thelovelyleif.

hi.

so about a month ago, i began planning a baby shower.

i was set on making the invites myself.

so i did.

and then i wanted to make a thank you for my little niece's birthday.

something they could mail out to her little friends and family :)

and then it happened.

i went all crazy in making stuff.

and so i thought, well, i'll make a few cards.

and then i thought, maybe i'll make some more cards.

and BAM.

and so then.......i did these cute little prints...... thinking of holiday hostess gifts, or something to string up on your wall with a little yarn&clothespin, or perhaps to frame and set at your table as a cute little centerpiece :)

i'm having way too much fun.

it's crazy.

it's a bit addicting.

and now my mind is constantly swarming with ideas.

cheers for a new hobby :)

so then i thought, well, i'll open an etsy shop:

a colorado cousin.

the first week in november, romes and i hit the air.

we were off to the CO for charlotte's 2nd birthday :)

a 7:30am flight means arrive at the airport by 6:30,

which means leave at 5:45,

which means wake up at 5:00am

5am? not to unusual in the leif house - roman is quite the early riser.

BUT, he must of known somethin was up, for he woke at 4:00!

and he was a ball of fire.

yay.

needless to say as we were rollin into the airport, mr leif had to crank up some gangsta rap just so we could keep him up. there's no sleepin' until we get ON the plane ;)
we arrived in denver by 8:30 :)

my dad and mom drove out too, so my dad picked us up......roman FINALLY slept in the truck ride from the airport. crazy kid.

we arrive to this:

source

roman is slowly bustin out of his toddler anxiety.

and slowly starting to love charlotte........
but not as much as she loves him :)
some more lovin'
awwwww.

they say that once you have children, you don't take "vacations" anymore, but rather they're called "trips"........i would agree.

a plane ride makes most mothers of toddlers want to order wine in-flight, rather than a soda, even at 7:30am. i resisted. but barely.

multiple nights away from home can be wearing on sleep schedules, throw a time change of an hour difference in denver, and for kicks add the daylight savings time adjustment, and you'll want to hide under pillows and blankets for infinity because you're. so. tired. but i resisted, barely, and kept trudging on :)

however,

time at your sisters IS truly a vacation. not just a trip.

there were helping hands, and voices saying "go back to sleep, i'll watch roman for a while"

ahhhh.

such grace ;)

figuring things out.

i'm realizing that the first month of being a stay at home mom was my honeymoon period.

it slowly faded, and i slipped into a one-week depression.

literally.

we're talkin, stay in my pajamas all day.....

mutter bad things under my breath when i was washing dish after dish, just to wash more later.....

and again the bad thoughts as i picked up toy after toy, just to pick them all up again a few hours later.....

and again the bad thoughts as i tried to figure out what to feed roman for breakfast, knowing i would have to stare at the fridge a few hours later for lunch and again for dinner......

and again as i thought about my pathetic self pouting.....wondering why i was such a mess.

i felt so LAME.

i wondered why i was letting such things get me down...so so down?

i thought, what is WRONG with me?

why am i pouting, dragging my feet, going one too many days without washing my hair???

.....i've been dreaming of staying home with my baby ever since i saw the positive sign on the preggo test.

......this summer i was home with romes full time and i had a blast! it was a cinch!

.......i'm blessed with a happy healthy child!

why am i such a mess?

well, i'll tell ya one thing's for sure. continuing in the same pouty motions each day DOES NOT get you out of your slump. rather, it forces you down deeper.....

so. THAT's it, i said to myself.

time to put the big girl pants on and dig myself out.

what a yucky week. NO MORE!

truth is.......it's been hard to go from spending the day with 450+ children and 50+ adults......to JUST one other person {and he's only 13 months old}

i'm social. that's me. i need people around me.

so i went to town with setting up play dates, and all of the sudden i found my self with guests in my home ............5 days in a row. whoa.

some might think, "YIKES". you're overboard. calm down.

but i LOVED it.

i've always wanted my home to be swarming with people, conversation, children, food, sweets.....MUST have desserts {and wine too of course}

so that's what i did. i opened my door and in they came :)

and it was great.

i'm SO thankful for our church. the friendships i've made at oakhills are priceless.

and for me, friendships are medicine. yummy nummy medicine.

not having ANY family around has been difficult lately.

but i'm learning to lean on friends to fill that void.

what a blessing my yucky depressed week was for me.

while it was an ugly one, it revealed so much.

i learned to take pride in providing food for roman

i learned to be OK with a messy house

i learned to appreciate that mr leif doesn't demand dinner by 6pm and to take that pressure off myself

i learned that i NEED to get dressed, no all-day pajamas!

i learned that i do best when i get some adult interaction in my week

i learned that life is beautiful and we're give just the exact amount of grace we need to pull through these yucky times ;)

cheers to figuring out this new job, one day at a time!

[source]

oh. and i learned that from 4- 5:45 pm can be such a nasty time.......tired, hungry child wanting daddy + tired, hungry momma wanting daddy = bad combo.

so,

i learned that blaring music is a MUST during that hour and a half. and dancing to that music makes things even better. {just ask roman!}

catching up.

getting caught up, the easy way: phone photos from the past few weeks dumped into the blog :)

1. back home in the NE. grampa kurt teaching romes the ways of the field.

2. this combine is saweeeeet.

3. grammy abbi took me to see uncle colton's baby calves. moo says the cow.

4. tryin' out my new birthday wheels. pretty fly ey.

5. daily tunnel walks. tunnel walk? future husker? HA!

6. grampa kurt, grammy abbi, uncle colton and uncle cam came to KC! colton brought his cow for a cow show! moo.

7. uncle cam chillin at the hotel. romes got to swim with him too ;) gotta love hotel pools.

8. the halloween that wasn't? roman was sick that weekend. but we did have a little dinkydino costume.....

9. charlotte turned 2! off on a jet plane to go help her celebrate!

10. finally found a reliable babysitter = happy lindsey (date night with mr leif)

11. love my flannel wearin' brownbear.

12. snuggles with pop-pop. he came to visit on a work trip!

13. loving our cousin time in denver. noodles n co. wasssssup.

14. this is the life.

15. who sleeps on a plane? not little dizzle. he waits until after we arrive.....little stinker ;)

alright folks, there ya have it.

AHHHHHHH. {we had a doubledate tonight.....and i had coffee at 7pm........and now i'm wide awake......} AHHHHHHHH.

we partied in nebraska.

well, hi.

...........if anyone is even out there ;)

i've been mia for a while and i have lots of excuses as to why, however, i shall not bore you with those!

a long time ago, like a month ago, we went home to nebraska to celebrate roman's first birthday.

i spent way too much time trying to make a little party favor that would contain a photo from each of roman's first 12 months of life. and, thanks to a good friend who rescued me with adhesive spray, i finally completed them and vowed to never do that craft again. ever. (sorry to the rest of my future kids. hopefully i'll come up with something easier.)

so yes. we were off to nebraska.

before the party started, we had a much needed hair-cutting session outside.

in the stroller.

watching the horsies.

thanks aunty liza!!!

and as soon as the haircut was over (roman hates the clippers. hates.) we moved onto project set-up-for-party. i hauled a few things back from KC and with the help of my mom and sister, we got our fingers dirty in creativity. we had fun ;)

yummy, YUMMY white-chocolate raspberry cake grammy abbi picked this sucker up from the "cake lady" in lincoln ;)

the guests began arriving (our giant families) and soon it was partay time.

we sang, we lit candles, we clapped, we wore birthday hats.

all in big anticipation for.......

...the smashing and eating of the cake.

however, roman wasn't into it.

COME ON ROMES!!!!! eat that CAKE!

nope.

he even received cake-eating peptalks from uncle donavan, grammy ribbens, uncle cameron, uncle aaron, grammy AND mommy again, but NOPE.

roman got some lovely gifts ;)

and we got to spend such sweet time with family

aunty liza & cousin charlotte, uncle cam and 2nd cousin hudson, aunty lesley and little rome so happy to have celebrated such a fun day with our families :) roman and i stayed back in nebraska for the next few days with my sister and little charlotte. we were busy visiting aunties and grammies and collecting pine cones ;) (for a craft, ok?) one day, we even went into school to say hi to roman's uncles (mr leif's little brothers) and yikes. talk about nostalgia. i was immediately taken back to all of my high school memories ;) and of course, the beginnings of a romance that eventually led to marriage....oh mr leif, remember the good ole days?! i could hardly ever get you to come talk to me at my locker. tsssk tsssssk, so shy. ...... ok. i promise to be up and posting again ;) this past month has been so busy! i've got lots to talk about.... a visit to grammy abbi and grandpa kurt's farm! (roman even got to help harvest in the combine!) a visit to KC from mr leif's family! (they may or may not have brought a cow with them!) a halloween that wasn't! (what?) a trip to colorado! (charlotte turned 2!) and of course, i'll share all sorts of crazy stuff that has been taking up space in my mind. (i've got about 6 posts already started in my mind.....)