The Life of a Mom

There are moments in your life when you feel like you've officially become a mom.  I'm not talking about the actual birthing of a baby, of course that makes you a mom.  I'm talking about when you're changing your infant's poopy diaper (and having to change her clothes because it was a huge blowout) and your 3 year old pukes all over you, or when you're trying to give your kids a bath and your baby poops in the bath (EVERY SINGLE TIME) so you're trying to get both kids clean without the poop touching anything because the last thing you want to do is take the kids out, drain the bath tub, clean it, and refill just to "finish the bath".  Those are the things that put you in the Mom Club.

I know we all could share stories that could keep ours ears perked for days.  These are the joys of motherhood!

Last week I, in my opinion, just officially enter the Mom Club.  We got a van!  I can't tell you how excited I am about this.  I have been wanting a minivan for about a year.  Pretty much ever since we put Vivian's car seat in the car with Lila's, just about a week before she was born.  If you ever want to drastically decrease the amount of space you have in your car, just put two car seats in.  Seriously, where did all this room go?  It's ridiculous.  So now, I'm rockin' the minivan...and completely excited about it!  As I told Neil, "we'll have so much more room for activities", to quote the movie Step Brothers.  :)

When I was pregnant with Lila, I was part of a birth month forum on The Bump.  There were several girls on this forum that I got very close to over the course of a pregnancy and first few months of being a mother.  Some of us eventually connected on Facebook where over 4 year later, we are still good friends.  Some of us have met in person (which always makes the others jealous) and some of us continue to grow closer through the internet.  This is something I never thought I would do, but can't imagine my life without these ladies.  About a year ago, I found out that one of the ladies only lives a little under 2 hours away from me.  I couldn't believe it.  Since then we've wanted to meet up, but never had the opportunity to do so.  She's an amazing photographer and I've been dying to have her take pictures of my girls.  This week we finally got to meet up.  She took pics for Vivian's 1 year birthday and our girls (we both have 2) got to play with each other.  They had so much fun.  I'm blessed to share some of the sneak peeks with everyone.  If you live in Southern Illinois or Central Illinois, you should totally look her up.  She's the bomb dot com.  Go to her website and check out her work!  You'll be happy you did.  http://www.juliepottorff.com/

Now it's just fitting to talk about Viv's first birthday.  She celebrated with a Peppa Pig party.  She loves Peppa Pig!  We got to celebrate with lots of family and friends and couldn't be more blessed to have those we love come to party with us!  Thanks to everyone.

The most recent thing I've had that has made me a "Silver Member" of the Mom Club.  As I was getting my hair done, my ever-so-sweet stylist informed me that she found a gray!  LOL  This is the second gray that has been spotted in my head.  Thus the reason I've deemed myself a "Silver Member".  Oh the joys!  Looks like I'm going to be needing a lot more Serenity and Balance in my life.  Oh doTERRA please help me keep my sanity!