Exercise Post

Week 1: Run one minute. Walk 90 seconds. Repeat eight times. Do three times a week. Week 2: Run two minutes. Walk one minute. Repeat seven times. Do three times a week. Week 3: Run three minutes. Walk one minute. Repeat six times. Do three times a week. Week 4: Run five minutes. Walk two minutes. Repeat four times. Do three times a week. Week 5: Run eight minutes. Walk two minutes. Repeat three times. Do three times a week. Week 6: Run twelve minutes. Walk one minute. Repeat three times. 

Time to play some catch up!

Bare with me for a moment while I go see what my last post was!... Okay now that I'm on track mentally I can continue with filling you in with the past month!

Brooklyn's first Christmas went just as planned! Which is actually saying a lot if you knew all of us. On Christmas Eve the kids opened their present from Jay and I which of course in our effort to start our own family traditions, was only pajamas. Still, Matt and Bri loved theirs, Brooklyn loved the wrapping paper. She has yet to wear her pajamas. In Florida the temp gets cold but I think we got her pajamas that are just too warm, and Brooklyn HATES being warm/hot.      Her pajamas will forever hang in my closet. That's okay though cause they are just so stinking cute! Christmas Eve night while Jay prepped the turkey and made his mom's homemade stuffing I laid out the milk and cookies and put all the gifts under the tree. I totally got busted too! I honestly thought Bri was sleep walking again at first, turns out she was fully awake and complaining about being hot. Only in Florida can you complain about being hot on Christmas! Finally got her back to bed, with her window cracked open, all the presents placed, and stockings stuffed. Briahnna woke up the next morning talking about what she had seen the night before. I had to pull her aside and basically tell her to shut up lol. The kids were not very happy that I made them wait until my mom and sister got here though. We did things a little different this year since there are now three kids. Before we would let Matt open one then Bri then Matt then Bri and so on and so on. This year Matt opened all of his then Bri then Brooklyn last. I wanted to make sure I was able to get plenty of photos of the kids. Of course Matt and Bri open theirs so fast that I wasn't able to get many of them. Make a long story short, Matt was the happiest about his MP3 player and  Paper Jamz. Bri was the happiest about her MP3 player, boots, jewelry, and make-up. Brooklyn was the most excited about... yep, you guessed it... THE PAPER! Her Grandma from New York got her the cutest little Christmas dress. Unfortunately she didn't get to wear it on Christmas though because she was cranky. She gets cranky after noon. Overall, I'd say we all had a pretty good Christmas. 
Brooklyn had her 6 month check up a little late because of the Mondays the office wasn't open due to holidays. Christine (the Dr. we see most of the time) said she is developing skills perfectly and very healthy! ...








Feb. 27th, 2012...
   Okay so I started this post on Jan. 16th. I got a little side tracked and never got around to finishing what I was writing. I also didn't bother going and re-reading what had so I'm obviously not going to finish that. Sorry! I admit, I SUCK at Blogging! So let's cut to the chase and make a long story short. Over the last 2 months, Brooklyn has learned to crawl, pull herself up, and successfully learned to get into everything she's not supposed to! Don't worry, I have pics... what am I saying, you know I have pics, I ALWAYS have pics! Jay took Bri to a Father/Daughter dance this past Saturday. Bri had a blast, I fixed her hair and make up and just really enjoyed herself hanging out with Jay for a couple of hours. Jay's vacation last week wasn't that bad. It didn't go as planned because his mom decided not to come down just yet, she wants to come down for Brooklyn's 1st birthday so we didn't really do anything "special". We did however go to the Waldo Flea and Farmer's market. Bri didn't go with us though cause she was at a friend's house. The rest of us had fun and we picked up lots of fresh veggies and strawberries. I really think Brooklyn even had fun, she was so good and really liked the bunnies and other animals we seen there. I finally got Krys' Kwilts up and running! I've been working on my first quilt order for a High School friend's daughter. Also been doing tutus, bows, and working on cloth diapers in between working on the quilt. I'd say the quilt is turning out very nicely (pics of it will be coming as well).
     Brooklyn stopped breastfeeding last month. I had to start giving her formula at bed time after nursing because we realized she wasn't sleeping because she just wasn't getting enough to eat. After about a week she pretty just stopped nursing all together. It was sad for me but she was happier so I was happy for her. I've gained like 10lbs back since she stopped nursing though, which I'm obviously not happy about. All morning I've been on Pinterest looking up weight loss tips. Since today is Monday, what better time to start! I know if I say I'm going to start on such and such date then I'll just keep putting it off. So today HAS to be the day. No more procrastinating. I must loose this weight, I'd really like to feel good about myself again like I did two month ago. I was so proud of myself for all the weight I lost, now I'm starting to become disgusted with myself again. After doing some research on pinterest I'm pretty confident that I can do it. I have to have the will power though and that's definitely a skill I lack. My next post however will be the start of my weight loss... Look for it! And I look forward to hearing any tips/tricks from my readers as well! ....

Now with out further distraction... here's some photos for your enjoyment!

Cologne from Aunt Stella and Uncle Augie

With their MP3 players

Matt's Birthday cupcakes
Whitney made him!
(Jan. 27th)

Father/Daughter dance
(Feb. 25th)

Quilt order as of Feb. 26th.
(Not finished yet) 

Elf on the Shelf...

          I discovered "The Elf on the Shelf" last year while I was pregnant with Brooklyn. Another one of those things you learn from being addicted to Babycenter. I had discussed the idea with Jay but of course he had no idea what I was speaking about. However, this Christmas season opened the window of conversation for us! ABC showed a special Christmas cartoon about The Elf on the Shelf. Jay, like I, thought it was such an awesome idea to get the kids(all kids, not just mine) into the Christmas spirit. Now I admit that I ruined Christmas, Easter, the tooth fairy, and any other hope for an imagination for Matt and Bri. I always told them the aforementioned people were made up. I did this for one reason... Oprah! I don't watch Oprah but I remember when I was pregnant with Matt seeing an episode where they were discussing the things we tell our children. Her guest at the time had said she never mentioned Santa or anyone else to her children in fear they would grow up thinking she was just a liar and they couldn't believe anything she told them. I was 15, that's my excuse for believing this BS. Because of stupid Oprah, my kids have no imagination what-so-ever. God help me though, I'm trying to make up for it. 

         Now obviously Brooklyn is too young to understand the concept of the Elf on the Shelf and Matt and Bri are too old for it (not to mention I think I've already scarred them too much to really enjoy the game). So we wont be buying said elf until next year. I am however on the look out for ideas to do with our elf . Yesterday on Facebook, a friend had posted a link to a blog actually making fun of the moms that do the elf. After reading over it and having a good laugh I was interested in the ideas this woman was actually making fun of. I HAD to find the blog of the woman being humiliated just for entertaining her child's imagination! I click the link to the 101 Elf on the Shelf Ideas... her blog post had been deleted. She was infuriated about her blog being used in reference to bashing over-achieving moms. I can't say I blame her though, I'm sure I would be a little butt sore if someone was making fun of something I enjoyed do with/for my kiddos. Why do people think it's okay to make fun of someone's parenting style? I guess that's a-whole-nother post though, so we won't get into that. My search sends me to facebook... doesn't everything these days! I finally find the author I'm looking for though and of course she's complaining on Facebook about the blog and all of her "followers" are trying their best to virtually comfort her and convince her to put her blog post back up. This morning I get on Facebook to find that she has finally re-posted it! Thank God too considering I'm not really a very creative person when it comes to this kind of stuff. So now we have 101 Elf on the Shelf Ideas!
These are seriously some awesome ideas. I haven't had the time to read over all of them but after seeing a photo of cotton balls it gave me an idea of my own (at least I'm hoping it's my own idea and not on the list). Since it doesn't snow in Florida, I was thinking a mock snow ball fight with cotton balls. All of these ideas make me look forward to messing up my house! How fun would that be for the kids to wake up one morning only to find cotton balls spread out and thrown about in the family room?!

          On my journey to restore my children's imagination I've been trying to do some things this year that are a little more age appropriate for Matt and Bri. The last two days we've been working on homemade ornaments. Wednesday was spent mixing the dough, punching out cookie cutter shapes, and baking. We started them kinda late in the day since the kids had school and they take about 2 hours to bake enough to get hard. I'm sure we still have a few semi-soft ones... I get a little impatient at times. 

Last night we painted them... wait for it... with our fingers! After the kids went to bed and the paint was dried I added some glitter paint to a few of the ornaments just to give them that extra sparkle. I have to say, I had fun making them and I definitively think they turned out pretty cute.  I'm not sure if we are going to put some varnish on them or not. The recipe doesn't say anything about doing the varnish but "The Chew" says you should.  Jay thinks we should. Either way, I can't wait to hang them on the tree!

I need more ideas though. Nothing fancy just stuff to keep my older two entertained and not fighting. I'm so tired of the fighting in my house between them. I need the happiness, laughter, and smiles back! 

Christmas is coming!

I'm getting so excited for Brooklyn's first Christmas. I haven't had much of the Christmas spirit since Bri's 1st Christmas. This year is different though and I'm sure it's because of the 3 kiddos. We bought Brooklyn a 3-n-1 Exersaucer, it goes through stages. 1st stage is for 0-3 months, basically it's just a mat that they lay on and play with toys for tummy time. 2nd stage is the exersaucer, she bounce, spin, and rock. Along with the tons of toys that are attached to it. I can't wait for Christmas day to get here in it. I actually tried to get J to let her go ahead and have it but alas, he told me no =(  !  We went Sunday to do the rest of our Christmas shopping. I left Brooklyn with my mom for the first time, I'm not talking about she's been left with other people just not my mom... no... I have never left her with ANYONE before Sunday. I was pretty anxious about it, took me every bit an hour to leave my mom's house to go shopping. Jay made sure to keep my mind off her when we left so I did pretty good overall. Too bad I can't say the same for Brookie though. She threw a fit the whole time I was gone, and clung to me as soon as she seen me. Wouldn't let anyone else hold her.  We picked up a lot of stuff for the kiddos, unfortunately I can't say what they are though. Matt is pretty sneaky and would probably get on here to see if I said anything! I will tell you that we also bought Brookie some clothes, a squigly (I'm not sure they are called, it's a ball that plays sounds, music, counting, and wiggles across the floor), Sophie (She's this amazing 100% natural rubber teething toy from France!) and now that I'm trying to write it all down I can't remember the rest! That's usually how it goes right! We gave her Sophie last night because her gums bother her so much and I don't like giving her orajel too often. She seemed to love it. Not a single inch of it wasn't covered in slobber lol. 

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She finally laughed!

It's been too long!

I really have no excuse as to why I haven't blogged in a while. Laziness maybe?
Anyway, Brooklyn is now 4 months and 2 weeks. At her 4 month check up she was only 12lbs. Her Dr. didn't seem worried though and said that just by looking at her he can tell she's just fine and her weight is nothing to be concerned about. He also said we should wait until about 6 months before starting solids. I'm perfectly okay with that seeings as how I really want to buy a food processor and make her baby food instead of buying the crap at the store that has stuff added into it. 
We are taking her tomorrow to get pictures with Santa. I'm really hoping she will cooperate and not start screaming. Not much has been going on lately, just getting ready for Christmas and trying to narrow down Matt's behavioral problems. It's been a constant struggle for us all but we are trying to work through it the best we can.  
I've been working on getting my business up and going. Right now just concentrating on crochet projects but in Feb./March will be doing some sewing. Hopefully by then Brooklyn will let me get more done. She's snoozing away now so I guess it's time to try to lay her in her crib with out her waking up! Night for now!