things that cross my mind

I think as a parent, especially a stay-at-home parent, you have good and you have bad days. Some days, my 4 year old listens to me, doesn't have an attitude, picks up her toys and plays gently with her sister. Holly takes long naps and mom gets to shave her legs in the shower. But then, there are bad days, mom doesn't get a shower at all, holly won't freakin close her eyeballs even when they're rolling in the back of her head cause she's so tired and Lacey has a meltdown because she wanted crushed ice in her water, not cubed. And I find myself losing my damn mind. I've come up with a list of things I swear cross my mind every single day, sometimes multiple times a day. 

-I'm going to make today a fun day, Lacey and I will do crafts together while sister naps and we can prance around together after we freshly manicured our nails and finished our makeup 

-Yep, not doing makeup today, don't even get a shower. No time for crafts, don't really feel like cleaning up the mess by myself when Lacey gets tired of it after two minutes. 

-My goodness, I seriously have the cutest kids ever, let's have an impromptu photo session. 

-Oh look, holly puked all down the front of her and the cats licking it off the floor. 

-Is it already time to feed these kids lunch? I just finished my breakfast!

-How the f am I going to manage three of these kids?

-Is Kameron off work yet??

-Sure, I'd love to watch Little Rascals for the ninth time today

-They're hungry again. Wtf

-Please take an hour long nap, I need to change my sweats

-What the hell am I making for dinner tonight? 

-Aww, hollys so cute, lets wake her up so we can all snuggle

-Nevermind, go back to sleep

-OMG it's only two o'clock 

-OMG it's already four o'clock 

-Is Kameron off work yet??

-Lets attempt to get dinner started, you sit here, you go watch tv and no one freak out for just a few minutes, please?

-HE'S HOME

-Eat the damn food, I'm not making you a different meal in an hour 

-Oh weird, you're hungry again? Good, I saved what you didn't eat for you on the table 

-Better start winding kids down for bed. HALLELUJAH 

-Lets relax together and watch a few shows 

-Nevermind were both falling asleep on the couch, lets just go to bed 

-Was I a good mom today? Did I tell the kids I love them enough? Does Kameron think I hate him? Seriously, should I go kiss Lacey again? I should check Facebook one more time, no lets just actually go to sleep. 

-Can't do that, the stupid cat is running around like a freak! 

-OK goodnight world 

I don't think for the next five years I will have any different thoughts running through my head than I do now. Maybe more of them, but always the same, the one that always haunts me though, is the 'Am I a good mom?' And you know what, I know I'm a great mom, so why do we question ourselves so much? My biggest goal in 2016 is to realize that Kameron and I are amazing parents, we do love each other unconditionally and we can conquer anything as a family. Yes, everyone has bad days but I'm beginning to realize that those bad days, really aren't so bad after all. 

oh december..

I can't believe we're already so close to the end of the year. 2015 has been such an amazing year and brought some of the greatest memories to our lives. My sweet Holly turned six months a few days ago and I can not believe how fast her first year is going by. We've been so busy around here, that I know that's why it seems time is flying by. Lacey is still loving school and has her first concert on Thursday! I can't wait to see her up on the stage. I think one of the most exciting things that's been going on is that our driveway is finally being finished!! I know, to some people that may seem trivial, but let me tell you how terrible this year has been without a real driveway. We went from terrible mud, to super dry, dust everywhere when you came in. Literally, I couldn't get out of my car for at least a full minute so the dust storm could pass. And now we're back to mud. Mud so bad, you are required to use four wheel drive or you won't be making it out of there. But thankfully, a few days ago, Kameron and Dan started on the driveway and I'm hoping they will be able to finish today. I think the first thing I might do is bring holly on a walk in her stroller, we'll actually be able to make it down the road! You guys really have no idea how much this means to me, lol. 

Life has been so good with both my girls. 

Aren't they literally the cutest things you've ever seen?! For Halloween, Lacey dressed as Doc Mcstuffins and Holly as Lambie. I don't think I have a cuter picture of Holly than how she looks in that costume. My heart melts when I see her little grin behind all that fur. 

We spent thanksgiving at a lot of people's homes. It definitely verified for me that we aren't going anywhere on Christmas! While it was nice to see everyone, it really makes for a long day for the kids and makes mom and dad grumpy when we have to run all over the country side all day. We attempted a family picture, here's the outcome 

Hollys cute little grumpy face makes it that much better ❤️ 

Some days i just want to squeeze them so hard they pop, and my heart explodes with love, and then there's the days when real life happens, and I want to squeeze them so hard they pop, hehe. Just kidding, but really, parenting is so hard! And it's so crazy how each day is truly a new adventure. We have amazing days and we have days where we don't accomplish anything since no one feels like cooperating. And I've learned to realize that's okay. Besides school days, we don't run on schedules, we go with the flow and don't push too much. And I feel like that's the best thing I've done with my second child. There's nothing to feel unaccomplished about when there is no to-do list. And don't get me wrong, we still have tons of crap to do all the time, but not being on a time frame, not pushing everyone out the door makes for a lot less stressful of a day. I keep worrying that this time next year, there will three of these little babies to get out of the house and that freaks me out a little, but I know that if we keep our same outlook and remember to always seek the positive, we'll be just fine :) 

We got our Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving in preparation for Christmas!! I have a little almost-four-year-old who can not wait for Christmas this year. I'm so excited to wake up Christmas morning and see the look on her face. There is nothing better than seeing the joy in your child's face. 

I'll let everyone know how our walk goes on the new driveway ;) we can hardly wait! Until then...❤️

country chicks

On Friday, last week, the girls and I, plus my mom, drove about three hours to a junk market called Country Chicks in Chehalis, WA. It was so fun! There were 100+ vendors there with tons of stuff and I ended up scoring a few finds I've had my eyes out for lately. 

This cute little planter that I stuffed with oregano, thyme and mint. 

And this fun vegetable crate that I put in the center of my island full of pumpkins and gourds. I feel like it will be a fun piece as the seasons change to add things to. 

The girls were literally so good the entire day. Lacey wandered the whole time and finally found something she wanted, a star fish. And Holly didn't make a peep the whole time! Although, I think next time I might leave the kids home and bring a lot more money ;)

Over the weekend, we spent a lot of our time outside, we're trying to soak up as much sunshine as we can, I know that it will soon be gone! Kameron brought an excavator home and fixed some drainage problems we had last winter in front of the barn, all of the water was flowing directly into the barn and flooding the stalls, which meant the horses were standing in water pretty much 24/7, not good. There's a 100% chance of rain tomorrow, so I guess we'll figure out if his plan worked or not! We also fell a big maple tree that was right next to the barn, it was much overdo, I was holding on to it being there because I love what they look like in the fall, but in a mini wind storm we had about a month ago, the top fell out of it, smashing our horse fence, which was repairable, but if it fell on the barn, we wouldn't be so fortunate. So it had to go. And it actually looks awesome without it! The horses have so much more room now for their feedings and this morning I saw them all laying down, taking a mid-morning nap, so they must approve :) 

Of course since there was an excavator here, that meant we also needed to rip up any other piece of grass that I had around here, (ugh) and Kameron directed the water away from the barn on the south side as well. 

There ended up being way more excess dirt than he expected, so I inadvertently got him to make my garden area. We have to do some sort of enclosed garden, the deer around here are relentless, so that's still a work in progress, so we'll get there by next spring! 

Lacey spent some time grooming the horses, it's so amazing to see her have a bond with these special animals, I'm not sure she quite understands how powerful Ronnie is yet though, when she gets brushed, she really likes to say thank you by rubbing on you or pushing on you, as an adult, she pushes me around and she got Lacey this weekend lol. Lacey was standing up on a stool combing her mane and Ronnie swung her head around to say thank you, which in turn, threw Lacey off the stool, whoopsies! 

It obviously didn't seem to deter her away from the horses however, she enjoyed a conversation with mocha in the grass later. 

I'm so thankful for this girl, Holly, and my life in general, especially my husband. He really has made my dreams possible and I know that I don't thank him enough. Tonight, I'm going to make him biscuits and gravy for dinner, his fave, and enjoy his company. Until then, I'm laying on the floor with my three year old who's measuring my four month old with a measuring tape, she says Holly's head measures 14 pounds. 

That must be a pretty spiffy tape measure if it weighs a persons head ;)

our short weekend

Lately, every weekend seems to get shorter and shorter. Kameron has been working tons on getting the race track fixed which has meant late nights during the week and no sight of him on the weekends. Thankfully, I think they're getting close to done. He had to take a small break on Saturday so we could get my dad moved into his new house. I had fun taking over everything in his possession and organizing it to my liking. Saturday evening we had a Wicked dinner at Fanaticus and were able to get away from the girls for a few hours. It's so crazy how all week I'm desperate for a break and feel like my head might explode if I don't get some sort of adult interaction, but then I'm away from them for three hours and I miss them so much. When we got back home from dinner, Lacey had fallen asleep on the couch, Daddy packed her to her bed and Holly was asleep in her swing. Seeing the two of them sleeping before I could even say goodnight was a little heart breaking. Suck it up, Taylor, it was only three hours. As crazy as they make me, there's no way I could ever escape from them for even a full day, I would miss them too much! 

On Sunday, we had a lazy day, thank goodness, and pretty much just hung out in the house and watched football. We did have a bit of a frenzy right before the game started, of course my damn ponies decided to get out of the hot fence somehow and ventured to the neighbors house. Our big horse, Ronnie, was freaking out, pacing the fence line and talking like crazy, she's only been with us a couple months and they're all already super herd bound. Great. Unfortunately, I don't think she'll be as easy to catch as the boys so I'm terrified of her getting out of the fence. There's just one more project to add to our list-redo the fence, yay! Thankfully, we got it mended-ish for now. 

Holly had her first experience with baby food today! We tried carrots and she totally loved them! I was super impressed with her, Lacey has always been a terrible eater so I'll be lucky if this one isn't picky. She didn't eat much for her first little snack, but she did great with the spoon! I think for the next couple months we'll start some purée's, and once she's six months, we might try some BLW. I'm super excited! We let her chew on some cantaloupe Friday night and she loved it, so hopefully we'll have success there too. 

After her snack, we also tried a jumperoo I got her at a garage sale for a steal! Her little legs reached the floor, but when we pulled her out, her feet were cold so I think it may have been cutting circulation off, lol. She seemed to really enjoy having the toys right in reach! We'll definitely be trying out that thing more often. 

It was a weekend full of firsts for her! 

Last week our chickens started laying so Lacey has been having so much fun checking for eggs every day. There were two in the coop today! 

We have way too much fun on our mini farm! It was a fun, relaxed weekend for us. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for our schedule this week, so I'm going to enjoy the Toy Story marathon with Lacey for now and watch my sweet jojo snooze away...

I choose happy

In the past few months, I've noticed myself crabby, grumpy, all over the place and haven't been able to quite figure out why. In the few months before I had holly, I remember constantly feeling anxious, like there was always something that needed to be done and I found myself short with Lacey and frustrated with her for just being a three year old. It seems like ever since I had holly, it's gotten worse. I constantly feel like I can't be sitting on the couch, watching The Price is Right while she takes her morning nap, because there is SO much I should be doing. Dishes, laundry, a shower for myself, sweeping, vacuuming, etc. Which granted, those are things that need to be done but by the end of the day, I'm thoroughly exhausted and feel like I spent my day frazzled because I was always worried about what needed to happen next. I'm trying really hard to understand that those things really don't need to be done 24/7. It's ok to have the house a mess for a day if it means I get quality time with my girls. I'm trying so hard to get that pounded in my head. Why do us moms feel the need to pressure ourselves this much? Plus, I either look homeless for the day, which is always when unexpected guests happen to stop by, or I waste an hour of my time getting ready for nothing. I'm pretty sure my three year old and three month old don't care if my hair is done, or my eye makeup is flawless, but for some reason, I feel like I have to put myself together. And it gets old! Ugh- being a woman, lol. In these months, I've found myself loosing my cool with Lacey over the stupidest things, and then the sad look she has on her face after I yelled at her, it's so heartbreaking and haunts me when I lay down for bed at night. I'm learning to get back to a better place, a place where I was when she was 4 months old like holly, where I didn't care if we laid on the floor for two hours and played with toys, the dishes and laundry will be there indefinitely, my girls childhood will not be there indefinitely. Waaaahhh! I'm learning to let it go, and embrace this crazy, chaotic, life. My kids will never remember that the shelves weren't dusted, or that the laundry is still in a basket, not folded for three days. They'll remember the times we giggled until we almost peed our pants, and the movie nights we share with daddy and the mess we made when baking in the kitchen. And that is truly, all that matters. 

 

BLW

It's 5:30 pm on a Friday night and I feel like I'm ready for bed already. Oh to be young again. Oh wait, I am young, I just have two children under the age of four and I'm constantly tired, that's right. It's extra quiet in my house right now, laceys watching videos on YouTube and hollys sleeping next to me in her rocker. 

I've recently noticed that it seems like she is always hungry, even after feedings, she still seems like she could eat more. So of course, that has me searching on Pinterest what I can feed an almost four month old. It's so crazy that Lacey is only three and a half and I already can't remember what/when we started feeding her solids. I found a "new" technique called Baby Led Weaning and you pretty much feed your child whatever you're eating. This seems so weird to me, aren't there only certain foods that infants can have? Obviously, with the exception of nuts and honey, it does seem like she could probably eat just about everything we eat. Weird. I've found tons of fun ideas for snacks and meals for her and I can hardly wait to start. BLW suggests against giving any purees but I do think I'll start with a few while she's this young and around six months start with "real" food. As I was searching on Pinterest, there was a part of me that was so excited for her to just grow up a little bit so she could experience food and we could move on to that stage, but then it hit me. I don't want her to grow up! I want her to be dependent on me and stay this sweet, innocent baby and the sooner she starts food, the sooner she'll be a crazy, grumpy, attitude-having three year old like her sister. I know I can't stop time, so for now, I'll keep planning her menu and snuggle her just a little more this evening :) 

pure insanity

This morning, after finally mustering up the energy to get out of bed and start the day, I found a box of Apples to Apples cards dumped on the living room floor. Obviously Lacey was up way before I was...After almost 15 minutes of her "picking up the cards" we settled with a time out and I picked up the damn cards. Her time out was more of a time out for me, I spent some time with holly on my bed, Lacey found her way in and apologized for the card instance. She wanted to watch some videos on the tablet, but then proceeded to have another meltdown because it was dead. That obviously means the world is ending, if you didn't know. 

Finally, I sat down on the couch with my morning coffee, turned on the news and started reading a blog about how having three kids is chaos. I was feeling pretty good, thinking, "oh it couldn't be that bad, we should try for a boy" and in that moment of thinking, my hot coffee spilled all over my new couches, the cat and over course, my clean clothes that I barely managed to have time to get on. So now- I'm in yogas and a hoodie and lost all motivation to wear normal clothes today. I will say though, even in the crazy, chaotic times, there is always good. Lacey and I just finished reading, Love You Forever, which is my favorite childhood book. She started preschool on September 10th and is loving it. 

Of course I managed to mess up her first day though, I was positive pickup time was 11:30, so I sat anxiously waiting to pick her up and couldn't wait to hear about her first day. Around 11:15, just as I was on my way to pick her up and of course be early, I got a call from her teacher reminding me that pickup time was 11:00. Oh. My. Gosh. I felt so bad. All I could think about ,as I did 70 the whole way there, was that she was sitting there wondering why mommy didn't pick her up. Thankfully, she didn't even seem to realize and the teacher had her help with clean up so I think I'll keep this story to myself until she's an adult! I don't think I'll ever forget that feeling of trying to get there as soon as I possibly could!

Holly is doing awesome. I can't believe how fast she's growing. I know, everyone says that. But seriously, why can't they stay a baby forever? She is such a smiley baby and even on the hardest days, she's right there next to me with a big smile on her face. 

I can't get enough of her! She's almost four months which has got me thinking that very soon, she will be crawling all over and getting into every small, choking  hazard possible in her sisters playroom. So for now, I'm endlessly scrolling on Pinterest, looking for the perfect playroom for mixed ages and enjoying the fact that she's not yet mobile :) 

one week as four

Today, Holly is already a week old! I've been thoroughly enjoying all the baby snuggles I can get. Having two children at home now has really been awesome. Lacey loves her little sister and has been so good with her, I'm super proud of her. 

One of my biggest worries when I was pregnant was how I was going to be able to love another daughter as much as I love Lacey. I remember telling my husband once we found out we were having a second girl, that I was so scared because I didn't think I could love another girl. I worried about this the rest of my pregnancy but mostly kept my insecurities to myself. Anyone I talked to about it, promised me that you love each child differently and I just couldn't wrap my head around what that meant. But i totally get it. Lacey will always be my first daughter, the first one who made my heart explode with emotion and overwhelming love and the first one to start this journey of motherhood with me. No matter what, she will always hold such a special place in my heart. And it's true, my love for Holly is different, I am cherishing her cries a little more than I did with Lacey, I don't mind waking up at night for feedings, and I'd rather hold her while she naps instead of letting her sleep in her cradle while I make myself and house presentable. I attribute this difference between the two to the fact that I saw just how quickly Lacey grew out of all these stages. Everyone always says, "it goes so fast" and it seriously does. I look at Lacey now and am so heartbroken that she's such a kid. I know that both my babies will grow up and become their own person, I just wish time would slow down a tiny bit. For now, I'm so much enjoying being a family of four and am so lucky to spend this life with Kameron and continue to grow our family in many different ways. 

waitin' for baby

Today, I wrote little lady a letter in her baby book and it really got my thinking about how much I don't want to forget in this amazing time. Yes- pregnancy sucks, yes, I'm miserable and yes, I can't wait for it to be over, but that doesn't mean I want to forget this special time I've got to spend, not only with her growing butt inside me, but with this winding down clock of just me and Lacey every day. 

I must say, this last three and a half years with Lacey have truly been amazing. I can't believe I've been so blessed to be able to spend all of my days with her. And of course, there are plenty of days where I probably wish she would take her toddler attitude out on someone else, but the fact of the matter is, I have six months until she isn't a toddler anymore and I know I'll be dying to have these tantrums and fits back. She really has turned into such a kind, smart little girl and I'm so happy to be her momma. I feel like with Lacey, we've gotten over so many hurdles so far, big girl beds, sleeping alone, sleeping all night, potty training, the list goes on and on and now, I'm starting over. Am I crazy? Some days I honestly feel like I'm crazy. But then I think of all the things that have come and gone and I get so excited to relive that again, especially with her by my side. I can't wait to see Lacey relive those moments of crawling, walking, first teeth, first words and she is at the perfect age to understand those things and teach her little sister. I can't believe how excited Lacey is that her sister won't have teeth. Lol. There are so many experiences and things, as a mother I get to see again and I'm so happy that Lacey will get to be there for each of those. 

I want to remember exactly where we were in life at this point in my pregnancy. The point of "please bring me in for a c-section because I'm so tired of being pregnant and don't have the energy to even think about another vaginal delivery" I want to remember that we don't even have grass outside of our house right now, we've only lived here for three months, I still have a terrible habit of starting projects and not finishing them and that I've become excessively OCD since this time in my life while pregnant with lace. So much changes in a matter of a year and if I think back to this time last year, we didn't even have a barn on our property or the thought of living in this home that we do. And I know that at this time next year, I'll be so busy planning a one year old's birthday party, that a lot of this stuff will slip my mind. 

I want to cherish these last couple of weeks, maybe even one week, that I have with Lacey, and always remind her that she will always be my sugar bean. And as much as I want this baby to come out, I also want to slow down in the shower, enjoy my sleep at night, make my husband his favorite meals, spend time with him before I'm a hot mess at the end of every day, and enjoy my life as a family of three. We are days away from becoming a family of four and I'm so excited to start this new journey with my amazing family.  

Life with farm animals

When my husband and I purchased our land, my first thought was how badly I wanted animals. Horses, chickens, pigs, you name it. So far we've successfully raised all of the above with the exception of pigs, and added a couple bunnies into the mix as well. We do plan on raising hogs for meat, but we'll get to that later. Let me start off by saying, I LOVE my life and the life we've created for our daughter. She has such a great understanding of how the world works, the responsibility in something other than herself, being outside and enjoying the little things, not just watching tv 247. I've also noticed recently that she has such a great understanding of life cycles and that death is a part of life. I can't believe that for a three year old, she easily understands the food chain, and that sometimes things happen to our animals (specifically our hens) and that it just works out that way sometimes. 

Which brings me to my reason for this post. Our first pets we brought to the property, way before our house was even here, were three hens we inherited from my mom. Two of them were barred rocks that were about six months old that she specifically had gotten for me, in hopes I would soon start my own flock. She also let me choose one more out of her flock to bring home. My eyes were set on 'Fluffy', my daughter and I named her and instantly became so attached to her. She was a golden sexlink with the cutest little cream fluffy butt, and a darker gold chest and wings. She, from the get go, had her own attitude about her, she always wandered by herself, kept to herself and seemed so much more "mature" than the other two younger hens we got at the same time. She never squawked or drove me nuts, like a few still do, and I just had this strange love for her. I chose her, named her, and watched her grow. A few months later, we ended up taking the rest of my moms flock and all seven of them were back together. I've grown attached to some of the other hens, like Sassy, but Fluffy was still my favorite and my first "baby" of the flock. Unfortunately over the last few weeks, we lost one of our hens to some sort of predator, however it didn't bother me as much as I expected, because she just disappeared. I didn't find her or watch her pass away, so i keep telling myself she just waddled her fat butt to a nicer coop :). 

Yesterday, in my daily egg check, I opened the door to find my sweet Fluffy, dead in her nesting box. I was so upset. Fortunately, my husband was just getting home from work, so I was able to let my crying out while he scooped her up. I still can't understand why she passed, she was totally fine the night before, no signs of distress, no wounds or broken bones, she just didn't wake up. It seems so silly to be so upset over a dang chicken, but all these critters have made their way into my heart and that was made very clear last night after my finding. My sweet husband gave her the burial she deserved and I feel okay knowing that she passed peacefully. 

I know that these things happen, and having sixteen animals already, and continually adding more, I know that it will continue to happen. I guess this was just my first real experience with the death of a furry friend. I know she's in chicken heaven, eating an endless supply of mealworms and doing her own thing, I just wish she didn't have to leave us so soon...

2015 so far!

I would first like to say, 2015 has been a great year so far! Every year, we come across different experiences, whether it be with Lacey, our property, which has now become our home and now a pregnancy, and I'm always so impressed with how well we adapt and overcome everything we need to. We have had a crazy last few months and I can't believe it's already April! I can't express how happy I am to finally have my own home again, my own space, my own schedule, my own life. It's truly made such a difference in my everyday life and attitude, I feel like I can finally be a fun mom and wife again and spend all my time decorating a nursery, (more on that later) bake more often, and have my husband's dinners ready when he gets home. Those things seem minimal to others, but when you can't do those things for over a year, you have a much finer appreciation for the little things! Lacey has adapted so well to being in her own room again, and in a big girl bed. All of my anxiety over this topic has really been for nothing, because she has been amazing. AND, just to brag a little bit, she's totally potty trained now too! The timing couldn't be more perfect with just about nine weeks left in my pregnancy. (That's a scary thought)

I'll start off by showing you some pictures of the house being delivered! This actually happened on December 30th, and it was the craziest day I've ever experienced. Not only was the house being delivered, PUD was here with a four foot deep ditch across our driveway running our main power to the home site. We had so many people here in one day helping to get everything situated, and it was sooo cold out. It, of course, all worked out, like it always does!

It looks nice out, but that little pond in the bottom of the picture was frozen! I forgot to mention, the week previous, the slab was poured and I have a few pictures of that process as well.

It is truly so crazy to see how different everything looks around here, just within a matter of a few months! Here are some of the house getting here, and everyone scrambling to get the driveway re-filled so they could even get in here. I was super impressed with the transport company, they patiently waited while we backfilled the driveway, I don't think our neighbors were that impressed however, they had the road blocked off for well over an hour :/

I'm totally not kidding when I say it was freezing, you can see the frost and ice all over the ground in these pictures. Lacey was such a trooper and we made frequent trips to the car to get warmed up a little bit before standing outside watching the chaos.

 

At the time, it seemed like the days just seemed to drag on, until we could actually live at the house, it was extremely difficult to have it sitting there in front of us every day, but we weren't staying there yet. There was still lots of work to do, sheetrockers, painters, fine finishes, carpet and a cleaning person were all in line before we could even think about moving in. And of course, the county approval, but everyone knows how horrible that worked out for us, so we won't get into that anymore than I have to! In the grand scheme of things, it really wasn't that long of a wait and we stayed our first night in our own home on February 19th. We didn't actually sign our papers until the next week, but we like to live on the edge ;) we did have our occupancy certification, so why not, right?! It has been so awesome living here, we've been here for almost three months now and Lacey still asks me everyday if we get to live here. Yes baby, we finally have a home! Lacey celebrated her third birthday the end of January, we had her party at a local gymnastics place and she had so much fun. She had been asking us for a few months for a bunny for her birthday, so after her party, of course we had to let her pick out a bunny for her gift. Just one more animal to add to our compound! We ended up getting two sisters and I'm so happy that we got two of them, they totally adore each other and keep each other company and I think I would've felt bad just having one by herself. Their names are Bella and Bonnie, and they are truly the sweetest little bunnies.

We, of course, had to have a family birthday dinner on Lacey's real birthday, which fell on a Thursday this year, and she very much enjoyed her ice cream sundae. The very next day, we had an ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby! We were fairly nervous and found out that we were having another girl! Of course, this has me thinking that we now have to have more to try for a boy, but we'll see how two treats us. I am so excited for Lacey to have a sister and she seems to be getting pretty excited too :)

 

Since living in the house, we've (I) have been doing lots of decorating, re-arranging, and re-arranging some more. We've tackled some home improvement projects already, like hanging cabinets in the laundry room above the washer and dryer, rather than the ugly white wire rack that was here when we moved in. I haven't quite finished that project yet, so pictures will come later. The nursery has been a work in progress, but I'm super happy with how its coming along! There are still, of course, lots of things I want to do in there, but I feel content with where it it is right now, that if for some reason I had the baby today, it would be somewhat workable. 

 

 

Like I said, there is still a lot of work to do in there, but so far I've enjoyed making her crib skirt, an extra soft lovey blanket, burp rags, the tissue paper poms on the wall, and I have a project in the works with my dad of course. I think my next addition to the room, will be some floating shelves filled with books, and a sweet rocking chair in the corner. I just need to find the right one! She still, of course, needs some headbands to fill the chicken wire frame and more smelly stuff for the shelf above her dresser/changing table, but I think I'll wait to see what I get at my shower.

 

Something I wanted to work on before Baby H's arrival, was Lacey's playroom. I feel like I want her to have a perfect little working/playing space to call her own before the baby arrives, so that she has plenty to do in times I can't sit directly with her and play like we can now. Here are a few before pictures of the playroom, we prettty much, just threw all her toys in there and told her to play while we got the rest of the house in order.

 

We worked on some DIY projects, like a whiteboard wall, an eight bin shelving system, and a teepee.

I really love how the shelving turned out, it did end up being a full day project, even with Kameron and my dad working on it, but it was totally worth it. I grabbed some galvanized bins from good ol'e Walmart and splurged on paints, markers, paper, stickers, play-do, dry erase supplies and pretty much any other messy thing you could think of for a three year old, and surprisingly, she's done really well considering all these options are within her reach. She even painted a few pictures for us to display right away.

 

It's been a great space so far, and she always has something to do!

 

This last weekend, we did a little barn renovation, and took some stalls out, added some tack space and got a spring cleaning bug out of our system. It is SO much better of a layout, we have an actual working space in there and soon, I'll be adding a box stall for grooming and saddling, I can't wait to some day soon have my own horse. The ponies are great, but I don't think they would enjoy me saddling up on them lol, we'll stick with skinny butt Lace for them. We also adopted more animals to the flock here (of course) we got four baby chicks! They are about two and a half weeks old today, and they are so stinkin' fun. They have such great personalities already and Lacey is doing great, taking care of something other than herself. I must say, I am pretty blessed to be able to allow my daughter to grow up in the environment that she does, thank goodness for my husband and her push-over daddy, he lets us get away with too much ;)

 

I started my 30th week of pregnancy on Monday, and I'm feeling more than ready to have this little girl here with us. However, these next few weeks, I am definitely going to enjoy hanging out with my girl and we plan on doing as much as possible with her as we can before baby comes. Were planning a zoo trip, camping trip and of course, vintage market trip over these next few weeks, I can't wait to share those photos, as well as my growing belly! Until then...