6 months into 2011...ALREADY?!?

My girl Amy posted a 6-month-check in on her 2011 goals which I thought was such a great idea.  Also it's a great way to not forget what those goals are.. :)
So, reflecting on my resolutions/goals that I posted at the end of last year, here's how I stand...



~Lose all my baby weight after baby's born, and gain back muscle, get back into good shape.  Part way accomplished. I've lost all the weight, but the muscle is still is gone and there's some major toning that needs to happen.  A work still in progress,
~Run more races, starting with a 5k and working my way up to a half marathon.  Goal not met..I started training while I was still on leave, but once I was back at work I haven't found enough time to keep a consistent training schedule. 

~Although this may be out of my control- try to figure out work schedules between B and I where we aren't working complete opposite shifts.  Possibly going part-time, fingers crossed!!  I dream of seeing my husband more! Goal met (the best it could be).  I dropped a day a week at work, so the most I will work until midnight is two times a week. :)
~If B and I are home together more evenings this year, cooking and eating more meals together.  We only get one or two nights a week at home together, which I try to always make a good, healthy dinner.  I feel like my boys need more home-cooked meals than that!  (I do have to give B credit though, he tries really hard to cook healthy meals for the 2 of them when I'm at work, which I know isn't easy).  Goal met I think...I really have taken on cooking as a hobby.  The only TV I watch consistently is the Food Network and I've tried a lot of new recipes lately. Italian food is a favorite for me.  I recently made Chicken Parmesan and Sausage Fettucine Alfredo from scratch.  I'm really, truly lucky that Peyton is not a picky eater.  He will eat almost anything I cook.  Hopefully Olivia will be the same way!
~Patience and prioritizing.  I'm sure it will take some adjusting to having 2 kids, a newborn and a 4-year-old.  I really want to try to have a ton of patience.  I want to make sure that Peyton has a lot of one-on-one time and not feel neglected with a new baby at home.  I'm hoping I'll be able to juggle caring for a newborn, keeping Peyton entertained/engaged, spending quality time with B, keeping the house in order, making time to workout, etc etc etc. It will take some time to get a schedule down, but I'm hoping to stay organized and prioritize well.  FAIL. See my recent post.  I'm working on this.  I've started doing Jillian Michael 30-day shred workouts which are PERFECT for me because they are only 20 minutes.  (20 minutes of non-stop gruel!)  Now if I could only find a 20-min clean house routine.  ;)
~More date nights with B and a take a weekend or more away with just the two of us. We have been much better with this compared to when we had Peyton as a newborn.  It took us months to go anywhere without him. We've had a handful of dinner dates so far.  We've been pondering a long-weekend getaway to Vegas...we'll see if that happens this year. 

Giggles

Peyton gets the best ones from her...

Clipped

While I was at work last night I got a text from B with this picture:

He cut a chunk of his hair with his scissors while B was busy putting Olivia down for her nap.  So B shaved his hair off...

He knows why I'm trying to take his picture.  I think he learned his lesson with scissors.  "I'll never do it again Mom." 

Stinker.



New Tricks

Olivia is growing so fast right before our eyes!  In the past week or so, she's started laughing, rolling over and started doing this:

She's mastered this (what is it called anyway? Spitting? Rasberry-ing?) and does it all the time. 
I have yet to get her laughing or rolling over on camera.  I have to really work hard and look like an idiot to get a laugh from her :).  She has been rolling over a lot during the night, which wakes her up, so I have to go in a couple times and turn her back and cover her back up.  I can't believe she's almost 4 months old already.  But it's so fun to watch all these milestones that happen so quickly!

2-wheelin'

Yesterday we decided, just for fun, we would take Peyton's training wheels off.  He's been cruising around so fast with his training wheels and we thought he might be ready.  We were prepared for him to be scared and for it to be a long process, but literally the very first try he did it!  We were completely suprised and amazed!  We are so proud of him and he was pretty proud too. After he gets some more practice we'll get him a new bike.  He's already too tall for this one.

Here's the video of his very first attempt...

Lack of time and/or time management...

...resulting in kids getting the shaft and major Mommy-guilt.

I'm going to vent, so bear with me here.   :)

I thought after Olivia started sleeping better, I would have lots of energy and time to go back to doing fun things with Peyton (and also now Olivia).  WRONG-O.  I cannot for the life of me get things done.  I'm trying so hard to keep my house clean, give both kids the attention they need, workout, and the list goes on, all before I leave for work at 3pm.  I feel like I'm on an endless cycle of feeding, changing, clothes laundering, toy-picker-uping, soothing (a 4-year-old, 3-month-old, seizing Chihuahua...etc) and then I have to rush and get ready for work.

I feel bad for Olivia because I know she's not getting the one-on-one attention that Peyton did as a baby and also feel bad for Peyt because he's having to entertain himself a lot more because I'm taking care of Olivia.  Is this just how it is with more than one child?
 
I've even created a 'house-cleaning-schedule' on excel for myself, which is hilarious as I  have yet to have followed one day of it, and really, who does that?  Me apparently.  Being a working mother with small kids, I know it's unrealistic to have a perfectly picked up house at all times, but if I leave it be for a while, the clutter drives me insane!  I feel pulled in a million different directions and I'm really hoping some sort of order will come soon.  I'm dropping to 4-days a week instead of 5 at work starting next week so I'm hoping that will help some.  I know B feels this frustration too as he is alone with the kids from 3pm until he puts them to bed at night.  We both don't get a break and we're both exhausted and I know it's because of our opposite schedules.  On our days off together things move much more smoothly (and we get to see each other!).  **Side note: I have to commend B.  He really does an awesome job taking care of the kids in the evenings.  I know it has to be hard juggling bathing/bedtime routines between two tired kids.  He is such a good Daddy, I really am lucky.

I know my expectations are high and I know I'll never have a spic and span house, have perfectly behaved kids, and always have a fun-filled-packed schedule.  But..I want to get a little bit of a better grasp here. Any words of wisdom from any other moms out there?  How do you all do it all (or not)?  :) 

Cook time

Becky flew into Portland for the weekend.  We wanted to spend as much time as all 3 of us could together so we loaded up Camas, Peyton and Olivia in my Tahoe and made a trip to Salem to Jill's house.  This was the first time we had all of our kids together and it was so great to spend lots of quality time with my cookies.  Lots of catching up, eating, and coffee-drinking.  Heaven.  We can't believe how fast time is flying, it seems like yesterday we were in college, being roomates and having the time of our lives playing basketball together (almost 10 years since we graduated college together!).  Love you girls SO much.  Can't wait until our next reunion..



Cam and Peyt playing with playdoh

Peyt and Camas played pretty well togehter, they are about a year apart.  By the end of the night they were fighting like brother and sister!  Peyton already says he misses her.





She is such a doll...I hadn't seen her since she was just a baby!



Zoie girl

Olivia was pretty content the whole time and took a great nap in Zoie's crib.



Loading up and getting ready to say good-bye. Always sad to say bye to these girls...



Charlie girl.  Best dog ever.

Thumbsuckers

I breed them.

Peyton



Olivia







Recent pics

Starting to like her Bumbo

Mother's Day

B works every Sunday so I didn't get to see him much on Mother's Day.  I woke up to a wonderful gift though!

 After B got home, I saw him for about 15 min, and then the kids and I headed up to take my mom some flowers.  I know I sound like a broken record, but I really can't believe she is gone.  Luckily there was a beautiful sunbreak while we were up there.  I lost it while we were there, and Peyton is so sweet when I'm feeling sad.  "Do you miss Grandma again Mom? I miss her too." 

From there we headed over to my Dad's house for a BBQ.  It was nice to be together with my family on this first Mother's Day without our Mama.

Brad-dogg shooting hoops.



My sis-in-law Sherri with Brad and Marissa.




Peyton couldn't be peeled away from the basketball court for a pic with me :(



Uncle Randy and Olivia, tired girl.

Cousin Brandon getting some great smiles

Poor Bruiser, they were teasing Peyton.

Finally got him back.  :)

Mother's Day Brunch

Yesterday Peyton's preschool had a Mother's Day Brunch.  We had fruit, quiche, and cinnamon rolls.  All the kids made the mommies flower pots, cards, and also answered questions, along with drawing a picture of us. :) I took some pictures and video with my phone:

Love this little man

The last part is SAD!

Scary

 A flower pot with flower pens

JUMP!

Peyt's preschool posted this pic from today at school on facebook.  He has so much fun there.

Eight.

We had a delicious and elegant dinner at Portland City Grill last night to celebrate our 8th anniversary. Happy Anniversary Brandon Oliver! I love you and here's to many, many more.