We survived!!

Well day one is done, and we both survived!!! Bear and I arrived in time at school so that I could spend some time playing with him at his school. He was smiling and flirting with all of the pretty girls! I was able to sneak it at lunch and see him and love on him while he was going down for a nap. He didn't sleep as well in school and our schedule has been  thrown off a little. Bear normally goes down by 6:30, but didn't go down till 7:30 tonight. I was ok with the delayed sleep time, because it was more snuggles for mommy :)! 

It felt so good to be back in the office environment. I was able to see some of my old colleagues and meet some great new people that I look forward to working with. I will say I'm exhausted and the thought of working out right now and doing a 4.5 min plank just isn't going to happen tonight :) ! Instead I'm going to sit back and indulge in Real Housewives!

Hope everyone had a great Monday!!

Bear's first day of school outfit!

JNK 

Bear versus The Bottle

We have arrived in Dallas and we are all adjusting well! Greg and my MIL are en route and should arrive Tom afternoon! 

Seeing that I start work on Monday my main mission last week was to get Bear to take a bottle. I was very fortunate in that my MIl arrived last Wednesday so she was ready to help out. I had read that the best time to try a bottle is the first feeding since they are the hungriest. My MIL was nice enough to wake up at 5:45am on Thur to try the bottle after I had pumped. He took the bottle like a champ! He ended up not taking the 9am bottle that day but took the Bottle once more from her. I still let him feed from me three times on Thursday. On Friday we started the same routine except he got one less feeding from me and one more bottle. On Saturday we went to all bottles. Greg and my MIL were the only ones who have him bottles those first couple of days. On Sunday, I fed him a bottle and he had no issues!!! Yeah, mission was accomplished!!! 

Right now Bear will only take the Dr.Brown's bottles. My friend Marcie had told me about the MAM bottles which I love, but unfortunately he didn't like them as much. Hoping Bear will take them as I now have an assortment of MAM and Dr.Browns! 😁

On another note our Mabel's labels have arrived for Bear's items that he takes to school. We went with a hockey picture since his daddy is a hockey fanatic and he was born in Michigan. Here is a picture below :

I am pretty strict with his schedule as Bear like his momma likes a set schedule. I'm sure his school teachers will laugh at me when I give them his schedule 😜! Since I go back to work on Monday I find myself just wanting to hold this sweet boy instead of putting him down!

Cheers!

JNK

BIG NEWS!

Greg and I have some exciting news to share.... We are.... HEADING BACK TO TEXAS!!!!  We are so excited to make this journey back to the South, as we will now be closer to family and friends. It was important to both of us to raise our family near relatives so they are a big part of Bear's life. It has been a whirlwind the last couple of weeks.  I had been praying about the direction our family should take, should we settle in Michigan or get back to Texas. Literally, within 48 hours I had received a few emails and calls from JCP asking me if I was interested in coming back. It was amazing, I truly felt that God had opened a door that I had not expected. After some Skype interviews, I was offered a position back at JCP. Greg is staying with his same company but will be working remotely. He is mainly traveling anyways, so instead of flying out of Detroit he will be flying out of DFW.

There are lots of changes in store for our family. One being my return to the working world. It has almost been a year since we left Dallas, and after stints in Toronto and Birmingham, we are excited to return.  Secondly, Bear is enrolled in school in Dallas, so I will no longer be his full time caregiver during the day.I feel blessed that I was able to stay at home with him for almost five months before he goes to school. I think it will be good for him to be around other kids his age and other adults. I know I will be fighting back tears when I drop him off next Monday. Bear and I fly down this Wednesday and Greg will be driving my car down on Thursday am. We are lucky that my mother in law is here so that she can be a copilot for Greg and help out with Bear so that I'm able to run errands and pack! You forget how much stuff your little one has until you realize you go to pack! YIKES! 

We are looking for a home in Dallas, and once we have found one Greg will move down along with the rest of our items. Until we find a home Bear and I will be staying with my mom. We are again blessed to have family there.  There will be much more  blog posts as we learn to transition back to Dallas and back to me working. If any of you moms out there have tips to make this transition easier, please send them our way!

We have met some wonderful people here in Michigan, and enjoyed our time up here.However, we are excited to raise Bear in Texas, and more importantly truly settle. We have been nomads the past three years with Greg living in Toronto and I in Dallas. The hardest part for our family will be Greg's travel schedule, but like all things we will make the best of the situation and learn how to make it work. 

Hope everyone has a great week, say a prayer for our little family as we are flying and driving this week!

CHEERS!

PS- How exciting is it that Kate is in labor!!! I think we will have a little princess to admire and maybe a potential wife for Bear :)! ha! 


Here are some new pics of Bear from 4th of July that I forgot to post! He is getting SOO big and so much fun :)!

The Turnaround

I had posted a few months ago how we were worried about our dog Rex and not being able to adapt into our new family atmosphere. When we brought Bear home from the hospital Rex was very possessive of me which led him to be aggressive towards Bear. It was MISERABLE! Rex is 5 years old and has been a huge part of our lives. We didn't want to give him up, but we would not in anyway put Bear in danger. It also wasn't fair to Rex to spend 75% of his day in his crate and only come out when Bear went down. We looked into options and found the Canine Academy which was located just down the street from our townhome. Their slogan is,"Have a Good Dog, Want a Great Dog". After spending 7 weeks at their facility we truly have a great dog.

It has been amazing the transformation in Rex. Their philosophy is they teach the dog how to be safe. Rex was acting out of fear and now he knows how to  put himself in a safe place. The training is definitely not easy. We say that because Greg and I spent hours memorizing our new commands for him and still get corrected when working with Leah at Canine Academy. Leah was the best trainer we have ever come across, and we have come across many trainers with Rex :). We went from having a dog that  ruled the house to now having a dog who is fun to enjoy. He is now able to be in the nursery with Bear and I and just lay on the rug and hang out. He now will even kiss Bear's feet or hands. It truly is remarkable. He is great on walks now, he can heel with the stroller and is even off leash trained. While walking yesterday, someone come out of their townhome to compliment Rex and how good he was with the stroller. We still have some work to do around new visitors coming to the house and the doorbell, but we are just amazed at the progress we are seeing right now.  More importantly, we are just excited to have a dog that can assimilate into our new family life. 

Rex is much calmer now, which Leah did say is a result of the training. He can relax and not have to be  constantly on watch.We were heart broken thinking that we would have to give up  Rex. We are so glad we spent the money to invest in this training,because now we are equipped with the tools to teach Rex how to be safe in any environment.  I have pasted some pictures of Bear and Rex together playing in the nursery. 

The change seriously is remarkable. Leah mentioned how some families will send their dogs there right when they pick them up as puppies so they don't develop any bad habits. You can bet that for our next dog we will be doing that right from the start. We can't thank Canine Academy enough for all that they have done. We are so grateful and so glad that Rex can stay part of our family!

Canine Academy

If you are in need of some extra help with your furry friend please check them out!

Cheers!

JNK

I Dare you...

During one of Hayes's feedings I was looking at Pinterest to pass the time (um, please tell me I'm not the only guilty one) I came across this Plank Challenge. I was up to a 2 min plank in my pilates mat class; but with a beach trip to Rosemary beach coming up in August I thought this is one challenge I must take. I even challenged our family to a fun healthy plank competition once we arrive :). I have pasted the challenge below. I'm currently at 3 minutes, and I must say it does get easier. I never would have thought I could do 3 minutes. The worst part is just passing the time, hence I try to find an upbeat song that helps me not think about the time. The plank challenge is below:

Some have asked what my current workout regime is to get back into shape. I have been doing 6-7 days a week at the gym. Yes, you read that correctly. It's not easy getting your body back into shape. Although I'm only about 4-5 lbs away from my goal weight my stomach still isn't as tight or my hips as small as pre baby. I know that maybe just the way it will be from here on out, however I'm not ready to accept that just yet :). I do 2 reformer classes a week and then one Pilates mat class. The other 3-4 days I run. I try to always run at least 12-15 miles a week.I promise to post an updated pic but I am waiting until 6 months, as that really was my goal to get back to my pre pregnancy shape. 

 I haven't been as focused on eating since I'm still breastfeeding. However, those of you who know me, know that I really never have been a bad eater. I am ready to quit breastfeeding if only Bear would take a bottle again. Ugh! He was fine when he was little but I must admit we laid off the bottles because it was easier for me to just feed him. I have already tried 2 different bottles and have another one arriving from Amazon on Wed! My MIL arrives on Wed, so I'm going to recruit her to help me get Bear to take the bottle. I have heard that you should try the bottle for their first feeding and only offer the bottle. They will learn to take the bottle because they are starving. Some have said it takes a couple hours others have said a couple of days. But I welcome any advice you mommies out there may have. We started introducing food as a snack last week and the little man is loving it. Here are a few pictures of Bear enjoying food:

I thought I had one with his face covered in mango, but I guess I don't! I'm loving every minute with him as he just gets more and more fun each day!!

Have a good week, and take the Plank Challenge :)!

JNK

I wear my sunglasses at night..

I've never really been a huge sunglasses person. I mean I would pick up a couple pairs and they tend to break or I lose them :(. I broke down a few years ago and bought my first pair of designer shades only to have them lost to the rapids of a river trip down the Frio.
However, recently I have found that I'm becoming more of a sunglasses person. One of my girlfriends Lindsey has probably my favorite collection of sunglasses. She is definitely my sunglass snob, but I have major sunglass envy over her collection.

Here are a few that I'm loving right now:

Karen Walker Number One

I see lots of celebrities and blogebrities sporting her shades. I want these number ones in tortoise.

The other pair of Karen Walker's I love are the Cabbie's:
Karen Walker Cabbie's

These are the perfect brunch shades :).

I have always been a huge fan of the Tom Ford Shades. I always gravitate towards them whenever trying on sunglasses. That is probably a sign that I should just go ahead and get them right? :)

Tom Ford Rhi

Tom Ford Whitney


Aviators are definitely a must have in any handbag, car, stroller, etc  . Here are a few of my favorite aviators:

Ray Ban's Original Aviator with Mirror Lens

I am loving all the colors in the mirror lens.I personally would go for the green flash.

I love these Vince Camuto's and the best part is they are under $100

Vince Camuto Aviators

Chanel Aviators

I love these Chanel Aviators. I think I may like the version with the metal sides as opposed to the lambskin, but right now I will have to settle with just admiring the images online.


It's a big week in our home this week as Bear hits the big 4 month mark on Friday. We are so excited to give this lil' man some food :)! I don't know if any of you other mommas out there have experienced this 4 month sleep regression but the past few days have been a little challenging at night. We have been so lucky as Bear has been a good sleeper since he was 4.5 weeks old doing stretches of 7 hours a night and we have had a few 9 hour stretches in the past couple weeks. But that all came to a halt this past week. He is waking up a lot in the night. We have tried to implement the cry it out method, but I have to be honest it's not as easy as it seems. I have read that they go thru this sleep regression because they are now entering different levels of sleep. Just hoping we can get back to our long stretches of sleep. If you have gone thru this, I would love any tips. We are very disciplined on our schedule, and he goes done so easily and normally would be down for a good 7 hours. Now he wakes up about 40 minutes into going down and if you rock him will go back down pretty easily or he will start to wake up as soon as you put him back in the crib. Oh the joys of parenthood. These little ones always keep you on your toes! My mom did warn me in saying as soon as you think you have them understood they change!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Cheers!

JNK