Mothership Confessional

Week 25 We have a house in Georgia!! This is such a relief! We were able to snag a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house just a few miles outside of post! I have always loved a home with stairs, in fact, all of our rentals have had them! This house is a 1-story, and I'm really  looking forward to not having to navigate stairs after Liam is born! It will be so nice just to walk down the hallway and not have to carry things up and down. Although, stairs gives me exercise, which I think really contributed to my rapid baby weight loss after Ava was born! The house does have a split floor plan so our bedroom is on the other side of the house from the other 3, so I guess I'll get my exercise during those middle-of-the-night feedings with Liam! I am really curious to see how the cats will handle having to "coexist" with Duke on one level. They currently hang out upstairs for the majority of the day, and only wander down when Ava is asleep because the baby gate is open on the stair...

I've been wanting to do this for a long, long  time, and there's never been a better time to do it than NOW!! We are moving in a few days and I am in serious purge mode! I knew that if I didn't tackle this DIY project before the move that it wouldn't happen at all. And then I would be sad and regretful that I didn't get it done! So here's what you'll need: -old, expired, or unused make-up containers  -old nail polish We all have old make-up lying around. Or make-up that you think  you'll use again, buuuuut you never do! Most make-up expires in a year or less, especially eye make-up ! I had a friend in high school who used some of her mom's old eye make-up and ended up with an eye infection. So go dig around in your make-up stash for some things you can upcycle into a fun toy for a little girl in your life! Oh, and it doesn't have to be  old nail polish; that's just what I had! Old, separated, nail polish in a forgotte...

We have finished eating our freezer meal stash, I'm working dinners around what's left in the pantry, and I've halted trips to SAMs Club. It's moving time! Time to start packing up our lives once again to move on to the next adventure! Fort Campbell was the first duty station Chris and I were at together, and it was a good 3 years. A  great  3 years, actually... Fort Campbell is where I learned how to live this Army life as a supportive wife, and how to not complain about things that cannot be controlled. I learn more about this duty every day. This is where I learned more about myself as an individual and had a tremendous amount of personal growth. This is where I went out on a limb and chose a different career path . As it turned out, I loved it! This is where I learned that your morning coffee makes you poop. (true story, people!) This is where I learned how to fold jeans in a nice, neat stack and how to fold shirts faster than I ever t...

Week 21: Guys, I'm real  tired. Being pregnant with a toddler to care for is no joke! I'm thankful Ava can navigate the stairs by herself (I hold her hands on the way down) because carrying her up and down is seriously tough! I'm always winded when trying to read her a book right after we get upstairs! Daddy has taken over bath time so I don't have to do that, thankfully! I've been having some round ligament discomfort as of late. Those are the ligaments that kinda hold all your organs in your belly in place, and they get stretched during pregnancy. I didn't really notice it too much with Ava, but I think I feel it on days when I'm trying to do too much. I walked 3 miles the other day, and when I got out of the car, I didn't know if my legs would support me as I took a few steps. My pelvic bone hurts!! My pregnant body is obviously doing what it is supposed to by widening my hips, but my goodness it really hurt! Just an achy feeling that I'm fe...

Week 16 It's amazing to me how my love for this little baby seems to have multiplied in the last week. I love that we know he's a boy. I love that we know his name! We didn't have any ideas for names for a second child, unlike Ava, whose name we had picked out literally years  before she was even born! We stumbled across the name Liam, and we had been trying to find names to go with Alexander, which we agreed that we liked as a middle name. Once the gender-determining ultrasound was done, we spent the rest of the day calling him "Liam Alexander" and seeing how we liked it. By the end of the day, it was clear to us that should be his name! I've been more certain of the movements of little Liam! He was really  active during the ultrasound but I can't feel all those little wiggles yet! But I can feel little twitches when he moves his limbs and changes in pressure in my belly when he moves his whole body - mostly in the area where his head is on my right ...

Its funny how differently I feel with this second pregnancy. Not necessarily physically, but emotionally. With Ava, I truly felt happy and thrilled  and  ecstatic pretty much every single day of pregnancy, even despite the first trimester sickness and third trimester hugeness. It was my first time experiencing pregnancy after trying for 4 long years. I was enjoying every moment of it. I wasn't taking any day for granted and I honestly felt like I was glowing every day. I also had nothing better to do than to sit and daydream, plan and organize for little girl's arrival. This time around, the pregnancy itself was a complete surprise. I mean, we weren't preventing pregnancy so obviously we knew it could happen, but seeing how we didn't get Ava without medical intervention made us have our guards down a little. I still feel the timing for a second pregnancy couldn't have been better. I have absolutely zero regrets or hesitations about being pregnant again. ...

This stuff is so amazing! My husband loves things that are sweet and spicy, and the chili recipe actually came from one of his friends! It is just so good!! And it's a one-pot meal - my favorite type of cooking! It's almost  a dump-and-go meal too, except you have to brown some meat and chop some onions first! Growing up we always had cornbread with chili, and it was always the same recipe. I used that same childhood recipe, except I added shredded cheddar cheese (ok, actually it was colby because that's all I had) and jalapeños (you MUST use Louisiana brand...they are the best!), and I also used whole wheat flour because I ran out of regular flour! Honestly, I think the whole wheat flour made this cornbread better!  Ok...one more thing...I accidentally doubled the amount of oil it calls for...so it didn't bake very evenly! I couldn't help it; I was multitasking a bit too  much in the kitchen while a hungry toddler whined and cried at th...