ROUGH WEEK!

It has been a really rough week at our house. I have had a really hard time with Wesley misbehaving and not listening to me. And to top it all off, he hasn't been sleeping very well and he developed another horrible cough. His cough has never really gone away completely. One day he would be coughing and the next he wouldn't be. That has been the trend for the past couple of weeks. So, he has been feeling a little miserable and that could be contributing to the problem. One thing that we have been really struggling with this week is Wesley not treating Beckett nicely. I know Wes loves Beckett, but he has a hard time sharing his toys and treating him with kindness. And it doesn't help the situation that Beckett absolutely ADMIRES Wesley and wants to be where he is and doing what he is doing. I don't know how to get it into Wesley's head that Beckett just loves him and wants to constantly play with him. Now don't get me wrong, there are times when they do play nicely together, but that is maybe 10% of the time.
Sibling Rivalry has already began! I thought for sure I had at least a couple of years before it started, but at our house it has already began! Wesley has a hard time sharing his toys and most of the time doesn't let Beckett play with Beckett's toys. They even fight in the car. The phrase "He's touching me!" is becoming a common phrase heard on car rides. (I'm hoping and praying that we will be able to upgrade to a bigger car in the near future!)
I am starting to lose it! Timeouts don't seem to be working for Wes. He recently has decided that he doesn't need to stay sitting in time out and gets out before I give him permission to. I've thought about strapping him to a chair to keep him there, but thought that might be a little too harsh. I've also thought about moving time out to his room, but I really don't want him to associate his room as a negative place. I've been very consistent with timeouts and it doesn't seem to be improving. My patience is running very thin. Yesterday I had to drop them off at my Mom's before I did any harm to him or myself. And because he is sick, it just makes things worse. I am not the type of person to stay at home everyday all day long. We take little field trips daily. When the kids are sick we are forced to stay home and we all go a little stir crazy! If any of you moms out there have ANY advice for me, I would REALLY appreciate it!
We decided to take Wes into the doctor last night because he couldn't go longer than 2 minutes without coughing. Rob took him to Instacare while I stayed home with Beckett. After being gone a little while I get a text with this picture:

My first thought was "OH NO!!! RSV!!!" But Rob quickly reassured me that he was fine and didn't have RSV. He had a severe ear infection and sinus infection. But that didn't make sense because he had been coughing constantly. The doctor said his sinus infection was draining into his lungs causing them to become irritated which caused the coughing. After receiving the breathing treatment, his coughing had already gone down a lot! They prescribed him with a heavy duty antibiotic that should clear up both infections. They also prescribed him an inhaler to help break up the fluid in his lungs and stop the coughing. He had an ear infection about 3 weeks ago, so I'm actually wondering if it didn't clear up all the way and became more infected which, caused the sinus infection which, gave Wes the persistent cough for the past couple of weeks. I don't actually know it that's the case, I'm just guessing. I feel bad for the poor kid.
Although my week has been extremely tough and everyday I seem to be fighting back tears, there are times when all of this seems worth it. Those little moments when Wesley will walk up to me and hug my leg and say "Mommy, I love you!" or times when he gets me laughing so hard I almost pee my pants, or the sweet little moments when he helps Beckett figure out how to use a new toy, or when he sings almost every word to a song we've taught him. It's moments like those when I realize how important they are to me and how grateful I am for the opportunity to be their Mom. All of the stressful, horrible, rip your hair out days all seem to be worth it! I do love my boys! Even in the moments when I want to rip out all my hair and scream!

Here is a little recording of Rob and Wesley singing "I'm trying to be like Jesus." Wesley loves to sing Primary songs every night before he goes to bed. This is Rob's favorite Primary song and he really wanted to teach it to Wesley. It is now one of Wesley's favorite songs and it is usually the song we sing every night. After a long rough day with him, hearing him sing this song definitely makes it all worth it! And it helps me feel like we must be doing something right.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

* Sorry the quality of it isn't the greatest. Rob recorded just the singing (not video) of him singing on his phone. If Wes would have known about the recording, I don't think he would have sang it. I couldn't get the recording to upload, so I had to video the recording off of the computer.

A day at the Park

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Utah! It was a sunny day and the temperture almost reached 50! I went for my long run first thing in the morning. I didn't even layer up very much and by the end of my run I was in a short sleeved shirt. When I got home, I suggested to Rob that we take advantage of the nice day and take the boys to the park after lunch. The boys had such a great time. It is times like this when I wish Beckett was walking. He wanted to get down and play so badly. He did go for his first swing ride and down a couple of slides with Daddy. And of course we had to drag Wesley to the car when we left. The park is one of his favorite places and he could play there all day if we let him. Yesterday gave me a mad case of spring fever! I can't wait for the weather to warm up. Hopefully spring will come sooner than later! Here are some fun pictures from yesterday:

XOXO

We had such a great "Lovey Dovey" day on Saturday. I do think that Valentine's is a little overrated, but we had fun celebrating anyway. Valentine's is a hard night to get a babysitter, so this year we decided to celebrate in the morning. We first went and did a session at the temple. It was a great way to start the day! Then we were off to lunch at one of our favorite places...Pei Wei. After lunch we went and browsed through Sports Authority. I really need some new workout/running clothes and I also wanted to look for a little belt that holds a water bottle. Rob didn't complain, he was able to check out the golf stuff. We left empty handed and decided to go pick up the boys.

After putting the boys down for a nap, we got my nephew and niece to come over and hang out while I dragged Rob to the Oval to run with me. Rob is so sweet to come along for the ride. He hasn't been training or even running for that matter, but he knows I need the moral support and comes anyway. I almost killed him on Saturday. The goal was 5 miles and after 2 his bad knee really started hurting him. He didn't even start complaining until mile 4! While I started complaining after the first mile. We hit about 4 1/2 and I told him he should stop. I could make the last two laps by myself. I didn't want him to really injure himself. What a sweetheart!

For dinner we decided to pick up a heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and went home and watched Horton Hears a Who with the boys. Around 8pm we heard a knock at the door and when we opened the door, we were bombarded with Valentine's treats! My parents are the greatest and always deliver an insanely amount of cookies, candy, and other fun goodies the night of Valentines! The kids get a kick out of it, and we all gain 10 lbs from eating my Mom's delicious cookies. Overall it was a great day! Rob was the greatest and gave me a gift certificate for an hour massage and manicure, which I desperately need! I was a jerk and only gave him a 5 lb bag of Peanut M&Ms. In my defense, I thought we really weren't giving each other anything because of our financial circumstance. I guess I was wrong!

Beckett absolutely LOVES playing with balloons. I couldn't resist taking pictures of the cute little faces he pulls.

Wesley wanted to be like his little brother. He wanted the same attention. Our pathetic heart shaped pizza!The loot we scored! Yummy cookies!!!And don't worry...we didn't just get one of these boxes...we got four!!! Thank goodness I started running, I'll have to run 50 miles to burn off these bad boys!

One of these things is somewhat like the other!

I have always loved this picture of Wesley. I about died when I looked at it for the first time. Wesley has had the silliest personality from day one. He is constantly making us laugh! My parents love this particular picture of him. My mom is always telling me to send it in for funny baby picture contests. Wesley is our little musician. He has always loved the piano and guitar, and any type of music. My Mom bought Wesley his little piano for his first birthday. He is constantly playing it or our normal piano. I really hope that his love for music will continue throughout his life.
This picture of Beckett was taken on Christmas Eve. Notice any similarities to the picture above of Wesley? I love that they both have almost the exact expression! I couldn't believe that I captured this picture. What a coincidence! Beckett also has a silly personality, but his took a while to develop. And recently he has been extremely silly! He laughs at everything! Especially when Wesley is around. He also loves music. When he first started crawling, anytime I would stick him in the living room he would crawl right over and play the piano. It is one of his favorite things! He also LOVES dancing. He will dance to any kind of music with a beat! It has been fun to watch Beckett grow and develop and pick out his and Wesley's similarities and differences. Their personalities are very similar, but also very different! I love my boys so much! They are so silly and bring so much happiness to my life. I love their crazy personalities and wouldn't change them a bit!

Still Pouring!!!

Well, an even bigger storm hit the Smith front this past week. A tsunami to be exact! We honestly can't seem to catch a break. January has probably been one of the hardest months Rob and I have been through emotionally and financially. We have hit a huge trial and are hoping to stay afloat. We are trying to stay positive...but to be honest...this SUCKS!!! I know some of our friends are going through the same struggles and I want you to know we feel your pain! A couple of things have happened in the past week that made me realize that life is so fragile. The life as you know it can change drastically in a mere second! It's honestly scary!
All we can do is try and stay strong and lean on one another as we try to get through this. I am so grateful for families! I love my husband and my boys more than anything else in the world. I am grateful for our immediate and extended families who give us unconditional love and support. I am so glad that January is over and a new month has begun! We are hoping that the last 11 months of 2009 are better to us than the first month has been. Here's to a new month and hopefully some better luck!