Our summer so far!

 Geez, time flies! Especially when I realize I have not blogged in over a month, oops! Life gets busy I tell ya! Well, so far this summer, we have celebrated a big 4 year old's birthday and a big 2 year old's birthday (cousin Chase), gone to our share of pool and splash pad play dates, hosted our very first play date in our new house, had the most QUIET 4th of July EVER, had friends come into town and visit, saw a teddy bear making factory, went to the children's museum, napped (and not napped!), slept through the night (a few times), chopped off many inches of hair, and just yesterday - someone officially started CRAWLING! Ahhh we're in trouble now! :)

  

Our Lilly-bug's personality is really coming through nowadays! She's going to be a feisty one, that's for sure! She knows what she wants and will definitely let you know she wants it NOW (usually be screaming her head off, it's fun). She's finally getting better at napping, and almost sleeping through the night... she likes to tease me by doing it for a week straight then waking up usually one time again. Ahhhh what I wouldn't give to sleep until past 7am these days. I guess I could go to bed earlier, but what's the fun in that?! Momma needs her book/tv/relaxing time! 

Rylie has proven to be such an awesome big sis! She will entertain Lilly for me, a very big help sometimes (like when I'm trying to vacuum the house or cook dinner). Lilly does NOT like the vacuum one little bit, I've never seen her get more hysterical over anything else. I try to sweep as much as possible, but I've got to vacuum at least once in a while! Sorry Lil! 

 

 We are really enjoying the area that we moved to, there is so much to do around us! And the mom's group we found has been super great, and we've made some good friends so far. It's nice having other moms and kiddos to go play with during the day, instead of being stuck at the house all day (which sometimes happens too - it is summer). Splash pads are great! We get to cool off, burn off some energy, and the naps when we get home are usually GREAT! 

 

Our girls playing so cute together :) I love watching them grow and play together! Reminds me of me and my sister, we always had such a blast together! Fought too, yes, but the good memories outweigh the bad for sure! I'm so happy our girls will have each other to play with but also to be best friends from now until adulthood.

 

Rylie LOVES crafts! Is she my kid or what?! I love that she is getting older and we can do more structured crafts together ;)

 

And last but not least, I chopped my hair off! It was so overdue, my poor hair was just being pulled back daily (I have a grabber here)... plus it was just so hot and I needed a change. So chop I did!! I'm still getting used to it, but I am loving it and it feels GREAT! :)

 

Until next time! Hopefully sooner than a month from now! Haha!

Almost 4?! And 7 months?!

Where does the time go?!

It doesn't seem like it flies by day by day... but then BAM! Suddenly it's less than 2 weeks until your eldest turns 4! She's not a baby anymore! She surprises us day by day how big and smart she is, and she's proven to be quite the helper. She's by far the best entertainment for Lilly - by a long shot! I notice this even more when Rylie gets to spend the night at Nana's house, and Lilian is so much more trouble to entertain by myself. Rylie also gets the best laughs out of her :)

Our little Lilly-bug is growing by the day also - she's pretty much in mostly 12 month sized clothes at the moment. This little chunker loves her food! I'm excited for her to start more solid finger foods, just waiting on a few more teeth before that ;) She is full-on rolling over, at least from back to belly, and loves to practice in the middle of the night (FUN!) So out the cute comfy bumper went, and in went the mesh one, just in case! I think she is slowly becoming a tummy sleeper. However she wants to sleep is fine, I just wish someone would tell her that sleeping all night is even better (one of these days, I keep telling myself!) At least nowadays, I'm only up once to feed her thank goodness. I still yearn for the day that I can sleep past 7am after an all night's rest!

These days we are enjoying the last few days of 90 degree weather before the hundreds hit and we are forced to stay inside. Chris is working out of Phoenix now, at least for the meantime, so it's been great to see him everyday! I know Lilly especially likes to see another face besides mine all the time. We are loving our house, and finally feeling officially settled in - I still want to take nice pictures and share, when my house is clean (one of these days, haha!) And I can also say, I'm very happy to NOT be pregnant this summer, it should be a much more pleasant experience :)

Appreciation

Lately, every time I have wanted to write a blog post, it's usually been after one of those "trying" days - like the kind where you can't wait to put the kids to bed, veg out in front of the tv and go to bed. I have had a lot of those days lately. I could go on and on about how difficult my little teething/fussy/short napper my Lillian has been for the past couple weeks, or how Rylie is still having those days where she just can't seem to get to the potty in time and it's panty change after panty change. I could go on and on about all that... but I had an epiphany just the other day. I realized how dang lucky I am to be able to stay at home with these two ladies, in our wonderful home, with a husband who provides and takes care of us without complaint, and close family nearby who helps out whenever possible. I'm lucky to have a few close friends that I can call or write and vent to when needed, and get no judgement just understanding. I'm lucky to have healthy children, who are at most times happy and fun to be around. I love being a mother, even when it's hard. I have to remember this sometimes, when Rylie just won't be quiet during baby's nap, or when Lilly is screaming on the way home from the grocery store. Being a stay at home mom is hard, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I wouldn't want to miss any of this :)

 

March Madness! (Not really, it's been wonderful)

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 We are officially moved in to our new house, yay! What an amazing feeling! Yes, also overwhelming and stressful, but what an amazing thing to OWN your own house and make it into your home. I cannot begin to tell you how different our daily life is, and how much easier it has been in so many ways! We have so much more room, more storage, ONE STORY (love!), and a nice, safe backyard to play in. An added bonus is this screened-in porch which is basically like another entire room, and our dogs have taken to it amazingly. They spend most of day out here and in yard, while it's nice weather right now, and have been sleeping out here too. We still let them in to hang out during the day, but it's nice that they have an area of their own. They have adjusted very well!

 

So have the kiddos! Rylie is just loving her new room, it is set up so cute! Can I just say I didn't realize how many TOYS and STUFFED ANIMALS this kid had until I had to pack them up and move them?!! I even had gone through them all before packing them up! Wow... well, at least Lilly will have a ton to play with when she gets a little bigger too. And Lilly is just loving her room as well! She's not in her crib yet, but the crib sure looks cute all set up! We are having so much success with her sleeping in the swing still, she takes much better naps and sleeps all night (most nights).

I promise I will post more pics of the house soon, we are still working on hanging pictures and getting everything put away - not an easy task with two kids! But it is looking so cute and we are all loving it! We love the neighborhood so far too, what a friendly culdesac! And I discovered just the other day on our walk that the park is only about 15 min walk away, perfect! :)

 

 Just like big sister with the iPad...haha! Learning early!

 Rylie holding little sis :) Lilly is 5 months old already!

 Practicing in the jumparoo!

 We found the park! Awesome!

Lillian's first time in the swing, I think she liked it :)

Catching up...

Whew... taking care of two kids is NO JOKE PEOPLE.

Wow, it's been a hectic household here lately. My to-do list grows with each passing day, and some days I don't get one thing checked off! It's definitely an adjustment. At least when Lilly was a newborn, she slept for most of the day so I was still able to get things done around the house, but lately it's been a little rough. I'm not sure if our baby girl is teething (I'm pretty sure I feel one coming in!), dealing with a little bit of acid reflux (which she's on meds for now), going through a growth spurt, or all the above. I think it's all the above. She's been harder to put down for naps, she is super fussy a lot, which isn't normal for our little angel. Hopefully it's just a phase, and it passes quickly!

I feel bad for Rylie a lot too, because I'm having to spend so much energy and attention on her little sis. :( But she's a trooper, and I think she understands (most of the time). Chris has been a great help too, I'm so glad he's been able to be home to help out during this rough patch. To top it all off, we are in the process of buying a house, so that adds more stress on top of that - keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly from here on out! Hopefully we will have great news at the end of this month!

I've been dealing with this extra stress in the best way I know how: getting back in shape! I'm determined and focused, it's time to shed the baby weight again! I've done it before, I can do it again. It feels so good to get back on my treadmill and have that time to myself. Sometimes I'm not really "alone", as in my gals are hanging out with me upstairs while I get my run on, but it still works (most of the time!) Can't wait to sign up for my next 5K!

We had a very fun January! We got to fly out to Georgia to visit family, and took the girls to Disney World and Sea World for the first time (Chris's first time too!) We had a blast! It was a little hard with Lilly, but she took awesome naps in the morning so we got a lot done in that time while she slept away in the stroller. We can't wait to go back! We also had some awesome visitors come see us this month, our great friends from Cruces. It was a short trip, but we always have fun with them. At the end of the month we got to celebrate Chris's birthday with him. The weather has been amazing here in Phoenix, the perfect weather to do just about anything in. It's almost going to be time to get in the pool....  :)

And now, some pics - enjoy!

Me and my girls, at Rylie's favorite ride at Disney - Dumbo!

Chris and Rylie at Disney World

The family at Sea World, about to get splashed by Shamu! 

Chris said it was the most excited he had EVER seen Rylie, haha

Rylie at the Crab Shack, in Georgia - she loved all the alligators and birds

Chris and Rylie at Sea World

 

 Rylie's first time at the ocean! She loved it - the best sandbox EVER! 

Daddy and Lillian

Those eyelashes!!

Lilly and "Auntie" Sheri, love at first sight :)

Rylie's first dental appointment, she did AWESOME! 

Her hygienist said she was better than some adults!

This girl just loves to stick out her tongue!

 

Sisterly love!