Delayed....

Okay, so my "Make Something New Monday" post is going to be delayed a bit. Maybe by as much as a few days. Even though I've been home all day today, it's been pretty busy around here. So, I haven't had a chance to go to the store and I haven't been able to take the time to make something. I might try my hand at the Butter Bread tonight. I made that last week and really want to try again. The new thing that I want to make this week is Strawberry Shortcake or maybe some homemade cut out cookies (that way I can use my Halloween cookie cutters!!). We'll see. I have to work most of the day tomorrow, so I'll probably make something on Wednesday.

Right now I'm going to go clean my bedroom really quick and then get started on dinner.

On the menu tonight:
Chicken Fried Steak
Mashed Potatoes
Country Gravy
Peas
Rice Krispy Treats (if I have enough time)

PEACE!

The First Day of October....

WOW!!! Is it really October 1st already?!?! I honestly cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. Pretty soon it'll be Turkey Day, then Christmas, and then we'll be ringing in the year 2008. Where is time going?!

October is my favorite month. The top reason being the fact that my birthday is this month, but October also holds my wedding anniversary, and one of my favorite holidays, HALLOWEEN!! Yay!

I'm looking forward to the weather being cooler and, I'm probably one of the few, but I'm looking forward to daylight savings also. I actually like it when it gets darker earlier!

I think this month is going to be pretty awesome!!

Friday Favorites....

My favorite thing this week is my charm bracelet. I've had this bracelet for probably about 10 years now. I had one before that had MANY charms on it, but unfortunately it got lost in a move. =( The bracelet and all of the charms are from a jewelery store called James Avery, which I absolutely LOVE!! I have a few charms that I still need to get put on it, and there are LOTS more charms that I really want to buy!! Here are the charms that I currently have on the bracelet:
~xxoo
~a jingle bell
~tap shoes
~a cat
~a dragonfly
~ballet slippers
~a camera
~a bumble bee
~'99
~a sneaker
~a heart
~jack o' lantern
~graduation cap
~basketball
~profile of a girl
~flip flop
~Te Amo
~butterfly
~shamrock
~buffalo
~scroll heart
~owl
~Best Mom
~music note inside a heart
~theatre masks
~Middle Sister
~J
~popcorn box

I Guess That I Am A Feminist!!

You Are 79% Feminist

You are certainly a feminist - whether you know it or not. You believe in gender equality, at least most of the time. You also believe there are a few exceptions.

Are You a Feminist?

Make Something New Mondays - Butter Bread

Today I made homemade bread for the first time ever!! Made from scratch and everything. Needless to say, eat wasn't aesthetically pleasing enough to post a picture. But it sure did taste delicious, and the house smelled SO wonderful!! I got the recipe from Bethany's Blog.

Here's the recipe:

1 stick butter
1 cup milk
2 packages yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
6-7 bread flour

Melt the butter and warm the milk. Add yeast and let sit for about 2 minutes, then stir and add sugar, salt, eggs and slowly add flour until it is a firm dough.

Knead for 10 minutes and then let rise for an hour.

Punch down, split in half, and separate each half into 3 sections. Roll sections and braid them.

Let braided loaves rise for 30 minutes, then brush with an egg white glaze.

Place in oven at 375 for the 30-35 minutes.

I'm definitely going to be trying this recipe again. I'd love to get it perfected!
Every Monday I'm going to try to make something that I haven't before. Mainly things from scratch. Next week I think I'll do some kind of dessert!!

Friday Favorites....

Okay, so I know that I'm actually posting this on Monday, but really I took the pictures on Friday and had fully intended to do my post then, but time just got away from me and then on top of that I got sick Friday evening. So here goes.

The above candle and candle holder I got from a garage sale that a friend of mine and her parents were having about 2 years ago. If you know me at all you know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE butterflies! And I absolutely loved how this had lots of them and how they were carved into the candle. SO cool! The lady who owned this before me burned the candle maybe one time. I got this whole thing from her for $5!! It's quite tall and I have it displayed in my bathroom. Oh, and I've never burned it, the candle is too pretty!

I Wonder If This Helps...

So, for the last week and a half or so I've been hand washing all of our dishes. Yep, you heard me loud and clear, I have not run the dishwasher in this whole time. My main reason for doing so is a little experiment to see if it cuts down on our electric bill. Before I would run the dishwasher every day or so and I just figured that with all the heating it has to do to dry the dishes and such, it wouldn't hurt to give this a go. Now, there have honestly been days where I haven't kept up very well with the dish washing, but overall it seems to be going good. As for drying I just leave the dishes in the dishwasher with the door cracked open and they actually dry better and faster than with the heated dry. I'm actually also enjoying my time washing dishes. I get to look out my window into the backyard and just get lost in my thoughts for around 15 minutes. Even if the electric bill doesn't go down I'll probably continue to hand wash the dishes. Dishes used to be my most dreaded chore, but dare I say, I'm actually beginning to like it now. Well, maybe not like, but definitely not dread!!

Oh, and I figure that in the future this will be a good chore for Audrey and her future siblings to have. I don't want my children growing up relying on machines to always do basic work for them!

Does anyone else out there wash their dishes by hand?

YUMMY!!!

I just got finished making a batch of Rice Krispy Treats! I love these things. I love the smell of the marshmallows and butter as they melt together.

These will be a wonderful dessert to go along with our dinner this evening.
Here is what we're having:
~Homemade Chicken Fried Steak
~Homemade Mashed Potatoes
~Country Gravy (sometimes I do homemade, but tonight is packaged)
~Green Peas (I'll just heat up some frozen for Audrey and myself)
~Rice Krispy Treats

Sounds like a pretty delish dinner to me!

Daily Musing...

I think I'm going to change the name (yes, again) of this blog. My husband jokes with me that I'm a "Feminist Homemaker". What does he mean by this? Well, obviously I'm a homemaker, but not because I have to be or because that's what my husband wants. You see, although my husband and I are committed Christians we are also what you would call egalitarians. Meaning, we believe that men and women, husbands and wives are equal. There really is no "head of our household". I respect my husband dearly as he does me and we try our hardest to treat each other as such. We make our decisions together and are both free to disagree with the other. I also do not believe that "a woman's place is in the home". If you are married and have children or whatever and you want to have a career outside of the home. Go for it! Don't let anyone hold you back. As long as you can balance work and family, all the more power to you! Yes, I am a homemaker and my husband supports me fully in that, but he would also support me fully if I decided tomorrow that I wanted to go back to work full time. It's my decision. As long as I love what I do and take it seriously, he's happy!! And just so everyone knows, I've been a homemaker ever since we got married almost 4 years ago. We went 2 1/2 years being married before our daughter was born and we decided together from the get go that this is what we both wanted and what we both considered best for our family. I've always wanted to be a wife and a mommy, that has always been my biggest dream. We plan to have a large family and as of right now I plan on homeschooling our children (for many reasons that I will get into in a later post), but as I've gotten older my dreams have also grown to one day owning a business. I'd love to have a coffee shop or a bed & breakfast one day. But that is when my children are older. For now, my passion is my family and my home, so that is my job. But I can rest assured that whatever I decide to do in the future my husband will support me 100%!!

So, as an ode to Bryan, the new name of this blog is going to be "Diary of a Feminist Homemaker"!!

It's a 15 Minute Kind Of Day...

For those of you who are familiar with FlyLady (LOVE her!!) you should know what a 15 minute day is. For those who aren't here it is in a nutshell. One of FlyLady's motto's is "You/I can do anything for 15 minutes", meaning, instead of looking at how overwhelming a job is, just start somewhere and do it for 15 minutes. You'll be amazed at how much actually gets done in that amount of time! One of the tools that FlyLady recommends having is a timer, just set it for 15 minutes and go. After 15 minutes is done either reset it or take a small break. And a 15 minute day is when you have a whole lot to do, but a breaking it up into 15 minute increments. Get it?

Well, anyways, it's been that kind of day for me. The last week or so I've really gotten off of my normal routines, mainly because I need to re-tweak them to include my work and plasma donation schedules. But even worse then that is that seemingly every weekend the house gets in complete disarray. Maybe it's because Bryan's home so I don't do my normal stuff, I don't know. And since I was pretty much gone for 12 hours yesterday, when I woke up this morning there was a nice big mess to greet me! YUCK! So, I'm currently working to get it all back in order. The kitchen is clean, so is the living room, the dining room, Audrey's room, and the bathroom. So there isn't much else to do. That is until I get it all tidied and then have to actually get into the rooms and deep clean!! How fun!! Wish me luck!

Friday Favorites....

I saw this idea on another blog: http://home-place.blogspot.com/
and thought it would be a neat idea to put up here. Every Friday I'm going to try and put up a picture and description of one of my favorite things. I think it'll go to show how the simple things in life can and do bring us so much joy! So here goes...

My first favorite thing is:
HOT CHOCOLATE!!!
Now I know what you're thinking. It's only September for crying out loud and you're drinking hot chocolate?!?! Even though it's in the 90's outside this sounded SO good to me the other night. Maybe it's the fact that all the Fall and even Winter/Christmas stuff is going up in the stores now. Fall going into Winter is my favorite time of year and just thinking about a mug of steaming hot chocolate makes me feel all warm and fuzzy! I also LOVE the mini marshmallows that come with the package! I'll let you in on a little secret, even though the package says make with hot water, I use milk. It makes it so much more creamy and delicious. YUM!
So what is one of your favorite things?

Why is it so hard?

To not drink soda?! I was planning on trying to finish out the month of September with drinking no regular soda. Well, I gave in. I think I've had two or so since my last post. I've found that it's the hardest when I'm out. At home I'm fine. I make a lot of iced tea (unsweetened, so I add sweetener) and I'm perfectly content drinking that. Maybe what I need to start doing is taking my small thermos with me everywhere with tea in it. That might help.

I'm still doing my swimming. I started several weeks back. The first week I did 5 days, the second I did 4 days, and I'm planning on doing 5 days this week. I feel so much better now that I'm doing this. I feel my body shaping up and I have more energy and drive.

I also cut my hair off on Friday. It's a pretty drastic cut. My hair used to be about my mid-back and now it's not even shoulder length. I don't know exactly how much was cut off, but I do know that there was a LOT of hair on the floor when we were done!!!

Let's see, what else is new this week? Bryan started auditing a class at the Austin Graduate School of Theology. He's really into Biblical studies and this opportunity presented itself, so I'm happy that he gets to do something that he enjoys. The class is once a week for 3 hours until the end of the semester, and he'll continue to audit one class each semester for awhile!

Also, we're going to be having an open house/dedication here in less than a month. (If you don't already know, the house we live in is owned by our church). So we're going to be super busy over the next several weeks trying to get everything prepared for it. The biggest job is now about half over though. Our whole house is saltillo tile and the sealant on it has been peeling pretty bad for awhile now. So, for several days this week we've had a guy here scraping up the sealant and now I think he's done with that, so we just have to get someone in here to seal it again, and for that, of course, we'll have to be out of the house. Something that I'm looking forward to doing (and with the open house I have additional incentive to get off my behond and do it) is planting flowers in both the front and back of the house. I think that it will be fun to do it and the house will look that much better on the outside!! I'll have to post pictures when I'm done.

Tonight's dinner is going to be a simple one of hard shelled tacos and corn bread. Yum!

Day 2....

...of my "No More Soda" deal is here. I've found that as long as I have a pitcher of iced tea made I really don't "crave" soda much. It's when I'm out and about that I have a hard time! Well, anyways, I've made it through 1 1/2 days, so only 23 1/2 more left...

Another thing that has happened this week is all of a sudden Audrey is fighting taking her naps. Once she's asleep, she's out for a good 3 hours, but it's the actually getting to sleep that's taking awhile now. She just sits/lays in her crib talking and fussing for awhile (sometimes a long while) before she finally allows herself to doze off. Kids are so funny!

I got most of the cleaning done that I wanted to yesterday. But of course the house looks like a tornado went through it again. It's amazing how fast that happens!

I have to leave here in two hours or so to go back to work (I already worked this morning). It's only for a couple of hours, but I have to leave an hour before my shift starts because of traffic and then it takes 30 minutes to get home...boo! And then after I get home and get Audrey down for the night I'm most likely going to head to the gym and see if I can get a swim in. Last night I did 28 laps. I love swimming! And I love doing it at night! I find that the time feels like my own, do you know what I mean? All I have to worry about is myself. And it's great to do it at the end of the day, I kind of just feel the day slide off of my shoulders. And then I'm able to come home relaxed and refreshed and, of course, tired and ready for a shower and a good nights sleep!

That's all for now...

No More....

....regular soda for me. I've decided that I'm going to try and not drink anymore regular soda for the rest of the month of September. It is definitely one of my biggest weaknesses, pretty much an addiction! And also it's a lot of empty calories that I really don't need to be consuming. So today is Day 1 of the "No Soda Campaign"! We'll see how I do. I'll keep you updated!

I'm Actually Working Out!!!

So, this past week has gone by in a blur. I was so happy and ready to get back to work, but I didn't realize how much of it there was going to be. I figured maybe 3 shifts at the most, but no, I worked 6 shifts (and ones that are longer than I'm used to, at that) in a 4 day period. I was just kind of in a "go" mode for a few days there. My whole routine went bust!! The only things that I managed to stay on top of was my new workout routine and I managed to keep the house looking kinda decent.

This weekend was great though! Bryan has been off since Friday at about 1:00pm. He had yesterday off since it was Labor Day (it was also his birthday!), and he went ahead and took today off too. But sadly he goes back to work tomorrow. =( I've enjoyed having him home, but I know that this is part of the reason it's been hard for me to get back into the swing of things here on the homefront. Does anyone else know what I mean? I'm just not as good about doing things around the house (such as my normal cleaning) when Bryan is home for an extended period. I really need to work on that...

Tomorrow I will get back on track though. With my trusty FlyLady by my side I can do it! If you don't know what FlyLady is you should go to flylady.net and check it out. I swear by this program! Of course I tweak it so it fits me and my lifestyle, but all the basics of this homecare and organizational site are FABULOUS!!!

Last Sunday, August 26th, I started on a new workout routine. Basically all it consists of so far is swimming, swimming and more swimming!! This is what I did for a few months before I got pregnant with Audrey. At the time I was trying to lose the extra weight that I had gained after getting married. And I swear to you more happened in those two or so months than in 6+ months of dieting and other exercise. Swimming is just the golden ticket for getting my body in shape. I've had a gym membership again for the past several months, but I only swam here and there and most of my workouts weren't very hard. But now I have more drive. I've been seriously thinking about baby number 2 for awhile now and the main thing that holding me back is losing the extra mommy padding that I gained with Audrey! While pregnant I gained at least 65lbs. and I want to be down to my pre-preggo size before we try for number 2! I will not continue to gain weight through each pregnancy. I don't want to be one of those women that never loses their "baby" fat and continues to grow and grow with each subsequent pregnancy (sorry if this offends anyone, but it's how I feel). I want to be a HOT MAMA!!! So anyways, my goal is to swim 5 times a week. Last week I did it even with my long days at work, and so far this week I've done it twice. My goal last week was to swim for at least 45 minutes each time (I do stop for short breaks here and there), and this week I've changed my goals to an amount of laps to do every time. My goal this week is to do at least 25 laps each time (down the pool and back is 1 lap) although today I did 30 laps since yesterday was Bryan's birthday and I had a little extra food!! I really feel great so far! And I feel like I can already see a change in my body, even if it's small. Bryan also says he can see a difference and I know that he wouldn't lie to me. So I'm going to see what happens by my birthday (October 9) and take it from there...I think I'm also going to start taking full body pictures of myself every week or so that way I can see the small yet significant changes. Sometimes it's hard to see them or hard to believe them when you're looking in a mirror, but when you have the week by week proof on paper in front of you it's hard to deny!

Anyways, that's all for right now. Wish me luck on my new swimming (and future baby making) venture!!!

Peace!

The Starting of the Diary...

So, I have decided to update this blog more often. Some of it might seem boring, please forgive me, but I'm just going to start keeping a "diary" of sorts documenting what happens in my day to day life and some of it might be just things that I'm thinking about.

Right now I'm gearing myself up to go back to work. Work has been VERY slow this summer and I'm ready for it to pick up again! In case you don't know I work part-time at a church daycare/nursery. My hours are not really consistent because the nursery is open whenever there is something going on at the church that requires childcare. So sometimes I work in the mornings and sometimes I work in the evenings. Starting next week I'll have a semi-consistent schedule of 3 or 4 shifts a week. I love this job because I get to bring Audrey to work with me. I can't imagine leaving her to go to work. So she gets to come with me and have socialization with other kids her age, I get to be with my daughter, and I get to make a little bit of extra money. It's great!

Another thing that's been on my mind lately is schooling. I know, I know, Audrey is only 16 months old, but I guess because of the fact that time seems to be flying and also because Audrey is learning so much on what seems like a daily basis, I think about this a LOT! My hope is that I'll be able to home school our kids. The way it is now I'm just not satisfied with the public schools in our area and private schools are just way too expensive. I'm actually going to start "schooling" Audrey in a few weeks here. It'll probably only be like 2 a week and it's not going to be a hard learning environment by any means. I'm just going to start working with her more on the basic stuff, colors, shapes, etc., but in a more constructive learning environment. Also, I found this book that I'm going to get when we get payed next. It's a book of activities for infants and toddlers, it has LOTS of neat, creative activities that are separated into different learning categories and it also tells you the best ages to do each activity with. I'm really excited about it and ready to start. I want learning to be a fun and creative experience for Audrey (and our future kids) and I want them to crave knowledge. This is definitely something that Bryan and I both agree on.

Today has been a nice, fun day for Audrey and myself. We spent most of the morning at home playing inside and then playing with the dogs outside, although the outside part only lasted for a little while because it is WAY too hot out there! After that we just went and walked around Hobby Lobby, Teacher's Heaven, and Wal-Mart. Also, we added in a quick trip to Bryan's work to drop off his wallet and say a quick "Hello!", then we came home and had lunch and then I put Audrey down for a nap. Tonight when Bryan gets home he is going to grill some chicken and I'm going to make the best cornbread stuffing in the world!!! And then after Audrey is in bed I'm going to try and sneak in a gym run.

My goal is, starting next week, to get a better daytime routine down for Audrey and myself. I don't want it to be rigid by any means, but I think it would do us both some good to set up some routines. I would really like for us to be doing some sort of activity from mid-morning until her new naptime of 1:30 or so. Whether it be "schooling", or going to work, or going to the park, or what not, I'd like for our mornings to be our "busy" time. I'm switching Audrey to one nap a day and by 2:00 at the latest she's pooped! Also, when she takes one nap a day, it's a LONG nap, upwards of 3-4 hours!!! So afternoons will be my quiet time and time to get stuff done around the house. I'm thinking that this will work GREAT for us...wish me luck!

I guess that this is it for now. I know that this is a long post. I'll post more tomorrow!!
Peace.

2007 so far....

Okay, so it's been a LOOOONG time since I've updated. And because of that I'm definitely going to forget some things, but bare with me. Audrey turned one in April. That makes her almost 16 months old now. I absolutely LOVE this stage, but it's sad to see my baby growing up so fast.

Let's see, what are some of the BIG things that have happened?
Audrey got sick for the first time Easter weekend (right before her first birthday). She had her first ever fever, which hit almost 103 degrees at one point. We've been so blessed that she has been such a healthy little one. Considering she was a preemie and everything. I remember having SOOOO much guilt when I decided to stop breastfeeding (when she was 6 weeks old), because you always hear, "breast is best!!", especially with her being a preemie and needing the extra immunities, etc. But, I just couldn't do it anymore, I was under SO much stress and wasn't producing properly. Thank God, we have one healthy little girl!!!

Right after her first birthday we moved her into her own room. I struggled with the decision, mainly because I didn't want to "let her go". She'd been sleeping in our room (in her own bed) up until this point. But she did wonderfully!! The second night in her room was the first time she'd EVER slept through the night! And she's done it ever since then!! So I've decided when the next one comes along, we're moving him or her into a different room a LOT sooner!

That same week, we weaned her off of her bottle and completely off of formula. She had these three MAJOR changes happening within days of each other and she just sailed right through them with no problems or hesitations at all. Needless to say, that was definitely a bittersweet week for me!!

She took her first steps on her own at 12 1/2 months, although it took her a few weeks to feel confident enough to take more than 3 or 4 steps! I love watching babies when they're first walking, it's so adorable!!


She is also talking up a storm. Her vocabulary is growing at such a fast rate!! Here are some of the words she says:
~Mommy
~Daddy
~puppy
~Gordy (one of our dogs)
~Rikki (our new puppy, although it comes out Kikki)
~Bite (this is what she says when she wants a bite of your food)
~juicy (for her juice)
~turkey
~hi
~bye bye
~nose (although it comes out without the 's' sound)
~no or no, no
~stop/stop it (she hears me tell the dogs this)
~bubble
~uh-oh
~gentle
~kisses
~baby
~ball
~pink ball (this is her favorite ball, which is pink)
~big ball (for her ball that is, well, big!)
~hello (she says this when "answering" her cell phone)
~doo da (she sings this along with one of her toys that plays 'Camptown Races')
~Audrey (although it comes out Aw-gee)
~ducky
~dancy (for dance)
~fishy (although it comes out pishy)
~peek-a-boo (sounds like pee boo)
~there she is! (when playing peek-a-boo under a blanket)
~bebe (this is her stuffed rabbit)
~thank you
~okie dokie
~night night (it comes out die die!!)

These are all of the words that I can think of at the moment that she says on a regular basis, although there are a LOT of other things that she has said when copying someone else.

In the last couple of weeks she has also learned where her nose is. About 40% of the time she hits her cheek or mouth though!!

Now that the school year is about to start back up I'm going to start "schooling" her a bit more. Of course I will just be working with her on VERY basic things. Body parts, colors, animals, sounds, letters, numbers, etc. Also, the whole potty training thing is starting to enter my mind, but I'm going to wait until she's at least 18 months to introduce the potty to her!

I'm very fortunate because Audrey is NOT a picky eater at all. She will eat pretty much everything, although she doesn't eat much. So I'm trying to work with her on eating more and gaining a bit of weight. At her last appointment (at 14 1/2 months) she was average for her height (31 inches, I believe), but she was only in the 10th percentile for her weight at 19lbs. 14oz. The pediatrician wasn't too concerned about it, but he just wanted to bring it to my attention. So now I'm trying to fatten her up!

Also, another thing that is great is that Audrey couldn't care less about the tv (except for pushing the buttons, of course!). I've put on a few different things for her in the past and she watches not even a minute of it and then she's off playing. Although, I have to admit that at times I wish she liked to sit and watch tv, just for a break!! ;)

One thing she LOVES so much is music. This girl is obsessed!! Bryan has an electronic drum kit and two guitars set up in our room, so if she's ever in there she walks up to the guitars and starts "strumming" them. Or if she hears Bryan on the drums it immediately draws her attention! One time Bryan was playing the drums with his headphones on, so Audrey and I went in and sat down on the bed to watch, Bryan gave me a set of headphones to put on Audrey and I tell you she sat there for a good 10 minutes or so and just listened and watched!! She LOVES music!! Which is so great because she has BIG time music lovers for parents!!

Anyways, this was a brief (yet long!) update on what's going on with Audrey. I'll try and update again soon!

Also, if you'd like to see pictures of Audrey go to: http://www.dropshots.com/jen_l_06
I try and update the pictures regularly!!

Love you all!!
xoxo,
Jen =)

9 months old!

.

So today is Audrey's 9 month "birthday". I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I'm already starting to think about her first birthday party. Man, what happened to that little 3 1/2 pound baby that I once held in my arms? The tiny, preemie that seemed so fragile and just wanted to eat and sleep all the time! Well, she's now so big that she no longer resembles a preemie at all!

Our big news today is that Audrey is FINALLY no longer toothless! I actually just realized that a few minutes ago. I was feeding her lunch (guava & sweet potatoes) and I saw some white on her gums so I put my finger in her mouth and then made her smile and sure enough, her two front, bottom teeth are now appearing! After months and months of teething we're finally here. And the funny thing is, it hasn't seemed like she's been teething recently!

Audrey's first Christmas was a wonderful one! We were in San Antonio on the 23rd and 24th of December. She got to see a lot of family that we hardly ever get to see. It's funny, going back to how big she is, my cousin, Malena, is like 11 days or so older than Audrey, and she was a full term baby, and a big baby at that! Now Audrey is at least the same size as her, and possibly a bit bigger!! Anyways, on Christmas Eve my mom and I took Audrey to get her ears pierced. Yes, I put my baby through that! She actually did very well. After they did the first ear she let out a big cry, so the lady hurried and did the second one and then we stuck a bottle in her and she was a-okay! She's barely even noticed them. And since she got them, I no longer have anyone telling me what a cute little boy I have!
We came back to Austin the night of the 24th and had our own little Christmas morning at home and then went to my in-laws for presents and lunch. All in all it was probably the best Christmas we've had since Bryan and I got married!

Let's see, what else is Audrey doing. She now takes steps while holding onto things. Like, she'll walk around the inside of her playpen and her crib (holding on, of course). She's become a pro at pulling herself up! It's funny, she's now learned a way to sit down from the standing position in her playpen. She bends over forward and plants the top of her head (and sometimes her face) into the netting on the side of the playpen, lets her hands go and just slides down with her head until she plops down on her behind. It's actually quite funny to watch!

She eats lots of stuff now. She's not very picky about the baby food I feed her and will eat pretty much anything. So to keep her that way I want to stay away from feeding sweets and stuff. I want her to keep on liking veggies and fruits. I wanted to make her food, but I just never got into it, so she eats jarred food, so I'm trying to make sure the only ingredients in her food are simple ones, just the fruits, veggies, meats, grains, etc. Hopefully if I keep this stuff up it will pay off in the long run. One thing that she absolutely loves are the Gerber Wagon Wheels. She will take a whole one and stick it all the way in her mouth and then wait for it to dissolve and try to swallow it down!

She's finally on a pretty good schedule. I haven't really tried to hard in the past to get her on one, but since she is now it's WONDERFUL!! I will definitely be starting that early with the next one! Her schedule goes loosely as follows:
6:30 - 7ish: wake up
7:45: breakfast (one jar fruit & water)
8:45: bottle and nap
12noon: lunch (one jar veggies & water)
2:00: bottle and nap
4:00: snack (wagon wheels, veggie puffs, juice)
6ish: dinner (one jar baby meal & water)
8:45: bottle and bed
She's still waking up in the middle of the night, but slowly we're getting that gone!

Well, that's it for right now...
XOXO

Almost 8 months old...

Wow! In less than a week lil' miss Audrey will be 8 months old! I can't believe it. Time is just flying by so fast. A lot has gone on since my last post!

Audrey is now eating LOTS of solids. She's eating three "solid" meals a day, plus a snack of a teething biscuit and juice. All of this on top of her formula! I'm trying to get her to drink out of a sippy cup, but she would rather drink out of a regular glass, so we're working on it. I really want her to be off the bottle at a year old. Her favorite foods are apples, squash, pears, and sweet potatoes. She doesn't really care for peas or bananas. And she is completely enthralled with our food and drinks. Every time we eat or drink she's reaching her little hand out to get some. Over Thanksgiving she had her first taste of mashed potatoes, and boy did she love them!

She's still a little small for age, weighing in at about 16.5 lbs at almost 8 months. But she is sure thriving! She started crawling on her hands and knees right after Halloween and she gets where she wants to go FAST! And within the last two weeks she has started to sit up unassisted and is now pulling herself into both kneeling and standing positions. The easiest place for her to pull herself onto her feet is in her crib, a lot of other places just don't have the same good grip, but she still tries!

Audrey's also now learning to clap. It's so cute when she does it! The other day she actually made a little noise that sounded like she was saying, "Yea!" (which is what I say when falls and bumps her head). She is also a babbling fool! She's saying a bunch of different consonants and every once in awhile (probably on a fluke) she says simple words, like dada, mama, yeah, yes, okay, etc.

As far as Bryan and I go, everything is going pretty great! Bryan started a new job a little over month ago and he absolutely LOVES it! He's working at a company called National Instruments, doing customer service stuff. NI has been ranked on Forbes top 100 companies to work for 7 years running. They are really employee friendly there. Right now he's in a temp position, but it's a temp to hire! So in less than 60 days they'll be evaluating him and hiring him in full time. We also just moved into our first house and we're loving that! I'm still unpacking and putting stuff away, you just really don't realize how much stuff you have until you move!

Anyways, I will be taking Audrey's Christmas pictures this week, so I'll put those up soon!

I love my life!

Well, life has definitely gotten more and more interestingsince having Audrey! First of all I'm getting very little sleep, Audrey has put herself on a very strict 2.5- 3 hour feeding schedule, and when she's ready to eat she's ready!It's gotten a tad easier at night since I've put a tv tray next to the bed stocked with diapers, wipes, formula, and bottles. So we have our wake up routines down to 20 minutes or under each time (most of the time)! One night last week she actually went 5 hours between feedings, I felt sooo rested after that!

Audrey is growing like a weed right now. We had her weighed on Tuesday at 7 weeks, 1 day and she weighed 7lbs 14.5oz! That's double her birth weight folks!! She's also about 21 inches long (as of last week), that's up 4 inches from birth. So she's definitely had no problems in the growth area...

She's still on the apnea monitor, but not all of the time, and hopefully for only another 3 weeks. They mainly want her on the monitor when she's sleeping and we aren't right there watching her OR roughly 17-19 hours a day. The last alarm that she had was the day after Mother's Day, so we're closing in on 3 weeks with no alarms! YEA!!

Speaking of Mother's Day, this was my first one and it was great. Bryan, Audrey, and I went out to lunch on that Saturday and then on Sunday we had his family over for a brisket dinner. My gift for Mother's Day was a shopping spree at Pier 1. So I got new dishes and glasses and some candles and stuff, that was way exciting for me!!

Hopefully we'll get some new pics put up soon. We had our video camera break down and lost our digital camera charger at the same time, what luck is that?! But we just got our video camera back from being repaired and Bryan's going to hunt down a new charger this week. Thank goodness great-grandma has been taking pictures of Audrey the last two weeks!

Well, I know that this post is long so I'll put up another post later on today, seeing as I have more to talk about!!