Time You Speedy Animal

HOWDY. Long time no see! Apologies for the forever hiatus. A few things have been pulling me away from this blog. One being life. Two being that my photoshop expired so I can't shrink my camera photos to fit on the blog! Tech issues kill me. So basically I have tons of content and no way to upload it all. (Well I'm actually positive there's a way to resize images I've just been too busy to figure it out.)

Because I'm sure you were wondering! You were wondering, right. ;)

If I had to sum up these past few weeks it'd go something like this: treats, events, messes, discipline, more treats, teething, hints of Michael. It's been a whirlwind like always but so fun to watch these two kids become playmates! The other day I was watching them both laying on their tummies playing with a bus and my mama heart just about melted! (Made up for all those times they're fighting over the same toy instead of sharing, ha.) We're out of the high-maintenance newborn phase which I'LL ADMIT is not my fave. Yes cuddly newborns are adorable but then you're exhausted all the time and sweet cuddles can only get you so far before you want to collapse. We're past that, hallelujah! We're onto the crawling, playing, eating, interacting phase which all of a sudden makes everything so much fun.

SORRY for lame pics. I guess the only iphone photos I take are of food or selfies - HA. So that's what you get! Lucky you.

Bullet points from life lately because my mind can't function in paragraphs right now:

- Gym! Cannon's old enough for daycare so I'm back at it and it's making me SO happy. I'm a much nicer mama when I can sweat my guts out for an hour.

- Cannon is finally loving food! Took a solid month of spitting it out but now he'll down a jar of baby food in minutes. So I'm praying for even more chunk(!!!)

- Lydia's little sentences are just about the sweetest thing. I love seeing how her mind works. For example:

Me: The car is just up here, we're almost there. 

Lydia: No mom, the car's not UP, it's down! It's on the ground! That's silly mama. 

She got me. 

- Michael still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up. He's only been trying to decide for like 25 years ;). Top choices currently are orthopedics, ENT and neurosurgery. But tomorrow he may want to be an OB, who knows! (Hopefully someone? We need to decide, ha.)

- HOW do you mamas keep up with all the kid clothes?? Lydia and Cannon are growing like weeds,  so I need two new wardrobes every 4 months! (Literally Lydia's pants are to her calves and Cannon's onesies don't button. Oops.)

- My sister Liv gets married in less than 3 weeks! Scott is the NICEST guy and they seriously could not be more perfect for each other. Also Liv has been zero touchy-feely her whole life (she looved all my obnoxious hugging and hand touching ;) ) but suddenly she's turned into the PDA queen?! I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS. Love them.

- For those who have asked, Potty Training is over! Went as great as we could've hoped for! I'll do a whole post so I can refer back to it for Cannon. At this point she just tells me when she has to go, we run to the potty, she does her stuff and I help her wipe and wash and then we're good to go!

- I am decluttering my house and it is WONDERFUL. Because somehow for a tiny family of four we have accumulated a ton of junk. HA. So I'm working my way through every room and organizing and selling and donating and I feel like a new zen-ish person. 

- Also I'll be having a huge instagram sale for clothes in the next few weeks. I admittedly have more clothes than anyone I know, and more clothes than any normal person needs. Because I'm a hoarder. So I'm doing a massive clean out - keep your eyes peeled and I'll let you know when it all goes live!

Anyway, there's the scoop on us! One of these nights I'll figure out my pictures and we'll get back on the cute wagon.

Green jumper: Free People

Yellow tee: Brandy Melville

Chambray dress: Urban Outfitters

Pink earrings: J.Crew

Striped tee: Madewell

Pink scarf: J.Crew

Navy culottes: Madewell

Pink flats: vintage

Workout top: Lulu

Workout leggings: Zella

Everyone Needs a Good Cry

DISCLAIMER: This whole thing is pretty much just so I can read back on it in three months and remember all of the chaos. So feel free to pass on by ;). HA.

It has been the craziest month EVER. And not in the "so many fun things going on!" way. Like literally I have never felt more stressed in my life, and I've done some pretty busy things. I'd never had an anxiety attack before; I have a few friends who have, and while I understood what they were describing, I hadn't actually experienced that. Until this week! Yay. I've just had ALL. THE. THINGS going on. Too many. And most of them have been great things! (i.e. so much family time!) But after a while even lots of good things just add up to be too much, ya know? A list for funsies:

My family in town, wherein I offended family members because I invited friends over. I felt awful. I'm so sorry. Stinkin 95% extrovert Annika ( here) cannot help herself apparently. 

Michael's family in town.

Cousin's baby blessing. 

4th of July with Michael's family. 

Family pictures, wherein we realized the next day there wasn't one of the whole family (and even though it wasn't anyone's fault it kind of felt like my fault because we used my camera?).

Michael's final exam.

My family back in town.

Driving my sister to and from her BYU camp every day for a week.

Potty training Lydia, wherein I became a crazy person for 3 days.

Mild anxiety attack.

24th of July parade, wherein my parked car got keyed (thank you downtown SLC).

24th of July bbq with Michael's family. 

Lydia being afraid to poop, so it takes about 1.5 hours back and forth from the potty any time she needs to go.

MAJOR FLOOD.

Renting all the fans from far away places. 

Really bad finger cut that I should've gotten stitches for but instead I'll just have a cool scar.

Running to Home Depot at 9:30pm to build a gutter and avoid yet another major flood.

Lydia's birthday party, wherein I offended half of earth by keeping it small because we are broke and I cannot feed more than 15 people. But really I've been crying because I feel so bad (extrovert).

Lydia and Cannon sleeping in the same room because of said flood, resulting in terrible sleep for all three of us.

Michael working night shifts. 

So many church responsibilities.

My family back in town.

Roof getting fixed. 

Lydia's actual birthday. 

Carpet getting fixed. 

A steady diet of diet coke and protein bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Shattered my phone.

Lydia pooping her pants and Cannon simultaneously screaming his head off while getting my phone fixed, wherein I cried in public.

UGH.

On top of all this we are SO tight on money right now. We get our loan in a couple weeks and we are just holding on for dear life till then. We are fine, it's just another added stressor when I've had a terrible day and my house is a disaster (literally, our basement is out of commission) and there's nothing for dinner and we can't just go run and grab something because we have no money so we eat popcorn for dinner, again. ***Actually turning out to be a great diet plan. HA.

I am just plain exhausted. I cannot do it all. I cannot please everyone, I've tried. I can hardly get an hour by myself, and I can't even dream of an hour by myself with NOTHING TO DO. It's been freakin busy. And all of this with no husband, really. 

You know it's bad when every time Michael and I talk, our Big Dream goes from a family cruise, to a couple's cruise, to just one night at a hotel (sleeping in! ah it must be magical!), to just dinner alone. HAHAHAHA. We are just really fun people. 

Speaking of which, I saw a cute mom of two driving a mini van with the bumper sticker "I used to be cool" on it. Ha! That made me lol real good. My life. 

And finally, my favorite thing I've heard recently is: "Treat everyone as if they are going through something really difficult, and more than half the time you'll be right." 

IS THAT NOT TRUE or what. So that's what I've been trying to do the last few weeks. Everyone has trials, even if it doesn't seem like it. Even if their hair is perfect or their kids already know how to read French backwards or their husbands aren't gone 15 hours a day, everyone has trials. So treat them tenderly :).

Cannon's Blessing Day

6/11/17

Cannon James received the sweetest blessing from Michael in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! I'm so grateful for God's individual plans for each of us. (Because if I got to pick my own plan I'd for sure be a mess right now, ha.)

After the church service we had so many wonderful family and friends come to our home for a little brunch! We had a yogurt bar with toppings, spinach quiches and donuts from Banburry Cross - yummm. And I was SOOOO SAD because we took tons of pictures of everyone who came and all the food but of course my memory card wasn't in the camera, so we didn't get any of it! But just imagine a fun green and blue summery set up.

We were super lucky to have both our moms in town! Moms are the best. They literally cleaned up the whole thing - including  Cannon's massive blow out right when we got home.

Blueberry donut = amaze. I'm not even that much of a donut person but I'll take 10 of these thank you.

So after I realized my camera had no memory card I had to quickly snag some photos with whoever was still around! That would be our BFFs. These are some of the med school people I am always talking about. I seriously do not know what I'd do without this crew (and many other amazing wives and friends we've met here at the U!). These are the girls I text when Lydia cuts her head and Michael won't answer his phone or when I need something from Walmart or when I don't know which picture to post. Another nod to God's awesome plans for us!! If we weren't here at the U we wouldn't have these incredible friendships. 

Students.

Cheerleaders.

I know I've said this before but Cannon is seriously THE happiest baby all of a sudden! He only cries if he's hungry (or if he's been in his Bumbo too long - his head's ginormous and he gets tired quickly lol). He is constantly smiling and laughing! And rolling everywhere! Like the other day I lost him under the couch. WHAT. He is pretty much a 6 month old. I love him so so much!

Dress: Anthropologie 

Shoes: Nordstrom Rack, old

Cannon's Outfit (which is now stained a lovely mustardy color): Jolley's Boutique in Salt Lake City

The Beach! And lots of thoughts about marriage.

After a few weeks in AZ last month (and after Michael's huge test - YAAAAY), Michael flew down and we road tripped together to CA! EASILY my second favorite part of the entire month. First fave being Disneyland, obvi. But I love me a good road trip. Mainly because I have a captive audience to listen to all my rambling stories ;). Ha, sorry babe. But really we were so stoked to get to Newport and be with his family! Lydia is OBSESSED with the water. Like we had to bribe her with food to get out of the ocean. How amazing would it be to do residency here?? Sometimes I think California is the dream, other times I miss the AZ heat, and then a lot of the time I think Utah is actually pretty awesome! So who knows where we'll actually end up long term. 

Anyway - BEACH!

Gosh I love these people! It's funny, every book I've read tells you that happiness in marriage decreases with each child. Which kind of freaked me out, because don't get me wrong, the beginnings of marriage were fun, but they weren't exactly blissful. Marriage is HARD! There was a lot of adjusting and getting to know each other.

So it's safe to say I was a little concerned about this looming decrease in happiness when I was pregnant with Lydia. 

Luckily this girl came into our lives and with it came an incredible measure of love, patience and joy. I think we both finally realized that this whole earth life is something bigger than just Michael and Annika. We aren't just here for ourselves, we're here to teach and rear children, to grow together as family units, to make lasting traditions and memories and create eternal bonds! Suddenly we felt this urgency to give our best to Lydia and to each other.

Not that it doesn't still take work! Michael and I have to re-evaluate ourselves personally and as a couple (and as a family!) all the time. What are our goals? What can we improve on? What's something I'm currently doing that's bugging the heck out of you? Hahaha.

And then this little guy came into the picture and just added a whole new level of joy. 

(Well let's be real - not those first few weeks. But now yes!)

So I want to call all those authors and tell them their books are wrong! YES kids bring with them financial stress, daily exhaustion, and a whoooooole lot of messes. But holy cow have we become so much more selfless because of it! 

I heard once that God is efficient; he's not going to make us jump through ten thousand hoops to learn a lesson if there's a way we can learn it in a hundred. (Though obviously sometimes the quickest way IS to jump through ten thousand hoops - we can be slow learners ;).) Well I totally believe that God's plan to put us in families is super efficient! HA. You quickly realize what matters and what doesn't. Aaaand as an aside you quickly learn to NEVER JUDGE ANOTHER PARENT because holy cow all kids are so different and we're doing the best we can.

Also this quote from Marjorie Pay Hinckley about marriage has been my motto the last few months: 

"Early on I realized but would be better if we worked harder at getting accustomed to one another than constantly trying to change each other - which I discovered was impossible... There must be a little give and take, and a great deal of flexibility, to make a happy home."

Isn't that the best? 

Well apparently I just thought like dumping all of that on you today, ha! Go squeeze someone you love!

My Swimsuit: Target

Lydia and Cannon's Suits: Kortni Jeane

AZ Retreat!

When Michael was studying for his board exam last month I took the kiddos down to Arizona! We weren't seeing much of Michael anyways so we figured PEACE OUT! Sorry babe.

Aaaaaand I have to admit, it was a little rough. Not the actual traveling part, Lydia and Cannon were amazing on the flight. But the out-of-routine part kind of killed us all. Neither of them slept great (read: they slept horribly) which then put me in exhausted survival mode for a month, woot woot! 

But there definitely were some awesome moments! Lydia LOVES her Papa and Nana, so waking up and seeing them everyday was heaven for her. 

And Legoland was a blast!

Also Lydia's first "bike" ride was a success, even if my awkward hunching-over-the-tiny-bike pose wasn't ;).

Cannon's already like double this size. He really chunked up in AZ! Must've been all the mexican food.

So in thinking back I thought I figured out why this trip was such a challenge (see Lydia's face), besides the obvious fact that there were now two kids:

Toys! 

I know, I wanted a way cooler answer, too. At home I can take a shower while Lydia cuts wooden fruit, and do my makeup while she puts all her stuffed animals to sleep, and then pay bills as she stacks her blocks. 

But my parents have a whole closet full of our old toys, so lack of toys isn't the issue. Playing with the toys was the problem. In the new environment she didn't feel comfortable enough to play with new things by herself. So I guess lack of independent play in a new place was the issue?

Which resulted in a month of zero alone time. PARTAY!

Okay random rant over.

How gorgeous is my mom's ring. I picked it out for her a few years back on a cruise and I still love it so so much.

The third sister to graduate high school! Congrats Isabel you cute thang!

Toros forever.

Probably the happiest moment of Lydia's AZ time was the "beach"! Homegirl is so obsessed with the water.

Workin on that postpartum beach bod... it'll come back eventually right? ;). It is TOUGH WORK after kid #2. And with my first I didn't lose all the weight till I stopped nursing, but with Cannon nursing is going better so I don't want to give it up yet! But a teeny tiny selfish part of me kind of does because: love handles. SHHH I know, bad mom.

Ooooh definitely a highlight of the trip! ;) Any guesses which won?

My cute mama and very best friend!

And closing out with the world's best sport! I hadn't picked up a racket in months (years??) but it felt so good to hit for a little! Anyone in Utah want to play?! I'm DYING to get back into it!

Up next: Cali Adventures! Michael finished his boards, flew to AZ, and then we road tripped all together to CA. So I'll post those pics as soon as I can string together more than 4 hours of sleep! ;) (COME ON CANNON JUST SLEEP ALREADY.)

White Top: J.Crew

Denim: Target

Pink Loafers: AMAZON!! Score.

Grey T-Shirt Dress: GAP

Printed Skirt: Anthro (8 years old!)

Black Top: Nordstrom

Dalmation Swimsuit: Old Navy

Lydia's Swimsuit: Ralph Lauren

Striped Tee: Madewell

Workout Top & Shorts: Lulu