Car Seat Cover with Window

Well, I'm about to do all of you a huge favor! As any of you who know my mom knows, she is a very talented woman. Many of you have been recipients of her talent. Well, I really wanted her to teach me how to make her car seat cover with a window so that I could make one for my friend. She cautioned me about this. She said, "As soon as you make one you will be asked to make more and more." They really are that amazing! And everyone wants to know where they can buy one, or if she'll make one for someone they love. SO... I decided that I would make this one, and document the whole thing so that I could blog her instructions. NOW YOU ALL CAN MAKE YOUR OWN! You're welcome!!!

1. Start with 1 ¼” yard of fabric for the front of your car seat cover, and 1 ¼” yard of fabric for the back of your car seat cover. Long side of cover is 42” and short side is 36”.

2. Measure in 12.5”. on the left side, the middle, and the right side and mark with a dot. Do this on the bottom as well. Do this on both pieces of fabric.

3. Draw a line connecting the dots

4.Cut down each line and label on the end of each piece of fabric, the sides and the middle so that you can keep them straight.

(proof that yours truly really did work on this thing)

5.Get out your “Clear Double Polished Clear Vinyl”from Walmart. Cut out 12” by 12” for the window.

6. Take 2 middle pieces and put them together face together. Measure down 20” and cut fabric. Label the top of the fabric and the bottom

7. Warning, plastic slips, you cant use a pin because it'll ruin the plastic. Put the plastic in between two fabrics, face in. Sew ¾” in. Make sure plastic and material don't slip.

8. Get iron out. Put heat on silk synthetic setting so its not as hot. CAUTION! Getting the iron too close to the plastic will melt/bubble it. Open up fabric to right sides and iron open seam. Iron both sides.

9. Back to sewing machine. Line presser foot up to material and top stitch all the way down.

10. Take middle bottom pieces, put together face in. Measure down 12” and cut. This piece will be the flap/cover.

(the master herself, isn't she cute?)

11. Place fabric face down on plastic (make sure right piece is on top) on both sides. Repeat steps 6-8

12. On to the sides. Place top fabric face down on top fabric. And bottom fabric face up on bottom fabric. Beauty here is you can pin the fabric. Make sure you get all 4 pieces lined up.
13.Sew 3/4” in. Liken to step 7.
14. Repeat step 8
15. You are also going to kinda repeat step 9, but only around the window.
16.Repeat steps 12-15

17. There will be bottom excess on you side pieces. Cut those off and they will be your straps (or you can buy extra fabric)
18. Now we are going to bind the edges. Fold your sides in 3/4” and then roll it so that it measures 1”. Pin this all the way around. HINT, start in the middle and work your way out. IN the corners, fold until it looks right. Refer to pic, and then IRON ALL OF IT. Then you will top stitch around. You can do a decorative stitch here if you want.

19. STRAPS. Put pieces together. Faces together. Measure and sew along side of presser foot. Sew 3 sides (they wont be all the way even, so sew measuring to the smaller piece). Clip off the corners and turn inside out. Fold 4^th side inwards so that it makes a clean 4^th side. You'll iron the strap at this point. Then do a top stitch all the way around.

20. Flap/Cover: Follow step 19 (straps)

21. Straps. Cut Velcro to fit width of strap. We turned our strap to the inside so our fabrics contrast. Sew Velcro square onto strap. Pay attention because 2^nd part of Velcro is sewed square onto other side of fabric. See pic. DONT SEW THESE ON TO THE ACTUAL CAR SEAT COVER UNTIL YOU CAN MEASURE IT TO YOUR CAR SEAT. You can put cute button on there too (or, for girls, a Big Bow). When doing second strap, make sure you are sewing Velcro on the same way you did the first strap.

21. The longer fabric side is the top, so that it can drape over the car seat.
22. Straps will be sewed about in the middle, depending on the car seat

23. We used ribbon as the holder of the flap/cover. Cut the ribbon 8”. Loop ribbon on both sides (2” from corner) and pin overlapping. Put the flap over the top, lining the top of the window. Sew across the top, using the footer as your guide.   

24. You can add a few different things to the finishing touch. This is what I decided to do.

Happy 1st Birthday Parker!!! March 22, 2015

Oh man! This past year went by so so fast. I can't believe how big my baby is. He is such a sweet blessing in our lives. 

 

 He got to have his grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins over to our house for cake and ice-cream. Everyone was so wonderful and helped us celebrate our little 1 year old. He didn't really notice the attention, but he LOVED the cake and ice-cream.

Some things that Parker does right now:

He could walk if he wanted to, but he is very very cautious. He'll walk everywhere as long as he can hold on to someone or something. Hasn't braved the alone walking yet

However, he is the master crawler. He can crawl so fast that he can escape Tate.

He has 4 teeth on top and 4 teeth on bottom.

He can say "uh oh scetio" (Uh oh Spaghettios)

For the past year he has been our easy going, laid back little guy. He is starting to find his attitude and can throw quite the tantrum. face down on the ground, kicking and screaming.

Loves Tate. Hates being mauled by Tate.

His head turned out okay.

He's a very good eater.

Loves to snuggle

Has a stone cold creeper face. I mean, it gets awkward sometimes how hard people will try to get him to smile. But once you do get him to crack, his toothy smile is so cute.

My Grandpa Bateman and Lessons Learned

Disclaimer, this may be hard to follow...

I don't even know where to start with this post. So much has happened, and I wish that I could express all that I have felt and learned throughout this experience. In order to truly share my experience, we will have to go back to January of 2008. I had my mission call. I would be entering the MTC on the 18th, which was a Wednesday. I spent the weeks prior getting all of my ducks in a row. The Sunday before, I went to both sets of grandparents homes, just like I had almost every other Sunday of my life. I made sure to give them each an extra hug and said goodbye for 18 months. The the day before I would be leaving I had a very strong feeling that I should go and say goodbye to my grandma Bateman again. To this day I can still remember exactly where I was standing in my house, and exactly what I was doing when I had that feeling. I remember all of that because I also remember making the decision that I was too busy to do it. Justifiably I really was extremely busy, but that was one of the biggest regrets of my life to this day.

First lesson learned, follow those promptings.

I went to the MTC, and a little over a month later, on February 26, 2008 my grandma Bateman died. I wasn't expecting it. It really hit me hard and it was really hard to be away from my family during this time. I wanted to talk to my dad, and I didn't at the same time. Because I was serving a mission, something I knew my grandma was proud of, I decided I would follow the rules and turn down the option I was given to talk to my dad on the phone. I wasn't able to go to the funeral.

Fast forward.

My mission was 18 months. I loved it with all of my heart. However, because I was on my mission, I didn't get to see my family. This became normal. So when I came home from my mission and saw everyone, I kind of just kept telling myself that grandma was still around, but I just hadn't seen her. It was weird. It's crazy how much a funeral really does give you closure. I just never talked about it. When people did talk about her, I started to feel the ache in my heart and the loss of not only my grandma, but also not taking the extra step to say goodbye, so I pushed it down deep. My grandpa Bateman seemed to kind of understand that I missed out on something important. Being a returned missionary himself, he was also very proud of me.

A few days after I'd gotten home, my grandpa Bateman came and picked me up and took me to lunch at Leatherbee's and then we went out to grandma's grave. It was such a special treat for me. My grandpa really loved me and I knew it. I always felt extremely close to my grandpa, but after my mission he and I became closer. I got to see him so many times at the temple. He always gave me a big hug and would sit and chat with me in the celestial room. Every time he saw me he would light up and I felt special.

Three weeks before my wedding Cory was having my wedding ring and engagement ring soldered together. My grandpa gave me one of my grandma's rings to wear in the meantime. I got my wedding ring back on my wedding day. I found my grandpa to give him the borrowed ring back and he took me aside and got teary eyed and let me know that the ring was a wedding gift from he and grandma. I wear the ring every single day. It means so much to me.

Fast forward almost 5 years.

Cory and I decided to go to ward temple night. We got there late and Provo temple is always packed (thank heaven for 2 new temples opening soon in our area) and we missed our session. We decided to do sealings together instead. As we were in the sealing room I realized that it was February 19th, which was my grandma Bateman's birthday. I then noticed my ring (grandma's ring) and felt very strongly that all was well. It was the first time since she had died that I felt calm about her being gone. I tried very hard to keep my emotions in check. On our drive home I told Cory about it and he told me I should call my grandpa and share that with him. I am so grateful that I did. I called grandpa Bateman and he answered and I told him about my amazing experience in the temple. He let me know that he had an amazing experience at the temple earlier that morning too. He also reminded me that it wasn't only grandma's birthday, but it was also their anniversary. This was such an amazing experience for me. I finally felt peace about my grandma's death and that as long as I'd learned my lesson about listening to prompting, I didn't need to feel so bad about it anymore.

Fast forward two weeks.

I got a text from my mom that grandpa Bateman was in the hospital. My grandpa has been relatively healthy and active up until now, so I was surprised. She assured me that everything was okay. I felt the same prompting that I had with my grandma 7 years earlier. I knew that I needed to go and see my grandpa. My mom kept reassuring me that everything was fine. The doctors were reassuring them of the same thing. I live about 45 minutes away from my grandpa. I remember telling a coworker about this feeling I had and she said to me, "you'll never regret going to see him". And the feeling of regret I had with my grandma came back just long enough for me to make my plan to get up and visit my grandpa. It was Saturday. My dad warned me that he wasn't really feeling great today. I was warned that he might be tired and ornery. I knew my grandpa in his good and bad times and I wasn't afraid to have a fork thrown at me. When we got to his hospital room he was just about to do some physical therapy and my amazing husband (a police officer) and uncle (an EMT) were able to go in and help. They were able to be there for him in his time of need. I don't know if my husband will ever know how grateful I was that we was able to help my grandpa in this situation. Once physical therapy time was done I got to go in and see my grandpa. It was just he and I for about 10 minutes. He was so tired from his PT and the medication that he was on. I felt so calm talking to him and asked him if he was okay. His blue eyes went big and he looked right at me and said something which I'm sure was not very nice (I couldn't understand him because of the mini strokes he had had) and said as clear as day, "So NO, I'm not okay!" with a big smile on his face (letting me know that he was semi-kidding about the prior unpleasantry, whatever it was). For the most part our 10 minutes was spent in silence. I held his hand until he fell asleep. This time was filed away with some of the most special times of my life. When we left I was so confused because he seemed to be okay, and would need some therapy but would pull through, but inside I knew that he wouldn't be around much longer.

Monday March 9, 2015 I got to go and spend my grandpa Bateman's last day on earth with him and all of our family members in the hospital. It was bitter/sweet. I felt the spirit so strong all day and I was so grateful for that time. My niece was able to sing the song A Child's Prayer to my grandpa and it was incredible the peace that seemed to fill the hospital room and even my grandpa's body as she sang the 2nd verse:

                               Pray, he is there. Speak, he is listening. You are his child. His love
                               now surrounds you. He hears your prayers. He loves the children.
                               Of such is the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

My grandpa was an amazing man. He served others up until the day that he died. He made everyone feel like they were his favorite. He also had an incredible testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He shared his testimony often by word and through his actions. I am forever grateful that I was able to know him and to call him my grandpa.

Another lesson learned. I got to go to grandpa Bateman's funeral, and the closure that I ached for when my grandma died didn't come in the way that I thought it would when grandpa died. I still don't feel like he is gone gone. I still feel like it's just going to be a while until I see him again. Just like I did when grandma died. But now I understand that is because I KNOW that I will see him again. I will see my grandma again and everyone else that has and will die. The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us that. But I also KNOW this because I feel it so strongly in my heart.

I know that my Heavenly Father loves me so much. This entire experience has taught me that. He knew that my heart ached and needed soothing for my grandma. He knew that I would need that same comfort when my grandpa died. I really felt like I was prepared for this in so many small ways. I teach the young woman at church and in January we focused on The Plan of Salvation. What is the purpose of this life? Where will I go after this life? etc. and in February we focused on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Both things that I have learned about and know, but the reminder right before this trial have been such a comfort to me.

(pic cred to Val Bateman)

"Remember as you attended the funeral of your loved one the feelings in your heart as you drove away from the cemetery and looked back to see that solitary casket-wondering if your heart would break. I testify that because of him, even our Savior, Jesus Christ, those feelings of sorrow, loneliness, and despair will one day be swallowed up in the fullness of joy. I testify that we can depend on him and when he said: "I will not leave you comfort less: I will come to you." -Elder Shayne M. Bowen

Happy 2nd Birthday to Tate! 9/5/2014

I can't even believe that my first born is 2 years old! A few weeks before his big day, we were driving somewhere and in the backseat Mr. T let me know that he wanted a birthday party with birthday cake. I didn't know that he knew what either of those two things were, and that he actually did have a birthday coming. Well, I made the decision that we would only be doing birthday parties every couple of years, and since we celebrated his big number 1, this wasn't his year. BUT... we also do 4 gifts, something you want, something you need, something you'll wear, something you'll read. And since he didn't let it go I decided to chalk up his birthday party as his WANT. 

So, the big day came and he refused to take a NAP! So I was extremely worried that it was going to be a bad day since the party didn't start until 6. BUT... the following pictures will show that we had quite the opposite experience.

(This is the cake! It turned out so GREAT)

HE WAS SO STINKING CUTE! I can't even believe this!

(We had a digging site that was a hit! We hid fun toys in the sand and the kids spent the entire time in this spot)

(Seriously! This cake! Thanks to my friend Elaine Cadman)

(and then there's this kid! He was so sweet the whole evening!)

Tate as of Late

Tate Albert... Holy cow! He is such a smart cookie. Every day that I spend with him I think that I really need to try  harder to write some things down because you just cant think this stuff up! Tate is almost 21 months old. As Cory would say, "He's one year old!" I think its important to know the months because then you know where he's at growth wise. This kid is a big, solid boy. He looks more like 2 1/2 years old. I always say he's a brick. He runs like he's older and has been able to kick, throw, catch, and hit a ball for a long time. He just seems to be super coordinated little man. It could have something to do with the fact that he always plays with older kids? I'm not sure. I cant tell you how many times a day I look at him and just think how amazing he is. I'm so grateful to be his mom!

 



(Me and my boys totally wiped out after Parker's blessing day festivities)

 

Things Tate loves right now:

 

-His binky and his purple blanky

-Playing any kind of ball. Mostly basketball

-Reading books.

-Eating breakfast while watching TV in Mom and Dad's bed

-Playing outside

-Playing with his dog Stockton

-Playing with the neighbors Luke, Brady, and Kate. Really any kid for that matter

-Grandpa

-Trucks/Tractors/ Airplanes/ Motorcycles/ Trains

-Rocks

-His baby Parker

-Treats

-CHAPSTICK (kind of obsessed)

-Cookies

-Dancing / jumping

 



 (Tate playing in the mud with the neighbors. Mom wasn't smart enough to strip him down first)

 

 

I cant believe how much this boy can talk already. Every day it is amazing to me the words that he'll say. He's very smart.

 

Some of Tate's most frequently said words:

 

Mommy (this is what he calls me when he's sad or tired)

Daddy (this is what he calls me the rest of the time)

Cory (this is what he calls Cory)

Parker

Baby

Dinner "inner"

Spoon "poon"

Watch (to watch TV)

Cailloo, Dinosaur Train "train" (TV show's he watches)

Night Night

Love you "Ubyou"

Thank you "sank you"

Please "Pweese Daddy" (for whatever reason he thinks he's supposed to say Daddy after every please

I'm Sorry "Orry"

Truck (over and over and over)

Grandpa's truck (all day long)

Luke, Brady, Kate "Uke, Brady, Kate"

Bye

Bike

Binky

Blanky "Binky" (this would be confusing because of Binky, but I know he always wants the Binky and then the Blanky)

Stuck

Help "elp"

Amen

 

Of course there are so many more, but these are the words I hear most frequently throughout our days.

 

He cracks me up with how clear and out of the blue he can be sometimes. For example the other day I was changing Parker's diaper and he exploded so I screamed (story for another time) and Tate came running in and said "happened? Ok?" It was so cute because he wanted to know what happened and if I was okay. Ha ha ha. He is such a little stud.

 

Another story is when I was putting him down for a nap one day. I always take off his jacket, shoes and socks. Well this time I just took of his jacket and shoes and he kept saying over and over, "toesies, toesies" until I understood that he wanted his socks of too.

 



(Smart little guy figured out how to open the mascara and knew exactly which part of his face he was supposed to try and apply. Even used the mirror)

 

I cant even begin to describe how grateful I am for this crazy, out of control, "all boy", little boy. He makes me smile from morning to night. He emulates the meaning of his name so well, CHEERFUL! And he passes that cheer on to others. How great is my job of being his mom!

The Name...

Oh man... we had a rough time picking a name with this baby. I had picked a name right from the get go that I liked. Brigg. Cory hated it. Well... then I explained to him how much a actually loved this name. I decided that I just wouldn't push it much throughout the pregnancy and eventually he'd come around (0; One day around the half way point, Cory called me at work and told me that he would be okay if we named the baby Brigham and called him Brigg. I almost cried I was SO excited. And that's the way it was for a few months. Then one day Cory said, "Hey, we should probably start thinking of names for the baby".

WHAT????? I was devastated that my plan of just laying low didn't work. When I asked him about our earlier conversation, he said that even though Brigham was on the list... that didn't mean he was 100% okay with that name. WHAT???? When I asked him what names he was thinking of he told me Tucker. WHAT????

We visited this topic of conversation multiple times during my pregnancy, and then retreated quickly. Neither one of us were on the same page... I mean, no where near the same page.

When we went to the hospital I was still certain that the name should be Brigham (well, Brigg actually), but again I was laying low to not overwhelm Cory and to slowly convince him. Plus, everyone said "Just wait until you see him, maybe you'll know then". I thought I could use that to my advantage...  ha ha ha.

Then I had the baby. And guess what? I knew! I knew that my baby's name WASN'T Brigham. And that's all I knew. Which was irritating. I am not your average mother on so many levels and this was one of them. I've heard of so many people who look at their baby for the first time and just KNOW their name. Not me, all I know is what their name is not. Hmmm....

Well Cory still wanted Tucker. Like really wanted it. All I have to say is any name that you cant sing the following song too
"Rachel Rachel bo bachel banana nana fo fachel me my mo machel Rachel"
you should do your kid the favor and not name them that. I realize that every kid will probably get made fun of a time or two for their name, but I wanted to help them out as much as possible.

After two days in the hospital, many many questions from hospital staff, family and friends and lots of names being tossed around, Cory and I were back where we started. I HATED all of his names, and he REALLY HATED all of my names. We decided that the only fair way of choosing a name was for each of us to put 3 names in a hat and then we would pull the name and whatever name was pulled we both HAD to be okay with it. This was serious.

My names:
Brigham
Grayson
Mason

Cory's names:
Tucker
Lane
Garrett

We put them in the hat and both of us were super nervous. Cory let me pick the name from the hat. I did so and opened it and started crying, because this is what I saw:

Tucker.

I couldn't back out of it. But lucky for me Cory took pity on me, probably because I had just pushed his 7 lb. 4 oz. child out of me and now I was crying. So he said, "Let's pick another one". I jumped at the offer and even said he could pull the name. He did so and opened it and threw the paper on the bed. When I opened it, this is what I saw:

Brigham.

HA HA HA!!! Well now I couldn't get what I wanted after he gave up what he wanted, that and the fact that I already had my revelation that wasn't his name. We were both so frustrated it was ridiculous and the name out of a hat was not working. So... I suggested that we throw out all of the names that we had and start 100% over. Cory agreed and we agreed to call it a night. We had a lot to do before we left the hospital the next day. As we were getting ready for bed Cory said, "What about the name Parker?" This was super weird because I had briefly thought of the name earlier but tossed it aside knowing that Cory hated every name that I said. I told him that. We agreed to sleep on the idea of that name and discuss it in the morning. The next morning as soon as we woke up Cory said, "Yup, I'm feeling REALLY good about the name Parker" lucky for him as soon as he said it the night before I felt the same way.

WHAT A RELIEF!!!

Fast forward three weeks to yesterday at church. Cory and I teach the 7-8 year old's in Primary. One of the girls came up to me and asked to look at the baby. She asked what his name was. When I told her she said "I knew it! I'm so smart." Thinking she was like most 7-8 year old know it all's I didn't think much of it. Then a few minutes later she said to me, "didn't you say that whoever guessed the name would get a treat? Because both Samantha and I guessed the name Parker." That's when I remembered that the Sunday before I had the baby we had a baby naming contest with the kids and each of them got to guess what we would name the baby. I didn't believe that the girls had actually picked the name Parker and I went rummaging through my lesson manual to find that paper and guess what I came across??? Both of the girls really had picked the name Parker!!! That is 2 of the 6 kids we had there that day. That is 1/3 of the class basically told us what to name him! The funny thing is, both Cory and I remember thinking that we would never use any of the names that they guessed. If we would have thrown our list away earlier and actually listened to these kids, we could have saved ourselves a lot of STRESS and GRIEF!

Two lessons learned:

1) When you are stressed with a decision, there comes a point when you just need to take a step back, maybe start all over, and perhaps sleep on it.

2) Listen to the little people in your life.

Life with a toddler and a newborn in the first week

Well... it has been fun! Newborns are so fun. And Parker is such a doll. He is so content with sleeping and eating. He is up every three hours to eat and be changed and we were told that he would sleep a lot in the beginning because he was early. So I will do the Baby Wise again with Parker, and we'll see if it's really all its cracked up to be, or if Tate is just an amazing sleeper. Poor little Parker baby... poops after every single feeding. I don't remember that with Tate. The problem is his little bum is rubbed raw! We cant even use wet wipes on it because of the alcohol. We've been using a wet wash cloth, but it still isn't all the way healed up yet. One thing I've learned with Tate is that the best thing for diaper rash is to let it air out... but how do you do that with a newborn? I've been trying to give it at least 10 minutes a day with some open air. Hopefully we get control of that soon, because diaper changing is quite the process right now. We have to wash him down with the wet wash cloth, apply to heavy duty cream to the rash, apply the Vaseline to the circumcised pee pee and then diaper him up. Poor little man. Even with all of that drama, he's still such a good baby.

Tate has been quite a challenge. Not really. Just every now and then. But when he is... he's out of control. I know that he's got a little cold and that is making him runny and coughy, but on top of that, I'm pretty sure that he's got some serious teeth coming in. He only had two nights where he had a hard time with his regular routine, and he's back to sleeping all the way through the night. Having Tate in the next room has made getting up with the baby easier this go around because I jump right out of bed so that the baby doesn't wake up my toddler. I wish I could say the same for Cory. He still is mean and ornery in the night... but he's still gotten up for his turns, so I cant complain...well I can, but I shouldn't. Tate was turning in to a little bit of a mommy's boy before the babe came around, but now more than ever. He's never had a hard time visiting the ladies I work with, but now as soon as we step foot in to the office he is clinging to me for dear life. Which isn't a bad thing. Its just different. As a mom I feel guilty all the time about them being so close and Tate not being an only child anymore, but the thing is... Tate LOVES his baby brother "Carper". He wants to kiss him all the time and gets very emotional if Parker is crying. He doesn't quite understand that he's not hurt. But he's such a concerned and protective brother. I really hope that they will be best buddies forever.

 Tate loves to peek at his baby

This is our first family prayer together. Tate was so excited to have the baby laying next to him.

 

Saturday marked our year mark of being in our house. Its so exciting! We absolutely love it here and love our ward. I have made some incredible friends that I don't know what I would do without. I cannot even explain the level of support, service and love that I have felt from our ward. We have had someone stop by or call every single day since we had the babe. We have had meals and offers to take Tate for walks. We've had gifts and phone calls. I am so very grateful for this ward and for the examples that have been shown to me. I will forever want to try my hardest to treat others the way that we have been treated. I never knew that a ward/community could be this amazing!

 



Cory got to take off a few days so that he could help me out, so I decided to have mom come down and help me when he had to go back to work. My mom came down the Friday after he was born and those 3 days went by so fast. She worked her butt off to clean my nasty house, and I was so grateful. I was so embarrassed to have all of our visitors coming over and seeing my house turned upside down. Bless her! Tate loved having his "grandpa" here. For some reason we cannot get him to hear the difference between grandpa and grandma, but it is so cute. He has been so cute with her and she has just taken care of us all. The morning after she left Tate woke up and went right downstairs to the room she was staying in and was saying "grandpa... where are you? grandpa...." it was so cute, but so sad at the same time.

I really had a hard time with mom leaving. Of course it didn't help that she left about a week after the baby was born, which is right when the baby blues set in. I've been really scared to have my first day alone. Today was that day. Cory didn't work until 2, so we had him all morning, but once he had to start getting ready for work I had to change the baby. He had so much poop that I decided to put him in the bath and let his rash air out. Well, he was not happy about that and screamed and screamed, which woke up Tate from his nap and terrified him. Cory was trying to run out the door and then I realized I had just put the towel's in the wash and needed one from the closet, but couldn't leave the babe in the tub to do so, all the while both boys are hysterical and Cory is running out the door. YUP, pretty much exactly how I pictured the start of me being home alone with the boys. It took me about an hour to get both boys taken care of calmed down. Then things were good until about 5 (which is of course when the baby woke up and needed to be fed and changed) Tate's mouth started to drool and he got so grumpy that he flipped out over something small and then wouldn't stop. So both boys were screaming again. And right then Cory called asking how I was doing!!! Holy HECK! At least I didn't cry at all today. I did say many many prayers!!! I decided to pack both the boys up and take them for a car ride, which was the ticket!!! Parker fell asleep and Tate calmed down. Cory met us and had a Pina Colada Boba drink for me. He was only able to spend literally 5 minutes with us, but it was 5 minutes that I needed of reassurance. When we came home everything fell in to place perfectly! I know that this is a new routine, and I have to have patience with the boys and more importantly with myself, but two things that I have been EXTREMELY thankful for during this time is the help from others and PRAYER. I know Heavenly Father has put a lot of trust in me and Cory to send us these two amazing boys, and I know that he is going to help me as long as I ask Him. I am so grateful for a knowledge and testimony of prayer. And I am so grateful for my family! Although it is tough, and scary, I am loving every minute of it.

 

But honestly... how did my mom have 6 kids? Honestly???