Life lately

Hey Ladies! 

I have no idea why I haven't blogged in so long. Life has been awesomesomely mundane. I am loving my daily routine with my dude. I am going to try and start working 3 Saturday's a month so that I don't have to worry about the hours for keeping up my license. 

My days look like this. Every day, and I am ok with that. 

5:45 The whole family wakes, Paul gets ready for work while I nurse Eli

6:15 Eli helps Paul back the car out of the garage

8-9:30 Eli naps

10-11:30 Eli and I go to the gym

11:30-1 Errands or play time

1-2:30 Eli takes second nap

2:30-5 hang out with friends, park time, play time

5-6 Dinner, bath, nursing, and bed for Eli

6  Paul gets home from work and we eat dinner and just chill together

I was talking to a friend who has a 11 month old today and she has absolutely no routine. Baby goes to bed at different times every day, has no specific nap times, random work schedule where she takes baby with her to two different jobs, and does a ton of house projects where baby just has to try and be patient and watch. All of this made me realize how much I crave routine.  I know Eli craves it as well. We didn't go to the gym today because we were hanging out with said friend.  It was the only time she could get together so I sacrificed the schedule. Lately I have been thinking a lot about my brothers church mission. Love God, Love People, Change the world. I have always loved helping others, but often when I could make it convenient for myself and my schedule.  I am trying to break out of this and help others even when it isn't easy, when it is hard and time consuming. I won't sacrifice my family but I can make my day slightly more inconvenient to benefit others. My last few weeks have been better because of this. 

My last few weeks have also been hard. Paul is now a store manager and has been working a ton. He only sees Eli for a few minutes in the morning, and even then I am there helping because Paul is trying to get ready for work. Paul has been going into work on all of his days off as well. This leaves me taking care of Eli by myself 98% of the time. Paul is also super exhausted on his days off and I want him to chill so we either do things as a family (my very favorite) or sometimes I send Paul off to ride his motorcycle or do something he wants to do and to enjoy some alone time, or some man time with friends. I am just so so thankful we didn't have to move for this store manager position (North Bend) because it has been wonderful having Kathy so close to watch Eli when I need a few hours to get things done as well as being able to continue going to the gym every weekday, something that wouldn't have been possible the other two places Paul applied since they didn't have gyms with pools, which means no gym daycare, which means no swimming for this mama. 

My photography class has been over for about a month but I am still having a ton of fun. I don't use my camera daily but I do use it at least a few times a week to capture the beauty of the mundane. 

Paul snapped this one on auto. I love that since I have my camera out more it means Paul takes more pictures as well! 

Eli never used a pacifier till around his first birthday. So silly but man I love the peace and calm that silly thing brings. He will lay in his crib chilling and sucking on it for a half hour after he wakes up. It makes him so quiet when we are on errands or car trips. Long live the pacifier. Haha, not really, but for now it is amazing. 

Little cheese snatcher.

I was so excited to get Eli's hair cut at the barber. The back of his hair had gotten so thick and was going to turn into a bull cut/mullet/not cute looking hair style. Well, the barber lady had a sign saying she would be right back, 15 minutes and a non returned phone call later we left. She returned my call 7 hours later. I wanted Paul there so he could hold Eli while I took pictures.  Well we went to Salem a few weeks later for my grandpas funeral and my cousin showed me how she cut's her boys hair. She gave me the courage to try again with scissors (Eli moved way too much the previous time I tried).  It actually turned out super cute and I am pretty proud of myself, I will try and get a good picture someday soon. :) I left the top and just trimmed all around the sides and bottom, he looks so grown up! 

We walked to the school that's a little farther away than the one we usually go to and Eli loved it. There is a super tall steep slide that Eli thought was pretty amazing. I had to lower him half way down so he didn't fly off the end before Paul had the chance to catch him. 

This kid is such a faker. He was fussing because he wanted to be the one to push the remote. I let him have it eventually and we took some pretty cute pictures together. 

Hope all is well with you ladies. Miss you! 

tattoo

I got a new tattoo done by Jeremy's aunt yesterday.

There is a third blossom under those two, but I haven't taken a full picture yet.

That is all.

Long time no blog!

I didn't mean to take this big of a break from blogging, life just got away from me. First the holidays then Eli got RSV and was sick for over a week, and then I was playing catch up on my house. He takes two predictable naps a day so I can't say I haven't had time, but life has just seemed so full and busy lately. 

As I mentioned before I am taking a photography class this month. It's over in a few days but I feel like I have learned so so much. I am kinda bummed I went the whole first year of Eli's life not knowing how to shoot on manual but oh well, I know now and I can capture the beauty in the mundane. 

This last week as Eli was catching up on sleep from being so sick with RSV I painted our entire downstairs. I will have to take some pictures to show you girls, it is so so much brighter! Eli was sleeping 12 hours straight at night and also taking 5-6 hours worth of naps. I listened to so many podcasts and painted so many walls. My house feels fresh and new and it was worth every minute of my time and every ounce of soreness in my back and shoulders. 

I have been doing a sugar challenge with a friend for probably about 4 months now if not more. We have been documenting our days on My fitness pal and we can each see what the other has eaten and we report our sugar intake at the end of the day. I haven't been recording this month, but I still have a feel for about what I am eating after months of recording. My mom started recording sugar intake as well.  We have both lost a few pounds (unintentionally) just from decreasing sugar intake. We never at much sugar but decreasing it has made everything taste more sweet! I used to just eat a dessert because it was sitting out, now I am particular and often turn away dessert if it doesn't sound good or if I am just not hungry. This article only confirmed what I have noticed. I now weigh what I did as a sophomore or junior in hs and this is a year post baby! Oh and in addition to decreasing sugar I have increased fat. I am now using 2% milk, full fat cottage cheese, and still making my own full fat greek yogurt. I put tons of the whey that comes off my yogurt in daily green smoothies. Ok, enough about food, I am just loving how such a simple change made such an amazing difference! Oh and I really only care about added sugars which shouldn't exceed 24 grams a day. Natural sugars that come in fruit also have a lot of fiber so I don't care about those! 

I got a new lens for my camera that allows me to have a much higher aperture. I am loving shooting on f2.8 and getting the nice bokeh in the background. I had Eli playing on the dining room table for this shot so I could get adequate light. I didn't know I had such poor light in my house till I tried to start shooting manual all the time!  

We went to Seattle and out to Italian for my brother birthday. Even though we ate at 4pm we didn't get home till nearly an hour after Eli's bedtime. We changed him into pajamas when we stopped at Daniels house after dinner to do presents. I love this capture of the two of them. My brother is still awkward holding babies and kids and Eli was squirming alllll over the place.

Eli has learned how to pull out drawers to step on them and reach higher. He makes this oooooh sound when he gets excited about something. You can see his pursed lips making the sound here. :)  He was reaching for the lunch I had just heated up while standing on the towel drawer. I had forgotten to close it all the way (there are not handles on the drawers so he can't open them alone anymore) and he was excited about his new "stool" so that he could reach higher in the kitchen. 

Eli helping daddy wash his car. I have no idea how we got so lucky to be in short sleeves and washing cars on a mid January day. 62 degree weather is crazy, but I am not complaining one bit! 

More car washing and manual camera practice. I am finding it hard to shoot outside with the constantly shifting lighting  but I am loving the challenge and seeing how even in a weeks time my photography has improved. This photography course was the best Christmas present ever. 

I hope all is well with everyone. I did get to catch up with Amber at the gym yesterday. I hadn't seen her in a few weeks and we ended up sitting in the hot tub talking and I didn't work out at all! I couldn't go after we talked because the daycare closes at noon. Today I will go though (if I can get two babies there since we have a friends baby all day). 

little christmas update

Hey ladies!  I hope you are all enjoying holiday time so far!  Shea just finished his last week at school and I have been enjoying break (although busy with gatherings, holiday projects, and church stuff!) from school.  I am so glad that after this week of christmas and family craziness I will have a whole week before school starts and Jeremy will have 3 days off during that time and no Christmas stuff to be preparing or working on.

I am really looking forward to Christmas this year -the kids are so excited and it was so much fun making and gathering things for them to make it special.  We decorated the house a little more than last year and Hailey has such a good concept of what is going on, it is so fun.

Anyway, I just thought I would update with a few pics from the last few weeks and see what I remember ha ha.

We 5 new chickens a week or two ago.  Our old landlord was giving them away, so we went down and picked out 5.  We got two pretty brown ones that lay blue eggs, a big dark one that lays a chocolate egg, and two white fluffy little chickens called silkies.  They are adorable and almost look more like a poodle.  BUT the other day I went out, and one was gone and a trail of feathers went into the woods.  Some sort of animal broke into the run and carried it off.  I was so sad, because I love those little white ones!  Papa came over and secured the run, so hopefully we won't have that problem any more.  I really don't want to lose another silky - the kids love to hold it.

SNOW - this is back from when it snowed after Thanksgiving.  Hailey did not like the snow.  Shea enjoyed it more than her but he is not very impressed in this picture.  I loved having the white background for a few days even though it was cold!

Hailey was playing peek-a-boo in her santa hat yesterday. She has been wearing this little dress that was a hand-me-down from her cousin and I love seeing her in it. She calls it her "doggy party dress" and she is a princess in it, according to her.

Last Sunday we had a birthday party in the afternoon and then we rushed back for the Indianola children's party.  It was so fun this year!  They did a great job planning it and Shea had several classmates there and his teacher, so he had a blast.  Hailey was scared of Santa and Shea now believes Santa is real because he knew his name.  Afterward, Shea went on a hayride through our neighborhood and had fun for about 5 minutes before he got too cold and bored. 

The other day the kids were just so HYPER...I think a big part of it is the weather, because we haven't been outside as much.  So I randomly said, "lets make some angels with glitter!"  Glitter works every time.  They had a super fun time and afterward mellowed out for their afternoon rest.  Mom win.  Hailey is twirling in the top most right picture below. She is ALWAYS twirling.  I love it.

Some of our Christmas decorations.  I made a garland for our banister out of lights, scented pinecones and tree clippings.  I love the smell as I walk up the stairs.  Our little christmas village is in our window this year, with a new lego snowman addition we got Shea as an advent gift.  I finally updated some picture frames and re-did our photo wall.  I love having new and old pictures there (and the blank space was driving me crazy before!) .  Our cozy living room!  We got two new rugs (one isn't pictured, but is a cozy shag like rug in front of the fire place - the kids love to snuggle on it with our big cushions and read books and play) and the big red one.  One a lady we know was going to throw out (I think because it sheds a little) and the red one Jeremy's parents just had lying around at the church so they let us have it.  We just need to get a pad for it.  Anyway, I love how much cozier and brighter it feels now in here.

1. Hailey's new stocking.  I pulled out the stockings and she goes "where is mine? Mine is PINK!".  Well, last year when I made hers she didn't have an opinion, so I went ahead and made this pink oen for her.  She is thrilled and calls the pink fringe at the top a "tutu".  2, Shea's artwall and our avent "wreath".  We haven't lit any of the candles because we have been gone every Sunday of advent so far, but we plan on doing something special on Chrismas eve.  3. our other fuzzy rug.  4. Our seasonal chalkboard.  Shea put some creations on my candle pillars, ha.  And 5. Jeremy's dad found this wood holder at the recycling center and it has been SO nice to have!  Usually we can only stack a little wood inside and it is always really messy.  Now we can stack quite a bit and I don't have to go outside during the day to keep the fire going.

And these were some pictures I took of the kids.  I only got Hailey to do it by putting up pink paper in the background. I love the first picture of Shea, too.

Yesterday, we had my side of the family's Christmas.  We did it at my sister's house in Renton.  My youngest brother, Matt, and his girlfriend were not there because she was having brain surgery in Arizona (she is doing well and they are flying home today!), and my other brother decided he didn't want to be a part of the family Christmas this year.  It was short and sweet and a little overwhelming, but the kids did great and it was nice seeing their cousins.  We had to rush back because Shea was in the kids play at our church in the evening and it ended up being a late night as we stayed to watch the end of the football game (READ:  Jeremy watched the game with his brothers while I supervised the sugar hyped cousins for a couple of hours).

This first picture is actually from the Kingston Ferry terminal - they have a huge light display there this year, so we made some cocoa and took a walk around the other night.  The kids had so much fun.

This was the best picture we could get of the cousins on my side of the family. Hailey didn't want anything to do with it.

This is Shea as an orphan in the play last night.  I made 14 of those newsboy caps, holy sewing!  I'm so glad we had netflix to watch while I sewed.  My new machine got a TON of use this month.

Anyway.  Today we are relaxing a little. The kids are playing with their new toys and I am sitting in my workout clothes so I will work out eventually, ha ha.  I have lost almost 5 lbs in the last 4 weeks!  I haven't been able to lose the last bit of weight since Hailey until now, so I am feeling really good and Jeremy makes comments about how skinny I look every day.  I don't think I probably look that much different to most people, but its enough that my pants and clothes fit comfortably and I feel good, so thats all that matters to me!  I have been doing Jillian Michaels workouts almost every day and eating smaller lunches, hardly any sugar, and no snacks after our early dinner.  I got really motiovated because we went and all weighed ourselves at the old scale at the indianola store and I weighed like 2 lbs MORE than Jeremy (he is short, so its easy to do, but still, I had gained weight and I freaked out).  Mostly I'm just happy because I was really moody and discouraged for a while, and since this last month I have been energetic and feeling way more positive about things.

The house is a bit messy right now so I am hoping to start getting things cleaned up and ready for Christmas.  Last night, Jeremy and I were up commiserating over getting through Christmas with his family.  It is insanely overwhelming and I always forget about how bad it is until right before and then I start freaking out a little bit.  Ah well.  I am trying to be a good sport this year (again) and hoping for change eventually.

This is a long post.  I guess that is what happens when I write a little bit every day for a few days.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Life

It was so nice to have Candice and Callum here!  So nice to cook for someone besides Joe too =P  I sure miss you guys but I know you were missing Justin so I'm glad you got to go home.  And super excited that I get to see you *again* in a few months!


Fostering/Adopting...still waiting on Joe to make a decision.  He asked me to work on keeping up the house responsibilities as if we already had kids, because he's concerned the MS will affect that.  I asked him how he thought I was doing and he said fine, and that now he just wants to wait till he had a job with a regular schedule...to be honest, this kind of deflates my spirits because he's been off-and-on looking for a regular job ever since we got married.

Gym - Goal is to go 3x/ week and I have been (except I only went twice when Candice was here).  I love it when I run into Angela.

Legs - Oh my gosh, so strong!  Unbelievable...this morning I did the stairs two at a time because I was in a hurry, and didn't even realize until I reached the top!  It was FUN!  And exhausting.  But seriously!


While I wait to see if Joe decides to foster, I'm spending 1-2 hours a day on 7 Cups of Tea as a listener.  It's a site where people can anonymously come and talk to people who listen.  Pretty fun and rewarding.  =D 

I was going to start taking more pictures but then Joe took the camera back upstairs...so we'll see if I think to grab it ;)  I do want to show you our pretty tree!

Life feels crazy!! ...but good.

Hi!! I'm excited to be posting because I always think about posting when I do things during the day and take pictures, so it feels good to be sharing about life because I feel like there is so much to talk about! Where do I start?

Our big news is that Justin got a new job! It's in London, Ontario, which is an hour and forty minutes west from where we live now.  So that means a move, he starts Dec. 1st, so I start packing tomorrow!  This Saturday we're heading to London to look at places, so far we have two lined up already.  I have bittersweet feelings about moving.  We've lived in Oakville for two and a half years already and we're finally feeling like we're connecting with people in our church and community, now it's time to uproot again.  The exciting part is that this is the kind of job Justin has been waiting for (it's more policy planning instead of development processing), and he'll be working for the city, so a great employer.  The catch is that it's an "up to three year" contract, so it's a bit of a risk, but he'll have access to internal postings and it sounds like they are pretty sure there'll be funding for the three years (it's a bit political that way).  Another exciting thing is that it's in a city where we'll be able to afford to buy a house in the next few years!  The city we live in now is nuts, a house three doors down from us sold for 1.4 million, and it's a new but regular house.  We're also hoping to be able to rent a place that has a real yard, which will be great for Callum next summer.

ANOTHER thing that has made this feel crazy is that I am visiting Seattle!! BUT I'll be there from Nov. 24-Dec 3rd, right when we'll be moving! Justin had had the interviews when I bought my ticket, but he had had interviews in the past and I didn't want to wait too long because I wanted to come for Thanksgiving and ticket prices kept going up.  So, I have three weeks to pack up, which is doable, but juggling that with a baby will be interesting.  My sister-in-law, Chara is coming over tomorrow afternoon to help me start packing.

So yes, I'm visiting, and I would love to be able to get together with everyone! Justin isn't coming, it's just Callum and I.  I'm so excited for him to meet everyone!

I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since Callum was born.  It's been crazy, fun, amazing, and overwhelming at times.  My sister came and visited for two weeks, which was such a big help.  I feel like I'm learning more and more how to take care of him and keep our house running.  The other day he would fall asleep but kept waking up whenever I put him down, I tried the swing, bassinet, carseat, etc.  Then it dawned on me to try our Ergo carrier, and it was great!  I was able to cook dinner with my two free hands and Callum had a great nap.

One thing that has been a struggle is breastfeeding.  Callum has never breastfed.  Because of his tongue and lip tie in the beginning, his mouth was so restricted and he couldn't suck.  In the womb, his tongue just went up and down and created an indentation in his pallet, really messing up his sucking.  Since the revision, he's learned how to move his tongue around and the doctor told us his pallet can still smooth out as he develops.  Now his sucking is great, but he won't breastfeed.  I've been to the breastfeeding clinic five times, and they told me they've done all they can and I just have to keep trying and see if he'll take to it eventually.  We also took C to an osteopath to relieve tension in his jaw, which was restricting his mouth too.  We went three times and noticed a big improvement right away (he actually went on the breast with a nipple shield for about a minute), but since then there hasn't been any real progress.  It was getting so bad that he would start crying/screaming whenever I got him into the position for breastfeeding.  I took a break from trying for a while, and have started to get back at it.  Callum has been getting only breast milk though because I'm pumping.  Thankfully I have a great supply and have been able to pump enough for him.  It's a lot of work though and a bit tricky when we are out, but I've learned how to make it work.  I had really hoped I could get him to breastfeed before our trip to Seattle, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen.  Speaking of pumping, I have to leave in half an hour for youth group, so I should pump before I go.  

It's my turn to photo dump! 

This last photo is Callum meeting his cousin, Henry (held by Justin).  Henry was born on Halloween and I know they are going to be the best of buds!

Life is busy, but full.

I feel like time is flying past me and my baby just keeps getting older and older in super speed. Being a mama to a 9 month old is so much fun.  I think every age is more and more fun, I can't believe it just keeps getting better.  I mean, he still wakes up at 4 or 5 am for the day, but I look forward to seeing him as long as I am rested as well!  He has been going to bed at 5:30pm (he wakes at the same time every morning even if I put him to bed at 8pm) so I have a few evening hours to myself and then try to be asleep by 9pm every night. 

On Friday we had our buddy Isaac over for the day.  Isaac and Eli are 11 days apart and had so much fun together. They always wanted to play with the same toy, when one was being held the other one wanted me too, they ate snacks together. Oh my gosh I loved having twins for the day!  Isaacs parents pay for daycare at the gym so I was able to take both boys, get my workout in and lay in the hot tub for a few minutes and not have to pay any extra, talk about awesome!

Eli is walking EVERYWHERE.  He took his first two steps on October 1st and then two weeks later was walking pretty much everywhere but still falling quite often. Now he rarely falls unless he tries to run, which is also pretty adorable!  

Eli also eats EVERYTHING.  The only thing he doesnt really like, but will still eat is plain yogurt. He looks at me like "mom, what the heck is this" so I usually give him some flavored with homemade jam since that's what I do for myself.  Speaking of yogurt, I have been making my own for months now and I never want to go back to eating storebought yogurt.  Yogurt made with whole milk, and strained to be my own greek yogurt is absolutely amazing. I have streamlined the process so the heating and cooling of the milk and clean up takes probably 20 minutes each time I do it. 

I have been dressing Eli up more often now that I actually put clothes on him. I always thought Becca was crazy for saying boys were more fun to dress than girls, um she is so right. There are cute dresses and girly stuff everywhere but you kind of have to come up with boys outfits and it is so fun! 

I gave Eli his first haircut (I had trimmed around the ears a few times already) and he looks so grown up!  He actually needs a trim again but his hair is getting so thick I need to figure out how to not make it look like I am giving him a bowl cut! 

These pictures are so out of order its ridiculous.  Eli loves playing peek a boo around the doorway with daddy.  Sadly since Eli has gone to bed so early for the last 2 weeks he doesn't get to do this anymore because he goes to bed before Paul even gets home.  I also have taken the handles off my drawers since these pictures were taken.  It is so nice not having Eli be able to get into the drawers but still be able to open them! I wish I would have thought of this a month earlier! 

New succulent I got at Costco!  I have always wanted a succulent garden but with each succulent being so expensive I didn't know how I would ever do it.  Well in comes costco with this beauty only costing 11.99, so I treated myself and am so happy I did!   

I have watched a friends baby girl a few times so mama could take a nap.  Eli is such a good "big brother".  It was so fun having the two of them, but I must admit, its actually easier to take care of two the same age than a 4 month old and a 9 month old.  I think there is a reason there is 10 month gestation for humans, we need the time! 

Eli was making some noise and then began fussing. I walked around the corner to find he had gotten himself under the stool like this and couldn't figure out how to get out haha. 

1. With Azaria on our second evening walk while her mama slept 

2. Helping Daddy study.  Oh Paul passed his interview to become a store manager so now when a store opens up that he is interested in he will be able to apply. This whole having to move is becoming a more real possibility. 

3. Isaac and Eli are so fun together!

4. My little hipster baby 

The end!  Eli was up at 3:55 this morning and I couldnt get him back to sleep. Needless to say I am quite tired today as I didn't go to bed early enough last night! 

Love to all.