time just keeps flying...

wow...i feel like i say this all the time but i can't believe it has been a week since i blogged! time just keeps getting away from me and flying by like crazy. i truly cannot believe it is mid-february. i need to come up for air! just a few iphone pics of what we have been up to this week...

we finally cleaned up stage one of the home office makeover. I have a pinterest board dedicated to my fav home office looks and mine does not come close yet..but, i like it so far. we repurposed 2 separate brown pieces we had and painted them white to combine them into one great storage piece for the office. we also re-arranged the room a little. stage 2 include painting the room, selling our couch and getting a couple chairs to replace it and repurposing more furniture. it is a slow process but, i love a project.

the two pieces before...

and after..

ben and i also had a date night on thursday and went out to dallas to see the jean paul gaultier exhibit at the dallas museum of art. my incredibly talented cousin jessica designed/coordinated the exhibit and it is truly a.maz.ing. it really was so well done and i am just so proud of her. no pics allowed in the actual exhibit but here is a taste. the sad thing is that today was the last day of the exhibit so if you haven't seen it...you missed it and it is totally your loss. maybe go to san francisco to see it. i think that's where it goes next.

friday night we got to hang out at alex & mendy's and that was so fun. we made stromboli's for dinner and that is my new fav meal to make. we just took store bought pizza dough...cut it in half and put anything you want inside, lots of cheese, wrap it up and bake it. they were to.die.for. i can't wait to make them again...and even though she doesn't eat them...kinley loved the process of making them.

about to go in the oven...

all done!

the girls...

the boys...

then it was time for homemade oatmeal butterscotch cookies

and ty just playing

saturday we went to great wolf lodge for avery's 6th birthday. it was totally a child's dream and kinley could not get enough. kris will post more on that but here are some cute pics of kinley and sassy at dinner. they were cracking us up.

and one of Ty just for good measure...he was a trooper!

whew! it has been a crazy week but, so much fun. can't wait for valentines day and some more fun parties this week!

Baby Shower gifts and a quick trip

First off, let me say WOAH and thank you to all the comments, emails, facebook messages, and phone calls I got about my confessions blog post. I think I sounded a little more like a debbie downer than I originally intended...but, I was just keeping it real. I have to say, I was so very encouraged by every person that reached out to me. It really makes a girl feel supported, understood, identified with and like maybe I could help reach and encourage someone else out there too.

Anyway....I wanted to do a quick post to tell you about an amazing trip that Ty and I went on at the end of last week. We got to fly to Houston and spend a day and night with my BFF from college Lindsay! Thursday night was her baby shower and Friday was her 30th birthday. She and her amazing hubby, Adam, are expecting baby boy Knox Adam Barry on March 29th. I am over the moon for Linds and Adam and this sweet angel baby boy. It was a complete joy to celebrate and they are going to make amazing parents. Sadly, I do not have ONE picture from our trip except a pic on my phone of Ty on his first plane ride.

Everything started out great but after about an hour and a half of being in Houston, Ty started a screaming crying fit and did not stop for over 2 hours. And, if you know Ty at all....that is about 2 hours longer than he has ever been upset in his life. It was so sad. So, a trip to the ER later...(apparently they do not see babies under 18 months at any urgent care place)..it turns out Ty had a tiny ear infection that was very aggravated by the pressure from the plane ride. After some antibiotics, tylenol and benadryl to dry him up..he was a perfect angel. Or maybe just my little super hero.

The remaining 20 hours were bliss and he slept the plane ride home.

It was a rough start but definitely not enough to de-rail some great quality time with Lindsay and Adam.

I did end up getting Linds some things off her registry and baby boy stuff that I just love. But, I also ended up making her a fabric diapers and wipes case and a personalized wipes container. Mendy helped me a ton with these projects because she wanted to make some too. So, we had another friday night girls craft night while our hubbies were out of town and made these.

Mendy made a template from my diapees and wipees holder that I was given and it turned out perfect.

I saw this on Pinterest and used my silhouette to cut out the vinyl pattern for the wipes case.

And for the morning of her birthday I copied this idea off Pinterest.

Happy 30th Linds and we can't WAIT for baby Knox!

these are my confessions...

(I just couldn't stop singing Usher in my head as I was writing this and maybe this got a little heavy and I needed a little audio pick-me-up)

I gotta be honest here and say that I have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster lately.

My sweet kiddos and husband have put up with me like champions but, I just can't seem to get it together. This whole month I have been a little off my rocker.

I don't know if it is all my hormones changing again from being pregnant, the let down after the holidays or just the exhaustion that comes with 2 young kids...but, something is up with me.

One major thing I am struggling with is good time management. It is kind of a shocker to me that I am saying that because that is usually a huge strong point of mine. But, lately I keep telling myself that whatever I have planned to do that day....cut it in half....and then maybe I will not be disappointed in my failure to achieve those goals. I know one thing is that I have started back to work. I work part-time and exclusively from home. That should sound like a walk in the park to many full-time working mommies out there. But, I just can't balance it yet. Most of you moms know that there is rarely an hour that both my kids are sleeping at the same time during the day. So, I don't get a lot of work done unless Kinley is at school and Ty is not at home. My mom is a saint and keeps my kids WAY more than I could ever find time to thank her for...so, those are the times I work. But, then I miss them. It is the typical struggle that all moms feel that juggle work and mommyhood. I know this is NOT a new revelation...but, it has hit me hard lately.

Another thing, is Kinley's attitude lately. I am sure that it is a phase and probably a direct reciprocation of my own attitude...but, she has been a bit of a pill to swallow. That sweet angel is "strong-willed" like no one I know. There have been some epic tantrums and showdowns. She is trying HARD to fight naptime...which is very difficult for me and pushing every boundary she can. This also....not anything new to parents of 2 year olds..but, new to me for my sweet angel girl.

It makes me sad because the things take the back-burner that I love doing...like blogging, creating, reading, working out. I think those are the things that keep me sane and those have somehow been eliminated from my daily routine.

I feel like I have to make this confession because from the outside...it may appear like I have time for miles and craft and photograph my days away without a care in the world. But, I don't want to project an image of our life that is one-sided.

On the one hand, I am a total wreck.....on the other, I am learning more and more about myself and the God we serve everyday.

How truly out of whack is my time management problem? How often are my thoughts about me and not HIM and how I can best serve God? How often is he giving me an opportunity to love and serve my family that I am not taking because of my ho-hum attitude? How many times have I been "tyring" and "strong-willed" against what his perfect plan is for me? How many times He probably looks down and says....this, honey, is nothing. The world is full of real problems and you have nothing but blessings to count.

I know that He loves me and that no worry or problem is too small to go to Him with and I take comfort in that. I know that through prayer and time with Him in his Word, I can see into His soul and His perfect plan for my life right now. I know that I will one day look back on these times as the best of my life. If I just take a step back and look at my family, all seems right in the world again.

So, for now, I am just going to make peace with the fact that every day my plans and my attitude is a work in progress and I need God's grace and timing every day. I pray he can teach me how to be a good parent and help me deal with my babies how HE would deal with me. I hope my expectations for the day become aligned with His expectations. Overall, I just hope that I can tap into the wellspring that is Jesus and let Him change me for the better.

I know this a total random ramble...but, that is my heart and time has been this week.

Much love to anyone out there...thanks for reading and letting me vent.

I will be back soon with new home office-redo projects, valentines crafts, baby shower gifts, and tales from a trip Ty and I are taking this week that I am SO excited about!

Ty - 4 months

This update is almost 2 weeks late but, I wanted to wait until Ty's doctor appointment before posting. But, Ty is 4 months old! I cannot believe how fast the time flies. I know he will be a year old before I blink. I don't think I can say enough to my sweet boy what a wonderful baby he is. Even at his appointment, our pediatrician said "He is so smiley. If you have a baby this great...don't even jinx it by going for a third." Ha! I have no idea what God has planned for that...but, it is just a true testimony to how happy Ty is. His smile is ear to ear and can melt any heart in the room.

Statistics:

Height - 26 1/4 inches (70th percentile)

Weight - 16-1 lbs (60th percentile)

Head - 17 1/4 (80th percentile)

Overall, he is a much bigger baby than we are used to with Kinley!

A few things his 4th month entailed:

• Ty has found his hands and loves to chew on them. I swear he is teething...but, there are no signs of any teeth yet!
• He can grab almost anything with his hands...mostly his left hand at this point...who knows if that will change.
• He can roll over both ways - front to back and back to front
• He had his first Christmas and first long road trip to Colorado and was a total trooper
• He got sick for the first time...a little cold and congestion that he caught from his ever loving sweet big sis.
• If Ty is starting to get tired or the least bit fussy, if he sees Kinley it totally evaporates and he has smiles for miles. He is just totally in love with her.
• He is starting to eat more milk than I can produce. Such a sad dilemma for a mommy. I am totally not against formula feeding. I think it is awesome but, I just love being able to produce that milk for my babies and am sad when I can't just give them something they love. It is a stressful thing for me...which is totally bizarre and ridiculous...but,I have had to let it go. Ty has had about 3 bottles of formula up to this point and luckily he loves it! Our doctor told me yesterday that I should start to supplement with formula a little more so that when I decide to quit feeding him, he will like the taste! He told me I could just skip rice cereal all together and when he needs a supplement to just give formula instead until he is ready for vegetables. So, maybe I will try that and get a better eater in Ty than I had in Kinley.
• Sweet boy is not quite the sleeper he used to be. His nighttime schedule is now go to bed at 8-8:30 and wakes up around 1:30 and 5:00 to eat before waking up for good around 7:30. It is not too bad...but, I have no idea what it is like to have any child under 7 months sleep 12 hours straight. I apparently produce snackers and not eaters and I need to stretch his feedings out and get him to eat 6-7 ounces each time so that he will sleep all the way through the night.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from this month...starting with our little photo shoot.

serious concentration on that football...which is his fave toy right now...that crinkly paper stuff is a hit!

this is a pretty dark pic that I took one morning...but, this is what he wakes up like. I still swaddle him in the miracle blanket and he wakes up every morning with the biggest smile on his face like he can't wait to be unwrapped to start the day. If he ever wakes up from sleep crying...something is off.

some sweet sister pics...she wants to be near him constantly

he puts up with it like a pro

and this is still what we travel like on most days...luckily he still likes his car seat

Some of my fav pics of Ty with my dad...my current phone background

a little blurry...but, still cute

Happy 4 month Ty-Ty. You are a precious angel of a boy and we love you more and more with each passing day!

thankful

I am just a little overwhelmed with gratitude today with how thankful I am for these sweet angels. I hope and pray that they know how much they mean to me and how absolutely crazy I am about them. The days get busy and crazy and sometimes we never all sit down together in the same room...but, when we do my heart just swells with thankfulness. It may be cheesy but, I just couldn't hold it in.

DIY Laundry Detergent

I can't tell you how excited I am about this project. It was truly so much fun to do. My sweet cousin, Amy, pointed me to this project on Pinterest.

As soon as we were getting low on our regular detergent I decided to make this. Everything cost me about $20 and it is supposed to last 9 months to a year!

These are the ingredients for my detergent:

• 1 4lb 12oz box Borax (found in the detergent aisle)
• 1 55oz box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (detergent aisle)
• 2 and 2/3 small containers of Oxyclean or about 3.5lbs total (detergent aisle)
• 2 2lb boxes of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (in the baking aisle)
• 3 bars of Fels-naptha soap (detergent aisle)

Before I did this I had not even heard of some of those ingredients. But, I found every last one of them at Walmart. It is crazy how you can walk by this stuff day in and day out and have not ever seen it!

First, you grate the bars of soap with a cheese grater. This Fels-naptha soap smells amazing! I just loved it. I want to think of more ways to use this soap. The soap dissolves when you wash.

It also looks a lot like cheese...so maybe don't do this with kids awake who might mistakenly think it is cheese.

Then you just pour all the ingredients together inside a trash sac in a 5-gallon bucket and stir it up. I transferred it back and forth between the sack and my glass container a couple times to get it good and mixed. I also picked up the trash sac (over the bucket) and shook it around a little.

*Note - keep one of the Oxyclean scoops and put it in your finished container. You will just need one scoop of your finished mix for each load of laundry!

I bought this glass container at Walmart too for $9.97 and used my Silhouette to cut out a vinyl label.

I already did a couple loads of laundry with this and it works great and has a very subtle smell. I just love it and it kind of makes me excited to do laundry. So crazy!