2016 Year In Review

(photo credit: Monroe Fox Photography)

Last year I shared a video recapping the year. Today you get a post. I'm full up to my ears of editing and one more video might push me over the edge.

20 Questions: 6 Years Old

(birthday sign at school)

For the last few years I've been asking Tracen the same questions on his birthday and today, today he turns 6. So here we are, once again, wondering where the time has gone, and me trying not to ugly cry while thinking about how proud we are of our not so little boy.

December 21, 2016 || 6 years old

1. What's your favorite color? Rainbow, I love all the colors!
2. What's your favorite toy? Bluey- (stuffed animal he got w/Grammy)

3. What's your favorite fruit? Strawberries

4. What's your favorite TV show? Kai Lan and Max and Ruby

5. What's your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Mac and Cheese

6. What's your favorite outfit? Jammies

7. What's your favorite game? Trouble

8. What's your favorite snack? Reese and Oreos

9. What's your favorite animal? Monkey, Orcas, Dolphins and Elephants

10. What's your favorite song? Stressed out (21 Pilots) & Whip Nae Nae

11. What's your favorite book? Baby Animals (all about baby animals book)

12. Who's your best friend? Eli- he was my first friend in Pre-k & I miss seeing him

13. What's your favorite cereal? Cherrios

14. What's your favorite thing to do outside? Swimming

15. What's your favorite drink? Juice

16. What's your favorite holiday? All of them! It's just so exciting

17. What do you take to bed with you at night? Blankey and Bluey

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Butter bread, Strawberries, Waffles and Pancakes

19. What do you want to eat for dinner for your birthday? Mac and Cheese

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a helper, I want to help people 

A lot of things are still the same from the last few years but its also nice to see the person he's shaping into be. Today Trace had his holiday party at school so Jer and I took the day off work to be there all together. 

Last night we baked and frosted lots of cookies to take in and share with both Kindergarten classes. Ending the night with some mac and cheese for dinner, per his request, and some ice cream sundaes with cousins and friends!

Happy 6th birthday Tracen! Always remember to stay true to your self, let your vibrant personality shine through and always be kind to others. You will go so far in life, I can't wait to see what this next year brings for you!

If you want to see his answers from his 5 year old questions and 4 year old questions here ya go!

Sharing a Room

When Tracen turned 2 we specifically got him bunk beds as his new big boy bed. I was pregnant with Skylor and knew I wanted them to share a room one day.

I use to beg my mom for bunk beds growing up. She always said fine but you will have to share a room with your brother. I never liked that idea so I always passed when she made that comment.

Ever since we moved Tracen out from his crib and into his bed he's been in our bed 90% of the time. If he sleeps through the night in his own bed we know it's because he was exhausted from the day before.

Skylor is three and a half is still going strong sleeping in his crib. When we moved into our new house he was about 8 months old and strictly bed shared or co-slept  next to us. I had him in his crib for the occasional nap but he never actually slept in his crib. When we moved I think Jerek said something like 'we should probably put Sky in his own bed now right? Don't you want to have the bed to ourselves again?' I most likely looked at him and laughed because it wasn't like Tracen really slept in his bed, so who cared if there was one or two in our bed, the more the merrier in my opinion!

If it's not broke, don't fix it. That's how the saying goes right?

Anywho.

Sky has never crawled or fallen out of his crib, he loves his bed! When he was little we would be in the living room and he'd point to the ceiling and say night night, meaning he wanted us to take him upstairs to his room and put him to bed. Yes, my child use to ASK me to go to bed.

You can see why I'm having a hard time saying bye to the crib.

Sky will stay up for an hour or more after we put him to bed and play PJ masks with his stuffed animals. I'm sure you've seen on Snap or a vlog where I'm standing outside his bedroom recording him yelling "you'll never get me PJ Masks! mauhhahahahah"  Some nights he goes to bed with a couple plastic dinosaurs, a huge monster truck and a couple books.

So many parents are all like 'you let him bring toys to bed? It's bedtime though, he needs to sleep'

I will politely let them know that my kid has been sleeping through the night since he was a few months old and usually at 12 hours a day with a 2-3 hour nap. Ask me again if I care that he brings the whole damn toy box to bed.

No. No I do not care!

Jerek bought the boys new bed sheets for Christmas and when I asked him what size he got Skylor (crib or twin) he said Paw Patrol and then I think whispered twin and held his breath. He knows I'm dreading the change from the crib to a bed.

I know I know, it's probably time but I literally can't let go of this kid. Sometimes I pick up 18 month old clothes and put them in my cart at Target and convince myself that's his size. I bought an Ergo for $8 at a mom to mom sale the other week (in mint condition, a steal really!) and carried Sky around the farmers market in it.

I'm a lunatic, I get it.

I've been going back and forth on when we will transition him to the new bed and here are the options I'm dealing with.

1. Take bunk beds apart (Tracen refuses to sleep on the top) and put them side by side in Tracen's current room and make them a new room (Tracen's is bigger) New paint, decorations etc. It would be THEIR new room together, the big boy's room.

2. Take bunk beds apart and put one in Sky's room. Redo his room to make it a big boy room with new decorations, paint, etc.

3. Buy another king size bed and make our bedroom one big old bed-sharing room for all of us to sleep in and never let them grow up.

I personally like option 3, Jerek, not so much.

Now here are my concerns with these options.

1. I STILL have to sit in Tracen's room till he passes out at night or he won't go to sleep. As long as I do, it takes about 15 min after I say good night and he's out. If I add Sky into the room he would stay up for probably 45 min after lights out and play. Which I don't care about but this would probably keep Tracen up, which would then keep me in there till they both passed out, which would then cut into my time watching Shameless spending time with Jerek.

2. If we put Skylor in Tracen's room I don't know if Tracen will get all crazy and say this isn't YOUR room, this is MY room and then resent me for it and go crazy

3. Will I be mentally stable if this all goes well and the kids stop coming into our bed at 2am and will you find me on the floor of their new room sleeping with them.

As you can see I'm clearly insane and we should probably just keep things the way they are. I promise to stop buying infant carriers for kids that are half my height and we can all move on with our lives.


Sincerely,

Lost-and-confused-on-how-you-let-your-kids-grow-up-but-still-try-and-stay-semi-sane

Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids

This will be our 6th Christmas as parents and it's totally different as a parent than as a kid but honestly, just as fun if not better as an adult! I don't think my 10 year old self would have agreed with me back then though.

This year we decided to get the boys their own Kindles. I have gone back and forth on this for probably the last year but honestly the breaking point, pun intended, was when Skylor dropped my phone and broke the screen a couple weeks ago at Home Depot.

Decision made.

Catch up

The white noise in blog land has been heavy lately huh. When I say the last few weeks have been busy I mean THEY.HAVE.BEEN.BUSY!

But honestly, don't you hate when people say that, like DUH WE'RE ALL FREAKING BUSY!

So sorry for saying that.

Moving on!

The shop has been crazy lately but its been amazing, no real complaining there! If you are following on Snap or IG stories you'll know that because I usually chat with you while I'm in the basement filling orders. A HUGE thanks to everyone for all the love from Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday, that shit has been NUTS!

I've been busy printing shirts, wrapping merchandise and trying to get to the post in time for last pick ups. Doing this all while working a full-time, attempting to be a great mom, wife and friend has been a little tricky. Sorry to any friends or family in advance, or I guess not so in advance. I suck.

Oh and as if I wasn't already overbooking myself this month; something I love to do, I decided to do Vlogmas over on my YouTube channel, OUI! Vlogmas is vlogging every day in December (or some just do 25 days, but I'm doing the whole month).

I've been nostalgically watching old videos and missing all the vlogs I had time to do. There's been a lot of life changing things that have been happening to friends and family close to us and it's been pulling on my heart lately. I wanted to make sure I'm getting back to where I started, the roots, the recording of our everyday lives. It started so casually as documenting my life living from the very beginning and I feel like I've been pulled in so many directions (while good directions, but all different ones) that I haven't been capturing nearly as much as I'd like to.

So this month I'm bringing it back to the basics.

Didn't Brittany say that? Maybe not.

This weekend we went to the tree farm we went to last year and picked out a cute little baby tree with some of Jerek's family. I dunno why but I wanted a smaller one this year. This however resulted in the tree stand we already had being too big for the little tree we got and Jer had to DIY that shit, nothing a tree skirt can't cover!

We are 16 days away from Tracen turning 6 and my mind body and soul just can't handle. I guess that's another post for another day though. Last night after bath time the boys were running around screaming, playing and laughing hysterically. I tried to reel myself back from being a party pooper and making them calm down before bed because they were so cute and having fun. They were acting the way I had dreamed about years and years ago when I wanted to be pregnant again. Laughing and playing together like best friends do.

Then the noise stopped and we found this. Sky was begging to sleep in bubbas (Tracen's) bed.

Before I get too sappy and start crying I bid you farewell for today that is!

Don't forget, if you want to see what we're doing ever day this month come over and watch us in real life, or as real life as 7-10 min of a 24 day hour can be!

Click HERE to watch the first 4 days in case you've missed it.

xx Chel