Friday, January 17, 2014

5 on Friday!




FIVE: 



ONE: What a week! I am seriously so glad to see Friday. This week has been stressful. We had a death in the family and then I was ill for a few days. Being a Navy Wife & Mom and being sick just don't work together. Definitely slowed me down and I don't have time to be slowed down. 
Source

TWO: Napping!! My kids are both napping at the same time today. Yay for small victories. The past few days they've been trading off who actually takes a nap at nap time.

THREE: Little Dude will be 2 years old next week Thursday. I've been birthday party planning. The theme is fire trucks. It's so cute. I can't wait to celebrate. I will also cry. A.LOT. I can't believe it's been 2 years already. They grow so quickly!
Invite from here


FOUR:  The Bachelor television show. Yes of course I am watching. I realize this is a shock to everyone who knows me.  Kidding, kidding!! Who are my favorites?? Well Nikki the nurse obviously is my favorite. Beyond her I am unsure. They are really highlighting her as the nice, normal one. Which makes me think she won't get picked in the end, because they like to throw us all off.

FIVE: Olympics!! They are coming soon. I love the Olympics. I always cry during the opening ceremonies when all the nations walk in and are announced (I'm so sentimental!) It's the one time where I feel the world is peaceful and getting along for a brief moment.
Have a great weekend everyone! See ya next week!

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

52 Weeks of Memories: Weeks 1 & 2

Finding Myself Young

Okay Toni I'm doing it. Now nudge me to make sure I continue the whole year.

So my friend in Australia is doing a photo blog prompt to get people blogging/taking pictures this year. I didn't do last week while it was still last week so it's included here.  Go over to her blog to see the list. It's interesting.

 Week 1's word is: NEW.
I got this book for Christmas. It's a journal where you write a sentence or 2 for everyday of year for 5 years. I really hope I can keep this up. It's fun to think of just a few things to say everyday. So far I am loving it!



Week 2: Sleep.
This is a picture of Little Dude's monitor. I'm not sure if you can find him in there. He insists on a lot of stuffed animals, plus pillows and a few other things in the crib. I've tried to take stuff out, but he must have a mental inventory because he knows if anything is missing.

Link up and enjoy the fun!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Little Miss turned 7 months and had her first Christmas!

Shocker...I never got this posted (okay not really a shocker, but I am trying to make my blogging goal...it's only been a week since I last posted!)


Little Sis: 7 months on 12/21/2013

Julia turned 7 months old and as evidenced is still our little peanut. I have no idea of her height/weight or anything. But I imagine she's not too far off from her 6 month stats. She seems heavier some days and other days she feels very tiny still. I actually don't even realize how small she is in comparison to other babies until I see people with babies younger then her who are much bigger or the same size as she is. I sometimes feel I'm constantly acknowledging her peanut status. Anyway...what's she been up to?
Clothes: 3 months & some 3-6 month stuff (I moved her out of 0-3 because I was getting bored with the same stuff.)
Diapers: Size 1
Eating: She loves solids. I don't give her that much, but I do let her try different tastes & textures. She's about 95% breastfed still. She gets 1-2 bottles of formula a day...I'd love to cut these out, but so far haven't been able to.
Sleeping: That's a work in progress still. She is in her crib for most of the night, but still wakes 1-3 times a night. And is usually up & ready to rock by 7:30am. (Suffice to say I got spoiled by her brother who is a great sleeper. Hopefully she'll get it figured out soon enough. I try to be patient as she's likely my last baby & I wish I could remember more often to savor those moments in the dark alone.)
Teeth: She's still only got the 2 teeth she got at 5 months old. I often think she's getting more teeth, but then none appear, so who knows!
Talking: She doesn't babble tons, but has managed to say Mama & baba. I love to hear it. She has a very sweet little voice.
Toys: Her favorites are a Pete the Cat stuffed animal I bought for Matthew and more recently she likes Minnie Mouse I have on her changing table.
Moving: She started crawling in mid-December. It's a very odd looking crawl, but she moves very well. It's fun to see her go for toys now.

Playing with her toy stroller on Christmas
Her first Christmas was a good one too. She got some fun stuff to play with & cute clothes. Her Brother loves the toys she got too, so some of them have been moved to her room so she has a chance to play with them as she grows.  In the above picture she's wearing her red yoga pants. Yoga pants for babies = cutest thing!!

I think that does it.  Toodles everyone!

Friday, January 3, 2014

13 in '13....Photo Linkup

Join the link up here!

I already went through my year, as you read in my previous post from Wednesday, but this is a picture post and well....fun...duh!  So here we go:

January: It was a big birthday for Matthew!
Little Dude turned the big 1 years old!
February: Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day with my cute little boy!
March: We moved to a bigger house.

Gracie Cat
 April: I bought last minute things for our Little Miss.
Cute leg warmers
May: Our Family Grew

Last pregnancy shot. 40 weeks
Julia was born.
 June: Summer trip to Illinois

Going to the pool


 July: 2 months old
Little Sister!

August: The kids were baptized.


September: I turned 28
All dressed up and looking nice!

 October: We picked pumpkins on a sunny day!
Riding in the wagon is fun!

November: Matthew got his hair cut for the first time
Playing with toys and no tears.

December: Julia's first Christmas and Matthew's 2nd Christmas!
Looking at Daddy
This was a fun look back! Enjoy everyone!

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

2013 Recap: Happy New Year!

2013 Recap
1. What did you do in 2013 that you've never done before?
~See the Golden Gate Bridge and visited California
~Saw a Pope retire and saw a new Pope elected for the 2nd time in my lifetime.
~Bought a car with my husband (our first car bought together.)
~Gave birth naturally. I really didn't think I could do it, but I did and I felt like super woman.
~Become an Ombudsman for the Navy.
~Met the VCNO
~Attended a Navy Birthday Ball (I had only been to Submarine Birthday balls previously.)
~Became a stay at home Mom to 2 kids.

I think that’s it…did I do anything else that I can’t remember? Hmm…probably!!

2. Did you keep your New Years Resolutions & will you make any this year?
For 2013 my goals were to:

1. Not allow others emotions control my actions as much. –I worked on this one, but ultimately others emotions still controlled me more than I desired them to. So this is a work in progress.
2. Raise my confidence level. I also worked on this, but it’s still a work in progress.
3. Return to work after I have our 2nd baby. Technically I didn’t return to work, but I became an Ombudsman, so I feel that fulfills this goal.
4. Blog more often. I obviously failed on this one completely. I’ll just have to try again.
5. This wasn’t listed with the goals I made for 2013, but I blogged in November 2012 about it and that was for it to be my year of faith along with the Catholic Church. –I majorly accomplished this one and I am thrilled about it!

2014's goals are:
1. Blog More often (I’m keeping this one until I actually accomplish it.)
2. Use my iPhone less when my children are around.
3. Figure out where I want my life to go personally, spiritually and financially.

3Did anyone close to you give birth?
Oh yes…but there’s so many I am not sure if I can list them all.  Of course the best birth was my own baby girl!

4. Did anyone close to you pass away?
Not this year. It was a quiet year for us in that regard.
  
5. What countries did you visit?
No outside countries; hopefully I can visit Canada again in 2014. I haven’t been up there in several years.

6What would you like to have in 2014 that you didn't have in 2013?
~A full year of not being pregnant. I hate to say that when I know many are desperately wishing for pregnancy, but I want a full year of my body to myself (or mostly to myself since I am not done breastfeeding.)
7. What date from 2013 will be etched in your mind & why? 
May 21st- Julia was born. I will never forget that day and her birth.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  
Being a Mommy to 2 kids. It’s a hard job, but I love my babies fiercely.

9. What was your biggest failure?
I don’t want to focus on the negative, as any failures are highly personal to me and not something I share if they aren't obvious.

10. Did you suffer injury or illness? 
I hemorrhaged after Julia’s birth, but that’s it besides a few miserable colds and sinus & asthma issues. I am pretty healthy thankfully.

11.  What was the best thing you bought?
I haven’t the foggiest idea.  My car probably!

12.  Whose behavior is worthy of celebration?
Everyone who positively impacted my life in 2013. Friends, family, medical staff, priests and more.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled?
This could take me awhile. How about we just go with people who did things out of malice, people who forgot to represent the people they were elected to represent fairly and those who sought attention in repulsive ways.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Student loan companies and baby supply companies.

15What did you get really, really, excited about? 
Having a baby girl!

16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
I feel silly saying this, but the song “Story of My Life” by One Direction. I don’t know why but I like this song and it’s all I can think of to answer this question.

17. Compared to 2012 were you ___________ in 2013
a. Happier or sadder?  Just as happy!
b. Thinner or fatter?  Fatter (due to pregnancy) at the beginning and then thinner (can’t stop dropping the pounds…I gotta work on that. And for those wondering, no it's not an eating disorder issue.)
c. Richer or poorer?   Richer in spirit; poorer in cash.

18. What do you wish you would've done more of? 
Scrapbook. I didn’t pursue it at all in 2013. I was just so tired or busy.

19. What do you wish you would've done less of? 
~ Stressing out
~ Procrastinating

20. How did you spend Christmas? 
I took my babies to Mass on Christmas Eve, then we ate pizza at home as a family. On Christmas Day, Julia and I woke up early hung out together before we all had breakfast together and then opened gifts. Then my Mom & Aunt flew in. It was a fun day!

21. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you this past year?
I honestly cannot think of anything.

22.  Did you fall in love in 2013? 
Yes, with my baby girl!

23.  What was your favorite restaurant?  
 Hop Jacks (their Mango lemonade is the best ever!)

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Downton Abbey and Scandal. Such good shows (and yes I could add way more to this list; I'm such a tv addict!)

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate in 2012/2013?
 
Hate is a strong word…let’s just go with highly distrust.

26. What was the best book that you read?
I read a lot of books. I liked several of them. If I have to narrow it down....I'll go with Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly. Fantastic book and so well researched.

27.  What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don’t think I had one. Interesting question though.

28.  What did you want & get in 2013? 
~A baby girl born healthy
~5 years of marriage
~A bigger house

29. What did you want & not get in 2013? 
 ~A paying job, but it’s okay…life goes in different directions for a reason.

30. What was your favorite movie of 2013?
The Great Gatsby!

31. What did you do for your birthday & how old did you turn?
I turned 28.  I spent time with my husband and kiddos!

32. What's one thing that would've made 2013 more satisfying? 
Less stress…haha!!

33How would you describe your fashion in 2013? 
Preppy? I think that’s how my husband would describe my look. J

34.  What kept you sane? 
Friends, family, God/prayer and my kidlets.

35. What celebrity/public figure did you admire the most?  
Pope Francis. He’s the first Pope in recent history to actually make an effort to relate to all people in the world.  He seems real and down to earth.

36. What political issue fired you up the most? 
I check most of my political opinions at the door, so I don’t think any really got me that fired up.
 
37. Who did you miss? 
My friends who live in other states.

38. Who was the best new person you met?  
My daughter, Julia, of course.

39.  Tell us a lesson 2013 taught you:

It takes a village to raise children and going with that, do not be afraid to use your village when you need help.