Loyd Family Christmas Update!

We’ve had some exciting changes in 2013 and are so thankful for a wonderful year.

 Chris started a new job as a 911 dispatcher! We had been praying and hoping for a new opportunity for a long time and this job took us by surprise. Our future definitely looks a little brighter now and Chris really appreciates the excitement level of his new job and not having a long commute to and from work.

We also bought our first home! It is a 5 bedroom townhouse with a fenced in front yard. We are so blessed to be here and have a little more space. The tight quarters of our old house were making us all pretty cranky, but now we feel like we can bless others with this space. We have one awesome renter right now and are looking for another one to welcome into the family! Having a safe place we can offer gives us a lot of joy and we’re excited to see what the new year holds in that respect.

The girls are really starting to enjoy each other’s company, and that has been a delight for everyone. They like to pull out all the wipes and clean (pretty annoying when all the wipe packages are empty, though!), have dance parties, and play ring around the rosie. We have some rough moments (that sometimes last for the whole day), but for the most part they are enjoying being sisters. Reilly is starting to ask how words are spelled and will make up a new song with only a moment’s notice. She’ll ask for cookies all day long and boss people around whenever possible. Mackenzie enjoys pulling all the pants out of her drawer and wearing them on her head. She also is to the stage where SHE knows what she wants but doesn’t always know how to tell US. We are figuring it out though!

Nicole has been keeping very busy with all her obligations. On top of working two part-time jobs, there are multiple Bible studies, MOPS group, play dates, and just the normal running around that needs to happen every now and then! A new development this year is leading worship for a women’s Bible study as well as having a little online craft store selling handmade items. She is welcoming back her crafty side!

Chris has been working a lot this year and wasn’t allowed any vacation time, but already has 5 weeks off for next year. Due to not using any sick days in 2013 (yay for good vitamins!), he gets an all expenses paid trip to attend a conference of his choosing. One of the major conferences will be at Disneyworld so it sounds like we’ll be taking a trip to see Mickey! The other five weeks will be spent on weddings, fishing trips, and hopefully some good relaxing.

We are so thankful and blessed. We have a wonderful place to live, amazing friends and community, family we love dearly, and great expectation for next year. Thanks for being our people!

Love,

Chris, Nicole, Reilly and Mackenzie

We Are Buying A House!

Yes, we are excited!
We should be (a lot of things still have to happen right, so pray pray pray!) closing on our townhouse early September and it won’t be a moment too soon. This has been a long process for us, with the last leg of the journey waiting on a short sale. We waited two months, got word it would be AT LEAST another two months, and were under contract on a different place the next day. We were done messing around to be sure. :) Our townhouse is almost triple the space we are currently in, has 5 beds, 2.5 baths and a fenced in front yard that is a nice size. No other town house we saw had a fenced in front yard, so that’s a pretty big deal! We are hoping to rent out the two bedrooms in the basement, so let us know if you know anyone who might be interested!

Moving means packing and purging. I am very excited about this element too. Although, purging is difficult with a 3 year old who sees everything. I was trying to be sly with my placing stuffed animals and little books and the purge bag, but clearly not so sly.

Reilly: Where did my little pink monkey go?

Me: Oh, I just put it in a bag.

R: You mean that trash bag? Right there?

M: Yup. Do you want a snack?

Never fear, all our wonderful toys will be donated, not trashed. I am not a big trash person. Recycling, Upcycling and second chance are all great things. Reilly is also getting very excited about packing up her things and taking them to the new house. She tried to pack all her toys last night although I warned her she is probably going to still want things to play with in the next three weeks. That box didn’t get taped down, but I didn’t want to squash her excitement. :)

Reilly is now THREE! We celebrated her birthday with a small party at our local splash pad. She had so much fun running around with her friends, and even her Papa made a special trip from IA just for her! Her big toy this year was a bike and helmet. She also is getting bigger in so many areas: talking in full sentences and almost always getting words correct, singing songs to the correct tune and just generally having a better understanding of all that is going on around her. This leads to a lot of questions, but that is how she learns!

Mackenzie will be turning one in two weeks as well. Two August babies have solidified the fact that I NEVER want an August baby again. Of course this year, when I haven’t been pregnant, the weather has been much milder. Anyway, Mack is close to walking and has got to have more teeth coming out sometime soon. She still only has her two bottom teeth, but she is getting along just fine. She loves to cuddle and is just generally sweet. If you were to spend the night at our house, you might be woken up with her singing at 5pm. It’s very cute but very early.  It’s also been fun learning her preferences and realizing that she has a lot of little opinions. For example, she refuses to eat plain pasta or rice, but if you mix in a sauce she might eat more than an adult. Our easy fix for this problem is to always have pesto around – a little spendy but better than having a one year old grump. 

Everything else around here is going well. We still love and are totally blessed by our jobs (and extra blessed that the majority of mine is from home). We are so thankful for our two sweet girls and all the joy they bring. We are excited for all the wonderful things happening around us. Thanks for reading!

We're Still Here

I know the blogging world didn't any better until now, but we're still here! So much has happened since our last update, as usual, and I'm already sad over the things I know I am forgetting to share. This blog comes to you from my patio table with a thunderstorm rumbling in the background. Reilly is swinging and Mackenzie is napping. I am also savoring some homemade lemon cheesecake with lemon curd. The girls and I whipped some up this morning. Then we went to the splash park to play with our playgroup. It was a good morning. After the water fun we came home to take a cold bath (water heater hasn't been working for three days - it's getting mighty stinky around here and dishes are piled high) and Mack was pretty upset about it. I didn't have a lot of options though!

There has been a lot of transition since our last post, so I had better get going on the details.

Chris is a 911 dispatcher and he is loving it. He is still in the 9 month training phase, but he gets compliments all the time on how quickly he learns everything. He also always has a lot of great stories to share!

I tried to quit my job at the church and just work from home with my wellness company, but then they talked me into staying at the church to just do the finances. Four hours a week was much more manageable, and I have a hard time saying no....so I said yes. I am really excited to have more time at home to be with the girls but to also make sure all the daily things are getting done. I like the house to be clean and dinner on the table. SO, it is important to me to be here to actually do those things!

Reilly is a very sweet big sis and is doing a relatively good job of sharing. She can be very helpful and does a great job of making sure Mack is safe (she gets pretty upset if we leave the door to the stairs open and runs to close it so Macky doesn't fall down them). Another set of eyes is great! Her life is also one big musical, and makes up songs for whatever she is doing. It is a strange day to be on a car trip and not hear a song about it being summer and the birds singing in the trees. It's very sweet and we love her songs. Our struggle lately has been her listening and obeying promptly. We ask her to do something, maybe even count to three, and she just sits here and says "WHY?" Counting is not working anymore. :)

Mackenzie is motoring all over the house and loves to get into everything. Toilet paper rolls are endless entertainment and she does a better job of picking up the crumbs than a dog. It's a lot harder keeping the floors clean when there is an other sister snacking and dropping stuff everywhere. Mack loves to pull herself up to standing and will probably be walking before long. She is very sweet and smile-y. Loves to clap, eat blueberries and play with whatever Reilly is playing with.

Other family news: Our Jeep is dead and I say good riddance! We bought a Prius a couple days ago and are really happy with it so far. Definitely not a road trip car when you have two kids, but it's great for getting around town - and 50 miles to the gallon is amazing (our Jeep did about 16 - again, good riddance!).

We were also on a house hunt for a long time, and things were just never working out. The market out here is crazy! Well, now that we have a car payment we weren't planning on, we have started looking at town homes instead. We put an offer in today, so fingers crossed and big prayers! Initially we were hoping to find a home we could stay in for a while, but now we are going the short term route and hoping to be doing something different in the next year or two (and renting out the town house).

We are really excited for summer and everything that is apart of this season. We are also hoping for a good yield out of the vegetable garden. There are lots of flowers in there and flowers = food! I would love to can tomatoes this year from the garden, so I hope the 6 plants I have will do the trick!

Today is also our 5th wedding anniversary. Time has flown and we are so thankful for our life and our family. We are unbelievably blessed and can't wait to see what else is in store for us.

Thanks for reading!

 Eating dinner on the patio

 She got her hands on Chris' hair putty and got to work. 

 Classic summer day

Loves her bath when the water is warm. She has now transitioned to the big tub with Reilly. They love to play in there together!

We are really excited...

Reilly has gone on her princess potty for THREE DAYS now! We hadn't pushed it at all really - we would just occasionally ask her if she wanted to use the potty and get a special treat. Well, something clicked and she realized that she could be living days full of treats. On the first day of the three, Chris was home with the girls while I was at work. Reilly just starting using the potty on her own and Chris was so excited he gave her an oreo. Well, then she did it AGAIN, so, another oreo. By the time I got home from work, she had a stomach full of oreos. Since then, we have started using a TREAT JAR and she gets to pick a treat out each time. Not all of the treats are food (which was the point) so she also gets to get her nails painted, jump on our bed, call anyone she wants, etc. It's also been helpful because since she can't read, she doesn't really know what the slip of paper says. So, last night the paper "said" that she could brush her teeth with her purple princess toothbrush. I "read" it with so much enthusiasm, she didn't even notice that she was going to be doing that anyway. All in all, we are thrilled. I was getting anxious for her to be potty trained mostly because I was weary of washing diapers all the time - it all worked out!

Mackenzie is rolling all over the place these days and also scoots on her knees. She really enjoys sitting in her bumbo and seeing the family instead of being on the floor all the time. She is no longer swaddled (a much easier transition that Reilly's experience) and is so happy when she wakes up in the morning because she just scoots around her crib. Last night she only woke up once and needed some comforting, so we are SO CLOSE to sleeping through the night (I know I said that last post too - but now for sure). I am very ready to sleep through the night again. It's taking it's toll!

Chris started a new job a couple of weeks and he is really enjoying himself. He is working much closer than before, and even that makes it feel like we have so much more time in our day. Right now he is working at 3pm-11:30pm shift, so it's an adjustment not having him here for dinner and bedtime, but we are making due!

I was tired of leaving the house and only going to work, so now we are apart of a MOPS group, going to story time at the library, and a couple of Bible studies! We went from doing nothing to almost everything, but we're having a good time.

Cheers!

So Close

We're so close to sleeping through the night! I am not sure how much longer I can last, so hopefully Mack will figure it out SOON. She will be 5 months old in 3 days, and considering how you don't sleep through the night halfway into pregnancy, that means I haven't slept through the night in nine months! I can hardly wait. It will also be so beneficial for her to get a good night's rest as well. 

Today was Chris' last day at the job he's had for almost three years. Monday starts a new chapter where he will be a dispatcher! We are very excited for this opportunity for many reasons, and I am anxious to hear what the schedule will be. There is a good chance he'll be doing something in the middle of the night and I'm a planner, so I want to know what our days will look like! Chris will also only have a fraction of his old commute, so that just added an hour to everyday. 

We've been battling a few sick bugs for the last couple of weeks. We've all been feeling pretty good the last couple of days though, and I'm planning on disinfecting the whole house tomorrow just to play it safe. It's so hard having sick kids and definitely helps you appreciate the healthy days! Reilly will also TELL you she is sick so she can have more of her tasty medicine. Luckily all Mackenzie has had to deal with is a cough.

 Reilly has been a very sweet big sis - she'll play with Mack and help find her toys. When Mackenzie is crying, Reilly will go rock her and say "Shh, Macky, honey, it's ok!" Whenever we're in the car she always gets concerned when we stop at a light because she knows that Mack likes it best when we're actually driving. She doesn't like Mack to be sad.

 Mack is getting so big! She started rolling right about four months. She wasn't so sure about it at first, but a change of scenery is nice sometimes. She also is a thumb sucker for sure. We were trying to only use the paci, but it just wasn't working unless you wanted to be on 24 hour patrol. No one has time for that, so we just gave in.

This happened one morning when I was out. She usually is content with feeding her dollies, but must have decided Mack needed a little help too!

I found ten minutes

Well, to be honest I would rather be sleeping right now. I have to stay up to feed Mackenzie one more time before going to bed. The last couple of nights she has gone six-hour stretches! Sleeping a little longer each time has been really nice and I'm already dreaming of the day I can sleep all night again. On special days I might get to take a nap while the kids are napping - but not today. I really could have used one too. Reilly was up then Mackenzie then Reilly again. Reilly didn't end up sleeping at all and I am too scared to leave her in her room for too long. She is always finding trouble and most commonly when I go in there she is diaperless and has peed on the floor. She has used her princess potty several times, and would probably camp out there all day if she didn't let herself get distracted. Every time the princess potty makes music, that means it's candy time! I am pretty sure she only pees on the potty for the candy. Whatever though. I only give her 3 skittles at a time. 

We are doing well in general and staying plenty busy. We aren't busy with the Holiday bustle really, just everything else. I realized that I do about ten loads of laundry every week, so we are folding stuff just about every night after the kids go to bed. There are a lot of diapers to wash when there are two kids wearing them! If I can get laundry washed and dinner on the table in the same day, I'm feeling pretty good. I am also still working at the church part time and have spent some extra time there due to buying a building and having to move. We have been in the new place for ten days and I still feel so far from organized. Reilly also has her own little role at the church because she always helps get the chairs ready for Sundays by making sure the envelopes and pens are there. We are blessed to have the flexibility to bring the kids to work when I need to! There are some pretty fun toys there too, so Reilly doesn't mind that much.

Last week Mackenzie was being unusually cranky, and it turns out she had a virus and a really bad rash to finish it off. Poor kid! She has become very smiley though and is really a sweet baby. She is already 3 and a half months old, so she on her way to being a big girl now. She does great with standing and is super strong in general. She is getting more and more curious and aware and will just sit on your lap and look around. 

Reilly has been obsessed with Veggie Tales lately. I'm not a huge electronics person (all the toys I put on her Christmas list are wooden), so it's hard for me to let her watch VT too much. What that turns out to mean though is that I am singing VT songs ALL DAY. Her favorite is "God is bigger than the boogey man", but she calls it "creeping my bed." When she first started talking about that song we were confused and slightly alarmed. We didn't know what she was trying to tell us. She also has decided that her favorite color is green.  It turns out that just about everything I do in the kitchen is dangerous because when I'm in there cooking or cleaning, Reilly tells me to be careful - probably once every 5 minutes. It's sweet she is so concerned. Most of her prayers before dinner or bed go something like this: "Dear Jesus, thank you food, vitamins, Tebow, amen." Whenever I ask her what she wants to eat, she'll say "broccoli rice." When I actually give it to her though, she hardly eats it. I don't know if it means what she thinks it means. 

Anyway, time to do a dream feed and SLEEP! Can't wait. Enjoy some pictures below:

A Few Pictures