Beliefs.

Today's point of praise: "For the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power." (1 Cor. 4:20) Day #11

I've been so intimidated on this topic, so I've just been putting it off. I even have a half-finished blog post from about a year ago on the exact topic. The hardest part of it for the longest time was grappling at what did I believe?

I had stepped away from the church in the last few years for several reasons that I'd love to delve into at some point - but probably not this post. One of the surface-level reasons was because going to church with little kids made me stressed and anxious. I felt like if my kids were being noisy and disruptive then I would be taking away from the people near me at mass. I didn't want to catch any grief from anyone else. And like I indicated before, for a few other reasons we just became a family who didn't go to church. I'm a cradle Catholic -- meaning I was born into it -- and I can't remember a time in my childhood when we didn't go to mass every Sunday. It really started to upset me that I wasn't instilling the same in my kids and making the same traditions in my family.

Another surface-level reason? We loved our church community in Illinois so much that when it came time to pick a new church here in Memphis... well let's just say I was beyond picky. The first two churches we visited didn't feel right and to be fair it was more me than them. After trying those few churches, I gave up. Thankfully my oldest daughter, Presley, really started asking if we could start going to church together. At the same time my big sister had been talking to me about getting our kids involved in PRE (Parish Religious Education aka Sunday school) so that they would be on track to make their first communion in 2nd grade. (Presley's questions about God and her desire to go to church increased tenfold when she started PRE this year. Again, thank God!) So my sister and I looked up mass times and PRE times and distances from our houses to various churches to try to find THE ONE church that would be the best fit and thankfully, we kinda did. Funnily enough one of the priests we grew up with at our childhood parish was now the pastor at the church that fit all our criteria... it just seemed like serendipity... which was probably God's hand. When it came time to sign the kids up for PRE we were so broke that it was easier to volunteer to teach every Sunday at church to have the fees waived for my kids.

All this long narrative to say: slowly but surely I dipped my toes back into the Church which became dipping my toes back into the faith. I feel grateful that our God is one that waits and prays that we come back. One that rejoices each time we open our hearts to Him and live for Him. Praise God for that. For His patience and relentlessness. For God not giving up on us. He worked through my bank account and my sister and my daughter and our childhood pastor and countless other ways to wake me back up. And he did it relatively slowly because this dude knows I am slow to wake up. Just ask my sisters. Waking me up for school every day was such a chore. God knows. 😄

It's super cool that one of the bible verses mentioned in today's devotional was the subject of Father Ernie's homily at church last Sunday:

Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.' Thomas answered, and said to him, 'My Lord and my God!' Jesus said to him, 'Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.'                                                                    John 20:27-29 

Father Ernie said it best when he said we all have doubt from time to time like Thomas. It sure made me feel better for having doubts over the years in various ways. But he said don't let it keep you down. Don't lose your faith because of the doubts. We're not all as fortunate as Thomas was to be able to put our hands on Jesus' hands. We are the blessed who believe and yet have not yet seen.

Also fitting from the devotional today was this quote from Kim Boyce: "As parents, we must be convinced of our beliefs. We must know where we stand, so that our children will know where they stand." Hopefully my kids won't be able to remember a time when we didn't go to mass together every weekend. If our beliefs shape our values and our values shape our lives - am I living in a way that speaks that? Am I doing God's work for others in my life? That's the dream. Living what I believe so that my actions speak for me and ultimately give glory to God.

What God asks of us is both simpler and more profound than adherence to a system of beliefs or following a set of rules. He asks us to walk with him through the blood and guts of our real experience in an honest pilgrimage where we let him show us what real strength, and real love, are all about.                                                                      Paula Rinehart 

I'll be praying for you this week, bloggies, that you can find a way to embrace the things you believe in more fully. That God can do the work on your heart that you might be putting off. If you have any prayer intentions for me please feel free to leave them in the comments below or get ahold of me some other way and I'll be happy to add those into my prayer journal as well. PEACE.

Falling in {Young} Love

Seventeen years ago this week, I was falling in love.  And I was thirteen.  People would tell me I was young and naive, that it wasn't really love, and more... and to be honest, I started to believe them.  Not that what I was feeling wasn't genuine - because I never doubted that - but that maybe with time and age I would realize that it was more infatuation than actual love.  That maybe it felt more intense because I had never experienced it before. 

It was the weekend before Martin Luther King Day and my sister, Amanda - who was fifteen at the time, and I went on a ski trip with a church in our neighborhood.  I'm not sure how many of us there were, but there were at least twenty of us in middle school and high school going on the ski trip - both guys and girls.  My best friend, Christine, was going too and I was super excited to have a fun weekend away with her.  Peyton & Damen were going and that meant Tony was going, too.  (Because back in those days they went just about everywhere together.)  There were two vans to take the group of us from Memphis to Gatlinburg... my sister went into one with a bunch of the kids her age and I went into the other with my friends.  Tony hadn't decided which one he was riding in and I was just PRAYING he would hop into mine.  I remember one of the older girls telling Tony he should get in their van and I just remember feeling crushed.  I don't know what exactly made him decide to get into the van I was in... but for WHATEVER reason we ended up in the same van I am so extremely thankful!  It was on that trip in that moment that we got to know each other a little more, we became better friends, and made some fun memories.  It was on that trip that I truly started falling in love with Tony.  And what took place over that long weekend are things I'll never forget.

I think about one particular moment often - what if he would've chosen the other van?  Would he have made those memories with someone else?  And where would we be now?  This story could've been one between him and someone else.

So, I thank God for Martin Luther King and everything he did to advance the lives of all humankind.  The sacrifices he made and the extremely difficult, intensely beautiful journey he took.  While that will always be the focus of the day for me, I can't help but remember how the long weekend holds a secret, special place in my heart and how it always will.  And thank God for falling in young love.

What I Have to Say About Breastfeeding

{Note: Please bear with me as I attempt to update the look & feel of my blog. I'm testing out a new layout and if it's not working for you or is harder to navigate DO let me know and I'll find something easier. Likewise, let me know if the new layout is easier to navigate or something you like better. The little things that used to live on the sidebar (over to the right) of my blog can now be found in the drop-down up in the left hand corner. This includes archived blogs, finding something by a label/keyword, popular posts, etc.}

Now. Let's get to the real reason I showed up to my blog today...

BREASTFEEDING!

I've felt so hesitant over the years to get into the nitty gritty of nursing babies for a bunch of different reasons - but no more. Today I'm going for it. Mostly thanks to the encouragement of a friend from high school who just gave birth to a truly beautiful baby girl. (Congratulations Wyatt & Jessica and welcome to the world sweet Lennon!) Sharing my experience with breastfeeding has been on my mind after a good conversation recently with my friend Marcennia as well. So a big thank you to both of these ladies for unknowingly nudging me to hop back on my blog and write.

For those who might be new around here: I'm a mom x3. I gave birth in 2012 to a girl, 2014 to another girl, and 2016 to a boy. Baby #1 breastfed for 23 months and baby #2 for 19 months or so. (Sorry Molly - I don't remember it as exactly!) I'm still breastfeeding baby #3 and we're nearing the 6 month mark! I feel like this will be a good reference when it comes to writing about my various breastfeeding journeys.

I'd like to start by talking about the breastfeeding worries and struggles I encountered each time.

I don't remember seeing people breastfeed or talking much about it growing up. We lived in Illinois when I was pregnant with my first baby and I went to all kinds of amazing, free parenting classes offered at Pregnancy Resources there in town. Thankfully, this included a class that solely focused on breastfeeding. I remember seeing so many bare breasts in a video that day and I couldn't stop giggling to myself. (I was 23 at the time and a lot less privy to these types of images back then.) At the end of class that day the instructor opened it up to questions from the parents-to-be. I wondered - out loud - if we were supposed to clean/sanitize our nipples before and after every feeding. This was literally how clueless I was to all things breastfeeding back then! (For those of you wondering... the answer is no!) 

Like so many other women I know, before ever having breastfed, my only real frame of reference for breasts in general was sexual. There is nothing inherently wrong with breasts being sexy - I totally agree that they are and love my breasts. But before beginning my breastfeeding journey these images were at war for me... how could breasts be sexual AND be something I fed my baby with? I worried about that quite a bit before having baby #1 and then again before having baby #3, which was my first boy. What was it going to be like breastfeeding a boy? Again, those anxieties came creeping back in. Which now sounds so silly to me - but at the time it was real. To any person who might be wondering about the same things - let me put your mind at ease.

1. There is nothing sexy about feeding your baby. It doesn't look sexual or feel sexual. Trust me!

2. There are plenty of body parts that serve us in multiple tasks which have nothing to do with one another. Take your mouth for example. You use it to eat and drink. You use your mouth to kiss someone. Two totally different functions and they don't effect the other. 

So please try not to worry about it. And if you still feel nervous about it or anything when it comes to breastfeeding, feel free to reach out to me or someone you know who has breastfed and who you can trust. It helps so much to talk your worries out and get some support! I mean it - I am totally here to support you.

I ran into different struggles with breastfeeding over the years, too. With baby #1 the hugest struggle was BOTH baby and I learning at the same time how breastfeeding worked. We were both on that learning curve and everything was new. It's hard to have no confidence in what you're doing when it comes to feeding your baby! I had help from the lactation consultant in the hospital but even that ended up being a little stressful. I remember the LC really put an emphasis on doing all the various breastfeeding positions (cradle, football hold, cross-cradle...) maybe because Presley's latch wasn't the best. But I ended up feeling so overwhelmed having to switch up the position with every feeding. We used a nipple shield a lot in the very beginning. One of the worst parts in the first few weeks were my cracked, bleeding nipples. (Thank you God for Lanolin cream!!!) It caused me a lot of pain & anxiety to put baby to breast knowing it was going to cause pain. Thankfully that was relatively short lived. Oh and another struggle? Leaking. I had no idea you needed breast pads! So once my milk came in I was a mess. Literally.

After having baby #2 I had some complications after my epidural that left me with a spinal fluid leak and debilitating head aches. For the first two weeks of her life I literally had to lay flat to escape the worst of the pain. Not being able to sit up to nurse her was pretty difficult but thankfully I was able to nurse her in the side-lying position. She seemed gassy and unhappy often and I think I had a strong letdown as well as a hind/fore milk imbalance. Once I figured those out and took steps to fix that it got better.

When it came time to breastfeed baby #3 I felt so confident. His first latch went great and it was honestly like riding a bike for me. (Once learned, never forgotten.) We got him home and man was a knocked down several rungs! I seemed to have a hind/fore milk imbalance again along with a strong letdown. Baby #3 was also very refluxy, gassy, and very unhappy as a result. I thought he might have a tongue or lip tie but that was ultimately ruled out. We got him on reflux medicine because he was projectile vomiting several times a day at this point. A month into his meds nothing was helping and it seemed like his mood had worsened. At this point not only was baby #3 gaining weight, he was gaining a lot of weight. He was prescribed a stronger medicine for the reflux but I just didn't feel right about it. I didn't give him the medicine to see if it helped his mood and symptoms or made them worse. Long story short - he did better off the medicine and eventually the vomiting was down to only once a day and then lessened from there. During this time I wanted to quit breastfeeding. I felt like it was so hard, I wasn't figuring out how to make these issues stop, and I didn't see the point of continuing all this stress on my part. Surely bottles and formula would be a hell of a lot easier that what I was currently dealing with AND I wouldn't be the only one in charge of feeding him.

And that struggle - the feeling that so much falls directly on my shoulders for baby's wellbeing - is something that I felt so strongly early on in my breastfeeding journey each time. I can't be away from baby very long... ever... especially in the beginning. (Not without introducing a bottle to baby - which can be stressful - as well as pumping milk beforehand and pumping while I'm gone so my supply isn't affected.) Another struggle all three times was breastfeeding in public. It can be scary and uncomfortable mostly because you just don't know how other people will react to it. And if you're a habitual people pleaser like I am you worry about what even the strangest of strangers think of you. Which I know is so silly but it still gives me a little anxiety from time to time. What I've come to realize is that my children take top priority. If my baby is hungry I'm going to feed him. If that makes someone else mad then it makes them mad and there is nothing I can do to control their feelings. Sure, I can nurse in a bathroom but I absolutely refuse to do that. I find it demeaning. And gross. And ladies, it helps so much to know your legal rights in regards to breastfeeding. I feel so much better when I remember that breastfeeding mothers and their children are protected and allowed to nurse in public.

If you have a partner - God bless them! Enlist their help. Their encouragement and support can make all the difference. Since you do the majority of the feeding you get so much bonding time & snuggles with your baby that they might feel they're missing out on. Here are some of my favorite ways for them to get involved:

1. Water refills. Tony is so good about this! If he notices my water is empty then he'll fill it up for me - especially while I'm feeding the baby.
2. You're in charge of the input so they can take care of the output! Simply put: they can change the diapers. In the middle of the night when baby #3 wakes up I'll wake my husband up. He changes the diaper while I use the restroom and get situated & ready to nurse. It might sound small but it helps me tremendously... mostly it just helps me to feel like I'm not in this on my own. Which I'm not!
3. Taking care of the older kids while you nurse baby!
4. Getting you a new breast pad!
5. Bringing baby to you while you get set up to breastfeed.
6. Burping the baby after you're all done! Honestly it's such a good way for daddy & baby to bond.
7. Your partner can take baby in between feedings for you.
8. Your partner can make you a snack or meal, too!

And don't be afraid to ask for help! You're doing some serious, awesome work for your family. If your partner is anything like mine then they're grateful for your sacrifice and hard work and are happy to be there for you. My guy has really gone above & beyond to support and encourage me breastfeeding our kids. He advocates for breastfeeding and it's really been a joy to see him become passionate about it over the years!

All of this leads me to my favorite part - my breastfeeding tips, advice, and a few heads-up!

• Set small, attainable goals. And definitely start small in the beginning. With baby #1 I think my first goal was the first six weeks. When I felt like it would be easier to quit breastfeeding I would go back and look at the benefits my baby was reaping at each milestone. (I literally can't tell you how many times I visited that website during my first breastfeeding journey.) This helped me tremendously to stick with it. My next goal was to make it to three months. After that it was six months. Then nine months. And all along my overall goal was one year.
• Find your village. This looks different from everyone. I reached out for support to my Facebook friends in the early days with baby #1 and without their kindness and help I really wouldn't have made it as far as I did. Some people have great La Leche League groups in their area. This time around I'm part of a Breastfeeding Moms of Memphis group on Facebook that has been an invaluable resource. (More on my village a little later!)
• Nurse laying down! Seriously. Try it. It is a life saver - especially when you are recovering from childbirth. Or sick. Or exhausted. This position literally saved our breastfeeding journey while I was dealing with the spinal fluid leak after baby #2. It has allowed me to nap next to my baby as I feed them on numerous occasions. It's the best!
• Invest in a breastfeeding support pillow and a nice nursing cover. I have two Boppy pillows and use them every single day. I've had several nursing covers over the years and my favorite cover is also made by Boppy. One of my favorite features is that you can fold it up into a little bag so it's easy to throw in your purse, diaper bag, or car and take it with you. It also actually covers everything so I feel a lot more comfortable nursing in public.
• WATER. Water. Water. Drink lots of it. Get a nice, big cup with a lid. Fill it up before you sit down to nurse. You'll feel better and it's imperative to keep your milk supply up.
• Breast pads, nursing bras, & nursing camis. Find what you like and get a bunch of them. It'll come in handy - especially when your hormones are a mess after childbirth and you sweat like crazy or when baby spits up on you often in the beginning and you're ALWAYS washing your bras and camis. I love these breast pads but I'm honestly not all that picky these days. I also really like comfy nursing bras with no underwire or extra padding. But that's just me!
• Just know that the distracted phase is real!!! It starts when baby is around 5 months and wow is it annoying! All of sudden baby just starts noticing everything around them ALL the time and will get distracted so easily. You can call it stop-and-go breastfeeding because that's what it's like... one moment baby is latched and drinking milk and the next he pops off and is babbling or trying to roll over or laughing. It helps to nurse in a dark, quiet room during this phase... but those of you with multiple kids will laugh along with me because that's just not an option. Oh and surprise... there is an arm-fat-pinching phase, too. 
• Biting while breastfeeding happens - and this often starts before any teeth show up. And it hurts like hell. It's also totally normal but that doesn't mean you have to suffer through it. You can fish hook your finger inside their mouth to break the seal they have on your nipple. You can also push their face into your breast. Sounds weird but it works. I also got some advice from a family member to flick their nose (NOT hard enough to injure them but enough to surprise them) and tell them "No biting!" when that happens. They don't like that! And that has helped all 3 of my kids to stop. Fun fact: When your baby is correctly latched they cannot bite you. Usually my kids would bite me once they were done nursing and before I took them off the breast. Teething is no fun but if you are prepared for how to deal with the biting then it should be much smoother sailing!!
• Finally, find your groove and what works for you. Sometimes that will mean using certain breastfeeding holds or doing breast compressions if your milk is slow to letdown each time. Other times it's learning to only breastfeed on one breast at each feeding because you have an oversupply. If you gave birth at a hospital with a lactation consultant you can often go back and visit them for free advice and help - make sure to call and schedule an appointment. Lactation consultants - in my experience - love what they do and they're passionate about helping you and baby learn the ropes. You might feel like your questions or concerns are small or trivial & it might require you to step out of your comfort zone but trust me it is totally worth the time and energy to ask for help & get the extra support.

I've had wonderful support within my family as well & I'm gonna take a moment to shout them out. My mom has been supportive from the beginning and breastfed me for six weeks when I was a baby! Thank you, Mom! My sisters & cousin have been there for me - not just because they love me but in their own unique ways, too. My big sister & cousin have been in the trenches with me over the last five years. My little sister has been in nursing school or working as a RN and has been ultra supportive and informative, too. My mother-in-law doesn't bat an eye while I'm breastfeeding.  We've got all kinds of family and friends who have been supportive and loving and I am so grateful for all of you!


When I felt like quitting in the first few weeks with baby #3 my village supported me in their various ways. Tony reminded me of the health benefits & that formula wouldn't solve baby's issues either. My big sister reminded me it was totally okay to quit and formula was awesome. My mother-in-law straight up told me I couldn't quit. Most importantly was that they cared enough to weigh in and be there for me!

And above everything else, I couldn't have breastfed without my three kiddos. They're awesome little rockstars who make me want to be the best version of myself. They're also the reason I started drinking coffee regularly... #mommyconfession

First Day of Spring.

There are all different reasons to celebrate the special days that changed your life - the day someone was born, the day you met someone important, the day you married the love of your life, the day you gave birth, the day you got clean/sober. What's so amazing is usually we don't fully know how much or in what ways our lives are about to be impacted. There is no way to know how significant or incredible these 24 hours will be for days, weeks, and years to come. It starts out just like every other day.

Fourteen years ago I started dating the guy of my dreams.

I remember the day we met - or at least the day that got the ball rolling. He was wearing his yellow Old Navy sweatshirt and was riding his bike around the parking lot of Brookside Baptist. I was on my way to the soccer field for practice. I plucked up the courage and without thinking said "hey" to him and halfway expected him to say nothing. Instead he said "hey" right back to me.

I remember when I first fell in love with him - at the ripe age 13. We were on a ski trip with a bunch of kids from Brookside Baptist and we rode to and from Gatlinburg and Memphis together in the same van. We were with a bunch of our mutual friends and it was a safe space where we could just have fun and be ourselves. I got to know him a little better over the long Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in 2001 and on the way back home from the trip I was head over heels for this sweet, quiet, kind, funny, playful older guy.

I remember our first kiss. It was an accident! We were leaning in to hug each other and our heads turned the same way and our faces ended up meeting and it was so incredibly awkward considering how well we'd known each other and how much we liked each other at this point. I remember going back inside and detailing the kiss to my big sister and then dissecting it with her. And to this day I love that moment - how hilarious it is to relive and think about - and how grateful I am that our awkward first kiss happened.

I remember the day he asked me to be his girlfriend. And I remember the day I said yes. Tony had asked me to be his girlfriend before and instead of saying yes - I told him I needed more time. To be completely honest, the gravity of our relationship was too much for me at the time. It felt like the real deal from day one between us and that was intimidating. Not to mention the foundation of our relationship was sturdily built on our friendship. What if we dated and for some reason it didn't work out... I would lose my best friend. That was a risk that at the time I wasn't willing to take. My cousin came in town to visit and she told me what an idiot I was for not being his girlfriend - that he was such a nice guy and he was clearly crazy about me. I don't remember what exactly changed between us to get me to say yes, but I remember Breanne being so honest and real with me and that was a huge wake-up call to me. I remember telling him I was ready and to ask me again. He told me this was the last time asking... that he wouldn't do it again. So March 20, 2003 after asking three times and it being WAY overdue... we made it official.

I love that it coincided with the first day of Spring when it is all about growth, newness, transformation, and renewal. I'm glad Tony never gave up on me when it would have been much easier to do so. I cherish every year I've had with him and everything we've shared.

We've come a LONG way since the Brookside days... and he's still my best guy and truest friend and without a doubt the great love of my life. And the best is yet to come!

Top 5 Friday.

#5  SLAPSGIVING.

I'm so excited for Thanksgiving Slapsgiving this year.  I'll give you a few reasons:  Amanda, John, Jojo, Ashley, Sage, Sammy, Annie & Matthew!  Not to mention: KATNISS.  Yes... totally gonna geek out at the new Mockingjay movie with some Hunger Games shirts - I am so excited.  I love when we get together for the holidays! And I am bringing my favorite jug wine again!  Last time we got started on the wine, part of dinner got burnt by our tipsy chef (which was somehow hilarious) and we took pictures in the snow.  I know... wild and crazy.  Even crazier is that it's been almost FIVE YEARS since then.  No telling what kinda shenanigans will happen this time.  Did I mention how excited I am?!

just a couple kids back then. kidless kids.

back when we were all 3 still "myers" girls

So that was Christmas five years ago... where was I on Thanksgiving five years ago, you ask?  Florida with my Gramma Myers (and Amanda, Sammy and John).  I've been thinking of Gramma a bunch lately with Thanksgiving drawing near... I miss her and wish I could spend the holiday with her as well.

love this woman.

#4 SCANDAL.

Can we just take a moment to talk about my favorite show right now?  Okay, thanks.  So, I felt like the middle-to-end of Season 3 and the very beginning of Season 4 were not the Scandal I've come to know and love.  It was still awesome - but definitely lacking that something special.  It was to the point where I was so bored with the show and really didn't even care to catch it on time.  After the past few episodes and most notably last night's AMAZING episode - I am super happy it's back to where it was at it's best (which in my opinion was Season1/Season 2)!  With two more episodes left before they take a short hiatus until the end of January... I feel like things are going to get even more amazing!  And if you're a Scandal-addict and on Twitter, the live tweeting is so much fun.  Bellamy Young (aka, Smellie Mellie) tweeted back to me last night.  So basically we're best friends.

#3 SISTERS.

Man. I just love my two girls.  I love watching them grow up and also grow together!  It really is going to be so much fun as a family of four.

me & tony as ninja turtles, presley as tinker bell & molly the sunflower!

And just for fun... Presley on her first Halloween as a sunflower!

#2 SLACKING.

Ugh, I know.  I am so behind on posting monthly updates for Molly on here.  Or posting in general.  I have several posts I have been meaning to write and haven't gotten to it yet.  Several more I have begun writing and failed to finish so they're saved for a future date.  I have every intention of being more present when it comes to reflecting on my life yet fail to follow through and chronicle it.

#1 SINGING.

Any of you out there familiar with Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood on PBS?  It happens to be one of my favorite kiddo shows of Presley's and she just loves it too.  Something we both love?  The songs they sing in each episode!  Amanda had the good idea to tape Presley singing some of them and I'm here to share them with you.  (You're welcome.)

Anniversary, visitors, shopping, big girl beds, & Memorial Day!

Since I last wrote....

• Tony & I celebrated 3 years of marriage!  How did we celebrate?  Mexican take-out (because that's what I was "craving" and my husband is my best friend) along with my favorite flowers - carnations - from my husband along with several scratch-off tickets (what a fun idea)! 
• I still haven't written about my sisters coming in town or our housewarming party.  I failed big time when it came to documenting the party - I was too busy having fun and seriously didn't take a single picture!  Not of our friends, family, or the food.  Bummer.  But it's definitely a good thing that we were too busy enjoying ourselves.
• Did some shopping at Old Navy.  I flipping love that store and shopping their online deals, too.
• Finally got a humungous area rug for our living room, thanks to recommendations from my favorite twin-cousin, Breanne!
• Presley now sleeps in a big girl (toddler) bed rather than her crib.  I am so proud of her but my mommy heart breaks a little bit that the crib is officially not her bed anymore.  I now completely understand the way in which it is hard for parents to let go of these little things as our kids get older.

It's crazy to think that our wedding was already three years ago.  I can't believe how jam-packed the last three years have been.  To recap, three years ago we lived in our first apartment in Silvis, Illinois.  Since then, we found out I was pregnant with Presley, moved into a small slab rental house in Moline, brought Presley home, Tony lost his job, I worked at a zoo, I found out I was pregnant, Tony got a job in Memphis, and we bought a home.  So we've lived in three different houses (four if you include the months spent living with Chris & Kristen!) and have been almost all the way through two pregnancies.  I can't believe I actually thought life was going to slow down after the wedding... big HA-HA on me.

I'm seriously lucky to be married to Tony and to be going through all the crazies with him.  I can hardly believe the two people we are today are the two people holding hands up on that altar 3 years ago; we've changed as individuals and our relationship has changed, too.  I love our life and where we are headed as a family and cannot wait to make even more memories with my husband and kid(s).

Alright, alright... enough with the mushy mushy.

As I mentioned, my sisters were in town last weekend and we have a blast.  My nephew, Matthew, was born back in April (April Fools Day to be exact!) so everybody was in town to celebrate his baptism.  It was the first time that we were all able to get together - siblings, significant others, kids - since maybe Anne Marie's baptism?  (I might be making that up... but I really can't think of a time since then!)

This one is from Anne Marie's baptism - fall 2012

This one is from Matthew's baptism - summer 2014

I love getting all of us together - the more is seriously the merrier with them.  It makes everybody separating and going back to our regular lives that much more sucky!  I still hope to live in the same town someday and if we could wrangle Breanne & Dustin, too, that would just be perfect.  In the time frame that we had family in town, we also threw a housewarming party so that our friends and family could come see the new place and help break it in.  We also celebrated Bobby's birthday!  (The only pictures I took during the party happened while we sang him happy birthday.)

My mother-in-law took this one of Tony feeding Presley some dirt cake!

It was really nice having everybody over and since it was a potluck, we got to taste some pretty FANTASTIC food.  I had my first Oreo ball and holy moly... am I addicted!!!  We had a taco bar and I decided to do tacos in a bag to make clean up easier!

While my sisters were in town we spent all day Sunday together for the baptism and party afterwards and just got some time to hang out - which was nice and very much appreciated.  Jonathan and Ashley (my little sister & her fiance) left Sunday afternoon around the time Anne Marie was getting up from her nap.  Amanda and Tony blew bubbles for those two for such a long time and they acted like it was the most fun they ever had!

 

We had dinner over at our house with Amanda & John (my big sister & brother-in-law), Caroline & Greg (John's brother & his wife who live in the Memphis area), Pamela (John's sister who lives in Chicago), & the newly baptized baby boys (Matthew & his cousin, Noah) and that was a lot of fun!

Then we woke up Monday morning and headed to the Memphis Zoo.  Man oh man, did we have a good time there.  I feel like that was the smoothest trip to the zoo I maybe have ever had, which is crazy considering there were 5 adults + 1 pregnant lady (yes... I consider myself somewhat of a subspecies at this point), 2 newborns, & 2 toddlers in tow.  The weather was great, the kids cooperated, the food was good (but overpriced), and thank goodness there was water to play in!  We came home for a quick nap time and then had dinner together at Huey's before the Nashville folks took off to head back home.

Tony's first time holding Matthew & Matthew started crying!

 

Me & the girlies after dinner :)

You're probably wondering why in the world I am mentioning a shopping trip to Old Navy.  Well, I am so excited because it's another summer which means another set of flag shirts!  And this time around we bought four for the first time... which is very sweet and surreal.  I can't wait to get a family photo in them.  Tony also got some khakis & pants for work that were over $10 off each plus shopping was free, we had 20% off, and had $50 in gift cards to spend.  (We bought the Old Navy gift cards from Kroger, got $10 off, and 4x the gas rewards!)  All in all, it was a fun purchase for me because I love great deals.  And shopping.

Speaking of shopping and good deals?  We got an area rug for our living room.  The floor is wood laminate and I desperately missed having carpeted floors.  It's a big 8' x 12' area rug we got from Lowes - thanks to Breanne for the recommendation - and even best?  It's a commercial cut so it was CHEAP!  I believe it was $79 (unheard of!) and we had 10% off on top of it, so it came out to $71 or so.  It's black, white, and gray so it gives the room a bit of personality & depth, too!

And finally... there is the fact that my baby girl is in her big girl bed now.  One random day after she woke up from naptime in her crib, it struck me how big she looked in her crib.  It's not that she didn't fit in there anymore and she wasn't being rowdy in there whatsoever... it just looked like she deserved to give her big girl bed a try already.  So I put the mattress on the toddler bed from her crib and she was FLOORED!!!!  As I said, she had just gotten up from a 2 hour nap, and she went and immediately laid on her new bed and played there for a long time!  I asked her if she wanted to sleep there later that night and she said yes... I made sure to ask if she wanted to sleep in her crib and she gave an enthusiastic no!  So we took apart the crib and moved it to Molly's room.  Phew.  I have been on pins and needles about it for the last few naptimes and bedtimes, but we have one awesome girl who is seemingly unfazed by the new change!  Presley used to go right to sleep at bedtime and naptime, but for the past few weeks (even when she slept in her crib), she has taken a while to wind down.  In her big girl bed, that is still true, but it seems to take less time for her to fall asleep lately! Which I am nothing but happy about.  To our knowledge, she's been staying in her bed really well too.  I think she was way more ready for this than I thought she was!

Now we'll just need to buy a new crib mattress for Miss Molly.  Since we plan on having her in our room in her bassinet for a while, there is no real rush.  Though, I know myself fairly well, and I'm sure we'll be purchasing it sooner rather than later just for peace of mind!

To top it all off, we had a great Memorial Day Weekend with our friends.  We went swimming, played out in the sun, ate some delicious food, and laughed a whole lot.  Of course it wouldn't be complete without a little drama (like our A/C going out for 24 hours) but all ended well!

Hope everybody had an awesome weekend!

26 Week Pregnancy Bumpdate! {Baby 2}

So, I don't feel like doing the questions and answers this week.

I'm currently 26 weeks along in my second pregnancy - which means we've got 14 weeks (give or take) until we meet Molly!

And this week has been a VERY big week for our family for a couple reasons:

1. We moved into our first HOME this week!

2. One of my best friends (Katie) had her little boy - Hunter Joseph - very early on the morning of April Fool's Day.  If my memory serves me correctly, he was 8 pounds 13 ounces.

3. And then, my sister (Amanda) went into labor and had her little boy - Matthew Alan - on her due date, which was also April Fool's Day!  My nephew weighed in at 8 pounds 3 ounces on his birthday!

Anne Marie meeting her brother, Matthew!!!

4. We also bought some new furniture to furnish our new home.  It won't be delivered until next week, but I am SO EXCITED.

We had SO much help from some friends and family when it came to moving - and we needed every last bit of it.  It was seriously the fastest move I've ever witnessed.  Most everything is still in our garage (we weren't able to move everything into the house because our carpets were getting cleaned and stretched the following morning) and we are SLOWLY moving things in.

I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed by the unpacking and moving process as well as the feeling of anxiety from all the responsibility that comes with owning a home.  My Gramma Myers gave some good advice about not rushing into owning a home and now I can see why she said that!  It is a lot to take in.  Overall, we are all adjusting well and I think it was the right move for our family but I suppose only time will tell!

We planned on moving Presley into her toddler bed upon moving in but we have yet to get her room set up and completely childproofed - and her safety is NOT something I'm willing to gamble with - so Tony set up her crib and tonight is the first night in over 100 days she gets to sleep in a real bed... or crib!  In that time she has been sleeping in her pack & play.  About a month into her sleeping in the pack & play we purchased a thicker mattress for her to sleep on as well.  Even still, it couldn't have been as comfortable and yet Presley handled it all like such a champ.  Bedtime almost always went smoothly and she slept regularly through the night.  I really do think she was excited to get into her crib tonight and bedtime went very smoothly (after the first few nights of bedtime in our new house NOT going very smoothly)!!!

Another ironic thing that happened to us since I last wrote - all three of us got a stomach virus!  If you remember, Presley got a stomach bug just a few days before we moved from Illinois to Tennessee.  A few days after that, I got it - literally the day before we left.  And then I infected Tony a few days later on the very day he was leaving Tennessee for Illinois to move everything out of our old house.  It was awful, awful timing.  This time?  Presley got sick at 2am on Friday - the day we closed on our house.  Tony got sick Sunday - the morning we moved.  And me?  I got sick on Tuesday a few days later.  AWFUL!  I hope it is a long time before we do that again.

We're looking forward to next week - getting our new furniture, my first prenatal appointment since the beginning of December, and having a new window installed in our bedroom in addition to some rotten wood being replaced outside of that window.  We are hoping to go see Amanda, John, Anne Marie & new baby Matthew sometime soon - maybe as soon as next weekend?  And this weekend, lots and lots of unpacking!!!

Also, get excited, because this weekend I will be posting a fun product review and hosting my first GIVEAWAY for one awesome reader!  So stay tuned!!