Life Lately

We have a bad case of what I like to call the "Winter Wiggles" over here. We got out for a walk yesterday and it was heavenly, but it's supposed to snow again on Thursday. Boo! I've already bought swimsuits for the kids for this summer. An awesome new splash pad will be opening up in May only 5 minutes from our house, and I anticipate spending lots of time there. Mmmm, spring weather........

Aaaaaaand since I've been so awful about blog/social media updates for the past 2 months, let's do a little Life Lately post!

Lately:

- Shameless bragging moment: I've been really good at exercising. I get active 5 days a week, and I haven't missed a day since I started my regime near the beginning of January.

- Both kids go to bed around 7:00 and it's amazing.

- Austin has been trying to roll from his back to his tummy. No success yet.

- I've been avoiding chocolate. I gave it up on the first day of February and am not eating it until my birthday in April. As a result, my sugar consumption has reduced drastically. ;)

- Nicole is slowly realizing that there are other Disney princesses besides Elsa and Anna. Haha. She's kinda starting to dig Ariel, and will sing along to "Part of Your World"... but "Let it Go" is still the song of choice around the house these days.

- I've run out of things that I'm interested in watching on Netflix...finally...until the additional seasons of the shows I watch get added to the system, that is!

- I've been trying to be better about spending less time with technology, hence the minimal blogging and rare social media posts. I DO want to listen to music more often, though. (Music aside from my "Nicole's Favorites" playlist that cycles over and over again on Spotify.)

- I have a goal to take more candid pictures with my DSLR instead of using my phone for pictures all the time. I have some weird aversion to sharing phone photos on this blog, but that's where all my pictures are these days! And I don't want to upload them to Facebook, and I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram (it's currently uninstalled from my phone) so... more DSLR pictures seem to be in order!

- Nicole eats craisins every. Single. Day. She always always always asks for some at lunchtime, and sometimes other meals. We bought a big Costco bag a couple weeks ago and it's just about 3/4ths of the way gone already. Doug doesn't eat them, and I only eat a handful here and there. Homegirl is crazy for craisins.

- I'm finally getting my wisdom teeth out. I just have two (the top ones) and one of them is starting to break through my gums, so... it's high time. My appointment is in a couple weeks. Eeeek.

And, because apparently blog posts need pictures, here are my two little kiddos hanging out on Nicole's bed:

I should go read a book now. Ashley out!

A Day in the Life

Sometimes the days seem to melt together, but I do my best to make each one different from the next (for my sanity AND for Nicole's entertainment). So, to give you a taste of how life goes around this house, here's how my day went today:

7:15 - I'm roused by the sounds of a happy toddler shrieking from her crib in the room next door. I feel groggy because I couldn't fall asleep until well past midnight last night, so I let myself lie in bed and listen to Nicole chatting to herself for a while.

7:30 - I finally get up (bladder reasons, mainly... #pregnancyproblems) and then go in Nicole's room and sit in the chair in the corner and listen to her talk some more. 5 minutes later Doug comes in to say goodbye before work, toddler gets a fresh diaper, and then it's into her high chair for breakfast. I make a single-serving waffle recipe out of my Trim Healthy Mama cookbook, eat it, and get the breakfast mess cleaned up before Nicole's even done eating her small bowl of cereal. Slow eater, you guys. Very slow eater.

- My brother Johnathon emerges from the downstairs den (he's staying with us for the week, and I'm reminded once again that we really need to get a guest bed) as I'm finishing up cleaning. Nicole is very excited and forgets about her last little bit of cereal. It takes her 15 more minutes to finally finish the last handful, and by 8:30 she's getting a thorough wipe-down and is set loose to terrorize the house.

- While Nicole is distracted by playing with Johnathon, I go and get my exercise clothes on, gather up a warm outfit for Nicole, and get Doug's Frisbee gear together because he forgot it and wants me to bring it to work for him so he can play with his coworkers during their lunch hour.

9:15 - We (Johnathon included) are out the door and heading up to Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon so I can do some uphill powerwalking while pushing Nicole in a stroller. Quite the workout, folks. It's a mere 10 minutes away, but by the time we get to the parking lot the car thermostat has dropped to 56 degrees, plus wind chill. There are trees changing to fall colors in every which direction. Nicole and Johnathon come with me a bit past the waterfall, and then I have him go back with her so that she can get out of her stroller and explore while I continue up the trail further. I get to finish my cardio for the day by myself in the beauty of early-autumn nature while Nicole gets to run around and feed giant fish by the waterfall with my brother. Win, win, win all around. Not to mention that I get nearly halfway done with hatching my 10 km egg on Pokémon Go. That's a plus. ;)

^^^A view of Provo Canyon from Sundance Resort. Just to give you an idea of the beauty we're working with here. Picture source here.

10:15 - We get back to the car and head over to drop off Doug's frisbee gear. While we're out, I run a couple errands to Target and Michaels. I forgot how dangerous it is to go into Michaels at the beginning of the autumn season. I want to buy the whole store. I resist. We also pop into a Halloween shop next door, but it's mostly costumes. I was hoping for décor.

- Today's T-Mobile Tuesday food item is a free 6" sub at Subway, so we stop there on the way home. Free food, can't resist. We don't get home until a bit after 12:30, which of course means that Nicole goes down for her nap late because she takes forever to eat her pesto panini and grapes. Such a methodical eater.

1:30 - Toddler is finally done with lunch. Straight into the crib for naptime. She babbles to herself for almost an hour before finally falling asleep. Sometimes, I don't get that kid...

- Naptime for Nicole = time for me to do whatever I want, pretty much. I wash my hair, make a hanging planter for my new Lemon Button Fern to hang by the piano (yay, another plant baby! What should I name her?!), get some laundry folded, make the kitchen sparkling clean, eat my favorite chips and dip combo for a snack... a pretty good afternoon, all while my brother got in some good video game time whilst singing a bunch of annoying pop song parodies. Weirdo.

^^^This is the plant of which I speak :D

4:30 - Nicole wakes up. Or rather, I go in and wake her up because if she sleeps any later than this she'll never go to sleep tonight. She rewards me with 15 minutes of snuggle time, then finally gets down from my lap to watch for daddy out the window. He gets home at 5 (pretty much on the dot) and he keeps her entertained until dinner is ready shortly after 5:30

- At some point in all of this, Nicole gets into our renovation-zone master bedroom and picks up hammers and screwdrivers. A couple pictures for this blog post seemed necessary before gently taking the pointy metal objects away and guiding the toddler back out of the room filled with paint fumes (despite the open windows and running fan). A bit later, she sticks a block and a little (empty) makeup bag in the downstairs toilet. 2nd time in her life she's pulled a stunt like that. She's feeling a little rebellious this evening, I guess.

^^^Waiting to open the door for daddy when he gets home.

- The boys head out shortly before 6 to go play Frisbee, and Nicole finishes eating only a minute or two later. After getting wiped off, she hangs around in the kitchen for a minute or so to watch me start cleaning up, then heads down to her playroom to entertain herself. Cleanup takes less than 10 minutes. It feels good to have a clean kitchen.

- Clean kitchen = rest of the evening to spend with Nicole, guilt-free. She turns on the TV as I come downstairs, so I sit down to watch an episode of Little Einsteins with her. She snuggles with me the whole time, and spends more than half of the time with her head resting on my 7.5 month preggo belly. Her little brother kicks her in the face a couple times, but she doesn't even seem to notice.

- After the episode finishes, we spend 10 minutes reading and then another 10 minutes cleaning up all her toys and books. When I say the words "Bed time!" she decides that it's a good time to play a quick game of chase-the-toddler-around-the-couch. I humor her for a minute, then scoop her up and whisk her away up the stairs. Or rather, huff and puff up the stairs. Let's be honest. #morepregnancyproblems

- PJ's, a quick game of chase-the-toddler-around-the-rocking-chair, brush the teeth, read one last book, and then she snuggles against my shoulder while I sing her a song. We say her prayers, then I cradle her like a baby and ask her about all the things she liked doing today. She smiles and plays with my hair and runs her hands on my cheeks. I only tickle her a little bit ;) Then it's into the crib, and the happy toddler settles down for the night. She still babbles to herself for an hour, just like before her nap. Every now and then I can hear the high-pitched whistle made by her sippy cup filled with water as she sips from it.

7:30 - Freedom! I light an apple-scented candle, flatiron my hair, do a quick 10-minute general house tidy-up, and get this blog post nearly all the way finished by the time the boys get home from Frisbee at 8:20.

- Doug heads upstairs to paint another layer on the walls of our master bedroom. (After this we'll just have to do edge touch-ups and paint the trim! And maybe the ceiling. We haven't decided yet. Then the carpet guy is coming to measure and give us an estimate on Thursday!) I get the blog post finished, except for these last couple points, which I type as the evening progresses:

- After prepping the blog post, I go upstairs just in time to help Doug paint along the ceiling/baseboards/doors. Once we're done (after 10 PM) we join Johnathon and settle down around the kitchen table with our laptops to play a good round of Age of Empires II (a classic game that I used to play with my dad and brothers all the time growing up). Standard difficulty so it'll be a quick game ;)

- It's still shortly after 11 PM by the time we finish. We head our separate ways to get ready for bed. I settle down with phone in hand so I can spend time browsing online and reading some scriptures until I feel drowsy enough to fall asleep. Who knows how long that will take. #MOREpregnancyproblems

- Hit publish on the blog post. Goodnight.

Hello, How Are Ya?!

^^^The blurry result of trying to take a family selfie with a DSLR. Nicole was confused.

Well hello there, September! I love September because it means that my favorite month is up next. Eeeee, October! But that's a whole month away, and the first official day of fall is still 3 weeks away, so instead of obsessing over fall-related things let's use this first day of a new month to do a little "How are ya?" post! Just a quick update on each member of the family.

DOUG

Did I ever mention on here that Doug's whole company received notice of termination back in May? Yeah. That happened. And right after we'd purchased a house, of course.

Fortunately, he was able to land a great job fairly quickly. He started his new job at the beginning of August and loves it! We all love it! It's a less-than-10-minute drive away (so he can come home at lunch! And no rush hour traffic to worry about!), has a better salary, some great benefits, even paternity leave! If you ask us, losing his job was a blessing in disguise.

Aside from settling into his new job, Doug is looking forward to playing in the Orem Ultimate Frisbee League this season and is *almost* as excited as I am about fall. Almost. :P We've also both agreed that we need to watch more BYU football this year. I'm in such a nostalgic mood right now and miss my alma mater a lot. Doug is still reveling in the fact that he never has to do homework ever again and hasn't reached the point where he misses campus yet ;) You'll get there, Doug. I think.

ASHLEY

I feel like my previous post was a pretty good update of myself since my life centers around pregnancy these days, so I'll just share some random things instead.

If you didn't catch on yet, I'm very excited for fall. While we're on the topic, imagine how surprised and ecstatic I was when I walked out my front door 2 days ago and noticed some very familiar orange flowers blooming on a big-leafed plant growing right by our front door. Yeeeep, we have a pumpkin plant growing in our front yard! I'm guessing that the previous owners planted it... the plants by our front door/windows are all annual/perennial plants that they planted, and so I never know what's going to pop up.

It's almost as if that little pumpkin plant was saying "Hey! Guess what? Fall is nearly here, and now you get your own pumpkin plant! Surprise!" I think they're just miniature or pie pumpkins because they're not very big yet (about the size of my clenched fist) and I hope they mature before it gets cold... we'll see!

I made my favorite 5-ingredient stovetop fudge this week and it gave me heartburn. It was an ah-ha moment for me: I ate this stuff all the time during the end of my last pregnancy, and I had heartburn almost daily. Now I'm suspecting that this fudge was one of the main culprits. I never connected the dots before because who would suspect chocolate peanut butter fudge of causing heartburn?! So... as sad as it is... no more of my favorite fast sweet treat for the next several weeks. I can handle it since there are yummy fall treats I can eat instead! Besides, that fudge was NOT Trim Healthy Mama material. Ooops.

NICOLE

If you were to follow this happy toddler around for a while, you would very likely hear her say one of her favorite phrases, such as: "No, mine!" or "Two...One...Two...One...Blassooooff!" (blastoff) which we can thank Little Einsteins for. If you ask her what her name is, she'll say 'Bole. (That's pretty close to Nicole, right? Ha!) She's also starting to "parrot" what we say - she'll hear us say a word or short phrase and immediately repeat it, even if she doesn't know what it means. Cute, but potentially dangerous! Good thing we don't cuss ;)

Her favorite book is an Usborne lift-the-flap book that we can spend 15 minutes straight looking at because she points at every.single.thing. and asks "Wha dis? An' dis? An' dis?" although often she stops asking and just points while I say the name of the object. We also read the following books at least once a day: The Gingerbread Man, On The Night You Were Born, and a giant search-and-find book that's half as tall as she is.

She tried some seaweed at Costco today and loved it. Yep, seaweed. When she wants me to come play with her or get something for her, she'll take my hand and pull. Going on walks is one of her very favorite activities, and she says "Woooooow! Dere ih is!" (there it is) whenever she sees something interesting or sees a building she recognizes, such as the Provo Rec Center or Costco. When it's time to fold her arms to say a prayer, she tucks her hands into her armpits, bows her head, and sits there looking like a sleeping chicken.

Oh man, we love her. I've inadvertently started this tradition: once we do her bedtime ritual and say her prayer, I cradle her like a baby and ask her what her favorite parts of the day were. It's one of the only times she'll let me hold her like that, and it almost always ends with a tickle war, which I shouldn't do because it gets her a little hyper, but she loves it. It amazes me how there's so much personality in such a tiny body.

^^^I try to snuggle her and she just makes faces because she's a goofy goober. Basically. :D

BABY BOY

He hasn't been born yet, but he already has some personality quirks and preferences. For one thing, he doesn't wedge himself up in my rib cage like Nicole used to. He prefers to press his little bum and limbs outward against my belly instead of upwards to get comfy. On two different occasions I was able to feel a little foot (or maybe it was a hand?) when I went to poke at him. He quickly moved the foot away when I poked it, but I could totally tell that it was an appendage of some sort. He just doesn't like having his foot touched I guess, which is exactly how Nicole is. They're definitely siblings ;)

He still gets a ridiculous number of hiccups, is VERY active (I got nervous a lot with Nicole because I would go a couple hours without feeling movement... I never worry about this kid because he moves a LOT), and he really seems to enjoy ice cream. Me too, baby boy. Me too.

------

That's the gist of things! I could write a long novel of a post about all of Nicole's little quirks and habits, but I chose my favorites. She really is such a joy to have as part of our family. From her daily piano recitals, to taking every opportunity she can to sneak into the master bathroom to weigh herself, steal Doug's toothpaste and floss, or climb in the shower to mess with our shampoo... she's so fun. I'm excited to add another little ball of personality to the mix.

Already Nesting

^^^^^Getting closer and closer to the due date = satiating the baby hunger by looking through old pictures of Nicole's first year of life. Where did my little baby girl go?!

I'm still a little more than 2 months away from my due date, but nesting is 100% real for this mama. I have nearly all of the clothes I need for baby boy's first 9 months of life (thank you, KSL), we got a car seat for him (the one we used for Nicole expired), there are little boy swaddles and bath towels to spare, I even began packing my hospital bag! Never too soon, right? Haha!

Nesting extends beyond preparing for the baby, of course. I felt like super mom yesterday. I ran 3 loads of laundry, a dishwasher load, spent an hour doing my favorite Barre workout class at the rec center, got Nicole to eat broccoli at dinner (more than one piece!), started sorting through one of my "odds-and-ends" boxes left over from when we moved, Nicole and I read lots of books and had lots of tickle wars, I even did some yard work!

Tonight I made chicken parm, and then we had a good 40 people come through our house to munch on Italian bruschetta for an "Eating Around the World" activity. Nicole was in bed without argument at 7:30 despite all the noise and excitement, the kitchen was all cleaned up by 8:45, and now we're sitting and watching Netflix. Evenings like this make me feel like I get so much done.

^^^^^Gah, baby feet!

And yet, despite the nesting...

I feel like there's so much left to do.

Pregnancy insomnia doesn't get any easier when your mind keeps thinking about all the things you want/need to do. We've got to buy a bed for Nicole so we can transfer her out of the crib. There's an embarrassing amount of weeds taking over our yard and lawn. We have some painting and re-carpeting to do in the upstairs bedrooms, I want to finish my decluttering project (more info on that in an upcoming post) so that our spare rooms are empty and ready for guests to use, our bare walls need some decoration... the list goes on and on.

It gets overwhelming. Preggo hormones are on the rise again, so that doesn't help. Thank you, third trimester.

So...

Sometimes I just sit on the couch and read. Or nap. Or count how many times the baby kicks. Or I sit here on a Tuesday evening and watch Netflix. I do anything except think about my to-do list. And it's great.

Life's About To Get CrAzY!

A quick word about this picture... I introduced Nicole to the magic of blanket forts this month. (If you follow along on Snapchat, then you know all about it!) The one in the picture above is the smallest one we've built, but she loves forts of all shapes and sizes! Who needs to buy trendy toddler tepee's when you can make a blanket fort?!

As the title of the post suggests, we're in for a busy month. Between closing on a house next week and moving and Doug getting ready to graduate and several birthdays and appointments and various activities (Bunco! Book club! Empowering Mothers group! General Conference! Trying to keep up my visits to the Recreation Center! Taking Nicole outside more as the weather warms up! Sleeping somewhere in all of this!), we're going to have our hands full. I still intend to not let this blog stay silent for the whole month, but hey... what happens, happens. Right now I'm just enjoying the calm before the storm!

Happy weekend! We'll be watching a good 8+ hours of this and celebrating my birthday! Free food items for daaaaayz!!!!

Life Lately

(Dear Jenna, thanks for staying on my tail about blog posts so I don't forget this blog altogether!)

Oh, how I love watching this little lady grow. She has added "Thank you" and "Baby" to her vocabulary... the latter particularly because she got a baby doll for Valentine's Day, and it is BY FAR her favorite toy right now. She carries Baby Doll around with her everywhere and showers her with slobbery kisses, pats on the back, and lots of hugs. It melts my mama heart.

Also, Nicole has woven her way so tightly into the hearts of the ladies who care for her at the Rec Center Child Watch that one of them actually followed me out the door as I was leaving because she didn't get to say goodbye to Nicole. They're obsessed with her cheerfulness and the way she sits on their laps at the front desk so she can talk to and wave at every parent who walks through the door to drop off or pick up their kids. She'll almost always have a pen in her hand so that she can help "record" all of the check-in/check-out information. Secretary in training? I guess? It's SO cute.

Our house search has officially begun, which is crazy because a huge part of me doesn't feel like I'm old enough to own a house (well, part house and part mortgage) but there you have it! Meanwhile, I've been working on some pre-Spring-cleaning and have decluttered a ton of stuff (which is a big deal for me, I'll have a blog post on that later).

I also got a new phone on Valentine's weekend and can finally get apps like Snapchat, which is probably my new favorite app right now. Of course, most of my story snaps consist of a certain toddler, but I'm having fun with it. My username is ashleykelly23 if ya want to be buddies!

^^^She loves pushing around this little Minnie Mouse car. It plays music when she pushes it, so... incentive! Also, she's finally getting more hair! I know boys her age with more hair, gosh >_<

Mainly, there's been lots of impatience all around as we wait for warmer weather and for Doug to graduate in April and tons of other things. It nearly hit 60 degrees today, so I've been in a skirt with the windows wide open and it lifts my mood so much! Nicole is itching to play outside more, and we've been able to start going on walks again without our noses nearly falling off from being so cold. Maybe if we start a chant, the weather will stay nice... Spring. Spring! SPRING!

Another fun thing this week: I got to be an usher at the Provo City Center Temple Open House. By the end of the several-hour-shift my legs were aching, but my heart was full. It's so beautiful, and I love how they preserved the original style of the building (it was a tabernacle before a fire destroyed it a couple years ago). I pulled the image below from the internet so ya'll can see what it looks like. The woodwork on the inside is GORGEOUS.

source

I'm so blessed to live so close to this building (well, for now). I'll be going through it with my family tomorrow, and I'm excited for Nicole to see the inside of a temple for the first time. So pretty!

Oh, and lastly... My list of "Books To Read" has been growing and growing recently, and my most recent choice was The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy. I feel like I've read a good handful of WWII novels recently, so it was a breath of fresh air to read one based around the Civil War and the Underground Railroad for once. There are two main story lines in the novel: one follows Sarah Brown, who lived during the Civil War and was involved with the UGRR. The other story line follows Eden Anderson, who lives in the modern day. The book shows how their two stories become connected to each other, even though they lived a century and a half apart. The writing is descriptive and personable, and the historical research the author conducted seems thorough; certainly an enjoyable read!

Dear Nicole: thank you for being so good at playing with your toys so Mommy can just sit on the ground nearby and read her books. You are one dynamite gal ;)

I received a copy of "The Mapmaker's Children" from Blogging For Books in exchange for a little review. :)

Life Lately // During My Favorite Month

Oh yeah, I have a blog! Ha. What can I say, I've been savoring October. Fall has been my happy time for as long as I can remember. (This is where I turn hipster and say, "I liked autumn before it was cool." But it's true, really.)

Let's catch up on what I've been up to recently:

To start with, I took facebook and instagram off my phone a few days ago. No regrets.

I got to experiment very, very briefly with a telephoto lens for the camera (these pictures on the grass are the result) and I'm so eager to add another lens to my collection. I love being able to use an aperture setting lower than f/5! Maybe for Christmas...? ;)

I finally branched out and tried a couple classes at the Rec. Center other than Zumba. The result? I have fallen in love with Barre. I love it so much.

I have made several batches of my very favorite pumpkin cookies, of course! I also made homemade pumpkin ice cream and it was SO rich. Next time I'm using half-and-half instead of heavy cream.

October meant another round of General Conference (for my non-Mormon friends, it's like TedxTalks on spiritual steroids) and there were so many messages that touched me. Prayers and questions answered, left and right. It was wonderful.

Recently, my grandparents were in town; we had lunch with them and my cousin at a picturesque park under a canopy of golden leaves, and it was the most perfect day for a picnic.

My fall candle collection has doubled. The result = my apartment smells magical.

I feel absolutely giddy when I go on walks in the evening with Nicole and there's a chill in the air. Nicole loves it too, she's all smiles and laughter during our walks. I love seeing her so excited about the world around her. A quick, blurry shot from Instagram:

I made yet another appearance as an extra in a recent episode of Studio C. You can see the back of me during the whole first part of this sketch, and even catch a glimpse of my face as I exit ;) We were all very worried that Mallory was going to squish the snake too much and it would end up strangling Matt out of self-defense. Fortunately, it was a rather patient and docile snake.

These huge bears have taken over Costco, and we finally got a picture of Nicole next to one. They make her look so tiny (which is great because recently I've been thinking that she's getting too big! She's still my baby, why is she so big!)

I've become addicted to LuLaRoe clothing, and it's so wonderful... and so awful at the same time. Wonderful for my wardrobe, awful for my wallet.

I've decided I need to make caramelized onions more often because we loaded a bunch on top of some apple butter pork chops the other day and oooooooh boy was it yummy. Nicole likes them too. Heck, what am I saying, of course she liked them... she will eat onion raw, after all.

Finally, don't get me started on the weather! It's finally chilly! No more 80 degree afternoons! And rain! I get to make hot chocolate and wear fall clothes and... and... and... YAY! Happy, happy fall! And Happy Halloween this weekend!

Life Lately

The first picture is one of the only ones I took on the 4th of July.
Happy baby watching the parade.
The second picture is me in a face mask that a sweet gal at church brought back from Japan for me. It may look funny, but it was refreshing!

Other things lately:

I just got done with a week-long sugar detox.
(More on that in my next post)

We just bought plane tickets to San Fran so I can join Doug at the end of his next business trip
(First time on a plane with a baby... any advice??? Help!!!)

I've found a new love for spinach (thanks, detox)

Nicole started clapping
I'm still geeking out about the recent thunderstorms we had
And... Nicole tried lemon for the first time.

 

For my readers who either aren't on facebook, didn't see the post, or aren't friends with me on there... here's the video I took a little over a week ago of her introduction to lemon. We were making lemonade and decided it was an opportune moment to give her a little taste. The poor baby didn't know what hit her.

 

 

 

Happy Monday, everyone!