Our Summer in Review- July

I meant to post a July in review and then all of the sudden August was over too so I have the past two months to put up. They were busy months too. I still can't believe summer is over. There was a lot i was hoping to accomplish that i didn't but there is even more that i did. Remember this post with all of the things i wanted to do this summer. Well we did quite a few of them.  We went to the zoo, ran through sprinklers, ran with the sunset, went to the cabin and spent lots of time together as a family. Leighton might not know how to swim still and the only tan i got came from a bottle but we sure did have a lot of fun soaking up every bit of summer that we could.

watching mom work and picking "powers"

  

smiles and bums at the park

sleeping babes

 

4th of July

Pioneer Day

Family trip to Salt Lake

Lots and lots of swimming

Best Sisters Ever!

MMM- Most Important Work

I have been horrible at blogging lately and want to get back on schedule so bad and then i look at the list of things i have to do and don't even know where to begin, so i usually concur a few things and spend the rest of the day chasing the girls. I desperately need to organize my time better. Right now i have a personal fight with sleeping too much or too little and then work in middle of the night on one job and in the morning on another and have the third filling me with excitement and creativity 24/7 so i just want to work on it all of the time. So the blog gets pushed aside and I am just lucky i take the time to play with the littles. While pondering how to better set up my schedule I came across this quote and could only think, how fitting. It doesn't matter where my time is spent as long as most of it is on my girls. I really do believe if i take care of my relationships with family first everything else will fall into place. 

A Little Kindness and Confetti

I took last week off from blogging to get myself organized. Life got busy and i got ahead of myself and it didn't take long for me to become overwhelmed. Now i am back, reenergized and ready to stay on track. For this weeks motivate me monday I wanted to talk about serving others. The ice bucket challenge thing has been going around lately and that is great. It is awesome to see so many people donating to one cause. There are tons of reasons to donate though and for an endless number of charities. I personally like to put our money or time towards a cause i am close to or towards an actual person. Last week my heart was touched by an insta mama @lexzurcher that i follow who offered 100% of profits from her home made prints to go towards a family that she is close to that just found out their baby girl has Muscular Dystrophy. My heart breaks when anything is with babies or children. I wish that no harm could ever come to the littles of the world. As a mother i know my own heart would be shattered if i found out my children were anything less than perfect. So far in our lives we have all been very blessed. Anyways this insta friend has the most beautiful prints and she is spreading love and kindness like crazy. I hope to be this way. I hope i can offer as much heart felt help to those around me. Check Alexa's Etsy out. She is so talented and every room in your home can benefit from her wonderful prints. 

Speaking of confetti... I'd love to introduce my newest endeavor.

What do you think? This is the logo for mine and Shae Vandenberghe's business. What is Gold Confetti? Event styling and coordinating. We are so excited to get this going and have such big dreams in mind. Guess what?! Our first wedding is in 5 days! It is going to be absolutely beautiful and we can not wait for it to get here. Check out our instagram account @goldconfettievents for now and our website will be up shortly. If you are interested in hiring or collaborating with us email me at gold confettievents@gmail.com

Let Them Eat Out

This weeks link up is a hard one for me. We eat out all of the time and my secret trick to eating out? Leave a BIG tip. Kids are messy and they are loud and you just take it for what it is. Really though we travel a lot and we eat well. Food is our favorite thing and we don't hold back from eating at nice restaurants because we have children. Don't get me wrong, its not like we let them just go crazy but i don't stress too much when Leighton wants to walk in circles around our table or take a couple of trips to see the fish in the front of the building. I do tend to go prepared with coloring books and movies on the phone. We try to keep Leighton distracted as long as possible, eat as much as she can and then we plop the iphone in front of her until our meals are gone. Its probably not the most ideal form of entertainment for her but praise the Lord for unlimited data, right!?

  What is your secret trick to eating out with your little one?  Check out the other mama's blogs for even more tips!  And be sure to link up with us below if you also have a post on this.  

Like a Morning Cup of Coffee// From Here to Eternity// The Not Quite Military Wife//

A Cowboy's Life// My Delicious Adventure// Sadie Sky Boutique// Meet the Sullivan's//

Love and Life//  Foxy's Domestic Side// Everyday Love// Life of Faith

July 10:  Keeping your marriage alive with a toddler

July 17:  Favorite summer toddler activities

July 24:  Helping Your Toddler to Communicate (Words, emotions, etc.)

July 31:  Dealing with Separation Anxiety

Aug 7:    Car Trip Necessities

Aug 14:  Deciding when the time is right for baby #2 (and/or how to handle these questions)

Aug 21:  Tricks for eating out with your toddler

Aug 28:  Feeling confident as a mom (How to feel this way, Your struggle with, etc.)

An InLinkz Link-up

When Is The Right Time?

Once upon a time there was a boy and girl all they wanted was to have a baby. Eventually they did. Then all they wanted was to spoil that one baby forever and ever. Or at least for 3 years. Then all of the sudden the girl became very ill, laying on the ground cursing her morning chai latte next to the toilet ill and 10 months into their sweet spoiled babies life she told the boy another baby was on the way. 

True story! Kaden and I were just fine having one baby. We honestly could not imagine every loving another child as much as we loved Leighton and that just wouldn't be fare to our other children. We were convinced if we were going to have more kids they would't come for a long time. We wanted to have a few years to prepare ourselves mentally and financially for another baby. Clearly someone had other plans for us and we couldn't be happier that they did. Emersyn is loved just as much as Leighton. Our hearts have only grown with the birth of both our girls and now when someone asks when the third one is coming i just reply hopefully soon. Deciding to have children is a huge step, deciding to have more is an even bigger one. It is scary, you already took on a huge financial burden how can you afford another? (Children are financial burdens, sorry) You love your first child sooo much you cant possibly have more love left in your heart. What about your bond with your first and all of the fun things you do together? You just got use to your freedom and figuring out how to handle one, why give that up?

 I totally might offend people by saying this, but because you want your child to be a nice functioning person in society. Really though Leighton would be so spoiled if we never had Emersyn. She is already a handful but she would be a brat on top of it. I know a lot of people are only children or only have one child and that is great. We just personally don't have the right set of parenting skills to raise a good person with out a sibling to help teach them. Thinking of having two babies so close together seemed like the worst/scariest idea ever but guess what? It is the best thing that has ever happened to us. I hopefully will be done having babies super soon and on to a boob job and having my body back and it will be amazing! I am dead serious when i say that too. I also love the bond that Leighton and Emersyn are forming. They really do adore each other and they are close enough in age that they can grow up doing everything together. Choosing when/if to have another baby is very personal though and everyone knows it, but everyone loves commenting or asking on when it will happen. You have to find your own way of dealing with it. I tend to joke with people and say light hearted things like oh i have no idea these two might be enough or I love this one so much i dont need another. People don't need details they just want some sort of response. So give them one and make your decision with your partner and if things dont go as planned, just know it all turns out okay.

  Hopefully you can relate to all of these Baby #2 talks this week!  Check out the other mama's blogs for even more!  And be sure to link up with us below if you also have a post on this.  

Like a Morning Cup of Coffee// From Here to Eternity// The Not Quite Military Wife//

A Cowboy's Life// My Delicious Adventure// Sadie Sky Boutique// Meet the Sullivan's//

Love and Life//  Foxy's Domestic Side// Everyday Love// Life of Faith

Aug 14:  Deciding when the time is right for baby #2 (and/or how to handle these questions)

Aug 21:  Tricks for eating out with your toddler

Aug 28:  Feeling confident as a mom (How to feel this way, Your struggle with, etc.)

An InLinkz Link-up

Realizing

So i am bailing on the summer favorites post again. I can't quite get into it since this end of summer month has gotten out of control. The next unplanned weekend i see in my future isn't until the end of September. It is exciting but a little depressing at the same time. So anyways here are some thoughts from tonight.

Earlier i was trying to work, Kaden was watching a movie and the girls were playing in the living room. Leighton got so crazy that at one point she was threatening to jump off the counter or maybe it  was jump on her sister? At any rate it was crazy and I got so angry that i had to stop working and fix the situation and put the girls to sleep (shouldn't Kaden be capable of this). I was so frustrated when i was getting Emersyn to bed i just sat there rocking and bouncing and thinking "come on go just to sleep now." Then the rocking and bouncing seemed to calm me, I pulled myself together and thought wow we are crazy blessed! I'm so lucky i have a job i can do from home and walk away from the computer to put my babies to sleep, i am so lucky to have a job at all. I am blessed that Kaden is able to be home with us every evening and afternoon. Recently so many things have changed for us that i forget to stop and realize how good they are. Kaden's work situation went from 50+ hours a week to 40. Sure we miss the pay, but our relationship and his relationship with the girls has been beautiful. Kaden has been a happier person, he is enjoying hobbies and he really is helping more around the house. I was able to take on more hours with hospice and have found the time to work them. I also co founded a new business with an amazing partner and our fist event is in 3 short weeks! (I'll post more details later) Honestly life is great. I get frustrated and then i count my blessings. We really do have so much to be thankful for.

Motivate Me Monday- In Between

Today is simple. Some days i wake up and start off exactly where i was when i went to bed...with a billion things on my mind. I am a girl who stays busy. I tend to make  myself busy. If i don't have a hundred things on my to do list I don't know what to do. Right now my list reads; mail package, write sarah, paint bathroom, write 3 blog posts, work 4 hours today, draw reception layout, sketch things for kaden, clean kitchen, unpack... Well you get the point because yes my list keeps going. I am a stay at home mom with a real part time job i do from home online and I am starting a new business adventure. I have a lot of goals both personally and for my family and sometimes i get lost in them. Somedays I forget that instead of just working towards something i should be living too. So last night while scrolling through pinterest this hit me like a ton of bricks. This is what i am working on this week.