A Fun, Family Day!

Tim took off yesterday so we decided we would go to the children's museum.  The boys and I have been a few times and Robby loves it!  Tim was a little jealous that he hadn't been able to experience it yet, so he was excited to go.  :-)

We started out with a time of admiring the cuteness of Charlie

This was our little guy's first time in this stroller sitting up.  We almost always take the double stroller or I had been putting him in his carrier in this stroller.  He loved it!  And I was reminded of the simplicity of a single stroller!  :-)

Robby and daddy enjoyed building a house.

Robby taught daddy a little something about coloring.

They went camping for a bit.

Robby made quite the meal for himself!

Mommy and Charlie just chilled in a chair that was a tad too small for mommy's behind...

The big boys went on a space adventure.

I am sad that I didn't get pictures of the grocery store, train table, newspaper office, and the water table. We had a blast and ended our morning with CFA!

Charlie is anxiously awaiting the day he will be able to eat some scrumptious chicken!  He was really wanting some yesterday!

Pooping: The true story of Robby and Charlie

C: Hey, Robby, I'm kind of feeling like I need to poop.
R: Ya, you know, I am too!
C: Ooo, I have an idea. You go under the dining room table and do your poop.  I'll roll over here and do my poop.  Then we will both hit mommy at the same time all poopy!
R: Yes!  And we will start fussing at the same time like we really don't like it.  She will LOVE this!  I don't think she had anything to do today, so this will make her feel really special to have double the poop to handle!
C: Perfect!  1...2...3...Poop!


I'm convinced this is how it happens, y'all!

Mama just needed a little break!

This past Saturday, I had a bit of a breakdown.  I was exhausted and truly just tired of being needed.  I needed a little bit of time just to myself.  I was at the point that just a leisurely trip to the grocery store by myself wasn't going to cut it.  I needed silence and sleep.

So Sunday after church, Tim checked me in to a hotel about 45 minutes away from home and I got to have a 24 hour getaway by myself!  I went to my room and was greeted with this in the bathroom:

I changed in to my swimsuit and headed down to the pool.  I laid out for about 2 hours.  During that time, I fell asleep at least twice!  It was amazing!

After that, I showered, did a face mask, plucked my eyebrows, and tried new hairstyles I had seen on Pinterest.  I ate sushi for dinner and went to bed at 7:30!  

I woke up about 9 the next morning, ate breakfast, got ready then began heading back home.  It was wonderful to get several more hours of sleep, spend a little extra time getting ready, and do everything at a leisurely pace without anyone tugging on me!  

Tim said he could tell a difference as soon as I walked in the door.  I could definitely tell that i was refreshed and could handle the things that normally stressed me out with a little more grace and patience!  

I told him that I might need to do something like that every 6 weeks or so.  After all, for the price of an "Oh, I just need a few things" trip to Target, I got an experience that is allowing me to be a better, more attentive mom and wife!  I definitely recommend a night away for all of you tired, frustrated mommies!

Oh, the difference a year makes!

One year ago, at about this exact time, I took a pregnancy test, completely expecting it to come up negative.  I couldn't be pregnant.  I had a 7 month old.  No one gets pregnant that quickly after having a baby.  I remember exactly what I said as I watched the positive line show up almost immediately.  "Tim Weigle, get in here!"  He met me at the bathroom door, holding Robby, with a complete look of shock on his face.  He knew.  I didn't even have to say the words or show him the test.  He knew.  I sat down and cried.  As ashamed as I am to say it, I was so disappointed.  I wanted to focus on just Robby.  I was looking forward to the fun toddler years with him.  I imagined myself having to focus on a baby and him being in the corner playing by himself.  It made me sad to think of that.  Honestly, it took me several days to get over the initial shock and to start getting excited about the idea of another baby.  

We had absolutely no idea how far along I was.  The soonest appointment that I could get was two weeks away and we had so many questions.  I had been taking birth control, lots of Motrin for severe headaches, and even took a couple of sleeping pills.  I was concerned about the health of this baby.  We counted back and guessed that I was about 8 weeks maybe.  But even thinking that, I just knew we would go to the doctor and I would barely be 4 or 5 weeks along.  By the time the appointment came along, I was beginning to get over the feeling of being in a dream that this was really going on, but then that crazy feeling of shock came back when the doctor told us we were 14 weeks along!  My head started spinning.  I started counting backwards.  We got pregnant before Robby was even 4 months old.  Then I started counting forward.  They would be 13 months apart.  How would we do this?

Well, we've done it for a year and I truly, honestly, cross-my-heartedly cannot imagine it any other way.  While it's a bit tiring at times to be going through the same stages we feel we just got done going through, we feel extremely blessed to be given the opportunity to get to do this all over again.  There are definitely days when I feel that if I have to change another poopy diaper I'm going to scream.  Or if I get cereal sneezed on me again, I'm going to lock myself in the bathroom and cry.  Or if I hear another whine or cry from someone, I'm going to run away.  But at the end of every single one of those days, I sit back and I think about the day and I remember the sweet, precious times.  Like when I was cleaning the kitchen and looked up to see Robby stop what he was doing and run across the room to kiss Charlie on the head.  Or when I turned around in the car to see catch Robby holding Charlie's hand as we were driving along.  Or when Robby insisted on taking the spoon from me and feed Charlie.  Both of them light up when they see each other.  Robby already loves to share his toys with Charlie and looks for him as soon as he wakes up in the morning or from his nap.  Charlie giggles and waves his arms when Robby comes over to him.  

While our life is not what I pictured and it has not gone as I had planned, it's the most wonderful life and it's better than anything I could have imagined.  Thankfully, God knew what He was doing when He wrote our life story and He didn't listen to my grand ideas for us.  When I think of all the happiness we would have missed out on if things had gone as I "wanted", my breath is kind of taken away.  Charlie brings us so much joy and brings out aspects of Robby that we would never have seen!  

It's extremely hard to think that this picture was taken almost a year ago:

Their first sibling picture together!

 Last night at bathtime

This afternoon while feeding Charlie his cereal!

Wordless Wednesday: A Cart Full of Boys

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Five months!

Well, my sweet doodle bug, you are five months old!  I really can't believe it.  The time is flying by and you are doing so much already!

This past month you took two big trips.  One was to Muleshoe to visit the Hawvers.  The other was to Arkansas to meet some of your extended family.  You did pretty well on the 12-13 hour road trips, but after about 9 hours you didn't want to be in the car anymore and let us know that!  Everyone loved getting to see you, especially your LaLa and Pa!  You even got to meet some of the people I went to high school with!  And you loved your time with Uncle Ryan, Aunt Natalie, and Graham!

You've been rolling for a couple of months already, but now you are rolling to get to things.  You roll to get to any toys, pacis or stuffed animals that are on your blanket or in your crib.  You can grab things really well.  When you were in Aunt Natalie's lap a week or so ago, you were looking at her finger then grabbed it and stuck it in your mouth so fast!  When you set your eyes on something, your goal is to get a hold of it and get it in your mouth!  At times, you are able to balance for a few seconds to sit on your own but you still have a little work to do before you will be sitting without any help.  Everyone is always impressed by your leg and core strength though.  The exersaucer and johnny-jump-up are your favorite things right now.  You hang out in those all the time!

You have the best laugh and your sweet smile is incredible!  You wake me up in the mornings with coos and jabbers over the the monitor.  Your sweet personality and generally happy demeanor make you a pretty easy baby.

You are beginning to get a little fat in your face and your legs...finally!  You are taking a 6oz bottle every 3-4 hours during the day and you go from 7-7 at night without eating.  A big thing you are doing right now is holding your own bottle.  Some of them are a little too heavy for you to support all by yourself but others you can handle very well.  Rice cereal was introduced to you a couple of weeks ago.  I was amazed at how well your tongue control was.  Now, you've had bananas as well.  Usually, you have food twice a day, after your morning bottle and before your bedtime bottle.  I had planned to wait until you were 5 or 6 months to give you any food but you were making it clear that you were hungry and ready to go ahead and start.

When you aren't in cloth diapers, you are in size 2 disposable diapers and you are in 0-3 month and 3-6 month clothes, just depending on what it is.  Shorts are 0-3 month but anything one piece is 3-6 (and some 6-9).  Shirts are generally 3-6 month.  You are skinny and long so it makes clothes a little difficult to fit on you.

Robby still absolutely adores you!  When y'all are in the car, you both giggle and squeal at each other.  He loves to help feed you and put on your shoes.  It melts my heart to see the smiles on each of your faces as you are playing together.  You two have quite the fun life together ahead of you!  I can't wait to see your friendship grow as you get older!

I love you so very much and am so thankful to be your mommy!  You are an incredible baby boy!
Mommy

Thirty-one party!

I'm hosting a Thirty-one catalog party, which means anyone can order online by selecting my party on the website.  Just pick what products you want and they will be delivered to you!  I absolutely LOVE these bags and am so glad my sister-in-law, Natalie, introduced me to them.  I have several different ones and wanted to show you how I use them to keep me organized.

First, I have several items in my bathroom.  I have the mini utility bin under my sink with my all of my hair products, dryer, flat iron, brush, etc.

I love the gray with the polka dots.  We have decorated our bathroom in gray and yellow so the dots go great with our decor.  The name is a bit deceiving.  There isn't really anything "mini" about it!  I have a ton in there.  Natalie said she has used it as a trash collector in their car when they take long trips.  The great thing about this (and the other totes I'm going to talk about) is that you can rinse them out with soap and water and they dry in no time at all.  I spilt something sticky in one of my totes and had it cleaned and ready to use in just a few minutes.  Next to the bin, I have the five pocket clutch which holds all of my makeup.  When we travel, I also put my contact cleaner, case, and mini toiletries in it.  It holds a lot also, and I love that some pockets are zippered while others snap.  Also in the bathroom, I have the littles carry-all caddy on the back of the toilet and have all of my, errr, feminine products in it so they are easy to access.

It's also in the dots to go with the look of the bathroom.

Next, are the two I'm most excited about, probably because I use them every single day.  They are the zipper pouches.  They are huge!  You can fit a TON in them. The way I use them is for organizing my diaper bag.  I don't know about you other moms but it always seemed like my diaper bag was a wreck. Sure there are a ton of pockets in it, but I never could get a good system down for what I used each pocket for and I really never could find what I was looking for quickly.  Well, now I have a bag for each boy and they slip into my diaper bag very easily.  They are different prints so they are easy to tell which bag belongs to each boy, plus they are monogrammed.

You can see how much I have in these bags for each of the boys!  And I usually have several snacks in Robby's for him, too.  What makes this a great system is if we are out and Tim or I just need to take one of the boys to change a diaper, we grab that boy's bag and we know there will be wipes and the appropriate size diaper ready to go.  It makes dropping off at the nursery super easy since they are each in different rooms.  I just hand the appropriate bag to the nursery workers and know everything that child needs is in the bag.  And I get to keep the diaper bag with all of my things with me.  Also, if Tim is taking just one of the boys out with him, he grabs that boys bag and has all he will need for their outing.  I can't tell you how much this organization has helped keep me sane!

Now, let's talk about car organization.  I purchased the organizing utility tote first.  I packed it with my jumper cables, bottled water in different pockets, reusable shopping bags, towels, paper towels, etc.  It was my emergency car kit.  Most recently, I have used it to pack toys for our car trips for Robby.  I also put different snacks and things in the pockets.  This kept the car from getting crazy messy.  Everything always had a place to go back into during the trip.

I also have two all-in-one organizers, one for each boy.  In these I have everything I need for while we are out and just in case we got stranded somewhere (you can never be too careful, right?!) and have them in the floorboard on Robby's side.

In Charlie's I have a bottle, some formula packets, my sling, some teethers, and lots of diapers and a package of wipes.  In Robby's I also have diapers and wipes, take and toss cups, snacks, his quiet book, another toy, and I usually have some individual juice bottles in there too.  Having these in the car makes me feel confident that I will have whatever we need just in case we get across town and get stuck in traffic so we're out much longer than we expected or if something comes up and just keeps us away from home and I wasn't planning on it.  They really help when we are traveling, also, because whatever we need is within reach and organized well.

The prices of the totes, bins, and accessories are incredibly reasonable considering the quality of the products.  I am always pleasantly surprised by the actual size of all the items when I receive them.  I'm planning to get more of the fun accessories.  I love so many of the prints they have!  I would love to hear what items you decide to get and what you plan to do with them.  My party is open today through the 14th.  There is special this month that if you spend $31 you get a product from the Spirit Collection for 50% off!  If you have any questions about anything, you can ask me or email Natalie from the website.

Here is the link to my party again: http://www.mythirtyone.com/forms/frm_event_my_events.aspx
I think it is easier to check out the catalog first so you can browse everything and see how it's being used, then shop from the party link.