5 Months of Madness

How do you do a quick recap on 5 of the best/hardest months of your life? Well, ya don't. Consider this a small photo dump and a "hello, you still read? Sorry to keep you hanging, I'll try to blog more regularly" post. My sweet friend Erin is about to do a complete blog makeover for me, so I'm super excited about getting my thoughts (and photos, random DIY projects, etc.) jotted down here again. It's like therapy, and let's be honest, I need that more than ever right now ;)

Seriously these last 5 months have been amazing. It's so crazy when you fall in love with your first child and experience so much joy and fulfillment, and then you go and have another and realize there was even more room for love in that swelling heart of yours. I can't even begin to explain how blessed and undeserving I feel to mother these sweet boys. I'm overwhelmed with love and gratitude. 

At the same time, it's been impossibly hard. I've definitely had my share of meltdowns (by me!) while sobbing "how to other people doooo it" as I'm covered in poop and spit-up. Just being real here. 2 kids under 2 is just insane. It's finally getting better. Although Kyler is still very needy, he is getting much more able to do things on his own, such as climbing up into his car seat, staying close to me in public (sometimes), and just generally being a little better at listening. Oh boy am I excited for him to be out of diapers! Yes, I'm still cloth diapering both boys right now! 

Hayes is such a sweet little guy. He is pretty laid back and chill, but (just like Kyler was as a newborn) he is a bit of a sleep fighter. This is one thing that makes my days particularly hard....spending so much time rocking this guy to sleep several times a day, while Kyler roams wild. It's just madness. Unlike Kyler, he is not a breastfeeding crazed baby. He breastfeeds great, but he regulates himself strangely well and pretty much only nurses to eat. Kyler pretty much nursed 'round the clock. Hunger. Comfort. Leisure. All the time. Not Hayes, he's efficient...sometimes I wish he nursed more. I love that time with him. 

Kyler is unbelievably great with Hayes. I think he was just young enough to not have his world completely wrecked by the birth of a sibling. He acted out a little the first few weeks, but that was pretty much it. He has never showed any malice towards Hayes and is just so sweet and gentle with him. It is the most precious thing to watch. I can't wait for a few months when they are able to play a little more together. 

If you had told me 3 years ago I would have 2 babies, I would have never believed you. This was not the exact "plan" we had drawn up, but I am so so thankful this is our reality. My days are so physically, mentally, and emotionally demanding right now but I wouldn't want to spend them any other way. 

Next up- our trip to NYC. With both boys. We are wild. 

All I have for now...

Right now, I'm sitting here and listening to my almost-1-year-old fall asleep while he continually babbles "night night" quieter and quieter into dreamland (or silently exploring my crib and pretending to be napping- you decide). I can't believe it's been a whole year. A whole year since this happened. A whole year since this little boy changed our lives forever.

Things have been crazzzzy lately! I've been busy with Dallas Moms Blog, busy writing for CBS (more on this later), and just busy with life (more on this later as well--if this almost-1-year-old keeps up the good naps). Like it normally does, along with the laundry and dishes, the blog has taken a back seat to the excitement. Sorry blog. Sorry readers.

For now, you can occupy your time and gain some serious inspiration by checking out my lovely bf's home tour. This girl has style and talent! Check it out here and don't mind snooping around her blog, it was made for snooping.

The many faces of...

my blog.

I do realize this blog has changed like every day lately. I've been trying to re-design it and if you know me or have read my blog for a while, you know I have commitment issues when it comes to design (specifically decorating my home). But my blog is kind of like my virtual living room so I want it to be inviting, comfortable, and somewhat aesthetically pleasing. And just like decorating my living room, sometimes I have to live with an arrangement for a few days. So please just bare with me...and take a look around and make yourself comfortable...

Spring is here.

A Thankful Heart

Like every year, I have so much to be thankful for. There have been good times and bad times, but I am thankful for it all. Here are a few things that come to mind....

I'm thankful for my amazing husband. He is the peanut butter to my jelly, and he continues to make me a better woman just by being himself.

I'm thankful for all of our family and friends. I feel so blessed to have such a great family and in-laws who graciously love us and take care of us (especially when some of us our emotional wrecks after child-birth).

I'm thankful for Duma. She has really stepped up her game as a guard dog since Kyler arrived. Even though she has taken a back seat in the love train, she has made it her sole purpose to sit by the front window and scare off pedestrians. It really makes me feel safer in this neck of the woods.

I'm thankful for inventions like iPhones, microwaves, and pony-tail holders that all make my life a little easier.

I'm thankful that my old Jetta broke down in January, drained our savings account, and forced us to buy a new car because it's times like this that teach you the importance of saving and being wise with your money.

I'm thankful for blogs. Weird, but true. I love being able to keep up with friends and non-friends (don't act like you don't blog stalk random people that you don't know).

Another mothering rant

I've never been much of an indecisive person. I usually know what I want and I act accordingly. I've always been a pretty practical person, which I guess is what helped me be confident in the whole decision making realm.

Until I had a baby.

A real human-completely and utterly (ha-get the pun?-udders-TMI?) dependent on me. For life, for food, for protection. Suddenly, making decisions has become this internal crisis of right and wrong bouncing around in my head all day long. And it's not just about baby. It's like I've completely lost my ability to make sound decisions in all departments. I stand in the grocery store aisle far too long deciding on which cereal or which tooth paste to get.

Don't get me wrong, decisions concerning baby are probably the toughest. It took me weeks to finally decide what kind of high chair to get, until we finally decided on one of those sweet "futuristic ones". I mean, this is the seat that we are going to spoon feed our kid mush to, as he throws Cheerios and peas onto the floor. Is it really that big of a deal? And don't even get me started on how long it took me to decide on an umbrella stroller...or how many I purchased.. and subsequently returned. Of course I know these decisions are more futile and don't actually matter in the long run, but the serious ones keep me up at night, too. Like, am I really going to be ruining my baby's life if I sing and rock my baby to sleep, as opposed to making him scream his head off for 1.5 hours until he conks out because of pure exhaustion and defeat? Or, if I respond to my babies cries am I actually creating a monster? Seriously! Sometimes I feel like today's society is trying to turn babies into accessories that shouldn't impose or altar our lifestyles at all. Babies are babies! They need to be nurtured, they need to be held, and they need someone to wipe that nasty drool off their fat rolls.

With all the baby books and methods circulating in our culture, it's no wonder why minor decisions have become more like life-changing debacles. The abundance of knowledge through internet and books about taking care of these tiny human beings makes being a parent so intimidating and second-guessing-full. It's like we've convinced ourselves that parenting is not inherent and natural. Why have we abandoned our intuition? Why have I abandoned my intuition? I need to stop worrying about what Dr. Sears would do, or how much that Baby Wise guy would hate me. I have got to stop searching the internet for all the nitty gritty answers and how to make the "best" decisions. I need to chill out and listen to my intuition more.


Now, excuse me while I go google 4 month sleep regression and baby teething.

Baby Blues

Kyler's eyes are such a beautiful blue right now. They have been since birth. Well once they were un-swollen enough to open.

I have a sneaking suspicion they will turn green like Cody's.

And I like my men's eyes like I like my lettuce. Green. And with ranch. What?

This Stuff is Hard

Parenting sure does involve a lot of decisions. A lot of decisions that could potentially lead to a very happy baby or consequently lead to a 14 year old adolescent who still needs Jewel to sing him off to sleep.

Sometimes I find myself overwhelmed with choices. Do I let him cry it out? Do I try to force a schedule on him when he continues to prove he is a wildly unpredictable baby? Does he really need that much tummy time? Do I try the diaper-free elimination method (seriously? are we really doing this?)

I'm trying to use a good combination of different parenting measures from here and there. But most importantly (to me) I am trying to listen to my intuition and listen to my baby. I am trying to be the mother God intended me to be. I'm trying to love him the way He first loved us.


Can we all just agree that the world is a better place with diapers? Poop on the floor is so inconvenient.

Nothing better than...

a naked baby!!!!

Little Man

I love my little man so much...

and his little dinosaur tush, too.

11 random facts on 11/11

I have accepted the challenge from my friend, Shannon, to post 11 random facts about me today. This will be a little hard seeing as I posted 25 of 'em, here. But I love a good challenge, so I am going to try to think up 11 more. Here it goes....

1. My life-theme is irony. Most things I plan and set out to do, don't happen. We live in a place we always said we would never live. I had a perfect plan that consisted of being a teacher, but I couldn't get a teaching job. Every time I clean the floors, it rains and Duma gets muddy paw prints everywhere. And, we will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary in a very unexpected way next year. ;)

2. I hate peas. I used to gag when eating them as a child, over the kitchen sink, just so I could still get desert. It had been years since I tasted the awful mushiness that is a pea, so a few weeks ago, not knowing what I was thinking, I decided to try them to see if I had grown out of it. Nope. Disgusting.

3. I am a total beach person. Mountains or beach? Beach.

4. I can be claustrophobic. I am not good at concerts. Crowds like that make me want to faint. Even a moderately sized room without windows makes me weak in the knees. Sometimes, even standing up and singing at church makes me want to run for the door. One time I got sick on a plane because I was sitting in between two strangers and had no personal space. Moral: back off.

5. I absolutely love Chick-fil-A nuggets and every time I eat them I wonder, "how do they make their chicken so good?"

6. I never really learned long division. I remember the day we learned it in 5th grade. I was talking to my friends, totally missed the lesson, and have never really been able to comprehend it. Let me give you an example. 785 divided by 29. I could either guess and check or use a calculator, but I could not long-devise that. Maybe it's a good thing I'm not a 5th grade teacher.

7. If I could be bouncing on a trampoline right now I would.

8. Cody and I once bought a camera together. He is a very high-tech guy and loves his gadgets, so he wanted the best camera we could get. I just like decent (decent enough to my liking) pictures and a good deal so I wanted a cheap camera. Let's just say we didn't get the cheapest camera, and I am the only one who even uses the camera, and if you were to bring up this fact in our household, you would see us fight. No matter how many years will pass from the camera-buying-incident, we will still fight it out. Cody, admit your defeat. And that is the extent of our marriage woes.

9. I love Luby's. So sue me. Chicken fried steak, fried okra, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, hot rolls, even their olives. Luby's is everything delicious to me.

10. My feet are always cold. I think this runs in my family, at least for the women. Thus, I usually have on a good ole pair of booties in my house.

11. Last night, we had our wonderful weekly small group over for some good discussion and fellowship together. Somewhere after Duma got sick in front of everyone, and Cody started doing snap-pops, we settled on mimosas, Jay-Z, and a nice game of Battle of the Sexes. And that is why I love our small group.


Will you accept this challenge???

25 Random Facts about me

I was tagged on Facebook to do this, but now my loyalties are to the blog world so I am posting it here. There are a bunch of crazy rules about how once you read this you have to do it, but I know some of my blog friends have already done something similar, so I'm tagging Kara, Shallan, and Shannon.

1. I’m a newlywed and I love it.

2. Jesus is my savior and my homeboy.

3. I hate gum. I can’t even stand to look at it. Why do people insist on putting it on the top of a coke can to save it for later? That’s sick. Throw it away.

4. I love teaching children, but I hate babysitting. Weird, I know, doesn’t make much sense.

5. I gave myself food poison once. Needless to say, I didn’t cook chicken for months after that.

6. I have been a psychology major, social work major, and ended up with a degree in elementary education.

7. My uncle used to call my sister Minor Potty and me Major Potty. I think the fact that I was a baby and my sister was a 4 year old had something to do with it. I hope.

8. My husband is an amazing musician and has a beautiful voice. He gently tells me I’m tone deaf. We’re working on it.

9. My sister and I have been mistaken as twins. And yes, we were both blessed with the Bill Grosse calves.

10. I make up songs about my dog. Mostly consisting of her name and other letter combinations rhyming with her name.

11. I am a morning person, once I’m out of bed. The challenge is getting me out of bed.

12. My middle name is Martha. Enough said.

13. I have to make meals with all the food groups. Even for lunch. And there usually needs to be an even balance of hot, cold, soft, and crunchy. I can get kinda OCD about this.

14. I have worn the same perfume since high school. That’s like 8 years of pure Ralph Lauren Blue. My best friends could find me anywhere, if they were blind, just by my scent.

15. I love designer jeans. They fit so well. When we were young, it was so hard to find jeans that fit my sister’s and my legs. We had freakishly long, skinny legs and usually only fit into Gap jeans, size long. Designer jeans are the perfect solution. Proudly, I have not bought any since being married.

16. My hair has the ultimate crimp. There are layers upon layers of my hair that are wavy and cannot be straightened. So, brush aside my top layer of Chi straightened hair, and hello Ultimate Crimp!

17. I like Nicholas Sparks books. Yeah, they’re cheesy, but so easy to read and pretty entertaining.

18. I try to paint. I love painting and drawing and hope someday I will be good at it.

19. I am so proud of my parents. Their 30th anniversary is coming up and they are still so snazzy together!

20. The first movie I cried in was My Girl. I remember it vividly, it was such a weird feeling at the time. Thomas J. still gets me.

21. I love Mexican Food! We served it at our Wedding, and it was delicious.

22. I am currently reading Love in the Time of Cholera. This is not as easy of a read as Nicholas Sparks.

23. I am 23 years old.

24. I have the greatest best friends in the world. I love them all and love knowing that we will stay close forever.

25. I would love to live in China, and hope that someday that is where God calls Cody and me.