Poppity Pop Pop Pop! Popcorn.

When your family has a movie night, and popcorn needs to be made, how do you make it?

When I was growing up, we walked to the pantry, pulled out a bag of popcorn, stuck it in the microwave, hit the Popcorn button, and watched the bag grow. I could probably teach Jake how to do it.

But thats not how we roll anymore. We buy kernels Costco style, and Nathan stands at the stove and heats up oil or something, throws the kernels in, and then on the side, makes his own garlic butter stuff. I don't know how to do it, obviously. Nate says that I need to learn, but I like that he is the only one who knows how to do it, because then when the kids (mostly Jake) ask for popcorn, daddy has to do it because mommy doesn't know how to :)

I actually really like to watch Nate make the popcorn and watch the kids check out the process. I remember when Will was 2 and Nate would make popcorn with him. Kind of makes my heart warm and tingly.

On a side note, once the popcorn is made, Nate pours out 2 big bowls. One is for him, the other one is for the other 4 of us to share. Just sayin.

Last night Nate made popcorn while we were watching Water for Elephants, and I was super nauseous, so I didn't end up eating my (small) bowl. This morning I came downstairs a few minutes after Nate and the little kids, and I soon found that little popcorn scavengers found the bowl that I didn't eat.

Caught!

Breakfast of champs :)

Cotton candy skies

When people find out that we live in Vegas, we get so many comments and questions, like "I wouldn't want to raise a family in Vegas." "Are you on the strip often?" "How is it living there with all the gambling?".

I'm not going to lie when I say I ABSOLUTELY HATE the billboards our city puts up. Nearly naked girls up everywhere, alcohol and sex references on almost every billboard you drive by. I can ignore that stuff, but you know who can't? My 8 year old. Will has started asking questions about the meanings on these billboards, and I cringe every time. The fact that we have slot machines in our gas stations and grocery stores doesn't really bother me. Its the damn billboards.

BUT, if we can avoid taking any freeway ever, Vegas isn't too bad of a city. We stay on our side of town, so our kids never really go into casinos (some have movie theatres, so sometimes we have to walk through the casino to get to the theatre, which is super rare). We live in an incredibly gorgeous part of town. People complain about the school system, but I can't complain because we have had nothing but positive things to say about Will's schools. The fall and spring weather here is amazing, and there is SO much fun to be had in the summer time!

One of the best things about Las Vegas are the sunsets. Now, its not like this every night, but most nights the sunset is pink and orange, and completely stunning. I was sitting on the couch last week with the kids, and I looked out back, and all I saw was pink. The garage was tinted pink, the patio furniture was tinted pink, the air was pink! The kids and I ran to the front door to check out the sunset, and what we saw was breathtaking! Not gonna lie, I thought that the ozone layer was stripped open and everything was going to be sucked into space. An apocalypse of some kind. But nope. It was just nature at its best.

These pictures just don't do the sky any justice. Even Will and Jake were like "oooooo". When I logged into Facebook later that evening, I saw about 15 different pictures of the sky from different views around the valley. It was pretty neat :)

Daddy's Apple Pie Taster

These are the things I have learned about the people from Seattle: 1) everyone has a garden, no matter what state they end up residing in, 2) they love to make and eat pies, 3) they are extremely environmentally conscience (good job guys!).

We recycle in this house, and we are actually extremely good about it. Las Vegas has made recycling very easy - they give you 2 BIG bins. One is all black, that's where trash goes. The other has a blue lid, and you dump ALL recycables in it. You don't even need to sort through paper/glass/plastic anymore. Easy peasy. {For those of you from LV who are reading this and do not recycle, shame shame shame.}

However, you know my husband is from Seattle because he loves to garden (that sounds kind of girly...hmm... he loves 'yardwork'), and he is the best pie maker EVER! Well, apple pies, but still. The pie literally makes melts in your mouth, it is sooo delish!

He made some apple pies a couple weeks ago, but this time was different - he had a helper :) And his little helper stood there the ENTIRE time daddy worked. It was so dang adorable, I could hardly stand it!

Will isn't a fan of any pie except for pumpkin pie, so the next morning, I got this note on the fridge:

Mommy divided by 3.

It's funny how you love your kids all the same, yet each love is so completely different. (This is where all the parents reading this pretend like they don't know what I'm talking about, but think about this very topic daily.)

When I was pregnant with Jake, I would sometimes cry because I was so worried that I wouldn't love him as much as I loved Will. For 5 1/2 years, Will was the light in my eyes, the beat of my heart. But the second I held Jakey, I laughed a little at myself for thinking such a silly thought. Of course I loved him just as much as I loved Will! They were my children for pete's sake. When I was pregnant with Sophia, I didn't think that I wouldn't love her as much, with Sophia, my fear was that Jake had to share attention (unlike Mr. Will, who held the spotlight for so many years), and now with a baby, he would receive even less attention. I wish I could say that I laughed at myself for that thought, but unfortunately, I was spot on. These 3 little kids had to have my undivided (but actually divided by 3) attention. All. The. Time.

{I sat here to write a post about the differences I see in boys and girls, but I've turned to rambling. Surprise surprise. I may get there.}

Anyways! Sometimes I feel completely torn on the whole 'attention' thing. Will needs help with homework (or as of 2 seconds ago, needs to know how to spell "jiujitsu", not even sure that's correct), Jake just neeeeeds me, and Soph needs a diaper change, a binky, some grapes, me to hold her, or me to just stare at her and not even take a moment to blink. I know I need to help Will with his homework, its a priority in his life, but how can I help him when Jake is running around with a toy gun yelling at everyone to put their hands up, and Sophia is screaming because she ate all the grapes, and unbeknownst to her, we don't have an unlimited supply here. What's crazy is that I think this stuff every day, yet Will's homework always gets done (and he has amazing grades at that), Jake still knows that we love him, and Sophia manages to get ahold of her 15 month old emotions. If any parents of multiple kids have some advice for me, I'd love to hear it!

Attention. That's how I got off topic. I was going to start with I feel like sometimes I pay more attention to Sophia than to my boys. And while I do feel a little guilty admitting that, its true. She isn't as self sufficient as my boys, she likes for me to play with her, whilst the boys have their own things going on in life.

Plus she intrigues me. Now, no doubt I love all my kids the same. All that love vibrates out of the same spot - my heart. BUT, she does things my boys never did. For one, at 15 months old, she listens when I tell her to do something. That started awhile back. She loves to cuddle with blankets and stuffed animals. Today I let her play with this mini hair straightener, and after a few minutes, I noticed she didn't have it, so I went on a hunt to find it (Lord knows, once my boys found it, who knows what they would be straightening once they plugged it in), and guess where I found it? The drawer that I pulled it out of! I couldn't believe that she remembered thats where I got it from! And she PUT IT BACK! When I ask her to pick up her toys, she does. She has been eating with a fork and spoon the last couple of months, she's the cleanest baby eater I've ever seen. She absolutely adores shoes - she'll bring you every pair she has so you can put them on her, and I'm not talking a polka dot shoe and a boot, she brings you a matching pair. And her new thing is, when she eats, she has to have a napking nearby... she loves to wipe her hands and mouth during meals!

Let's not get all like "Sheryl loves her girl more than her boys!". I freakin LOVE my boys! Their rowdiness, and energy puts a smile on my face (when its being used for the good). I love watching them wrestle, get dirty (its even cuter when daddy's around and he has to clean them). I think its cute that Will and Jake dug up a bunch of worms together over the weekend (I stayed inside and watched through the family room window, and it definitely wasn't cute when Will ate one of the worms). They both have charming, yet subtly devilish qualities about them.

What are some differences you notice between your girls and boys (at an early age like this)? Do you favor one gender over another at certain ages? How do you balance the attention of multiple kids? Do you treat your youngest child differently than the older ones? If so, how come?

I've talked about birth order on a previous post before, but I've become genuinely curious on how other parents handle the chaos of multiple kids. Please leave a comment with answers/advice/suggestions, I'd love to hear it all!

xoxo,
Sher

Belly Project: 20 Weeks

20 weeks down, 20 to go!

Back in the backs of time...

I was talking to a friend this morning, and we were chatting about the show Teen Mom (its fine, don't admit it outloud, but I know we all here watch this reality show), and the young moms on that show Break. My. Heart. I can't just watch that show like a normal person, I watch it from a mom's perspective, and being a teen mom myself, I watch it from the perspective of the girl who was in that same situation. There are times during the show where I realize I've stopped breathing altogether. Sounds stupid right? It's just a dumb reality show, most of its probably a set up. But regardless, those girls go through SO much, and I can totally feel their pain..

Let's face the facts here- I had Will when I was barely 18, fresh out of high school, just moved to AZ to live with my aunt because I had no where else to go, trying to figure HOW to figure out what to even do with my life. I had no direction, not even an inkling of who I was, or who I even wanted to be. In retrospect, I was so incredibly lost, had I been an outsider looking in, it would've broken my heart. But the second I held that gigantic boy you see in this picture below {the one with the spiky hair, mischievous eyes, and swoon-worthy smile}, I knew exactly who I wanted to be - first and foremost, I wanted to be the best mom I could be (what, with the teeny, tiny bit of direction I had in that area), and I wanted to be someone Will could be proud of.

I didn't exactly have the best childhood, and no thanks to myself, ended up struggling in the beginnings of adulthood. Will and I fought alot of battles together, emotionally and outwardly. By the time Will turned 2, we had lived in 3 different places, 2 different states. We were living in Vegas, my dad living in Tennesee, my mom in California. I was working full time, trying to be a single mom, trying to be a teen, trying to be myself, and I have to say, the absolute hardest thing I had to deal with ---- Judgement. Judgement from family (so sad), judgement from my friends, my peers, my co-workers. I couldn't understand why all these people in my life spent so much time making comments about my situation when they could have easily stepped in and helped put some positivity into my life. We weren't living an extravagant life, but at the end of the day, I was exactly who I wanted to be - the best mom to Will. And check it out - I was figuring it out by MYSELF :)

When Will was a few months off from turning 2, God gave us one of the greatest gifts - Nathan. He was 20, living in a house with 3 other guys, working part time, partying, going to UNLV. Sauntering through life, being a 'normal' 20 year old. Except that he wasn't. No other 'normal' 20 year old would pick up a girlfriend AND her toddler. But he did. And almost 7 years later, we have a unit here, Team Maier. We are a strong family of 5 (soon to be 6). Even on our worst days, we have a our health, we are happy, we have love.

I had a baby when I was 18. That baby helped shape me in to who I am today, and I wouldn't change it for the world. I don't think its wise for teens, or even young adults to have babies. Most people are never ready for it (I'm BARELY ready for it, and I have 3 kids). Give those teen moms on the dumb MTV show a break. It's not like they woke up one morning and thought "Gee, I'd like to make my life as difficult as possible. Think I'll have a baby in 40 weeks, that ought to do it!".

We should always remember that every person comes with their own story <3

This photo is about 15 months old, but good God there is so much love vibrating out of it, I had to share it :)