Being a Mom is Tough

I've been sleeping on the couch since December.  I was 4 months pregnant with my 3rd when my body decided that my bed just wasn't comfortable enough.  Now my little man is almost 3 months old and he sleeps in his swing next to the couch next to me, and my almost 5 year old sleeps at the other end with her foot up my...well, you know.  I'm so scared that I'm going to kick her in the face, but maybe if I do, she'll stop wanting to sleep with me on the couch.  She's getting sooooo big!

Just a swingin'.

I woke up at 4 something this morning to the sound of Luke grunting.  His swing had stopped.  Size D batteries don't last long when the swing is in constant motion all night and most of the day.  He just loves to swing.  Even when in his carseat, if I set him down, he wakes up and starts grunting.  

If I swing it, he passes out.  

Anyway, I woke up to find him not swinging.  I grabbed him and began our 4 AM feeding session which usually doesn't last long because he just wants to use me as a pacifier to fall back asleep.  I put him on my pillow hoping that Kinsley wouldn't kick him in the face while I scampered around my dark kitchen looking for scissors to crack open the ridiculous packaging that batteries come in.  I find everything I need, and begin trying my hardest not to make too much noise, but hard plastic is impossible to keep quiet when you're cracking it open.  I remove the old batteries (maybe 1 1/2 weeks old) and replace them with the new ones.  I put him back in his swing and he stayed asleep...PRAISE GOD!

Now I'm wide awake.  I put on a pot of coffee.  Well, I attempted to.  Took me two tries because the first time I put the coffee in the little container thing without a filter.  FAILURE.  Next try, I got it right.

Once I had my coffee in hand, I sat down to make lists.  I love lists, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by what all I have to get done before August 4th.

I return to work on August 4th.  I don't have to, but being a teacher takes a lot of preparation in order to have everything perfect for my new batch of students.  I usually give myself a week to get my classroom put back together, but it often takes longer than that.  We have in-service for 2 weeks prior to school starting and they give us no time to work in our classrooms so we are usually there until after dark.  I can't do that this year due to breastfeeding my little man.

So, I now have 2 weeks to get my house in order and get my girls ready to head off to school.  I'm stressed.  Not only from that, but the fact that Luke still won't take a bottle.  It's not that he refuses them, but instead of sucking, he bites the nipple.  I'm worried that he is going to work himself into a frenzy that first week.  

I seriously worry too much.

By the way, it's storming outside.  Serious lightening and thunder.  Everyone is asleep.  

Except the one that goes to bed last and gets up first.  That would be me.  Must be nice being a dad.

June Update - Busy, Busy, Busy

We've been very busy lately.  Not that we've really been doing much of anything, but preparing for vacation on top of Father's Day and other miscellaneous adventures has kept me away from the computer lately.  I'm sure my husband and kiddos are happy about that.  Time for a recap of what's been going on around the Louvier home.

I'm loving this picture.  It cracks me up.  This is Katie after we had a discussion about her fake smile that she gives me when I pull the camera out.  Now this is a real smile. 

Now this is my sweet Katie.  Posing pretty for momma.  This NEVER happens.

Kinsley got to go to the beach with Maw Maw and Paw Paw for the day with her other little cousins.  I swear my mother is gluten for punishment when she decides to take on 2 two year olds and a very rambunctious 1 year old.  They all had a great time though and were on their very best behavior.

All three of them on the way to the beach.  Those carseats were crammed into that Honda Accord.  Kinsley's carseat was actually way too big, so Maw Maw had to borrow one from Aunt B for Kinsley to sit in.  I now know that it is possible for 3 carseats to fit in the back of a small car. 

This is just too stinkin' ca-ute!!!!

Kinsley and Lilly with Maw Maw in the water.  For those of you that are used to crystal blue waters on the East Coast, this is what the water from West of the Mississippi looks like.  Dirty, dirty, dirty, but we're used to it and love to be down at the beach.

Maw Maw and Paw Paw wore them out.

While Kinsley was at the beach.  I decided to give my sister, Brenna, a break from motherhood for the day.  Brendon and Breanna were with their MiMi, Chloe was with Maw Maw, Lindsey was - well, not really sure where she was, but she's 15...she comes and goes, and Journey was with Nanny (me :).  We snuggled a lot.

She thinks that Nanny is super comfy.  She always falls asleep on me.

When Maw Maw brought Kinsley home, Chloe got to stay with us.

Brenna picked them the girls up at 11:00.  I was wiped out.

Father's Day was June 17th.  We had a lazy Sunday.  Eben barbequed some things on the grill.  Then later that evening we went to my sister's mother-in-law's house, which is directly behind my mom's house, for steaks.  It was a very relaxing Father's Day.

The girls got to play in the water all evening.  The weather was unusally cool (85ish) for June.  We got to spend all evening outside.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the girls with daddy. 

Friday, June 22nd, my sister, Amy, took Katie and Kinsely for the night.  Eben and I went to see Miranda Lambert.  I LOVE HER!!!!  I really love The Pistol Annies.  They are my fav.  2 of my oldest friends were there.  They sat closer than we did.  I will never buy floor tickets again, unless I'm on the front row.  Everyone stood as soon as she came out and didn't sit back down once.  I couldn't see anything.  I even had a hard time seeing the teletrons.  The pictures we took turned out horribly because of the crazy lighting they had going on, but I did get some of my friend's pictures from her view from the front row.

Lauren (Nikki's little sister), Brandy, Nikki, and me.  I love these girls.

Me and Eben enjoying our time together at the concert.

This is the best picture we got from the concert.

This is the picture a friend of mine took from the front row.  JEALOUS!!!

The Pistol Annies singing Hell on Heels.

Saturday morning I had to pick the girls up from my sister's house.  We then had to rush home and get dressed for my cousin's baby shower.  She's having her first child in August. 

I can't wait to meet Mr. Jaxson.

That's been our June 2012.  Something else that I did this past week was read.  I did A LOT of reading.  I'm almost ashamed to tell what books I've read.  I'll let the graphic tell you.  I read all 3 books this week.  My poor kids were soooooo neglected.

Yes, I will be going to see Magic Mike even if I have to go by myself.  I LOVE me some Channing Tatum.  HOT, HOT, HOT.  I would love to see him as Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie.

Last, but not least, when we got home yesterday, I was taking the girls out of the car when I looked down at my feet and saw this HUGE creature near my foot.  Thank goodness it was dead.

I've never seen anything like it.

I had to find out what it is.  It's a cicada killer.  Look at the stinger on that thing!



My Mother

This past weekend, Kinsley got to spend 2 days with my mom.  She loves staying with my mom.  She especially loves the fact that my mother gives her coffee milk.  Yep, that's right.  My mom gives her coffee milk.  That's a big fat no no in my house, but when it comes to my mom, she says, "I gave you coffee milk when you were young and you turned out to be okay."  I'm pretty sure I wasn't 2.  My mom sent me these two pictures to rub it in my face.

That would be a thumbs up to coffee milk.

My mom always makes them a big breakfast when they stay with her.  That's another reason why they like to stay.  I rarely make big breakfasts.  It's usually for special occassions.  My reasoning is that my children LOVE cereal and oatmeal.  That is usually their breakfast of choice when they are at home.  They occassionally get biscuits with sausage, but they never eat the sausage and they whine and complain when they see the biscuits going in the oven.  They usually scarf them down, but I have to hear about it beforehand. 

My mom also has a dog, named Abby.  My children love this dog and she loves them.  My mom named her Abby Cadabby after Katie's first love.  Mom loves to take pictures of Kinsley with Abby, because they're best pals.  These are pictures of Abby and Kinsley, growing up together.

This picture is from this past weekend.

Kinsley and Abby meeting for the first time.

Abby wants to lick that face so bad.

Playing with her pal.

That poor nose got pulled out and poked so many times.

This one cracks me up.  Look how long that tongue is.

My favorite Kinsley and Abby picture.  First of all, I'm in love with my mom's bedroom furniture.  It's GORGEOUS.  Second, Kinsley looks so darn cute here.

Best friends.

Abby even sleeps with Kinsley when she spends the night.  Of course, they both don't stay in the playpen too long.  Kinsley is the only one of 8 grandkids that gets to sleep with her Maw Maw and Paw Paw.  She's spoiled.

My mom loves her grandkids!

She loves me too!

Louvier Family Introduction

I started blogging a few years ago about the daily life of my children and our tot school, but then I got a job as a first grade teacher.  I live 45 minutes away from work and as a first year teacher...it's so EXHAUSTING time consuming.  So, my other blog Monkey See, Monkey Do got pushed aside.  Now that I've only got a few more months left of school, I had the urge to start up a new blog about our daily lives.

This blog will focus on my family, how I run my household, life, and everything in between.  I feel that having a blog is like having an accountability system or a cheerleading squad cheering you on.  Being a mom, wife, and a full-time teacher is such a pleasurable experience, but let's get serious, sometimes it's just downright rough on a person.

Let's start by introducing my hubs.  He's my love.  We're not a perfect couple, by no means, but we've managed to stay together through some pretty difficult circumstances: job losses, college, other difficulities that I'd rather not put out there, and just life in general.  We never gave up on each other though.  We wanted to upteen times.  We even split up for a period in 2008, but there's just something between us that is unexplainable and we came right back together.  Eben is a wonderful husband.  He cooks, cleans up (well, the manly version of cleaning up), washes clothes (shrinking my clothing occassionally), gives me amazing back and foot massages, and washes my car (if I could only get him to put gas in it).  He can't seem to distinguish between 2T and 5T clothing yet, but he'll get it down one day (when they are finally in the same size clothing).  He's a FANTASTIC father.  He will come home after a long day at work and wrestle with the girls.  He takes them to the park and does things with them that I wish I had the energy to do. He's also a hard working man.  He runs a local cemetery.  Yes, my husband buries people.  Kind of creepy, but it pays the bills and he LOVES it.  I'm super proud of him.  He has completely turned the park around...it used to be a ran down place with lots of problems. 

He's the king of the backyard!

Katie is our oldest.  She is now 5 and a big kindergartener.  She attends school where I work.  She's a bright little girl, but I wish that I had kept her out one more year.  She was 4 for 4 days after she started kindergarten.  She is the youngest in her class.  She's reading now, and even sounded out the word squirrel the other day, but I fear that since I put her in so young that it will catch up with her.  Plus, she's so much smaller than all of the other kids.  She looks too small to be in kindergarten.  She loves school though and she adores her teacher.  She's also a thumbsucker.  Wish we would have nipped that in the bud before she started.  Any suggestions on how to make the possible would be greatly appreciated.  She's very hardheaded and can be a big time B-R-A-T.  We're working on that stuff too.  She's fickle in the sense that she wants to do everything by herself until I ask her to do something, and then she starts whining and says that she doesn't know how.  She is a tomboy/princess.  She loves to dress up in her princess clothes, high heels, and pearls and then play in the dirt with the worms and rolly pollies.  She's a piglet.  She may be tiny, but man, that child can scarf food down like no other.  She eats small meals all day long.  Everytime I turn around, "Momma, I'm hungry!"  UGH!!!  It's like feeding two teenage boys.  She loves to dance, play Barbies, change clothes all day long, and have sleepovers with her cousins.  She's my social butterfly (just like her momma was).  She's my Katie Bug.  I can't wait to see what she's like when she's older. 

Gangsta princess!

First day of kindergarten!

Kinsley is my baby.  She is 2 years old.  She is spunky.  She's very independent and wants everything to be hers.  She loves to help me clean up, and will even get a garbage bag and try to put it in the garbage can when I take the garbage out.  Her only setback is that if I'm in the room, she is wrapped around my leg.  She would be attached to me 24/7 if I let her.  She wants no one but her momma.  I love it, but this momma needs a break sometime.  I can't even take a bath without her trying to get in the tub with me...LOL.  She's always naked.  ALWAYS!  In fact, as I write this, she has a t'shirt on and that's it. She also just peed on the floor.  We'll be potty training as soon as school lets out.  I leave home before she wakes up and by the time she gets home from daycare she is worn out and fussy.  I can't wait for diapers to be a thing of the past!  Kinsley loves to play with the big kids, but gets frustrated when she can't do what they do.  She still speaks Chinese, but her words are starting to sound like English...thank goodness.  She loves to play with her kitchen, baby dolls, and have tea parties.  She also loves to build things with her blocks and she also loves music and dancing.  She's my little pumpkin.

Watching Elmo Live!  She was mesmerized.

My mom likes to dress them up and take hundreds of pictures.

On to me.  Well, let's see.  Where do I begin.  I graduated from college with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in December of 2008.  I'm a first grade teacher at one of the best school districts in Southeast Texas.  I LOVE my job.  I'm actually obsessed with it.  This is my first year as a self-contained classroom teacher so a lot of my paycheck has been spent on my classroom.  My hubby doesn't get it at all, but that's whatcha gotta do. 

I'm a Christian.  I'm not where I want to be in my Christian walk, but I'm trying.  It makes me sad to see other Christians verbally bashing others that do not have the same lifestyle as their own.  That's not how Christ lived.  We should not judge.  We should hate the sin, not the sinner. 

I love being a wife, mom, teacher, but I have a very difficult time in juggling it all.  I'm worn out on most days and in bed by 9:00 every night.  4 AM gets here quickly.  If I'm in bed at 9:01, I wake up at 4:30...LOL.

I have a HUGE family.  I have 4 dads, 3 moms, and 11 brothers and sisters.  LONG STORY.  I'll see if I can explain further in another post. 

I try to be perfect, but I'm far from it.  I think I'm a clean freak and super organized, but you should see the piles of laundry that are sitting next to me at the moment.

 

I love my girls, but find that I'm constantly complaining that I do not get any time to just be me for a day or two.  When someone does take them for a couple of days, I don't know what to do with myself.  Hubs and I just sit here and stare at one another. 

There's so much I want to do, but feel like life is slipping by at a very fast pace and I'm running out of time....LOL.  I'm 31 and I haven't completed 1/4 of my bucket list.

I'm a Republican.  If you don't like that...oh well.  So sorry Charlie, but I vote based on my beliefs and feel that our government should be ran according to the constitution. 

Well, that's me in a nutshell.  This blog will be used to have a written account of the lives of my family.  I promise not to be fake and to only be myself.  Like I said before, I'm far from perfect.  I will show pictures of the piles of laundry that seem to accumluate by my backdoor and the destruction that is my daughters' rooms.  We live life.  Our home is lived in.  We love hard and laugh often.  I hope you'll join us on our journey.