George Callann is 6 months old (on Valentine's Day)

hi everyone!

that's my happy boy!

this big kissable face

what's that you say? my newborn baby is already a 6 month old? well that's silly…

oh but he is! and i can't believe it. everyone around here is a pretty big fan of this guy, even Amelia for the most part, and that's really saying something. Here's some things about what George is up to these days:

still just rolling around on the floor getting frustrated when you are on your tummy and rolling off your tummy only when ABSOLUTELY necessary, preferably mom comes and picks you up. you are so big! and perfectly squeezable, not sure how much you weigh, going to doc on monday but mom's guess is around 18 pounds. the onesie your wearing in this picture is 12-18 months! 

sleeping at night isn't too bad, a lot of times you only wake once to nurse in the early morning hours like 4 or 5, then sleep til 8, after going down around 7 30pm. Other nights you wake up once more around midnight to nurse, but always go back to sleep peacefully on your own if you're awake. You are pretty good at going to sleep by yourself in your crib for naps and at bedtime, mom just spins your mobile around, covers you with a blanket and you are a happy camper! 

cutest thing ever: when you babble, " ba ba ba, ba ba ba" sweetest noise in the wide world. 

you are not sitting up on your own at all, your sis DID do this at 6 months, and i wish you would too! you get a bit fussy to fast when on the floor bc you get tired of not being up and looking around, so we look forward to that. but mostly i want to keep you little forever. 

I LOVE YOU, so much, my hearts leaps when i smooch your big poofy cheeks. 

…and amelia is TWO and I thought I'd write about what she's up to as well.

you, my little miss, are a hoot these days!

so chatty, it's a ton of fun, some of the phrases and things you have been saying…

"i think so!?"

"(someone or something) go backwards"

"Maya take a bath!?" refers to yourself as "Maya"

"Joejie cryin' "

"no puddles" when putting on undies

"go potty" 

all the time! having trouble with the number 2 on the toilet requires a trip every 2 minutes to try… very annoying to mama and daddy

" mama sing a song!? Maya dance…"

among other little nuggets, a lot of times we still don't know what you're saying. you seem eager to just REALLY spit out long sentences and stories.

above all the best thing you say is "I wuv you" at the most unconventional moments, like when I'm putting your clothes on you. it's the BEST.

You're tough when you whine and cry and are bratty in general, especially when you want too much of something and we have to tell you no or take it away (like stickers and chapstick, your favorite things in the world right now).

 Eating is improving a teeny bit i think? so that's great. 

we love our Amelia so much.

Amelia at Work

snapped some shots of Amelia painting today, a favorite subject of mine

livestock, is the theme of this post

here is a smattering of mediocre photos from our time at the stock yards yesterday and our new chickens at the bottom. ugh, i want to totally rethink my blog presence on the web, including my photography endeavors, so i need to do that. just thought I'd let you know that real quick.

we got chickens! these are our gals. Lady mary, (the black one),  ms. patmore  and Daisy. in reference to downton Abbey!

baths

 this morning we took baths. and I took some pictures of my precious babes. 

George's squinty face!! Looks like his daddy…

And Amelia blowing that kiss, good stuff.

p.s. learning how to use lightroom and editing in RAW, thats why these are a tad blurry cuz I'm missing something! any helpful hints?? you photogs??

Here we go 2014!

(this is just a fun pic from our Crawford visit)

Always a nice time to outline some goals and what not right?!

1. Devote time and effort into promoting my professional photography and develop my editing and shooting skills.
2. Enroll in a dance class, like ballet for moms or something.
3. Handle my bid-ness in the home with less exasperation and more routine.
4. more cooking and meal planning! of course…
5. Make new friends! this is important
6. Be confident with parenting techniques, primarily where Amelia is concerned. Bring it, terrible twos… ( ha! if only i was that confident )
7. Embrace adventure, open my heart to more kindness and love and less selfishness.

Alrighty, CHECK.

Happy place

Right now, my 4 month old Georgie and my 2 year old Amelia are napping beside me, George in my arms, in our bed. I feel so very lucky and blessed at this moment. Definitely one to remember, amidst the chaos of young motherhood, we are rewarded with these sweet moments. I know I'll look back and miss this the most. Had to document it!

Toilet Training

Thought I'd give you an update on how our progress of potty training Amelia is going! I am very proud of her, She first peed in the potty about 1 month ago, after many months of "toilet education". We started changing Amelia in the bathroom once she was about 18 months and having her sit down on her toilet to practice the sitting and getting used to the idea in general. It took all the way until she was 23 months to sit and pee on the toilet, it was like, one of the most exciting things that's ever happened in my life!! 

We never did any intense all day marathons of going to the potty every 20 minutes, I wanted the process to be a bit more "organic" than that, and could never bring myself to buckle down and do the intense method for 3 days straight or whatever they say. Although I did doubt that she would ever do it and thought for a while that I WOULD have to do something like that. My plan began from a montessori method, which teaches that toilet training is very natural and does not NEED to be accompanied by intense regiments and lots of incentives. That being said, we did end up giving Amelia a treat when she uses the toilet correctly, so ya know we have tailored things to fit our needs a bit. And I will say that the reward idea has both positives and negatives ( asking for treats constantly, getting upset when she doesn't get one), can't really decide if it has helped us or not. (She gets a fruit snack when she goes).

I switched Amelia to undies after a day where she went pee in her toilet multiple times, the first day she  wore them she didn't use the toilet once, and I was really sad… but then a few days later we put them on again and had a much better time.  So she wears underwear at home during the day all the time now, and has very few "pee puddles" ( that's a montessori term that i like, and Amelia seems to like it too). She tends to have more poop accidents than wet ones right now. She does do BM's in the toilet  as well, though they are more rare. she gets TWO treats for that. So next up will be wearing undies out, right now I put a diaper over her underwear, she has yet to use a standard toilet, so that's still a trick…

I'm sure there's more details I could give you.. so ask if you want!

Yay for potty training!! -slash- it's a pretty big stress on me and Paul, but I'm glad we are doing it :)

Yesterday

Was a tough one. This picture looks so lovely but if it was a video you would hear my screaming toddler in it. One of those days when you are just breaking down, losing all control, felt like I was being dragged through the mud. I don't know exactly what was happening with my girl for those hardest parts of yesterday, but I certainly was unable to fix them for her. I resorted to just holding her and rocking her for a while, which I would have done for the rest of the day if it meant she would just relax and rest, but of course there is someone else who needs me too! Thank God for prayer, which is where I turn in these moments, when my heart just leaps toward Him because I need to be being more than just myself, who is so far under qualified for handling myself in times like this. Today has begun better already, George is hangin here beside me in bed while Amelia still sleeps, (let's hope she does a lot more of that today, I suspected she may have a new bug by the end of the day bc she was doing some coughing ). Just the same thing so many others are dealing with, being a new mom, or just a mom in general, or just a person who's feeling utterly overwhelmed. But each day you have like this just makes you stronger right!? Above all I'm so thankful for my babies, who are perfect and healthy, and for my husband who supports me and is a dad who can really come to the rescue.

Quick let me show these pumpkin patch pics before it's too late!!

eek too bright

This gal

You guys, this is my niece Adela. She is kind of great. Just in case you haven't seen her lately, I particularly love this pic.

Those Babes of ours

Ahhhh!! I look slightly spazzed in this photo, but this is what happens when you are trying to get Amelia to smile at the camera. We took this a few weeks ago right around George's two month mark, and I wanted to write few things about what the babies are up to these days. 

Amelia:

You love the t.v. now. (slanty smile face) you are always saying "show!?" or "cars!?"  which is your favorite movie. So we are trying to restrict your tv time to an hour or so a day, while at the same time it is such a nice break for me to have you seated in front of the toob while I clean up one of your messes without you making a new one! It has been on my mind a lot, feeling guilty about how much t.v. time you've been having, so it is taking some time to figure out what I feel comfortable with as far your "toob time"! You have been getting out of your bed and coming out of your room, you finally figured that out, and it is kind of the cutest thing ever, but also a no no. SO we are navigating that as well. You say lots and lots of words! practically any word we give you to try now you will say, finally including "George"! which sounds like "jooje" Just waiting for the connectors and you will be chatting up a storm! too much fun...

George:

Hi little man, you are still just a joy! You sleep fabulously at night (at least 8 hours every night in a row, starting about 730 or 8). And you're still a rather chunky boy at about 13 and a half pounds. And tall too! 90's percentile for height at the moment. Much chunkier than your sis was at this time (i think she was only like 10 pounds).

You don't sleep during the day a ton, so sometimes I find myself frustrated that you are yelling to be fed or held while I'm trying to do something else, which is of course unfair to you because you are a good baby who doesn't give me much trouble! We love you oh so much! Obviously you're not doing much else, not rolling over or anything, just working on your tummy time and lifting your huge head. And giving us precious smiles and sometimes little "hu hu hu" giggles :) 

Fredericksburg and Kerrville

'twas a gorgeous day 

we enjoyed having these cute beer samples at a brewery/restaurant

this was dinner in Kerrville, beautiful setting

This cute lady treated us all weekend long! thanks mom

he actually didn't do too much of this during the day, so we took turns holding him a lot, overall he was a good boy though!

love you mama

:)

Attention Moms

Yesterday was my B day and Paul got me these Ugg loafers. I know what you're thinking..."Sarah's feet are huge", though I assure you they are average size, probably also "Wow Sarah must be a ballerina based on that fancy fifth position she's showing off", well you know I did take a ballet class in highschool (not to brag). But anyway! these shoes are heaven and every mom, or gal who likes comfort, should have these for the winter months.
I have been meaning to do a post on what my babes are up to, and also what I'm planning to get them for Christmas! So that's on the to do list.. Also, anyone out there need a quick family session of photos for Christmas cards??? Let me know! I already have one family on the schedule :)

Kid Bath

Before

After!
used the panorama on my phone, so it's a little fuzzy. 

my homemade artwork, except the flying elephant, that was a gift from Meg

cute towel hooks!

pedestal sink and basket weave tile on the floor, also a good look at that cute beadboard

this light fixture was taken from one of our other old bathrooms, I thought it would work well in the style of the new kid bath, and I think it does! (it was so gross and dirty but I cleaned it up)


it was really exciting to envision a look for a new bathroom, choose the elements I thought would execute that style, and then watch it come to life! So much fun. I am already thinking about the next bathroom and very excited to get started on it, which won't be happening for another few months.
This job took nine business days, and I was very ready for it to be done. As everyone says, it took longer and cost more than expected.