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Yes, I know you can see the snot in her nose in this picture. But I don't have editing software and this is truly what she looks like every day so I think it's pretty appropriate!

Lilly Mae is 2!

My 5lbs 1oz, 7.5 week premature baby is now 2 years old! She weighs 30lbs, fits in size 2 or 3 clothes, and wears a size 7 shoe (Jayda is only in a 9!). She's healthy and growing like a weed!

She is also fully enjoying her TERRIBLE TWO's! She's feisty, pissy, temperamental, energetic, mischievous, and funny. Our little "Angry Elf" likes to yell at her sister, push her around, pull her hair, and throw her toys. But she also likes to snuggle, give kisses, and grunt when she gives super big hugs. She's absolutely perfect.

She's still in speech therapy every other week and is doing well. She calls Jayda "sissy." She can say Jayda, but she prefers to call her Sissy (sounds likes She-She) which is the cutest thing ever. She says daddy, mommy, riley, grammy, papa, baby, bath, and a bunch of other words...but she still prefers to scream and point. Either way...she's communicating!

We had a yummy dinner and I made a ladybug cake for her birthday. It was a sweet evening and we enjoyed the family time just being together and celebrating our sweet Lils.

Happy Birthday Miss Mae!

Sneaky little Leprechauns

I love St. Patrick's Day. I love that the wee little leprechauns come and visit our house to play tricks on the kids in the middle of the night.

This year they were especially sneaky.

First, Jayda woke up to green toilet water.

Then, when she walked downstairs she saw that the leprechauns had hung her barbie and her pink pig upside down from the chandelier!

We decided to make pancakes for breakfast, but when we poured out the bisquick...dog food spilled out instead! Well, we were lucky and we found the bisquick in another bag in the pantry so we pulled it out to start making our pancakes. But when we went to pour the milk in...it was green!

After feasting on green pancakes and green milk for breakfast, Jayda went up to her room to put her clothes on for school. She always picks out her clothes the night before. But when she went upstairs they weren't laid out on her chair like usual. She was a bit confused...until she saw her American Girl Doll, Elizabeth, sitting on top of her chair wearing Jayda's school clothes. Those sneaky little leprechauns took her doll out of her bed and dressed her in Jaydas clothes!

Luckily, the wee little leprechauns are super nice so they leave little gold candies at each spot they do a trick.

I think being sneaky is fun. Those leprechauns are pretty lucky they get to do tricks on the kids!

Hope you all had a fun, trick filled, St. Patrick's Day!

Dog food instead of pancake mix!

Here Jayda is cracking up because she found her American Girl doll wearing her school clothes.

This is one of my favorite pictures. . She was laughing so hard that she started crying!

My house is not this messy everywhere I promise! But I love this picture. Can you see the little splash of green flying out of the bowl on the left?

Nothing endures but change...

It's interesting how no matter how much time you spend planning or plotting...things change. That's one consistent element of life. Change happens. It can be good. It can be bad. It can be exciting, scary, overwhelming, sad, thrilling, or simply different. We've had some slightly scary, yet exciting changes these past few months. For example, we bought a house!... and then I got laid off work.

On February 27th, we purchased our home. We've been renting this house for 3 years and found out it was going to be sold as a "short sale" which allowed us to purchase the home for a ridiculously low price. We know we like the location (4 doors down from the school that Jayda will attend next year!!!), we love our neighbors, and we know what we're getting since we've lived here for three years. The real bonus (besides the price)...we didn't have to move! We truly feel blessed for this opportunity. We now own a home that we can call our own. Although the house is not our dream home, it's perfect for us at this stage in our life. It's pretty, safe, affordable, and we love it! It's funny how when we were renting I didn't really like the house. I thought it was too small, the floors creaked, etc, etc. But now that it's ours I truly love it! I'm having fun planning how to redecorate and organize now that it's ours. Russ has already redone our closets (he did a great job) and is excited to become Mr. Handy! We're super excited!

The day after we bought the house our dryer broke. And our toilet is leaking. Weird that now those issues are our problems. No more calling the landlord. No more having it fixed for free. Those times are over. It's our responsibly now. And ya know what? It actually feels really, really good!

The day after our dryer broke, and two days after buying our house... I got laid off of work.

Ouch!

Then Russ and the girls all got the flu. It lasted for 10 days.

Needless to say...it was a crazy couple of weeks!

Although getting laid off of work right after buying a house was a bit scary and overwhelming...we feel blessed it happened. I've wanted to be a "real" stay-at-home mom for years. I say "real" because I was a stay-at-home mom, but I was working from home which means I was spread too thin and not really doing anything as well as I'd like. We were all suffering.

This forced our little family to make some changes. Russ is now providing for us on his own and I am able to truly run the household and manage our family. Interestingly enough...I've never been happier! I'm able to manage the house (it's still messy in case you were wondering), do the laundry (although we still dry clean Russ' work shirts because I think ironing clothes is the worst thing ever), cook meals (which I'm actually enjoying now that I'm not taking work calls and trying to keep the kids quiet while rushing out the door to pick up Russ from the bus WHILE trying not to burn the garlic bread!)! It's been soooooo amazing to feel like I have 10 minutes to read a book to Jayda instead of running around sending emails or taking calls while shushing my kids. It feels great to be able to read my kindle at night instead of working on RFP's or policies. It feels sooooooooo good to not be constantly hooked up to my blackberry. I do miss the sense of pride having a fancy title at a cool company gave me. But I am finding much more happiness and much more pride being an effective wife and mother. Being laid off was sad and scary. But being able to focus on my family and realign my priorities is a gift. We're thankful for the opportunity.

Staff Pro was a blessing sent from above. I truly believe that. I was able to work from home for nearly 6 years. I helped put Russ through grad school. I helped save enough money to buy a home. Although it was hard as hell, I was able to be at home with my kids and snuggle then any time of the day. I was able to fly home and see our families because Staff Pro would pay to fly me out for work. Staff Pro, and it's staff, played a HUGE role in my life over the past 8.5 years. I've made some great friends and had some great experiences. I'm so blessed to know them and to have been part of that company. I owe so much to my uncle Cory for providing me the opportunity to work at Staff Pro and be a mother and an executive! I can NEVER repay sweet Suzanne who was my boss and is now one of my closest friends for what she did for me day in and day out. I survived and thrived because of her leadership and friendship. I will always cherish Adi for putting up with my crazy ways and helping keep me on track. We made a good team. I'll miss my Staff Pro family. I'll miss the experiences I had while working. I'll miss Staff Pro.

But change is good. I'm happy. My kids are happier. Russ is happier. Life is just plain better.

Weird how a scary change can turn into such a happy blessing.