November is upon us!

Well, we had a fun Halloween!  Our Church had a Harvest Party at a local park with Trunk or Treating and it was perfect!  Zoe got some candy (safely!) and not too much...She's 2.5 and doesn't need 5 pounds of candy.  She also got to paint a little pumpkin (that I haven't yet taken a picture of) and have her picture taken with daddy and baby brother.  Momma was not in the mood to have her picture taken.  :)

Here are some pictures from last night:

And here are a couple random pictures:

I should have more pictures ... Where are they?!  Haha.  Maybe Tony has some too.  But here we are...Kids are growing up (too fast) and life is GREAT!  Work is wonderful and we are reminded daily how blessed we really are.

Love to you all,
Courtney

In a nutshell

* We are blessed beyond measure.
* Life is really great right now.
* The gloomy Oregon weather has arrived.  Days are getting shorter and I don't like that soon, when I get off work it'll be dark.
* I LOVE LOVE LOVE my job.  My co-workers are great and SUPER sweet.
* I've stuck with nursing for four months-almost five!!!! (And counting...Don't plan on stopping anytime soon...)
* Ducks are having a great season so far!  We STOMPED ASU yesterday!  GOOOOO DUCKS!

fall happenings

Well, we are getting super spoiled up here, with this amazing weather.  Cooler temperatures (darn right COLD at night and in the morning though!) but gorgeous sunny skies!  I love it.  And I am going to hate the day when it goes away and the rain moves in.  It makes me want to cry!

This fall, we're actually going to do fall things.  Like, go to a Pumpkin Patch!  Decorate (remember, I said paint, not carve) pumpkins.  Dress up for Halloween!  And drink hot coco!  I am so excited!

Also trying to get everyone's fall/winter wardrobes in order.  That's a hard task.  Poor Noah has very limited amounts of clothing.  I need to really work on his wardrobe.  I always have an easy time shopping for Zoe!  Noah just grows so fast!

He had his 4 month check-up last Monday and here's the latest:

* He weighs a whopping 19.6 pounds.  I sigh every time I say that. (Above 95th percentile)
* He's 25 inches long.  (50th percentile)
* The doctor has asked us to hold off on any solid foods until after his 6 month check-up (which is Dec. 3rd).  He wants to weigh him again and see where his growth is at.  He says we could start baby food at 6 months, but he doesn't want Noah to gain too much weight.  Clearly breastmilk is more than sufficient for Noah.
*  He got another round of vaccinations but has handled them well.  His leg is a bit bruised from the injection and he was quite sleepy and clingy for a couple days afterward but nothing too major.

He loves to laugh and watch Zoe run around like a crazy person.  He thinks she's quite funny and highly entertaining.

Zoe is learning new words and phrases daily.  It's so funny to hear the things she says now.  We pray each night before bed and she usually says (or shouts!) "Goodnight Jesus" or "I love you Jesus" and then she always says "AMEN!" at the end.  One night I forgot to pray and she stopped me and she goes "No Momma.  Hands!"  Because we fold our hands and close our eyes before we pray.  So she faithfully says her prayers every night, even if I forget, she does not.

We still haven't started gymnastics!  So sad.  But we're still catching up on some bills and now suddenly everyone needs things...I need new work clothes (I sometimes will have to go to court and I have nothing appropriate for that!), everyone needs new fall clothes, Zoe has outgrown her toddler bed and needs a new twin size mattress, and Noah is outgrowing his car seat.  None of these things are cheap. So for now, gymnastics have taken a backseat.  But I'm hoping in November we'll be able to start.

What else?  Hmmmm.  Can't really think of anything.  But it's also way passed my bedtime so I'm rushing!

I do have some pictures and videos to share, but they're still on my phone.  Hopefully I can get those posted this week.  *hopefully*

OH and a special congratulations to my cousin, Laura.  She just had her first baby, a baby girl, last week.  Delilah Loraine.  Pretty name!  

I also hope, you are doing well wherever you are.  We have family spread out so far! We miss each and every one of you.  We think of you often and wish we were closer!

Love and blessings,
Courtney

Christmas

So here are my plans/goals for Christmas.

I want to keep things simple.  I've always said "things" aren't important and I want to instill that in my children at an early age.  Everything we have is a blessing and I've seen so many pictures of families with their heaping mounds of gifts and I just don't want that to be us.  (No offense to any families out there who do that!). 

For stockings I'm thinking about the boring stuff...PJ's, underwear, fun socks, etc.  For Noah probably bibs, little teething toys, etc. 

The big thing we want to get Zoe this year is a doll house!  She's played with one a couple times and it keeps her incredibly occupied and she loves it.  So that'll be her big gift.  Other things she loves is, books, dinosaurs, and cars.  We have enough babies, play dishes, play food, stuffed animals.  Oh and arts and craft things....We go through a lot of construction paper!  Edible paint and edible play-doh is also on my list...(There is such a thing!)

For Noah, I'm still at a loss.  Clothes?  Probably toys...But again, I don't want things to get too out of control!  I'll come back to him...

We always needs clothes, PJ's, shoes, etc.  Always.  We're constantly growing, playing hard-being rough on our clothes and shoes, and here the seasons actually change so we do constantly need different things. 

2 weeks?!?

How did I let 2 weeks go by without blogging!?  Oh my ... It's been even longer since I blogged on my other blog.  Yikes.  Oh well.  :) 

Anyway, let's see.

Oh yes, I started my new job.  And I LOVE it.  Seriously.  I feel incredibly overwhelmed.  BUT, I'm learning so much.  And I can't wait until I know a lot more and can do a lot more.  Everyone is extremely nice and understanding...No one expects me to know everything right away, they all realize it's a lot to learn.  So that takes a lot of pressure off me.  But I can be a perfectionist and hard on myself because I do want to know everything, right now! 

The kids are doing well.  They're both pretty attached to me once I get home, which is to be expected and I'm not complaining!  I'm glad they missed me all day!  They love their sitter, who comes 3 days a week in the afternoons.  She is looking for a full time job so I am worried I'll lose her at some point.  My brain can't even handle worrying about that right now.

Noah is already 4 months old (and the size of like a 7 month old!).  He'll be having his 4 month well child check on Monday (I have to miss it because I can't take any time off work-obviously!).  More shots...And I hate that I won't be there for that part of it.  Argh.  He's rolling over and sitting up in his Bumbo seat and generally a happy baby.  (At least for me...Tony complains a lot that he's pretty fussy during the day for him...I think it's just Tony!).  We did have a bottle issue...I obviously can't nurse him during the day, so he gets a bottle with breast milk when I'm not home but he apparently wasn't a fan of the bottles we had.  So we had to switch.  I hear he handles those much better!  Of course when I do get home, he pretty much nurses every couple of hours.  :)  He is going for longer stretches at night...3-4 hours.  At this age Zoe was only getting up once in the night to eat, but she was also a formula baby and they tend to go longer between feedings because it takes them longer to digest formula.

Zoe is completely potty trained.  I think she's had one or 2 accidents since we started this whole process and the last time she had an accident was like a month or more ago, at Church.  She doesn't even wear training pants during the night or naps anymore.  She always woke up dry so I just stopped putting her in them.  So far, so good! 

She's counting a lot now...Tony works out during the day and he has her count with him while he counts reps.  Totally funny and cute.  She usually starts at 4, skips 5, and gets to 11.  Progress! 

Bedtime with her is still a nightmare.  I think it's her bed/room.  We totally should have done the Montessori style nursery for her from the get go.  Wish I had known about it back then!  I think that would have solved a lot of our problems.  Right now we're saving up for a bigger mattress for her and I think we'll keep it on the floor for a while.  She's such a short, tiny person.  I think having it on the floor will help.  We want to get her some nice bedding (right now it's just a hodge-podge assortment of sheets...) and hopefully that'll help.  We're lucky if she gets to sleep before 1 AM.  And she has to get up at 7 AM at the very latest because they take me to work in the morning.  Ideally I'd like her up at 6:30 so we can eat breakfast together, get dressed, etc.  But so far that hasn't worked out.  I'm really thinking it's her bed.  She did this awful screaming before bed thing when she outgrew her crib.  As soon as we got her in the toddler bed, she slept beautifully.  Now we're back to screaming again.  It's dreadful.  And yes, we have tried no nap during the day or shortening her nap.  Nothing seems to help.  I'm hoping at the end of October we'll be able to afford to get her a new bed.  Then her current mattress will probably go to Noah upstairs.  It is a little thick so I am worried about him rolling off....But I'll figure that out.  (Our current bed is on the floor and he has rolled off that and it never phased him...Freaked me out, but didn't phase him.  It's not a very thick mattress so it's not like he rolled off a high bed or anything...)

I'm also hoping to bike to work!  Yes, even in the dreadful rain.  We don't live incredibly close to downtown, but close enough that it's doable and it'd be an awesome workout for me.  My current goal is to get up at 5 AM so I can workout...Obviously that hasn't happened.  If I did bike to work, I imagine I'd have to leave around 7 AM to get there a little before 8 AM.  At least in the beginning.

I also do not have any pictures to share this time.  Sorry.  I've been really awful at taking pictures.  Oh, but I will hopefully have some next week.  Noah was dedicated at Church last week and I'll probably have some pictures from that....A friend at Church was kind and sweet enough to take pictures for us!

Alright, I think that's it for now.  I'm doing a separate post about Christmas! 

breaking news!

I got a new job!

Yes, another one.  (Remember, my current one is just a temp job!)

My new job will be with Lane County at the District Attorney's office.  I'll be an office assistant. 

It was a somewhat hard decision for me because I do love where I am now.  But ultimately decided this was best for me and our family.

When I was giving my current job my 2 weeks notice, they did try to offer me things to get me to stay.  But my new job will be closer to home, more hours, more pay, benefits, and let's not forget, awesome experience!

Oh and honestly, here's what I'm most excited about.

They have a lactation room!  (They call it a birth room though, which is weird to me..)

Meaning a comfortable room where I can pump during my breaks.  Oh, I cannot tell you what a relief that is.  Seriously.  It's a room just for pumping.  So now I don't have to worry about that.  (And believe me, I was worried!)  But Oregon is so proactive about breastfeeding and they have incredible laws about workplace pumping etc, so I was pretty sure that with it being a government building, they would have something like this setup.

(Yes, my life revolves around nursing!)

I'm also currently obsessed with the idea of doing cloth diapers.  I have quite a few friends who actually cloth diaper.  Some full-time (meaning they use nothing but cloth diapers) and some part-time (meaning they use them sometimes but also disposable diapers sometimes).  I'd like to do them full-time but I think realistically (at least to start) we'd do them part-time.  I'm still exploring and researching.  And who knows if I'll actually do it, but I really like the idea.  Yes, the idea of more laundry is a bit scary.  But I hear it's not that bad.  We shall see.

I have had some people ask me about Christmas...Christmas present ideas for the kids and I'm currently making a list.  :)  There have been a few ideas to cross my mind.  The key for me, is to write them down right when I think of them, so I don't forget.  Usually I forget.

Alright friends and family, it's "late".  And it's taken me all day to write this!  

I shall be back soon with more updates and pictures!

Have a fantastic Saturday (or weekend, if I'm not back before it's over!)

Love to you all.

pictures

Ummm, looking back at the blog, it really has been a long time since I've posted pictures.  Oops.

A rare treat of chocolate milk from Dutch Bros.

Sweet feet.

"Oh man.  I have to eat from the bottle again?"

I assure you she's at least wearing underwear.  It got a little hot this summer!

Big boy!

He was so tired and fussy, but couldn't fall asleep.  But then I put him in my Moby wrap and he was out within a couple of minutes.

It's a little blurry cause he's a little fast. 

Library books are GREAT!

Precious babes.

Don't you just love his little arm on her leg and his little hand in her hand?

And soon he was falling over!  Too big for sister's lap!

So um Tony hates the water.  (He's getting better.) And didn't really intend to go in the water...But sorta slipped/tripped and ended up a little deeper than planned.  Hence the polo shirt.  Haha.