26

Yesterday I turned 26. For the last week the boys have been asking what I wanted to do for my birthday. Last year Drew threw a little surprise party for me (no one has ever surprised me as much as he did!) and this year I just wanted to keep it low key, hang out with my little family.

The day started off with me getting to sleep in till nine, NINE! Best present ever! I woke up to my favorite breakfast, a Starbucks Frapp and a Panera bread suffle. Then we hung out and watched Olympics for a couple of hours while T took a morning nap. Then we headed to the pool! I got to relax with a cold cherry coke and a magazine while T napped again in the shade and the boys played in the pool. After T woke up she hung out in the pool for a little while also. She LOVES the water!

On Moi: 

Hat: birthday present from J! Doesn't he have great style? 

Dress: Forever 21

Swim suit: Sweden from 2009. It's starting to get a little frayed looking but I'll wear it till it literally falls apart because it's my Favorite!

On J: 

Swim suit, H&M

On T: 

Dress and matching hat: Gymboree

Swim suit: Target

Sun hat: H&M

Owen

Being pregnant at the same time as my baby sister was pretty special (and secretly I hope it happens again :) But I knew the odds of me being there when he was born were like 1 in a million. I live 700 miles away and of course wanted to be there but just realized it probably wouldn't happen.

Her due date was July 26th, but she was having super high blood pressure and was on bed rest at 35 weeks  so for her health her OB decided to induce at 37 weeks. Which happened to be the 4th of July, the day we arrived into down for my brother's July 7th wedding!

She was induced at 9PM on the 4th, and on the 5th I woke up, scarfed down some hotel breakfast and headed to Des Moines (40 min away from where my mom lives and where Drew's parents live also) with Tindra while J was hanging out with Drew for the day. 

I got there at 10 AM and spent the day hanging out in the waiting room with my mom. She was so glad to have T there as a distraction! We took turns going in and relieving her husband, but for the most part she just wanted to be alone in there (I'm the SAME way during labor!) 

Baby Owen was finally born a little after 4 PM and soon after we got to go in and meet him. 

Even at 37 weeks he was 8 lbs! And with a head full of hair. In love with this gorgeous little man!

Tindra: 3 Months!

Another month has flown by and you, little lady are  now THREE MONTHS. This might just be my favorite age yet. You are developing such a strong little personality already.  

At 3 months you 

Are sleeping through the night, you go to bed between 8 and 9 and eat around 5-6:30 then go back to sleep to between 7 and 8. After you wake up and eat you will play for a while then go back down for a nap around 10 for 1.5-2 hrs. Your second nap is about two hrs later and this nap can be anywhere from 2 to 4 hrs! You will take a cat nap around 6 as well then up till bed time.

You still nurse for about 45 minutes at a time, this can be exhausting for mamma but it's worth it! You eat every 2.5-3 hrs during the day. 

Still eating about 4-5 oz at a time.

You have such an easy going personality now. You were born into a BUSY family, we are go go go and somehow you just go with the flow. We just took a 12 hr road trip and you did amazing! Such a great little traveler already.

You ROLL! You had done it once or twice already a while ago but now it's almost daily. You did it several times in a row in Iowa ( at 12 weeks) and now do it even more frequently.

You have started to SQUEAL- it's seriously the cutest sound in the world.

Stats (this is based on my own measurements as we don't go to peds for measurements for another month)
Length:About 24 inches
Weight: I think about 11.5 lbs

3 month photo shoot!

Couch to 5K

30 day shred? HA. Yeah that lasted about a day and a half. I did it twice (okay couldn't even make it through the 2nd time) and it felt like my insides were literally being ripped into a million pieces. I don't quite think that's what Jillian Michaels meant when she named it the 30 day shred. Maybe trying it 7 weeks after a c-section wasn't the best idea.

But I have been doing the mama mio tummy boot camp, I have another week and a half left then I'll post results. I can tell a difference! Not sure if anyone else can, but this is about how I feel and I do feel better!

So my new fitness plan. 

Couch to 5k. If you know me you are probably laughing out LOUD right now. I'm the girl that while in track (only joined for the cute boys, one in particular, obviously) got my friends dad to pick us up from school every day and drive us to the track (pre license) where we would sit and eat deliciously gross snacks like funions and swiss cake rolls. Since we would show up 20 min before everyone else (they all walked) we would park our butts at the finish line and pretend we had already done the 800M warm  up that we were required to do when we arrived. Laaazy! PLUS hated running. Still do.

I'm also the girl who (with the same friend as mentioned above) hid out in the bathroom while they announced the 4x800 relay so we didn't have to run and pretended we couldn't hear them call our names over the loud speaker in front of half the town to hear. 

And I'm the girl who gets shin splints any time I've done any running and used to have to have her track coach tape up her legs for meets. 

AND lastly I'm the girl who runs completely flat footed. On rainy days we used to have to run the hallways of the high school and I ran so loud and flat footed everyone would know it was me coming around the corner just by the sound of my feet hitting the halls.

All that to say, I hate running. And am quite bad at it. I haven't ran more than a block since my Sophmore year of high school (the boy I joined track for graduated after that so obviously no need to run anymore) so I'm really starting from scratch on the whole running thing. Ten years, two pregnancies and a c-section later I'm ready to attempt this thing.

I've completed 3 work outs following the couch to 5k program and so far feel good about it! The most miserable part of it is the heat. I've done it at 9:30 PM and it's still about 88-90 degrees at night. YUCK.

If anyone wants to join me for motivation I'd love it!! I'm going to need all the motivation I can get. Any runners out there? That actually hate running and suck at it? I could use any advice/tips! 

Wedding!

While in Iowa my big brother (by 18 months) got married to a Lovely girl. I'm so happy to call her my sister in law! The wedding took place at the arboretum and the reception was at a vineyard. It was absolutely perfect!

First dance

4 generations! With my mom and very Italian gramps

Ring bearer and flower girl! They did So good. They did have a practice run almost 2 years ago at our wedding :)

 Jasper- my youngest brother and niece

My older brothers

My brothers and sister in law- my sister wasn't at the wedding because she had just had baby Owen about 44 hrs before!

Sadness

My heart is heavy right now. 

I woke up Friday morning to 6 different text messages. It was 6 AM so I knew something was up. Once my eyes adjusted to the light of my Iphone I was able to read text messages from my sister and friends, texts like

"Wow how close are you to Aurora?"

"Aurora, isn't that where Jasper goes to preschool?"

"Isn't that the movie theater we have gone to?"

I was confused. But a quick google search just typing in Aurora brought me the news of the theater shooting.

I literally jumped out of bed and turned on the TV, and on it stayed all day. 

I'm sure this is tragic and traumatizing for the whole country. But being this close to such a shocking, tragic event is absolutely devastating. It's consumed probably 90% of my thoughts in the past 30+ hrs. 

We live in Denver. But Jasper goes to preschool in Aurora. Just 2 miles or so from where this tragedy took place. 

As soon as I heard that there was a 3 month old involved I couldn't stop thinking about a mom at J's school that has a preschool age son but also a 3 month old daughter. They live next to the school so this movie theater is the closest on to their house. I knew it was unlikely that it was them- but I didn't know for sure. (I do now)

I hold my breath every time I see a knew victim has been identified. Praying hard that it won't be a name I recognize. That it won't be Jasper's preschool teachers, or the wonderful people from the church there, or anyone from the vacation bible school he attended there a few weeks. 

The sadness I feel for the victim's families and friends is indescribable. And the sadness for our state, who has gone through a lot this summer. And here's the unpopular opinion of the day, I feel so much sadness for the shooters family. Unless it comes out they somehow knew about this before hand, or helped him in some way to become this evil, to commit such an evil crime, than I feel such sadness for them. Can you imagine finding something like this out about your son? Or your brother? Or Nephew? To have to live with the fact that your family did something like this would be completely unbearable. Please don't hate me for feeling like that. 

One more thing that's causing me so much sadness about this tragic event, hearing the judgemental comments about the victims! I saw numerous tweets and facebook comments questioning and judging the parents that had children in the movie theater. A 6 year old life was lost, not because the parents chose to take their child to the movies but because a man brought guns in and started shooting. To focus on the why a child was there is so disturbing to me. Who cares why a child was there? It was a movie, not a topless bar (the first place I could think of that should never have children there.) And the horrible comments I saw regarding a baby at the movies? Again WHO CARES. I have taken Tindra to a movie. She slept and nursed the entire time. Yes it was a family friendly movie (madagascar) but I don't think that matters. The point is the parents chose to take their children to the movies. The end. No one should judge them for that and express horrible comments about it. Focusing on the WRONG thing people!

Okay end rant.

How to survie a 700 mile road trip with two kids.Alone.

Make a detailed plan. 

Use a map and the wonderful world of google and figure out the best places to stop for gas and bathroom breaks and know you won't make any unscheduled stops. 

Bring books and educational games for the 4 year old, and healthy snacks such as apples and cheese. Just because you are on a road trip doesn't mean junk food needs to be consumed. 

Now throw out that plan and all expectations. 

Bust out the DVD and head phones. 

Listen to your child's vacation bible school CD 7 times if it keeps him happy.

Drink a lot of caffeine. 

Don't be discouraged if your baby spits up in her outfit and the only thing you have handy is her brother's shirt. It will make a cute dress. 

Make unscheduled stops. Lots of them. 

And yes, you will resort to road trip junk food. 

But you WILL survive to tell the story of how you drove through 3 states, 700 miles with a 12 week old and 4 year old. 

Things my four year old prays about

This concluded Jasper's prayer last night " Thank you God for mommy's milk that feeds Tindra so she can eat and get big. And please let her hurry up and eat fast so she gets as big as me so we can play together. Amen." I believe that is the first time anyone has prayed about my breast milk.

Country living

My mom lives out in the country and has a little creek through her back yard. Jasper's favorite thing in the world is going down there and playing. He's easily entertained for hours!

My week old nephew

Enjoying some Owen snuggles. Check out this kids hair!!

Reason number 101 why cloth diapers rule

You can wear a shirt as a dress with your diaper showing and its considered super cute.

Country living

He loves the busy city life. It suits him. But then we come to the quiet Iowa countryside. And that suite him too.

I have a nephew and another sister in law! Thursday late afternoon my sister had her baby boy- I got to be there fit it!! He has an insane amount of hair and at three weeks early he was 7lbs 15 oz! AND yesterday my big brother and one of my favorite people, married a wonderful girl. I couldn't be happier right now!! Oh and Jasper was The cutest ring bearer there ever was.

Outta here!

We are heading tonight for Iowaaa! It's going to be a BIG busy week for my family!

My dad arrives tomorrow from Norway! Haven't seen him in 18 months.

Than tomorrow night my sister is being induced at 37 weeks- she's been having ridiculously high blood pressure and they are worried about her having a stroke if this baby doesn't get out so by Thursday I'll have a nephew!!

 And THAN on Saturday my brother is getting married! So like I said guys, HUGE week for the family!

Have an awesome 4th!!