Chasing My Blessings

I took my three kids with me for a quick trip to the grocery store today. I hate grocery shopping enough when I am alone, so you can imagine what a joy (insert sarcasm) it is for me to take all my kids with me. It's sort of my own personal hell. After having spent the entire trip trying to make sure my older two weren't speed racing their miniature grocery carts around the store and taking people out in the process, I had finally made it to the check-out lane. My older two were again, being a little crazy and I said to Blake, "You need to calm down or you are not going to be able to go to your play date." The cashier looked and me and said, in a very I'm going to try to give you parenting advice, in a way that doesn't make it seem as though I am giving you advice  sort of way, "You know, it's too bad we can't just focus on the good things. Because if he doesn't get to go on his play date, then you don't get a break." All I could t...

Life Lessons from my Mother (and I learned most of them the hard way) By Brianne Davis 1. Life is short, and as far as we know, we are only here once so make the most of it. If there is something you want to do, you better do it now because you don't know when your time will be up. 2. You can't please everyone, so don't drive yourself crazy trying.  3. If she says you deserve better, you probably do. 4. You can't really spoil babies. They are meant to be held, cuddled, kissed, cooed at and fussed over. They don't stay babies for very long, so enjoy it while it lasts. 5. Never get behind the wheel of a car when you are angry. 6. ENJOY your children. 7. If your job (or anything else for that matter) doesn't make you happy, find something that does. Life is too short to be miserable. (See #1) 8. "It's not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing." My mother didn't exactly walk around quoting Moth...

April 24, 2007 seems like eons ago, yet the last six years have gone by so fast. Where has the time gone? That was the best day of my life. It was the day I became a mother. Bill became a father. We became parents. Although my labor was excruciating - eighteen hours of pitocin with no epidural is no picnic, I was so overcome with joy that I was sobbing through the majority of the hour I spent pushing. Each time a contraction would come, Bill would have to tell me to calm down and stop crying so I could focus on pushing. As soon as the shoulders were out, the midwife looked at me and said "OK Brianne, take your baby." I pulled him the rest of the way out and brought him to my chest and no words can describe the depth of love I felt at that moment. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Still today, I will say that. This is not to say that I didn't think my other two boys were beautiful when they were born, or that I didn't feel that same amount of joy ...

We celebrated our one year anniversary of living in beautiful Boulder, Colorado with the birth of our third son. Owen Palmer arrived on October 13, 2012 after a very quick labor and delivery, so quick that there was no time to administer any pain medicine. Having a "natural" drug-free child birth was something I had hoped for in my last two pregnancies, but it didn't quite work out that way. Since I had gotten the epidural with both of the other boys, right before pushing, I was not exactly prepared for the level of pain that I would endure. For those of you reading who want pain medication, ask early ladies. There was actually a moment, well I think there were several moments, where I thought "This is it, I'm dying." I don't know if there can be any greater physical pain, and yet I am fully aware that for centuries, women have done it this way and even now in our modern world many are choosing this route. I think the couple of pushes to get hi...