One SWEET (think Mint) Giveaway!

A few weeks ago someone from Minted.com emailed me and asked if I wanted to host a giveaway for one lucky reader!  I immediately emailed him back and said YES b/c I had heard of the website before and mainly b/c they are ALL over pinterest for their beyond adorable stuff.

guys, I'm not kidding when I say this next sentence:

This website has the CUTEST Christmas cards I've EVER seen.  Like ... EVER.

And I have visited a ton of them!  They're honestly, not just saying this b/c I'm hosting a giveaway, so freakin stinking adorable.  I wish I could submit my name in to this giveaway to win it.

Wanna see what I'm talking about?

newlyweds anyone? CUTE!

This one in particular ... dear lord ... has my heart!!!!! I would love to say "all we want
for Christmas is our girls (or them)!"  See minted.com should hire me! ; )

I think this one might be the winner for our family.  It's just so bright and fun!

And it doesn't stop there.  They have beautiful birth announcements too!

AND you want to know what you could get?  One lucky reader will receive

$50 dollars + free shipping !!!!

Wanna win?  Here's what you have to do.  Leave me a comment letting me know whatcha did!

(1) Go to minted.com and tell me your favorite thing they have (1 entry)

(2) Follow "lacefields in love" (1 entry)

(3) Facebook this giveaway/ tweet this giveaway with a link to this post (2 entries)

(4) Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post  (3 entries)

And there you go!  I will announce the winner next Friday (October 5th!) so you have an entire week to keep entering!! : )

My Losing the Baby Weight Plan (Part II)

With Liliana I documented my weight loss journey after giving birth to a T.  I updated every week and stepped on that scale religiously until I got the number I wanted.  I watched what I ate.  I hit the gym hard.  And it happened.  And I was really proud of myself for that!

This go around, life has been different: more hectic, more kids to watch, two jobs, and no gym to join.  The exercise hasn't been happening b/c our gym that had a daycare built in moved MUCH further away from the house.  BOO.  Apparently the owners of the gym we used to use got a divorce and it was a nasty one.  Hence gym moving and hence my crying.

And as for my diet?  Well I just eat horribly and I'm ashamed to admit it!  Evan and I have repeatedly sat on the couch with a bag of chocolate chips just chowing down.  It's embarrassing really.  I can, however, say that I have a healthy snack with Liliana every afternoon/ evening while we're waiting to see if Evan will be home in time for dinner (yesterday not so much for instance).  We eat grapes and a slice of cheese together.  It's one of my favorite times of the day b/c she comes home, says "grape and cheese snack Mommy!" and opens the fridge and pulls out her grapes, a bowl, and her slice of cheese all by herself.  Independent booger.

Other differences: I am on the go ALL THE TIME now.  Yes my job requires I sit in a chair a lot and when I'm home, I do job #2 that takes up a ton of time (the etsy shop) and that also requires sitting on a chair, but let's just say I don't STAY in the chair for long.  At job #1 I'm getting up to go have meetings, to help students, etc.  I walk from building to building.  I put kids in car seats 12 times a day.  I run around with Liliana, dance with her in the kitchen, pick up babies and give kisses WHILE doing job #2.  So that's one change that has helped the baby loss journey a wee bit.

The  big difference between the two though?  I gained less weight this go around.  I ate better (read: didn't eat a bag of gummy bears every single day like I did with Liliana).  And here's the skinny:

WEIGHT wise, I'm doing pretty poorly ... I think.  I wouldn't know.  I haven't weighed myself in over 2 weeks.  Whenever I remember, I'm like "eh, I'll do it later."

SIZE wise ... I still have a ways to go as well.  All my dresses fit me snug (which Evan freaking LOVES.  We have this joke that I'm wearing "jump me now!" outfits because the dresses hug my ... assets shall we say?  Regardless of the TMI, point is, they fit YES ... but quite snug).

That being said, with Liliana I only had 7 pounds to lose at this stage.  This go around?  I have ... let's just say I'm guessing it's more like 12.  BUT at the same time ...

MY PANTS FIT THIS MORNING!!!! 

I REFUSE to buy other clothes after I'm pregnant.  I did it with Liliana and I'm doing it here.  I think it's a way of MAKING me want to lose the weight.  If I go buy a size up, I'll never force myself to lose the weight.  SO here I am, in my normal pants feeling pretty damn great about myself even though I've done a whole lot of nothing to get there.

Typing out this post has really made me want to start this journey again.  I want to feel good about myself once again.  SO, what is my plan?

Truth be told, as long as I keep the two jobs, I can't exercise during the week.  I simply don't have time.  Take yesterday for example (not a rare day at all).  I got home with the girls around 5:30 and fed Gloria.  Evan texted at 6 that we should eat dinner without him.  We did.  He called around 7:40 that he was on his way home.  The second he got home, I went in to the study to work on the etsy shops and did non-stop until 10:00.  Evan and I decide to sit on the couch and watch New Girl so that we can actually talk to each other a tiny bit (ugh, this schedule is draining).  We stay up watching until about 10:30 and then go upstairs.  SO, no workout time as long as these two things continue.  SURE I could MAKE the time for it.  I've always said it's an excuse when people say the don't have the time, but I would much rather have my 30 minutes of cuddling with my husband every night so that's what I'm choosing for now.

SO my plan?  Exercise on the weekends.  Two times a week is better than nothing.

ALSO, I'm going to really start watching what I shove in my mouth. 

HOPEFULLY these two things will motivate me to really get it going.  I don't just want the pants to fit like they do now.  I want to go back to feeling good about myself in a swimsuit. And right now, I'm pretty sure everybody would run for cover. ; )

Mind BLOWN

The last two days I've come down with a wee bit of a cold.  I feel a tiny bit better today than I did yesterday (probably b/c I took two HUGE swigs of nyquil last night that had me drooling on my pillow until Evan's alarm went off).

It all started on Sunday.  I was running some errands while the girls napped and I felt that sudden intense pain in the throat.  That "oh SHIT" pain where you know it's a comin and you dread the feeling of cruddiness in your throat, lungs, etc.

I got home and whimpered about it like a baby.  When I woke up on Monday I felt even worse.

I whimpered about it at work (where people promptly told me "you better not get me sick!") and after Evan got home he asked me

"How would you like some apple cider?"

I am a HUGE believer and advocate in apple cider.  I HATE coffee, but will take a Caramel Applce Spice from Starbucks ANY DAY.  Sure they're $4.00 which is an absolute rip off for what I'm guessing is straight out of a jug apple juice heated up, but whatever.

I notice it takes Evan a smidgen longer than normal to make my apple cider.  Then I had a sip.

OH DEAR LORD.  It was AMAZING.  This wasn't out of a packet and this certainly wasn't my "recipe" (aka taking Liliana's apple juice and nuking it for 30 seconds).

I looked up with big eyes that said "you are the best husband EVER and are so going to get lucky for this!"

So ... you want your own version of the Starbucks $4.00 apple caramel spice but on a CHEAP budget?

ALL YOU DO IS ...

Take cheap-o apple juice from sams.
Squeeze some caramel sauce (like that you buy to put on sundae's) in to the cup
Put in a few dashes of cinnamon
Put in microwave.

VOILA!!!! YUM. 

One of those Moments/ Days/ Weeks/ Months/ Life

Lately I've been able to sit back and really realize how treasured my life is.  I have just about everything I want in life, I can't really complain about much.  I think having a second baby has made me more relaxed ...

Yes I'm perfectly aware this makes ZERO sense.  Usually a second baby brings more tension, less sleep, etc. but it's had the opposite effect on me.

Here's an example: our oven is broken and will be until Friday, but you know what?  You just deal with it.  You plan on sandwiches and cereal for the week and move on because that is such a tiny thing to stress about!

I am just one lucky, happy lady lately.  I've found a lot of peace with my role as a mother, a wife, and a working woman.  I know the plans I have, I'm excited to fulfill them (can't really disclose what I'm talking about on this for another couple weeks). 

I am so ridiculously happily married.  Evan's and I marriage is always strong but like most marriages it's a roller coaster ride.  Lately though?  I swear, we're at the peak and we've been there for months!

Every single stinking day, we have those moments.  Those "wow, we're so happy together" moments and they last and last and last.  Our relationship, our love life (yes this has to be included b/c it's so important!), our ability to put our careers aside to spend time together, etc...it's all so AMAZING lately and meshing well together. 

We're such a team with the girls.  For instance, I take them to school every morning and pick them up 99% of the afternoons.  But then again, he puts them down for bed about 80% of the time.  He showers them 90% of the time.  Balancing that out, for the most part, makes neither one of us ever frustrated or exhausted with the kids (which is easy to get!) When I get home from work I usually have to do a couple hours of work for the etsy shops and if he gets home at 7:30 (common thing these days ... life has been BUSY for him, as usual), he just puts them to bed without a concern or worry.  How he maintains his sanity by working those hours and then just coming home to work more I don't know.  But he does it.

And he does it so well.

Yesterday afternoon he was upstairs showering after a workout and putting away laundry while I was working on the etsy shop.  When he came back downstairs he told me "there's a dress in your closet that I have never seen before!"

I thought "have I gone shopping lately and didn't tell him?"  Evan's ALWAYS telling me to go shopping more.  In fact, just yesterday he told me I needed to play hooky from work one day and go shopping.  Haha, great husband I know.

Anyway, I suddenly realized what he meant.  The stinker had bought me a new dress at Target and it is OH SO CUTE!

As for the other huge source of happiness in my life?  My girls ... they are just the most incredible girls on this planet!

Gloria continues to be Ms. Easy-going.  She was fussier this last week and turns out ... the poor baby was EXHAUSTED and isn't getting the sleep she wants at daycare (I seem to remember this happening to Liliana too, that they get woken up by other kiddos and Gloria is a VERY light sleeper so it's not surprising).  Friday night, she slept 12 hours straight and Saturday another 11 hours!  She's 2 1/2 months! AWESOME!!

Liliana is the most hilarious kid I've ever seen. She's got personality for 50 kids put together.  Her new obsession are "cools" and purses (or any bag works ... even a Kroger one).  We've had to limit our outings to only ONE pair of sunglasses and ONE purse b/c if not she'd have 10 of each on.  She loves her sister and this morning the first thing she told me was "Where's  Gloria?  I just love my sissy so much!"  Good lord, how can your heart not melt? 

I haven't been blogging as much recently b/c I tend to blog when I'm redoing a room in the house or when things are tough, but I think it's also okay to blog and just say

Life is Amazing.

Making Time

Last night Evan stayed home cleaning the house with Gloria while I ran to the post office to have a date with Liliana.  Evan and I try to each have our Liliana one-on-one time to remind her how special she is to us.  She LOVES this time with us.  She's a great helper at the post office too! :)  On my way home we stopped at Kroger to get some chips and I decided it was a great evening to rent a movie and cuddle on the couch with my man.

Cuddle nights on the couch are one of our favorite pasttimes.  We're BIG on putting the kiddos to sleep and making us time.  Lately we've really focused on getting the kids down for bed at a decent hour so that we can spend time together SANS kiddos.  I realize this isn't the easiest task with a two year old and a two month old, but I must say, we're excelling!  The girls took naps at the same time on Saturday AND Sunday and both were asleep by 9 pm each night. This means we get LOTS of time together as a couple (I mean that in the hubba hubba way and in just the fun sitting on the couch watching a movie way).

I rented a movie I had been wanting to see for a while called "Friends with Kids." The movie is your typical decent romantic comedy: 6 friends (two of them couples) .... 2 of them having kids, those two couples seem miserable.  The two single friends decide to have a kid together but not be togheter. Spoiler alert: they end up falling in love with eachother. WHAT?  Didn't see that coming! ; )

Anyway, the movie really focused on the miserable aspect of having kids and the number it does on a marriage.  This kinda pissed me off.  It doesn't HAVE to be like that.

YES the kiddos are time consuming.  YES Evan and I have less down time than we used to, but it DOES NOT consume our lives.  We have a 2 month old and a 27 month old and both work full-time jobs (his counts as two jobs actually).  And yet, we still MAKE the time.

One of my pet peeves is when people say they don't HAVE the time to do something.  "We don't HAVE the time to clean." "We don't HAVE the time to workout." "We don't HAVE the time to ...." you get the picture.

NONE of those statements are true.

You HAVE the time.  You just don't MAKE the time.

Honestly I don't MAKE the time to clean our house often enough.  I've realized it won't be spotless and the vacuum will be run about every week and a half.  And that's as good as we're going to do it because I would rather have a cuddle night on the couch with my husband.

We MAKE the time to be together.  Having kids hasn't changed the hubba hubba time AT ALL ... it's just as strong as ever (TMI sorry!) and same with just watching movies etc.  We make it a priority.  If we have work to do (be it the etsy shop or Evan's job since he not only has to work 80 hours but is required to write papers as well), we say "we'll work for 30 minutes and then we're done and will spend time together."

One BIG change we've made since having kids?  We're on the internet and on our phones SO much less.  Our computers don't get turned on for DAYS sometimes.  We used to surf the internet while sitting next to each other but now, our time is more limited since we do have the kids taking more of it so we MAKE the time by putting the laptop away and spending time together.

We spend time together by reading books side by side, by playing games (cards, board games, or even a 2 player game on our tablet that we've been particularly addicted to lately), by baking together (which often results in flirting by putting brownie batter on each others cheeks etc).

During the movie, Evan had his arms wrapped around me and told me something that he says frequently but I never get tired of hearing:

"You're my favorite."

I love when he tells me that.  I'm his favorite.  And he's mine.  And that is  SO worth making time for.

Having kids doesn't have to kill your relationship.  I don't even believe it has to slow it down.  You just work with it. And if you're lucky, like we are, you find so much joy in your new found family that you're happier than ever before.

Gloria's 2 month letter!

My Dearest Wonderful Gloria:

I can't believe you're already 2 months old.  I know they say time flies when you have kids and it has with your sister, but I suppose since we're both working like crazy AND have sissy, these first two months of your life have literally FLOWN by. 

I can't stress enough to you how AMAZING you are as a baby.  I type that, I tell people that, and I scream it off the roof tops and then when people meet you?  They can't BELIEVE how chill you are.  You'll lay on your tummy, look around, roll over occasionally, and be content.  Then I'll turn you around and you remain ... guess what ... content! ; )

You are such a TALL girl.  You're weighing a little over 11 pounds (smaller than your sister was at this age) but you've been in size 3 month clothing for about 3 weeks and you're in size 2 diaper and have been for about 3 weeks as well.  The other stuff just wasn't tall enough for you.  You're a smiley and cooing machine too.  It's so fun to hear you talk to us.  You respond so well to someone tickling your nose (especially when your Daddy does it).

We've brought you in the water a few times and your Daddy is convinced (and this is  a quote) that you "have a feel for the water."  He was so impressed with how you floated on your back and kicked your little legs.  It was with purpose.

 

As for your sleeping habits?  Holy moly you're fabulous!  You're averaging about 7 to 7.5 hours if I had to guess, but less than 6.5 is a thing of the past!  You had some ROUGH nights when we went to Washington D.C. for your Uncle Tyler's wedding.  We don't really know why.  You wouldn't necessarily fuss, you just didn't want to sleep.  I think you knew you weren't in your room because literally the SECOND we got you home, you took a 3 hour nap and then slept 7 hours that night.  Since then, you've given us a couple nights where I had to WAKE YOU UP to go to work because you had slept 9.5 hours.  Seriously, what 2 month old does that?

Your sister continues to be amazed with you.  She's a GREAT helper too!  She tells me "Mommy I get sissy's bottle and milk!"  "Mommy, I will help with sissy's pacifier!"  She has learned the baby lingo and is a great big sister to you already.

You started daycare full time this week and that was a rough transition for Mommy.  She has a 50 minute commute to and from work everyday just so you and sissy can get to school.  It's frustrating and exhausting I must admit.  Hopefully we can figure out a solution for this soon because your Mommy isn't superwoman!

OK my champion baby girl, I think that's enough of a letter for the month.  We love you.  We really do.  You complete our family SO perfectly!!! A perfect match.

Love you,

Mommy