Two too old!!

 Wait? What?

 You say its my.......

 BIRTHDAY?!!!!!!!!!!!

Harper just turned two and was lucky enough to have it fall on a Saturday!! Therefore we were able to make her actual birthday an extra fun day since J is off work and all the fun things happen on weekends. 

I anxiously waited for her to wake up so we could start the fun. Josh and I decorated our front room with balloons, streamers, had all her little plush friends waiting on the couch for her arrival downstairs first thing in the morning. I was not sure if she would really get in to it or not but when she saw the balloons her eyes grew wide and rushed down to see what was going on. She quickly spotted her gifts (which I accidentally forgot to wrap) and knew something awesome was about to go down. With it being early I was apparently not on my game with the camera and all the pics were completely fuzzy so you will have to use your imagination for this segment! =)

 After Pax took his morning nap we took the kids to the Overland Park Farmer's market. Fresh local organic fruits, veggies, we did a little balsamic vinegar tasting of a peach and pear/cranberry flavored, watched a balloon artist create fun little animals and ended up purchasing some honeydew and a few loaves of bread. Pax was a little cranky due to a short nap so it was a tad stressful but next time we learned to bring the wagon so they can both sit down the entire time. I have this fear of Harper being stolen/kidnapped...is this just me or do you other mom's have this too? She is a really good kid where she never runs off and get's kind of freaked out in big public settings so she is always near. But I am very adamant about her holding my hand and not running off. It really causes me to be anxious sometimes when I am in big public settings with the kids. We do not have a double stroller so typically Pax is in the stroller and I have H walking alongside of me. Josh thinks I am crazy and says that it is very rare for a child to be kidnapped but I am still an extra cautious freak about it. 

 After both the kids took their wonderfully long afternoon naps we had our babysitter come to stay with Pax during the evening so we could take H to her very first baseball game. We were so lucky that it was bobblehead night at the K and Harper got an Eric Hosmer bobblehead!

We obviously purchased tickets for seats but honestly we did not use them except for these few pictures. At Kauffman Stadium they have a wonderful kids area where they can play on a jungle gym, race against the time of the baseball players, ride on a carousel, and much much more!

 Checking out the fountains was by far one of Harp's favorite things to do. She was baffled by them and wanted to watch them the entire time.

 It did start to rain on us after we had been there an hour or so but it added to the fun! We ducked under and got some cover while eating pizza, checking out her bobble head again and cheering when necessary.

 I am not sure who had more fun between Josh and Harper. He explained what was going on with the game and she would clap and cheer and shout GO ROYALS! I definitely think this could turn into a birthday tradition and next year we will be able to bring Pax along with us!

Celebrating her second birthday is by far better than the first birthday, and I am sure that trend will continue with each one. We have her 2 year appointment this afternoon so we will be able to see how big and smart she is. I'll do a post soon to update myself for later in life on all the things she is doing as of now!!

OOOOOklahoma!!!!

I was lucky enough to get to spend an entire week back in my home state a week or so ago. Sadly enough I still did not get to see everyone I wanted to but at the same time I did get some good quality time in with some of my favorite people.

The primary reason we trekked it down there was to attend our dear friend Ronnie's birthday party. Him, his wife and three beautiful girls just moved into a new house they built in Owasso and invited us down to celebrate Ronnie's big day. Me being me, decided to make the most of our time in OK and of course crammed waaaaaaaaay too many things in to too few days. 

I had the bags packed and ready to go on Friday and last minute we decided to drive down Friday evening with the idea that it will be around the kids bedtime and they will sleep during the drive (because they have always been awesome sleepers in the car like every other child in the world???) I am here to tell you that I have the children who are anti car sleepers. Like not one wink if it is possible. I am sure you can see where this is going but after we were 15-20 minutes into our drive and had experienced 15 minutes of Paxton screaming we decided to turn around and leave in the morning after everyone had a good night's rest. Not much else makes me more anxious than having a screaming baby in the car (especially since Josh's brother James was with us, who has no kids, and I do not want to frighten him for life out of having any by the insanely high pitched cry of our little guy in the car for three hours...)

Anywho, our drive was much more successful the following morning and we had so much fun spending the afternoon swimming, playing with all the kids, eating a shrimp boil and ice cream sundaes, meeting new friends and celebrating the fact that Ronnie was born and we are pretty happy about that!

As I had mentioned about cramming in too many things, after a loooong day of food, drinking and staying up late, we had our car packed back up and were leaving Tulsa that very next morning to go to not one but two birthday parties for our little Harper. Since 99% of our family lives in Oklahoma it only made sense for us to come to them for her birthday instead of expecting 25+ people to come our way. In all reality for my sanity it was much easier as well. We went to my moms first who planned the CUTEST brunch/donuts party for Harper. Pink sprinkled donuts, yummy breakfast casseroles, and of course too many presents were awaiting this spoiled little girl. Harper being the way she is was not quite ready for all the attention until she had been there about an hour. Then she really turned on the charm. When opening her gifts, Josh would tell her who it was from and she would take it over to that person to help her unwrap it. Then she proceeded with WOW!! or OOOOHHHHH!! before she even saw what it was. Needless to say it was adorable!

Post nap time we loaded the kids back up and drove over to Josh's mom's house where we were having party #2. Over there we went swimming and they grilled some yummy foods for us! Again she was super spoiled with Dora gear, books and an awesome stuffed animal named Abigail that talks when you read her book. Pretty awesome!

The next morning (early again) Josh, James and I were back in the car because I had to drop them off at the airport =(.
Tuesday morning, you guessed it, we were back in the car and driving to Duncan to spend the day and night with one of my very best friends Katie!! The timing of our trip was perfect because her husband, mom and dad were all out of town that week. This meant Katie, Keller, Canon, Harper, Paxton and myself were all having 36 hour long play date and slumber party at her parents house (pool included!!!). Needless to say it was AWESOME! Lots of chatting while laying out between Katie and I and even more play time with all the kids. Donuts, Chinese food, Cherry Berry, and Eduardo's were all consumed within too few hours but it was well worth it! Katie and I literally text each other a million times a day so it did not feel like it had been 10 months since we had really hung out together.

After nap time we were back in the car and heading back to Edmond to spend the rest of the time at my mom's house. The night we got back from Duncan I went to dinner with my long time best friends Hannah and Kevin and it was so much fun. Neither of them have any children yet so it is truly a refreshing night out of adult conversation and funny stories from high school/college. These two people were the people who knew me inside and out growing up and it is never a dull time when we are all together.

The last day of my trip my mom and I went out and did a little shopping, my fabulous step sister Caroline trimmed and colored my hair so I could feel pretty again, and then my siblings came over to my parent's house that evening and we had dinner and drinks and fun conversations.

Friday morning we left Edmond around 8:30am and made it back to my house by 1:30pm with out ONE SINGLE TEAR from either of my children! It was as if the sky had parted and God himself sat in the back seat with my kids and entertained them. It was amazing! 

Although it is really hard sometimes missing out on family events and not seeing my friends as much as I used to, the one thing that is wonderful is the fact that when I see them now it is truly quality time that we get. I love living here in KC but nothing will ever replace my friends, family and memories I have in Oklahoma.

I know this is suuuuuuuuuuuper long and I have been in a blogging hiatus lately but one last thing I have to say is that Harper is turning two TOMORROW! I am oh so excited for our day ahead and I will be blogging about it next week. I am going to do my best to take lots of pictures =).

Ok ok ok I promise this is the VERY last thing..... Paxton is  crawling now! Seriously my kids are getting big waaaaaaaaaay too fast! I hope you all have such a fun weekend and enjoy this awesome weather we are experiencing!

Confession.

In my last blog I talked about how I was going to do the detox and only eat fruits, veggies and beans for a few days to get myself all natural and feeling good. Well I have a confession...

I think I made it about 12 hours before caving!  I did go 3 days with out eating any meat or sugary foods. I mostly ate salads, drank smoothies with hemp protein fiber and lentil or bean concoctions for dinner. I caved the night I made a delicious pot of sweet potato, black bean and chili bean chili and I made it way to spicy for my, and Paxton's, taste. So I had a piece of leftover vegetable pizza from the weekend, and it was good!! =). Props to all you out there that have more will power than I do. I could never ever ever ever ever be a vegan. I have too much love for dairy products to cut it out of my life. Cheese alone is one of the most delicious treats ever.

While I am in confession mode I thought I would share a few of my weird quirks that I never really took much notice to until I met Josh who began to lovingly point out that I am a tad weird. I will thank my mother for a lot of these things.....

* I am VERY particular with weird little things about the cleanliness and order in my home. Due to having 2 big hairy dogs and 2 small dirty children I have my couch covered in decorative blankets to prevent spills/stains (we for some reason thought a grey cloth couch was a good idea??). Any who, anytime anyone sits on the couch and messes up the blanket it drives me nuts. Like seriously nuts. I sit there and wait until they get up to do something and straighten it immediately. Then I proceed to fix the pillows to go back to the spot I had them originally. 
* I cannot stand clutter. After every meal my kitchen is cleaned and all the dishes are put up. Even though I despise to unload the dishwasher for whatever reason, I absolutely cannot go with dirty dishes in, on, or around my sink. I will not sit down at night until my kitchen is cleaned, counter wiped off and all appliances put away. As if it really matters if those things are there in the morning for me to do?
* I count things as I do them. Mostly this is when I go down or up a flight of stairs. I am not sure if I did this before I had children but I am extremely paranoid about missing a step while carrying one of the kids that I count every time I go up and down the stairs. I admitted to Josh yesterday that while we were in Chicago I knew that the 3 flights of stairs going down to the river walk from our hotel were 16 steps, 14 steps, then another 16 steps. He shook his head and buried it in his hands. I then noticed H was playing with her baby doll and walking it up the stairs of her doll house and counting them as she went up... hmmmmmmm.
* When I eat ice cream I take perfect scoops off the top so that it is a level surface when I am fished. When I cut cake/brownies,bread it has to be cut with a knife and a straight line.
* I also find myself cleaning up my kids toys even while they are playing with them. When toys are strewn about all over the floor it almost makes me twitch. I know this is ridiculous but it is just the way I am.

So there it is. There are many many other things I am weird about but I won't let you all think I am a total psycho!

I am just getting to uploading our Chicago pictures too so I will share those in a few days. Happy Monday everyone, we started ours off early so we took a trip to the donut shop! =)

Going all natural...

After a weekend in Chicago filled with deep dish pizza, beer, wine, indulgent breakfasts and a fancy dinner J & I were feeling a bit gross. We had a great time and all the food and drinks were so yummy but coming home we were ready to get some fruit, veggies and goodness in our bodies. 

J decided he wanted to do a cleanse and just focus on consuming fruits, vegetables and some beans for the next week. No alcohol, no sodas, nothing artificial. Water, coconut water or green tea for drinks. I was a bit hesitant since I am still breastfeeding but after talking to a friend and doing some research I am going to jump on the bandwagon as well. This morning I made a smoothie with frozen bananas, cherries, blueberries, a fiber protein powder and some chocolate almond soy milk. It was really delicious and it has also kept me full for quite some time! Not sure what I am going to do for lunch yet but dinner will consist of a spinach salad with avocado, beans, and I will probably make a homemade vinagarette (this may break the rules but oh well!). 

As I was getting out of the shower this morning I decided I am going to take this to the next step and let my face, hair and nails take a break from make up, hot irons and polish too. That's right folks Hippie Brenda is busting out and resurfacing after all these years! Thankfully I really do not have anywhere to go this week so I will keep my scary non made up face to myself but I am actually really excited for this. My mom also told me about this face wash she has been using where she mixes caster oil and olive oil and she claims it is ah-maz-ing that I am going to try out.

So basically why I am posting about this is to get anyone elses suggestions on things to eat, if you all have done a cleanse before and how it went/how you felt after, fun healthy recipes you have eaten even if it is not cleanse related or any motivational words! I hope my excitement continues and that I feel really good after. I like the idea of only having good things in my body. Don't get me wrong I love me some greasy pizza but I also like not feeling disgusting after.

As I stated in the beginning of this post J and I had a fabulous anniversary weekend getaway in Chicago. Once I get my pictures uploaded I will write about all the fun things we did. No kids, just Josh and I, it was absolutely fantastic!!

Is it just me?

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Pax had his 6 month check-up today. I strategically had it scheduled at 3:40pm because I knew H would wake up from her nap around 3:15 and P would be up at 3:00 to eat. Therefore it would give me ample time to get them both ready, be at the doc on time, as well as make it back before I needed to put P back down for his cat nap late in the day.

Well.......

Harp decided to stay awake jumping and playing in her crib until after 2:00pm so she was still sound asleep at 3:20pm when I had to wake her up to get her ready to go. Thankfully she was in a good mood (it was a 50/50 gamble), we loaded up and were in the car by 3:25. I decided there was enough time to stop at Sonic to grab a drink before Happy Hour was over. I obviously had my priorities in order. The people in front of me at the drive thru pretty much ordered  the entire menu and I was impatiently waiting on my one drink for way too long! I got to the Dr. office just a few minutes behind and scrambled upstairs to check in. We surprisingly got called back within 5 minutes and were with the nurse to get P's weight/height/head right away. Then the wait for the Dr began. I don't know if the doctors understand that by putting us in a tiny room with two children is like a ticking time bomb until someone becomes unhappy. Also with the tile floors, it seems as if when one does decide to cry or melt down it echo's big time and everyone knows that the people in room F do not have it together.

Both of mine actually held in really well until the doc showed up and then we had P up on the table checking him out and discussing his achievements thus far. That's when H decided it was time for her to get some attention and started begging me to pick her up. When I kindly explained to her that I needed to pay attention and hold Pax she had a meltdown. I put her on the chair and gave her a book and seconds later the tears were a streamin. It is obviously a domino affect when one child cries in public, the other one thinks they need to also. A symphony of crying children, one sweaty anxious mama, and one doctor who I am sure thinking about how she can remove herself as quickly as possible from this situation. Oh and we had not even given P his shots yet. I'll let you just imagine how well the rest of the visit went.  We did end on a positive note because Harp was able to pick out a sticker from the box so at least she was happy. Pax was not so pleased because of his three shots in the leg (it never gets easier). 

To top things off we came home and he was over tired and would not take his last nap and cried until it was time to eat again.  Not awesome.

Thankfully I am sitting here in front of the computer now with a glass of wine, a sleeping baby, a happy toddler and a husband on his way home with more wine and dinner. Is it just me who gets really anxious and stressed about somewhat small things like this? I know I am uber neurotic about the sleep schedule and my kids acting out in public but geez I honestly get sweaty and anxious so quickly when it comes to my kids not being on their best behavior in public. I hope that it is one of those things that we can chalk up to "this too shall pass?" 

It's times like these I wish my mom was closer and that she could watch one child while the other has checkup's and what not. 

We did survive and J is on his way home and tomorrow we get an entire day together because he now has a job where he gets holidays off!!!!!!! Best. Thing. Ever. Happy Tuesday everyone, I hope you all have a great time celebrating America's Birthday tomorrow!! 

Six months of wonderful

As every parent says... Holy cow where has the time gone?! My little babe is 6 months old as of last Friday. Needless to say he is not so much a "little" babe, but you know what I mean. His personality is growing bigger and bigger with each day and his happy demeanor makes him so much fun! Harp has really taken a turn and is now a huge fan of her little brother and loves that he is becoming more fun to interact with.

Since I have not really done an update for myself as to what he has achieved thus far, I am going to do so. I am HORRIBLE about baby books, scrap books, any other kind of thing to document their progress other than the million photos I take.

The things P has/can do so far at 6 months:
* Talks, hollers, squeals A LOT
* Knows his name and responds when said
*Rolls over from belly to back and back to belly (sometimes)
*Officially out of the swaddle and sleeping like a big boy
*Still on Prevacid for his acid reflux (boo!)
*On a 4 hour eating schedule and taking 2 long naps and one cat nap
*Working really hard on growing out his hair =)
*Successfully shows all his emotions through his eyebrows. Love them
*Can scooch his body in circles when on his belly
*Eating rice cereal, avocado, sweet potato, bananas, applesauce, and prunes
*Loves bath time, books, Johnny Jump Up, sister, our cat Dexter, dada and mostly mama! I am hoping he will be a mamas boy =)

I have a feeling he is going to be much more outgoing and adventurous than his sister. He is already showing more ambition than she ever did. He is also going to be more of a social butterfly than H. When I take him places he is so smiley at pretty much everybody and loves being around people. I am not sure if he is easier because it is my second go around and I knew what to do when I realized he had reflux, or if he is maybe just a bit easier than his sister. Who knows!

He goes in for his 6 month check-up tomorrow so I will officially see where he stands in the rankings for his weight/height/head/physical progress/etc. The last time we went at 4 months he had dropped from being in the 99th percentile in most categories to the 75th which was good & normal!

Being a mama of two has been fun. It is really neat to see their bond forming already, especially since they are so close together. I just realized today that H's birthday is in a little over a month and I have not even thought much about how we are going to celebrate. Most likely I will do something somewhat small here in KC as well as something in Oklahoma since that is where most of her family is. I should probably start getting some plans in place, I am the queen of doing things last minute.

Happy Monday everyone! Mine was off to a rough start but is gradually improving. I am oh so excited for a mid week holiday day off to spend with J having family time and watching fireworks. It couldn't get any better than that now can it? =)

In a funk.

I do not know what is going on with me this week but I am just not feeling myself. I am not motivated to clean, cook, work out, leave my house and just not feeling my normal uppity self. Basically I am just in a funk.

It has been one of those moods where it seems like a good cry will possibly solve all my woes or maybe eating an entire jar of cookie butter perhaps? I am unfortunately out of cookie butter but I definitely ordered myself a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza from Papa John's the other day for lunch. I can say that I have never done that before. I stuffed my face with pizza, bread sticks and a delicious Root Beer to finish it off (all while watching my DVRed episode of the Bachelorette). I didn't get anywhere near eating everything I ordered but I still felt guilty for eating so poorly.

This past weekend J started working on a home improvement project of painting our built in bookcases in the living room white. I was skeptical how it would look but I am SO excited how it is turning out. Hence I say turning out. I have not completed the project (remember my funk?). For a neat freak like myself I am literally twitching every time I see the uncompleted project,yet I am having ZERO motivation to finish it. See my predicament?

Anywho, I did go to a fun moms meeting this morning with my friend Anna. It was really something wonderful to sit and converse with other mama's to share our stories and advice where needed. I am excited to start meeting up with these ladies once a month or so to just have a little adult time. Both P & H did a really good job at the nursery and of course H ended up being her outsider self and playing alone while everyone else gushed over what a happy guy Pax is. So funny how different those two are.

Oh and another thing, I am beginning to think I need to adorn Harp with bows and pearls and anything/everything girlie. I cannot tell you how many strangers think she is a little boy. It probably doesn't help that I keep her hair shorter and its usually unruly looking due to her crazy sleep habits. She does wear Croc shoes all the time and is typically pretty messy from playing and/or eating. We went to Sonic this afternoon because a Diet Cherry Limeade can usually perk up an uneventful afternoon, and the guy working the drive through saw her in the back seat and says "Oh, little guy doesn't look too happy". Me being me, who I never want to make someone else feel embarrassed or bad about anything simply stated, "Yeah, it's post nap time, we don't always wake up very happy." Then he states "Ahhh, post nap blues. I know how that goes. Can I give the little guy an ice cream cone?" Well of course I couldn't deny her of that, especially when she was just called a little guy!! I just don't want my little cutie to be seen as a little boy her whole childhood.

Anyway, that is my ramble for today. I know I haven't posted in a few weeks and this is not necessarily the most upbeat post but it is what I am feeling so I felt it was appropriate to write it. Tomorrow will be better, I have set the goal to finish my painting tomorrow since my dad and step mom are coming up this weekend which is going to be oh so fun. AND J & I will be running in the Color Run on Saturday morning so that will be a colorful, sweaty, crazy fun kid free event that we get to go do together! Wish us luck =).

Happy Wednesday everybody, hope you are feeling a bit more upbeat than myself.