This is Fun!

I started thinking about my previous posts and realized I've done a really good job at highlighting all of our struggles, which may seem to shed kind of a shadow on the whole parenthood experience. But in all actuality...IT'S FUN!

Life may finally be starting to "normalize" itself again. We're starting to find our "routine," and Squeak is just at a super fun stage!

I love watching him play with his hands.
I love watching him sleep.
I love when he falls asleep in my arms.
I love his ear-to-ear grin when I start reading him a story.
I love how he is constantly more aware of his surroundings.
I love seeing him and his dad together.
I love watching others enjoying and loving on him.
I love taking pictures of him.
I love putting him in cute little outfits.
I love family prayer time at bedtime.
I love the routine that he brings.
I love working with him on my lap.
I love that he's a content and happy kiddo.
I love sharing the excitement of Christmas (and other holidays) with him.
I love the extra bond that he has brought his dad and me.
I love his cuteness.

Life is so much FUN with our little Squeaker!

And speaking of life starting to "normalize" itself...I worked out the last three nights--Tuesday after he had gone to bed, Wednesday while he sat on the couch and cheered me on, and Thursday with his dad while he watched. After nearly a year of not working out, it feels AMAZING! And although I probably won't start running again until after I'm done pumping for Squeak, doing these workout videos gives me what I need to at least make me consider pumping past 6 months. I have been REALLY missing the feeling after a good workout, but didn't think I could get a good workout in comfortably until after I was done pumping. The workouts were fine with modified jumping jacks...oh, and push-ups pretty much stunk, but don't they always.

The first half of this month has absolutely flown by...which brings me to an update on my November goals:

Christmas cards are stuffed, labeled and stamped, and I finally finished our Christmas letter last night, so cards will go in the mail tomorrow (Monday, December 16). And all but maybe three presents were purchased and wrapped before December 1st.

December 10th we had our Parents As Teachers Christmas Party. Squeak got to make an ornament with his handprint on it (mom's supposed to make little snowmen out of his fingers, but that probably won't happen), we frosted a sugar cookie, saw Santa for the first time, and made some new friends. It was a great evening, but the next morning Squeak woke up with a pretty yucky cough, gosh darn it!

I'm kind of working backwards here, but I should probably mention one of our biggest events since I last wrote...Thanksgiving weekend at the Sand Dunes. My whole family (mom, dad, sister's family of six) and our little brother Trenton, enjoyed Thursday-Saturday at the dunes, and the weather was PERFECT! It was the first time three of my nephews had been, and the first trip Trenton got to drive a 4-wheeler, as he had previously just rode in side-by-sides. Trenton picked up on riding and shifting without a problem. Matt and I were proud parents...er...siblings! He did so well, that Matt felt comfortable sending him up Buttercup (one of the biggest dunes there). The first time he got a lesson in dune timing, the second time was a success, the third time was a success, but the fourth time he caught some air and when the 4-wheeler made contact with the ground, his face went forward in to the handlebars, which managed to get up under his helmet. He suffered a concussion and knocked three teeth loose. Thankfully his parents didn't close our match with BBBS the second they opened Monday morning. His mom did say, however, "If you break him you buy him...or I'll take Hayden in trade." Lol. We saw him later in the week, and he looked all healed up, and by a week later, you'd never known he was injured.

In case you're not on Facebook, I'll leave you with a few pics...

Best Gift of the Year

Hayden's First Snow

...well you see, anything that I can put in my mouth will do, Santa...

Thanks for checking in on us.

We really appreciate all the support we receive from our family and friends!

Our Christmas Letter | 2013

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. -James 1:17

We are certainly aware of the truth above after the year we've had, which was highlighted with the birth of our son, Hayden Don in August. We became aware of his arrival on Christmas morning last year. I had a hunch a few days beforehand, but figured a few days wouldn't change anything, and the positive pregnancy test helped explain the 200 or so ounces of water I drank a couple days earlier at a Christmas get-together.

Anyone who has expected a child knows how exciting of a time this is and how hard it is not to share the news with the whole world, or at least with everyone in "your" world.  We were headed to Minnesota to spend the holiday with my family. Once on the road, we called Matt's family and shared "one last 'Christmas Gift'" with them since we'd already celebrated the days prior to us leaving. Needless to say, they were all ecstatic about the news!

Traveling on Christmas day limits shopping availability, but we were pretty set on finding a gift we could wrap for one of my family members to open. We found the following at a truck stop:

Keep in mind they have no idea of the news they are about to receive. As we sat down for supper and my sister opened this, confusion set in across the table until I had to explain that I was not the aunt. Once the news was comprehended, chaos erupted. I think the flailing of my mom's arms were intended to give me a hug, but too excited and caught off guard by the news to complete the task. (Love you, Mom!)

In April we returned to Minnesota for the Larson get-together, but kicked it off with a little gender reveal party. We had the ultrasound tech call Matt's aunt with the baby's gender, and she had a cake ready to fill with pink or blue frosting depending on the news.

And so began the point in life where time just starts flying faster than it ever has before. Preparing for Hayden's arrival, in addition to our already busy lifestyle, made the first half of the year simply disappear. We didn't let it slow us down too much though, if anything we picked up the pace a bit, enjoying things we were warned we wouldn't have time for once Hayden joined the family.

Our Borrowed Kid

Our Big Brothers Big Sisters match is something we've grown to cherish and appreciate more this past year. You've heard the saying, "You don't realize what you have until it's gone," right? Well, Trenton and his family moved away for a couple months last winter/spring. Thankfully, it was only temporary and they are back--Trenton is back.

We celebrated our 5-year anniversary of being matched this year!
The top picture was taken at the BBBS office the day we met/started the match.
The bottom picture was taken last December.

When you've known someone nearly half their life and have invested so much time in to them, they become family. You'll notice throughout the rest of the letter that that is exactly what has happened and we talk and share about him as if he is family. He's a pretty proud uncle, too--Uncle T!

Trenton still enjoys being active and being outdoors. We introduced him to "racing" this year by entering him in a 5K to benefit SIDS. Matt and I walked the 3.1 miles, and we told Trenton he could either walk with us or run it and we'd see him when we got done. He was completely up for the challenge of running the course and set out for 1st place...he finished 12th in about 32 minutes time.

Trenton's first 5K -- Strides for a Find (Bode's 5K) in Paola, KS on May 11 

Big Brothers Big Sisters Frosty 5K -- Downtown Salina on November 23

Matt, Hayden and I walked the Merry Mile. Pretty sure it was about 25 degrees that morning...Frosty indeed!

Our "Dirty" Hobbies

With the purchase of the RZR and Trenton enjoying it so much, we have gotten back into the dunes as much as ever. We made the trip 4 times this year, and ended up getting an Arctic Cat Wildcat as an upgrade for the RZR S, so the RZR is for sale. We got to enjoy almost all of our “dunes friends” between the trips. Trenton got to ride the dune chopper a little, and this last trip we let him ride Kayla’s 4-wheeler, as she had not been riding this year with being pregnant (and now the milk shakes) although she did get out a few times the most recent trip and had a great time.

What is a dune chopper you ask?
Well you see...this one being the original is known as "The Punisher."
No more questions, please.

Trenton picked up on the quad and shifting and clutch very quickly, so 4-wheeler didn’t get much of a break!  The last trip was Thanksgiving weekend where we had the whole family on Kayla’s side, and Trenton too, it was a very fun trip!  Thank you Dan and Lydia for allowing us to use your camper, Jared and Kelsey certainly enjoyed it more than our no insulation trailer!  Everyone had a great time, Janet cooked a great Thanksgiving meal, and we put lots of miles on the ATVs.  Trenton not only had his first experience with riding the ATV on his own, but also had his first and second crash, but it was all worth it because he made it up Buttercup twice!  The second crash was a little rough on Trenton, and probably me too, as he was bleeding after his landing, and ended up with a mild concussion and a few loose teeth.  He is tough and rode the very next ride again.  We were so proud of him, not for being so tough, but for learning so quickly.

Fun in the sand... 

Fun in the snow...

Fun in the mud, fun with friends... 

And easy to haul...(no ramps needed in some cases)! 

Oh the things we'll do to travel together as a family. Matt needed to work down around the dunes Thursday & Friday, so we had to take the truck. 

Sometimes multiple trailers are needed though...not a problem!

We still enjoy the dirt track racing, and on top of our chasing races to cover in photos and videos with Dirt Track Central, we also started a stock car touring series.  IMCA Stock Cars have been my favorite class of race cars for quite some time now, and this past year I coordinated races for the drivers to compete for a point fund and national bonus points.  We had an exciting summer racing with stops in Liberal, Colby, Hays, WaKeeney, and Mayetta, Kansas with a total of 11 shows.

Matt with a group of the stock car drivers who followed his series.

Matt living vicariously through our friends son, Nash.

Between racing and the sand dunes, we put a lot of miles on the trusty Tioga (our RV), and so at the end of the summer we put the old girl up for sale with almost 96,000 miles, and Grandma and Grandpa wanting to let theirs go, it was time for an upgrade. Although the new Aerbus is two years older, it has half the miles and many nice features we are excited about!

To Sell or Stay

For several months, maybe even years, we have debated on moving closer to Salina to be closer to family, friends, Trenton and a majority of our activities. With Hayden on the way and mortgage rates at an all-time low, it was time to decide whether we stay and refinance, or sell. We decided on selling, which meant a long to-do list of clean-up and repairs here and there. The end of April we took advantage of a nice weekend and got the outside looking, quite possibly, the best it ever had in the time we've lived here. We enlisted the help of Trenton, who happens to be GREAT help! The three of us decided to play some Skip-Bo to unwind from the day before heading to bed and tackling the inside projects on Sunday. A spring storm rolled in that evening, so it seemed we finished the outside projects in just the nick of time. HOWEVER, our game was abruptly interrupted with the loudest crash I've ever heard which shook the whole house...we ran to the basement as fast as we could!

Turns out God wasn't ready for us to put our house on the market yet, so he sent a 100mph wind gust, ripping the carport right off the side our house (see photos below).

It pulled the siding off on it's way up and over the house. Yes, OVER the house, there was significant debris left on the roof, as well as "wound" marks on the trim and window peak.

This is an old pic (before we even owned the place) showing the carport intact.

Trenton was a HUGE part of the clean-up in the days/months following the storm.

Insurance sure brought, well, insurance to the entire situation. We were able to joke that had we known what the storm was going to do, we certainly would've worked on the inside projects Saturday and left the outside clean-up for Sunday. :)  It took nearly the entire summer to clean-up and make the repairs from the storm. Contractors were a very common site at our house. We actually just completely wrapped up the claim a couple weeks ago.

Matt wanted a sign in the yard before the baby came...it's official!
(with 4 hours to spare before we needed to be checked in at the hospital).

I know now why our realtor asked, "Are you sure you want to do this?" as we signed the papers the same day we headed to the hospital to have our first child. I will admit that it's been great for getting some good cleaning habits in place with a baby in the house. I'm not certain how well I would've done if not forced to keep the house within an hour of being ready to show at all times. But I certainly wouldn't recommend it to first-time parents. Haha.

The Greatest Things in Life Aren't Things
Our friends and family were, and are, such amazing supporters, encouragers, and helpers. You all were there during the preparation/anticipation of and the weeks following Hayden's arrival! We can't thank you all enough. We were blessed with three baby showers, a bunch of Matt's friends opened up and shared their best fatherly advice with him which I compiled in a book that I gave him for Father's Day, and so many of you took the time to come meet Hayden either at the hospital or at our house, and some of you even helped us with meals and other day-to-day care!

My boss, Bree - Me - My co-worker, Abby
Lincoln Shower hosts

My parents brought my two oldest nephews with them for the shower weekend in Lincoln...and then my sister SURPRISED US ALL by coming with the other two boys!

Our wonderful friends hosted a couple's shower for us mid-July.
Kjersti - Me - Michelle - Aubrey - Jessica

My fabulous aunties hosted a shower for us in Minnesota a month after Hayden was born.
Aunt Katherine - Aunt Teresa - Me

Mr. Hayden Don
I'll try to keep this short...we checked in to the hospital at 8 p.m. on Monday, August 19, to start the labor process. My doctor broke my water on Tuesday morning around 9 a.m. We continued to watch and monitor contractions, and get pumped full of good-feeling drugs until 7 p.m. when my body was finally ready to start pushing. After pushing for 2 and a half hours, we made the decision to deliver Hayden via C-Section. I slept through much of the C-Section process, which is fine by me, and Mr. Hayden entered the world at 10:11 p.m.

I've done a pretty good job blogging about our life with Hayden, so for those of you interested who haven't red my other blogs, check those out. :)

The First Month

• First Nickname
• Breastfeeding
• The 3-hour Routine
• Mommy Brain
• My first outting with Hayden
• My first outting without Hayden
• Walks in the Park

Jet Lag

• Minnesota
• Baby Shower

Month Two: This Too Shall Pass

• This Too Shall Pass
• First trip to the Sand Dunes
• The Stats
• Being a Mom

And here's a few other pictures from other miscellaneous events throughout the summer...

Meeting our niece at the hospital, just 12 days before we were at the hospital having Hayden.

Cousins Hayden and Lily meet for the first time

Kayla's Family at the Larson Get-Together

We enjoyed several summer evenings watching Trenton (and his brother, Chase) play baseball. It was a little too warm for this pregnant chick a couple of the evenings, so we did miss a few. 

My mom and Trenton went on a 9 mile bike ride while we were in Minnesota for the 4th of July. My mom said he was a natural.

At the races in Alexandria, Minnesota

Trenton helped us out a couple of times with the simulators. It's been fun teaching him the value of work.

We're looking forward to hosting Kayla's family for Christmas this year, and celebrating here in Kansas with Matt's family. The holidays always fill our hearts with joy--music, parties, giving, friends, and family--all in celebration of the one responsible for all of it...Jesus Christ!

Merry Christmas & God Bless You!

Matt, Kayla & Hayden

A Goal & Other Goodies

I've had a variety of things on my mind to post about lately...

For those who aren't aware, we put our house on the market the day we went to the hospital to have Squeak. You read that right, just hours before going to the hospital. But anyway, I keep thinking about what it will be like to not live here (assuming it sells)...we have so many memories here. The other day I was standing in the "Grandparents Suite" (funny how in just two and a half months, 28+ years of referring to my mom and dad as my 'parents' gets replaced with 'grandparents') thinking about how my parents must feel about our move. This place is ideal. A guest suite on the main floor. If I had the set-up they have here at a place I frequent often, I'd be so disappointed to find out it was going to be gone. Hopefully our next place will be accommodating enough that they'll still come. I guess there's always having an adorable, lovable grandson to get them here as Plan B.

My parents standing at the door of the "Grandparents Suite." This was their Christmas present in 2010 (our first year to host Christmas), hence the bow.
It was a beauty salon before the remodel.

Last Friday was a normal day, with a trip to town and then the evening at home for Matt, Squeak and I. It wasn't until I slowed down late in the day that I noticed my evening had taken on a theme. STRAWBERRY. I had made a run to the liquor store, leaving with Strawberry Acai Smirnoff and one of those Straw-Beer-Ritas that came out while I was pregnant. I had only heard good things about the Straw-Beer-Ritas, so I was really excited to try it. Turns out it either has a hint of beer flavor, or they just did a poor job at making a tasty margarita, either way, it was 16oz of disappointment. I also found myself grabbing a strawberry jello from the fridge for an evening snack. How I found time to have such a random thought is beyond me?!?!

Reoccurring "Mommy Moment" of the month: Forgetting to take my purchased items with me after paying.

At our two month doctor appointment we were told we needed to make an appointment for Squeak's immunizations at either StatCare or the health department here in Minneapolis because they don't do shots at our doctor's office. Slightly inconvenient, but the kid needs shots so I guess we'll make do with the options available. OR WILL WE?!?! Two things: 1) So often I wish people would just tell me where to be, and when, so I don't have to worry about looking at a calendar and figuring out what works best. I will overcomplicate the process everytime, and 2) In my mind I am strong and can handle a little crying when I know it's from something that is necessary, such as immunizations, but my prolonging of making the simple call to schedule the appointment, doing my best to be sure Matt will be able to be present, makes me think my "okayness" about the situation is just that...all in my head. I did finally make the appointment yesterady, and Squeak will get his 2-month immunization shots a day before he's 3-months old...oops!

I am very guilty of making goals, but never writing them down and documenting the proper steps to accomplish them...does blogging about a goal count as writing it down?!?! Whether it does or not is indifferent, I'm going to share my November goal with you all anyway.

NOVEMBER GOAL:

Finish all my Christmas Shopping, have gifts wrapped, and have my Christmas cards ready to put in the mail by December 1st.

My thought is if I can get all of that stuff done in November, before Thanksgiving, I can take a deep sigh of relief and just kick back and enjoy all the festivities Thanksgiving and Christmas have to offer. It doesn't seem too terribly unreasonable, although in my mind I'm already set up for failure because I keep thinking to myself, "if I set a goal of getting all of that done by the end of November, I might have a shot of actually getting it done before Christmas." I haven't quite come to grips with "baby time" yet. Everything seems to take three times longer than it did pre-baby. I'm off to a decent start, though. I ordered my Christmas cards yesterday, and just about have the labels ready to print. And Squeak and I went to a craft show in Lincoln last weekend and got a start on our Christmas shopping. As long as we can get ideas from everyone on our list, we might actually be able to accomplish our goal. And to get in the spirit, I better turn on the CHRISTMAS MUSIC! Oh how I love Christmas music. (Okay, so I'm actually kind of torn about this, as I've always been a wait-til-the-day-after-Thanksgiving-Christmas-music type of person.)

Speaking of holidays, Halloween was celebrated last week. Halloween has never really excited, at least not in the past 10 years. Poor Squeak, his parents actually met because we were the only two people in our "group" not looking for costumes at Walmart for a Halloween party at the retreat we were at. As an adult without children, it's pretty easy to avoid the holiday, and turns out when you live in a house with no front door and houses on only one side of the street, you don't even have to worry about trick-or-treaters (this did actually bum me out the first year). However, now with Squeak, I suppose I should partake in the holiday, for his sake. This year it worked out well that we were called in to help hand out candy on behalf of the newspaper office I work at for the Lincoln "Business Boo." Hayden sported his Halloween bib from his great-aunt and we handed out several bags worth of candy. It was a good way for us to spend this Halloween, since me taking him trick-or-treating would've looked a little suspicious...I think they would've known he wasn't going to be able to "gum" the candy.

Month Two: This Too Shall Pass

Well, I'm beginning to think maybe my goal should be to post a monthly blog...lol. I know my one month post I told you guys I would try to post again before we hit the two month mark, and I started a new post just a week or so after that, but tried to include too much in it or something, because I just "finished" it right before starting this one.

This Too Shall Pass
"This too shall pass," is something we were told to remember when the not-so-fun experiences of parenthood showed their ugly face. This month, ironically enough, the situation was gas, and Squeak's inability to pass it on his own. After some research, I came to realize this is very common for babies at this stage, as their bodies are still developing and maturing, and some functions just don't work yet. In our case, there were also some factors that helped fuel our "gas monster."

The first few days after we got home, I just wrote off the gas as being from the 12 hour ride home from Minnesota. I knew to expect some aftermath from the trip from talking to some friends about traveling with an infant. However, several days had passed and my once happy, content little Squeaker was still miserable. His sleeping patterns were changing for the worse and our evenings were spent crying (both of us the first few nights).

To the Google Machine
I'm not sure how anyone was able to raise kids, or learn anything, prior to the google era. Well, actually I do, and often times I find myself wishing I lived in an era where you stayed close to home and spent time with your mother and grandmother, learning the tricks of the trade. I do my best to learn as much as I can from others who have been where I am, as not to miss out on the beauty of life experience and human contact. But I also take advantage of the technology advances and the google machine. This way I get the best of both eras!

What I've learned (from either the google machine or from friends):

• Babies normally get gassy around 4 weeks because their bodies are still developing and they're just not capable of passing the gas themselves. Several parents saw relief about the two month mark.
• Gassy babies will give false feeding signals because they're uncomfortable and they think food will fix their uncomfortable-ness.
• Breastfed babies will eat the same amount of food from 1-6 months.
• Overfeeding causes gas.
• Overtired babies don't sleep. They stay awake and just stare at you.

So yeah, not only did Squeak go on his first 12 hour road trip, but also during this trip there was a day he decided he should be eating about every 2 hours rather than our "normal" (I put that in quotes because there's nothing normal or routine with a 4 week old baby) schedule of 3 hour feedings. Every two hours seemed fairly inconvenient, so I reasoned that if I gave him more food each feeding, we could avoid that pesky 2 hour feeding schedule and get back to every three hours. And yes, I did know that Squeak would have growth spurts, but I clearly just ignored that fact in my moment of reasoning.

That half an ounce DID NOT make our days any easier. We had a gassy, overfed, overtired little gas monster on our hands. And probably most surprisingly to me was my inability to keep up supply-wise. Guess my body knew better than I did that he wasn't needing that much food. It was such a relief to knowing his intake wasn't going to be changing for quite some time.

Never had a gas monster of your own? Wondering what you do with one? Well, you'll want to start with a deep breath. Then get out the gas drops, gripe water, massage their tummy clockwise, pedal their legs. And don't forget to ask your mommy friends. Yes. Ask friends. The most useful advice we received for comforting Squeak was from a friend who told me her husband was able to push their daughter's knees into her stomach when she was gassy. We call this the "manual de-gassing" method. When you first do it, you may feel like you're hurting them and making them more uncomfortable, but seriously, once you get that first toot out, followed by several more, you feel like your gas monster's hero! I personally found it helpful to stop periodically, pick the little guy up, and remind him that I love him and explain the reason I was doing what I was doing was to help him and all would be good when we were through.

What to take from all of this:

• You don't need to have all the answers before becoming a parent. I'm proof you can be pretty clueless and still figure it out. And believe me, love will get you through pretty much everything, and for the rest of it, seek out your friends and utilize the google machine.
• This Too WILL Pass. Squeak is passing more and more of his own gas. And I give him high praise with every gas passed and diaper filled! Now if I would do my part and not devour three helpings of bierrock casserole in one sitting, we might actually kick this.

I know I know, I should be consoling him, not taking pictures,
but I wanted to capture the gas monster at least once for the memory books.

The weekend of October 11-13 we went on our first motorhome vacation as a family. We headed out to Hays for the Fall Nationals at RPM Speedway. We got to show Squeak off to several of our friends, and all the fresh air and the long days led up to our first 8+ hour night of sleep. Turns out racing wears Squeak out as much as it wears his parents out.

I'm so thankful Squeak likes the Snugli so much. He napped for 4-5 hours each evening while I watched nearly all the races (enough to get my fill.)

First trip to the Sand Dunes
We spent the weekend of Matt's birthday at the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Waynoka, OK. We went with our usual group which included the Johnsons, Dauers, Davis', etc. My mom and oldest nephew Devin also came down for a couple days, and they picked up our Little Brother Trenton on the way.

The plans for this trip changed several times. We finally decided Wednesday afternoon that the three of us would go together and we would leave later that evening. Squeak hadn't napped hardly at all that morning, almost like he knew mom was going to need 4-5 hours of uninterrupted time to get everything ready to go for a 4 day / 5 night vacation. Dad was outside rigging up the rig. Matt had to work down in that area of Oklahoma on Thursday and Friday, so to avoid both of us having to drive, he decided he could load the RZR in the bed of the truck, and then put the truck on the trailer behind the motorhome (see below). There was only a brief moment in time that felt like an eternity where I held on to the car seat extra tight and saw my life flash before my eyes. But a stop for gas, redistribution of about 200-250lbs and reducing our speed made the trip a success.

The Rig

We enjoyed our first weekend away in the motorhome so much we decided to load up and go to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Waynoka, OK just a few days later. More long days and lots of fresh air got us a couple more nights of 8+ hours of sleep. Gets me thinking maybe we should go back to sleeping in the rock-and-play at home, too. Hmmm. Lol.
Here Squeak is telling dad, "See, I'm big enough to ride!"
(This momma knows he will be big enough to ride before she knows it.)

The Stats
Squeak had his 2-month doctor appointment last week. He weighed in at 11 lbs. 14.5 ounces and measured 22"2 long (I honestly don't have a clue what the 2 is...centimeters?!?) These numbers put him in the 75th percentile in weight and 25th percentile in height. Most importantly, he's growing along the curve and the doctor says he's a healthy little man. Music to a momma's ears! We pray for continued growth and good health!

Being a Mom
So I suppose I could take a little time to share my feelings on my transition into motherhood. I could start and summarize the whole experience with the cliche "It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done." But two other observations I've noticed here lately are:

1. I cook. Nearly every meal. And I kind of enjoy it.
2. I do dishes. Every day (at least once). I can't say I enjoy this, but it does feel good to go to bed with a clean kitchen every night.

And because of this new role as a mother, I'm sure I'm forgetting some important detail about our second month, but this momma is ready to hit the "publish" button for the second time for this post, and go get my favorite little boy who is stirring from his nap...MEAL TIME! :)

Thanks for checking in on us.

We really appreciate all the support we receive from our family and friends!