Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Anniversary (our 8th!) Getaway

Our anniversary getaway was wonderful! We chose Mexico for two reasons. 1.) you just can't beat an all-inclusive vacation and 2.) the flight is so easy. We left home at 6:15 am and landed in Mexico at noon. Once we arrived and got settled into our villa, we put on our swimsuits and headed to the beach to check everything out!
We basically did the exact same things every single day: wake up, put on swimsuits, grab some breakfast, snag the best loungers by the pool, have lunch, back to the pool, go for a long walk on the beach, back to the pool, get ready for dinner, enjoy a lovey meal, go to bed. It was bliss and the most rested I've felt in years. We never set an alarm and just allowed ourselves to wake up whenever we did which was about 9 am every day....almost 10 total hours of sleep every night. We're tired parents.
We typically always do some sort of excursion when we vacation but this time all we wanted to do was chill and relax. We wanted some peace and quiet. Scott and I both read books and enjoyed zero responsibilities. Well, I did have a bit of reality check four times a day in the form of my Medela Pump. Bennett is still exclusively breastfed so I had to sneak back to the room a couple of times but it wasn't a big deal. I've had a lot of people ask me how I was able to save up enough milk in order to go on a vacation in the first place and also how I traveled back home with it so I'll save that for another post. Yes I brought every ounce home. Scott tried to talk me into not worrying about bringing it back and it made me wonder if he even knows me at all. I'm a milk hoarder in case you weren't aware.
There really isn't a ton to share because we honestly did the same thing every single day....which wasn't much! I even ordered the exact same breakfast every day--waffles with potatoes on the side--because YUM I've never had a more delicious breakfast in my life and I just couldn't not order it every morning. The food was outstanding and I ate way too much but it was totally worth it.
 Overall, a truly amazing 8th anniversary vacation. It felt so good to just be Scott and Kara instead of Mom and Dad for a week. We missed our boys but thankfully the resort had great wifi so we were able to keep in touch really easily. We never go anywhere so we were proud of ourselves for actually taking some time for us. It was much needed and we had a lovely little getaway.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Back in the States

Hey all! Wow! Sorry it's been so long. If you follow me on Instagram you already know that I was in Mexico all last week. I meant to post the week before letting everyone know, but you know how crazy it gets when you're trying to prepare for a vacation. Turns out, even crazier when you have two littles to get everything at home prepped for as well!
Scott and I booked a last minute trip to Mexico at the beginning of January. We had always discussed going on a little vacation for our anniversary (January 24) but we went back and forth on it. We love a getaway but it's hard for us to leave our kiddos!! Finally we decided to do it and it kind of made it more fun since it was somewhat last minute.
I found our little retreat for the week and I've gotta say, LOVED it. Loved. We used to travel quite a bit pre-kids and other than our Honeymoon, I think this was our favorite resort we've ever visited. We stayed at Blue Diamond Luxury Boutique Hotel in Playa Del Carmen and it was fantastic! A cool Miami vibe with the modern, 60's type décor but without all of the partying. It was a calm, relaxed and quiet environment which is exactly what we were looking for. The resort is small too, another wish on our list. We've done the big resorts with all the restaurants, shops, pools, etc. We wanted something different and this was perfect. The staff was so friendly and welcoming, the food was seriously amazing, and the atmosphere was everything we wanted and more. I can't recommend this place enough.
I'll blog more about our trip as the week goes on. I've got a lot of photos I want to share with you all and don't want to overdo it with just one post! So stay tuned for some tropical pics this week and I'll see you guys back here tomorrow!!

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Nap Time

What do you do with your time while your kid(s) are napping? This is a question I always ask my friends because I'm always curious to know how other mamas spend their free hour or two during the day.
Campbell and Bennett both take afternoon naps at the same time every day. Actually, Campbell is starting to transition to no nap but I still offer it to him. Today he fell asleep but all last week he didn't. I don't think he's 100% dropped his nap yet but he's definitely headed in that direction. A lot of seasoned mamas highly encouraged me to continue to offer him "quiet time" and I think that's a great idea so I plan to do that for a while. I think he needs that quiet, alone time and lets face it, so do I!
I never really do the same thing every day during nap time. Sometimes I pick up my house, sometimes I lay on my bed and relax. Occasionally I start getting dinner prepped. One thing I have noticed that I almost always do is turn the TV off. I always, always have. I guess I just need that peace and quiet.
Scott works from home so occasionally I can pop out of the house to run an errand. It's sooooo nice that I'm able to do that and I know I'm lucky. I always make it a quick errand so Scott's work doesn't get disrupted in case the boys wake up but it's so nice and helpful.
When Campbell was a baby and taking two naps, I almost always crawled back in bed and took a nap during his first morning nap. It was so wonderful and I had zero shame in that. I miss it! Haha!!
So what do you do? Netflix? Clean or cook? Take a nap too? Share in the comments! Maybe you're doing something brilliant that I need to do too!!

Monday, January 16, 2017

Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday and supposedly the most depressing day of the year. I don't know about y'all, but I was feeling it. Not necessarily depressed, just blah all day long.
We didn't do anything today and it was bor-ing. I was glad when afternoon naps rolled around because I curled up on my bed, grabbed a blanket, turned on Harry Potter and took a nap too. Now I'm not going to be able to fall asleep tonight so I'm annoyed with myself for doing that. I usually never allow myself to take a nap, even if I'm exhausted, because I know I won't be able to fall asleep at night. Anyone else like this?
I need to get back in the groove tomorrow. I didn't even go for my morning run because I was feeling so blah with no energy and now I feel yuck. I need my daily run. It feels great for my body but I mostly do it for my mind. I need it daily to be able to adult.
Homeland, my favorite show, started back last night. If you aren't watching this show, you need to! It's SO good. I was glad I remembered that the premier was last night so Scott could call Directv to turn on our Showtime. We turn it off as soon as Homeland is over. Anyone else as cheap as us and do this too? Ha!
Random post but that's this Monday for ya.

Friday, January 13, 2017

TGIF

Happy Friday everyone! May you be just as excited about your weekend as Bennett is about his.
I'm keeping this one short so I can spend some QT with my family. See you all back here next week!

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Playroom Makeover

I mentioned last week that I gave my playroom a mini makeover so today I thought I'd share some photos with you!
I've been wanting to do something to my playroom for such a long time but I've always put it off. After Christmas we accumulated more toys and our playroom looked like a mess. I needed a more organized way to store the toys but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. We won't be living in this house for forever so I've always just held back on fixing this space up because I wanted to save everything for our future home. Something needed to be done though so I decided to hunt down some cute, inexpensive stuff to spruce up our playroom.
I started with these Threshold cubbies from Target. Target is smart. They had a big storage sale after Christmas because they knew all of us mamas were looking for a way to store all of our new toys that Santa brought. I bought these two cubbies (the 9 cube and 2 cube) and pushed them together then just filled them up with what we had laying around. The wicker bins I already had (from Target) and the blue bins are from Land of Nod that I've had for a while.
I love the cute little Pillowfort line at Target. It fits this space perfectly and it's such a great price. I got a few pieces of art and the animal heads and suddenly this space became so much more fun! I also added a magnet board over Campbell's Ikea play table and he's having a lot of fun with that! The table was previously crammed in the corner where the tee pee is now and it's so funny because Campbell never used it much and now he uses his table almost the entire time he's in the playroom now. I think a lot of the problem is that I had toys sitting on it (because I didn't have anywhere else to put them) but now that it's free of clutter, he can sit there and work puzzles or build things and it's great!
Campbell got a train table for Christmas and he loves it but it posed a problem because it's a big toy and we needed to find a good spot for it. Hence, one of the reasons I needed to make over this playroom. It now has a great spot and I found the railroad crossing sign at Hobby Lobby which I think goes perfectly above it!
So there's our little playroom makeover. Campbell absolutely loves it. You'd think he had a brand new playroom full of new toys. I think he loves it so much because it's more organized so he can see all his toys better. Everything isn't crammed together and he has a better space to play with it all. We used to spend the first two hours of our mornings downstairs just laying around but now he wants to go straight to his playroom to play. I'm so glad he does! I'm enjoying it so much more myself. I used to get depressed in this room but now I love it! I'm glad I finally did something to spruce this space up and the best part is it didn't cost a lot of money. Thanks Target!

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Meal Planning

The kids went back to Mothers Day Out yesterday. Their first day back from the holiday break. I actually really enjoyed our lazy mornings where we weren't rushing to get out of the door over the break. But I did super enjoy getting some "me" time back. I almost forgot what it felt like! Scott and I had a lunch date then I went to the mall and Target to grab a few things. Campbell was so excited to be back. He literally speed walked into his classroom without even caring or noticing that he was leaving me behind. He clearly missed being there! Bennett gave his teachers hugs when he saw them so he was excited to be back too. An all around good day back for everyone.
Doing my weekly meal planning (my new years resolution) really makes me feel like I've got it together! Haha! It has taken so much stress off of my day to day life. I do spend quite a bit of time on Sunday night searching for recipes, writing down my shopping list, etc. But it's been really great! I'm trying a lot of new yummy foods instead of cooking the same 10 things over and over and my whole family seems to be enjoying them. I'm doing a lot of slow cooker meals because dinner time is seriously the hardest time of day when you have kids and it's so hard to cook a meal on top of that. If I don't do slow cooker meals, I'm doing a lot of sheet pan meals. The ones where you put everything on one sheet pan and throw it all in the oven. I've also found a lot of recipes that I can prep and do a lot of it the night before so when the time comes I can just stick it in the oven to cook. Last night I made a breakfast casserole so all I had to do this morning was throw it in the oven. Everyone loved it. Well, almost everyone. I was really making it for Campbell because it's one of his favorites and wouldn't you know, he didn't even eat one bite this morning. He kept saying "no thanks mom" and shoving the plate back into my hands. No problem buddy glad I slaved over this last night. Even made a 9:00 trip to Walmart to get some milk for it since ours had gone bad quicker than the date said it was supposed to. No big deal. Toddlers....

Monday, January 9, 2017

Bennett | 8 Months Old

Weight: I'm not sure but I would guess somewhere around 13.5 pounds.

Height: 27 inches maybe? No clue really.
Sleep: Bennett takes 2 naps a day. We're still working on getting both naps to be long naps. One is usually long and the other only an hour. I prefer for his morning nap to be his long one because it just sets the tone for the day to be a lot better and the schedule works out better. If the morning nap is short, he usually requires a quick cat nap in the car around lunch time (if we're out of the house) to get him through until his afternoon nap. Bennett sleeps at night from 7:30-7:00.

Eat: I just dropped a nursing session so Bennett nurses 4 times a day now. He also eats breakfast, lunch and dinner. I usually offer him purees first then give him some finger foods after. Sometimes I don't bother with the purees but he still loves them so I like to give them to him. He's getting much better about textures now (at first he wasn't so sure about real foods) and will eat anything I give him. Although I'm pretty sure he is just not a fan of bananas. He always makes a face. Bennett good at feeding himself and uses that pincher grasp pretty great. He is not a very messy eater at all (praise!) and it doesn't take much food to fill his tiny belly up!
Clothes: Size 3-6 month clothes, 0-6 & 6-12 month beanies, size 1 Freshly Picked Moccs. I just moved him into size 6-12 month Kickee Pants but the footies are SO long on him! The 3-6 month footies were cramping up his little toes though so we were forced to move up!

Diapers: Size 3 Pampers Swaddlers, day and night.

Likes: Food, baths, Campbell, sitting in your lap, touch and feel books, his paci, getting out and about/running errands with Mommy, smiling.

Dislikes: Clothes going over his head. This kid still cries his eyes out every time you put a shirt over his head. Every. Time. They aren't even tight or hard to get over. I don't get it.
Milestones: Bennett finally mastered sitting up this month! One day he decided to just do it and once he did that was it. No spills or toppling over. Took his time with that one. He blows raspberries all. day. long. and says "aaahh" a lot and will imitate me if I do both of those sounds. He reaches for you now, grabs your face with his hands, and gives a big, open mouth kiss. Melt me. He bangs on toys and can put his paci in his mouth like a pro.

Month Eight: Bennett was a little more difficult this month than he ever has been. He has been trying to cut some teeth for over a month now. I have never seen it take so long for teeth to cut through. It's made him a little fussy but even Bennett's version of fussy is hardly anything to complain about. Instead of being perfect, he's just been good. Ha! Overall, still the best baby. He isn't feeling the need to be held all day long anymore so that's nice. Now that he's sitting up, he likes to just chill and play with toys. He seemed to grow up a lot to me this month.
All About Bennett: Sweet Bennett. He's such an angel. I soak up every day with him and can't believe he's 8 months old. He will be one before I know it and it almost makes me sad. I can't wait to watch him grow but he has been such a wonderful baby that it's going to be hard for me to watch this stage end. He still flaps his wings but not as often now that blowing raspberries is his new thing. He gets SO tickled when we sing "Benny and the Jets" to him except we change the words to "Bennett and the Jets." He thinks it's hilarious. Whenever he wakes up from his sleep or naps, he pops that paci in his mouth and chills for a long time before letting me know he's ready to get out. He loves his crib! His crib is full of paci's and Bennett is rarely without one in his mouth. He now sleeps with a lovie that he got for Christmas and always naps with a blanket. We love our precious baby boy so much.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Brrr

Happy Friday y'all! I need this weekend. Yesterday kicked my booty but today we all good.
I've been working on a little project all week. I've given my playroom a mini facelift. I've mentioned so many times before how much I dislike my playroom. It felt like a mess and there was nothing on the walls and it just bugged me. Not to mention, it's the room that I spend the most time in so I was really wanting a change. We got a lot of new toys for Christmas and I had to find a better storage solution for them so I had a good excuse to finally just do something about it. So I did. I'll share more next week!
The temperatures here are below frigid. It's the kind of cold that hurts you. I run every morning and normally I brave the temps and it's fine but I went for a run on Wednesday morning and almost died because of the cold so I've decided to skip out the past two days. Ironically, it's supposed to be really warm next week so I'll just pick it back up then. Meanwhile, I'm going to stay bundled up inside with my boys. Dinner is in the slow cooker so I have nothing to do but play. I've done great on my resolutions this week. Having a weekly menu has been so awesome. Definitely need to stick to it. Tonight--Chicken tacos! Yum. See you back here next week!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Denim Comfort

I thought I'd share my go-to uniform with you all today. I wear different versions of this outfit all the time. It's comfortable, it's easy, it's simple.
I have fully embraced wearing leggings during this season of life. I just can't not be comfortable while taking care of two little ones but I still want to look cute. This outfit is the perfect solution for me. I have a few pairs of these leggings and they seriously get worn multiple times a week and I don't even feel bad about it.
Speaking of comfort, these booties are great. The heel is low which makes it easy to walk while holding a toddlers hand and carrying a car seat. They're really cushy so I can wear them all day if I have to and my feet never hurt.
I got this Tory bag for Christmas. It's such a pretty color. I've said before that I gave up diaper bags a long time ago and now all I carry are Tory Burch totes. They're big and open and perfect for throwing all of your stuff in. I love her totes. You can't go wrong with any of them!

Shop This Look!

Monday, January 2, 2017

Resolutions

Happy New Year!! Do you make resolutions? Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. The best and most successful resolution I ever made was in either the 7th or 8th grade. I pledged to drink only water the entire year and I 100% stuck to it. It became such a habit at that point that I only drank water for years and years after that.
I decided to make a few resolutions this year. They're things I've been planning to do anyway but it seems like a good idea to start my new year off by doing them.
1.) I'm going to be in bed by 10:30 every night. I've got to get just an extra hour of sleep. I'm so tired every day and I know this would help. I typically go to bed late because I'm up getting things done that I can't do during the day. But I've decided if I don't finish my tasks, they'll just have to wait until the next day. Rest is important and I need more of it.
2.) I'm going to be better about meal planning. I want to come up with a weekly menu and grocery shop on Sunday or Monday so I don't have to mess with it for the rest of the week. Coming up with what to feed my family every night is my least favorite part of my life. If I can get more organized and have it planned out, it will take so much stress off of me. If you have any favorite recipes, send them my way!
3.) No more snacks for Campbell. He eats so many snacks. From now on, if he really wants a snack he can have a bowl of fruit. He also must eat what I serve him. I'm tired of him being a picky eater and I'm tired of making him a separate meal. If I'm going to go out of my way to meal plan every week and cook us nice dinners, he's going to eat them. If he doesn't want to eat them, that's fine. But he's not getting anything else. It's time to stop this nonsense!! He's old enough to understand and I'm putting my foot down!

So those are my 2017 goals. I think they're pretty realistic and I'm hoping to start some new, good habits. What about you? Do you have any resolutions? Share in the comments! I'm always curious to hear.