Happy 4th of July

We had a GREAT day!  We started out the morning by finding a HUGE box and two smaller boxes of clothes for Sadie being left on our porch.  Don't know who left them but we're soooo grateful! 

 Then Peyton and I got busy making some deliciousness for a barbeque that evening!  Made sloppy joes, chocolate covered strawberries with sprinkles, shishkebabs (red/strawberries, white/marshmellows, and blue/blueberries), deviled eggs, and blonde brownies..... yeah, we're amazing, we know!

 Peyton was lots of help....... making messes that is. 

 When Eric got in from the barn we went to our friends, the Olson's house for a fun barbeque. Never have to worry that I won't have time to eat because I'm taking care of the kids.  I've never seen a group of adults so eager to hold a baby then these folks here! Love them!!!!

 Peyton had a blast just hanging out with the rest of the kids in the backyard!!!  I think he took home half the sand box in his hair and clothes when we left. 

 Sparklers ROCK!  Peyton thought so too..... until his fingers got to close to the sparkly stuff. 

 Peyton is NOT a fan of fireworks however!!  They were just the cheapo, tiny little things and he was still scared to death.  Poor kid!  We were going to go to the huge fireworks in Hershey but ended up just staying at the Olson's later to do them on their driveway.  Eric was exhausted, and we thought Peyton would be too scared for all the big stuff anyway..... and Sadie could care less.

 Don't know how the heck he stayed asleep for all the firework noise.  Leave it to Eric.

Happy 4th of July everyone!  So grateful to those that have sacrificed for our country and for those that continue to serve us!!  We had a great day filled with good food, and great friends!!

Awesomeness vs. Un-Awesome....ness

Un-awesomeness:

• Sadie has reflux.....lots of extra work.  Small meals every hour instead of every three and have to hold her upright for at least 20 minutes after every feeding
• Peyton pooped on my end table
• No time for showers (maybe TMI huh?)
• A very cluttered house
• Peyton's hospital stay for the intusseseption costing as much as me having a baby........ bills
• Changing a bajillion diapers a day
• diaper rash on Sadie
• Empty fridge....... and not feeling like taking both kids into town to shop....so it'll stay empty
• D.C. derecho causing lots of havoc for my friends in Maryland/Delaware
• Ants in the kitchen.....eeewwww
• Wish my family was still here.......

Awesomeness:

• Answered prayers
• Having our own chickens with our own eggs, and selling some on the side
• Losing 10 lbs since the 16th (remember my weight loss post...... adding to my cash pile)
• Long walk this morn with Peyton
• Peyton sleeping ALL night in his own bed
• Good health and quick postpartum recovery
• Eating stuff from our garden
• Taking some classes for photo editing from a guy in my ward soon
• Fireworks and barbeques coming up this week
• FINALLY getting a good "night-time" routine in place with the two little uns'
• Playing charades last night
• Mother's intuition
• Love my ward

I love my kids, I love my husband, I love my life!  It gets crazy around here some days but as Peyton and I were walking this morning I couldn't help but just look around at this beautiful place that we live and thank my Heavenly Father for my tons and tons and tons of blessings!  We really are sooo blessed!  Let me hear an Amen.... AMEN!!

Happenings lately....

So pretty much, we're still kinda home bound.  We've just been making our own kind of fun around here.

 Made some "gloop" (cornstarch and water) and Peyton played in it for EVER!!  And kinda resembled a snowman when all was said and done. 

 He loves trying on shoes, and putting on hats lately.  Especially barn boots that look just like daddy's!

 Little man is getting potty trained.  I'm not overly stressing it... maybe I should be.  He goes when he wants to and lets me knwo when he wants to go in his potty.  He's pretty much training himself.  (

 Has to eat all his snacks in measuring cups now!  Here he is eating some raisins.

 We love our blackberry bushes on the farm......... Peyton LOVES them as well!!  We were enjoying a big bowl of blackberries with sugar and milk!! YUM

 Juicing like crazy!!!  It's an epidemic over here!  Love using stuff from our garden!!!

 Peyton is teaching Sadie how to roll over!  Sadie is NOT a fan although she did roll over for the first time yesterday!

 This is how I found Peyton the other day!  Sadie is bringing out the "inner baby" in him.

 Sadie and I went to a wedding this past weekend and it was AWESOME!!!!  First off, for the first time EVER, Peyton was fine being left with a babysitter.  I gave him a kiss, said goodbye and he ran off happy as a clam with our babysitter. MIND BLOWN!  The wedding itself was beautfiul!!  They did such a wonderful job decorating, the food was delish!  Such a great break for me too...... Everybody wanted to hold Sadie.  It was a kidless wedding so I just let her be passed from adult to adult! I think I was told 10 times that they were taking her home with them.  Sadie lovvveeeddd it!  Being held puts the B in this girl's bonnet!

 Cool photo wall that Bro. Mastracola made.  Me, Hailey, and her mom! 

 Hailey and I posing it up!!!  We sat on the same table!  This was serioulsy such a nice wedding.... everyone was assigned a table.... there was a full meal!  Dessert was RIDICULOUS!!!  I had lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd and raspberry icing, chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache and rasberry frosting, lemon meringue pie, key lime cheesecake, some italian yumminess, and I think that's it.  I'm going into a sugar coma just thinking.... about...... it........

Ok, I'm back.  Sadie adn I finally made our debut back at church on Sunday (besides her blessing).  Was realllllyyyy crossing my fingers that Peyton would be ok in nursery since he was ok with the babysitter.  NOPE!  As long as mom or dad are in sight, he loves to play with all the kids at church though.  We did go to a barbeque on Saturday night as well!  There was about 6 other familys from church there too.  It was a blast!  Good food and company! 
That's a little bit of what we're up to...... although truthfully........ 90% of our days are filled with naps, spit ups, feeding, crying, playing, cleaning, and hanging out.  I'm 100% ok with that!

Bald to the bone.. 1 month old

So lately everytime I look at Sadie, I start singing, "Bad to the bone," using bald of course.  She's lost all her hair right off top.... so she seriously looks like a little bald old man.  Peyton looked that same way.  Thank heavens I can hide it a bit with headbands and such. 
She didn't have a month checkup, but at her 3 week checkup she was, 8lbs 6oz.  (41st percentile) and 21.5 inches (76th percentile). 
Just the last few days, she seems to be following things with her eyes and focusing in on our faces more.  That makes me super excited! 
She LOVES to be held!!!!!  She loves her carseat!  She is obsessed with her binky and she loves to cuddle!  She doesn't like being left alone for more than 10 minutes/or less.... and doesn't much care for her baths!  She is stinking adorable! 

Celebrations!!!

For the little man's birthday Eric made him a happy pancake with his very favorite, "ca-ca" or chocolate!!  He was pretty excited about it!  Then unfortunately Eric was busy with field work all day so Peyton and I went and made fun for ourselves!! 

Peyton and I first went to Rita's!!!  He got a rasberry italian ice and I got my normal blendini.  He decided that he liked my "ca ca" better so we switched shortly after the first couple bites.  haha. 

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 Then we went to Walmart and got Peyton three new fishy pets!!  Which died a day later..... poor fish!  We are definitely NOT pet people!  Peyton did name one of his fishys, "Bike." 

 Eric's family came over the next day for a little birthday celebration!  He got gobs and gobs of presents that spoiled little guy.  You would never guess he's the only grandson huh?  He currently has a true love for trains.  In fact I just put him to bed and he HAD to have 4 trains to snuggle with! 

 He also got new clothes, shoes, Megablocks,  and little people playsets.  We are making it a tradition to get our picture taken with each of our kids on their birthdays in these next two photo poses.  I got the idea from a fellow blogger and loved it!!!!!!  Love you little man, can't believe you're already two!!!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Boy am I lucky to have such a great dad!!!  He's one of the best listeners and advice givers ever born, seriously!  He always has been such a great example to me and I feel soooo lucky that he's MY daddy!  And he's a seiroulsy awesome grandpa!  Although I really missed being with my dad for Father's day, it turned out to be a really good one here in Pennsylvania.  Eric's parents and grandma Caufman came up for the day to visit.  I love being with family on holidays and this was no exception.  We had a delicious, big meal and just hung out for the day.  We also had a day late birthday celebration for Peyton.  I will go more in detail about that in my next post.  While at dinner I wanted us to go around the table and have everyone tell a favorite memory of their dad. 

My memory is when my dad took me on my "first date" when I was 16.  I remember he snuck out the back door and came and knocked on the front door to "pick me up."  He'd brought me a big bouquet of flowers!!  Throughout the evening he would pull out chairs for me, open all the doors and was the perfect gentleman.  We went out to eat at an italian restaurant.  As we sat there eating my dad told me, "Bre, I took you on this date to show you how every guy from here on out needs to treat you.  Don't settle for anything less.  A guy should always treat you like the queen you are."  This meant soooo much to me!  We will be continuing this tradition in our family with Eric and his girls....... plus I have to get in on the fun too, so I'll be taking our sons out on their first dates. (although my dates with the boys will be a little different.  I will be teaching them how to treat a woman!)

Love my PODGE!!!!

 And I seriously lucked out on a father for my kids!  He is sooo good with his babies!!  My heart just swelled up like a big ol' balloon about to pop just watching him interact with Peyton today.  He took Peyton outside this morning while he was building a screen door for the chicken coop.  Peyton had a blast I'm sure of it!  He always wants to be outside with his "Dad-die" (he can't pronounce the Y on daddy and I think it's the weirdest thing that he says die instead) When he came inside, he was beaming from ear to ear, his cheeks were bright red from being outside "working with daddy", and he was one happy camper!!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another Day...

There's no nice way to put this...... yesterday was MISERABLE!!!  From the minute my kids woke up (which was entirely TOO early in the morning for me) I was in high gear all day because when one of them wasn't crying.... the other one was.  Sadie was ultra grumpy and Peyton was even worse.  All day long I kept thinking, "I really need a nanny."  I just felt like i didn't have enough arms, heads and legs to keep everyone happy.  And it seemed even worse because I don't have family close enough to just call to take the chilluns off my hands for an hour and the hubster was out in teh fields all day yesterday....... and into the night. 

I thought I was a patient mommy.... until now.  Sheesh, and nothing is more frustrating than wanting to be the best mommy ever and not being able to spread myself thin enough to give the individual attention to them that they so desperatley want. 

At the end of the night, I got the kids all ready for bed and kept thinking about all those little things I hadn't done...... hadn't given either kid a bath for at least two days now, didn't change the pillowcase that Sadie had completely saturated with spit the night before, my house was a disaster area, hadn't written emails back to people for my calling, etc etc etc.  I failed miserably!!  I contemplated and wondered how I was ever going to make it through these young years.  I felt horrible and like such a horrible mommy..... I felt depleted and knew that I would never ever be able to just have time for myself..... at least for a few years.   

Today was another day!  I came into today with the mindset that I just need to make it through one day at a time.  Well, I'm doing more than making it today..... I'm really enjoying it.  I was finally able to get a shower in.... since it's raining and Eric didn't have to rush back outside to work in the fields.  Sadie and Peyton got baths bright and early today and I even put my makeup on.  Whoah.  Nobody has cried all day, and it's even 2.  Both babies are napping..... one in Eric's arms and right now I just feel so blessed.  One day I'm going to miss these days soooo much!  i know I will have hard days ahead of me but I hope I always remember to live for this moment!  I'm only one person, I will never be perfect and get everything done that I need to and I'm ok with that. 

Today my house looks like this.  Peyton's birthday presents are strewn from every corner in our house. 

My dishes are piling up, my laundry needs done, there's a dead fish up on that windowsill that still needs flushed down the toilot (Peyton's birthday fish all went belly up a couple days ago, he wants to feed them everyday and I feel sooo bad.... how in the heck do you tell a 2 year old that his fish named Bike went to fishy heaven?)
I will go power clean when I'm done writing this until Peyton wakes up. 

“…the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make…I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of [my children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.”
--Anna Quindlen