Almost 30

My birthday was almost a month ago. It was actually my golden birthday - turned 29 on the 29th. Ironically, Adam and I both had our golden birthdays this year. Anyway, despite being in denial that I am almost 30 (which is how I will now be referring to my age), it shaped up to be a pretty great day.

Adam was able to take the day off work so he let me sleep in and he dealt with the kids when they woke up and also made me some fancy peanut butter waffles with a peanut butter chocolate sauce to go on top. Basically every birthday I've had the last few years I have every form of the chocolate/peanut butter combo that there is throughout the day. Can't go wrong there! We relaxed for a bit and then got ready for the day. While I was doing make up I heard Adam playing the birthday song on his guitar trying to teach Maeve how to sing it. I could hear her saying every so often "3, 2, 1 go!" - that little girl makes me smile! She got a little shy for the performance, which was cute and I loved their little performance!

After Rowan's morning nap we went to Bargain Hunt. I scored some good shoes for Rowan to grow into and a pair of flats for myself as well! I decided bowling would be fun since Maeve hasn't really gotten a chance to do it yet - so we did that next! We had the place mostly to ourselves for a while so it was fun!! The kids loved it and we've got the proof. I couldn't decide if flash or no flash was better based on the bad lighting of the place which is why I switched back and forth between the 2 in these pics.

Love my cuties, including the tall one

Look at that perfect baby skin! His face and coloring couldn't be anymore perfect, am I right?! 

Love her scrunchy smile. The pics I get with my kids make me look even better - their cuteness goes a long way 😂

We took turns helping her bowl 

Killin me how massive the ball looks next to her 😂

Her in all her glory after she got a strike! She was VERY excited 😍

My boys 😍😍😍 - Rowan got a few turns pushing the ball and even he loved it! 

Lookin fine on Daddy's shoulders

After bowling, we went out to dinner at O'Charley's - nostalgic for me since I used to go there somewhat often with my fam back when we lived in North Carolina and when we'd visit Tennessee. I was alllllways obsessed with their rolls (gimme a good roll - or 6 🙈 - with my good and I'm happy) and man, they were just as good as I remember. Luckily my meal was also quite tasty so I left satisfied with my choice!

Maeve is getting better and better at being picture ready and smiling without being told to 🙌🙌

With our bellies full, we went home and put the kids in bed. I talked to a few family members and Adam worked on my cake (more like a pie) - a little elaborate so it had to be done in segments and we ended up having it the next night! After I got off the phone, we pulled out some Raspberry coke and watched Jumanji. I fell asleep halfway through as per usual, but finished it the next day. It was pretty funny! We both liked it.

The next night the birthday pie did not disappoint! It was a peanut butter oreo crust with a layer of soy vanilla ice cream mixed with peanut butter to make a peanut butter ice cream, then a Brownie layer, and topped with cream cheese frosting mixed with peanut butter to make a peanut butter frosting! He put peanut butter oreos around the edge too. It was a chocolate peanut butter vegan dream!! I just love this video Adam took while they sang Happy Birthday - don't mind that Rowan almost burned his hand off! 😂🙈

It was a birthday for the books and the celebration ended last week when I got my birthday present of going to FINALLY see Wicked. When I found out it was coming to Nashville, I knew we had to finally go and as a birthday present was a perfect way to do it. It was so great!!! The vocals were incredible and I got nostalgic and emotional since I performed Defying Gravity back in high school - it was unreal to finally see it all performed instead of just listening to the songs!! The story was cute too. It was the perfect night out just the two of us!!

I might be almost 30, but I'm still 29 and feelin fine! 🤗

10 months of pure sweetness

This little nugget is 10 months old as of a week ago!

I am in serious denial that we only have 2 more months until he is 1. Look at him! Where has my teeny baby boy gone?! He is such a joy for all of us and his smile and laughter are just infectious. He is a very busy boy and has changed so much over the last month. Here's the latest and greatest:

1. He is pulling up onto everything and is now walking along furniture like there's no tomorrow. He is also using his walker on his own and it is so cute to watch him walk with that thing. I had to straight up teach Maeve how to use that when she was a baby and it was not an easy task - but one day I just thought, hmm he might be able to walk with that now, I put him on it and he was doing it like a pro with minimal help. 2 days later he didn't even need my help! I did get this video though of him biffing it and it cracks me up! 😂

2. With this new busyness comes some mischief. He likes to find his way to the bathroom and dip his little hands into toilet water 😝 and he also seriously has a knack for finding paper and trying to eat it. I have had to fish paper out of the VERY back of his mouth before (it was from a page of a book that he ripped out at Once Upon a Child 🙈) and have gotten it off the roof of his mouth a few times too. It was probably in his mouth for 10 minutes with the Once Upon a Child incident, poor child, and somehow it stopped making him gag - I didn't even see it in the back of his mouth until he got mad about something and opened his mouth really wide! The little bugger keeps me on my toes more than his sis did. 😥

3. He FINALLY is liking some solid real food. When I introduced it at 9 months he gagged on everything majorly. Like even the tiniest piece of a puff, no exaggeration. So I gave him some more time and he is now comfortable with puffs, Cheerios, and bread. He's tried tons of other stuff but is hard to please - I think the new textures are still throwing him off. He'll eat a few bites of avocado, pears, mandarin oranges, stawberries, and sweet potato before he's totally disinterested and over it. So we're still in transition mode and I will be jumping for joy when he's just a happy eater of all things in non-pureed form.

4. He's a totally bizarre baby in that he STILL will blow out of his diaper (that clearly isn't going to stop until the purees stop) and he just finally cut his first tooth but it's one of his top side incisors. Since when does a baby not cut a bottom or at least a top middle tooth first?! He likes to do things his own weird way I guess!

5. He is such a chatterbox and can make the ma-, ta-, da-, and ba- sounds now. He is also starting to attempt to mimic us when we make funny noises with our lips or make faces at him. He will randomly wave sometimes, though he has no idea what he's doing but it is so cute to see him move those little fingers. This is my favorite clip of a sound he loves to make now - seriously the best. 😂😂

6. He loves to dance by rocking his body back and forth whenever we have music on for our nightly dance parties with Maeve. It seriously kills me to watch him. He's gonna get into the music somehow, even if that's the only move he's got! 😂

7. He's successfully gotten water out of his sippy cup once, but now he just likes to play with it. I'm hoping he will be able to drink consistently soon if I just keep giving it to him, especially since he's seen that his sis can drink out of one!

8. I just switched him over to a big boy carseat and it is blowing my mind that I'm now putting that infant car seat away for a second time. It seriously feels like we just got it out again! 😭 Time needs to slow down. Here's my cute big boy, whether I want him to be getting bigger or not...

I think that about wraps up the latest and greatest achievements of our sweet little man. Now for more pics from the photoshoot - some fun outtakes considering the entire time he was trying to do a head dive off the couch... 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

We played this game a million times where he would try and dive off the couch and I'd push him back onto the couch against the pillow - he laughed his little heart out every time I did it 😂😍

Squeezing the life out of his doggy, NBD

His sticker might be covered, but he wasn't in motion and it's a clear picture so it's a victory 😂

He kept pulling up onto the side of the couch but was all smiles since he was getting away from me 😂😍

😍😍😍

If his onesie looks tiny it's because it is - I crammed that chunky body into a 3-6 month onesie because all the 12 month onesies were dirty 🤷‍♀️🙈 - those thighs! 

Aaaaand he went there. No stopping this one. 😂

Thank you green block and the rattle phone that I was shaking in my hand that finally got him sitting still and paying attention to me. It was after this shot that I got the best posed shot that's at the beginning of the post! Boyfriend just wanted to move and play with his toys. 😂

And for fun, I took a screenshot comparing him to Maeve, though Maeve was 2 months older in this pic I still think it's a good comparison. They are definitely sibs but their most distinguishing feature is totally their eyes! Both beautiful but different for sure. 

Maeve's first haircut

Well, I did it. I cut off some of Maeve's precious little locks. She doesn't exactly have a ton I up begin with, but for a long time she's had a bit of a rat tail. Her hair definitely had some uneven lengths going on. This became especially apparent one day when I decided I wanted to see what her hair would look like if I straightened it. Yes, you read that right. I straightened my not even 3 year old's hair. 😂 Her hair just frustrates me sometimes in that it has some curliness/waviness to it but not exactly uniform pretty curls - instead it just looks kind of crazy, if you get my drift. So usually it just goes up in a pony or piggies so it looks cute. ANYWAY so I thought maybe it might look better if I straighten it....? 🤷‍♀️

Wrong. I couldn't stop laughing looking at her and at these pictures. She was so cooperative and willing to let me straighten it though, it was pretty cute. I should have known it would look like this... 😂

So, the next day I decided to cut it and even it out. I do not exactly have hair cutting skills but I figured I can cut a straight line. Sadly, I think I accidentally cut too much off at one spot so I had to even it out and it ended up shorter than I think it needed to be. For a minute, I thought "what have I done!" and wished I hadn't of even touched it but I'm over it now. I was also mad at myself at the time because I forgot that sentimental me thought it would be cute to save her little baby hair from her first haircut, but I just let it fall to the carpet. So I looked around to see if I could salvage any substantial pieces... 😂🙈 Anywho, I suppose it did at least thicken up the bottom a little bit and it will grow in prettier now! Here's the after pics!

I asked her to smile and this is what she did! 😂 For some odd reason she gets a kick out of smiling with her eyes closed 😂🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

9 months old and CRAWLING!

So I'm super behind on these monthly posts, and it's become a problem. Little dude is 10 months old in 3 days and yet here I am trying to remember what he was up to months 8-9. Since my brain runs at about 25% the capacity that it did before I became a mom, and especially a mom of 2, that's pretty much not happening. I mean, I recently tried to put Maeve's coat on Rowan and it took me probably 30 seconds to realize my mistake. 2 days later I tried to put MY coat on him. 😂🙈 I am losing it. If I haven't painted the picture clearly enough, you shouldn't have faith in me remembering what was going on 2 months ago. What I can tell you though are 3 things: he started shaking his head no (always in relation to being fed solids - he knows when he does not like it/doesn't want more) and it's pretty much the cutest thing ever, he started crawling the day he turned 9 months, aaaaand I love him. That's pretty much all I got for you. BUT I've got a whole lot of cute pictures. He was a busy boy during the photo shoot, because once they can crawl, it's all over. Cue the pictures!

That smirk though 😍😍 - I'm dying! 

Had to introduce a toy to keep him interested 

And then his dog became too much of a distraction so I used him to get his attention on me instead, which is why he's looking up 😂 - those pretty eyes though! 

And that smile!! 😍😍

Cue the head burying because he can't take it anymore... 

And at this point I regretted reintroducing his dog 😂

That little tongue! 😍

And then of course he went for the phone. The love of technology starts young.. 😑

His gummy smile is the BEST!! Still no teeth! 

The exhaustion started to set in 😂😂

But he still had some energy left to love on his dog! 😍

And here's Rowan's first crawling!

Stay tuned for his 10 month post (which I have vowed to do on time or very close to it) that will have a little more meat to it. 🤘

St. Patricks Day

So many of our Saturdays lately have been gloomy, rainy, and depressing. Nothing worse than having Daddy around and being cooped up in our tiny place because the weather is gross and we don't really have any errands to run. Okay, there are worse things, but you get it. Still not ideal. Luckily, all the stars aligned on St. Patricks Day and not only did it not rain, but it was a beautiful day. And I must say, we just had the perfect little day.

After Rowan's morning nap we went to Crockett Park and Maeve rode around her balance bike some, which really means she walked with her bum hovering on the seat. You gotta start somewhere, right? 😂 To make things a little more exciting, every now and then either Adam or I would tell her to lift up her feet and we'd push her fast and give her a little ride. She loved it!

Her facial expression in this one cracks me up 😂

After riding our way to the playground, we stopped and played on the playground for quite some time. Both kids enjoyed the swings for a while, we explored some of the other cool structures, tried to get Maeve to go down some slides (unsuccessfully, if I am remembering right) and then played in a fun rock pit there for the rest of the time. It was funny watching Maeve play because there was another little girl in there that was just going nuts with the rocks - grabbing handfuls and forming sloppy piles, getting dirt all over herself, and throwing the rocks everywhere too. Then we look over at Maeve and she's all carefully picking up piles of rocks, setting them down very gently to form perfect piles, all while staying perfectly clean. It was quite the contrast, but I wasn't complaining that she wasn't getting completely filthy like the other girl haha. Rowan enjoyed some time on my shoulders and this pic just kill me. Love my sweet happy boy!

Every St. Patricks Day we have a tradition that we've carried on that Adam started with his friends in high school where we eat steak and fettucine alfredo for dinner and drink lots of bottled soda. On our way home from the park we stopped at the store to get some groceries we needed for that and then both made all the food together. for an early dinner. It was so bright outside we got all this natural sunlight in and had the patio door open for a breeze. I found this vegan fettucine alfredo recipe that is seriously SO GOOD - I had my doubts because the one time we tried to make macaroni and cheese without cheese WAY back when, it was a huge failure and totally nasty. But this one had different ingredients and the lady said in her description "I know what you're thinking -- does this ACTUALLY taste like cheese!? But I promise you, it does. Even my husband who is a big critic and loves his cheese thought this was spot on." So because of that and the fact that it was also recommended by someone, I decided to just take the plunge. It doesn't taste exactly like cheese, but I swear to you, it is as close as you can get and the flavor is still 👌👌. I am so happy I found it. When we sat down to eat, it was still light outside and we were starving so the food was amazing and the kids were being happy. I said to Adam, "Man, maybe we need to have an early dinner more often!" It was so nice to eat in sunlight and still have sunlight left when everything was cleaned up.

Go big or go home, girlfriend

Blurry, but I just love these happy faces

And I just love watching them play together happily!

Since we still had some daylight left and time before bedtime we decided to go back to Crockett park and take a walk on their walking trails after we finished dinner. With both Adam and I there we were able to just push both kids separately in our regular stroller and umbrella stroller and it was so nice to walk off some dinner. The trails were actually really pretty and it brought me back to our Texas days. We are loving it here, but we do miss the amazing walking trails we had by our apartment in Texas. When I think of Texas I will always think fondly of all of our walks. I'm just glad we were there when I only had one baby (for most of our time) so it was even easier to always take walks. I miss all the walks and great conversations I had with Adam over those 2.5 years. But now we will definitely be going to Crockett park for walks on weekends when the weather is good over these next few months. I just love these pictures I got of Rowan and Adam on our walk!! 

He just loves his Daddy! ❤️

STOP IT! That smile 😍

It was such a fun much needed day out and we always love a good excuse to celebrate and have good home cooked food!! It's definitely not everyday we eat steak over here. Getting the kids ready for bedtime was a party as always and these pictures are proof. Meet Maeve the puppy... 

That posture and smirk 😂

Just to show how crazy she was going... haha

After the kids went to bed we watched the movie The Glass Castle that we got off redbox. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it or not, because after having the perfect fun little day with my happy family it was a reminder that there are some children out there in terrible home settings with drunken violent parent(s) -- it will shake you to the very core, that's for sure. The ending was semi happy I guess, but I still felt awful inside through most of it just because of the sad stuff I was seeing. All in all, it was a Saturday for the books with my people. 

Funny happenings of Maeve

This girl lately. She's TOO MUCH!

Just making phone calls in her Elsa dress like there's no tomorrow. 😂 And that happy face! I could eat her. I seriously squeeze her around the clock because ALL. DAY. LONG. she comes to me speaking these full sentences that ALWAYS start or end with Mommy and that little voice is just so cute that I just can't. I can't not squeeze her and hold on tight to that little body. 😍 I so badly want to bottle her up and make that little voice stay the way that it is right now forevermore. It's too cute to change. I'm already a slobbery mess that I can't make her stop growing. 😭 She's such a character and there's always something new she's doing or something new coming out of her mouth that is hysterical and I just have to remember all of it. So for as long as she's this funny, these posts will likely be a regular thing.

The funniest happenings of late:

1. Her new thing is to bark like a dog. She says "Mommy, I'm a doggy!" and just yaps away. 😂Her Dad and Grandma have some serious skills when it comes to barking like dogs (weird, I know, but they sound exactly like dogs) so I'm pretty sure she's just in training for that already.

2. We were at Walmart recently and she likes to just hold onto the side of the cart and walk with me these days. A lady was in our way as we were trying to head down an aisle and before I can even think about saying excuse me, Maeve says loud and proud "Excuse me!" - seriously, who is she? I've taught her to be polite at home and she definitely is, but what not even 3 year old is smart/bold enough to say that to someone in public? I almost couldn't believe my ears.

3. Sometime way back when we were at my sister's house and Maeve wasn't eating one of her meals very well so my sister said "Hey Maeve, do you think you can eat with your eyes closed?! Try it!" and she had her close her eyes and it was all fun and games and she actually ate a few bites. Well, recently she remembered this and started choosing to close her eyes while she was eating. The next day I was asking her what she wanted to eat for lunch and she thought really hard for a minute, with her thinking face and everything, and then it was like a light bulb went off and she exclaimed, "I know! I can eat peppers with my eyes closed!!" 😂😂 I guess she enjoyed it THAT much.

4. I haven't done Rowan's 9 month post yet but the day he turned 9 months he started crawling. Now that he's crawling, he loves to follow either me or Maeve around. A couple weeks ago he was going after Maeve and she comes running to me in the kitchen, buries herself into my legs, and cries "No! No stop! He's getting my shoes! He's trying to get my shoes!!" 😂 She kills me. I think we've now opened up a whole new can of worms with this crawling. It will be interesting to see what other ways his moving around drives her crazy.

5. One time a while back, she was being a HUGE stinker about going to sleep. Just would not stop goofing off in her bed. I got a little frustrated and wasn't sure what kinda consequence I could come up with that she'd care about enough that would snap her out of it and make her realize it was time for bed NOW. So in desperation, I took her out of her bed and said "If you're not going to calm down and go to sleep in your big girl bed you're gonna have to sleep on the hard floor in this dark bathroom" and I dropped her into the bathroom with the light off and shut the door. JUST FOR LESS THAN A MINUTE. I know, I'm such a mean mom. I just needed to shock her so she'd snap out of it. Anyway, fast forward to recently, when I had put Rowan and her to bed and Rowan wasn't asleep yet and she started being loud and crazy. Naturally, I said to her, "If you can't be quiet, I'm going to have to get you out of this bed and you're going to have to sleep somewhere you really don't want to!" and she thinks and says "Oooh, like the cold dark bathroom??" 😂🙈 I honestly wasn't thinking of that in the moment, and was kind of laughing on the inside when she said it, but still responded yes. Things got real quiet after that!

6. There's nothing better than the moment when you realize your toddler talks to your baby in a baby voice as well. One morning when we were all in bed snuggling after the kids woke up, Maeve started talking to Rowan in a baby voice saying, "What should we do Rowan? What should we do!" on repeat. I almost lost it!! She definitely nailed it.

7. Adam has a bit of a gut right now (just being honest, he knows it too) and he often will grab the fat between his hands and just kinda hold onto it and pull it and say, "you got any scissors?" 😂 Just the other day Maeve is sitting on the couch and she says "Mommy, look!" and I look over to see her grabbing her chunk on her belly with her hands just the same way. Ha! She doesn't miss a thing!

8. Yesterday while we were watching conference Adam started doing high knees. Naturally, Maeve joined in next to him. After a minute, he bends over and pretends to throw up with sound effects. Gross, I know, but it's one of his things because he knows it grosses me out. The best part is Maeve bends over and does it too, sound effects and all. It honestly sounded so similar to his sound effects too. 🤦‍♀️Oh dear!

9. For some reason, out of nowhere every now and then when we are just kicking it at home she comes over to me and hugs me and in a soft voice says "you be safe. you be safe mommy" - the first day she pulled this one out she did it like 5 times that day.... not sure why haha. No worries girl, I'll be safe just for you. 😘

10. We were playing the cupcake game the other day and I wanted to take a picture of her playing it. So, like I always do, I said "say cheeseburger!" and she usually responds with "cheeseburger! ...fries!" - gotta add on the fries right? But this time she said "cheeseburger!...fries!...drink!...toy!" She just couldn't help herself with the associations and it cracked me up. 😂

11. Earlier this week, one morning I said to her "we should go to Once Upon a Child today!" - then later in the day I said "we need to get you and Rowan dressed and ready and then we can go-" and she interjects "to I am a child of--" *thinks* "to I am a child of--" *thinks again* "to Once Upon a Child!" She was totally about to call it "I am a child of God" but caught herself. 😂😂

12. Also that same day, twice she told me that she loved my boobies. The first time she said it, she said "I love your boobies Mommy! I like to kiss them and say hi to them... *proceeds to kiss them and then waves* 'hi boobies!'" 🙈😂😂

And in other news, I am laughing because I have so many pictures now of Maeve asleep in the car. Ever since we've given up the nap, she falls asleep in the car if we are out in the late afternoon.

Exhibit A:

Out cold

Exhibit B:

Falls asleep mid eating snacks 😂

Exhibit C:

Falls asleep holding Lamby 😍

Exhibit D:

Even falls asleep with her legs crossed 😂

I think we'll keep her!