Back in Business!

Hello everyone!!! I am so excited to be writing this right now! I will say that part of me is sad that maternity leave is over because I just LOVED being able to focus all my time and attention on my bebes. It was a wonderful three months. Very, very exhausting and challenging at times, because…newborn + one and a half year old…but I freaking loved it.

So, I’m going to spend some time updating you on current life and everything that’s happened since I started maternity leave in December, but first…pictures. This will give you a virtual journey through the last 12 weeks 😍

First things first – some hospital pictures from the first day we welcomed little baby Colton into our world!

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Then some sleepy newborn pics, because we all know how wonderful those tiny, squishy, brand new baby snuggles are when they will fall asleep ANY-WHERE and rack out for hours. Love it.

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And then there was Christmas…

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And VERY shortly after that, our move from Kansas to North Carolina, which we were very excited about, but it was also bittersweet because we loved our life in Kansas. We had most of our Army journey there, went through two deployments, and had both of our kids there. Not to mention met some amazing friends and created some awesome relationships. Here we are in our empty Kansas house about to hit the road to NC!

I gotta throw some sweet baby Ford in here for some extra cuteness…can’t make it just about the new baby 😉.

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This is the most recent picture of Colton – I think it was taken yesterday, so this is where we’re at right now!

Pretty DANG cute…don’t you think??

So, the last three months. How to summarize all of it in one blog post? So so so so soooooo so much has happened. Seth finished off his career in the Army, we moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, he started a new job at Bank of America, and I’ve been trying to figure out my new normal with two kids instead of one and trying to find a balance between work and being a mom. A lot of the days look a lot like this:

The last three months have probably been some of the hardest and best of our lives. New babies are exhausting. Throw a one and a half year old toddler in there and you’ve got a whole new level of crazy. Also, bonus, I don’t know what is in Seth and I’s DNA, but we do NOT birth good sleepers.

Ford and Colt were both the same way for their first 3-4 months of life where they would basically only sleep if they were being held. Ford was even more crazy about his sleep habits, because not only did he have to be held, he also had to be in a dark room with white noise. Colt basically only slept when he was held, but he could be in a bright room with noise.

But regardless, having a baby who only sleeps while being held is near impossible when you have a toddler who also needs you. It was fine-ish while Seth was on paternity leave and then transitioning between jobs because there were two of us here at all times, so one could hold Colt while the other hung with Ford. But once he went back to work, we needed to make some changes.

So we started sleep training a little early. We started with Ford when he was four months old, and Colt is about 3 and a half. I went about a week of Seth working before I decided I needed to sleep train Colton, and it was literally a week of pure insanity trying to get Colt to sleep in my arms while Ford wanted to play or needed me for something.

So we started sleep training five days ago, and we have good days and bad days, but for the most part he’s doing pretty dang well. Which has made my life SO MUCH EASIER.

So…my overall summary of two kids under two…it is crazy, chaotic, I’ve NEVER been more tired, and there have been countless days of no showers and yesterday’s clothes, but it’s also the best thing in the world, and I am so painfully in love with with both of them. I wouldn’t change one single minute detail of my life even though some days feel like a constant struggle to get to bed time. How it possible to be SO happy and fulfilled yet barely having any moments for yourself and being SO busy at the same time? #parenting. Kids just make your life and heart so full it could burst. But if anyone tells you it is easy, they are LYYIINNGG. Those perfect Instagram families you see with a few babies toddling around in a nice, clean house? Lol. False.

I read something that describes the hard days of parenting SO perfectly: “Parenting is feeling all day like you are just trying to survive until bedtime, and then missing them like crazy the second they go to bed.”

As for other random life updates, we are loving Charlotte, have some super fun new neighbors that we’ve loved getting to know, and are really soaking up all the awesome stuff there is to do with the kids here! We loved Kansas, but there is definitely more of a variety of things to do here. There are parks everywhere, a super fun rec center a few minutes from our house with a huuuuge indoor play area for toddlers, and some other really great indoor stuff to do (like kids museums and children’s libraries) for when the weather is cold or rainy. Seth is still getting started at his new job, so not tons of news on that since he doesn’t have a clear idea what his day to day is going to look like yet.

As for the blog, I’ve had a lot of fun just cooking without any “work” involved, aka recipe testing or photographing any of the food, but I am ready to get back to it! I started recipe testing a few weeks ago, and it’s been nice to get back into the swing of things. I’m hoping to continue with three posts a week like I was doing before I had Colt, but this whole two kids thing is a whole new world for me, so we are just going to figure out our new normal together. You and me. Sound good??

I’m going to end this post with my favorite picture from the last three months that makes me crack up every time I look at it, and I’m 99.7% sure it could be a viral meme in a second:

Have a wonderful Monday, friends!