New Years 2015/ My Birthday

Years ago, I set some high standards for my birthday and I drastically lowered them after having kids. It also really helped that we had taken my birthday trip a few days before.

New Years Eve, Ben and I went to see a movie then came home to spend it with mom, my cousin Ally and the kids.  Miller kept snuggling up to me and ended up passing out at 11:15. 

The next day we got bundled up and went to the reopened park downtown.

I love the views of my hometown from here.

Scarlett got her nap in while Miller played.

We took Miller to the Sunsphere (the big gold ball in the sky that was in the above pictures) so this view is of campus.

We grabbed pizza from Tomato Head and took it back to my grandparents house. The funny this is that it is my birthday and I do not like pizza but I like this pizza.

Since we have so many birthdays at the end of the year, Miller has become an expert at blowing out candles.

And she is an expert at being cute. 

Later we went to my dad and stepmoms house and did cake there as well. It was a low key birthday but a good one.

Birthday Trip to Biltmore

My birthday gets thrown to the wayside almost every year since it is on New Years but I have been telling Ben for years that he better plan something great for my 30th. All year I have been reminding him and he did a great job. I woke up on the 27th to him telling me to pack. He had my mom watch the kids while we drove to Asheville to go to Biltmore.

The first night we got dressed up for a nice dinner and went on the candelight tour. It was so weird to get back to our hotel at 9 and have nothing to do since we had no kids to get to bed.

  

As much as sleeping in would have been nice, we had to get back to Biltmore at 8:15 for a tour.

We went on a walk through the gardens and wanted to sit and rest. The bench was wet so Ben was so sweet and let me sit on his jacket.

Ben and I have always loved traveling together and I think that was good for our relationship. However having kids has thrown a kink in that. This reminded me how nice that was and how much fun we have together. Someday we will get back to traveling (yeah like a million years from now).

Scarlett's Monthly Update: Month Twelve

(This is really late. With all of the chaos in December, her appointment got pushed back a month so I was waiting for her accurate measurements)

It is so hard to believe how fast this year has gone by. I feel like she is still my baby but at this age with Miller, I felt like he was a little boy already. I miss my squishy newborn and all the newness that comes with that stage but I am not really sad. I feel like with Miller, I was always sad and sentimental but as the second child, I see where we are heading more clearly since I have Miller as an example. I am enjoying every stage but I look forward to her being more verbal and interacting with Miller. I look forward to seeing her little personality coming out. And this is silly, but I look forward to her growing more hair for me to play with.

Weight: 22lbs 12oz (+14lbs 1oz) (Miller was 21 lbs 5oz)
*(We weighed her a couple weeks ago at the hospital and she weighed 21lbs. I think something was off with the doctors measurement because I swear she said 21lbs 12oz but wrote down 22. Also, she was wearing a full cloth diaper which probably adds a few ounces. )

Height: 30in (+9.5in) (Miller was 30in)

Head: 19in (+6.25in) (Miller was 19.5"in)

Sleep: She is still sleeping through the night. Every other couple of nights she wakes up and fusses for a moment but she goes back to sleep. Everyday she naps for about two hours. As for going to sleep, that has been more complicated. She wiggles around and tries to play while I rock her so I eventually give up, just lay her down and walk away. She gets ticked off but eventually falls asleep within a minute or two. I like our rocking and snuggle time but it might be coming to an end.

Eating:  I have no idea what to feed her for breakfast or lunch but dinner she eats like a champ. She is nursing less, especially with the disrupted rocking time before sleeping  and sleeping through the night. At this age with Miller he was eating more frequently but spending less time actually nursing. Scarlett is eating less but spends more time actually nursing. She is at a good age too where if I am not around or we are busy, she skips a normal nursing session. 

Best Moment:  She is becoming more verbal. It is mostly silly babbling but it is adorable.

Milestones: She got a few more teeth but I think our biggest milestone is our girl turning one.

Monthly Wisdom: The fun has just begun.

Goals for the Upcoming Month: We are at the stage where I no longer have monthly goals since her phases are becoming less frequent and we are evening out. With that being said, I really do not have any goals. I just plan to keep going in the direction that we are.

Things Scarlett is doing

- She mimics lots of things but the funniest is that she chooses to mimic the most polite phrases. "Thank you". "Excuse me". "Bless you".
- She tries to sing all the time. She sings along to a few toys that play  the ABC song and my mom had her singing to Happy Birthday and another song she sings to the kids.
- I am not sure if I have mentioned how bow legged she walks. It is cute but part of me is getting a little nervous about it!
- She loves to dance whenever she hears music.
- She cheers when we say "Go Vols" or sing "Rocky Top".
- She shakes her head no when she gets caught doing something she knows she is not supposed to be doing.
- She loves to make us laugh. She does something and gives us this look (which looks just like Miller at that age) while she waits to see us crack up and of course the face is what makes us laugh more than anything. 

This is what Scarlett thinks about taking our last monthly picture. If you can not tell, I am a hyper-documentarian and I am so happy that I can capture these pictures with my kids but it is such a pain to keep up with. I am so glad to be done with them. And imagine that I took a weekly picture of Miller and a daily picture when I was pregnant with him.

Day to day, when I see my kids next to each other, they look so similar. People are all the time telling us that they look identical. Someone even asked us the other day if they are twins. The funny thing is that when we start comparing features, and they are so different but it makes me so happy that they look alike. I think they are both super duper cute!

Christmas 2014

I think I was still in frantic mode from the busyness of the last couple of months because I was still stressed out over the holidays. All in all, it was fine, just a little exhausting.

Our family picture on Christmas Eve. You can not tell but both kids were squirming off of our laps. 

My cousin had a baby at the beginning of December so we skyped with them so my grandma could see her.

Christmas morning we loaded up and went to my dad and stepmoms house for breakfast.

Scarlett playing with the big boys.

My nephews Silas and Deacon with Miller and Scarlett.

It was so funny to see my dad on double baby duty on Christmas. 4 years ago, I could not have pictured this.

We all chipped in and gave my Pappaw an iPad for Christmas so that he could facetime with all of us that live out of town.

Miller had a meltdown and ended up taking a nap on me. It has been so long since I got sleepy snuggling with him. The only problem is that we are still putting diapers on when he sleeps and he peed on me during this nap. It wasn't too much since thankfully he had gone potty right before his fit.

We do Christmas with my mom on the 26th. It was so hectic this year. The kids received some repeat presents and that eliminated a lot of the gifts for Christmas morning. Ben and I got up at 5:30 on the 26th, packed up Scarlett and went to Walmart to do some shopping. Talk about last minute shopping!

It all worked out but I learned some lessons that I will fix for next year to make the holidays better for all of us.

Trip to Memphis

Ben's grandmother passed away in early December. As sad as it is to lose someone you love, it was a blessing. She had not been doing well for a long time and I think most everyone was relieved.

It was nice to go and visit family. Miller was not so sure about petting Aunt Liz and Uncle Dave's duck. 

Scarlett just circled the bunny.

We had to share a room with Miller which was a funny experience. He was on a bed in the floor next to us. The first night he would not go to sleep and ended up staying up until 1AM (which is 2AM our time). He turned off his movie and then told me to turn a movie on the TV. I just turned it on HGTV and he was out within a minute. I love watching my kids sleep so I had plenty of opportunities this trip.

There was an awesome playground that we discovered on a our last trip in the spring and so we had  to go back. We waited for the rain to pass but it was still really cold. We ended up going anyways and the kids had a great time.

I had planned to build a gingerbread house this year. I was disappointed that our Christmas season was so rushed and things were getting pushed to the side but I realized that this would be perfect to do with Ben's parents.

Admittedly, I did most of the decorating but it was still fun.

It was a quick trip but it was nice to see family. Plus I had never been to Memphis around Christmas so we got to see everything decorated. I hate we do not get back there very often.