I love my...

When my Mom left and Jesse went back to school, I was left alone with 2, terrifying boys. How was I suppose to take care of these kids all day everyday without help? Well, clearly I figured it out, I just had to rely on things rather then people. When Landon was still using a bottle I will never forget getting-up and 2:00am filling a cup with hot water and then wait and wait and wait... all the while looking at my microwave and just thinking to myself just this once. It won't hurt to do it just this once.  So this time around I spent the $30 and got a bottle warmer. I love my bottle warmer, it is a true love that you can only experience at 2 in the morning. By the time I change Travis's diaper Jesse is coming back with a warm bottle. We are back, snug in our bed in only 20 minutes. Also our bottle warmer comes with cold compartment so we never have to go down stairs, we can just stumble to our bathroom and then stumble back to our room. It's extremely handy when Travis is starving and Landon is throwing a temper tantrum.

My extended family bought me a swing for Landon's baby shower. And of course Landon hated it. But, now that I have two kids I have no choice but to use it. I can't really put Travis on the floor or couch. Landon has the idea in his head that he would rather walk over or under things instead of going around them and any time I put Travis on the couch Landon will try to play catch with him. So the swing Landon hated has become Travis's safe haven.

I thought Penny was making a break through
and trying to be close to Travis. After closer
observation I realize that Travis was in
the only sunspot in the living room and she was
just trying to get in on the ray of sunshine too.

Bro bro

Travis was an emotional journey from the very start. Back in January when I found out I was pregnant with our second baby I immediately started to panic. I wasn't sure if I could actually endure another pregnancy like Landon's. Landon's pregnancy has made me terrified beyond reason to throw-up, and I knew it would be too good to be true if I didn't get sick with Travis. Well I didn't, but at 11 weeks along, Jesse and I were in Wal-Mart when I felt a rather large gush of blood. That night we went to the ER fully expecting me to be miscarrying the baby. At around 2:00 am I received an ultrasound to confirm that the baby was still alive but under a lot of stress. My placenta had partly torn away from my uterus. When the doctor came in she told me that I shouldn't have too high expectations for the baby to make it. After a lot of prayer and patience, he did make it and now he is here in my arms where I can keep him safe. I'll never forget when they threw him on my chest after he was delivered, I was both disgusted with all the after-birth and overwhelmed that I was holding my little miracle in my arms. There was no doubt in my mind that God does hear and answer our prayers.

When we introduced Landon and Travis to one another it didn't go over very well. Needless to say, Landon actually tried to kick him. After this initial meeting he continued to take his jealousy out on me and the baby. He would hit me and the baby just to make me mad. It was extremely hurtful to feel like my little Landon hated me. After two hard weeks Landon recently accepted Travis into the family. He will now acknowledge me as Mama and let me take care of him without putting up a fight. Instead of being a terrible two year-old he has become Mommy's little helper. It is important to Landon to feel involved; he has to help take Penny potty, put the dishes away, help give Travis baths, hold the bottle while Travis eats, and he likes to get things that the baby needs. I think Travis and Landon will be good friends when they're older.



Landon and Travis



Landon loves the water bottle I got from the hospital.
He wanted Travis to have one too.



Landon loves to feed Travis his bottles.

Landon helping dad clean the kitchen.

Landon helping mom put the grocery's away. He really likes to
put the water bottles in the fridge.

It has been a difficult jouney learning how to have 2 kids. I didn't expect it to change my everyday life so much. I can't clean as much as I would like and I feel like a slave to my children's tummys (and mine too!). I love being a Mom and I am learning how to be a Mom to both Landon and Travis.

Book of the Month

Young Countess Meliara swears to her dying father that she and her brother will defend their people from the growing greed of the king. That promise leads them into a war for which they are ill-prepared, which threatens the very people they are trying to protect. But war is simple compared to what follows, in peacetime. Meliara is summoned to live at the royal palace, where friends and enemies look alike, and intrigue fills the dance halls and the drawing rooms. If she is to survive, Meliara must learn a whole new way of fighting-with wits and words and secret alliances. In war, at least, she knew in whom she could trust. Now she can trust no one (http://www.goodreads.com/).

This is one of my top 3 favorite books. I first read this book when I was a sophomore in high school, since then I have read it every spring. Sherwood Smith has done an awesome job in creating a world that is easy to become apart of.