6 months old!

6 months old.

I just can't believe its possible my sweet boy. It feels like just yesterday I was pregnant with you awaiting your arrival. The past 6 months have gone so fast! I still feel like you are my sweet newborn boy but you are getting so big!

So much has happened in your short life so far. We have live in 3 different places, 3 different town, 2 different states. We moved, we had holidays, birthdays and snow days. We have had hot weather, cold weather and everything in between.

You are very different from your sister. It is hard to believe you two are related but then I just look at you and its obvious!

You are definitely a mama's boy. That may even be an drastic understatement. You love being in mamas arms or the carrier and just hate when I leave you, even to shower! If you have a full belly you tend to do better letting other people hold you, but if you are even remotely hungry you wont let your meal leave your sight.

You have struggled with some allergies, all of which we have not figured out. We cut out diary completely, and we limit gluten and soy. It has seemed to help a lot, but not completely yet.

You love: rolling over, watching your sissy play, nursing, cuddling, being outside, your paci, your jumper, when people talk to you, being tickled, your swing, your toes, sleeping snuggled up to mommy and your swaddle.

You hate: not having access to nurse, bottles, things on your head, distractions of any kind while nursing, when mommy has a towel on her head after the shower, not being held or apart of something and having a tummy ache.

You use rolling as a form of crawling and will roll around to get things you want, even on the hard tile floor. You have not had anything to eat except mama's milk and you are thriving. We are going to practice baby led weaning and allow you to explore food as you desire to without purees. Breastmilk is best for you, and is all you need until you are one, so until then you are welcome to explore foods and play with them after nursing. I am sure you will love to hold and taste them soon. You are such an explorer. Mama's milk will still be there to sustain and satisfy you though!

You are sleeping is a various places at night. Some nights start in the swing, for a bit, but most nights are snuggled up to mama. You wake about every 2 hours to be cuddled and nursed. You definitely need that time to snuggle me and have a drink. As much as I'd like more sleep, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Those night I am up with you, its like no one else exists. It's just us, snuggled up and 10 years from now I will look back on this time and be oh so thankful I didn't miss any extra moments snuggling.

I just can't believe my sweet newborn is getting so big so quickly. I think about your birth often. It truly shaped me as a mother. It helped me to have more patience and strength. It helped me to know that when things are rough, there is an end. It helped me to know that I am strong, and I can do this mothering thing, even on days when it is so hard. Thank you for teaching me so much Kadence Connor. Happy 6 month birthday!

Arizona Life: Month 1

We have been in Arizona for about 2.5 weeks.

I thought I would like it down here since I had visited many times over the summers on vacation. But I had no idea just how much I would LOVE it, and the kids would love it!

The weather is nice this time of year, and I already know what to expect during the summer: swimming and getting tan! Besides the weather I just love the lifestyle. Tim and I want to make healthier choices for ourselves and our family. While trying to live a healthy lifestyle in central Illinois is for sure possible, it was hard to do for me and it is just so second nature here! Every block has a different organic produce market, or natural food store. The weather of course makes you want to go out and be active. There are some AWESOME parks here and places to take the kids outdoors. It's just plain awesome.

Tim and I have been wanting to make some healthy changes for our family and this move to Arizona was the kick in the butt we needed! Right before coming here I began to realize that Kade may have an issue with dairy in my diet. So I cut back on it drastically and saw an improvement. So now I am completely dairy free. I thought it would be very hard to give up dairy completely since I love it, but honestly it has been pretty easy! Now that dairy has been removed from my diet, if I even slip slightly and have a very small amount, Kade pays for it! What better motivation to stay away from it than seeing it hurt my child? 

Another change Tim and I have decided to implement is to eliminate (or try to the best we can) all foods that contain GMO. I didn't realize the role that eating food containing GMOs played in harming myself, and my kids. This documentary along with some other research helped open our eyes. Although it may be near impossible to avoid GMO entirely, we are choosing not to bring them into our home with the foods we eat. 

This brings me to my next point, eating out. Eating out is next to impossible when you want avoid dairy, even if you "cheated" and had foods containing GMO. I am sure there are some places we could go but I don't think we will be eating at very often. We both enjoy cooking so much, the markets here are simply awesome, and The Fresh 20 had made meal planning SO easy that it just seems like a better choice to eat at home when possible. 

We started doing The Fresh 20 a few weeks ago and we just love it! Some people don't like to have their meals planned out so strictly but the planner in me just adores it! I love having 5 meals already planned for each week, using only fresh, never packaged ingredients. It is awesome that it plans the meals most cost effectively to use up all of the ingredients for the various meals that week so the produce that would usually get tossed, we use for a few different meals! I also love that it pushes me to try new things. If you know anything about me, you know I am a picky eater and I HATE trying new foods, but this meal plan has pushed me to try new things and actually like them. SHOCKER, I don't think I'll ever like mushrooms though. 

We are very excited about the changes we are making as a family, and these are just a few of them. We hope to continue to learn and teach our children how to live a healthy lifestyle. Since starting to make changes in my diet right before I got pregnant with Kade, I have lost 24.5 pounds, even with a pregnancy in there, and I hope that is just the beginning! It was an eye opener to look back on pictures of me two years ago. And my health is SO much better than it was two years ago! I feel much, much better!

Although its a small update on our family, it's all I got for now. I am hoping to do a post soon on our new house, once it gets put together, which may never happen with 2 kids.