A new chapter in life, or maybe a new book.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, this blog fuels my soul and its only been a long 15+ month break…  We were having a tough moment this afternoon where Cara was really upset over something that Emma did or said to her and she needed to have a time out and then of course Emma comes in and starts bothering her.  Cara was really upset and just needed some time to herself so I suggested she go sit on the couch and look at a book.

With much debate over the fact that she wanted to read a book but there were no books that she liked, I walked into my office to grab a book and I found the books that I had published of THIS BLOG during my first year as a mom.  I had two hard bound books published for the girls and it is FILLED with memories and pictures from their first year of life.  I set the girls each up in chairs in SEPARATE rooms with their own book and said “Hey, I think this would be a cool book to read…”

As I was in the kitchen preparing lunch, I heard laughter and excited screams with comments like:
– “Mom, you gotta come see this!”
– “Mom, come see this!”
– “Mom, is this me or Cara?
– “Mom, who is this?  Is this me?”
– “Mom, what were we doing here?”
– “Mom, this is soooo cool!!”

It was endearing and moved me to a few tears as I looked at this amazing artifact that I had created in that first year and thought to myself ‘Well, I pretty much turned into a slacker mom after that…”

Then I thought more to how I would answer the question of “Mom, why didn’t you keep going with the books?!” and thought about how pathetic some of my excuses would have been.

• Sorry girls, Mom has a lot of shit to do.
• I am exhausted all the time.
• I ran out of time.
• I’m just a loser and apologize ladies.

So what the heck?!?!  Why wouldn’t I take a few moments every couple days or each week to pour my heart out to these lovely ladies that I would die for and would give anything in the world for but can’t seem to give them 10-15 minutes of my time in words.  These kids say some hilarious shit so why not document more of it and let them read all about it later!

With that, I am left in my own personal reflective state as life has changed for us as a family, for me as a mom, and for me as a woman and human just trying to make a difference in this great big world.  Things can always suck if you let them, but we have chosen to truly embrace change and always look forward to what we want!

So to my darling Cara and Emma, I want you to always be able to look back on this phase of life as you embark on the new adventure of kindergarten coming however a change in family dynamic and know that you are still the center of my universe and I am always thinking about how I can be a better mom and teach you everything you need to know to have an amazing life and grow up to be inspiring, talented, loving ladies.

Together we can change the world and conquer anything that we set out to do.

Love,
Mom

Endearing Conversations

Some days I just have to put aside the stresses of my life and laugh a little.  I mean really it looks like a bomb exploded in my house most days, we have a weimaraner who ate 17 cliff bars today, an old pug who is totally incontinent that I clean up after all the time, another older pug that some days I have to check on to see if he is still alive in his crate as he can’t hear anymore, all while trying to keep up with two VERY BUSY little four year olds.

If I don’t laugh I tend to sob so the first option is probably better.  😉

After a super taxing week, I welcome the weekend even if it gleams only a couple actual hours of relaxation.  I’ll take what I can get.  Tonight we were invited to a house warming party of some dear Realtor friends of mine and I knew I would be attending with my girls in tow.  To prepare for this we talked earlier today about how would be going to a friend’s house for their house warming party and that we would need to be super polite.  I asked the girls to talk to me about what it means to be super polite and here are some of the responses I got:
“Being polite means…

• “We should not bite our friends.”
• “We should not push them or touch their stinky stuff.”
• “We should not hit or punch them.”
• And some other silly stuff that I can’t even remember as we were laughing a bit.

Luckily they stayed true to their word and did not bite, hit or punch of my friends at the party!

On our way home we talked about how beautiful the sky was and the girls started talking about all of our dogs that are in the “Rainbow Sky”.  For us the “Rainbow Sky” is the beautiful place where our dogs go when they pass away.  It blows my mind and warms my heart so completely that my four year olds talk about our dogs that have passed and remember each one of them.  They talk about Zoey, Mack, Brandy, Sterling and Grace and can nearly tell you the order in which each passed.  I truly can barely comprehend this as they were not even 2 yet when Zoey and Mack both passed away in the same summer.  Goodness I miss them all dearly.

So then Cara says “Let’s go up in the rainbow sky and get them all” and Emma says “Yeah we can get on an airplane and go get them all and bring them back to our house… and bring back Dolly the elephant too…”  By this point I was laughing AND crying all at the same time.  If I could get all of our dogs back for just one more day I would find a way to take Dolly the elephant too!  Then we talked about how the “rainbow sky” was a really amazing place for our dogs and that they were all ok staying there and that we could try to look for them the next time we are on an airplane.

It was such an endearing conversation that I just wish I had a tape recorder for so I could replay it over and over again.  It reminded me that even though they were young and are young now even, that our dogs truly leave a lasting memory and paw print on our hearts no matter what age we are.  It made me feel so happy that while losing our pets are so difficult, we are able to help so many dogs and that we can still talk about them and remember them through the eyes of four year olds.

It made me think of the day we lost our sweet 16 year old Sterling who we adopted and only had with us for 3 months.  We spent an amazing summer with Sterling this past summer as we helped make her final days full of LOVE.  When we told the girls that Sterling had passed and gone to the “rainbow sky” with all our other dogs Cara said in a very matter of fact way, “Well she forgot to take her bed…”.

To my sweet Brandy & Zoey, Mack, Grace and Sterling we love you and miss you all dearly and the girls still totally talk about you all!

As we wrap up another year

Wow is it really New Year’s Eve and I am laying on my couch getting ready to watch a red box movie and hope to be sleeping soon after to ring in the New Year…  Yes I have officially turned into a middle aged mom who just wants to be in comfy clothes and on the couch with my dogs.

Just some take aways from the year as I get ready to go to bed:

• My kids are freaking hilarious and I totally need to use this blog to capture these moments, actions, comments, etc.  They truly are hilarious!!  They both walked around taking turns with their “spell book” (aka the book The Millionaire Next-door” and their “wand” (aka a stick lighter, yeah probably not the best item) casting spells on us and the dogs.
• Have I mentioned my kids are funny?  Yesterday as we went into Victoria Secret to take advantage of Day 1 of the Semi Annual Sale (otherwise known as ‘SAS’, thanks Dani!), my kids walked in and yelled out “Mom there are a lot of booby traps in here”.  Yes at our house bras are called booby traps!  Then they were putting booby traps on their heads and then were politely asked to leave the store by Mom.  Thanks Dad for escaping the process of helping me find my bras!
• I’m over TAKERS and MEAN PEOPLE!!  My time, my family, my soul, my contributions are sacred and if I find myself with negative people or people who do not help to feed my soul, I’m over it and done.
• SELF CARE, I’m going to dive into this and truly figure out what this means and work on it.  Not just chalk it up to “yeah I need to figure that out” or “I suck at it”, I truly am going to devote time to myself and asking the bigger questions of myself like “What am I here to do”, “Who am I here to be”, etc.
• My word for 2017 is STELLAR!!!!!!!!  2017 is going to be a STELLAR year!!!  I will look stellar, I will feel stellar, I will have a stellar business, I will be a stellar mom and wife, I will live life in STELLAR fashion!  Let’s go!!

So here is to a Stellar year, lots of upcoming hilarious and endearing moments with my children, selling 50+ houses, lots of quality time with my family, saving lots of dogs and asking the bigger questions in life rather than dealing with the petty BS stuff!!

 

 

Cleaning rooms with 3 year olds

So the girls have been in their own rooms for about a year now, crazy how time flies!!!!  The benefits, they have their own space, they aren’t throwing parties at bedtime (as much), they do some pretty cute stuff in their rooms as far as setting up corners of the room for stuffed animals, baby dolls, dress up clothes, etc. but there is one downside…  I have two extra rooms that are often times TRASHED to clean up.

In order to help the learn how to be responsible and clean up after themselves I usually go in every couple days and help talk them through cleaning up their rooms and remind them of things that we can do throughout the week to keep our rooms cleaned (mom and dad’s room included).

Talking them through cleaning generally includes:

• Hey, let’s start with picking up all the blankets.
• Look for all the blankets.
• Girls pick up the blankets.
• Emma there is a blanket right by your feet.
• Pick up the blankets.
• Cara, pick up the blanket please.
• OMG just pick up the freaking blankets.

Then we repeat this step but insert a new item…  “clothes”, “baby dolls”, “hair accessories”, “books” , etc.

One other issue we are working on is that now that they girls have their wardrobes in their rooms, they feel empowered to be able to change clothes themselves.  This is great if only they used this power for good…  Emma is worse than Cara for sure as sometimes she will go through 3-4 outfit changes all while she is supposed to be going to sleep or having quiet time in her room.  It is rather hilarious to see some of the things they are wearing when they wake up in the morning.  From princess dresses to bathing suits, to a gymnastic leotard layered over a bathing suit.

Overall they are getting pretty good with putting dirty clothes in the basket and Cara gets rather upset when someone has “stole her basket” so we have to be sure to always have a laundry basket in their rooms or in the hallway.

Now if only I better way to be able to get the clothes all folded and divided up for each room without having to walk back and forth between each room 10 times.  They are really specific when I grab clothes to say “Did you get that out of MY room?”  Emma will even say “Mom, did you get that out of MY room or Cara’s room?”

We always go in and check on the girls before we go to bed and most night it is quite entertaining to see what surprise we are going to walk into.  Here are some funny moments related to cleaning rooms that I thought I would share.  These consist of the following memorable moments:

• Cara had some issues and needed to blow her nose one night which resulted in toilet paper somehow scattered all over her room.
• There was an assault on turtle man by the Papa stuffed animals that included lots of baby powder.
• Cara asleep in her closet.
• Emma coming out to greet us in her leotard and bathing suit combination outfit.

 

 

Breaking the news, guest blog by Dad

It is a brand new day and my heart still hurts.  Yesterday feels like it should have been a dream as we should have our sweet Sterling laying in her bed or trotting along around the house.  She was notorious for getting up between 4-5AM and wanting to hang out so it is  no surprise that my body woke up this morning at 4:45AM with the desire to go hang out with Sterling.  😦

Every dog touches my heart in a different way and they all take a piece of it when they leave me.  Sterling truly showed me the meaning of undying love and loyalty and I promised her the day she walked in that we would provide that for her as her other family had not.  I promised her I would provide her with anything she needed to enjoy life and that she was truly a part of our family.

Sterling taught me that everyday is TRULY a precious gift to us.  As my head and hand laid on Sterling’s chest for her very last breath yesterday, I know that I will always think of her when I take a breath and when I enjoy each and every brand new day.

This is a guest blog post from Mike, ENJOY!

—

So, today, we had to say goodbye to our sweet old lady dog Sterling. Sterling came to us at the beginning of May through the Mile High Weim Rescue when her family of sixteen years took her to the vet to be euthanized, just because she was old. The rescue saw that she was in very good health and had some life in her. Brooke, the foster coordinator, told me about her and I knew she would be living out her days here as I have a soft spot for the old ladies!

Sterling was wonderful, a beautiful soul. She slept a lot and every time we came home, we would have to stand over her and make sure she was still breathing. She had some trouble getting around, but it never stopped her. One sunny day in June, I took her out front with me while I read a book, I figured she would lay by my side. I was definitely wrong. I couldn’t keep her next to me. I kept watching her explore our cul de sac. I would walk out, bring her back, and we would start the routine again. She loved walks and she would let Emma hold her leash, which Emma LOVED! I would always see glimpses of Sterling’s youth. In her trying to get out the front door, trying to eat anything she thought was in your hand, sniffing at the counters, and even two days ago snatching my dinner plate off of the table.

Last night, she started showing signs of fading. I slept downstairs near her. We realized this morning that she needed to go to the vet. We found out that she was bloated, her stomach was twisted, and she had a tumor. We then made the sad decision to put her down. We only had her for three months and we knew it could happen any day, but it did not make it any easier!

Which brings me to the moment I was dreading tonight…telling Cara and Emma. Brooke was at an event, so I had to deliver the news. Within a minute of walking in, they asked where Sterling was. I sat them down for dinner and told them something along these lines:

Sterling had to leave us and we would not be able to see her anymore. She was very sick, had a really big owwie and had died. I told them through some tears that I missed Sterling and that mommy and daddy were sad that we could not see her anymore. That is when something I couldn’t predict happened.

Cara’s biggest worry? “Sterling forgot her bed” (Which made me break down a little more)

She then said, “Don’t be sad”, then her and Emma got up and gave me a hug and kiss. Followed by Cara saying, “Now eat your pizza!”

Still feeling that they didn’t understand the situation, I asked if they needed anything or had any questions. Cara again, “Do you need anything? Do you need a treat?” Emma: “You need to make a daddy shake (Chocolate protein shake)”

Cara also decided to name one of her stuffed animals Sterling and the ceramic pug statue that floats between their rooms and into beds is now named Sterling too.

Finally, to end this talk at dinner, Cara, definitely asked, “Is there a new dog coming?”

At bedtime, Cara asked me if I was still sad. I said Yes, can you make me feel better?

She said she could give me a hug and kiss, which she did. She then said her turtle man (Ninja Turtle) would give me a hug, which he did. She then told me I could take turtleman to bed with me to make me feel better. Then followed it up with, “If he bites you, you can turn him into a salamander”

I cannot put in to words how proud I am of my girls for their love, compassion, and how they prioritized making me feel better. It makes me realize that we’re doing something right. I did not know what to expect in telling them about losing Sterling, but I had no idea it would be this level of compassion that adults rarely show. Thank you Cara and Emma!

And of course thank you Sterling!

 

Toddlers and tennis shoes

Well it is a Friday night and I’m exhausted on the couch with a blanket and dogs and seriously could just go to bed right now.  I probably should actually to catch up on sleep as my usual 6 hours of much interrupted sleep does not go all that far these days!  🙂

We decided to run to the outlets tonight as I wanted to shop for a pair of tennis shoes.  Seem pretty doable right?!?!

Our trip started by going into a women’s athletic gear clothing store and the girls decided they wanted to do some stretches in the store.  See picture below.  We kept it pretty tame and kept on with our shopping while heading over to the Adidas outlet to look for shoes.

Two adults and two three year olds in the shoe section was pretty much a nightmare.  Mike was helping me find some shoes to try on while within 5 seconds flat the girls have their shoes and socks completely off and are pulling men’s size 10 shoes off the shelf and walking around in them laughing hysterically.  Mike put out a couple boxes of shoes for me to try on and just as soon as I would put shoes on and take a couple steps, one of the girls had put the empty box back on the shelf, among 100+ boxes that all kind of look the same.  Luckily the friendly salesman had been watching and knew exactly where to find the empty box.  Good lord.

Then it started to get busier in the shoe section.  Apparently everyone shops for tennis shoes on Friday night.  Mike is walking around looking for shoes (even though he has clearly 7+ pairs of tennis shoes already), I am trying to find the empty boxes for the shoes I am trying on and Emma has walked off with my flip flops that I entered the store wearing leaving me shoe-less and frustrated.

Needless to say after that experience Mom got no new tennis shoes and we pretty much decided to wrap up our shopping trip and head home.

Bedtime at the Hengst house have been quite exhausting as well.  Tonight’s excuses consisted of:

• I need a hug.
• I need a fist bump.
• I need a high five.
• I need more water in my water bottle.
• I have too much water in my water bottle.
• I have need lip gloss on my lips.
• I need my fingers nails clipped.
• I need a hug.
• You hurt my feelings.
• I need a fist bump.

Life with my girls is never very relaxing but all in all they are hilarious, loving, fun girls who never cease to amaze me and make me laugh.  Happy FRIDAY to all and to everyone out doing something fun and spectacular, I’m living life vicariously through you while I stay on my couch and start to watch some trashy reality tv.

 

My children are HILARIOUS!

So I could sob over the fact that I have not done a very good job keeping up this blog for the last 18+ months or I could just jump in and start capturing the savoring the hilarious things that my THREE YEAR OLDS (can you believe they are 3?!?!?) say.

The show ‘Kids Say The Darndest Things’ has NOTHING on these two little blonde Hengst gals.

Mike and I sat down and hashed through some of the most hilarious things that our children have said or say regularly and here is our top list…

• They refer to the house cleaners as the “wipe cleaners” and every time we come home on a Wednesday they say “Heyyyyy, the wipe cleaners moved that…” or “The wipe cleaners cleaned my room”.
• With their kid cell phones they make phone calls from the car on our way home from daycare like Mommy.  Lately it has been Yanni they are talking to on the phone and Emma even interrupted me from our conversation and said “Yanni is calling me back, I’ve got to take this”.
• From either one of them I hear “Mom, I like your big boobies!” followed by laughter…
• “Mom, want to see my barbie’s boobies?!!!?!?!” followed by laughter…
• Listening to them try to discipline each other is hysterical too when you hear from the other room “Cara, you are not making good choices right now” or “Emma you need to be quiet and make better choices”.
• Hearing them respond with things I say like “Are you kidding me?”  “Cara, are you serious?!?” and even a “What the hell…” as I heard from their rooms the other day.
• The potty talk could be a blog of itself for sure…  The things three year olds say when they are going to the bathroom.
• When asked what they wanted for dinner one night, their response was “hot coffee”
• When we went to the mall today, Cara was mesmerized by the fact that she had never been to the mall and the fact that people can eat at the mall.  Then she nsisted that we look for a shopping cart…
• “I’m wearing mommy’s boobies…” followed by laughter as they waltz around with a bra hanging around their neck.

I’m sure there are plenty more that will come up from here but these were funny enough for us to think of on a riveting Saturday night at the Hengst house…

WE ARE BACK AND THREE!!!

Well thank the lord my laptop saves all my passwords because there is fairly good chance I never would have remembered the password for this blog…  I have spent so many days, weeks, months, thinking “Ahhhh, that would be a great blog post”, “Geeeeez, I really need to blog”, and “Good lord I am a terrible mom for letting the girls’ blog go to crap…” and while I was trying to relax in the tub while scrolling through my Facebook feed it dawned on me…

“Woah, I don’t really care all that much about what everyone got for Christmas or what they did for the holidays or how nice and sunny it was for everyone else in other parts of the country so why am I wasting my time scrolling through this as I do most days?!?!?  Why not take the 15 minutes or so and write a meaningful post about my children or about how I feel, or about a new memory that we want to share with family and friends??!?!”  I am pretty brilliant right…  😉

So as we celebrated the girls THIRD BIRTHDAY today and we wind down another year of life, my mind went to the Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the HILARIOUS.  Enjoy!  🙂

THE GOOD
– We are all still alive and while this week all four of us have been on antibiotics for colds, coughs, ear infections, sinus infections, and pink eye (thanks EMMA), we are all very much alive and running.
– We updated our kitchen this year – still working on some lighting and a custom mantle with built in bookshelves.
– I got a new car this year which meant Mike got a new TV…  like we need the 55 inch Ultra HD Samsung that is sitting in the garage right now waiting for the custom mantle and built in bookshelves.
– The girls completed the year of speech therapy and graduated out of the program which is great!  They have progressed amazing and are talking up a storm these days (See HILARIOUS things below).
– My business was amazing this year and continues to grow each year with the assistance, love and support of my team.
– Just within the past 3 weeks, I have been to the gym FOUR times each week and have not hated it at all.
– We (more I) continue to volunteer with the Mile High Weimaraner Rescue and I am currently their foster coordinator and events coordinator! We had an amazing year with our best Weim & Cheese ever and my Give Back program that raised over $33,000 combined for the rescue.  And we see a lot of super sweet grey faces in our house.
– The girls (through some major blood, sweat and LOTS of tears from ME) are finally potty trained and in big girls beds.  This all goes well MOST of the time these days!!!  MAJOR PROPS to Mike who lead the potty training project.
– We have an amazing circle of friends, loved ones, and babysitters here that I am so grateful for.  Everyone is so wonderful when we need help and we have definitely tested this out a time or two this year with situations that have been out of the ordinary.

THE BAD
– We lost our sweet Brandy this year at the age of 15.5.  After having lost Zoey and Mack the previous year I thought I could deal with this a little better but goodness something out that Brandy just really ripped my heart out when she left.  I still miss her as well as Zoey and Mack too.
– Dude, I am in the worst shape of my life (see UGLY below) but can happily say that I am as determined as ever to FIX this and feel good about myself SOON.
– My granny passed away this past year too on Valentines Day.  She passed away peacefully and suddenly.  I miss that crazy lady but know she is with me LOTS now more than ever.
– Mike lost a loved one from his body earlier in the year… his appendix decided to make a forever departure in emergency surgery which was quite the surprise.  He was down and out for a couple days but is now fully recovered just without this organ.

THE UGLY
– Yeah I won’t harp on it anymore but man I am in the worst shape I have ever been in.  Someone at church a couple months ago asked me if I was pregnant…  I’ve said enough.  😦
– Our house is generally pretty TRASHED and I am trying so hard to work on ways to stay organized with 5+ (7 currently) dogs in the house and two toddlers and an amazing hubby that is really messy when he cooks.
– I guess I can’t think of anything else that would seem UGLY for the year so that is good.  I definitely have had some dark ugly mommy moments but I think all of us moms are generally trying to figure this whole parenting thing out and trying to keep our cool right?!?  Hopefully its not just me!!

THE HILARIOUS
– Remember the show “Kids Say the Darn’dest Things”?!  Well if we had cameras rolling we could provide an entire season I think.  Mike made the mistake of using the phrase “big ass pumpkin” when we saw a really LARGE pumpkin one day back in early October and the phrase totally stuck as the girls have used this with the following phrases most recently:

‘Woah, that is a big ass truck’
‘Can you give me a big ass hug’
‘That is a big ass pumpkin’ when referring to about every pumpkin they saw through out the fall.

– Now that we are in public bathrooms quite often (which deserves an entire blog in itself), the girls have seen unfortunately some pretty gross stuff.  Upon walking into a bathroom at our usual Qdoba, I quickly realized the first stall was UN-USABLE as someone had had some major bowel issues and failed to flush so I quickly tried to pull the door shut and keep walking.  Well when a two year olds wants to check something out, not much can stop them so Emma insists on look in there and I said, “No honey, this is gross. Someone blew it out in there”.  After that the girls both started laughing and shouting “Someone blew it out in dare” so I thought if I showed it to them they would be grossed out and we could move forward with this bathroom stop that now moved from a typical 7 minute endeavor to a 10 minute stop.  So they saw it and started screaming even more “Gross, somebody blew it out in dare”.  We went on with our business and then left the bathroom only for them to run through Qdoba shouting “Someone blew it out in dare”.  So now this is a normal phrase for my now three year olds and even gets used for themselves after someone takes a big poop and they say “Mommy, I blew it out”.

Well I am quickly realizing that if I shared all the hilarious stuff from the year that I would be up all night blogging!!!  Here’s to more fun, laughter, pictures and BLOGS to come!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to these amazing sweet sassy gals who show me such JOY, LOVE and LAUGHTER in my heart and world.  Love you lots!
Love, 
Mommy

 

Happy 2nd Birthday Girls!

Yesterday we celebrated the girls 2nd birthday!!!!  Wow, time has certainly flown by as we re-lived the day we first met the girls and can hardly believe that 2 years has already passed.  So with toddlers who don’t really understand the true sense of the holiday season and birthdays in general, we skated through having somewhat normal but FUN days but we will definitely probably need to make more plans for festivities in the years to come!

We woke up and sang Happy Birthday to each of the girls (Cara at 8:27AM and Emma at 8:29AM) and then had breakfast followed by our first round of gifts!!  The girls got trumpets, mini dysons and baby doll strollers for their morning series of gifts from mom, dad and family.  Then we headed to Jump Street for the morning!  Man that places needs a coffee bar inside.

After Jump Street we came home, had some lunch and then headed to bed for afternoon naps.  I’m not sure what has been going on the last couple days but the girls have insisted on giggling, laughing, streaking, hooting and hollering all through nap time since Christmas Day.  I suppose they sense the excitement and yes I said streaking in that last sentence.

We finished out the day with snacks, more gifts, a trip to the store and then our nightly routine even including putting blankets all over Brandy in the nursery!  Happy Birthday to my remarkable baby girls and thank you as always for making me a better human being.

I love you with all my heart.  🙂

Holiday Photo Shoot

We are soooo blessed to have a photographer that we use regularly and here are out latest ones with Brandy Caruso!!!

As I look back through pictures and memories, I don’t ever want to think ‘I wish I had taken more pictures…’

I love these little girls more than anything in this world and I love how their true spirits can be captured in pictures.