Most people without kids don’t realize the stress and time that is envolved with raising children.  I don’t know how many times I’ve talked to a single person and wanted to smack them when they say, “I’m so busy!  I just don’t have time to __________.”  Normally their excuse is that they are working a part-time job and taking the bare minimum of credit hours at school.  Then for some reason they feel they have the right to look down on their married friends who only have a job and a kid to raise.

The reality that this article presents is that raising children (especially a stay at home mom) is probably one of the hardest “jobs” out there.  It is a strenuous joy that you can never truly understand until you get to undertake it yourself.

So here is my challenge.  Instead of living in your bubble, step back and evaluate how you could serve and sacrifice for your friends who have kids.  When the next great movie comes out, watch your friends kids so they can see it instead of seeing it yourself (it’s called sacrifice).  Show up randomly and do some household work (cleaning, dishes, dusting, laundry, etc.).  Take their kids out and let them have a quiet night at home.  Hang out with mom and give her some adult conversation during the day.

I can tell you from experience, these are some of the greatest blessing you can give to parents.

We took this one last week after Asa got done with a bath.  He’s slowly getting better at being on his stomach.

Just cause you're a baby doesn't mean you can't look cool.

He is a total rock star!

Asa turned three months old this last thursday.  The boy is really starting to grow fast.  He has already doubled his birth weight and is over 12 lbs.  All his clothes were starting to get tight on him.  So, we had to pull out all of his 3-6 month clothes that we had stored for just this day.

I can’t remember if we bought this Rock Star outfit for him or not, but we just had to share the picture with everyone.

He is really starting to show his personality.  He is a morning person (unfortunatly for mom and dad).  Afte we feed him in the morning he loves to smile and play.  Most morning he actually greats me with a smile as I come into his nursery.  Oh and he is sleeping through the night now.  Every now and then we’ll have to change his diaper at 4 am, but that’s about it.

Asa practicing for his graduation pictures.

He isn’t enjoying tummy time to much, but we keep working with him.  He does love his Bumbo though.  For those of you that don’t know a Bumbo is a special chair that lets pre-sitters be able to sit up.  He’ll sit in his for hours if you let him.

He is also starting to eat a lot more.  The boy puts down 6 oz easily every feeding.  Mom and Dad didn’t realize if for about a week, but he was really fussy because we hadn’t been feeding him enough (you couldn’t tell from all the baby chub he has).  But we uped his formula and the boy is happy now.

Well that is just about it for now.  We’ll try to keep this site updated as much as possible.  Hope you enjoy.

I couldn’t help but to laugh out loud when I saw this.  I’m thinking about making my own Facebook page now so I can be a fan of myself.  I don’t know what are your thoughts?

It seems like tattoos are popping up all around me. I was reading a blog post the other day by a guy who had people send him pictures of their tattoos. And just this morning one of the lady’s at work could barely put her jacket on because of her resent tat. So I decided it was a sign from God that I needed to display mine to the world.

When I was a freshmen in college it was the very trendy thing to get a tattoo (I think it still is for some reason). It was also the trend at the time to do tribal tattoos. Not wanting to be like everyone else I decided that I was going to do something other than JUST a tribal tattoo. I was going to add a cross into the picture (witch is just as trendy). I have to say that I’m very happy with what I have though. I have people ask me all the time if I regret it, and I just have to say that I can’t do anything about it. So I enjoy it. My tat is part of who I am and a constant reminder of what has been done for me.

And yes it hurts.

These are pictures from the alley behind our house, Denny’s, and Jordan’s School. Just to let you know how close it is. The smoke is blowing away from the house so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Love you,
Mom

Here are the pics:

After hours of tracking and waiting and blending in with all the liberals, Shannon and I saw the elusive Bama (Barack Obama that is). I didn’t end up getting a picture of me with him…but I did take a video with my camera that shows that I was in the same room with him (I’ll post that later).

The morning started early with a stop to our favorite local coffee shop. You might have heard of it…Starbucks. Shannon got her grande-half-calf-non-fat-no-wip-white-chocolate mocha, and I got a grande peppermint mocha. The morning started off in the right direction. After getting our “nectar from the god’s,” we headed off to the Kiva Auditorium to get in line. The doors didn’t open until 11:30 am, but we got there at around 8:30 am and the line was just starting. We only had about 20 people in front of us.

The time spent waiting was pretty enjoyable. Except for the typical crazy freak who gets pissed off every time someone’s friends join them in line in front of him (I’ve experienced these people at concert’s before). Seriously do you really think security is going to do anything when you go whine to them every 15 minutes.

At 11:30 the doors where opened and we were all quickly frisked…I mean whisked into the auditorium where we waited for another hour-and-forty-five minutes. At least at this point we weren’t sitting on hard concrete anymore. We got some pretty sweet seats. Not only was I close enough to see Obama…I could have thrown something at him if I wanted to (and I throw like a girl…so that’s pretty darn close).

I have to say, I went into this with only the hopes of getting a picture, but I came out of the event really liking Obama. He has some really good, practical ideas to change our country. I like him (not as much as Ron Paul though). If the dude ends up getting the Dem. nom I think I might toss a vote his way (unless Ron Paul runs as a third-party candidate…then I’m voting for both Ron Paul and Obama…think about it and it will come to you).

So that is the short version on our trip to see the Bama. If you are a registered Democrat…I recommend giving the guy a look before you vote in the primary. And if you haven’t registered to vote yet…well you can click on the Rock the Vote graphic in the right column of my site….it’s fun for the whole family.

Shannon gave me a call yesterday and asked me if I wanted to go see Barack Obama in person. Now I’m still a Ron Paul fan, but unless something changes with the media, I don’t think he has much of a chance. I’m also not a registered Democrat so I wouldn’t be able to help anyone in the upcoming primary. So the whole reason I answered yes to my lovely wife was for the selfish hopes of getting to take a picture with someone that might be president some day.

Now I now what you’re thinking…”but Greg you could easily photoshop yourself in a picture.” Yeah your right…but there’s something fun about doing it the old fashion way our parents use to do it. So Shannon and I are heading out in about an hour to go sit in line to hopefully get some good seats. I’ll give you an update later on how things went with our quest to get a picture with the elusive Bama….