Southern at Heart

If you read my previous post you will know that I've been doing a lot of thinking recently. Not just on how to figure out how to make teething as easy as possible naturally but thinking long and hard about my life. I'm going to dig down DEEP so grab an iced tea or a warm late' if you're in the snowy midwest!

Life is busy and messy and loud and lonely at our house these days. You're thinking, two kids and you're lonely? Yeah. I am. My sweet husband is working way too many hours for me to even try to count right now with him being an accountant. This is not the happiest time of the year. Thank God for sunshine. He's also in grad school full time so those two combined means he is never home. It's hard for all of us, especially since we are a tight knit family and we love spending time together. I adore my husband, our babies love their daddy almost more than anyone in the world and he loves all of us just as much. So, its hard when our hearts desire is to …

Nikki Andrews.

I'm Chris' wife and Kate and Will's mom. 
I pour my life, my everything into those three souls. 

^
That's who I am. 

I never thought about my identity too much until recently.  When I was working {pre-kids} I was Chris' wife and the High School Administrator. Work was never "who I was" but it was part of me and was what I did. Now that I've been home for almost 5 years I have come to realize that my identity is found in my children.

 It all clicked when I was at Target child free and a mom with her very loud and wild children said something to me like, oh enjoy the quiet! I smiled and told her that I was and then quickly followed it up by telling her that my two children were at home with daddy and so on. Ever since that moment I now feel the need to wear a sign on my chest that says I'M A MOM when my children are not with me. Or when I'm grocery shopping with Will while Kate is at school and a mom tells me to enjoy every minute becau…

I've been asked several times how we got our kids to be such great sleepers so I thought I'd do a short post on it. There is no magical potion or anything silly like that. It happened by 2 little words, SLEEP TRAINING! 
When I was expecting Kate I read the book "Baby Wise" which really helped guide me as a new mom on how to get our baby girl to sleep. The first few months are seriously pointless in even hoping to get more than a couple hours of sleep a night because their tiny little bodies need to eat every few hours plus isn't every baby born nocturnal? 
We start "sleep training" from the day we bring them home from the hospital. And by that I mean we start a routine and are consistent with it day in and day out. Of course there are days when things are off a bit and that's ok but so far we are 2 for 2 on amazing sleepers and I give all the credit to being consistent!
Starting around 5-6 months we start a schedule with naps and move bed time up earl…