Quilt

Here's the quilt I made for Amelia and Landen. I'm not very good at sewing but I decided I was going to tackle this project anyway. It's not perfect - but it was fun to make. All the squares don't line up perfectly,I had an issue with the length of material, and the corners are a bit funny, but it's actually usable and I think it looks pretty good. Kurt figured out the pattern part of it - he's good at that sort of stuff (must be the engineer in him!) I was just going to have them running the same way and I didn't really like that very much. If I didn't say it before, I made this without a pattern, so it was a lot of guessing! =) I'm pretty excited that it turned out and Landen actually slept with it last night. The back is flannel so it's nice and soft. Here's to me being a housewife in my husbands words - this is the sort of stuff I'm supposed to do. Haha.

A Shopping Trip

Today Landen, Amelia and I went to Wal-Mart on our own. As we were walking out the door I was wondering why I was doing this, I'm scared of Wal-Mart just taking Landen let alone taking Amelia with us. However, I knew I'd have to do it sooner or later. I'm going stir crazy staying home all the time lately. I can't wait for Familia and Story time to start up again, at least we have those things to look forward to during the week. Back to my Wal-Mart trip. We got there, and to my surprise a front row parking spot. Sometimes I think they should have certain areas reserved for Preggo's and Mothers of Small Children. We need it just as much as the handicapped (well sometimes). Before I even got out Landen and I had to say a prayer - "Dear Jesus, please help us be good in Wal-Mart." On with the story - As we're getting out Landen throws a royal fit about taking a Burgers King toy into the store. I gave in, thinking maybe I should throw him back in his seat and head home because obviously the prayer didn't work. We made it to the front door looking a bit frazzled already, the sweet door greeter telling me "Boy you have your hands full." LOL - I Know, Why am I here!?! Oh I do need to say, we didn't even really need anything, we're just going to get things we want. That's to tell you how ready I really am to start having something to look forward too. So, we're off - I'm half way sprinting because I wanted to at least get wipes (we would be needing them soon) before we stormed out of there. I grab the wipes and look down to see if it's safe to continue the trip and Amelia is asleep and Landen is zooming around my head with his Burger King toy being so sweet. Thank you Eli for letting him have that! Anyway, we made it all over the store, checking things out, picking up things we didn't need. Hey, I even got the material for the back of the quilt - and that took awhile to pick out. Did I tell anyone I was making a quilt, haha, I am and it's almost done. I'll have to post about it later. We had a great time, not once did Landen try to get out and Amelia make a peep. We even got to check out all the fish! The check out even went well, no lines and perfect children. It was a miracle I tell you, not even when Kurt and I take them together does it go this well. Maybe this is a sign we can finally go shopping, or anywhere for that matter. I'm not going to be a shut in for much longer - Whoopee!!! Here's some humor at our house. Amelia is still to young, but coming soon - Gangster Amelia! LOL. Yes, Landen has a foot stocking on his head. =D

Poor Baby - Update!

Yesterday we learned the exercises for Amelia's little head condition (congenital torticollis). Sure enough as soon as we got there Rachel said she definitely had it, which broke my heart. Deep down I was hoping we'd get there and she'd say - "oh she doesn't have it" or "she hardly has it at all." Good news, it's not that bad, but the bad news is she really does have it. The exercises are exactly what I had read on the Internet. I now know how much tension to put on her head though. She doesn't like it and screams/cries when I'm doing it (every diaper change) but I know it's better than her having tight neck muscles. We should be seeing improvements within a month. Ooh, a month seems so long, but I know it's really not that long. That's the news on my baby girl - thought I would share a little update on her.

A Cold Rag!?

My mom had a special secret to making a hurt go away instantly.

!Put a Cold Rag on it!

This cured everything, a bruise, scrape, another sibling pulling your hair completely out (had to add that for my sisters), blood gushing, and maybe even a limb hanging off.. haha! No matter what that cold rag somehow always worked. If my mom told me to put a cold rag on it even now, I'd probably do it and it'd work. Anyway, I've finally put my mom's secret to action. Somehow Landen has become accident prone today and the regular "momma kiss" was not working all that well. So the cold rag came into play. Sure enough the pain was gone and instantly he was off finding his next accident. I've learned a lot from my mom and continue to learn from her. So I ask you to take this bit of advice and maybe make your life a little easier at times. There is nothing like a Cold Rag!

Church

Mass was great this Sunday! We got there about ten minutes before it started and as soon as we sat down Amelia started crying, (first time she's done this since she was born) because of a dirty diaper. Her and I headed to the back, and I got her all cleaned up and decided I better quick boob her, *LOL* (nurse her) before we went back in. After she nursed for a few minutes and Mass had already started I decided to stand in the back and do the momma sway for awhile. Don't even try going back in without a baby being all the way asleep, you'll be scurrying to the back within five minutes. Anyway, I actually got to hear the Gospel and the Homily. It was wonderful and probably the first time in weeks! I was upset last week because Father gave a wonderful homily on Modesty and I was in the back and didn't get to hear it. Doesn't it bother you when you have to go to the back and someone wants to blab and you want to listen!?!? Oops, I'm getting off track here. Well, our priest is pretty new to our Parish and some days I wish we had our old Priest back and others I'm glad to have him. Yesterday was one of those days I was glad to have him. His homily was about getting to heaven and you know, I want to know the truth and I want a priest who isn't afraid to tell it. In a nutshell he said if you aren't leading the life Jesus told us too, your not just going to have open arms into Heaven. You have to strive to be holy and can't just go around doing whatever you want, being immoral, etc. It's hard, but you have to overcome that. I just wanted to share that I thought it was uplifting to hear the truth and not have a priest be afraid to tell it. There was quite a bit more in there, but I was still somewhat distracted with so many people coming in and out and I don't want to get it wrong so I'll leave it at that.

Also, I wanted to say something about the Assumption of Mary, I know it's been awhile since that Holy Day, but I didn't know what I wanted to say. =) I thought it was good to add with this post though - so here's just my thoughts as I sit here. After all these years I was excited about going to celebrate this Holy Day. Maybe it's all the Devotion I've given Mary this past year? Maybe it was the Lord telling me that I've been neglectful about my prayer life lately and she's there waiting for my prayers again? I don't know, but it was great to go. Mary is wonderful and now being a Mother myself I can only strive to be more like her. It reminds me of the picture I have on the side of my blog, of her and baby Jesus. She's was a wife, a mother, going through those same trials we are all faced with. It makes me want to try even harder at my vocation as a wife and mother. I fail and struggle but I can look to her for guidance and strength. I keep telling myself these past few weeks, Mary did it and didn't sin ONCE. Oh if that's not something to think about.

*It seems that quite a few people have been stumbling across my Blog lately that I do not know. You may have different beliefs than me and I'd appreciate if you didn't leave comments trying to start a debate. Thanks!*

Movies and Children

How many people decided to watch The Cat in the Hat, Dr. Seuss (whatever it was called) the movie on ABC this weekend? Against my better judgement I turned the movie on and before I knew it Landen was sucked into like a little zombie! I probably should have turned it off after the first few sickening comments - truthfully I don't know why I didn't. I have to say though before I go on, this is not by any means the worse children's movie I've seen, It just reminded me of how some children movies are. Anyway, the reason I write this post is because I can't believe children's movies anymore. There is so much potty humor or humor that is meant for adults (I suppose) thrown into these movies it makes me sick. I'll just mention two parts in the Dr. Seuss movie - first off when the cat looks at the mother in a picture frame asking the children Conrad and Sally(?) who it was and it turns into a center fold, the cat's tale goes up and he says some stupid remark. Then when the toilet has fire coming out of it and the cat says something along the lines of, now that would burn my eye. SICK! It irritates me that anyone would enjoy this kind of humor. This isn't just with movies either, what about the TV programs. Ahh! Are there any good shows for children to watch anymore? I suppose there aren't many in my eyes, Landen watches Little Bear on my demand most of the time. Okay, I was talking movies here (television is a whole other topic.) Why can't there be sweet little movies made for children to watch without all this sick stuff thrown into it? I know there are, but why do the ones your children want to see have to have all of this in them? They're Children's Movies! This isn't the only movie that's like this, but since I watched it this weekend I guess it's the one that gets picked on. Now I know why some agency keeps calling me and wanting money for the making of clean movies. I realize that Landen doesn't understand any of that right now, but why does he even have to see/hear it? Maybe I'm overreacting to all of this now that I have children, but I don't want their pure minds filled with trash. It seems like anymore having a clean pure mind is so not cool. I found this out from my sweet sister Becca. People don't understand why she doesn't get the nasty sick jokes and when they explain them to her, they don't understand why she doesn't think it's funny. I hope she stays that way. =) Well I suppose I could go on and on about this topic but I won't. A friend of mine told me about this website that helps you decide if you want your children to watch a certain movie or not. Screen It! You have to subscribe and right now with the babes being so young I'm not going to do it, but something definitely to consider in the future.

Baby, Baby Wearer

Hahaha - Okay, so I forgot about this until I looked at my camera. If people don't believe they are always watched by their children. I've only been "baby wearing" Amelia for less than a week and here's Landen "baby wearing" his little Farmer. He's been wearing his Little Bear around too!
"I've learned that children's eyes observe more than there ears ever hear and the example we set for them determines their actions." Author Unknown

Poor Baby

My latest freak out - Baby Amelia more than likely has a mild case of Congenital Torticollis. *sigh* My poor baby! I read up on it on the Internet today, of course that makes me more nervous because it seems to tell you the worst case scenario. I don't even want to open my medical books because they're always giving the worst case scenario's on everything. She definitely prefers to keep that little head looking over her left shoulder, and even though that's not exactly what they show as a symptom in the pictures, it is a symptom. She turns it to the right but prefers it on her left. I've been doing the football hold while nursing on my right side, we slept a little differently last night, and we've been talking to her on her right side - that's a start. We are going to be learning the physical therapy exercises sometime next week too, so we get this kicked in the butt. This morning I was pretty upset about it though - luckily Kurt and my mom got my head back on straight. I always get more upset about things when I don't have enough sleep, and I've been feeling very sleepy lately. Here she is in her cute little yellow dress! Trying to look over her right shoulder. =)

Funny!

A friend passed this on to me and I have to put it out there for all of you to read. This is just too funny! I'm not sure how long these ebays stay up after they're finished but hopefully you can get to it before it's gone. Here's the link--

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130144061675&ru=http%

She also has a Blog

http://www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/

Fun Times

We've been having a good ol' time around here this week. Well I should say - Landen is having a lot of fun this week, despite this horrible weather we've been having.

We made it down to my mom and dad's this week. The one day it didn't rain! I always enjoy going and seeing everyone but Landen especially loves it. He always gets a lot of attention and loves playing with his Aunt's and Uncle's. He had an extra special visit this time because he got to ride "Pa's" tractor! =) Some how with his little boy charm he got my dad to quit working to give him a long ride around the farm. LoL - I'm sure it didn't take any charming, my dad has always been great about giving rides! I was glad he got a ride because the child has been in love with his tractor book for some time now. He's learning all the equipment, and even though I grew up on a farm I don't know some of that stuff. I'm going to try to get down there for a combine ride this fall. I know he'll love that since he knows what a "bine" is. =) Oh and just so you know how much he loved his ride, the entire time we're walking to the car he was saying "Pa, Me, tractor - Please!"

He also got to learn to pick green beans with grandma. Every time he picked one and threw it in the bucket it was a "Score". LoL - what a boy!

I got the ball pit blown up my mom got him on a garage sale! He was really enjoying it until we discovered a couple of small holes that are causing air to leak slowly. We're going to get them fixed though because he absolutely loves it. For now, I just blow it up when he wants to play in the thing. It's cute like a little fish tank sort of. Here's a picture of him in it --

We had play date with Teri and Liesie this week as well. Landen loves playing with his good friend "T.C." in his words. He's a little rough with her since he's a boy and bigger but they get a long great. I always think it's especially cute in church when he has to turn around and ask me (every time) where's "T.C."? I just had to share this picture that Teri shared with me. I do have a sweet loving little guy!

I have to mention as well that he got to mow with daddy - which is always a highlight of the week. He's out there with his little push mower mocking all of Kurt's moves. Then of course with it being so stormy he's been having a grand time with all the thunder. He Loves thunder! Maybe we have a meteorologist soon to be joining the family. LoL It probably doesn't help that mommy watches weather channel far to often.

Another Contest

Here's another contest to enter to win a really cute Peekaboo Pouch from Baby Dagny! Go to --> http://www.adventuresinbabywearing.com/2007/08/just-cool-baby-dagny-giveaway.html

To Enter. Good luck!

Contest

I signed up to win this cute little onesie for Amelia. If you want to sign up to win go to to Apples 'n' Oranges website. Link found below and click on "Blog." Good luck!

Baby Wearer

I suppose I can say I'm an official baby wearing mommy! Not experienced by any means, but a beginner baby wearer. Before Amelia was born I decided I was going to be a baby wearer, I even made my own slings, two of them. (With the help of my sister Sara - I can't really sew!) Ever since Amelia's birth, I've been trying to use them - the wrap sling (Moby), ring sling, pouch sling, snuggli2 sling, I even have one of those Wal-mart looking kind. All of them scared me, I kept thinking she was falling out or she wasn't secure. I even took her for a walk in the Moby and ended up taking her out and carrying her because I was so afraid she was going to fall out. I'm sure you mom's that baby wear probably think I'm nuts, well I discovered today I AM NUTS! This morning I braved it - I put her in the Moby, good and snug & said I wasn't going to take her out. It was wonderful! Yes I did freak out once and thought she quit breathing because I was squishing her - I had her out of there so fast. She was fine, just in a good sleep because she was enjoying it so much. I have an issue with thinking my kids quit breathing. It's getting better though - it just goes back to me having to freak out once in awhile about something. Anyway, I put her back in and I kept it on all morning. I got so much done around here, Landen had a playing mommy and Amelia was as happy as could be. I'm excited to be a Baby Wearer! I tried to take a picture, but it didn't turn out all that well. It's hard to take a picture of yourself. =)

Daddy's Helper

This weekend was pretty uneventful. It rained and rained here and of course we didn't want to go out in it, so we decided to get some jobs done around the house.

Kurt put some baby locks on some cabinets. Of course his little helper was right there next to him. As soon as Landen saw Kurt's drill he had to find his own and never left Kurt's side the entire project. It was so cute to watch him right there, copying every little thing his daddy did. He's such a daddy's boy - wearing his shoes, hats, copying his every move, and then yesterday telling me "no me cuddle with daddy." Whatever happened to him needing his mommy? Well that's for during the week!

Never a Dull Moment

Well I'm sitting here waiting for some guy to come and fix our hot water heater. This is the second day we haven't had hot water and yes I haven't showered in two days. =) Poor Kurt had to take a cold shower because he couldn't go around smelling rotten at work. I guess I could go heat some water on the stove, try living like they did back in the day without electricity. That doesn't sound very fun to me though, I'll just wait. I will have to clean up a little bit before we leave for church tonight, but I still have a few hours until then.

So - I don't really have anything exciting today. I was just a bit bored with Amelia and Landen sleeping at the same time. This does happen occasionally! I guess I could be doing something constructive around this house, but this sounded better. Landen decided at 1:15am this morning it was time to get up. Being the loving wife I am, (haha) I took him downstairs so Kurt could sleep. He was at one end of the couch and Amelia and I at the other. I woke up this morning to his feet on my belly, dried milk covering Amelia and I, and Amelia snuggled in a ball in my armpit (the sweaty, stinky, oh and probably hairy one - remember no shower.) As I was laying there it made me realize what motherhood is all about. I wouldn't trade it for a minute, I was crabby and complaining last night but after it's all done and over with, I really wouldn't trade it for anything.

Okay, they both just woke up and I smell something interesting (and it's not me). I'm sure diaper duty is calling! There is never a dull moment when you have kids. In the pictures -Landen is wearing his daddy's hat - he also loves our flip flops - oh and he was wearing my heals Sunday. Amelia is laughing now, well sort of. She's smilling a lot though and I suppose the laughing is more of that so called cooing that babies do!?

Breastfeeding

Today Landen, Amelia and I went to our La Leche League meeting. We asked our neighbor (well they're officially moved out today so they aren't neighbors anymore) to go with us. I was so disapointed though, this is the third month I've gone that there was only one other mom. Everytime, I say I'm not going back and I end up going because I like to meet other mom's who breastfeed their babies. Plus I've met some really nice mom's that do things a lot like how we're raising our kids. I also wanted it to be nice since this was the first time Natalie went. How are you supposed to get mom's to come and have a "support" group if there are no people going? I don't think a lot of the people that used to come even know the time changed, last time I looked it wasn't even changed on the Internet. I should just be thankful our county has a La Leche League and for the nice ladies I have already met. Well anyway - here's a little story about the Prime Quarter that happened to Natalie. To make a long story short, she asked to have a booth to nurse her baby in because she was in a large group of people she didn't know all that well and wanted a quiet place to nurse. When she asked for a booth, she was told to go to the bathroom to nurse. Nobody should have to eat in the bathroom! She asked to talk to the manager and ended up nursing in a coat closet. Grr! I don't think that's hardly any better than the bathroom. So here's my thought about that restuarant - I think a bunch of nursing mom's should go in there and flop their boobs out and start nursing their babies. I wonder how they would like that? That made me upset because that's even more of a reason you need a support group for nursing mom's. Oh well, that's my rant for today. I found some neat blinkies to share since I'm talking about breastfeeding. These are pretty good & I might have to put some of these on my blog site. =D Ah - I forgot to add this site to this post at the time. I couldn't find it in my pile of websites I like. 101 Reasons to Breastfeed! http://www.naturalchild.com/guest/leslie_burby.html

Weekend Events

Good morning to this nice Monday morning! It doesn't look like it's going to be quite as warm today so I'm hoping to take a walk with Landen and Amelia. Landen asked for a walk almost everyday last week. It was just too hot to put him in a stroller and have Amelia in her sling for me. =) We all have been missing our weekly stroll through the cemetery.

We had a pretty good weekend. Kurt's parents came up Saturday evening and we all went out for dinner. They leave for their Alaskan cruise on Thursday. We were planning on going to their house sometime this week or this past weekend, but they decided to come here. I'm not sure if I would want to go to Alaska after talking to them - I want to go somewhere nice and warm, not somewhere cold. Will see what they say it was like when they get back though.

Sunday we went to church and Amelia slept through the entire Mass for the fourth week in a row. Will it stay like this? Would be nice, but I highly doubt it. Landen has finally realized he can't go to the back of church anymore and is becoming such a big boy. He actually genuflected before he went into the pew. He's such a sweetie! Sometimes I don't know if the things Kurt and I teach him about Mass and other things gets through to him, but when I see him doing the sign of the cross, blessing himself with holy water and now the genuflecting, I guess it is getting through to him. We had our Familia picnic Sunday evening as well. Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home or I would've had some pictures to share. I had a nice time visiting with everyone and getting to know the ladies, and their husbands better. We had a few ladies from the fourth year group and a few from our group. Kurt was mostly chasing Landen around so I'm not sure how much he got to visit - Landen can be handful anymore at the parks. I like doing things with people that are like minded. One of the little boys (he's 9) just loved Amelia. He wanted to hold her and constantly had to be loving her. She started to fuss a little bit and he said to me "yea, if she smells she has a dirty diaper, if not - she needs some milk. She doesn't smell so you better nurse her." It was so cute to hear a little boy tell me to "go nurse" and didn't even have the idea of a bottle. It makes you feel so comfortable nursing around a big group when everyone is so open to it. We ended up leaving shortly after we ate - the mosquito's were getting nasty. I have five bites on just one leg and several all over my body. I really hate mosquito bites. I haven't found any on Landen and while I was holding Amelia there she had three get on her face. I don't see any swelling on her today but a couple of little dots. I was paranoid about the West Nile Virus last night (don't laugh at me) - I could've cared less about it until I saw she got bit. Then I had to read in the paper that they had a case outside of Amboy. Ahhh! Oh well, she seems fine today, but that was my panic attack for yesterday. You have to freak out about something at least once a day - if it's "Are they sleeping too much? Are her poops supposed to have some green in them? Or does she have West Nile Virus?" Thank goodness for my mom who keeps me on the right track! =)

I found a good website this weekend. It was in the Observer, (our Catholic newspaper) and launched by the US Catholic Bishops. http://www.foryourmarriage.org It was designed to promote healthy marriages. It has some interesting reads as well as some quizzes for couples. Kurt said he'd be willing to take some of the quizzes... will see if we're headed in the right direction or doomed. *lol* Not that I have any doubts, but it should be interesting! =)

I'm off to the dreaded kitchen to find Landen and I something to eat for lunch. I hate to cook - who did I get this from? I'm sure Kurt would love to have a wife that had a wonderful dinner planned and a desert at every meal. Meals are not a good subject in this family - I don't want to cook it and I don't want to clean it up. Maybe I should start making a list of what we're going to eat everyday, maybe that would help. I'm off!

Our First Outing

Yesterday Amelia, Landen and I finally made it out of the house for our first outing without Kurt. Yes, it took us almost a month! Luckily I had Mikyla here to help out with whatever we needed. We went to mom and dad's which is almost an hour away. Amelia slept the entire way there and Landen watched his Toy Story DVD. I'm so glad we decided to buy those portable DVD players for the car. It really helps when you have a long way to drive. We had a good time going to mom and dad's and seeing everyone. Maggie came back from Champaign and we don't get to see her all that much - she got her new glasses and looks amazing in them! Almost makes me want to wear glasses myself! =) Landen finally got to go swimming!

We were swimming so much before Amelia was born and lately we've been spending a lot of time in the house. I was amazed at how Ethan has really started becoming a great helper with him - they played outside for a long time and he watches him so closely. Godmother and Aunt Sara got Amelia this little dog hat with paws and slippers. It's so ugly it's cute!

On our way home Landen was so exhausted he fell asleep before we got to the end of the road, so they both slept the entire way home. When we did get home I was pretty excited because I had a package on the porch. Actually I was a bit irritated because I thought Kurt had ordered something from eBay again - I tell him he has an eBay obsession. However it was for me from Emmalou! She burnt the Cd's I had asked her for. I couldn't believe she got them burnt and sent in three days. They're really good so far. =) So our outing was a lot of fun and went well. Now I think I can handle trying to go places with them both now. Not Wal-Mart though - oh I can't even imagine how that would work.
Cubs lost last night. =(

First Blog!

Today is my first blog post ever! Truthfully I wonder what I'm getting myself into, thinking I'm going to have a blog page. Maybe this will be my first and last blog. =) I thought it might be kind of fun to post pictures and little updates of what we've been doing around here for family and friends. Hopefully there will be more to come of this page - just have to wait and find out!