five years

(Picture from a week before our wedding)

Today is our five year wedding anniversary. 

Five years seems like one of those big milestones in a marriage. It is a strange time frame that feels both long and short. We have packed a lot in since we married on that warm, Texas, winter day in January. People say they can barely remember their life before their spouse or children or whatever and I just did not see how that was possible. However, as time keeps ticking on, my life alongside William is becoming all I know. The part about marrying young and having children young that fascinates me is that the majority of my life will be spent with them. I like knowing that Will and I are doing all of our growing up together. This marriage has taught me more about myself than I would have ever learned on my own. Will has challenged me and encouraged me in the most effective way. On our wedding day, I could not have envisioned our life to be where it is today, but then again, all I could really focus on was just starting our life together. 

 (from our failed attempts of capturing us jumping off swings in Texas)

I love you Will! Happy five years of almost complete marital bliss!

six months

 

 Little Eliza Lynn is six months old. This is a bit late, but I am going to try and play catch up from the past month. We spent the majority of December in Texas and just got back yesterday. It was a blessed trip with some much needed family time. It is hard to remember what Eliza was up to in November because she did so much changing in December. However, for documentation sake, I will try to record what the peanut was up to at six months. 

Eliza at six months: 

-She weighs 14.6 pounds. She is still in the 20th percentile of weight, but gained a lot from her last visit. This is the first time since she was born we do not have a follow up appointment after her well-check up visit. So we go back again at nine months. 

-During Thanksgiving we sleep trained her again. It worked wonderfully for two nights, but has been rocky ever since. She has been roughly waking up once a night. Well, we try to just feed her once a night at least. In Texas, she pretty much stayed on this schedule as well. 

-She seems to be a little less sensitive tummy wise. After months and months of worrying about everything that I was eating, how much I was feeding her, questioning her health, I decided to just stop (for the most part). Once she started gaining weight again and realizing that her demeanor did not change all that much since I cut out wheat, I began to stop restricting my diet. It took me about two weeks to feel ok about letting myself eat wheat and dairy, but I think it really has not been bothering her. She does not have screaming fits like she used to and everyone just sees a baby with a smile constantly plastered on her face. I think she is probably just sensitive and will continue to get better with age.

-She can roll with a purpose. She is figuring out that she has control over her body and can command it to move (usually in the direction of Madison). She is still not sitting up on her own because I think she would rather be on her tummy figuring out how to get places. 

-She still enjoys cuddling. She still finds her way into our bed a lot of nights and sleeps snuggled in Will's arms. She is usually always content if we are holding her. I melt when she falls asleep on my chest when I rock her. 

-She has found her voice and can be quite loud. I just love this phase and all the noises that they make. 

I think I was right about it taking six months for us to find our rhythm. Maybe it was a self-fulfilling prophesy, but either way I think it is for real getting easier. Eliza will be crawling any day now. Madison is at an age where she is usually very compliant. Our days are a bit more predictable and so are our nights. I am worrying less about food restrictions and allergies. I am hopeful for what is to come. This Christmas season was a great time for us to reflect on our family and we feel extremely satsified with everything that we have in each other. 

I feel I am honestly excited about the coming months in Eliza's life. I do not feel like another obstacle is looming in the distance. The newborn days are tough on me and it is with mixed emotions I can say I am thankful they are getting farther away. 

We are so smitten with Eliza. She has captured our hearts. Her smile is so embedded in my mind that when I close my eyes its often the first thing I am visualizing. I love her so. 

a little bit of this and that

1. Our Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had not spent the holiday by ourselves since we were first married. I think now that Madison is becoming a real person, our family is feeling more like our own. She understands so much more and she is not just a baby with no awareness of her surroundings. I decided I wanted to do some kind of service as a family. We visited an assisted living facility, in hopes that Eliza would brighten their day. It was really casual and it was only an hour of our time, but I enjoyed doing an act of service together. We then played at the park and had a great conversation with a dad who was keeping the kids out of the house while his wife cooked. We went running. Then we grilled steaks once the children were in bed.

2. I am still training for the half-marathon in Galveston on December 22. I only have two more long runs left, a nine miler and a ten miler. It is supposed to be in the single digits this weekend so my long run might just have to be on a treadmill, eek. 

3. I have almost finished Christmas shopping. The majority of my gifts were bought second hand, mostly from here or made by me. I have been trying to make more of an effort to minimize the clothes in my wardrobe and also to buy almost all my clothes second-hand. There are some wonderful resources for buying, barely used, name brand clothing. I just feel its one way to stop the consumerism disease. 

4. I have one more week left of classes this semester. It has been difficult to go back to school, but I still managed to push through. I still have one more paper to write, so I am not totally clear yet. I still wonder what school would be like if I could devote my full attention to it, but it will just have to continue to take a back seat to my other, more demanding responsibilities (ahem, Will).

5. I should not even mention it, but Eliza gave us two nights of wonderful sleep. We attempted to sleep train her again over Thanksgiving. She cried for two hours straight on Friday night. Then on Saturday and Sunday night she only woke up once, it was glorious. We were crossing our fingers it was going to be a new trend, but last night she cried for another hour and a half. We will see what tonight holds. The problem is that I was hit with this strange sad feeling when she slept well those two nights. Its like I love misery and I am upset she will be spending so many hours away from me. Its so odd this constant pull of wanting her to sleep, but also knowing that when she does sleep, we will be out of the newborn days for good. I know that the really hard times of parenting will be the times we look back on with the most fondness.

6. I do not write much about Madison anymore, but she is just at such a great age. She has her moments of pure two year oldness, but overall, she is so entertaining and sweet. I am amazed at how quickly she transitioned into being independent. She gets herself dressed in the morning, puts her socks and shoes on, takes herself to the bathroom, and so much more. She loves kitties and Elmo. She can make Eliza laugh in a way that no one else can. She is a girl of order and cleanliness. She loves her dad something fierce. Is more confident in her communication, but still shy in new situations. She has a memory that often takes me by surprise. I just really enjoy her company and all that makes her Madison.

And with that, all my kiddos are up from their naps.

five months

Time is slipping away from me. Eliza turned five months old a week ago. I just have not found the opportunity to sit down at my computer in a while. With Will getting his wisdom teeth taken out and my mom coming in last week, these past two weeks have been a bit busy. I can hardly believe it is almost Thanksgiving, goodness. Hopefully I can find the time to do a bit of a life update at some point, but any free time will likely be spent finishing up my assignments for graduate school.

Here is what Eliza is up to at five months:

* Lets just get it out of the way, she is still not sleeping. I still have moments where I think I can not handle another night/day of constantly trying to get her to sleep, but I like to think I am handling it better. I still think she is up roughly 3-5 times a night, but I pretty much have stopped counting. She at least is giving us some decent napping days. I get really worn out the days where she won't sleep longer than twenty minutes, its just a lot of work!

* She is rolling all over the place. She has made her way across our living room by rolling. She is pushing up on her arms and can scoot herself backwards. I am afraid she may crawl before she can sit up. 

* She is generally happy most of the time, unless her sleep deprivation catches up to her. I can barely get enough of her smile. It is just the greatest.

* She had some trouble gaining weight earlier this month, which left me even more stressed out. We tried to feed her even more than what I was and give her formula free of allergens. She hated the formula and I grew exhausted from constantly feeding her. I also cut out wheat after this appointment thinking that she may have an allergy to that as well. So I have been gluten and dairy free for a month now. We still do not see much of a difference in her behavior, but she is gaining weight now. I am beginning t othink she may not have an allergy any more, but I am too nervous to introduce dairy and gluten again. 

* She lets Madison treat her like a rag doll. It is amazing the affection Eliza already has towards Madison. I think younger siblings are born worshiping the older ones.

* She really is most content when she is cuddling with me or Will. She enjoys being close to us much more than Madison ever did and often spends most of the night in bed with us. Even though, I get frustrated that she does not sleep in her bed all night, I am thankful for the closeness. I know how quickly those snuggles come to an end. 

* She has discovered her voice and ability to makes noises. She has started to blow bubbles with her lips. She is giggling a lot. She has tickle spots that really get her  giggle going. It is the start of being able to really interact with her. 

Even though this month we were thrown another little curve ball in regards to Eliza's well-being, we are still hanging in there. I think I am just growing more and more comfortable handling both children. I still run out of steam most days, but I am able to handle having a kid to tend to all day every day. I am learning to really let go of any remaining desire to be selfish with my time, I just have to save all my time alone for the weekends. 

I can feel we are in the home stretch now. Eliza is nearly six months old which is the start of them gaining some independence. She will be able to sit up, crawl, then walk, all of which allows them to be a little less frustrated and helpless. I am just thankful I get to experience every moment of my children's life, even if I can barely see straight from exhaustion.

I think if Eliza gets any cuter, I might just eat her up. I reach a point every day where I can hardly handle the love I have for her and Madison, its just too much.

Breckenridge

We went to Breckenridge for the weekend. It was an impending trip that we had planned for two months.  I have had this Breckenridge trip in the back of my mind when Eliza refused to sleep, when I could barely function from no sleep, when finances were getting a bit tight, I just kept thinking, should we be doing this? Well, it turns out the trip was beyond worth it. 

We went with a family that I met when we first moved to Denver. Their oldest daughter and Madison met when they were both three months old and now we have both added another girl to the group. We booked a house that was two blocks from downtown Breckenridge. We pretty much just did our everyday shuffle, nap times, lunch time, play at park time, but nestled in a mountain town. Vacationing with another family with kids was so wonderful. There was no pressure to go out and do much because we all had a mutual understanding that we were fairly limited with four children.

It is amazing what driving a little over an hour and staying for 48 hours can do to my mindset. I needed this trip to help me see beyond the walls of my house and the babies that do not sleep. I felt recharged and more accepting of our life circumstances right now. I am continually being reminded that we are in such a fantastic place and living a life that is exceeding all the dreams we had hoped would happen.

Now, we just need to get someone, anyone, in our family to buy a place in a mountain town for us to escape. 

Getting four people to look at the camera and smile is nearly impossible.

We rode the gondola up to the base of the slopes. We were wildly out of place. Every one else on the mountain was decked out in their snow gear, killing it on the slopes, with out a care in the world. We also found it amazing how many "ski bums" drive Audis.  I am sure some day we will make it all the way up the mountain with our girls, but I was more than happy to just watch everyone. 

This was a perfectly timed trip because on Thursday Will is getting his wisdom teeth taken out. I want to be a good nurse for him, but worried my two helpers might not make that possible. Lets all pray for a quick and speedy recovery, he is my wing man.

halloween

First, lets talk about my first craft project I have done since Eliza was born, the bat shirt.

 My idea came from this blog. 

After going to the store three different times to get freezer paper, I finally was able to do this incredibly easy shirt. 

Here is my result:

 and here is my attempt at posing just like all the other fashion bloggers: 

I may need some work... 

Now onto Halloween, we had a little Elmo. Madison really disliked being in this costume and we would catch her trying to take it off constantly through out the night. I think her favorite part was giving out candy to the trick or treaters that would come to the door.

And here is one of two pictures we have had together as a family of four. Not our best, but I will take what I can get.

 

This post was brought to you while Eliza screamed because she refuses to sleep.