Happy Hallow-eve!

I'm not going to lie, I questioned whether or not I would be a functioning person come Halloween. The first part of this week was just plain awful, as Dustin was out of town on business and both boys weren't feeling well. But I did it...I survived! We're all alive, feeling much better, sanity is in tact (for the most part) and tomorrow is my 2nd favorite holiday!

But I figured before I post a Halloween blog with 5,423 photos of the boys in their costumes (because come on, I am the picture queen), I figured I'd better get this week out of the way!

In the last blog, I mentioned I was going to get together with some of my girl's...I live for nights with my girls. We keep each other sane, talk about all of our crazy, understand each other and can dish on any subject without worry of judgement from others. They are amazing. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by these ladies. We're missing a few of the girls, but cue the cliche bathroom/mirror selfies! ;)

On Saturday, we (against my better judgement) decided to use some free tickets from Dustin's work and take a trip to Holiday World, a local theme park. I was really hesitant about going because a) Gavin isn't the easiest baby to cart around these days. He hates sitting. In anything. Strollers, high chairs, carts...you name it, he probably hates it. I also didn't want to walk around a park all day baby-wearing him. He's almost 20 pounds! ...b) Worrying about things like diaper changes, feeding times, naps, etc. c) The only person that could ride anything would be Christian, and there are only a handful of rides he's big enough for. d) The crowds! Anything this time of year is bound to crowded and full of people. Waiting in line for rides while entertaining a restless baby...blah. and e) It was an hour car ride to get there...Gavin and car rides? Once again, that requires sitting. So in case you cannot tell, my excitement about this trip was non-existent. However, we had free tickets and Dustin and Christian were dying to go. 

When I looked up the event online (it was a Halloween Weekend party), it said to dress in your costumes. So we put on our costumes, packed up our car and hit the road.

When we pulled into the parking lot, we kept looking around and noticed...hmm...NO ONE else is wearing a costume. No one. Nada. I didn't care, we still had on some adorable outfits, we are wearing them. Foot down. We step out of the car. We are NOT wearing our costumes. Mother nature thought it would be hilarious to give us an 85 degree day in the middle of our 50-60 degree weather. Cue the sweating.

So I stripped the boys of as much clothing as possible, but unfortunately I was still stuck wearing my black boots, black jeans & black jacket. After sweating for 30 minutes in the park though, we decided to stop at the gift shop and buy me some flip-flops...oh, hello $29.99 stupid flip-flips to wear at the stupid hot park to which I didn't even want to go. Are you catching a theme here? I was not loving Holiday World. However, Gavin was semi-good...and Christian had a blast on the 6 rides he was able to ride. Moral of the story...check the weather, hire a sitter & don't bring babies to theme parks unless you have to. 

On Sunday morning, Christian got into the costume box and decided he wanted to be a witch for the rest of the day. He was pretty upset when I told him we had to put regular clothes on to attend our friend Caroline's 2nd birthday party. Oh, and I love having help in the kitchen! If I ever burn dinner, it's because this little face is distracting me! ;)

The boys playing outside at the birthday party.

On Monday, Dustin left us for Houston, TX. This is when the boys decided to team up against me.

Gavin didn't want to sleep in his bed, he cried almost all day and those stinking front teeth STILL haven't poked through! His gums are so swollen and red...I do NOT understand what is taking so long!

But I did get to spend Monday catching my friend Kayla up on Outlander (swoon!) & then starting her on Orange Is The New Black...seriously, one of my favorite shows everrrrrr. Anyone know when the 3rd season is coming out?! I'm having withdrawals!

Onto Tuesday. Oh Tuesday. This is the day I thought for sure I wasn't going to make it out alive. Christian woke me up at 4am complaining of a tummy ache. I got up with him, we laid on the couch, slept on and off, and then Gavin got up at 7am. I could tell he was going to be in another mood today. Surprise, surprise. When I came back in the living room, Christian kept telling me he had to spit...aka...vomit. So I got him a bucket, and on my way back into the living room, nearly missed stepping into the PILES of cat puke all over the living room. *Insert lots of mental cursing & deep breaths* Did I mention this was only 7am and I am NOT a morning person? If I have to wake up before 9am, I am a monster.

Now to figure out how to clean said cat puke off the floor. Also, don't forget Christian is spitting into his bucket because he thinks he has to puke. It's 7:15AM. If I put Gavin on the floor, he will want to crawl, eminently crawling through puke piles. If I sit him on the couch, he will fall off, bust his head open and I win the worst mom ever award. So I hold him with one arm and clean up cat puke with another. That's fun!

Okay, cat puke is cleaned. Christian has, for the time being, stopped spitting. Gavin needs his morning milk. So I sit on the couch and start nursing the baby.

"MOM!!! I HAVE TO POOP RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!" 

Unlatch Gavin. Cue screams of bloody terror. Take Christian to the bathroom. He didn't make it. He went in his underwear because, yep, you guessed it...diarrhea. His belly is cramping, he is crying, Gavin is crying, I am nearly crying. It's not even 9am. I cleaned Christian up, finished nursing Gavin and for the next couple hours, things slowed down a bit. But then Gavin started teething and would scream bloody murder if I even had the thought of putting him down, Christian was running to the bathroom every hour or so, I was giving him Pedialyte like a drug, trying to make lunch & dinner, attempting to throw a scrap of food in my mouth so my blood sugar doesn't plummit. Yes (mom), I could have called for help, but I was so overwhelmed and in a bad place, I didn't even want to pick up the phone to speak to anyone. 

Dustin thankfully called me that evening to tell me he had gotten an earlier flight out and would be home early afternoon on Wednesday. Thank the good Lord above!

When I finally got the boys in bed, I literally collapsed on the couch. I didn't even have the energy to make myself a glass of water, so I picked up the phone to have pizza delivered.

If there was one thing good that came out of that dreaded Tuesday, it's this.

I started working on their trick-or-treating costumes and this was just amazing!

Wednesday was a much easier day. Christian was feeling much better and Dustin got home during their naptime. I'd say they were pretty excited to see him.

It was also a tad chilly Wednesday night...cue the hot chocolate (with extra marshmallows...obvi)!

Thursday. Today. Today has been absolutely amazing! I took Christian to school this morning and ran errands with the littlest. I kept him in his seat for this Target trip, since obviously the cart is the devil, and he was as happy as could be.

Then I got a text from Christian's teacher telling me how awesome he was being at school. Her exact words were "Christian is rocking it today!" She sent me these pictures of him playing with their new toys. Apparently he sat there the entire play time and worked on these fine motor skills puzzles.

PS...how dapper does he look in his picture day outfit?!

Today after school, we worked on our treat bags for his Halloween party tomorrow. He's so excited to hand these out to his friends. And duh, you know I'll post a picture of the finished product on the Halloween blog. ;)

Then we had a Halloween lunch, complete with smiles and Frankenstein cups.

Tonight we are going to a Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular event...with over 500 lit Jack-O-Lanterns. It's supposed to be crazy crowded, but SO worth it. We'll see!

We cannot wait until tomorrow! We're all buzzing with excitement over Christian's school party and trick-or-treating. I can't wait to post pictures of their costumes...until then, here's Gavin's 1st Halloween photo shoot. Last year, he was just a tiny skeleton tin-man in my belly!

(I was 21 weeks preggo here.)

Happy Halloween Eve everyone!

Hope you get lots of treats and hardly any tricks!

Chubby Babies & Jack-Obsessed Toddlers

Happy Friday! I bet you're wondering what a Jack-obsessed toddler is?! Well, it's a toddler that can be found at any given moment singing "This is Halloween" from The Nightmare before Christmas. He is obsessed with the movie...and more specifically, it's main character Jack. We listen to it in the car...a minimum of 3 times per trip (shown below). We watch the movie once a day, usually after naptime...and then for the next 4 hours until bedtime, he sings, "I, JACK, the pumpkin king!" His poor little toddler heart is going to be broken when Halloween is over and mean ole' mom puts the movie back in the holiday movie vault until next year. Yep, crown me now...meanest.mom.EVER.

To feed into the madness, my sister who lives in Florida (uhhh, so jealous! 10 minutes from a beach?! What a jerk. Love you, Emmy!) sent him a Halloween care package in the mail. In this adorable and awesome care package was a singing Jack Skellington. So cute at first, although now I kind of want to hide it under a rock buried in the backyard...I mean, I love it! ;))

So what have we been doing besides watching The Nightmare before Christmas everyday? Oh ya know, just living the life...the life of pure & total craziness that is expected with 2 boys.

Gavin is still just as bad, awful, terrible cute as ever! That darn tooth still hasn't poked through, so he's still super clingy & whiny. Although today, so far, he has been an angel, so I shouldn't complain too much. Although I'm leaving the boys with their dad tonight to enjoy some girls only time...hopefully he retains his angel status for daddy. ;)

I've also decided there's not much cuter than a naked chubby baby. All that cuteness sure does make up for his bad, bad self!

The face KILLS ME. Seriously? So many captions come to mind...

"Are you seriously taking my picture right now."

"Don't you dare upload this to Facebook."

"Are you really talking to me right now."

"Do you really think I'm going to fall for that peek-a-boo crap?"

"The wheels on the bus go...no."

"If you call me fat one more time..."

Feel free to send me your captions...anytime I have a rough day, I will look at this picture and crack.up.laughing.

Btw, someone came crawling out of his room this week with a pretty pink paci...I have NO idea where he found out, but I'm guessing it belongs to a sweet little friend of ours, Scarlett.

Daddy & Gavin had some cuddles while watching Football. Dad heaven right there.

We went to a friend's house on Wednesday to help her decorate...Gavin was happy for ummmm...15 minutes? Cried the rest of the time and only wanted mommy. Hanging pictures and holding a baby? Not the easiest task.

We've started sitting Gavin in the cart instead of his carrier...but he hates it after 10 minutes. But the mustache pants & Sophie giraffe make it totally okay. 

We snuggled with our next addition to the mommy & baby group...little miss Gemma. Christian is so good with pregnant bellies...he pats and loves on her any chance he gets. Nice try buddy, no pregnant belly for your mom anytime soon!

Also, waking up babies is awful business. Look at this sleepy face! I had to wake him up because it was back to school for Christian. 

And then I had to wake him up again to pick big brother up...but he gave me the cutest faces ever, so all was good.

Speaking of school, Christian had an A++ first week back! His teacher said he did great...no hitting, no chokeholds...hallelujah! They got to see real fireman and a firetruck, paint pumpkins and watch a fun learning video on their new TV's (thanks for this year's school fundraiser!). And look at this little flirt...sitting at a table with all girls. Like father, like son? Oh Lord....I knew Dustin as a teenager. I was one of those girls that crushed hard on Dustin as a teenager...talk about a heartbreaker! If Christian is anything like his dad, I want to apology to any little girl (and her parents) that ends up liking him! Don't get me wrong, Dustin was a good teenager...a teenager any mom would be proud to have, but he was quite the flirt...and broke my heart on more than one occasion when I was young. Oh how the times have changed! ;)

They also played the parachute game...so jealous! That was my favorite as a kid.

Christian had some one-on-one time with his grandparents this past week. He went trick-or-treating as a shark last weekend with my dad & his girlfriend, and then this week he went with my mom as a mouse. The cutest part about this costume is that my mom made it probably 10 years ago for my little brother, and now it's being passed down! 

And that's been our week...I'll leave you with a little cuteface that thought 6am was a completely acceptable time to rise & shine.

Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weekend!

Motherhood...it ain't always easy!

Well, hello! Happy Saturday! I hope yours is going better than mine...we're on a little bit of a rough patch with the littlest, BUT he's currently sleeping (as I'm proof reading this...he's now bouncing and whining in the bouncer...better hurry!), so I thought I'd use this time to play catch-up!

Today I thought I would share a quick little backstory to my post. It's so funny to me, I feel like no matter what I post these days on social media, someone is going to be perturbed/annoyed/offended. I recently read an article by a blogger complaining about people who are constantly posting pictures of their happy lives. They feel as though you're rubbing your successes in others' faces. It pretty much said to stop bragging on your kiddos/hubby, stop posting pictures of your kids (because no one cares besides you) and don't try to seem too happy...because then you're pretending to be perfect.

Then I read articles/blogs by parents/people who have had a REALLY.ROUGH.HAND dealt to them. Whether it's the death of a loved one, diagnosed with a disease, given no time to live, etc. These people complain about the complainers. Oh, you're baby cried all night last night because he was teething? At least you can have a baby.

{Which for the record, I tend to side with latter of the two. I love reading about people's successes in life. I'm the type of person that's happy for people that are happy. I tend to get annoyed when someone is alwayyyyys complaining. However, I also understand, it's their social media, and if they want to complain about their stubbed toe, spilt coffee and traffic jams, that's their right!}

So I always try to think before I post...am I going to be offending people if I complain about my unruly baby that's driving me nuts? Am I going to be offending people if I post about our AWESOME day at the park? But I've always just tried to be real with my posts. When things are going great, I post about them. When things aren't going great, I post about it. When the toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of Target and I want to deny he's my child, I'll post about it. When he's a perfect angel and crawls on the couch saying, "mommy, I love to cuddle!"...yep, you'll see that, too. I'm never trying to make my life seem perfect...and I'm NEVER, EVER taking my children for granted. They are my life. Our lives are far from perfect, but we make the best out of every single day we're given on this earth. Even the days when I feel like gouging my eyes out because I'm so tired I can't see straight.

So with that being said, this past week for me was hard. I still love that little round face more than life itself, but he's giving me a tough go right now. So please don't ever think that because I complain about him on here, I don't love my life as a mother. Because I do, and I know that at any time, it can be taken away. I cherish every second, even the rotten, horrible ones. ;)

SO now that we've gotten that out of the way...

Here's a recap of our week! Last week, we had a teething, screaming baby that actually let me snuggle him.

A doctor's appointment because the boy's were running fevers...again. And it's just a virus...again.

And grumpy man got a new bibdana. Adorbs, right?

We drew and colored fall pictures.

Had a baby dance party...

And realized that life with a mobile baby just got more interesting!

Look! More cuddling! Has hell frozen over?! Are pigs flying?!

Then last weekend we went to the local Harvest Homecoming festival. Handmade goodies, rides, fair food, friends & lemon shake-ups...I'm there.

But before, we take pics!

We went home for naps after the festival, then woke up and went to the World's Largest Halloween Party at The Louisville Zoo.

Christian finally got to meet the Toy Story characters...I've never seen a kid more excited for anything in my life!

Sunday was the premiere of one of our FAVS. That's right, folks...the walkers are back! I think this season is going to be awesome. And wine.

Monday, I helped my preggo BFF's register for their babies. How cute is this you guys...these girls are some of the last in our group to become mommas, and they aren't only pregnant at the same time...they have the same due date!! One is having a girl and one is having a boy...and I couldn't be more thrilled to meet these new additions to our group!

While we were out registering, Dustin sent me cute pics of all my boys. Only Dustin can get Gavin to fall asleep on him everytime!

I also have 2 new additions to my home decor...this is actually a sticker for a pumpkin that I ordered from Jane.com...but it was too cute to waste on something I was going to throw away, so the pantry door it is! 

And I got this adorable Indiana pillow from a high school friend that makes adorable handmade crafts. She should be opening an Etsy page soon!

On Tuesday, we broke out his 12 month outfits (please slow down!!!) and look at this one from Aunty Celia!! #brbdying

Someone has also started rocking back & forth on all fours...he'll be a full-time crawler before we know it!

Yesterday started out ROUGH. Gavin hasn't been sleeping, he sneezed peas ALL OVER ME, Christian was in rare form and Gavin refused to be put down. And to top it off, I had to find time to get cleaned up and ready for a wedding. Well, it took me 3 hours, but I did it! From full time mom covered in baby puke & food, to an actual woman, complete with shaved legs and freshly conditioned hair! Moms, it can be done! ;)

My hot dates at the wedding!

But then...we got home about 1:00am (we went to see Annabelle in theaters after the reception...no, thank you! Never again!), got ready for bed, laid down and "Oh, what's that? A crying baby?" Gavin cried & screamed & refused to nurse & refused to be rocked & refused to sleep for hoursssss. I think he slept from 4:30-5:30...maybe? So to say we're a bit tired today would be an understatement. He is also going through a nursing strike, which is seriously hindering my supply. So between the lack of sleep, the teething & the non-nursing, we are definitely having a tough week with this grump monster.

BUT, because I'm a glass half full kinda gal, he is happy (right now) after 2 good naps, Christian is having a blast with his papaw & granny, and Dustin & I are going to have a movie marathon complete with yummy dinner, wine & an early bedtime for baby. We are GOING to figure out this milk supply issue and things are going to get better. There, it's in my blog...it must be true, right?! ;)

Thanks for reading & have a great weekend!