4 MONTHS OLD!

My baby girl has turned 4 mos. old today! I can't believe how time has flown by! It's amazing seeing how much she has changed during this time. I took some pictures this evening of her in this very cute summery purple dress. We are loving this warm weather! I'm hoping that Winter is officially over with here.

I get to take a half day with her on Wednesday. My babysitter is going out of town so I get to leave work early on what's supposed to be a beautiful day and I get to hang out with my baby girl! Grammy Yoder is coming from Omaha to spend Thursday and Friday with her. Brian and I are going to see if she might be willing to watch her Friday night as well so we can have a "date night". Keep your fingers crossed! :)

We have somewhat reached a milestone. She kind of sleeps through the night. I don't have to feed her anymore during the night, however, she still wakes up for her binky (pacifier for those who don't know what binky is). It started out that she would wake up just once, but lately its been 2 or 3 times. Brian and I take turns getting up with her, but of course, I have to wake him up. He only hears her if she starts wailing, whereas, I hear her as she starts to stir.

We've also got another milestone (this is more for mom and dad then baby girl). She is now sleeping in her nursery. It's funny that before I had her, my plan was that she would be in the nursery at 1 month. It turned out to be harder than I thought. We started this on Friday and we've all done really well with it! :)

Here's a picture of her laughing. Grammy & Grandpa Yoder were visiting and got this great picture for me. I seem to have problems with my batteries dying on me. I'm trying to get pictures of her in all her cute outfits before she grows out of them. She is finally able to wear 3-6 mos. Some are still too big on her, especially a lot of the pants. Of course, she can still fit in 0-3 size as well. Some of the sleepers are getting a little short now.

She has her 4 mos. check up tomorrow and will get her final round of shots. Brian gets to take her this time. We'll find out about cereal then. I can't wait for that!

I've gotten some more scrapbooking done. Once I get a chance, I'll take pictures of them and post. I'm pretty happy with what I've done lately. I made the mistake of going to Hobby Lobby today. I went looking for a specific stamp (which they were out of, of course) and ended up buying some paper. It was hard to pass up 50% off! I was good though and only got a few sheets but I made sure that I knew specifically what I could use them for though so I don't' feel to guilty about it.

Well, I think that gets me caught up on what's been going on. We're doing good and enjoying every minute with Elizabeth. Everyone take care!!

She LAUGHED

Well, it turns out that what I thought was a laugh, WAS a laugh. I was changing her last night and I started blwoing on her tummy. She just laughed and laughed and I laughed and laughed and then Brian laughed. He got a kick out of how much I was enjoying making her laugh. I wish I had a way of including the video of her laughing. It's just so darned cute!!

This girl makes me so happy. I never thought I would feel this way over a laugh or from her rolling over or from a smile when I pick her up after work. I have such intense feelings over these accomplishments. I can't even imagine what my reaction will be when she starts to crawl and "talk". As it is, I love listening to her jabbering. She's a talker in the mornings. She tells me about the dreams she's had that night and then when I pick her up after work, she tells me how her day was.

Here are some pictures from previous blog (tummy time and her and the Spaz the cat)

We went to the KC Auto Show over the weekend. It's basically a glorified dealership with all makes and models. I thought there would be more concept cars but I only saw one really cool one. If you have $500,000 you can own it! Here are some pics of the crazy thing... That round blue thig inside is a TV screen. Because of this show I think I convinced Brian that a mini van wasn't a terrible thing. We both liked the look & the features of the Toyota Sienna.

Well tomorrow starts another work week. I hope everyone had a great weekend and that you all have a terrific week!!

Happy Weekend!

Well, Its been a while since my last week. I was sick last week. I think it was a combination of lack of GOOD sleep and being exposed to germs I haven't had to deal with for 3 months. It was my 2ND week back at work and I felt so guilty for being sick. Here I am back after being off for 3 months and I come in late 2 days and only work about 2 hours on one day. I did absolutely nothing last weekend. I don't think I even left the house. I felt much better this week.

I've got some great news about Elizabeth. She rolled over TWICE on Wednesday. I had her on her tummy and we were playing and she just rolled herself over on her back. I clapped and whoo hooed and she just looked at me like "what's the big deal, I hate being on my tummy so I rolled over!" I've really been trying to make a point of getting her on her tummy. We're bad about either holding her and putting her in her bouncer. I've got to get some pictures of her being on her tummy and hopefully, I'll get lucky enough to a shot of her turning over.

The other exciting news is that she is starting to grab and play with things and of course, put those things in her mouth. Just today, the cat's tail made it to her mouth. The one cat loves Elizabeth, he head butts her (its his way of saying, Hey, pet me) and he likes to lay down next to her. Anyway, she was sitting on Brian's lap and the cat jumped up there was walking back and forth across Brian's lap and Elizabeth grabbed his tail and put it in her mouth. It was quite hilarious. As of right now, she doesn't have a death grip so Spaz barely even noticed she had his tail. I was able to get a few pictures. I'll have to post them next time.

She has giggled a few times. They were brief and I almost couldn't tell if it was a laugh or not, but I'm pretty sure it was. I've been blessed with a morning baby too. Nothing like me or my sister (Kaci). She talks to herself and smiles at you. She's just a happy baby.

I will say though that lately, she's been cranky. I think Brian and I are boring for her. Our friend that is watching her has 2 kids that I'm sure keep her entertained throughout the day. I've been calling Isiah (he's 2) her boyfriend. He loves to hold her (sitting on the couch w/ Amy beside them) and when I come to pick her up he makes sure to give her kisses. It's soooo cute, but she's too young to have a boyfriend!!!

Haven't done a lick of scrapbooking since the last time which is about 3 weeks ago. I'm going to try to tomorrow. She's 3 months old and I've only got ONE layout done of her. I've got a ton of pictures too.

If anyone needs to buy prints online, I've used walmart.com, shutterfly.com, snapfish.com and kodakgallery.com. They all were very good. Some have better options than others but as far as quality goes, any of them are good. Just thought I'd share that.

Well, I guess I'll sign off for now. I hope it won't be so long until my next entry.

Have a GREAT weekend!!

I'm sick! :(

Well, I've got a full fledged cold now. I hope today is the worst of it since I can't really call in sick. I've been back to work for only a week and I already had to take a half day on Friday to take Elizabeth to doctor. She ran a little bit of a fever last night and she's cranky today. We'll see how she's doing tomorrow. I hope we both get over being sick.

I've decided to start giving myself scrapbook challenges. When I first started scrapping, I bought more scrapbook products then I did any actually scrapbooking!! I've decided that I need to start using some of the stuff that I've got. I think for my first challenge that I need to use the buttons that I have. ONce I have a chance to scrapbook again, I'll post the layout.

I posted on 2 peas in a bucket last night. I went through their gallery to gain some ideas for Elizabeth's baby book. It's funny that I ran across some of Leah's without knowing they were hers right away.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to watch the Oscars tonight. I haven't seen very many of the movies that up for nominations. We saw "The Pursuit of Happyness" , "The Departed" and "The Devil Wears Prada". All are GREAT movies. I recentley saw "Because I said So". Diane Keaton's character was so over the top that she was just too annoying to watch. I was just waaaay disappointed in that movie. I thought "Music & Lyricks" and "Catch & Release" were okay. Not the greatest movies but not the worst. I think those are the most recent. Actually, Brian and I saw "Pan's Labrynth". Very weird but good. It's a violent fairy tale for adults and was subtitled. It would be hard to recommend this movie to people. Same thing with "Children of Men". It really touched since I had just had Elizabeth about a month before I saw this movie. If you don't know, the movie is about the future and no one can have kids anymore and basically the world has gone down the crapper. A woman becomes pregnant and she's trying to get away before she's used or looses her baby. Again, very good, but an odd movie. Kind of like an indy film. I would recommend "The Holiday". Great chick flick. Can't wait for it to come out on DVD. I'm trying to think of what else I've seen. "Flags of Our Fathers" is a definite must see. Looking forward to seeing "Letters from Iwo Jima". I love movies and I can just ramble and ramble!!

Well, hope all had a great weekend!!

The week is over....

Well, made it through a full week. I am having a tough time getting into the swing of things at work though. I haven't worked my brain for 3 months!! Thankfully, everyone is pretty understanding that I'm not just going to be able to jump right in and act as if I've never been gone. My biggest issue is lack of sleep. Elizabeth wakes up anywhere between 3:00 & 5:00 and goes to bed anywhere from 9:00 to 11:00. There was 1 night we both went to bed @ 9:00 and then Brian bottle fed her @ 11:30, but by 3:30 my boobs were really sore so I had to get up & pump. Also, I like taco's. (this is what happens when you walk away from the computer, your husband gets on and inserts things about tacos...) Back to me having to get up in the middle of the night to pump...That was awful, she was sleeping the night away but I couldn't. It wasn't so bad when I didn't have to get up for work. When I get home at night, I'm completely wiped. That's why I haven't been adding much to my blog. Not sure if I'll ever get used to this lack of sleep. I've really been considering putting cereal in the bottle, just enough to slightly thicken up the milk. I'd like to try and hold off until her 4 mo. check up though. I can't beleive she'll be 3 months in just a few days. It's amazing how time has just flown by!

Elizabeth has been congested since sometime last week. I called the doctor last Friday and they said if she's not running a fever or coughing, then there was nothing to worry about and to just put saline drops in her nose. Well, after a week of this and no changes, I finally took her to the doctor. I've been hearing horror stories of things like this turning into pnemonia or RSV. I just wanted to make sure she was good. It is just a head cold that has to run its course. It could be another week before she's cleared up. She's been sleeping her in bouncer at night so that's elevated. When she sleeps it sounds like she's snoring like a grown man. I feel bad for her. I think I feel worse about it then she does. You can't really tell she's sick, which I guess is another sign that she's really okay.

No exciting plans for the weekend, at least not for Elizabeth and me. One of our friends is turning 31 so all the guys are doing stuff together and then topping the day off with Xtreme Bowling. I've always wanted to do that, and we thought about taking Elizabeth since its smoke free but I'm worried the music will be too loud. Since all the boys are doing boy things today, the girls may try to get together for some scrapbooking. It'll be interesting to see how much I can get done while watching Elizabeth. If it takes me 7 hours to get a 2 page layout done when I'm not with her, I can only imagine what I'll get accomplished with her.

I wanted to share a pic of Elizabeth sitting in her Bumpbo - at least I think that's the name of it. Got it for Christmas from my mom.

This thing is great. It helps her to work on holding her head up, which she's pretty good at anyway. I think after a while though, it wears her out. We usually have her sit in it when we're eating dinner. The one thing we are really really bad about is giving her "tummy time". She hates it and usually cries so its not high on our things to do. I hope it doesn't keep her from being where she should be.

I have to share a funny kid story. We were babysitting our friend's 6 year old. Brian and I are really trying to get in the habit of eating at the dinner table and saying grace. Well, Spencer picked up his food and started eating. I told him that we still needed to say Grace and he asked me what that was. I told him you say grace as a way of thanking God for your food. So, he put down his sandwich and said "Grace" and then started eating again. It took everything I had not to fall off my chair laughing.

Well, I think that about catches me up for the week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

2 part blog....

Part # 1 - Welcome Elizabeth.....I am super happy with these two layouts. It only took me about 7 hours to get a 2-page layout done, but perfection takes time!! Ha! Ha! This isn't my normal style but I really liked how it came out. I used Basic Grey Oh Baby Girl collection and Heidi Swapp flowers. For the center of the flowers I have an excellent tip to share. When you buy a collection, there is usually a sheet showing all the designs inside the pack. Instead of punching a hole from a full sheet of paper, I cut it out of the "preview" page. Hope that made sense. On the "welcome" page, I used the Basic Grey Oh Baby Girl ribbon as a frame for the pic. The "Elizabeth" page is not done yet. I am going to put all her stats on the tag.

Part #2 - Going back to work....Well, it was hard but I survived and so did she! Brian had Monday off so she was at home most of the day with him. We did a test run so to speak and she spend a few hours at the sitters. Brian surprised me at lunch with a visit with Elizabeth and flowers. It was soooo sweet of him and really surprised me. I wasn't sure that he understood how it hard it was for me to go back to work, but he did. So today was the official day that Elizabeth went to day care. I tried to not think about it and I managed to only call once to check on her. When I picked her up, I have to admit, I thought she would light up and smile and look happy to see me. She just looked at me. I know she's not old enough yet to do that and I know that day will some day come. Amy's kids were ready to see us go. Her 2 year old grab me by the hand and walked me to the door and when I went outside, the 4 year old shut the door and I heard a very loud "YEAHHHHH"! Actually, the kids enjoyed having her around. Anyway, I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I managed to not cry. I got all that out last week. I guess I was better prepared for it then I thought. It helps that I'm busy trying to get back in the swing of things. I am definitely going to have to get used to getting up to feed her once before its time to actually get up. I am an 8 to 9 hour sleep kind of gal, so I've been struggling with this since day one, but for the past 12 weeks, I've been able to go back to sleep and get up when I'm ready. I don't have that option anymore. She got up at 3:45 this morning and by the time I fed her and changed her (and held her for a little bit) it was after 4:30 before I laid back down and probably another 15 minutes before I fell asleep. I was late to work this morning. I don't want to make a habit of that.

Well, I've rambled on, but the moral to the story is that I survived and so did she!

Post #2

Well, I haven't been good at all at keeping up with my new blog. What's been on my mind lately is that my maternity leave is coming to an end. I go back to work on Monday and it makes me want to cry!! This is my last work day at home with Elizabeth. I know its silly, but I worry that I won't make her laugh and happy like I do now. That she'll get used to being with someone else. I feel like her personality is just starting to come out and I'm going to miss so much! I know that thousands upon thousands of women go back to work and that their children don't forget about them. I'm hoping that since Brian is off for President's Day my first day back , that'll help me a little bit. Look at this gorgeous face, how am I supposed to leave that for hours upon hours a day...

We went to Alabama so that the rest of my family could meet Elizabeth. We had a really great time. Elizabeth did so well on the plane. Here's a picture we had taken. The stewardess gave us a "First time Flyer" Certificate for her scrapbook. I thought that was pretty cool.

I haven't been scrapbooking like I want to. I plan on doing that this weekend. I really want to get some layouts of Elizabeth done. I've gotten my 3 showers done but nothing about her yet. I've been checking out Creating Keepsakes tonight for some inspiration. I also bought the Top 10 2007 addition of Creating Keepsakes. It really has some great ideas!

This is one of my favorite layouts. I learned the techniques of the corners from a class I took at the Scrapbook Convention 2 years ago. I couldn't remember the date of the shower so that part is still blank.

Well I guess that's all I've got for today...