Weekend Links

Can't believe it's already the weekend! 2014 is already flying by! 

Check out what I've been up to these past few months... 

This is awesome- check out these colorized photos from the past! As  much as I love the original black and whites it is pretty cool to see them as they would have looked back then.

I am not afraid to admit that I was a huge Spice Girls fan, what about you? Check out these things you might not know about them!

I am guilty of "over DIY'ing" mason jars! 

How do you know when your child is ready for courtship? Here's what Michelle Duggar has to say about that.

Do you have Princess Swagger? Sophia Grace does...

More weekend links...

Life as of now...

To sum up life as of now in one word it would be hectic. I started working from home in October and we hired a nanny- then add in the holidays and it made life seem to spin backwards.  With all of the adjustments and changes I was really struggling to understand my new position as a "work from home mom." 

Let's rewind back to the beginning of this journey...

In late August I received a phone call from two former co-workers who had formed their own company and were putting in a bid on a contract that was similar to that of the one I worked on prior to Everett being born.  My co-workers were inquiring if I would be interested in a position on the contract but initially I turned down the offer.  While the thought of bringing in more income for our family was intriguing, Tyler and I knew that, for our family it was best for me to be home with the boys. 

A few weeks later I got another call asking if I would be interested in the position if it were four days a week at home and one day a week in the office.  This proved to be more of a possibility for our family as I would be able to be home with the boys so I accepted this offer.  Once I knew my start date we started searching for a nanny on Care.com.  I knew that this was the site that I wanted to use because I had actually used them when I was a nanny in college and was searching for work.  

I signed up for a three-month membership and posted the following ad: 

I am a full-time mommy who has just accepted a full-time work from home position. I will be working in the home but will not be able to devote my full attention to the children so I need someone to come to my house Monday- Friday. I have two boys, a two year old and a five month old. Duties would include: diapers for the five month old, potty breaks for the two year old, breakfast/snacks/lunch, playtime, reading to the boys, etc. We practice attachment parenting and would love to hire a nanny who either understands that or is willing to learn more about attachment parenting.

I wanted to hire someone who was experienced with multiple children and was either familiar with attachment parenting or was willing to learn and help us practice attachment parenting at home. We had great success with over twelve applicants within the first week of posting our ad.  Of those twelve applicants we interviewed four and ultimately hired Sue who is the perfect fit for our family. 

Sue comes during the day while I am working and it is so helpful to have her there with the boys.  At first, I really struggled with how I fit in when she was at the house because I was so accustomed to being the sole caregiver to the children.  We rearranged some furniture and turned the "man cave" into an office so that I would have a place to work that was separate from the kiddos during the day.  Once a week I travel up north to go into the office and have to be away from the boys.  As much as I loathe being away from them, it actually is nice to be able to have adult conversation.  

While I am at work I do have to pump and there is an AWESOME lactation room at my office! Seriously, it has two lounge chairs, a television, mini refrigerator, books, etc. and I am pretty much the only person that uses it! It is like my own personal break room!  Since starting work Nolan has had to adjust to taking a bottle... that was really tough for him.  It took him about three months or so to willingly take the bottle and even now he still does not like it at all.  As soon as I get home he clings to me and we are pretty much attached for the rest of the night!

Everett has been doing okay with the new changes, he loves our nanny and is learning a lot from her.  She is bilingual and is teaching the boys Spanish; Everett knows how to count in Spanish as well as most of his colors and several animals!   He does have a little trouble on Monday mornings when the nanny comes because he has been with Tyler and I all weekend but by Tuesday he is back in the jive.  One thing that he and I have been doing is having once a week lunch dates where just he and I go out and grab something to eat.  I made a goal this month to spend one-on-one time with him and this has really been helping out with his general attitude. 

So here we are in a new routine, one that I NEVER pictured for us but sometimes life throws you curve balls and you learn to go with it! What about y'all?  Is your life the way you thought it would be?  Are you where you thought you would be?

FBP: Resolved (January)

This year I resolved to creating monthly goals rather than yearly resolutions in hopes that I will stick to them and create better habits.  This month's goal was to take some time each week to spend with just Everett.  Having an eight month at home who refuses to take the bottle except when he absolutely has to makes spending one-on-one time with Everett hard and it is often something that is neglected.  

For Christmas, Everett got a trampoline and he LOVES it! So for one of our "dates" we headed outside to the trampoline and got to bouncing.  I could instantly tell that Everett loved the personal attention that I was able to give him and that he was having a great time.  He loves to jump and bounce and had fun playing outside with me.  I like to incorporate learning into what we are doing so we tooks some time to listen to the sounds outside, talked about the trees in the backyard, and even counted the number of times he was bouncing.  

We have had some issues with Everett acting out in the past (see here and here) and I think that a lot of it has to do with us not giving him enough attention so I am hopeful that this monthly goal will be beneficial in helping us to reconnect with him.

So have any of y'all set monthly goals or yearly resolutions? Have you been sticking to them?  I'd love to hear about it!

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This post originally appeared on Not So Average Momma on Fredericksburg Parent.net! 

Letters to Nolan: 1/18/14

Dear Nolan,

You are eight months old and are in to EVERYTHING! You have graduated from belly scooting to full blown crawling! You can go anywhere and everywhere and literally nothing gets in the way.  You will crawl over, under, and through things to get what you want and where you want! Thank goodness we have gates! 

You have also started to try and walk when we hold your hands and you think that is really great fun! You will walk as fast as we will let you and I am not really ready for all of that!  You are really into playing with toys now and are trying to figure out what everything does and how you can make noise out of it.  Anything that you can clang or bang on the floor is highly prized in your eyes!

You are really settling into your personality now and you LOVE to laugh.  Clapping and squeeling is a daily occurrence and we all love it. You and your brother are really starting to play and entertain each other these days and I love seeing the two of you together.  You guys had a great Christmas and you really loved playing with the Christmas paper and boxes. :)

The latest "health' development that you have had is that both of your bottom teeth popped through this month! The all night nursing that went along with that was not particularly fun on my part but it helped you through it and that's what matters! You are still nursing every two hours or so during the day and will go about four hours at night.  Naps are few and far between here, just like your brother but if you are up in the wrap you will sleep! Needless to say most afternoons are spent with you on my back! 

Here's what you've been up to this past month: 

12/20/13: Started clapping today
01/02/14: Started walking when we hold both your hands
01/04/14: First night you wanted to sleep on your stomach 
01/06/14: First tooth (bottom right) 
01/11/13: Started to crawl on all fours 
11/17/14: Saw you dancing for the first time 
11/18/14: Second tooth (bottom left)

Momma and daddy love you to the moon and all the way back! 

xoxoxox,

Momma

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For more Letters to Nolan, click here! 

For Letters to Everett, click here!

Instacram: December 2013

I love being able to share my photos so easily with Instagram! Check out what I was up to this past month! Are you following me yet? 

Find me: NotSoAverageMomma

Top Row:  1.) Jedi in his happy place,  2.) Sweet Everett crashed out at Rae Rae and PigPaw's house,  3.) Cuddlebug 4.)  "Pants are Overrated!"  5.) Nolan napping in my arms

Middle Row:  1.) Our little guitar player,  2.) The train table that we made for the boys for Christmas,  3.) Nolan sleeping in the wrap,  4.) An attempt to get Christmas jammie pictures, 5.) Santa's Little Helper

Bottom Row:  1.) Video,  2.) Tyler, Nolan, and I at my work Christmas dinner, 3.) Throwback Thursday engagement photo of Tyler and I from 2006,  4.) Playing in traffic on 95 South,  5.)  Bath time! 

Top Row:  1.) Nolan hanging out in the wrap,  2.) The thinking man baby,  3.) My outdoor explorer 4-5.)  Got all dolled up for Tyler's work Christmas party 

Middle Row:  1.) Nolan has been spending a lot of time being worn lately ,  2.) E decided that Aunt Becca needed some company during her nap,  3.) Creepy sign at work,  4.) Merry Christmas, 5.) Nolan and Joey

Bottom Row:  1.) Joey a German Shepherd/Bassethound mix,  2.) Everett, Nolan, and I, 3.) Goodnight Nolan,  4.) Everything always goes right in his mouth,  5.)  Enjoying the "spring" day in December!

Top Row:  1-3.) I love this baby!,  4.) The island of misfit toys ornaments, 5.) Good to the last drop!

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For more Instacram posts click here! 

Thanks to Jess for the original inspiration for this post! 

Weekend Links

Hope you have a great weekend! We will be having a pizza party to celebrate Tyler and Krystal's birthdays!

I can't wait to try some of these 50 different ways to make water taste better...

Are you into easy meals? Here's how to prep for a full month of freezer meals.

I love moscato and I love DIY projects so these DIY wine charms from Little Pink Monster are right up my ally!

Will you be taking on any of these Ten New Year's Resolutions for Couples?

Speaking of, check out my plan for 2014...

And last but not least, Todrick Hall is at it again! He teamed up with Virgin airlines to create this ridiculously awesome flight safety video!

Instacram: November 2013

I love being able to share my photos so easily with Instagram! Check out what I've been up to this month! Okay I am a little late on these... life is hectic these days! :) Are you following me yet? 

Find me: NotSoAverageMomma

Top Row:  1.) Nolan going crazy on a cake doughnut,  2.) My sister and I,  3.) Best buddies  4.)  Loving my haircut,  5.) Love this photo of Nolan

Bottom Row:  1.) Brothers,  2.) Nolan looking more like a big boy, 3.) My love,  4.) E got a little trim up,  5.) Best buddies

Top Row:  1.) Everything goes in the mouth,  2.) The escape difections,  3-4.)  Nolan in the ergo,  5.) Sleepy heads

Bottom Row:  1.) Love,  2-3.) Videos,  4.) It's getting hot in here...,  5.) Sweet sleep

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For more Instacram posts click here! 

Thanks to Jess for the original inspiration for this post! 

FBP: Resolved!

Last year I set out to drink more water. I wanted to set a simple goal, one that was not going to be too hard to achieve. I even broke it out into smaller goals so that I could track my progress and be able to set myself up for success. I knew that the larget amounts of soda that I was consuming was not only bad for my health but also was helping me pack on the pregnancy pounds. 

So here we are, oneyear later and I can confidently say (oh all right, I reluctantly admit) that I have not drank my daily allotment of water in days weeks months. Why not?  Well firstly I don't like how water "tastes" or that it has a lack of taste, which is a pretty crappy reason but it's true.  When I drink water, I have to have a cup full of ice and preferably a straw.  Anyways, I  wish that I had stayed on track with it but looking toward the positive, I did cut down my soda drinking to almost zero and that I am very proud of.

I wonder if I want to set these goals because I think that I "have" to, because everyone else is setting them. I like to set goals but it seems like using the whole year as a guideline is a little too far out of sight. It is so easy to keep pushing things to another day, and then next week, and then here we are again one year from today saying how we wish we had kept up with all of the goals we set for ourselves.

So what if, instead of setting a resolution for the whole year we made monthly goals? Not the same goal each month but actual goals that can be achieved within that month... I'm going to try it, and I hope you will too!

Here are my 2014 goals:

• January: Take time once a week to spend an hour with just Everett doing whatever he wants to do
  • He likes to play at the park, watch the trains, play playdough so I am sure that we will explore some of those options
• February: Go on a date with Tyler, without the kids!
  • We have a gift certificate to Old Towne Steak and Seafood (thanks Grammy and Jacky!) so I think that we go there! 
• March: Read a book.
  • I'd like to start knocking out some books on this list... 
• April: Get a massage
• May: Go jogging twice a week
  • Notice I didn't list this one until I knew the weather would be nice! :) 
• June: Reconnect with an old friend
• July: Create Nolan's one year baby book
  • I created a shutterfly book with photos from Everett's first year along with his milestones and want to do one for Nolan as well! 
• August: Declutter the house
• September: Cut ties with people who hold me back
• October: Try out a new hobby.
  • I have always wanted to learn how to knit 
• November: Get our holiday letter completed
  • This past year I didn't get it out until a few days before Christmas!
• December: Have the Christmas shopping done and wrapped by the 15th!

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This post first appeared on my Not So Average Momma on Fredericksburg Parent.net!