National Breast feeding month...(I'm a little late with this post)

With the combination of being a breastfeeding mom as well as a post partum nurse, the fact that August is National Breastfeeding month seems to have a little bit more of a personal significance this time around. Because of these two rolls, I wanted to post some of the items that I just love that have made things so much easier for us.

I love any of the nursing bras by Bravado!

I love Madela pumps (I have an older version of this one). We use Madela pumps at our hospital.

The Hooter Hider nursing cover (This is great because of the built in wire so that you can see what the heck is happening...)

The Boppy pillow

(I can also prop Ryder up after a feeding on this which you can't do on some of the other support pillows...)

We use this cream at our hospital and it can make such a difference to prevent any breakdown.

The biggest tip is that I had our lactation specialists number handy so that I could either make an apt to see them or that they could walk me through things over the phone or they could just answer questions that I had.

For those that breastfeed, if there is an item that you have loved, I would love to know. I am always looking for things to make life a little easier...

(for me and our patients...)

We are off...

Vacation, here we come! Only five hours in the car with a four month old... there is no reason so worry right?!

Not with this face...

Whatever gets us there in one piece...

We look forward to lots of fun as a family and taking lots of pictures of all the memories we will be making together!

Wish us luck!

a little elbow grease goes a long way...

Prior to us leaving for our vacation, Kit headed up to the family cabin to meet up with his parents, his cousin Michael and his brother Ryan to fix a very old deck. Our family is amazing!

The deck:

during...

and after...

The worker bees:

This cabin has such a history for Kit and his family, and I am so excited that we get to share those memories and make new ones with Ryder too!

some girly-ness...

I am surrounded by books about trucks and monsters and farm animals and the noises they make...

Here are some fun books that we have enjoyed with our niece...

There are many great ones out there, but these are definitely some favorites...

A new favorite...

We just tried this recipe and I think that it will become a family favorite of ours. It worked out so well because we had a ton of tomatoes to use up from our garden. It can be used as a dip, served with chicken or, how we did it, over pasta. It was really tasty and very easy. I served it with a caprese salad.

Thank you Food Network!

I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did.

thinking back...

August always makes me a little nostalgic. This time last year we were 8 weeks pregnant, on a backpacking trip, so excited about the prospect of becoming parents. Last august was also when our first baby would have been due.

And now this year, we have our little man.

My heart is so full...

Here is Ryder last year...

And here is Ryder this year...

questions to the Mamas out there...topic:packing

So august is the month where we head off to the mountains with our friends and family to enjoy the great outdoors. We are getting better at organizing our belongings to make taking Ryder places a little easier. Good God, he has triple the amount of stuff that Kit and I have combined.

I feel like, just shy of taking the kitchen sink, we are packing our entire house for our little family trip. I was wondering, for you seasoned parents our there, are there ways that you have developed that make vacations/trips together a little easier and more organized with a little person...? I would love ANY and ALL tips. I would love to not reinvent the wheel if I don't have to...

I would love tips about packing as well as items that you enjoy once you get to your destination...

pillows...

We just added one of these pillows to our living room and I am so excited about it! I must say that yellow is really becoming a favorite of mine...

I just can't get enough!

winding down...

One of our favorite times of the day...

and what goes better with bed time than a good book.

a double date...

We went bowling with our friends the Pavones the other night and we had the best time!

We got a little dinner at Sonic first.

Then we headed to the bowling alley.

(aka people watching central!)

The boys are 5 weeks apart and we are so excited to watch them grow up together!

I'm a little addicted...

This is our favorite new phone ap and we have been having so much fun with it. who knew that 'QI' was a word? And when placed on a triple letter...now that can make a girl feel smart...

My goal when playing with my sister, (with her Master's in English...) is that when she wins, that it's by less than 100 points.

Then you add the fact that you can face time too?!

That's just getting crazy!

yellow and green...

Yellow and green have become favorites of ours. (I am sure that our kids will say "why did you choose those colors...?" which is exactly what I said when I saw my mom use those colors in the 70's. Well, I guess, like fashion, things just keep coming around. (Note, I am not planning to get appliances in "avocado", I'm just saying that I have to draw the line somwhere...)

Anyway, here are some pics of my favorite spots in our living/dining room. I noticed that yellow and green played a big part in each space...

I love being home...

blankets...

I wanted to share with you what some friends of mine made for Ryder...

They asked the colors of his room and put this "tag-along" blanket together and it even has his name on it! It also has ribbon loops that you can attach toys to...

Needless to say, this has become a favorite of ours. It tends to go with us everywhere.

We took it with us to his last doctors appointment and we realized that it looked like a cape...

Janna and Cathy,Thank you so much!

Happy Anniversary!

I just wanted to wish my parent's a very happy anniversary...

Who would have thought that the blind date 33 years ago would have led to such an amazing life together. We love living life with you and have so enjoyed all of our adventures together and we look forward to many many more!

lazy days...

Ryder and I had a great day running errands and then we came back and just sprawled out on the bed and read books and played with toys. My little man just passed out, it was so sweet.

I am so hopeful that he enjoys books and reading...

fish tank finishes

This week Kit added trim to the top and bottom of the tank and stained it a dark brown. It is really looking nice. I am excited to get all the fish in one tank and to see it all come together... Kit is really doing a great job with it.

Date Night with my little man...

The other night I took Ryder and met my family for an outdoor movie night at Victoria Gardens. It was free and there were twinkle lights and a large family lounge/bathroom for diaper changes and feedings and we all just sat together for over 4 hours and enjoyed each other's company and talked and laughed. The movie was Planet 51. It was such a fun evening and I can't tell you how fun it was to try something different. The only thing that would have m ade the evening better was if Kit had been there...

Our big kid...

Guess who isn't bathing in the kitchen sink anymore... Kit.

Just kidding!

So our little man does not fit in the kitchen sink anymore for his baths, so he is now using his big kid tub. He loves getting bathed so bath time is the best for eliciting all of his smiles and giggles.

He is so precious to us...

court dates, names changes and citizenship...

Today my sister and brother in law had a court date, with our baby girl, and she now has the family name and is a huge step closer to finalizing her US citizenship. Thank you to all of you that have walked with our family through this whole process. This little girl is so precious to us and as far as we are concerned, she has been ours since we first got her referral...

(It's just nice to know that the United States concurs...)

Here are some recent pics with her mom and dad...

The whole family with the judge...

expectations

Here is a prayer that I have been reading over and I wanted to share with you from my book of prayer by richard foster.

Loving God, I choose this day to be a servant. I yield my right to command and demand. I give up my need to manage and control. I relinquish all schemes of manipulation...

In Jesus' name,

Amen.

I think that I have always been some one who wants to know what to expect and to control the situations that I am in, and my attitude can completely change in the process. But if motherhood has taught me anything thus far, it's that all of that just has to go out the window and I have to use any ounce of flexibility and the ability to go with the flow as I can possibly muster.

(Um, for all you fellow type A's out there, this is crazy hard to do isn't it?)

I am a work in progress, I guess you can only do your best, and as Maya Angelou says, "When you know better, you do better..."

(Or at least you give it the old college try...)

One year of blogging

Well, we have had this family blog for one year. We started it when we found out we were pregnant, the week that we were due with our first baby and needless to say so many things have happened in our lives this past year:

1. We celebrated 7 years of marriage

2. Our baby girl from Ethiopia joined our lives

3.Ryder Pierce Rae was born and we became parents

4.Kit finished grad school

5.We both turned 30

We are excited to have had this avenue to share our lives with you. Thank you for those of you that share life with us... We look forward to another year of milestones and reasons to celebrate what the God is doing.

A day with Ryder Rae

I always used to ask my friends that are moms what their days looked like. How did they structure it, what activities did they do with and without their kids, how did they get things done...

So one of my friends asked me recently what a day with Ryder looks like, so here is a little day in the life with Ryder Rae:

He wakes up at 6a for a feeding, I change him and then he goes back to sleep until 9a. He is sleeping through the night which makes life so wonderful. Usually I go back to sleep too.

Before he wakes up, I try to get dressed and get as ready for the day as I possibly can. (Make up and doing my hair does not happen regularly...) When he wakes up around 9a, I feed him, change him and get him dressed. He always has at least one EXPLOSIVE diaper in the morning around that time.

We then spend a couple of hours rotating him from his blanket on the floor, to being propped on my boppy pillow, then to his bouncy seat, to being held, to being in the baby bjorn. We have usually had at least one outfit change by noon due to my baby's "spitty" nature... We usually have at least two diaper changes during that time as well.

This is usually the part of the day that I try to run 1-2 errands and when he is happily propped, that is when I try to tackle some laundry and get some cleaning done. I also try to get some breakfast too. Sometimes we can get a walk in there as well. Sometimes he takes little naps too...

He goes down for another nap around 1p, after another feeding at noon, and at this point in the day, I do emailing and blogging and eat lunch and continue working on cleaning projects or scrap booking or editing photos or little things like that. At this time of day, I also get a game plan for dinner, so if I have to thaw anything or chop anything, I can do it while the baby is down. He wakes up around 3:30p and he eats again and then we go back to reading on the floor, trying to get him to roll over, practicing with our camera, because Ryder is my favorite to photograph. We also watch some HGTV and Parenthood reruns...

Kit gets home around 6p when I am feeding Ryder again and we try to eat dinner together but sometimes the little man wants to be held so he will sit in one of our laps. Kit lays him on the couch or on the floor and talks to him and makes his silly faces and it has turned into the time of the day that is set aside for the two of them. If there is any diaper after Kit gets home, he usually changes it because we average about 7-8 diapers a day.

We bath him and he has another feeding around 9p then he is down for the night. Kit is usually the one that puts him to bed.

I really am so thankful that I get to be home with him so much. I feel like he is just growing like crazy and I don't want to miss it. I have heard, and maybe I have already shared this, that in parenting, the days are long and years are short...

It really is so true!

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