The bag lady

Let me just start by saying that the pictures of moms modeling their one diaper bag are lies. Lies I tell you! Look them up once. You'll see a mom looking all sylish with diaper bag in tow, nobody seems to notice that she doesnt even have a baby near by!

mmmmhmmmm don't let this stylish mom with her one little baby bag fool you. That is NOT what motherhood looks like...at least not for this mother. Let me tell you what I left my house with this morning. A baby in her car seat (that is beginning to feel like 50 pounds), a breast bump, a bag for the breast milk, a cooler bag of milk for Marley, my purse, the diaper bag and a giant lump of annoyance over the amount of bags that I had to carry. I'm sure I look like a crazy person waddling out of my house every morning with my 50 bags in tow. And that was after I put the bottles, diapers, milk, wipes, nuk, extra outfit, and medicine in marleys diaper bag.

I swore that I wouldn't be the mom who totally let herself go after having her child. You know the ones. They say 'as long as my baby looks cute it doesn't matter. No one is looking at me anymore.' Let me tell you, if you look like you just rolled out of bed, threw the nearest shirt on and the most ill fitting bra you could find, people are going to notice. And I will admit I turned into that person for a little while. After a hair cut, a spray tan and some new clothes though I'm starting to feel like myself again. UNTIL I try to leave the house every morning. Thats when I feel like the crazy bag lady that just can't pull herself together and may have 27 rolls of toilet paper somewhere in all those bags.

2 years

Most people (including me) will tell you that you are probably not going to meet the love of your life in a bar. But I did! Somehow Ben and I managed to go to the same high school and the same college without ever meeting. Thank goodness because we both agree that if we'd met way back then we would not have liked each other. hahaha. SO as fate would have it we met at the exact right time. One night while out drinking and hanging out with mutual friends Ben and I saw eachother in a 'not so romantic' across the bar kind of way. I thought he was so cute and even remember what he was wearing. haha. We've both agreed that we'll tell our kids we met at the library, we'll just leave out that it was a bar.

And after spending maybe a day with him I knew that we had something different than I'd ever had with anyone else. I was comfortable with him right from the beginning and have always felt like I could be myself. One short break up, 4 years of dating, one house buying experience, an unconventional engagement, 2 years of marriage and the most beautiful baby ever and we are as happy as can be.

I don't have a ton of older photos of us but here are some that I do have and then some favs from our wedding.

My favorite pic from the wedding

The is Stephs wedding while pregnant with Marley

One of our first trips together in AZ

Out in River Falls

Family pics/Marley's 6 month pics

My good friend Mandy (who is amazing) offered to do Marleys six month photos for us. I was so happy that I jumped at the chance as I am not the best at breaking out the camera and taking pictures. I've done better with Marley but Ben and I don't have a ton of pictures together either so I was very happy to sneak some family photos in as well.

6mo

Marley Lou had her 6 months check up last night. Her Dr. said she didn't think she'd ever seen a baby who could crawl and sit up as good as Marley can this early. (Yes I'm bragging a little bit). Here are her 'stats' and a recent pic of my very big girl.
Height 26.5 inches 73rd percentile
Weight 15 pounds 15.5 oz. 45th percentile
And her head was in the 30th percentile but last time it was in the 60th  so the dr. thought maybe the nurse was off a little bit :)

Today

Today I will not take for granted everything I have been given. I will be thankful for my job, my family and friends and the amazing life I am able to have. I will remember that I have a job and am making money and am not worried about how we are going to pay our bills because I cant find work. I will embrace everything weird and annoying about my family because even though they are there ALL THE TIME, they are willing to be there all the time, no matter what, for the good , for the bad and for everything in between. When I get up for what seems like the 100th time in the middle of the night I will remember that soon my baby will be sleeping through the night and I will not be able to enjoy those precious little cuddles or the sight of her calm and content face while she is snuggled up in my arms. Today I will not complain and will remember that life is what you make of it. And I am so beyong blessed everyday, every minute.

Marley is six months old and has her six month check up tonight. I will follow up with stats but here are a few things that my EXTREMELY active little girl is doing.
-Crawling all over! Marley has figured out how to 'big girl crawl' on all fours rather than just army crawling around our house.
-Pulling herself up. Our little peanut has figured out that she can pull herself up and stand. My guess is that she will be walking well before 1 as she is determined to be on the go.
-She blows bubbles and spits all the time (even in her sleep while I'm changing her diaper).
-She's learning words like No and Kiss. (not to say them but the actions)
-Although she is not much of a snuggler because she is too busy, she does like to put her cheeck to my cheeck and snuggle up to my shoulder while I'm getting ready to put her to bed.
-She's starting the think things are funny and will laugh along with you if you start laughing.
Mostly she is just the most amazing little person. It's hard to believe that it's only been six months since I had her. Time flies.

Cloth Diapers

Long before Marley was born Ben and I decided that we should look into using cloth diapers. It was a little daunting at first being that I had no clue about them. There are tons of different cloth diapers available now and if you are interested in doing it you will definitley be able to find a style to fit your family. We decided on cloth diapers for a few reasons. The main two? Disposable diapers pretty much sit in landfills forever and the amount of them going into our landfills every year is staggering. The second reason was that they are so cost effective. A typical baby will cost about 2,500 from birth to potty training in disposable diapers. Cloth diapers typically cost around 500 from birth to potty training and you can use them on mutliple children. (And they are super cute). So far it's been a success I love using cloth. We do sometimes use disposables at night because our baby is a supersoaker and I have not been able to do enough experimenting to see what types of cloth will hold her! Other than that she's in cloth all the time.
This is one of my new favorite sites from my kitchen window.

If you are thinking about cloth or have any questions about it feel free to ask. :)

Marley goes swimming

One of the things we did over our long Labor Day weekend was take Marley swimming for the first time. She LOVED it! She's going to be a little fish I think. She splashed and splashed and even went in the hotub (which was only bath water warm). By the time we left she was exhausted and we did not hear one peep out of her till we got home. We will definitley be going back to grandpas pool soon.

In Loving Memory

Last week my great grandma passed away at 101 years old. She was buried at the church that she went to as an adult and next to my great grandpa on a beautiful summer morning. She was born Aug. 5th 1911 and passed on Aug. 26th 2012. It's hard for me to imagine or comprehend everything she has seen and yet I'm kind of in awe of her knowledge of this world. Marley Lou was her second great great grandchild and I'm sad to say they never met. I'm happy, however, that I was able to have her in my life as long as I did.