catch up. in iphone pics.

this blog has been neglected the last several months due to being tired, pregnant, not pregnant, more tired etc etc. so be prepared for a long/sporadic post. 

after we had the bebe, i was dying driving around the subaru with the kiddies and the stroller. which basically took up the whole trunk. so, i spent some time googling, and found a little gem. meet our third baby:

our toyota highlander. it was several years older than our legacy, but seats 7, has 4WD and can fit more than just a stroller in the trunk. it's amazing. i absolutely love it. and the best part was that we were able to trade them straight across, so we didn't pay a penny for it. =)

the next week, we celebrated our 4th anniversary while levi's parents were in town, so we had willing  babysitters. {thanks a bunch mike and kelly!} =) we went out to a tempanyaki place, down in redwood city. it was great and so nice to be out by ourselves. then we went to batman. oh the simple date night, but we loved it. i'm so glad that four years ago i married this handsome man. he is the most amazing husband, and dad, and we've only gotten better in four years. muah. 

a week or so later, we celebrated my birthday, a whopping 23 years old. dun dun dun. i know, you didn't actually think i was that old. but, it was great. all i wanted was some peace and quiet. sad how that becomes what you want when you have two kids. but levi graciously listened to me, made me breakfast in bed and gave me some gift cards to let me go party by myself in between my four hours. it was fantastic. i got myself these lovely boots. 

we then went to macaroni grill and had some delicious pastas and bread, and went to target to buy the hunger games. which we didn't end up watching because sleep became more important to us. oh the joys of parenthood. but it was a great birthday and my husband did a great job appealing to exactly what i wanted. plus, i got to spend it with my favorite boys. 

for the first time in quite some time, i did a craft. i must be getting less tired or something {finally}. pinterest always works wonders for me. but i made these canvas' with our new family pictures. they aren't really canvas, but more pictures mod-podges on canvas. which cost me about $100 less than getting them printed for real. i definitely like them better legit, but the price tag doesn't work for me so these will suffice until we've got more moolah. plus, aren't our pictures so cute? i love them. 

as an update on my favorite baby, he is still amazing. he will be seven weeks tomorrow and is just the easiest baby ever. so happy, and has just started cracking us up. he's learned how to smile and can use it to pretty much get whatever he wants from us, it's just so cute. i don't know how you can look at these pictures of him and not laugh. 

we have learned that he doesn't like mexican food just like his brother did, but juicing a little ginger in our carrot/apple/celery/beet/whatever we have in the fridge juice, has made a big difference in calming his stomach. he also has begun to sleep {almost} through the night. holla! he's been going from about 9:30 or 10:00 until 4:00 or so. and it is amazing. even though my crazy mom senses still wake me up to make sure he's still breathing if he sleeps any longer than he's supposed to. we really have been so lucky to have blessed with such great, easy going kids. he's also caught up to his brother in terms of his height and weight, which cracks me up considering zak was a whole pound heavier than him when he was born. must be feeding this one extra good. =) 

his big brother is doing fantastic. he is getting so smart, he knows all of his letters and numbers about to about 15, and can sing you almost any nursery rhyme/primary song. he's quite the performer. sometime i'll have to get it on video so that we can put it in his wedding video someday. he is still a great big brother. minus a few incidents and getting overly excited to help swing him, he is so nice and loving to greysen. he's recently developed a passion for going "mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, momma, momma, mom, mom" for no reason in an escalating, obnoxious voice, and yelling/demanding we serve him, so we are working on toning it down. but other than that and trying to run away, {which we've also been working on, he's gotten 100 times better now that we talk about it before we get out of the car every single time} he's a great kid. 

some of his funny quotes of the week are: 

"what that big brother doing?"- which we usually ask to greysen, which zak thinks is hilarious and frequently asks us so we can ask him what he's doing. 

"these are my most favorite _______ {insert nachos, cereal, shoes, underwear, pretty much anything}."

"come on, underwear, you know how to do this". when referring to pulling it up after going potty. which we say to him {minus the underwear part} because he gets sidetracked after relieving himself and we have to remind him what he needs to do.  

"when greysen get big big, i'm gonna share a room with him and get bunk beds". he is so stoked you have no idea. 

{showing his muscles}

and as a final update, we went to reno this past weekend for the rib cook off and to see my padre. it was great. the weather was nice, it almost made me miss summer, the food was delish and we saw friends we haven't seen in quite some time. 

we went swimming, but mom didn't pack our swim suit, so he was left with swim diapers from his good friend rahlee. they were hilarious. good thing he could care less. he also swam in the pool all by himself with floaties on for the first time. he's usually in with us, swimming with nothing, or in a shallow part, so that was interesting. he did great! rahlee's mom is a swim teacher so he got to watch an expert friend in the water too. =) 

 the rib cook off was fantastic. unlimited ribs, gloriana in concert, funnel cake, crafters, and a cool reno evening. it doesn't get much better. minus all of the super classy people there, it was great. 

our weekend was great, but the traffic going home left much to be desired. burning man finished yesterday which added 50,000 people going over the pass with us. we spent six hours doing a 2 hour drive through the mountains, most of which involved us parked or going about 20 mph. it was terrible. our kids did amazing though, no screaming/crying fits, minus zak getting carsick from watching the train app go by too many times on the ipad. {that was lovely btw} 

we also stopped to see our bff's in sacramento, because they just had the most precious baby boy but alas, we didn't get any pictures of all the boys together. it was great, and i can't wait for all our boys to grow up and be bff's too. 

last but not least, i dyed my hair! well one of my bff's did, and i love it. i was hoping that doing it would make me not have it in a ponytail as often, which it worked for most of the day today, until i got hot. so hopefully it'll still work it's magic in a couple of weeks from now. i've decided the ombre hair style is for us lazy people who don't want to go get their roots done every six weeks, so we just dye the ends to make it look different and call it good. but, i don't really care, i still love it. and my hair curls so good in reno {not that i ever wear it as curly as my fantastic hair dresser did it}. dang humidity here. 

phew! if you made it to the end of the randomness, congrats!! although, i don't think that anyone reads this anymore anyways because we never update it, or post anything besides our kids on it. oh well. 

four weeks.

the man is a month old now. how is that possible?? i don't know. he still is such a good good baby. we got so lucky. minus his and my ordeal with thrush {terrible, i hope you don't ever get it, moms} we have been loving every minute with him. 

- he sleeps between 4-6 hours straight every night. i love it. that usually means i feed him around 10 or so, 2:00 or 3:00 {today was 4:30, holla!} and then between 6:00 and 8:00. then he usually goes back to sleep until 9:00 or 10:00 so i bring Zak into bed, tell him he has to be quiet playing mom's ipod and then mom goes back to sleep until he decides he's hungry and wants some cereal. it's quite the system we've worked out. =) 

- he's so quiet. so so quiet. he cries when he's hungry, and that's it. he will lie awake for hours and not make a peep, just staring at the world. 

- he likes to sleep with the light on in his room. he sleeps so much longer with it on. it's weird. 

- he loves his bouncer. best investment ever. 

- he's a good eater. just like his brother. he gained a pound and a half his first ten days home. we have an appointment on monday, so we'll see how much he's grown. 

- he doesn't love his sucky as much as his brother. unless he decides he's hungry 2 hours before he's supposed to eat. 

this is how he sleeps every day. no swaddling here. 

 he loves tummy time.

 his super creepy purple mouth from his thrush medicine. it's stained. and looovely. 

- "mom, go feed baby greysen!" is what i immediately hear every time he starts crying. it cracks me up. 

- he sleeps for about two hours at a time in between each feeding. there are some days when he refuses his bed, and we just stick him in his bouncer and he's good to go. 

- mom has coordinated it so that he sleeps when zak does, so mom can sleep too. it's a wonderful thing i tell you. 

{greysen}

{zak}

alone.

i have spent this past week in isolation, and it has been UH-MAZING. levi and zak are back down in fresno to finish swimming lessons and i opted to stay home due to 1. me being fierce in the heat and 2. wanting some alone time before the baby comes. i'll be honest and say that i really haven't been too sad so far {i know, terrible wife and mom}, except for when we're face timing. it's only really at night time, that i would like to talk to someone other than the tv when i'm watching 15 episodes of the big bang theory, but i have gotten so much done during the day, that i would never get to do with zak around. i do miss his cute little face entertaining me all the time though. but in any case, this is what my week has consisted of: 

i have pretty much organized every single area of our house {nesting what?}. and it's been awesome. our somewhat pantry drives me nuts when i walk into it, so the $12 i spent in the dollar store has made a HUGE difference to it. 

i also decided to label zak's toys so that when people decide to be awesome and help put things away they go in the right bucket without me being anile, dumping them all out and putting them in the right buckets when they leave. 

when we made greysen's room, we moved all of our office stuff into our room and it has been a disaster. for some reason our room is the least worked on one in the house because no one ever sees it, so i fixed it, since i will be spending quite a bit of time lying in bed in a few weeks. 

and along with organizing it, i spent a few bucks at ross {i have a love hate relationship with that store. home decor, sometimes love-- clothes, hate}, and made it a little more homey. bought new sheets, {650 thread count, LOVE} and a vase, to spice up our boring room since it had nothing in it before.

i also added to greysen's collage since it was bothering me with only the four frames in it. i like this a million times better. 

and as i was walking through target, these train decals caught my eye. for the boy OBSESSED with trains, he is totally going to think it is the best thing ever that they are on his wall. {mom will be so much more awesome when he gets home}

i also spent one morning at the spa with a groupon. it was a lovely way to relax with a good friend, and now my feet look so much better. 

i also hosted my book club on wednesday and cooked for the first time all week. fantastic book by the way. highly recommend. 

i got two non stress tests- we do them twice a week now because we have two weeks left! hollllaaa!

i washed, folded and put away all baby clothes. and realized that because we lived someplace hot, most of zak's little baby clothes are summer clothes, which are totally not working for this place. sooo that means i'm off to find at least a sweat shirt for him to wear. darn. 

  

i also bought a fabulous hospital bag {levi's duffle bags just weren't doing it for me} and packed it. this is a significant improvement from last time seeing as i didn't even have a bag, i just made levi go home and get things 900 times. i'm so prepared now. 

between all this and general cleaning, i feel like i am now ready for people to stay at our house over the next month, and somewhat ready for a little person to occupy the room i've been slaving over for months. let's do this dude. 

love.

phew, three posts in one day, i am awesome. 

while the potty training was infinitely more successful today, i had more time to continue the decorating fad that i'm on instead of stalking my child to make sure he doesn't pee on everything. i am absolutely loving the babe's room.  i decided that we needed to add another color besides grey and orange because 1. orange is really hard to find cheap. or find at all. 2. i needed to save money so i added a color we already had. i really like it a lot. 

i also absolutely love his name. and how it turned out. and it cost me a fraction of anthropologie. 

 i also think that my knobs look a lot less girly on the crib. but that's just my opinion. i still also love them.

these are my spray painted adventures. well not the lamp. but i painted the black mirrors and frames. someday they'll have pictures of the wee one, so excited! and my clock was a super ghetto white one that i stole from my parent's house, but i think that spray painting it gave it a little extra class. 

i also still love our crib bedding. and my crayon art. which is WAY messier than you would think. but it still looks great. 

now i'm just waiting for my fab curtains to arrive from walmart.com, {the best store ever. the fact that the closest one is 45 minutes away is very depressing. everything is so cheap there. target just isn't the same}

when it's all finished, i'll whip out pictures of the whole room. but for now just pieces will have to suffice. =) 

planning.

it has finally hit me. the urge to decorate. it's only taken 30 weeks, but i think that i'm finally ready to get ready! i have had no idea what to do for his room, until i saw this "wash" thing. and then it hit me. orange and grey. i wanted coral and grey if we had a girl, so orange is pretty close. 

my dilemma is that my budget is $100 for the whole room. dun dun dun. 

this "wash" thing is on pinterest as knock off anthro letters. i am obsessed. they're actually cardboard letters spray painted metallic {cool eh?}. i bought the babe's name in them on the hobby lobby website, and they should be coming this week, so i'll post what they look like when i finish painting them. that will cost me a total of $25 bucks, instead of $25 bucks a letter. cha ching! 

i got this boring lamp from ikea for $20 and the black frames for $3 a pop. i intend to paint those as well. we all know how i love me a little spray paint. 

pom poms-- well those are $3 for 3 of them. easy peasy. 

luckily, i have a sexy husband who is a much better sewer than me, and he will make curtains similar to these during his month off in june, but hopefully significantly cheaper {these are $90 a panel!). i need to scope out joann's to see if they have anything good on sale. 

i would also kill for this rug. i don't remember how much it is, but i highly doubt i'll be able to buy it. i vaguely remember someone painting their rug like this on a blog, so maybe i'll have to research that and do it. 

i also need these anthro knobs for the changing table. last time i got zak's for $2.50 a piece, so i will need to scope out the sale rack at the store to find some cute orange ones. 

we have a super cute cars/trucks bumper pad, so i just need some new sheets and mattress because zak has the mattress and sheets we used last time on his big kid bed. 

fun eh? i think that i'll be able to work it under $100, if i do, i'll be impressed with myself. haha

also, we have officially officially decided on a name.

 Greysen Allister Lowry. 

it's gotten mixed reviews from people, but obviously we don't really care because we love it. 

oh boy.

i am very very far behind in blogging. probably because we've been actually doing things, aka me taking naps during nap time, so i have not had the time to catch up. soooo without further adieu, for those of you who only read this and not Facebook, we are having a boy! surprise surprise. i was not surprised at all, but levi had me almost convinced/hoping that he had the "paternal instinct" that it was a girl.

in any case. we have absolutely everything for him. poor kid, mom has no desire to buy new clothes for you.  so instead, mom bought herself a diaper bag, haha. yep, it's a real kate spade. nope, i did not pay full price for it. $40 bucks on craigslist. suckaa what?  

after much consideration, i have decided having two of the man will be lots of fun. he's a hoot, and will absolutely love having a little brother to show all his millions of cars to. it will be so fun see them together. =) 

deciding on names is the terrible part though. last time, we agreed from the beginning, but none of the names either of us come up with, the other likes. i think after much deliberation and baby naming apps, we came down to one this afternoon. kendrick. cool eh? {if you call him ken, you will not be allowed to associate with us, he is not a barbie} who knows if it'll stay that, but it is the ONE name we've agreed on.

here's to a new baby that is just as cute as this one was. or maybe even cuter.