A Lovely Lewis Life

Both of my kid's first birthday parties coincided with their nursery themes. Lincoln's is way more subtle than Beckett's was, however so we didn't have a lot to use from his room as far as decor goes. As the years have gone on, I've simplified my parties (Beckett's first birthday party was amazing as far as decor, food, and theme goes) mostly because I just don't have the time or energy to plan an awesome party like I used to. For Lincoln's first, I knew I owed it to him to have a nice party. We had minimal decor, a nice set-up in our side yard with corn hole, our playset, and tons of seating.. until it started to RAIN right as the party started. UGHHHHH!!!!!!!! I should note that it was HOTTTTTT all day before the party and it was a beautiful evening. I just have the worst luck with parties and weather! We'd worked so hard in the sweltering heat to get the yard set up and then it poured and everyone was huddled up under a tent, umbrellas, and on our...

It's hard to believe that our precious baby boy is 1. He still seems like such a baby to us, so much smaller than B was at this age (unless our memories have completely failed us). The day he was born was perfection. It will always be one of my most favorite days ever.  We had very few visitors, at our request (of course big brother had to be there!) and were able to enjoy the full day together since the scheduled c section was early in the morning. It was the sweetest day and I'll never forget how special his birthday was or how happy I felt to have another sweet baby boy to love. The first year went a little differently than B's first year. We didn't co-sleep after 1 month, we only made it to 10 months breastfeeding because of the 3rd pregnancy/miscarriage (which is still a major accomplishment but B went 15 months so of course I had guilt over that), we had a TIME trying to get him to sleep at night. Weight: 21.4 lbs, Length: 29.5" [caption id="attachment_4...

On Sunday we returned from our first family vacation! Joey and I took Beckett to the beach in SC when he was just over 1 but that was work related and only for a day so it wasn't actually a vacation. We haven't taken vacation, like take-a-week-off-work-and-go-somewhere-the-entire-time type of vacation, since our 1 year wedding anniversary 4 years ago!! I think with the year we've had so far, this family vacation was so needed for us. We wanted to take an anniversary trip since we just celebrated 5 years but I was supposed to be around 7 months pregnant so we weren't sure where we'd go that would be fun and also safe for me (hi, Zika). We tossed around a bunch of ideas but we never booked anything, mostly because we didn't really want to leave the kids. I'm actually really glad we didn't because it turned out to be so nice to just set off with my favorite 3 guys. Joey and I aren't travelers. Anytime we've ever gone on a trip we've always deci...

A few weeks ago we celebrated our sweet B's 3rd birthday with all of our family and friends. When we asked him what kind of party he wanted he'd tell us, "Mickey or dinosaurs". He's come to really love dinosaurs over the last few months and after doing some Pinteresting, I was able to get on board with the dinosaur idea (though I was really hoping for a construction theme.. maybe next year). I also asked him where he wanted to have his party and he requested it to be at home. I couldn't argue with that because it was saving me hundreds of dollars to not rent out a space but it also meant 40ish people at my house!!!!!! Now, I love to throw a party and have people over but since I knew it was probably going to rain (hello, race weekend) I knew the chances of us being able to party outside were slim. And I was right. UGH! The plus side of it being inside was that the decor looked super cute! I couldn't have done what I did in our dining room anywhere outside ...

I just can't say enough how sweet this baby is! However, he sure does give us a run for our money sometimes. He is into EVERYTHING these days. Our stacked stone fireplace = his favorite spot to mess around (inside the fireplace!) by getting the rocks out. You should see the grin on his face when he gets a rock and knows he's not supposed to have it. He will hike his little leg up like he's going to try to crawl on it and when we tell him no he will grin and start shaking his head no. He is rotten to the core. Sometimes I don't think I can handle another one after him. He wears us OUT!! haha Weight: 22lbs He's a professional crawler now. I love hearing his little hands smacking across the floor. He loves to eat. He will eat and eat and eat with no end in sight. He'll tear everything off the table in a restaurant in order to get to the bread. :-D He loves rolls, biscuits, bananas, and Popsicles, in addition to his baby food and formula. He's not a fan of...

It doesn't seem real that my first baby is 3 years old. THREE! I will never be able to explain what it means to me to get to be his Momma or what a special place he holds in my heart. He is the absolute light of my life and a guaranteed bright spot in all my days. Beckett it happy, energetic, funny and so loving. My heart is so full knowing that I get to raise him and mold him into a wonderful man. My hope is that he will always know how much he is loved and will always show love and kindness to others. I wanted to go heavy on the photos by my phone won't let me upload them so I'll come back later and add in some photos of him since the last post 6 months ago. 40.6 lbs 41" tall He is the best big brother. Period. I prayed for so long that he'd transition well to becoming a big brother and would love the baby and still know how much he meant to us. Well, from the first moment he met Lincoln he's been obsessed. We've never had any sort of jealousy issues wi...

This month has been another big one for us! Sweet Lincoln is still just as precious as ever and it's crazy to think he's been in our little family for 10 months. He has 4 teeth now! The top front 2 finally popped through. He finally started crawling! I totally forgot how stinking cute it is to see little babies crawl and hear their hands smacking on the floor. We didn't think he was going to crawl (same with B) but he just took off one day and now he's unstoppable. He can stand on his own for short periods. He pulls up on literally EVERYTHING and will sometimes, without even realizing what he's doing, let go and will be able to stand for a bit. Beckett was walking at 10.5 months and we think L will be soon too. He is into EVERYTHING.. and he's fast! We constantly have to be watching him or else he's climbing the fireplace or trying to get up the stairs. The other day Joey asked B to keep Lincoln away from the fireplace while he was fixing their lunc...

Today our little (not so little) Lincoln is 9 months old today! I've officially started thinking about planning his 1st birthday party but since Beckett's birthday comes first, it will probably be a lot of last minute planning because I need to focus on one at a time in order to make them the most special for each of them. Anyways, I'm happy to report that Lincoln is still going strong and doing SO WELL sleeping in his crib. He's pretty much down to one bottle at night because we've found that if he wakes up an additional time we can usually readjust him and his paci and he'll go back to sleep. He has to have his little giraffe friend close by at night and I think it's the sweetest little thing. We're so happy he's still sleeping well!   Weight: 20lbs 13oz Length: He's in size 4 diapers Working our way out of all the clothes that are smaller than 12 months. I've put him in some of B's 12 month clothes, which were basically all summer ...

Since I started the last update off with how bad of a month we'd had, I should say that this month has been a LOT better. We knew we had to do something because no one was sleeping so no one was happy. The exhaustion was taking a real toll on me and causing me to be sick. I couldn't function and I'm not one to get sick often so something had to give. Everything you read will tell you that you need to have a baby on a schedule but this isn't our first rodeo so whatever (or so we thought). Also, can you start a new routine/schedule with a 7 month old? No way it will work (again, we thought). We started on a Friday by bathing and putting Lincoln to bed awake around 7:30. He fell asleep on his own and woke up twice during the night to eat (around midnight and 3:30AM) and once he had his bottles, he went right back to sleep in his crib. That went well so we started Saturday morning off with baby food around 8 (he woke up around 7), I nursed him around 10:30 and around 11 we ...

This isn't something I ever thought I'd have to write. Of course no one ever plans for things to go wrong. After two easy, pretty perfect pregnancies I never thought I'd experience anything different. But here we are. Without going into too much detail, I experienced a miscarriage somewhere around 11 and a half weeks. I had no signs or symptoms so when we went in for a routine visit at 14 weeks, we were devastated and shocked when there was no heartbeat. We don't know what happened, and probably never will. While it's not easy, we're beyond thankful that we have two perfect boys to come home to and love on. That definitely helps ease the pain. I had a procedure over the weekend and while it went well, I lost a lot of blood and ended up having a transfusion before I was sent home. So as far as recovery goes, I'm not in any pain but I've been weak, lightheaded, and not able to do much since. This isn't easy to talk about but it's real life. For me ...

Y'all. I wish each one of you could be present around Beckett to hear the crazy things that come out of his little mouth. He is the sweetest little guy and he keeps us laughing ALL THE TIME so I finally started writing down some of the silly things we hear so I can always remember how funny he was at this age. I wish I could remember more! *Beckett sniffs and then says, "I smell something" **Me - "What do you smell?" **B- "I smell daddy. On the roof." **Me - "You smell him on the roof? What does he smell like?" **B - "Poopy." (Joey wasn't home at the time and did not find this so funny.) **B sniffing, "I smell something" **My mom - "What do you smell?" **B - "Peoples at Walmart." *Randomly - "I've got get out of here, it's an emergency!" *While riding around on a truck in the house, "I need to do my job, Mom." *Playing with his tools, "I'm building a biiiiig hous...

Let me just say, this last month has been a doozy, the toughest yet in all of our nearly 3 years of being parents. I love and adore my kids but parenting is tough. Kids are tough. Being a working mom is tough. And when you mix all that together, it's just... well, tough. It's OK to need a break from your kids (if you had told me that with my first I would have laughed in your face so all you 1-kid mommas who are shaking your head at me right now, just wait). It's OK to pretend you are downstairs cleaning up while your husband wrangles the kids for bath time when you're really eating a bowl of ice cream and watching The Bachelor. It's OK. :-) Annnnyway, here's a little update on Lincoln at 7 months: This past month Lincoln has decided he doesn't need sleep, and thus we don't need sleep. We can put him down in his crib once he's asleep but the moment I close my eyes (whether it be 10 minutes or 2 hours later) he starts crying and will cry until someo...

We are so excited to share that we will be welcoming baby #3 in August! [caption id="attachment_3301" align="aligncenter" width="1080"] "I'm not the baby anymore?!"[/caption]   We found out just days before Christmas and I definitely needed some time to absorb the shock. Haha! So far I'm feeling great and the baby is perfect. I've been really fortunate to have easy pregnancies so I'm hopeful this one will follow suit. We're thankful for this opportunity to continue to grow our family!   [gallery ids="3303,3300" type="rectangular" link="none"]

*Apparently I forgot to post this. Oops!  Oh my! My sweet, sweet baby is half a year old! You'd think by now that I'd be used to the time flying by but let me tell you, if you think time flies with one kid, it's lightening fast with two. I can't even imagine what it will be like once we have more kids. Shew! Here's a little look into Lincoln at 6 months.. Weight: 19.4 pounds Length: 26.5" We celebrated his first Thanksgiving. We kicked off the Christmas season by going to the Christmas tree lighting downtown (our first time!). He wasn't a fan. We had breakfast with Santa and he did so well! No tears. We went to Speedway in Lights. The lights really caught his attention! He had his first real sickness so we added a new breathing machine to the pack and had he had 'round the clock treatments for a couple of weeks. Poor guy. He's holding strong in the size 3 diapers right now Clothing varies from size 6 months to 9 months. 9 months seems ...