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Sunday, January 5, 2014

2013 in review

What kind of blogger would I be if I didn't do a year in review post? I didn't plan on doing one until finding the following piece of paper in our 2013 memory jar. This has been the best year of our lives with the birth of Crew. This year brought blessing after blessing and I have loved looking back and reflecting on it.

january
Will and I started a new tradition of a memory jar with writing things on little pieces of paper throughout the year and then reading it the following New Year's Day. I'm so glad we chose to start this when we did!

We spent a lot of time together riding. We haven't done much of this since last January because of being pregnant.


februrary

I shared how we told our families about our big news

We celebrated Will's 25th birthday with dinner at Carrabba's

march
We celebrated 3 years of marriage by announcing our pregnancy on our anniversary

april
We went to our gender ultrasound and gave the secret envelope to Kelly for her to prepare for our party


We had our gender reveal party and found out that we were having a boy!


may
I shared why we chose Crew's name

Will graduated with his Masters from seminary

june
Will got ordained at Faith Baptist


I shared about all I've learned from pregnancy

july
I went to Myrtle Beach with my family....


...while Will went to Kenya, Tanzania and China

august
We had our first baby shower with the couples' group from church

Kelly took our maternity pictures


We were given our second baby shower at our home church


september
Kelly and Roxanna gave us our third baby shower

october
Only the greatest month of our lives...we had our first baby, Crew William Kassner. I shared all about his birth

Kelly took his newborn photos when he was 8 days old.

november
We celebrated Crew's one month birthday

We dedicated Crew to God in front of our church and family


I shared Crew's birth day video

We had our first Thanksgiving with our little turkey

december
Crew turned two months...already

We started cloth diapering full time and love it

I took Crew's picture for our Christmas card

We celebrated my 25th birthday

We had Crew's first Christmas!


Can't you see why this has been the best year...thus far?! I can't wait to see what 2014 has in store for our little family. I'm so excited to watch Crew grow and learn and experience new things. God has truly blessed us!
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Thursday, January 2, 2014

maternity leave is over

I realize that I have totally neglected this blog for the past month. We had so much going on in December and I was just soaking up all the time I got to spend with Crew before going back to work. I can't believe I'm back at work officially. I worked a couple half days in December so the first day back wouldn't be such a shock.

The good news is that I get to bring my sweet baby to work with me a few days a week. While I wish so much that I could be home with him every day, I am beyond thankful for a boss who is so understanding and that loves kids so much! Crew has come to work with me twice so far and did so well. I can tell he is still trying to get used to being in a new place and figuring everything out, but it couldn't have gone better. I know it will be so hard for me to focus on my work while tending to Crew, but hopefully I'll get it figured out soon.


My office has turned into a nursery and I love it. We've got a Pack n' Play, a stroller, a bouncer, toys, a TV and so much more for sweet C. On the days that he doesn't come to work with me, he will be with either my mom or Will's mom. I am so grateful that we have grandma's in town who can come take care of Crew. It puts my mind at ease.

I never ever thought I would want to be a SAHM...until becoming pregnant. And that desire only intensified by about 1 million after our son was born. I don't want to miss a thing. Unfortunately, not working just isn't feasible for our family right now. I trust God's plan for our lives and know that if it's meant to be, He will pave the way someday. But for now, I am continuing to thank God for a great boss, great grandmas, and an even greater husband!

Since Will is substitute teaching right now (more on that later), school has not started back yet so he has Crew at home this week. I know C will love the bonding time with his daddy! Their first day together went great. I didn't have any doubt that it would. Crew loves Will!
Happy New Year!




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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

crew | two months

How is it possible that we already have a two month old?! Without a doubt, these have been the best two months of our lives with our sweet little man.


weight: 15.2 lbs!
length: we'll find out at his two month appt. coming up in the next week
clothes: 3 months, but quickly growing!
diapers: size 1 in Pampers and wearing OS cloth
hair color: light brown
eye color: dark blue
nicknames: crew baby, crew man, crewster, C, crewseph (nickname from his daddy), crew boo
likes: baths, riding in the car, talking to you, smiling, being able to look around and see what's going on
dislikes: Will & I both thought on this and couldn't really think of anything! The only thing he seems to dislike sometimes is his pacifier. A lot of the times he makes a face when we try to give it to him or makes a gagging noise. That's fine with me! He also hates hiccups. Other than that, he's SO easy-going!


Crew has become so vocal this week. It is so much fun to sit and talk to him and listen to him try and talk back. I can't get enough! We are still falling more in love each time we get him to smile too! We've noticed him being able to follow things with his eyes now. We were at my parents' this week and he would watch Uncle Colin wherever he went!

Crew's been sleeping pretty good at night by waking up every 3.5-4 hours. He's' had occasional spurts where he'll sleep a little longer than 4 hours, but it's not frequent. We usually try and give him a bottle at his midnight feeding so that we know he's full when he's finished and he'll sleep longer. He's taking up to 5 oz. with a bottle now. It's so funny when you are feeding him and try and pull the bottle out of his mouth. He will grunt like you've made him so mad! Little man likes to eat!


Crew got a little cold this week and it was so sad. It broke my heart to hear him snorting trying to breathe. There were a few times that we just had to hold him upright on our chest for him to sleep just so he could breathe and get some rest. We invested in the Nosefrida and it's worked better than the bulb. Surprisingly, he just grins when we use the 'snotsucker' on him! 

Crew got dedicated this week also. It was such a sweet day and we were so glad our family could be there. We missed Uncle Matt, Aunt Jeana and Uncle Micah though!

He is wearing 3 month clothes, but I don't know how much longer he'll be in them. He's getting SO big. With some clothes, we have issues with the arms or legs being too short for him. He's his mother's son! I've ALWAYS had that problem. I lovvvve all of his fat rolls!

We moved him to his crib to sleep this week. It's gone ok so far. Sometimes we still let him sleep part of the night in his glider in the living room. He's totally over the Rock n' Play though. I think maybe he's just too big to be comfortable in it now.


Look at that little ham in skinny jeans! Those pants are some of my favorite from H&M. They're 6 month pants and really only fit him in the waste because of his cloth diaper (and big belly!). They're still way too long.

Crew's personality is showing through more and more each day. We LOVE talking to him and listening to him try to talk back. All his coo's and noises are just the sweetest thing ever. We are soaking it up!

We're still breastfeeding and it's going great. If you had told me about 5-6 weeks ago that I would actually enjoy it, I wouldn't have believed you. The pain is gone and he eats like a champ. Obviously. He's 14 lbs! We occasionally supplement with formula if we are going to be out for a while just because I feel like I can't keep up with him with pumping enough extra. He always wants to eat, but we are working on spreading out his feedings to every four hours. He goes anywhere from 2.5-3 hours now. If there's a period of time where I don't nurse him and he gets a bottle instead, I actually really miss him and miss that bonding time. He's such a sweetheart. He's gotten to where he's always holding me or holding my shirt when he nurses and I love that. I love feeling needed.

On his 7 week birthday, he slept the best he has ever slept. He went from 9:30 - 3:30 (6 hours!!) and then slept another 4 hours after that. Basically he just skipped that midnight feeding and it was great to have uninterrupted sleep! After Thanksgiving we are going to begin sleep training him. It's recommended not to sleep train until he is 8 weeks old so once we are home from traveling we will start. We read "Twelve Hours' Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old" as recommended by a friend who had success with the sleep training method and are anxious to get it started. I will let you know how it goes!

We started cloth diapering this week. We still only do it during the day, but put him in disposables at night since he goes longer in between changes. It's going great so far. I felt so intimidated by cloth before we started it "full time." One day Crew and I were at home by ourselves and decided to jump right in. I don't know why it was so intimidating, it's just as easy as disposables...and so much cuter!


Crew did great this week traveling to Muddy, IL. He slept the entire 4 hours there and back. He's so good in the car. He got to meet his third great grandma and the rest of the Kassner family up there. We also got to see Uncle Matt & Aunt Jeana for Thanksgiving too.

He's been getting better with sleeping and stretching time between feedings. His longest stretch of sleep at night is 6 hours. He also slept 6 hours during the day on Thanksgiving because he was so worn out from traveling. He goes anywhere from 3-4 hours between eating typically.

At night he still sleeps better/longer in his glider than he does his crib so we usually just let him stay in it. We'd both rather sleep longer so I'm not too concerned with where he's getting his rest right now.

Sweet Crew,
You have lightened our lives like we never imagined possible. We are amazed with you more and more each day. You are such a good baby. You are the perfect baby. You really never cry, only the occasional grunting and fussing. You are always smiling...especially when someone is talking to you and you try your hardest to talk back to us. You are so, so loved by everyone who knows you. We can't wait for our first Christmas with you!
Love, your Mom and Dad
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december goals

I've been seeing "goal" posts floating around for some time now. I thought December would be a great month to start setting intentional goals with it being such a great month (my birthday and Crew's first Christmas!). I have so much I want to do and traditions I want to start now that we're a family of three.

- finish Crew's nursery
I can't believe I'm even having to set this goal. Before Crew was born, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that I would have his room done and it would be perfect. BUT as time got closer to his birthday and I got bigger, my motivation got smaller...as did my energy. The several craft projects I had started still aren't done. I'm so ready for everything to be completed and hanging on the walls in his room.

- start sleep training Crew
This is one that I wouldn't be too disappointed if it didn't happen this month because I know all babies are different. We are planning on using the 4-step system in Twelve Hours' Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old. It's recommended to not begin sleep training until the baby is 8 weeks old and well, we're at that point. By the end of the sleep training, Crew should sleep 12 hours through the night.

- cut down our Christmas tree
We've always had live Christmas trees, but never cut down our own. I thought this would be a fun tradition to start with Crew.

- hang an Advent calendar
This is also something we've never done, but is another tradition I would like to start with little Crew man. I'm planning on hanging this one from Naptime Diaries. I LOVE it.

- reopen my Etsy shop
Once I'm finished with all the crafting in Crew's nursery, I want to reopen my Etsy shop. Every single time I see my great friend, Kelly, she encourages me to do it. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out the balance between my sweet Crew baby and family and work and crafting. Yikes. 

- go on 3 dates with Will
It's so easy to not make time for each other with a baby in our lives now. It's not that I want to be away from Crew (because trust me, I DON'T), but I also need to be intentional in continually pursuing my relationship with my husband so that we can be the best parents possible for our son.
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