Beautiful Mekena

Being a Mom

Being a Mom, mommy, or a mama has a different meaning or should I say meanings to all of us..
and in A LOT of ways I'm sure we all have shared meanings.

Some days I think to myself
"Heck! Give me 100 more little mini Jace's running around"
and then of course there are definitely those days that I think to myself
"MOMMMMMM! PLEASE SAVE ME"!
and save me, she does! Why? You may ask. Well simple. Because she's my mom!

Motherhood is a hard-complicated-draining business.
Not for the faint of heart, that's one thing I do know.
Sleepless nights, having to make that 'quick' errand run even quicker,
never ending laundry, early mornings and even longer nights, put off naps, summer scrapes and bruises, tears to dry, snacks to be packed, toys to be cleaned, and too many tantrums for one Mom to tackle alone.

"Parenting is so much harder than it looks on Full House"
--never a more true quote!

I love my Son...(going to be TWO sons. Party on!)
In fact, I have never been more proud of anything in my life.
Let me give you an illustration of something that happened to a friend a few weeks ago. Okay okay, fine. It happened to
me not a friend. We were in town, JC Penney's I want to say, and I ran off to the bathroom. If any of you know me, a bathroom trip is seriously a 30 second thing for me. I left my little man babe with my Husband and Mom. When I returned they told me that Kyren had something to show me, a Cheetah Purse. I looked for him to show me and just like that he was gone. I asked where he was and quickly found he wasn't there. Do I put blame on two of the most important people in my life? NO, never. But I tell you this story because it was a turning point for me. A magical, needed, and SO not wanted moment for me to have. I stayed in the same area he had gone missing in. Mom went up front and Jace checked everywhere. After 10 minutes..who knows, maybe even 5 minutes he was found. (The absolute longest, and hated few minutes of my entire life!) On the complete opposite side of the store, talking to a small little boy. Not scared, Not looking for me, and with no idea how badly my Mommy heart was hurting.
Jace handed him to me; I hugged him, I cried, I hugged him tighter.

All of the sudden the time I had spent that morning fighting him to get in the shower and bribing him to eat his cereal. The days I had to put him in his crib, walk out, and take a 20 second breather. The many many car rides that Mr. and I have had to take him on recently just to get him to sleep. Countless hours I've spent on the floor playing with cars, trains, and blocks just to be yelled at because I was playing "wrong". Four Wheeler rides nearly everyday after his nap just to keep him from screaming. Leaving every store with a ball because that's what he wanted and just couldn't live without. Car rides of having to pull over because he just wouldn't have it. That one time he decided to color us a pretty picture all over our Mazda with a rock and the very next day drawing the exact same picture on his Aunt Brina's car. Those times as a little babe that I would have to rock him for an hour and sing him "I have a family here on Earth" over and over again. The head butting, the pinching, the throwing of food, toys, my phone, and even himself on to the ground.

-Those little moments, that sometimes happen all too often...
felt so much like miracles.
He is the luckiest of opportunities. He is the most incredible blessing to me.

Suddenly, I saw very clearly something that I have always known but tend to lose sight of way too often.

It is truly a blessing and a gift to be wanted, to be called for, to be tugged at, pulled on, cried to, cried on, spit up on, laid on, jumped on, sat on, followed around, hugged, kissed, tight squeezed, wanted, and to be the one he needs.

With it being Mother's Day I have thought an extra lot about motherhood. I hope and I pray so badly that I can be the mother that takes time to get on the ground and play with cars, and builds train tracks. That I can be the mom that slides down the slide and plays in the dirt. I hope that I can be the mom that reads just one more story or sings one more song. I hope that I can be the mom that spoils her babies despite what other people think. I hope that I can be the Soccer Mom, Basketball Mom, Baseball Mom, Football Mom, and maybe even Dance Mom. I hope that I can be the mom that holds his (their) hands when they walk to school, that I can be there when they get home, that I can help with homework, and feed them ice cream cones. I hope that I can teach them to be kind, to be loving, to give compliments, to believe in themselves like I do.
I genuinely hope that I can be the mother to them that my sweetest mom has been for me.

Odds and ends

I have certainly not been on top of blogging lately.
I find that often I get a little overwhelmed because of how much that I could post,
How much I want to share, and how much time that I just don't have.
So I apologize in advance for my over the top, long, and full of run on sentences blog posts.

Kyren had his very first haircut months ago and did so good.
It's true, the littlest things, are so much more meaningful and fun with your very own little one.
I didn't like it at first, and had a few major breakdowns (sorry, babe.).
It very VERY quickly grew on me...but I mean, come on. Where did my baby go?!!

We went Golfing with daddy.
For those of you who don't know, the Mr. Is quite the sports fanatic.
Ky Bug, of course, just like his daddy had the time of his life.

Oh one of my very best of my besties got married.
It was such a busy day and she looked so pretty. It's always SO fun
to spend the day with friends. The only thing that I would have changed is my sister being there with us.
...and thank you, City Creek, for giving us some good entertainment while waiting for the luncheon.

Jace and I rarely have the time to go out on a "real date" so we finally came up with our own stay-at-home-date
and it was one of the funnest dates that I've ever had. We made a yummy yummy dinner. **steak, corn on the cob, crescents and the beverage of our choice. And then we put our little one down and started building.......dun, dun, dun! The fort of a lifetime!!
We watched a Netflix movie, Jace played some video game, and I drifted off. Oooh how different dates are now!
Ugh. His cuteness absol_utely gets to me! Love him, so much!

Kyren Jace.
He is a total boy. I once read that no matter how many gender neutral toys you try and have
You will ALWAYS end up with more trucks, balls, and dirt. And it's the truth. This little one is all
boy and we couldn't be more proud. So here's a few of his loves.
• Daily Four Wheeling rides with dad.
• Playing in the water.
• The outdoors.
• Driving. Anything we'll let him.
• Running with mom.
• Coloring.
• Stacking things.
• Eggo Chapstick.

We moved from our first little home. It was tough, and it was a very emotional day for me.
I know that deep down, it's the people in that house with me that made it a home. I look forward
to making every house we own in to a home. Our home.

The day before we moved out I caught our little one drawing on the door.
Oh he thought it was the funniest thing, and honestly I was more than okay letting him color
on it because I knew it would easily come off...and I know, me allowing that, is totally not me!
But the joy it brought to him. Ugh. Worth every little thing, ever.
Let them be little.

I am the biggest fan of boutiques, city celebrations, carnivals, and any and all other festivities.
I think that they are the absolute funnest and I obviously drag Jace to them all. The funnest part of it
has been hauling Kyren to them and watching him. This was the famous Hooper Tomato Days. Our Ky Bug absolutely loved
the huge blow up slide, was completely mesmerized by the choo choo train, and even got to sit on a MotorCycle and was in complete Heaven.

Both sides of my family and Jace and I participated in the 5k that morning.
I somehow snuck away with 1at place in my age division and
Kyren also won 'best hair' in the baby contest.
We both were winners.

We matched.
I know in the future Kyren will ask me what I was thinking.
It's these days, while he's young, that I take full advantage of the little things.
His little chubby feet, choosing what he wears, his hair style, and his little fingers wrapped around mine.

I mean, I don't think he looks anything like me

Do you remember that carnival obsession? Well, we took Kyren to some festivities.
There were 2 little girls, maybe a little older than our Ky Bug putting some dirt on the slides. Kyren, of course, wanted to join in on the fun and went over to put his itty bitty hand full of dirt on the slide..and just after he did the little girl hit him on the forehead and said "no"! **cue the drama** Jace went over to rescue Kyren and as he was bent over picking him up he said, very firmly, "no" to the small girl and walked away. She stared. He stared. She glared. He glared. And I seriously laughed my head off. Because for real, she was mini and he was the Super-Hero-Daddy that I have always wanted for my babies.

Because it's this guy that goes to work full time, juggles school, helps coach a boys soccer team 2-3 days a week, plays in his own men's soccer league and still takes his callings as a full time husband and dad seriously. It may be something as simple as tickling Ky, giving a bath, or taking Him on a four wheeler ride. He is the greatest daddy to our greatest blessing. Thank you for making me feel like it's okay to dip my pretzels in frosting, or making a Zeppe's run, telling me I can do hard things, putting up with my addiction of buying Ky clothes, or watching 'just one more' episode of Grey's. He really is everything to us!

I am a Momma Bear through and through and I'll be the absolute first to admit that I baby this little guy. **he is my baby. And he will ALWAYS always be my baby, no matter how many other babies come our way.** and I pray, with everything in me, that this boy will be a mommy's boy forever...because he will always ALWAYS be my littlest love.

The not so little babe, decided to wake up from his 2 hour snooze.
**yes, you heard me right. Two hours!!!
So to end this quickly...
This is us. We are busy, we don't always eat the healthiest, Kyren most often wins every.single.battle, and we
are the furthest thing from having it all togeher. We laugh a lot, everyday. And enjoy the breeze during every four wheeling ride we go on, we have good days and bad days, and we love bed time...but the weekend mornings, together, are always looked forward to.

Until next time, the Ropelato's.""E{Wew

Little Mr. Lemmon

You guys, meet the Lemmon's!

Ugh as if your heart wasn't already bursting at the seems.
This handsome little man made his debut July 1, 2015.
I'll have you know, that Ky Bug picked his due date.
((meaning, he pointed to a day on the calendar))

Sabrina was having contractions all throughout the day on June 30th
and they ended up admitting her in to the hospital late that night due to High Blood Pressure.
We had done a lot, LOT, lot of walking that day.
We put Kyren to bed that night knowing I would be headed to the hospital early the next morning.
Thankfully, my sweet father in law, came over at 5:30 that morning
To keep an eye on our little one.
**to this day he will let you know that it was the very first
Dirty diaper of any grand kids he had ever changed.

I made my way up to the hospital. Excited, anxious, and so ready to hold the newest member of the family!
I got into the room and Jack was sound asleep and mom and Brini were talking.
We fed her ice chips, we laughed, we talked, we discussed names, took some pictures,
And we even braided hair.

At one point, she was dozing off. Mom and Jack were talking about names
And I was sitting in between them listening. When all of the sudden
my sweetest baby sister popped up and asked "where's Keri"?!!
We laughed and I let her know I was right there with her.
She immediately layed back down and fell right back to sleep.
It happened one more time before little baby arrived.

The look in her eyes. I could end this post right now because it really says it ALL!!
Sabrina's delivery was smooth. She really was such a champ
And she made me feel like such a proud big sister.

Experiencing little Stratton's birth was something
I, as his aunt, a mom, and his mommies sister will
never ever forget. There's something so sweet and
so perfect, that it's hard to even put in to words
just how absolutely magical and heavenly witnessing
a baby be born is.

I was real concerned and nervous about my Ky Bug
and how well he would do with his bestie of an auntie becoming a mommy.
He's coming around, slowly but surely to his baby cousin.
In the meantime, I find my heart happy and immensely grateful watching these two together.
I know that come what may they will always, always be best friends!

I love my sister. Any of you that know us know that we
love each other so much and are each other's biggest
fans, cheerleaders and are the ultimate best friends. I hope so much,
that Kyren and Stratton will grow up to be the best of friends
just like their Momma's!

We absolutely love and completely adore our
little Stratton Stewart Lemmon.
Congratulations to both Brini Baby and Jack
for bringing the sweetest little thing in to this big BIG world!