Carmen and her buddy Erin

One of my best friends, Heather, came over the other night with her sweet daughter Erin.  She is 7 weeks older than Carmen.  Erin is such a trooper.  She's seriously the best baby I've ever seen.  She just slept in Heather's arms until around 10pm when she went home.  I loved having them here.  Roman loved making Erin laugh and showing off for Heather.

Carmen and Erin holding hands

sweet girls!

Roman loved her too!

Seven

Carmen turned seven months old on January 22nd.  Please make time stop!

• Carmen eats three meals a day.  Cereal in the morning, veggie at lunch, and cereal/fruit combo at dinner.  We all eat every meal together
• Carmen nurses 5 times a day (8am, 11am, 2am, 5pm, and 7:30pm with a 6oz formula bottle for dessert)
• Carmen is still hit or miss on taking a bottle in replacement to nursing.  Whatever. I'm always around, so what's the big deal?!
• Carmen wears size 4 diapers (so does Roman!) and size 9 and 12 month clothes
• She weighs about 20 lbs
• Carmen loves to stand against the ottoman with me barely holding her
• She scoots backwards, but doesn't crawl yet.  Soon!  Very soon.  I can feel it!
• Carmen naps three times a day unless we're out and about.  She may or may not nap at the gym and usually doesn't nap that much in her car seat.  Whatever, we're flexible
• She sleeps 12 hours at night
• Roman can make her laugh all the time!  It's adorable to see her smirk and then just bust up laughing!
•  She is overall a very chill, happy baby.  The only time she fusses is when she's over tired or very hungry.  We can fix that problem fast!
• I just love this baby stage! 

Daddy is home!

Two weeks ago, Matt was scheduled for on-call (reserve).  He had a short call on Wednesday, so he had to fly to Atlanta.  We thought for sure that he would come home the next morning.  Sure enough, he got a four day trip!  It's just so hard when it's unexpected.  I hear people complain that their husbands are coming home late one night from work unexpectedly.  They have no idea what it's like to think he's coming home one day and then not be back for four more!  This too shall pass!  Saturday night, I'm hanging at Lindsey and Corey's with the kids and get a call from Matt.  They scheduled him for another trip!  He didn't get to come home until Monday night!  I just cried!  I held the fort down for the six days and we survived.  I just am better when Matt is here.  I'm really not trying to complain, because I love our little lives, but it can be hard when he's gone unexpectedly.  I just try to appreciate the times that he is here!

League playdate

I had Kristin, Tiffany, and Lindsey over a couple weeks ago for the kids to play and mommy's to play too!  We had so much fun catching up!  I love that my kids are growing up with my best friends' kids!  Blessed!

Madison, Christian, Chloe, Roman, and Lincoln

Carter and Carmen were napping or eating during this picture.  Soon they'll be in the mix!

dress up time!

Roman seriously loves to dress up!!  This is him at church one morning!  Seriously!  A butterfly princess?  It doesn't matter what it is, Roman loves to dress up!

Reflections

I have been thinking lately about how I thought this was going to be such a hard year considering I was going to be staying home with two babies, less money (due to no job), no "me" time, and definitely no fun romantic trips with Matt.  Last year was great with a couple vacations, but this year doesn't even compare.  I have loved staying home with my kids so much!  People think that we're crazy for not putting Roman in a preschool class this year, but we've really enjoyed having him home.  Now that Carmen sleeps through the night, and mommy does too, things have really gotten "normal" around here and I love it!  Don't get me wrong, times can be tough.  Roman is so persistent and strong willed and Carmen loves to be held all the time, but I'm just trying to live in the moment and enjoy each day with my babies.  

I love having the gym as an outlet.  I can have up to two hours to myself.  Yes, I've dropped off Carmen with a 16 year old looking boy all in the name of Yoga.  She'll be fine!  I also love having our church.  It is so great to be a part of MOPS with other mom's that are in the exact same boat as me.  It is so refreshing and I look forward to Monday mornings now!  Bible study on Tuesday mornings is another great break away that I'm getting spiritually nourished.  

Fortunately, Matt hasn't had to fly too much either.  Being married to a pilot can be so hard at times and so rewarding too.  Not going to lie, it is fabulous to have the entire park to yourselves as a family on a Wednesday morning.  We love it!  Even if we do have to move to Atlanta, I know God has a plan and I'm just trying to seek it and follow him.  These are my reflections for now.  I feel very blessed and wouldn't change this time in our lives for anything!

We love these two so much!

Ice Cream!

Today was a different day.  I put Roman down for a nap a little after 1 pm and he never went to sleep.  I finally went in and got him a little before 4pm.  He played with his superheros and animals in his crib for almost three hours!!  Crazy!  I had told him that Jake and Helen were going to come over, but Helen called and said they couldn't make it.  I hated telling Roman that his buddy wasn't coming over to play!  I went in his room and said that I had good news and bad news.  Bad news is Jake isn't coming, but good news is that we're going to get ice cream!  He thought about it and said, "Is Jake going to get ice cream with us?"  He's such a people person!  We ended up having a great time!  There's nothing like a freezing cold day and some yummy ice cream!

This little girl just sat and watched us eat our ice cream.  She's so good!

Roman even got to add some sprinkles and M&M's!  Yummy!

six month photo shoot by mommy

Just because it was a rainy day, I decided to get a few pictures of Carmen while Roman was napping.

We just can't get enough of this sweet face!

Play date day with the Longs

Last Friday morning, I had Lindsey over so the kids could play.  We had a great time.  The kids made homemade pizza together and the babies napped well too.  Later that afternoon, Matt flew in from work and   we had them over for dinner.  It was a fabulous day for Roman to get to play with Chloe twice!  It was great for me too!  Mommy time!

The babies in their chairs

As long as spider man is on the baby, any boy can push a stroller, right?!

Pizza time! 

sibling picture!

reading magazines

Spider Man Mania!

It's safe to say that Roman loves his spider man!  I find myself doing laundry every other day so he can wear his jammies over and over.  (I also love wearing my lululemon pants over and over too so they both get washed often!)  My big boy is growing up so fast!

What's better than wearing spider man jammies and playing with a spider man all while sitting in a spider man bucket? 

  

Yes, he has spider man house shoes too!

super heros are so much fun!

Meema and her grandkids

Meema came home to Dallas with me for the rest of the week after Christmas.  We had a great time with the kids.  We managed to take them to Northpark one day for a fun day of shopping and then the next day we hit up Nordstrom Rack.  I love when my mom is here!  We had a blast!

New Years Eve

We had a Vail reunion for New Years Eve.  It was such a great time!  The Hewes had us over for yummy dinner.  Matt was working and flew in around 10pm that night.  He made it for the midnight toast!  We had so much fun with so much laughter!  I even made Carol laugh so hard that she spit her wine across the dinner table.  Oops!  Love you guys!  (pictures stolen from Mandy)

dancing the night away!

girl pic

Good times!

At least I had cute shoes on!

The men minus poor Matt

Matt is here!  Game time!

Everyone must go purchase Awkard Family Photos.  So worth the laughs!

Love you guys!!  What a fabulous way to bring in the New Year!