Happy 8 Months, Gavin Lee!

What a great way to start our month photos, right?! This was his, "I can't believe you just took my toy away and sat me down" face. Life is rough.

But really, this little boy has been quite an angel lately. He has really started playing with toys, crawling all over every inch of the house, exploring new things, pulling up on everrrrrything and essentially growing up way too fast.

About a week ago, he discovered how to go from crawling to sitting up, so other than actually using his knees to crawl, he can officially get anywhere he needs to go, stop and explore, and then he's off again. I seriously feel like he's never going to crawl properly, because he's so skilled at army crawling. He can get up on all fours, but the second he sees something he wants, he's off on his belly like a little fish. 

He is a babbling fool...he can say: mama, dada, gaga, baba, lala and nana. He is also a lover of making bubbles and when you use your hand to make funny noises with his mouth.

He has 3 teeth as of November 11th, and the 4th will be here any day. Can I just mention how excited I am to be nursing a wild 8 month old with four teeth (please note the sarcasm).

We won't get his height or weight until his 9 month check-up next month, but he is definitely getting fatter growing like a weed. He is in 9-12 month clothes and 12 month sleepers. He is still in size 3 diapers and finally has enough red hair for me to style just like his big bro's!

Not much has changed on the eating & sleeping schedule, except thanks to Daylight Savings Time ending, he gets up an hour or two earlier than he used to. He wakes up anywhere from 6-7:30, nurses, breakfast around 9, morning naptime 9:30-11, nurse, lunch around 12:30-1, nurse, naptime 2-4, nurse again (Fatty McFat, right?), dinner at 6, bath at 7, bedtime at 7:30. He sometimes wakes up around 4am and I'll nurse him. 

I'm not going to lie, I feel super proud of going 8 months with only breastmilk. I had to supplement with Christian and then stop nursing at 5 months old, so he was never exclusively breastfed. But I'm so much more comfortable with nursing this time around and not to mention, he's been an excellent nurser. Not that there is anything wrong with formula...Christian was on it for 7 months and he turned out pretty good...but I set a goal of 1 year no formula, and I don't see any reason why I can't meet that goal! Although he did go on a nursing strike a few weeks ago because we finally found a bottle he liked...and he ended up liking it too much (oops!), but we powered through the screaming fits and tantrums and now we're all good! I was so close to giving up, but Dustin and my other mom friends were amazing support and gave me plenty of encouragement. So thanks guys! ;)

He is also eating 1 pouch and 4 containers of baby food a day, plus any table food I throw his way. He's had bananas, pancakes in coconut oil, avocados (NOT a fan), sweet potatoes and blueberries.

Some of his favorite things are still the same...he loves teethers and his little stuffed animal, Ellie. In fact, he won't sleep without it...I had it in the laundry and thought he wouldn't really care...nope! He cried and cried and refused to nap until I realized it's because he wanted to cover his face with that darn Ellie.

He still has a huge temper...don't believe me?? Just try taking away something he has in his hands or not feeding him fast enough...you'll believe me then! He is also turning into a mega mommy's boy. He doesn't like for anyone else to hold him if I am in sight. But that means he has also started cuddling with me...hallelujah! 

He is obsessed with being sung to...if he's ever upset, I'll break out a tune and he instantly calms down. Christian was never like that, so it's really awesome to see him start to develop a unique personality. Mommyhood with a 3-year-old and super mobile baby that has to be watched every second of the day definitely isn't an easy task, but I'm loving every minute. The fact that he's only 4 months away from his 1st birthday literally blows my mind. If you think it goes fast with the first baby, multiply it by 100 for the second.

We love you baby G! What a blessing you have been to our family!

November is for Baby Showers!

This past week was spent gearing up for one of my best friend's baby showers. I was so excited to be able to throw her one, because not only do we get to celebrate a sweet little life being brought into the world, but I LOVE throwing a party! Planning and crafting is one of my favorite things to do, so I'll take any excuse.

Since my week was spent working on that, I definitely slacked on my blog...so here is a quick recap of our first week+some days of November (the busiest month of the year for us, btw).

Well for starters...just in case anyone has missed it or doubted the color of Gavin's hair...it's RED. No denying that this kid is full on ginger. I've always had a love for red hair, so it cracks me up that I have not only one, but two red-headed boys! 

We started November off with a date night...and of course I would pull a paci out of my coat pocket during dinner. #parentlife

This date night (like ALL date nights) consisted of Hibachi & a movie. 

We saw Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal, and we still aren't sure what to make of it. I think I liked it?? It wasn't what I expected...kind of weird...way too many car accident scenes for my taste (having a brother pass away in a car accident pretty much scars you for life from that)...but it was weird enough that it held my interest. So yeah...that's not a very good movie review...but like I said, I'm still unsure myself! ;)

Over the weekend, Christian also caught a wicked cold and cough that he so thoughtfully passed onto to me and Gavin. Sharing is caring, right?

We finished that weekend out with chubby baby snuggles...

A trip to Sam's Club (where Gavin lasted in the cart a whole 4 minutes and 15 seconds)...

Fighting over who gets to snuggle momma (Oh darn)...

Super-Christian helping with baths, and eating reading books in matching pj's. Aside from Christian catching a cold, it was a pretty successful weekend!

Then the week consisted of...

Baby shower planning and Gavin plotting what to grab first...

Painting the easel white & blue to match the playroom...

Gavin learning to drive (in park. Waiting for big bro to get out of school. No worries.) and feeling quite unsure about it...

Cute new pants from Jane.com...

Baby snuggles because Christian shared his germs...

Christian bringing Gavin to me along with the statement, "Here mom. Here's your baby. I sink he needs your boobies." Oh the things my toddler says!

Fat baby legs... #nomnom

Gavin pulling himself up for the first time ever...and instantly regretting that decision.

A pesky little brother...

Saturday morning snuggles with daddy...

Pancakes cooked in coconut oil and bananas...his favorite ever...

And a girl's night consisting of lots of baby belly rubs.

SO now that I have the week recapped, that brings us to the baby shower fun! I met Jennifer years ago because our husbands are cousins. We also just happened to move next door to each other in 2007 and then I started working for her at her salon cleaning tanning beds, doing make-up and becoming her organizing assistant. ;) She quickly became one of my very best friends. She was one of the maids of honor in my wedding, and I was one in hers as well. I'm so excited for her to begin this new chapter in life as a mommy. She is having a boy and in case it's not obvious in the photos, naming him Cash.

One of my favorite things was the popcorn bar. Everyone made their own kind of popcorn as their party favor...but really, we all just sat around and ate popcorn as Jennifer opened her baby gifts. ;)

I feel SO blessed to have these ladies in my life (some are missing from the photo...I love you all, too, haha). I was going through a very rough time in my life before they came in, and I seriously cannot thank God enough for bringing them around. We are so lucky to have each other through all of life's surprises and journeys. I can't wait for the two new additions to our group and to give those babies lots of snuggles...I have to get my tiny newborn baby fix from somewhere, because apparently I have an 8 month old!

Happy Monday all & thanks for reading!

Halloween 2014

Wow, I meant to post this over the weekend, but then one sick kid, one teething baby, two sick parents and planning for a baby shower happened...better late than never, right?!

Our Halloween started out with us making treats to take to Christian's class party. We made funfetti cake batter popcorn (which I didn't care for, but I'm not a white chocolate fan) to pass out to all of his friends. Isn't my helper so cute?

Then I helped out in his classroom and we did some cute Halloween games with the kids. They got to go trick-or-treating next door to the school...there's my cute little mouse in the back. 

And as requested from the toddler, I dressed up as a cat for Halloween.

 After school, it was naps and then time for costumes!

First of all let me just say, I was the most excited ever about this year's Halloween costumes. I've been planning them for awhile and didn't tell anyone what we were doing. I couldn't wait to see the faces of people handing out candy...however, mother nature had other plans in mind! It was seriously bitter cold, wet, rainy and snowing...yes, snow. Welcome to the Ohio Valley, where the weather is as unpredictable as an episode of Game of Thrones (if you haven't read the books, of course...).

I knew it was going to be arctic cold though, so I put the boys in their sleepers, then another layer on top of that...and then their costumes. When I took their clothes off at the end of the night, their legs were still nice & toasty, so I know my ridiculous layering worked. ;) ANYWHO, on to the important part...what were they?!? Oh, only the 2 best characters from the greatest movie ever...and I do have to say, if you disagree with me there, we might not make it as friends!

Yep, that's right...FORREST GUMP AND LIEUTENANT DAN. I mean, can you feel my excitement from the computer? I loved these costumes! I saw a similar idea on Pinterest years ago and immediately thought to myself, "If I ever have 2 boys, I am SO doing this." And it's funny, as soon as I found out that Gavin was a boy, I immediately thought about their first Halloween and these costumes.

Aside from the hat, which I ordered online, I was able to pull everything from their closets. Talk about a cheap costume!

We took the boys to my mom's house first, then Dustin's parents, my grandparents and then off to our friend's house to trick-or-treat with all the kiddos. Although, between us all chasing after multiple children and freezing our butts off, we totally sucked and didn't get a group shot of the kiddos. Fail.

We managed to trick-or-treat for about 20 minutes before we couldn't feel our hands anymore and headed back inside. I was super bummed that the awesome costumes didn't get used to their full potential, but Christian had fun, we got way too much candy and the parents all loved it...so it wasn't a total loss. ;)

 (The only picture I took of them trick-or-treating...fail again)

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! I can't believe it's over...but I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of ready to pack away Jack movie until next year...it kind of loses it's awesomeness after 3 weeks straight every.single.day.

Oh, and I'll leave with you some AWESOME pictures from the Halloween Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular. This was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Over 5,000 pumpkins lit through the woods...just amazing. Aside from the grinch of the family (do you even have to ask? Of course I mean Gavin), we all loved it.

It's been great Halloween, but now it's time for another awesome holiday...THANKSGIVING...aka...mashed potatoes and gravy day. 

Thanks for reading!

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!