Laundry, Laundry, Laundry

Daily Life

If you are a mother, than your laundry situation is probably much like mine.. NEVER ENDING! I can do several loads a day and it seems like I am never caught up.

In our home we have a not so nice basement. Well, since we have moved in to our house I have been begging Dan to move the laundry upstairs. We have a little cut out in our dining room where we just seem to store random junk, which was the perfect size and location for first floor laundry. Now basement laundry isn’t such a huge issue, but where the hookups are located you have to stand on broken up concrete that is about 8 inches or so higher than the floor.. It’s just awkward and well.. I have fallen a time or two from the weird angle you have to stand to get into the washing machine and dryer. I’ve also twisted my ankle a time or two on it. Dan and I had started on the plumbing at one point probably 2 years ago, and it didn’t get to far and we had purchased just about everything we needed to move it. It just wasn’t getting done. Dan didn’t really know what he needed to do, or how to keep it to code. So I enlisted my dad to come over to help. A few days later he came over and they worked all day. Next thing I knew, I had first floor laundry! Seriously, it’s the most amazing thing ever! The kids love doing the laundry with me now, and are super helpful.

Now if only I could manage to pack away all the laundry I wash!

 

 

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The photo I uploaded to Facebook as soon as it was completed!

 

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Mabel checking the laundry in her wonder woman undies ❤

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Princess Morgan of course!

Had to throw in a few photos from the next few days too.

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The total opposite of what normally happens at nap/quiet time with these 3! Halle wide awake, and Morgan and Mabel passed out!

Easter Egg Fun

Daily Life, Holiday Fun

Every year we head to my parents house to dye Easter eggs, and the girls just love it! This year Halle was big enough to join in on the fun. Her favorite part though was dipping her fingers in each color of dye and tasting it. Like one nasty taste of vinegar wasn’t enough haha!

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Mabel’s Birthday Celebration! {3 years old}

Daily Life, Mabel

We kept it pretty simple this year for the girls’ birthdays. We stayed in for Mabel’s birthday, and had fun at home. Her grandparents even popped over to wish her a happy birthday.

Mabel was a special little girl and got to pick out a cake from the store! She even chose her favorite color blue for the frosting.

If you know my Mabel you know this phrase very well.. “my favorite color blue” lol and you will know just how she says it with her lack of r’s.

Growing up we always had the tradition of the birthday child picking dinner, of course I had to bring that tradition into my own home.

Mabel knew exactly what she wanted.

Salad!

Her most favorite food, but of course has to be paired with ranch dressing.

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I can’t believe how much this sweet little girl has grown since we brought her home. She is so smart, and sassy. We always tell her she is lucky she is so stinking cute.

She definitely keeps life interesting, and we just love her so incredibly much!

Happy 3rd Birthday baby girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday Mabel!

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We had to be at the hospital early. It was still dark out when we arrived.

The nurse handed me a gown. I changed and got into the uncomfortable bed. This is not where I wanted to spend the next few nights. The nurse comes back into the room, telling me she needs to go over some questions with me. Every time she leaves the room, I begin uncontrollably sobbing. I was so scared to have another c-section. Especially the way the first one went. Once the nurse walked back in, I’d stop. Pretend I wasn’t scared. Everything would be fine. Then again as soon as she left I was sobbing again. Not sleeping the night before had a lot to do with how I was feeling.

It felt like time was going so slow. When would I get to meet my baby girl?

Finally they rolled me back to the operating room. The mood in the room was much different then it was when I was in there for Morgan’s c-section. Every one was cheerful, and so kind. The anesthesiologist told me to let him know if I started feeling dizzy, and he’d make it better for me. I told them how I could feel most everything with my previous c-section. They do this thing where they poke your skin to see if you can feel it to ensure you are properly numbed. I couldn’t feel a thing, but I was still hesitant. The anesthesiologist asked how I was feeling. I said I was pretty good. I just wanted to meet my baby. He replied by telling me that they had already begun.

Really? They had already started cutting me open?

They let Dan come in the O.R. by me. I was so happy to see his face. He sure does look good in scrubs! Just a few seconds later I heard the best sound in the world.

Mabel’s sweet cry!

Before I knew it, tears were streaming down my face. They handed Mabel over to Dan and for the first time ever I saw my beautiful daughter. The first thing I noticed was how big she was! 9lbs  and 21 inches. I was overjoyed, and I could tell Dan was too. He has a soft spot for little babies. All of those fears, and what ifs were gone. The moment I heard her cry I knew everything was going to be okay. I couldn’t wait  to get back to my room and hold her.

Before I knew it I was done in the operating room, and they were wheeling me back to my room where Dan and Mabel were waiting for me. We spent the next few hours, just us three. By about 11 a.m. I was ready for Morgan to meet her new sister. Dan went home and picked her up where my mom was staying with her. She slept in so she hardly even realized we weren’t home. I was so excited to see my big girl. It was love at first sight, Morgan loved her sister.

We were now a family of 4 and life was perfect!

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3 Years Ago Today… {4/10/11}

Daily Life, Looking Back

The day started out bitter-sweet. I made sure not to take a single moment for granted. Tomorrow would forever change my life.

We spent most of the day playing outside with Morgan. We colored with chalk, played hopscotch, and ran around the backyard. Well, as much as a woman who is 41 weeks pregnant can.  I had this nervousness going through me the whole day. Had I loved Morgan enough these last 2 years? Would I have enough love for another child? Was adding another child to our lives a mistake?  Would my planned c section be uneventful? Would something terrible happen, and leave both of my children motherless? That last question was the one that was really tearing me down.

Would something go wrong?

Even though we had a wonderfully fun day, I still was filled with fear.  After we tucked Morgan into bed for the night, Dan and I began cleaning the house. We cleaned it from top to bottom ensuring everything was spotless for our new babies arrival. This thought was stuck in my head that everything must be perfect. Dan nor I slept at all that night. We just cleaned.

The bags were packed, it was time to go meet our sweet baby Mabel.

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Self Portrait Sunday

Self Portrait Sunday

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Generally I don’t share many photos of myself. I don’t even have many photos of myself since my children were born. I am always behind the camera, never in front and that is usually how I like it. The plan now is to start sharing at least one self-portrait a month, whether its like this one of me by myself, or even maybe me and someone else. I want my children to be able to have photos to remember me by, to show their children, or grandchildren. Operation self-portrait has begun!

P.S. This is not my natural eye color lol its just colored contacts 😉 Really they are hazel.

Finally Some Warm Weather

Daily Life

It feels like this winter has been dragging on, and with all of us suffering from cabin fever it was AMAZING to get outside!

Halle came over and spent the weekend with us too, which both Morgan and Mabel loved. I truly enjoyed it too. Not only do I love getting to see my niece, but Morgan and Mabel just seem to fight less when there is another kid in the house. They had someone else to play with instead of each other, and then they also got some time to themselves while the other was occupied playing with Halle.

We spent the entire weekend outdoors, and it was so fun. Come Sunday night we were all exhausted from all the fresh air. Even Halle was ready, and wanting to go to bed early. _ABP6827 _ABP6834 _ABP6836 _ABP6843 _ABP6855 _ABP6857 _ABP6867 _ABP6874 _ABP6885 _ABP6887 _ABP6933 _ABP6965 _ABP6976 _ABP6994

And now we are back to gloomy cold weather.. Until we meet again warmth..

An Uneventful Sunday

Daily Life

For most people Mondays are hectic, for me its Sunday. Sundays mean I have tons of laundry, and prep to do for the week ahead. Sundays mean my weekend is over, and a busy week will be starting tomorrow. However on Sundays we spend time as a family whether it is busy work around the house or cuddling watching cartoons. We are together, just us.

Here is a peek at our day. Mabel requested most of the shots I took which is too funny considering when I want to do a shoot with her, she is not all that interested.

 

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Mabel said she wanted pictures of her sleeping, so she laid down and pretended to be asleep. Mabel’s faces are way too cute and silly. Then of course Morgan had to join in on the fun.

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We did a lot of laundry and the girls were very helpful. They even helped fold socks for the first time which they surprisingly LOVED! I couldn’t believe it.

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She told me that Dan’s sock fit her, and tried it on.

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Then we ran out of matches, and Morgan was very sad.

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Until she realized she could juggle the sock balls!

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I am pretty happy about enlisting the children in helping with the laundry, it made it much more fun for me as well.

Typically I just do the laundry once everyone’s in bed and I stay up late completing it.

I think I have a new plan for our Sundays now.