friday favorites #26
friday favorites #26

Happy Friday, party people! We've got some crazy plans this weekend, like working on getting Lewis to take a bottle and probably watching the movie Sing 7 more times before Monday rolls around. It's a good life, you guys.

This week has been very routine and average in our neck of the woods, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The kids and I have been enjoying our slow mornings together at home, though we really are looking forward to the weather cooling off a tiny bit so we can play outside. But other than that, I feel like we're in a sweet spot right now with Pippa enjoying preschool, Teddy loving his afternoons home with mommy, Lewis continuing to be the world's happiest baby, and me savoring the long afternoon naps the boys are currently coordinating on. So much to be thankful for!

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Emily Krausefriday favorites Comments
the transition from two to three kids
the transition from two to three kids

If you were to poll a group of moms about what the toughest transition was for their family, I'm confident each women would give a different answer, or at least a different reasoning for their answer. Some find having their first baby to be the hardest, others struggle going from 1 to 2 kids, while still others maintain that having their third truly threw them for a loop. I think so much of this depends on your stage of life, the ages of your kids, and the temperament of each baby. 

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Emily KrauseFamilyComment
friday favorites #25
friday favorites #25

Here we are, wrapping up our first full week of school. Can I just say I absolutely love the routine we're starting? I'm only teaching two afternoons a week, and I'm soaking in the joy of having nothing on the schedule on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Teaching Spanish on Tuesdays and Thursdays has been a blast, and just the break I need from my babies to get dressed up and join the adult world. After a crazier schedule last year and being pregnant while doing it, I'm waking up so happy at the ease of this school year. Well...as "easy" as life can be with a preschooler, toddler, and infant. Now I just need to get better at fitting housework in my day. I've been playing with my kids, working on my business and blog during nap time, and building outings into our day, and pretty much completely ignoring dishes and laundry. Así es la vida, right friends?

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Emily KrauseComment
how do you do weekends?
how do you do weekends?

When Justin and I first got married, I remember being surprised by how hard it was to adjust to living together. There were plenty of petty arguments about things like who would do the dishes or how to spend our money. After a few months and lots of communication, we began to hit our stride.

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Emily KrauseFamily Comments
no I'm not pregnant...I just had a baby.
no I'm not pregnant...I just had a baby.

I had been feeling empowered. Proud of my effort and discipline to get back in shape after having the baby. It’s my third baby, third C-section, I’m 29, and I have diastasis recti (separated abdominal muscles), so I had no delusions about sliding into my skinny jeans or having a flat belly mere weeks after giving birth. I knew it would take lots of time, hard work, and good nutrition to help me stomach get back to “normal,” but I felt I had made incredible progress in the past few weeks. I had just started the MuTu System (affiliate link) to begin healing my core, and I had also been taking my nutrition very seriously, going so far as to cut out the creamer in my morning coffee - the ultimate sacrifice. I was feeling strong and confident, content with how far I had come.

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Emily Krausemotherhood, fitness Comments
friday favorites #24
friday favorites #24

Happy first Friday in August! I can't believe school already starts next week for us! I'm kind of in disbelief, but also ready to get back to routine I guess? I'm already brainstorming ways to get out of the house with my kids during the week, since I'll be home with them a lot more. We used to have one of us (usually me) go grocery shopping on Saturdays while the other stayed home with the kids. However, I'm considering switching grocery shopping to Mondays and dragging all 3 kids with me, so that we can enjoy some family time on Saturdays. How does everyone else do it?

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Emily Krausefriday favorites Comments
wisconsin vacation, part 1
wisconsin vacation, part 1

We've been back from our family vacation in Wisconsin for 2 weeks now, and I've finally gotten around to sorting through the myriad photos and videos taken on the trip. I realized how much there was to share, so I decided to break our vacation recap up into two separate posts, one for each week of the trip! 

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Emily Krausetravel, family vacation Comments
packing for a road trip with young kids
packing for a road trip with young kids

Just over two years ago, my husband, my daughter, and I packed up everything we owned and moved from Minnesota to Florida. Since that move, we have added two more little boys to the family, and have made the drive back to the midwest 3 times. We opt to drive straight through, because we usually have our dog with us, and because unpacking multiple children, suitcases, and bags for a few hours of sleep in an unfamiliar hotel seems like a waste of time and money. The drive would be around 18 hours with no stops, but often ends up being closer to 20 or 21. Yes, you read that right. Almost a full day in the car with an infant, a toddler, and a preschooler. Yikes.

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TravelEmily Krausetravel, travel tips, road tripComment
friday favorites #23
friday favorites #23

Hey! Long time no see! It's the July slump over here in blogland! Ok, not really a slump... more like summer travels and activities have kept us plenty busy! An 18+ hour drive to Wisconsin and back, preparing lesson plans for the upcoming school year, a birthday celebration, and just generally getting into the rhythm of caring for three children ages 4 and under have made the summer absolutely fly by.

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Emily Krausefriday favoritesComment
theodore's second birthday
theodore's second birthday

Theodore Scott

You are two years old! In some ways it feels like you've been two for so long. You're big in stature, big in personality, and now a big brother! I wrote in your first birthday post that you light up every room you enter. That holds true today! There is something about your curly blond hair and your goofy grin that attracts attention wherever we go. At the grocery store, Target, TJ Maxx, the beach, or the library, people stop us just to tell us how cute you are. You've got that je ne sais quoi!

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Emily Krausefamily, TeddyComment
some tuesday thoughts
some tuesday thoughts

On Sunday evening we rolled back into town after two weeks of vacation in Wisconsin with our families. The usual 18 hour drive from Florida to Wisconsin ended up taking closer to 22 hours both ways. We always drive through the night when we make that trip, but this time we had to pull over at rest stops a few times to get some sleep. It might have something to do with having a newborn in the house...

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Emily Krausefamily, motherhoodComment
summer staples for kids
summer staples for kids

The smell of coconut and banana scented sunscreen perfumed the sticky summer day as my sisters and I prepared to jump back in the pool. My mom had a "no TV before 6 p.m." rule every summer, so we took full advantage of the pool in our back yard. Our neighbor friends would flock to our house, because when you have 6 kids, what's a few more? We spent those long hot days playing "lemonade" in the pool, then laying on our towels on the driveway to let the sun dry us off. We then migrated to the front yard for an obstacle course or a round of capture the flag or SPUD. Our entire summer was spent in swimsuits, play clothes, and those parks & rec department baseball tees. 

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Emily Krausestyle, motherhoodComment
hi from "vacation"
hi from "vacation"

Well, it's been awfully quiet on the blog front, and for good reason! We've been on vacation visiting family for the last week and a half. Of course, vacation with children is not really a vacation, is it? We're doing all the same parenting, just in a place without all the comforts and familiarity of being at home! 

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Emily KrauseFamily, travel Comment
an adorable natural baby wear shop - goumikids review
an adorable natural baby wear shop - goumikids review

Does anyone else go through so many pajamas when their babies are little? Between spit up and blowouts, it feels like we fly through our stash of pjs faster than I can do a load of laundry. I can never have enough pajamas for the littlest member of our family, so when goumikids offered to send us some items from their shop in exchange for a review, I jumped at the chance!  

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Emily Krausemotherhood, reviewComment
my favorite nursing products and setup
my favorite nursing products and setup

Before I had my first baby, I remember being more nervous about breastfeeding than actually giving birth. I knew I wanted to make it work, but I was afraid it would hurt, or at the very least be uncomfortable. Now that I'm nursing my third baby, I realize that yes, nursing your baby can be painful in those first days and weeks. Yes, it can be tough if your baby isn't latching correctly. But once I got the hang of it, it really was a great experience, and much cheaper than formula!

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Emily Krausemotherhood, reviewComment
dressing your third baby
dressing your third baby

As we prepared to welcome our third child into the world, I kept thinking back to how different it was from welcoming our firstborn. My sweet family threw me the most wonderful baby shower, and since we knew we were having a girl, we received piles of adorable dresses, onesies, and bows for our little one. In fact, she got so many clothes that we didn't have to buy a single thing for almost the entire first year of her life. It was amazing, and she had something new to wear every day. 

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Emily Krausemotherhood, reviewComment
state of the family // june 2017
state of the family // june 2017

And just like that, half of 2017 has come and gone. So much has changed since our last family update, mainly the addition of a third child! We're starting to adjust to being a family of five, now that Lewis is 2 months old. The past 2 years have been a wild ride - we moved across the country, added Teddy to the family, started new jobs, got pregnant with Lewis, and traveled quite a bit in between. I'm looking forward to some continuity and normalcy for the next few months at least! Anyway, here's what we've all been up to the past few months...

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Emily KrauseFamilyComment
tools and resources for beginning bloggers
tools and resources for beginning bloggers

I have been blogging for a long time, but only recently started taking it seriously as a viable way to earn income from home. Once I made the decision, I began scouring the internet for resources to help me reach my goal of monetizing my blog faster. I spent hours upon hours pinning and reading articles about sponsored posts and affiliate income, searching for books about blogging (I learn best by reading), and adding ebooks and courses to my online shopping cart, then leaving them there, trying to decide if they were worth the investment.

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Emily Krausework from home, bloggingComment