Dear Jonathan, (v. XVI)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Good golly. Today you are three years old. And I can just hardly believe that three years has already come and gone with you, sweet Baby J. You have brought us such JOY since that hot and humid July 30th.

It is impossible not to smile while you’re around. You are constantly saying something to make us laugh, making a funny face, or doing a silly dance. That is, when you’re not getting down to the very serious business of mowing, weed wacking, and leaf blowing the lawn.

You are so easy to love. Every single person who is around you any amount of time tells me that. Teachers, family, friends. You are something so special and unique in the way you make people light up inside.

You are such a precious soul, my Baby J. It’s such a sweet, quiet little soul. And while the outside world sees all of the quirkiness and laughter you bring, your daddy and I see your quietness and thoughtfulness. The way you let others take the spotlight and shine in the things they love. How you encourage and cheer as loud as your little voice will let you for others.

You are something special. I wish I could keep you this age forever. I want to remember all of the lightheartedness. The way you feel even now as I carry you up the stairs to bed, sucking on your lovey. You touched my heart and healed me the day you were born. Giving me another chance to live into the newborn stage of life again with fresh eyes. And you still heal me even today. Reminding me of happiness and joy in the world.

Thank you for your light in this world. You are magic, little one. Happiest birthday, my sweet Baby J. We love you so much.

Love always,

Mommy

What’s Up Wednesday {07.26.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s time for a little monthly roundup. I’m typing away while Aidan is snoozing at naptime. I thought we were over the naptime struggle a few weeks ago, but he surprised me by going back to protesting pretty much all naps starting when we were in South Dakota. You’d think that eventually he would just wear himself out! But he’s a stubborn little one.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: I made Half Baked Harvest’s Butter Chicken last night. This is the second time I’ve made it, and although I seem to be on streak of not cooking my onions enough, I think it’s a keeper of a recipe. We’re doing cobb salads tonight, and then to be determined for the rest of the week!

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

The cooler weather in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The high humidity and 100+ degree heat has me missing our week in the Hills.

Read more

A Day in My Life on Maternity Leave

Posted on by Lauren Lane

What do you do all day while you’re on leave?! Here’s a little peak into a typical day on maternity leave for me.

I woke up early to get an at-home bar workout in before the kids were up.

Put a pork butt in the crockpot to make carnitas for dinner that evening…

At 7am, I wake up Aidan and feed him while the little boys get up and eat breakfast with Nathan.

FEED ME, MOM! Says Aidan.

And Jonathan usually comes in to say hi to me when he wakes up each morning while I feed Aidan.

After Aidan’s first feeding is done, I check in on the boys downstairs eating breakfast.

And then when they finish breakfast, they help unload the dishwasher.

Then it’s time to head upstairs and get dressed and brush their teeth for school. When they’re dressed and responsibilities are done, they get some iPad time waiting for Nathan to finish getting ready for work and to drop them off at daycare.

After the big boys leave, Aidan and I have tummy time and play time before his first nap of the day.

Hates tummy time. Loves being on his back time…

At 8:30, he lays down for his first nap, and I work through some items on my to-do list.

This particular morning included ordering groceries for pick-up later in the day.

Then making a batch of elderberry syrup, which the boys have every morning with breakfast as an immunity boost.

And installing/unpacking items I had ordered from Amazon Prime day…like these water leak detection alarms…

Aidan’s up from nap at 10 and ready to be fed again.

He does some playing on his playmat, while I fold laundry…

I heat up some lunch for myself, and eat while playing with Aidan.

And round out my meal with some lactation cookies…because I care deeply for Aidan’s milk supply. :). And they’re just tasty.

Check in on my big kids at school through their daycare app to see what they’ve been up to today.

I try to get out of the house with Aidan at least once a day. He does better with this if it’s during one of his nap times, so we head out for his second nap of the day to run some errands. This particular day, I was shopping for some organization bins from Home Goods, which shockingly already had Halloween decor out…

And then I was on the hunt for bubble wands as party favors for Jonathan’s upcoming birthday party.

Then it was home and time for another Aidan feeding! After he ate, I worked on organizing our freezer with my new bins

Chopped up some vegetables I was using for dinner that evening, and then hopped in the shower for a quick rinse before going to pick up the boys from daycare with baby Aidan.

Did one last check on pictures from the boys’ school day…

Then Aidan and I headed to pick up the boys from school. When we got back home, I made the last of the items we needed for dinner that night…

We ate dinner together as a family, and then moved on to baths for the boys. I do Aidan’s bath while Nathan handles bath for the big boys.

One last feeding for Aidan for the day…

Then he goes down for night-night. And I put Jonathan and Harrison down for bed with a story and prayer.

After the boys go down, I watched a little TV and then turned in myself and went to bed at 9:00.

July 2023 Garden Update

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Last Friday, a massive storm blew through Kansas City. I looked outside and thought we were in the middle of a hurricane. Everything looked like it was literally being tipped sideways and flying down the street. What resulted was massive tree damage and no power for several days. Thankfully, we had very little damage, aside from some large branches falling down. But the winds did not help my poor plants. They still are standing sideways today.

But plants are resilient, and they’ll bounce back. Before the storm blew through, I took my July garden update pictures.

May:

July:

May:

July:

May:

July:

May:

July:

May:

July:

June:

July:

May west side garden:

July:

June:

July:

Everybody has fared pretty well so far! Now I’m off to do some staking of my flowers that tipped over during the storm. 🙂

7 Quick Jonathan Takes (v. III)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’ve been a bad mom….the last time I did Jonathan quick takes it was a YEAR ago. And he’s changed so much since then! My sweet little Jonathan, Baby J, or as he is insisting nowadays, BIG J, is complete joy. Pretty much all of the time. He’s quick to smile, do something silly, and truly brings up the mood of the room when he’s around. Let’s do some quick takes of Baby J that are making my life lately…

-1- There are so many cute things that he’s saying right now. He loves singing. I often hear him singing “We are the Champions” and a Ladybug song. Both equally adorable. But one of our favorite things he says now is, “OH DANG IT!” Said with a smile and a laugh.

-2- He refers to his balance bike as his “motorcycle.” And the kid is a big fan of his motorcycle.

-3- His obsession with lawn care has only grown. Mowers, weed wackers, leaf blowers. He ADORES them. Oftentimes, when we walk by an open garage door now on a walk, he takes a look inside and then informs me whether they have a mower or not.

-4- And on that note….when we arrive at a house to play, Jonathan will play for a few minutes, and then go up to the house and ask, “You got any mowers here?” He’s a man obsessed!

-5- He knows he’s funny. I often catch him making funny faces at himself in the mirror and checking himself out to see how he looks. Guys, he’s a crack up!

-6- At the end of bath time, we always watch the water go down the drain to spot the ‘tornado’ that the water makes as it gets sucked down. And Jonathan has now started asking where the “tomato in the drain” is

-7- He has one volume. And it’s always loud. He’s loud inside. He’s loud outside. I can always hear him talking because its at a volume that sounds like he’s had to learn to talk over people his whole life. But similar to his brother, he takes ‘no’ as just the opening start of a negotiation.

“Mom – can we have a treat tonight?”

“No – not tonight.”

“How ‘bout cupcakes?”

“No. Not tonight.”

“How ‘bout fruit snacks?”

“Nope.”

“How ‘bout ice cream?”

“I said no treats.”

“How how how how ‘bout popsicles?”

And around and around we go.

I love this little boy so much. The joy he brings to so many people always astounds me. He just radiates happiness.

The Black Hills 2023: Part II

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We go to the Black Hills to my parents’ cabin nearly every year. I blogged Part I of our trip HERE. And I’m continuing our trip today!

After naps on the Fourth of July, we headed over to my parents’ cabin for dinner and kid-friendly fireworks. Like sparklers and poppers. 🙂

Just two dads who were influenced by an Instagram ad to grab these cute Bluey Fourth of July shirts and surprise ALL of us with them. So cute!

Fourth of July as a parent of small children summed up in a picture.

My sister and me. What do you think – do we look alike? Or not at all? Our mom swears we look nothing alike. And generally speaking, the rest of the world thinks we look exactly like but with different hair color and eye color.

Our kids did fairy hunts every night at the cabin, and at the end of each fairy hunt was a prize left by the fairies. This night…it was special suckers.

The next day, we rented e-bikes with the kids and went on a bike ride. And my bike ride didn’t last very long until…

I lost control of my bike, and because it was so heavy (I should have never been riding a bike as heavy as the one I was), I flew over the handlebars and onto the gravel. I’m still nursing the bruises, scrapes, and bruised ribs….but there will be a time to get back on the bike again.

After a nap with baby Aidan to recover….

It was time to rally for parents’ night out!

We had a great time first in downtown Deadwood and then heading to Spearfish for dinner and drinks.

Our last day at the cabin was low key. The kids played at Mimi and Papa’s, while I worked on packing us up for the trip back home.

Jonathan got in several more tractor rides before we left…

These two 😍

Our ride home was mostly uneventful….and so very long. But we had a wonderful time at the cabin this year!

A sneak peak of our family pics from our time up there!

Thanks for being here in this space with me!

The Black Hills 2023: Part I

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Coming back from vacation feels like being stuck in a tornado trying to catch up. It’s amazing how you can feel so caught up and like everything is in a good place before you leave, and then return and feel like there are nowhere near enough hours in the day to catch up on all the things that need to be done around the house and for the family.

But, we are back. And I’m slowly catching back up. We had an AMAZING trip to visit my parents in the Black Hills, and thankfully, all kids were healthy for the trip!

We drove up and back in one day. It took us a record (on the long end) 13 hours each way. We kept telling ourselves with that with the boys’ ages this year, this should theoretically be the most difficult year.

I’m going to pepper you with all sorts of pictures of family and the cousins. We had the best time hanging with my sister’s family and Mimi + Papa!

We’re ready for the big trip!

We have very little space in my car with all three rows up for car seats. We bought a rooftop carrier, and I honestly felt like we could fit more in the rooftop carrier than we could when we had the entire back of the car with the third row down. It was definitely the way to go! And I was so thankful that I didn’t come away feeling like we needed a bigger car.

We always stop halfway through the drive and pack a picnic lunch. We eat it at a park and let the boys run around the playground to blow off some energy. Aidan seemed content to be out of the car. 🙂

The other plus about the rooftop carrier was there was an empty seat next to Harrison I could sit in if I needed to help the kids or play with them during the drive. Harrison is a roadtrip warrior.

And we made it!

Our first night in South Dakota was a fast dinner of pizza at our rental cabin and then straight to bed. Slumberpod helping me out with Aidan this trip.

The next morning we ate breakfast, then spent the day recovering for the adults and playing at Mimi + Papa’s for the kids.

This boy was IN LOVE with Papa’s tractor. He’d sneak into the garage to look at it. He’d climb on it if it was out in the driveway. Every morning he woke up, he asked me if he could go ride it.

The happiest little guy to be back at the cabin!

I spent a lot of time feeding this one…

And the big kids enjoyed s’mores by the fire pit!

The next day, we had family pictures suuuuper early. Then took the kids to the rec center for some swimming!

The big kids got to go hunt turkey feathers at Mimi’s…

And played cards during quiet time.

Aidan still enjoying his Mimi’s snuggles…

The next day was the Fourth of July. I stayed back at the cabin with Aidan while the kids and the rest of the adults headed into town for a Fourth of July parade…which there are no pictures of because apparently it poured rain the whole time and all adults and most children were miserable and left early. HA!

After all of the fun that was had those previous two days, it was naps all around for us…

Including our big kid! This is a rarity these days and usually only happens when forced 🙂

The rest of the trip at…some point soon. :). The baby is up and crying – so I’m off to be Mom!

Dear Aidan (v. I)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Three whole months with you. My memory feels like a fog of the last three months, only just finally starting to feel like the light is getting brighter. The days and nights are starting to feel shorter. And I’m shocked to have finally started to catch my breath only to realize I’m three whole months into this life with you.

You are such a content little dude. You quietly watch your brothers run and bounce around you.

You are still, most certainly, very attached to Mama. Not ready to be very far from comfort and food. But I love being your person. I love the way you look for me when you hear my voice. When I crouch down and talk to you, the huge smile that creeps across your face.

You are getting a mama who has already walked this road twice before. One that feels a bit more sure of herself. I hope one that is a bit more patient. And a bit more gentle. One that still challenges you enough, but welcomes you into her arms when things are hard.

You are my last little baby. And that in itself makes me cherish it even more. Because I know already that it goes so fast. I’m here to soak it in with you. Every bit of your baby-ness. Every bit of your childhood. Every bit of it.

Love you beyond measure, my sweet Aidan.

Love,

Mommy

(I’m taking next week off from writing to be with my family. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!)

What’s Up Wednesday {06.28.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I haven’t done a What’s Up Wednesday since February. I was literally working on this post the day that I went into labor with Aidan….and it never got posted. So I’m particularly excited to share a bit of what’s been going on in our lives lately!

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: I’m making two of our favorite Half Baked Harvest recipes. One is the Lemon Butter Chicken Piccata. I serve it with mashed potatoes or rice depending on what I have on hand. The other is the Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta with Whipped Ricotta. I add a a protein like shredded chicken or crumbled Italian sausage to boost the fullness of it.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Baby J a year ago in my Timehop is killing me lately. Just mind blowing how his language has increased 10 fold from a year ago. And all of the cute things he would say to us this time a year ago.

Read more

June 2023 Book Review

Posted on by Lauren Lane

It’s book review day! You could say that Aidan and I started to get into a groove in June just from the sheer number of books I was able to listen to this month versus over two months when he was first born. :).

This first book I really looked into only after seeing a trailer for a movie based on it and wanting to see the movie.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

In this candid and riveting memoir, for the first time ever, Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight shares the inside story of the company’s early days as an intrepid start-up and its evolution into one of the world’s most iconic, game-changing, and profitable brands. 

In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed fifty dollars from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the trunk of his lime-green Plymouth Valiant, Knight grossed $8,000 his first year. Today, Nike’s annual sales top $30 billion. In an age of start-ups, Nike is the ne plus ultra of all start-ups, and the swoosh has become a revolutionary, globe-spanning icon, one of the most ubiquitous and recognizable symbols in the world today. 

But Knight, the man behind the swoosh, has always remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, in a memoir that is candid, humble, gutsy, and wry, he tells his story, beginning with his crossroads moment. At 24, after backpacking around the world, he decided to take the unconventional path to start his own business – a business that would be dynamic, different. 

Knight details the many risks and daunting setbacks that stood between him and his dream – along with his early triumphs. Above all, he recalls the formative relationships with his first partners and employees, a ragtag group of misfits and seekers who became a tight-knit band of brothers. Together, harnessing the transcendent power of a shared mission and a deep belief in the spirit of sport, they built a brand that changed everything.

I love a good memoir. Lifting the veil on someone’s life and engrossing myself in another person’s journey is just particularly fascinating for me. And this combined with a business book was just simply fascinating.

What really was alarming and such a nice surprise was how wonderful a writer Phil Knight is in this book. His descriptions of his runs, to business dealings was so well done and interesting.

Now I can officially see the new Nike based movie with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon (two of my favs!)

After Shoe Dog, I decided to pick a book that everyone has raved about this year…

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago.

Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. 

Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel is a gentle reminder that sometimes taking a hard look at the past can help uncover a future that once felt impossible.

Like so many of you before me, I loved this one. I love a story where individual characters that seemingly have nothing to do with each other somehow become woven together. And I just simply loved that dang octopus. It was a relatively easy “read”/listen. The characters were easy to keep straight and I found the story easy to follow and engaging as well. This book was my type of “beach read.” A little more meat to the story but sweet. This book was worth the hype, in my opinion.

And I ended the month finishing up…

The 5 Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman & Ross Campbell

You know you love your child. But how can you make sure your child knows it?

The #1 New York Times bestselling The 5 Love Languages® has helped millions of couples learn the secret to building a love that lasts. Now discover how to speak your child’s love language in a way that he or she understands. Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Ross Campbell help you: 

  • Discover your child’s love language
  • Assist your child in successful learning
  • Use the love languages to correct and discipline more effectively
  • Build a foundation of unconditional love for your child

Plus: Find dozens of tips for practical ways to speak your child’s love language. 

Discover your child’s primary language—then speak it—and you will be well on your way to a stronger relationship with your flourishing child.

Pretty much everyone has heard of or read the Five Languages book for couples/adults, myself included. I thought I’d listen to this version regarding showing love for our children to see if there were any helpful tips. I’ve been trying to pin down for years what I think Harrison and Jonathan’s love language is for each of them. While I think I have a pretty good hunch for Harrison, Jonathan is still a bit of a mystery sometimes for me. I think I know….but then I’ll question myself. :). I like this concept of the five love languages, and I enjoyed the practical examples in the book. I listened to the whole book in a couple of days, so it went super quick!

What has been your latest favorite book? What do I need to add to my reading list??

My 2023 Books:

  • January:
    • Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff
    • Christmas in Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey
  • March:
    • The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
    • Spare by Prince Harry
    • Sparks Like Stars by Nadia Hashimi
    • The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
  • March/April:
    • The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
    • Cribsheet by Emily Oster