7.8.12

This boy keeps me on my toes.

Not a whole lot going on today. Rob's working. I took the boys to church this morning. We stopped by Starbucks on the way home - nastiest.white mocha.ever. The barista must have been new. Blegh. 

Brady can't nap. And he's doing a very poor job at staying in his room for "quiet time". I'm doing a remarkable job at keeping my cool today though. Although he's just woken Carson up from his nap by his loudness - hopefully he will go back to sleep. Otherwise looks like an early bedtime for them tonight!

7.7.12

Brady with his Play-Doh creation

Look at my big boy! He looks so grown up to me in this picture. Still looking a lot like my dad but more and more like Rob every day. Rob is working this weekend, which I detest, plus temperatures above 100 for the past few days have been leaving us finding lots of indoor activities. This morning was play-doh. Then mom volunteered to come to the pool with me this afternoon to help wrangle the kids. Otherwise I wouldn't have attempted it. I don't mind taking the kids by myself - except I want to melt in this heat. And when I'm constantly having to hover over Carson to make sure he doesn't walk over the edge of the pool or eat rocks or the most common is picking him up each time he falls on his face in the baby pool, it's just plain a lot of work to do by yourself. Add to it that I'm 30 weeks pregnant it's really not much fun for mama! So thank you mom for coming with us!

I am finally starting to buy some things for baby girl. Yesterday the boys and I went to Babies R Us and scored the Sit N'Stand stroller I wanted, plus it was on sale for $104! I am so glad I researched these puppies, because I was ready to plop down more than double that amount for a different brand. Today I ordered her a crib from Amazon. I was really not wanting to buy another crib and just use the expensive one both Brady and Carson have used, but I've finally realized that Rob is probably right and we are going to NEED another one since Carson will still be using ours for (hopefully) a long while after she is born. Plus the one I ordered is cheap enough that I can paint it a fun color and not worry about "ruining" an expensive piece of furniture. I'm thinking I'll either go with a soft pink, grey, or mint green color. 

I also bought her two of the cutest tiny cardigans from the clearance rack of Janie and Jack the other day. I'm thinking I will need to get them monogrammed with her initial. And I do believe the Janie and Jack clearance rack is my new favorite place to shop for the kids. I scored some great deals for Brady and Carson as well - including some winter/Christmas items for super cheap!

Motherhood and life in general has been so tough on me these past couple of weeks. I have really been struggling with the boys - especially Brady - lately. He has been having some major behavior issues and we think we have finally figured out the issue - he needs more "Brady and Mama time". I have felt like such a failure thinking about this. Ever since Carson was born Brady has had to share me with him. And while Brady has done so well in this area, Carson is now walking, talking and playing with all of the toys which formerly used to only be Brady's. Plus Carson is still extremely clingy and needy and requires a lot of attention from me. I asked Brady the other day if he felt left out and he replied "you never spend any time with me". Break.my.heart. So I have been trying my hardest to spend more one on one time with just him and even when Carson is around to give Brady more praise and focused attention - no matter how uncomfortable I am crawling around on the floor with him in my current state!

These problems, plus the heat, plus still dealing with trying to get this house organized from moving (and feeling like it will never get decorated - if I can even figure out HOW I want to decorate it), plus getting ready for the arrival of baby girl, plus the constant toy clutter, and never ending laundry, and my humongous belly, plus more family drama from Rob's side have made me stressed to the max. On top of it Rob hasn't been around as much as usual because he's been working a lot of OT (which I am thankful for) and Brady's daily nap has become very unpredictable - many days it is nonexistent, so I feel like I have not had any time alone to actually accomplish anything that needs to be done. I really shouldn't complain. I have so much more to be thankful for, but these past few weeks have been absolutely exhausting and stressful and I am craving a kid-free vacation, which I know is not likely to happen for a few more years! I told Rob a while ago that we need to start planning and saving to take a nice trip in 2 years from now for our 10 year anniversary. At this rate of busyness it probably will take 2 whole years to research and plan!

Randomness

This post is going to be all over the place......

I am so excited for the pool that we joined this year to open up. Last night they had a get together for new members and Sarah and Addison went with me because their family is already members and Rob had to work and I didn't want to go by myself. It opens this weekend!

I am also so excited for the Nicholson's to come visit this weekend. Hopefully the children all behave and we don't tire ourselves out too quickly because we are hoping to do quite a lot (Golf for the men, Red's game, Pool, Kings Island).

I'm addicted to Amazon. I've got 97 books on my wishlist and can't ever find the time to read. I ordered these 2 last night.

That second one is a little old school, but it was recommended by another blog that I read and got great reviews. So we will see. 

Last week I finally finished putting together our 2009 photo book. Yes, I said 2009. And it is now 2012. I'm terrible about actually printing pictures, but I'm trying to be better about the whole "memory keeper" part of my job description as a SAHM. Anyway I ordered it from Apple (I read in some photography magazine at the library a long time ago that their quality was excellent). And since I already use Aperture 3 to organize and do a lot of photo editing it was very simple. But I have so many pictures that I had to have 2 books made for the year because they wouldn't all fit into 1. I have both books made on the computer, but only ordered one of them to double check the quality first - since my books are so large they're kind of expensive.

On the same "memory keeping" note I'm thinking of trying out Becky Higgens Project 365 for the kids. I really don't like "themey" things, but something has got to be better than nothing right? And her kits make everything extremely easy to use. They are out of stock on Amazon right now, but her website says they will be available again in late May (should be soon I'm assuming!) We shall see.

I've also been loving instagram lately. Just one more way for me to capture those memories!

That's all for now - Carson just woke up from his nap screaming!

A Great Weekend

A few nights ago I mentioned to Rob that I really needed to start blogging again, even though he used to pick on me for my silly little hobby. But this time he actually encouraged me! I've been thinking a lot lately about how fast time is flying by and I'm not doing anything except taking pictures (and never printing them). And since I'm not a big scrapbook or photo album person this blog is really the only documentation I will have of these years with out young family!

This past weekend was so great for us. I actually didn't take many pictures at all because I didn't want to haul my camera with me everywhere, but I wanted to write down what I remember so I can look back on it years from now. Friday afternoon Rob got home early and we spent that evening at our good friends, Jack and Sarah's, house. Brady had a ton of fun playing with their daughter, Addison. They rode around the yard in her Barbie jeep and swam in the hot tub after dinner. Rob and I have always said that we would never buy a motorized vehicle toy for our children, but after watching Brady's face light up every time he set foot in that jeep we may have to reconsider!

Saturday morning started out slow and I was becoming annoyed with Rob for "dilly dallying" all morning - something he regularly accuses me of! After lunch though we set off for the bike trail in historic Loveland. We brought Brady's new bike along with us and Rob and I rented bikes from Montgomery Cyclery as well as a trailer for Carson to ride in. We rode about 3 miles in one direction then turned around and headed back towards town. Brady was loving being able to ride so fast without having to constantly stop to cross the streets in our neighborhood. He got going a little too fast though and fell off his bike on our ride back. I thought for sure he was done for, but we eventually got him calmed down and he was excited to finish his ride. When we got back to town he played on the playground for a short while and then we headed to one of the sidewalk cafe's for a snack. While we were eating we ran into Jack and Sarah again who were riding on the trail too. Since Rob and I had rented our bikes for 3 hours and we still had a little time left we put Brady's bike back in Rob's truck and put him in the bike trailer with Carson and we headed off in the other direction on the trail. Brady was doing a great job on the trail, but I was stressing out a little every time another person would pass us. Some people ride super fast and I was so scared Brady would drift a little too far over into the other lane and get hit. With him in the trailer though Rob and I were able to ride faster and not worry about the kids. I think he enjoyed the break too. After our ride we turned our bikes in and headed to the Loveland Dairy Whip for some ice cream. Brady was so cute sitting on the picnic bench covered in sweat and dirt with sticky ice cream hands and face - just what a little boy should be!

{Carson at Costco}

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to church - we adore the new church we have found up here. It reminds us so much of our old church in Mobile. While there Rob ran into an old friend of his which was nice to see. After that we went to Costco and spent entirely too much money (as usual). That evening we did our first "family movie night". I use that term loosely because we put Carson to bed first and Rob and I both crashed on the couch by 9:45. Brady woke us up when the movie (Cars) went off at 10:30. Brady was so excited all afternoon though. He kept talking about us having a pajama party (and insisted that we all had to have ours on) and how we were going to "eat snacks, listen to music, drink milk, and watch a movie".

We are going to have another exciting weekend coming up - the Nicholson's are visiting! We haven't seen them since we left Mobile in December. Brady is very excited to see "No No" and show him his new neighborhood.

I've Got a Good Excuse

Actually I've got a few good excuses why I haven't updated this blog since November! The biggest reason is that of a cross country move back to our hometown, Cincinnati, OH. For the last 3 months our life turned into a bit of a comedy (or at some times drama) movie. I seriously think we could write a book. You would not believe the things that have happened to us over these past few months, both big and little. It got so crazy that all we could do is just laugh every time something else would happen (or in some instances cry). I have also experienced every emotion I ever thought possible during this journey. Some of them I am still trying to process.

But I am happy to say that we are finally in our new house and getting settled. I absolutely adore our new neighborhood. Brady has already made friends with many of the other neighborhood children. I still find myself really missing Mobile and Alabama in general. Whenever I look through old pictures on my computer I tear up thinking about our time spent there, the wonderful people we met and our old house that Rob and I worked so hard on and made so many memories in. I'm praying that I start getting that same feeling about our new home soon.

Here are just a few pictures of the past few weeks. Hopefully I will have some free time to post more soon.