2 years and 4 months

I tend to ask Talis lots of questions in the moments when he's feeling chatty (which seem to become more and more frequent these days). I decided to write down some of the answers. This is what he had to say...

What's your favorite thing to watch on t.v.?

Wreck It Ralph

What's your favorite thing to eat?

goldfisss

Who is your favorite person?

snacks!

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

Fix-it Felix

Who's your best friend?

Wreck It Ralph

What's your favorite color?

pink

How high can you count?

points back and forth from the paper, to me, and to him laughing

When do you wanna cut your hair?

NO!

What did you eat for dinner last night?

opens his mouth and says "AH"

What does daddy do?

starts yawning

What does mommy do?

mommy happy. mommy do tings

What do you think about your brother Miles?

He happy!

Ryan Kaliea

Yesterday I became a auntie. My sister went into labor 3 weeks early with her sweet little girl. She needed to have an emergency c section because both her and the baby were under to much stress but both are doing wonderfully. I am so excited to be an aunt! I've only wanted to be an aunt since forever so I'm glad it finally happened. I'm most excited for my sister and brother-in-law though. I'm excited for them to experience parenthood. I'm excited for my sister to be a mommy. I know she'll be an incredible one. Welcome to the family Ryan! I can't wait to spoil you rotten! :)

3 Queens

Somedays I struggle with being a stay-at-home mom. I feel incredibly blessed that I am able to stay at home with our boys and that we don't have to take them to daycare or know that anyone but me will be watching them throughout the day. I know that being home with them is where I should be to best be able to teach and nurture my children. But it doesn't mean that there are moments or days where I wish differently.

 I've had my fair share of moments when I see fellow women my age with nice wardrobes were I'm still squeezing into faded and out of style clothes that I've had since high school because new clothes for me just isn't in our budget and I've considered going back to work just to be able to go shopping when I please. Days where Talis won't listen to a thing I say and Miles won't let me put him down and I wish that I was in an office somewhere surrounded by people that won't pound on the door and yell for me when I'm going to the bathroom. I like to think that this is normal. That all moms feel this way to some degree. I may be wrong, I may be the only one that struggles with having the blessing of being a stay-at-home mom because it is a blessing.

I found this video on Vimeo the other day and it nearly made me tear up. I was having one of those days I was talking about and was about to throw in the towel for the day (In retrospect I pretty much already did, I hid out in my room looking at videos on Vimeo while the boys watched cartoons downstairs) when I came across this video. It really helped to turn my day around, gave me a much needed new perspective for the day. Instead of feeling burdened with the title of a stay-at-home mom I again felt honored.

So for any moms out there that might be feeling a little under appreciated and overwhelmed today check out this video and it will remind you just how lucky us moms are.

 3 Queens from Matt 

Sedona

Last week we got to go up to Sedona for the day to take family pictures and hang out with the Reynolds side of the family. It was a fun day. That Sedona man, its so pretty. Who knew that little gem of a town was hiding in Arizona? Not I. I've only drove through Sedona but never stopped there. Especially when the fall colors were in full force. Here is two pictures I stole off of DJ's phone, the actual pictures are on our camera and well, you know how that goes. If it ain't taken on the iphone then the chances of it getting uploaded in a decent time frame are slim.

Halloween

Halloween has come and gone and with that another year of family costumes. This year we went with the Wreck It Ralph theme. It seemed fitting since Talis makes us watch it at least three times a day.  I personally wasn't really wanting to dress up along with the boys, I was thinking DJ and I could go a different route this year. But I figured this is probably the last year that we could all dress up as a family. DJ and I put our costumes together the day of so forgive the poor quality and the fact that we both look more like homeless people. Talis and Miles however, they make their costumes look pretty good. Talis was Fix It Felix and Miles was King Candy. 

 I'm positive that I'll be spending my time trying to convince Talis that Thanksgiving is fun too. I''ll say to him "Talis we get to celebrate Thanksgiving this month! Do you know what we do on Thanksgiving? Do you know what we say? We eat turkey and we say 'I'm thankful' !" and he always replies with "we say twick oh tweet. no turkey! eat candy!" Can't blame the kid, he's got a point, candy always trumps turkey. Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

bathtime

Happy almost Halloween! I'm kind of over Halloween this year which is so unlike me. I'm all about the costumes and candy and especially about scaring the neighborhood kids but I'm just ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. I have to say though that Talis and Miles were a blast at our church trunk-or-treat. This year Talis actually trick-or-treated and it was pretty adorable. He dragged his trick-or-treat bag the whole time as he walked. I should have shown him how to hold his bag up higher on the handles so it wouldn't drag but I just thought it was too cute. And hearing him say "twick oh tweat" and "tank you!" was  adorable. Miles fell asleep shortly after we got there. Something about not being old enough to eat candy I guess takes most of the fun out of the holiday.

With how cool the weather had become during the day (FINALLY Arizona!) and our new backyard in place we spend all day out there. Which means that most nights skipping out on baths isn't much of an option. I swear little boys attract dirt and grime like it's their job (but I guess it kinda is).  Bath time around here has become one of my favorite times of day. I usually leave the bathroom soaked in bath water from all the splashing that those two crazy boys do but I've grown used to it. 

Untitled from leilani reynolds on Vimeo.

sisterhood of women

Today I went to lunch with my mom. She was invited by ladies from church and she asked if I wanted to tag along. As I was sitting through lunch eating a baja fish taco, bouncing Miles on my lap and watching Talis run around in the grassy yard right by our patio table with my mom and her group of friends I had a little surreal moment.

I realized that as I was talking with all these ladies that I knew each of their children (most of them were my same age and we had grown up all friends together), I knew their husbands, their family stories, where they lived, what they did for a living or what their husbands did for a living. These women were a part of my life story, even if only a short part, but part of it none the less and I am so grateful for it. I'm grateful to have a mom that surrounds herself with positive women in her life, I'm grateful for those women who helped inspire me at a young age to be a positive light to my own family, to be selfless, to serve others. I'm grateful for the women in that group who drove me in the carpool to camp outs, extra curriculars, and home from sleepovers. I'm glad I went to lunch today. I needed it. To be remembered of the strong sisterhood that can be found in so many places in life. I've made so many already in my short 25 years of life. The strong sisterhood bond between team mates of the numerous volleyball teams i've been a part of, girls that experienced living on their own for the first time along with me at college, girls that entered motherhood along me with, girls who serve in church along with me. The list could go on and on but it's all the same. Women being there for one another.

I'm feeling blessed to have had and still have incredible women in my life. In any shape or form that you have been in my life I thank you. Beyonce was right, girls really do run the world ;)


And now a somewhat unrelated photo. Me and my bestie at our junior high graduation. Talk about sisterhood, love this girl.

life lately

Letter From Fred Video

Stumbled upon this beyond sweet video over on the Lola James blog and I couldn't help but share it.

Iphone dump

An Iphone dump of what seems to be the most sought after picture worthy moments to me...Talis and Miles being all snuggle bugs to one another.

Cali weekender

Earlier this month we went to California with the Reynolds clan. We had so much fun. I think my favorite part of the trip was the beach. Yet riding roller coasters at Knottsberry and spending the day hanging out at the farmers market are in close second. Just looking through the pictures again makes me want to go back. We sure do love our Reynolds family and can't wait to go back!

Now prepare for picture overload :)

mr miles

-always smiling
-starting to cut his first tooth
-he's the chunkiest
-has found his voice and "talks" a lot
-is starting to loose his perfectly fluffy head of hair
-and just had a blow out on my lap while i was writing the above

we love you mr. miles!

some light reading

Read these articles after coming across them while frequenting the Small Fry Blog. Reading an article/interview about the positive perspectives of motherhood from other mothers is always empowering. Check 'em out.

                   Interview 1    Interview 2

Happy Friday everyone!

through the eyes of the man in our house

I came across a few photos on DJ's phone the other day. I really liked seeing through DJ's eyes moments he wanted to remember forever. And it was refreshing to see me in a few photos because as much as I love always being behind the camera capturing our family's memories it was nice to see actual proof that I do exist. :)

Happy 2 Years Talis

Last week on Wednesday Talis had his 2nd birthday. I've been putting off writing about it because I felt like as soon as I did it made it official. It made it a little to real that my sweet boy was growing up and I'm not quite ready for it. Not a day has gone by the past two years were I don't think to myself (or out loud) "Man he is just the cutest kid!" I'm one lucky mom to be able to have him as mine. I love that boy more than he'll ever know.

We just had a small get together at our house with family this year and it was perfect. Laid back and no fuss. Poor kid woke up from his nap the day before with a fever. The kid always gets fevers on holidays and celebrations....what's up with that? He scored on the toys he got this year and deservedly so. The kid deserves the world but he settled for a watermelon cake and good company. And he loved every bit of it.

Talis,
Happy birthday my sweet T, my mowgli bear, my baby T, you changed my world two years ago and every day since has been a fun adventure with you in it. I love you, you are the funnest two year old I know.
Love mom & dad

best of buds

I tend to not worry about updating my blog soon after having a baby. Which is why I haven't. We had Miles, brought him home, did a quick post about having him, and that was that. I've been busy with life as a mom of two (two boys at that) and life has a way sometimes of making you forget about writing about it and just focus on living it. So here I am about 10 weeks later with a newborn that is no longer my newborn and my Talis who seems to be growing faster than I can keep up with. Best news to report, these two are quickly becoming the best of buds...

Miles

Two weeks ago from today we welcomed the newest addition to our family, Miles Copelin Reynolds. We are all pretty smitten with him especially his big brother Talis who can't seem to get enough of his sweet little brother. Life with two darling little boys is pretty amazing :)

the comfort of routines

We've been falling into a pretty steady routine these days. I never thought I would think this or say this but...I have come to realize that I am a routine kind-of girl. I thrive off routine and while I do enjoy spontaneity and the unexpected, there's something strangely comforting about a routine.

Every morning I wake to Talis waking up in his crib. I always find him in his crib with his hair in his face and a look like "what took you so long mom?". We head downstairs and I prepare him breakfast while he let's me know in his high chair that he is not feeling patient and he wants his breakfast like 10 minutes ago. We start eating our breakfast of oatmeal, or peanut butter toast and milk, or pancakes, or eggs and turkey bacon (we tend to rotate the same things for breakfast) and it's as if half way through eating breakfast we both decide to be happy and that we are suddenly morning people (although we both are not). Then we clean up and take our sweet time to get ready for the day, usually not getting dressed and doing our hair until an hour or two before nap time around 12 or 1. We fill our day with toys, dancing, cartoons, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, walks around the neighborhood, and the occasional cleaning of the house (I feel guilty even for typing that but hey, it's the truth) until around 4 o clock when we both sit on the bench right next to the upstairs window and wait for DJ's work truck to pull into our cul de sac. In which we both jump and shout for joy and press our faces up against the window and wave to dad because I've come to accept that him and Talis are the real fun in this house and I'm just lucky to have them both. We play together as a family until dinner time rolls around. After our bellies are full DJ and I take turns, while one of us relaxes or cleans up dinner the other gives Talis a bath and gets him in his pj's and brushes his teeth. Then we all gather at the foot of our bed and say family prayer in which Talis crosses his arms and scrunches up his eyes and buries his face into the bed while one of us says the prayer in which he usually starts to rub our back while we pray and if we are taking too long for his liking then he starts to wiggle around and try to get us to look at him. Then he kisses us both and climbs into our bed making sure to get some jumps in. Then we all lay down and put on a movie. Lately it's been Rio or Finding Nemo and we'll all cuddle until he falls asleep. Then we creep back downstairs and DJ and I will hang out before we head back upstairs and move Talis from our bed to his crib. Every night it's the same or close to it. And I love it. Especially when any day now we'll be adding a newborn to the mix and all the unpredictability and flexibility required for that, I am soaking in every bit of routine now while I can.

V day

Hope you had a happy day full of love yesterday! Valentines Day is my second favorite holiday (with Halloween being my first) and we milked the whole day by filling it with endless smooches, card making, present giving, snuggling, and a sugar induced coma come seven o'clock that night. what can I say, we love love over here at the Reynolds house!

(forgive the nose trimmer gift. Talis broke DJ's a while ago so it was more of like a long over due replacement gift)

(we ran into good friends getting supplies for sugar cookie making and Talis and Brazia greeted each other with some Valentines smooches)

(pan 1/5 of sugar cookies, I never want to eat a sugar cookie again....)

Thanks for the flowers my love!

xoxo

Conquering the Day

Yesterday I got to watch my friend's little newborn girl all day. She thinks I was doing her a favor but she was the one doing me the favor. I'm so nervous about soon juggling two kids that it was a good practice run for me. And I have to say I am impressed with how I did. Not only did I get Talis dressed for the day before ten o'clock (it's the small victories people) but I also showered, got kind of ready for the day, kept the house clean (major victory since I stayed up till midnight the night before cleaning), took them both on a walk to the park, and made a really delicious dinner which required the grill and some prep work. Oh and did I mention that I somehow managed to have them both napping at the same time?! There's hope for me yet. It was a good practice run for what's to come in the next two months but until then I'm taking every chance to nap I can. I may of exceeded my own expectations of being able to handle both a toddler and newborn but by three o'clock I was exhausted. There's no downtime with two littles. So if you need me I'll most likely be snuggled up in bed napping.

Birthday weekender

We got the honor of celebrating DJ's birth this weekend! In my opinion getting to spoil your lover on their special day is just as good as getting spoiled on your special day...almost. DJ's birthday fell on a Saturday this year. So I snuck out of bed early Saturday morning to cook him breakfast in bed and to get together the little gift I had planned for him which proved to be harder then I anticipated since the helium tank I got the night before ended up being completely empty and Talis had the attitude of "it's my party I can cry if I want to." And just when I was about to loose my mind with a crying clingy toddler and breakfast slowly burning on the stove DJ came downstairs. I guess he missed the note I left by him telling him to stay in bed until I came and got him. He must have seen right through my attempted facial expression of "it's cool, I can handle all this chaos right now" and smiled and brought Talis back upstairs with him so I could salvage what was left of my birthday morning surprise for him. He's so sweet. He not only played along (he knows how down I get when my surprises don't work out) but he kept gushing about how much he enjoyed his gift of special messages from friends and family I gathered of why they love him so much. We spent the rest of the day going to a movie, getting free birthday food at Joe's Farm Grill, and relaxing. And when I say relaxing I really mean me because when we came home from lunch I was exhausted and birthday boy let me take a three hour nap while he played outside with Talis. I'm telling ya, he is the best. Happy birthday DJ, we sure are glad you were born.

And then we finished our birthday weekender by watching the Ravens win the SuperBowl. DJ was one happy camper this weekend and he sure deserved every bit of it.

In this moment

I tend to get down on myself for not always living fully in the moment. I'm naturally just hardwired to always be planning and working towards the future. Sadly I used to have the mindset that "I can really start living when..." Often finished with something along the lines of "when I save up x amount of money","when I finish school", "when I loose x amount of weight (ridiculous I know)" or anything else relatively naive sounding. And while I can say I'm no longer THAT bad I still feel like I need to work on being better at embracing the now. Tonight after coming home from a friend's baby shower I walk into the house to find DJ  upstairs taking a  shower/ thinking he was performing at the Staples center with music blasting and our bedroom door wide open! Talis was crying in his crib down the hall which completely set me off since we've been transitioning him back into his crib (for like the millionth time) and have been trying to have him cry it out). Do men not think of common sense stuff like keep the music down and shut the bedroom door to not wake up the sleeping baby?! After I gave my hunny a piece of my mind (which I guess I could argue I was living in the moment when I didn't hold back on telling him how foolish he was being) I went in to try and comfort Talis. I got him calmed down and got him to fall back asleep when it hit me. I'm getting better at this living in the moment deal. It's been over an hour ago since he fell back asleep but I can't seem to want to leave his room. And I feel this way often. No matter how tired or how long my to do list is there's nothing that makes me slow down and breathe in every single second like night time in my baby boys room. Long after he falls asleep I find myself still sitting in that rocking chair I pull close to the crib listening to whatever piano or lullaby music I've pulled up on my phone for him to listen to as he drifts back off to sleep. Just sitting in his dark room listening to the sweet sound of him inhale and exhale. You know the certain kind of breathing when you know for sure your littles are in a heavy sleep and their little bodies have gone completely floppy? And nothing serious is on my mind. I just sit. Listen. Take it all in. Until I finally sneak out and take care not to make a sound or step on the creaky spot on the hallway floor.

So I guess I'm already better at living in the moment then I thought I was. I guess parenthood helps you improve in more then the million and one ways it already does.

inspiration

I FINALLY got around to scheduling some family photos to be taken this weekend (yay!). I am so excited to get some current photos of all three of us! I have been stressing about what to wear. I'm not the biggest fan of dressing up because well lets be honest that's just not who I am. I still want our pictures to turn out nice though. I'm going for a more relaxed and realistic (slightly realistic is a better way to describe it. I guess it would be weird if I showed up in sweats and a baggy tee.) look so I put together a little inspiration board for what I think I am going to be wearing. What do you think?

casual chic by leilani-ili-reynolds featuring distressed jeans

H&M cotton shirt, $6.33 / Mango distressed jeans, $52 / Converse lace up shoes, $68

current beauty obsessions

Let me start off by saying that I by no means claim to be a beauty expert of any kind. If anything I'd say I'm the complete opposite of a beauty expert (like I am guilty of using an eyebrow pencil as eyeliner for months at a time before I realized kind of expert). And while I might not be makeup inclined I do pride myself in taking care of my skin and hair (I kind of obsess over it) and lately have really been upping my nightly beauty regimen. I credit my new buffed up skin and hair routine partially on sleeping with my makeup on for about two solid weeks straight and partially on being almost 7 months pregnant that feeling rugged and run down by 3 o'clock every day was starting to get the best of me. In the past when I'm feeling tired and ragged I up my workouts or amount of workouts and it usually does the trick but again when your as pregnant as I am these days you're a little limited in the workout department. So for any of you out there that are overly curious about other people's beauty routines like I am (I am fascinated by what works for people and more often then not try everything out for myself) here is a look into what works for me.

Alba Aloe and Green Tea Moisturizer

I've used this moisturizer since highschool and there's a reason I've used it for so long. It's lightweight, hydrates incredibly, and smells amazing. I used to have to go to Sprouts to get it but now they sell it pretty much everywhere (I get it at the neighborhood Walmart market down the street so I'm thinking it's safe to assume they sell it everywhere). It's a little more on the steeper side (at least in my opinion because I hate spending double digits on beauty products) costing around $17 for a 3 oz jar but it surprisingly lasts me (and DJ because I catch him using it all the time too) a long time.

Coconut Oil

I bought my first jar of coconut oil when I was pregnant with Talis to help prevent stretch marks but ended up using it more on my hair during my pregnancy then my stomach. And now you can't skim through Pinterest without seeing the wonders of what coconut oil can do. I use this on my hair and my cuticles and love it. For my hair I've used it as a conditioning mask and to help with fly aways. when I use it on my cuticles I just rub a small amount on all my cuticles right before bed. EfaGold Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil is the brand I use and I just buy it through Amazon.

Clarasonic MIA

I was gifted a Clarasonic MIA for Christmas this year but have been wanting one for a while now. I absolutely love it. My face feels so incredibly clean after I use it almost seems like my skin can breathe better. It's not cheap but it's defiantly worth the investment. 

Pure Argon Oil

Again another purchase I made when I was pregnant with Talis that I didn't end up really using until lately. I use this as a nightly moisturizer. After I wash my face and use toner I rub pure Argon Oil all over my face. I was worried at first that it could clog my pores since it was oil but so far I haven't had any problems. I think because it's more on the thin side as far as oils go that it hasn't been a problem yet. 

WEN Hair Care

I posted about wanting to try Wen here and my sweet SIL suprised me Christmas morning with it (along with some other ridiculously awesome stuff) I have been using it since Christmas and LOVE it so far. The very first time I used it I could feel an immediate difference. My hair felt lighter (in a good way) and left it smelling amazing. It also helped tame my hair a little which says a lot when I typically just let my hair air dry and I don't end up looking like Moofasa. 

What are your favorite beauty finds or habits? 

my mind lately

Thoughts that have been on constant rotation in my mind lately:

-School. This is kind of always on my mind. When should I go back? Is there ever an ideal time to go back when you have kids? (cause it sure doesn't feel like it). What should I go back to school for? Should I continue my education degree or go for something else? Schooling feels a whole lot different when you become a mama that's for sure.

-Finances. We've really been trying to button down our pocket books lately. Okay so maybe I have been constantly trying to button down our pocket book for a few years now but we tend to throw out our budget plan as soon as we're hungry and take out sounds better then cooking (which it ALWAYS does). I have found some (pretty savvy in my opinion) ways of saving money which I might share with you guys later. I have to say, saving money and living frugal gives you a pretty good high (call me crazy but it does).

-House and Home. I can confidently thank Pinterest for making me view my house as a big pile of diy's that need to be done (along with thinking my closet of clothes sucks, I need to work out more, I'm not crafty and a slew of other things that Pinterest so genuinely makes me feel when I'm browsing around it for too long). But none-the-less I now try to turn every weekend into "Home Improvement Weekend" which turns out to be pretty hard to sell DJ on the idea.

-Babies,babies,babies. Everyday I think about how funny Talis is, how handsome he is, how smart he is, how frustrating he is, how stubborn he is, how inquisitive he is, how destructive he is, how cuddly he is, how much I just wanna squeeze his cheeks he's so frikin' cute. You know, the basics of motherhood I suppose. But now I'm really looking forward to watching him be a big brother. And when I really start to think about it then I start thinking of adding another baby to the mix and then I start getting scared. Any advice you might have about entertaining a high energy toddler while toting around a newborn, I'm all ears.  

What's on your mind lately? Are your thoughts as vanilla as mine? (school, money, house, and kids, I think this qualifies me as a grown up right? it's a good thing I like vanilla ;)  )

Talis' Toy

The other night DJ found a fart machine that he had (why my grown husband has a fart machine I do not know but I kind of love it about him) and put it in Talis' diaper to where the cutest and funniest 55 seconds followed. It has since become one of Talis' favorite "toys" to play with. He'll push the remote control to activate the machine and laugh and giggles. He only does it a bit before he gives me a "mama that's inappropriate  stop" look and want us to play with a different toy. He's so full of personality that one.

IMG 2034[1] from leilani reynolds on Vimeo.

our last minute snow trip

Since we didn't get to go up to the snow on Christmas Eve like we planned we were bumming that Talis might not get use out of his sweet new snow gear that my sister Kaylani had spent all day hunting down before our plans got changed. So when a call to your girl friend to ask if they wanna come over for dinner and to hang out turns into them inviting you to her dad's cabin in Heber to play in the snow you obviously get excited and say yes! We love Brooke and Jay, ever since I was young whenever Brooke and I would get together we always ended up with a story to some adventure we never planned on having and just that happened. After arriving at the cabin almost three hours later then we planned due to a ridiculously long drive-thru line at Senor Tacos and a highway accident that shut the freeway down temporarily we got to the cabin to find all the pipes frozen and the heaters barely working. We didn't care so much though because it was still a really fun trip. How can you complain when you have super adorable snow babies, tinfoil dinners, and late night board games? We even got home in time to take a nap before ringing in the new year!