Parenting

It is hard to believe that my husband and I have been together for thirteen years and married for eight of those years. It honestly doesn’t seem like that long ago we were in our twenties, newly engaged and just beginning to dream about what our life would look like together.

At the time of our wedding we didn’t have any big responsibilities besides our jobs. There was no mortgage payment to make because we rented. There were no kids running into our bedroom after having nightmares.

In the nearly seven years I’ve been a mom, I’ve come to believe that parenting is just a long series of hellos and goodbyes.

In the delivery room – hello.

The first day of school – goodbye.

When they wake up each morning – hello.

When they go to sleep each night – goodbye.

But it goes even deeper than that, doesn’t it? Especially if you’re a sentimental mama like me.

I’ve said hello to tiny newborn clothes and goodbye to cribs and hello to bikes and goodbye to training wheels. And it will go on like this my whole life because I will always always be their mom. The only constant is change.

Last year one of my blogging goals was to grow my facebook page to 1,000 fans by the end of 2014. And to my surprise – I met that goal! I told my fans I was going to offer an awesome giveaway when I hit that number and here it is! You can enter to win one of two $500 paypal cash prizes or $450 paypal cash prize! Who couldn’t use a bit of extra cash after the holidays, right? Thank you for following on Facebook and good luck!

The other day I was perusing my facebook feed as one does and I came upon an interesting conversation about Christmas trees. A blogger asked this question on her page:

DO YOU PUT UP A REAL TREE OR A FAKE TREE FOR CHRISTMAS?

Consequently, World War III began. I had no idea how strongly people felt about Christmas trees. I also had no idea how quickly that little conversation would grinch the crap out of my Christmas spirit.

A few nights ago I spent some time working on Sawyer’s first birthday invitations. I couldn’t find any that were just right for the theme so I decided to design them myself. By the time I looked at the clock it was 11:00 p.m. I couldn’t believe how much time I had spent moving tiny graphics and text boxes around on a little 5×7 card. I was trying so hard to make it look just like I wanted. Trying to fit each part into its perfect spot. How could a few hours have passed by so quickly?

Congratulations, friends! We made it to the end of the week! TGIF!

It may not seem like a huge deal to get through five days. But sometimes when it’s Monday, you look at the week you have in front of you and all that’s still left to do – then yes – five days seems like a Herculean task!

I’ve got three kids – one in kindergarten, one in pre-kindergarten and one who still requires my body to be a food source.

Let’s face it – kids are expensive. As parents we don’t like to see our children as dollar signs (obviously) but there are times when we can’t help but think to ourselves, DANG, why does it cost so much money to raise these kiddos?!

As a mom of three kids one of our biggest expenses is clothing. Yes, you have to dress these tiny people after you bring them into the world. Most moms I know don’t stop at just dressing them – they also want their kids to wear quality, name brand clothing that costs a pretty penny when you buy it new.

I love being able to breastfeed my girl. But there is one thing I do not love about it . . . pumping. I really, truly hate it. But as a working mama it is a necessity for me to pump while I am away from her. I am so grateful for my amazing pump. It allows me the chance to provide Sawyer with what she needs to grow while not having to compromise our breastfeeding relationship!

When we came home from the hospital with Sawyer my heart was so happy I felt like it could burst at any moment. I sat on the sofa, my newborn daughter nestled into my breast and I could have cried from the bliss of it all. I watched as my two strong, healthy sons wrestled with each other in front of me, sending fits of laughter into the air. I need only look down to see our new addition and how perfectly she fit into my arms and into our family. As sleep-deprived as I was – I couldn’t stop smiling. Life had just hit an all-time high for me.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve had three babies and never shared some of my favorite newborn items with my readers! I have to admit, my list for my first baby would probably be way different than it is now. By the time you’ve had three babies your list of must-have items is pretty minimal. It’s really exciting to buy a crapload of the most expensive stuff when it’s your first baby. But now it’s really quality over quantity.

Have you heard of Stitch Fix? I feel like every blogger has tried it at least once and if not they are thinking about it. I learned about Stitch Fix a year ago. Then when I went to Influence Conference the founders did a presentation on how they started their business. I was pregnant at the time but told myself I would give it a shot after I gave birth.

If you haven’t heard of it Stitch Fix is a service where you pay a $20 styling fee, fill out a questionnaire about your style and someone will pick five pieces of clothing/accessories to send right to where you live. That’s right. No awkward and/or sad moments in a fitting room at the mall. Sold yet? I was.

Read Part I here

When I found out I was pregnant again one of my first thoughts went to the challenges of breastfeeding. I could not get our struggles out of my head. Although I was excited to possibly get another shot at the whole thing I was nervous. I just didn’t know if my heart could go through another breastfeeding failure.

From the very beginning of Brigham’s pregnancy I decided the best thing I could do was to arm myself with as much information possible about breastfeeding.