We all have at least one of those days...

Hey there friends. I would like to take a quick moment to do a mini victory dance in honor of the fact that it is Wednesday and that I am posting on my scheduled blog day :) yay me! Sorry sometimes I have to celebrate the little things to remind myself that I did accomplish at least something semi productive... Especially on days that I can't find motivation and just can't seem to get anything done... 

 Today I woke up with the very best intentions to tidy my house do the dishes, vacuum, finish a load if laundry, and even invite a friend over but wouldn't you know it my first trimester hormones dictated it was a movie day in pjs with zero productivity and barely keeping my eyes open! So with all the best intentions to tidy and tackle my to do list I found myself with a headache and extreme fatigue ultimately deciding pregnancy wins today! Other than feeding the kiddos and only accomplishing the absolute necessary tasks that come with caring for toddlers and taking my prenatal vitamins zip, nada, zilch, and not a thing got done and you know that is ok... I'm having an off day and off days are allowed sometimes as mamas we put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to get it all done even when it means pushing through pain, sickness, and overall blech! I don't know about y'all but that is overly exhausting and when we put ourselves at risk we put our family in a difficult position. My mama always reminds me that if I don't take care of myself I won't be well enough to care for my little MnMs! It's a balancing act and while we still do need to care for our kiddos (especially being a stay home mama) is it really necessary to work ourselves into the ground to finish that laundry when we feel like dog poo that got stepped in by a giant wearing steel toed combat cleats (it could happen)!? I truly don't believe its necessary to drive ourselves into the ground just to finish a couple chores... we know our own personal limitations and we know when we just.. can't so listen to yourself! It's ok to take a break and have a pj movie day with your littles! It's really ok to go to bed early so you can recover from a rough day and in my opinion it's ok to order takeout for the fam when you really just can't even see or smell raw meat without retasting every meal you've eaten since the third grade!  :-/ ugh thanks again first trimester symptoms for being awesome, and by awesome I mean so NOT awesome! Urgh! But while preggo symptoms just kick some serious rocks at times, pregnancy is absolutely worth it when we hold our babies for that first beautiful moment of their life! And I can't wait to hold our precious miracle in my arms and remind myself just how worth it the first, second, and third trimester really are! :) 

... anyhow y'all it's really ok to have rough days but remember that it's just a rough day not a rough life it's only one day you can't let it get ya down forever. I am probably going to make a few more trips to the ladies room before the night is over but in the mean time I am going to snuggle under my blankets next to my MnMs and watch the Brave Little Toaster and sip gingerale with a cold compress on my neck. Haha I'm going to enjoy spending time with my littles and get those cherished snuggles while I can and then I am going to tuck them into bed after supper and bathtime and rejoice that I made it through another day tuck myself in bed and hopefully zonk a bit early! Hope y'all have a wonderful Wednesday with your loved ones and remember that it's ok to slow down every once in a while :) 

Much polkadot love and very tired hugs... Shannon :) 

Ps... Bumpdate: we are 11 weeks and a day :) picture update later sorry dumb smart phone :) haha 

SAHM - My new Wifestyle and adventures in Mommyhood!

Good evening, everyone! I write to you as our long weekend together comes to and end, and man is it a gorgeous evening! :) It has been a great weekend, but this past week has been pivotal for our family. 

First, I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day and weekend! If you haven't already, be sure to take a minute and thank a member of the armed services for their time, sacrifice and commitment to our country. Let us also remember to thank their families! Sometimes we forget about the mothers, wives, husbands, and children at home waiting and sacrificing all the same. 

Moving on...  

During our travels to and from New Mexico, MH and I really sat down and talked about whether or not I should continue working. We always knew that we would like for me to stay home with baby C, but it was all a matter of figuring out when it would be the right time. Long story short, everything happened much more quickly than MH and I had planned for several reasons, but last Monday ended up being my last day and I am proud to announce that I am now officially a SAHM - stay at home mommy! :D I honestly couldn't be happier! Since being home, I have been able to accomplish so much at home. I feel like I have a much better handle on our finances, our home, and C's schedule. 

In the adventures of mommyhood, I - well, we - started crib training C last week. That first night was really hard, even though C did really well! After rocking him and laying him down in his crib, I walked out of the nursery and cried a few proud, bittersweet tears as I watched my baby boy on the video monitor. I can't believe how he is growing up! I am such a proud mommy, though! We had two kind of rough nights when C fought, but he has taken to his crib beautifully and had slept great! All but one night in the last week, he has woken only once! Last night, he woke up (technically) 3 times, so that was a little rough; but his schedule was a bit off, so I can't blame him too much. 

In the way of my wifestyle, I have found that I really do enjoy making this house a home for my family and taking that stress off of my husband. I enjoy being able to have him come home to a clean house and dinner waiting! It just puts a huge smile on my face to know that as the provider for our family, MH has less stress when he gets home. It truly means the world to me! Over the weekend though, we busted our humps! We had some time with family on Saturday afternoon and then worked in the yard all day yesterday. MH got the lawn mowed a fertilised, during which I trimmed the trees and weeded and trimmed the garden... It's a pre-existing garden and I'm hoping to learn a little something about gardening so that I can do some transplanting before it gets too hot outside. I did used to do quite a bit of gardening with my mom growing up, but I haven't done it myself at all. In fact, I've never really been able to keep much alive. I killed a cactus. Worse than that, I killed a bamboo plant. :/ I'm still gonna give it a try though! :) Anyway, our last project was building Rue puppy a dog run! We got it put up on the side of the house and she seems to be seriously loving her "mini yard"! We were absolutely exhausted by the time we finished and so was baby C! Sitting in his stroller and watching to make sure we did it all right was very tiring! ;) The good thing is that we got our day started fairly early, so we finished early enough to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening watching movies and having family time. It was a good day. 

Today, MH got to stay home with us and other than just doing regular chores, we pretty much just had more time together; and this evening, we went to have a little "picnic" with the in-laws, as a bunch of them just got back from a beautiful vacation in Mexico! It was great to see them all! One cousin is getting ready to get married and another is getting ready to welcome a baby boy (their second) this August! That's two babies and four Weddings this year for our family! Then of course, we will have C's first birthday, but that's still a ways away! - thank goodness. ;) 

Coming up, I have some projects that I have in mind, and I am excited to share them with you all! My first one is experimenting with cloth wipes to add to our cloth diapers! This week, we are also getting ready to start C on purées! I'm excited to start making them and I can't wait to see C's reactions as he starts discovering foods! :) I will keep you all updated with these upcoming adventures for sure! I know this is kind of a short post, but I will make up for it next week. I have this nasty dry cough from allergies, so laryngitis is inching it's way in and trying to take over. Therefore, I am a bit extra tired. 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful, beautiful week! 

Zebra love and hugs! 

Ashley 

The decision!

Hey all! Kailly here!

Hope you are all having a beautiful weekend. Memorial Day is such a special weekend. It isn't about the barbecues or the extra time off, but about those serving for our country. Those that have served and lost their lives. And, to me, it's about those risking their lives for our freedom past, present and future. Love this country and our military!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've made a decision about blogging. I'm going to take a month off. As much as I love to blog, our family is so busy right now. N is turning one in two weeks, and we will have family in town. Then the three of us are in a wedding two weeks later, so adding in all the showers, parties and wedding fun, we are jam packed! So, for the month I will likely be silent. Ill pop on if I can and will continue to share the girls posts!

Ill miss you all! See you in a month once the busy days subside a bit :)

Love,
Kailly

Yep my pregnant brain...

Hey y'all it's Shannon! So basically I lack brain cells on a normal basis being preggo for sure doesn't add any new ones to aid my can't-ever-think-itis! Once again I have forgotten to post on my newly scheduled blog day sorry folks. So here it is a short and simple blog update for y'all. 

Attention Bumpdate Edition: Baby News!! 

Well officially I am 10 weeks and a day preggers! My littlest little is about the size of a prune now and as seen on our first ultrasound quite the wiggly, active little sea monkey :) cravings include hot dogs with relish, CHINESE FOOD!! Fruit and chocolate, peanut butter and celery and cheese cubes , and veggies and ranch! :) I am feeling more and more rotund each day even though little sea monkey isn't taking up a whole bunch of my belly real estate yet... Wonder why that is?! But hey so long as baby #3 is happy and healthy I'm content to gain the weight for baby! :) we still do not yet know if we are team pink or team blue this go round but we shall see. What do y'all think pink and bows or blue and bow ties? :) 

Hmmm what else is new... Oh yea I chopped off my hair. I've been wanting to for awhile but have never been able to muster the courage to go under the scissors ;) but the Texas heat and my pregnant must simplify everything instincts gave me the final shove toward the salon chair! :) and I gotta say I am absolutely loving my new do too! It's easier to wash and wear ;) saving money on shampoo and conditioner and brushing my hair and styling is a snap! :) 

What else is new?? 

The MnMs helping mommy run errands and yes this picture is in Walmart haha...

The littles have been super helpful cleaning house and gettin things ready for Daddy to get home finally after what feels like forever, we get to have our most favorite fella home with us!! YAY!!! We are all super excited! I should have a few project blogs to share with y'all as I have big plans to reorganize my linen closet, garage, and our master bedroom so hopefully updates coming soon! (And maybe even on my scheduled blog day haha... Sorry y'all).  :) anyhow I hope y'all are having a great week and that y'all enjoy your weekend!! 

Sending you big preggers hugs and as ever lots of extra polka dot love... Shannon :) 

C's first time out of state!

Hello, all! Ashley coming to you a bit late this Monday evening! Sorry about that, by the way. I thought that this week, I would just give you a bit of an update on our little family. Next week, I will write about more "mommy-central" stuff, and I hope to share with you a bit about my chronic conditions, but we have been quite the busy little family these last two weeks. 

You all may remember that we went to a Wedding where MH fell and hurt himself pretty badly. As it turns out, he did break three ribs. He went to his doc for a follow-up once we were home and settled a bit, because the amount of pain he was in was just increasingly intense. Seeing him in so much pain is very upsetting... Especially when he gets hiccups. 

Anyway... This last weekend, we got to go to New Mexico for a cousin's graduation from high school and we are all so proud of her! For those of you who don't know, we live in this little town WAY south west in Colorado, that we may as well be a part of New Mexico. It was a 6 hour drive that took us about 7 1/2 going there and 8 coming back. Baby C did SO well! As well as one could expect a 5-month-old to do. The whole trip was a new kind of challenge. I packed every single one of C's cloth diapers, bringing disposables along just to be safe, and made sure to bring plenty of wipes. I also brought along his wet bag and Nappy bucket, so we didn't end up with a grocery sack full of stinky diapers. On our last trip, I had time to toss diapers into my parents' washer before we left, which mostly helped me for when we got back. But this time, I knew there just wouldn't be that kind of time, nor the means, necessarily. I'm betting the hotel we stayed at had a washer, but we really weren't there very much, so I honestly didn't even check. This time, I really thought everything through before I packed it. I packed all of C's diapers into his diaper bag, and more than enough clothes into a small suitcase for him. I separated out his plain white onesies, coloured/patterned onesies, pajamas, and pants. Of course I brought socks and shoes, but he didn't really need his socks with how hot it was. It the front pocket of his suitcase, I packed disposables, with a big package of wipes. I also packed his little Batman backpack to keep close by in the car with his "traveling diapers", back up wipes, and two extra onesies and an extra pair of pants. His favourite toys (giraffe, teething book, rattle, and truck) also went in the Batman backpack, as did his eczema cream and baby sunscreen. Since C was with me the whole time, I found no reason to bring bottles, but packed my pump (manual), freezer bags, and a bottle cooler with an ice pack. MH and I got our shared duffle bag and the toiletry bag, and then we (of course) brought the pack 'n' play and C's bumbo just in case. 

Again, baby C did so well! He slept most of the ride, though he did appreciate company and entertainment when he was awake. I drove the whole way down there so that MH could sit comfortably, so he ended up on baby entertainment duty.  When we got into town, we went over to MH's aunt and uncle's house and joined them for dinner. When we finally got to the hotel, C was absolutely exhausted and slept the whole night! He only woke up at 5:00 am and then let us sleep a little bit more until we needed to get up to get ready for breakfast and then graduation. All through the graduation ceremony, C was amazing! He didn't make a peep! He only got mad when he had soaked through his diaper and pants and we didn't notice, because he had been napping in his car seat. After that, he got sleepy, and therefore a bit cranky. But I was able to snuggle him and he fell asleep even in the middle of quite a bit of noise! I was (and still am) so proud! :) Saturday night, he didn't sleep nearly as well, because he ended up napping on and off all day, but never got a full nap. He did, however, allow me to go with MH, his dad, cousins, and brother and sister-in-law to the first movie I had been to in theatres in over a year! That was so nice of him, and it was so sweet of MH's grandma to baby sit! Though, from what I hear, it was MH's Aunt M, who snuggled the little man to sleep. :)

^C got sleepy at the graduation party and crashed in his stroller! I moved our little winter baby inside fairly shortly... He was soaked in sweat! Lol

Anyway... All in all it was a great trip! We are so excited for cousin E and so proud of her! She even graduated with Honors and as part of NHS! :) We're even more excited because she decided to go to school where MH and I met, which is one town over! Woohoo!!! Baby sitter!!! ;) hehe! Just kidding... Kind of. It was a fun trip visiting family and we are still settling back in. I still haven't finished unpacking and poor MH is still in loads of pain, so this may take a while. :P 

Well... I hope you enjoyed my update! Have a great week and we will see you next Monday! 

Zebra hugs and love, 

Ashley 

A Project and a Thought

No idea why this photo is sizing strange, but this is N and I today!

Hey everyone! Kailly here. It's been quite a while, hasn't it? Hope you are all doing well. It has been a crazy few weeks for us. L and I celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary on the 7th of May, and we are quickly approaching our beautiful daughters first birthday. I am in birthday mode fully, and have been spending some time on pinterest finding ideas. I swear they should call it "thinking you've been looking for 5 minutes, only to realize it has been hours." Oh, and we celebrated Mother's Day too!



So, while looking at birthday projects recently, I decided to look into toy box ideas. N has toys in her nursery, that I store in fabric bins in a cube organizer. We have a leather ottoman in our living room that looks like furniture, but stores toys. And, she had a big basket in our play room of toys. But, things were getting a little crowded. I wanted to get her  toy box. After seeing how ridiculously expensive they are at stores, I decided to build one. Once realizing I didn't have the tools I needed, I decided to keep researching. On pinterest I found an idea using an Ikea toy box. We have a fairly new Ikea by us, so I chose to head there with my step dad a couple of Fridays ago and see what we could find. We found the toy box. It has white plastic type sides and light oak wood for $14.99.

We then headed to Joann Fabric. N picks out her outfits daily, her hair bows, socks, everything, so I knew she would want to choose her own fabric. We walked through the clearance aisle, and she pointed at a few. I let her choose between two fabric choices whittling it down to the final pick. White fabric covered with lime green flowers and cute pink elephants! So cute!

The next morning when N was napping, I took the wood pieces outside and painted them pink. We had paint left over from when we painted her nursery, so I used that. We didn't end up using it in her nursery either, so I had plenty. Originally, I got a sample from Home Depot, and used about half on her toy box. Once that was dry, I measured the fabric and cut it while the iron was heating up. Then I attached the fabric to the box. I loved the outcome! But, some of my edges were rough due to dull scissors so I added some ribbon with the help of N's Godmommy! It was her idea and I am super thankful! We love it!!

 

 

 

 

 

Also, just wanted to let everyone know that I am struggling with blogging. Believe me when I say I love to blog, and get my feelings out. But, lately I am just unsure about it. So, I may take the summer off to be with my family. I still haven't fully decided, but I am going to think about it and pray about it. I'll let you all know next week!

Love,
Kailly

 

Cleaning out my closet!

Hey y'all Shannon here :) just a quick blog post today. I actually attempted to post yesterday (Wednesday) but somehow my post got lost and didn't save or update unfortunately. So first off I really hope y'all have been having a great week! I know I have enjoyed our week so far! We have been attempting to get reorganized and getting better prepared for baby #3 and overall just enjoying our summertime weather with our newfound neighbor friends :) yay! So I suppose I will share a few of my latest organization strategies with y'all tonight as I can't remember exactly what I had written before :) here goes... 

The above pic is from last week my current bump date won't load sorry will post again soon :) 

Operation organize everything is a go!! I am not sure if it's a serious case of 'nesting' or if this is my belated spring cleaning episode but lately I have been itching to clean and reorganize absolutely everything! As I have been going through and tidying and organizing I've felt so much relief because I feel like I am simplifying my whole world!! I know these aren't new ideas nor can I take credit for inventing these concepts but these are the latest helpful tips and tricks that I have been trying to implement and I've actually been seeing some very positive results.

Mostly I've been tackling my overstuffed closet and dressers (yes plural I am ashamed haha) having variety is fantastic and trust me I very much enjoy having multiple options but lately it's come to my attention that I had several garments that were dormant hanging in the closet you know that shirt you love the color or that your sweet relative gave to you... I saw some of these items and decided it was time to simplify and pare down! 

1. My first priority in my closet at the moment is to create a comfortable, functional, and true to my personal style maternity wardrobe, this does not mean I went straight to the nearest maternity store though! I have some pieces that already have and will do double duty pre pregnancy and during the preggo months. My goal is to use what I have and not purchase a whole new closet of maternity clothes doesn't make much sense to me to go out and buy all new when it's a temporary change to my clothes... So simply make it work is my current closet mantra! 

 

I have chosen to add a few staple and in my opinion essential maternity pieces (a few empire cut shirts a simple long white maternity shirt and a colorful versatile wrap dress but this also brings me to my second closet/wardrobe rule 

2. When you add one subtract two! My sweet local neighbor and gal pal has been accumulating quite a Shannon's clothing collection when I add a new item of clothing and buy something new I reevaluate the pieces in my closet and find two things that I can part with and either pass it on to a friend or toss it in my donate bag for someone else to use. I love the feeling that sharing what I have gives me! So the way I've been looking at those once oh so treasured high heels and tops I haven't worn in ages as a way to bless someone else it makes no sense to me to keep it in my closet just to sit and gather dust and cobwebs eww! Why keep it when someone else can actually use it and maybe even just love it as I once did too :) 

3. The less I keep the less laundry I end up doing! Perhaps this is my lazy streak showing but I'm not a fan of piles and piles of laundry that seemingly never end! So this simple somewhat selfish thought has also been motivation to do a clean sweep of my closet and drawers! 

4. Less stuff is much easier to keep today! It's a simple concept but it is an elusive one. In the materialistic society we live in where it's always about upgrades and the latest and greatest its beyond easy to accumulate a ton of just stuff, stuff we don't actually use and stuff that when it boils down to it just take up space. So when I simplify and muck through the stuff my house is tidier and much more organized! 

I don't know how y'all clean out your closets and I am curious share your tips and tricks below please because I love reading new organizing tips! I wish you very clean closets and happy organizing I have to sign off a bit early because I have my pregnancy labs/bloodwork scheduled bright and early tomorrow! But again happy organizing I know it's sometimes daunting but if you break it into smaller tasks it becomes a much easier goal to attain! Best of luck y'all! 

Sending you some fun summertime sunshine clean closet hugs and as ever all my polka dot love... Shannon :)