Christmas Time is Near!

The stockings are hung,the stuffers are made and ready to go. The tree is up and presents are all under it..I'm so excited!
Baby girl's stocking is going to be filled with a few little teething toys and musical toys for her,then we got her two little books,a pair of leggings,a few little bows I made her and then I made her some yummy apple cinnamon cookies. These were super easy to make and taste pretty great. I found the recipe on familyfeedbag.com and made a few tweaks to make it work better for us.
Apple Cinnamon Cookies
Makes 12-24
9 tbsp apple sauce
1 egg
2 tbsp canola oil
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
I preheated the oven at 375 and mixed up the eggs,canola oil, and egg in a large mixing bowl. Then I mixed all of the dry ingredients in a smaller mixing bowl. The princess of course helped with the mixing :) We slowly added the dry ingredients to the larger mixing bowl and formed a ball. Then I rolled it out in a greased pan and stuck it into the oven for 15 minutes.
When they were done I cut them into rectangles. They turned out kind of like a soft biscotti for teething. They're good for 3 days sealed or you can stick them in the freezer. Whenever I pull one out I usually pour a bit of cinnamon on top and microwave it for 10 seconds. She loves them and I have a healthy alternative for a stocking stuffer!

Crib Chronicles:part 2

So we didn't make it to the crib but she did sleep on her own mattress beside our bed for a good 3-4 hours last night! Progress!!
Last night we went with my parents and sister to look at tons of Christmas lights and we had so much fun! The princess loved the lights, she was singing and bouncing the whole time :)
She is 8 months old now! I can't even believe it..time just seems to fly past us. My baby girl now says hey,hi,dada,yeah,blah blah blah,and waves bye bye. She can pull herself to standing and stay standing for 5 minutes.crawling is only in circles but we're getting there! She eats solids twice a day...she's just growing up so fast!
I'll be making her stocking stuffers today so I'll post on those later tonight!

The princess at 8 months

The Crib Chronicles:part 1

We finally moved into our new house last night!! It's going to be a fresh start for us and with that fresh start we thought the princess should start sleeping in her crib. From the time we found out about her I knew she would go straight to the crib when she was born, and the crib was the first purchase we made. We had decided no co-sleeping or bassinets or even the baby Moses. But the princess had other plans..the very first night in the hospital she wouldn't sleep in the bassinet for us. She would in the nursery but I wanted her in my room. But everytime we went to lay her down she would scream and scream and as exhausted as I was from giving birth,I held her in my arms all night while we slept in the bed. After that we tried the bassinet at home but she wouldn't stay and I couldn't get up at night to pick her up from the bassinet because of complications from her birth. So she stayed. We've tried a few times to get her sleeping on her own but no luck,even for naps. So new house, new start. At 9:30 I fed her and laid her down in the crib, 3 tries later she was still waking up and throwing a huge fit. 10:30 fiancé tries 4 times with no luck. We kept trying until midnight and got nowhere. So we decided we would bring in the crib mattress beside ours..she wasn't having it. After 3 hours of trying she ended up back on our bed. We are going to try again tonight and hope it goes better. I'm feeling pretty depressed about this whole thing. How do people do this without using cry it out??


How can you say no to this?

Baby girl's first ornament!

The tree is up! I am so beyond excited for baby girl's first Christmas :) We really wanted something special for her first ornament and we did alot of looking at stores but didn't really find what we wanted. We did get her an adorable picture frame ornament that says baby's first Christmas and we let her pick an ornament and she got a pink baby bottle but that just wasn't what I wanted. So we went to pick up some glass ornaments to put pictures in (more on that later) and I already had paint for another project so we decided to go for the handprint. Next to impossible with a very curious 8 month old! I'd recommend doing this one when baby is asleep ;) I put a little squirt of paint in her hand and she closed it and squished it everywhere of course. Then daddy held her while I let her grab the ornament. Voila! Instant cuteness and a great reminder of baby's first Christmas. I used a paint pen on the other side of the ornament to write her name and 2011 and then tied a sweet baby ribbon at the top. We left it to dry for about 30 minutes and then put it on the tree. While we were making one for our tree we also made up a few extras for her grandparents and aunts. We'll pair those with their other gifts for a cute present from the princess! Best part? I got everything half off so it only cost me about $5 to make all of the ornaments!

Christmas Crafting!

Yesterday the princess and I started our Christmas crafting. We had a little bit of a late start this year because we are in the process of moving into our new house and all of my crafty supplies have been in storage! Our first project was for my soon to be sister in law. She is 18,super smart,and kind of tough to shop for because she isn't really into the normal teen girl stuff. So I thought,why not make her something? Well in my Pinterest obsession I happened to find the perfect gift, a "My Stache" jar..SO cute! I knew it would be an easy DIY and she will love it so I went for it. This picture was my inspiration. http://img0.etsystatic.com/il_fullxfull.226555276.jpg

So I went to the dollar store and found a clear glass jar and then headed off to Hobby Lobby for some cute letters and mustache stickers. I happened to get lucky and get everything half off so I only paid $4 for this whole thing!

I really love mustaches so I wanted them to be on all sides of the jar and of course the princess was having fun sticking them on with me :) I loved the way it turned out and I know she will enjoy it. I am going to pair the jar with a handmade ornament that I will be posting in the next few days so come back soon!

It's been awhile..

Well life has been a little busy in between balancing school work and staying home with my little princess. I love it though!I've been able to watch her learn to sit up,roll over,get her bottom two teeth in,start scooching around,talking more,standing...It's just been a true blessing to be able to stay home with her! I couldn't be happier staying at home, but it does occasionally get lonely. I have a blast playing with my baby girl but I really needed a hobby when she's sleeping to keep me from going crazy ;) so I've picked up sewing and I've been scrapbooking and cooking and just crafting alot more. It's been a blast! I made the fiancé a Pacman cake for his birthday and it turned out super great! I had so much fun making it and I discovered that I really love baking :). The cake was pretty simple. I used a box mix on it because the fiancé LOVES the rainbow cake mix.The princess helped me to mix it of course :) After the cake cooled I covered it in buttercream icing and then rolled out the blue fondant. I've never worked with fondant before so I was a little worried but it was really easy to work with. I covered the entire cake and then cut out little shapes from a darker blue fondant to make the little maze pieces. I only needed a butter knife to cut through the fondant and it made the cake so cute! Then I put on little edible pearls to make up the rest of the maze and cut out little ghost and Pacman shapes to place on the cake. It took me about 2 hours total to make the cake but it turned out awesome and he was so excited about it.

Dating before noon and Staying up all night

Yesterday we had our very first post baby date! We left the Princess with my parents for 2 hours and went to get breakfast and coffee at Roaster's. Then we were off to go play Lights off mini golf! We had a blast(and I won) playing together and just being able to have fun as a couple. It was really nice just to be able to be with Ben and not worry about changing a diaper or where the closest place that I could feed her is at. And it was really great to finally get to talk to each other. So our first date was definitely a success :) But that didn't stop me from worrying and missing my sweet princess the whole time we were gone. Even though I knew she was with people that we could trust and that she loves to spend time with, it was really hard. I'm glad we did it though. Ben is still a priority in my life and making sure that we have time to reconnect is really important to me. He is my rock and I don't know how I would get through the tough hour before bedtime or the mornings after a really rough night without him.

As for the Princess? She is almost 4 months old! In the next few weeks we will be starting her on solids and I am pretty excited about that because we will be makng our own. It should be an adventure. :) Right now she is working on lifting her head when she's on her tummy and she has really gotten good at it! She is grabbing things, she can reach the toys on her bouncer and play mat and she loves to hit them to make them move. She pulls on her bird on her play mat to make it sing. She is talking more than ever! She can 'say' Daddy,Hey,and Ellie. She makes a sound that I know means Mommy but thats as far as we are there. She loves to sing to herself and dances along to music. She gives hugs and kisses and she's working on rolling over..not quite there yet. She wants to stand up all the time so we hold her up and she thinks she's a big girl! And she has a little scoot thing going on. She wants to crawl but can't quite figure it out so she does her little scoot on her tummy. She is getting so big. Lately I feel so overwhelmed by everything she is learning and how fast she is growing. Every day she learns something new and sometimes I feel like I want to just stop time for a little while so that I can keep up :) She is so amazing to me,I just don't want to miss anything.

Crankasaurus Rex

Lately I am suffering from a serious lack of sleep that has absolutely nothing to with my little lovebug. I simply can't stop thinking. I wake up every hour and just lie in bed thinking about all sorts of random things. This has lead to a serious case of Crankasaurus Rex's. I yell at my poor sweet guy for no reason,can't stay awake during the day, cry randomly...you name it,I almost feel like the crazy Prego again!
On to a cuter subject though, the princess is talking more, working on giggles, and getting ready to eat solids! I'm super excited. And she finally fits into 0-3 months! Life is pretty good :)

Shots

Today my princess had to get her 2 month shots. It was a not a happy day for any of us,we were running on very little sleep and shots are pretty much awful. We went to the appointment,at 8 in the morning btw,and princess is now up to 9 lbs 9 oz! She is doing great with everything and they have no concerns. So that was good news. I asked about getting her tested for Celiac and the dr felt it would be best to wait until she’s a little older unless she has symptoms. She got her shots and didn’t scream too much but she was tired and cranky the rest of the day so I took off so that I could keep an eye on her. It was really hard to watch her in pain today and not be able to help her and then to know that she’s running a fever but thats normal after shots..it was a tough day.

2 Months!!

Today my sweet little angel turned 2 months old! I can't believe she is already 2 months,it seems like I was still waddling around 9 months pregnant just the other day. She is already such a huge part of our lives though. I can't remember what our lives were like before her. I don't remember what it's like to go to bed when I want and sleep all night,or to carry a purse instead of a diaper bag. I can't remember getting dressed without making sure I can nurse in that outfit or a time when I wasn't constantly worried about my baby girl. In the last 2 months I have been pooped on,peed on,thrown up on,drooled on,spit up on,scratched,had my hair pulled and had blisters on my boobs from breastfeeding. I wouldn't trade it for the world though. I am the happiest I have ever been. And even though Ben and I have less alone time, I think we are closer than ever. I adore my little family.

More Milk Please!

Tonight I met my sweet baby's other half-the screamer. I have this angelic,calm baby..the kind that every parent hopes for. But tonight she decided to show me that she does indeed have a set of lungs on her. Along with that she decided to let me know that she like her meals served every half hour..needless to say,it's been a long night. I'm worried that I'm no longer producing enough for her to get full. Hopefully it's just because I've been feeling sick the last few days but I'm worried it might be because I started on the patch or maybe I just stopped producing as much :( Kinda freaking out because I don't want to use formula. I guess there isn't much we can do now except to wait and see if it gets better in the next few days.

sexy rocks a Moby

I dont have too much to say today but I will say that I'm blessed to have such an amazing man in my life. My sweet guy let me drag him to 7 stores just to find some shorts-and didn't complain. I finally ended up buying 3 pairs that actually fit and looked good. Today was the first time in quite awhile that I felt sexy and confident and like me again..it was a great day because of that and I owe it all to Ben for bearing with me and telling me how beautiful I am every step of the way. Thank you baby! I love you!!

Post Baby Clothes Shopping

Today was 94°...the past week has been in the high 90's to 100°. So I had to go shopping for some new shorts-not a favorite of mine. I've always been a big girl. The last year of high school I really started packing on the pounds and it kept going until 2 summers after I graduated. I ended up at a size 18 and weighed 190 lbs. That summer I started working outside,running around with kids all day,watching what I ate and walking 3 miles at least twice a week. I dropped 50 lbs by the end of the summer and I was down to a size 11. I did great for a good 2 years, staying between 11-13,then I got pregnant. I stayed at a 13 until I was about 5 months and then I gained 14 lbs and had to start wearing 15's. At about 6 months I switched to maternity jeans to be more comfortable but I was watching my weight and staying where the doctor told me I needed to be. By the end of my pregnancy I had gained 34 lbs and weighed 209 lbs. After Paisley was born I instantly lost 19 lbs and was down to about 190. Now I know that I will drop the weight soon, I just barely got the ok to exercise a week ago and I gained the right weight for my beautiful daughter..But I still feel like I'm back to being the fat girl with the low self esteem and the fear of shopping for clothes. So today was hard for me. I was overly critical of every pair of shorts I tried on and cried alot and ended up leaving every store empty handed. This is going to be a long journey. It took me a long time to finally be comfortable in my body and now that I'm back to where I started out, I just feel like a failure.

the much anticipated return to work

...was actually alot easier than I expected. I am incredibly fortunate to be working for a school and during the summer my boss doesn't mind me having Paisley with me. The first she asked was why she wasn't there! So I had Ben come up and they stayed with me. My mom was at a luncheon for a funeral when Ben was supposed to drop Paisley off on his way to work so I just kept her all day. So nice! So our new schedule is that they come to work with me from 11-2:30 and then Ben takes her to my mom on his way to work and I pick her up at 4. I am loving it so far. But all good things come to an end,and my end is the end of June. The program I work for has a 4 year cycle and after working there for 4 years..it's over. So i have the option of starting at a new school in August or finding a new job. I really wanted to just get a newspaper route so that I could offset the costs of a daycare/babysitter and basically be a SAHM while still making some money. But Ben isn't really a fan of the idea. So my mom told me about a job opportunity at the school we currently work at, I would work full time as an assistant. I would get off of work right as Ben would be going in. Paisley would never have a babysitter but I would be away from her for 7-8 hours a day. It would be alot more money though and medical insurance so it's definitely not an opportunity that I can easily pass up since we're looking to buy a house soon. Right now I'm not sure how I feel about it but I'm going to apply and leave the rest to God. We'll just have to see what happens.

No Sleep Til Brooklyn!!!!

...or something like that. Last night was one of the hardest nights i have had so far. I was already tired because I couldn't sleep the night before and then we had to get up early to head out of town. Paisley normally goes to sleep at 12 and she'll wake up 2-3 times a night and then get up at 10:30 a.m. Her schedule never really differs too much. However, last night she decided she wanted to party! I ended up staying up with her until 2 a.m. trying to get her to sleep. I let Ben sleep because he has to work all day and I didn't want him to be tired. So it was me and Paisley, and every time she would fall asleep she would realize it and start screaming! It was not fun. Finally got her to stay asleep and then she woke up around 4 or 5 screaming bloody murder. I was so asleep I was dreaming while trying to feed her and I couldn't get her to calm down enough to even eat. So I got a little snappy at Ben asking him to help me and he woke up and got her calmed down a little so she would eat. And now here we are at 7:30 a.m. doing the same thing. Obviously my daughter hates sleep. She fights it every chance she gets so it looks like mommy will be sporting the sleep deprived look for awhile :( Maybe we should start looking at a better bedtime routine...

6 weeks 6 days 6 hours and 16 minutes

That's how old my baby girl is as I sit down to right this. This time 7 weeks ago I had just gotten settles into the hospital,got my IV out in and started my induction. I was terrified and excited, I had no idea what I was going to do with this sweet baby. The next day when I was handed my 5 lbs 5 oz angel I had no idea why I was trusted with such a tiny,perfect person. I didn't know how I would be able to take care of her once I got home. Almost 7 weeks later I don't know what I did before her. Waking up every morning to her sweet little cooing and those big blue eyes is more than I could ever have dreamed of. The past 7 weeks have been incredible. I've been able to spend every minute with her just relaxing and bonding. On Wednesday I start work again though. I don't know how I'm going to do it. My job is just a part time 5 hours a day job but I can't imagine leaving her for 5 hours. Every time I think of it I tear up. I wish I was able to be a stay at home mom but right now it just isn't possible. I'm not sure how my first week back is going to go but at least Paisley will stay with her daddy most of the time and then my mom is going to watch her the last 2 hours of the day. I'm pretty excited that they will get the chance to bond with her as well.Her daddy is so good with her :) I love seeing them together and I know he is thrilled to be able to have some one on one daddy/daughter bonding time. I am incredibly blessed to have my amazing family!