My favorite gift this year

Sentimental gifts are always my favorite to give.  For Christmas this year, an idea for Emily & Gavin sort of fell into my lap in the best way.

When my mom passed away, my grandma planted a tree in her yard in my mom's memory.  When my grandma passed away, my cousin moved into her house and learned the tree had to be removed.  Her husband contacted me to ask if I would want a picture or piece of the tree.  I asked him to send me three slices of the tree if he could, and he did.

Shortly after that, I was reading a blog that mentioned an etsy shop called Fir & Forest that made ornaments, signs and other things out of wood.  I checked out the shop and thought everything was so beautiful.  I contacted the owner, Erica, (she is seriously the sweetest person in the world!) and I told her the whole story of the tree slices and asked if she could work her magic and create something for my kids. She responded right away saying,

"I'm honored that you would reach out to me for this!  I would love to do this for you. It'd be lovely if you could send me a picture of the wood so I can brainstorm. I can draw something out for you ahead of time even before you send the wood. If I'm picturing the crack right, it would really make it unique! I'm looking forward to seeing." I told you she was sweet! She even drew a sketch for me that night, before she had seen the wood!

She kept me posted about ideas and asked if I wanted to see them before she sent them.  I decided to be surprised and when I opened the package from her I had tears in my eyes.  

Aren't they beautiful? These pictures don't even do them justice.

I know the kids won't understand or appreciate them for some time, but I am so happy that they will have this when they are older.

looking back on 2013...

 

 

 

 

 

 

my bad luck weekend with a happy ending

I had a mental picture of what this past weekend would look like. 

On my list:
-  Get some errands done with Steve
-  Decorate the mantel and Christmas tree
-  Take the kids to see Santa

Seems simple enough right?  That's what I thought.  But I swear we must have had the worst luck this weekend.  And instead of the nice little picture I had painted for myself, our weekend went something like this...

Saturday- while we were out running errands, I locked the keys in the car 30 minutes away from home.  UGH.  I haven't done that since college!!  So instead of getting home to hang out with the kids and having dinner together, Steve's dad had to drive our spare keys to us while poor grandma was at home trying to feed two crazy babies by herself. 

Decorating.... Steve and I brought all the bins down from the attic so we could start putting the tree up while the kids were sleeping.  We got the tree done and I started working on the mantel.  I have a few decorations that were my moms that always make me think of her and remind me of my childhood.  They are my favorite.  One of them is a vintage Noel candle holder that looked like this-

and now it's a pile of broken glass. I accidentally knocked it off the mantel while I was decorating and watched, in what seemed like slow motion, as all of the letters shattered on the ground.  Steve heard the crash and came running, I was already in tears. I can't believe I won't have it to put up every year, so sad.

When the kids woke up they were excited to see the tree!  Emily kept saying, "mommy made a Christmas Tree!". But, there will be no ornaments this year because Gavin immediately grabbed one and nearly choked on a piece he ripped off of it.   

my heart.

Sunday-  I was at the grocery store while Steve was home with the kids.  I get a text that said- "G just split his lip a little".  What?!  So I rushed to finish shopping and came home to find G-buddy with his first facial injury, grinning at me like nothing happened with a big ol' fat lip.  Poor Gavin (and daddy)!

Last but not least, we took the kids to see Santa.  I have been reading lots of books with E and talking about how great Santa is because I didn't want a repeat of last year...with the screaming and the crying.  But with the way our weekend was going, I didn't have very high hopes.  I think I was holding my breath the entire time I was getting the kids dressed, driving to the mall, waiting in line and while they were sitting on Santa's lap because as soon as it was all over, I let out a huge sigh of relief.  We made it through seeing Santa without much crying.  Hallelujah!

Gavin and Grandpa

our big girl sat on Santa's lap without crying!

 

but she had to hold her spoon...

To celebrate we played on the mechanical cars at the mall and then we all went out to eat.

arm around him and everything!

he just wanted to bounce

E: "G-buddy's bouncin"
G:  "ba, ba, ba, BAA"

A great ending for a not so great start to the weekend!

4 years ago, I married the best man

Steve,

I was just going through our wedding pictures and re-living our big day.  Everything was perfect and I will never forget it.  I remember so clearly, walking up behind you so that we could have some time before the ceremony.  You turned around and the look on your face let me know I was so loved.  And then you said, "Can I touch you??"- you always know how to make me laugh.

I can honestly say I love you more now than I did then.  I love you in a different, better way.  I love you as my partner and as the father of our kids.

We have been married 1,461 days.  We have been through countless ups and downs and we are still standing strong, together.  You are supportive of me during my best and worst days and I can't thank you enough for that. 

You are the kindest, bravest, strongest man I know.  I am blessed to be your wife and our kids are beyond lucky to have you for their dad. 

Thank you.  Thank you for choosing me.  I love you more than words can express.

"The best thing in life is finding someone who knows all of your flaws, mistakes, and weaknesses and still thinks you're completely amazing."  ~unknown

Lately...

Where did I leave off, let's see..... my babies are going to be 10 months and 25 months this week.

Gavin- 

*  Lack of sleep- the same.  I thought (prayed) that his getting tubes would miraculously turn him into a better sleeper.  Keep dreaming mama.  This week he is waking at 10:30pm, 2:00am and up for the day at 5:00am.  We have let him cry, he's stubborn and just keeps on crying.  So we are just working on routine and consistency and hoping he figures this sleep thing out before he turns one.  (please, please, please)

* Tubes-  Like I mentioned up there, Gavin got tubes for his recurring ear infections on November 7th.  He did great, except he was a monster coming out of anesthesia, just like his big sister.  But as soon as we got him out of the recovery area he was all smiles.  There has been some drainage and he seems much happier (if that's even possible).  The only problem is, we cannot find an earplug that we can keep in his ears during bath time.  They all fall out or he knocks them out, annoying. 

I have to share this story- we were sitting in the play area at the hospital waiting for the nurses to take Gavin back and there was a little girl playing in the same area.  She had about 5 family members with her and had big scars across her tiny little head.  She crawled up to Gavin and they played together until the little girl's name was called.  Gavin gave her a kiss before she left, it was the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  We saw the same family in the waiting area and overheard that they were there for a 6-7 hour surgery that included reconstructive surgery on her face.  My heart was so heavy for that family.  I am so thankful for Children's Hospital and all that they have done for my kids and so many other kids.  I felt silly for being as nervous as I was while these poor people were going through something so much worse.

* Eating- not much has changed eating-wise.  He is not into trying "real" food like Emily was.  He eats his pouches, cereal, cheerios, puffs and bottles but when we try to give him finger food he's just not interested.

*  Movement- he is all over the place, crawling, starting to cruise on the furniture and he wants to climb over EVERYTHING.  You put an obstacle in his way and he will crawl over it, he has no fear.  He has started standing for very short periods on his own.

*  Other stuff-  he gives the best open-mouthed kisses when asked, he waves bye-bye, claps and will give high fives.  His sister can make him laugh like no one else and he is the biggest daddy's boy ever in the world.  He could really care less if mom is around.

Emily- 

*  She has been changing so much in this past month.  Talking more, making more sense when she talks, and just so amazing to watch.  My favorite things she has been saying are, "where you at mommy?", "what you doin mommy?"  "where's Gavin/daddy/grandma/grandpa?"  "I love you mommy".  She also says "MINE"  all.the.time.  If Gavin comes near her toys when she is playing she grabs them up and says "mine!"  We have been working with her a lot on sharing and she will hand him toys when reminded that we have to share.  Slowly but surely, she's getting used to having Gavin around.

*  She is kind of over Mickey Mouse which was a little shocking to me.  Her new obsession favorite is Bubble Guppies or as she says, 'Bubba Duppies'. 

*  She has recently been more and more into her babies and the past two nights she has cried and cried until I let her have two babies and their little sippy cup in her crib with her. She feeds them, covers them with blankets, shushes them, burps them, etc.  She also has been playing dress up. Toddlers crack me up.

*  She has started counting a lot.  She gets to 13 and then after that she just says 'fifeen' over and over.  She's not as much into letters as she is numbers but every once in awhile she will start singing her ABC's

*  Girlfriend is very opinionated about a lot of things, shoes in particular.  She will only wear her Chuck Taylor's, no other shoes will do.  I've tried a million pairs of shoes and she has a serious, serious meltdown.  I guess I will just be buying Chucks in every size until she grows out of this phase. 

* Eating- she's an awesome eater but has a new habit of spitting things out she doesn't like and saying "yucky".

* Being outside is still her favorite thing ever and it probably always will be

And that's what we've been up to lately!

sleep is not happening

Gavin is not a good sleeper.  And we haven't been very good about "sleep training".  I've started writing this post at least 3 times and never finished or posted anything because his sleep habits change so frequently.

I know a little bit about what we need to do to get him to sleep because we did it with Emily and it worked, she's an awesome sleeper.  But with Gavin, it's different- totally different.  It's like he doesn't need sleep!

-- He goes to bed at 7:00 every night- we feed him to sleep- a big no, no in the sleep training world- I know this has to change.
-- He wakes up around 12:00 and has a bottle, goes back to sleep.
-- Then he wakes up at anywhere from 3:45- 5:30 and is up for the day.  Seriously- awake and WILL NOT go back down.  And if you try to keep him in the dark or keep him quiet all hell breaks loose.  Boy wants his toys and he doesn't care if it's 4am.

He only takes 2, 1 hour naps at daycare (sometimes less).

He won't take a paci and the only thing that will calm him down enough to go to sleep is a bottle.

We haven't been able to really let him "cry it out" because he is loud and Emily wakes up.

Any ideas?

Someone send help (and chocolate).

Happy...or not so happy...Halloween

I'm sure there will be 9 million Halloween posts floating around today and I'm going to be one of them!

We picked Emily and Gavin up from school yesterday and Emily wasn't as happy as she normally is after school.  I'm not sure if she was tired or what, but I barely got her costume on her after a 30 minute tantrum.

 

clearly, I torture her

G buddy was all smiles and happiness to be in his costume, of course.

Our town doesn't have trick-or-treating (what??) so my mother-in-law called a couple of our neighbors to ask if they would let Emily and Gavin come over to trick-or-treat.  It wasn't cold out but it was raining, so out came the umbrellas and off we went. 

We went to three houses plus Grandma and Grandpa's house and Emily insisted on having her paci and cried most of the time.  She just kept chanting "grandma's house, grandma's house". 

sharing with her brother

Emily was a 50's girl and her favorite part of the costume were those glasses!  Gavin was Charlie Brown and might I add, the cutest Charlie Brown ever!

Grandma & Grandpa have the best treats!

All in all it was a good night, just a little tiring for mom & dad!

Happy Halloween everyone!