Family Pictures 2014!!

You guys, we finally had our pictures taken by a photographer that I have been drooling over her work for quite some time. Anne Almasy is her name. Look her up, use her for your next session, you won't be disappointed. So now I am going to post a ridiculously large quantity of pictures from our shoot. There are too many to choose just a couple favorites!!

Carson 13 Months!

Whoa, I am a little, okay, a lot late on this post!!

Carson is literally the sweetest little girl ever! She is a feisty little one that gives us all a run for our money, but we wouldn't trade it for thing. Love you sweet girl!

At 13 Months:

• We are amazed at what she understands. She is sometimes good at listening. We can ask her to go grab something and she will do it. She will also sit and stop what she is doing....occasionally. 
• If she has food in her mouth but you bring her something she would rather have right that second, she proceeds to spit out the chewed up food in favor of the other. Yuck!
• She loves the refrigerator. Weird. She literally runs to it if it is open, which is probably why she keeps getting back on the head by the door. Boo!
• She loves to climb on things. She has figured out that if she has something to stand on, pillow, toy, whatever, she can get on the couch. Unfortunately, she hasn't figured out how to stay on the couch without falling or how to get off with going head first. The other day she climbed up on the couch. Once she got up there, she stood up near the edge and fell directly back on the floor on her back. Thankfully, the pillow she used to get up there is what she landed on. Phew! I just couldn't get there fast enough to catch her. Scary!
• She started saying mama more frequently and now she says it all the time. She is also continuing to say dada and bubba. She also says hi, bye (sometimes), Nana, Kath (which sounds like da but louder), ni ni (night night) and she is starting to repeat what we say more frequently.
• She loves bananas, peaches and any pouch. She gets angry if Reed has a pouch and she doesn't.
• She loves to play with her brother one minute and equally dislikes it the next.
• She has a bit of a jealous streak. If Reed is sitting in my lap, she will often come over and try to take over.
• She still snaps very quickly at him if he does something she doesn't like. Honestly, he deserves it most of the time. He won't leave her alone!
• She is getting over another ear infection. I hope this doesn't mean specialist time.
• She still has to be rocked to sleep. Sleep training starts after this round of antibiotics. 
• She continues to love to read. Her favorites are still Moo, Ba, La, La, La, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
• She cocks her little head to the side onto her shoulder when she is embarrassed.
• She has learned to spin around and around. I think she likes to be dizzy, ha!
• She loves to dance. If she hears any music, no matter how brief, she will bust a move.
• She still only has 8 teeth but the poor little thing is working on 8 more. They will probably all come through soon.

Sicky girl. : (

She is huge!

Sometimes....all you can do is laugh!

On Tuesday, Carson refused to let me rock her to sleep at naptime or at bedtime. Normally, I rock and snuggle with her until she passes out and then I put her in her crib. Not on Tuesday. She was having none of that. She shook her head yes when I asked if she wanted to get in her crib. On both trips to bed, she played in her bed for a bit and then fell asleep on her own. I was surprised. That evening I told Chris how exciting it was that she might be able to go to bed on her own without us even having to do anything. BUT, I was also a little sad. I said I might cry if she was such a big girl and didn't need me to rock her anymore. : (

Here's where the laughter comes in.......

Yesterday was a completely different story. Naptime was no different than normal other than the fact that it was so short. I rocked her to sleep, laid her in her crib and left. Last night, she would have no part of going to sleep in her crib, even after I rocked her to sleep. The second I would lay her down, she popped right up. I must have rocked her to sleep and laid her down 6 or 7 times. After that, I refused to rock her anymore, so I laid in the floor beside her bed. I would think she was sleep, make a slight movement, and that was that, the screaming would begin. Ha! I finally got her to sleep around 11:45 last night. I was wiped. She was up again at 2:20. Ugh. Chris took that shift. I am pretty sure she woke up again because I remember sleeping on the floor beside her for some time. Dear.

I am hoping that maybe it's her cold that caused all the sleep issues last night. Or are we starting some separation anxiety issues?!?! She did cry for the first time when I dropped her at the gym daycare yesterday. Her cry scream last night was definitely different than normal. 

I take it back, Carson, getting over you not letting me rock you to sleep is much easier than spending 4 hours trying to get you to sleep. I wouldn't mind if you would go to sleep on your own or let me rock you to sleep and you actually stay asleep. Love, Mommy!

I honestly just laughed in the midst of all of it last night. I kind of deserved it. And, you know you are laughing at me too!

Reed's First Day of School!

Yesterday was Reed's last first day of preschool! He is in a young 5's class for those kiddos who have very late birthdays and are waiting until next year to start kindergarten. Academically, he is ready for kindergarten, emotionally, we have some work to do. This year is going to be great for him!

Time....can we add a bit more of it to every day?

I read a quote the other day that totally made me stop and think about the little things that I stress over and put pressure on myself to change because they aren't on my to-do list.

It went a little something like this....

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

I am constantly feeling like I am just getting by with everything in life. Just keeping my head above water. Gone are the days when I am a proactive, overly prepared, always on time person. With life in general, I am constantly feeling stressed about the next thing coming up that I must get prepared for. First it was Carson's first birthday party, then came time to plan Reed's 5th birthday, oh, and I should probably consider what he should wear for his first day of school. Wait, does he need new shoes or will the old ones do? These are regular conversations that go on inside my head. I find I am in a constant battle with myself to not wait until the last minute, but often other things that have to get done get in the way.

As for the quote mentioned above, I totally get a little bit of a heavy weight on my chest, a claustrophobic feeling, when I am not doing something productive in the evening. You know, that time after the kiddos are in bed that is just for you. You can do anything you want, as long as it is in the confines of your house. Honestly, I am usually exhausted by the end of the day and I can't do more than plop my computer on my lap and read useless nonsense while Big Bang Theory is on in the background. Chris and I recently started watching reruns and we heart it. I mean, why didn't we know about this before? Anyway, I say all of that to say that I need to start actually looking at the things that I spend my time on and really find out if it is actually wasted time or not. I mean, I could be doing something more useful, but really, Chris and I have a great time watching the nerdy show together. It does make me happy and really is one of the highlights of my day.

Now, I know there are things that I do use my time on that are unnecessarily wasting time. I can't say that I enjoy looking at Facebook. It really is just a time sink that takes my mind off things that I should be doing. AHHHH, it's a trap!

I think my goal going forward is going to be finding out what I truly enjoy doing with my spare time. And do it. And ENJOY it. No more feeling guilty for things that I enjoy doing that take away from things on the to-do list. They will get done, it just might be right before it's absolutely necessary for it to happen versus being way ahead of schedule. For example, I am not going to stress over the fact that I bought a gift for a party on the way to the party. Yes, I did that! I guess I am kind of a pro at getting things done in the knick of time, so I will embrace it.

I wonder if this is a problem that all moms of young children feel?

All in a day!

Below is a chronological order of outfits one day this past week. He, of course, started the day in a different outfit. If only I had known what the day would entail, I would have taken a picture in the most normal outfit of the day.