It pays off in the end...

here's a running list of what I believe is worth paying a couple extra pennies for the better "brand"...

1.Toilet paper
2.Vanilla Extract
3.Eggs -- I have noticed a difference in my baking when using cage free eggs.
4.Face lotion
5.Diapers
6.Makeup



......

Natural Disasters..

Here's the latest...

I happened to take the before picture that morning... I layed down to take a power nap. I awoke to what I thought was thunder, which was strange to me since we live out in the desert where there are hardly every thunder storms. I went to the kitchen to look out our back door, and the second picture is what I saw... along with lightning, rolling tumbleweeds, and rain. Pretty eerie....

Now, I have been through/in: Tornado, Hurricane, Earthquake, Sandstorm. I think I'm good. No more please!

Our Lil' Lady bug's crawling!

I can't believe I forgot to post this HUGE milestone!

Mia has been teasing us for almost two months now. She's been rocking back and forth on her hands and knees and even moving her hand forward, but then deciding otherwise and would lay flat and army crawl.

On Wednesday evening, Josh came home from work and layed down on the floor with Mia. She got up on her hands and knees, and just started going to him!! AHhhh!! I was in the kitchen making frigadella's. I ran in the living room, grabbed the camera, and started recording! YAY MIA! I am sooo happy Josh was home to witness this.. you never know when you're in the military.

Nothing is safe now. Kiddo has tossed in her jumper for her hands and knees. She's all over the place. I guess it's liberating for her.. kind of like when we turned 16 and were handed the car keys. I new type of freedom!

Luck be a Lady...

I have to say, I am SO blessed!

This morning, I awoke to breakfast in bed at 9:30. Two things: 1. I haven't slept in til 930 since God knows when, 2. breakfast in bed.. 'nuff said :). I have a wonderful husband. He got up with Mia this morning, fed her, fed the animals, crawled around with Mia, cleaned the kitchen, made breakfast, all the while being quiet to not wake me. <3 I'm one lucky lady! I woke up at 8:00 to a dog jumping on my bed, licking me in the face, then jumpin off and tearing down the stairs. I blinked the morning out of my eyes to see what time it was, heard Mia and Josh giggling down stairs, then rolled over and fell back asleep! I must say, LIFE IS GOOD!

Now, Mia's snoozing upstairs, while Josh and I do a bit of spring cleaning, with a glass of wine in hand. We found our wedding bin, so we took a minute and looked through it all. What fun memories. I can't wait to open the bin 50 years from now <3....

Daaaaay Trippah..

Yesterday, Mia and I hopped in the car and drove to San Diego to visit with my dad and Uncle. What an adventure. We spent the day strolling around Seaport Village, Coronado, and Shelter Island, enjoying the IMPECCABLE weather. We gorged ourselves with fantastic food all day. By 8 o'clock, Mia and I hopped back in the car, and ventured home. I broke down and stopped at a starbucks to help spark some energy for the 3 hour drive---First time I've been to starbucks in welllll over a year. Mia did SO well yesterday...was just smiley and happy the whole day thru. I'm paying for it today ;). Poor kiddo was off her schedule and didn't sleep like she usually does, so today miss crabby cakes went down for a nap at 9 AM, hence this blog... :) Hopefully she'll wake up her normal smiley, sunshiney self. Looks like we aren't going to make it to the library for lap time, today..

baking's my stress reliever..

Well, Markums deployed yesterday :(. It's hard to believe the next time he'll see Mia, she'll be running all over the place. Thank heavens for technology these days. We're fortunate enough to have skype to keep in contact, along with plenty other mediums. His last night here, I made him chicken parmesan (which I've now started using panko crumbs instead of bread crumbs) for dinner and homemade Toll House Pie with vanilla icecream for dessert. DELISH!!! The Pie was gone in a day.. I only had one slice. ;) The pie is like a warm chocolate chip cookie meets pecan pie! I forgot to take a picture of this goodness..

Not like we weren't full enough, we then started talking about what I was going to make for breakfast the next morning. We tend to do this.. plan the next meal while we are still eating. Per request, I ended up making some homemade cinnamon rolls.

The evening was a success... It almost always is when we're all together. I watched on as Mark and Josh played their rendition of Mario Kart.. HILARIOUS! I'm so fortunate to have my brother and husband get along so well!

Put to use..

Mia'a first time sitting up in the shoppingcart!

Who says Sunday's the Funday.. YAY SATURDAY!

What an enjoyable, funfilled day we had, yesterday! I stayed in my jammies until 3 o clock, then switched over into my bathing suit! :) While in my jammies, I managed to finally finish one of my sewing projects I had started up back in October: Mia's shoppingcart seat cover! I'm so excited I pulled out the unfinished project and took the "un" off! It turned out pretty nice, all things considered. The directions for it were chaotic! They were beyond confusing. So, by step4 (there were 7), I threw the directions to the birds and finished it on my own.
Viola!

While finishing this up, our lil' cupcake took a 3 hour nap! When she awoke, we changed into our bathing suits, picked up Oink Mark, and all headed to splish splash in the cool pool during 100 degree weather! I swear, Mia's going to be swimming before she's walking. She is a natural in the water! I will hold her out, in front of me and she will kick her little feet and splash her arms as we glide throughout the pool. After playing in the water for 45 min, we decided to deprune a bit, hydrate, and soak in some Vitamin D!


After being at the pool for over an hour, we decided to pack up and head home. Josh offered to stay at home with our lil cupcake, while Mark and I grabbed some dinner and drinks then headed to go see a movie...Eclipse! HA, neither one of us are "Twihards", but we met up with some friends that had wanted to see it. I'm not going to lie, it was good... MUCH better than the second one. I read the books, so I knew what to expect. I don't think I will go see the last one in theaters.. the maturity level in the theater was lower than expected. I'm just curious as to how they are going to make the "Breaking Dawn".......

...and to think, this was only July 3rd! :)

SIPPY CUP

We have a sippy cup drinker!She was so cute when I introduced it to her.. I showed her how to use it then let her play with the cup and went from there. She has drank out of a baby bottle only a handful of times, so I wasn't sure how she would take to it. The past couple of weeks, she has become more and more enamored with my water bottles. I let her play with them, and give her an occasional sip or two out of them.. she was holding them correctly, so I was sure it was about time she start using a cup!

6mo checkup

Bare with me, as I type this entry one-handed. I have a sleeping beauty on my shoulder...

So, Mia had her six month well-baby check up on Tuesday. She is now 15lbs 4 oz and is 26 1/2 in length. "She's progressing beautifully," per her Pediatrician! Whheeww, what a relief. We spoke at length about feeding. We had a little scare when I introduced strawberries into her diet (bananas, apples and strawberries Gerber babyfood), which caused the right side of her face to turn a deep shade of red. It also caused her eye to swell and tear up. AAHHHH! After telling her Dr. about this scare, he informed me that store bought babyfood usually does not contain enough berry to cause a reaction, however, we should still omit that from her diet. In the garbage it goes!!

Onto vaccination time... dun dun dun duunnn. She knows this room by now, I swear. When the nurse was about to give Mia her first of three shots, she said "this will only hurt a second. I'm sorry sweetie." Mia started crying! The lady looked at me, and said" she totally understood me," and I believe it!! After 5 min, which seemed like an eternity, vaccination time was over. Mia, with her 2 Wile Coyote bandaids and tear streaked cheeks, was back to smiling again as we headed back home for some bananas, rice cereal and Childrens Tylenol.

Fast forward 6 hours. She was not feeling well. The shots caused her to have diarrhea and a litle vomiting, as well as a low grade fever. :( She hadn't a reaction like this the other two times, but I was reassured that this was completely common. Mia Lane was back to herself on Wednesday!

CLOTH DIAPERS & CLOTH WIPES....

Thanks to stumbling upon this website, we're going to give cloth diapering and wipes another try! It hurts my heart that we spend over 30 dollars a month on diapers.. plus, poor Mia has such sensitive skin.

Oopsey Daisy: Making Cloth Diapers & Wipes {Tales From the Cotta...: "I stumbled across the blog Tales From the Cottage Cheese Cottage, and I knew Heather was the perfect guest author for Baby Week!!  This girl..."

fast forward 6 months...

Our little lady is 6 months old today... WOW! How time flies. I find myself saying that more and more....

This picture was taken at 7am, when we made it downstairs... after watching The Wiggles in bed with Mumma this morning :).

We have hit many milestones along our new journey...

Mia is now:


army crawling & rocking back and forth on hands and kness
sitting up
rolling over
gabbing away
grabbing toys & switching hands
knows what foods she likes and dislikes
pulled away from mumma's kisses (AAHH!)
gets the giggles.. laughs out loud
kicks her feet in the pool
teething
screams with excitement
....and the list continues.


Needless to say, nothing is safe anymore. We have babyproofed all of downstairs and are in the process of continuing the proofing upstairs. Her 6 mo check up and vaccinations (uggghh :( ) are tomorrow, so I will check back and let you know how it goes..