LIFE LATELY

July 19, 2017 •

Our family has been through so much change the last couple of years.  These last few months of settling into our new home and adjusting to life as a family of four have been a much needed change of pace.  After a new career for me, moving four times in three years, building a house, and bringing home baby number 2, I am welcoming a year of smooth sailing and boring weekends.
 
We got a letter in Everly's cubby at daycare that her preschool orientation is next week.  We have a supply list and everything! My mind immediately flashed forward to imaging her starting kindergarten in a couple years.  I almost made myself cry thinking about it for too long. #momlife
 Although preschool hasn't officially started, they went ahead and moved her over early.  She is loving all the new things she is learning.  We have a long list of goals she's supposed to hit once she turns three.  We practice often at home.  She knows her days of the week and months of the year.  She knows everyone in her family's full name, her city and state.  She knows all her colors and most shapes.  It has been a pleasant surprise seeing how much she enjoys learning.  I try to download different apps on my phone that quiz her on various preschool level things.  She loves puzzles, matching games and seek and finds.  It is too freaking cute watching the wheels turn in her head as she studies everything. 
 
She's getting to be so tall and growing so fast.  I'm anxious to see what her stats are at her check up next month.  We had a rough couple of months of her challenging our authority.  It felt like we were constantly battling her for power and always fighting.  I was beginning to get terrified of the next year because I had several friends tell us three is worse than two.  And I didn't think we could survive another year of it.  But actually things have really calmed down the last few weeks.  She's been (mostly) sweet and listening well.  She is a big help with her baby sister and does a decent job of helping pick up around the house.  Bedtime hasn't been as big of a deal either, praise the Lord.  I'm hoping our taste of the terrible two's is over and fingers crossed maybe three will be better than two for us! Every kid is different, right? (A mom can dream)
 
 
Her birthday is less than a month away and we are in full party planning mode.  Some decorations were delivered to our house the other day and she asked if I was going to "sing happy birfday for me?" I can't decide which one of us is most excited about her party.  I plan on keeping it much more low key this year than the past two years.  It'll just be a small get together at our house for all her preschool classmates.  But that also means Daddy has three weeks to get the yard in tip top shape! We have a lot of work to do before we host a house full of three year olds.
 
Everly now sleeps in her bed all night more often than not.  But she is still inconsistent.  When you ask her why she comes into our room at night her response is, "I don't know" or "I want my daddy to sleep with me."  But overall I'd say Chad and I are pretty well rested these days.  She wakes up much earlier now that she's sleeping in her bed.  I guess it's a trade off I'll take for a full night's sleep.  She'll come into our room around 6:30 and ask to get in bed with us while she plays on my phone.
 Baby Addison is almost FIVE months old.  I can't believe it.  Everyone says she looks just like her daddy.  She may have his looks, but she's such a sweet baby, which I'll take credit for.  Although she doesn't laugh nearly as much as her sister did, she smiles all the time.  She loves to talk and squeal.  Chad especially loves when she screeches for attention.  It will make your ears ring if you ignore her long enough.  She doesn't like to sit still or lay by herself for long.  She wants to be up moving around with the rest of us.  I guess I can't blame her.
 
 She rolled over from front to back for us a couple weeks ago.  You would think baby #2's milestones wouldn't be as exciting as the first time around, but nope they are JUST as fun.  And she's SO close to rolling over from back to front.  In another month we'll be sitting up by ourselves and eating food.  I hate how fast the first year goes by.  I am trying hard to soak in all of her baby goodness.



 Everly is still crazy about her.  And Addison thinks her big sister is hilarious.  I love watching the two of them interact.  It is the sweetest thing ever.  I can't wait to watch their relationship blossom as Addison grows. 
 
Unfortunately, the poor thing seems to be heading down a similar path her sister did during her check ups.  At four months old baby girl has already had three ear infections.  Lord help us.  If you have any suggestions to avoid these, I am ALL EARS.  After three sets of tubes for Everly, the last thing I want is another surgery bill for these things.  We pay close attention to making sure she's sitting up and her head is well elevated when she eats.  We have switched her to a soy formula.  HELP US! But apart from that, she is growing and meeting all her milestones perfectly.  She is a perfect, beautiful, happy baby girl.

Chad and I? We're just working and raising babies.  There's not much new going on with us, which I am perfectly okay with.  I am so proud of the family and the life we have built.  It's nice to just live in the moment and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
read more

SUNDAYS AND STRAWBERRIES

June 5, 2017 •

Sunday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.  We typically spend Saturday running errands, completing projects or visiting extended family.  So we always try to make Sunday our relaxing day to spend time as just a family of four.
 
We decided to try something new yesterday and went picking strawberries at the local orchard with our neighbor friends.  We grabbed our basket, a strawberry apple smoothie and headed to the strawberry patch.  It was surprisingly really fun.  We picked almost three pounds of them! So if you have a good recipe that calls for strawberries, send them my way.
 
Although I love me some Target, we always try to make an effort to support our local businesses.  And this was such a fun way to do just that.  We plan to go back another weekend to explore their playground area and visit their petting zoo.  Everly was having so much fun she didn't want to leave. 
Everly's dress, sandals, clip
read more

THREE MONTHS OF TWO KIDS

May 30, 2017 •

We are three months into life with Addison.  Chad and I are over here celebrating our survival of another newborn stage.  And Addison's gift to us this week was finally sleeping through the night!!! What a game changer that has been.  Although life is double the chaos now, we couldn't imagine our world without baby Addison. 

Everly is still the best big sister.  She is constantly loving on Addison and talking to her or wanting to see her.  Addison smiles the biggest smiles now.  And JUST started laughing for the first time this past weekend.  I can't get enough of it either.  She is happiest when she's held facing out sitting upwards so she can feel like one of the big kids.  The only time you can hold her like a baby is when she's ready to fall asleep.  Who knew that stage would go by so quickly?! I wouldn't have let people talk me out of holding her so much the first few weeks after she was born if I knew that would happen.  She's also started bringing her hands to her face when she's sleepy and it's the sweetest thing ever.  Just like her sister, she is the easiest baby.  I swear I love these girls so much.  It makes me tear up sometimes when I think about it long enough.  My heart is filled with so much love.  I thank God every single night for sending me these sweet girls.
Everly has something to celebrate this week too! For the last week and a half she has slept in her own bed all by herself, all night long, every night except once.  Having both kids in their own beds and sleeping all night has been a slice of heaven.  It's like we are finally coming up for air and feeling normal again.  We've been to get ice cream probably five times in the last week as Everly's reward.  But at this point we are just happy it's working!!!
Everly also got her first official big girl haircut at the salon a couple weeks ago.  The long bob looks so adorable on her.  She would not look away from herself in the mirror to smile for my camera.  It was so cute.  She loved it and asked the next day if she could go get another haircut.  She also completed the spring session of tumble classes last week and will start the summer program in June.  Classes go up from once a week to twice a week.  So Chad and I are getting a very small taste of what our parents went through and the dedication it took to keep us involved in sports when we were kids.  Goodness I didn't appreciate the hard work they were willing to put forth for us until Chad and I had to agree to dedicate TWO evenings to tumble.  We are in for a rude awakening when the girls get older and more involved.


 
Everyone always asks me how life with two kids is going.  And it really is going well.  We are finally beginning to feel like we've got the hang of it.  But don't let these pictures deceive you, it started out as a struggle for sure, especially when either myself or Chad was home alone with both kids.  Being outnumbered takes twice the patience it did with just one.  There are times when it feels like the girls are never on the same page- one of them is always upset and you can never get ahead.  Imagine this - after 20 exhausting minutes of trying to get the crying baby asleep, she finally gives in.  Then Everly throws a huge fit because you won't let her watch YouTube videos on your phone, waking up previously mentioned baby.  Now both girls are crying.  Meanwhile, you're starving and haven't gotten to fix yourself breakfast yet.  In addition, you REALLY have to use the bathroom.  Cue maximum stress levels and possibly even tears yourself.
 
But then there are times when you're on the back porch and Everly asks to hold Addison and they both look at you with the happiest smiles.  The sun just seems to shine a little brighter.  Or you walk into the baby's room in the morning and she looks up at you with the biggest and happiest smile.  While you are changing her diaper, in walks the toddler holding her blanket against her face with the funniest looking bed head and wrinkles still on the side of her face from a full night of good sleep.  She walks up to you and hugs your leg and proudly says, "Mama I sleep in my bed all night!" Those are the mornings you can expect me to be 5 minutes late to work, because I am soaking up those beautiful extra few minutes with my sweet girls and in no hurry to send them off for the day.
read more

EASTER 2017

April 25, 2017 • ,

Both girls were up at various parts of the night so the Easter bunny made a late arrival after breakfast.  It was the craziest thing.  He was in and out before any of us ever saw him, which was probably for the best.  Not to name any names but there is a particular two year old in our house who still refuses to sleep in her room all night.  So Chad and I greatly appreciated the Easter bunny avoiding a 2 am wake up call from an excited little girl anxious to show us all her gifts.  Not only did the Easter bunny come late, but I completely forgot to charge my camera.  So I had to take snapshots on my phone all day.  I blame it on the newborn...
Both girls got a new pair of shoes, a book, a matching set of bows, and Everly's favorite- play-doh.  She was so excited about the play-doh she didn't want to go through the rest of her basket.  Also note to self: skip out on the candy all together next year or you'll spend the rest of the day (and week) fighting with your child over eating too much candy before each meal.  Daycare and Aunt Coco will more than take care of the candy.  Although, the giant bag of skittles Aunt Coco gifted her are now spilled all over the back seat of the car.  So that took care of that.
After playing with a few of her new gifts for a while, we hid eggs in the front yard for Everly to find.  I cannot wait until next year when we have two little ones running around.  I'll never forget that being the best thing to look forward to each Easter.  All the siblings and cousins running around for eggs was by far my favorite.  Mom even did scavenger hunts for us too.  I'll have to step my game up once the girls get a little older.
 We met both sides of the family at church and went out for a stress-free lunch at a local buffet.  We are getting pretty good at getting two kids ready and out the door no later than ten minutes behind. 
 
Afterwards we headed to my mom's where Everly immediately had to change into her new princess dress her Mimi got her.  I'm glad I at least got one quick picture of the girls dressed up beforehand. 
Obviously Addison really enjoyed celebrating her first Easter.  By the end of the day we all felt like this... Cheers to the sleepless newborn stage y'all!
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your family & friends! Thanks for stopping by!
read more
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)

Latest Instagrams

© KRISTEN HART. Design by FCD.