Happy Valentine's Day! (a day late)

Happy V-day everyone!! I hope it is full of blessing and time with loved ones!

I have had lots of fun cuddle time with Titus this morning and thankfully waking up at 6 this morning didn't kill me like it did yesterday. He's still having issues with teething/recovering from a cold but he seemed very happy to hang out with me today.

And Bryan- wow! AMAZING!!!!!! He worked late last night and stayed up even later working on a Valentine card for me. I feel so special and I absolutely love it! I'm so thankful he only had a 4 hour shift at work today so we can hang out. I miss him and love spending time with him!

My V-day presents from Bry:

amazing card that B made for me

my gorgeous flowers

What I love...

- My Savior, Jesus Christ. Without Him I can do absolutely nothing.

- My Man. He works his butt off to provide for me and the little man and he's so patient and loving. Plus he's so dreamy!

- Titus Walker. His smiles warms my heart. His hugs and kisses are 2 of my favorite things ever.

- My family. My family on both sides are amazing, loving, helpful and so supportive!

- Sleep. It amazing and I really wish I could have more of it. Someday...

- Crocheting. It makes me feel creative and I love making things for people!

- Blogs/blogging. I absolutely love reading other people's blogs and learning about whatever they have to say. I'm falling in love with my own blog. I find I hard to have time to write as much or as often as I want but I'm getting there.

Friday

I'm so excited for tomorrow! It's Friday!!!! I don't get weekends off so I could care less about Fridays these days. Except for tomorrow!

Tomorrow Bryan has off. This will be his first day off in 8 days and his inky day off until next Friday. The hours are good and so are the paychecks but I miss my husband. I have seen him more this week because he has been working at night but it doesn't feel like I have really seen him at all.

I can't wait to lay around all day an just hang out. We will probably catch up on our tv shows and have some family cuddle time. Bryan even mentioned letting me sleep in a little bit! Although, I can't get too excited about that because he will be up late tonight working on a freelance project. But even if I can't sleep in it doesn't matter because I get to spend the day with him!

Titus will be excited to B to be home all day. Ti is very much a Daddy's boy these days and it's adorable! Titus loves waking his Daddy up every morning by climbing on him. It's so cute!

Okay- I'm off to bed. Here's hoping Titus sleeps well tonight and that I can fall asleep quickly!!

Teething and the Gospel

Titus is teething. He's crabby, clingy, biting and chewing on everything, at times running a low-grade fever, congested with a horrible cough. (There is a huge potential for Ti also having a cold- but I like blaming his issues on those teeth!). :) Ti already has the two bottom teeth. He cut them both in about two weeks and it was barely noticeable. Not so for these top teeth! They are slowly working their way down through his gums and the poor guy is miserable! I get lots of cuddles, which I love but I can't take the pain away.

God reminded me of the Gospel when I was thinking about Ti's teething. This world isn't right. It's full of pain, and teething is just one other example of that. Praise God this is not my real home! I have hope in Christ. This season of mommyhood has reminded me of what's really important and what I want Titus to learn about Jesus. I want him to realize his need for a Savior at an early age and to fall in love with Him. I want to see Titus live his life to serve God and not himself.

Watching Ti be in pain sucks, but I'm so grateful for the reminder it serves and how it points me attention to the Gospel.

picture of teeth to come...I hope!

Routine

I need it. Bryan needs it. Titus really needs. But for some reason I absolutely suck at executing it!

I love going with the flow and just letting things happen, but that usually means when I go to bed at night a lot of things didn't get done that needed to be completed. I had to stay up last night to switch over the laundry so my man could have clean work clothes this morning. If I had a routine that I actually stuck to this wouldn't have happened (at least it shouldn't have happened).

From the get go with Titus I have done my best to have some sort of routine. It focused on when he ate and when he slept. Everything else just got shoved in inbetween or forgotten about completely. Titus was and still is awesome at sticking with a routine for a few days then when I think "Hey maybe this will stick," he completely changes it! Little butt! :o) We generally nursed every three hours and took naps inbetween. It probably is my fault that we don't have a very good routine because I value sleep *way* too much and never wanted to set my alarm in the morning to have a specific starting time for our day. So it isn't probably my fault it *definitely* my fault. I read and heard from friends that starting your day at the same time helps make the rest of the day more predictable and it's easier to have a routine that way. But, I'm lazy and now I'm paying for it!

God has been working in my heart and showing me how I can be more diligent in serving and blessing my family. To do that I need a routine where I know when I'm supposed to do what. Otherwise I always find something else to do instead of scrubbing down the bathroom, doing laundry, or cleaning up clutter. I've been reading up on making daily routines/schedules and see that there are two major ways to do it. You can have a specific time for a specific task or you can have an order in which you do things at general times during your day. I prefer the second. I think have specific times would be a little too structured for me, but if that would benefit my family then I'm gonna do it. But I'm going to try the more general routine first. :)

So, here is my daily routine...
7:00-8:00 : get up/change and nurse (if he wants to) Ti
Breakfast for me and the Ti-man
Play with Ti- stories/songs/floor time/ etc
Ti's first nap (usually around 9-9:30) and devotion time for me
When Ti gets up- nurse and alone play time--- me: cleaning/to-do list
Lunch for me and Titus/hang out with my baby
Nap for Ti (around 1-1:30) and maybe nap for me if I need it--finish cleaning/relax
When Ti gets up- nurse and play with Mommy/ dinner prep
Dinner and short nap for Ti
Clean up dinner and hang out as a family
Nurse Ti and put him to bed
Hang out with the hubby (if he's not working)/cleaning/ relax/ bed

The nap times have been somewhat consistent for the last week and half- longest ever!! So hopefully this routine thing will work for us. I will keep you posted! If anyone has suggestions I would love to hear them!!

Hangin' with Grampa

Titus was practicing his standing and cruising skills with Grampa.

"Grampa- you're the coolest!"

Trying to turn around and stand by himself. We have quite the independent 7 month old! :o)

Kisses

Titus Walker loves to give kisses! He just kisses you over and over and over, and sometimes decides he wants to taste you and tries to take a bite! :o) I love his slobbery kisses, but I love watching him kiss his family too! It's so special to see my son loving on people he loves. Most recently was my mom! It was the funniest, cutest thing ever!

See for yourself: