November Happenings

I cannot believe we just flew through November! December is next week and then it's 2015. Here is what we have been up to the last couple weeks! 

Watching shows on moms bed with Mickey is the very best:

 We went to St. George on our way to SLC and I tried to snap some cute pictures of Crew playing...but he just wanted to run away. 

 Crew absolutely loved playing with "papa" while we were in Highland. I think he has the best grandparents ever. 

 I just love this goobers smile:

 Grandpa Lane & Laney Kate:

We had Thanksgiving dinner with Alex's family this year. The food was delicious and the company just made the day even better. Love love love this family of mine:

  

We were able to sneak away for a night to a resort in Deer Valley! We went with my in-laws and Mariah & Benson...and it was a blast. I'm sad that we didn't get more pictures with them, but there is always next time! Those people are a good time. This is the view from our room...I thought it was gorgeous:

 Laney joined us on our little trip of course because the girl hates formula. She just loves her mama and she was a dream the entire time. I was even able to take her with me to the spa and she happily slept in her car seat. That is a good baby I tell you. 

Say hello to my new favorite picture:

 Her cheeks are just too much:

 We then headed up to my grandma's house to stay for a few days. Crew loves anything Christmas and grandma's house met his needs just fine:

 I love watching Crew play during the day. He is getting more fun each day:

 Date night with my main man, always a treat:

 Dressing a girl? Yes. It's pretty fun:

 Park day in Crew's hand-me-downs:

 Afternoon light that I look forward to each day. It means that the day is slowing down and bedtime is nearing:

 What a goof. He always finds ways to make me laugh:

 Teething boy:

 Does anyone else smell a sleeping babies breath? It's just too hard to resist:

November was so good to us. We have so much to be thankful for. Mostly I am thankful for my forever family and all the time we were able to spend with extended family in November. It was so needed. We are blessed. 

(sorry for the long post)

Holiness in Motherhood

I was reading one of my favorite blogs and came across this post. Isn't it funny how you stumble upon the thing you need most at that time in your life? I'm grateful for that. 

Recently Crew has started to say "play mama," "stay mama," or "sit mama." I'm ashamed to say that I stick my nose in my phone more often than not or I'm busy with Laney, dishes, or laundry, and I forget to stop and just play with Crew. Like really play. We have been doing that more and it has been a lot of fun. His laugh is contagious, and the "soup" he makes is delicious. 

This little boy made me a mother and I am forever grateful for his forgiving heart when I fall short. 

I need to wake up more and try harder to be more holy in my calling as mother. Not self righteous or acting like I'm this perfect being. I just need to speak softer to him, act sweeter, and discipline without emotion when needed. I need to stop complaining about making dinner some nights, grocery shopping or cleaning up messes. Those things have to be done, so why not be happy or content with it?

I am grateful for tomorrow's. We have a lot of them...so let's use them to be better than the yesterday's! 

3 Months

Laney Doo at 3 Months-

(that's the nickname that Crew gave her...melt...)

Laney turned 3 months old a few days ago and I just cannot believe it. I want to be sad that she is growing so fast, but she is just too fun, so I'm excited to watch her grow. She is the best baby...and I'm not exaggerating. She is on a pretty good schedule now. Takes 3 naps a day. 2 short naps and then 1 super long nap in the middle of the day. She goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps for most of the night, if not all of it. She loves nursing...for the most part. I feel like she has a little bit of me in her and my mom stopped nursing me because I always pulled away and was too impatient to wait for the milk to let down. Laney gets so impatient and is constantly pulling off and looking around. She doesn't really like to be held close (like me) so we are working on that with her. I'm trying a lot of things to keep my supply up so that she isn't too frustrated. When the milk does come, it's too much and then she does this really funny snorting/choking thing. She hates when it comes too fast....just a hard girl to please! 

I literally pinch her chin all. day. long. 

Crew is so cute with her. 

He is talking more so that's pretty cute too. 

When she wakes up from a nap crying he runs to her room so fast and gets a huge smile on his face and says "laney wake?!!! laney cry?!!" 

He grabs her toes daily and shakes her legs (kind of softly)

He will randomly go kiss her head while she is in her bouncer. 

I started watching a little two year old boy during the day, mostly for a playmate for Crew, but they are both two so it can be a little rough. 

The little boy was grabbing Laney's feet and smiling today when Crew saw him. He dropped his toy, ran over SO fast, grabbed the kids hand and pulled it off of Laney while yelling "HEYYYYYYY! NO TOUCH LANEY!" It was pretty cute and made my mama heart happy. He is very aware of his sister and genuinely cares about her. 

He only hurts her when he isn't getting enough attention from us, so we are working on that. 

 This is Crew smelling a flower. Dangit this kid is so so cute. I took him to Anthro the other day (baddddd call) but he darted for the wobbly display of glass candles, opened one up and said "mell? mell?!" He loves it. It's kind of our thing to smell the candles. Whenever he is losing patience in the grocery store, I go over to the candles and we smell each one. He makes this face each time and I about die. (see above picture) 

Anyway- People said it would take a good 3 months for us to fall into a routine and I had a hard time believing them...but I'm here to say that it's true! I think my postpartum stuff is all evened out, I feel like myself and my kids are getting along. All is well. 

Edible

It's shocking that I don't eat these kids of mine. I really can't handle it! I probably annoy them with how many times I pinch, squeeze, and kiss them every day!

 Playing trains this morning and he had to wear his hat while doing so

 He loves Alex's blender bottle...sometimes the two of them "argue" about whose it is...

 Eating Crackers (Im using Lightroom for the time being until my free trial runs out..wah..at that point I need to convince someone that it's worth buying, but it'e been fun just playing around with colors!)

 Her facial expressions killllll me

Sunday Park-Day

Crew has decided to forgo nap time this week and that has been a challenge in itself. Add in the normal housework, errands, dinner, and Laney..and that is a long week! Trying to do all of that with an overtired little buddy is tough. (oh and he still wont sleep all night)

So today we just had to get out. Alex was home so he could hold Laney while Crew and I played! We needed that time. 

 Didn't focus on her face...but she is cute cute

 Oh how I wish this photo was more focused-but isn't she the cutest? She is smiling so much lately. 

 He always has a curious/suspicious look on his face. I love it.

 First time he has been on swings in a very. long. time. We were due!

 Of course he had to get down by himself...

 He was pretty excited to find this to say the least. (those things are dangerous for toddlers..we found out)

 When I see him smile like this I just melt! He is so sweet and good natured. (80% of the time)

 Ok this is the cutest little girl in the world. She is obsessed with holding her dolls...would not let them go even to swing. But notice her hand on Crew's head above? Yea...she bossed him around like no ones business. We thought it was so funny...Crew did not. He threw in a few head-butts here and there. 

We love that the weather is cooling down so we can be outside more!