This Crazy Life

Ahhh! Life has been a crazy blur lately and I forgot to write my blog early this week! I always sit down on Monday nights after my daughter has gone to sleep and get it all written out...well not this week! I've recently started a Facebook page selling items for little girls, and little girls at heart :) Spoonful of Sugar is the beginning of a dream of mine and hopefully I'm able to continue growing it! If you have daughters, nieces, or friends with daughters, go check it out! 

On top of starting my little business, my husband has been dealing with a lot of changes at work, changes that could lead to a promotion(yay!). We've been discussing what could happen if it does go through, and with the promotion I'd be able to stay home even more(another yay!!). His new schedule would allow him to have weekends off which would be ah-mazing and he'd be home earlier every day too. 

Our daughter has been growing up so fast, I want to cry when I look at her. She has left the baby stages behind and is most definitely a sassy little toddler. She's got such a big personality and knows exactly what she wants. I can't wait to see her grow up, not that I want it to happen any faster than it already is! 

I know the older you get, the faster life goes but at this rate I'll blink and be 100! This week has taught me to sit down and take things slow...the dishes can wait. The laundry can wait...at least for a few days ;) I want to enjoy playing with my daughter while she still wants me around. I know all you mommies can relate, time goes by way too fast! Enjoy your sweet babies while you can! 

Xoxo

Randi

Christmas Time

Happy Monday and Happy December! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Fall and Winter time is always so busy with all the Holidays, it seems one is over and another is quickly following! I can't believe Christmas is about 3 weeks away.

Christmas time is so special with kid(s) around. I love the music, the food, my new favorite drink at Starbucks (Chestnut Praline Latte... you should try it, it's amazing) and more family time. Another thing Christmas time brings is gift giving and trying not to lose sight of the really meaning behind Christmas and why we celebrate.

My husband and I want to make sure that our children know why we celebrate Christmas. We want them to know it's about Jesus' birth and how he is our greatest gift. We also want our kids to celebrate the other part of Christmas which includes Santa, the North Pole and how it feels good to give. What we're still trying to figure out is how to do both.

The only way right now that I have figured out to tell Jase about the meaning of Christmas at his young age is to, well, tell him. I'm kind of taking the same approach with Santa as well. I figure some how our kids know who Santa is, right? It's got to be because we talk about Santa at Christmas and also show pictures of Santa.

Gifts are another area we are trying to figure out. Last year Santa got Jase one bigger gift and filled his stocking. My husband and I gave him something he wanted (we guessed, he was only 8 months old), something he needed, something to wear and something to read. We plan on doing the same thing this year as well to keep the out of control-ness in control. If I didn't limit myself, I'd go crazy and buy him everything I thought he needed and we'd be broke and Jase would be spoiled (even more then he is :-)).

I'd love to hear how you keep the meaning of Christmas alive in your family and how you go about gift giving with your kids! Like I said, we're still trying to figure it out!

<3 Lindsey

It's the Holiday Season

This is my absolute favorite time of year! The weather starts changing, Christmas is getting close, ahh makes me so happy! As a kid my family established several traditions that we still to this day follow...we always had to wait until everyone was awake on Christmas Day to open our stockings, we read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible, and then it was present time! Because this is my second time around celebrating Christmas with a child of my own, I'll be asking for lots of advice from all of you!

It can be a little difficult celebrating the holidays with all your family, and that is something I struggle with figuring out. How do I make time for my husband, daughter and myself but also celebrate with our families? We have the three of us, my side, my husband's side and then with my mom's family and dad's family! Everyone's got such different schedules, some prefer to celebrate on Christmas Day, on Christmas Eve, and others don't care at all! How do you figure out time to celebrate with everyone and not feel like anyone got ripped off? 

This will be the first year that I feel like my daughter will actually understand what's going on so I definitely want to be able to celebrate on our own! My plan is to wake up Christmas morning and celebrate with Russ and Emery before heading over to my parents and celebrating with them and my sisters. 

Now that I have my own little family, it's time to establish our own traditions. Of course I'd like to incorporate some from my childhood, but I'd like to start new ones too! What are some things you do with your families? Does anyone use Elf on the Shelf yet? Do you have gifts from "Santa"? Share some Christmas traditions you do! 🎅🎄🎁

Love and Loss

As many of you know, my husband and I have one daughter, and our plans were to keep it that way for awhile. Last May, we had a little surprise when we found out we were pregnant again. Lots of different thoughts went through my head....are we ready for 2? Is Emery ready to be a big sister? How am I going to work and take care of two babies? I was excited, don't get me wrong, but nervous and stressed. I was still unhappy with my post baby body from Emery so that was another stress. 

We went in for a confirmation check up and they said that yes we were in fact pregnant. And then the morning sickness started. It was horrible when I had it being pregnant with Emery but now having to take care of her and deal with being sick, I didn't think I was going to make it. The day after Emery's first birthday we went in for my first ultrasound. We were so excited to see and hear our baby. We'd accepted the fact that our kids would be only 19 months apart and we were okay with it! 

Then it happened...the tech started the ultrasound and there was just an empty sack on the screen. No baby, no little heart beat beeping on the screen...nothing. My heart dropped, I didn't experience this at all with my first. She did a vaginal ultrasound and the same thing happened...she tried reassuring me saying maybe I wasn't as far as I thought but I knew I was. She couldn't really tell me anything though and I had to wait for my doctor to officially give me the news. 

As soon as she walked in I could tell it wouldn't be good. She said the baby hadn't grown and that there wasn't anything in the sac at all. She said I would miscarry and told me exactly how it would happen. I would have to go in for blood work twice a week to measure my hormone levels and make sure that they were going down, otherwise I would have to have surgery. 

Even though this baby was not planned, I was still completely devastated. What did I do wrong? Would I be able to have more children? I always wanted 3 but would 1 be all I could have? I had no clue what to do...we'd already told our families that we were expecting and now she had to go back and say never mind, there's no baby. It was horrible. 

After all the crying, sadness and feelings of inadequacy, came the waiting. When was 'it' going to happen? I hated the waiting...my husband had to go out of state for work the week of my birthday and I just KNEW it was going to happen then. Sure enough, on my birthday I started having some cramping. I went to the bathroom and didn't leave for over two hours...I won't go into details but it was horrible. 

     

My point in sharing this is not to get sympathy from you or to have you feeling sorry for me...it's to let women know that this is a much more common occurrence than people realize. It's not the end of the world either, you learn so much about yourself, your husband and your children. I appreciate my daughter so much more, I appreciate my husband so much more...when I become pregnant again I will appreciate that pregnancy so much more too. 

My miscarriage happened for a reason, I'm not sure what that reason was but I know God has a plan and that's how we've been able to get through this. I hope sharing my story helps someone else to get through any pregnancy hardships they may be going through. 

Thank you <3

Randi