Playing Catch Up

It has been over two months since I updated the blog last, and a LOT has happened. I took 6 weeks off Facebook during the holidays and it was such a nice break. I did miss seeing friends post pictures and updates about their lives, but for the most part, it was a much needed break. I've always talked about completely deleting, but I just can't get away from the accessibility of having so many friends right there if I need anything! Seriously, social media has so many wonderful benefits. 

One of our biggest change has happened recently. Specifically, our new relocation to North Carolina! Now that we are settled in Charlotte, I plan to do a lot of updating. From my last post mid-November up until today, the new job came up and I never ever thought we would have moved in this short amount of time. The chances of us moving to North Carolina was always a bit of a pipe dream, and we are still pinching ourselves that our dream did actually come true!! (is someone punking us??)

So there you have it. I am back to being committed to this blog and updating everyone, but more importantly, for our family journal.

this was from our move! 2 cars and a moving truck. We were quite the sight!

So Much Halloween Fun!

First up: Downtown Stuart Hobgoblin Family Night! So much fun! The kids trick or treated to each of the businesses and then they had activities and even a live band playing. Such an awesome (and free!) event.

Next up: buying pumpkins and carving them for FHE

Last: Ward Halloween Festival. We had so much fun! Ellie was a witch, along with Grandma Steele. Brinley went as a paleontologist, and Ryan and I were nerds. We even won 3rd place for our costumes. Owen went as a cute baby :-) (mama was just too tired to make another costume!)

So much fun!

Brinley: Turning SIX

What a birthday weekend! We have waiting since she was born to have a birthday/Halloween weekend! We fiiiiiinally had enough time to celebrate both. We were exhausted, but we had such a great time. Grandma Steele always comes into town during Brinley's weekend. We had a blast with Grandma and the dogs. It is always nice to have visitors.

Brinley's request was to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel the morning of her birthday. Um, okay! Sounds good to me! On Brinley's plate, she asked for pancakes and bacon. We all ended up getting a side of bacon, haha. Cracker Barrel has the best pecan pancakes. I couldn't stop eating!

That afternoon, Ryan took Brinley to the Air Show! It was a hot afternoon so they were only there for a couple of hours, but they had so much fun. Ryan got tickets from work from a client so they had a special tent set up along with a catered lunch and some fun free swag. They got home to have a couple of hours to relax before we left to Trick or Treat with friends.

We went over to our friends house who live in a beautiful gated community and had a yummy dinner together and then spent about an hour Trick or Treating afterwards. Honestly, I was getting so anxious watching these neighborhood kids running zig-zags across the roads never looking to see if cars were coming. Brinley was following some older friends who were doing and after she zig-zagged without looking, or asking us, we decided to go home. By then, those girls were so exhausted and we just wanted to get home. We sure love Halloween, but it seems like on November 1st, we are SO happy to be over our big birthday month.

We are so lucky to have Brinley in our family. She has the sweetest spirit. Since starting kindergarten, we have been so impressed by her ability to adapt, and progress in a setting where mom and dad aren't around. She loves her kindergarten teacher, and I'm pretty sure she loves Brinley too. She is doing so well in her academics (whatever that means for kindergarteners!) and making new friends too. She is such a good friend! Brinley is always telling us the funniest stories about them at recess. Apparently they have a game called "bibble babies" where they pretend they are babies and talk in baby talk. Oh mannnnnn it is exhausting because she brings that baby talk home and it drives me nuts! And Ellie has started talking in baby talk too. We already have one baby at home, we don't need three!

Just some fun things about Brinley at age 6:

-she loves to say the word "actually"

-she knows all about animals. Ask her anything, she probably knows!

-she wears size 6 clothes and still is wearing a size 10/11 shoe in toddler sizes.

-she has the THICKEST hair of all time. It is a monster in the mornings, but she is so cute.

-her love language is physical touch, she loves hugs and kisses and cuddling. She is such a cuddle bug.

-whenever I pick her up from school her hair is frizzy and she is sweaty from playing so hard and it just makes me smile so big because she gets this look on her face when she sees us at the gate :-) best feeling ever!

-Brinley loves Owen. She looooooooooves Owen. and he loves her too. Those two have quite the connection.

-Brinley is the best sister to Ellie. She is always there to take care of her if I can't and she is so good at playing with Ellie at her level.

-she is quite the jokester. She is always making us laugh, and she even picks up on Ryan and I when we are teasing each other or being sarcastic.

-she has the BEST MEMORY! Holy cow it is scary how much this kid remembers. It amazes me.

-she loves going to Primary and she has the sweetest testimony of our Savior. I know she knows Him and loves Him.

We love you, Brinley! We are so lucky to have you in our family!

OWEN: 5 & 6 months

I've taken an entire month off of blogging! Not on purpose, but it seems like whenever I have a spare moment, blogging is the last thing I want to be doing. Thank goodness I'm not paid for writing blogs because they would never get done. Or maybe someone should pay me to blog, and then they will get done! Who knows.

My sweet little boy is now 6 months old and I'm not sure how I feel about it. He has become so active and alert and funny over these last 2 months. It is unbelievable how fast time has flown by. Here are some fun updates on Owen.

*weight: 15.41 pounds

*wearing 9-12 month clothes

*size 2 diapers, going into size 3

Sleep: Owen usually takes 3 naps during the day. His afternoon nap seems to be the longest at sometimes 3 hours long! That happens when we are busy during the day and he has had a day full of carseat naps. He is able to put himself to sleep (most times) during nap time which I appreciate considering I have 2 other kids pawing for my attention. Bed time seems to be another story though. He struggles to cry it out. He knows how much it tugs at my mama heart strings. He works it. I usually end up nursing, cuddling, nursing, and more cuddling until he finally falls asleep around 9:30pm. We start bath at 7:30pm, right after the girls go to bed, and I know he is tired, but he just has such a hard time when I put him in his bed. We need to be stricter on his bed time shenanigans.

Eat: Owen is still nursing every 3 hours. He has a big appetite and is happy to eat any time I let him. We haven't started any rice cereal, mainly because I haven't found the time to make it happen yet. We've been so busy and I keep forgetting to buy some at the store.

Tummy time: That boy loves tummy time. He just pivots and rolls all around the blanket. Mainly to track me around the room and also the girls. He is so big! He is even trying to scoot around which gives me major anxiety! This house is NOT ready for a crawling baby. We need to get a baby gate and I need to figure out a good system to keep little toys off the floor.

Jumpy time: Owen has been loving the jumpy. He has such strong legs and jumps and jumps and jumps. The poor boy ends up bonking his head on the door frame because he gets so jumpy in it. My mom is bringing an exersaucer down next weekend for him to use. We've actually have never owned one! I've always just used my moms or borrowed from a friend. They take up so much space when you're not using them. I'm definitely of the mindset of getting rid of baby things after the baby uses them, and then if needs be, buy/borrow again when you have another baby. We've done that for a lot of things.

Mama time: Man, I just adore that kid. I am so obsessed. His smell, his soft skin, his fluffy hair, his big blue eyes...I just can't get enough. He seems to prefer me over everyone else too, so we are pretty happy just being together :-) He is a good 3rd baby that he doesn't need to be held all the time, but he definitely lets us know when he wants to be with the group. He hates it when we all leave the room and he's alone on the blanket. I can totally see it now when he starts crawling that we may have a lot of tears and sad crawling towards me when I'm busy around the house.

Dada time: Owen loves his daddy. When he hears him come into the house, he just cranks his neck around until he can see him. His favorite thing to do with daddy is to burrow his head into Ryan's neck. Ryan is usually left with an enormous amount of baby drool, but it is the cutest thing. He loves to jump on daddy's lap and be carried around by him. Over General Conference weekend a few weeks ago, Ryan had a tender moment when he left for the Priesthood session and he thought about taking Owen someday with him. Ryan and my brother have already planned a trip out to Utah in 10 years with all the boys to go to the Priesthood session at the Conference Center. I am all about supporting father and sons activities. Boys need a good male role model and Ryan is about as good as it gets! We are lucky :-)

Outside time: In a normal week, I get outside to walk or jog every day. Sometimes in the morning, in the afternoon if there is a nice cool breeze (ha!!), and almost always after dinner. Owen loves riding in the jogger. He is so cozy in there. He never makes a sound. And he sometimes falls asleep. Pushing him and Ellie in it while I jog is just enough weight to make it manageable. It is still a tough work out and I have only been jogging 2 miles when I push them, but we have a good time. Ellie is a good little companion.

Sister time: Owen still adores seeing Brinley when we pick her up from school. They usually lay together on a blanket and just talk back and forth. She loves giving him hugs and kisses and he loves receiving them. His grabbing reflex has really developed this month and his favorite thing is grabbing hair. He has a strong grip! As for Ellie, I don't know what Owen thinks of Ellie. She usually stays away from him, rarely asks to hold him, and really doesn't pay much attention to him, but when she does, Owen isn't to excited about it. Ellie has a very boisterous personality and she is extremely loud, so when she gets around Owen, he waves his arms a lot (probably to defend himself) and does a lot of blinking because Ellie is always close to his face.

It has been an amazing 6 months with this boy, and it is hard to believe we are half way to his 1st birthday. I want to cry! Ok, no more talking about it. This boy is never growing up!

**(pics taken at 5 months)