Happy Halloween!!!

...Happy Halloween everyone! I didn't think we'd do a whole lot of Halloween stuff since she's so little but we actually did a LOT! Here's what we've done so far and we have more fun things to do today!

 

AR and the babysitter made the ghost plaque on the left. It's her footprint and the mouth is her toeprint. I was so excited to get it when I picked her up one day. I can't wait until she starts bringing home art projects and we cover the fridge with them. Not Halloween related but on the right is a plate we did at a festival through the Painted Pot. My mom's turned out better because she had a lighter green color behind hers but it's AR's handprint and footprint. FYI-baby footprints are MUCH easier than baby handprints. Thank you Ms. Donna for writing on it for us!

This past Saturday, I was "that" mom that put her kid in a pumpkin and took pictures. Aunt Liz got this HUGE pumpkin and cut & hollowed it out. Then on the chilly morning, we put AR in and snapped a few pics (thanks to the neighbors for letting us pose in front of their pretty tree; they probably don't even know we set up there!). I was going to put her in a black Halloween onesie but she happened to be in these PJs which looked away cuter; we just made sure you couldn't see the doggie on it so it still looks Halloweenie. Nana whipped the hat out for us on Friday night.

 I've been meaning to make her pumpkin baby food but she beat me to it.

 This pic was post taste, smacking her lips trying to decide if she liked it or not.

Her Halloween costume was made by Nana and cost less than $5! She was Pebbles (costum was much cuter when it's warmer out rather than having to wear clothes underneath). I thought about doing a bone in her hair or to carry but decided to save the cash. We got to wear it 2x already (Chick-Fil-A Family Night and to Halloween Happenings on Sunday) and we'll wear it today so we've definitely gotten our money's worth out of it. Thanks for making this Nana!

What's a Pebbles without Wilma! Here's H and AR as Wilma and Pebbles at Halloween Happenings this past Sunday. AR mainly rode around in the stroller while H played games. Good news though, when she saw the clowns in full make-up she grinned ear to ear at them so hopefully she won't be afraid of them when she grows up.

Me and my girl who did NOT want to smile for any picture with me, only when we put the camera away!

 

Happy Halloween everyone! What are you or your little ones going to be tonight?

Donating Milk...

...our deep freeze is being taken over by breastmilk. No, seriously, it is! With hunting season around the corner and the first batch of what I pumped going to "expire" soon (aka 6 months from when I originally pumped it), I decided to look into milk donation. I totally and 100% feel this was a God thing.

I'd been deciding whether or not I wanted to do it for a couple reasons. 1. I'm a hoarder. I didn't want to give any away because what if I needed it. However, at this point, I have easily over 1000+ oz frozen, enough to feed AR every feeding of every day for 2 months and some. 2. I really didn't know much about it or where to donate it. As I saw that I was running out of space, I decided to look into it. I researched online, I called the hospital and I asked Kristal, my go-to gal on all things breastfeeding. I couldn't find much online except creeper stories. The hospital told me the closest milk donation center was in Indiana and I'd have to ship it there in dry ice (way more work than I wanted to put forth). Then Kristal told me to check out the Facebook Group Human Milk 4 Human Babies (that's the main group but then you can type in your state's name to find local). Basically, you post whether you are looking or donating and work out the logistics with the other person.

I talked to Matt to make sure he was okay with me donating and he said, as long as I did it at a public place and didn't take AR with me then he was okay with it. So I visited the site Thursday night and I read through ALL the posts back to July debating on what to do. Then right before bed, I decided I'd post and see what happens. The next morning, I woke up with 2 messages from people interested. And this is where, I feel it was a God thing...

Lady #1
She is has a 4 month old and has returned to work so her supply is decreasing. She lives one town over, not super far away but I rarely get down there. Just so happens that I'm working a half day and headed there to pick up SIL's Christmas present and it happens to be her day off work as well! I tell her I'll bring her 50 oz. She asked if I wanted to be paid for the milk. I told her if she wanted to give me a couple bucks for the bags that would be great (after all that's really the only expense I'm out). I'm getting ready to leave and I pull out ten 5-oz bags and you can't even tell I've taken anything out of the freezer so I go ahead and pull out another 12 bags. I meet up with her and give her 110 oz of milk. She hands me a thank you card and we go on our ways. I run my errands, get home and open the card. She gave me $60 in cash!?! Totally not what I was expecting (or wanting, just wanted to get rid of some milk!). I emailed her and told her that was way too much and she replied that it was worth it to not have to stress for the next month about feeding her baby. I let her know to contact me when she needed more and don't give me anything!

Lady #2
She lives about 45 minutes away...in the same small town that my sister does. God thing: My sister just happened to be coming to my house on Sunday and was able to take some back to her. She was sweet and gave me an entire box of freezer bags. My sister told her I was a milk-producing machine to which she replied well, if she has any more, I'd be happy to take it. I think I'll text her any time I go to visit her and take her some if I have it.

Lady #3
Saturday morning, I check my FB and I have another email from a lady who lives 2 towns north of us. She said she would be willing to come to me so I told her I worked on Saturday (just one town away from her) and she could meet me there. Perfect!

So there you have my milk donation stories. So far, they've all been very positive experiences and as I said, God totally intervened that I posted at the right time that I could help these 3 ladies and their babies out. However, even after giving away 200+ oz, our freezer is STILL full, just a little bit more organized but it's a good problem to have!

Kisses...

...AR found another "baby" in our house and she loves her! She even wants to give her kisses:

 And when she sees Momma outside, she wants to give her kisses too...or lick the window...

Silly AR!

SEMO Homecoming Parade & Shutterfly Winner...

...Saturday Papa and I took AR to her first parade. I really thought she'd have a good time because she loves to shake her booty to any music she hears. However, because of the kids on either side of us who were older and felt the need to be IN the street, AR didn't have a great seat so I don't think she really got to see everything. FYI to smokers: If you want to smoke, go for it but do NOT smoke around my child!!! Seriously, chain smokers on either side of us who then didn't make their kids pick up their trash, or their own. I told AR that when she was older, she'd have to pick up her own trash.

 

Anyways, my friend Laura and her son, TJ, watched the parade with me while Papa held AR. TJ didn't like Tootsie Rolls so I now have a whole bag of Tootsie Rolls to snack on this week.

 As you can see, AR was less than impressed and dozed off...until the motorcycles and "machine gun" came by super loud. She woke up and looked around but didn't cry. Papa and I held her ears because it was REALLY loud. I'm glad she woke up though and we didn't have a "Mr. Holland's Opus" moment.

 Me and my girl. Love her hat? Aunt Jan made it. On Saturday, it was a Redhawk for SEMO but it could also be a Fred Bird hat-go Birds!

 AR, me and Papa

The weather was perfect but unfortunately, the Redhawks didn't pull off a W.

Now on to why you're really reading...the winner of the Shutterfly $50 giveaway is tabicakes! Congrats!!! Please leave me a comment no later than Wednesday, October 24 at 5pm CT with your email address so I can get you your prize!

Christmas Card Time!!!

...it's that time of year again to start thinking about Christmas cards. We're having family photos on 11/3 (first time EVER!) but I'm already cruising the Christmas Cards over at Shutterfly. I love all the bright, colorful ones like this:

 But I love this one even more because it's colorful and has multiple pictures. We're going to attempt one family shot of Matt, AR, me AND the dogs but let's be honest...we'll probably have to do MANY pics to get all of us in the card.

 

I'm also liking this traditional one:

There are still so many to go through before I find the "perfect" one! Be sure to check out their page of special offers. I've already purchased a few Christmas gifts from there because of the sweet deals they always offer. If the special offers aren't enough to entice you to go check it out, how about a giveaway? Giveaway prize: $50 off total order (does not include shipping & cannot be combined with any other promos).

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment letting me know what Christmas card or photo gift you'd purchase. Giveaway will close on Sunday, October 21 at 5:00pm CT. Winner will be chosen at random and announced on Monday, October 22.

Happy shopping for Christmas Cards!

*This post is sponsored by Shutterfly. Thanks Shutterfly!

NLCS Game 3-Go Cards!!!

...this post is going to be short and picture filled because I'm sick, I'm tired but most importantly, the CARDINALS won last night!!! Woot! Woot!

 

 

We had awesome covered seats so rain delay didn't phase us (minus the fact that I had to go almost 9 hours w/o pumping and I was super tired!). So on to the pics, shall we?

 

H & Me with our goofy faces (AR stayed home with Nana and Daddy)

 

Sha and H

 Papa & H snugglin', it got a little chilly towards the end of the game

 Passing time during rain delay...nothing like a 3 hours rain delay for 45 minutes of baseball!

 See I'm sick, my dad took a pic of me blowing my nose!

Oh and did I mention that Rob Schneider ("You can do eetttt!" from Waterboy) sat 6 rows in front of us? He was super nice! He put H's hood up to make sure she didn't get cold. My sis told him that H loves "50 First Dates" and he was like, yeah, did it make you laugh? H gave a giggly nod. He made sure we got a good pic then told her that she was probably the only person shorter than him at the game.

He got away with 7.5 innings and 2.5 hours of rain delay before anyone noticed him then the poor guy was taking pictures left and right. He was a really good sport about it especially since they were all Cards fans and as you can tell, he's not.

Funny, we saw him taking a picture and I said to my sis, "Doesn't that look like Rob Schneider?" Sure enough-it was!

Matt is going with my dad tonight, so come on boys, bring home a winner!

Growing Girl...

...AR is growing so fast! Here are a couple comparison pics. It seriously amazes me that just 5 short months ago she was an entirely different baby! The first pics seem SO long ago!!!

 

The Great Pumpkin Festival...

...this afternoon, I took AR to her first Great Pumpkin Festival at Morning Star Church. I'd invited some other bloggers/Twitter girls last weekend but since AR was under the weather the past couple days, I wasn't sure we'd go. She was in a good mood so I thought we'd go check it out. I'm glad we did because it was really fun! Would have been more fun had Matt gone with us but it's deer season.

 

Everything was free...hot dogs, pumpkin bread, caramel & apples, kettle corn, a pumpkin (that's all we did) plus hayrides, train rides, inflatables, games, etc...(maybe in a couple years). They even had a chili cookoff and did I mention EVEYTHING was free?

 

The only downside is that I think AR might be allergic to hay or have hay fever (not really sure what's the difference if there is one). She was kind of tired while there which it was getting close to her naptime so I didn't think anything about it. She was fine when I put her in the car but then a few minutes down the road she started fussing and rubbing her eyes...the whole way home. When we got home, her eyes were red but once I held her, she was smiling and happy. Sure she might have just been tired but normally she falls asleep in the car if that's the problem. I'll have to watch it and ask the doctor.

 

Overall though, it was a good time and we'll definitely go back next year! Here's AR and I:

 My baby in the pumpkin patch:

Next year you all should join us!

PAT and 5 Months Pics...

...yesterday Mis AR turned 5 months. We had our first Parents As Teachers meeting. According to our PAT educator, AR is right on track and doing great! She was very impressed that she loved tummy time, in fact she couldn't believe it. She said she usually has to give parents the lecture of how important tummy time is. She also said that the floor is the best place to play, even over a jumperoo or Bumbo. She gave me tips on how to strength her back muscles so she could sit up (put a bowl full of toys between her legs, hold the bowl from sitting behind her. This will also help with hand/eye coordination) and showed me how to encourage her to crawl (we are SO not ready for that yet). She said she'd probably be an earlier crawler so I'd better get the house ready! She had mastered everything for 1-3 months and all but a couple things from 3-5 months. I'm so proud of my girl! She also said that I must be a reader because of the things I told her we did and how well AR was doing. When she left, it made me feel good like I was doing something right! If you have PAT in your school district, I highly recommend it. She'll come back in January for a screening and to see how AR is progressing.

 

Here are her 5 month photo shoot pics:

 Not sure the bear pics will continue as she's way too interested in him to take time to smile for me!

Happy 5 months baby! Momma loves you more than you know. OXXO (and not the store)!

Miss AR is 20 Weeks (5 Months)!!!

...This last month flew by but looking back, some stuff seemed so long ago! You are growing up so fast, it just totally amazes me!

*The night you turned 16 weeks, I decided not to swaddle you. You kept escaping and since you had become a rolling machine, I decided it was best. You nursed and laid down no problem but within 20 minutes, you'd rolled to your tummy which totally freaked Mommy out! I'd go in every 10-15 minutes to check on you. Right before we went to bed, Daddy rolled you to your back and you woke up. Grrr...I was NOT happy with him. Being out of the swaddle didn't help you sleep better and it was much harder to put you back to sleep because you'd lift your head up and look around. If I rolled you to your back, you'd roll right over to your tummy. Anyways, that night was good bye swaddle and hello sleepers! Here you are in your sleeper in your crib. It was a 3-6 month but it was quite big on you.

*The next day, the temperature dropped and you wore pants for the first time! You looked pretty stinking cue if I say so myself. We went to meet Grana and EB for breakfast. It was such a nice morning so we sat outside so good thing you had your pants on! You seemed to like the pants and thought they were funny.

 

*Your sleep got worst when we stopped swaddling you. After a LONG Sunday night, I called the pedi's office for advice. The nurse said I was doing everything right and the only thing she could suggest was swaddling you with your arms out. I tried that and you slept through the night 2 nights in a row! But then you went back to your old habits of waking up every few hours again. I tried to do everything the same but you just have a mind of your own!

 

*Ms. Pam's is going much better now that you're getting used to it. She got a picture of you and Beau (the other baby) holding hands. It even looked like you were kissing his hand although I'm sure you were just trying to chew on it!

 

*You "ran" your first ever 5k. You were such a good girl and just looked around taking everything in the whole time. Hopefully this is the start of your running career!

 

*You keep getting bug bites all over! It doesn't seem to bother you but Mommy hates seeing them. One night you had a big one on your cheek :-(

 

*You had your 4 month check-up and all looked well! You weighed approximately 14.4 lbs (you wouldn't sit still for a very accurate reading) which was the 50% percentile. You were 25 inches long which is the 80% percentile. I know you don't get that height from mom or dad so we think you must get it from your great grandpas on each grandma's side. You head was 41 centimeters-big head girl! The doctor also said you were very social which I agree. Probably because Nana and I are always in your face trying to get you to laugh!

 

*You love this little book because it crinkles and makes noise. When I told you that you were reading it upside down, you gave me this face:

*Anytime I take you somewhere, you smile...all the time, at everyone...its hilarious and I love it!

 

*You stayed out past your bedtime when we went to Light the Night last weekend. You were such a good girl.

 

*When you take a bath, you splash and splash and splash and chew your ducky like crazy! I've started using a second towel...for the floor.

 

*Your sleep is still not consistent. One night, you'll wake up once and the next night you'll wake up 4 times. We haven't done a night feeding since the week of Labor Day so usually I just give you the paci and you're back to bed. It's not so bad except when you get up every 15 minutes between 4am and 5am. The mornings I wake to your alarm is a rarity. But I've decided I would rather have a baby whose happy and sleeps bad than one that sleeps well but is crabby. You must be able to function on little sleep! You've been taking longer naps in the afternoon but not all the time.

 

*You officially started oatmeal (twice!) and you seem to like it. Your poop has gone from seedy to something different and you are pooping less. It kind of makes me sad because it means you're growing up. Tomorrow we're going to let you try carrots.

 

So much has changed in this past month. I feel like you went from a newborn to a baby with personality. Sometimes at night after you nurse, you'll push off my chest and grin at me. It amazes me because 5 short months ago, you would just lay in my arms. I love you so much sweet AR, more than you'll ever know. OXXO (not the store)