Blogging at naptime.

I had so many clever baby announcements pinned to my secret "Baby #3" Pinterest board consisting of cute kids holding chalkboard signs announcing the impending arrival of a new sibling.  I'd downloaded baby name apps, deciding on some favorites and pairing them with middle names, making sure the initials wouldn't spell anything unfortunate.. All of this because a week ago tomorrow I took a little test that told me what I'd been highly suspecting (and hoping) for the week prior.  I had the perfect Pinterest-inspired way to tell my husband and an adorable announcement for close family and friends featuring my current tiny humans and, of course, a chalkboard. So much excitement, anticipation, gratefulness, planning, dreaming and smiling was unfortunately replaced with tears and a fair amount of physical pain over the last two days as I had to say goodbye far too soon to the teeny tiny one who had already captured my heart. I unfortunately know far more women wh...

My children decided to bless me this Mother's Day weekend by sleeping through the night last night!  They were also up with the sun this morning, but rolled around in our bed and ate cheerios while watching that lady on YouTube who plays with playdoh and miniature Anna and Elsa dolls.  She probably does other things, like encouraging children to ask their parents for more toys, but my head is usually buried under a pillow during these absurdly early morning viewings. Because I am well rested and have a few hours to myself today (thanks Nonna!), I'm able to calmly and lovingly reflect on motherhood with all its blessings, frustrations, and refining moments. Never have I known such depths of love and awe....and then two minutes later the bleak abyss of utter frustration and rage.  I would think I was truly going crazy if I didn't hear confirmation from other mothers telling me this is normal. Right????? And if I begin to question whether the irrational creatures I e...

Exactly 7 years ago today I put on a beautiful borrowed white dress (thanks Christy), had approximately 83,000 bobby pins placed in various locations throughout my hair to keep it in place, gathered with some of my most favorite people in life, and exchanged a few life altering words with a strikingly handsome young man I met on the internet. Sort of. Recounting Josh's and my story is no small feat because of its unique nature and the fact that 7 years later we still marvel at the fact that we ever met and actually managed to get married.  We joke that we got married so we could finally date, and also that we basically had an "arranged" marriage that we arranged ourselves...and then hoped for the best!  Neither of us really could have imagined that one small church group outing would end up changing the rest of our lives.  Both of us had our reasons for joining this random outing to Safeco Field to tour the stadium for a few dollars.  It was shockingly not our ...

Roughly three and a half years ago I involuntarily began a journey into a world that I was entirely unprepared for as I became a mother.  I wasn't prepared for any of motherhood in reality, but specifically I was quite taken off guard by this relentless, itchy, messy, frustrating, seemingly unsolvable issue called "eczema." Not only has Emma dealt with this since she was only a few months old (with some brief reprieves throughout the years), but now our sweet 16 month old Ben has it as well, only far worse than Emma's ever was. I decided to blog about it because I feel like I should have some sort of honorary eczema doctorate degree from the hours and hours of online research I have put in over the years.  It's not that I am such an excellent researcher, but at the end of every day I find myself at such a loss as to what to do, how to help my sweet kiddos not scratch at their skin the next day until they bleed.  To say that it breaks my heart is putting it mid...