Happy Birthday Ethnie!!!!

  I am quite amazed, I hardly took any pictures of Little E on her birthday. It was a pretty casual day. Since Stake Conference was smack dab in the middle of nap time we decided to stay home as a little family and relax. Ethnie helped make her Birthday cupcakes.

 We had Gramma and Grandpa come over for dinner which consisted of ham, garlic mashed potatoes and Aunt Nancy green beans (which still tasted nothing like hers!). 

 Her first Happy Birthday experience was a traumatizing one. This is how it ended. Right now if you tell her no she will normally start to cry. That coupled all four of us scaring her by shouting no really freaked her out. She was about to stick her finger in the candle. After review of the video, she did not infact stick her finger in the flame, but we sure scared her. Poor thing. 

A quick family photo with her little eyes all red a puffy. 

 After that she really wanted nothing to do with the cupcake at all. 

 So we moved onto presents. Ethnie was obvioulsy with me when I went and bought this little doll. As I put it in the cart she went wild, yelling for the "BAAAA-BEEEE" and held onto the box until we had to pry it out of her little fingers at the register. Once we got home she knew exactly which bag held that precious little doll and promptly popped out of her car seat and ran up to the bag to help me open it. It was sad to have to put it in the closet for another week but she was pretty excited once she opened that box!

 A girl and her doll. What a special bond. 

Happy first birthday little girl! This has been the most wonderful, eye opening and magical year of my life. Motherhood is by far the greatest journey I have ever been on and I am loving every minute of it! Yes even the hard bits. Thank you for bringing such love, warmth and joy into our home Peanut. I am so greatful to be your Mama. You have helped me to more fully understand the love our Father in Heaven and our Savior has for each one of us and that is a gift I will forever cherish! I will forever hold all of our precious memories in my heart and I look forward to all of the adventures ahead of us! We love you Peanut! Happy Birthday! xoxo

One Cool Chick!

She wore these little shades all afternoon. When they'd fall off she'd come running up to me with them in her little hand ready for me to put them on again. She's pretty cool.

A Girl and her Shoes

 That's my little fashion-ista! I just love her little dress from Old Navy (on clearance for $2.00 on Black Friday! Score!)  The colours and that little bubble skirt are to die for! 

 The real winner however would have to be those freaking incredible shoes! A big thank you to the Shoemakes! These things just melt my heart! 

 Being the Mama of a girl is so much fun. This little princess can rock anything!

My Little Shopper!

 Someone is over being strapped into her car seat while we shop. I love that she's walking but she likes to destroy displays while she's out and about. So as a compromise I let her push the stroller. She is just too darn cute! I think it's time for Mama to get an upgrade! Come on Craigslist!!!

3 Months / 16 Weeks

How far along? 16 Weeks

Total weight loss/ gained? +8 lbs

Name? Undecided. The battle wages on. For the sake of peace in our home I'm hoping for a boy, we have that name picked out. Girl, totally different story. We'll worry about that when the time comes!

Maternity clothes? Nope but I'm getting close. My designer jeans are pretty snug. I'm getting much bigger, much faster this time around.

Stretch marks? Nope. Well nothing new anyways.

Sleep? I am finally sleeping well. *Sigh of relief!* No more crazy dreams! Sleeping on my side is a chore but it's becoming more comfortable.

Best moment this week?  Eating Apple Glazed Pork chops! Holy Moses they were so delicious, even if part of mine was a smidgen raw. I swear Jakob didn't try to kill me intentionally. Nevertheless, they were TO. DIE. FOR!!! So good!

Missing anything? No, I am feeling pretty bomb.com.

Movement? Nada. I sometimes think I feel something but it's so light. It will only be a matter of weeks.

Food cravings? Still loving on the MEATS! I want chicken burgers, pork chops, roast. More meat the better! I'm still eating tons of carbs. I am in love with potatoes right now, baked, grilled, fried! So good! I'm not into candy, or much of anything sweet.

Anything making you queasy/ sick? Nope. I haven't tossed my cookies this entire time! Score!I can't hardly stand the look or smell of pizza though. Ick.

Labor signs? NO WAY!

Belly button in or out? flat

Wedding rings on or off? On.

Mood? I'm just loving spending time with Jakob and little Ethnie. This is the life!

Any fun symptoms? Fun? No. I'm still tired but I have more energy than I did in my first trimester, lightheaded but I'm sure that's from lack of fluids. I'm pretty horrible about drinking my water.

Looking forward too? Ethnie's first Birthday!!! Can't believe she's going to be one!!! How did that happen?? Only 6 more months until this little one arrives. It's going to be here so fast!

I {heart} Valentines Projects!

 I had been searching around online for a cute little back pack to put Jakob's and Ethnie's Valentine treasures in because sometimes a mail box just doesn't cut it. I figure that since E was born in February I will start to make Valentines a little more special. After doing some digging I came across this back pack at Pottery Barn Kids. Super cute and just was I was looking for accept even on sale these were $14.99 a pop plus an additional $7.99 if I wanted to embroider a name on it! That would be $91.92 for the four of us (new baby too) plus shipping and handling. No Thanks. So i decided I would make my own.

Tada! I didn't have a pattern but lets be serious these are pretty simple to throw together. It took me approx 4 hours with the hand embroidery and I got all of the supplies for 4 of them for less than $20. Now that's more like it. 

 

 Even though I had to take the time to make them (I only ended up making E's and Jakob's. I'll make mine and new babies once we name it.) It feels a little more special since they came from me and not the store. I also was able to make them bigger than PB's and I got rid of the slit in the top. 

 I then decided that I wanted to decorate our mantel. Our mantel is a beast. I hate this thing. But we do what we can since we are only renting. I had all of the supplies as left overs from previous projects and the whole thing took me about 3 hours to make. Not too shabby if I say so myself.

 I love the final outcome! I did make seven flags and just tucked them under the candles since I figure our mantel in our future home will be a bit bigger! That's a wrap of Valentines. Onto BIRTHDAY!!!! Can't believe that E will be ONE in 4 days!!

Zoom Zoom

 E just {loves} her little car. This thing is a little more advanced than the one I had as a child. There are a ton of different buttons to push for the horn, drums, piano, revving the engine and so on. It was a fabulous way to help her learn to walk and now she really enjoys going for rides, especially if those rides include her baby.

Negative side to her loving her baby doll so much would be that she loves all babies. You would think that this would be a good thing, especially with her little sibling arriving in a few short months. Here's the problem, she thinks that all babies are toys that she can grab, poke their eyes and carry around by their little legs. We will have to fix this train of though by August, for now we steer clear of babies in church and let her have her fun with her little doll.

Baby, car and a silky blanket. Life doesn't get much better than this!

Valentines Day

 I couldn't resist doing a mini photo shoot with Ethnie. After all it is her first Valentines. Please ignore the jacked up kiss on her cheek, she was wiggling. I consider myself to be rather brave to do this sort of shoot on my own. Things could have gotten very messy very quickly. Thankfully E is a pro when it comes to pictures. Heck, she even knows how to take a picture herself. What a smartie she is. Ahhh! She is just soooo cute! Gosh I adore her! 

 I learned long ago not to have any expectations for holidays from Jakob. I do what I do and if he does something in return that is a bonus. He is incredibly busy so I have taken over the "plan dates" department. It's easier that way. I do require that he writes me a letter for every valentines, anniversary, birthday and Christmas though. Letters have been our thing since the beginning and I love looking back and reading through all of them. This year however Jakob went a little "bigger" and got me a JUMBO card. This thing is ridiculous and I LOVE it! Inside was a coupon for a hot date to the Zombie Apocalypse Store to purchase any tazer my heart desired. What a romantic he is! I can't describe how much I love that man!

 In the evening we went out for Valentines dinner to one of my favorite places Buca Di Beppo! We were joined by Mom and Dad which made it all the more special. Seriously... I love them. I am very grateful that we have a relationship where we are so close. We had a wonderful evening and I think we ate ourselves sick. Well at least I did! It was DE-LICIOUS!

The best part of all was spending our very first Valentines together as a family of three. Ethnie is beyond amazing. I couldn't ask for a better daughter or Valentine!

 

 I hope your Valentines was filled with as much love as our was! xoxo

Valentines Week

I still think I'm crazy for doing an entire week but now that I have Pinterest it's hard not to do the 14 days of Valentines. There are soooo many good ideas out there! Not to mention Jakob really enjoys the week of spoils even if sometimes they are ridiculous.Everyday I put a little note in his mailbox that I made back in 2010. He just loves coming downstairs to see that he's gotten some mail.

Day 1: I made Valentines day cupcakes. What made them V-day you ask? They were supposed to be heart shaped. Did you catch how I said supposed to be. Major flop. Instead of them turning into cute little hearts they just looked like they had been squished by someone's thumb. I think they rose too much? They still tasted good and the folks in Jakob's office appreciated them. Hopefully you will have better luck. Click on the picture for the link.

Day 2: (Please ignore the facial expression. This man and pictures lol.) I was in the mall with my parents back in January and I saw a this shirt and I knew I had to have it! I mean how awesome is that?

Day 3: Sunday's a pretty busy in our house so he got something nice and simple. A little something to remind him that I love him every time he sings the ABC'S with Ethnie

Day 4: On Monday I gave him the sweetest little picture of Ethnie. Golly she's adorable!! It's a little motivation to help him come home a little earlier to his sweet girl!

Day 5: For the longest time Jakob has been trying to tell me that "The Last of the Mohicans" is a love story. I saw it once a really long time ago but I really didn't think it feel under the same category as The Notebook, The Proposal, or A Walk to Remember.  However Netflix claims that it is in fact a romance title as it was listed under Romance. I saw it in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart and decided we should add it to our collection.

Day 6: A little Gum Ball machine full of his very favorite candy. He was rather excited about this!

Day 7: Happy Valentines. He will be receiving our traditional letter. Little E will be getting a pink Teddy. I really love Valentines Week and being able to spoil my sweetheart! He totally deserves it!! 

Toddler

E has been walking for quite some time now... I just forgot to post about it. This was her first time taking more than two steps. Now she will toddle from the couch to the chair, from Mama to Daddy. She's really getting quite brave and I can't believe that she's upright! One of her favorite things to do is hold one of your hands and explore the house. She is such a big girl! What happened to my baby?! 

A Few Hard Things

I'm not looking for sympathy. I want to start this post off by saying that, I'm just trying to keep the balance. I've said it before and I'll say it again; this blog is our families journal and I feel that I should include just about everything. 

Parenthood is not easy. I never thought it would be but right now is especially hard. I am incredibly hormonal from this pregnancy. It's like PMS on constant overdrive. I can feel myself becoming unreasonable and I just can't stop it which makes me even more annoyed. I am SUPER tired which is obviously understandable. It's no easy task making a baby but I do not cope with lack of sleep well. I go to bed at 8:30 every night and it's still not enough. I would nap while E naps but my OCD kicks in and I must clean, or prep for primary, or try to accomplish something on my never ending list of "to-dos." Yet with all of the bustling around I still feel like my life is in a constant state of chaos which stresses me out and adds to the problem.

I love my daughter and I feel as though I am not being the Mother that she needs just because I do not have the energy. She is in a very needy stage of her life where she's exploring her independence but she wants me right there beside her the entire day. She's a great helper! It makes it hard to maximize my time even though I know that she needs me more and I need to be with her. 

She has this terrible bum rash where she cries because it hurts so bad. It breaks my heart to hear her cry and not know how to fix it.

Let's not even get into being the bomb.com wife that I want to be.

In summation I feel like I'm not enough. I feel like I'm failing every single day, when in reality I'm not. I need to streamline. I need to let go and I need to focus on the important things. Being on the verge of tears every day is killing me. I can't go on like this. Time to cut out the fluff and get down to the basics: My daughter, my husband, myself. Church, the house and all of the other extras are just going to have to wait until I can feel like I can take them on. I've got this! 

I was reading a talk by M. Russel Ballard (Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) from April 1990 and he summed up my solution perfectly: "We observe vast, sweeping world events; however, we must remember that the purposes of the Lord in our personal lives generally are fulfilled through the small and simple things, and not the momentous and spectacular."

Not the momentous and spectacular. Love it. It's time for a change.