Its Been a While

Sorry for not posting anything for a while. I did not have a working computer, but now I do. Yay! So here is a quick update from our lives with more detailed posts coming later.

Christmas was great. Tenley loved opening her presents and playing with all her new toys. We were able to see all of our family which was very nice.

My sister and her family moved to their new home. It was bittersweet to see them go, but we have spend some time on Face Time. And in less than a month we will be in Florida with them.

Some friends of ours came to visit from Alabama and we got to have a baby shower for them. It was great to see their whole family.

I finally gave in and joined Pinterest. Oh boy! I am trying to keep my boards to real things and not get lost in the dreaming too much. It is easy for me to get lost in an idea and forget about reality. So you probably won't see me pin any $300 purses or bathrooms the size of my house. But it has been fun, especially for party ideas. You can follow me - emilykidder

I am having so much fun planning Tenley's birthday party. I really enjoy event planning and being creative. Staying at home just keeps getting better and better.

We are also having a super bowl party and everyone is invited. I will focus more on planning that after Tenley's party.

Well I better go finish cleaning my house while the little princess naps. When she wakes up we get to have lunch with Daddy.  Have a good day.

A mother's instinct

When my princess was born I knew exactly who I wanted to be her pediatrician. Well, when I called to make an appt. they could not get us in for over 3 weeks from when she was born. I just didn't like that. So we decided to go with a family doctor instead since we did not have one. Well after her 9 month appt. I had had enough and knew we needed to find a new doctor. There just so happened to be a new one in town. And she is great. I figured I wouldn't be meeting her until Tenley's 12 month appt. but I was wrong.
When we got back from Florida after Thanksgiving Tenley had a cough and runny nose. No big deal I thought, it is getting colder, babies get colds. Well it just kept dragging on and on and wasn't showing any signs of improvement. I felt like it was more than just a cough but I kept thinking it will get better. But it didn't so I went to the new pediatrician and found out Tenley has a double ear infection. Poor girl. She does not seem to be in that much pain but I know she one tough little booger.
I am so thankful we were able to get it checked out and for the new pediatrician in town.

Cookie Swap

A couple weeks ago I hosted my very first cookie swap. I had never been to a cookie swap but they sounded like fun so I thought I would give it a try. It went very well. I had some snacks to eat before the swapping began. This is my first edible arrangement. I enjoyed making it so I am excited to try others.

 Here is the table with all the yummy cookies.

 Let the swapping begin.

 All the lovely ladies that came out for the fun.

We had such a good time that we joked about doing a swap every month. Well that got me thinking. What other swaps could we do. Here is my list:

1. Home accessory swap: think lamps, lamp shades, pictures or just frames, candles etc

2. Clothes: belts, shoes, scarves, etc. 

3. Jewelry: necklaces, bracelets, etc, 

4. Holiday themed: love for Valentine's Day, green for St. Patrick's Day, etc. 

Well that is all I have for now. Who has some other swap ideas? Better yet, who wants to join me for a home accessory swap? January is a boring month. It would be fun to do it then. 

10 months old

 Every month on the 7th I take pictures of my princess with her teddy bear that her great-grandparents got her. It is fun to look back at them and see how she has grown and her personality even comes out. This photo shoot was by far the most fun. She learned to do a lot in her 9th month. She learned to walk and laughs a lot more. So here are a few pictures from our photoshoot.

 She was tackling the bear but it got her in the end.

After this she got off the couch (which she has perfected this month) and tackled daddy with the bear. She has her game face on. 

But in the end daddy won....and she loved every minute of it, laughing the whole time.

Showers are dangerous

The shower is a very dangerouse place for me. All of my dreaming, planning, and creating happens in the shower. Many times I get lost in those thoughts and cannot remember if I washed my hair or not! When I was a teacher that's where I did most of my lesson planning. The other day that's where I designed our kitchen and now I want to put those plans into action. However, the strains of one income are becoming more apparent and the kitchen will have to wait.

And so another dream was born. I need to make a financial contribution to this family. More for my own selfish desires of scrapnooking, remolding/decorating our home, and having a little extra to eat out occasionally or go on vacation. Maybe even save up for plane tickets to visit my sister. But I still want to be a stay at home mom and have the flexibility that I have now.

Therefore, I have decided to be an Usborne Book consultant. I am a sucker for home parties and booths at craft bazaars and such. I fgure I love their books and other people should too. If you would like to help me on this journey you can have your own party or come to my open house on Sunday, Dec. 11 from 2-4.

If you have your own party from now until Feb. you will get double free books. That is a lot of books. Or if you are not the home party type but still love Usborne you can order from my website www.myubam.com/R3162.

Another way you can help is by praying for doors to open up for ways to sell the books. They are very educational and fun. Thank you for your help and support in this journey.

Now I wonder what dream will become of my next shower.

SNOW!

  It snowed! Finally...I love snow, and I think my princess will learn to love it too. She was very excited to put her snow pants on.

 It was very bright and she could not walk very well in her snow pants.

 So I sat her in the snow and she realized it was cold. We just came back from the beach and the sand is not cold so I think she was a little surprised.

But I think she likes it. Hopefully there will be many more oppotunities to play in the snow.

Fun in the Sun

 

For Thanksgiving we went to Florida with the in-laws. They have the trip to Florida down to an art. The first time I went to Flroida with them I thought it was crazy. Now I have enbraced these trips and look forward to them. They go 2 or 3 times a year and we tag along as much as possible. This was my princess's second trip to Florida. Her first one was when she was 6 weeks old. It is a little bit different taking a 9 month old to the beach.

We drive through the night which is much better than driving during the day because my princess sleeps that whole time. And this time with 8 drivers it seemed to be the smoothest yet. The weather was beautiful and the time spent with the family was great. We spent most of our time on the beach and soaking up the sun. (Well I don't really ever soak up any sun).

At first my little princess hated the sand and the water. She saw the ocean and thought it must be one big bath tub so she was very excited to get in it. Well the cold water hit her little feet and she burst into tears. So no more ocean for her. Then we put her in the sand and she didn;t like that either. But the next day she was loving it. She was eating the sand, crawling in it and playing with it.

On Friday we got to visit friends that moved to Alabama. It was great to catch up with them and meet their little man. However, I only got one picture.

Sat. was our last day and we had our photoshoot. Every time we go we get pictures on the beach. This time we all wore our Bears' jerseys. Here are few.