New babies and T.V.

The thing about new babies is that they wake up in the night, obviously. With both of my babies I spent lots of time rocking them and singing to them (I have a whole list of my favorite songs to sing, that's a whole other post) but dude, sometimes you have to keep your ass awake, and that is where t.v. comes into play.

With Deacon I got hooked on The Office, I watched endless episodes. I watched Jim and Pam fall in love and laughed myself silly (back when Micheal Scott was still fun to watch) I always associate that show with baby Deacon. That feels like a million years ago and yesterday all at once.

Baby Gwen was no exception, I needed a show, and something with a lot of episodes on Netflix. You guys, I hit a low. I swear I had already watched anything worth watching! Parks and Rec. check! Mad Men, check! Friday Night Lights and Parenthood, check! I hit a new low, I have watched 7 seasons of Greys Anatomy. In two months.

Guess what, it worked! I got hooked on a show and never once fell asleep while up with babe in the night!

Now my baby sleeps through the night, I know I am really lucky. My babies are good sleepers. I think Gwenyth started sleeping through the night because she did not want a mom who got hooked on Vampire Diares.

Here is that delightful baby at 2 months and 2 weeks:

Holy smokes, I you too Gwenners. Also, someday I will post a picture that is not directly from instagram, that someday is not today. Baby steps everyone.

Friend Time.

Sometimes Laura comes over and I make her dinner and then we talk about every single thing under the sun. I LOVE Laura. She is one of those friends I can be completely myself around. And we look like a couple in this picture which makes me laugh for days. (we made Curt take this pic. guess how excited he was about that??)

Tonight I made roasted carrot, sweet potato and red potato soup, SO easy and SO delish. Then we made Valentiney sugar cookies! Laura is so serious about decorating cookies that she brought tweezers! Tweezers that she only uses to decorate cookies, to pick up tiny sprinkles! I love it so much!

While she was here we talked about the 5 love languages (I just read the book for my book club) we talked about how our husbands or partners or whatev usually fulfill one of our love languages but how great it is to have girlfriends to fulfill your other love languages. For instance, words of affirmation, as girls we are really good at saying how great each other looks, how talented each other are, and how all around awesome we are. I am so happy to have so many great girlfriends to fulfill my love needs, ha!

I decided February is the worst with one awesome day- Valentines. Looking forward to my traditional family Valentines dinner, what foods can possibly be made heart shaped??

Who blogs anymore??

Well for starters, my mom does. EVERY DAY last year, can you handle that? If I had a diet coke for every time I wish I would have written something down on this blog......... Anyway, what I would like to say is that I intend to blog more. I intend to capture more of the funny, cute, annoying, silly amazing things my children (and husband) do. I intend to to write about all the things that make me happy. Because I agree with Lindsay I like to talk about the joys.

I also intend to write about some of my worries or hard times. I am sincerly thankful I wrote about my struggles in the last couple years on this blog. When I go back and read them I can remember exactly how I felt, it reminds me to feel more deeply the joy I am now feeling.

So who blogs anymore?? ME!

On  a side note: my new years resolution was to always have my nails nicely painted at all times and I am KILLING IT.

Gwen loves her mom

These are the things I accomplished ALL while wearing baby Gwen in the baby Bjorn:

1. Cleaned the kitchen top to bottom including mopping.
2. Made homemade pizza for dinner.
3. Helped Deacon brush his teeth and tucked him in bed.
4. Vacuumed
5. Moved along tons of loads of laundry.
6. Made chocolate chip cookies.
7. Loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, twice.
8. Took out the garbage and recycling.
9. Helped Deacon do math homework.
10. And most impressive: painted my nails.

I feel like a total granola,  a extremely productive hippie. I actually really love wearing her in the Bjorn or the sling, she snuggles right up. I am pretty sure she loves me, a lot. With that being said, my back freaking hurts.

p.s. special thanks to one of my besties Jenny for lending me the Bjorn, obviously I would get not much done without it.

p.p.s. you will be happy to know I took her off to clean the bathroom and change my sheets.

Bubbles.

Have you seen the movie knocked up? One of my most favorite parts is when Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen are sitting in the park watching the kids play with bubbles, Paul Rudd says something along the lines of: "kids love bubbles, I wish I loved anything as much as my kids love bubbles" Makes me laugh every time. Bubbles are fun.

Today I went fabric shopping with my mother in law (she is making the babes blessing dress, yay!) she offered up my father in law to watch Deacon while we went. Deacon was so excited to spend time with his Grandpa rather than in a fabric store (obviously). Curtis' dad is getting older. No way around that. It is hard to see the ones we love get older, especially when it seems to happen overnight. I feel sad when I realize that my kids will not get to know their grandparents as well as I wish they would.

When we pulled up to the house Deacon and Grandpa John were out in the driveway, I could see that Deacon looked to be running circles around John, when I got closer I saw that John was blowing bubbles and Deacon was chasing them.

It may not seem like much, but as I pulled up and saw the look on both their faces I tried to freeze that moment because I want Deacon to remember a Grandpa who spent time blowing bubbles for him because guess what? Kids love bubbles.

The craziest thing

She has started sleeping too long in the night. Doesn't that just sound so ridiculous? All this time I have been working to teach her to sleep, in her crib and for long periods of time. I did not stop to think I would miss holding, rocking and kissing her in the dark quiet hours of the night. Ha!

Truthfully I am so glad she is sleeping more, it gives her the energy she needs to smile all the time, look cute and start to coo. I love love love Gwennie.

Having a baby around is such a delight. It is the kind of thing you never want to end but cant wait for the next step all at the same time. Super weird and super awesome all at once.

The Family

 Here we are now, family of 4, I am still pinching myself. This month has absolutely been one of the best of my life (also one of the most draining, emotional etc. etc.) I wanted to record a little about how each family member is faring.

Deacon has been downright delightful. So helpful, sweet and loving. He is known for his high pitched voice in which he talks to the baby. One of my favorite things he says when he hears the baby crying "oh! you want your brother? Is that the problem?" He is always asking to teach the baby, saying "do you wanna learn?" and then he teaches her to clap or shake hands or whatever else. He has fallen right into the big brother role better than I could have ever asked for.

He is also still a major lego fanatic and is becoming such a wonderful reader, I LOVE when he brings new books home and reads them to me. He loves school and playing with his friends, and I love him. Last night he snuck into my arms in the middle of the night and I remembered just how thankful I am for my sweet firstborn boy.

 Me? Well I turned thirty, I can not complain, I have more than I could ever ask for. A new baby girl in time for Christmas and my birthday was sweeter than I ever knew possible. We celebrated simply but I made sure to have a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream, I ate that for more meals than I should admit. I think thirty will be great.

 This baby is a dream. She only cries when hungry or when she needs to be gently rocked to sleep. Loves a binky popped in her mouth and a bum pat. Is totally at home tucked in my sling (pictured above) and nurses like it is her job (and it is!) If I think about what it took to get her here and what a beautiful miracle she is I just cry. In the middle of the night I love holding her while she nurses and saying my prayers thanking God for all I have. To say I love her is just too simple a statement. I LOVE her.

I just love Curt's face in this picture, so funny. Here he is with the whole gang. Deacon loves spending one on one time with him and likewise. Curt stays so busy with work, playing basketball and taking care of us. He is a great dad and husband, even though a new baby throws everyone through a loop I am so glad we are in this together. Happy to be in this family we have created.