Enjoy it because it goes fast?

It’s totally cliche I know. “Enjoy it, because it goes by so fast.” Every parent has heard those words more times than they could ever count. But as cliche as it is, its true. It flies by!! I just got the information to register Kamryn for kindergarten and it hit me like a ton of bricks. This is it…she’s no longer a baby. She is officially a big kid, going to big school in the fall and thats it. She’ll be in school until she leaves home and goes off to college. 

So as this new chapter of parenthood hits me I am clinging tightly onto these moments with Kensington. Having 3 kids means this is probably going to be the last time I have these moments. This very well may be the last time I get to kiss squishy cheeks, rub my finger tips through fuzzy hair, and listen to those sweet baby squeaks and cries. November 11th was probably the last time I would experience meeting my child for the first time, looking deeply into each others eyes like we had known each other forever. This is more than likely the last time I’ll have late night feedings, which people tell you are going to be hard but are so so special. The whole world seems to be asleep as you sit there in silence with your newborn and study every little feature of their face. 

I’m ready to move on….I think. It’s still hard for me to mutter the words “We’re done.” Truth is, we very well could be done, we probably are done. Three kids is still considered normal, four kids is pushing it. I don’t know that four kids is for us. Which makes me really sad. Not because I feel like I’m missing something. If Kensington is my last baby I am more than fulfilled. It’s just sad that this is the last time I get to experience this beautiful part of life. So, I am making sure to soak it all up and enjoy every single second of it. Before I know it 5 years is going to fly by and Kensington is going to be going to kindergarten. I have no idea how I’m going to be feeling then. Where we will be or what we will be doing. So, for the first time in my life I’m not going to worry about whats coming next but I’m going to enjoy now. Enjoy Kamryn at 5, and her last few months of preschool. Enjoy Logan at 2, and his last months home with me before he starts preschool in the Fall. Enjoy Kensington as my baby, and soak up all her baby-ness. Treasure every single milestone we are about to hit before her first birthday. 

This time with my babies small is flying by faster than I ever knew possible….

I’m going to do my best to enjoy it!

The Flu & The Blizzard of 2015

IT’S FRIDAY!!! 

TGIF!!!!!

I am SO ready for the weekend. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. 

Last week on Tuesday morning Kamryn woke up with a temp of 103 and a really bad cold. She progressively got worse over the day and into the night so I took her to the pedi Wednesday morning. They tested her for strep and the flu. Our pedi came flying back into the room and told me that her flu test lit up like a Christmas Tree and all three kids had to be put on tamiflu immediately to protect Kensington. Yes, Kamryn got her flu shot and STILL got the flu. I no sooner walked in the door, where Mike was home with Logan, and Logan was taking a nap in the family room. (Which is so not like him) I went over to give him a kiss and be was burning up. Took his temp and it was 104. GREAT! 2 down…who BOTH got the flu shot.  Then Lexi came home from school and she too wasn’t feeling well either, yes, she ALSO got the flu shot. Lex had midterms the following day, so there was no way she could stay home. She just had to push through. Luckily, she only had a half day Thursday for her midterms so she went and then stayed home Friday. Thursday night I was getting ready for bed and started feeling feverish and I knew! Dammit! I have it too. Oh, right….I got the flu shot as well. We had no choice, we had to call in help because there was no way I could be in such close contact with Kensington feeling like I did and Mike couldn’t take time off work. So, my mother in law came up and helped us! I got two full days of rest and was feeling much better by Sunday! The kids bounced back rather quickly as well and thankfully Kensington and Mike never got it! The two people in the house who didn’t get the flu shot stayed healthy. FABULOUS!

Monday afternoon into early Wednesday morning we got 31 inches of snow. Yes, THIRTY ONE inches of snow!! It was crazy windy, like 75 mph winds at one point. Insanity! Clean up was not fun. Poor Mike, shortly after he starting clearing our really big driveway the tractor, with the snow blower attachment, broke or so we thought. So he had to stop. He thought he was going to have to shovel the whole thing but a neighbor came by with his snowblower and helped him out. As luck would have it, he decided to try the tractor one more time and it worked. So Mike helped out another neighbor with their driveway. This is one of the reasons I love our neighborhood, probably the main reason. We have amazing neighbors!! We don’t hang out much but whenever someone needs help we are always there to help. It’s really a nice safe feeling. We got really lucky when we found this house almost 4 years ago. It’s in a town 45-60 minutes away from all our family and friends and in a neighborhood we knew nothing about. We had taken exactly one drive through the neighborhood the day we saw the house. Mike and I just got this cozy feeling when we walked through the door and knew it was our home! We lucked out BIG TIME! I remember after we moved in slowly neighbors kept coming over and introducing themselves and every neighbor was just as nice as the last. I’m getting off track here. Mike and I always say we want to move…but I have to say, it would be really hard to leave this little corner of the world behind. We really do love our neighborhood and neighbors.

So, needless to say I’m exhausted. We’re still technically getting over the flu…lots of coughing and sniffles, and then the blizzard of 2015. It was A LOT! I was happy when Kamryn had school Thursday (it was canceled tuesday and wednesday, due to the storm), it was definitely time to get back into our normal routine. I am so done with the winter!! Yet, it feels like it just started. This storm did me in, it was enough snow to last all winter! My kids have been sick non-stop, I’m just over it! If I could pick my corner of the neighborhood up and move us to a nice sunny warm place, I so would!!! 

Here’s hoping we all stay healthy and we don’t get another storm like that any time soon!

Fingers crossed!!!

Some Updates

I went in for an ultrasound yesterday with the high risk doctor. It was for a growth scan. We had to do this due to me having Kensington and the new baby so close together. The high risk doctor explained to me that when you have two pregnancies back to back, before your body fully recovers, your baby is at risk for a lower birth weight. So, we had one scan yesterday and will have another one in a month to check her size again. I’m so extremely happy to report that the baby is growing absolutely perfectly. She’s 2 lbs 6 oz right now and is measuring right on track. They actually, surprisingly enough, are now worried she may end up too big. Which is actually comical to me because I’ve only gained 9 lbs and I’m 29 weeks pregnant. They say I’m hiding it very well and its typical in fourth pregnancies for mothers to hide it very well. Logan was my biggest baby at 8 lbs 3 oz and back then they swore to me he would be no bigger than 7 lbs. They said since I have such a petite frame (I think they are just being nice, I’m not as petite as I once was) they don’t want her too big. So, we’ll see! I’m just very happy that all is good and she is perfectly healthy! She’s also cute as a button! She reminds me so much of Kensington when I saw her during ultrasounds. Mike wasn’t able to come with me because he was at work but he agreed – she already looks like a Sass kiddo!

She’s facing you straight on here

I’m an oversharer by nature, thanks Mom. No really, it has to be hereditary. Actually, now that I think of it my dad is an oversharer as well. I was doomed from the start! I just can’t keep big news to myself. I also don’t have to remind you that I struggle just a tad with making decisions. Due to my oversharing, you know this all too well. What can I say? Thats just Kristen.

But you know whats funny? When you throw out all your silly “rules” that you foolishly created yourself, naming a baby becomes pretty easy. I make things so much more complicated than they have to be. Are you keeping track, I’m an oversharer, an over analyzer, and I make things more complicated than they have to be….lets add self destructive to that list. Okay, back to the point. Recently, I kinda just sat back and said to myself: if I just picked a name I loved, didn’t worry about what everyone else thought, didn’t worry about it going perfectly with my other kids names, didn’t worry about using a family name, etc etc….say I treated it as if this was my first baby, what would I come up with? I thought about it over and over and every time I came to the same conclusion “Eliot McKenna”. You know we’ve always loved Eliot and McKenna is a name we’ve always loved as well. I just love how they sound together. Also, because we are extremely corny Mike and I love that McKenna holds both mine and Mikes first initials and they are both capital letters in the name McKenna. And just like that is became so clear to me, that cute little baby girl in the ultrasound pictures, her name is Eliot McKenna.

The official Sass lineup … Kamryn Alexis, Logan Michael, Kensington Bree and Eliot McKenna. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

When I think back to my pregnancy with Kensington, the weeks following her birth, finding out unexpectedly I was pregnant so soon and then finding out she was a girl it all makes sense. God is constantly reminding me He has a hand in all of this….and if not God someone is looking over me swaying my decision one way or the other. I am one of those people constantly praying and asking God to show me signs on what’s the right thing to do. Mike and I always said we would have a daughter named Eliot. My heart knew we would have an Eliot but shortly after we named our third baby that everything in me was telling me she wasn’t “Elliot”. This was so extremely weird and almost sad to me because I just KNEW she was our last baby. When she was about 2 months old and legally Kensington, a name that is TOTALLY her, I kept getting this overwhelming feeling that we were not done having babies. That we would have another one. Here I was, 2 months postpartum and my mind is on the potential of another baby. Not that I wanted one anytime soon it was just that feeling of “this isn’t my last baby”. So, Mike and I talked about it, realized we were nowhere near ready and decided to revisit that thought in 2 years. 5 months later I found myself staring at a positive pregnancy test and extremely shocked. We joked that if this baby ended up being a girl God was telling us she was Eliot. But, lets be serious…we knew we were having a boy. HA! When we found out it was a girl we both just looked at each other with the biggest smiles and laughed and laughed. We started to talk names – Everly, Finley, Berkley, Atley…nothing seemed just right. I searched high and low for the perfect family name for a middle name, nothing stuck. Something kept bringing me back to Eliot but I felt silly that my mind kept going there. But, when I stopped overthinking it I realized Eliot is her name and chances are Eliot was always meant to be her name. This was meant to be, I truly believe it was. As silly as that may sound…we were truly always meant to have our Eliot. Kensington was meant to be Kensington and Eliot was meant to be Eliot.

((and no, we won’t be calling her Elli))

And if nothing else….what a naming story for our little girls, huh? 

We can’t wait to meet her! Just 10 weeks and 4 days left … but whos counting?!?

Kensington Bree at 2 Months Old

Kensie is now 9 lbs 2 oz and 22 1/2 inches long

Kensington continues to be the best. baby. ever.  Seriously! She’s still sleeping great. I usually put her down around 9-10 and she sleeps until 5-6 the next morning. It’s wonderful! She’s eating great and still napping A LOT during the day! Girl loves to eat and sleep! Kensie is so laid back and spends majority of her day just sitting back and watching the chaos around her. She’s all smiles 95% of the time! She barely ever cries, only when she’s hungry or tired. She gets so much attention and love, she’s such a spoiled little baby!

I have to be honest, this little one makes me question my decision to have her be our last baby. Yes, she’s only 2 months old, so a little premature to even be thinking about this yet. But she definitely has me thinking maybe, someday, a loooong way away, just one more! We’ll see! (My dad is rolling his eyes right now.) I’m not saying yes and I’m not saying no. The finality of completing our family scares me just a little bit. I do worry about Logan being a middle child and better yet, how cool would it be to give him a brother?!? So, at this point I’m not ready to shut that book just yet. Good news is, we have plenty of time!! We’re only 28 and 29 so my child bearing years are far from over. I also DO NOT want to name another baby any time soon!!! I’m not very good at it, as you all know!

For now, we’re excited to enjoy this one and watch her grow. She’s so much fun!! She already has a huge personality and has me laughing and smiling all day long. 

We love our Kensie-Girl so much! Happy 2 months Baby Doll!!

My morning...

Things are about to get REAL on the Sass family blog. Really real! Here is how my day started….

I was awoken by my sister (who is living with us, if you didn’t know). She’s standing over me while I am fast asleep on the couch. (Yes, on the couch. Kensie woke up last night and after I fed her we both fell asleep down in the family room. The exhaustion is real people!) But anyways, back to my morning. Alexis is standing over me saying “Kristen! Kristen! Kamryn wet the bed and I overslept!” It’s 6:20. I tell her to hurry and I get up to help Kamryn. From all the commotion, Kensie is now stirring. I go upstairs, let Kam know its okay….she gets really upset when that happens but lets face it…sometimes it happens! I clean Kamryn up, change her clothes, remove the wet sheets and have her come downstairs and lay on the couch. I get her all set up with some milk, turn on nick junior and let her know that yes, its morning even if its still dark out. Alexis runs around like a crazy person rushing to get out of the house in 20 minutes and I bring the linens down to the washing machine in the freezing cold basement. I then grab Kensie to change her and get her morning bottle made. 

I have to say having my sister live with us has been nice. She gets herself up every morning at 5:30am to get the bus by 6:45, she’s home by 2:25 everyday and is always (somewhat) willing to lend a helping hand when I need it. She’s a freshman in high school so yes, in a way I do have a “built-in-babysitter”. Pay back….I was that for her too!

Lexi is in a horrendous mood, I tell her to quit it. She asks for a ride to the bus stop, I say no. She then seems to be taking her time so she does indeed miss the bus. “HURRY UP!!!” This is typical…..she made it to the bus stop and school on time! All is good!

I get to changing Kensie and she’s COVERED! It’s everywhere! Perfect! Clean her up and get her a bottle. It’s not even 7am! I joke with Mike often that my life revolves around poop. It really does…between 3 kids and 2 dogs, its a lot! I should add in the dogs are being let in and out a bazillion times throughout this story! I just am not adding in every single time. Gretzky also took it easy on me this morning and didn’t have any accidents. Must be because he’s been in and out no less than 5 times in the past hour!

Where’s Mike you might ask? Oh, sound asleep upstairs! In his defense he works late and didn’t get home until well after midnight. 

I get myself and Kensie settled and I’m ready to feed her when I hear “MAMA!!??” coming from down the hall. Oh! It’s Logan…Great! Another diaper to change. I go in to get him. Logan is really cranky in the morning. Much like his dad, the boy just doesn’t really like mornings and he especially doesn’t like it when I grab him out of his crib and immediately change him. I don’t understand why he’d rather sit in a wet diaper and obviously I don’t let that happen. So, I wrestle him (he’s super strong by the way), wonder when we can start potty training, change his diaper and walk with him into the kitchen where just like every morning he opens the freezer and asks for a waffle and milk.  Guess its time for breakfast!

I make the kids waffles and fill milk cups. I guess I should admit, I propped up Kensie’s bottle and she’s drinking it in her boppy at this moment. Yeah, I know a big no no but I’m one person, being pulled in 3 different directions, we’re pressed for time and it works when I’m in a pinch. Once the kids are all set with their milk and waffles I grab Kensington and burp her and feed her the rest of her bottle. I stare into her big blue eyes, soak up that quiet moment of baby bliss and remind her that she’s not allowed to drive me as crazy as her big brother and sister.

After I finish feeding Kensie she falls back to sleep and now I have to get Kamryn dressed for school. As usual, we disagree about what boots she’s going to wear. But we finally come to a decision and now its time to brush teeth and do her hair. Logan comes too and asks to brush his teeth as well. So I brush some hair and some teeth, throw a bow on top of Kamryns head, of course. I wash my face, throw on a little powder and mascara, to hide the dark circles under my eyes, throw my hair up in a messy bun and find a clean shirt and jeans so I look somewhat presentable. My life is SO glamorous! Now its time to wake Mike up so I can bring Kamryn to school. 

I get Mike up and he comes downstairs to hang with Logan as I get Kamryn and Kensie bundled up for the ride across town to Kamryn’s preschool.

We make it to school right on time and then I go get my iced coffee with a sigh of relief!

Thats what a typical morning is like here. It’s fast paced and just a little crazy with 3 kids 5 and under. Also, I should mention its LOUD! I really do hit the ground running, but I truly wouldn’t have it any other way. I love every minute of it even when I’m ready to tear my hair out…I’ve learned that if I count to 10 I can usually laugh it off. I’m going to miss mornings like this and I’m happy to know that while it might get easier with experience they won’t be over for quite a few years. It doesn’t even seem that crazy when I write it down but when you’re in the thick of it you’re wondering whats going to happen next to set you back? I remember the days when I could hit snooze 3-4 times before I got up, eat a real breakfast, take a shower and actually do my hair and make up. Now its, lets just make sure we make it on time and don’t look homeless! 

I really do love being a mom. I’m so thankful that God trusts me to be Kamryn, Logan and Kensie’s mom. I wouldn’t trade this crazy, non-glamorous, simple life for anything in the world!