.  Luckily he was okay and they found the penny in his tummy from an X-ray. I love how he is still so cuddly even with being so active, love you buddy!

Successful People

"The successful person has the habit of doing the things failures don't like to do.
They don't like doing them either necessarily.  But their disliking is subordinated to the strength of their purpose."   E.M. Gray

New Year's resolution: Not to make any personal goals.

I'm kind of in this weird place in my life.  Kori will be turning 8 months in two days and is still my dream baby, even with crawling and standing up on things (usually my leg).  I'm someone who loves to always be improving or working towards something, but I can't make a commitment to save my life.  I get through each week and run the household the best I can, but I can't take on anything else.  I know it is only a phase in my life that will go by quickly, it just feels weird.  Four kids is busy!  A good busy, but busy.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I truly enjoy being a mother and being a woman, but I know my limits... so this year my personal goal is not to make any personal goals- weird right?!

To all my mothers...

"Mothers who know do less...They are willing to live on less and consume less of the world's goods in order to spend more time with their children-- more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying.  These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all."  Julie B. Beck

Happy New Year!

Here are our family pics taken by my talented friend, Sara Featherstone of course.  And no, I did not forget to send you a Christmas card, this was our 5th year in a row not sending one out... sad!!  I seriously love getting them from everyone, here is to next year!

Friends

I feel like I am in such a good place in my life right now.  I am still a very busy mother of 4 kids, a wife, a daughter, a YW leader, but I'm also a friend.  Friends have always been super important to me because my family was never really close growing up.  I relied on friends, a lot.  I don't need a lot of friends, just a few who I could call at any time and know they would be there for me.  I have met so many people and have made friendships from all over.  I struggled making friends when we first moved back to San Diego since I worked and our family grew, but I finally found some.  I am so grateful to all my friends from High School until now, to those who live in other cities and other States.  A huge part of my happiness has been a result from my friendships, thank you friends!

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."  Jim Morrison

Happiness

This picture just makes me happy, world's cutest monkey, and monkeys are already really cute.  Here is an article I read by Kate Bratskeir on 10 things that are proven by science to make us happier:

1- Happy people surround themselves with other happy people.  People are 4 times more likely to be happy in the future with happy people around them.

2- Happy people try to be happy.  When happy people don't feel happy, they cultivate a happy thought and smile about it.

3- Happy people spend money more on others than on themselves.  Givers experience what scientists call the "helper's high."

4- Happy people have deep in-person conversations.

5- Happy people use laughter as a medicine.  A study showed that children laugh 300 times a day versus adults who laugh 15 times a day.

6- Happy people use the power of music.  Researchers found that music can match the anxiety-reducing effects of massage therapy.

7- Happy people exercise and eat a healthful diet.  Eating a poor diet can contribute to depression.

8- Happy people take the time to unplug and go outside.  Uninterrupted screen time brings on depression and anxiety.

9- Happy people get enough sleep.  When people run low on sleep, they are prone to feel a lack of clarity, bad moods, and poor judgement.

10- Happy people are spiritual.

I'm still alive!

I was in dreamland the first three months of my new baby's life and when four months hit, I was tired!!  Everyday I felt exhausted and overwhelmed.  I decided to sleep train him to help with my tiredness.  After a month of literally trying and him still waking up at night crying for hours- yes, hours... my friend lent me her book which has become a dream come true!!  It is called:  The Sleepeasy Solution.  Where have you been all my life and why did I only discover you for my last child?  Either way, it worked on Kori.  He is now sleeping from 7:30pm to 6:30am everyday.

So, speaking of feeling tired, I was reading this awesome blog from one of my favorite author's who wrote my life-changing money book: Kate Northrup.  She talked about how some of us are addicted to busyness.  Basically that we feel validated through being busy and productive.  That is so me.  I was always proud of my productive personality, which is a good thing, but not when we are seeking validation on who we are from it.  Here are some thoughts she said:

-Let us know our worth in simply being.
-Let us know we are enough because we are.
-Let us begin to let down the burden of busy.

This has helped me so much, especially right now when I am feeling the frustrations of not getting anything done because I have a 4 month old who needs my attention constantly.  Why can't I realize that this time goes by so fast and just cherish our time together?  At some point however, we do need to eat dinner and have clean clothes =)  Be present.

Presence

Summer with a newborn

Okay, so honestly it has been better than I thought.  So far, my kids have been really good and super helpful with Kori.  My main dilemma is that three older kids do so much better when we are out and about- they are less likely to get on each other's nerves, but Kori is hard to take all over town.  Kori is awesome at home because he gets to sleep in his nice swing and is not sweaty from traveling in his car seat.  The other dilemma is when I do not get any sleep from the previous night and still have to be super mom all day… however I really cannot complain.  Kori is so sweet and somehow Matt and I have found this crazy patience within ourselves that we did not have for the others.  Anywho- here are some random pics from our summer so far: