The First REAL snow of 2013

One week ago we got the first snow of the year.  It surprised us in the middle of the night and we woke up to 4 inches of snow.  It was pretty fun showing it off to Adalyn again, since she did not remember it from last year.  We spent a while looking out the window and talking about it.  Adalyn was really excited about the snow at that point.    I had been sleeping still when she discovered it at first and she was SO excited to show it off to me. 

Then we suggested that she go out and play in it.  Well this was her reaction to that idea...

What?!

 You want ME to go out there?!

I don't think so...

What if daddy goes with you?  ok... maybe I will go.  

Seriously she freaked out!  It took some good convincing to get her to try it.  So we bundled her up and she and daddy headed out to make a snowman. 

In the end she didn't love it, BUT she didn't hate it.  She would walk around in it, but not touch it much.  McKay was a good sport and made 2 cute snowmen (that melted before I got a good picture).  Hopefully the next time it snows she will be more used to it and enjoy it more.  I still haven't "played" in the snow with her yet so it will be fun to try it out sometime.  We need to get Jensen a real coat before I will be going out with them. 

 

Failed Photo Shoot

Recently I have been working on a little Christmas gift project.  For part of the gift I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in their new Christmas jammies.  Jensen is usually a very smiley guy when we pull out the camera and I thought that I could bribe Adalyn into smiling, so I didn't think that it would be too difficult to get some good shots. 

After all, the homemade photo shoot that we did with Adalyn on her first valentines turned out so well I thought we could just do it again.  See how adorable she was at 6 months old...

No it definitely isn't professional but it worked well for my homemade valentines gift to the grandparents. 

Well this time things did not go well.  Like worst photo shoot to date, and I have now swore that I will never try and take the kids pictures without back up.  I don't know how photographers do it all on their own. 

Lighting was bad because it was getting late, props were terrible, and the kids just wanted to eat snacks.  Crazy!  In the end I got a couple good close ups that will work for my little project, but man the rest of the pictures just look like Ia good Pinterest fail.  So what do I do with the "bad" ones?  Share them on here so we can all see.  hehe

That was the best one in my opinion. 

Yeah, pretty much just a hot mess with those props, so we took them all away and brought out the snacks.  Luckily at that point I was able to grab a couple good shots and called it good.   Here is one of the better ones...  Do you like how their mouths are full of little puffs.  :)   

Oh the fun we go through for pictures!  Why do we do it to ourselves?  They aren't even real life.  The outtakes are more of a depiction of real life.  But when you get that one "good" shot it is SO cute and usually worth all the trouble it took to get there... usually. 

Oh and of course after all was said and done and I was doing laundry, Jensen couldn't stop cracking smiles for me.  A little late buddy!

  

Sleep isn't my thing

Apparently I don't like to sleep anymore.  Why do I say that?  Because I am not doing very much of it these days and I am surprisingly ok with it (most of the time). 

Folks, here's the thing.  You all know Jensen doesn't/ hasn't slept well.  The little guy is 10 months old almost 11 and he has not ever slept through the night.  I do vaguely remember him doing it one time many moons ago, but it hasn't happened since.  5 am is the closest that we have come to "sleeping thru the night", but most nights he wakes up around 12-1 and again at 5.  Adalyn wakes up around 2-3 and then at 6:30-7 for the day.  Both of them go back to bed fairly easily in the middle of the night, but they still wake us up and get us out of bed.  Adalyn just has to be walked back to her bed and Jensen wants to nurse, but then goes back to sleep easily.  McKay is a good sport and helps out when he hears them.  But many times he sleeps right through it thou (lucky). 

If you would have told me that Jensen still would not be sleeping through the night at 10 months when I was pregnant I probably would have curled up right then and given up.  Because I lived for sleep.  Before Jensen I took naps everyday and still slepted for 10 hours a night.  I could not imagine waking up multiple times a night and I was scared to not have a good sleeping baby. 

But now after living through the past few months I have realized that you can survive (within reasons) on less sleep.  And dare I say that it has been just fine.  Yes we go to bed earlier then we used to and we take turns taking a nap on the weekend but I don't even have to nap during the weekdays anymore.  My body has adjusted and I am used to the multiple wake up calls in the middle of the night.  I let him continue waking up a lot because it kept my milk supply up.  If you ever are struggling to keep your milk supply up, feed your baby a few times a night.  Really can help a lot.  Adalyn slept through the night at a very young age and I struggled to have enough to feed her through out the day.  Wish I had known to feed her in the middle of the night, we could have maybe nursed longer. oh well...  

BUT

With all of that being said the time has come (for reals this time.   It is not our first attempt, but hopefully it will be our last) for Jensen to sleep through the night.  I have let it go on long enough.  I know he is capable of not eating for 8 hours straight.  So starting this weekend we will be "helping" him sleep through the night.  No more 12 am feedings.  We tried it once this weekend and he cried for 40 minutes off and on until I gave in :P.  I think the 1st night will be the worst, but then I think he will get the hang of it.  We will see. 

Any suggestions on how we should go about sleep training him?  I know he is old, but I am grateful that he has been able to nurse.  Adalyn trained herself, no tools were needed so we are newbies at this.  Wish us luck!

      

So Much Happiness

I don't want this post to be another "yay my life is so exciting, look at my cute kids!" kind of post.  I wish I could really explain to you all my thoughts and feelings.  Life with kids is hard.  I am one who loves children.  I thought I would be a perfect stay at home mom who would love spending my days with kids.  And I do. 

But it is hard. 

I am not a very good stay at home mom.  It makes me crazy most days!  I love my "me" time and often count down the minutes or hours until I get to leave and go do my things (so grateful for a supportive husband who helps a ton so that I can get away sometimes).  I sometimes get really frustrated when the kids whine, or will not take a nap, because they are messing up my "me" time.   I don't like that I act this way so I am working hard to find more joy in the journey.  To not wish my days away, but do things WITH my kids that we can all enjoy.  I need more patience, but we have had more relaxed enjoyable days.  Some of the things that I am trying to do so that I can enjoy my little ones more are...

- go to bed earlier.  That way I don't get frustrated when Jensen wakes me up a few times a night.

-Spend more time as a family.  This one involved me cutting back on my personal activities so that we could all spend more time together.  Less zumba, less piano, less girls nights, and less shopping for more family play time.

-Less online time.  Adalyn hates it when I am on the computer.  Like starts crying the second I walk near it.  Partly I think she is being a little dramatic, because she always wants mommy undivided attention (she crys when I do the dishes too) but she definitely has a point and I try to not go online while she is awake.  Less online time also leads to caring less about what others around me are doing, saying, wearing, etc. and less comparing myself to others.  It is very healthy for me and I could definitely still do better on this one. 

-Do fun activities with them.  We have some fun things on the calendar in the next few months.  I am excited to share these experiences with them.  I think these things will help us all look forward to each day more and help the time while daddy is at work pass faster. :) 

-Work out BEFORE they wake up.  My kids are early risers and I struggle getting up before them.  But this one makes a world of difference in our days and helps me be more productive.  Hopefully I can continue to do this!

-Cutting myself some slack.  I am SO hard on myself and beat myself up if things aren't perfect.  But really no one else cares but me if things aren't perfect.  And the kids think I am the best mom ever if I let them have spaghetti 3 meals in a row.  So I am trying to just let things go and not be so up tight. 

In the end as hard as it can be to sacrifice so much for our children and husbands, it is oh so worth it.  It is amazing how much we can learn about ourselves when we are in the service of others.  And yes my kids are darling and make my day so beautiful EVERY day, even if I don't always appreciate it.

 
 Oh this picture brings me so much happiness!  Adalyn's is like a life size Barbie doll who is as sassy and sweet as ever and Jensen is so happy and they both love their mom to pieces (yes I am very lucky).  So thankful have these two in my life.   

Thanks for reading the ramblings of a stay at home mom!


 



        

Jensen- 10 Months Old

I think we are due for a post with more pictures than words.  We will let the pictures do the talking this time.  Just know, this little man has his parents wrapped around his finger.  spoiled. rotten. little. man. 

Can't wait to put all his monthly pictures into one post!

Favorite one, he is such a tease!

He has the saddest, cutest, little pout face ever.  Mini melt down whenever we set him on the ground.  Luckily he gets over it after a minute or so (at least until you make eye contact with him again.  Best to just pretend that you don't see him crawling towards you, otherwise you get his hopes up for a snuggle.) 

Love you Jensen boy!

p.s. my mom and I have a bet going.  She thinks he will walk by the time he is one (or at one).  I think he will wait for a month or so.  At this point my mom might win.  He just started walking across the room with nothing except for his push toy. 

Two walking toddlers... this is going to be fun. :)

Trick or Treat

I already posted a picture on our other blog of the kids in their costumes.  But I wanted to do another post on here with all of the details from the holiday. 

If you missed the post on the other blog, here is a super cute picture of the kids in their costumes...

This year the kids dressed up as Elmo and Cookie monster.  I am not a sewer...yet.  So costumes have to be store bought around here.  Also they have to be warm since it usually snows on Halloween.  I wanted them to have a theme to their costumes since that is just so fun when you have two little kids.  Adalyn has loved Elmo for a long time so I knew this costume would be a fun one for her.  Cookie monster seemed like a good choice for Jensen since he is definitely not an Oscar the Grouch (he is way too smiley for that).  As for where I got their costumes... I bought Adalyn's tutu at a local children's boutique store and her hat off of Etsy.  Here is a better view of the hat...

The rest of the outfit she already had.  Luckily she loved her whole costume and spent a lot of time "spinning" in her tutu.  She seemed to also stay warm so I would say the whole costume was a success. 

Jensen's costume was all bought together on Ebay.  I thought the whole thing would be way too big because it is a size up from what he normally wears, but it fit perfectly.  He did not really love the hat but would tolerate it as long as he was outside.  His costume was WARM almost too warm some of the time.  We learned pretty quickly that he should really only wear it outside since he was sweating bullets when he wore it to the Ward Halloween party.

The Friday before Halloween our church had a Halloween party.  I was excited to try out their costumes and see all our friends costumes.  McKay and I were boring and didn't dress up for the party, but I did decorate one of the classroom doors for the kids to come "trick or treating" to.  Our ward goes trick or treating around inside the building instead of having a trunk or treat.  While it is pretty crazy inside it is nice to not have to worry about the weather.  Here are some more pictures from that night. 

On the actual day of Halloween we did not do too much.  I was actually kind of disappointed in myself for not doing more with the kids; like a cool art project or taking them to a fun activity.  But after thinking about it for a while I realized that my kids are still just so little.  While things are fun they just aren't quite old enough to really understand or enjoy special projects.  So in the future we will have to plan some fun things, but this year was pretty low key and that is ok.  Once it started getting dark we piled all the costumes in the living room in preparation for when daddy would get home from work.  Adalyn was so excited and kept practicing her cute little "trick or treat" and then "thank you".  Here she is begging to put her costume on.  Lately I have been putting her in skirts and leggings because they are just so cute!  So here is her orange leggings for Halloween...

Once daddy came home we ate some yummy cream cheese chicken chili (same one we had at Jensen's blessing).  We don't usually eat it so it was a real treat for us (or at least mommy and daddy loved it, the kids were not that impressed).  After dinner we threw on their costumes and McKay headed out with them for the trick or treating fun.  I decided to stay back and pass out candy (and it ended up raining to I was happy to stay home. 

Here are the trick or treaters:

Stay warm buddy!

As far as mine and McKay's costumes, I didn't dress up and he did.  I really don't love dressing up so I was happy to just wear my fall scarf. 

McKay was a scarecrow this year after a pretty painful searching for a costume at 10pm the night before.  His work dresses up during the day so he wanted to wear something.  We did the same last minute search thing last year and I told him a few weeks before Halloween this year that I am not a last minute person and so he should tell me then if he wanted help with a costume soon because I was not going to help him the night before.  Well guess who came up with his costume the night before...  Next year I will know better and plan ahead.  

After trick or treating the kids were freezing since it rained on them while they were out.  So we relaxed by the fire place and ate some candy. 

Love little moments like this with the family.  It is times like these that make it all worth it. 

  Happy Halloween!