Staying Sane :)

(I wrote this a couple of weeks ago but am just getting a chance to "publish" it...)

I will be the first to tell you that having two kids - especially a toddler and a newborn - is SO not easy.  I'm convinced that nnyone who tells you it is is most likely lying!

Anyway, there have been a few things that have helped me stay (mostly) sane and I thought I'd share...

1. Self-Care.  I read on a blog post at Rage Against the Minivan* that the number one way to prevent PPD is "self-care."  So there are a couple of things I've been doing to keep myself a priority.  The biggest one is taking time every night to take a long, hot shower!  If the kids are screaming, I can't hear them! And yes, I started taking showers at night and it as been a wonderful change.  This way I can (another self-care thing) sleep in as late in the morning as my kiddos.  If Evelyn wakes up first, she is fine grunting (she is such a grunter!) and hanging out for 15 minutes while I get dressed, put on make-up, do my hair, get coffee made, and get breakfast on the table before I nurse her.  If Avery wakes up first, she is perfectly content in her crib singing Happy Birthday and Jesus Loves Me until I get her.  Actually, sometimes Avery is fine in there for almost an HOUR!  I also make myelf take a nap with the girls if I can get them both sleeping at the same time.  This is a non-negotiable around here; other household chores can wait. *This is an awesome blog that I just recently discovered... you've got to check it out.

2.  Accepting and Asking For Help.  I've been SO blessed to have my husband home for 2 weeks of paternity leave.  Also, my wonderful mom and mother-in-law have both been able to spend a few days here helping us.  I've gladly accepted lots of meals from friends.  I usually feel guilty asking for help from Matt with things once he gets home from work because I know he's had a busy, long day, too, but I am so over that right now. :)  He was kind enough last night to basically have "Evelyn duty" most of the night, plus do laundry and clean up the kitchen.  I just can't watch two kids all day AND have clean underwear for us, so I'm taking all of the help I can get.  Also yesterday my sister Nealy came over and watched Avery while I ran to Target with Evelyn; she even brought us a yummy lunch and wore Evelyn in the sling for awhile.

3.  Trying to Not Feel Guilty.  When it was just me and Avery, we were busy bodies, always running errands or going on a play-date or to the library/mall/etc every single morning.  As of late, we have been home most days except for the occasional walk.  I do feel bad sometimes that Avery is stuck at home, so I constantly have to remind myself that this is just temporary, that she will be fine, and that it's a good thing for her to learn to be happy playing with her bajillion toys.  (I'm sure I will regret posting this, but Avery actually LIKES cuddling with me while we watch The Bachelorette!  True story!  It has become our Tuesday morning ritual, and for now, I'm not feeling too much guilt over it!)  Also, we are on a two-shows-a-day routine at our house, which means daily visits from both Barney and Mickey. 

4.  Staying Organized.  One new non-negotiable rule I've made for myself is that I must run the dishwasher right after dinner and unload it before I go to bed.  The morning goes so much better if I wake up to an empty verses full dishwasher!  We've also gone to using all paper plates for now, which has helped with the dish load.  Another thing I've started doing is doing one load of laundry a day.  It just seems too daunting to let it pile up, plus we are going through burp cloths and towels like crazy over here, so I just decided I'd do one small load a day to stay on top of things.  The last way I'm trying to stay organized is by having our lunches ready to go at the beginning of the week, and then we just eat that most days for lunch.  Last week I made a Mexican salad type thing with beans, peppers, onions, salsa, cilantro, and avacado all in a tupperware in the fridge, and then just fried up a couple of eggs to go on top when it was lunch time.  This week I made chicken wild rice salad.

5.  Praying and Keeping Perspective.  I try to pray whenever I am nursing Evelyn, when I'm rocking Avery at night, and when the stress starts to creep up!  I also ask Matt to pray for specific things for me.  I really try to ENJOY my sweet little newborn, as well as enjoy all of the new and often funny things about Avery.  I remember that many people would give their right arm to have the chaos of two healthy, beautiful children and one amazing husband.

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38-week Belly Pic + My Birthday

I turn 29 today.  It kind of doesn't seem like reality that I'm almost 30 and have almost two kids and will most likely soon be driving a mini-van.  I don't know quite what age I feel, but sometimes I look at Avery and think, "You are mine?  Like, completely my (and your dad's) responsibility?"  Someone tell me this is normal!

But, the fact remains, I am officially 29 years old.

Baby girl is still perfectly happy hanging out in my tummy.  (The following picture is NOT photoshopped or editied in any way; my belly really is that big):



Anyway, started the day with a coffee date at Starbucks with these two characters...

...then had lunch (and Woulett's cupcakes!) and went shopping downtown St. Paul with these very goofy characters (and Nealy):

This evening we will go out to eat - restaurant TBD.  What a good day!  I think the only thing that could make it better would be getting to meet the baby tonight!!  It doesn't hurt to hope, does it?

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Friends from WA

The week before Memorial weekend, we had our good friends from Seattle visit!  The fun part was they have an adorable 10-month old baby boy, Jackson.  The kids had SO much fun playing together.  Here are a few shots of our time together:

The kiddos LOVED their Mashups, of course.  Why are those things so expensive?!  Geepers.

Aren't they cute together??  Troublemakers!

 Our other friends from Chicago joined us, too!! 

If I had a nickel for every time we sat around our table with friends or family... :)  It is my my all time favorite thing to do!!

Thanks for visiting guys!  We hope to see you soon!

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California Adventure

Matt and I had the pleasure of taking a long weekend trip sans-baby to the San Franciso area.  It was so much fun.  We stayed most of the time with our friends Nate and Jess, and just the two of us spent a night in Napa.  Napa was AMAZING.  It was my ideal vacation (in no particular order): good wine, good food, good shopping, good friends, nice hotel, nice weather.  Ahh.  We ate some of the best food I think I've ever had.  In fact, my new standard for if it's a good restaurant or not is if they don't have salt and pepper shakers.  I'm starting to drool just thinking about it. :)  Anyway, it was a super nice, relaxing getaway!!  Here are a (sorry, just a) few pics of the trip!

Some of you might be wondering what the munchkin did while we were away and/or if she missed me and/or if I missed her.  Well, she stayed with Cici and Papa in Ames.  She did not miss me at all, and yes, I missed her.  However, I got a steady supply of texts and video messages from them which did keep me somewhat satisfied.  Here's a glimpse of a few!

I got this one one morning with a text: "Avery's cooking breakfast.  Easter eggs, I think."

 Brady sent me this one, along with a text that said, and I quote, "Avery is HILARIOUS." 

 I got this one the night before we left with a text that said, "Good night mommy!" 

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The Good Ol' Years

I was reading a friend's blog yesterday and noticed she had the link on there to my old blog.  I started a blog when Matt and I lived in Wheaton, oh a few months after we were married.  It was SO much fun to look through it and read it.  To be honest, I seemed so much younger.  I think I had a fun energy about me/my writing that I hope is not gone with being a mom. :)  It took me back to the newly-wed years, to our tiny apartment that took about fifteen seconds to clean, to our friends in Chicago, to our church there, to my job...  I wouldn't trade anything in the world for how wonderful it is to be a mom, but boy, those years with just me and Matt were very special.  I remember one of our weekend rituals was blowing up the air mattress, throwing it on our living room floor, and watching a Red Box and then random shows like Trading Spaces until like 1 in the morning.  Good memories!  Plus I ran into a few of my recipes I totally forgot about, such as Potato Ham Casserole and Snickers Ice Cream Dessert.  Yum!  As much as I wanted to start a new, improved blog, I'm so glad I have my old one to look back on.  That, of course, is the main reason I blog now - for me and my family to remember what life was like "way back then."  That and making sure Cici and Grandma get their weekly (monthly?) doses of baby pics!

Anyway, back to live in Chicago.  I came across these pictures the other day, too, of our apartment, and thought I'd post them, for memory's sake, of course.  I'll start with (a blurry) one of my cute husband.  SO many evenings were spend in our apartment chowing down on something delicious with our friends.  We lived in a high rise (18th floor!) and about 5 other couples from our church lived there, too!  They had a promo where if you refer someone, you got a $500 credit, so we milked that one!  Anyway, here you have it!

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Tip: Getting More Stuff Done

Here's something random I was thinking about this morning.  When I wear tennis shoes at home, I get so much more done around the house.  I'm like a machine.  Maybe the trick is that when I'm wearing tennis shoes, I can't really lay down and take a nap.... :)

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Christmas 2010

January 5, 2011.  Christmas seems like it was forEVER ago!! 

A quick recap of our first Christmas as a family of three. :)

My family came to Minnesota to stay at our house since Nealy was due on Dec 26th.  We had good food (as always), the boys and Jasey went skiing, had a bday celebration for Wes, we played a competitive game of Taboo, and even sang some Christmas carols as a family on Christmas Eve!  Here's a quick shot of all of us after the Christmas Eve service. 

At Christmas dinner, I think Avery was saying, "How sad!  I want steak!!!  And you're just giving me these nasty green beans!!"

The day after Christmas, we headed to Cedar Rapids to spend a few days with Matt's family.  We had more good food, had a party with neighbors and friends, and opened lots and lots of gifts.  We even had a mini-celebration of Maddie and Avery's birthdays since Matt's parents will be out of the country for both.   

I unfortunately didn't get a ton of pictures while we were in CR... in fact, I basically didn't get my camera out of my bag until the afternoon we were leaving... by which time "someone" to remain nameless was getting a little on the cranky side... :)  Let's just say this is the BEST picture of Avery and Grandma that I got!!

 And, one of the girls... kind of...  Katie is getting SO very big and grown-up! 

Avery got lots of wonderful gifts, one of which is this adorable hat (from Cal). 

Man, I'm getting quite verbose with my posts. :)  Just kidding.  I feel like lately I've just been playing catch-up. 

Soon, perhaps, I'll do a normal post instead of a "this is a list of what we've been up to."  :) 

Anyway - on to the most important event of the last few weeks....

My fourth niece was born!!  Clara Lucille was born on December 28.  What an absolute doll.  I love her so much already and I've only seen her a handful of times. :)  I can't wait to watch her grow up and be part of her life.   This is my sister just 2 hours after Clara was born.  Does she not look amazing for having just had a baby?!  (Notice a little naughty someone in the corner. :)

And here's one with dad.

All for now from blogger-world!  :)

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What oh what have we been up to...?

First, I should start by saying I lost my camera.  Again.  The bad news is that I don't have a lot of pictures to post.  The good news is that I didn't like the camera. :)  But, I still am hoping it will show up because I still might be able to return it! 

We did get some family pictures taken.  Avery was not being the most cooperative person in the world, but we did manage to get a few great shots!

Some good friends had a baby!  Shelli and Jeff gave birth to Vienna.  She was actually the very first baby who I've gone to visit in the hospital.  In my mom's fashion, I took a bottle of champagne to celebrate.  Then, some other good friends, Nate and Natalie, adopted a little boy - Caleb.  We got to see him when he was just a few days old.  Baby fever is in the air!!

Although, my hands are definitely full with just one.  Avery will be 9 months at the end of this month!!  I'll have to do a 9-month update post soon!

We've had a few Christmas parties here and there.  One for Sunday school (at our house), one for Matt's work (and his director's house), and we have a neighborhood one next week.  I'm bummed I didn't get any pictures of any of the parties.  Perhaps that will be my New Year's resolution - to (1) find my camera and (2) take more pictures!  Especially because little Miss Avery is changing so much every day. 

We also went to Stacy's Tree Farm with a few friends from church.  Met at Perkins for breakfast in Forest Lake then drove even farther north to Stacy, MN.  We already had our Wal-Mart tree up by then, but a few couples cut down a tree.  It was quite the experience.  Matt is set on cutting down a tree next year.

I finished up the semester at school.  I made it one whole semester working (very part time) as a mom, and, to be honest, loved it.  I had especially great students this semester, so we had a lot of fun. 

I'll leave you with a picture of the babe.

This post is boring, if I do say so myself!  I promise to take more pictures over the holidays - even if it's just with my phone! 

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Jamaica Mon!

What have we been up to???

Our first family vacay.......... Avery didn't know what to expect!  The week started off by me waking her at (gasp!) 4:30 in the morning to head to the airport.  She was in a daze for about two hours. :)

The last time I held Avery while she was sleeping was on the plane ride to Seattle... so I enjoyed our 44.5 minutes of cuddle time.  The flight went well - we had a connection in Miami.  In total, from ride to the airport to getting dropped off at our resort, it was 11 hours.  Avery was a trooper, for sure. 

 But, she was happy to arrive, safe and sound!

 Sorry - she was THRILLED to arrive safe and sound.  

 One of her favorite parts of the trip was the lights in the elevator. 

 She liked the swimming pool - didn't really love the ocean.  I think it was too cold.  She sure got the splashing thing down by the end of the trip!

Waaaa!!! One new thing Avery learned to do on the trip was WHINE.  Oh my, did she ever whine.  And she hasn't stopped since!  We did manage to get a few family pics:

 From our balcony:

 The restaurants didn't open until 6:30 or 7, and that time of night is not Avery's best!!  She was super tired and super whiney most of the time.  It's funny looking back now, but at the time it was not fun! :)

 For lunch, we at at a Jerk Hut on the beach.  YUM.  Jerk chicken, sausage, rice and beans, and a spicy, sweet jerk sauce to smother everything in.  One of my goals this week is to make this dish at home!  I'll let you know how it goes. 

 Avery started to love water bottles on the trip.  Let's just say we only brought a few toys and she got tired of them very quickly.  So, she chewed on lots of water bottles and on lots of tags on towels! 

All in all, it was an awesome trip.  The three of us hadn't been all together for one whole week since Avery was first born.  The weather was beautiful (mid-80s), food and drink out of this world, and the company even better.

Thanks for the fun trip, Mommy and Daddy!!

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