How do you do it all?

So many people ask the question..."How do you do it all; raise two kids, work full time, take care of the house?"  The bottom line answer is a great husband that helps with all.  However, it also includes a boss who feels I leave work too early each day, kids that feel I get home from work too late, and a house that needs to be cleaned. 



And finally when life is extra busy, a bathtub full of laundry waiting to be folded & put away, as you have run out of baskets to hold it all!

Bottom line is there is never enough time to get it all done, so you take it one day at a time.  Make sure you are as efficient as possible when at work, play extra hard with the time you have with your kids, and skip the bath since its still full of laundry!

 (Plus if you find any other time left over...work on the blog.)

Papa & Grandma B's Visit

Boy, oh boy, I really hope I can catch up with all my blog posts, before we go away again on vacation, and I get behind again!!  (Not that I can complaining about vacation.)

Grandma & Grandpa B came to visit right before Brooke's birthday, and actually our anniversary weekend!  It was great!  They took Brooke to Toy's r Us to pick out a new bike (Brooke's first new bike!), and also babysat that evening so Nick & I could enjoy a dinner out to celebrate our 8 year anniversary!  I have a hard time justifying paying for a babysitter to watch the kids for us to do dinner as they are at daycare all day, and I have a hard time justifing it.  Not the cost, but the fact its just someone watching the kids to make some money.  However, I never feel guilty with Grandparents  watching the kids, as they are there specifially to see & play with the kids! It makes our evening just so relaxing!

Look out Brooke is already teaching her little brother how to ride a bike!

Happy 1st Birthday Tyler!

Happy 1st Birthday Tyler!  Boy another year has flown by.  Tyler continues to be such a happy guy (assuming he's feed, not teething, and had his naps).  Speaking of teething, Tyler is up to 8 teeth!  6 on the top, and 2 on the bottom.   He is also still taking 2 naps a day, a morning nap from 8-9 and an afternoon nap from 12-2.  Also, just this past week he has finally started sleeping through the night!  We only had to let him "cry it out" for about 5 minutes one night, and he has been going from 8 to 7!  I wonder if its actually me more than Tyler that will be missing the 1 a.m. feeding, as I still keep waking around that time, and have been avoiding the urge to sneak into his room to see how he is doing.  I am also really excited to have been able to keep him on "mommy's milk" until his first birthday!  With Brooke we had to start adding formula as a supplement around 11 months, but fortunately between nursing, pumping at work, and my crazy large freezer stash from the first few months we made it! Now I am only nursing him in the evenings before bed time.  (Once again this may be for me more than him, and not wanting to give up my little baby just yet.)

We receive a good bill of health from the Dr.'s this week, and his official stats.  Tyler's weight is 22 lbs 11 oz, length 30 in, and a head circumference of 18 in, which puts him pretty much at the 50% mark for all.

Tyler was super excited for his sign pictures!

Based on how early Tyler was crawling, we were thinking he would be walking by his 1st birthday, but he isn't quite there yet.  He takes about 2-3 steps, and then quickly falls down laughing and crawl over to you.   Maybe if he didn't think it was so funny he would be walking!

Tyler, like Brooke, also picked ravioli as his birthday dinner!

We didn't get Tyler too many presents this years, since really all he wants is someone to play with him....which is a good thing since once again the box was his favorite of all!  (I also included a picture of Brooke (top right), where she put Shelly's toy around her ankles, and started "pulling" Shelly around the house.)

For Tyler's birthday dessert he enjoyed some vanilla ice cream, but since we decided all he did with it was rub it around his belly, we decided to throw in an Oreo cookie as well to make him extra messy!

Tyler also got to enjoy a super yummy Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream cake with the neighbors the day after his birthday!  We are so fortunate to have such great neighbors!  Its was a great time for everyone!

Of course as you can see by the bottom right picture, Tyler made sure to share the ice cream cake with Shelly too!

Some times its worth the sacrifice!

This night we felt it was worth sacrificing a roll of toilet paper to have another few minutes to eat a nice "quiet" dinner!

Daycare Birthday Party

We are so fortunate to have found a great daycare for Brooke & Tyler.  While I don't like the decision of working, and sending the kids to daycare each day, I do still think its the best decision for all.  (At least still at this point.) The kids absolutely love Miss T's house.  They have many buddies their age they get to play with each day, and are learning so many new skills.  We still loved the first time Brooke said "Thank you" for something, and we knew she learned it from daycare.  Or when we  bring out a new toy, and she instantly knows how to use it!  (Many times I am asking Miss T, if she has a specific toy, which Brooke or Tyler knew how to use, and the answer is normally yes.)  I still wish there was a way for them to spend less time at daycare, but with both Nick & I having 45 minute drives to work its pretty hard to avoid.  They are there pretty much from 7:15 a.m. to 5:30 each night.  Good thing they are so cute, and behave most of the time!

Miss T. was so sweet to throw a birthday party for the kids.  She does a once a month party, and combines all the kids with birthday's that month.  The month of July was just Brooke & Tyler!

Brooke was super excited to bring in rice crispy treats she helped to make.  (Another great treat with no egg!)

Here are a few pictures of the kids from the morning, and then in the evening playing with their new toys from Miss T!

Every once in a while at work, I get a super great surprise of pictures of the kids during the day.  Here are the pictures Miss T. sent me that afternoon!  Its was so nice to see how happy they were.  No presents in the world can compare with how much fun they have at Miss T's house.

Vacation at the Cottage

So I really should have broken this up into many, many posts, but I am just so excited to finally be done with cropping all my pictures from vacation!!  (Maybe you should just read parts, and come back later to finish it!)  We spend the week of the 4th of July at our family cottage.  My great grandparents built the original building, and then each generation has continued to add to it.  It's now three levels (loft, main floor, basement) with I would estimate around 11 beds!  Plenty of room to sleep my family, my parents, and my little sister's family.  Plus with a few rooms to spare.  (This is good since our trip in Aug, will be the same group plus my older sister's family as well!)  The cottage is managed by an LLC organization between my mom and her 5 siblings.  It works out great, especially since they all get along so well.  We are so fortunate to be part of such a great "organization", and have a place to be able to vacation with my whole family!

Here are lots, and lots of pictures from the week.  (PS this is probably only about 30% of them!)

The first night, we got to do a beach fire with my Aunt Pat, and Uncle Carr, who stayed at the cottage the week before us, and were leaving on Sunday.



It was quite an adventure each night with Brooke & Emi sleeping in the same bed.  Overall it worked good, and was nice their room was next to grandma & papa's instead of mine!

We had amazing beach weather all week!  The water was even warm, and swimmable, which is not normal for Lake Michigan!

Here are a few pictures of Emi & Brooke sharing their little fishy...which ended up being a no so happy little fishy after being out of water for so long.

The cottage is also a very special time for Shelly!  She doesn't stop all week, and just loves chasing a frisbee, or stick into the water!

We tried to do different activities each morning, and then the beach in the afternoon after nap. Some days we didn't make it down to the beach until like 5...oops.  This day we spent the morning at the Lewis petting zoo!  Of course the kids had lots of fun.

Both Tyler & Papa's favorite activity was the "spider web."

Happy 4th of July!  We went down town to watch the fireworks, but ended up watching in the car, as Brooke didn't like the noise, and I didn't like the bugs!

And another beautiful beach day!

We took our canoe over to the White Lake Lighthouse.

Finally after all these years, the kids got to wear the ponchos I made for them! 

And last here are a few pictures of the cottage!  Boy have a loved growing up in this place, and travelling here every summer and playing with my cousins.  I can't wait to share this now with my kids!

Brooke is Three!

We got to celebrate Brooke's birthday this year at the family cottage, which means we had Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Tara, Uncle Derek, Emi & Clayton to help celebrate!  I stated in my previous post we planned two big events for Brooke's birthday. 1) Her first hair cut and 2) Giving Up her "B's".  Ok, so neither occurred, but o'well!  Maybe next year!

Also, coming back from a week at the cottage, means way too many pictures, too much laundry, and having to deal with a whole week back at work...ugh.  Well finally, here are the first batch of pictures from Brooke's birthday party.  We celebrated on Saturday this year, since her actual birthday was on Sunday, the day consisted of packing & driving home.

Tyler enjoyed all the festivities, and got a few presents of his own, since his special day is only a few weeks away.

Who ever came up with the saying, or superstition "opening an umbrella inside is bad luck", must not have had a super cool pirate, or fairy one!



Brooke's birthday cake this year was extra fancy...a nearby bakery made a special homemade ice cream turtle cake.  Between all the chocolate fudge, and homemade caramel, they almost forgot the ice cream, but the real bonus was the "no egg"!  Boy was is yummy!

The evening ended with one of the perfect Michigan sunsets!

Here are Brooke's sign pictures from the morning of her birthday!

Brooke enjoyed her favorite dinner of ravioli, and once again enjoyed getting it all over the place!

As you can tell by these last two pictures, this is the reason we take her sign pictures in the morning versus the evening!