We are Here. We are Busy.

I plan on keeping up with this blog. I really do. It's just, life gets in the way.

I'd rather spend time actually doing things with my kids rather than writing about the things I'm doing. My nights used to be my blogging time but I'm finding I have less time at nights as of late.

In the very few free moments I do get these days, I simply want to enjoy the quiet rather than blog about what we did that morning. Any blogging energy I do have goes towards Thriving Home so this little guy gets the leftovers- which isn't very much lately.

Anyway.

Ty-Guy is a lap hound. At least that's the affectionate name I've given him. He isn't needy- he just loves to be in a lap. He would sit contently and quietly in my lap all day long if he could. He plays well on the floor and is entertained by his busy sister but only lasts solo for so long before he starts politely requesting to be held. I love it though. I know that a year from now I will be chasing a busy little boy who will be hardly interested in mommy's lap. So for now, I have a baby in my lap during most meals and have learned to do a lot of things with one hand.

He's been a great little baby though. I'll be honest, he isn't the best night sleeper but I'm just kind of used to it. He wakes up to eat around 11-12. He then usually wakes up around 2-3 and needs a little snuggle and help to get back to sleep. He then almost always wakes up around 5 to eat again and then dozes until about 6:30. So yes, I'm still up 3 times from the time I go to bed until the time I get up. Being tired is my new normal so at this point it doesn't seem that bad. I know that one day he will sleep through the night. One day.

Adelyn's current favorites: Curious George stories, Dora and Super Why shows, chasing Sophie around the house, taking care of her babies, playing hide and seek with daddy, the song Old McDonald, blowing bubbles with babysitters and swimming.

She is going to be a flower girl in a wedding this weekend so we've also been practicing her petal throwing around the house.

Austin just started what is going to be the most demanding semester of seminary for us. He has a good attitude about it but it is going to be quite the challenge for everyone.

I'm busy keeping up with two kids, my job at The Crossing, and growing Thriving Home. The blog has been growing tons lately so we are having a lot of fun with it.

Anyway, I told myself I need to go to bed earlier so that's what I'm going to do. Good night.

Photography 101

I finally cashed in on one of the best gifts Austin has ever gotten me. 

For mother's day he set up two photography sessions with our friend, Gerik. Today, Gerik came to our house and helped me understand the settings on my camera better as well as identify good lighting and places to take pictures around our house. He also walked me through the editing process which was SUPER helpful.

It was SO fun. I learned so much in the short time that he was here and am excited to use my new skills and understanding. 

A few tips he gave me:

"Remember to find great light and clean backgrounds. Set your metering mode to the lighting conditions you are in. And shoot with light coming in from behind. Play around with the manual settings on your camera. And have fun."

Here are some of the pictures that we came up with from the morning. 

Adelyn was a great little model for us. Tyler was asleep the whole time so he didn't get to be part of the fun. In our next session we are going to work on how to photograph food and still shots that we often do for the blog. 

There is so much to learn! 

These Two...

I love watching them start to figure each other out. 

 This one is hilarious...

His eyes say it all.

Sweet Chauncey

We've always said that our dog, Chauncey has a select few in his circle of trust but once you're in, he is the BEST. It looks like he's let little Ty-Guy in to his elite pack. 

Yesterday, I walked into the playroom to find this:

I quickly grabbed my camera and caught a few more interactions between the two.

I had to remind Chauncey to be gentle but Tyler didn't seem to mind the nuzzling from his big-dog friend.

This is my favorite.

Blogging is Hard When You Aren't Sleeping

Gosh. It's been a while since I last blogged.
Little man Ty-Guy still prefers a visit from mommy at least twice a night so I am a slave to an early bedtime which majorly cuts into my blogging time. Any little free time that I do have goes to Thriving Home blogs so this little blog gets the leftovers.

My apologies.

Where to start?

Here is a cliff notes version of our life right now:

• Adelyn is two. She is a chatterbug. Talk talk talk all day every day. 
• She learned how to swim this week (with assistance from a little floaty strapped to her). Regardless, she still kicks and paddles around the water like a little fish. I love that our child loves the water already. 
• She just spent almost a week down at "Nanakuk." Austin and I were there the first 4 days with her and left her down there to hang out with Aunt Nice and Uncle Pete for two more days. 
• Tyler is such a smiler. I LOVE it. He coos and grins with the best of them. I'm pretty sure he is going to be an extrovert. 
• Our neighbor's house caught of fire a few nights ago. Turns out it was likely arson. We also found out there has been some stolen dogs in our neighborhood as well as a break-in a few blocks away. Austin and I have beefed up security at our homestead by adding a fake ADT sign in our window as well as a "Beware of Dog" sign on our fence. Our timeline of finding a new house has possibly been moved up a bit. 
• Austin and I are currently in a friendly competition of not eating desserts for a week. If one of us caves, the other gets to choose the next three movies we watch. We are considering changing the competition to see who can go the longest. We love our desserts around here so it's been hard on both of us. 
• We have gone blueberry picking twice. Adelyn doesn't seem to mind if the berries aren't blue. :)
• Adelyn got sick two weeks ago. She turns into a major cuddle bug when she is sick. Poor thing. It took almost four days before she finally kicked the bug. 
• Nana introduced Adelyn to ice cream cones. Now she wants one with every meal. Thanks, Nana.
• We spent the fourth of July with some great friends at a really nice house in Rocheport. Event though a random rain storm blew in, we had a good time. 

I think that wraps up things for now. Here are a few random pictures from the past few weeks. 

Ta-ta-ta-TWO!

Well, it's official. We have a two year old!
On June 9th, our little lady turned into a two year old. Her birthday was a busy day filled with Crossing Kids and a birthday party with the grandparents that afternoon. Her birthday party with her little buddies is coming up this weekend.

Adelyn is the only grandchild on both sides of the family so you can imagine that she was not short of any gifts or attention.

Adelyn's current fascination is with animals. She talks about animals all day long. She wants to carry her animals everywhere with her. We use them as bribery to get her to eat, get in her car seat, go outside, take a bath, you name it. If her animals are doing it, she will too. So as you can imagine, she got lots of animal toys for her birthday.

 She also got her own little vacuum to play with. She likes how it makes a similar noise to the real thing but not as loud and scary.

She also got a playhouse, slide, and tricycle from her grandparents. 

Her birthday lunch consisted of ribs made by great-grandpa, garden salad, Panera bread, baked beans, pineapple, watermelon, and chips. YUM!

Of course we had some cake to celebrate as well!

 She didn't quite get the concept of blowing out the candles. Daddy had to help out with that part a bit.

When we told her to take a bite of her cake, she went face first into it. I wasn't too surprised but the scene delighted the grandparents and great-grandparents. 

One of the first things she did with some of her new animals was line them up to look out the window.  This is pretty much a daily routine around our house. 

 Little Ty-Guy snoozed through most of the birthday party but Adelyn didn't mind. More attention for her! He found a cozy home in the arms of grandma.

Two year old Adelyn has been pretty fun. Here are a few things I probably won't remember about my two year old in a few years:

• She loves to watch "Dona" (Dora) in the afternoon. Occasionally accompanied by an Elmo's World. 
• She goes to bed at 7:30 and gets up between 6 and 6:30 usually. She typically takes an 1.5 nap in the afternoon around 1. 
• She has recently learned the phrase and how to use the word "Mine!"
• She loves to give Tyler his pacifier and talks to him in her baby voice.
• She also loves to say "Mommy." She probably said it over 75 times before I came and got her out of her crib this morning. 
• She wants to do everything by herself. "No help," is often the phrase we hear. 
• Her favorite foods: blueberries, noodles, pizza, cheese, peas, pretzels, and of course cookies. 
• Her favorite playmate is Eleanor. They have such a sweet little friendship. She also loves to play with Brooks. 
• She loves to dance. She has a few particular songs that she requests and she sways side to side as it plays. 
• She loves the song, If You're Happy and You Know It as well as Old McDonald.
• She loves to have daddy throw her around on the bed. I don't like to watch because he throws her so dang high!
• Her names for family members are as follows:
• Nana (my mom, Janny)
• Gare (Gary)
• Grandpa P (Paul)
• Grandpa Wiz (Liz)
• Aunt Nice (Leslie)
• Pete (Peter)
• Whoa (Will)
• Her grumpy times usually fall around either lunch time, post nap, or around 5-6 at night. 
• She loves to play outside. Particularly in water. Especially in her animals are involved. 
• She knows she can test the boundaries when I'm nursing Tyler (SO frustrating for me!)
• She knows her alphabet already! I really don't think we can take much credit for this. She latched on to an alphabet puzzle and just learned her letters one by one. Now she can recognize them everywhere. It's crazy!

The past two years have brought some long days but short years. We are seeing a beautiful, confident, independent, young lady emerging from the fussy little baby we had in our arms two years ago. I'm thankful for her bursting personality, sociability, expressiveness, and lovable spirit. 

Happy Birthday sweet girl. We love you. 

"Mine"

I saw a new side of Adelyn today. We've seen hints of it on the horizon but now we are fully emerged in a new stage. Her favorite new word is, "Mine."

The "mine" is delivered sharply, loudly, and authoritatively.

Oh goodness.

While this had proven to harmless thus far, this "everything I see is mine" attitude did not go well with our little play date with her BFF, Eleanor.

From the moment Eleanor came onto Adelyn's turf, Adelyn declared war. It was very much a one-sided battle, however. Eleanor seemed to be confused by this new Adelyn she was encountering. Every toy Eleanor went to play with, Adelyn would intervene declaring possession.

The first 30 minutes that Eleanor was at our house, Adelyn was in timeout four times. Both Eleanor and I were wondering where the fun-loving Adelyn had gone and how a smeagol version replaced her so quickly.

After a lot of intervention and some quality time in time out, Adelyn finally chilled out and was able to play a little better. They had a great lunch together as you can see below.

They did great coloring together until Adelyn decided she had seen enough of her crayons get used and cut off Eleanor's supply in a rather creative way. I was laughing too hard at this gesture to reprimand it.

It's not fun to see the dark side of your child. You want to believe the best about them and not think of them as the trouble maker. It's easy to make excuses for her but the reality is we have a strong willed, slightly dramatic toddler with lots of opinions on how the world should work. I'm thankful for a daughter with personality and heart but am also learning that parenting this type of child is going to be a long, hard process. Lord help us when she turns 13!

Hopefully we can navigate these hostile waters quickly and be done with this stage before she loses too many friends. Hang in there Eleanor!