FREE Christmas Cards!!

No, this is not a scam, and my account has not been hacked! Shutterfly has offered 50 FREE Christmas cards to all bloggers willing to share space with them!! PLEASE...use all you want! I conveniently came across this on a fellow bloggers page, and you couldn't believe my excitement! I love a good deal, but FLIP over the word FREE!! I can't wait to make Lena's Christmas cards for our family! This is a tradition I have ALWAYS wanted to do!!

Go here to learn more about this sweet deal!!

Another One Bites the Dust!!

I have decided that I am the place that all electronics come to die!! Morbid, I know!! However, I can't keep a cellphone working (it could be the fact that I allow it to be used as a teething toy in order to get my 7 month old to quit screaming in public) and now my digital camera has gone KAPUT! Well, maybe I exaggerate...the flash has just given out! AHH...and during this time of year!! Luckily Josh has a work camera that I can pawn off of him for the time being! **Note to self, remind Josh to bring home his camera**

So now my quest is to find a new camera! We had talked about purchasing a canon, but with my history I'm not sure that the money would be well invested! Plus I keep my digital in my diaper bag at ALL times! So I want something light weight that enables me to catch those little moments that happen out of no where!! Any suggestions!!??

Playing Catch up....

While this post should imply to my lack of enthusiasm for blogging lately, what I am really talking about it my rowdy little seven month old. She's growing so ridiculously fast, that Josh and I have a hard time keeping up with her!

She's already crawling, pulling up on EVERYTHING, and grabs anything that catches those beautiful blue eyes! It's hard to believe that she is already seven months and this first year of her life is over halfway through! **insert sigh here** I am soo very excited for the upcoming months with our little bundle! Christmas will be soo exciting, and no doubt will leave us with more toys than we have room for! But it's so worth it. I'll be the first to admit she's a rotten little squirt. I don't think I can get out of the house without coming home with bags full of goodies for my angel.

I've already bought her Christmas present, and am finding it very hard to not go ahead and give it to her and just buy her something else!! ;0)

I am so ridiculously thankful for the joy and love that Lena has brought into our lives. Even though it's only been seven months, I'm not sure I remember life before her!!

Since I've been gone.....

I apologize sincerely for my lack of enthusiasm for my blogging in the last couple of months. To tell the truth, there hasn't been to much free time for typing. I've spent much of the last month or so out of town and the rest of my time has been consumed by trying to keep up with this beautiful growing baby I have in my home!

Since we last spoke Ms. Lena has learned to crawl, now has four teeth, can sit up on her own, has began to pull up, got her first haircut, and is intensely working on her patty cake skills!! (see what I mean??) The crawling alone has consumed my time at home! I haven't been home since she really got the hang of it, she started to really go while we were staying with my parents in Ohio! Needless to say, my home is in extreme baby proofing need! I am constantly running after her and yelling NO NO NO!!! (note: Lena thinks the word no is a comedic pun and laughs EVERYTIME I say it) The top two teeth are popping through, literally as we speak!! I'm afraid that next time I have a child they will do everything late, as opposed to the crazy early like Lena, which will more than likely send me into a scare!!

Did I mention we have really found our voice lately as well?? My little six month old has learned how to scream, not for the sake of it, but for the attention and if she needs something. Her favorite game is throwing her toys on the floor and then screaming at you if you aren't fast enough picking it up!! Yeah, I always lose this one!

She is now also in her nine month old clothes. She's growing up oh so fast, and just gets cuter as the time goes on! There's tons more to share, but right now I am losing another game of throw the toy and pick it up! So I will just leave you with some pictures of my sweet baby girl!!

Disagreements....

So, it's probably not surprising that my husband and I don't always see eye to eye. One HUGE example of this would be on the "CIO" (cry-it-out) method. I am COMPLETELY against it, where as he believes it's the ONLY way that Lena will learn to self soothe and sleep through the night.

It's true, Lena is nearly six months old, and still waking every 3-4 hours. **big sigh** As exhausting as this is for me, I feel that if she's waking up and crying out, she must need something, even if it's just me to hold her. I am also convinced that she will outgrow this. Prime example- my parents never did cry it out with me, and I don't need them to come in and rock me to sleep anymore!! :0)

However, I am really beginning to get slap happy with the lack of sleep. The ONLY time I get a little extra sleep (ie and hr or two) is on the weekends when Josh gets up with Lena in the mornings, allowing me to sleep in, or when we are with family, and they get up with Lena in the mornings, allowing me to sleep in. I am still the one, though, that gets up with her during her wakings at night, so while the couple of hrs extra are nice, they still aren't a full 8 hrs straight of peaceful sleep.

So tonight I am going to give an attempt at starting Elizabeth Pantley's "no cry method". I feel that this is the best method for both Lena's and my emotional state. So far, o-k! We layed her down in her crib, and to no avail, were quickly swimming in the sound of horrific crying. We let her cry for a bit, before I went in, picked her up to calm her down, and placed her...awake...back in her crib. I then stood over her humming and gently patting and rubbing her, until she drifted off to dreamland. This is a HUGE feat for us. Usually Lena falls asleep with the bottle in her mouth, and in my attempt to wean her off of that at night, I cut out that comfort feed.

There's not much of an update other than that she's slept peacefully for about the last hour in her crib. Nothing new, she usually goes down after being rocked and sipping on a bottle for 3-4 hours. The toughest part is going to come later when I have to fight my tired eyes at NOT putting her in the bed with us.

I'll let you all know how this works for us. Unfortunately we are going out of town for two weeks on Friday and I HATE the thought that all this work will just go down the drain. But the reality is, we travel and have visitors CONSTANTLY! I am just going to have to put Lena first when we are gone, or have people over and keep to her bedtime routine. Just when we think we get a breakthrough, we have the parents over, or end up at home where people want to hold her till all hours of the night. It's sweet, and I get it, but the truth is if we don't hold on to some sort of normalcy, life is literally HELL when we get home. Why you ask? Because Lena EXPECTS to be held 24/7 after that, and it's just us out here. I love cuddling with my baby, but unfortunately I have to get other things done during the day, like eat, shower, pee occasionally!

So we will see where this attempt at peaceful nights takes us, and again, I will do my best to keep you all updated!

Cooking!

Those of you that know me and Josh, know that we very RARELY eat out. When we do decide to venture out of the comforts of our home, it's usually with the company of friends or family. We are home bodies through and through, that LOVE LOVE LOVE to cook! With the trees beginning to turn and the smell of fall wafting through my home, I've def. been on a roll this week with the home cooked meals. Let's just say, I think Josh will keep me!!

Monday night we got home late from Bowling Green, and decided we should throw something quick together. I had some chicken bites in the freezer and some romaine lettuce. An egg was boiled, bacon microwaved, and buffalo sauce used. It was yummy, and Josh gets the credit for this one. Tuesday night we did a chef salad. ( we wanted to use up the lettuce since we'd been gone a few days and didn't want it to wilt and be wasted) Wednesday brought homemade potato soup, Thursday was cheese ravioli, salad, and yummy apple dumplings, and tonight is a big ole pot of beans and cornbread!!

Something about this time of year makes me want to get up and go. My house always stays clean, and the laundry done, and my baking skills drastically improve. I have a ton of friends that "claim" they are just not good cooks. However, I'm just not buying it. The beans I'm making tonight are just a bag of pintos covered in water with some slices of bacon thrown in a crockpot. Easy as pie.

Speaking of pie, those apple dumplings are the easiest dessert, and I promise you wont be disappointed. You just take cresent rolls filled with pieces of apple ( that have been rolled in sugar and cinnamon) Put in a baking disch and fill with a half a cup of water mixed with lots of sugar and cinnamon, then dollop the dumplings with butter and bake for 30 min!! AMAZING, you won't be disappointed!

This time of the year I also tend to watch Hocus Pocus about 100 times. We haven't gotten around to a viewing yet, but I am thinking it would go amazing with some pinto beans and cookies!! ;0)

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