A Trip to Where the Grass is Greener

     As I begin this post, it is with great optimism that we continue on with the rest of our trip unscathed. Mind you that we are only halfway through, and I wanted to begin while the details were fresh in my mind. 

     On Thursday afternoon, we began our first trip of the year! We set off to Portland to see my cousin get married, visit with my mom and youngest brother, and visit our dear friends in Eugene. 

     We had an incredibly long drive on Thursday, which got more difficult the closer we got to our destination. The rain got heavier, the night got darker, and our patience wore thinner. We arrived at our hotel near midnight, and got unpacked. We were all understandably exhausted, and after our initial hellos, willingly went to bed. 

     Friday was the day of the wedding! It was a beautifully overcast day, and did end up raining a bit.

^^ Landen, a boy after my own heart, loved the rain. He found any excuse to leave the umbrella and stand out in the thick of it.

     After seeing the Bride and Groom, taking some family pictures, and visiting with everyone, we left back to the hotel to get some lunch and take a nap. Jerika perfectly embodies just how tired we were all feeling at the time.

     The reception was beautiful! It was a fun night seeing so much family and dancing the night away.

     Saturday was a new day! After getting some more rest, we woke up to a bright and sunny day. Saturday was my parent's 29th wedding anniversary!! So congratulations to them :) We were lucky enough to spend so much time with my mom during our visit. One of the best parts of the day was visiting the Rhododendron Gardens in Portland (a very favorite spot of mine!) to feed the ducks and squirrels. My hubs and kiddos had never been there, so it was fun! 

     Sadly, we parted ways on Sunday with my mom and brother. But we did get to meet up with our besties Ritz and Kenzi at the Portland Zoo! 

     We all loved it! The kids had fun running around, looking at the animals, and just being outside. 

     Our Monday with the girls consisted of sight seeing around Eugene! Josh of course had to go see Autzen Stadium.

     We took the kiddos to a park called Skinner Butte, which they LOVED. And then hiked a tiny trail next to it.

     We ended up driving to the top of Skinner Butte to check out the view of Eugene!

     We then went downtown and checked out Voodoo Doughnuts for the first time!!

     It was tough to say goodbye, but we sure loved seeing everyone that we did during this trip! 

     And after a long, long, long car ride...

     We finally made it home. <3

A Legitimate Complaint

Seriously?
Every time that I remember that I have a blog, I want to kick myself in the pants for not keeping up with it.
Maybe putting Post-Its up everywhere I look will help remind me?
Perhaps a tattoo on the top of my hand?
A reminder on our phone every day?
lol, idk. But I will try to be more diligent in writing, because I LOVE writing.


      I've had a concern weighing heavily on my mind lately. Something that I've discussed with Josh. Something I've complained to mommy friends about. And I'm sure I've even gone to my mother for advice. But I have yet to find a solution for this problem that recurs daily.

     This problem is bedtime.

     Bedtime, or as it's known in our home, "The Period Of Time When The Children Get Up And Play And Sometimes Cry And Avoid Sleeping At All Costs For At Least Three Hours", is a nightly battle that we seldom win. There is sweat. There are tears. And sometimes there is blood (from us pulling our hair out). And of course we know that as soon as we shut their doors and turn to walk away, they have sinister grins on their tiny cherub faces as they plot their next move.

     Ask me how many bedtime stories we've read. Ask me how many times I've sang "Let It Go". Ask me how many times potty breaks were needed but then they needed water, a kiss and hug, they forgot their toy at Grandma's House, and now they want to know what plastic is made of. To quote Cady Heron*, "The limit does not exist". Because it truly doesn't.

I've gone as far as Googling a generic answer on how to combat this. Here's what helpful tips the "parental experts" of the internet had to share:

1. Make sure their bedtime is early enough. 

2. Keep your child's bedtime consistent.

3. Let your child wind down. 
      
4. Patience and Persistence.

5. Use soft lights 30 minutes prior to bedtime.

Grant me a moment to share my thoughts on these suggestions. I couldn't keep scrolling through links after that last one. I just had to stop, because:

1. What parent isn't like "Dear Children, I love you. But it's been a long day. Please go to bed so I can enjoy 30 minutes of peace before I fall asleep on the couch pretending to stay caught up on my favorite show" ?

2. Aside from attending special events, like a wedding or something, I don't know of a parent that isn't counting down the final few minutes before bedtime. Bedtime will never pass by unnoticed in our house, so consistency is not a problem.

3. I don't know if the person who suggested this has ever had a child between ages 2-4, but this is basically impossible. From the moment my kids wake up in the morning until the moment they pass out mid-activity at night, they are on-the-go. 

4. Patience and Persistence is a solid piece of advice. Kudos to whoever wrote this.

5. Maybe it's just my cheap-mom practicality, but I will not have separate lights in order to calm my children for bed. The rest of my "persistent bedtime routine" for my kids should clue them in on the fact that it's bedtime before me going out to buy soft lights ever should.

     If I didn't actually enjoying sleeping so much, I would just let our little rascals join us in bed every day so the snuggling never stops :). Unfortunately, children don't understand the blessing that a solid night's sleep is to a parent. So let the battles continue!


*Cady Heron is the main character from Mean Girls. This was obviously a great quote that applies to many a situation. So if you don't get it, please do yourself a favor and rent that movie stat.

   

Marriage is really, really hard.

I would like to open this post with a disclaimer: I'm boutsta get all sappy about my hubs.

Josh and I have been married for 3 years. I know to a lot of people, that's such a short amount of time. And I cannot wait until we've got 10, 20, 30 years of marriage under our belts and are able to reminisce when other young wives turn to mush when talking about their husbands. 

But right now, in our very stage of life, 3 years has come and gone so fast, but has also felt like a lifetime. In three years, we've lived in two states, 4 different houses, had a second child, changed jobs, found new hobbies and interests, and have made lifelong friends. There's been a lot of change, and a lot of great times when we look back on our day and ask how we got so lucky.

But no marriage would be complete without it's share of difficulty. Without going into detail, I'll just throw out a blanket statement saying that marriage is really, really hard. There are lots of times when we don't see eye to eye. There are times when arguments happen because of something tiny. And there are times when we are just flat out frustrated with whatever struggle we are facing. 

But what I want to do most is praise Josh and the man that he is, because even in my lowest of times, when I feel like giving in to whatever hard time is before us, Josh holds me together. Josh is my rock that refuses to crumble. (Others might call that stubborn, lol). I'm grateful for all of the things that he is and isn't, and the things that make up for my shortcomings. For making me laugh when I only want to be upset. I'm grateful for the life that we've built together.

So, my love, happy anniversary. Happy day remembering when I walked down that aisle to you, with tears in both of our eyes and we promised forever. This marriage has been the hardest and most rewarding work I've ever done. Somehow another year has come and gone, and I can't imagine having spent it with anyone else. I love you!

Our first date :)

Hello!

So Bug and I went on our first official date today! I've dreamt about him being old enough for us to go out and do fun stuff by ourselves for what seems like forever. And today we finally had the opportunity to go out together!

So it started out with us going to see The Mad adventures of Mr. Toad at the College of Idaho, put on by DreamWeaver Musical Theatre.

 I was so excited that our first date was at a musical! So we got nice and cleaned up for the event...

Unfortunately that's the best smile that we could get out of him. lol 

So we head over, get our programs, get seated, and wait for the show to start. 

Bug kept covering up his eyes because he knew that eventually the lights would be shutting off.

And he kept checking the front of the program to make sure Mr. Toad was putting his gloves on. 

So the show started with a choir group singing a Disney medley! Which was like a bonus to us Disney-fanatics. There was a brief intermission afterwards, and then the play started. 

He loved it from the get-go. And of course he asked a million questions about what was happening, who was who, if certain characters were coming back any time soon, and when they were going to sing again. I spent majority of the show quietly asking him to whisper if he had a question, lol.

It was an awesome children's theatre production, and we loved it! 

Afterwards we walked around the College of Idaho campus for a bit, and then headed to Dairy Queen to have a treat before we went home. 

All in all, a pretty perfect first date with an amazing little boy :)

DIY Picture Board

Okay.

I cannot describe how thrilled I am about this project! 

Our little girl recently graduated into a toddler bed, which left our crib with no use :(

(Because, knock on wood, we're done having kids).

So! I decided that instead of getting rid of the crib or having it sit in the garage for years and years, I would repurpose it's different parts into different projects!

And this is the first one :)

So firstly, you need the springy thing that goes under the mattress!

And then you need to take these little doohickeys off each corner.

Next, you must acquire a roll of burlap (or any fabric really, I think it would look cute either way)

Then! Begin wrapping the burlap (or fabric) around the edge of the springy thing. You can wrap as loosely or as tightly as you like, I just prefer not to see any of the metal.

So I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped (seriously, I wrapped for probably close to an hour) until I came to the end of my burlap. 

My roll of burlap failed me. By five inches.

FIVE INCHES!!

In a panic, I searched for any type of crafty anything that could fill that five inch void. 

And I just happened to have a couple of black cotton fat quarters on hand!

Let me just clarify really quickly, that I NEVER thought that I would be "that" craft lady who could finish a project with things that she "had on hand". But I guess I've just leveled up from my amateur crafter status ;)

Anyways! I fashioned my two fat quarters into a bow :) which sat nicely on the corner and the black just happens to match my collages of black picture frames and wall decor in the living room! Double bonus!

I mounted that beauty on the wall, and grabbed the finishing touches!

Small clothespins to hang pictures, and of course my pictures.

I think the hardest part of this project was deciding which pictures I wanted to hang! 

And voila! The project is complete :) 

I'm so busy!

Josh and I were watching The Today Show this morning, and they had an interesting short segment. The question was "Is being SO BUSY the new humble brag?" The more they talked about it, the more I realized that not a single day goes by that I haven't talked to someone who confesses how much they have on their plate, how many responsibilities they have, and how they just plain "don't have time". Please don't get me wrong, I also am guilty of this! 

This really made me evaluate myself, and think about how much I actually have to get done during the day compared to how swamped I feel. Let me just tell ya, that those two things were a more than a tad bit out of balance.  

Even though I would love to believe that I have a crazy hectic life because it gives me an excuse to not fold that week old pile of clean laundry in the corner, I actually do have time to take care of it. And even though I would love to keep convincing myself that I have such an long list to complete, it's really not that bad.

Okay, so I wrote ^ that about a week ago. I tried going through this week without making excuses about why I couldn't get accomplished all that I wanted to. Suffice it to say that this goal is a lot easier said than done, lol. I did notice that I "magically" get a few more things done that usually fall by the wayside, and even had time for stay-in double date night with friends! 

I did also notice, that when my feelings of being overwhelmed with too much to do weren't bombarding my every thought, I had more patience with my kids. I felt like I was able to take a breather from the day to day things that needed to get done, and actually play with my kids. Too often I feel like I'm trying to distract them with toys and games so that I can accomplish what I think needs to be done.  Let's just say that the more I thought about that, the more upset I became with myself. As frustrating as children can be (especially when I'm with children all day at work), I definitely know that my kids and the memories we make and the experiences we share are what count. I don't want my kids to look back at me when they're older and only remember that mom was either cleaning or tired.

So whati took away from The Today Show segment from last week, is that when I look at the empty space in my schedule, I want to fill it with my family. (Because really, who wants to fill up their schedule with the laundry, lol)

Remember me?

It has been a LONG time since I've written on this lovely blog of mine! And though I doubt everyone has been patiently waiting for a family update from The Carlton family, I on the other hand have needed it. 

I've recently been reading along with an old friend's blog, and have admired the amazing things that have been going on in their life. It has inspired me to change the way that I look at my life. 

At first I questioned myself, and had the thought that "I'm not on a life changing journey, so what do I possibly have to offer the readers of my blog?" The more I thought on that, I realized that there is an unspoken bond between all moms, regardless of age and years of motherhood under their belts. I thought that maybe I'm sharing similar struggles and moments of triumph as other women in my life, and I at the very least offer the knowledge that they aren't alone in their stage of life. 

So while I dream about that effect that my blog will have on it's few readers, I came to the conclusion that I need to write in this blog for myself. Because even though it sometimes feels like I'm in a very slow, steady, and rarely changing stage of life, I have a huge impact in the people that mean the most to me, my family. And I'll want to look back at this time of my life and see the way my family has grown with each other. So please feel free to join in with my family on our struggles, triumphs, and love that we share. 

(And if I start falling behind on posts, please feel free to verbally kick me in the pants to get me moving again! 😋)