A Bragging Moment ;)

Okay, I know it's not the best trait, but I am quite proud of the pictures I took of Via the other day! Levi is usually the photographer of the family.

I had put Lucas down for a nap and thought, "why don't I try to get some shots of V?" So I did :) I set her on our new couch - which I'm in l.o.v.e. with and have included a picture of for my mom - and her daddy made her smile for me haha!

And my Valentine's present from my sweetheart <3

(The couch, not the baby.)

Quiet Time

I love nap time! Whether I'm napping with the kids or just getting a bit of quiet while they sleep, it works so well to even it out with the screaming! Oh, my poor Lucas!...

He woke up the other night around 11 just screaming bloody murder! My cousin across the hall in the next apartment over could hear him! He was still sick with a fever and teething. He's getting molars in :/ Poor little man had a rough weekend. Anyway, this same cousin txt me the next day asking if the FBI had stopped by my house ha! I said, "No. Why? Did someone report a screaming child??" No. It had nothing to do with us. (They went to my cousin's and asked her some questions about something unrelated to both of us. She was just wondering if they had done the same to me.)

Levi and I were still up - of course - so it's not us I'm ever worried about; we live above, below, and next door to other couples! I feel so sorry for them! It will be nice to have our own house one day where I won't have to worry about him waking others up. I know our downstairs neighbors get up early and I just cringe every time that kid shrieks! Of course, I feel so sorry for him, too. There's not much we can do when he does this. He won't suck on a cold washcloth or chew on anything. He just screams and spits. We gave him some medicine and then finally just gave him some diphenhidramine to help him sleep. It worked :)

I do love these kids' laughs and even their normal cries. I love when Lucas just jabbers to us or even no one... but I do love this quiet time as well. All quiet except for the wind, which is howling, and little Via's breathing :) Today is a good day.

Oh, Colic

For a few weeks now Via has been colicky from about 8 pm to midnight. Yay. She won't sleep at all then unless she's being held, which just makes it hard to get homework done. 8 is when Lucas goes to bed (usually), and I (usually) do homework then :) But... I am very glad that she is healthy! I can't imagine what it would be like to have a sick child all the time.

Lucas woke up with a fever this morning. He seemed okay for the first part of the day, and his fever started to break, but it spiked again in the evening so I took him into the urgent care center. It's just so weird seeing him when he's not himself. He actually cuddles me, though, which is nice! He normally won't even sit on my lap for more than a few minutes.

Back to the colic... Via was being a bit more fussy than normal a few hours ago when I changed her and got her in her ladybug pajamas. I noticed The Grouchy Ladybug book on the floor next to her that Lucas has been "reading" for the past few days :) Nope, didn't plan it. I decided to take a picture...

It's a little after midnight now, so hopefully she will go to bed soon. She's swinging right now. We'll see how long that lasts.

An Awesome Big Brother and A Smiler

Well, whether Lucas is just annoyed when Via cries or if he is actually trying to comfort her, I don't care. It's cute, I think! He's always trying to give her a bottle or pacifier (whatever he can find) to try and keep her from crying!

He is also such a great helper (sometimes)! He likes to "help" Mommy by sitting on the bathroom counter while I put on make up! He likes to "help" Daddy fix things by handing him tools!

Via has also started smiling quite a bit now as long as it's not nighttime, which is when she's colicky... Here she is with Yama earlier today :) ("Yama" is Levi's nickname for my grandmother and combines the words "your" and "grandma" lol)

Daycare...

So, we ended up putting the kids in daycare. We just haven't had much luck keeping a sitter this semester, and I always feel like I have to rush right home to relieve the sitter after class. No rushing with daycare, and if we end up needing a few hours to do homework or whatever, we can just drop them off for a bit... *shifty eyes looking out for the parenting police ;)*

It's actually about a quarter of the cost that I thought it would be! That's definitely another plus. Lucas has done well with it these last two days. He cries for a bit when we leave, but they say he does great after a minute or two. Via won't eat much for them, but she tends to be less hungry in the afternoon (when they're there). They go for about 3-4 hours 3 times a week, and I gotta say, just the last few days have been soooo much less stressful! It's amazing what I can get done just in an hour without a little man climbing on me, playing with my laptop, kicking his sister in the head...

I've definitely decided that trying to clean up while Lucas is home and awake is like pouring water in a bucket with a hole in it. It just doesn't stay clean for more than a minute. Literally. And I now have to vacuum with my glasses on or else I can't see all the crumbs he left on the floor. I know I'm not very old at all, but that is definitely a sign of getting older. I don't think I like it.

Anyway, I have three tests to take tomorrow and some studying left (and some cookies to be eaten), so goodnight!

5 Sides of A Die

When I first found out I was pregnant with Via, I just knew that she was a girl. We had *pretty much* decided on Oleiva as her name and just wanted to make sure it fit her once she was born. We first got the name from our Tv brand name. Yes, we ended up naming our daughter after our Tv :) Of course, we actually went with it because it has Levi's name in it.

Well, eventually she was born. And she looked just like Lucas! I couldn't name her for almost 3 days because she just looked like a Lucas! (It also took us 3 days to name him; I swear, I'm the most indecisive person you will probably meet.) Of course, it did have something to do with the "preemie look" where they all kinda look alike... but still. I tried holding her the first day - I figured I would *know* then - but, no. She just looked like a boy!

It literally came down to rolling dice! We had 5 names that we liked, so I wrote a name on each side of a die except for the 5 side (because the dots take up the most space on that side). Levi and I were sitting in the hospital room one night trying to roll dice to come up with a name. We couldn't come up with a good system, so we decided to play Yahtzee and if one of us rolled a Yahtzee, we would use that name that was written on the number rolled. For example, if we rolled all 2s, we would use the name written on the "2" side. Well, one of us rolled a Yahtzee... and we rolled it with 5s! Yeah. Apparently Heavenly Father didn't approve of our daughter-naming method LOL!

Obviously, we eventually decided on Olevia, but it took a little while! The other names we liked were Remington, Peyton, Avery, and Lucy. We also then had to decide on her official middle name. We knew we wanted to use "Dawn" (my mother-in-law's name), but I also liked the idea of hyphenating Remington-Dawn. I got complaints that Oleiva Remington-Dawn Christiansen would be too long. I think they were right! Lucas also only has one middle name, which starts with a D as well, so we just stuck with one middle name: Dawn.

So, that is kind of how Via got her name!

Our Tv :)

A Night Without Luc & Via

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my awesome mother-in-law for watching the kids tonight!! Levi and I had soooo much fun on our double date :D We went with Kayla and Matt for a night on the town! We had dinner, went bowling, went to a dance party, and then went to a movie! It almost felt like we were single again... at the least, married without kids (and since we are married, we did do a bit of dirty dancing :/ )

Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love my children, but no one really tells you how tedious parenting little ones is. At least for the past few weeks it has been day after day of wake up, change diapers, feed the kids, play with the kids, pick up the house, do dishes, nap/homework while the kids nap, they wake up, we change diapers, lunch time, play time, pick up the house, play time, snack time, pick up the house, dinner time, bath time, pajamas, sippy cup, story time, kids' bed time, pick up the house, homework, (maybe watch some Big Bang), and then Mom and Dad bed time... with classes and babysitters and tantrums in between. Yes, I think tedious is the perfect word ;)

A friend on Facebook posted that mothering is the only time you can experience Heaven and Hell at the same time. Too true. It is so weird sometimes being so frustrated with, yet so in love with such a little person. And I still have no idea how Lucas makes messes so quickly!

I wouldn't trade this life that I have for anything. I'm so incredibly happy that I am married to Levi and we have our two beautiful children... but getting out and dancing with your hair flying' everywhere is much needed sometimes! I have to say I think it's actually more fun going out when you're already married when there isn't that "single" factor tagging along: worrying about what I look like when dancing, scoping out guys to flirt with, getting up the courage to flirt... ugh. Sorry singletons, but I am glad I'm not in that boat anymore!

And speaking of which, I also can't believe that I haven't been in that boat for almost 3 years! In April, we will have been married for 3 years. I dunno how that happened. We also have two kids now. I dunno how that happened, either. Really. Life just keeps going by faster and faster. I'm doing my best to just enjoy the time while it's here. It's gone before you know it.

Well, it's 2:35 am now. I'm still a little restless but completely exhausted! I guess it's time to try to get some sleep before returning to mother/wifehood. It's super-big clean up day tomorrow/today usually consisting of about 5 loads of laundry, a deep clean/organization of our bedroom, carpet scrubbing, and more diaper changes :)

Man, it's been a while since I've posted! Time has just been flying by, especially this week. It's already Thursday night! Crazy...

So we have good weeks and bad weeks, apparently. The week after my mom left (I don't remember if I mentioned this before) was a great week! So productive and upbeat. The week after: not so much. Fail. This week was another good week! House has stayed clean, homework has gotten finished, kids were great! Via actually slept through the night last night! We fed her around 10:30 or 11 pm and when I woke up at 7 am to go to class, she was still asleep! Levi was actually gonna get up with her last night (since I was getting kinda crabby again), but when the alarm went off, he told me that she slept all night!

She rolled over the other night, too... not on purpose, of course :) She did a mini push-up and kicked hard enough that she rolled right on to her back! Don't worry, I got it on video! She did a few more times that night, as well. Crazy girl.

Lucas has been really great these past few weeks, too. He is sleeping through the night again and eating like a champ! He's eating just about everything in sight! We have so many snacks in the house right now... Oh, these kids of mine. I don't know how they grow so fast!

Surprisingly, going to school full-time with two kids is much easier than I expected it to be! It's just as busy as I figured, but easier than I thought. It's a very sweet surprise :)

That's all for now... Here are some pictures!

Two Kids In Diapers! Bring it.

Friends, anyone? "Mother, I am not going to vacuum up my baby!" -Rachel

Via in her blessing dress (not happy)! The flowers were made out of my wedding dress (like Lucas's vest on his suit).