Happy Birthday Jerek

We've been celebrating our birthday's together since I turned 13 and you came over to my first boy/girl birthday party in my backyard. I nearly shit myself when I found out you were attending, never mind the fact that you had a "girlfriend" at the time. Whats a girlfriend at the ripe age of 13 anyways. I was also in that real awkward 13 year old girl with braces, buck teeth and boobs too big for my body stage. hawwwwttt!


Lets recap the past few birthdays.


For your 25th birthday, I had a surprise party for you and you were actually surprised! I also managed
to not burst into a blabbering goon and spill all the details to you! Points for me!

For your 26th birthday I set up a small trip with your sister and brother-in-law which involved the mega bus, secret mimosas in McDonald cups and a trip to Chicago will with lots of booze and shopping!


For your 27th birthday....We found out the sex of our second little babe and celebrated with family.


I swear I keep trying to out do the birthday plans every year but it's getting hard and pricey! So it only makes sense that this year, for your 28th birthday we bought a house! NBD right? Right!

Since this house will basically be yours, mine and the kids birthday, Christmas, Easter, St. Patties day and Chinese New Years gift for the next 15 years I decided that this was a cheaper and possibly more sentimental gift. You have always been my number one fan, supporter and very best friend. You are the light that guides me through the darkness and the voice of reason. Without you I'd be lost, but with you I am EVERYTHING. Happy Birthday Jerbear!!!


Eight Month Update



WEIGHT: 18.5 lbs

HEIGHT/LENGTH: 27.5 inches

SLEEPING: Nothing has really changed. He wakes up around 1230/1am and comes into bed with us. Wakes up around 3am talking away while horizontal, jabbing me in the ribs and I turn him back around and he passes back out.  Around 630am he wakes back up and I feed him. On the weekends he will usually go back to sleep but on weekdays I keep him up and start the day.

EATING: I have to admit, I'm getting stressed out because I forget what Tracen was eating at this age.  Sky has bottles in-between his three "meals" but what I'm stressed about is I can't remember when you stop with the pureed food and start mashing things and letting them eat bigger chunks?! #momfail He's eating some puffs and Mum Mum's and doing really good "pincher fingering" them and putting them in his mouth and even holding the bottle.

FAVORITE MOMENTS: I honestly love hearing him talk to me at 3am. It's just me and him because Jer doesn't wake up for 99% of things. He's just so pure and cute and I swear he's telling me that if I'm up, he'll be up with me, or maybe I'm just imaging that's what he's saying? His laughs are so geniune and adorable!

LEAST FAVORITE MOMENTS: When he gets mad because his bowl of food is gone or when he's teething and nothing soothes him, breaks my heart! The poo, the constant shitting up his back is getting real old!

FIRSTS: Picking up puffs and Mum Mum's and eating them really well! Two bottom teeth at the beginning of this month and we went for our first double stroller ride when it was a random 50 degrees on March 10th, yes I wrote the date down, it's been living in hell for the past few months mmkkayy!

LIFE CURRENTLY : We closed on our very first house yesterday! It's pretty surreal. We started looking July 2012 and stopped July 2013 on my birthday, 20 day's before I had Skylor. It was the worst, most stressful thing and we had lost 13 offers and had looked at close to 150 houses. I was tired, confused and stressed. We said we would start looking again after the new year and after Sky was at least 6 months old. We started looking again and hit gold. There were so many reasons why we didn't get any of the 13 houses we put offers on and it's solely because there were other plans for us and we I just needed to be patient through it all. Looking back I would have looked at 300 more houses if I knew we would get this lucky! More to come on that in another post because right now, I should really be packing boxes!!! Oh did I mention that our rental house went up for sale at 1230pm one day and by 130pm there was a cash offer that our landlord had accepted? YEAH.

Pinterest Fail or Nail?| Carmel Apple Slices

I'd like to meet the person who came up with Pinterest. More importantly, I'd like to meet the people that make things like this Cake, or who plan these types of baby showers or, how this mom of four has time to take these kinds of photos.

When I first started Pinterest I would Pin things and then that was that. I swear I never went back and actually read what I pinned or tried making something on there! I guess I wasn't up to speed on how Pinterest really was supposed to work. Since then I've tired multiple recipes, attempted to knit things, clean things and make shit turn into sparkles, since that's what Pinterest is for.

The other night I finally put Sky down for the night. Jer was busy threatening Tracen to get out of the bathtub if he dumped one more cup of water on him [he did by the way]. There I was, craving something sweet but remembering it's only been two whole weeks on my lent stint that I can't give in. I looked through the panty and the fridge and saw the carmel dip I bought a couple weeks back and saw some Jonathan apples that needed to be eaten. BINGO, I knew what I was going to make, well attempt anyway. I've been dying to make these carmel apples for some time now.

I love seeing other photos of Pinterest fails or nails so I think I'm going to keep these posts coming when I attempt to make, bake, craft or clean something. Whether it works or not, I'll keep you informed. I do have to warn you though, Jerek is the maker and the baker here. I'm just really good at finding the ideas, getting everything we need and stepping on his toes and telling him what to do, even when he doesn't ask, imagine that!



Remember when I said that Jerek is the maker and the baker here, well I forgot to mention he is also the one that READS  and FOLLOWS directions. Hence why I decided using caramel dipping sauce was what I was supposed to do. I just "read" the pictures and figured it was fine...

W-R-O-N-G!!!

That was until the carmel wasn't hard after 8 hours in the freezer and it oozed everywhere whilst cutting the wedges. Since making this disaster creation, I've now read the directions and know that I should have melted caramel pieces and poured into said apples. You live and you learn right? Stay tuned as I try my luck at more Pinterest creations. Considering we just bought a house, I'd say I have a lot of time to F some things up!

5 Things About Motherhood

Friday was a good Friday in with the boys, everyone was behaved and went to bed rather easy. It's now Sunday and I feel the ever impending stress that Sunday brings to me. We spend Sunday evenings at Jerek's parents, cooking, drinking wine and watching shows while Trace gets some energy out and plays

Last Sunday was NOT a good Sunday. We ended up dragging Tracen out of their house and taking him home sending him straight to bed with no books. He was in a real mood all day and ended up hitting his cousin a few times. No matter what we talked about in time out he disregarded everything I said. So when he was mad at me and just walked by Griffin and smacked him I legit lost my shit. Threw my shoes and coat on, grabbed that kid and put him in the car with me while Jer apologized and grabbed our stuff and we headed home.  I was completely pissed, sad and honestly, embarrassed. I take it personally when he acts like this, like I'm not doing a good job teaching him that we don't hit. I know he was just in a mood but it was unacceptable to me. We got jammies on, had a hug and kiss and told him we can try to listen to mommy better tomorrow and that was that. I never want my kids to go to bed unhappy but I know I made the right move because the first words he said to me the next morning were "I so sowwy I didn't wisten to you yesterday mommy, I pomise I be better" and gave me a big hug and kiss. I melted. I knew I did the right thing because it had an impact on him and he remembered it the next morning.

I contemplated writing an ode to my children about Motherhood and all its glory but I realized that's a load of three-year-old-shit-in-diaper-that-for-some-reason-can't-be-done-on-the-toilet. {I digress}

I figured this would be a perfect time to explain to you new moms, friends that don't understand why I'm a hot mess a lot of the days or for you other moms just to read and shake your head thinking, 'I know exactly what you mean!'


1. {Alarm clocks are not needed}
Yes, it's true, I set 5 different alarms on my phone starting at 4:45am but I don't use them. If Tracen gets up before us, I usually hear a 'MOMMY???? MOMMMMYYYYYYYY...I'm donnnnnnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeee, get me outta hereeeeeeee!" {screaming from the room next door at the baby gate that he is "done sleeping".} We get it Tracen, YOU'RE UP! I know that I will miss this when he's a teenager and NEVER wants to wake up. For the time being it's relatively cute and effective.

2. {You're multilingual}
I use to wonder how the hell my aunt could understand what my cousins' were saying to her when he was two and now I get it. I could probably watch old home videos now and even tell her what he was saying! I often find myself telling family members or friends what Trace is saying after he speaks, they then look at me with a question mark above their head. I know exactly what he is trying to articulate.

3. {You are superwomen}
Some mornings I am holding or feeding a baby, applying mascara, turning on a TV show, wiping someone's ass and checking Instagram all on about 4 hours of sleep with one hand trying to pull my leggings on. Whoever told you you needed two arms to get through life was never a mother.

4. {The meaning of an hour}
Now this can go both ways. An hour can be an eternity or it can be a blink of an eye. If it's a Saturday morning and Tracen wakes up far too early, {530am is never good on the weekends} then bringing him into bed with you and having him watch an hour of Mickey Mouse while you snooze some more can be the difference of your whole mood for the day. You feel refreshed because you got an extra hour of sleep, like you can take on the world! Then there is an hour before you need to leave the house to drop the boys off at daycare and try to get to work on time. No matter how much you prepared the night before it is already 7am and you are still struggling to put new underwear on and wash off yesterdays makeup. Where did the last hour even go?

5. {You give so much and will never ask for anything in return}
I never quite understood what this meant until now. Most people give things to others and expect something back in return, it's human nature. But not when it's for your children. You've been awake for almost 20 hours. You were up the night before with a sick baby, you then head to work for 9 hours, come home to Tracen throwing toys at Sky's face, which forces you to give him a time out to think about why he shouldn't be doing such things. Tracen is asking for a TV show, something to drink, to eat.  Sky needs a new diaper and something to eat as well. Jer is calling because he's going to be late, there's nothing in the house to eat, you have mounds upon mounds of laundry to do, Etsy orders to fill, bottles to clean and you're pretty sure you smell like puke. All you want to do is to sit down on the couch, and wave your white flag. But you don't. Because you have even more to give of yourself to these children then you ever thought you had in you.


*I apologize if you're reading this and getting ready to go out to the bar [I'm sure you aren't though] because this is probably a buzz kill or better yet great birth control for ones not wanting such things in life! Hopefully this doesn't scare you into not having children because I promise the good ALWAYS outweighs the bad!*

A Day In The Life| Friday Nights

|On Wednesday's, we wear pink. 
And on Friday's we order pizza and do nothing|

It's true though. The Friday part. One of the days I look forward to the most are Friday's. Not because it's the weekend and I only have to be a mom and not a full-time working mom, but because I spend these nights with my boys. These days are when pizzas are eaten, good beers are drank and snuggles are given on demand.

I can fondly remember my Friday nights when I was in elementary school. TGIF was nothing short of amazing as a kid in the 90's. My dad was usually working a wedding and my mom was pretending that she knew how to cook [by ordering us pizza]. We were allowed to use TV trays and drink soda on the couch.  We watched almost 3 hours straight of TV and stayed up late. These were nights I will always remember. Nights that I couldn't get out of school fast enough!

I want Trace and Sky to remember everything but traditions are something I'm really working on with them. It's hard enough getting Tracen up and out the door on daycare days so I've figured out that on Fridays I can get him excited for Pizza Party Friday's, as well as myself!

If you're nosey like I am, you will enjoy this. Here's a glimpse of what my Friday's tend to look like.  I usually try and stay up late but end up falling a sleep on the couch while Jer watches some weirdo alien show.




March Goals

With the shortest month of the year behind us I do have to say, it's been a great one. The highlight of the month being on Feburary 14th, Valentines day, we put an offer in on a house and got it! The inspection went great and now we are just waiting on the appraisal that was yesterday but I have a good feeling this time around! More about the house and DIY's at a later time. Right now it's goal time.

Lets recap February Goals:
1. No booze Monday-Thursday (I FAILED MISERABLY! WHY DID I EVEN MAKE THAT A GOAL!)
2. Donate/Declutter the basement: (WORK IN PROCESS- WITH THE MOVE THIS WILL GET DONE!)
3. Potty Train Tracen (FAIL. HE'S BEEN SICK ON AND OFF SO WE HAVEN'T PUSHED IT)
4. Pay off credit cards, FOR GOOD (NEGATIVE. MINIMUM PAYMENTS WILL HAVE TO DO, WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE.)

Lets just say I did better in January. This past month I got pain old LAZY, not to mention it's March 7th and I'm just now setting goals for myself #FAIL.
1. New Food/Meal Ideas for Tracen- I will fully admit that I thought we were doing things the right way when I made all of Tracen's baby food to begin with. As the months went on I never really thought about giving him soup, rips, chinese food, things that we eat because I didn't think he would like it. I did a disservice to ourselves because now the kid is super picky.

2. Run- About a month ago I signed myself and Jer up to run the Detroit Marathon in October with my work. I know, I got real ballsy here! However, don't be fooled, we are running a relay team so there are 5 people per team. We will be running leg 4 which is 6.4 miles. Still a lot of running but nothing like a full marathon! We need to start running, training and getting our minds right. This will only happen if the weather decides to cooperate though!

3. Smoothie/Juice- I use to drink smoothies and juice at least every day and I totally fell off of it for a while now. I just need to get back in the routine of things because I sleep and feel the best when I'm juicing and drinking protein smoothies.

4. NO SWEETS!!!- this is what I gave up for lent and it will probably be my hardest goal. I gave up sweets of all kinds. No candy, no ice cream, no donuts, no cake, no cookies, no brownies, no cake pops, no cheese cake, no frosting, no chocolate. Basically all things that make my world go round.

I'm cutting it short for this month. No need for added daily pressure as we start to pack up our 3.5 years of life in our rental and make an exciting move into our first {owned} home.

As always, the months have flown by and this one will as well! With St. Patties day on the 17th and Jerek's 28th birthday on the 31st we have much to look forward too!