All is calm, All is bright

I know it's super late right now, but we are at my in-laws and I am waiting to go to bed, but Devlin won't go to sleep!  So I'm letting him fall asleep in the big bed, which is apparently easier for him.  

Anyway, today was Christmas!  We had a blast spending the last couple of days in Fort Collins and spending time with family.  We also spent quite a bit of time looking for places to live, which has been stressful for us.  Jaren is going to be starting his last semester of college before graduation and we are coming back to Fort Collins!  He was also extended his job until graduation; at that point they will re-evaluate to see where he will go from there!  We are so excited that he has a stable and flexible job through his last semester.  

Christmas has been wonderful this year.  Devlin and Kade loved opening presents and seeing all of the cool things inside.  Devlin's favorite was, of course, his train that he got from Santa.  Kade's favorite was an old fashioned toy telephone with eyes that Devlin gave to him.  Also, Kade starting doing the "real" crawl today and we actually got it on video!

We are looking for a place to live and have an amazing prospect, and we are potentially signing a lease tomorrow.  Pray that all goes well!  

If all goes well with this place, I have big plans!  We would have a nice, big yard and a garage!  I would be able to have my piano back too.  I am planning on bringing my mom's inventory to this place and using the space to sell it and get money for her headstone.  I am also planning on selling my own things (I will have to make a post dedicated to that subject later).  

Well, I realize that I'm really tired and my kids are now asleep (yay!)  

Hopefully I'll be able to make a post tomorrow announcing us having a place to live and then I can post pictures :)

Merry Christmas!

Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

I absolutely love this time of year!  We are often reminded to be grateful for the things we have, but November is the month that we can devote our thinking to everything that we are thankful for.  I am so happy to be able to reflect on my life and see how much I have.  It definitely can change your perspective on life, I know it has for me.

This Thanksgiving was different, the 4th one since my Mom passed away.  I still cried from missing her so much.  I had a couple of experiences that helped me not miss her so much, and those were so sweet.

I am so grateful for my little family.  My husband is amazingly sweet, he always looks for ways to help make things easier for me around this time of year.  He is loving, gentle, an amazing father.  I love him so much.  My children are great blessings in my life.  Devlin is growing into such a sweet, and strong little boy.  He is polite and funny, he is a joy in our lives.  Kade is such a sweet spirit, there is so much personality in his little body.  He is wanting to be a big boy, he is a joy in our lives as well.

I am filled with love toward my little family.  We all love each other and have fun with each other.  Devlin is a wonderful big brother and Kade adores his big brother.  I love watching them and seeing how they interact with each other.  Even with each frustration, love can be seen.  I am blessed because of that.

I love my little family and I am grateful for everything that I have in my life, that The Lord has blessed me with.  And from my family to yours, Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

No longer MIA

I can't believe so much has happened in such a short amount of time.  My big boy is almost 2 1/2 years old and my baby is 5 months old!  Times flies.  I can't believe it!

Jaren is almost done with his internship and we are house-hunting in/around Fort Collins.  We haven't had a lot of luck so far, but I have faith that we will find something that will meet our needs.

As selfish as this may sound, I want to mainly talk about myself right now.  I suffered a severe concussion 5 years ago.  Since then so many amazing things have happened.  I met a wonderful man, I married him.  We now have two beautiful boys and dreams of more children.   Though some of the best times have been within these past 5 years, it has not always been easy.

After my concussion, anxiety filled my life.  Weight issues began and have not stopped being a problem, even to this day.  I lost my Mom in July, 2009.  That's when the depression came in and the anxiety got worse.  I was having near-daily migraines that stopped me from many daily activities.  I felt like I was lazy, which honestly made things worse!  My lack of self-esteem has grown to new levels and some days I can't stand to look at myself or listen to my own thoughts.

Luckily, things are changing.  I am now getting treated with upper cervical chiropractic care.  My nervous system is starting to function properly again.  After my concussion, my neck was out of place and it was causing all of these health problems.

After only a few weeks, I have more energy and I am feeling better.  I am so happy that I am feeling like myself again.  I am loving the smile on my face again.  I am glad that I am getting dressed and taking care of myself every day again.  I am finding myself again and I am so glad to say how happy I am again!

Updates to life

Here's an update for what's going on right now:

First off, prayers and good thoughts are very much appreciated right now!!

I have been having contractions for 5 weeks now and it sucks.  There have been a couple times where they got so regular and bad that I thought that it was time.  The last time I went in they were as bad as when I was in labor with Devlin.  Each time after a few hours, they would just stop.  One time it was over 9 hours!  It was not cool at all.  So with all of these contractions I figured I would have the baby early or at least somewhat on time.   Now my due date has come and gone and it's hard to do much of anything physically and I won't even get started on the emotional aspect of it.

I have been having high blood pressure issues now too.  At my appointment they took it over the course of an hour or so it remained high, so the doctor scheduled an induction.  I go in Sunday morning at 7:30 am to be induced.  I am glad that they are going to do what needs to be done to not risk more high blood pressure problems.

I want to be able to go into labor naturally, so prayers for that please!

I have to say that I really do not want to be induced.  I know of the complications that can occur with an induction and they terrify me.  Of course complications can happen at any time during any type of birth, but there really is higher risk with interventions.  I want to have a med-free birth and I know the chances of that go down greatly with being induced (but it can be done).  Also, I don't want a c-section to be an end result to my induction.

A big reason why I am so anxious is that Jaren just got his internship in Denver and starts a week from Monday (on the 25th).  I wanted more time with the family before we are split apart for 6 months!  Jaren will be living close to the Denver area and coming home on weekends to spend time with us.  I'm nervous about having two kids by myself (ok more like terrified!)  It will be hard but I know that everything will be ok and the sacrifice will be worth it.

So there it is.  Hopefully my next update will be one about a new addition to our family!

After a week of being done with my undergraduate career, I have to say that I am so happy! I was in school for 5 years and had so much happen (I am currently working on writing it all down to post) and I am glad to be done.

I am full term for my pregnancy tomorrow and I am glad :) I have now had 3 episodes of false labor. Last Tuesday I actually went in to Labor & Delivery because the contractions were averaging 3 - 4 minutes apart and getting worse. Then after 3 hours they just stopped. UGH! Well Sunday night it happened again - contractions every 5 - 6 minutes apart for over 4 hours and then they stopped. Last night I didn't even bother timing them because they are just annoying me. It sucks because even though they aren't true labor contractions, they aren't the same old Braxton Hicks contractions either and they just make me so tired and grumpier than I usually am during pregnancy :) 

Baby seems to be doing great and I am measuring ahead by about a week. Baby is also bigger than Devlin was at this point in my pregnancy and it's made me feel so uncomfortable a lot sooner than last time! I seriously think I am only getting about 4 - 5 hours of sleep a night. It'd be great if it was all clumped together, but it's in increments of 30 - 45 minutes at a time or something like that! 

I have had nesting hit really hard this last week! Last week I organized our food storage/pantry, organized all the baby stuff, and other odds and ends around the house. I cleaned my entire house, top to bottom, except our bedroom yesterday. Today I worked on it a bit, got our desk organized and purged many unneeded papers. I made about 20 freezer meals last week; each in a gallon freezer bag which feeds about 1 dinner and 2 lunches for a family our size!! 


The kids' room is ready with the changing area and crib, the bassinet is in our room with supplies filling the bottom basket, meals are in place, the bags are all packed and in the car (taken care of last Tuesday lol!), and birth plan and other plans are set for when things happen! 

Now just to find the energy to have some fun play dates with Devlin before the baby comes!

The unintentional countdown

I have started an unintentional countdown in my head for graduation and my due date. I was avoiding doing that at all costs because I don't want it to psych me out (bad unless Shawn and Gus are around).

So since it's constantly buzzing around my head, I'll post it here. I graduate in 6 1/2 weeks and my due date is in 11 weeks. EEK! Now I just have to figure out how to get everything done and not go more insane than I already am.

Side note: I've been dealing with major mood swings this pregnancy and I feel like a crazy person 24/7. Also, my dog is being so bad lately and barking at everything. She is driving me nuts and is probably one of my biggest sources of stress right now. Guess she isn't liking all of the changes going on with me.

Pregnancy update: I was given migraine medication!! It's been so nice not dealing with migraines or severe headaches every day (though I unfortunately woke up with one today). They also are testing my liver and thyroid to rule out any issues there. It's so nice that they are checking to make sure there aren't major problems instead of just blowing them off again.

I've also been having pretty intense Braxton Hicks contractions lately. Yesterday I started having contractions at an average of 5 minutes apart for over an hour (I drank tons of water, laid on my left side, etc). I knew they were only B.H.'s, but was about to call the OB when they stopped.

I think that's about it for now. Now to eat some crock pot barbeque ribs :)

Recent Crafts

Every now and then when I am not going crazy with school or hormones, I actually have had time to be creative and relax. Here are my latest creations:

Wall Hangings
I cut up scrapbook paper and taped the pieces together. I then grabbed my stencil and wrote words on them. The paper matches the colors in my living room and I am still needing to hang these! I also have two other frames to fill in to make a "box" of the 4 pictures.





I have always wanted to make hanging letters of Devlin's name for over his bed. I found the letters at Joann Fabrics for $1 each and I bought the paint at Walmart for about $1 each.



Next I painted a base color on each of the letters.



Last, I taped off different patterns and shapes with masking tape and painted different colors for each. I took off the tape and was left with pretty cool name letters!



My next project is to finish Devlin's baby book before this one comes! I also found a cool baby outfit pattern that I want to try out for someone to see how easy it is!

Pictures and Update

Here's some pictures of Devlin and some of his favorite things to do.

He loves his kitties and he loves to torture them. They tolerate it amazingly. (I snapped the picture and made him get off Daisy. She didn't even seem to care!)

Here is a picture of him watching Tangled. It's the one movie he can actually sit through the entire thing. It's especially nice when I have a paper to write or lots of homework.

He gets so intrigued watching himself when taking pictures of him.

Devlin was having a blast playing with the yarn pom-poms I made. He thought they were fun to throw in the air.

We found a new trash can with a lid at ARC for $1 and it's been great for Devlin's room and his diapers (not as stinky). One day during nap time I thought he was sleeping the whole time, but apparently he spent the time putting all his toys in the trash! Luckily it only had one diaper in it at the time :)

Like I said, Devlin loves the cats and he loves when they come and explore around him. He sits really still while they come and sniff him and then he chases after them and they have fun.

This toy isn't really Devlin's, but he does seem to love it. We were really in a need of a new car and found one that met all our criteria. Devlin loves getting in it and he seems to have fun in it.

Now on to me. I'm currently 26 weeks pregnant and it's been quite the struggle this time around. I've been having migraines/very intense headaches every day, tons of abdominal pain, Round Ligament Pain, trouble seeing/twitching eye, racing heart/difficulty breathing, and I've been swelling up lately. I have an appointment tomorrow and I'll be bringing everything up to my OB of course. I brought it up to the other OB last appointment and he completely wrote me off (told just me to take 4 ibuprofen every 4 hours - yeah let's not!), so hopefully the one tomorrow will actually listen to my concerns because this doesn't feel right!

Overall, I feel optimistic. Only 9 weeks left until finals/graduation/recital!! I love feeling my baby move and kick every day and I love watching Devlin learn and grow every day.

In my "spare" time

In order to not go more insane with school, pregnancy and everything else I have going on, I try to get some creative time in.

Food has been a very touchy subject with me this pregnancy, so any time I find something that I can handle, I have it often. One of my favorite things to make is a healthy egg scramble.

Step 1: Cut up any vegetables you want to add in, the more colorful the better :) I also add in some sort of protein, because it's good for you. In the picture, I had cut up Canadian Bacon to add in. The vegetables I had were mushrooms, green onions, and green, red, orange, and yellow peppers.

Step 2: Saute all of the ingredients in some oil. I don't use butter, and try to use the least bit of oil I can.

Step 3: Add in eggs and scramble everything together. I added 4 eggs and my husband and I shared the entire thing (with a little help from Dev too)

The next thing I created were inspired by what I found on Pinterest and it's from THIS post. I decided to make mine differently, and a bit cheaper too. I'd been trying to find baskets that I could afford, and I finally found these plastic tubs at Joann Fabrics for $1 each!

I took the plastic tubs and picked out some colorful, fun Scrapbooking paper that I had in my stash. I then measured the areas with the holes and cut the paper to those specifications. I used masking tape to tape the paper onto the tubs. I decided on masking tape, because it was a solid color and didn't look too bad. I think it took me about half an hour while watching some TV to finish these. We use them to throw stuff in that needs to go upstairs and then it's easy to clean up the main floor.

And last, Devlin has been going through a pasta phase, it's his favorite thing to eat. One night I was feeling pretty bad and was going to throw in a box of instant mac and cheese. I decided to try to make a better, healthier version and it didn't take too much longer than the instant does.

Step 1: While I was boiling my water, I cut up ham, mushrooms, and green onions and sauteed them with a bit of Parmesan cheese.

Step 2: I added my noodles to the boiling water and while they were cooking, I shredded my cheeses. I used Cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Feta, and Cottage Cheese. It sounds like lots of cheese, but I didn't use much of each.

Step 3: Once the noodles were cooked, I drained them. I then added in the cheese and let it melt in.

Step 4: I threw in the sauteed veggies and meat and mixed it all together.

Final Product: It was a success! Dev loved it and actually ate all of the veggies and meat, along with the noodles. Jaren and I loved it as well and enjoyed this version more than we like the boxed version.

So those are a few things I've done to have some fun lately. It's great to create things and have fun. I want to do more of course, but I have a very hectic and stressful life for the next 12 weeks. Now I'm just getting ready for tests and more school work, working on my thesis, and planning my recital song list. I can do this!

An update to our lives

I have been pretty bad at keeping up with my blog, but I feel like it's ok since I'm in school full time with 22 credits and a thesis, I'm a mom of a very active toddler, I'm 22 weeks pregnant with a very active baby (this baby can move!), and I'm a wife. But I feel the need to update.

My first pregnancy was easy; hardly any morning sickness, not many aches and pains, etc. The labor and delivery on the other hand was pretty rough. We also ended up with a very easy baby, who slept through the night very early on. We were especially lucky with Jaren and I both in school, it was wonderful to have things work out so well.

This pregnancy is completely different. So much morning sickness in first trimester and nausea every day, even now. I also am so tired, at my appointment yesterday the doctor must have said 4 times "wow you look really tired". I do agree that the bags under my eyes are becoming more prominent, but I'm still holding out for the 2nd trimester boost of energy that I got last time *crosses fingers*. I am not sleeping well at all. I think I wake up an average of 6 times every night and lately Jaren's 'sinus issue' snoring hasn't helped either (he usually doesn't snore)!

I also can't take naps, even when Dev is napping. There must be some sort of chemical that emits out to our dog when I put him down for a nap and try to lay down to take a nap myself. As soon as I am comfortable or barely asleep, she starts barking hysterically like someone is trying to break in or something. There is never anyone there. UGH. Now not being able to nap wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that I am doing 22 credits in school and need energy to get through everyday.

I know I'm ranting, but that is my update for my pregnancy issues. I've also had some semi-concerning contractions already, but the doctor thinks it's nothing. Baby is doing great and measuring right on track. My uterus is measuring ahead by a couple of weeks, but no extra fluid or anything concerning, so I just look bigger :) I will have to upload my ultrasound pictures when I get the chance, they are awesome. And again, we are "team green" and did not find out the gender. I was so tempted to this time though...

Devlin is doing great, he is growing up so fast and will be 20 months old in a few days! Jaren is busy with school and work and trying to keep up with the frustrations that those both entail. School for him is not so bad, but work has been terrible lately. They keep changing his schedule on him with little or no notice, and they also keep scheduling him while he's in class, and on days he's said he needs off. He needs a new job, but has no time to search. We're weighing the options of what to do in that area.

Well, I think that's all my brain is allowing for right now. Time to rest before class!

Testing a ticker