Christmas(What we are not going to do)

My son is getting older and he is starting to understand some things. 

This year we wanted to start traditions with our family. We are going to start having Christmas at our house, wake up in the morning. Eat breakfast. Open our stockings and gifts all together with just our little family.

But, we are going to do something a little different. Ben and I talked about it and we decided to not introduce Santa Claus to our children. We want God to be glorified in our giving and receiving, not some make believe character. 

We will still do Christmas lights, we will still do stockings and gifts. We will still decorate cookies and sing carols. This was something that I brought up to my husband. He was not too keen to the idea at first, but once I explained it to him and he talked to a few other men(annoying, isn't it?!) he now is on board with me. 

I personally think that as a Christian family that we should do this. Now, I am not saying that this is for everyone.  I am also not saying that you are a bad person or bad parent for celebrating Christmas with Santa Claus. I don't want anyone to feel guilty either. I grew up believing in Santa as a child, so I don't think that it's bad at all. It's really sweet to think of the idea that one person gives to everyone on one day of the year. 

Isn't that what Jesus did? ;)

I think that I have proved my point. 

We will also be doing this same thing with other holidays as well. We are excited to find alternative ways to celebrate holidays with God as the center of our lives. 

I have included a video below of how our Christmas is going to be this year. Things are definitely going to be different. 

Thank you all for watching/reading. I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas. 

Love, Jess

Here is the link to my video! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0j_bf-2qlA

A Healthy Update on Josiah

Last Monday I talked about Our Small Story.

I just wanted to give you an update on how things are going with Josiah. I'll post on another page about how Eden is doing with her sleeping.

Josiah is doing much much better!
The medicine that we are giving him has been helping him a bunch. We do the daily dosage at night before bed cause it makes him drowsy. Then for emergencies if he seems to need it we do the nebulizer for breathing. Its is working out well. We still bring an inhaler for when we are out and about but so far we have not needed to use it. We went to the pumpkin patch that Wednesday and I was surprised that he didn't start coughing and wheezing. Normally with the hay and animals he would. I am so happy that his symptoms are getting better. I am going to talk to his doctor next week to let him know that everything is going well.
We will probably be doing this treatment till spring, review again, skip summer and then he will have another check up in the fall. When flu and cold season comes around that's when he gets the worse.

I am really thankful that this medication will most likely help him to play the sports that he wants without the conflict of breathing. I want him to have all options available with nothing holding him back. I think that I will be a bit more at ease when he goes to preschool next year. He won't be missing as many days.

He will more than likely grow out of this and we are looking forward to that day. :)
Thank you all for your prayers and concern on this.

-Jess

Fall Consignment Haul 2013

Check out my Fall Consignment Haul here

Although we did not get a ton of stuff. We got what we needed until the Spring!

Josiah's kitchen set was a hit and he loves the lacing beads.

I have videos and pictures on my Instagram jessicamommy22 if you want to see more! Thanks for checking it out!

-Jess

Our Small Story.

Im sleeping upstairs tonight.(hubby too)
Night #3 of doing this.
Why?
I am sleep training my daughter.
Not really my preferred method.  I actually HATE the cry it out (CIO) method. But I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't sleep for only one hour at a time. I felt like it was making me a very mean, short tempered wife and mother during the day.
So here we are. Eden only cried twice last night and both times ended within a matter of just 5 minutes. Its getting better and im happy about it. Another thing is that when I went to get Eden up this morning she was all smiles when she saw me. That little girl still loves me even though I made her soothe herself to sleep. I don't feel as guilty(or as tired) for doing it.
Today was a crazy day, but I still was able to do more than the norm. Besides the slight backache from sleeping on the couch I felt better this morning than I have in awhile.

My children definitely keep me on my toes. We had to take Josiah to an emergency doctor appointment this morning. 

First, let me explain to you about how Josiahs sickness is. Anytime that he gets a cold he most of the time get asthma like symptoms. So resulting in that I give him everything that we have on hand at home, an inhaler, a nebulizer treatment. I try everything possible so that we don't have to go to the doctor. Most of the time it doesn't work that way. So when none of those things work we go to Urgent Care or the ER and they give us the same thing over and over again. They end up giving us steroids for him to breathe better. I hate giving him steroids. It makes him hyper and out of control. This type of thing happens a lot in the early morning. I mean like 3 a.m. in the morning. When you have to to take care of two the next day it makes it hard. Thankfully I have my husband who is so patient an awesome to take Josiah to the ER for me when this happens.

Ive had problems in the past with urgent care and the ER. We get into the room quickly cause with Josiahs sickness he is top priority.  We get what we need done but then we end up waiting 45 minutes to an hour just to be released. 
So I made an appointment this time knowing that will be taken care of by our doctor and we can discuss his problems. We are going a different route this time. I have high hopes that this treatment that we're going to try is going to help tremendously.
After the appointment we went to the pharmacy. I waited in line as usual. Of course, they told me that I have to wait at least an hour to get his medication. Which is really irritating because once they get the order in they're supposed to start on it right away. With his situation he is considered top priority. My poor little boy had the hardest time breathing already and I had to wait an hour with 2 kids. I didn't know what to do. So, I went home and we got some things  taken care of and I was able to go out again to finally get the medication and come home again.

It breaks my heart to see him struggling to breathe. I use to have to take an inhaler and everything he did, so I know exactly how it feels. But to be only 2 years old and not understand what is happening is so sad.

As of right now my house is a mess. My children are sound asleep in their beds. My husband is sound asleep next to me. I'm awake watching Dancing with the Stars. And I just think how blessed I am. I looked at the prescription that the doctor gave to Josiah and I am so happy that insurance is going to be fully covering his treatment. If it were not for this we would have an extra $129 bill to pay for his medication.

Pray that this works for us. This medication will be given to him all through the winter and then we will evaluate with his doctor in the spring to see how its working.

I am not loving the fact that he is getting medication every day. But I am loving that this may be a solution for him and reduce visits to the ER for major steroids.
He may grow out of this.
He may not.

I love my little man and seeing him today be really snuggly and sweet to me when we got home just made my heart melt.
"Thank you mommy."
Smiling I said, "I love you Josiah."
"I love you too."
Even with this stressful day he made me feel so much better.

Thank you God for my strong sweet boy. Thank you for showing me kindness through him and making me want to be a better mommy to him.

Keeping Busy with the Blustery Blues

I love to keep myself extremely busy during the fall and winter months.

Although I absolutely love this season, I start to not feel so happy. 

The dark, rainy days really get to me and when I am in my house with my kids for so long without getting out I start to be a very inpatient mother who ends up being short tempered and mean.

I get lazy, I am okay with laying on the couch all day with some coffee and tea. Good thing my kids keep me super busy through out the day along with the little girl that is Edens age. All three of them keep me on my toes. I probably would be a hermit and 100 pounds overweight if it wasn't for them. 

I try to get out of the house as much as possible with the kids. For sure we go out at least once a week. That would be our Thursday morning bible studies. If we do more then that then I have a book study 2 Fridays a month with some awesome moms. Wednesdays is infant/toddler story time at the library. Mondays are filled with grocery shopping or doctor appointments. The only time that I really don't go out is the days that I am baby sitting. Normally I would babysit Tuesdays and Thursdays but because of the bible study being on Thursdays we have switched it temporarily to Wednesdays.

When Ben comes home we go out of the house after dinner just to get out sometimes.

Thursday nights are our date night, that could be anything from shopping for thing that we need cause I can't do a lot of shopping with the kids being so little still. Or we do a movie with dinner. It depends on what time of the month it is whether we do something big or not. My mother enjoys watching the kiddos so it is really nice for us to spend some time together as husband and wife.

With Ben having set days off we can actually go to the pumpkin patch with the kids. Sundays we have church and in those afternoons we are a lazy family with football or a movie.

I know that getting out with the kids is hard for some, but for me its a must. It makes the cold dark days go faster. My children seem less grumpy. They sleep better at night and eat more dinner. 

Maybe it's because we have a smaller place with not a ton of room with Josiah to play. But getting out is what works for us!

What do you do to keep you and your kids busy?

-Jess

Cotton Booty: "Good Night Sleep Tight" Box

My 3rd box from Cotton Booty and I am loving every one of them! This one is probably my favorite!

So here is my Cotton Booty Box for this month! Enjoy!

Instagram: jessicamommy22

One Size Kawaii Goodnight Heavy Wetter:

Comes with 2 microfiber inserts. I have a Kawaii and I do like them however, my daughter leaks through all pocket diapers at night. The only thing that works for us at night time is a fitted or prefold with extra boosters and a cover to go over it. We will give this one a try for over night though. See if it does the job! :)

Angel Dear Muslin Swaddle: 

100% natural cotton muslin. 

I love the owls. I was planning on getting a muslin swaddle blanket anyway for Eden so this is great! She has outgrown swaddling but I was really wanting one for her to snuggle with. She likes to chew on blankets since she does not take a paci. I don't have to pay $30+ for a muslin blanket now. This blanket is so soft. I can't wait to wash it so that Eden can sleep with it. It'll be great with baby #3 when she outgrows it too!

A sample from Wash with Water

I can't wait to try this. I love trying out new body stuffs for babes.

Love the stuff I got?

Here is a link so that you can get $5 off your first box!

Enter discount code CTBY1001

-Jess

Christmas photos and others

Not even October and I am already planning on getting our Christmas photos taken! I know I am crazy, but for me the earlier the better. We have to think about not only putting money aside for beautiful pictures, but we need to set some aside for some much wanted Christmas cards and I really want to get a nice canvas piece of the 4 of us. It will be our first family shoot with Eden post pregnancy.

Speaking of which, have you seen our Christmas photos before Eden? They are lovely! I'd love to show just a few of them to you wonderful folks.

Gotta love that pregnancy pose. ;)
I was about 7 monthsish pregnant here. I loved how our pictures turned out and we will be using the same photographer for this years photos. Love her! Her watermark is kept visible to show how awesome she is. We have another photographer friend that is also really great at her work, so we have to go back and forth between the two. :) She did Edens newborn photos several months back.

I think that I may be slipping in a few breastfeeding photos with my daughter just to keep for myself. I love a beautiful, modest precious photo of my daughter and I bonding while she is feeding. I think that it will be so pretty!

I have some pins on Pinterest that I have been working on for our upcoming photo shoot. We have not set a date yet(nor have we told her ;)) but it will be very soon! Before it gets too rainy and cold hopefully!

Thanks for sticking with me! I know that I've been gone a lot. Our life has been busy with Ben's new job, I have been babysitting and life with 2 kids has made me a very occupied parent.

-Jess