Evie: 3 Month Update

Three months already? How did that happen? I know I'm going to be saying that everyday for the rest of my life, but I just can't get over how quickly she is growing! I may or may not have taken my three month old out to coffee yesterday to celebrate. Blame it on being stuck in the house all day, or blame it on my absurd need to celebrate every little thing, either way, it happened.

She's definitely out of the "newborn phase" and becoming her own little person which is SO much fun to see. She does something new almost everyday- I'm scared that if I look away for just a second I'll miss her newest trick. Watching her learn is truly amazing.

The pictures this month are extra special and I'm completely in love with how they turned out. My parents bought us family pictures as a wedding present and we finally got them taken a few weeks ago by my wonderful friend Amy Minshull who owns A Moment Photography and is incredibly talented. She captured Evie so perfectly. She also did a separate shoot for AJ and I, but I'll save those for another post.

Warning: this post is very picture heavy. Sorry (not sorry), I couldn't hold back.



Here are a few family pictures. We haven't had many pictures taken of all three of us since E was born, so it was really special to have this session and to see our tiny family unit all together :) (minus Roxy of course).

 

Now on to the main event: Evie at three months!

 

Growth:
- I'm not completely sure actually. I'm guessing she weighs around 13-14 lbs now. Judging by the rolls on her thighs, she's a healthy, heathy girl :)

Likes:
- Chewing on her thumb. She hasn't quite figured out how to suck on it yet, but she tries really hard. Usually both fists find their way in too.
- Eating. That probably goes without saying, but this girl loves to eat. I'm pretty sure breastfeeding should be a full time job in itself.
- Holding her own hands.
- Sleeping! She started sleeping in 6-7 hour stretches at night and I am one happy (and much more rested) mama.
- Clicking her tongue.
- "Talking". She just discovered her voice a few days ago and now its constant coo-ing, squealing and babbling. I absolutely love it because I can see her learning to communicate in her tiny baby way. So fun. She has laughed a total of two times in her life (once for AJ and once for me), but its very unpredictable. I can't wait till its a regular thing.

Dislikes:
- Not being held. She is a bit of a mama and daddy's girl lately and cries if anyone besides us tries to hold her. Kind of a bummer, but also kind of makes me smile inside, not going to lie.
- Being on a schedule. Our feeding/sleeping schedule is very baby led. I don't have an around the clock schedule because she just does what she wants regardless ;) She eats about every three hours, but her naps during the day are pretty unpredictable ranging from 15 minutes to a few hours.

 

Aren't these pictures great? I love them all and can't wait to share the rest. Thanks, Amy!

And one more for good measure.....

Happy weekend everyone!

Simply,

Liv

A Week at Mimi and Papa's

I tend to get a little  (a lot) stir crazy in the repetitive-ness of the day to day. I have always been that way, but my new job as a "stay at home mom" has definitely heightened it. The days have been especially long since AJ has had to work a lot of late nights and sometimes wont get home till 9 or 10. So things can seem pretty lonely around here.

We were planning a weekend to go see my parents and get family pictures taken (a wedding present from my parents), so I just decided to take Evie and go a week early, and have AJ come that next weekend like we planned.

It was SO great to be home for an entire week, instead of just two or three days. The week was very relaxing and I came home refreshed and grateful to have the stir craziness out of my system for a while. I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I intended to (famous last words), but I have a few gems that sum up the week nicely.

I love her little stank face ;)

Miss Lucy loved the extra attention all week. 

My brother Sam working on his Valentine to his sweet girlfriend 

Jess basically lives in this corner

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She is going to hate me for this, but how CUTE is that little but?!

Bath time with Mimi :)

We had such a great time. E got to meet one of her two great-great grandmas and we took a five generation photo to commemorate the special day. I'm so excited to share our family pictures and the shoot of AJ and I in a post to come.

Ramblings on Calling

I mentioned in a previous post my lack of real "career aspirations" growing up. I had dreams, don't get me wrong, but most of those dreams strangely didn't include a "normal" 9-5 job. I wanted to write and play music for a living for a long time, mostly because I could do that from home and music has alway been a passion. I wanted to be a ballerina too, but that dream ended with a nasty fall onto a stone fireplace mantle while dancing to my dad's banjo tunes. When I was five. I wanted to be a rodeo queen and a archaeologist and an actress- all the things little girls with big imaginations pretend to be. But as I got older, my dreams were never about one thing I wanted to do when I grew up and my future seemed more foggy.

When I started college I struggled for a long time with choosing a major. I was interested in many, many things- reading, writing, psychology, teaching, music, art, history- but I couldn't picture any of them being my entire life. I love learning, and being in classes, and living the college life. But college is just the normal "next step" after high school, so thats what I did.

I enjoyed all my classes, and did well, but the more I focused in on my English Education major, the fuzzier it seemed in my mind. I'm passionate about teaching, reading, writing and passing on a legacy to the next generation, but somehow being a teacher just didn't feel right in my mind.

Then I got pregnant.

                                                                                                                                                           



























*Disclaimer: I am in no way endorsing random pregnancies as a way to get out of making important career decisions. That's just how it happened to me.*

Now that I'm past all the confusion, doubt, and disappointment that came with my pregnancy and subsequent dropping out of school (for the time being. I have every intention of finishing.), and trust me, there was a lot of it, I can see with absolute clarity that being a mommy to my little E, and a wife to AJ is exactly what I'm supposed to do. The decision not to go back to school right away was not an easy one to make, I cried the day I made it official, but I knew that I needed to devote all my energy to growing a healthy baby, working and then raising her.

Through all these crazy changes, I've decided that maybe your "calling" in life changes as you go. Maybe there isn't one thing everyone is meant to do, but instead, maybe we are called to simply do the best we can in every situation life throws at us. Maybe I will be a teacher someday. Maybe I'll be a musician, or a rodeo queen, or a business woman (though I kind of doubt it). But the one thing I know regardless of what my next "calling" is, I will always be Evie's mommy and AJ's wife and that is something I want to pour all of my energy into for the time being.