Halloween 2016

he doesn't stop looking at her

have I mentioned that he doesn't take his eyes off of her?

 Halloween this year was a lot of fun. We did lots of Halloween activities throughout the month and I had fun coordinating their costumes.  Bennett was a ghost and Helena was a skeleton.
Halloween night we took Helena out trick or treating for this first time.  Last year on Halloween was when the moving truck finally showed up to our house so we couldn't take Helena out, but going out this year was a lot of fun.  Helena as some friends: Shepard and Noel a few houses down, so all of us went out together.  Overall Helena did really good.  Our neighborhood was surprisingly busy.  I think we got home a little after 8:30 and Helena had a great time checking out all of her candy.  She now asks for candy for breakfast!  I would say her favorite candy of choice: a sucker.

Helena LOVES Shepard

We carved 2 pumpkins but I only got a picture of the one

Alamogordo: One Year Later

Probably one of the best things about Alamogordo: White Sands.

Can you believe we've been in Alamogordo one year?!  We arrived 11/2/2015 and I think I went to our first playdate the very next week.  I can remember so many details about this time last year.  So much change and now we are awaiting more change.  I'm beginning to realize that with kids in the picture, life will never really slow down anytime soon.  But I want to feel settled, I want that stability.  It's something I crave, and I hope it happens soon.

I miss Colorado everyday.  I miss my friends, my gym, my job, my house.  I love Denver, and I hope to be back there one day.

As much as I dislike living in Alamogordo the one thing I absolutely love are the friends I have made.  I have met some amazing women!  I have some great friendships that have made living here tolerable.  I knew once we moved having friends would be crucial to my mental health and that's why I jumped in and got involved with various groups.  Mops, playdates, book club, bunco, etc.  And when we leave I'm going to miss these ladies so much.  They've been there for me more than they will ever know.

Let's talk about the bad.  One of the things I hate the most about living here is the lack of food options.  We go to either Chili's or Applebee's once a week (not that often, but that is what it seems) and we are so sick of it.  I know that once we move it'll be at least a year before we go to either one of those restaurants again.  There is a good pizza place and good mexican food.  But the local places are closed on Sundays.  As someone who enjoys good food and a good meal out, to not have endless options is still a big adjustment for me.
The weather here is so hot.  I definitely miss seasons.  It's the beginning of November and our air conditioner is still going off.  The spring winds.  They are brutal.
I would say that there is nothing to do, but truly that isn't true.  I would say there's a lack of things on the weekends, but there's usually always stuff going on at the library.  Or there are parks to go to, but the parks are sand covered which I hate, and over the summer a handful of parks got a shade covering, which was great!.  And a lot of the parks don't have a place for the parents to sit at, which sucks.  There are a shortage of sidewalks which makes going for a walk outside of the neighborhood tough.  There are no splash parks which made this hot brutal summer super hot and brutal.  The pool was only open for afternoon swim, which sucked.
The lack of shopping.  Thank goodness for online.  But really if you can't find it at Wal-mart you might as well click at amazon.  We go to Wal-mart at LEAST twice a week.
Because we are so close to Air Force base they have these random sonic booms, and they are so scary, it's like a mini-earthquake.  Sometimes they are twice in a row, those ones are super scary.
The lack of visitors.  My parents obviously come down frequently, but I had more visitors the first two months I lived in Denver, compared to the year I've lived here and majority of my family is only 3 hours away.  This shows me that people come visit the place that you live, if that makes sense?  I get that there is nothing to do here, but honestly it makes me a little sad that not more of my family has come down.

Let's talk about the good.  There is no traffic.  You can drive from one end of town to the other end in 15 minutes.  White Sands, it's amazing having such a beautiful National park literally in your backyard.  Helena loves it, and it's a lot of fun and a great sight to see.  Everyone has a story.  I love hearing people's life stories, and the fact that Alamogordo is a military town just about everyone has a story.  Since living here and various people moving away I now know people who live in: Hawaii, Japan, Germany, San Antonio, and that's all I can think of for now.  Mountain towns: Cloudcroft and Ruidoso.  Cloudcroft is about 30 minutes away, there isn't much to do there but in the summer it's 10 to 15 degrees cooler.  Ruidoso is fun and also cooler!

Alamogordo will always hold a very special place in my heart mainly because of Bennett.  This will always be known as his first home, even though he won't remember it.  I like to think we came here so I could have my VBAC because I feel had we stayed in CO who knows if I would have done the work to find a new doctor because I did really love the doctor who delivered Helena, but I think had I stayed with her care I would have ended up in a repeat c-section with Bennett.  Moving forced me to "shop" for a doctor that I really liked and would give me a true try at a VBAC, and because of that I did get my VBAC.  So for that reason alone I'm thankful for the move to Alamogordo.
Living here is obviously not my most favorite thing, one of the hardest things is not having pride in where I live.  I know it is sad to say but it's true.  Being in a small town is just not me.  Up until I left driving around Denver I would just get this rush.  Going up and town I-25 I would think to myself "I can't believe this is where I get to live."  I felt that appreciation up until we took that final drive out of Colorado on 11/1/2015.  I never thought I would live in New Mexico again, let alone in Alamogordo.  I miss having that pride in where I live.  That feeling of getting teary eyed of living in such a beautiful place.  I guess because I did the work to get myself to Colorado.  I did the work to keep myself there.  Moving to Denver at 22 I didn't know I would love it so much.  At the time I was moving away just for the sake of moving away.  But being there for 13 years I went trough some really low lows and some amazing highs.  And along the way it truly became my home.  One day I hope and pray to go back home.

Family Update

 So much to cover! We went to the Alamogordo Fire Station last week to drop off baked goods, say Thank you for your service, and get a tour.  It was a lot of fun.  Helena got a nasty reaction to some mosquito bites on her face (in this picture you can see a red spot on the tip of her nose, the worst of it a few pictures down).
Have I mentioned that Helena is a rock star?!  My daughter has completely potty trained herself!  It started about a month ago now?!  Well let me back up.  We started putting her on the potty around her 2nd birthday (back in May) before her bath just to familiarize herself with it and would always congratulate her for just sitting on it.  Then more recently she would tell Chris in the middle of her bath (Chris does bath time) that she needs to go potty.  So Chris would always get her out and put her on the potty, ...but nothing.  Then about a month ago she went!  We were all excited!  After that she went potty in the middle of her bath almost nightly.  Then one day while I was doing laundry and Bennett was just waking up from his nap; Helena was playing in Bennett room entertaining him while he stayed in his crib and I folded laundry in the bedroom. Helena comes running into the bedroom naked from the waist down exclaiming that she went potty.  I immediately thought Oh Dear!  Where's the mess?!  So I ask Helena to show me where she went potty and she brings me into Bennett's room and she had brought out her Minnie Mouse potty that was put away in Bennett's closet!  ...we got the Minnie Mouse potty a few months ago, but she just played with it so we put it away.  Anyways, she peed in the Minnie Mouse potty!  From that moment on we said good-bye to diapers, and now only use diapers at bedtime (we eliminated the nap time diaper a couple of days ago).  She's amazing at telling us when she needs to go and has even pooped in the potty!, which happened completely unsolicited.  After she peed in the Minnie potty we brought it out into the living room for easy access and one evening she sat on the potty then stood up happily announced "mommy there's rocks in my potty?"  Again I thought Rocks?!  But it was poop!  She struggles the most in the mornings, so if there is an accident it's in the morning (but has never had a poop accident!).  Even driving back to Alamogordo on Tuesday she let us know she needed to go potty (even though she had a diaper on).  She takes advantage of the fact that we drop everything when she announces she needs to go potty, especially when we are out to dinner, and this makes it tough to eat, but she's just a rock star and I'm so proud of her!  Now the Minnie Mouse potty is put back away (who wants to clean that up?!) and we got a little seat for her toilet in her bathroom with ducks on it so she calls it her ducky potty.
In other Helena news, I miss her listening to me.  I swear we repeat ourselves all day long.  She'll ask a question, and I'll give an answer, and she just asks the same question and I give the same answer.  There used to be a time when she would easily eat her dinner and would do what I asked.  But that short phase is over.  She now doesn't want to eat unless you beg and she no longer thinks cleaning up her toys is fun.  She's so independent.
She sometimes wakes up crying and it's so sad because she can't fully communicate what's going on.  She had a super rough time going to bed about 3 weeks ago.  It was brutal.  She wouldn't sleep.  It lasted 3 nights and I'm so happy that it ended just as fast as it started.  But she'll still sometimes wake up crying.  I'll go into her room and hold her and ask her if she's ok.  She'll respond and say I'm ok.  I'll ask her what's wrong or what happened, and she says nothing.  Then I'll ask if she's ready to go back to bed.  And she goes ok, back to bed.  It's always short lived, I just wish she could tell me what's wrong.


 I am currently at the end of the Hair Lose Phase of post pardom (thank goodness), I seriously thought I was going to lose all of my hair.  I was losing hair for probably 6 weeks straight.  I'm thinking about becoming a doula.  During my pregnancy with Bennett I had thought about becoming a ultrasound tech, but now I think a doula might be a better fit.  Since Bennett is most likely our last baby, I've decided I need something to keep me around babies!
I'm so happy that MOPs is back and enjoy going to the meetings every other week, along with all the playdates.  One of the nice things about living her, is everyone has a different story.  Because Alamogordo is a military town everyone is from someplace else, and love hearing where people have come from and where they are going.

 Bennett has a clean bill of health!  We traveled to Albuquerque last week, and Bennett had an MRI on Tuesday (at 6:15am!) and his brain looks completely normal.  He was a rock star during the MRI (he didn't get put under) and the pediatric neurosurgeon repeated herself numerous times in saying Bennett is 100% healthy, and that he just has a big head.  Praise God!!!  Thank you all for your prayers!
He's sorta working on sitting up, and crawls like crazy on is back...he pushes himself all over the place, he really can't be left alone.  I call him a rolly poly because he also rolls and rolls all over the place!  He is still not a fan of tummy time.  He loves his big sister!  He hasn't shown any real interest in food so he hasn't had any food yet, he continues to love his bottle!
He laughs and laughs and is SO ticklish.  You tickle his belly or legs and he just giggles, it's so much fun!  He also loves the water and enjoys his nightly bath!
He's in 9 month clothing and overall sleeps really good.  I'm up with him maybe two or three times a week.



 Chris is currently looking for another job.  Back in August he was notified that the hospital is ending the Aramark (the company he works for) contract 120 early (which is mid-December).  He's working with Aramark recruiters to place him in another job, and they've said they'll continue to keep him on payroll until he does find another job.  So our family life is back up in the air.  I of course haven't handled this news well, in fact I'm scared out of my mind, but I'm working on praying and trusting God, and that He'll place us where we are suppose to be.  But I hate not knowing.  I really really really want to be back in Colorado.

Helena's swollen eye (we went to the doctor and got medicine and it is now almost healed completely)

Tuesday morning after Bennett's MRI

We're coming upon one year in Alamogordo (I have a whole post in mind for that).  I desperately want the weather to cool down...it's been in the 80's all week.

Chendra's Visit

You know those people that you meet and you wonder what type of impression they will have your life?  You automatically think a person will only be in your life for a short amount of time, but then you are super surprised because before you know this person ends up being part of your family?  For me that person is Chendra.  I met Chendra in the unlikeliness of places, on a local Thornton Facebook group back when I was on maternity leave for Helena and searching for a caregiver, because at that time we only needed someone a few hours on Mondays and Tuesdays.
I still remember Chendra coming over to the house, I was so skeptical.  As a first time mom I didn't trust my daughter with just anyone, and I surely wasn't about to just let anyone from Facebook come by and watch Helena.  I immediately was comforted by her approach and how she carried herself.  I loved that was she more mature (in her 20's) and was previously a lifeguard (so CPR certified).  She had references for me and was just calm.  After meeting her and when Chris came home, and I told him about her he was not interested whatsoever.  Not too say he didn't trust my judgement, but he also was thinking: what type of person would I find on Facebook?  I'm not too sure how long it took, but before long he was so happy that Chendra had entered our life.
She was the first non-family member to watch Helena starting at 16 weeks when I went back to work, and she soon became our go-to nanny when Chris and I wanted a date night.  I trusted her to watch my daughter which speaks volumes.  Helena soon fell in love with her too.  Not only does she watch our children she treats them so good.  She came to Helena's first birthday party, sent Helena gifts for her 2nd birthday and got homecoming gifts for Bennett.  When we were in Denver in February, I made sure Helena saw Chendra.  Saying good bye to her when we left Colorado was so hard, because I knew we were so lucky, and I knew that trying to find someone to watch my kids in another city would be hard, and honestly is something I haven't even tackled since living in Alamogordo.
When she voiced wanting to come visit, I was thrilled!  Not only because I knew it would give me the opportunity to spend time with her to get to know her better, but also because I knew she would be a great help with the kids, and I'll take all the help I can take!  And her amazing visit to us was last weekend!  We had such a great time.  She arrived last Friday at dinner time, and Helena was so excited to see her.  It was amazing to see Helena get so excited and remember Chendra!
Saturday morning we got up super early and headed out to the Balloon Festival at White Sands.  It was beautiful!  And truly so much fun and relaxed.  We brought a big blanket and just watched all the balloons.  The weather was perfect and I'm so glad we got to show Chendra such a beautiful sight!  That afternoon/evening I planned a date night for Chris and I!  How cool is it that the first non-family member to watch Bennett was the same as Helena?!  On Sunday we went and had a nice brunch in Cloudcroft, then came home at watched the Bronco game!  Monday we went to go see the largest pistacio and did the pistacio tour!  It was fun to do the tourist stuff.  Tuesday morning we said our good-byes.
I'm so thankful that she took the super long 550 mile drive to come visit us.  Chendra has truly become a member of our family.  All of us love her.  Spending good quality one on one time was such a pleasure.  I enjoyed getting to know her better, and I feel confident we will always keep in touch regardless of where we end up.  We've been so blessed since knowing her.  Helena loves her and now Bennett loves her.  She's starting nursing school soon, and I know she's going to be an amazing nurse!

Chendra, thank you thank you thank you!  Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule and life to come hang out with us in Southern New Mexico.  We appreciate and love you so much!!!

in-laws come to Alamogordo

My in-laws traveled to see us over this past weekend, and it was great to see them.  I truly appreciate them making the trek to Alamogordo, as traveling to a small town from a small town isn't easy.  They had to drive 4 and half hours to Wichita, KS, fly Wichita to Dallas, then Dallas into El Paso.  Helena and I drove to El Paso on Thursday to pick them up at the airport.
We had a great visit, and the big highlight was going to White Sands.  Helena had a lot of fun playing in the sand and everyone else loved the beautiful scenery.  We bought a sled to go sledding, although I was happy just sitting down in the sand.  Helena was pretty clingy this trip, mainly due to teething, I think.  She got a pretty bad runny nose...it's now a lingering cough.  She wouldn't really leave my side while playing with her new sand toys.  She did however go for a walk with Grandpa and Grandma Sweat.  She also screamed when we put her on the sled.  Overall, it was a lot of fun.
Grandpa and Grandma also got her a swing for the backyard, and a lawnmower that blows bubbles!  They cleaned up our backyard (which I'm extremely thankful for) and put together a storage unit for baby Boy Sweat's room.  It was a really nice trip!

What I Miss

just a cute picture from today

We've been in Alamogordo for a month now.  fastest month ever.  I've been thinking a lot about what I miss about Denver, and what I don't miss about Denver. 
I miss a lot.

I miss the unlimited dining options.  We spontaneously drove to Las Cruces (an hour away) on Saturday and we got so excited because they had a Red Lobster and a Olive Garden!!!  It was so exciting.  Seriously. 

I miss the quick trips to King Soopers.  We live on the southern end of town, on the golf course.  Everything is near by, but King Soopers was 3 minutes away from my house in Thornton.  The nearest grocery store is the Super Wal-Mart which is 7 minutes away. Speaking of grocery stores, there are only 3 grocery stores here. 

I miss the sports energy.  Specifically the Bronco's.  Even though I only attended a handful of games I miss knowing that when the Bronco's played at home, they were only playing "down the street" ...about 15 miles south on I-25.  That energy is electric.  Along with that I miss everyone wearing Bronco gear.  The big team to follow here is the Cowboys (excuse me while I gag). 

I miss the unlimited resources.  The things to do, the places to shop.  I don't want to get into specifics right now, but there is only one OB in town, so even if I wanted a second opinion on this pregnancy, I would have to drive to either Las Cruces or El Paso to get it. 

Helena and I have kept busy, but the story time here at the library (there is only one) is geared more towards older kids, so there is no point in going.  The only indoor play area is at the McDonalds (again only one).  The parks aren't that great.  No splash pads for the summertime. 

No shopping.  The mall is laughable, also no play area in the mall.  No Target, no Hobby Lobby, nothing really.  If you can't get it at the Super Wal-mart, Amazon Prime it is (or so I've been told, I've never been a big Amazon shopper. I suppose that is about to change). 

You don't drink the water here.  The water here is gross.

I miss my gym.  There are a couple of gyms here, but I haven't even bothered checking them out.  Any gym won't be able to compare to what I've been used to for the past 7 years at Lifetime Fitness.   

I miss my house.  I desperately miss my house.  We closed on Monday.  And even though I feel like our chances of ending back up in Denver are pretty slim, I feel like maybe we should have just rented the house out, so had the right opportunity brought us back to Denver, we would have gotten our house back. 
I find myself constantly curious about what the weather is like in Denver.  And what's going on there. 
I don't miss the cold, yet.  But I do know I'll eventually miss the seasons. 

There are a few perks.  Since there is nothing, there is no traffic.  The speed limit is either 35 or 40, and you can get anywhere in about 7 minutes.  So runny errands is super easy, and quickly done.  Everyone is super nice.  There is no hustle and bustle and it's more laid back.  The sky at night is amazing.  No city lights, so the stars are super clear.