Texas Vacation: January 2014

I took the kids to visit my family in Dallas for a couple weeks in January. It was wonderful. We stayed at my moms for about 2 weeks and then visited my dad in Shreveport for a couple days.

Our days consisted of hanging out at the house, eating way too much food, watching the kids play Just Dance (which by the way, Jackson rocked at), going for walks, running errands. We hung out with my sister, Jess and her kids, as much as we could. Her family got a yucky stomach bug, so we couldn't see them nearly as much as we wanted. Here are some pics from the trip.

Update on Charlotte: almost 5 months

I realize I didn't post about Christmas. I probably won't do a full post. All you need to know is it was wonderful and Jackson was spoiled.

What I really want to write about is my sweet girl Charlotte. I need to write about her before I forget. She's entered the next stage of baby, more interactive, sturdier, holding toys, cooing, all of it.

Some of my favorite things about her are...

Her smile. She does this huge open mouth smile. It looks like she is laughing, but no noise is coming.

Her coos. They are probably the best noise in the entire world. She discovered how to gasp and now that precedes every giggle or coo. Leo and I love to just listen to her talk. Jackson does too. He always says, "Charshut totting!" She loves to talk to her daddy.

Her fuzz hair. I make some bald babies and there is just half an inch of fuzz surrounding her head. I feel like it's starting to grow on top but it's going to be awhile before it looks like hair.

Waking up next to her. She's been sleeping with us lately. Mostly because I took the kids on vacation and it was easier to just have her in my bed. For the most part, it's not a big deal for me. I know Leo would prefer to have her in her own bed because we only have a queen, so it is a little crowded. I'll get motivated at some point and let her cry it out, but my favorite thing is if I get to see her sweet face when she wakes up on her own. It's the cutest thing ever. She stirs and stretches and when she finally opens her eyes and finds your face, she just lights up and starts kicking fast and making happy noises.

Jackson is pretty cute about his sister. She's been loving holding toys lately and he is always very sweet about bring her a toy. A lot of the time, it is unprompted. If she drops her toy, he'll give it back to her or bring her a new one. He rarely gets annoyed by her. Only if I haven't given him much attention, then he'll come up and just start tickling/scratching her face. He always gets this look in his eye and he has a big smile and then I can tell he feels like bugging someone. Most of the time though, he loves holding her hands or blowing on her belly. He likes to make her laugh and he has never once gotten mad about her crying. Sometimes he'll yell, It Otay! or It Alright! if she's fussy. It's really fun to watch them interact.

When we took her to her 4 month checkup, she had a fairly small head and wasn't gaining as much weight as they'd like. I'm not too worried about it. The girl does not really care about eating. 5 minutes on one side and she's good. I've been starting some solids this past week and she definitely doesn't love them. She's long and lean.

She has started pulling the hair at the back of my neck. It hurts but she's such a little clencher, it's cute.

She does Not like carriers.

She takes pretty good naps in her car seat.

She still takes the pacifier for sleep, but she doesn't loooove the pacifier. I can tell she falls asleep faster with it.

She still sleeps better if she's swaddled. During the night, she breaks her swaddle and snuggles next to me, but for naps, she stays in it for the most part.

She's not a good sleeper. She takes lots of short naps, but she's pretty happy when she's awake so I try not to stress about it. She wakes up plenty in the night but since she's next to me, I just feed her and fall back asleep quickly.

The things that make her laugh are being tortured/tickled and sometimes, peekaboo type games do.

She's somewhat mobile. She'll scooch backwards if she's laying on her back and she's close to rolling from her back to her stomach. If there's any kind of slope, she'll roll quickly.

She doesn't love tummy time, but she does a lot better than Jackson did. She has such a strong little neck. She looks like a little turtle when she stretches it all the way out.

I call her Lottie Loo, sissy sue, sister, sweet girl, basically anything girly.

I sure love her and I'm grateful every day she is healthy and growing. It's wonderful to have her in our family.

Thanksgiving & Snow

Last week was Thanksgiving. My dad was flying out to California to spend it with my sister, so we decided to join them. It's a 10 hour drive time, but with kids and breaks, it's really 11-12 hours. This was our first big road trip with Lottie. We drove to Boise 2 weeks ago and that is 6 hours. We survived that drive, so we thought we could handle this one. It was.... interesting. The kids did overall really well. We hit some nasty traffic on the way there. Apparently everyone else was traveling for Thanksgiving.. Weird? 

On the way there, Leo wanted to split up the drive and stay in a hotel Tuesday night. Well... let's just say, we won't be doing hotel stays for awhile. Jackson is a very independent sleeper. Plus, he slept from 6-9 pm during the drive. We got to the hotel at about 9:45 and he was awake until 1 am... 1 am!!! Bless his heart, he just wasn't tired and he didn't know how to fall asleep with us next to him and Charlotte waking up every so often. Leo and I didn't have much patience though, we were exhausted. We kept using our scary/quiet voice and telling him to lay down, close his eyes, and stop moving. He would quickly stop moving and squeeze his little eyelids closed as hard as possible. That would last for about 5 minutes and then his legs would start kicking the blankets and he'd start rolling over. Eventually he did fall asleep but shocker, he was wide awake at 7 am. 

My dad's flight was delayed so we took some extra breaks on Wednesday. We attempted to visit Circus Circus, the casino, in Vegas. Leo said it family friendly and that he had been there when he was little. Well, the circus performers weren't there, so we just walked from to one end and then back. But Jackson got his wiggles out so that's all that matters. 

Anyway, we eventually made it and we had so much fun at Loo's house. All Jackson could talk about on the drive was "Bubbie house. Bubbie. Shawn. Grandpa. Baber. Bubbie house?" It was non-stop. 

He was truly spoiled while we were there. Shawn's brother, Lane, was there too. So, Jackson had Bubbie, Grandpa, Shawn, Lane, & Leo's non stop attention. He constantly had an adult to play with him and he was in heaven. I took care of Charlotte and relaxed the entire time. It was glorious. Jackson and Baber had fun together. Baber is a shih tzu and she is crazy patient with kids. Thank goodness. Jackson would smother her and pull her hair and she never even yelped. 

The weather was wonderful and we got to be outside the whole time. It wasn't hot, probably 60s. Just perfect. 

This was Charlotte's Thanksgiving outfit. I had to document her jeggings and boots. They lasted about 5 minutes. Same with the headband. 

Whenever I start taking pictures of Charlotte, Jackson always wants his picture taken. 

Charlotte has officially found her hands and this is how she looks 90% of the time. 

My dad is a really good grandpa. My babies are lucky. 

On Saturday, we went to a park. 

A&M game. Lauren, Shawn, & Lane all went to A&M. This is how the room looked for a couple hours. 

Don't be deceived by Charlotte's face. She loved her Aunt Bubbie, she just doesn't always love having her picture taken. 

Lauren & Shawn cooked up an impressive Thanksgiving spread. Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, etc. It was delish. And then, Shawn smoked ribs for us on Friday night. Mmm.... ribs. 

Loo & I did a little black Friday shopping. We went to this store on base and I got Bare Minerals foundation that is normally $50, for $40. It wasn't on sale, this store is just cheaper. I've been wanting to try Bare Minerals for awhile and it really does provide just as much coverage as any other makeup. It leaves my skin super soft too. On Saturday, we went to Sephora. Holy Guacamole. I could spend a lotta money at Sephora. I got 2 mascara samples to try. 

We also got Jackson the big Buzz Lightyear from the Disney Store. I totally felt like a fun Christmas mom. We all went into the store together and when I saw that Buzz was basically half off, I snuck it into the line and hid it from him the whole time. Brought it home and hid in the closet. 

So far, for Christmas we have for him: Buzz Lightyear, small Jessie doll (he has the small Buzz & Woody), Little People Farmhouse & Tractor, a Thomas the Train launcher toy thing, and we'll be going to the Dollar Store in a week or so to pick up some random action figure and last little things. 

I'm soooo excited for Christmas! We had a big snow storm yesterday & a little today. Tons of snow. Several inches on the ground. Jackson played a lot yesterday. 

Let's recap, shall we?

Oy ee vay.

I have to say, I am impressed with how many times I didn't lose my patience today.

Jackson woke up yelling No! to me, so that's fun. He had to go to his room and play by himself by 9 am because he kept crying and tantruming.

Charlotte hasn't been sleeping long shifts the last few nights, so I'm a little extra tired.

We went to Target to get ingredients to make cookies for Leo's home "teachees". Target was dandy. However, we didn't make tons of friends there because Jackson had a raunchy poop in the toy section. I tried to hurry him away from the toys to go change him and every mom we passed, smelled her own child's bum and then looked at me disgusted. (That's slightly exaagerated, but one mom actually did check her own child's diaper and I said, don't worry, it's mine. And she gave this pity smile, like ok, get that smell away from me.) Then in the checkout line, a sweet little grandma smiled at Jackson and started to put her stuff behind ours on the belt and Jackson wasn't okay with that. So he kept yelling, "Excuse me!" (too-me is what it sounds like) and gave her a grump face.

Once we came home, Charlotte decided that she wasn't going to take independent naps for the rest of the day. Every time I laid her down, I would hear her wake up within 10 minutes.

Jackson didn't take a nap. I did leave him in there for an hour and a half, which did give some form of break. He would just yell every couple minutes to let me know he was still awake. "Morning!" is what he yells to say he's done with nap.

One of the times, I tried to put Charlotte down, I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with Jackson, but I forgot the baking powder annnnd the cinnamon. Needless to say, they were ga-ross. Not sweet at all, which I guess I don't understand what the cup of sugar does, but not enough sweetness. So those 2 dozen cookies were a bust. Even I couldn't eat them, so there was no way I was going to give them to other people.

On to treat #2. Mint chocolate brownies. Way more successful, but I did leave them in a few minutes too long because I was trying to clean out the car quickly. They were still edible at least.

Then, I realized we didn't have any paper plates to put them on, so we made a quick trip to the dollar store and grabbed some little candies to put with the brownies.

I came home, got the treats on plates and wrapped up. 5 minutes later, I hear a crash from the kitchen. Charlotte's crying in my arms and I'm trying to not be mad at Jackson for pulling down a plate of treats. When I want into the kitchen, his face showed he knew he was in trouble. I tried my very hardest to not yell, because I don't want to yell at my kids when they spill stuff. I still do sometimes, but I have the goal to not. Anyway, he frantically tried to grab the brownies and put them back. I told him it was fine, but to walk away. Leave the kitchen.

Short story, long.

We eventually recovered. Charlotte gave me sweet smiles and I talked to her for awhile when I was getting her pajamas on. I put Jackson to bed. To be honest, he was crying and screaming while I gave him a hug and kiss and said goodnight. I was patient but he was pushing the boundaries today.

Today, I felt the monotony of being a stay at home mom. I thought, man if I could just have one hour to myself. I even tried to give Charlotte formula which was a no go, because I thought, if she takes it consistently for a few days, then maybe I could leave her with someone else for more than 2 hours.

Charlotte's asleep in the swing. She'll wake up soon, but that's okay. Jackson's asleep upstairs. I've eaten dinner and gotten some time to myself. Hopefully, Leo will be home soon. Poor guy has long hours and then rides his bike to and from the train in the freezing cold.

Most importantly!!!We're heading to California for the rest of the week for Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for some pics! I'm so excited to see my family.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Well, I couldn't wait any longer. I busted out the Christmas decorations this week and it makes me so happy. We've been watching the classic Christmas movies. Jackson got a frosty and a rudolph book so now he loves both of those stories. We also watched Elf, which is still my favorite. I got Jackson a little Christmas tree and we bought some ornaments for him to paint. He looooves painting. 

Jackson & daddy painting ornaments

My tree (burlap Christmas baby)

this little girl just hung out and watched us decorate. what a doll.

Jackson put stickers on the window

painting more ornaments