Is It Too Soon?

No, it's never too soon to talk about Christmas and if you think it is, then you should stop reading... NOW.  I've gotta say that this sweater is like the best sweater ever:

Amazon

Not only is if from the best movie ever, which if you don't know what movie that is, I would think that you've stopped reading by now, but it's reasonably priced at about $25 +shipping and handling.  I wish that I could QVC model the ish out of this right now, because that's how much I want it.

So let's say that we all start thinking happy and merry thoughts and work on getting into the holiday spirit!

J Slash K

Remember when I said that I was going to do 30 Blogs in #0 Dayyyyyyyyssssssss!!!  (said like Oprah), well clearly, it's not happening.  This blog is a passion of mine, but it's not something that I can commit as much time as if it were my full-time j-o-b.  What happened after I made that announcement is that life called up and was like, "Hey, do you want to work overtime in every other area?  Yeah, it's not an option to say no."

What this means for me, although it's a little personal defeat, is that I'm not going to be writing posts every day and that "Announcement"?  I guess I was just kidding, j/k.   I'm going to try to be more consistent, posting about 2-3 times per week and continuing to talk about things that are important to me.  Also, it wouldn't be right of me not to say that my sister, Megan was totally right, this is not going to happen (frowny face).

Cheers To My Daughter

Girls; they are terrific.  Don't get me wrong, boys aren't so bad either, but my little girl is just fantastic.  Here's all of the things that she's good at: eating, sleeping, cooing, grabbing at things, rolling over, smiling, smiling, smiling... did I say smiling?  If this girl's job was smiling, she'd be the best worker ever.  If there was a competition for who could coo the cutest, she'd be the world champion.

When I was pregnant, someone asked me if I was scared to have a girl.  Without hesitation, I was like, "Nope.  I'm a girl, so I think I got this!" but of course, she meant something other than the literal having of a girl, she meant all the other ish that comes with having a girl.  The years of parenting that will shape her into the woman that she will become.  So, I ask myself, am I afraid of the years of parenting that will shape her into the woman that she will become?  And the answer is still, "Nope!"

Here's the thing, I'm not afraid of raising my daughter and teaching her to value her self-worth and know who she is and what she stands for, I'm afraid of everyone else who thinks that they know her self-worth, what she is and what she stands for.  Girls these days are under pressure to be something like Instagram-famous,-Youtube-viral,-Facebook-million-friend-having young ladies and that's not realistic or fair.

What I want for my daughter is pretty simple: to have a happy, healthy, well-balanced, meaningful life and so far, she's got the the happy and healthy covered.  Honestly, she shines in a way that I've never seen; I damn near need sunglasses.  Her smile is breathtaking and it gets me every time.  She is the brightest spot in my days and I'm the luckiest to have her.

So, when people ask if I'm afraid to raise a girl, the answer will always be a variation of no, because that's not what this world needs.  What the world needs is for mothers who celebrate their daughters and vice-versa, together, we are going to make a happier, healthier, well-balanced, meaningful world.  Cheers to us!

Mom Powers

Since I was little, I've wanted super powers.  Big ones like flying or lesser known super powers like Ma-Ti had on Captain Planet... and incase you're wondering, Ma-Ti's powers were Heart and Telepathy.  When I was little, I thought Heart powers sucked.  As I grew older, I realized that these powers may have been less dazzling, but they were no less important.

So, after my desire for super powers like flying, X-ray vision and invisibility waned, I thought that maybe I could come up with something more realistic and equally as impressive.  Recently, I came to fully understand a super power that was so unassuming, it nearly passed by me without recognizing the awesomeness of it's impact.  Drum roll please: I know the size of any article of clothing that my children are wearing, including accessories.

Harnessing these powers usually results in conversations like this:

Me: Did we wash those clothes from H&M?
Jim: Yes.
M: Did we wash her shorts?
J: Everything for her was too big to wear right now...
M: No, it wasn't.  She had shorts in there that were a size 4-6 months.  Can you please look again.

5 minutes later....
J: You were right, she did have shorts in there, they're being washed now.

Do all Mom's have this power?  It seems more than likely that they do.  As a mom, you get asked that a lot.  What size clothes does so and so wear?  Or what size shoe is so and so?  And almost always, a mom can not only tell you the exact size her child is now, but she can also give you their sizes for the next two seasons.

So for all those other super mom's out there, this talent might seem unassuming, but cheers to us who keep our children not only clothed today, but clothed in the Summer and Fall too... now we just need to figure out our costumes.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

In my family, we talk a lot about physical features.  My sister's hands and feet are long and slender; we call them Grandma Edna fingers and toes.  My hands are the opposite of hers and I affectionately call them my pirogi fingers.  I have Grandma Midge fingers.  She was a tiny Polish woman who was pretty fierce in the kitchen, hence the pirogi fingers.  To be candid, my ring size is an 8, but I got them upsized so that when my fingers swell I wouldn't feel huge.  (Have you ever seen when a woman's rings are strangling her fingers?  Not attractive.)  It's amazing how these features can define who you are, when I look at my hands I see a hard working woman who was a nurse in WWII and raised 5 girls.

My daughter's hands are beautiful.  They're soft and chubby, kind of like mine.  She's got a powerful grip, always letting me know that she's doing more than hanging on;  she's taking my hand, holding it because she wants to.  I wonder if she will have my features?  If she will be a powerful woman?  Powerful women are awesome, but don't confuse awesome with invincible.  Even powerful women need support.

I want to hold my daughter's hand both literally and metaphorically.  Her tiny hand in mine.  One day, I know that she won't want to hold my hand and that her power will eclipse mine, I am fine with that...  Until then, I'm going to give her my hand every single time she wants it.  I'm going to pull her up and she's going to guide me through this mother-daughter-thing.  So, what I'm trying to say is, look out!, cause here comes another powerful woman; pirogi fingers and all.

Hashtag- Purplehairdon'tcare

So, remember a few days ago when I was complaining about my hair, well I did something about it... a purple something.  I go to a pretty conservative salon in a smallish town, so I've been told that I'm a hair dressers dream client.  Once every 6 months or so I get bored and boredom leads to change and this time change led to purple hair, hence the #purplehairdon'tcare.

I love it.  Jim loves it.  The boys keep saying "you have purple hair!" or my favorite, "it looks beautiful, Mom!"  The only thing that doesn't love it are any surfaces that it touches, like my pillow case, my shower, my neck, etc.  All of those look like they have come into contact with Grimace and not in a good way, in a Grimace-got-caught-in-a-rainstorm-and-smeared-all-up-on-things kinda way.  But it looks so freakin' cool that I'm keeping it, at least for now.

What do you think?

But no matter what color it is, Arden is good for a least one hair pull a day.  Thanks, kid.

The Announcement

Well, sorry to disappoint my Mother, who guessed a puppy and my Sister and Father who both guessed another baby, but the big announcement is that I will be doing 30 blogs in 30 days.  Anyone who blogs knows that doing 30 blogs in 30 days takes a lot of commitment and time, but I've done it before and I will do it again.

However, I do have my naysayers; when I let Megan, my sister know about my latest endeavor, her response was, "yeah, yeah, yeah."  Well, to that I say, self-proposed challenge made and self-proposed challenge accepted... starting June 1st!

New Hair, Don't Care... Or Do I?

Yeah, I think I do care about my hair.  Although, this vanity may be lost on anyone that sees me on the weekend, 'cause Lord knows that my weekend hair looks like duck.  Seriously though, it looks like ducking duck.  But here's the thing, I've had the platinum and black look for a little while now and I'm bored.  I've Googled and Googled and Googled the duck out of new hair, but I've come up empty.  Therefore, I'm going to turn my hair over to the pro and see what she can do.  Here's to hoping!

Mom Blogs Are Like Dinosaurs

Has anyone noticed recently that Mom-Blogs (a.k.a. cisforcullen) are going a little... extinct?  I read a lot of crap on the internet on the daily and it wasn't long ago that I was reading crap on a lot of Mom-Blogs, but now, I'm kind of not.  Why is that?  I think it's because the DIY Blog has replaced the Mom-blog; evolution y'all.

Since purchasing our second home, I've become obsessed with decorating blogs and websites, scouring the internet for Ikea Hacks (or makeovers to the layman) and tons and tons (and tons) of DIYs.  Move over parenting tips and birth stories, I've got mason jars to chalk board paint and Pottery Barn rooms to replicate up in here.  But as I'm sure the T-Rex did, when I see my fellow Mom-bloggers falling farther from the top of the food chain, it makes me wonder how long anyone will want to keep reading blogs about kids... and more precisely, this blog about my kids.

It is true that I've done a few DIY posts myself.  I love a good DIY or make over, but not reading about motherhood would be hard for me.  One of the biggest reasons I started writing this blog was to have a sense of community, meaning that I don't have a lot of friends who are mothers, so I had to seek them out on the internet.  Once I started reading other women's stories, I didn't feel so alone.  Mom-bloggers were funny and real and sometimes they shared their heart-break; I don't know how to describe the connection I had other than saying that it felt like I was reading an email from a friend, a friend with a kid (or two or three) who was going through what I was going through in real-time.

It's not that I don't appreciate the internet for what it is: a place to figure out how to do everything from being a parent to sanding and refinishing your hardwood floor, but I've just never been part of anything that I see being "yesterday's news."  I think my crew of Mom-bloggers is probably safe for now,  cause women are still havin' babies and other women want to read about it, but it does make me wonder how long we Mom-bloggers will still be relevant.

For now, relevant or not, I'ma do this blog my way so that me and my children have the opportunity to look back on these memories and see lots of pictures of them rather than a whole bunch of painted furniture, because after all, these children are my greatest DIYs.

(Excuse the throw-back pictures of the boys, I was cleaning up my phone and wanted to share some of the photos that I had never gotten around to doing previously.)

Pictures Have Never Been Easier

When I was pregnant with Arden, Jim and I decided that we needed to get a "good" camera.  Sorry, rinky-dink point and shoot, but we wanted "profesh" grade pictures of our kids.  We did minimal research and found a camera that we love(d).  Naturally, we ran to Target that very day and plunked down our benjamins and walked out with a camera that was more expensive than my wedding dress.  That camera is amazing.  The photo quality is impeccable and I absolutely LOVE the moments that have been captured, like these:

But as time goes on, I'm reaching for our big,  good camera less and less; these days, it's all about my iPhone 4s and as it turns out, I don't think I'm alone.  I've been reading on a few other mom-blogs about the camera phone replacing a professional grade quality camera and like these women, I'm not feeling bad about it.  I'm sure each of them have their reasons, mine is two-fold: first, I'm trying harder to capture more organic moments and lugging around a two pound camera with a big, dangly strap isn't conducive to that and second, I'm lazy; obviously, laziness is more of a factor than I care to admit.

Lately, I've been feeling a little guilty.  After capturing hundreds of moments with the good camera during Jameslyn's first week, the dslr camera has been sitting on the counter since then, staring at me.  However, my phone, which is in my hand more than it should be (tisk, tisk), has been snapping away.  One day, I'm very sure that I will be glad that I've heard the apple-camera-snap more than the authentic dslr click and I've all but resigned myself to the fact that these pictures are going to make up the majority of my children's photo documentation.

Despite my acceptance of my phone replacing my dslr, I wish that phone pictures were better quality.  But wait, there's hope for people like me and it goes a little something like this: photo editing apps and basic photographic skill, both of which Kelle Hampton has helped me explore.  Recently, I read her how-to tips and I'm glad that I did, these are all useful, practical ideas that can be used with both a dslr and a camera phone.  After a few days of being conscious of her tips while taking pictures, I think my point of view behind the lens has changed... for the better.

Don't get me wrong though, photo editing apps like Afterlight are still my jam and for good reason, the quality of the iPhone will never hold a candle to the dslr (check out the before and after below).  These days, with a little luck and the right exposure, I'm pleased with the photos that I'm taking; although, I think it helps that the subjects of my photos are beyond cute, because there ain't no app for that!

A Pink and Green Nursery

Since we found out that we were having a girl, it was all sorts of pink and bows and girl stuff.  I'm not "overly" girlie; however, I can hold my own when it comes to shopping for little girls.  When we moved, we immediately knew that we wanted Jameslyn's room to be the closest one to us, walking the extra steps in the middle of the night is not fun!  The room has two windows so it gets lots of natural light and was as plain as could be- white walls, white carpet, white closet doors.

I decided that I wanted to get a nice crib; read: expensive.  I searched for weeks until I found one that I liked and that was on sale.  Then I decided what bedding I wanted and the bonus was that it was on sale.  The rest of the furniture items and decor touches (not many) were all purchased either on sale or on a budget.  I haven't added up the total amount we spent on the nursery, but I will keep a total as I go along.  I will also give links to websites and specific products as much as I can. 

From day one, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted, something beautiful, chic and vibrant.  I Google image searched the heck out of "girl nursery," "baby girl nursery," "Pottery Barn nursery," "Pottery Barn baby girl nursery,"and found one image that I really liked:

The Pink and Green Pottery Barn Nursery

This nursery is beautiful, chic and vibrant; check, check and check.  The Pottery Barn Kids website explains all the reasons that this nursery works, but one of the most meaningful reasons that I was drawn to this nursery was that my wedding colors were pink and green and so it seemed like this was the perfect room to welcome our first little girl home to.


Here's the deal, I want the Pottery Barn nursery on an Ikea budget, so I used that as the inspiration and we went from there.  Here's our little girl's room (please excuse the lighting):

Branch mobile- $0, I made this myself, sure did!

Pink shelving unit- $89.99, Ikea: EXPEDIT Shelving unit.  Please note, this line of shelving is being discontinued April 1st!  I know, anyone that is an Ikea fan is probably crying right now, these shelving units are a staple in our home (we have four) and the homes of millions, maybe even blillions, of people all around the world.

Baskets- $14.99/each, Ikea: BRANAS Basket.

Wooden rocking horse- $30, Michaels.  I tried to find this on their website, but had no luck, whomp, whomp...  We found this in the unfinished wood section and I plan on painting it some day, but I like the natural look, so I'm in no rush to do that.  I'm estimating that we paid thirty bucks, but honestly it's been a while since we bought it, so I can't really remember.

Monogram Decal- $37, Vinyl Thingz (Etsy).  No joke, we've gotten so many compliments on this decal, so it's definitely worth the money.

The crib- $399, This is all Pottery Barn, baby!  The Kendall Crib  I love, love, love this crib and the price, which I feel is competitive.

The chair- $199, This is the EKTORP JENNYLUND chair from Ikea and it's pretty amazing.  It's featured in a lot of nursery pictures throughout the internet and I know why, it's reasonably priced, it's sturdy and the slip cover is... wait for it: WASHABLE!  We have two little boys who really like chocolate and we've already washed and removed stains from the white chair cover.  We love this chair; however, the seat is pretty narrow, so be skinny if you're going to buy this or it may not be very comfortable.  I know that I feel like a giant when I'm sitting in it.

The dresser- $229 & some change, I found this dresser on sale on amazon.com during the holidays and I snapped it right up.  It's a great dresser and notice that the lines match the crib almost perfectly.  The matching dresser for the Pottery Barn crib is $569, so that's a significant savings and I love me some savings.

The pillow and pouf- $19.99 (pillow) and about $30 (pouf), I searched the Target website and I can only find the info for the pillow, which is real annoying, because the pouf is comfortable and great solution for an inexpensive ottoman.  Another good feature of the poof is that it can be thrown all around the room by older brothers and isn't going to be destroyed or cause very much destruction.

The branch mobile is a total DIY and I really should've documented the steps to making it.  Here is what you will need:

A branch

Paint samples (we legit did need the paint samples to figure out what color we wanted to paint her room, so we didn't just five-finger-discount them)

String

Glue

A circle punch like this one, which I didn't use so please either read up before you buy it or go to your local craft store

Ceiling fasteners

Here's how: I cut out circles and numbered them according to colors so that I could easily make double sided hanging pendants.  I put a large dollop of glue on the back of four circles and then placed the string in the middle.  I put the corresponding circles on top of the circle-glue-string "thing" and placed about 10lbs worth of books on top for a few minutes to make sure that the glue adhered to both sides.  I repeated this until I was bored and then assembled everything.  I know that it's not perfect and that it can never be hung over a crib or actually any surface where a baby might be, but I really like how it turned out and I'm hoping that one day Jameslyn will be happy to say that her Mama made it especially for her.

Where I Hang Out

I'm sure you've got your "go-to" websites, I know that I do.  In case you're wondering how you can waste even more time on the internet, here are some of my favorites, which I hope you will check out, but will you still come back and read my little old Mom and Pop Mom blog from time to time?

Amazon.  Get a membership to Amazon Prime, it will change your life, for reals.
http://www.amazon.com/

Buzzfeed.  Hilarious and sometimes very insightful, these quick reads help me pass some time that I would otherwise be wasting doing something like cleaning my house or reading a book.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/

Longform.  Just incase you thought that I wasn't reading, haha, the joke's on you...  I READ!  I'm just selective with what I read, because I don't have a lot of time.  These articles are all compiled so that I know what I'm getting into and can pick and chose to read whatever interests me.
http://longform.org/

The Salt.  This is NPRs food blog, but it's a lot more than a food blog.  As a girl who likes to eat (again with the girl thing, I can't help myself) I started reading this after I heard a piece on NPR about what else, The Salt.  Since reading, I feel that I have a better understanding about where my food comes from and some of the more intellectual happenings in the food world.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/

Apartment Therapy.  This blog is intended to help people living in small spaces, read: apartments and houses less than 1000 sq ft, but it's helpful tips and diy posts are appealing even to the McMansion crowd, and plain old middle class suburbia people like myself.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/

The Pioneer Woman.  So, I'm kind of obsession with Ree and her kids and her life and her blog and her cookbooks and... well, you get the point.  The food looks and tastes amazing, the lodge that she and her family just built on their ranch is my dream space and as a mom of three young children, I appreciate her perspective and realness.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/

Enjoying the Small Things.  I'm forever in Kelle Hampton's corner.  I admire her work and her blog.  All good things (and small things) on this blog.  Be sure to check out the amazing birthday parties that she throws for her children; she's my birthday party idol.
http://www.kellehampton.com/

i am baker.  First, I thoroughly enjoy the lack of capitalization in the blog's title; in my private, non-blogging life, I never use proper capitalization when writing anything... anything.  But, getting back to the point- this blog makes me want to bake, which I never do, but it always makes me want to.  According to Amanda, the baker, she is responsible for the rose cake, which looks amazing and completely took pinterest and instagram by storm.  Apparently, there was a little bit of controversy when other people started claiming the cake as their own, which she writes about and I read and made me upset for her.  Don't claim other people's ish, people!
http://iambaker.net/

Manhattan Nest.  I have always wanted to buy and old house and fix it up; after reading this blog, I will never, ever do that.  The closest I will ever come is buying a house that wasn't built until after lead paint and asbestos were the construction methods of choice.  Oh man does this guy do a lot of work.  Actually, it seems like he's still actively renovating the house, which you can never be sure of in the blog world, but I'm pretty sure that he is.  Watching the transformation is awesome and his writing really helps to get through some of the more boring home renovations that we all enjoy in an edited state on TV, but don't necessarily want to read about, or undertake ourselves.
http://manhattan-nest.com/

Emily Henderson.  New mom.  New house.  Winner of HGTV's "DesignStar."  All around awesome.  Obviously, everyone has their own style, but I find her taste to be approachable and livable; I have to admit that I trust and relate to designers with children more than those without.  I loved the master bedroom she did in the "Curbly's House" project in her portfolio, that I bought a very similar (who am I kidding, it's almost identical) headboard for my bedroom.  Check it out and then wait for my bedroom reveal on my blog.
http://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/

I'm trying to keep up with my blog too.  It's a work in progress and I was hoping to have some DIY house stuff on here, but getting pregnant right before we moved into our new house put those projects on hold.  Hopefully, in the next few weeks, I will get my butt in gear and start getting our house in shape (and my butt too).

Until more DIY stuff pops up, here's who I'm hanging out with and getting lots of inspiration from:

After Baby #Selfie Alert

It was a long 9 months of watching my roots slowly get longer and darker, but compared to my platinum hair, anything looked darker.  I'm happy to say that I got my hair done and finally put on some real makeup and things have been going pretty well with the updated, refreshed look.

Just so everyone knows what I'm lookin' like these days, here's not one, but two gratuitous #selfies.

She's Here And Right On Schedule

Jim and I knew after we had Arden that we wanted more kids; yes, plural.  When I found out last June that I was pregnant, I was delighted-ecstatic-over-the-moon-thrilled-beyond-all-belief-happ-happ-happiest-girl-ever!  (Is it weird that even after three kids, I still refer to myself as a girl; pretty sure I should be calling myself a woman or mother by now, right?)

For everyone's entertainment, I will now fake interview myself with all of your burning questions about what's been going on with me and sweet baby J:

Were you trying for a girl?  Uhm, no.  I get asked that question a lot.  Like a lot, a lot.  To be honest, I really don't understand the premise of "trying for" one gender or the other.  I actually thought that I'd most likely have all boys; from what I've read, after you have a boy, it's statistically more likely that you will have a second one and so on.

How much weight did you gain?  60 lbees (I wrote that all cute so that it stings less).  Honestly, I'm not even sure why I gained so much weight.  With both of the boys, I gained 40 lbs, to-the-pound.  But with sweet baby J, I just couldn't believe how high and fast the scale crept up.  Now, the hard work starts.  I'm giving myself a few weeks to fully recover before I attempt to get back in shape; realistically though, it's gonna be a while.  It took me two years to lose all of the weight from Arden, so I'm thinking that if this 60 drops in 6-9 months that would be absolutely reasonable.

How do you feel?  I felt great pretty much the entire pregnancy.  I never have had morning sickness or some of the other more difficult pregnancy day to days.  I did reinjure my back when I was five months pregnant.  I immediately called my acupuncturist and started treatments.  After two weeks I was almost completely without pain.  If you have any kind of back issue, I highly recommend that you research acupuncture and then make an informed decision about getting treatment.

You had a c-section, right?  Yes, yes I did.  I've had someone tell me that c-section deliveries are a piece-oh-cake; that I just lay there and that the doctor does all the hard work.  Obviously, this person is partially kidding... I think and we are family, so I can tell them to, "shut the hell up!" but c-sections are rough, especially if it's your first one.  The actual procedure is pretty much ok; listening to people having conversations while they are performing surgery on you is a little surreal, but if you have complete confidence in your doctor, then it's not that bad.  I happen to love my doctor.  He's funny and charming and old school and listens to me; it's kinda like eharmony matched us up for completely (and clearly) non-romantic reasons.  Were a good team, Bill and I; I silently freak out and he distracts me with other stories and information that is both reassuring and completely irrelevant.  Here are a few things that I forgot about the c-section recovery that I had forgotten, but have come back to me like whoa:

The following things are going to hurt... A LOT: sneezing, laughing, throwing up, coughing and blowing your nose; I've done all of these over the last several days and my advice would be to just "man up" and do it and get it over with.

Recovering after the third one is easier than the second is easier than the first.

Don't believe what they tell you; taking the bandage off of the incision hurts more than a bandaid.

And the catheter, that hurts like a bitch too.

All I can say is, manage your pain well, Ladies; manage it well.

Why not update everyone on the blog?  I purposely chose not to say anything.  Of course my friends and family were aware; however, I'm just not brave enough to put that type of personal journey out there- yet.  I have Type 2 Diabetes, which makes me High Risk, because of this, I have to take injectible insulin several times a day, test my blood sugars several times a day all while being monitored by an Endocronologist, my regular OBGYN and a High Risk OBGYN.  I plan to expand more on the particulars of my pregnancy and my experience with Diabetes; I think it would be helpful for people to know what it's really like; hard, but completely worth it.  For these reasons, I chose not to say anything, but rather share the good news of her birth and do some retrospective posts.

Is she a good baby?  I don't want to brag, but yeah, she is a wonderful baby.

Cullen asked me this frequently, "Why is your hair black and blonde?"  When I asked my doctor, whom I love, about dying my hair while I was pregnant, he didn't totally give me the green light.  I obviously know that there is very little risk associated with dying your hair while you're pregnant, but since he made a valid point- studies about pregnant women who dye their hair don't exist, so there's no way of knowing how safe it is, and my contention that "celebrities do it all the time" didn't really convince him to change his opinion, I decided to wait until after she was born to get my hair dyed, in fact, Mama is going tonight to get her hair done; Mama needs to look nice for Valentine's Day.

Is this your first baby?  Do other people get this question a lot?  Frequently, because that's how often I go to the doctor's, people who were unfamiliar with me would ask me if this was my first child.  I would politely say, "no," and leave it at that, but almost always they would then reply, "second?"  I'm partially flattered, do I look so young as to just be having my first child?  But I'm also curious to know why it's automatically assumed that you're having your first.

Jameslyn?  Jim and I started talking about names the night we found out I was pregnant; for me, this is  one of the best parts of the pregnancy, for Jim it's a lesson in patience with me.  One day we have a name, the next day the name is crap.  Ultimately, he is very open to all suggestions and usually willing to go along with what I want, which is great, because I think that all of the names I've picked are awesome.  Jameslyn's name was created from Jim's real name, James and my real name Madalyn.  Originally, we were going to name her Jamesleigh, but my Dad suggested Jameslyn and we liked that name much better.  Now we just need to come up with a cute little nickname.

Looking forward to sharing more information about High Risk Pregnancy, stay tuned.

J is for Jameslyn

For those of you who have noticed that I've been gone for a few weeks now, I am happy to announce that it was for a very, very good reason; I had a baby.  A baby girl to be exact.  Jameslyn (more on the name to come) joined us about a week ago and has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  I can't wait to share more details of the last nine months and her first days.

Until then, here's our baby girl.

I Did It

The other weekend, in the midst of an quickly cancelled trip across state lines because of the weather, I decided to do a little look-a-back at the ol' blog-arino.  And guess what?  It's my freakin' anniversary!  I've been doing this thing for three years; hard to believe.

I started this blog because, well because everyone else was doin' it and I was all like, I'm just as good as they are!  But over the years, it's sort of become an easyish way for me to keep a scrap book for my kids without actually doing the work of keeping a scrap book.  I'm a sucker for any stories about my childhood and I think it will be pretty amazing for my children to have this opportunity to look back at what was going on in real-time... okay, well maybe not real, real-time, but close enough to real time.

It also allows me to do this for the sake of my blog; like taking pictures, going overboard at parties and read tons of other blogs and get inspiration- all without feeling guilty.

This next year is sure to be even better and I'm excited to continue my blogging journey.

It's My Favorite

Christmas time is my favorite; probably because it's right before my birthday, everyone is in joyous spirits and the house is filled with kind of beautiful things.  Decorating is crazy though... advice from parents of older children, when does the fighting/ornament breaking/disregard for the lovely ambiance that I'm working hard to set up- stop?  Is it around 4 years old?  'Cause that'd be nice.  Every year I expect that the boys will be too delighted by the sounds from the TV seasonal music station that their fighting will be temporarily put on hold, but that's not happening.  But... it is getting better.  Only a handful of smashed ornaments and one or two meltdowns each; I'm cool with that.

We had a few firsts this year: first train set, which was immediately broken and still remains off the tracks in the family room, first Christmas in our new house and first time that Cullen took a real interest in helping to set things up- more man business as he would call it, I suppose.  The results are perfect- for us.  I love all of the planning and time it takes for this to take shape, it's a nice way to spend time together, even if it is mixed with some fighting and crying, because it's what we do and how we do.