YUP. Still here. It’s crazy. My husband, son, and daughter are all asleep. And I have 45 minutes to write an update on my life to catch you all (ok maybe nobody but me) on the state of my life. That should be plenty of time right?

So it’s 2015 and pretty much every other day I’m like I really need/want to make a blog post update. I need to write down my thoughts on my life. To remember everything I’m feeling and going through right now. I remember when I used to write in this here blog every.single.day. That is pretty much impossible now. But trust me, it’s a good thing.

So let’s start with what’s been keeping me so busy. As you know from my previous post…I was pregnant. And that said baby is now here. He’s actually 7 months. Holy cow! He is the sweetest little thing and I’m literally falling head over heels in love with the little booger. His name is Maxwell but we call him Max or Maxie or Maxie Poo Poo. Yeah…we really need new nicknames. I’m hoping to stop calling him that by the time he actually understands what we’re saying. Too bad I already have his big sister and his cousins calling him those names! Anyways, having kids is like the best and worst thing ever. I’m not going to go into all the mushy stuff but man…it’s like my life is so full and awesome and amazing because of these kids but at the same time it’s just so.freaking.hard! Some days I’m like…let me just have a few hours by myself please? Just a few hours where I don’t have to think about anything!! Or care about anyone!! Or make somebody food. Or change their diaper. Or fight with them about taking a nap!

But ultimately, they are literally the best and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I was reading an article about how these times are the “happiest” of your life. I totally agree. There is something magical about little kids who are super innocent and haven’t been tarnished by life. Like sometimes I just want to eat them up they are soooo sweet and adorable.

Max at the park today

Anyways, are you still with me?

The second thing keeping me busy and surprisingly is probably keeping me MORE busy than the baby is my nap-resisting toddler, Emma.

From our xmas card this year

She’s 2 now. Every day she reminds me why I have kids. I am so loving this age. It’s just so fun when you can start actually conversing with your kid. If I had to describe Emma right now I would say she is intelligent, shy, socially anxious, cautious, short tempered, thoughtful, and calm. I took her to see The Nutcracker with friends last month and she has been obsessed with ballet. She will watch ballet videos on youtube and insist on wearing tutus 24/7. Even though ballet isn’t on our list of things we wanted her to do, we ended up signing her up for a class. She’s also into Daniel Tiger, wagon rides, dessert, puzzles, washing dishes, eating with chopsticks, and feeding ducks. The hardest part about her is that she is so anti naps. She can be super tired and all she will do is throw a tantrum about not going to sleep. For the most part though, she is so completely fun and hilarious. And she is totally in love with her little brother. From the day we took Max home she has been his protector and best friend. In the car, she holds his hand (he hates car rides and is usually crying). She always runs to him in the morning and tries to get him to smile. I have this picture of her when Max was a tiny baby blob sitting in his rockNplay and she’s teaching him random stuff like “This is a pencil”. All I can do is watch their relationship grow and laugh.

This very old picture also cracks me up. She would always randomly look for him to make sure he was ok. Always checking up on him. We always tell her what a good big sister she is. She takes it very seriously!

To round up the family update, gotta talk about the hubs…boyrobot! This past year we celebrated FIVE years!!! The longer I am married the more grateful I am that somehow miraculously I ended up with the right person that I would want to spend the rest of my life with. I realize now when you get married, it’s really a crapshoot if you’re going to be happy or not with this person. There’s no way you’re going to foresee the things that you’ll go through, the fights you will have, and the things that will happen. Things change, people change. Even so, there are a few qualities boyrobot has that makes me know we are going to last despite all of our idiosyncrasies that may drive the other one crazy. He is not only a devoted and loyal husband, he is is also a devoted and loyal father. Someone once told me planning a wedding was a true test of your marriage. Um NO. Having kids is. It’s like everything you know about your relationship thrown out the window. You could have an awesome husband but if he’s a not so great dad…it’s game over. He is absolutely so loving and adorable with the kids that I can’t help but love him even more.

You don’t know love until you see a grown man play with his little daughter. Think ballerina dances, acting out stories with dolls, etc.

Another quality is that he has great communication skills and forces me to always talk through any problems we may have. And he is just plain fun to be around. After all of this time, I still just love being with him. If I had a free day? I would want to spend it with him.

Ok so next up….my job! I am still working at the same company but recently I switched to a different team. Still learning the ropes but the people are super nice and it’s nice to learn something different/new. If there is one sore point in my life though, it would have to be how far my job is from home.

My hobbies have really fallen to the wayside with kids. That is one thing I miss. You people without kids…you have NO idea how much free time you have. Recently, I started cooking again since I am bringing my lunch to work. And I also cook for the kids sometimes. The problem is….I am obsessed with adding vegetables to my kids foods so a lot of times I will slave in the kitchen and then Emma won’t like it because it’s too…healthy. So I am working on finding the right balance there. I’ve also started reading again. Probably my favorite book I read this past year was Still Alice (if you know anyone with Alzheimer’s it’s a must-read). Currently reading The Interestings (has sort of a Wes Anderson feel to it). I’ve also been obsessed with podcasts. Like everyone else I listened to Serial. My current faves are Radiolab, Freakonomics, Criminal, Startup, and The Moth. I pretty much stopped watching TV…is there anything good out there? I’m just waiting for Game of Thrones to come back on. I’m also embarassingly still obsessed with Candy Crush. I think once I reach the end (of the current version), I’m going to stop playing or at least take a long break from it….I’m so close!

Socially, I have never been happier. We have some really amazing people we call our close friends that live nearby. They all have kids the same age as our kids and it’s so nice having them all grow up together. It’s also been SO awesome having mommy friends who completely relate to you and who you can talk to, vent to, and ask advice from. I text almost daily with 2 girls who just crack me up and who are also some of the sweetest people you will ever meet! They truly inspire me to be a better friend. For the first time, I don’t feel like that awkward, quiet girl that would try to avoid social situations (hmmm, I guess I see where Emma gets it from hehe). I feel so lucky to have the support group we have as we go through the adventure of parenthood!

Lastly, I’ve been thinking about things I want to do differently this year. I’ve kind of been obsessed with eating healthier and living a more simple life. I’ve been trying to eat more veggies in general but I’d also like to eat more bone broth (try to make a batch every week?), eat fermented food more often (made sauerkraut for the first time!!) using my new fermenting kit, and to go on a daily walk with the kids. I’ve also decided to slowly reorganize my house. It’s so hard to keep your house clean with kids. Our house is ridiculously messy. So far I redid our shoe storage. Currently, we are tackling Emma’s room and the toy situation in our living room. We’ve made a lot of progress so far! I also want to start cleaning out my closet and donating a lot of my clothes. I think before the year ends, I am going to attempt a capsule wardrobe. Have you heard of those? It’s where you pick a certain # of clothes for each season and stick with that. Most people pick 37 items and that includes shirts, pants, shoes, dresses, etc. It sounds incredibly hard but people who have done it LOVE it. And I am so tempted to do it too! I swear my closet is stuffed to the brim with clothes that I haven’t worn in months/years. It would be so nice to just reach in my closet and know whatever I pick is something I love and fits me well. One reason that makes me hesitate in doing this is that I’m still figuring out what my body is going to look like post-baby. Hopefully not how it currently looks! ha ha. Anyways, something I have been seriously considering doing.

Ok, this took way longer than I thought. It’s way past my bedtime!! Glad I was able to share a tiny bit of my life though. Hopefully the next update will be sooner.