Wholly Mamma Christmas Endeavors

I work myself up for it. The day finally comes. I have to do a Christmas project with the littles as I promised them I would ("them" being Julian as Ignatius still doesn't know what tomorrow is, Thank Goodness!). As much as I love being lazy, the moment arrives and I have to get everything out and ready for a memory-making morning: Christmas Cookies! As much as it was difficult wrangling the youngin's, saying "don't touch!" way too many times to count, and letting go of my Type-A-in-the-kitchen self, it was entirely worth it. From start to finish, everything went without too much of a hitch and we all got a cookie out of the deal!

 We start with children who haven't been clothed for the day. Jammies are a must when making Christmas cookies, no? Next, we have all the ingredients for our Laura in the Kitchen cut-out sugar cookie recipe. The eggs are next to the bananas in the upper left-hand corner, FYI.

  Pouring the dry ingredients is a group effort in this house. Measuring? Mamma, and Mamma only. My Type A kitchen-style has to show through somehow in this mess!

 I forgot why I needed to distract them with batter on the whisks, but I did and succeeded.

 Sweetest thing ever? Your almost-two-year-old cleaning up afterwards. His sweet goofy expressions kill me!

  A half an hour later (give it a good hour, people! Laura said 30-60 minutes, but the dough was too soft. We couldn't pop it back in the fridge, because kids), and we got to working on our cut-outs!

 Aren't they cute (Har-har)? Our stars always end up looking like washed-up starfish, and some of them non-artistically poked. I'm looking at you, almost-two-year-old!

 Baked and cooling, and most definitely in danger of relentless child-fingers!

 Decorating! Oh, the best part! Wooooo hoooooo!

 Royal icing and sprinkles.

 There you have it! Aren't they gorgeous? hehe

 The verdict?

"YUMMY!! FESTIVE!!! OH SPLENDID DAY!!! MOMMY IS THE BEST FOR THIS AMAZING ACTIVITY!!!"

The end

:)

Blog Much?

Oops! I haven't made this blog a priority, have I? Thanks for reading anyways!

So, what's new around here? Nothing too terribly much. Kids are growing, food prices are hiking, homemakers are chasing and teachers are teaching. It seems laundry is the one consistent deed which never leaves my side. Clothes get dirty a lot! It's pretty astounding!

We do what we can around here to assure mother dear drinks her morning coffee.

We enjoyed our summer vacation in Minnesota. Julian talks most about the swimming experiences, which we only really went to the water a couple of times while there. It left an impression on him though! On Labor Day Weekend we discovered a lake which is 15 minutes away from us, and we were able to go one more time after that. Both of the kids loved it! I hope that next year, we can beach it up as a family more often than we have in the past.

Joey's back to the school grind now. We miss him dearly, but are proud of all his accomplishments. Here's to another school year full of adventure!

June for Us

Let me blow off the dust from this here blog and begin writing. Ahem. So life's been chugging at the speed of "I can't keep up!" lately. I try to get things done and accomplish what I set out to do, and I'm lucky if I get halfway there by the end of the day. Yadda, yadda, yadda. There's nothing new under the sun. So let me make it up to you with some words and pictures, and maybe I can start attending to my blogging project a tad more consistently and timely.

Must have the obligatory picture of the offspring!

June saw us stranded for a car the night before Joey's sister's wedding. Old Reliable broke down on our way back home from the rehearsal dinner. Luckily hubby acted quickly and secured a rental for the rest of the weekend's festivities. To make a long story short, we purchased our new "pre-owned" car by June 10th. It's a 2013 Mazda 5 and we are quite taken by it. She is very zippy, classy looking, and totes up to 6 passengers giving us plenty of room for family expansion (no, I'm not pregnant lol!). It's a pretty funny transition going from having a real beater for a car to owning a pretty sweet ride... You realize that the gas peddle isn't suppose to have a 4 second delay!

The aforementioned wedding was awesome. I'm so happy for these two love birds, and so excited for their new lives together. They are the type of people whom you can't help but love for their integrity, selflessness, and cheerful and kindly hearts. They were truly made for one another.

We also attended my best friend's baby's Baptism on the 21st. It was great to see her, and see how great a mom she is. We text all the time, but it's totally a different thing to be there while she loves on her baby. What a blessed baby he is to have such an amazing mother! Being a mother and seeing motherhood blossom are two of the most glorious gifts this world has to offer...


Joey's kept busy with tutoring and wrestling camp for the remainder of June. The end of June also was eventful in that all four of us came down with a stomach bug. It started with me last Tuesday night, both boys Thursday night, and Joey Saturday night. Yes, last week wasn't fun.

It's July! Can you believe it? Also, on the 11th of this month is our 5th wedding anniversary. Holy buckets! Okay now I have to post a picture from our honeymoon.

Here's to a month full of adventure and fun for all.

I'm Never Getting Over It

It rained one day this week, and I brought out our basket of crafty things and had no plans. I saw we had some pom-poms, construction paper, and glue. The brilliant idea popped in my head to draw some type of animal, put glue on it, and tell Julian to go crazy with pom-poms. He specifically asked that it be a cow, but I didn't have a picture to use as model for this project. I am TERRIBLE at free-handing anything, so I asked if this yak on a local block would do:

He obliged as you can see.

He really enjoyed this, and honing my skills of copying other people's work is always a fun task for me. Also, it's tons of fun trying to redirect a child that has no desire to be redirected. Not. 

It's no fun being little and having your mom take pom-poms out of your mouth!

Poor second-born one-year-olds that fill this world with the echoing cry of, "BUT ALL I WANT TO DO IS JOIN THE FUN!" Ignatius luckily wasn't like this the entire time. He might have a quick temper, but it comes as quickly as it goes... for the most part. And yes, if you're wondering he was hitting me here. Sigh.

And now we have the finished product. Cute, no?

Cute picture: check. Cute, proud child: check, check.

Then, Julian wanted to do something sweet for Mamma by making flowers out of pipe cleaners. He started crumpling them up and stringing them onto a straight, yellow pipe cleaner which served as the stem. He chose a variety of different colors and carefully placed them together. He thought this all on his own, folks. What a darling boy he is!

He is the sweetest, most wonderful little boy...

I could've gobbled him up I was so proud of him. I told him to take a picture of me smelling the lovely flowers he gave me. I hope my mamma pride comes through to you here; I couldn't get over (and I don't think I ever shall) that big heart and brain of his.

Potty Training's Been My Life...

...Therefore I haven't blogged in ages. If I wasn't cleaning the floor from an accident I was chasing the baby around. You know the story! Anyways, hopefully I'll be back with more things to talk about. Right now, I'm running dry in the topic department. Ideas?

Let's see, what's new... I have a new camera! I love it. It's a  Nikon Coolpix S6500. It's bright red which is awesome. Hopefully it will last a while because buying and somehow breaking mid-ranged digital cameras is becoming a bad habit of mine.

I'm back on Facebook. What can I say, I miss my family and close friends and need to feel connected to them. I am, however, glad I was off for a while. It truly had become a terrible waste of time and it fed into my personal weaknesses. My four-and-a-half month fast from FB taught me how to do other things besides scrolling... and scrolling... and scrolling... and getting mad at the news or someone's opinions or decisions... and scrolling... and scrolling... and ... you get the point. From now on I'm setting definite rules and guidelines for myself on Facebook so I won't drudge up those nagging little vices again.

In other way more exciting news: wanna see how cute my kids are?

We are finally able to enjoy the great out-of-doors the past couple of days. I'm not going to say "Spring is finally here!" because Maryland has given us many a' false alarms, but I'll definitely appreciate whatever warmth and sunshine comes our way these days! Please, Winter, take a hint -- stay away until next Christmas!

Attention All Nursing Moms/Potential Nursing Moms!

I've been dealing with cracked, sore, nipples for the past... few months. I can't exactly say when, because when it comes to these things I am a terrible patient. I am very good about getting to the doctor if I have a fever or other flu-like symptoms, but when it comes to persistent mostly tolerable pains I wait 'til things hit the fan! Anyways... I thought that it was lazy latch, but what didn't make sense was Ignatius seemed to be latched fine and wasn't biting me. Fast-forward to about a week ago when my nipples were KILLING me...

I called my local lactation consultant through the La Leche League website. She thought that it might be some issue with tongue tie, but that didn't pan out as his pediatrician checked and he doesn't. I thought it might be lip tie, which he does have extra webbing inside his mouth -- one on either side of his gums nearest the top first molars -- but again his pediatrician believes this wouldn't be the cause. In the end the pediatrician was convinced what was going on was topical thrush. I wasn't so convinced. I didn't experience any burning sensation, and that is what the lactation consultant said was practically every nursing mother's description of the pains of thrush. It turns out I am the exception!

Needless to say I asked one of the midwives at the midwifery firm to fill out a prescription for all-purpose nipple ointment (which can only be filled at a compounding pharmacy btw) per the recommendation of the lactation consultant. Wow. Did it work like a charm! My one side is still somewhat sore, which is totally understandable as there's still a visible crack... but so SO much better than before I used the ointment! Ignatius is also being treated for thrush orally, which I'm sure is helping the issue resolve as well. I am wearing loose clothing when I can to "air out" the ladies which they say helps kill the yeast.

Let me tell you as someone who loves to nurse, I was thisclose to calling it quits. Thank goodness for people who know things medically, because I would be giving up on breastfeeding my kiddo right about now!

Let this post inform you that if you have these symptoms, please do yourself and your baby a favor and take care of it right away; save yourself the headache of delaying what could be easily taken care of. Hopefully I'll learn my lesson and go seek medical professional help sooner rather than later. I find that I am most stubborn about the craziest things!

It's all worth it, Sweet Pea!

P.S. I've found that this coconut oil works much better for me as a latching lubricant than lanolin, at least for this particular issue. I've also been told coconut oil has anti-fungal agents in it, which is definitely a plus. Who knew!

Winter Continues...

I'll spare you excessive amounts of what you already know and say the obvious in two little sentences.

It's a cray-cray winter.

I want it to end.

In good news, my husband's team did well at states and one of his wrestlers will be going on to Nationals! GO DAN! We're all really excited, and it's cool that Joey is the first wrestling coach to send a wrestler to this next tournament. He'll be gone Thursday, and depending how well Dan does will come back either Friday or Saturday. I'm trying not to think too much of Daddy's absence for those days, but more that this is THE END of the season. I'll raise my glass to that!

In other news, Ignatius is still growing and growing. He says, "Mamma" and "Dadda" on the regular, and "Uh-Oh!" if he's feelin' it. He most enjoys playing games where he puts something into something else. 'Natius still loves giving his big brother a hard time by hitting him on his head or shoving him as he passes him with a gigantic smile on his face. Extremely mischievous that one...

Julian loves all things pirate and Spider Man-related. He's constantly repeating lines from favorite shows he watches only once or twice a week. He's getting better-and-better at throwing. His aim is incredible. Julian threw a ball from a 4-5 foot distance directly into my hand. I couldn't believe it! Granted, maybe this is something many, many 3 year olds can do, but he's my 3 year old who does it and that's enough reason for me to gush and brag! :)

So there you have it! I love my amazing kiddos!

And now for the obligatory pictures... Just so you know: these are not very high quality photos because my phone is not one of those fancy-schmancy iPhone types. Thank Goodness I have Picasa on my computer though. I heart photo editing!

 Riding on one of his favorite toys, the train.

 My silly monkey-head.

 I love this candid.

 Awww...

 Finishing his first big boy puzzle. He's saying, "Woo Hoo!"

 Our "Incredible Hunk" ... Get it? ;)

 I can't believe my baby's 1!

 Yummy, yummy chocolate!

 Peeking from the top of a cool fort Daddy made.

Just your friendly neighborhood Spider Man!

Happy Monday Night, everyone!

Happy 1st Birthday, Ignatius!

It's 12:09AM on February 10, 2014 and a year ago exactly I was holding my precious baby Ignatius as he first made his entrance into the world five minutes before. What a sweet, energetic, affectionate, feisty child God has blessed us with. He is our go-get-'em baby who's reached many milestones early. There's so much I could list about this little blessing in our lives. I can't believe how good God really is to us. Ignatius James, we love you so much!

Here are some pictures from Ignatius' Birthday Party Play-date which he shared with his good buddy, John. John was born only 3 days before him, which is a pretty cool thing I think. John's mom and great friend of mine Betsy was kind enough to send along pictures from this happy little event.

 Now he's curious...

 ...and now he just wants Mamma...

 Something salty & crunchy! Now we're talkin'!

That's John on the left. Ohmygosh the cuteness here...

There you have it, folks. I officially have a 3 and a 1 year old, and I couldn't be a happier mamma.