Lots of sentences. Zero pictures.

This is my 304th post. It really doesn't seem like that long ago when I was writing my 100th post of 100 Things I Love. How many posts I've written has nothing to do with this particular post. I just have a few things on my mind that need to get out of it.

p.s. I just looked over that list again, and it made me happy just reading it. :)

I really want to redo my blog layout. I gave it a mini-face lift not too long ago, but I want a serious makeover. Oh, did you know you can search my blog for past posts? It's pretty sweet. Check it out in the sidebar.

Campmeeting is in two weeks! That's so soon! I already made our packing list and everything. Hello, I'm a freak.

I smell like spit up right now. And I've already taken a shower tonight, so I'm pretty much screwed.

The days need more hours. There is just not enough time to snuggle and play with my kids, do the Sunday paper crossword, read my Kindle, sew fun things, work out, keep up the blog, obsess over Pinterest, play board games, and sleep (aka all the fun things I want to do) and still be able to keep the house clean, finish thank you notes, cook dinner, go grocery shopping, balance our budget, and run errands (all the bleh things I need to do).

We're going organic. Okay, so not really. I wish, but we can't afford to do it all. We used to do organic milk before I couldn't bring myself to fork over the money for it. But we're going back to it. That and cage-free eggs. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Some of my very favorite people in the entire world are coming in town to visit this weekend!! Candie and Ricky and Jacob are coming from Austin to meet Landon and I can't wait to see them!

My phenomenal photographer of a sister updated her blog look this week. I still miss her cutesy logo, but it's nice this way, too! Plus, you can find things by category. Go check it out. You know you want to.

Why am I still awake? Landon's sleeping (probably for the night; yes, I'm spoiled), Avery's been down for a couple hours, Matt's not home, and I have no reason not to be in bed right now.

It's so. stinking. hot. I hate Texas right now. Okay, fine, I never hate Texas.

GO RANGERS. Had to throw that in there. The boys are definitely on an 11 game winning streak. No big deal.

My daughter is hilarious. I'm about to write a post of all the funny things she's been saying lately. And by "about to" I mean "will try to get to sometime in the next couple of weeks." They probably won't translate as well to the blog, but her comedic timing is spot-on in person. :)

She did see her first movie theater movie today! My mom took her (and my [adult] brother and sister) to see Winnie the Pooh. Apparently she loved it (and the popcorn; she is her mother's daughter after all). I'm still a little sad I didn't get to go with her (Matt and I took the preteens to church camp). We did have a date night last night though and saw Horrible Bosses at the drive in. I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty darn hilarious. It's also pretty darn adult if you know what I mean, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Um, I think that's it. I'm going to bed. Right after I eat some cereal. I told you that wasn't just a pregnancy craving. Gosh, I'm so glad I'm not pregnant anymore.

Okay for real now. Goodnight.

Happy Birthday to Avery and America!

We have just had the best two days around here!

{Avery's Birthday Celebration}

We're having a small family party next weekend, but we wanted to do something fun for Avery's actual birthday. I love birthdays and really want to make them memorable and special for our kids.

Since her birthday fell on a Sunday this year, she got to wear a special birthday skirt to church (complete with cupcake bow!). She even got to sing "Beautiful One" into the microphone on stage during worship team practice. Everybody was wishing her a happy birthday all morning, and her little Sunday School class even sang to her. I don't think she minded the attention one bit.

We came home for a delicious lunch of sausage, diced sweet potatoes, and (A's favorite) green beans. We'll do a cake at her party, so her birthday treat was No Bake Oreo Bars. The girl loves dessert (um, that might be my fault). But she's allowed to love dessert because she also loves fruits and veggies. See, I'm not such a bad mom. :)

After stuffing her face with chewy Oreo goodness, Avery got to open her birthday present from us, a Leapfrog Tag Reading System with a Disney princess book. (We decided to go with the Tag instead of Tag Junior because you can still use the Junior books with the Tag, and since the Junior system is a little more limited, we thought we'd get more years of use out of a regular Tag system.) She LOVED it (like gasped when she pulled it out of the bag). Point for Mommy and Daddy!

We snuggled on her bed for awhile with her new book and then she got a great nap. Yippee! Good naps make late nights bearable.

Our good friends Kendra and Carlos joined us for the rest of the evening, which consisted of Cotton Patch, fountains, and our town's fireworks show.

If I had known she would actually play IN the fountain this time, I would've brought her swimsuit. Good thing I had extra clothes!

Every time a firework went off, Avery would yell, "They hit a home run!" Um, someone has been to too many Ranger games.

Lauren and Brian joined us for the fireworks!

{4th of July}

Our town had a 4th of July parade, so Allison got up "early" to meet us at the house to go with us, and Kendra and Carlos met us out there. Um, the "parade" lasted maybe five minutes and was completely lame. 

Oh well. So we went over to my parents' (who are still in Europe-- come back already!!) to eat pizza and swim next door. 

We headed home for Avery to nap (she fell asleep in the car like two minutes after we left-- we wore the girl out this weekend!), and then we got our stuff together for the Talleys' annual 4th of July celebration. 

We just love the Talleys (Kendra's parents), and every year they invite over whoever from the church wants to come and watch the Duncanville fireworks from their front yard. They fire up the grill, and everybody just eats and hangs out until the show starts at dark. Avery loved playing with her friend Lily (and all of her other favorite people), and Landon was definitely not lacking in snuggles! The fireworks were awesome, and it was a nice, low-key way to spend the evening.

After a couple of busy days and late nights, I'm looking forward to a "normal" day tomorrow. Goodnight, everybody! Hope your holiday weekend was as fantastic as ours. :)

Last Week in Review

Oh, there are so many things to catch up on in this post. We'll start where we left off last week (eek! a whole week between posts??)...

{Monday}

I got to go see my cousin Amy on Monday afternoon for a massage (she's a massage therapist and she's fantastic), and I left feeling human again! My back had been killing me, and I'm so thankful Matt had the idea for me to get it taken care of.

After dinner, Mom and Dad came over to see Avery and Landon before leaving Wednesday morning for their European extravaganza.

{Tuesday}

We went looking at minivans. We found one we loved. I'll have a separate post about embracing my inner soccer mom.

We stopped at Chick-fil-a afterward so we could feed Avery and Landon and avoid hungry meltdowns since we needed to go to the grocery store before heading home. We all survived.

{Wednesday}

Amy came over for the day to play with Avery and Landon. I was so thankful that she offered to do this because it gave me a chance to get a lot done around the house. And I don't think Amy minded all the baby snuggles one bit. :) 

Matt took my parents and our pastor and his wife (their traveling buddies) to the airport. They don't come back until July 8, and it's so weird not to be able to call my mom. I talk to her so stinkin' much during the day, so I think I'm going through withdrawals. Weird.

Ral, Sam, and Maddie came over for dinner and Wii competition on Wednesday night. We just love them! And Avery is still talking about playing with "Mr. Ral and Maddie and Sam."

{Thursday}

I had a chance to run up to the church to get a couple things done, but the majority of my day was spent running errands while Matt had both kids at home. (I'm so thankful that Landon will take a bottle of pumped milk since it gives me a little more freedom for when I need to be gone longer than a couple hours.)

Tiff, Ross, and Macyn got here late Thursday night, right after Landon spit up threw up all. over. me.

{Friday}

After breakfast, we went to pick up our new minivan! It took a little longer to get out the door, and then we had to get a cashier's check at the bank, so by the time we finally had the keys and could leave, both kids were screaming because it was well past lunch time.

Naturally we all went to Chick-fil-a. It was super crowded though!

Avery refused to take a nap, so she played in demolished her room for two hours before we had to get her up to get ready to go to Landon's (and Macyn's!) first Rangers game!

We tried so hard to make it early to the game to see Dirk throw out the first pitch, but between 4 adults and 3 kids (all of whom fit into our new ride!!), we didn't make it to our seats until the end of the first inning. Landon slept most of the time, Avery had a major meltdown in the bathroom about halfway through the game, and it was miserably hot in our section since there wasn't any breeze, but we still had lots of fun. We left before the fireworks show, but we got to see them from our car. They're much louder outside the ballpark!

{Saturday}

The Melancons left in the morning, and during our errands run, Avery fell fast asleep in the car. Not wanting to relive the previous day's naplessness, we didn't even wake her up to eat. The girl slept for two hours and would've slept longer if we hadn't woken her up because Sam was there to babysit.

We usually don't have to find babysitters because my parents live 10 minutes away and love to keep Avery when they can, but since they're in stinking Europe, Sam came over to hang out with Avery while we went to my friend Caty's wedding.

Weddings are kinda awkward when you don't know anybody there. I mean, I obviously knew the bride (we used to teach together), and I knew one bridesmaid, but other than that? No one. The ceremony was gorgeous and I cried (yes, I am a huge sap, even more so now that I have kids). The reception was equally beautiful, but then came the awkward part. We got to the reception a little late because I had to feed Landon, so we just sat at a table by ourselves. No big deal. Until the popular table beside us was out of chairs and people kept coming to take them from ours. We were officially the loser table, and since we needed to get home anyway, we decided to jet after saying hello to the bride and groom. I made Matt walk with me over to the cake table so we could at least look at the cakes, and it just so happened to be cake time, so we stayed long enough to join another loser table (they didn't know anybody there either) and devour some chocolate cake. Yum. Anyway, besides feeling like a lame-o, we really did enjoy seeing this sweet couple tie the knot; I just love their story! So congrats, Caty! You were gorgeous and I can't wait to see what God has next for you two. :)

{Sunday}

Matt had to be at church early, so I had my first test in getting two kids out the door by myself. I passed! I was just a little late. :) Avery slept in, so that gave me a chance to get Landon dressed and all of our stuff together. She woke up just as I was about to go get her, so after she was dressed, I fed Landon while she ate breakfast and we eventually made it out the door.

We usually don't make it to Sunday School because of our other church commitments, but we went to lunch at Sam's Pizza with our Sunday School class anyway.

Avery once again refused to nap. Lovely. I'm really hoping this is just a phase and she gets back to her normal napping self.

We went to the monthly prayer gathering at church that evening. Matt was leading worship and I didn't get anybody to cover childcare, so I decided to just go and do it myself. Our kids were the only ones there anyway, so Avery hung out and ate our dinner at church.

A napless day = a stressful bedtime. There was much screaming involved. Oh dear Jesus, please let this just be a phase!

{Currently...}

And now. I woke up at a decent hour this morning and got quite a bit done around the house and even got to play with Avery while Landon napped with his daddy. Avery is still awake in her room. I'm still praying she naps.   It is so. very. hot this week. I don't even want to leave the house. Maybe I'll at least shower today. We'll probably go swimming at some point this week or something. Something. I think Avery's getting bored, so I really need to be more intentional about what we do at home during the day. Anyway, this catches up the week at least; now I just need to finish a few other posts (i.e. VBS, minivan, Avery's 2 year old post, etc.). Now about that shower...

Week One.

Here are a few snapshots of our first week at home with our newest addition.

We stayed two nights at the hospital, and we had the best nurses. Our first nurse (night shift on Tuesday) was Deborah, then Wednesday we had Brianne (who we had met while walking laps the day before and she specifically scheduled herself to be our nurse), and Deborah was our nurse again on Wednesday night. The Thursday nurse wasn't as cool, but since we were discharged in the morning it didn't really matter.

Avery's gift from Landon. She's on a little Tinkerbell kick lately.

Kendra and Allison brought Avery to the hospital to see us on Wednesday, but she made us so sad when they needed to leave! She kept crying, "Mommy, come with us! Daddy, come with us!" Needless to say, I cried too.

Matt's impression of Landon's sleepy face

Matt actually went home around midnight on Wednesday night to stay with Avery since my mom needed to go back to work on Thursday. He took Avery to a friend's house (thanks, Whitney!) on Thursday morning and came back to the hospital in time for us to be discharged.

The hospital stay got a little boring (I'm so glad we didn't have to stay as long as we did with Avery), but we got lots of good snuggle time with Landon, and we really appreciated having visitors.

Muncle Vernon!

Kendra

Kari

Beverly is actually a nurse at our hospital, but she wasn't working while we were there, so she stopped by to visit anyway. :)

Chelsie (Stephanie stopped by later, but I forgot to snap a picture!)

Avery's done pretty well with the transition to being an older sibling as opposed to an only child. She loves to hold Landon (we have the pictures to prove it!), and she's always trying to get in the middle of the action (even helping with diaper changes). She even wants to read her "big sister book" before every nap and bedtime. She's definitely had more meltdowns than normal since we've been home, but I can't say I blame her. We've really made an effort to make sure she gets lots of individual attention, but things are still, well, different. I think with some more time (and lots of patience and understanding on our part!), she'll be just fine.

We've been so blessed by sweet friends who have brought us some fantastic dinners. Our church's Helps Ministry provides three meals for a family after a baby is born, and one of our neighbors brought over a delicious chicken pot pie when we got home on Thursday. I even have a few freezer meals that I made last month, so I'm extremely thankful to not have to cook right now. I'm doing good to just get a shower. And I'm not even getting those every day. Yes, I just admitted that.

I have the best husband in the world. Matt is a huge help around the house; he's worked really hard to help keep the kitchen clean, he changes his fair share of diapers (without complaining), and he's taken the initiative to get every meal ready so I don't have to. I'm SO thankful for him!

We've had some good visits with family and friends since we've been home.

Aunt Allison

Grandma

Nene and Pop Pop

Brittany and Uncle Nick

Amy

Breastfeeding is going so much better than it did with Avery. This was something I was pretty worried about because we just really can't afford to buy formula right now. Oh yeah, plus "breast is best" and all that jazz. I just remember being so overwhelmed and frustrated with every (forever long and painful) feeding when Avery was a baby, that it's been a pleasant shift that Landon seems to be a much better nurser. Maybe we'll make it longer than three months this time.

(Don't worry, I don't have any breastfeeding pictures for ya.)

Matt and I are sleeping about as well as can be expected. Landon is a sleeper, that's for sure. He's so chill and really only cries when he's hungry. He'll go for a 4-5 hour stretch between feedings at night, so that's been a decent chunk of sleep for me.

Things have been a little overwhelming this week while we try to adjust to our newest family member because Matt has had to be at tech training at school since Monday and I've been working at the church the last couple of days trying to get ready for VBS (which starts on Monday). As long as we can survive until VBS is over next week, I think we'll be golden for the rest of the summer. Until then, we'll try to enjoy the chaos, knowing that it's only temporary and babies grow up way too fast.