Thank you all so much for your kind words and congratulations on baby #2. We couldn’t be more excited! I am having a hard time imagining Jackson as a big brother these days, but I am sure he will fall into the role with ease. I am 12 weeks 3 days and I must say that this pregnancy has been so very different from the last. With Jackson I was soooooo sick for the first 14 weeks, and unspeakably tired. This time, I have felt great, and if it weren’t for the sore boobs, and very telling bump, I would think that I am not even pregnant. It also took what seemed like forever to conceive this time. Jackson was easy - it was literally one try and 42 weeks later there he was. I had my IUD taken out at the end of November and it took 4 cycles to actually get pregnant this time. I am all about instant gratification and immediate results, so that part was difficult for me to say the least. Eventually I learned to not take the test every day starting 5 days before a missed period, and rather until after I had already missed it. The 3rd cycle brought what is known as a chemical pregnancy, where you have faint line positives, but miscarry within the first week of conception, so that was a bummer, but the very next month it was a strong line positive, and here we are today!
I had an ultrasound at 9 weeks and heard the heartbeat and confirmed that it is JUST ONE BABY, thank god. My master plan is to have a total of two babies, not two at the same time ;). However, my body didn’t seem to get that memo and is showing as if there are 15 babies in there. Whatever. I will probably be 300 lbs after this (especially if I get hooked on donuts like I was with J). Don’t judge. So to wrap up: 12 weeks, feelin’ good, and going to be fat. Here are some photos of my fully gestated nugget from the weekend:
He runs with his tongue out. Cute but dangerous. We may lose half of it one of these days : /
Benny Turned TWO!
Over the weekend Jackson’s little buddy Ben turned 2! He had a fun pool party followed by pizza & cupcakes. All of the little ones were so cute, and Jackson was more than happy to show off his swimming skills. Here is some photo spam of Ben’s party:
Shall we start with the many faces of Benjamin?!
:) Here are all the little buddies:
Sidenote: J & Diego might have the cutest toddler friendship in the history of the universe:
The three Amigos!
Ben was SO cute when we sang happy birthday. It started out ok, but then he decided it was far too noisy!
Happy birthday Benny, we love you!
A Traintastic Birthday Celebration!
You know what is absolutely ridiculous? The fact that it has taken me 2.5 weeks to post photos from Jack’s 2nd birthday party. Inexcusable, really! The theme for the party this year was trains. Kid loves a good choo choo train. I want to keep the photos of the details to a minimum and overload you with photos of the kids, because, really, who doesn’t like to see cute kiddos?!
I used a lot of blue ticking fabric for the details of the party, to give it a real vintage conductor feel. I made the special hats (which i mom failed and forgot to even put on Jackson for his cupcake :(), and used red and white accents for a color scheme. The table had a fabric runner with some flowers, balloons, and stars. Simple & Easy.
My friend and cake baker extraordinaire, Megan, made the most fantastic train cake (like her page)!!!. The tracks around the bottom and the smoke coming from the train were fantastic details, AND there was a number two on the back of the locomotive :). I also purchased chevron paper straws for some added flair. I made the banner using my trusty cricut (seriously - a cricut turns a 2 hour job into a 10 minute job. get one), and some scrapbooking paper. The bottom right photo shows the dessert/favor table. My sister made amazing cupcakes, and I displayed Jackson’s Year I and Year II Photobooks. Also, I used a vintage traincase to hold the favor bags which included: Conductor hats, train whistles, bubbles, and other fun kid-friendly things!
The main activity for the littles was to paint wooden trains to take with them as a keepsake. It was messy, but so cute.
Here are some photos of my favorite little man and his buddies enjoying the festivities!
Playing football with Jesse :)
Hi Alex!
Lovely Miss PBT <3
Vaughn in all of his two week old glory!!!! I will be stealing him very soon!
Ben gives dirty looks ;)
Hi Diego!
Ben & his mama Emily :)
This is 8 month old Caleb, he is a flirt and soooo cute!
Presents!
Cupcakes!
At least someone got some use out of the party hats!
I still can’t believe my crazy, sweet, awkward smiling, trailer loving boy is 2 already!
My work situation is interesting in that i work from home two full days each week. Because of the large amount of time spent working at home, I often get the question “how do you get any work from home done with a toddler to take care of?” The answer for me is simple.
Jackson has always been fantastic at Independent play. I simply make the “office” into a place that he actually wants to spend time. Of course, he is spoiled so its now more of a playroom, but the point is that I can get a ton of work done while he keeps himself entertained with access to all of his tractors, trains, books, and puzzles. It’s better for us than having him staring at the TV all day, and I am able to join him whenever I feel like it ;).
I also try to log as few hours in the times that he is most active as possible. I can bank on him napping for a solid 2-3 hours in the afternoon, so I always use that time to make calls and really get the things that require extra concentration taken care of.
I am also happy to push 2-3 hours of work each day to 6 or 7 pm. Daddy has come home so Jackson is more interested in him at that particular moment and then I take a break to put him to bed and finish up by 8 or 9 pm.
Things work really well for us this way because I get to maximize my time spent with Jackson - we can still have play dates, park time, swim lessons, and hours outdoors. But the key is that I still have a workspace where he can be happily occupied for HOURS if I absolutely can’t push the work stuff off to nap or bedtime.
I have been horrible at blogging lately. J’s party was nearly two weeks ago and I haven’t even posted about it! We have been moving and things are finally starting to calm down, so ill be catching up soon, but in the meantime here is a 20 second video to promote good self-esteem in toddlers ;)
Happy Birthday to my favorite TWO YEAR OLD of all time! Click play for a montage of his second year :)
Spring has Sprung!
We are so happy to finally be able to enjoy the warmer weather. Jackson has been spending as much time as possible outdoors, and as exhausting as it can get, I can’t say that I mind at all, because within seconds, the funniest and cutest expressions come across his little face: 
Wednesday marks two years for our boy, and I honestly have been trying to figure out just how we made it here so quickly. He was just a baby, and now he is BIG. Opinionated, carefree, demanding, sweet, loving, and BIG.
All I know is that I have loved every single second that he has been here, and I am so looking forward to the next 8 decades or so, just to see where this lovely little journey takes us. Big things are in store for this big kid.
king of the awkward forced smile
We celebrated Easter with all of the cousins and many of the grandparents yesterday. Jackson woke up to a basket full of stuff, and wanted to “ofen it” all without paying any attention to the next item :) I think the clear winners were the two chuggington interactive trains to add to his set, and the aquadoodle, which he is obsessed with already. He calls it painting and spends a minimum of 20 minutes per session drawing on the mat - which is an eternity in the attention span of a toddler. Here are some photos from our day:
I sure do love a kid in a bowtie!
Happy Easter Y’all!
