Perfect Parenting

It's a Sunday afternoon and of course that means everyone is napping but me. I was looking forward to a nap but our church gets out at such a weird time that I have a hard time actually falling asleep by the time we get home, eat lunch, and put Brynn down. We had a long busy day yesterday so everyone is feeling it, Brynn even slept in until 10 am this morning. Brad and Brynn have already been asleep for two hours and I'm running out of things to do SO...

I've had a lot on my mind so this post will most likely be a lot of word vomit that no one cares about. So if that's not your thing I suggest you stop reading now.

I feel like there is so much pressure to be the perfect mom. Maybe it's all in my head but I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one who struggles with the feeling of needing to be perfect. You know the mom who never raises her voice at her kids. The mom who only feeds her kids balanced and organic meals. The mom who is in better shape after kids than she was before, who does their hair and makeup everyday. The mom who keeps a clean and organized house 24/7. The mom whose toddler can recite the ABC's, can count to 10, and knows all their colors because she sits down and gives them a hour long home school lesson each day.

I'm here to tell you I'm not that mom AT ALL.

I get so frustrated with myself when I raise my voice at Brynn. Oh, how I wish I were more patient with her. I often have higher expectations for her and have to remind myself that she's only 2 and although to me she seems so big, I realize how small she still is. She teaches me love and forgiveness on a daily basis. If we are being honest here, I HATE cooking. Most days Brad makes dinner and there have been days where Brynn has eaten more packets of fruit snacks than I care to admit.

Oh how I miss the days when I thought I was "fat". Although I didn't gain much weight with Brynn's pregnancy it TERRIFIES me to think of how much weight I could gain this time around. Mostly because I know how hard it is for me to lose it and I'm already starting off bigger. And what's the point of doing your hair and makeup and dressing all cute when in all reality you know your makeup makes your skin break out, that beautifully curled hair is just going to end up in a messy bun on the top of your head because it keeps getting in the way, and it's a lot easier to keep up with your wild toddler in leggings than it is in jeans and cute wedges.

If parenting has taught me one thing it's that comparison is the thief of joy. I am so guilty of comparing and I need to realize that every mom and child is different and that is OKAY. There have been many times where I've said "well Brynn can't do this or that like so and so can" instead of focusing on the things that she can do and does really well. No one feels good when their weaknesses are compared to someone else's strengths. And I certainly don't want to pass on my weakness of comparing the different aspects of my life to Brynn.

So if you are that mom, HUGE kudos to you (and please teach me all your tricks because I want to be that mom too!) But if you're like me and have your downfalls give yourself grace and realize you're doing better than you think you are.

Baby Number 2

I finally have some time to sit down and write about baby number 2! Between Brad's graduation, moving, and that first trimester fatigue, time has pretty much escaped me.

On Wednesday, April 4th, I was hit with some random nausea as I was running to the grocery store. We had been trying for months so I thought that maybe this was FINALLY it! I grabbed a pregnancy test while out and was coming up with all these ideas to surprise Brad when he got home from school. Well I took the test and it was NEGATIVE! Of course, I was bummed. Taking pregnancy tests are the absolute worsts. But I just marked it up as having a little bug or something. 

I called my mom the next day and just cried and cried about how I would probably never get pregnant again. I'm sure that sounds so ungrateful and many would say, "well at least you have one". I'm super thankful for Brynn and for the opportunity I had to carry her, but we also want to grow our family and give her at least one sibling if not more! But it will never be lost on me how blessed I am to have one child.

Anyways, Saturday morning Brad was cooking breakfast with Brynn and randomly said "I think you should take a pregnancy test". I told him I already did 3 days ago and it was negative. He convinced me to take another one. So I ran to the bathroom and so quickly those double lines show up, just like they did with Brynn. I was in shock!! I walked out to the kitchen and go up to Brynn and said "I hope you are ready to be a big sister" Brad was in shock and asked me if I was messing with him 2 or 3 times before he finally just went and saw the results for himself. 

The rest of that day was chaos as we ran to a few different stores trying to find a shirt that said "BIG SISTER" so we could send it to our families. The responses we got were hilarious as many of them didn't pick up on it at first.

We are so thrilled to be adding another baby to our family. I am 15 weeks and can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. Half the time I don't even feel pregnant but now that I've popped I'm starting to look it and that is a reminder for sure. haha. I was really blessed to not get sick this time around, just felt super tired all the time. Thankfully Brad had so much time off that he could watch Brynn while I took naps. We have another appointment next week and it will be with a new doctor so I'm secretly hoping we will get an ultrasound and get to find out the gender of this baby. I'm ready to start nesting! haha. Part of me thinks it's a boy just because this pregnancy has been so different but everyone else thinks it's another girl! We will be thrilled either way! 

TWO-TII-FRUITI

For Brynn's second birthday I went with a fruit themed party. Pinterest had so many cute ideas and although this was definitely not pinterest worthy I was really happy with the outcome.

We had planned on doing it outside by the pool and clubhouse at our complex but it ended up being such a stormy weekend so we decided to keep the party inside. So not everything turned out exactly how I wanted but overall I think it turned out pretty cute!

My mom made the cake and it turned out so cute! We were dying during the process though because we weren't quite sure how it was going to turn out. I was able to print the banner off of pinterest and cut some cupcake toppers with my silhouette. Thankfully Target had just put out their summer goodies in the dollar spot so I snagged a few ceramic pineapples to help with the decor.

Brynn loved having a party! We let her have a few sips of the punch we made and she was on a sugar high for the rest of the evening. She loved her balloons and presents but blowing out the candle was her favorite part for sure. She wanted us to sing happy birthday and blow out candles for the rest of the week!

They always say how fast the first year goes by but I say the year between one and two goes by even faster and is full of even more growth and development. We love our sweet two year old! She can be sassy but most of the time she is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She loves playdoh, babies, and bubbles. Our favorite thing that she does is whisper "I love you" at just the right times. Random Fact: she is really good at sitting in time out, folds her arms the whole time and once the timer goes off she comes to you and says "sorry, happy girl" then gives you a big hug. She is potty trained and it's been the best thing to not have to change diapers these past few months. She loves Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. She loves to dance, sing wheels on the bus, and anything that involves water. We couldn't ask for a better toddler and can't believe how fast she is growing up. We are so thankful to be her parents. We love you, Brynn!

Introducing Dr. Brandon Schmidt, DMD

Well the day we have look forward to for the past 4 years has finally come! Brad graduated Dental School! We had such a great weekend celebrating him and all of the hard work he did to make it to this point.

On May 18th, we attended Brad's hooding ceremony! This was probably my favorite part of the weekend because it seemed much more personal since it was just the Dental School. It was a rainy and humid day but that didn't stop it from being a happy day.

Saturday was the actual commencement ceremony. I was dreading this day because it was supposed to be outside and last years ceremony lasted FOUR hours in the hot sun. Thankfully it was moved inside because of the stormy weather and a lot of the students from the other programs didn't show up so it ended up only being about 2.5 hours. I'm so thankful that my sweet friend was willing to watch Brynn at the last minute because it would've been a nightmare with her wanting to run all the stairs and with that many people around! 

I can't even express how proud I am of Brad. I love that he was able to achieve his dream of becoming a dentist and can't wait to see him succeed in his new career. I'm so impressed that he was able to balance so many roles while being a student. Dental school wasn't always the easiest for him but I'm so proud of him for pushing through and making the best of it. We are so excited to be moving on to the next chapter and have been enjoying all his time off before he starts working in July! 

April Recap

I can't believe it's already June and I'm just now posting about April. When you read the next few posts you'll realize why the blog got put on the back burner!

April was such a fun and busy month! We finished celebrating Easter and Conference Weekend. Brynn loved eating all the jelly beans that were in her basket! Girlfriend was pretty much on a sugar high all of April.

On April 7th we found out that we are expecting baby number 2! (more details here). So we spent the day trying to find a "big sister" shirt to take a picture and send to our families! Once we finally found a shirt we rushed home to take a picture while it was still light out but we got caught in the rain so just made the best of it!

Brad took his license exam for South Carolina and we were thrilled that he passed. We are so thankful that my mom came to watch Brynn so that I could be one of his patients. Plus we got to celebrate Brynn's birthday with a little party while she was still in town and my dad drove up so that he could be there too! See all the little details of her party here!

The following weekend Brad and I got a date night and attended his senior banquet where he won "most approachable" and "dad bod" award! It was fun to celebrate Brad and entertaining to watch all of his classmates.

I also got to babysit my sweet Ella for the day and brought Brynn along. It was so fun to see them play together. Ella taught Brynn the fun of playing dress up that day and now Brynn loves to put on princess/ballerina dresses and necklaces! Also, can we talk about how much Brynn looks like me in these pictures?! She's starting to look more and more like me!

And of course I'll end the post off by saying we spent lots of time at the beach! It's definitely our happy place and Brynn asks me almost every day if we can go there! Our little water baby is going to miss living here just as much as me!

March Recap

March really flew by! Let's be honest most of this year has flown because it's already almost time for me to do our April recap. So let's get to it.

Brynn and I started the month off by going to celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday by attending a reading by Charlie the Riverdog at one of our local libraries. Brynn loved the dog from afar but had NO interest in getting close to that poor mascot. We tried to enjoy the nice weather as much as we could. The weather has been a little bi-polar here. Brad and I FINALLY finished a rocking horse that was given to us well over a year ago and Brynn has loved riding it and calls it a "good boy" haha. Also, I got a facial and it was amazing, seriously fell asleep in the chair. I might sound like a snob but I really love being pampered.

We tried to make the most out of spring break. Brynn of course got sick and the weather was pretty crummy. But we did eat some yummy food and explored our future hometown.

Would we really live in Charleston if we didn't take advantage of all the beaches nearby?! Trying to squeeze in every beach day that we can before we move to the mountains.

We celebrated St. Patricks Day, and by "celebrated" I mean I put a green mustache and green dress on Brynn, snapped a few pics, removed all things green, and then went about our day as normal. Such a fun mom, I know. haha.

Brynn transferred to her big girl bed and LOVED it. Seriously does so well in it. She hasn't even gotten out of it which was my biggest concern. That girl thrives on routine and schedule.

We ended the month by doing an Easter Egg Hunt and Brunch with some friends from our ward. March was a fun month but April definitely topped it because Brynn's SECOND birthday!

February Recap!

I really need to be better about blogging more frequently because I forget about a lot of things. It's a good thing I utilize instagram pretty frequently because it's the only way I remember what has happened.

February started off with Brynn having yet another virus. Have you noticed a trend yet?! That girl seems to catch every single illness out there. Her immune system is going to be (better be) amazing by the time she enters school.

Brad and I actually got a sitter and snuck off to see The Greatest Showman. Oh, how we needed that date night. And as soon as the movie got over I wanted to go back and see it again and again! The Superbowl happened and I can't even tell you who won (without googling it). But I can tell you what happened on This Is Us. Anyone else obsessed with that show?!

It rained A LOT. Which is not a problem for us because we happen to have a toddler who LOVES jumping in the puddles! We made SO many sugar cookies. We made some to give as valentines and just because we found an incredible sugar cookie recipe that we can't get enough of! Already planning on making Easter cookies!

Honey and Dude came to visit us and we had fun taking them to all of our favorite places! Honey even watched Brynn so I could get screened to be Brad's board patient (can't believe he will be taking his license exam in a few weeks!) We also got family pictures done! Can't wait to share those on the blog! They are my most favorite ones yet!

Valentine's Day 2018

Holidays are one of my most favorite things in life so as a wife and mom I always like to go all out! As soon as February 1st came around I put out all of our Valentine's Day decorations. Brynn loves to help me decorates so I always let her help. It takes a lot longer but I enjoy seeing her get excited about things I love too! We even decorate her little kitchen area for all of the holidays, I just can't help myself.

I knew I wanted to make Valentine's Day cookies for all of Brynn's little friends so I tried out a new sugar cookie recipe! It is the absolute BEST! This is the first time I let Brynn help me make cookies so it took a lot more patience on my end but she loved it and had so much fun and now whenever I pull out the kitchen aid she runs over and says "help me" haha.

So we made cookies to deliver to all her friends and of course since I love pictures I had to take lots of her in her Valentine's Day colors (3 outfits, not my plan, just what happens when you have a newly potty trained kid -_-)

I'm excited to start traditions for each of the holidays because I feel like it makes it more exciting! What are some of your favorites for Valentine's Day? I'm always looking for more ideas!

January Recap

I really wanted to make my blog a priority this year because I've been feeling like I need to be better about documenting our lives (I take way too many pictures, no problem there) but somehow I always forget that I have this little space here to actually write things. I think it intimidates me because I'm not a great writer. Not that I should feel any pressure because I'm pretty sure my mom is the only one who read this thing! (Hi Mom!)

Before I got too far behind I thought I would do a little January recap! January was a crazy month. Brynn was sick for the majority of it but we did manage to have some fun! We got a southern snow storm and enjoyed the fun that snow brings for a few days, took a little day trip to Hunting Island, celebrated Brad's 31st birthday, and potty trained Brynn (Brynn was so ready to be potty trained so it was actually a really easy process) I'm totally expecting our next kid to give us a run for our money because Brynn has seriously been the easiest kid. Better knock on some wood fast! haha.

I still can't believe it is already March. This year is already flying by and I know it will only continue to do so as we have big things coming up. In April Brynn will turn 2, May Brad will graduate from Dental School, June we will make our big move, and in July Brad will start his job! It's just blowing my mind thinking about all the changes we have coming our way but we couldn't be more excited! Hopefully I'll do better about keeping this space updated! 

Hunting Island

It's been so cold here. I know you are all thinking "well duh, it's winter" but our little southern blood can't handle the cold. The flu and other illnesses are making their rounds. I HATE when Brynn gets sick as I'm sure most of you mamas understand. So we've been laying low and kicking it at home to avoid the germs but the cabin fever is getting so real y'all. 

By Sunday Brad could tell I needed to get out of the house decided we would hop in the car and head to Hunting Island State Park. It was a little bit of a drive but we've kind of become pros at road trips. This time we spent our drive going through questions on the app "Gottman Card Decks" since we timed it so Brynn would nap the whole drive! We haven't gone through all the decks but we really like this app, and it's great for couples to get to know each other better. Absolutely recommend this app as a tool for building a better relationship with your spouse. 

The drive was so pretty and we were absolutely in love with Hunting Island and the light house there. Such a fun little day trip. We had fun walking along the beach with all the driftwood trees and Brynn loved collecting shells and rocks (she stashed some in her pockets that we discovered once we got home). This area got hit pretty hard by Hurricane Irma but we were still in awe of its beauty. The facilities there are so nice and clean and we are sad that we are just now discovering this gem. We will be returning!! 

Target Haul

If you are anything like me you walk into Target with only one thing on your list and walk out with a million other things and end up forgetting the one thing you went in to buy. When I go to Target I ALWAYS have to stop in their little dollar section. Which if we are all being honest here, most things are $3-$5 now but that section has some great stuff. I was expecting it to be all Valentines Day stuff but I ended up finding some great things for Brynn and thought I would share with my fellow mamas! I immediately sent a text to Brad saying "I'm just going to go ahead and apologize for all the money I'm about to spend at Target" because let's be honest Target takes all my money.

I realize that all of these items could be made super easily but let's be honest when I have down time I would rather take a nap or binge watch The Office on Netflix! I can't be the only one?!

Anyways, the first thing I found was this little mail set. Guys, I am obsessed. I love that Brynn will be able to use this for a few years. I am planning on buying one of those little mailboxes so that she can put the envelopes in there. I laminated the letter cards so that they will be more durable and so she can re-use them again and again.

The next thing I found was this little bubble gum machine which was perfect because I'm really trying to work on teaching Brynn her colors. Brynn loves matching the colors!

Another fun learning tool is this cute little cookie and oven for number recognition. This is too advanced for Brynn right now but she still loves putting the little cookies on the pan and putting it in the little oven.

The last thing I found was this adorable finger puppet set! They had a farm and zoo set as well (I'm trying to convince Brad I need to go back and buy them, haha). Brynn loves it and I love hearing her make the little dragon roar!

I love that with most of the things I found she can play with them now and later they can help her to learn as well. I love seeing what other people pick up at Target so if you've found something recently that you are obsessed with share with me because chances are I'll make another target run just to get that item! haha.

Embrace

Last year in addition to making 3 goals for the new year I also chose a word/phrase to focus on. My phrase last year was "be present". This was something that for me personally I really needed to focus on. I had found myself mindlessly scrolling social media instead of enjoying the time with family and friends. I would pack my calendar as full as I could which ultimately lead me to not being able to focus on a task at hand because my mind would be running a million miles a minute just thinking of all that I had committed to. I knew that needed to change so I made "be present" my motto for the year. I am not going to sit here and tell you I was perfect at it but I did get better about putting my phone down so that I could create better memories with my family and friends. I stopped saying "yes" to every little thing so that I could be present physically and mentally for the things and people who matter most to me. 

I saw a difference in my life because of that little phrase and knew that I wanted to pick a word again this year that would help me improve as a person. I bounced around a few different words and I kept coming back to the word EMBRACE. 

2018 is going to be a big year for us, full of lots of change. It will be full of ups and downs because let's be honest, every year is. I'm not always great with change. I can be kind of a control freak so when things don't go according to my plans I tend to freak out and the anxiety kicks in. 

That is the main reason I chose the word embrace. I really want to focus on WELCOMING all the change instead of freaking out about it and getting stressed out.

Embrace also means to take or clasp in the arms, to encircle, to surround. These are all things I want to focus on when it comes to my loved ones. With all the tragedies and illnesses in the world, I want to truly embrace my loved ones. I would hate for something bad to happen to someone I love and always have to question if they knew how much they meant to me. 

I would love to hear what your goals for the year are (I'm still working on coming up with mine) or if you also have a word/motto for the year and feel like sharing, I would love to hear (maybe I'll even use it in the future!)

Southern Snow Day

Wow! I can't believe I haven't blogged since May. That's probably the longest stretch. Shame on me. Anyways, here we are welcoming 2018!  I believe this year is going to be full of all kinds of magic. For starters, we got snow here in Charleston yesterday. Yes, you read that right. SNOW in CHARLESTON. All day long my mind was blown. Never thought I would see palm trees and snowflakes together.

We had a prediction of snow for a little over a week and I kept thinking yeah yeah yeah, that's never going to happen. Well Wednesday morning arrives and we had a little play date with our neighbor in the morning. Once they left, we started getting a little sleet and I thought that would be it. Just a little bit of ice.

Well I put Brynn down for a nap around noon and then I look out the window and I see HUGE flakes falling from sky. I sit there thinking okay it's snowing but there is no way it's going to stick. Well as the next hour went by it really started to stick. The news predicted us getting 2-4 inches but nothing more. You guys we got 6.5 inches of snow.

When Brynn woke up from her nap we took her out to experience snow for the first time. At that point we only had about half an inch on the ground but it was coming down hard. Needless to say she hated it. She would stand so still and just cry.

I snapped a few pictures just to document the day in case that was all we got and it melted fast. Thankfully, we got more snow as the day went on and we decided to take Brynn out again. Brad showed her how to pick up snow and throw it and all of a sudden she was in love with it.

We played for a little bit and then came back inside and spent the rest of the day sipping hot chocolate and reading books.

When Brynn woke up this morning she ran to the window and saw the snow and said "snow, play, let's go" and ran to put her boots on. So we bundled her up and went on a little adventure around our complex. It still blows my mind that we got snow here but I loved the extra time we had with Brad and the memories that we made!