whole 30 diary

I decided to do the whole 30.  I also decided to do recaps of my days.  Today is day 3.  It is probably a bad day to write about it because I'm food angry.  But here we go.


Day 1- Wasn't too hard.  I was at work.  I prepped all my food the day before.  I didn't even go to the cafeteria to be tempted and thankfully no one brought any candy or chocolate to the nurses station.  I missed my coffee with cream.  I LOVE COFFEE WITH CREAM.

Breakfast: Potato hash with pork belly, bell peppers, green onion, and two eggs. I ate this at work because the green tea I attempted to drink with breakfast made me sick.

Lunch: I'm starving. Like legit I'm SO hungry.  I eat a chinese chicken salad and half an apple.

Snack: I seriously am dying of hunger. I work 12 hour days and my small meals aren't working out.  Must remember to increase my veggie intake.  I eat two eggs, an RXbar, and a beef jerky stick over the period of 5 hours.

Dinner: I made soup in the crockpot.  I'm finally full.



Day 2- still not too bad.  I am home today and I have coffee with almond milk, eh.

Breakfast: Same as day 1

Lunch: Same as day 2

Snack: beef jerky stick

Dinner: We went out, barf.  I had filet with salt and pepper and the coldest hardest broccoli.

Snack: RXbar because dinner sucked.  Still hungry but tired.



Day 3- I'm still on day 3.  I already want to quit.  WTF.  How do I want to quit so early on?!  I have a headache and I'm dizzy.  I found out its restaurant week in my favorite local town and I am devastated. I love food.  I hate this.  Oh, and I realized I ate butter last night on accident, does this mean I have to start over??


I made it to through day 3 and until day 8...then I quit.  which is today. Maybe I'll do it again someday but I probably won't to be honest.  It feels silly to give up some of the major food groups.  So anyways...cheers to spending a lot of money and being miserable for 8 days!!

Five newborn MUST HAVES.

My top five newborn MUST HAVES.  I am a mother of two, to be more specific, Irish twins.  And my babies were SO different that I have a great perspective on what was necessary for different types of babies.  I will link everything below.  If anyone has any questions about formula, sleeping suggestions, etc...I'm always here!

Side note: I did what worked for me. Everything I did was safe and in the best interest of my children.  I know whats recommended and what isn't. I have "late bloomers", meaning they don't roll, sit up on their own, pull up on furniture, and that kind of stuff until they are older than most babies.  I ALWAYS switched them over to a blanket, pillow, and bumper free crib at the FIRST SIGN of rolling during sleep.

Favorite #1-  Dock-a-Tot
You guys, literally the best thing since...its the best thing ever.  It was used for both of my babies.  I couldn't live without it. I tell everyone they need one.

Favorite #2-  Dr. Browns preemie nipples
Without getting into it right now, breast feeding didn't work out long term.  These are the slowest nipples I could find, and I seriously think I tried them all.  These are the only ones that didn't make my babies choke.

Favorite #3-  Rock-n-Play auto
I have nothing but good things to say.  Get the AUTO.  We used this next to our bed for nugget, little muffin didn't like it much so she slept in a co-sleeper.  But it was such a necessity for our first that it had to be on this list.

Favorite #4- White noise machine.  
I sleep with one. My kids both sleep with one. Drowns out the noise so we don’t have to worry too much about closing a door or flushing the toilet, haha. Because we all know you sneak around your house legit terrified of even sneezing during nap and bedtime!!


Favorite #5- Love to dream arms up swaddle 
Hands down, best swaddle. They can suck on their little hands and it’s a more natural position for them.  It has a double zipper, it’s lightweight, and when they’re ready to transition they have one where you can zip off one arm at a time.  SO GREAT.


Writing about these things has made me realize (even more) how freakin great they are.  They saved me during those first few months of constant feedings and fussy babies (just Easton).  They make AWESOME gifts too!!


I’ll be back soon with a post on my newest post on “lose the baby weight/have more energy to chase after kids/get rid of my double chin”  adventure...

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year everyone!!  I am so glad you've stumbled upon my blog!  I hope everyone had a good Holiday season and just a great year in general.  I know we did.

Anyways, I plan on dedicating a lot more of my time here during 2018.  Being a working mother of two, I have a lot of thoughts, suggestions, personal trials and errors, jokes, life experiences, etc that I want to share.

So, staying true to New Years resolutions, I thought I would hop on here and just give a quick update about life and a recap of 2018.  It was a beautiful year, but it's easy to look back and see only the good parts when it was truthfully one of the most challenging years of my life.


I'm just going to say it, 2017 was our best year yet.  We brought Evelyn home in March and she was the best and most terrifying surprise we could have hoped for.  She is seriously the most easy going baby (until two days ago?!? WTF..Teeth??), Easton loves her SO MUCH, and she completed our family (for now...?).  We don't know if someday down the line we will have another baby, but we do know that until one of them is in school or potty trained, we are DONE.  And we my be done for good, we are just not sure.


That leads me to the other great part of 2017, being done with the "infant phase".  Not going to lie or sugar coat it, I don't particularly enjoy the newborn phase.  I don't like the hormonal changes postpartum, I don't like the physical pain that comes with having difficult deliveries, I don't like having leaky boobs that don't work properly, I don't like trying SO DAMN HARD to breastfeed and having it not work out, I don't like not sleeping and tiny little babies that are so fragile.  I do love a newborn baby that I can send back to their own mom and dad. But for me, I like to get out of that "phase" and move on to another one where they're walking and crawling.  Maybe it's just because Easton was so difficult as a newborn and they are only 11 months apart, but it's not my favorite.  A little note, I found out I was pregnant with Evelyn when Easton was only three months old.  I was seriously taking care of my first newborn and found out I was having another.  I didn't really know how I was going to survive and I cried a lot those first few months. But we made it. I plan to talk more about this since I think it really changed me.  I think becoming a parent changes you in general, and then having another so quick really adds a whole different dimension. 



Continuing...Easton turned one and had a great "lumberjack" party that I have about two pictures from.  Oops.  I worked really hard on it too.  I was just overwhelmed with his party and having a newborn, and I was exhausted
.  But it was fun and probably the most challenging time of the whole year because we were also moving at this time.  

We found the perfect house on the other side of town.  The timing was horrific, but we somehow managed to stay married and keep ourselves and two babies alive.  We have NO plans of moving this year but we will see where God leads us I guess.

Craig decided to make a career change this year that I may or may not discuss when the time comes.  But it's his dream and I'm his wife and I will support him in whatever he may choose just like he has always done for me.

I seriously have such a great feeling coming into 2018.  We are looking forward to getting into a new routine, traveling more with the kids, and hanging out with our kids at our new home.   We have some organization projects, a backyard project, and small things throughout our home that I plan on documenting here too.  I just want to force myself to document more and I thought why not share it in the process so that family and friends can see what were up to to also?

So heres to a good year ahead of us all.  To health and happiness.

She is SO cute I can't handle it

Easton and his daddy. He was so grumpy for this shoot.

Smiles like his daddy

My face looks distorted in this but Craig and the kids look so great. 

Family. Our Christmas cards. 

Sweet baby girl. 

I LOVE this one. 

are you JOKING?!?!?

Our big one year old.  So cute. This is how I still think of him in my head.

The only decent family one we got...someone was tired. 

Tired. 

The happiest...

most strong willed...

little man.

I am obsessed with him. 

Easton got tubes put in his ears. this was the next day. 

I figured this would be one of the last times my baby fell asleep on me. 

We went to Monterey for my MIL birthday.  It was a great trip. 

My sick boy at the mall shopping for daddies birthday.  

A couple days before we brought his sister home. 

One of my absolute favorites.  He is such a happy boy. 

His first potty

Just out to breakfast. 

Mothers day. 

New Evelyn. 

Trying to get a handprint, hahaha. Didn't happen.

Evelyns birthday

Welcome sweet girl!!

Grandpa x2

Spoon obsessed. 

THE ROLLS

First birthday

Fourth of July

First selfie. 

In our friends Ryan and Ericka's wedding.  

Took a trip to vegas to see George Straight.  

Little red head. 

At daycare.  We have the BEST daycare. 

Her toothless grin melts me. 

Did I mention I'm obsessed???!!

Fresh FIRST haircut

Took a train ride at the pumpkin patch 

When he got his tubes.