Making Time for Family

*This post is sponsored by Kenneth Cole.

We were a family of three for a long time, 6 years to be exact, before our beautiful blessing of a daughter, Jordan, arrived.  I’ve gotten so many questions about how it’s been going from one child to two, what the age difference is like, and how we make family time a priority in our lives.  I’ve not been shy about admitting that I felt like most of the baby responsibility was falling on my shoulders early on.  You might remember my hubby halfway joking, “I really hit my stride around age 2!” Well, I’m happy to report that even though Jordan is only 14 months old, he’s already in his groove!

Husband’s Kenneth Cole Watch

Before Jordan was born was, I confided to you that among my list of feelings and fears was, “would I be left out of all the fun things the boys were doing while I sat home with the baby?”  In the last year that Jordan’s been here, I’ve learned that even though we do have to work around nap schedules, and it means more preparation on the front end, we’ve made a big commitment to stick together and do things as a family.

One of our favorite things to do together is head to the neighborhood park after dinner and play outside.  It gets us out of the house, off electronics!, and into the fresh air to run and play!  And this is something the whole family can enjoy- not only one of the kids.  It’s so simple, but these evenings together mean so much!
Our son is a natural ‘homebody’, so sometimes we have to threaten nudge him outside the house, but once we get outside, he always has fun!

Our lives are far from perfect, but there are always moments to cherish and be thankful for.  With as busy as we all are, it’s the simple act of being together that always means the most.

I couldn’t believe we got such a good family of four picture with everyone looking at the camera at the same time!

Our busy toddler doesn’t like to sit still and our son just likes to goof off!

Now that Mother’s Day is behind us, we’ll be looking next to Father’s Day and celebrating the most important men in our lives.  My guy deserves so much credit for the ways he makes time for us.  Like many men, he works long hours at his stressful and demanding job, but still makes time to coach  our son’s sports which includes basketball, baseball and soccer – another job in itself!  I’ve been so amazed at how patient and encouraging he is with all the kids and how he never complains about not having enough hours in the day to do it all.  He just makes it happen.

Husband’s Kenneth Cole Watch

He’s probably like a lot of men out there and hard to buy gifts for because he never wants anything for himself!  But, I have to say I scored points early this year by giving him a Kenneth Cole watch as a way to honor how he always makes time for us.  I have a Kenneth Cole watch myself, so I know the quality and styling is superb and the watches never go out of style.

My husband loved this gift, but he appreciates more that we acknowledge how much he does for us.

Chris Rock joked that no one ever tells dad, “Thank you for the lights!”  All Dad gets is the big piece of chicken!  I guess no one ever gave Chris a Kenneth Cole watch for Father’s Day!  My husband will be able to wear this one all the time, to work, out to dinner, on weekends, etc. The watch is gorgeous with the black face and band, but it’s really lightweight.

With two young kids that demand so much time and attention from the parents, it’s easy to just want to lay on the couch at night and veg, but I so appreciate that my husband will take the time to get outside with us all as a family so we can play together and let the kids run around. I need help chasing after this little one!
And honestly, I have to say that the 6 year age difference between our kids has been great!  At six, James was becoming fairly independent, so he wasn’t as needy as he would’ve been as a toddler when I was trying to take care of a newborn.

He’s never shown signs of jealousy which would I wouldn’t have been surprised to see since I’m sure that’s a normal feeling after being an only child for so long.  Instead, he’s loving and kind and generous with his little sister.  He’s so proud of her and always wants to help her.  And he’s a pretty big help to me too.  I have six years between me and my younger brother and then 12 years between my youngest.  With that experience, I’m careful not to put too much responsibility on James’ shoulders and always be mindful that he’s just the big brother, not the parent.

The biggest difference I’ve noticed going from one kid to two is that there’s less “free time” for the parents. Wouldn’t you agree? In the past, if my hubby and son went somewhere or were playing video games or something, I could be doing whatever I wanted and vice versa.  Now, one of us is always with a kid!  And thankfully, Daddy and Jordan adore each other, so they’ve gotten into quite their own special relationship.

We might just have a Daddy’s girl on our hands!

She loves her time spent with him and goes running to him when he walks in the door from work. We are so thankful for our little family of four!  We appreciate Dad so much!  You can give the gift of time to the Dad in your life with a Kenneth Cole timepiece from Macy’s.com.

And don’t worry, you can still have the big piece of chicken, babe!

*Big hugs and thank you to my talented and wonderful friend Tisha for capturing our family so well!

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Meet Megan

Hi! I’m Megan, mom to a thoughtful teenager and spunky young girl. We call Houston home and recently moved into our dream home. I traded my lawyer hat to become a full-time blogger in 2010. I love sharing my passion for affordable fashion, home decor, organization, & fitness to help inspire you to take care of you!

26 Comments

    1. I'm thankful James can help and he truly adores his little sister. It's going to be fun watching them grow up together and become even closer as she gets older.

    1. Would you believe my photographer friend told me she took over 700 pictures?!?! It's so hard to get good ones of busy little babes, but I do love lots of the "natural" ones that are unposed and capture the emotion so well.

  1. Beautiful pictures. I think my favorite is the one where Jimmy is expecting Jordan to come to him by the wall, yet she goes straight for the momma hug for the win 😉

  2. This is a beautiful post, in words and pictures. As a grandmother of 4, soon to be 5, grandchildren and the mother of two sons, it is particularly heartwarming to see how young dads are so involved in their children's lives. I was just with one son and his family in Boston for a birthday celebration. It was a big party at Legoland, all the kids had to be accompanied by a parent. There were more dads there than moms–who knows why–Mother's Day, dads love Legos–whatever, it was just awesome to see the interaction and fun the dads were having with their boys and girls. And my son was like the Pied Piper, leading the children, helping build Legos, etc. It made this grandmother proud of her son and all dads in general. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure not knocking what we mothers and grandmothers do, personally and professionally. But I think men are many times made to look inept, that they can't do anything with their children, etc. And that is definitely not the case with your family, my family and so many young families I know. We need to continue encouraging our sons to become loving, strong and capable fathers. I'm getting off my soapbox now….!

    1. I agree! Both of my kids adore their Dad and I want them to have their own strong, special relationship. I've also learned that when he's "in charge" I have to let him do things his way and not try to control the situation or correct things. I need to just enjoy that he's taking responsibility and let the kids learn to respect him and how he does things and me and how I might do them differently. I know I'm not perfect and have many flaws, but I've also been willing to learn over the years.

    1. Thanks Kim! I smiled so big when I saw those pics. I knew they were gonna turn out so good when Tisha was taking them. I could just feel how happy Jordan was, so it was great to get that captured on film!

  3. What a wonderful post and just beautifully & honestly written! Your family is just beautiful! Thank you for always sharing! My oldest and youngest are 10 years apart so I can totally relate to everything you said.

  4. Your family is adorable! Those are some great pics – capturing priceless memories!!! Have a great weekend

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