.exhaustion.

Sooo....working full time and having a family is kind of a lot to handle! The past few weeks I thought I had this in the bag. Now this week....feeling the lack of sleep and weight of responsibility a little more and am completely exhausted today! We went to Spokane this past weekend and had an absolute blast....but our flight home was delayed quite a bit so we didnt get home and into bed until about 1:00 am on Sunday night, then Parker was up at 3:30 and then I had to be up at 5:30 at work..so I am dragging a little today. Last night we tried giving him formula for his last feeding to hopefully help him sleep longer at night, but it didnt really seem to help much. So we will see tonight...trying to get him to sleep through the night (8:30pm-6:30am) but poor little guy gets so hungry! We have tried to make him cry it out, giving him his pacifier, formula for his last feeding, but he still wakes up. And when I go in to get him, I can hear his tummy growling so I know he really is hungry. Any suggestions from mama's out there who got their kids to sleep through the night early? He is only 3 months and only waking up once in the night....usually sleeping from 8:00pm-3:30 or 4 am...but hoping to get him to drag it out a little longer. 

Other than that, work is going well. The mornings are early and kind of a marathon to get up, showered and ready and then get Parker up and out the door to be dropped off at 7. But we are managing. Little man is so happy and darling in the mornings it is tough to drop him off, but I am really happy with Victoria the lady who watches him and love that he is getting interaction with other kids. Hoping it helps him learn how to share, interact with other kids, and reach milestones faster since he is around older kids. I am working on some fun accounts at work and the people I work with are great, so no complaints there! 

We are headed to Southern CA this weekend to watch my sister in law Lindsay play volleyball at Biola. She is a stud and we are excited to watch her play in a few games of her senior year! I will be flying by myself though so a little nervous about how that is going to work, especially since Parker doesn't like to breastfeed, so I will just have to pack a few bottles and pack smart so we don't have a ton of bags to carry! Really excited to see everyone and spend some time down in CA, but wish me luck traveling by myself with a 3 month old baby!

Lots going on and trying to stay on top of everything. Trying to cook dinner every night, keep a clean house (failing at this ;), pay bills, do laundry, and everything that goes into taking care of my family and work...it is kind of wearing me out! After this weekend of traveling I think we are going to lay low for a while and get caught up on everything. I am so blessed and so lucky that its wearing me out! :) 

.snuggles.

One of my favorite things to do after Parker wakes up for his 7:00am feeding, is to bring him into bed to snuggle with us for a little while. Its so fun and he is so dang cute...there really is no better way to wake up. Sometimes he will just fall right back to sleep, and other times he will be wide awake and just sit and laugh, smile and coo. I love it! This was one of my favorite parts when I was on maternity leave...but now we just snuggle on the weekends. It is fabulous!

.working woman.

Well I officially started back to work last Monday. The night before I was kind of a mess and was dreading the morning, but Nick and I spent lots of time talking and praying and asking God to be our strength because we didn't have it on our own. It's amazing how he always provides! The next morning when we dropped him off, I was surprisingly calm and at peace. I cried when we first got there but when we left, I really could feel God keeping me strong. When I got to work and people started asking me about Parker, I started to cry again....but after about an hour I was totally fine and each day this week got easier. Victoria, who watches Parker, is AMAZING!! I feel so blessed that we found her and Parker loves her and her helper Carmen. I think that even when I get to stay home in the future, I will probably send Parker to her for a day or two a week just so that he gets the interaction with the other kids and learns to share, etc. The other day when I picked him up, the kids were learning their numbers and colors in Spanish. I love how she is always teaching them new things!
Being back to work has actually been much better than I thought. My top strength on the "Strength's Finder" test is "Achiever"....which means you find satisfaction in accomplishing things and unless you accomplish tangible things each day, you do not feel fulfilled. I can definitley say that I forgot how much of an achiever I really am. I felt such a sense of accomplishment everyday after work because I was completing tasks. When I was staying home with Parker I was constantly trying to keep myself busy with cleaning the house, creating things on the computer, and finding things to "accomplish" while at home. So I can say it has kind of been nice to be back at work. I think working part time or working a few days from home would be the perfect set up! Hopefully something like that will work out sometime in the future.
I think I will still have my days where I really miss Parker and struggle through the day, but God has been so faithful to answer our prayers of helping me through this transition. Although my dream is still to be a stay at home mom, God has met me where I am at and is helping me process and even enjoy this new challenge.

.twins.

Today I was looking at some pictures and realized that Parker is looking more and more like me as he is getting older. When he was first born he looked just like Nick, but is starting to look more like me now. Here is a picture of Parker on the left, and me on the right. So fun to see him grow and change!

.CA dreaming.

After labor day weekend, Parker and I decided to jump in the car and drive back down to CA with my parents. We had already planned a trip to come a few weeks later, so Parker and I just went down early while Nick stayed back and worked (can you say husband of the year!?!). Parker did SO great on the trip down...slept most of the way. We would stop about every 3 hours and feed him and change him and be right back on the road. I couldn't have asked for a better baby. We LOVED being in California and the weather was perfect...80's and sunny the whole time. It was so nice having someone help out with Parker too. Sometimes it is tough with just the two of us taking care of Parker, especially with Nick at work so it was nice to be able to leave Parker with my parents and go for a run or go run errands. It was awesome to spend time with family and it was just so easy....wish we could do it all the time. But we missed Nick a lot and sent lots of pictures so he could see his baby until he came down to see us and then all flew back together! We went up to Apple Hill in Placerville and went around to the different apple orchards and ate lots of yummy apple foods and then on the way home had In-n-out :) So yummy! Our good family friend Sharon Koppenhaver even flew up from LA to meet Parker. It was great to see her! It was a fantastic trip and I cannot wait until we get to go back and spend time there. Thanks to my parents for taking us in for 2 weeks and for Nick for letting us go!

Here is the creepy jail crib that they gave us at the hotel we stayed at in Oregon.

 Napping at Grandma & Grandpa Berceau's

Sleeping arrangements for the stay (much better than the jail cell crib!)

 Helping Mom cook dinner

 Playing around

 Grandpa and Parker hanging out

 Grandma feeding P a bottle

 Savannah and Parker=buddies :)

 Parker man's first plane ride. He did great! Slept the whole way home. (Don't mind me in this picture...It was early!)

Katie and I at Apple Hill

 Blending in with the fall decor at Apple Hill

 He's a country boy :)

.labor day weekend.

Over labor day weekend my parents drove up from California to our house in Seattle and then we all drove over together to Spokane to visit Nick's family. It was so fun to have all of our family together in one place (my dream come true). We spent the weekend just hanging out....the boys golfed a little...we did some shopping....drove around Spokane and went up to Priest Lake in Idaho. The Dietzen's friends have a beautiful cabin up on Priest Lake and invited us all up for the day. The weather was kind of overcast and cold but we had blast anyways. They took us out on the pontoon boat and showed us around the lake...so Mason and Parker got to go on their first boat ride. They had to wear life jackets and they weren't too thrilled about it but we got some cute pictures out of it :)

Parker and Mason hanging out

 The view from the house

 The beautiful cabin

 Our family of 3 :)

 Parker in the life vest

 On the boat

 My cute parents (freezing...CA doesn't get this kind of weather in the summer :)

 Mason fell asleep sitting between Grandma and Grandpa Dietzen

 They were playing some Ninja game but they all looked a little special ;)

 The boys playing ladder golf and hanging out

 Hayden and Hannah with Mason

 My dad feeding Parker a bottle



.scott and jen visit.

This is out of order again....just catching up from summer :) Right after Brad, Shannon and Sawyer left we had Scotty and Jen visit from southern CA as well. Nick and Scott lived together all through college and so him and his awesome girlfriend Jen came to stay with us for a few days to meet Parker and to visit Seattle. 

We had so much fun with them!! They are so much fun to tour a city with. They really take in the culture and atmosphere of the city and spend their time looking around and seeing what the city has to offer. It was fun to take them downtown, out to sushi, golfing and just hanging out. 

While we were downtown there was this crazy lady dancing to some street performers. Let me tell you...this lady was nuts! But she started walking over towards us and dancing by us, so Jen starts dancing with the lady...it was hilarious. I thought Scott was going to die of embarassment but Nick got it on film. Makes me laugh everytime I watch this wacko lady dance!

It was so fun to see them and just hang out for a few days. Looking forward to seeing them at the end of October when we go down to visit.

Scotty and Jen in front of the original Starbucks store

Nick, Scott and Parker at Pike's Place Market

Scott and Jen buying some fruit at the market (it was amazingly delicious!)

The cracked out lady dancing!

Little Parker man came down with a cold while they were here....so here he is sleeping and trying to get better :(

The Public Market sign

Family Pic :)

.two months.

Parker had his two month check up on Thursday and got his first round of immunizations. Nick had a work engagement that he couldn't get out of so I had to go to the appointment by myself. I was really nervous because I wasn't sure how Parker was going to react to the shots and I have heard that the shots are hard on the mom's because you see your baby hurting, so I didn't know what to expect. He did GREAT and only cried for a few seconds after he got the shots and then was sleepy and cuddly the rest of the day! I was so surprised! It was hard to see him so sad, but I did good (no tears) and we just hung out and snuggled the rest of the day :) Can't complain about having a sleeping baby on your chest!

Here are his stats:

Length: 23 3/4" (65%)

Weight: 11 lbs, 12 oz (30%)

Head: 15 7/8" (48%)

He is my healthy little boy! He is starting to really engage more with things around him and is laughing and smiling all the time. It is so fun to watch them grow so fast!