Christmas Past

My sister in law just informed me that Santa is coming to one of our Christmas'. This got me thinking of Christmas past and all the things that make me love this holiday. I had to share some of my favorite memories. *The year my cousins and I got bean bag chairs. We spent the rest of the night jumping off the top of the steps on to the bean bag chairs. I'm pretty certain the chairs were busted by the end of the night and thrown out. But we had fun. *Because my parents were seperated I often spent christmas eve night traveling from my moms to my dads. I can remember very distinctly getting to my nanas house late. It would be all dark outside and the whole world would be quiet in anticipation of Santas arrival. All the lights were off in the house and I would lay on the couch watching the lights on the christmas tree blink and glow, utterly at peace with life and all it had given me so far. *One of my funniest memories may have been when santa came to my moms house for the first time. This was my first experirence with 'creepy' santa and he spent more time with the 'big girls' sitting on his lab then the little kids. As one of the 'big girls' (I think I was maybe 19) I was still a little terrified. From the looks of my cousins they all were too. *My favorite part, always, of every Christmas is when my Papa reads the Christmas Story from the bible. It makes me cry every time and I love it. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember what this time of year is about. For me its about our Saviour and my family. It's remembering to turn off the lights and sit in the quiet wonder of the christmas tree, if only for a few minutes, to let go of everything that we hold on to way to tightly and embrace all we have been given.

Potty Time !

We started thinking about potty training a few months ago. It was early but Mar seemed to be kind of sort of getting ready. So I bought a potty chair and we started indtroducing her to the idea of the whole thing. Lately she's been a lot more ready and goes in the potty a lot. She even tells us she has to go when we're out. My big girl! So today I went and bought her big girl panties. And now (sigh) I'm almost a little sad about it. How did my little peanut who I swear just yesterday was 2 months old, turn into a big girl who goes potty on her potty chair?! Now, we've had our bumbs along the way. Last night she dumped all of her toys out of one of her storage boxes and peed in that...whoops. Annnnnd she responded all night with a 'nope' every time we asked her if she had to go .... but we're getting there. Luckily she still wants to snuggle up and lay her head on my shoulder. If I lost that right now I don't know what I'd do!

Wow it's been awhile

Where to begin - sometimes time goes by so quickly I can hardly keep up. Here is a dose of what we have been doing lately with some more posts to come. Halloween has come and gone and our lil peanut was the cutest sweetest little strawberry that I've ever seen. We did a hay ride the weekend before Halloween that she thought was amazing. And on Halloween night we hit up just our neighbors houses. She didn't really get it but she loved that they were giving her treats. Marley then helped hand out candy when we got home. She kept wanting the kids to come back and kept saying 'Monsters? More?' That very same night we THOUGHT we had our own monster. After we'd put Mar to bed and the lights were off to deter any more trick or treaters we heard what we thought was loud footsteps coming from upstairs. The door to Mars room creaking open had Ben running, two steps at a time, up to her room. No intruder was found. What we DID find was one Marley Lou walking out of her room and calling for daddy. Yup she'd climbed our of her crib and she did it one more time that night! Dang dare devil kids! It might have been that we were watching some scary Freddie VS Jason or something on TV but she creeped the two of us right out. In other, more daily type of news Marley is talking talking talking. She's putting more and more words together and she will repeat pretty much anything you day. Including all the bad words. She's moved out of her high chair and into a booster seat at the table that she LOVES to sit in. She's not scared of well ... anything and shows us every minute of every day. She goes down the big water slide at the Centre (in our laps of course). She practically dives into the deep end of the pool with no concern that she can't swim! And now at home she's started dunking her own head under the water as it comes out of the faucet. Needless to say she's a little water baby. Every day she amazes me and makes me smile.

2 more cloth diaper reviews

I'm not shy about saying how much I have loved our choice to cloth diaper our daughter. We've had a few bumps in the road but have a pretty strong rotation of clothe diapers right now that I'm very happy with. We go between fuzzibunz elite, bumgenius 4.0 and a few Grovia all in ones. I've been pretty happy with this rotation and therefor have not really even looked at more diapers. Recently, however, I caught a sale on G diapers so I picked 2 up and then happened to be on Etsy and say a diaper that looked very well put together and was on the more inexpensive side. I thought I'd try em. G diapers - Seem to run a little small. I got a medium for my very long and lean daughter and I'm kind of wishing I would have gotten a large. Sometimes the velcro rubs on her hips a little bit. So far so good they. I like that they don't have pocket so I can just toss them in the wet bag when we're done and I like that I can use a new cloth liner if the diaper itself is not wet. My husband find the velcro easier than snaps as well. They'll go into the rotation for sure. The second diaper is from HappyBuns on etsy. It's a pocket diaper with a Charcoal bamboo insert. I've bought other diapers off of etsy before and just have not been super impressed. I did really like one of them but found that they ran small and just never bothered to buy more from that seller. This diaper, howwever, is different. I LOVE it and have already bought another cover (we have tons of inserts). We typically don't cloth diaper the babes overnight because we just have not found a good solution for it. She's leaked through everything. She stayed in this diaper until 4am (when she happened to wake up for a bottle and I just changed her then) and had no leaks at all. She could have def. stayed in it over night. I also love the leg gussets on the diaper. Because Marley has skinny little legs we sometimes have problems with her leaking out the leg because she's super active and they gap. That does not happen in this diaper. Hoping I can convince my husband that we actually do need more diapers so that I can buy more of these! haha.

My little button pusher

Marley Lou has many a nickname in our house. Mar Mar, Beauty and Princess to name a few. However, lately our little baby peanut gets one name and one name only. Trouble Maker. Marley appears to be at the age where she is seeing how far she can actually go. How much will mommy and daddy actually put up with? Her new favorite thing to do is hold up her little finger and say 'no no no'. Think she hears that a lot? haha. Yesterday she was sitting her in high chair pushing all the food off. I told her no 47 times (ok thats what it felt like) and she just looked at me and kept right on doing it. The other day we were playing in the living room. She went to the stairs, I told her 'Marley no, you stay down here'. What does she do? Goes right up the stairs. Really kid!? Now when I actually do yell at her and tell her something very firmly she cries and wants a hug. So I KNOW that she knows shes doing something wrong. (sigh) for now I will continue to re direct, say no, be mean when I have to and set every limit possible. And while I HATE repeating my self 100 times a day. I do love that she's got a little mind of her own. ;)

My crazy hectic mornings

It's not very often that I have a calm and relaxed type of morning. I tell myself every night that I need to get everything ready, get up ontime (before MarleyLou) and get ready. Yeah, that never happens. Even IF I have everything ready the night before I always feel rushed and un organized. Two things in the last two days, however, have made me pause and enjoy my mornings with my lil baby. Yesterday was really kind of a frantic day and Marley was especially wanting her mommy and asking to be held every two seconds. As I was holding her she let go of her sippy where it promptly landed on the floor, cracked open and splashed milk all over my pants. I said loudly 'Oh Marley!' And she said to me for the very first time ever 'oh Shorry'. And I just paused for a quick moment and said, thats ok. We cleaned up the milk together and went about our morning. But that wonderful moment when she said sorry to me made my whole world pause. And then today I was a little more prepared and was taking some time folding laundry in the living room before we had to go. My little girl came up to me and held her hands up so I picked her up and she laid her little head right on my chest. We stood there for a few good minutes just her and I in the quiet of the morning rocking and cuddling. I LOVE those moments so much. When my whold world stops and it's just her and I.

Saints Game

Sunday Ben and I went with his family to our first ever Saints game. We had so much fun! We celebrated a late birthday for Jake and an early birthday for Tony. We cooked out and played games. It was a great time. I didn't get any pictures of it but Jake and Cody even got to dress up and a cow and chicken and have a race on the field.
Here are some pics of our super fun day.

                                                  Enjoying a birthday cupcake

                                                  About to eat some of my very potent Vodka Pineapple

Parade!

Last weekend was FunFest in New Richmond. We took Marley to the parade on Saturday night and she LOVED it. For a little girl who NEVER sits still, she sat in her stroller for almost the whole hour and a half parade just people watching and dancing to the bands. She's been to one parade before but she was smaller, it was st patties day and it was FREEZING! This was much better :)

Sunday we ventured down to the rides and did two little kid rides with her. She rode the cars and she rode on a train. She had fun! I little skeptical of what was actually happening but when we asked her if she wanted to go on the train (after riding the cars) she nodded yes and seemed to love it. Super cute.

Here are some pics from the parade.

It's been awhile!

I've been slacking a little on posts but I am going to try and be more devoted to posting.

I'll start with our 4th of July weekend, which was perfect. Both Ben and I were lucky enough to have Thursday and Friday off so we headed up to the cabin Thursday after Marley's nap. That morning we went to Walmart and got some Shopping done and then headed over to Grandpa Steve and Grandma Colleens house to pick up the cabin key. We even got breakfast and a nice visit out of the deal :)

Thursday night Marley promptly jumped into the crick and played and played in the very warm water. It was perfect height for her and there was a nice sandy spot right in the middle. She LOVED it and even greeted Dan and Katie in her birthday suite from the water. hahah. Friday I got my first try at Kayacking (thank you dan and katie) and while it was crazy windy and my weak arms barley paddled me across the lake, we made it and it was super fun!

Friday Dan and Katie left and Saturday Brianna and Cody  came up and spent a day. Marley loved seeing all her friends :) playing in the water, going in the paddle boat and 'riding' the lawn mower. She even made sure to keep the place clean for gm and gp. 

Hopefully we will make it up to the cabin again as it was a much needed get away.

Happy Mothers Day Mom! You have given me more than I could ever ask for. You've put up with more BS than you EVER should have had too. And you make me laugh and smile pretty much every day.
Here are just a few thank you's that I don't say enough:

-Thank you for giving me my grandma. Because we lived with her I got to have a relationship that most kids don't get to have with their grandparents. And I am forever grateful for that...Even though she always busted me for not wearing a winter hat ... how did she know!? : )

- Thank you for letting me live, make my own mistakes and for letting me cry about them to you, even when you'd told me the whole time that whatever I was doing wasn't a good idea.

-Thank you for letting me move out ... and move home ... several times because of those bad ideas I mentioned above.

-Thank you for laughing at me, putting me in my place and making fun of me. Sometimes I can be a little too serious for my own good.

-Thank you for allllll the times you didn't bitch slap me. I know I desearved it.

-Thank you for being the most wonderful, fun and amazing gramma to Marley Lou. She loves you.

-Thank you for showing me what it is to give of yourself and put other people first...that being said ... I also have learned to really just put myself first sometimes and say screw you to all those other people. hahahaha.

Really and truley I love you and have so much respect for you.  I love that I can call you 3 times in one day and you are always ready to just 'catch up' and chat. Even though it's been an hour since I talked to you last. I love that we have the same eyes and forhead and that when I look at me, I see you. And that makes me proud. You are an amazing mom and gramma and I don't think we tell you enough.

What being a Mommy means to me

Recently I got this tattoo on my arm - dedicated to my lil Marley Lou and inspired by a song by Bombshell.

I got it because ... well because I want Marley to know that she doesn't have to take crap from anyone. I want her to know that she can do anything and be anyone that she wants to be and I want her to know that I am always always always in her corner. I have a great mom who taught me to stand up for myself and to know that if I am being my best, then I desearve the best in return (more about her on mothers day). But I want to teach marley all that and more. SO here are a few thoughts on what being a mommy means to me ... so far at least ...

-Knowing that her needs are more important than mine. This includes her needs at 1am...when she's too lazy to reach over and find her nuk...so she cries until mommy comes in and gives it to her. :)
-It means hugs and kisses and smiles and laughs from her erase all things bad. A bad day, a bad haircut (see my previous post haha), a bad nights sleep. Nothing else seems to matter when she looks at me and smiles.
-It means a crazy need to protect my baby from everything that might hurt her. I try to let go and not hover ... but it's hard. This also means that I will rip your eyes out if you even think of hurting her...I did say crazy right? :)
-It's a feeling of being fulfilled. I've wanted to be a mommy for a long time and she has made me feel complete and whole like I never knew was posisible.
-It's a little bit of fear. What if I screw up ... what if I loose her ... what if what if what if ... all of the above however make this little bit of fear ok.
-It's knowing that I made the right decision to become a mommy, because even at 3 am when marley is throwing up all over and I have puke running down my side I am thinking 'yeah, I could have another one of you'.
- It's a feeling of accomplishment. I CAN do this. I can get down on the ground and play like a kid again. I can tell her no and have her listen to me. I can teach her things.
-Mostly it's feeling the most amazing amount of love for someone who has only been in my life for a very short time ... but who has been in my hear forever.


Marley Lou you are my light of my world and the beat in my heart. You are special and wonderful and strong.

My bad jobs

Everyone has had a bad experience or two at their place of employment. Its just bound to happen. What struck me today as I was talking about a past job was that I've had a LOT of those experiences. Is it me? Or was it the job? Case in point:
The best job I ever had was working at our tanning salon when I was young. I tanned for free, I had it pretty darn easy being that my mom was the boss and I loved all the people interaction. EVEN at my best job ever I still dealt with people who would get naked and then try to tan with their door open. Really?! Or I'd have to politly tell the nice man who lived upstairs that he had to go home and couldn't come into the salon drunk all the time. Still pretty mild stories that I was more than willing to deal with.
THEN, however, I started a career in collections. Oh the stories I could tell. Here are some good examples of my life as a collector -
-One women telling a fellow collector that she couldn't come over and pay her bill because her windshield wipers didn't work. When my co worker responded that it was a clear, sunny, summer day and it was not raining the response back was 'oh but it could'. How do you argue with that excuse?
-Myself getting called a C+nt because a very large women thought she heard me saying that she'd lied about her payment. Not only would she not talk to me when I came up to the counter but then she called me a name!
-There was a man who was so wasted while he was trying to get a loan that when he handed me his 'business card' it was actually his library card but he couldn't tell the difference.
-Or the man who got so mad at me when I couldn't give him enough of a loan that he through a piece of paper at me, stormed out of our store and burned his tires in our parking lot for about a minute. Don't worry, he then sped out of our lot, failed to stop at a stop sign and got hit by a very large truck. We all laughed from inside our locked store.
-What about working with a total of 8 people in the store and having two of them leave at lunch and never come back? (quality workers right there)

I hated working later nights and weekends at that job ... but it provided me with a LOT of stories. hahaha.

My one year as a mommy

I was talking to a good friend of mine last night who just had a wonderful adorable baby boy (their first) and it got my thinking of all that I've learned in my one short year of being 'mommy.'
Here goes
*I've said it before and I'll say it again - No one could have prepared me for the new world of mommyhood. Where your whole life revolves around someone elses. It's amaizng and magical and totally sucky sometimes.
*You can prepare and prepare and prepare but until you've met that lil bundle and know his or her 'ticks' you really just are not prepared. And thats ok.
*Sometimes you need to let go of your pride and ask for help. For me, this usually involved me calling my mom and crying. hahah.
*Other women who have kids will be your new dictionary. Use them as often as you can!
*Don't let other people and their ideals and ideas of parenting dictate yours. It's ok to know whats best for your baby, after all, they are yours! Don't be afraid to stick up for your yourself.
*For me, being a mommy came with a lot of guilt. Am I doing right? Am I a bad mom for wanting time to myself? Shouldn't I ALWAYS want to be with the baby? Take time for yourself. Get some sleep, take a shower, nap and do whatever you can do when people offer their help. Having clean hair and clothes makes getting up 4 times in the middle of the night seem more tolerable.
*Not only take time for yourself, but if you have one, take time for your significant other. It's easy to get wrapped up in the baby and their needs. But you as adults and companions need to share time together as well.
*Many men will say they have a 'weak stomach' and can't imagine changing those smelly diapers. My husband has a VERY weak stomach, he's never thrown up changing a poopy diaper. Daddy's can help too! :)
*Getting up a half hour early and doing your hair and make up (even though it sounds awful to get out of bed earlier than normal) is SO much easier than getting that extra half hour of sleep and trying to get ready with a little one running around.
*Marley was not the best sleeper at first. I took solace in knowing that I'd never get those midnight cuddles back so I better try to enjoy them while I could. Looking back I'm glad I didn't push or put too much stress on her sleeping through the night. I knew she'd do it when she was ready.
*You will like your kid more than everyone elses' (don't worry).


Annnnnd I'm sure there are lots more ... and I KNOW that I have lots more to learn! Any additional adivce to new mommies out there?

Adventures in a bad hair cut

I've been trying to grow my many layers of hair out. I decided that it was time for longer hair. I often look at my sisters and moms hair and wish mine was that long and pretty again. Both have hair well below their shoulders that is pretty and wavy and wonderful looking. Alas my hair has been short for awhile now. Every time I start to grow it out it gets to that horrible point inbetween your chin and your shoulders when it just looks terrible all the time and I can't take it any longer. So I cut it. Well this time was no different. I was feeling like I needed a change. Instead of doing my normal 14.00 cost cutter hair cut I sought out and found the girl who used to cut my hair. She is wonderful...but expensive. Spring was here though and I thought something to lighten things up would help with me growing out my hair ... boy was I wrong.

Things seemed fine at first. We talked about what I wanted to do and how I just wanted some hightlites etc etc. She convinced me how good my hair would look if I went darker and then lighter at the bottoms (ombre) and I thought ... well why not. Bad choice number 1. Then she went in and started 'trimming' my hair...and I let her ... bad choice number 2. As she took out the foils of my hair I thought I really didn't like it. It was sort of 'meh' and it was DARK. But I didn't say anything ... bad choice number 3 ... I'd had these little fly away bangs that I hated for awhile so I asked her to give me a nice thick long bang (something I'd had before and loved). Bad choice number 4! She said ok and started cutting...and cutting and cutting and cutting until I swear I had almost no bang left. You know when your were 5 and your mom used to cut your hair ... thats what mine started to look like. I could almost hear my grandma saying 'I just don't want to have to cut them again in a week.' Actually I'm pretty sure she said something very similar to that! As I watched in horror as my bangs got shorter and shorter something happened to me that really has never happened beofe. I froze in terror. Pure terror over the fact that I'd gone in for something 'new and fresh, lighter and brighter' and I'd come out looking 'darker and scarier like a 30 year old with a 5 year olds haircut'. Whats funny is that I new she didn't like it either. She asked me when I was done 'do you like it?' with a small scared voice. I said yeah ... I think so ... Bad choice number ... really who's counting at this point?!

So for weeks I referred to my hair as 'new's anchor hair ... if your new's anchor was a hooker' because that is what it looked like a cross of. The hair = hooker, the cut = news anchor. It was awful. Finally I went in and had my lady at Cost cutters re cut it. And that helped a little. In a few weeks I'll go and have it colored...by someone else. I didn't complane...I should have ... but I didn't. I will, however, NEVER return to that shop.

Here's to hoping no one else has to go through these horrible adventures like I did!

NOLA!

Ben and I were lucky enough to take a week long vacation to New Orleans. We left Marley in the very capable hands of her grandma's and her auntie and we set off. In planning our trip we realized that we've never been on a 'big' vacation together when it was just us. We've been up north together but if we've actually gotten on a plane and gone somewhere for more than a few days it was always with family. Which of course we love, but just the two of us was something different.
So, in the weeks and days that led up to our departure my hands were always busy making lists :) I LOVE a good list. I made them for the grandma's (which I'm sure they didn't use) and for Auntie (it might have been more helpful for her ... and she's better at following the 'marley rules' haha). I made them for my cousin Mike who was staying at our house and watching the dogs. And, of course, I made them for us. Most important on my mental list: Dont lose your mind when you have to leave your baby for the first time....It pretty much worked. We dropped Mimi off and I only teared up when we were in the car and pulling away. And, aside from a small panic attack while taking off in the plane...I did pretty good.
A few memorable moments from our trip would include:
Almost missing out plane in the first place. Yup. We got to the airport on time and took a seat at the bar close to our gate. I could see them loading but didn't think much of it as I HATE getting on a plane and then just sitting there. BUuuuuut soon they were calling our names over the loud speaker and I knew we were in trouble. Whoops.
Soon we were in NOLA and it was GLORIOUS! A little cold on the first day but we didn't care. We went out exploring that first night and made it back fairly early. We were, after all, in a big city that we've never been and had heard a LOT about the crime.
We spent our 7 days enjoying the sun. The high was right around 75 everyday and it was sunny and wonderful. We ate ... like ... all the time. We drank ... not as much as we ate but close. We took naps and slept in. We ordered take out and just stayed in the room a few nights. We did whatever we wanted to do because we could ! I missed Marley terribly and by the end of the trip both Ben and I were ready to get home and see our little peanut.
I will admit that I was scared at first ... it had been a long time since Ben and I had spent any amount of alone time together ... what would we do? Would he get bored? Would he wish he was with someone else down there? But we had so much fun. Even just sitting in our room and watching tv at night. It was so nice and really so needed for us to get back in touch with 'us.' We said maybe next year we'd take a family friendly trip so lil miss Mimi can come along too. But I think some adult only vacations will def. be in our future as well. Here are some quick pics from our trip.

The cathedral in Jackson Square - We spent a lot of time down there

From one of the cemetaries that we visited

We made it! Our first night on Bourbon

Storms a comin!

One more from the above ground cemetaries

Armpit air got you down?

So if you go back a few posts you'll see that I was given botox for Christmas (amazing by the way). So it's only appropriate that I received laser hair removal for my birthday. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself and made my first appointment right away. I could choose between upper lip, underarms or basic bikini.  I chose underarms with the knowledge that I would probably start lasering all my hair off if I liked it.
Saturday was the day. Yah! I went in and after a brief explanation of what would happen laid down on the table for my first laser treatment. I'd heard that it feels like a rubberband snapping your skin. And the tech did say that there are machines out there like that. BUT they have the latest and greatest and the only thing I would feel is the wand heating up. She did tell me that it can get kind of hot so if it does to just let her know. It got warm feeling but thats about it and fifteen minutes later I was done with my first session. Hopefully in two more sessions I will be hair free :)
If you are thinking about it and have the extra money, I'd say it's totally worth it.

One year old

Well Marley Lou you are one year old today. Where has all that time gone? It seems like yesterday that your daddy and I brought you home from the hosptital not have a CLUE as to what our life was about to be like. haha. The second or third night that we got you home you cried for about 4 hours straight and all I could do was try to comfort you and hold you and wonder what the hell was making you cry for so F ing long! hahaha.

Somehow you've gone from this beautiful little baby

To this big girl who eats normal people food and gives loves and kisses all by herself.

Where did my lil baby go? Here are some of the amazing and wonderful things that you have been doing to amaze me lately.
-You listen! - When I say 'Marley come here and lay down so I can change your diaper' you do it ! I'm pretty sure you are a baby genious.
-You laugh at things when they are funny - If Ben and I are laughing you laugh too. I love that.
-You still scrunch your little button nose up and make a funny face. Something that you've been doing forever.
-You play hide and seek. OK you play 'I hide and Marley finds me' but still! It's pretty awesome.
-You know which dog is Mack and which dog is Dempsey and you know which toy Mack likes. AND you even share it with him. :)
-You give kisses and loves and have really learned to love cuddling. At night time you sit on my lap and turn the pages of your na na night book.
-Your personality is really starting to shine and we've learned that some little baby does NOT like to be told no. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You might look like daddy, but you are alllll momma :)

Mostly you are truley the light in our lives. And I feel like our lives are more full and rewarding because we have you.

Marley's birth story - one year later

Well I didn't have a blog when I had Marley and since her first birthday is tomorrow (I'm already tearing up) I thought now was as good of time as ever to remember her birth.
My midwife forwarned me that most first pregnancy's are going to be around 42 weeks rather than 40. SO with that in mind I figured our lil peanut wouldn't be coming early. And I really didn't mind. I had a great pregnancy with marley and felt really good the whole way through. Towards the end it got hard to sleep and the fact that I couldnt move without my big belly running into something got a little annoying but other than that I loved being pregnant. My due date came and went and an induction was set. We hoped hoped hoped over the weekend she'd come on her own BUT it didn't happen.

Sunday night Ben and I packed up and headed to Woodbury for a light dinner and check in at the hospital. Ben stayed till about 8 and then went on home to stay with the puppies. They were giving me cervidel (to hopefully help kick start my labor) and some sleeping meds so there really wasn't any reason for him to stay. We were assured that most new moms push for a minimum of 3 hours so even if I woke up at 9cm Ben would have plenty of time to get back to the hospital. At some point in the night the cervidel was too much for lil Marley so they took it out. And by the time I woke up the next morning and they got the pitocin started I was already dilated and things were moving right along. Soon Ben and my mom showed up and I was already 5 cm. Marley wasn't doing great with the contractions which meant a lot of monitors for me and the babes and no tub birth : ( Sometime around noon my mom went and got hannah and derrek and I told the nurse I thought I was ready to push. My midwife came in and said 'ok lets try one practice push.' 19 minutes later our precious little baby girl was born  :)

After a few complications from me and some major blood loss everything was just fine and mom, Marley and daddy were together for the first time. Seeing the look of amazement and love on Bens face for his little girl still brings me to tears. We found out later that marley's cord wasn't attached where it should have been and that we were very lucky that nothing else major happened to me or to her during my pregnancy and labor.

I don't know how a year has already gone by since having our sweet baby girl. Last night as Ben and I cooked dinner and made food for the week while Marley played and laughed and talked and talked to us in her own little baby language. It was such a fun day spent together and with eachother. I don't know how I got so lucky  but I am thankful everday.

Bens birthday

My wonderful husband turned 29 this last sunday and to celebrate we went out with a bunch of friends on Saturday night. We ended up going to the comedy club in MOA. It was so fun and we had 20 wonderful friends to share it with. The comedians were really funny, the food and drinks were decent and we all had a great time. Katie, Bryan and Ben all share birthdays within about a week of eachother so it was nice to get out and share some birthday fun together. No pictures because I left my phone in the car but I had to write about how happy I am to share one more birthday with Ben.

In the last 5 or 6 years of sharing birthdays with my husband here are just a few things that I've learned:
-It's not him, it's me. He gets his presents early every year because I can't wait for him to open them. This year I'm pretty sure he opened both his gifts a week early because I just couldnt take it anymore.
-He, like me, will take full advantage of 'birthday week' when given the opportunity. Be weary of giving him full reign!
-That being said, he is more than willing to give me my own birthday week as well : )
-Ben (totally unlike me) isnt really comfortable asking for things. This year I did pretty well with his gifts but he's picky and getting him to tell you something that he wants is a little like pulling teeth.

Happy birthday (late) to my amazing husband. I love you and can't wait to spend lots more birthdays with you.

Today when I looked at my blog

One of the first things I do in the morning when I get to work is take a quick peak at my blog to see what the other bloggers that I follow have been up to. This is what I saw today:
-Two sweet little boys (one just a few months old, the other 3) in a collage of cuteness
-Marley's future husband celebrating his second birthday
-The cutest twins I have ever seen sharing a crib and a mom in dad in hopes of  bringing them home from the hospital.
-The photographer from our wedding posing at the site of their new home (in a few months)
And
-One cute sweet little girl learning to ski with her daddy
These blogs remind me every day that life is crazy, beautiful, exciting, sometimes sad but always wonderful.

The results of the botox

Well I did it. I got my first shots of botox ever. Ok I actually don't even think it was botox it was a different something that started with a D. Pretty painless actually. And she did a LOT more than I actually thought she'd do. (30 units) Roughly 10 injections in my forhead (2 units each) and then 2 injections by each eye. So hopefully in the next few days I'll see a more relaxed and wrinkle free forhead. The lady said that now was the perfect time to get in and do some maintenance because it's so much easier to prevent than correct. It should be noted that I'm a total junkie when it comes to skin care. If it's new and supposed to be amazing I want to try it. MOST of my skincare routine stays the same though, I've found Dr Perricone and his products are amazing so I don't really stray too far from his line. Right now I'm using the following:
Perricone cleanser (with my clarisonic)
Perricone advanced face firming activator (in the moring)
Perricone Blue Plasma (at night)
Perricone moisturizer
Pretty standard and simple but his products are amazing and now paired with the botox I feel very confidant that my skin will be staying nice and youthful looking :)

It's a very botox Christmas

Botox - it's what every girls wants for Christmas right? Ok ... well it's what this girl wanted for Christmas. My mom finally complied and got me a gift card for my very first round of botox. For those of you who know us it will not come as any kind of surprise that this is what I asked for or received for Christmas. If only she didn't have to work tonight so that she could be there with me :) There is a slight chance that I'll meet with the esthetician and she'll tell me  that I don't need it and suggest some other treatment. (probably a peel). BUT nonetheless I'm so excited I can barley wait to leave work. Working on keeping my skin young and in good condition has been something I've been working on for awhile now. I'll be turning 30 this year and I've almost got my husband convinced that all the work (and sometimes money) is actually for him. Who wants a 30 year old wife who looks 40? haha.
More to come on my botox adventures.

cloth diaper reviews

I've been pretty vocal about our decision to cloth diaper. I love it and am so happy that we decided to do it. Our choice was mainly for two reasons. 1 - cost effectiveness. The average family will spend 2500 per child to use disposable diapers. Cloth diapers cost somewhere around 500 and will last through several children. 2. The fact that they are so much more eco friendly. The average diaper takes over 500 years to decompose and something crazy like billions of pounds of diapers are being thrown in landfills each year. Gross.

If you decide to cloth diaper or are thinking about cloth diapering be prepared to hear the following comments over and over and over and over again.
Gross!
You are Crrrrraaaaaazy
Thats so much work
You mean like with diaper pins?
He/She will get rashes all the time
No way no how would I EVER do that

The fact of the matter is that cloth diapers are no more 'gross' than disposables. In fact now when marley is in a disposable I'm grossed out by how filled out and gel like the diaper gets. You will at some point have to shake your babies poop out into the toilet from the cloth diapers and or spray it off but this doesnt really gross me out that much. They are NOT that much work but there is some extra work that you are going to have to do. Cloth diapers have come so far in just a few years. They are very similar to disposables now depending on which ones you decide to buy. AND because of all the chemicals (ie bleach) in disposable diapers babies are actually less likely to get a rash when wearing cloth.

One thing I'm really glad we did at first was buy inexpensive or used cloth diapers to try them out and see which ones we really liked, which ones worked for us and which ones were no good for us. There are a LOT of options out there and it can get daunting but dont worry, once you get the hang of which diapers mean what (pockets, AIO etc) it's really not too bad. The following is what we pretty much use right now and what we've found that works for us.

Grovia AIO - These diapers are really slim fitting and we've never had a leak. They are super cute, have great prints and dry quickly. I've had to make some adjustments around the legs so that our baby doesnt get marks on her thighs but other than that they are easy and very effective.

Bum Genius 4.0 - The only diaper that Marley can wear overnight without leaking. These are a pocket diaper that come with an infant and toddler inset. We use two inserts for over night. These are maybe a little bulkier but work great and are my favorite pocket diaper.
*I also have one Bum Genius Elemental and one Bun Genius Freetime tha I life to use as well (also great for overnights) but for ever day use the 4.0's are my fav.

Fuzzibunz elite - Really trim diaper (probably the most trim that I've found) so far they fit the babes but I'm wondering if they will still work as she gets bigger. These seem to be the slimest but also smallest One Size diaper that we have. They are kind of a pain to adjust and kind of a pain to stuff so beware. But overall they work well and would fit a smaller child the best.
*We used Fuzzibunz perfect fit smalls for the first couple months and I did like those too.

All in all if I was going to pick a pocket diaper to use I'd pick Bum Genius 4.0 and if I was going to pick an all in one I'd choose Grovia. We've used BestBottom (or tried) but Marley is 9 months and they are still HUGE on her and leak everywhere. I'm hoping as she grows we can use those. We've also used cheaper ones like Baby City (found on Ebay) but they just dont work for us and are already packed away.

I'm very happy to say that I've heard about a lot of people moving back to cloth and I think it's awesome. We are not fanactical about it (we use disposables every now and then.) And have used disposables at night  a lot because we just couldnt find anything that held up but with a little  playing around I think I've figured it out and will continue to put marley in cloth overnight.

Our year in review

New Years 2011 was rang in at home, with my very pregnant and probably in bed early :)
The beginning of the year was fairly uneventful as we prepared for our first babies entrance into the world. Her room was prepared, showers were had hospital visits were made.

At last Marley Lou arrived

No one, and I mean no one could have prepared me for how much our life would change. Right now our baby is almost ten months old and since this moment just a few minutes after she was born our whole life has pretty much been about her. Thank goodness for our amazing family because without them I think I would have lost my mind. Mom - I'm talking about you here. Without me being able to call you crying, give the baby to you for a few hours to nap or just talk to you about random things that I had no idea babies would do I dont know where I would be! (probably crying still hahaha).

I'll admit that the middle of 2012 is a little bit of a blur for me. I ran on very little sleep for several months! BUT as the year wound down we've really settled into a nice routine. Marley is the most amazing baby in the whole world and I can barely remember life without her. Summer came and went and suddenly so did fall! Christmas was a whirl wind of activity with 4 christmas celebrations in 4 days with a 5th just a few days later. We were at Bens moms, Bens dads, my grandmas, my moms and then again last saturday to my moms. And again New Years came and went and I was in bed WELL before midnight :)

I'll call 2012 the year of Marley.

So excited to see what 2013 will bring.