I hate bath time, my little income, and an update on the crazies.

To start this off on a side note (because I why not?) do any of you other parents hate bath time as much as I do? I see alllllllll these posts about how much you all love doing bath time with your kids at night? Me? No thank you! Water ends up everywhere (including on me) because splashing is so much fun to them. Harper cries every time I wash her hair. She hates the water running on her face/ears when washing out the shampoo. Paxton won't sit still long enough to scrub down his grimey self and every time I say it's time to get out they whine and cry. Not my idea of fun!!! However, adding bubbles to our bath has helped out a little, not sure why? Maybe because it distracts them long enough for me to scrub them clean? However, the pool counts as a bath, right??? That's been my motto this summer! Ok I am done complaining, on to the happy stuff!

I received my first official paycheck today since I started teaching classes at my gym. Was it a big paycheck? No. Was it even like one tenth of what my old paychecks used to be? No, not really. Was it something I worked for and earned myself? Absolutely! My mom asked me this morning if all the waking up crazy early three days a week was worth the paycheck. I told her yes. Although it is about contributing a small paycheck for my own self worth and pride, it's become more. I enjoy seeing the same faces in the morning and getting in uninterrupted adult conversations. I loved going to assessment day last weekend and seeing people's reactions as they stepped on the scale and saw their weight dropping since their previous weigh in. I really love being the motivator and the person to push people harder than they think they can go. I have so much to learn and hopefully a long time to continue to get experience under my belt, but so far I really like working at a gym. =) Plus it forces me to get in at least 5 good workouts a week. Aaaaaand it may give me the excuse to eat a little more which makes this fat girl at heart hap hap happy!

 Cooking up pure deliciousness in her kitchen in the skirt she won't take off.

One of my favorite parts of Harper's room. The dream catcher her great great aunt and uncle got her and a beautiful photo and poem my grandma made for me. Paxton has a dream catcher hanging above his bed from them as well. Gotta bring in a little piece of our Cherokee to the house!

There have been so many fun changes going on with the kids. In less than a month Harper is going to be three! I am so so so so so excited for her birthday! We are going to be home on her actual birthday and Josh and I are already trying to think of what we want to do for her. I am not someone that puts a big emphasis on these crazy ornate parties that would just stress me out (at least not yet) or buying her a million gifts (because let's be honest our families will buy her ten thousand new things. However, I am not complaining!!)  Instead, I like to think of a fun experience we can do to help her remember something special about her day. Last year we took her to her first Royals game. She fell in love! The food, the fun, the excitement she sees when Josh is reverting back to his childhood, it was just the best time ever! I haven't decided what exactly we are going to do this year but I have a few ideas brewing. She is so fun and girlie right now I am literally soaking up every moment of it. She has been wearing a skirt/tutu for a week straight, she carries around her lip gloss 24/7, wants her nails painted all the time and loves to put on (pretend) makeup. Don't let her exterior fool you too much, she still loves playing in the dirt and getting messy or playing T-ball in the backyard. I cannot really explain how love works with your children but I can tell you that for me, I love both my children so much more as I get to know them better and see their personality blooming and growing into the person they are going to be. Harper is so kind and loving, especially towards the animals. She will just randomly come up to me, put her hand on my arm and say "mama, I love you." You might as well mop me up right there because I just ooze with love for her. She is insanely smart. I really do think so, I am sure its not just me being biased =). She has the most amazing golden curly hair and gorgeous eyes that are green some days and blue others. She's just beautiful inside and out!

I promise, he does have hair!

Pax playing in Harper's room. Isn't her colorful wall hanging amazing? My mom is so talented!

Big boy Paxton is ever changing as well. He is officially a non-pacifier using kid. He was only using it for nap time and bedtime but the other day he found an old broken paci that I had in the drawer in his room and I decided to run with it. He did so much better than I expected and it has absolutely been harder on me than on him. He occasionally brings it to me and says "uh oh" since its broken. Other than that, it really has not affected him. I'm thankful for that, but at the same time it's a tad heartbreaking. It was the last little thing that made him a baby.  No more baby boy around here. He is really starting to talk and test out words lately (which I will admit is reassuring me because I was getting a little worried since Harp started speaking so early). He feeds himself and hasn't used a highchair in months. He is going up and down the stairs completely like an adult. No sliding on his belly or scooting on his bottom, this kid is literally walking up and down the stairs at 18 months. It's insane! His newest favorite discovery is jumping. He jumps and hops everywhere because he thinks it's hilarious, which it is of course! I kid you not, he has the best laugh I have ever heard in my entire life. It's infectious and beautiful and I cannot get enough of it. He is literally OBSESSED with Josh. All day everyday he say "daaaaaada". It does make me a smidge jealous but at the same time it makes my heart happy. Plus, I have Harper on the mama is the coolest trend right now so we are even!

 Hope everyone is having a great week! It's already Wednesday! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

Lately.

We have been having so much fun lately I have been super slacking on my blogging and even more so taking actual photos beyond my iPhone! I looooooooove sunny summer time. Especially here in KC where the temperatures are proving to be much kinder to us than when we were in Oklahoma!

So what have we been up to lately? First off, we were super excited that our friends, The Pikes, came up to visit the weekend of the 4th. We tend to always make the efforts to be together around the 4th of July and on occasion we do a pre Thanksgiving with them as well! Anywho, they came up along with their crazy cute three girls to spend a few nights with us. We bought a blow up pool for the back yard, bought lots of beer, prepped food for a cookout and brought out all kid toys imaginable. Needless to say Harper was in heaven the entire weekend having little girls around to play with! The 4th was awesome (minus me having to wake up at 4:15 on the 5th to teach two back to back classes at the gym). However, the 5th may have been my favorite day of their visit. Kristen and I snuck away from the kids while the boys watched all 5 of them for a girls morning. We drove down to the plaza and spent a good amount of time at H&M, drank iced green teas, shot on over to Trader Joes to stock up on wine and good snacks, and ended our morning with picking up Chipotle (mmmmmmmmm!). The boys went out that afternoon to ride go karts and then the adults and the bigger kids all went to the Royals game that night. Josh's mom and Anthony rode up to see us that weekend too so they stayed with Paxton and Savannah while the big kids were taken on a special night of baseball and fireworks. It was awesome! 

Last weekend Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary! We decided on doing very small gifts for each other and then to go out for a nice dinner. It possibly may have been my favorite anniversary thus far. Typically we plan a trip but this year we are considering going somewhere later in the year so we stayed home. We woke up and took the kids to Chick-Fil-A for breakfast (I know, I know, not  fancy or healthy but the play place in there is awesome!). Afterwords, we ran some errands and when the kids went down for a nap I went to go get a mani/pedi! OMG it was amazing. An entire almost 2 hours by myself getting a little pampering. Then we went home and got all dressed up (which I failed to get a good pic of us looking all fancy) and called a cab to take us out to eat at 801 Chophouse in the Power and Light District. The food was amazing, although I ate waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. I cannot emphasize how miserable I was after the meal. Like beyond miserable. Lets put it this way....I may or may not have eaten some sourdough bread, bacon wrapped scallops, half of a filet, lobster mac n cheese, broiled and breaded portabello mushrooms AND key lime pie. Besides my (over)eating issues it was by far one of my favorite dates I have ever been on with Josh. We had such beautiful conversation about our life, our kids, our love and our future. It was real and honest and heartfelt and I may or may not have shed a few happy tears. We even kept our iPhones out of sight for the whole thing. Perfection. It was simply one of those nights that will go down in the books. One of those unforgettable nights filled with special moments and words exchanged. I love him. He is so wonderful and I am very thankful that we found each other.

Beyond that we have been pretty low key and not doing a whole lot beyond the house and hanging out as a family. After teaching 5 fitness classes 3 days a week and waking up at 4:00am in the morning I am quite spent by the end of the day. Josh has been working long days as well and then coming home to continue his work so he too is pretty exhausted in the evenings. We are also doing a really good job of cutting back on eating outside of the house and cooking healthy meals every night at home. I have found that if I plan out the meals for the week it makes things much easier. Plus I am always looking for fun new recipes because I'll be damned if I am going to only eat grilled chicken and veggies to be healthy. Blehhhh.

Any who, I think I am finished with my ramblings. Can you believe I wrote an entire post and didn't really mention the kids?! Weird. I'll have to dedicate a blog post to each one of them soon because I know you are all dying to know the craziness they are up to. =)

 Sweet, clean Harp vs. ornery dirt covered Pax. Tride and true boy vs. girl around here!