The Makeover

Sometimes you find yourself in a rut and in desperate need of a change in order to get yourself out of said rut.  That is how I've felt with our blog.  I can't keep up.  I can't even catch up.  I didn't care for our "look".  I didn't care for our set up in our posts.  I didn't care for the time it was/is taking me to accomplish my goals that seemlingly keep not getting accomplished because of the inefficiency of the way I've been doing things.

Well, folks, it's time I put a stop to it all.  I AM GETTING CAUGHT UP AND I'M STAYING CAUGHT UP ONCE AND FOR ALL!  (I've convinced myself if I write it in all caps and send it out in the bloggerific world it'll actually happen.)

I've got the following months to catch up on:

October 2015
November 2015
December 2015
June 2016
July 2016
August 2016
September 2016

And I'll be getting them all done in some sort of fashion - I'm hoping sooner rather than later but time will only tell.  (I may have had these same hopes before...)

I've updated our "look" by finding a neat background, throwing it in photoshop, fiddling for a few minutes and calling it ours.  While I'm not 100% happy with the look yet, I'm light years beyond how I felt it was so I'm calling that a win. 

I'm also going back to posting my albums as one photo in my post with a link to all the other photos.  The only exception I can think of to this will be videos or quickie posts that don't warrant an entire album.  The reason I went to posting photos in posts instead of albums is because a.) I didn't think people were seeing the full albums, and b.) I thought it would be easier.  Turns out, the people that will want to see the full album will, and it's not easier...so back to albums it is.  The other plus with the albums is I get to keep my photos organized by album, can share with other friends and family if I just want to send them the album, and my photos aren't itsy bitsy teensy weeny.  I've kept this blog for OVER SEVEN YEARS mainly as our family record keeper, but also to keep my fam and friends in the loop.  WE DESERVE REAL PHOTOS!  Not postage stamp size images.  That completely defeats the purpose of record keeping to me.

SO, in lieu of all of this, as I complete a month that I am behind on, I will link it to the respecting month above.  I will attempt to keep future months up to date but have not yet decided if I will post them yet or not.  That's how I end up with these gaps of months that I am behind on.

It's time to get caught up and enjoy this lovely space that we call ours.

This is OUR blog.  It is a priority.  This is our life.  And it's the little moments like these that make it all worth living.

#doglife  #shelovespups
#butihopeshedoesntreallythinksheisadog
#carefreelivin  #mayabear

Amen.

The Windows Are Open

Well, they were open, for about 3 hours today!  It's February 3rd...in central Ohio!  It was AMAZING!  The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, the temperature was around 60 degrees F and I opened all of the windows in the house.  Seriously.  All of them.  The fresh air was amazing and it smelled so good!  The thermostat didn't go below 65, and even though it was a tad brisk, the fresh air smell made it all worth it.

We took this wonderful weather opportunity and enjoyed some time outside snapping some photos, running around, and picking up dog poo from the yard.  Such a glamorous life, right?!  When Kate awoke from her nap, and was playing with her dolls on the couch she said, "Mommy, I'm so chilly in this house.".  In my defense, girlfriend only had a dress on, no leggings, and I even asked if she thought I should close the windows to which she replied, "No.".  Yes!  I get to keep them open just a little bit longer!

This weather isn't going to stick around.  It's going to get a lot closer to average tomorrow but we sure enjoyed it while it was here.  Spring is right around the corner!  We can almost taste it, and I imagine we are going to be spending a lot of time outdoors!

First up on the agenda: opening a little Valentine package that
we received from GG & Grampy!

Maya loved the red paper strips that the Valentine lovies were
packaged in!

So we played with them for a little bit too!

And tasted them!

Outside for some Valentine photos and Maya was
so intrigued with the mulch and Kate was way
more interested in running around.  I took a gazillion
photos and they all look like this.

So I opted for some individual shots!

I love her!

Oooohhh, mulch!  Yum!

This is the saddest face, but for some reason it
makes me smile.  She was all tears because I
wouldn't let her eat the mulch.  #mamassomean

Two seconds later she was back to being her
happy self and was looking for the right moment to
snag another bit of mulch.

But how adorable is she in her navy and red hearts
ensemble?  I mean, seriously.  I can't even with the
cuteness.

Maya cannot take her eyes off of Kate, so this
was the best I got of her beautiful smile!

Maya couldn't take her eyes off of Kate because
she was running wild around the yard.

Windows open and loving it!

My snoozing little love.  That little striped tush
has my heart!

Welcome Mommyhood: Mom of Two Edition

When I was nearly three months in to being a Mom to new baby Kate, I wrote my Welcome Mommyhood post.  And at my first official Mother's Day, I kind of continued it.

Now that I'm nearly six months into being a Mom of two, I thought it would only be fitting to write another Welcome Mommyhood post since you enter a new level of Mommyhood once you have your second child.  Yes, I've determined that.  It's the platinum status.

On Having My Hands Full
I became ambidextrous when I had Kate because I was holding her with my right arm and hence living with my left.  Now that I have Kate AND Maya, and a lot of times they are both in my arms for a "challenge" and/or the carseat too, I have become really, REALLY good at doing things with my legs...like opening doors.  It's really quite impressive.  I'm not sure what that is called.

On People Telling Me I Have My Hands Full
No shit, Sherlock(s).  Would you like to assist by getting the door, perhaps?  I can't tell you how many people have said this to me.  As if I didn't know my hands were full.  But, you know what, I wouldn't have it any other way.  And that's what I say when someone says that to me.

On Nasal Aspirators
I was not a fan of these little contraptions with Kate.  I distinctly remember her pediatrician showing me how to use it on Kate and she made it look so easy.  I think I tried it once and resorted to the ol' suck 'em out yourself method...which barely worked, if I recall.  With baby number two, not only am I not afraid of the nasal aspirator, but I can also use it like a pro.  Seriously.  I'll get the mucus pulled right out of your nose if you just lay right on the changing table...or the floor...or anywhere flat for that matter.

On Confidence
There's something about being a second-time parent that gives you an aura of confidence.  I saw it firsthand in Brian while we were at the hospital with Maya and I felt it then myself too.  It's like you've done this before and you know what to do and you've got this.  Plus, after living with a toddler, I'm finding newborns are a piece of cake.  This Mommy and Daddy confidence is amazing.

On Time Management
Before I had one child, I thought I was pretty good with time management.  I quickly learned that that was not the case.  I have no FREAKING clue what I did before I had Kate.  I think I sat on the couch and watched TV my entire life.  (#hopefullynot)  But then I had my first child and I thought I became a pro at time management.  (#ithoughtwrongagain)  And when baby number two came around, I realized that I have no idea what time management is all about nor do I know how to control it.  #igiveup  #officially  #timewins

On Efficiency
Shopping with one child is challenging.  Shopping with two is damn near impossible, so I've become real efficient at my grocery shopping.  I have lists, I game plan my grocery store route in my head prior to going in, I park near cart drop-offs, I bring snacks, and sanitizer, and make up grocery store games.  I've also learned to shop with two carts - kids and carseat in one, me in the middle, and pulling groceries in another.

On Sleep (Or Lack There Of)
My whole life I have always been the sort of person that enjoyed and perhaps needed sleep.  As a babe, I enjoyed going to bed.  As a teenager, I would sneak off while family was over and go to bed.  When I was pregnant with Kate, I was worried about my "spoiled" sleep habits and how I would adjust.  Nowadays, with two babes, a husband, and a dog, I rarely sleep.  And if I do, it's very light.  Hello from the other side bags under my eyes. #ohivecomesofar  #wheresthemakeup

On Cleanliness
This commercial - it's true.  You wash and sanitize and wash again the toys and binks that fall to the floor with your first child.  With your second, a quick rinse will do...  I can't imagine what happens to the children beyond two...  Oh, wait.  They are probably the ones eating the sand, right?!

I'm sure I will think of more to add to this list.  And when I do, I'll either add it or start a new list.  After all, that's one thing I'm pretty good at these days...making 'to-do' lists.

Hello, platinum status.

Bookshelf & Bubbles

Since we are still in the process of transitioning Little Sister's room and Kate's room, we decided yesterday would be a good day to set up Kate's new bookshelf.  The dark bookshelf that has been in her room is accompanying the darker furniture in the nursery.  Since we have gone with white furniture for Kate's current room set up, she's getting a white bookshelf!

Helping put the pegs in.

I mean, she is such a good helper!

See all the other pegs she placed?

Girlfriend's got skills!

I wish I had a before and after photo for Kate's room, but I don't, so you will have to trust me when I say the new white bookshelf looks awesome in her room!  She was such a good helper and loved putting herself and her "babies" (Elsa and Belle) in the cubes before they were closed up!  #mylittleengineer

When we put the bookshelf in her room, Kate started rummaging through one of her drawers.  I have one drawer with her bathing suits and a towel in it.  She instantly fell in love with this new bathing suit that she hadn't worn yet.  (I got it on clearance at the end of last year!  #momwin)  So, for the rest of the warm day, she donned it!  See below!

Later that afternoon, we headed outside for dinner and a seriously cute round of giggle bubbles!  Kate blew the bubbles and I tried to pop them.  Daddy took pictures.  She thought this was hilarious!  And we scored some seriously cute photos of our seriously cute little lady!

Master bubble blower!

I must've popped and/or missed some bubbles!

I still do anything to make her smile!

If we're outside, he's outside.
#spoiledrotten

I love this.  I hope she always smiles like this
when she looks up to me.  Always.

Bubbles!!!

Almost, Mommy!

Our silly willy!

Last but not least, your PSA: The Melissa and Doug bubbles with the butterfly top are THE BEST BUBBLES EVER.  Period.

And, you're welcome.

Babushka

We found Jack on the couch today tangled up in our his blanket.  I mean, it was literally wrapped around his body and his head with his face only peeking out.  I'm not entirely sure how he got this way but I imagine a blanket versus dog wrestling match ensued at some point not long before!

I immediately blurted out, "Babushka," as his new nickname because this is exactly what his "look" reminded me of!  Kate thought this was absolutely hilarious and we placed the blanket on his head and called him Babushka for the rest of the night!

Our Babushka!

Laughing once again at his new nickname!

These two!

Best of buds!

You're a good puppy dog, Jack!

Our Twinkle Box

We bought a couple sets of twinkle lights to make a canopy over Kate's bed in her bedroom.  Since we have not yet made said canopy, we have a couple sets of twinkle lights laying around the house!  In my opinion, you can never have too many twinkle lights and they are not just for Christmas, so when we started playing in our new trash bin box, we had the bright idea (pun intended) of adding some twinkle lights to make it even more fantastic!  This was so simple and Kate has LOVED playing in her box since!

Jack wonders what project we are up to now...

Our box door has been cut and Kate is eager to test it out!

Yep, works like a charm!

Kate partakes in our twinkle light testing to be sure our lights work!

While Mommy partakes in the punching of the holes in the box
roof with a Phillips Head screwdriver.  I counted the holes as I
punched so we'd have enough for all of the lights.

And then I pushed the tips of the lights through the little
holes in the roof to start our twinkling!

It looks like it takes a while but this entire project took less
than 20 minutes.

I then taped the roof of the box on the sides because
it had been opened and cut a little handle in the door.

We plugged our twinkle box in and set a little cushion at
the bottom!

Kate added her blanket...

And her backpack...and herself...and has made it just like home!

We need to get a little extension cord because I did not think of leaving any sort of slack in our lights and plugged them all in the top of the box.  This hasn't left very much opportunity to plug our twinkle box in anywhere other than RIGHT NEXT to an outlet but it still works and it is still super fun to play in!  I actually kind of what to get a bigger box and do this again so that I can play in it too!

I imagine our twinkle box will be a favorite place for the next week or two and I can't wait until we do have a bigger box!  Then again, I suppose I'll be bigger at that point too...

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I touched on this briefly in our 2014 recap but I felt the need to elaborate a bit more.  By a series of unfortunate events, we are WAY BEHIND on our blog posts.  I mentioned in the last post we are four months behind (gasp!).  I really have nothing other than a list of very viable, very real excuses about our posts...or lack thereof.

Fall started out with us getting semi-caught up with our blog.  But when September came, our Just Be Productions business was offered what seemed like a great opportunity to film an event so we took this opportunity.  What this meant was filming, then preparing a video, then producing, printing and delivering said video.  We anticipated this process to take 3 weeks.  It ended up taking 16(!!!), and to be honest, I'm not even quite sure that it is complete.  [Sigh.]  This client has put us through the wringer and has literally tested our patience.  It really has been an unfortunate event.

Then, October came and with that came the planning, preparing, and hosting of Kate's 2nd birthday.  I don't know that we will always have a themed birthday party.  I don't know that we will always decorate our house full of said themed items, but throughout the two birthdays we have celebrated, I have made each and every decoration that adorns our walls, mirrors, ceiling, and fireplace.  And I'm proud of it.  It's something I like to do and it allows my creativity to flow freely.  So, while the event certainly was not unfortunate, the timing of said event was.  Couple that with the difficulties we had been experiencing with our film client and it made for yet another...unfortunate event.

As most of you know, November and December seem to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye no matter what you have going on.  The holiday season months are a blur.  I'm sure I've got pictures to remember what we did.  Other than that, all I can say is we lived through it.  Couple that with the fact that I had started going to bed at an ungodly early hour (more on that later!) and Brian had more or less been travelling non-stop since the beginning of December, leaving Kate and me to fiend for ourselves, we were still handling our film client, and we were Christmas shopping, packing for our Maryland trip and juggling that time that is still so elusive, that left for...Yep, you guessed it: a series of unfortunate events.

In addition to all of these unfortunate events, my camera broke AND my phone broke at almost the same time, leaving me helpless with no way to take pictures and document our daily moments.

Fortunately, however, we are back up and running!  AND, I have a new camera and a new phone just in case!

How, do you ask, do we plan to remedy this issue of our missing posts?  My goal here is to keep our current lives up to date while slowly filling in the details of the last quarter of 2014.  So, if you'd like to get caught up in that last quarter, stay tuned and check back often.  (I make no promises on a deadline to have this completed.)

I know it can be done.  It's just going to take some time.  I'm missing out on one of the things that I enjoy the most (blogging) and it's about time I figured out a way to incorporate it again.

If you've not gathered, I'm kind of glad 2014 is over.  I'm very much looking forward to 2015!  It's gonna be big!  Real big!

Just you wait!

Breakfast Buddy

This morning I had the opportunity to enjoy a leisurely morning with our darling Kate.  We took her to the pediatrician for a quick check up.  She's had a little cold and two ear infections in the last three months, so I wanted to be sure she didn't have another ear infection.  Fortunately she was good to go and it looks like she's on the tail end of this little summer cold.

Recently Kate has decided that she no longer wants to sit in her chair top high chair that we have pulled up at the table.  She wants to sit on our bench seat.  This morning was no different.  I got Kate a little bowl of cereal and a banana for breakfast and I turned around and saw her sitting at the table.

Be still my heart.

Love that smile!

Yum!  Cheerios!

I will never tire of looking at that sweet face!

How did she get so big?

Since we had a little time to spare this morning, we were able to have a bit of morning fun!  (Side note: having mornings like this one makes me long for mornings home with Kate always.)

This is a longer viddie but just so darling that I couldn't resist sharing!

And before you watch this one I would just like to defend my parenting. Sometimes you have to have fun too, ok?  And if that means allowing your kid to throw some food to the dog every now and then because she's so darn cute and she thinks it's hysterical and it's making you laugh hysterically then so be it. Sometimes you've just gotta say yes!

And who am I to resist such a cute giggle?!

Friday the 13th

We had plans to leave for our Florida vacation today, Friday, June 13th.  We didn't think much of it being Friday the 13th when we booked our vacation.  We just thought of the best flight times for the maximum amount of vacation time.  Superstition versus vacation?  Vacation wins.  And so it was done.  Our flight was to leave early evening and arrive in Tampa just after Kate's bed time.

But earlier today Brian received a text from our airline saying our flight was delayed til much later.  This kind of was a blessing in disguise because I have been fighting a nasty cold that has literally had me so congested that I can't even swallow.  My entire nasal track is clogged.  So, with our flight being delayed, this allowed me to run into a Minute Clinic and see if there was anything I could do that I haven't been doing.

Low and behold, after said clinic visit, I walked out with a prescription for an antibiotic and ear drops because I had an ear infection.  Excuse me?!  An ear infection??  I haven't had an ear infection since the third grade and now I have one right before our vacation?  [Sigh.]  At least we were able to address this before we leave for Florida.

Our original flight ended up leaving tonight around 11:30 pm which will put it in Tampa, FL sometime around 1:30 pm.  We decided it would be best to swap our flight to tomorrow rather than mess all of our schedules up so much.  So, that we did.   (THANK YOU, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES!  WE HEART YOU!)  Our flight leaves midday tomorrow and puts us in Tampa in the early afternoon.

The next time we decide to book anything on Friday the 13th, superstition may win.  We learned our lesson today.  After a severely delayed flight AND an ear infection, we are now superstitious.  Take it from us, don't mess with Friday the 13th.

UPDATE
Our flight the next day was nothing short of crazy despite it being Saturday the 14th.  I still wasn't feeling the greatest but we decided to press on.  I sat in a window seat with Kate, Brian sat in the middle seat, and a young woman, maybe in her mid-twenties, sat in the aisle seat.  She looked evidently stressed and opened up to us that she has a real fear of flying and asked Brian to talk to her about something, ANYTHING, to keep her mind off of flying.  Brian, being the good sport that he is, did his best.

We were able to manage easily on take-off.  Landing was a different story.

I was experiencing excruciating pain in my ears from the ear infection for the entire descent.  And, folks, if you know airplanes, you know the descent is MUCH LONGER than the ascent.  On one side of Brian sat me and Kate.  Kate playing happily and me with tears streaming down my face from the pain.  On the other side of Brian sat the young woman who was still asking Brian to talk to her about ANYTHING.

We made it to Tampa.  Kate was so good, Brian was a trooper, and I stopped crying, but it would take another day and a half for my ears to pop and for my hearing to return fully...

This little excursion taught us two things: 1. Don't book vacation plans on Friday the 13th, and 2. Never fly with an ear infection.  Hopefully we won't be repeating either of these mistakes in the future...

Consider the Diem Carped

We had an extremely eventful Saturday, and rather than enlighten you with a bunch of words, I'm going to enlighten you with a bunch of pictures!

We weeded the garden...

...AND planted the garden!  This year we have tomatoes (cherry
and regular), a sweet pepper, cucumber, zucchini, string beans,
edamame, mint, basil, and cilantro!

We went to the nursery to pick out a new tree to
replace the one that died in our front yard.

We went to the zoo and fed the giraffes.

Like, literally FED the giraffes!

We cleaned out the garage!

And the shed!

And we drove just over an hour to the outlet mall to make a
quick exchange!

I would consider that a pretty successful day!  You can officially consider the diem carped.