Sunday is no longer a day of rest!

I can remember when we were in college, it went without saying that Sunday was better known as 'Same Spot Sunday.'  I would give detail on this day, but its name pretty much sums it up.  It was a relaxing day filled with little to no work that helped us mentally and physically get ready for the week.  Well..it's become official that this day no longer exists.  Mike and I were discussing earlier how we're almost ready for Monday to be here so we can take a break.  Today was FILLED from the moment we woke up.

We woke up and got ready for church.  Waking up and getting ready for church has been good preparation and insight into what we are about to face tomorrow.  Getting two kids ready is going to much different.  I warned Mike today that he better step up his game.  He's very lucky that he has a lot of flexibility with his job, and he goes into work whenever he gets there.  With that being said, the last 10 weeks he has been using Grace as his alarm clock.  Whenever she wakes up, that's when he wakes up....whether it's 6:30 or 8:30.  This gives me serious anxiety because he cannot do that anymore.  Hopefully, he gets up when his alarm goes off (better be set before 7!)

After church, we headed home.  After having 10 weeks off, I had a little prep work to do before going back to work!  I tried to go through my closet and organize the 'things that fit' category.  I have different levels of clothes that I'm working with.  I'm trying my best to do as much as I can the night before to make my mornings as smooth as possible.  Pretty sure nothing gives me more anxiety or puts me in a worse mood than a hectic morning.  I picked out a few outfits to wear for the week, plus laid out Grace and Clark's clothes for tomorrow!  After getting the clothes all sorted and planned, I took a little break and went and got my nails done!  The kids were napping, and it felt like the perfect opportunity...it needed to be done!

I also took apart, cleaned, and repacked my breast pump to take tomorrow.  (So excited to have something else to carry into work!)  I also packed both kid diaper bags and set out Clark's bottles to thaw for tomorrow!

Bam!

Mondays will be extra busy too because Grace has swimming at 5:15, so I made sure to pack that bag as well.  Fortunately I did all of the laundry on Friday or this day would've been ridiculous!

Starting tomorrow, we are getting our healthy on!!  We've been putting it off long enough!  Last night, it was almost like we were on death row and enjoying our final meals.  I inhaled a green chile cheeseburger from whataburger like nothing!  

I went grocery shopping yesterday, and this also gave me some alone time with me and my starbucks- almost felt like drinking alone in a bar--almost.  Today, Mike and I made our breakfast, lunch and dinner for the entire week.  For breakfast, we made venison sausage and a boiled egg.  We individualized it in ziplocs so we can just grab and go in the morning!

Plus, we got a Ninja for Christmas (Thanks Mom! Great gift!), so we'll pair that with a smoothie!  (also made ready to go- just have to add ice and blend!)  For lunch, we individualized salads to take for every day of the week, and we plan on eating that with leftovers from the night before.

Tonight for dinner (and tomorrow's leftovers), we made venison chili.  It was delicious!  

I've got tomorrow's dinner all ready to go in the crockpot (chicken stroganoff).   We've got our meals all planned, I've got my fitbit all registered, and I WILL fit in a workout between work and swim lessons tomorrow!  Then, we can come home and do it all over again!  Ah!

After all our prep work, we just spent the rest of the evening enjoying time hanging with the kids.  I feel like I'm leaving forever tomorrow...being a bit dramatic.  Clark has just reached the sweetest, cutest stage, and I'm definitely not ready to leave him with the babysitter tomorrow.  We sat down with Grace and told her she was going to have to be a big, helpful girl with Clark at the babysitter.  She was excited he would be going with her, and I have to say that I'm glad they're going together too.  Helps a lot!
It was a busy weekend, and it's going to be an even busier week, but that's life!  Back to reality and our crazy, wonderful chaos!

Hope you all have a great week, and hopefully it's not TOO long before I get back to you! muah! (A little late, but here's Clark's 2 month pic...growing like a weed!)

Tis the Season!

Without trying to sound too 'broken record'- Where did this last month go?  I can't believe Christmas, New Years, & (soon to be) maternity leave are all over!  People ask me everyday if I'm ready to get back to work, and -without even thinking- my answer is NO!  Don't get me wrong.  I miss my kiddos and terribly miss my co-workers, but I enjoy being home so much!  I feel like I always have plenty to do, and the house/chores are always taken care of.  Plus, I get to spend all my time with my little ones.  

December was so much fun.  We usually like to spend a large portion of our Christmas budget on creating memories instead of on so many presents.  We had full intentions of doing so, but "Icemageddon '14" kinda put a damper on our plans.  We made reservations to do the Polar Express in Grapevine.  Our elf, Balls, even brought us pajamas.  However, because of the ice storm, all rides got cancelled.  Sad day.  Being the brave family we are, we decided to venture out on an ice day to go see Santa at Bass Pro.  We all had a great brunch and were practically the only people brave enough to get out and see Santa.  It was awesome because we had the place all to ourselves.  No line to see Santa and as many carousel rides as we wanted!

The guy running the carousel looked like Santa, and every time they would go by him Grace would cringe!

She had a death grip on me.  Part of me wishes I would have just shoved her into his lap!  A right of passage for children!

baby cousins

looking at the feesh

carousel with Daddy

A definite advantage to being on maternity leave during December is all the time to Christmas shop and decorate.  We were also excited to introduce the 'Elf on the Shelf' to Grace.  We weren't sure if she would really understand what was going on, but she took to it very well.  Every morning when she woke up, the first words out of her mouth were, "Where's Balls??"  It was a lot of fun.  I also think my favorite part was using him to our advantage.  Every time she was misbehaving or throwing a fit, we could just tell her that Balls was watching, and he was going to tell Santa how she was acting.  Worked like a charm!  Just a few examples of where Balls showed up:

Our jammies for the train ride :(

On the 18th, Clark had his two month appointment.  It went really well!  He was 23.5 inches long (75%) and 13lb 9.5oz (90%).  Up until that point, he had still only breast fed, so I was pumped he was still growing so well.  Also, the doctor gave us a prescription for Prevacid to help with all the throwing up that he does.  It seems to be helping a little bit, but he still spits up a good amount every time he eats.   Poor guy also had to get three shots and take two doses of medicine.  We were lucky that he didn't ever get a fever or act irritable, BUT he did sleep the rest of the day.  Poor guy- that really sucks watching them get shots!  *Some pics of Clark at his appointment (pre-shots)!  Such a happy boy!

Mike and I were also pumped that we got to go out for the first time together- since Clark was born.  Spud and Victoria threw a 'White Trash Christmas' party, and it was fun seeing all of the good outfits!  My parents watched the kiddos while we partied it up--for a little while at least! Every little bit helps! :)

Like always, Christmas was great this year.  It was basically a week long celebration!  On Monday, we had Christmas with the Keprtas! (Mike's aunt and uncle)  They recently moved into their new, beautiful house, so it was fun to see it and visit with everyone-plus eat some chili and tamales!  Grace had a great time- she enjoys being the life of the party!

cousins

Our little elf.  I just love playing dress up!

Bolding cousins

baby Cora

On Christmas Eve, my parents came to Plano to celebrate.  We made sugar cookies and prepared for Santa to come.  Christmas morning was great.  I must've been a really good girl because I was beyond happy with all my gifts!  Mike got me some Lululemon and Crossfit workout gear and a Naked makeup pallet! He did good!  My parents got me a pretty bracelet, UGGS, and an ipad! What what!  and...Landon and Whitney got me a new Ironman athletic watch.  I'm one lucky girl!  Mike got a Cabelas jacked and some Under Armour/Crossfit work out gear.  (Can you guess what is on our resolution list?)
Grace, however, made out like a bandit!  I haven't ever seen a child get upset because she had too many presents too open, but that's what happened.  She didn't get anything very big- just a lot of small gifts to open.  Well, that backfired.  She was upset that she kept opening presents that she liked, but couldn't play with them because she had more presents to open.  So, needless to say, she was opening presents all day.  This was definitely the Christmas of princesses and Minnie Mouse!  

Santa's cookies: before

Santa's cookies: after

winding down on Christmas Eve

Santa came!

Daisy was the first one up, so she got her stocking first!

Clark was the next one up!

When we were still excited about opening presents!

Clark was very excited!

After having a nice, big breakfast- it was time to start cleaning up and getting ready for the Bolding Christmas that evening!

Christmas evening at the Boldings is always a big prime rib dinner- which I am excited for all year!  Best meal ever!  Again, we got awesome gifts!  Tom and Patsy got us a fingerprint safe for our house!  Awesome for us to keep the gun in--puts me very much at ease!  I also got a pedicure set, Michael Kors bracelet, a Fit bit, another Naked pallet, and a year subscription to Birchbox.  Mike got a North Face vest and I honestly couldn't tell you what else.  It's proven to be very difficult to do the present thing with two kids.  I can't remember what anybody got because I was busy helping Grace open her gifts and opening all of Clarks.  We made out much better than we ever deserved to, but are so grateful to have such wonderful holiday memories!

Jess and Clark

Grace giving Clark sugars!

All the Bolding grandkids!

Some other Chritmas video:  Grace enjoying herself!

Enjoying some of her new presents!

For New Years, we just spent the evening with Matt and Cecily.  With all the little babies in our life now, celebrations have definitely changed.  I still had a great time.  We Cecily made a great dinner, and we hung out and drank some champagne.  Tom & Patsy came over for a little while after dinner and ended up taking Grace home with them.  We played a little Skip Bo, did the countdown, and called it a night.  We still have babies waking up during the night people--partying just ain't worth it anymore!

New Year excitement: Grace feeding Cora!

Cecily invited me to do a spin class (Flywheel) on New Years day.  It kicked my butt pretty good!...but in a good way!  1 down, 364 to go!

2013 was an amazing year!  Our family grew and we are just in a great place in our lives!  Here's our year in a nutshell!

I'm sure 2014 will be just as good, and I have some resolutions to go with it!  Last year, my resolution was to get more involved in the community and give back.  I was happy that I managed to volunteer once a week/every week (until Clark was born) at City House in Plano tutoring the children for an hour.  Here are some resolutions for 2014:
1. Continue to volunteer at City House and get more involved with our church/ Life group
2. Get back in shape (compete in some mud races...or something similar)
3. Reflect and really work on important relationships in my life.  There are people in my life that truly care about my family and me, and I want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to improve those relationships and not waste time or energy with people who don't and just bring negativity.
4.  Reduce our debt!  We have a goal and hopefully we can avoid anymore major household emergencies to get us there!
5.  Slow down and really spend time with my kids.  I feel like there are a lot of times where I worry about the house being clean, all of the errands getting done, or other trivial things---and my kids just get a fraction of my attention.  I want to play and talk and laugh with them as much as possible!

I know this is kind of a long, broad list, but I figure if I have it in writing- it gives me some sort of responsibility to stay on top of my goals!  I saw this, and I thought it would be a good support reminder to get me through everyday!

Another reason I know 2014 is going to be a good year, is that I'm going to be an aunt- AGAIN.  But this time, it's on the Minatra side of the family!  I can't believe little Landon is going to be a daddy! That's just cray cray!  So excited to meet baby Tree in August!

Lord Be With Us!

Lucky for us, it seems Grace may officially be smack dab in the middle of terrible 2s.  She's lucky she's so cute!!  She is still such a sweet, polite little thing- BUT all girl and all DRAMA.  Don't get me wrong, she's not a bad kid by any means, but everything is a situation.  All of sudden, eating and naptime are the most dramatic things in the world.  I never thought I would see my child throwing her body on the ground and thrashing about, but I officially have now.  It's almost comical!  Luckily, she just has her dramatic moments, and the rest of the time is fun and awesome- but geez!  A recent example of her lovely behavior is when she decided to color her walls with a red crayon.  I was at the store, and when I got back all I found was Grace crying in her bed while Mike was moving all of her things into our bedroom. Apparently she had put ALL of her books in bed with her (and that is A LOT) as well as other toys in the room.  She was nice and sneaky about her dirty deed too.  Mike said she was so quiet in there that he thought she was sleeping.  UNTIL..he walked down the hall and saw a red crayon in the middle of the hallway.  Apparently, she had slid the crayon under the door--Mike thinks to hide the evidence.  This time, we were fortunate enough that she chose to draw with a dry erase crayon and it wiped right off with baby wipes!  What a stinker! Pray for me! :)

...and at least she loves helping clean!

Hope everybody had a great holiday and are ready to embrace this New Year!  Here are some other good pics and videos from the past month!

Outings with baby Cora!

Playtime with Daddy!