Quite the Celebration!

My husband did good.  He made turning 30 quite fun.  Sadly, I did not take a single picture of my entire 30th birthday celebration :(  I am quite bummed about that.  So, instead of showing you fun pictures of my birthday celebrations, I am just going to tell you about it...in great detail ;)  This way I will have it in blogger world forever to look back to someday and remember the good old days of only being 30. 

The day before my birthday Jay surprised me by taking me out to dinner at Red Robin and our families were there.  I am very difficult to surprise.  I think this is because I think waaaayyyyy too much, I do all of our money and pay all the bills, and I am home all day with the kids.  I wasn't completely surprised and did wonder if that would be happening.  But I didn't know for sure and I didn't know anything until that afternoon.  So it was a complete surprise until that day.  We showed up at dinner to see our family their already.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and I was spoiled with some great gifts.  And of course, Red Robin sang to me and I got to enjoy some ice cream.  And my burger was free!  Free food is a perfect gift to me!

The next day, my actual birthday, started off very normal.  I was home with the kids in the morning.  They slept in decently, which I was very thankful for.  I would have preferred 9 but I won't complain about 8!  I had made my favorite cinnamon rolls the night before so I baked those and enjoyed the deliciousness of those for breakfast with the kids.  Jay was even able to stop by and enjoy them with us.  After breakfast my mom, the kids, and I went up to Woodburn for a little bit and just wandered around.  She was shopping for shoes and I was just window shopping.  I didn't want to spend my birthday money yet because of what was coming up that weekend (more on that in a minute).  My mom took us out for lunch after shopping at Panera.  We enjoyed a great lunch and the kids were surprisingly pretty good at lunch.  I am choosing to forget about Carter saying he needed to go poop and then deciding after sitting on the public toilet that he actually in fact did not need to go.  Ugh.  I hate that.  After lunch we came home and did quite time.  Both kids actually napped and I had some quiet time.  I chose to do one of the things that I love to do in my free time (the little free time that I do have) and that was watch tv!  I promised Jay (more like told Jay) that I was not going to clean on my birthday :)  Jay did tell me that we had plans for that evening so I knew we were doing something but this time I had no idea what we were doing.  He managed to keep all of his plans for that evening a total surprise.  His mom came over to babysit about 6 and we left for the evening.  The first stop: Dutch Bros for a smoothie.  Thankfully I told them it was my birthday and I got mine free.  Again, I like free food ;)  We took our smoothies on over to Roadhouse and played mini golf.  Jay and I enjoy doing that together.  We had a great time.  After leaving Roadhouse I could tell we had a little time to waste.  He obviously had something planned at a specific time.  So we went down to Macy's and wandered around so that I could look for perfume, one of the items I was planning on buying with birthday money.  His final plan for our evening was dinner and a movie at Northern Lights.  This was perfect.  We hadn't been to a movie in forever, literally so it was a treat!  We both enjoyed wraps and chips and a cute movie, Admission.  It was a nice night and he did exactly what I could only hope for, plan things out in advance and try to surprise me.  Good job babe!  I enjoyed our evening so much!

And then my birthday was over.  I always have a day of let down after my birthday.  I am a birthday girl and I love celebrating birthday's, including mine.  But thankfully I knew we had the weekend to look forward to.  We had planned a night in Portland for my birthday this year which could not have been any more perfect!  I know I have said this a few times to people but last year Jay was puking on my birthday because of the stomach flu and the year before I was miscarrying.  Like, literally, we found out that I was pregnant the morning of my birthday and realized by early afternoon that I was miscarrying.  I felt very due for a good birthday with nothing bad happening.  What is funny though is that Madelynn was actually sick on my birthday this year...so sick that I took her in to the doctor's office in the morning before going shopping with my mom.  I forgot to mention that part of our day.  She had a stomach virus that was just not making her feel very well.  Thankfully though she was okay to enjoy the day, even though she didn't feel great.  So back to our Portland plans.  After last year's drama on my birthday, I told Jay that for my 30th we were doing something big.  So we planned a night away in Portland, without the kids.  Our weekend was unbelievably perfect!

We left about 11 last Friday morning.  My mom came to stay with the kids.  This was our first night away since Madelynn was born.  She is 14 months old so I would say we were overdue!  We headed out and went straight up to Bridgeport Village to have lunch and do a little shopping.  We ate at PF Changs which is one of our favorite places to eat!  We shared the lettuce wrap appetizer and then shared one plate of rice and spicy chicken.  It was delightful.  So so good!  We didn't want to eat a huge lunch because we were planning on a big dinner in downtown Portland.  We shopped a little at Bridgeport (just Crate and Barrel) and then went over to DSW shoes.  I actually left that monsterous shoe store with no shoes.  Crazy.  We stopped at Old Navy a little ways down I-5 and spent my gift cards there.  Then we headed into downtown Portland to go check out our hotel.  We stayed at the Hilton which was literally in downtown and just a block or two aways from Pioneer Square and the mall there.  Perfect!  We checked into our hotel, which was great and then hit the streets shopping.  This was not Jay's favorite part of the trip but I had birthday money to spend and he knew it was coming!  I shopped at for quite a while and I found some amazing deals at H&M!  Love that store!  We stopped and enjoyed a smoothie from starbucks and sat outside and people watched.  After shopping for a few hours we went back to our hotel to freshen up for dinner.  We were able to skype with the kids too which was great.  Madelynn actually cried when she saw us which broke my heart but I loved seeing them.  We loved getting away but missed our kids so much too.  We ended up eating dinner at Henry's Tavern which was a few blocks away from our hotel.  Of course I decided I needed to wear tall wedges to dinner and it poured the entire walk to dinner.  Thankfully I had my big rain coat.  But it was quite the walk in the rain and heels.  It was so worth it though!  Dinner was delicious and the atmosphere was just perfect!  Thanks Hollie for the recommendation!  After dinner we went to our hotel to get into warm and comfortable clothes and then walked down to the waterfront where the Rose Festival was going on.  Our only mistake about this weekend was that we paid the $14 to get into the Rose Festival.  NOT WORTH IT!!  We literally walked from one end to the other and then left.  It was like setting our money on fire.  But we stuck around and walked along the water until the AMAZING fireworks show that evening at 10.  Unbelievable!  We were literally standing along the rail on the waterfront sidewalk that looks right over the river and the fireworks were shot from a barge in the river straigh out from us.  Amazing!  It was by far the best fireworks display we have ever seen!  Salem and Stayton have always done decent shows but now will seem like nothing since seeing this display.  Seriously, amazing!  We would highly recommend going someday!  Then we got to walk back to our hotel and go to sleep without putting two little ones to bed and enjoy a blissful nights sleep!  It was so nice to just climb in bed with no responsibilities.  And we got to wake on our own.  No alarm clocks and no little foot prints of a cute little boy climbing in bed with us.  I wouldn't change a thing about my life but every once in a while we all need a nights sleep that doesn't get interrupted a little too early because of kids.

After a wonderful nights sleep and waking up at 9 we got ready for the day and headed out for breakfast.  We were hoping to try Mother's Bistro but it was way too long of a wait.  So we just wandered around until we found a cute little bagel shop.  We ate our simple but delicious breakfast out at a table on the sidewalk with great weather!  After breakfast we packed up our stuff, checked out of our hotel and headed over to Lloyd Center for more shopping.  My poor husband!  He got a little sick of shopping but I had a blast!  Once most of my money was spent we parted ways with the mall shopping and headed over to IKEA.  Before shopping though we enjoyed lunch at Red Robin.  This was the only point in our entire weekend that we were both getting a little grumpy, and just for a few moments.  The parking lot was packed, people were being dumb (sorry!), I had a headache, and Jay was trying to get over all the shopping he just had to endure.  We were both better when we sat down for lunch and got some water and food.  Then we shopped IKEA and found some great things for our house and then headed home.  It was the perfect weekend!  I so enjoyed spending some alone time with my man.  He is pretty special to me and often that gets pushed aside during the business of life at home with two kids.  We need these weekends a couple times a year. 

It was the perfect birthday.   



   

30 Ain't So Bad

So yesterday was the big birthday.  This one seems almost bigger than 18 or 21.  Those birthdays just weren't that big of a deal to me.  Infact, 20 almost seemed bigger than 18 or 21.  I liked that I wasn't in the teens anymore.  But 30...it's a bit strange.  But mostly in a good way.  There were so many things I used to think about in my early 20's when I was still single.  I always wondered if I would ever find someone to spend the rest of my life with and I always wondered what it would like to be a mom.  I don't ever remember verbally saying this or even fully thinking it but I think I always hoped I would get to have both of those before I turned 30.  I wanted to be settled, in love, and living my happily ever after by the time 30 came around.  Thank you God for fulfilling all of my dreams!  I know that it really does not matter when those things happened in my life.  I could have met Jay next week and started having all of my dreams come true in my early thirties and I know that I would be just as happy and just as blessed.  But I am also unbelievably thankful that God chose to bring Jay into my life and bless us with Carter and Madelynn earlier in my life.  I am exactly where I want to be and I am beyond blessed.  It truly is a beautiful life. 

I am so thankful for my husband.  We do not have a perfect marriage nor are either of us perfect people.  I know, you are thinking, Duh!  The reason I even say that is because I do not want to come across as having this perfect life.  We tend to only write about the good stuff for other people to see.  I am no different.  I am not about to get on here and write about the problems in my life and in my marriage.  Those things are normal and a part of the fallen world that we live in.  We are not the picture perfect marriage but we are happy.  We love each other.  We are faithful to each other.  We respect each other.  We want the best for one another.  We try every day to be good to one another even though we fail at it often.  We love to spend time together and do things just the two of us.  We are not afraid to be alone with one another, infact, we thrive in those moments we are alone together.  We still go on dates and every once in a while we still try to surprise one another.  We make mistakes and we hurt each other often.  But we love each other.  We do argue and disagree often, but we always try to work it out and we do learn from it every time.  I am truly thankful for my marriage and blessed to have Jay as my husband.

I am beyond thankful for my kids and the blessing that being a mommy is.  I had no idea how amazing being a mom would be.  Again, there is nothing perfect about my role as a mother but it is my greatest role as a person right now.  I have two beautiful little ones who are relying on me every minute of the day.  They need me right now probably more then they will ever need their mama again.  I do not take that lightly.  I have been blessed with two kids who are fun and silly.  They are happy kids and I do feel like that is a huge blessing, and one that was not a promise to me when I became pregnant.  They are healthy, and for that I am forever thankful!  There is so much sickness around us every single day.  There are so many sick babies and young kids around us.  I cannot begin to imagine what the parents of those precious babies are feeling and going through right now.  The health of my children is something I often take forgranted and I want to stop that right now.  I am not promised to never go through major sickness with one or both of my kids and every day, week, month, year that goes by that my babies are healthy is something I should be praising God for.  It is not promised.  It is a blessing.  A friend of mine today wrote a status on facebook that touched my heart.  She was talking about how everything is about our perspective.  As she was up in the middle of the night with her unhappy baby girl she was reminding herself how many women out there would give anything to be up in the middle of the night holding their sweet unhappy baby.  Last night as both my kids were crying in their beds not wanting to fall asleep is when I should have reminded myself how blessed I am to even have these two beautiful, healthy babies.  Those first eight months of Madelynn's life when she didn't sleep more than two hours at a time at night is when I should have been thanking God for giving her to me in the first place.  I am thankful.  Carter and Madelynn have brought more joy to my life then I ever knew was possible and I am truly thankful for them and who they are.  I mess up daily as a mom.  I overreact, I raise my voice, I say things I didn't want to say, I put other things first when I shouldn't, and I feel angry when they aren't being the perfect kids.  These things are wrong, however I think they are also normal for every mom.  I need to cut myself some slack and do my best, with God's help, to raise my kids.  I cannot be perfect, and that is okay, but I do believe I am the perfect mom for Carter and Madelynn. 

And then I am thankful for the little things that add up to more than little things.  I am thankful for my home.  I love owning our house and being able to work on it to make it better.  I really cannot imagine ever leaving this house because it is where we brought our babies home and it is where we started a family together.  I know we will outgrow this house someday but for now I do not want to ever imagine leaving it.  I love this house and all its imperfections.  I am thankful for my church.  I have really settled into Bethany as an adult and am loving my ministries at church, raising my kids in this church, and all of the friendships I have made at church.  It is a good church that I have now been at for 30 years and I still can't imagine going anywhere else.  I am thankful for the friendships I have now made because of being a mom.  I have some amazing friends who are all raising their kids right now too and I love doing this life together with them.  I am thankful for my parents and how much they love me and my family.  Watching them in their role as grandparents has been special and I am so thankful that they want to be so involved in my kids' lives.  That is special to me.  And I am truly thankful for all the babysitters that we have because of their love for my kids! 

We have everything we could ever need.  I do not always have everything that I want but pretty close.  And those things usually do not matter.  I love this life that God has given me.  Thirty sure doesn't seem so bad. 

   

She's 14 Months!

Miss Madelynn turned 14 months on my 30th birthday yesterday.  Turning 30 seems like a pretty big deal (which I will write about later) but 14 months is a milestone too.  My little sweet pea is sweeter then ever and really starting to look and act like a toddler (minus the walking part of toddlerhood.) 

A LOT has changed with our girl in the last two months.  She is finally walking while holding onto things.  She loves to push her little toy push cart around the house as well as her fire truck.  The fire truck is a little sit on car with handles.  She loves to stand behind it, hold onto the handles and walk all over the house.  She also loves to sit on it and can push herself around the house using her little legs.  She is also able to walk all around the furniture now.  Her legs are really getting stronger.  We have even caught her in a crouched position in the middle of the floor and start to stand up without holding onto anything.  She is also able to hold onto something, stand up, and let go and just stand there.  She gets so proud of herself too when she does this.  And of course we clap, squeal, and get all excited which makes her want to do it even more.  She also loves to hold onto something, push off with her hands and instead of staying up, she flops back onto her rear and laughs.  So much fun.  She really is getting stronger but still wants nothing to do with walking.  We try to make her stand and take a step and she just pulls her legs up into the air and refuses to put them down.  She will even get mad and cry if we try for too long.  I know she will walk someday but for now we will just keep helping her try. 

This girl is a daredevil!  She loves to be tossed around and played with like crazy.  She loves it when she gets to be wild and crazy with her daddy.  She loves riding on little rides (at the mall) with Carter.  Those little rides that take a few quarters and move back and fourth for a minute.  She has the biggest smile ever on those things.  Jay has always said that he is getting our kids ready for roller coasters anytime he is wild with them.  It is working for this little girl.  She loves it!

She has turned into a brilliant sleeper!  She goes down by 7 most nights and sleeps until usually 8 every morning.  She has been taking great naps too (when she isn't sick or teething).  This is such a blessing because of how horrible she slept the first eight months of her life.  We have even been able to go peek on her at night without waking her up and I love to see what sleeping position she is in.  This was a funny one.  She loves her blankies! 

She loves to play with Carter and all of his toys.  She's a pretty good little guitar player.  She loves to stand at Carter's train table and play with all of his trains. 

 

And then she also loves her babies.  She has such a sweet soul and immetiately gives lots of loves when she gets a dolly, stuffed animal, or blanket.  She is a good little hugger.  She also loves to give kisses, especially to the two boys in her life.  I feel like Jay and Carter can get kisses out of her whenever they want them.  Carter will just lean down in her direction to pick up a toy and she will go in for a kiss. 

 

One of her favorite things to do...ride the fire truck.  And this time she had to do it with both blankies.  She is obsessed with her blankies!

 

 

Madelynn loves...

her daddy, her brother, her mama, her grandparents, her blankies, milk, all of Carter's sippy cups (rather than her own), necklaces, shoes, taking her headbands off and putting them around her neck like a necklace, smiling at everyone, giving kisses, the fire truck, cell phones, remote controls, vanilla greek yogurt, smoothies (oh my she can't get enough of our smoothies), throwing her food on the floor when she is done eating, playing in her crib with Carter, taking clean laundry out of the basket and playing with the clothes, putting Carter's underware on her head (usually clean ones that she finds in the laundry basket), playing outside, riding in her push car outside or at church, eating my food, flirting with everyone that passes her, tilting her head in a flirty and shy way and giving a huge smile to anyone that will look at her, putting things in and out of baskets, buckets, or boxes, pulling everything out of my purse and wallet, and giving snuggles.

 

Madelynn strongly dislikes...

eating anything she doesn't love, when Carter takes something away from her, avocado, baths, wearing her headbands on her head, and the first two minutes of being laid down in bed.

 

She has been sick this last week with some tummy troubles and a terrible diaper rash.  I finally took her to the doctor yesterday and found out that she does has a virus and that her diaper rash turned into a yeast infection.  We got a prescription for her rash which just after only two treatments has helped immensely.  She actually ate a little bit today at lunch, not much, but a little.  A little is better than what I have been able to get her to eat for the last five days.  I was really worried about her because she is already so small and I just didn't think her little body could handle not eating for so long.  The doctor told me not to be worried about that and she will eat when she is ready.  Her virus is basically a tummy/GI issue which is making her have yucky diapers, tummy pain, not eating anything, burping with some spit up, and super fussy and needy.  Thankfully she is sleeping well though!  But when she is awake she is pretty much in my arms.  I am looking forward to her being healthy again.  Today has been a little better than yesterday though so I am seeing a small light at the end of the tunnel.  We did get to find out how much she weighs.  She is now 17 pounds 4 ounces.  He didn't tell me what percentage she is in now but he did say she is about four to five ounces less then what her growth curve says she should be at.  He wasn't the least bit concerned though!  I am pretty sure this girl will be able to be in her infant carseat till she is close to two.  Ha!  Her infant seat goes to 22 pounds.  She has ways to go.  And she still isn't too tall for it either.  My little little lady.

 

Madelynn Grace...

I love you so much.  We think you are so special.  We love your sweet spirit and your wild and fun personality.  You love to be silly and make us laugh.  You love your brother with a love that melts my heart.  You give the best hugs I have ever experienced and you make me smile everytime you look into my eyes.  You have a special way of making people smile and warming their hearts.  You are definately a people person.  Mommy and daddy love you so much Madelynn Grace!!  You have blessed our lives greatly.   

Easter...finally!

Here I am finally with our Easter pictures.  This might be the farthest behind I have been on my blog.  Easter was great this year while being very relaxing.  We did church together and even were blessed to have Jay with us.  He did a vacation day so that we could do Easter as a family.  We put the kids down for naps and I cooked our Easter lunch.  We ate a yummy ham lunch, did a little Easter egg hunt in the front yard for Carter, did Easter baskets and then just relaxed together.

 

Of course we did the matching outfits.  These pictures are a little bright (possibly over edited just a tad) but Jay and I have the green and the kids have the purple.  I LOVED the kids' Easter outfits this year.  Oh man, they looked good!

 

Madelynn's first Easter basket.  She got a girly car to race with Carter, a book, pink jammies, and cute shoes.  What more could a little girl ask for?

 

Carter got some fun stuff...bubbles, grabber thingy, Curious George book, and Lightening McQueen that races on water.  What more could a little boy ask for?

 

Trying to put her new shoes on...

 

 I asked Carter to show me his grabber for a picture and instead of turning around he just held it up.

 

I think she was checking to se if there was anything else in there...

 

Reading her new book...

 

Easter egg hunt in the front yard.

 

She didn't like the grass on her legs.  She kept trying to pull her legs up off the grass.

 

Getting a great picture of the two of them together is IMPOSSIBLE!  This is what I got...

 

Some of our lunch...

 

This girl is obsessed with her two blankies!  She had a few moments after lunch where she was just sitting on the floor playing with her blankies.

 

So much fun to be had with a small square blankie.

 

And we ended the day with Skyping for the first time.  My mom was in LaGrande so we tried skyping and it worked great.  Carter really loved this!

 

 

I really do enjoy Easter and all the fun that goes with it.  I love getting new matching outfits and dressing up for church, Easter baskets, yummy ham meals, Easter egg hunts, Spring weather, etc.  This year though we really worked hard to teach our kids what Easter is really about.  Jesus Christ died on a cross for us but He did not stay dead!  On that third day He rose again to live for eternity with our Heavenly Father. This is quite the concept to teach a three year old but it is the foundation of our faith!  Carter always asks questions like why Jesus died and how He got out of the rock.  I love that he is interested and so curious.  Someday he will fully comprehend what Christ did for him.  That will be a great day!