Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Children’ Category

Happy Tuesday! Here are some things I’m thankful for today:

1. I am so thankful for a great camp that my boys are attending this summer. It has succeeded in thoroughly tiring them out and they really seem to enjoy going every day!
2. I am grateful for my job. I enjoy getting to go to work and participate in challenging projects and talk with my coworkers. I really think working makes me a better parent because it allows me to use a part of my brain that parenting doesn’t as well as makes me miss my kiddos and look forward to spending time with them when I have the opportunity.
3. I’m thankful for a husband who works so hard to keep our house and yard together. We recently had some plumbing issues and he spent all of his free time figuring out the problem and fixing it despite his lack of plumbing experience.
4. I’m grateful for summer. I LOVE the heat and the sunshine. I don’t care if it is 100 degrees, I am soaking it all in because once winter is here, I’ll miss it.
5. I’m thankful for things in life that bring people together.

Have a good one!

Hi friends! The sun is shining and I am so thankful for the beautiful and warm weather we’ve been having. Here are just a few other things I’ve been thankful for lately:

1. I’m so grateful my kiddos have all been sleeping well lately because when they sleep well, I sleep well! 🙂
2. I’m thankful for a husband who recognizes and acknowledges my need for exercise and free time. I got to run 4 days in a row this past week and that has made me feel so good!
3. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be Carter, Morgan, and Auggie’s mom. They help me learn so much about myself and life every day.
4. I’m thankful for an amazing preschool that we are able to afford to send our boys to and I’m even more thankful for the wonderful teachers who work there. We are nearing the end of our second year with the school and everything about the experience has been so amazing! My boys have grown so much and I’m really looking forward to next year!
5. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn new things and work on challenging tasks and projects at my job. I’m lucky to have a profession, workplace, management, and coworkers who facilitate learning and an environment in which professional development is valued.

Have a wonderful day!

Happy Thursday and happy spring! I’ve actually been practicing daily gratitude since the new year with a handwritten journal so I haven’t been keeping up with my weekly gratitude posts on this blog but today I feel like I need an extra dose of it!

1. I’m grateful for spring, flowers, warm weather, and sunshine. Winter here is so so hard for me. The short days, the gloomy weather, and the cold really have an effect on me so I’m so thankful and full of energy to welcome spring and the promise of summer!
2. I’m thankful for a really fun girls trip to Savannah and for my husband and mother-in-law who helped take care of my boys so I could have a little break and spend time with some of my best gal pals and my mom while exploring a new city.
3. I’m grateful for an amazing preschool that my kids attend. Not only have they taught my children so much over the past 2 years, they have gone above and beyond to accommodate Morgan and his broken leg.
4. I’m thankful for exercise and my body’s ability to participate in it. With the warmer weather, I’ve been exercising more and my body and mind feel so much better!
5. I’m thankful for my 3 sons. They are constantly teaching me and motivating me to try to become a better person.

Have a wonderful day!

My mom left after a fun visit today and I’m feeling kinda down so I think I need a dose of gratitude to help me perk up.  Here are just a few things I’m grateful for lately:

1. I’m grateful that my mom was able to come visit and help celebrate Auggie Bear’s first birthday.  It means more than the world to me that my boys are getting to spend quality time with my mom/best friend.
2. I’m grateful we made it through the first year of life with 3 kiddos under 4!  Those first few weeks were daunting but we made it and are all stronger because of them!
3. I’m thankful for a wonderful summer filled with visits from loved ones and travel!  I have to say an extra thank you to Ben and his mom for helping out with the kiddos so I could travel to Houston, Padre Island, and Chicago to help celebrate my brother and his fiance.  I’m also so grateful to have had both my mom and my brother and his fiance visit us this summer.  I don’t care how often I have to wash the sheets in the guest room…I’d do it a million times for precious memories made with my loved ones!
4. I’m grateful for my little family.  For so long, I wanted my own little family and now my life is full with a great husband and 3 sweet, healthy, and active little boys!
5. I’m thankful for a challenging job that I enjoy and awesome coworkers plus the opportunity to work part time so I can spend more time with my babies.

Have a great day friends!

I’m drowning in life and to-dos and I’m trying to remember to stay positive and practice gratitude.  So here’s some gratitude to keep me in the right frame of mind!

Today, I’m thankful for:

1. I’m thankful for the opportunity to travel a couple times this summer to help celebrate my brother and his fiance.  I’m very grateful to have extra childcare from my in-laws and husband to allow me to make this possible!
2. I’m thankful for my health.  Despite some injuries and illnesses lately, everything has been minor, and I’m so thankful to have good health.
3. I’m grateful for good influences in my life.  I have certain friends and family in my life who set such a good example for me as a person and parent and I’m grateful for them and their influence.
4. I’m so grateful for warm weather…FINALLY!
5. I’m thankful to feel like I’m emerging from the fog!  Though I still feel like I’m constantly busy and have a thousand things to do, I’m starting to feel like I’m managing the anxiety of being a working mom of 3 small children much better and no longer feel like I’m constantly living in a postpartum fog!

Happy day to you all!

Hola!  I’m keeping that spirit of gratitude alive!  Here are just a few of the things I’m grateful for today:

1. I’m grateful that my nephew was born safe and healthy and that my sister is recovering well after giving birth on Thursday!  I’m so excited to welcome a sweet new baby into our family!
2. I’m thankful for great mama friends who help me make it through the long days of motherhood!  On Friday, we had lunch with Amy and Roland and on Monday, we spent the day at Lindsey’s!  I’m happy I have good friends who have sweet children that my kiddos are becoming buddies with!
3. I’m thankful for a little warmth after a lot of cold!  We had temperatures in the 60s on Friday and it was a really nice break in between cold snaps!
4. I’m grateful for a husband who is a great handyman!  He’s always doing his best to fix things around the house so we don’t have to pay someone to do it!
5. I’m grateful for coffee!  I wake up every morning looking forward to the smell and taste of it and the caffeine definitely helps with the lack of sleep I’m getting due to middle-of-the-night feedings!

Have a happy day!

Hello and happy new year!  I meant to post last week but life is busy!  I’ve been trying to remember to be grateful and to teach my boys gratitude as well but nothing beats writing it down to really get in the gratitude mindset.  Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1. I’m thankful for my job, my boss, my coworkers, and the amazing working environment they all create together.  Going back to work after having Auggie, while a bit sad, wasn’t very hard at all because of the people and place I came back to.  Everyone was so welcoming and being back feels almost like I wasn’t gone for 4 months!  Also, I’m so thankful to my work for the more than standard maternity leave with 4 months with Auggie and 6 months with Carter and Morgan.  I’m so blessed to work here!
2. I’m grateful for my husband who is quickly learning how to manage 2 toddlers and a baby by himself so that I can, on occasion, have “me” time.  I was able to go to dinner and a movie with friends last weekend and happy hour this week!  I feel like having that time really helps me recharge and be a better mommy.  Thanks Ben!
3. I’m so thankful for a break from the super cold weather we’ve had.  The temperature is in the 50s and 60s today and tomorrow.
4. I’m grateful for my 3 boys whose hugs and smiles always make me feel loved and bring me back to what’s important.
5. I’m grateful for my new work desktop and laptop.  They are making doing my job so much easier!

Happy day friends!

Well, it’s been a while since I last posted but I have a very good reason!  My sweet baby boy, August “Auggie” Asher Davidson was born a month ago! So clearly, I’ve been very busy but I also have so much to be thankful for!

1. I’m grateful that my baby boy was born healthy and he and I both made it safely through delivery.
2. I’m thankful that I have an AMAZING doctor and many awesome nurses, doctors, and hospital staff who got me through almost 10 months of an unexpected pregnancy with lots of support, love, and expertise!
3. I’m so grateful that a very scary complication that arose 5 days post part-em was taken care of quickly by more amazing doctors, nurses, and staff and that I made it through safely.
4. I’m so very grateful for my in-laws, Peter and Phyllis, and my mom for all the help they’ve provided over the past very difficult month with childcare, meals, cleaning, and moral support as we have figured out how to become a family of 5 and dealt with health issues.
5. Lastly, I am so grateful for all of the kind words, support, and advice of friends and family on becoming a mama of 3.  It has been a rough transition, much tougher than I expected, and everyone’s support has gotten me through it in much better shape and much more quickly than had we gone it alone.
6. Bonus: I’m grateful for my husband Ben for all of his support and help with the toddlers while I’ve been recovering and trying to breastfeed!  I’m a lucky woman to be married to him!

Love you all and I’ll try to post regularly, at least while I’m on maternity leave!

Hi friends!  As usual, I have sooooo much to be thankful for!

1. I’m beyond grateful that my cousin Shelly delivered a healthy baby boy yesterday and both she and baby are doing well!  I’ve said many prayers for the two of them over the past few months and I’m grateful that they were answered!
2. I’m thankful my baby is still cooking!  I was having some seemingly early labor symptoms starting last week but luckily, it looks like he’s due to stay put for a little while longer.
3. I’m thankful for my amazing doctor!  Not only is she down-to earth, always available, and takes great care of Ben, the boys, and me, she also has been so responsive during my pregnancy.  She has commiserated with me and been acknowledging and supportive of the fact that I had a very traumatic pregnancy, pre-term birth experience, and post term experience last time and she’s been right there all along the way to calm my fears and go above and beyond to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to make this time around a much better experience for all involved!  I’m so grateful I found such a wonderful family doctor and I hope she’ll be with my family for many years to come!
4. I’m grateful for my husband and everything he does for us!  I nag him to do a lot for me and the boys, especially when pregnant, and I complain about him not doing things for us too much but he really is our knight in shining armor and has helped out so much.  I’m especially thankful for all that he did to get the house cleaned up this weekend to appease my nesting instincts and for getting out of bed last night to wipe up the floor and table from dinner after he’d forgotten.
5. I’m grateful for the opportunity to teach my boys gratitude and the joys of doing things for others.  This weekend, they got to pick out a gift for their baby brother to bring to him when they first meet him.  We also made brownies and we took some to their grandparents’ house to share.  And lastly, they wanted to color and play with stickers this weekend and on their own, they announced they were making their pictures to give to their grandparents.  Sometimes I worry that my attempt to teach them the good things is going in one ear and out the other and also being negated by the example of my bad habits that I’m always trying to make better, but then they do sweet things like this that make me feel like maybe we are all doing something right. 🙂

Lots of love and gratitude to you all!

Hi friends!

Once again, I have so much to be thankful for!

1. I’m so grateful for amazing friends who love and care about me!  On Saturday afternoon, some of my closest girlfriends surprised me with a baby shower/luncheon.  I had no clue that they were planning it and thought I was just meeting a couple of girlfriends for an early dinner and movie.  I was overwhelmed by love and gratitude for this sweet gesture!  Whenever I am feeling down or distant from my friends, I need to remember times like these that prove how loved I am and what wonderful people I have in my life.
2. I’m thankful for good friends who make the effort to stay in your lives despite busy schedules and the chaos of raising children.  We have friends with twin kiddos around the boys’ age that we became close with over the past couple years.  Last summer, I was so sad to learn that they were moving to Florida.  However, we’ve kept in touch and they were in town visiting yesterday and we got to spend a great day with them!  We had coffee and play time at the park and lunch and ice cream in Crozet.  After the kiddos napped, our friends came over for dinner and more play time.  It was so nice to see our friends and I’m so grateful for the effort they have put in to stay close despite the geographical distance between us.  I hope we stay good friends for many years to come!
3. I’m thankful for my husband, my dad, and my father-in-law.  We celebrated Father’s Day on Sunday and while I try to remember to be grateful for these awesome men every day, the day is always a nice reminder to reflect on how much they do and have done for us.  I love you Dad, Ben, and Peter!
4. I’m grateful for exercise and the ability my body has to perform it.  I have been trying to exercise this pregnancy with occasional walking, light running, elliptical training, and some light weight training.  With my twin pregnancy and all the complications that came with it, exercise for me was pretty much non-existent.  However, since I’m just having one baby this time with hopefully a normal pregnancy, I’ve been trying to stay more physically fit, especially since I want to be able to keep up with my boys during pregnancy and after.  I’ve noticed that on the days I exercise, my pregnancy aches and pains are much less bothersome if not non-existent so I’m so thankful I am able to still be exercising in my third trimester.
5. I’m grateful for my husband.  He just gets me and it’s nice to have someone who gets you and knows you better than most people.  Thanks for being one of my people Ben and for never putting up with my bullshit!  I love you!

Have a grateful day!