My new life as a Stay at home mom

Being a stay at home

Mom isn't quite what I envisioned. I thought we would constantly be doing fun things. The house would be spotless and I would cook every night. But to be honest we stay home most days, the house is constantly destroyed and we eat out all the time. That being said I'm working on it everyday and making changes and hopefully one day we will be where I want to us to be. 

Right now we are working on potty training with Chloe. It's a slow process as I'm pretty unorganized but we finally made some progress and she will potty at home for me. Unfortunately she doesn't do as great at my moms house but I think she just gets excited when she is there. I'm hoping that in a week or so we will start seriously training and get rid of the pull ups for good...at least during the day time. Maybe after Labor Day so we aren't worrying about trying to get our 2 year old to pee in the woods at the lake 😁! Or in the car on the long drive there. We haven't been doing very much since I started school last week, but hopefully we will have some fun experiences to talk about soon. Have a great weekend! 

Changes

Apparently I am not as good at posting updates as I thought I would be. It's a bummer because I want to document the experience of parenthood as best I can and be able to look back on all of the fun we had. I would love to make a vow to be better at posting but frankly I can't make any promises on my time right now. I just do t understand how some of these moms put there with 7,8,9 kids or more find time to blog and care for their families, and homeschool, cool, clean, ect. I can only assume that they have their lives much more organized then I have mine. Or at least have better time management skills. For now though I will just focus on one post at a time and I'll start with talking about the changes happening in our house. 

We ended 2014 on a good note. We had a great Christmas and enjoyed doing mores activities with Chloe. 

             We got to go meet Santa, and see the pretty trees at the Mall. 

   

       Then we decorated cookies at Grammy's house. Daddy had to help but Chloe enjoyed the activity. 

We also got to see Nanny. And have breakfast the day after Christmas at the same little diner in Piedmont that we did last year. 

Chloe was the center of attention

Being the youngest and

Received WAY to many toys but it was the perfect way to spend her last Christmas as an only child. 

Then, Not too long after Christmas we welcomed the new addition to our family that we have been waiting for since June.

 

Liam James Davis, born on January 19th, 2015. He weighed 6lbs 7 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. I will post about his specific birth story later, for now I just wanted to focus on introducing our newest addition. 

We are so happy and feel incredibly blessed to have two children. 

It's been a while...

So it's been a while and I have been less then perfect about posting updates. It sort of defeats the purpose of keeping a journal or log of what is happening in our family if I don't actually ever post anything, so I need to be better about it, but I feel like I have some pretty good reasons for it. ;)

Since Chloe is the star of our show, and my main purpose for trying to document our lives I should start with an update on her. She just hit her "18 month birthday and is not a baby anymore. She is a walking, talking toddler and it is both fun and scary.

All the way back in June, we celebrated her first birthday with a little party at Mimi & Papa's and everyone spoiled her rotten,. Here is one of my favorite pics from the party, although in just 6 months she has already changed so much and doesn't look anything like this little baby you see here.

In September we got to go to the Lake over Labor Day Weekend and Chloe experienced her first official Lake Trip. It took a few minutes for her to feel comfortable, but i'd say she had a good time.

For Halloween, I was a little less then prepared and put costume shopping on the back burner. By time I realized that I needed a costume for her, all the good ones were gone and I didn't have enough time to order one so I decided a home made costume would be just as cute as something I could get form Carter's, so we went as Minnie Mouse. I actually was very happy with what we came up with.

This is Chloe with her "Daedo" (my dad). We went Trick or Treating in his neighborhood and Daedo ended up carrying her most of the way. Although she was a trooper and did do a fair amount of walking.

 Mommy and Chloe-She was big on carrying her own pumpkin. I think she thought that this was the best part.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we were invited to George's Prime, a very nice restaurant that specializes in steaks. It was quite a treat and even Chloe enjoyed their food. I'm glad we got the opportunity to take a family picture, because we so rarely get those. 

You'll notice that her bib says "My First Thanksgiving", which isn't actually true it's her 2nd Thanksgiving. BUT I found it stupid to just disregard the bib, especially because while she has experienced two Thanksgivings now, this was technically her first Thanksgiving MEAL, which is the important part right?

Playing with Daddy @ Mimi & Papa's house 

I love this picture of the grand-kids smiling. I don't remember what we were doing but it's hard to get those big smiles from Chloe in pictures anymore so I was thrilled when I saw that I managed to capture the moment.

This is all 5 of the grand-kids. I think there was a football game on TV and someone scored a touchdown. Chloe is really big on acknowledging Touchdowns right now. 

I really don't feel like I've done justice to all of the fun things we have been doing and I need to be much better and posting so that I don't lose all of the fun memories for us to look back on. BUT, I think I have a good excuse for being distracted lately...

This picture is a few weeks old now, but it still gets the point across that Baby #2 will be here in January (I hope!) If all goes according to plan we will be expanding our family on January 19th. 

9 month check up & Some X-rays

Chloe reached her 9 month milestone on March 12th, so a few days ago we went to Dr. Fricker's office for the 9 mo. check up. Luckily this check up didn't require any vaccinations but after checking her out, our pediatrician wanted to have some "precautionary x-rays" done of Chloe's hips. Our pediatrician said that he felt a "clicking" when he moved her hips and was worried about "Developmental "Hip Dysplasia". We went ahead and had some x-rays done that same day. Chloe wasn't a fan, and I had to wait outside, so she really wasn't in the mood to cooperate, but we got them done after two tries and sent off to an expert to look at.

               This is during our appointment at the Pediatrician's office, not a happy camper. But on the plus side, we are wearing our super cute new diapers from the Honest Company!

                             This was taken after we left the lab where the X-Rays were done. At this point it was almost 1:00 and we had only had half of our lunch and no nap. Thank god she can now hold her on bottle in the car, I don't miss the days where she just had to cry because we were either nursing or she couldn't' hold a bottle and I was driving.

Anyway, the results of our X-Rays? There is not any evidence of Hip Dysplasia, however there is something that is slightly "off" about her legs. The right leg is not matching up to the left in bone or cartilage size??? I'm not sure what that means, and the doctor said he wasn't too terribly worried about it, BUT that we should go ahead and take her to an Orthopedic specialist to take a look. So next Monday we will go for our second opinion and see what they think, but I just can't imagine that something is seriously wrong with her legs or hips. While Chloe does have some slight oddities about her hips, legs and toes, it's nothing that is blatantly obvious and she is so close to walking on her own, unassisted, I feel like she would have some trouble walking or crawling if there were really something wrong. We are supposed to be putting two diapers on her everyday, to support her hips, but I keep forgetting to do that. Again, when she acts fine, it's hard to remind yourself that someone else thinks there could be something off.
  I'm looking forward to next Monday's appointment though. I would like to officially have an answer from someone that feels confident that everything is fine.

Is Spring Finally Here?

I've been waiting for warm weather for what seems like forever. I am so unbelievably tired of jeans and coats and boots and snow and ice and cramming my poor baby into her little fleece winter suits. I miss the days where I could slip her into a little onesie, put her in the carseat and go. Winter complicates things when you have a baby. They need long sleeves and pants and then socks, hat, blanketS, and then doubles if not triple of everything in case they need to change. 

                         

I'm just so glad that there is an end in sight. I hope that the current temperature stays. As soon as I adjust to this weekends time change I plans to enjoy the weather. Mostly getting the stroller out and start getting some exercise. This family is in some serious need of sunshine, fresh air and activity. It's time to cancel netflix, and get outside! I'm super excited for spring/summer since Chloe is going to turn 1. She's quickly learning how to stand and balance and will soon be walking. There are so many fun things to do and places to go, I can't wait until our first trip to the park and our first baby pool! 

On another note, James picked out a new gate for us to install to complete our "playroom" unfortunately we are still a ways off from finishing that project. But maybe soon. In the meantime we can use it as a little playpen or "baby cage". Chloe loves it, and so do we. One of my husbands best baby item picks. 

                             

Our story

I hate "Who are you posts". I think most people do but I also feel like they are kind of necessary. I read blogs because I like to read about other people's lives, so the "about me" section is sort of important for that goal. But it still doesn't make it easier and to be truthful, I've edited this post about 5 times now... 

So, we are an average nuear family of four. My husband and I have married for three years, which doesn't really sound very long or impressive but we have been together for over 5 years. Before we were dating we were best friends. At the time I didn't want to date and now looking back I can't figure out why in the world I wasn't jumping at the chance to be together because we were made for each other. He has always felt like an extension of me and makes me a better more confident person. 

 Neither of us are very patient people (although we try 😉) and 9 months after we were married we were blessed with our first child. Chloe made us into an official family in June 2013 and then because as I said we aren't very patient people we quickly followed up with our 2nd child, Liam born in January 2015. Being parents is hard and required a sharp learning curve (especially going from having just one baby to having two!) but we are finally getting the hang of things and could easily classify this stage of life as the best time of our lives. Having children was the best thing that has ever happened to us and I can't wait to continue to expand our little family.  

Our family means everything to us and in life our main goal is just to go out and do things and experience life together. That's what makes us happy. 

To help put a face with the name, here Ida picture of me, Stacy. For the past several months I have been a complete and total H-O-T mess!  I am still trying to figure out how to make life work with my 2 year old and an 8 month old. For the past several years I worked full time. Basically, Up until Liam was born in January and then started working part time. Then in July I made the decision to quit my job for good and in addition to being a stay at home mom I started a nursing program, which was a complete career change but I'm excited about this new adventure. I don't have too many hobbies but in the rare chance that I have a free moment I love to craft and I love photography. I can't remember the last time that I actually had free time, as their is always something that needs to get done, but when I do have a rare moment to myself I enjoy making something new, taking pictures or my new favorite activity, digital scrap booking. I have an obsession with making things look perfect and that's a lot easier to do when your work in on a computer instead of glued down forever. One day I k ow that I'll have more free time then I know what to do with but for now I'm Thankful for the distractions I have.

This is our Two year old, Chloe. She came into the world screaming and has never been in short supply of personality. She is wild and crazy and soft and sweet all at the same time. She is a Mommy's girl half the time and a Daddy's girl the other time. We love our girl and I'm thankful for her everyday because she made me a mom. 

                 

This is Liam, my happy baby boy. 

He was born in January 2015 and since day one we've called him Bubba. When he was born he had a tiny bit of trouble starting out but it was short lived and he is now an extremely healthy and happy baby. He just wants to explore, crawl and play with his toys. If he can do that then life is good and he is in baby heaven. We are so glad that we had him as he was the perfect little addition to our growing family.