10 Lessons of 2011

I did this last year and thought I would do it again.
1. (I know I say this a lot) Parenthood is the most amazing/joyous/blessed gift ever.
2. (I said this one last year but I will say it again) my husband was placed in my life for so many reasons, big and small, and I am SO grateful for that.
3. No matter what, it is impossible to make everyone happy.  This is a really hard one for me because I would love to be able to make everyone happy!
4. Do what is right for you and your family, no matter what! There is a quote on pinterest that says "Do what is right in your heart for you will be criticized anyways."
5. Having a sick child is like taking your heart and stomping on it. Although ear infections were as bad as we got as far as sickness goes, as a mom I would just sit, hold him, and cry. It's such a helpless feeling.
6. Family time is more precious than any night out on the town.
7. (this lesson is still in the learning stage) It's ok not to be super woman/mom and it's ok to ask my husband for help.
8. Being pregnant the second time around is so much more enjoyable ( don't get me wrong I loved every second of being pregnant with Brax but I spent the whole first trimester worrying) I don't worry about every tiny, itty, bitty thing!
9. Mommy's can function on very little sleep.
10. Off brand diapers work just as well as name brand, haha!

Update

I am 17 weeks... actually almost 18 weeks now which means that I am almost half way there considering he is going to take me at 39 weeks if it does not happen sooner (I have no hope that it will happen any sooner since Brax/my body was so stubborn the first time around).  I still feel really great!  This week our baby is about 5 inches long and I have been able to feel more and more thumps.  My baby bump is becoming more prominent but still not huge,  I know that is to come and honestly can't wait.  I love being pregnant.

I need to write about Christmas but I am being lazy right now so that will have to wait! haha.  Our anniversary is coming up SOON and I am so excited!  I have a surprise date planned and he has no idea!  I did tell him that his present was not tangible so he thinks that I have planned a trip somewhere... I kindly reminded him that a trip was not really in our budget at this point, haha.  I also made him this (he has no idea what our blog site is or ever even comes on here so I know it is safe =)...

I had it printed as an 8x10 and I am so excited to give it to him.  He loves things like this.  Forever and ever, Amen is a Randy Travis song and we have that exact quote printed in our wedding album on the very last page, which is a picture of us leaving our wedding.  Love it!

Brax is 13 months old today!  I have officially deemed this age my very favorite so far (I am sure I say that about every age/stage, haha).  BUT he is so much fun!  He is walking now, for the most part, and he has perfected the stand up without pulling up on something in the last two days!  He is talking up a storm, not necessarily words but he will not be quiet!  He does say mama now and night night and somehow he lost the word dada. haha.  I have realized this last week that he understands SO much!  Buddy asked him to give him something the other day and Brax handed it to him.  I told him to put his hats away the other day and he started putting them one by one back in his drawer.  We were playing with a new toy and I told him to push the button on the foot and he did.  I am sure this is normal for his age but I like to think he is very smart!  He climbs ALL over us.  If we are sitting/laying on the floor we are his junlge gym!  He laughs and squeals with so much excitement!  He loves to give his cousin kisses but has stopped giving us kisses.  He is all the way off the bottle and formula, yay!  We started working on the paci but it has been a little harder.  He doesn't have any problems with not having it until the middle of the night.  He will go down initially without it and go to sleep but if he wakes up he wants it.  It has been a very long week (at night) to say the least!  He signs more all the time!  When he is eating something and he wants more he signs or when he is ready to eat he will crawl to the kitchen and sign more.  It is so cute and makes this momma really proud.  We are still working on other signs, such as, milk, water, and eat.  He has 16 teeth and can eat just about anything! haha.  At about 12 months or maybe before (I forgot to put this in his update then) he started taking bites of stuff, meaning we can hold a cereal bar for him and he will take a bite off of it or a banana.  His learning amazes me, it is never ending!  I feel like he learns/does new stuff all of the time!

Ok, enough of this random post!

Baby Update

Week 16: Our little one is 4-5 inches long and 3-4 ounces now!  Growing so fast!  

What's new?  I have been able to feel little butterflies this week and sometimes a feeling of a small, light thump (I really wouldn't call it a thump, more like a twitch).  I still feel great!  I have great energy in the morning but by evening I am falling over from exhaustion!  I can still fit in my jeans and button two pairs of them but maternity jeans are so much more comfortable, haha.  This morning I woke up with the agonizing pain in my knees that I had when I was pregnant with Braxton.  I only get it at night and the only thing I can figure out is that since I am sleeping on my side my knees stay bent the WHOLE night which then leads to this awful pain.  I have tried to lay on my side with my legs straight down but that's not comfortable at all :) 

We are both so excited about this baby and although it was not planned in the least bit we feel so blessed that we are going to be parents again!!!  

My New Oven

Funny title, I know, but I am so excited about my new oven and it's not even brand new!  After having a great spa day Saturday with my best friend and then a great Sunday morning with my mom, sister, and niece we got a call Sunday night that our neighbor needed help putting in his new stove.  No biggie- hubby went over to help while I got dinner ready then all of the sudden the neighbor and my husband were crowded in my kitchen measuring our oven.  Now let me tell you about our poor little oven.... it's old, it's the original, it's a double oven, it's ugly, and the bottom oven is the only one that has worked since we moved in BUT we have made do.  We have looked on numerous occasions for a new one but the new ones are SO much larger than the one we have which would mean modifications would need to be made to the area where the oven goes (YUCK).  Double ovens are also pretty expensive and we were just not ready to make that jump yet so we continued to make do.    

Our OLD oven.  Isn't it UGLY? and See the little oven on the bottom-yup that's what I have used for the last year and a half!

So our neighbor tells me that he got a new oven for no good reason and that they were giving us their old one!!!!  Oh my goodness, and yes it's probably my pregnancy hormones, but I was honestly almost in tears.  The oven that they removed and were now giving to us is only 5 years old and it's black like all of our other appliances AND it is the exact size that we need.  I was literally jumping around the kitchen, smiling from ear to ear, and going outside over and over to look at our new oven, I know I am a dork, but I have had an oven that for the last year has not even fit a full size cookie sheet in it properly so I feel like we hit the lottery, haha.  Anyways... here is our new oven

So pretty! 

So last night as I sat in the living room after Brax went to bed I just thought about how blessed we are even though we are so undeserving.  I am so thankful to still be able to call my childhood best friend my best friend today, I am thankful that she is married to my husbands brother so we get to see them often and watch our babies grow up together, I am thankful for my husband, who watched our fussy little boy for over five hours while my best friend and I enjoyed a day at the spa, I am thankful for sweet friends who we got to see this weekend and have a kid's Christmas exchange, I am thankful for a wonderful sister who always thinks about others before herself and MADE me find some new shirts so that I could feel pretty at this in between stage of pregnancy, and for a mom that watched our babies so that we could go shopping and comforted/encouraged me when I had a small teeny tiny break down Sunday, and last but certainly not least, I am so thankful for our neighbors who gave us our new oven.

Giving Without Expectations

"The more you do for others without expectation of return, the more you'll get back from the most unexpected sources" -Brian Tracy

With Christmas right around the corner this has been on my mind--

One thing I hope that my husband and I can pass on to Braxton is the love of giving without expecting anything in return- no expectation of receiving anything in return and no expectation of recognition.  I hope to teach him to give joyously, lovingly, whole heartedly, and unconditionally-without any conditions. I want him to give without bragging, give without disappointment, and give without expecting someone to dote.

It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20:35

Baby Update

I am 15 weeks (yesterday) and I really can not believe that it.  I feel like it took me forever to get out of the first trimester with Braxton but it has flown by this time around--it has to be because I have a one year old to chase around!  I am feeling great, no complaints.  I went to the doctor last week and his exact words were that I was doing amazingly magnificent. Heartbeat was great, all of my blood work was great, great weight gain (YAY!), and great measurements!  We have picked out names, and yes I know people think we are weird for doing so at such an early part of the pregnancy but why wait?  haha we won't know the gender until his/her "birth"day so we do not have to wait for the gender revealing sono... so we go ahead and pick!  Our girl name is for sure Brooklyn Leigh and the boy first name is for sure Brock but no definite middle name yet.  We have tossed a few around but nothing for sure.  I like Brock James (hubby's first name) but we will see.  It took us forever to even come up with a boy name ;) I do not have a picture from 15 week with Braxton so I put the one from 16 weeks to compare to my 15 week picture with baby #2!  I feel like I was already huge with Braxton by this point but it was really just because I ate SO unhealthy with him.  At this point in pregnancy, I have gained nine pounds less than I had already gained with Brax (don't judge) haha!  (If I had to give advice to first time mom's it would be to eat sensibly- not that I eat healthy all the time now, I might enjoy a small drum stick every night (I am ready for the box of ice cream to be GONE)- but I am really trying not to stuff my face at every meal like I did last time!).

Anyways- We go back on the 11th for our "non" gender revealing sonogram as I like to call it!  We are so excited to get to see our little one who will not be so little by then!

This was 16 weeks with Braxton 



15 weeks with Brooklyn/Brock



A Week in a Day

Not trying to copy Rachael Ray's show but I did just that- I made a weeks worth of dinners in a day, actually two hours, which included prepping, cooking, and clean up!  I have never tried this approach or even made two meals in one day but I am trying to find a way to not feel so run down and rushed in the evenings and this sounded like a great plan!  We are a cooking family... of course we would love to go out and this momma would love to not have to cook all the time but this is one way we budget and one way we save a lot of money (plus I really like cooking!).  I made my menu early Saturday morning, you know since I wake up at 5:15 for no good reason and nobody else is awake, and from my menu I make the grocery list (this is not anything different, I am almost OCD with a menu and my grocery list--HAVE TO HAVE A GROCERY LIST)!  I had researched some good freezer recipes last week so I knew which ones I could make and freeze and still have them turn out to be tastey!  My plan was to make four recipes, two to put in the fridge and two to freeze, so I did just that.   We usually shop on Sundays as a family but I was ready to go when hubby got up so I went alone and actually was in and out in 30 minutes!!!

Anyways.... I got home and mapped out a plan.  I had two recipes that called for ground beef//turkey and two that called for shredded chicken so I did the two beef recipes first and had them cooling then started the two chicken recipes with a couple of pan washes in betwen.  (At some points I had all four burners going on the stove!) In between I also made individual frozen bean, rice, and cheese burritos (SO EASY!).  I made the spanish rice that we like and let it cool.  I then set out the tortillas and smeared refried beans on each one, added the cooled spanish rice, sprinkled with cheese, rolled, and wrapped in foil.  When you are ready to eat/snack on these you wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave them!  Again, so easy! 

What I made:
A huge pot of chili- I split this in two- putting one in the fridge for this week and froze one.  We ate the unfrozen portion last night and had enough left to both have lunch today (this pot of chili was huge!)

Home made Sloppy Joes- This is a weight watchers recipe that we love!  I froze this recipe!

Chicken Spaghetti- I made it all but did not bake it.  I put this one in the fridge and will sprinkle with cheese and bake tonight!  This makes a large amount also so we will have enough for lunch and maybe one more dinner!

King Ranch Chicken- I prepared the casserole but did not bake then froze.  I will dethaw, sprinkle with cheese, and bake when we are ready to eat it! 

I will continue to look for easy/good recipes to make and serve at a later date.  I am pretty iffy on what I freeze so unless I hear/see/read that it is ok to freeze then I will not freeze that particular recipe.

I know I am a nerd but this truly does excite me!  haha.  Anything to make life less hectic and allow me more time with my precious family!  

Love this quote

"The best thing in life is finding someone who knows all of your mistakes and weaknesses and still thinks you're completely awesome."

Saw this posted by someone... so true!

Sunday Snippets

I feel like I have been neglecting the good ol' blog lately but so much is going on-it's hard to keep up!  Just a snippet of lately:

• Mom took her first round of chemo last Monday, the 28th.  All went well and although she was COMPLETELY drained of ALL energy we can praise the Lord that she did not get the typical side effect of nausea.  She has pretty much been on house arrest all week but it is literally the only way to keep her out of the way of nasty germs while her blood count is low.  She goes today for a CBC to see where her blood count is sitting.  She will soon be able to venture out but with extreme caution and care due to her fragile immune system.  Then it starts all over again on the 19th (only 5 more rounds, PTL!) 
• Hubby is hunting in the middle of nowhere which means I am playing single mommy this week.  The house is a wreck and the clean clothes did not get put away BUT Braxton and I are having a great time.  We miss daddy a lot, especially since he is NOT a phone call away and most days we are not even able to talk to him (they are so far out in the middle of nowhere that they have to drive to this one spot that "might sometimes sorta" have a little reception, HAHA).  Braxton has been in a great mood and is keeping me busy busy!  We have been all around town just to keep us occupied and not sitting at home bored and lonely! 
• Braxton's sleeping. hmmph.  I do have to say that it has improved a LOT since last week.  I do not know what was up last week but I am guessing that we averaged 5 hours a night, not good.  The night before hubby left we were all up from 11:48-2:38 and I just knew that this week I would be a walking zombie since I would be left to do all of night duty alone.... BUT Brax must know that mommy is tired because he has been sleeping great!  Last night he only got up once and went right back to sleep.  I am really not sure what was up last week but it was rough.  He cut one of his canines and the other three are swollen and red, so I have a feeling it has to do with that. 
• I am getting thicker, hehe.  Definitely can not tell that I am pregnant yet but I can tell I am thicker.  I can still fit in all of my clothes, YAY, but my tummy is thick if that makes sense.  I did get almost all of my sisters maternity clothes this weekend.  I do not have many winter clothes and I refuse to buy any since I am sure this winter my stomach will be expanding at an exponential rate... so I plan on wearing her shirts with long sleeved plain colored shirts under them! 

That's about all!!!!  Looking forward to this week flying by and seeing hubby whenever they decide to come home!