Toys, toys, toys

I'm totally slacking on the whole picture front. I'm amazed I can go days without taking pictures (that never happened with Miss E), and if I actually do take some pictures, the process of getting them ON the computer can take days as well. Oh the life with 2 kids. :) Both kids are actually sleeping right now and I hardly know what to do with myself...be productive (because there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done) or just relax. The dilemma.

I've been thinking about TOYS a lot today. E's toys for that matter. She has never been really into her toys and usually just entertains herself by finding random things around the house. She does play with some toys for short periods of time, but she's never really been into dolls or stuffed animals. I realized this weekend how "babyish" so many of our toys still are, partly because honestly, I don't even know what she would play with. This became very apparent to me when we had a 4 year old over, and there was not many fun toys for her to play with. Any advice for toys or things to play with for a 20 month old? I feel like I need a few more "age appropriate" toys.

Day 11...we have survived over a whole week on the Whole30. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty proud of us. It has not been easy. I would say days 5 and 6 were hardest for me...the newness had worn off, and I began to think "What the heck were we thinking? This stinks." Thankfully, we had some really good food this weekend that I wanted to share.

Spicy Kale Chips-I've always wanted to incorporate more kale in my diet because it's supposed to be so good for you, but haven't really known how to do that. This is a really easy way to eat lots of kale in a short time. Yummy. I'm not sure how it would save (we ate it ALL), so you have to take the time to make them. Definitely worth it though. Word of wisdom...don't put too much cayenne pepper in it. I doubled the seasoning because we had a lot of kale, and they were make-your-nose-run spicy. Still delicious though.

Banana Ice Cream-We can't have any sugar which is really sad, but this little recipe was a perfect little dessert. I'm not even a huge fan of bananas but it was T-asty. Kev liked it so much he froze about 8 more bananas. Desperate? Maybe. I found that it took 3 bananas and 1 cup of coconut milk for 2 people.

Chicken Curry-I made the following recipe in my crockpot (score) and it turned out amazing!!! It is a little prep time intensive because it has lots of veggies, but it is definitely worth it. I found this recipe here and she does all the chopping ahead of time then freezes it.

Chicken Curry

3T all-purpose flour

4T curry powder

2tsp ground cumin

1.5-2 pounds chicken thighs or breasts cut into 1 inch pieces

2 cups chopped peeled sweet potatoes

2 cups baby carrots

2 cups coarsely chopped mango (or 2 cans of chopped mango)

1 cup chopped onion

1 zucchini chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

2 chicken bouillon

.5 cups raisins (for garnish)

.5 cups peanuts or cashews

My few modifications: I didn't cube the chicken but put the whole breast in and shredded at the end, I put the veggies in about halfway through so they wouldn't be too mushy (and I probably could have waited longer), more veggies, a little less seasoning (because I ran out of cumin and curry), skipped the raisins and peanuts or cashews.

20 months and food

Our "baby" is 20 months old! How is that even possible? Instead of writing a full update, I want to write some things I don't want to forget.

• She started saying "I need help" all.the.time. I guess it's the first full phrase she has said (that we recognize), and it is SO stinkin' cute. I seriously need to get a video of her saying it. She has also been saying "I need ..." after she realized what good response she was getting from us. Apparently the girl has serious needs. :)
• She started being fearful of things. You know, the scary stuff in life, like the car, baths, the vacuum cleaner, etc. It's interesting to see her have this emotion and difficult to sometimes know how to reassure her. No, the bath time panic attack has definitely NOT gone away I'm just praying it does soon.
• She insists on walking up and down the stairs like an adult instead of crawling. She will usually hold Kev or my hand, but sometimes she just wants to hold onto the banister.
• She is OBSESSED...with washing her hands. I feel like a bad parent discouraging this activity but it takes so much effort.
• She recently started jumping off the ground. It is hilarious! I ask her to jump frequently because it is so adorable.

She is SO much fun and is learning so much. She definitely still has her not-fun moments, but the good overshadows the difficult.

So we are on DAY 5 of the Whole30. I think day 4 and 5 have actually been harder for me. I have been seriously craving some CARBS!!! But overall, it has been really good and made us get much more creative with our meal choices. The highlight to my days has been Lara bars (super yummy) and fruit smoothies. Tasty. Here's a couple recipes we have liked so far.

Cowboy Breakfast Skillet-Not super healthy but pretty DARN tasty. Definitely worth it.

Low Carb Chicken Avocado Sandwich-We skipped the "bread" but the chicken was T-asty.

Pot Roast with Mashed Cauliflowers and Turnips-I opted to cook the roast and onions in the crockpot. Good leftovers too.

We've been eating spinach salads every day for lunch with lots of veggies, avocados, walnuts, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and it has been pretty delicious.

I'm thankful that this is not really a "diet," you're not supposed to weigh yourself, it's just about cutting out processed foods/dairy/etc. I will say that mashed cauliflowers and turnips are NOTHING like mashed potatoes (in case you were wondering) and black coffee is still sadly lacking. We've realized we "treat" ourselves with food...eating out, getting Starbucks. So we're having to rethink how we spend our free time.

Easter and other things

I feel like I need to jump on the bandwagon and post some pics of my kids at Easter. I must admit, they were pretty cute if I do say so myself. We had a really fun Easter this year because Miss E was finally old enough to enjoy all the festivities. Holidays always remind me of the distance between us and family, but we were so thankful to spend the holiday with good friends.

We dyed eggs, which I must admit, I probably would have skipped if it wasn't for my friends wanting to do it. But it was really fun with relatively little mess. Definitely worth it.

Then the guys hid the eggs while the girls waiting oh so patiently.

Then the hunt was on. Elliott stayed *somewhat* focused. Let's just say, she definitely wouldn't win a contest, that's for sure. However, I think she really enjoyed the whole experience.

Checking their loot.

The little man. I love how he looks surprised in this pic. He gives us this face often.

The fam.

Totally unrelated, but Kev and I decided to do this food elimination called The Whole30. You eliminate all processed foods, all dairy, sweets, etc for 30 days. So you basically just eat lots of veggies, fruit, meats, and eggs. I'm interested to see how I feel after 30 days. I've had a lot of "digestion" issues since my pregnancy and they have continued while I breast feed. I also have a serious sweet tooth, and I figured what better way to deal with it than starve it. :) I read about it here. I guess we'll see! So today is DAY 1. My thoughts so far...coffee with milk and sugar is WAY better than black coffee, I've gotten a little more hungry in between meals, my energy has been okay and no headaches. One day at a time.

Tis only a season...I hope

I feel like the longer I'm a mom, the more I realize kids go through COUNTLESS seasons. Seasons of not sleeping, seasons of throwing fits, seasons of whining, seasons of not eating, seasons of hitting, and the list goes on. I usually totally panic when we enter a new season, wondering how in the world I am going to deal with the new "issue," and then as soon as I've decided the my child will never sleep again, etc, they start sleeping. Funny how that works.

So with this in mind, I feel like Miss E has entered a new, not-so-fun season. The "I hate bathing" season. Baths used to be a highlight to our day, a way to expend energy while getting clean, a way to waste time, we all loved bath times. Not so much anymore. As of about a week ago, Elliott has a total panic attack during baths, particularly the hair washing. She starts frantically trying to get out of the tub, while screaming and saying "all done" and "out." It is heartbreaking. Of course the joy of this age is she can't tell me why in the world baths are so traumatizing. My best guess is she doesn't like getting water in her ears, so I've tried all different ways to wash her hair, but it's really hard to not get water in her ears when she is totally freaking out. I'm at a loss. I'm just really hoping this bath hating stage comes to an end quickly or she might be getting sponge baths.

Another little season she has been in for way too long is waking up in the middle of the night. This basically started right before Mason was born and has continued off and on ever since. Not fun. There was definitely a couple of weeks when Mason was waking up twice a night and she was up for at least an hour in the middle of the night that I thought I wasn't going to make it. I don't do well with sleep deprivation. :) She seemed to get better and stopped waking up, but then recently it has started again. The good news is Mason is sleeping through the night, but I really hate getting up with my toddler...for no apparent reason. Again, the difficulty of this age that she cannot communicate WHY she is waking up. I would greatly appreciate it.

Never forget

3 years ago tomorrow, we were looking at an ultrasound that showed that our baby had no heartbeat. It was a devastating end to my first pregnancy. I never expected to be one of the many who experiences a miscarriage, but life doesn't always go as expected. I feel like my miscarriage was the beginning of a dark season of life for me. A season I would not want to go back to, but nonetheless caused much growth in my life. My perspective was changed. I saw any future pregnancies as a God-given gift, not a right. Kids are truly a blessing from the Lord. Even though raising kids is difficult (I would venture to say it is the toughest job out there), and sometimes it's easy to get bogged down by the nitty gritty, mundane life of changing endless diapers, listening to crying/screaming, nursing/cutting food, this time of year serves as a reminder of how THANKFUL I am that God would see fit to bless us with two wonderful children.

The joy of children far outweighs the difficult. The joy of having your child wrap their arms around your neck in a hug, or hearing a child giggle, or having your baby's face light up when they see your face, or getting to see the world anew through the eyes of a child. I'm so thankful for these daily joys. But I never want to forget our very first baby. And I never want to forget all that God taught me through those dark days.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22

3 Months Old

Our sweet little man is 3 months old! As he reached this 3 month mark, I was reminded of how fun this age is. He is becoming so much more responsive, he's generally very happy, and he is sleeping so much better. More sleep=a happier mommy. Here are some things I don't want to forget.

• He can squeeze into several 0-3 month sleepers (mainly because I hate to buy new ones with the weather getting nicer), but he generally wears 3-6 month clothes.
• He started wearing size 3 diapers right after he turned 3 months old.
• He is still eating every 3 hours during the day, and he will take 4 ounces from a bottle when I'm at work.
• He still has his last feeding around 10 then will sleep usually until somewhere between 6 and 7. He has his exceptions (today he slept until 7:30 and yesterday he woke up at 5), but I am SO happy he is sleeping better. Now if E would quit waking up in the middle of the night. If it's not one, it's the other.

• He still does his eat/play/sleep routine, but he is definitely not as good of a napper as Elliott. Also, he has reached that point where he has a difficult time sleeping in his bouncer/car seat. He needs quiet to sleep.
• He has such a laid back personality. He spends lots of time in his bouncer just looking around. So precious! He has really started liking the little animals on his bouncer, particularly the green one.
• He loves to smile and will just about smile at anyone (very different from Miss E).
• He has a chronic stuffy nose. I'm not a fan. I'm beginning to wonder if he has allergies like his mommy.

• He rarely cries...only if he is really tired.
• He seems to like bath time and he likes to kick his legs like crazy.
• He loves to watch his big sister. He thinks she is the coolest.
• He has started laughing more. So stinking cute!

I truly cannot get enough of his smiles!! He warms my heart on a daily basis and we're so thankful the Lord blessed us with him!

I wanted to throw this picture in just because. Miss E wearing her first, big girl pony tail. She's getting so big!

Finally...I'm back.

Wow. It's hard to believe a month has almost passed since I last posted. A month. Craziness. In my defense, it has been a busy month. I started back to work when Mason was 9 weeks old, and even though I'm only working part time, it definitely has made my free time even MORE limited. Imagine that. Also, having two is most definitely more work. I love it, but I feel like my hands are almost always full, which means less time to blog. Hopefully I will get better. No promises. :)

Last week, we had some dear friends visit us from Oklahoma. You would think having 8 people crammed into a 2 bedroom house with only 1 bathroom would be stressful, but it was amazing! We had so much fun showing them around and we were so sad to see them go. Here are a few pictures from our week together.

Feeding the ducks on campus.

Sweet bedtime reading with the boys. Mason's loving the story. :)

Fun at St. Joseph which is a beach town on Lake Michigan. The water was FREEZING but the kids LOVED it! It's still hard for me to believe we live this close to white sandy beaches but it's not at the ocean.

E was disgustingly wet and sandy. It was all fun and games until it was time to take off her wet clothes (we don't have photos to document that "fun").

Love this girl and her adventurous spirit.

My sweet sweet friend. So refreshing to my soul.

Eating lemons at the pizza place. Her face says it all.

Family pic before pizza...love my squinty eyes.

The little man. He's getting so big! 3 months today.

We had some delicious pizza at a restaurant overlooking the beach.

We played some fun card games together. This was our "action" shot. I know...we're dorks. I especially love Stuart and Amy's reflective pants.

Lattes and walk around campus for old times sake...just a different campus.

We celebrated all the birthdays we missed while apart. Gotta love some yummy ice cream cake. We decided to make this a tradition every time we come back together.

Elliott LOVED hanging out with the boys. It was like having constant entertainment with some supervision. Amazing. The only negative is she tried to do everything they did...climbing, jumping, etc. Thankfully we didn't get any major injuries.

We also spent several hours in Chicago when we were taking them to the airport but the pictures are all on my phone, which I have not downloaded yet. It was so fun having them here, and we can't wait to see them again! Thanks for visiting us!