Hello crazy.

After announcing we were expecting, everyone who has children (and even some people who have no kids) piped in on how to be the best parent. 

I could have wrote a book on the do's and do not's of parenthood. Seriously.

But even the most experienced parents can't prepare you completely for being a mother. There are just some things you have to learn yourself. 

With Archer it started the day he was born. 

In the hospital, newborns go through a series of tests several times. Our little Archer bear didn't pass his hearing test in his right ear. The test they do in the hospital is just pass or fail. He passed one ear and failed the other...three times. 

So we were scheduled to come back A few weeks later and he still failed. Once again we rescheduled for a couple weeks out and when we came back he STILL FAILED his right ear hearing test. Since it is pass or fail, we have to do a more extensive diagnostic test to know if he is completely deaf in his ear or just minor.

*side note: the whole month of September we have zero health insurance. Since Brandon switched jobs we have to switch insurances and it just so happens that we had 30 days without any.*

At this time is was the end of august and the diagnostic test is about $900 without insirance... And we don't have that money...so we decided to hold off on the test, only because it doesn't hurt Archer to go without the test. 

In the month of September we ended up at the doctors because archer had a fever, then in the insta care for a large bump on one of his little testicles.. :(

Let me tell you, insta care is not cheap! 

We found out that Archer had what's called an Inguinal Hernia. 

What I understand... Boys little parts come from the intestines? I dont know. But after they decend, they are supposed to close off and sometimes they don't. So my poor baby's intestines were literally looped down in his scrotum. Ugh, doesn't that sound so dang sad. 

We scheduled surgery for October 6th, we decided to wait so our new insurance was in gear. These little surgeries can run upwards of $15,000. H o l y. H e l l. 

Last night my sweet husband and father gave me and archer a blessing. I had completely forgotten the power that priesthood holders have.. And I definitely need to stop making excuses for missing church haha.

This morning we got up at 6:00 and headed to primary childrens hospital. I had to give my baby up to the doctor, screaming his lungs out, and watch him walk through the door to be put under anesthesia.. My TWO MONTH OLD BABY has to be put under. Man that just killed me. 

We waited over an hour and got called back to see Archer. 

I am super emotional as it is, and seeing Acher still Loopy from drugs was heart breaking. And on top of that, his oxygen levels were very low so we had to stay for several hours after until they stabilized. 

Archers doctor came back to talk to us and said the surgery was very successful and the hernia was fixed, along with a hydrocele removal. 

My poor babe has been a sad monkey all day.. I hate seeing him in pain and not being able to take it away completely!  

So basically that's our crazy life right now. I sure hope it helps Archer feel better in the long run...being a parent is hard. 

Trying to know what to do and not to do for your child is so hard. 

As hard as today (and the last two months) Have been, I can't help but sneak into the room after I put him to bed, and just watch him sleep. He is the best blessing to come into my life! 

His cute little fingers and ears... His perky little lips puckered up. HE IS SO CUTE!  

I'm feelin' twenty twooooo

Well, it was my birthday today. And if you know me, you know I love birthdays (mostly mine) more than anythinggggg! 

My poor husband has been saving and preparing basically since my last birthday haha! But I had the best day:)

A couple weeks ago, Brandon asked me if I wanted one of my gifts early, and of course I didn't hesitate! He pulls out a little envelope with a LARGE sum of cash in it. He had been saving on the side (or selling drugs)  to give me a post-baby shopping spree! 

I still haven't got back to where I want to be after having Archer and I literally only fit into two pairs of my old jeans so this present was not only very wanted, it was needed ;). 

The past couple weeks have been super fun getting new clothes that help make me feel more normal. 

Then over the weekend Brandon came home with my other present! Side note: if you haven't noticed already, we can't keep secrets, presents are always shown or told before they are supposed to haha. 

So he knocks on our front door and I answer, he is sitting there with a painting of our family!! The cutest most amazing painting and totally my husbands style:) I love it! It's seriously perfect, I mean it even has sharky in it! 

So my actually birthday today was just as awesome as the last couple weeks building up to it. 

I met my older sister and mom at the outlets at traverse mountain and we did a little shopping:) then we ate lunch at kneaders! 

I love kneaders:) it has a place in my heart, Brandon proposed to Me there! 

After lunch I colored bre's hair because we have family pictures coming up and who wants roots?!

For dinner me and my hubs went to salt lake to endulge in the best steak ever! Ruth's Chris is highly recommended if you like pretending you're extremely fancy and rich, I know we had fun! 

The food was to die for and I got a cheese cake for free since It was my birthday! 

It was a great birthday and I couldn't have asked for more! I am super spoiled and have the best family! 

Plus my husband is about the best thing ever.

My boys

Nothing makes me happier then seeing archer smiling up at his daddy. 

And Brandon can ALWAYS make him smile! ( I'm still working on it, he just stares at me.)

I love capturing these moments! I go back through my pictures all the time to look at them. Melts my heart <3

Yesterday archer bear was 7 weeks old! It really has gone by so fast but I love it. Every day he is more and more aware, and I can finally see a light at the end on the tunnel with his colic-it's far away, but I see it! 

Some of Archers favorite things are:

•boobs

•bottles

•facing outward while being held

•listening to piano music 

•the blow dryer  

•laying on his changing table 

•baths 

•sleeping in funny positions

•being outside 

Some of the things Archer doesn't like:

•having a wet diaper 

•being inside

•being cold after the bath 

•lotion 

•his bouncy chair

•his swing

•sleeping on his back 

•the fact that he doesn't have control of his arms and scratches his eyes the second his gloves come off

Blessing Day.

Yesterday our little Archer bear was blessed by his dad. 

It was such amazing day for our family!...but it was one wild day. 

A couple weeks ago I contacted our ward bishop and told him we wanted to bless our baby on a Saturday,not Sunday; We wanted just our closest family and friends there, a small, simple blessing.

Our bishop was totally fine with that! And said someone would be there from the bishopric.

Yesterday morning I had Brandon text the secretary to make sure someone would be there and the doors would be unlocked at the church, oh of course they had totally spaced it but he said someone would be there a little late. 

'A little late' turned into 45 minutes late! We legitly had 40 people waiting that whole time for this counseler. 

Finally one of Brandon's uncles who is a former bishop, told us that we actually didn't need the bishopric there! 

So we started! 

Opening song, prayer, and the blessing happened before he got there haha. 

The blessing was the most amazing thing to experience as a mother and wife! Archer cried his little heart out the whole time (I just say he was emotional because of the words his father was saying to him)  it was perfect. 

After the blessing we sang a closing song and during that, the bishopric counseler came in haha... Brandon told him what had happened and I guess he was at our house!!

Miss communication I guess. But that's okay because our little baby got blessed and we had all our family and friends by our side. 

Sappy sappy.

I want to share a poem that my older sister shared with me earlier today. It's super long but take the time to read it if you are a mother! 

'From the moment you hold your baby in your arms you will never be the same

You might long for the person you were before 
When you had freedom and time
And nothing in particular to worry about

You will know tiredness like you never knew it before
Days will run into days that are exactly the same
Full of feedings and burping
Nappy changes and crying
Whining and fighting
Naps or a lack of naps
It might seem like a never-ending cycle

But don’t forget…

There is a last time for everything
There will come a time when you will feed your baby for the very last time
They will fall asleep on you after a long day
And it will be the last time you ever hold your sleeping child

One day you will carry them on your hip then set them down 
And never pick them up that way again
You will scrub their hair in the bath for one last time 
And from that day on they will want to bathe alone

They will hold your hand to cross the road 
Then will never reach for it again
They will creep into your room at midnight for cuddles
And it will be the last night you ever wake to this

One afternoon you will sing “the wheels on the bus” and do all the actions
Then never sing them that song again

They will kiss you goodbye at the school gate 
The next day they will ask to walk to the gate alone

You will read a final bedtime story and wipe your last dirty face
They will run to you with arms raised for the very last time.

The thing is, you won’t even know it’s the last time 
Until there are no more times. And even then, it will take you a while to realise.

So while you are living in these times, remember there are only so many of them and when they are gone, you will yearn for just one more day of them.
For one last time.'

I know it's crazy long but that'll pull at your heart strings!! 

It's 5:30 in the morning and I just finished feeding archer for the second time tonight. He is fast asleep but I don't want to put him down. 

As some of you know, Archer has been a very hard baby and it's tested me in every way. I sure do love him but parenthood is hard. 

I always find myself wishing for the next day, month and even year. Wishing for him to hold his head up, roll over, crawl, walk, and talk. 

Bre read this poem to me and we both had tears in our eyes. Ugh. 

Who knows when I will get up in the night to feed my little monkey, burp him and put him back down..

When he is older, who knows when I will hold his hand for the last time, or when he decides he is too old for my mommy kisses. 

We shouldn't take parenthood for granted, (easier said then done) especially being a mom. I feel we tend to push for the next day and forget the important things. 

I'm blabbing I know but it's just crazy. CRAZY! 

Geez.  us mothers are lucky..

The gift to be pregnant, have children, and have that special bond with them. 

It's definitely time for me to slow down and appreciate my baby, because he might grow out of that baby baby stage.. But then he will won't snuggle me. That's the best thing in the whole world...baby snuggles. 

Okay sappy rant over. 

P.s. My babe started smiling the other day! I sure hope that never has it's lasts:) 

Remember that one time?

So to clear up my crazy purple hair, you have to know the whole story:).

For a few months now I have been showing Brandon pictures of that awesome grey/lavender hair and I just love it! I kept telling him I wanted to do it and of course, he was all for it! Brandon loves funky stuff like that. 

Thursday morning I decided to surprise him and do it. I texted my friend who I work with and she had an opening that morning!! 

I ran (drove) to salon centric; a store where licensed cosmetologists can buy color, tools etc...

I asked them where their provana color was and told them what I wanted to do. One mean worker girl who was so sassy told me they were out of lavender. BUT. If I mixed the vibrant purple with some clear color to dilute it, it would be the exact same. 

Once I get in my head something I want, I have a REALLY hard time waiting for it. I WANT IT NOW. So even though I had a bad feeling in the back of my head, I bought the clear and vibrant purple haha. 

I went back to the salon and Kimber mixed it up. Legit p u r p l e. Like the brightest crazy purple haha. We slapped it on my hair anyway.. Goodbye perfect blonde. 

So then I was purple. HAHAHA.

The girl at salon centric is a liar.

I actually liked it at first! But once I got home and the more I looked at it I kind of wanted to die. 

Only white trash people have their whole head bright purple (sorry if you're not white trash and have this hair). 

Luckily the next day another girl I work with had time to do a bleach wash on it. A bleach wash is just bleach diluted with warm water. We wags it over my hair for a few minutes and it pulls the purple right out. 

Now I have that awesome grey/violet I wanted all along! And a cool story and pictures to go with. 

I don't have any good pictures of my hair now so enjoy this crappy one, except my bath bear is the cutest thing ever:).

At least I have a funny story to tell later on, right?! 'Remember that one time I had purple hair...'

Call us crazy.

Guess what.

Yep. We couldn't stay away. 

We were literally counting down the days till I had Archer because that meant we could get cats again! As some of you know, we had to baby kitties in December that we loved! But unfortunately allergies got the best of us; they were long haired cats. Also having cats while being pregnant supposedly isn't good...so we had to give mowgli and peanut away :(

BUT!

I had archer, life got *somewhat* settled and today on Facebook I saw that best friends animal shelter was having a promotion on baby kitties because they had too many. I asked Brandon what he thought (like I even had to ask, I knew the answer) and he jumped right on that! 

So we packed up baby and headed to salt lake to pick up two more children. It took a while of playing with all the kitties to feel a connection (yes we are those weird people who have to connect with their animals) but finally we found Forrest and Dyson! 

It was seriously the cutest thing. Dyson walked right up to me meowing and I was instantly in love. 

And Forrest was being held by a lady when we first got there, but her daughter wanted another cat. She was telling us how she visits several times a week just to play with the cats and loved little Forrest. So we played with him and he is such a little cuddle ball. 

Ugh we are so in love, and I don't even care that everyone hates cats. WE LOVE CATS AND WE ARE PROUD-spongebob reference.... Ya know? Where he thinks he is ugly but it's really just his breath?-

Anyway we are happy and now we have four kids!

Sharky, Forrest, Dyson and Archer! 

^ Dyson; he is seriously so so tiny it's adorable.

^ Forrest; not the best picture but he is such a calm little kitty!

^ and duh. Can't forget baby Archer. I can't get enough of him. Plus he is ONE MONTH on Wednesday. Wow.

^and sharky boy. He is a punk. He killed his five siblings.