Today I am grateful.

As I was giving Paxton a bath in the kitchen sink just 20 minutes ago the sunlight hit the top of his head and I saw all these tiny little peach fuzzy hairs growing on his head. He has been bald for the whole 5 months he has been alive along with cradle cap, so to see these tiny little hair sprouts popping up made me smile. For that I am grateful

I am so grateful for Harper and her growing personality. She is incredibly smart and is learning and talking more as each day passes. She can count 1-10 in English and Spanish.  She is learning to sing the Happy Birthday song and we are practicing every day so we can surprise her Mimi next week when we see her for her birthday. She can sing her ABC's and ends it with "now Harper knows her ABC's next time won't you sing with me." For that I am grateful.

I am forever grateful that Josh picked me to be his best friend and wife. He does the littlest things that continually reminds me that he thinks I am special and that he loves me. He is considerate of my feelings and understanding of my quirks. He accepts me for who I am and he can always make me laugh with his silly witty jokes. He pushes me to talk about my feelings when I want to bottle them up and it always makes me feel better in the end. He is basically the best person that has entered my life and for him I am grateful.

I am also incredibly thankful for all our friends and family who are coming to visit us during the summer. We have a full house of guests up until the middle of July and I could not be more excited about it. We appreciate everyone making the trip to come see our family and I promise you will have lots of fun and be well fed while you are here.

Nothing big happened today to bring this overwhelming feeling of happiness over me. I woke up, went to kickboxing, went to the grocery store and am now back at home about to start dinner. It is the small things that come up and make me smile that really help me realize that I am one lucky wife, mom, friend, and person. It really is the small moments in life that make it all worth while.

our memorial weekend

Had to add a pic of this little cutie right after I woke her up one morning. Her hair is so crazy & I love it!

Our Memorial Day weekend was seriously awesome! First off I have to say that it is so incredibly nice that Josh now has a job where he actually gets the day off on holidays. Life changing! Our fabulous friends Ronnie and Kristen along with their three daughters Brinley, Teagan and Savannah drove up from Tulsa to come and stay with us. B & T are twin girls who are 10 months older than Harper and Savannah just turned one in April. Needless to say Harper was in playtime heaven with all these little girls around all weekend! 

They drove up Friday and got here right around 6:00. We ate Jack Stack Barbecue (and it was oh so delicious....my mouth is seriously watering just thinking about the leftover cheesy corn I a going to have with my dinner tonight) and we had a big ol' family dinner in the dining room. It was filled with lots of little girl giggles and really great conversations. I have missed these people.

Saturday morning we all got up, I popped in a breakfast casserole that I had prepared the night before, ate breakfast and all got ready to go to Deanna Rose Farmstead. This was Harper's second time there and she pretty much thought she owned the place. If you know Harper at all you know that she is far from adventurous but when she goes to Deanna Rose she is completely in her element. She runs around everywhere checking out all the animals and is just happier than I have ever seen her. All of the little girls had a blast as well as the adults. We ended our time there with ice cream cones for everyone, except poor Pax, next year buddy!

That afternoon Kristen and I took a trip to Trader Joe's to load up on yummy inexpensive wine and a few extra treats for our dinner that evening. I cooked up a 4lb pork butt, grilled tons of veggies, roasted garlic to put on our olive demi baguette from Trader Joe's along with leftover beans & corn from our Friday night dinner. I will have to give myself a pat on the back because it was such a good dinner! I successfully cooked pork to where it just fell apart and was incredibly juicy!

Josh and Ronnie went out that night for some "guy time" while Kristen and I stayed at the house and had some really great girl time. Wine, s'mores, a movie and just talking. It has been a while since I have had a really good girl talk and it was just what I needed!

The next morning I whipped up yet another yummy meal of homemade cast iron biscuits, homemade gravy, scrambled eggs, and Ronnie's famous baked bacon. Mmmmmmm. We took the kids to the park right before lunch and had a picnic to end our time with them. It was honestly a perfect weekend and I cannot wait until we are back together with the Pike's again. They are not only great people but really wonderful friends.

Waking up Monday morning and realizing Josh was off work that day was such a treat! I went to my Kosama circuit training gym class (to attempt to work off all the food I consumed over the weekend) and then played at the house with the kids all afternoon. That evening the Lurvey's invited us over for some BBQ pork sandwiches that Dustin had prepared & we can never turn down smoked/bbq meat from Dustin, he is seriously a pro at making it! Then to end the long weekend perfectly, Josh and I called our babysitter and went to go see the Avengers. The movie was pretty good. I'll admit I probably fell asleep for maybe 10 minutes because the ending fighting scene was like 45 minutes long no joke, plus I am pretty lame when it comes to watching movies in the evening. It was really lovely though just getting time with Josh. The thing I love most about going to the movies is that we get at least 2 hours of uninterrupted hand holding. It makes me happy. =)

Hope everyone has a fantastic short week this week, I am headed to the dentist on Thursday. Me and the dentist never have a good time. This could get ugly...

The last cuddles...

This guy is just the coolest little dude ever! He seriously smiles all the time and is just the happiest baby! I love his uber bald head and his multiple chins and big ol' gummy smile. 


I am so excited to say that he is FINALLY sleeping through the night!! I actually asked this sleep consultant out of Tulsa on FB a few questions about what I could do to get him to sleep all night. He was consistently waking around 4:30 in the morning genuinely hungry. I knew that he was capable of going all night because he had done it a few times before. With him having reflux and just being a much bigger baby than Harper I was hesitant to let him just cry it out. Plus his cry is not the most pleasant sound ever. Seriously, he sounds like a screeching cat or something. I am not sure how this happened because Harper has this awesome deep raspy voice and cry so it is pretty tolerable (all things considered), but Paxton squeals, screams and screeches and it's not so awesome. Anyway, the sleep consultant suggested that I cluster feed him in the evenings to help bulk up his calories before bed to see if it will allow him to go longer at night. This means that I breast feed him at 5:30, give him rice cereal around 6:00, then right before I put him to bed at 7:00 I breast feed him again. I am also still doing the dream feed around 9:30 but I think I am going to try and drop that next week. =(


It is so bittersweet thinking about dropping the dream feed. First of all it will make me nervous that he will start waking up again at night. Second, it is just the sweetest moment of the day that I have with him. He is eating while mostly asleep and his body is so relaxed all swaddled up in my arms, breathing in and out so slow with his eyes closed. Even after he is finished eating I tend to just hold him for a minute or two. It is the perfect way to end my night before I head off to bed as well.  It is a perfect moment of just him and I.


As I was dream feeding him the other night the thought came to me that once I stop doing this feed with him it could be the last time I get to do this. I mean we have 1 boy and 1 girl and are very happy with this. But my heart breaks just a little each time I realize that he is getting a little bigger and soon enough the sweet cuddles will stop, the bonding time while breast feeding will end, and my little baby will continue to grow and become a big boy. Each time I go through his closet and put up the clothes that don't fit any more I just get so sad that I will potentially be done with babies for the rest of my life! Now I do NOT love being pregnant, having to lose all the baby weight, c-sections, stretch marks, etc etc etc, BUT I do love the outcome of it all and having a sweet little baby that is mine. I am so lucky to have one of each and to have them seriously be the best kids ever (biased I know). As of now we do not plan on having any more children (J is definitely happy with the two).  We shall see in a few years but I will say that as they do get older they get so much more fun. 


Well I am off to go and wake up my little dude so I can see his smiley face and take them to the store to grab some things before our company comes this weekend!! We will have a house full of 4 adults, 5 kids under the age of 3 and potentially 3 dogs! Happy Memorial Weekend everyone!

Sunday Night S'mores

We ended our weekend with inviting our friends over for enchilada dinner and they brought along the supplies to make S'mores which made me and my belly oh so happy!! The weather was fabulous and it was the perfect way to end the unfortunately short weekend. We have our awesome friend Josh staying with us this week so that adds a little excitement to our usual routine. I hope everyone has a great Monday and don't forget to Thunder Up tonight!! =) Happy Monday!!

S'mores in the firepit.

J and  P relaxing outside

Fire master Dustin

Kickin' some A...

Starting Monday May 7th I went to a new gym here in KC called Kosama. It is basically P90X but you actually go to a facility and have an instructor. I like this better than P90X because for me I am able to mentally push myself harder and I am not worried about when the babes are going to wake up and cry.  I have been going during the weekday mornings from 6:10-7:10 and it has been so much fun! I actually don't hate waking up at 5:45 to be there on time because of how I am feeling the rest of the day. Today was my first kickboxing class and dang it was so fun and so hard all in one. I enjoyed punching a giant bag with all my might, it's almost therapeutic!

My biggest concern has been making sure I am drinking enough water and eating enough calories to sustain my breastmilk for Pax. So far it seems to be going well & I am using that MyFitnessPal app I mentioned in a previous post to make sure I am taking in somewhere between 2000-2500 calories on workout days. 

I am planning on doing a "weigh in" tomorrow and I am kind of nervous. I want to see some results on the scale even though I know that is not what you are supposed to base your weight loss on. Although it is nice to see the numbers dropping. I am definitely feeling better and am seeing my baby belly shrinking, not quite firming yet, but shrinking none the less. 

Another thing I have noticed is my decrease in desire for sweets. I went the first three days without having an afternoon sweets craving which is a pretty normal thing for me. Part of it is boredom during the kids nap time and I just think of how delicious something chocolate would be. On Mother's Day I decided that I should treat myself to a little ice cream so I went to Target and grabbed some Edy's Limited Edition Samoa. It was really yummy but after I did not feel good at all. Now by no means am I depriving myself of delicious treats. Harper and I just yesterday had an amazing afternoon snacks of animal crackers dipped in Nutella (mmmmm Nutella) or we go and grab a Diet Cherry Limeade from Sonic, but I have noticed I am wanting less junk and enjoying more healthy choices.

I have always been such a food driven person that from the second I wake up I think about what am I going to have for breakfast, then once breakfast is over I am already planning my lunch and so on. It is as if all I think about is food. Now that I am starting my day off with burning some serious calories I have been changing my thought process. I do think about what I am going to eat to ensure I am eating enough but I am also thinking about what other activities I can do to get some fitness in and get my mind off of food. You would think that I was overweight, and by no means am I overweight, but I have noticed that as I am getting just a little bit older (no, not OLD, but older) I have to be more conscious of what I put in my body.

Ever since I have been with J it has changed my eating habits as well. He has always been focused on eating fresh not frozen foods and making sure we have enough protein and the less processed foods the better. That paired with my love of cooking has been a great marriage of trying fun new healthy and fresh dishes. I am trying to remember to take pictures of dishes I cook that turn out great to share on here because I am big with just throwing something together and having it turn out amazing. Like last night, I made the best turkey meatballs I have ever eaten, seriously!!

Anyway, I am excited and loving this new healthy lifestyle, not diet, that I am doing. I feel better, I hopefully am looking better, and I am happy!

Dear Mom,

Dear Mom,

Happy Mother's Day!!! I know it is a day early but both the kids are napping and I truly have the time to write to you what you mean to me.  I am sad that we do not get to spend the day together tomorrow eating lots of food, exchanging fun flowers, and chatting all afternoon but that doesn't change the fact that I love you more than anything! Now being a mommy of two, I feel like I understand you and love you more than I ever did before. We have always been close and talked often but since I had Harper I feel as if our bond grew even stronger. I literally cannot go a day with out talking to you on the phone and I always look forward doing so. You are such a beautiful person inside and out and I hope that my kids and I have a fraction of the amazing relationship that you do with Brent & I. 

Thank you for always accepting me for who I was and allowing me to be who I wanted to be. You always did a great job not judging us and letting us be the free spirits that we wanted to (within reason of course). I mean how cool of a mom were you to splatter paint my entire bedroom from my bedspread to carpets when I was little? Or for always making me feel like I was the most important person in the world on my birthday? I love that we can go to Braum's and get 2 banana splits and eat the entire thing together without feeling any guilt and enjoying every second of it.  I love that we can also spend the entire day doing fun girly stuff like getting our nails done or shop or we can sit at the house and relax and have an equally fabulous day. I just enjoy being around you. You have made me a better person and by far a better mommy that I could have ever been without you.

Thank you for always listening to me when I needed it. Be it a bad day with the kids or just a bad personal day, I love that I can always pick up the phone and know you will remind me of the good. I don't know if you realize it but you always have a positive thing to say to remind me of happiness when I am having a down time. You always make me feel better.

Thank you for being an amazing Mimi to my children. I know it is hard not to see them as often as you would like but I appreciate the fact that you do not make me feel bad for moving 5 hours away. Again, you are always positive to remind us of the next time we will see each other and excitedly count down the days/weeks. You have a huge place in my children's lives and Harper talks about you every single day. She loves the fact that Mimi paints her toes & every day after she wakes up she points to her pretty pink toes and says "Mimi toes!" I know Paxton will be equally chatty about you as he get's older.

Thank you for not only being my mom but now being my best friend. I know both of our husbands agree that we may be a little crazy with our obsession with organization and cleanliness but I love that we have so many similarities like our love for books and cooking and wine. Thank you for always believing me, supporting me, loving me, providing for me, and reminding me of the good. I love you mom, thank you for being you, and thank you for being my mom.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Not Awesome vs. Awesome Thursday

NOT AWESOME...

*Having the pleasure of cleaning up dog poop & pee twice in the kitchen because my dog sucks
*Buying million dollar acid reflux medicine to only have to mop the floors multiple times because Paxton is still continuing to spit up......a lot.
*Driving home with a screaming baby because I maybe pushed the limit on his awake time so Harper could have extra fun at our play date
*My concealer has gone missing..... 
*The humidity outside that is making my hair go craaaaaazy
*Really really really wanting something sweet or chocolate but having absolutely nothing in the house to help my craving


 
AWESOME...

*Getting to lay in bed until 6:20 because Paxton decided to sleep all night (even though I was awake since 5:30 waiting for him to wake up)
*Looking outside of my kitchen window to see all the gorgeous flowers blooming in my bed's
*Meeting up with our friends Leah, Emmy & Wyatt for a play date at Jumping Jax 
*Finding out that Josh picked me up some Fish & Chips from McCoys (my FAVORITE!)
*All new Grey's Anatomy tonight that I will watch during nap time tomorrow!! 
*Hearing my genius daughter count 1-10 all on her own because she is obviously a genius
*Realizing Saturday is Cinco De Mayo....bring on the Mexican food & more importantly the      Dos Equis Amber heavy on the salt & lime please!!  
*Thunder Game #3 vs. Mav's 
*Realizing only one more work day until I get to spend all weekend with Josh! 


I would say that today the awesome is out weighing the not so awesome. Happy Thursday Everyone!!

A healthier lifestyle

I just finished watching the Biggest Loser Finale and it was so inspiring!! As usual I cried throughout the majority of the episode because I am just so happy for these people who worked so hard. I simply want to lose around 10-12 lbs to get the last of the baby weight off and tone back up and I am not even doing a great job with that.

A few weeks back J & I started using this app on our iPhones called MyFitnessPal. It allows you to put in your current weight, goal weight, how much you would like to lose per week, etc. Then you type in your meals and it helps you keep track of your calories to stay on goal. Well I did this for a little over a week and was noticing Paxton was becoming fussier when he ate and then he started waking up multiple times at night to feed. I then chatted with a few friends of mine and realized I was cutting my calories waaaaay to much. I was only taking in 1430/day when it says a breastfeeding mom needs to consume around 2037. By no means do I want to be thinner over being able to continue to breastfeed because that is more important to me. However, since I am finished having kids, at least I think I am finished having kids... =), I am ready to get myself back in tip top shape! So anyway, using that calorie tracking app really put things in to perspective on how many calories I take in a day and what a sweet tooth I have. Until I worked retail I never drank soda, ate candy, or consumed as much junk as I did while working for Target. I am sure the long hours and the access to all the yummy junk foods did not help with my transformation to a sweets eater. However, it has now been 19 months since I have worked there and I am still eating way too many sweets. The other part of this is that I just love to bake. On a Sunday afternoon or a dreary winter day I really enjoy getting in the kitchen and baking up something yummy. I am then left with a mass amount of cookies/cakes/treats for only two people to consume, and if there is a sweet in the house, by all means we will eat it!

A few weeks back I bought J & I a Groupon deal to go to a 2 week session at this place here in KC called KOSAMA. It is similar to P90X, but you actually go to a location, work out with instructors and other people, and get your butt kicked there instead of at home watching a video. I own P90X and it is a great work out but I am so much better going to a class and competing with those around me. The only downside to this is that they have no child care so J and I can not go together (which would be ideal). They are starting a new 8 week total body transformation this upcoming Monday. I am hoping we can get it so both of us can trade off to get out rear's in gear.

I am pretty excited for our new healthier eating lifestyle though. We are trying out lots of new things that we have never had before like kale and lentils which have turned out to be oh so delicious. Along with baking I genuinely enjoy to cook so learning new recipes and trying out new ways to cook things has been really fun. I also have realized that I feel so much better when I consistently eat healthy. We watched the documentary Food Inc a few weeks back and it helps to make people realize you need to think more about what they are putting in your bodies and where it is coming from. I have also heard Forks Over Knives is a great documentary to watch as well, we will have to check that one out next!

If anyone has any great tips or recipes towards a new healthy lifestyle I would love to hear them. Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. Halfway to the weekend already!!!

A Weekend To Remember....

This past weekend we took the kids to Deanna Rose Farmstead here in Overland Park. It was honestly the most wonderful family outing we have had so far. First off, it is incredibly inexpensive. $8.00 for the four of us to get in. Then we just walked around for the next few hours and watched Harper as she saw all the chickens, cows, goats, fish, horses, turkeys and pigs she could take. She was so brave and got closer to the animals than I expected her to. The place is set up wonderfully where she was able to walk around the whole time (unlike the gigantic zoo) and I have never seen her so happy in her entire life. It really made me step back and realize how lucky I am to have a this little girl that finds happiness in such small things.

 Harper went into the petting area and said "hi" to all the baby goats! We considered buying a bottle so we could feed them but since this was her first attempt at getting this close we didn't want to ruin it by the goats being a little over excited for milk and jumping on her. Harper likes the be the one to make the first move in life.

 After seeing most of the animals we all treated ourselves to ice cream cones. This was Harp's first ice cream cone and she obviously loved it!

 Paxton was a champ the whole time too. He failed to sleep but was so happy to be outside and hanging out with us that it did not even phase him! I am excited that we will get to experience the fun all over again when he is big enough to walk around and check things out for himself!

Now how can I not be the luckiest lady ever to have these 2 handsome fellas in my life?

After we finished there we went home and put two very sleepy babes to bed. It started getting a bit cloudy and so we picked up some food for a late lunch and relaxed around the house. That evening I made a childhood favorite dinner of mine which is hardboiled eggs & gravy on toast. Not a healthy dish but ohhhhh soooo delicious!!!!! We watched the Thunder game that evening and just hung out together. It was perfect.

Sunday morning started of a dreary rainy morning and we unfortunately experienced our first heart stopping moment as parents. Harper and J had just gotten back from grabbing some breakfast and she was running around being her silly self in the living room. She still had her shoes on and was carrying her blanket while running, slipped on it and hit her forehead on the fireplace. I am not sure who cried more, her or I! I was really proud of J and myself for not freaking out too much. I immediately got on the phone and called the nurse line for our pediatrician to see what we needed to do. She hit right between her eyes on her forehead and had a big ol goose egg that was black and blue within seconds. The nurse was so helpful and told me the signs to look out for a concussion. She explained that where she hit was actual the ideal spot to hit with all things considered.  Needless to say Harper was babied all day long getting to watch all the Rugrats and SpongeBob she wanted, she had countless books read to her and cuddled with us on the couch with her favorite blanket & paci. Within no time she was acting as if nothing had happened and was running around again. If I wasn't bad enough about gasping when something happened before, I am a million times worse now!! She has a nice boo boo on her head now. Josh told Harper's little 4 year old friend, Cooper, last night that she got mad at someone at school and head butted them. Haha!! Thankfully she is perfectly fine and not phased at all!

Oh and Paxton turned 4 months old on Sunday!! We are starting him on some rice cereal to hopefully help his acid reflux because so far neither Zantac or Prevacid is doing anything for the amount of spit up he has going on. Fingers crossed it will help him sleep through the night too. He is still waking somewhere between 4:30 & 5:30 for a feeding then I get him back up at 7 to start our day. I am ready for some all night, uninterrupted sleep!!