Does the Second Kid Get the Shaft?

I bought Zane a new high chair a couple weeks back, it was a simple high chair this one from Ikea. It was $25, some of the best money I've spent. When I was face timing with my mom I showed it to her, her response jokingly;

"Second kid gets the shaft."

The high chair we had for Ava was a Graco brand, it reclined, it had two different trays and covers. It adjusted to several different table heights and had two layers of padding. It was fancy in my opinion. It also go food stuck in every little nook an cranny. It was annoying to chisel out food from every area. Constantly spending time cleaning it was so annoying. 

So, I sold it. On Craigslist. 

And when it came time to get another high chair I wanted something, Um.. a little more easy to clean. It was cheap compared to the Graco one. 

My mom's comment was harmless, I didn't take offense but it got me thinking.

Does the second kid get the shaft?

When I was pregnant with Zane I heard a lot of people say that the second one doesn't get all the photographs, doesn't get all the attention like your first pregnancy, etc. I'm sure you've heard some of this too if you have more than one child. 

And for some of those things they might be true for different cases. But, I tend to think that I second kid gets the benefit of all your wisdom that you learned the first time. 

In this case, I wasn't going to waste my time and money on another high chair that I hated and was hard to clean. No, sir. I wanted something that was simple. I think the second time around I'm wanting to simplify as much of this mom thing as I can. 

I'm fine tuning what worked and didn't work for me the first time around and implementing that into being a mom of two now. The second kid does not get the shaft. No, the second kid gets the much calmer, easy going me. The mom who is more confident in who she is as a mother, and what kind of mother she wants to be. 

That seems pretty darn good, don't you think?! 

What things have you done better the second time around? Tell me in the comments below. 

Our Iowa Trip: Summer 2013

Summer is over in most of the country, but here in Phoenix it always feels like summer. This past summer we took our family vacation in July. We traveled back to Iowa where all of my immediate family lives. (brothers, sister, mom, step-dad, etc.) It's been almost two years since we've been back in Iowa. We made the trip for a couple reasons; one we miss family and two, most of my family hasn't met little Zane yet so we need to remedy that before he's a year old. 

My parents live in the country. Outside a small rural town. It's where I grew up, my family moved back to Iowa when I was 4 years old. They haven't always lived in the country but they moved there when I was in college and have lived there for the last ten years. 

There's something beautiful, simple about home that I love. Here's a little peek into where they live. 



There was a lot of swimming in Grandma & Grandpa's pool. There were trips to the Farmer's Market, eating at my fave local pizza place. There were simple nights around the camp fire, catching fireflies. Ava was so excited about these fireflies, catching them in jars and seeing them light up was a high light for her. We don't have them in Arizona. 

There's something special Midwest Summers. 




My brothers & sister. A serious picture is always most followed by a silly picture. That's just us. My brothers are six and eight years younger than me, my sister and I are 11 months apart. It's hard being so far away from them at times, but I am thankful for trips like these.



Another high light of my trip was a day trip we took just over the border to Minnesota to see some of our friends and their babies. I'm so thankful for these girls that made the trip with their kiddos, to see me. My friend Jessie (to my right) is pregnant with #3 and her Hubby and Orion are really good friends. I love that we all got to see each other. 




Trip to the Zoo with my cousins and their kids, and my Aunt. My cousin Jeff is 10 years older than me, his wife Stacy I have known since I was in elementary school, she used to baby sit us. Now, here we are all these years later bringing all of our kiddos (second cousins to each other) to the zoo together. 




This trip was so fun! Seven days at home with family, to recharge and to reconnect. I love going home where things slow down, things are simple. It's a refreshing break from life. 



Swimming with Grandma & photo bombs my cousins! I can't wait to head back for Christmas. Ava is excited about snow and making snowmen with Grandma. The countdown is only a few more months. 

How to Involve Your Children & Family in a Healthy Lifestyle

Work Out & Move Together as a Family
One of the things that I've tried to do since day one, is make sure to involve my kids in my workouts. They don't work out with me every time but often times Ava will watch the videos with me and do jumping jacks with me or whatever. Having her there with me also teaches her about a healthy lifestyle. We also go on family walks together when we can, we play outside together as well. Just getting your kids up and moving is so great for them. When you and your spouse are dedicated your children see that too and it becomes apart of them.

Shop & Cook Together
One of the ways we involve our children is to let Ava shop with us and help us pick out healthy food options. She loves strolling through the grocery store and putting fruits and veggies into the cart. It's also helped my husband and I to shop together and have me show him labels and talk through why we aren't getting certain foods anymore and showing him the difference in foods. It's helped him get on board with some of the changes I've made in our diets. Cooking with your kids is just fun, I think it helps them to take ownership too over their meals when they see what goes into dinner that evening.

Set the Example
When you eat better and make healthier choices your kids and family will too. I realized before I started my journey that I was making healthier choices for my toddler than I was for myself. I was giving her servings of veggies and fruit at every meal and I was eating crap. When I make better choices in what I'm eating, my kids see that and it sets an example for them in how we eat and treat our bodies.

How do you get your kids and family involved? I'd love to hear your tips as well, share them with me in the comments below. 

{Book Review} Let Hope In by Pete Wilson

If you follow me on Instagram and Facebook you've seen for the last few weeks you've seen me posting snippets from the book #lethopein. This week Pete Wilson's book Let Hope In released, I was excited to be included as part of the launch team for this book. I've been a long time fan of Pete Wilson and his effective way to communicate the love of Christ to people, read my review of Plan B here. I was excited to be included and receive an advanced copy of his book to read.

This book is built around this truth; Your past is not your past if it's still impacting your present. The book examines four choices that can change your life and your future. 

CHOICE #1 Choosing to Transform instead of Transfer

CHOICE #2 Choosing To be Okay with not Being Okay

CHOICE #3 Choosing to Trust rather than Please

CHOICE #4 Hurt People, Hurt People. But Free People, Choose to Free People

I believe that when things happen in our lives, it becomes more about our reaction to those things rather than  what actually happened. In those moments we have a choice in our reaction and what perspective we're going to have. When you start to loose your perspective on things, is when you start to lose your HOPE. I've been there, I've been in that situation before. After I got laid off from my job, I began a downward spiral of depression. I lost my perspective, I lost my hope. 

I know exactly what Pete's talking about in this book, I've lived it. I'm sure on some level you've lived it too. It's never too late to let God change your perspective and change your life. I believe that very much. Maybe you're going through a big storm right now in your life, or maybe there are some past hurts that you haven't dealt with and need some break through. I don't know what it is for you, but I do know that GOD is able and he is there if you let him. 

The byline of this book is; Hope changes everything. 

It's more than just words, HOPE really does change everything. If you're going through something right now, if one of those choices pulls at your heart strings I encourage you to read this book. To open your heart and let hope in. 

When I read this book it brought healing and perspective to my heart in areas that I myself am still dealing with, and some I hadn't yet dealt with. After I read it I wanted to give it to my sister who's dealing with a hard time right now. I wanted my husband to read it, because I knew it would speak to him as well. I wanted to share it with my friends and have them read it too. 

And, I want you to have a chance to read it too. I'd like to give away a copy to someone who needs it, someone who wants to answer those questions and change to coarse of their life too. I know God has something for you in this book. 

If you would like to be entered to win please leave me a comment below telling me how I can pray for you today. I'll pick a winner from the comments this next week and send you a copy. 

Thank you for letting me share my heart today, I truly believe that God uses people for his work. He uses words in books to change hearts. He uses blogs like mine to speak his words and his goodness in a hurting world. 

Happy Saturday my friends! 

*This giveaway is sponsored by Worley House. I received an advanced copy of the book as part of the launch team. All opinions are my own. 

My Fall Wish List

Happy October! October is my fave month for a couple reasons. Not only does Fall finally settle in but it's also my birth month!

I put together a few little things I'm crushing on this Fall. A not so subtle hint to my Hubby, if you're looking for birthday ideas. Here's a few.

My Fall Wish List! by worleyhouse featuring zipper handbags

Yes, I'm aware I have the same bag in different colors. I can't decide, I love them both. New Fall phone case, yes please. Also I need a new thermos mug for all my cider and coffee I'll be hopped up on. And a little love for Lauren Conrad, maybe! 

My Fitness Journey: Five Months In & Hitting a Plateau

Five months. This is crazy talk. On one hand five months has seemingly flown by. Then on the other five months has gone by very slowly and been some of the hardest months of my life.

I'm so thankful for this journey though. It has really taught me a lot about myself. About my will power, about my habits and about what I can physically push my body to do in order to achieve my goals. 

So five months in I find myself needing to push myself even more to break past the plateau that I've hit. I assume that everyone at some point or another hits one, plateau that is. 

So I've hit mine, and for the last couple weeks I've been trying really hard to push past mine and keep going. Here's what I can say for me I've had to look at the things that I've been falling behind on and push myself past those in order to gain new ground. 

One of those things has been changing my workouts, Jillian and I are still tight but I've been adding running to my mix and training with the Couch to 5K program. Who knows if I'll ever run a 5k but I'm really liking this running program. I've never been a runner, I've never liked to run but I do like this program and I'm determined to become a runner. 

I've been doing so great on my journey, it hasn't been easy at times but some parts of it have been. I'm determined to move past this plateau and each my goals. The only thing I regret in this journey is not starting sooner. Not taking control of my health sooner, and not caring about it sooner. 

I also wish that I would have taken my measurements from the beginning. From the beginning I've been weighing myself and keeping track monthly, but I wish that I would have taken my measurements from the beginning as well because I know that I've lots tons of inches as well. I took my first measurements about a month ago. 

Remember me telling you I weighed 190 pounds on delivery day? It took me 4 months of just eating right, portion control to get back to my pre pregnancy weight of 158 pounds. That's when I started adding exercise in, I knew it was going to take the combination of working out + eating well to make more changes in my body and overall health. 

The picture on the left is at the 158 pound point. The one on the right is where I'm at today, 130 pounds. 

left: before  158 pounds                                                  right: progress 130 pounds

I'm excited that I've hit my goals. So much so that it's time to make new ones. Which makes me super excited. I've lost a total of 60 pounds since giving birth to Zane, he just turned 9 months. It didn't happen overnight but it did happen, I'm excited that all my hard work had paid off. 

So, if you're sitting here on the fence of your health journey....go for it! Start. Don't wait, you won't ever regret becoming a healthier version of yourself. 

5 Questions for the Blogger: Megan from Honey We're Home

Today's awesome '5 Questions' comes from the adorable and stylish Megan from Honey We're Home & Honey We're Healthy! I first started reading Megan's blog back when I first had Ava. Her son James and Ava are a few months apart and I loved finding another blog who had a child and was in the same stage of life. I've been following her blog ever since.

This is not her first time over here at Worley House- she was a guest during my closet series a while back. I love Megan's style. Have you seen her home? But more than great style, she's kind, friendly and I love the connection we've made here in blog land. I hope one day I get to meet her in real life. 

Connect with Megan here:

TWITTER // FACEBOOK // PINTEREST // BLOG