Peaceful
For the past couple weeks I have enjoyed the peacefulness of my house. Let me explain. Since October 2008 we have had at least one employee working out of our house. We continued adding employees until April when the office moved out of the house. But then we had a parade of guests in and out of our house until just a few weeks ago. Thats just about 2 years since we have had a house to ourselves!
Its been so nice to just have the house to ourselves and to spend some alone time with the girls without other people coming and going. This little break has been great but now we are gearing up again for a busy month. Tomorrow we are welcoming Jesse and his fiancé Katherine for a week. My sister and her husband will join us for a couple days. Then we are going on a family vacation. Near the end of September we welcome Lukes parents for a week visit. Then before we know it, the holiday season we be upon us!
But focusing on the present…this week I gave Izzy her first haircut in over a year. It kept getting shorter and shorter while I was cutting it because I couldnt get it straight! Izzy kept squirming, understandable for a 2 1/2 year old I guess. (Picture to come)
What Do I Do ALL Day?
I’ve gotten questions like this before. “What do you do all day long if you JUST stay at home with your kids?” I ask myself that all the time too, because it doesn’t seem like I get anything accomplished during the day. If I get one load of laundry done and dinner on the table, that’s a good day for me. A former colleague of mine posted this and it basically sums up what I do all day. Click on the article to read it.
Waterslide
Last month I wasn’t quite ready to venture out to our pool but Izzy needed some time cooling off in the water so I fashioned a water slide for her using the slide on the swing set and an inflatable pool. The slide was really fast but looked like so much fun that I almost climbed up there and went for a ride.
Family Photos
A couple weekends ago we got together with a friend of ours who’s a Fort Collins photographer and took some new family photos. We love how they turned out and must admit that our kids the ones who really make the photos beautiful. Here are our favorites:
All photos courtesy of Knecht Images
Wait…Stop!
Is it already the middle of July? Where is this summer going and why is it going by so quickly?! Oh right, I guess it’s because we’ve been busy with a newborn, house guests, business guests and well, life in general. We’d like to squeeze in a family vacation into this summer though. Perhaps between all of our guests we can take a week and head out of town before the end of September. We’ll see how that pans out.
Izzy’s summer session of school ends next week. I think after that we’re going to start substituting pool time for school time. Jo-Jo is quickly becoming a champion sleeper like Izzy was at her age. The past few nights I’ve gotten at least 6 hours of sleep. (Granted this awesome sleep is in a moving swing, but oh well) I hope this continues and her sleeping time gets longer.
This past month I’ve learned that I can get both kids in and out of the car and into the stroller in under 5 minutes, but it takes me an hour and 45 minutes to get everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door in the morning. We’ll have to work on getting that time down I think. It’s a little ridiculous!
One Month: Jo-Jo
Baby Jo-Jo is now one month old and we just moved her out of our room to sleep in her own room. I gave in and put her into a swing to sleep and have gotten at the most 6 hours of sleep. I didn’t want to have to use the swing, but I think a well rested momma and baby is worth it.
Jo-Jo now weighs in at around 8 pounds. I haven’t measured her yet but she’ll get measured and weighed by the doctor at her two month checkup. We’re teaching Jo-Jo early to “cry it out” because we definitely can’t carry her around all day with Izzy running around. I’d say Jo-Jo is learning and her cry time is getting shorter and shorter.
I’m learning how to handle two kiddos on my own and am managing fairly well, that is as long as we’re not running errands and both kids are happy and not crying. Izzy is back at her weekly music class and is attending “summer school” this month on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
I started up a fitness routine again, although sometimes I find it hard to fit in a workout during the day or even sit down to have a healthy meal. However I am determined to drop the baby weight sooner rather than later!
Here are some pictures of the kiddos:
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- Sleeping Baby
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- Momma and Baby
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- Sisterly Love
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- Tiny Smile
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- Playdough Bracelets
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- Um…Smile??
10 Years
My graduating high school class of 2000 are getting together this weekend for our 10 year reunion. When I first got notification of this reunion I was shocked to hear that high school graduation was really 10 years ago. Am I really getting that old?!
I went to a private Christian school in Colorado Springs. My graduation class was around 100 people (maybe a little more). I was a cheerleader for three of those years, but wasn’t “popular” by any means. I was an honor roll student. I worked part time at a pretzel shop and retail store at the mall then at Compassion International while I was in high school. I made some good friends during high school, but really only keep in touch with a handful of those people. I have some good memories from high school, but also some that I’d rather not relive.
No, I’m not going to the reunion. There’s been a lot going on for the past month, so a reunion with classmates isn’t my thing right now.
In three years, it will my 10 year anniversary of graduating from college. There won’t be a reunion for that since I went to a commuter college. I don’t know anyone in my college graduating class. In fact, I didn’t even go to graduation! I elected to get my diploma in the mail and get on with life.
Tonight I pulled out some old pictures from high school graduation and an old cheerleading picture. Wow, I look young and super skinny. Oh, what time, life and children will do to your body, but it’s worth it for the life I have now.
What I Want…
is SLEEP! Last night was a rough night. I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep total. On top of that Jojo decided to stay up through naptime crying and nursing. Currently I have her in the infant swing Grandma and Grandpa Knowles bought for baby Izzy and I’ve gotten a good chunk of quite time from Jojo. However I don’t want to get in the habit of using the swing for Jojo to sleep in. That makes it hard to travel!
I’m praying that Jojo has a good night tonight sleeping in the co-sleeper and really hoping that the swing does not become a regular need.
In other news, Izzy is a great sleeper, however this week we found her twice sleeping on the floor with the lights on after we put her down for the night in her bed. I don’t know why she feels the floor is a comfortable place to sleep…
Summer!
Summer is officially here. That means, lots of hot weather, fun times at the pool and LOTS of visitors. Currently my sister Michelle is here visiting. A few days after she leaves Luke’s brother Jesse will be visiting and working with us.
Jojo has gained probably a pound since we left the hospital. She’s waking up about every 3 hours to nurse but that’s enough for me to get some good chunks of sleep during the night. Isabelle has enjoyed having “Aunt Mi-Mi” here and having someone to play with.
Michelle has been acting as my personally family photographer while she’s been here so here are a bunch of photos.
Prayers for Claire
I found out last night that friends of mine from high school are going through a very difficult situation. This past weekend their 3 year old, Claire, nearly drowned and didn’t have a pulse for 30 minutes. They are currently at a childrens hospital where Claire is being treated. Please pray for the full recovery of Claire and for Tiffany, Tyler and their other two girls Autumn and Heidi.
They have started a blog to post updates on Claires condition: http://ourclaire.wordpress.com
God hear our prayers!