Suckers!

Taylor is finally sleeping in her bed, not her car seat anymore! Hopefully the back of her head will pop out, she has the flattest head ever (that's what happens when you sleep in your carseat for 4 1/2 months). Yesterday was Valentine's Day and gramma brought the girls their present. She had gotten Kielyn this huge, and I mean huge sucker. Kielyn was eating it and she sat by Taylor. Taylor got sooooo excited kicking and yelling and bouncing out of my lap. So we gave her some and she loved it! Last night we gave her a smaller sucker and she had the entire thing gone in about 5 minutes. Needless to say we took 3 baths in 2 days, one before the sucker, one after the huge sucker and another one after the small suckers! Tay spends a lot of time on her tummy these days, pushing her chest up off the ground, I am guessing in the next month we will have a crawler! I know this sounds strange, but I can't wait! It's so nice when they can start following you around. I was thinking the other day, I am so excited every time Tay does something new, but sad at the same time, because she is my last baby! Every time she reaches a milestone I can't help but think it's the last time!

I can't believe that Kielyn is almost 2! For a while when you tell her to do something that she doesn't want to do, she immediately lays down and pretends like she is sleeping, snoring and all. Well the past couple of days she has given up laying down and will pretend like she is sleeping standing up. She stands there, eyes closed and snores and pretends like she can't hear you! It really is cute! We think the love bug bit her yesterday because she was the sweetest, cuddliest little monster ever! Every time I turned around she was giving me hugs and kisses and telling me lub you! Her talking is out of control! She can say whatever she wants and has started putting 2 and 3 words together. The other day I was feeding Taylor and Kie crawled up on the couch, laid down beside me, pulled up her shirt and told me "tickle back." This morning I sneezed and she told me "bwess you." Luckily she hasn't said any horribly awful words yet, but we were watching a movie the other night and someone said "No Sh!t" and she did repeat it, but since then we haven't heard any! Cross our fingers, I know the time will come, but I just won't think about it yet!

Mobility & Mine Too!

Taylor finally rolled over yesterday, January 15, 2009! Not only did she roll over, but she rolled from back to stomach and from stomach to back in one day! So now she is no longer safe left by herself on anything that is about 2 inches off the ground! There is nothing cuter than seeing a little bird head wobbling around as they look up at you when they are laying on their stomach!

Kielyn's new thing (she picked this up at daycare) is Mine Too! Everything is mine too, Taylor's toys, Kielyn's toys, Max's toys, Mom's shoes and Dad's flashlight! This is my least favorite phrase that comes out of her mouth......I would rather hear poop a million times a day! But she is liking her sister more and more everyday. The more alert Tay becomes the more Kielyn likes her. I can't wait until Tay is old enough to play with her because eating plastic food and drinking pretend coffee for hours everyday is getting old (not that I don't like doing this, but she traps you in her room and won't let you leave, literally, she shuts the door and if you try to open it to get out, she slams it in your face). I can't imagine having only 1 child and being their sole source of entertainment! And besides you have to have an even number of kids so no one gets left out at the carnival, they don't make rides for 3!

Sleeping Babies

There is nothing more precious than watching a baby sleep, there is something so peaceful about it. Their little eyes fluttering, their mouths twitching and the sweet look on their face. I just put Taylor down to sleep, but I sat with her for a few extra minutes just to watch her sleep because before I know it she won't want to snuggle anymore, she will be independent and into everything! I was lucky enough to get to wake Kielyn up this morning, normally her little head pops up at the sound of the door opening, but today she didn't wake up, so as I stood there and watched her sleep it made me think that it seems like just yesterday she was Taylor's age and how fast time really flies by. Kie was so adorable she was snuggled up with her blanket, kitty and baby (and this baby weighs like 8 pounds and looks freakishly real.......thanks gram!) and as I rubbed her back to wake her up she rolled over and stretched and said hi mommy, love you (which really sounds like lub you, not complaining) who could ask for anything more. So these are definitely moments that I don't want to forget, watching my girls sleep looking like little angels!

Working Moms vs. Stay at Home Moms

I know that most people say that stay at home moms have it easy and they don't really work. I got to be a stay at home mom twice, 3 months when I had Kie and 3 months when I had Taylor. Now when I had 3 months off with Kielyn it was pretty easy, I got to hang out with her and when she napped, which was a lot I did laundry, cooked and cleaned and was kind of bored a lot of the time. Now after I had Taylor and was on maternity leave there was no such thing as boredom. Not only did I have a new born (she really slept a lot and was really easy), but I had a 17 month old. There was no such thing as a break for me. While trying to feed Taylor and keep Kielyn entertained there wasn't a whole lot of time for laundry, cooking and cleaning. Thank God for frozen meals! I love my girls with everything that I have but after getting up at 7 am and being with them all day and not talking to or seeing another adult can grate on ones nerves. By the time Ben got home I was close to the edge of a melt down! Being the fantastic husband he is, he would let me have my 30 min me time. After this I felt human again.

I would venture to say that if you are a stay at home mom of one things are pretty easy and laid back, there is plenty of time to get things done during the day. But once you have 2 or more forget it! Now being a working mom is tough too. First off I have to leave my girls at daycare and fortunately for us we have a wonderful day care provider, and I get to go see them at lunch every day, but still.........I go to work and have to answer to other's demands, kind of like being a stay at home mom, except the "kids" are older. Once I get off work I have to pick the girls up, get them home, get Kielyn her snack, feed Taylor, think about what we should have for dinner, make dinner, try and get 2 loads of laundry done, clean up dinner, run the dishwasher, pick up the toys in the middle of the living room floor, get 2 kids in the bathtub, get Kie her milk, feed Taylor again, find the missing binky or blanket, get Kie in bed and try to get Taylor to sleep. And all of this gets done in a 4 hour time frame. And forget about the weekends! Most of the time Saturday is spent going to Wal-Mart and Safeway to stock up for the next week and thankfully Sunday is spent in our jammies playing.

I wouldn't trade my life for anything (well maybe a beach and a daquiri somedays) I enjoy being a mom first, a wife second and a professional third. I love my job and love what I do, but I would rather do it part time or do it once my girls go to school, but life isn't that easy. So after all of this I don't know which one is harder, being a stay at home mom or a working mom. All I can say is that I am thankful for the time I had at home with the girls, I am thankful for my job and truly thankful for my life!

"B" Big Bottom!

Rossi and I were talking yesterday and I'm not sure how the subject came up, but she was laughing about when we were little and would have our cousins would spend the night we would always get in a stuffed animal fight. And I would always get hit in the head with a cabbage patch doll and cry. So I started thinking about growing up and the funny things that we used to do! So this is for Rossi, Jocelyn and Lauren.........

Some of my fondest memories are with Ross, Joce and Laur, we were the best of friends growing up. We would always spend the night with each other and the funniest things would happen. At our house we would be going to sleep, but really we would be up giggling and I'm sure being extremely loud and my mom had already been in 3 or 4 times to tell us to be quiet and if she had to come in again.......I just remember seeing shadows underneath the bedroom door that looked like someone was standing there and really my mom had put a pair of shoes in front of the door so we would go to sleep. One of the sleep overs we came up with the B Big Bottom stories, we would say that our cat Katie had gotten her bottom ran over so she would need to go to the B Big Bottom store for a replacement, and they were always too big or too small, and I have no idea where we came up with this stuff, but I just remember we would laugh about it and come up with the craziest stories every time we would spend the night together.

The concerts.......We would spend the afternoon at Aunt Wendy's house playing and we would go out on the front patio with our boom box and have concerts, mostly New Kids on the Block. Joce and I were the lead singers (because we were older) and Ross and Laur were the back up dancers. We would practice and then have our mom's come and watch. Remember the tractor guy that honked and waved? I remember the time we played in the silo full of worm poo, when Joce used to drive us around the yard in the Scirocco, Uncle Larry pulling us around on the sled with the tractor, telling our mom's that we had a surprise for them so they would close their eyes so we could get the sleds in the house to sled down the stairs (we thought we could trick them with old Halloween candy and we really thought they had no idea what we were doing), the times Joce and I would fight and Rossi and Lauren would fight, so Jocelyn and Rossi would go play and Lauren and I would sit around and be sad (Lauren and I never figured out that we could go play together). And who could forget Rossi and Lauren's monks? Joce and I used to torture you guys when we could get our hands on your monkeys! I remember Jocelyn teaching me to drive the jeep at the park, I remember telling Gramma Ila we were on a diet so we didn't have to eat dinner at her house, I remember spending the night in the camper and Beau would always get mad at us for some reason!

There are tons of stories, but these are the ones I remember the most. Thank you for being my best friends! Love you!

Kielyn's Christmas

This was the best Christmas ever. I never realized how much fun it can be to watch a 1 year old at Christmas! Kielyn was a blast. We woke up Christmas morning and she saw her Santa presents and was so excited, more excited over Taylor's than her present, but oh well what can you do! I think her favorite part was the candy in her stocking, I think she had 2 candy canes in a matter of 10 minutes. We passed all the presents out and told her she could start opening. So she would rip off a little piece of paper and hand it to me and then she would get distracted and leave and when I finally got her back she would rip off some more paper and hand it to me. Finally we would get to the present and she would tear the toy out of the box and start playing with it. She was so excited, trying to get her to open all her presents almost didn't happen, but eventually she opened everything and played with everything. Her favorite presents were the pretend food and the cutest little kitchen set ever! She has been cooking and eating for the past 2 days!

Today we were at gramma's house for lunch and we were all playing guitar hero. I was the singer for the band and she discovered the microphone. Eventually she became the singer for the band (we had to unplug the microphone) and she would walk around the living room singing and dancing. It was the cutest thing ever! So we had a wonderful Christmas with our family! This was Taylor's first Christmas, but since she's only 3 months old I know she had no idea what was really going on, just a lot of noise and a sister who stole all her presents. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Taylor Lyn

God blessed us with our second daughter on September 3, 2008. She is an amazing little girl. After having Kielyn I thought that all babies were difficult, I am glad to say that I was wrong. Taylor is a very content happy baby. She really only cries when she is hungry or tired! Where Kielyn needed constant attention and entertainment, Taylor is full of smiles and happy to watch the world go by.

Right now we are taking 3 naps during the day and trying to get rid of the early evening nap (not going so well because she still takes one), so at about 6 she gets really grouchy and by 6:30 I could care less if she took a nap, (actually by this point I'm hoping she will). So we get her down for a nap and she usually sleeps until 7 or 7:30. When she gets up we get ready for bed and feed her. By 9 when she is still bright eyed, I figure if I feed her again maybe she will fall asleep while she is eating. So she starts to eat and after a few minutes she pulls away and looks up at me and starts to giggle. And no I haven't said a word to her. She will carry on like this for 10 minutes, laughing and talking. It is the most precious thing ever! So I can usually get her to sleep by 10ish and then I will see her again at 2 and 4:30........and I can't quite figure out how it works that before I came back to work she would sleep from 8 pm to 4 am?!

So on this Christmas Eve I thank God for my two little angels and my wonderful husband and family. I thank God for the sacrifice he and his Son made for us and pray that everyone reading this has faith in God and seeks his guidance. I pray for your health, the health of your family and love in your life. Merry Christmas Eve!