Ever think you'd be here?

Last night I asked Mike:

“When you were in high school and you thought about the future, ever think you’d be here at this age?”

I can’t believe how much my life has changed since high school!! It all happened pretty fast…but I am happy to say I got everything I ever wanted. Who gets everything they ever wanted? I guess I do and I feel so extremely blessed! Most day’s I’m stuck wondering, how did I get so lucky?

I’m a wife.

I’m married to an awesome man whom has a bigger heart than anyone I know! Seriously, he’s so genuine and loves unconditionally like no one I’ve ever known. I love him more than I could express and can’t wait to spend forever with him. Mike is my dream guy.

I am a mom.

I have a daughter…a dream of mine since I can remember! She’s more than I could have ever dreamed. Seriously, Kamryn is our perfection! Does it get any better than this? God knew what he was doing when he gave her to us. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a bazillion times, she’s amazing…she’s happy, healthy, beautiful and smart. We love her more than seems humanly possibly.

We have a house!!!

Okay, this one still baffles me. Is it our dream house? No. But its a great house! It has its improvements that need to be done but we own it. We can do whatever the heck we want to it…and then change it again if we choose because IT’S OURS!

I have 2 dogs. 

I love animals and luckily my husband does too. We have a Yorkie and a Goldendoodle who are awesome. Seriously, these two are Kam’s best pals! They love her as much as she loves them!! 

Life isn’t perfect…most days its far from it. Sure, there are a lot of things we don’t have, that we wish we had, but really we don’t need those things. We have a great life! It’ definitely a crazy life and most days we are wondering whats going to happen next. But when I take a second and step back, I realize how truly lucky we are. We have our health, we have love, we have a great supportive family, awesome friends and at the end of the day we really have everything we need. 

And I’ll never ever take that for granted.

You're Lucky I Love you

I feel as though I constantly praise Kamryn on this blog. Trust me I have good reason to, she is amazing!! But don’t let me fool you…shes a normal (almost) 2 year old….

Changing Kamryn’s diaper is a NIGHTMARE!!! She kicks me, wiggles, rolls over and squirms…all while shes laughing hysterically. I raise my voice, I try to use my stern voice, I’ve even given here a little tap on the bum (something I swore I’d never do)….NOTHING works! She continues to laugh at me…GREAT!

Kamryn loves water so of course the dogs bowls are her go to! She loves to splash in them!! I will turn my head for a second and then I hear water splashing turn around the wall is covered in water, the floor is soaked and there’s Kamryn drenched…she looks up at me and says “Oh no! What did I do?!?!” It takes everything in me not to laugh and I try to explain, again in my stern voice that she isn’t fazed by one bit, that she can’t do that. It doesn’t work…therefore my poor dogs may or may not be slightly dehydrated. 

Time out…is a joke in my house! I’ve tried everything from setting the timer, holding her in one spot, putting her in her crib (that thankfully she hasn’t learned to climb out of yet). She just doesn’t understand it yet. It’s pointless…When does a child understand what time out is? I’m convinced Kam will never get it and she just thinks Momma is funny when she gets angry.

Potty training…you know I really wanted to start this. Kamryn tells me before and while she poops. “Momma I poop!” Okay, here we go!!! So I bring her to the toilet, sit her down and she’s SO scared! She cries! She looks horrified!! I try to reassure her….Kam I’m right here you’re not going to fall in! But I really don’t want to push it so I scare her and she never goes on the toilet…So I’ve kind of given up for now. Shes not even 2…it’ll happen when shes ready. Right?

Pretty much Kamryn runs the show…

Terrible two’s is code word for…I have no control over my toddler.

Yep, that about sums it up!

Kam-You’re lucky I love you!

Thankfully Miss Kam is cute and sweet and so so loving! She constantly is running up to me…hugging my legs and telling me she loves me! I get kisses all the time!! Actually she wants to kiss EVERYONE! So lovable!! Shes always asking and answering her own questions…for example…”Where’s Dada? Oh! Dada at work!!” When she falls down, or even trips slightly, she looks up at me (or whoever is near her) and says “You okay?” This is one of my favorites…aren’t I supposed to ask her that? She likes to ask everyone what they are doing. My heart explodes with everything cute that she does. I don’t know if my heart can take much more but I feel as though I love her more and more every single day!!

This just turned into another praise Kamryn blog post didn’t it…? Oh, well…I CAN’T HELP IT!! She’s awesome! I guess I’ll let all that other stuff slide for now….

My Favorite Fall Family Tradition…

Yesterday we took a trip to our favorite apple and pumpkin picking spot, Honey Pot Hill Orchard. 

Kamryn had so much fun and loved picking the apples all by herself!

Last year we got the cutest pictures of Kamryn with the pumpkins. I had a vision of every year doing pictures in front of those pumpkins to see how much shes grown…well easier said than done! It turned into me chasing her around, while Mike tried to snap a picture. It was probably very comical to people watching us. I gave up shortly into the wild goose chase….so here is our attempt at the annual pumpkin picture…

This is one of my absolute favorite fall traditions. I look forward to many years of doing this as a family and hopefully a better pumpkin picture next year!

Baby Fever

This blog is many things…most of the time it is my baby book but sometimes its my outlet. Today it is my outlet…I sat down to write thinking this post would go somewhere completely different but here it is…

Constantly running through my mind is the big question on when to have baby #2. And whether we like it or not, every once in awhile someone will throw in their opinion on if we should or not and/or when is the best time. I don’t know if people even realize they are doing it but trust that Mike and I catch on every single time! To be perfectly honest, I think we probably would’ve already had #2 if we were married when Kamryn was born. I’ve always dreamed of having my kids super close together. I’m talking two kids under the age of 2 and then possibly go on to #3 immediately. Call me crazy but this was my dream! But dreams sometimes get pushed to the side…we had a wedding to plan and I refused to be pregnant at my wedding!

My brother and I are 4 years apart and my sister was born10 years later. We’ve all always had a great relationship but I’d lie if I said I wasn’t always super jealous of my friends who had huge families and were only a year or two apart from their siblings. My brother is my best friend in the world and no one could ever deny that. People have always told my parents how great our relationship is. This relationship is due in huge part to the fact that our parents split up when I was only 7 and he was 3! If that doesn’t cause siblings to become closer I don’t know what will. My relationship with my sister is different but still so special. Its more like a mother daughter relationship. Shes awesome and I love her so so much. Shes the sister I prayed for since before my brother was born and I often find myself parenting her because I’m so much older. I cannot imagine not having either one of these two!! I still wish they were closer to my age…not going to lie.

I know Kamryn isn’t meant to be an only child. She has such a love for other kids and babies. It melts my heart and I cannot wait until the day when I see Kamryn with her little brother or sister. But when? 

I’ve played the game of “if it happens it happens….we aren’t trying but we aren’t not trying”. Yea right!! Who am I trying to fool? Myself? Its not working!! This has been going on for about 3 months and I found myself tracking my schedule, looking up ways to increase fertility, buying pregnancy tests and even crying when I found out I wasn’t pregnant. Did I mention I text Mike a million a few times a day with baby names? If I didn’t know any better I’d say someone is trying to get pregnant. Honestly, it scares me to say the words “we’re trying”. With Kamryn it was so easy to get pregnant. We are the typical surprise baby story of one time and your pregnant. Whoops! Silly me, I just assumed it would be easy to get pregnant. I know what they say about when you assume something…and now I’m kicking myself because I am the ass. I’ve heard to just relax and it’ll happen. So this month I’ve stopped tracking the schedule and am going to just let nature take its course. But relax? This is my family I’ve dreamed of forever and I really want Kamryn to be close in age to her little brother or sister. 2 1/2 years would be perfect so can I just get pregnant ummmm…..NOW?!?! How can I relax when this is such a life changing time?

Of course, I question everyday if Mike and I are ready for another baby. If we could love another baby as much as we love Kamryn? She was the easiest baby in the world and continues to be easy going. Our pediatrician makes sure to warn us every time she see’s us that Kamryn is the exception and no toddlers are like her. So, of course, that is a concern. What if we can’t handle a typical baby? What if the baby doesn’t sleep as well as Kamryn did and I still have to be up the next day with Kamryn after not sleeping? I know, God won’t give us anymore than we can handle. So maybe that’s what’s happening? Maybe I’m not pregnant because God doesn’t think we can handle this yet? I mean at the end of the day its really up to Him if we have a baby or not. But deep down in my soul I know we are ready and I know I could handle another baby in my everyday routine because that is what moms do! Kamryn would make a great big sister. She loves to be my helper and I know for a fact she would love to help with her baby brother or sister.

Okay, so the moral of the story is I have baby fever BIG TIME! I miss being pregnant. I actually look forward to labor and delivery again. Yes, I am one of those people who actually enjoyed the experience. Its one of those miracles that I could go through over and over again! Its worth every single bit of pain I went through, especially after having the epidural!! I was wheeled out of that room being very proud of myself at how I handled giving birth! Especially after hearing horror stories and watching countless episodes of a baby story. (Where do they find those people anyways?) My recovery was a different story but I am confident that will go better next time around. Best part is everyone says the second time L&D is so much easier!! Bring it on!! 

Well now that I let you into a secret we’ve been keeping to ourselves….at least I was honest. We will just have to wait and see what happens……

And here is a cute picture of Kamryn to hopefully  make you smile!