Treasured family time

I find that we are all so busy anymore that we do not get many days to spend together alone as our family of 5. We decided to take advantage of the day off and travel north to check out this little gem of a beach that has tide pools and low waves. It is the perfect beach for the kids. Laguna Beach is about an hour north of where we live in Carlsbad. Instead of giving the kids snacks or an iPad to occupy them on the drive we just let them sit in their boosters together in the 3rd row. They spent the whole time giggling, drawing pictures for each other on the magna doodle, and looking at the scenery outside. It was a refreshing break from the every day schedule that is filled with work, school, homework, after school activities, the computer, and tv.  
The forecast said partly cloudy in the mid 60s but it turned out to be a gorgeous sunny, 70 degree day. Mason and Elizabeth ran in and out of the ocean, built castles, dug holes, and burried each other in the sand. Tommy, Addison, and I spent some time relaxing in the chairs watching the rascals play. We let Addie down in the sand thinking that she would hate it, but she ended up loving it! She was crawling all over and putting gobs full of sand in her mouth. During low tide we explored the tide pool area. There were great rocks to climb all over so that you could see the little sea creatures. We saw fish, muscles, crabs, urchins, and snails.  Mason and Ellie were fascinated!
It was a great day. One that I will truly treasure. I don't know what the future holds for us later this year when Tommy's contract ends with the Navy. These may be our last few months on the west coast so I'm going to do my best to live in the moment in this beautiful state that we have been lucky enough to call home.

Xo

Kirby

Reflecting back over 2014

I sit here on this beautiful day reflecting over this past exciting and emotional year... And my time as a mother.
We were blessed to welcome into our lives a beautiful baby girl on May 4, 2014. We had a bit of a ride through the pregnancy. Both mason and Ellie were born prematurely. Mason came into the world 6 weeks early at 5lbs 14 oz. In true Mason fashion he came out kicking and screaming, but within an hour of birth he had respiratory distress and wound up in the nicu. After two weeks of feeding issues we were able to take our peanut home. That scarred us severely as young first time parents. It took us a long time to even consider number two, but once we did we were excited to give mason a sibling. After a high alert pregnancy, filled with progesterone shots and bed rest, Elizabeth Ruth was born 4 weeks early at 6 lbs 8 oz. She was a little squirt but she was strong. "Ellie" managed to get by without any nicu time! Wahoo! She was in my room the entire stay at the hospital and she left with me when it was time to go home. Life had been pretty awesome with these two rascals that we really had to think long and hard about bringing another one into the mix. First off what would the pregnancy bring, and secondly, life is good and easy- do we want to start over again? I'm the oldest of 3 and tommy is the youngest of 6. Our siblings both mean the world to us. The thought of Mason and Ellie not experiencing another sibling made us sad. We wanted the dynamic that three would bring so we gave it shot. We got the pee on the stick "yay you are preg" positive at the end of august but we didn't get the official doctor read until September 30th which just so happens to be our 7th anniversary. We told the kids and our family after we got the green light on that day. We didn't really want to find out the sex but Mason was really anxious to find out if he was going to have a brother or sister so we decided to find out. Our ultrasound was on December 23rd, so we had the idea to have the tech write down the gender so that we could find out together on Christmas what the baby would be. I can admit this now but I was totally hoping and expecting it to be a girl. But to my surprise BOY was written on the card we pulled out on Christmas morning. After a bit of tears and a few weeks of adjustment to the thought of a boy I got excited for a little baby boy. I spent the rest of the time getting his room ready and filling his closet with the most adorable little outfits (thanks Tish :)
 I was on high risk because of the other two, so I took it as easy as I could with two other rascals running around, but there isn't much down time between school run around after school activities and life. I was taking the progesterone shots but right around 29 weeks I ended up in the hosital with regular contractions. After a dose of blood pressure meds to smooth contractions I was able to go home. I spent the remaining weeks on red alert as I started to dilate. At 36 weeks I was already at 5 cms so we figured any second he would be here. Surprisingly it wasn't until 39 weeks that I actually started having contractions. We made it into the hospital and after a few short hours and one push our baby GIRL came out. What a shock that was! They placed her into my arms and when I looked at that sweet face, I said her name is Addison. I was living on a cloud as I snuggled my new baby girl in that hospital and brought home a bundle of pink. I sit her today staring at the photos my dear friend Sarah took of our Addie girl about a month ago.  I can't help but think about how one little thing can change life in an instant and you are never the same..  My heart couldn't be fuller as I think about how God has given me everything I have ever dreamed of.  I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for this family of mine as we embark on our journey in 2015.

xo