Our crazy life

It's been forever since I've updated this blog and I do apologize. However, life has been a bit crazy over here lately. We're still trying to get in the hang of things with both kids. I'm happy and proud to say that the transition has gone a lot better and smoother than I originally thought it would go. Of course, we have our moments --- like when both kids are crying and I want to pull my hair out. lol But for the most part, we're doing good! Rylee is doing pretty well and her extreme excitement with Jacob has pretty much passed. She's getting more and more use to Jake and hasn't drawn blood for about a week now. YAY! :) However, she did rip off Jake's umbilical cord. It was almost all dried up but apparently Rylee thought it shouldn't be hanging from Jake's belly and swiped it while I was changing him. Ahhhhh.... the love between siblings. :)

Jake's doing really well too. He's settled into his schedule quite nicely. This week, we started the self soothing process when going down to sleep. Man.... it can be rough at times. I hate this part of scheduling. I know it's the best for him and for us.....but I hate it. Thank goodness for Darrin being so strong. I'm sure if Darrin wasn't there - I'd give in for the most part. But thankfully, between D and I - we're strong enough to stand our ground and I'm proud to report that Jake will fall asleep on his own after only about 5-7 minutes of crying. I know that it won't be too long until we can lay him down and he'll just drift off to sleep by himself, like Rylee. At night, he's sleeping pretty good. He eats at 9pm, down at about 10, then he'll wake at about 3pm to eat again. I'm going to start waking him up to nurse at midnight, hoping that little bit will push him through the 3am feeding and allow him to sleep until about 6am. We'll see how it goes! Even though he sleeps a good stretch - I still have to get up to pump (since I'm nursing, I don't want to risk losing my milk) -- so I'm still just getting little 2 hour naps here and there. To say the least, I'm pretty tired. Any chance I get to rest a little bit (which isn't too much) -- I do. I'm working on getting both kid's nap schedule together so I can nap too! That would be wonderful! It's amazing though that you can function under so little sleep!

Our family has been very blessed this month. Not only were Darrin and I blessed with Jake - Darrin's brother, William and his wife Samantha welcomed their first child, William George III, just a week after Jake was born. "Willie G #3" was 6lbs, 3 oz, 20.5 inches long. Such a handsome and wonderful little guy! Next month, Darrin's cousin - Jeremy and Nicole- are welcoming their second child and first son, Wyatt, in this world. We're really excited for all the boys to be so close in age. I'm sure they'll be great friends! God is so good and we feel really honored to have all these new little boys in our life!

The other week, Darrin's mom, Brenda, had hip replacement surgery. It's something that has been coming for quite sometime and we were all glad that she finally got this much needed procedure. She's already out of a lot of pain than she had been in. She's staying at a friend's house who has an actual hospital bed for her and can really help take care of her during this time. We went and visited the other day and she had a blast watching Rylee run around (and get into everything... of course) and holding Jake. She's really excited to get back out there and run around with Rylee. We're really thankful that the surgery and recovery (thus far) has gone so smoothly. We thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers!

Another big thing that has been happening lately has to do with my job. If you don't know, I work at Curves for Women as an "In-house account manager". I've been there for over 7 years and absolutely love it. I am able to make my own hours and love getting out of the house for a little bit to be productive in the business world. As much as I love being a stay at home mom - I love to work. I love what I do, I'm good at it and I love going into the club. However, our owner has sold the business and I've been in limbo as to whether or not I'll still have my job once the new owner takes over. I finally heard from the new owner yesterday and found out that I will be there for about 2 months to train her how to do my job ... then she'll take over and let me go. It's a bittersweet thing for me. I already had been thinking that my time there was dwindling down since my life is crazy enough with the 2 little ones. However, I guess hearing that the new owner wasn't going to keep me was a bit hard to hear. I realized how much I really do love it there and how hard it's going to be to actually say goodbye to such a big part of my life. But, change is good. It's hard and sad at times... but good and necessary for a future. If things just stayed the same you'd never be able to grow and start new chapters in your life. However, it's certainly not easy. I have spent a good portion of my life at the club. The staff and members alike have shared in the biggest milestones of my life. I started when I was just out of highschool. They humored me as I got them to line-dance during their workout or encourage them to push the machines just a little bit harder. They accepted (and even liked!!) me being this young, overly-caffinated little girl trying to motivate women twice and three times my age. They supported me when Darrin was in Iraq. They encouraged me as I was getting through the last bit of college. They congratulated me when I graduated college. They offered advice, showered with gifts and celebrated when I married the love of my life. They rejoiced with us as we welcomed not only our first, but now our second child in this world. They've been with me through a lot. We've laughed and cried and hugged over everything. They're not just coworkers, they're not just clients -- they're my family and that club has a very very special place in my heart. Yes, change is indeed hard at times. But we must embrace change - it's the only thing you can count on. If there would be no change - there would be no butterflies. So although it's going to be tough to close this chapter in my life, I'm excited for the new chapter it'll open. You never know what God has in store just around the corner.

Well, that's just a little bit of everything that has been going on the past few weeks. Darrin is back at work for a couple weeks before being off again. Life certainly is crazy, very busy and absolutely wonderful!