1 month

Today Bailey is 1 month old - holy buckets! I can't believe it. 

Here is what she's been up to:

Day 1 - stole our hearts

 Thanksgiving, met lots of cousins and were the cutest little turkey around

 You've had a few baths at home. 1st one you weren't too happy

 2nd bath you were happy as a clam - didn't cry once!

3rd one you did good and we even tried out your new bath tub instead of the kitchen sink (pics are all from the 1st bath)

Got your newborn pics taken - mommy and daddy are obsessed with them (and you)

Did your first round of Christmas baking with these crazies. Yes, you're related to some of them ;) and I was still trying to figure out my goofy face when this was taken...must figure out the "go to" goofy face

Celebrated daddy's 34th birthday (he will probably not be happy that this is noted on the blog)

Went to your first MN Blogger get-together at MOA (also 1st trip to MOA or any mall)

Met Santa (and stole his heart)

Discovered your favorite thing - the ceiling fan. Thank goodness there is one in every bedroom  and the living room

You like to smile now and that melts mommy and daddy to pieces

You also like to make silly faces like this one and it makes us laugh

Your brothers think you're pretty great too and they may think you're made of peanut butter since that was used in the making of this photo...we'll just go with they really love you!

Other things to note

Places you've been: lots of different stores (running errands with mommy), mommy's work to meet co-workers (6 days old!), daddy's work to have lunch with him, a couple of restaurants, MOA, grandma & grandpa's houses

Doctor's Appointments: 1st was Nov 19 to check up on you and your jaundice (you passed, yay!). They also took a whole vile of blood from your little foot and you didn't even flinch. When mommy took your band-aid off later that night you started whimpering. I thought you were pretty silly! The 2nd appt was Nov 26 for your first newborn check. Your weight at the 2nd one was back to your birth weight, but now I think you weigh about 9 lbs and you've definitely grown in the height dept. You don't go back now until you're 2 months old

Sleeping: You slept like a champ after you were here for a few nights. I would wake up about every 2-3 hours (sometimes 4-5 hours!) to feed you. Then a couple of nights ago you had a 3 night stretch of not very good sleeping. Mommy made you stay awake so much yesterday and you slept great last night. I think you need to be awake more during the day to make our nights better.

Eating: You're doing so, so good! You eat about every 3 hours and we don't have any problems with "the latch" like we did at the hospital. Makes mommy so happy!

Clothing: You are still wearing newborn clothing. Not gonna lie, I really thought you would outgrow those clothes by now  but I don't mind you being my little peanut still :)

Things you like: the ceiling fan(s), lights, mommy's hair, mommy's necklace, when mommy and daddy talk to you, your brothers and their kisses (this will probably change), holding daddy's finger, snuggling on daddy's shoulder (he LOVES this), car rides but not when we have to stop, sleeping on your side

Overall, you're such a good baby. We have had a couple of struggles but really nothing we should even complain about so far. You've spoiled us and we are so happy that you are here and part of our lives. We have an exciting month 2 ahead of us! So many great things are in store - meeting great grandpa, Christmas, your baptism and everything that you are going to show us you can do! So excited to see what you'll be up to next month!

Love you Bailey Bear!
-Mommy and Daddy

Bailey's Newborn Pics

I hope everyone had a safe Sunday and survived the crazy ridiculous amount of snow that fell. I'm not a fan of receiving a foot of snow in one day! Luckily I had nowhere I had to be. Bailey and I missed out on seeing Chris's cousin who was here from CO, but I couldn't stand driving in the crap snow and risk something happening to us. So we did nothing at home all day. At least I got this done! 

For your viewing pleasure...

I hope everyone stays safe out there and your commute isn't too bad!

MN Blogger meet-up and 3 Years of Wedded Bliss

So, I guess I shouldn't quit my day job to be a SAHM and full-time blogger anytime soon cuz I'm really not good at managing time and I've gotten even worse with a little baby in the house.

Anyways, last Tuesday Bailey and I were lucky enough to meet-up with some pretty great girls. I'm stealing all of these pictures since I'm a horrible excuse for a blogger and didn't take any pics. Huge thanks to the amazing Kelly for getting all of these pictures and for taking the most precious pictures of Bailey with Santa. I'm totally biased, but Bailey is probably the cutest thing ever with Santa. I pretty much wanted to wallpaper our house with those Santa pics.

All of us in our ugly sweaters with Santa. I think he was nervous with all of us standing outside his house and then invading it! Pretty sure that doesn't happen every day

It's a tough job being Santa's Little Helper

I've been such a good girl this year (2.5 weeks old), I deserve everything on my list

Ok, Ok - you can have that iPhone 5 you've been asking for so you can listen to your Baby Lullabies

After fun with Santa we searched around the mall for an elevator (that worked) so we could make our way up to the 4th floor to go to Dick's Last Resort. I'd never been there before but knew what it was all about.

The servers are mean and harass you (all on purpose). Definitely a fun place to go with a group of people with a sense of humor. We all got hats with some interesting stuff written on them, even Bailey.

My hat said "Will Flash for Walmart Gift Cards" - Classy, I know :)

Here's all of us with our hats on

All of the other girls did a Secret Santa gift exchange. I didn't sign up just in case I wasn't able to make it and I didn't want someone to not receive a gift. I wish I would've signed up since all of the girls got great gifts! There's always next time :)

Also, Lauren was so nice and baked us all yummy desserts to take home. I was so excited to finally meet her since I love reading her blog. I didn't get a chance to chat with her much, but I know she's a great baker :)

It was such a fun night! I can't wait for our next meet-up. Thanks again Kelly and Carolyn for coordinating this!

December 6 the hubby and I celebrated 3 years of wedded bliss! Not gonna lie, I've already requested a re-do of our anniversary for June 6, 2013 (3.5 years). With a newborn in the house and my husband being crazy busy with his new business venture our anniversary was not that exciting. He worked all day and Bailey and I stayed home and got stuff done around the house. He finally got home around 5:30-6. Got cleaned up and we headed to Mystic Lake Casino for dinner at the Buffet. I'd never been there before and I wasn't that impressed. I didn't enjoy the food that much - Oh well, I know for the future. We came home and exchanged the cards we got for each other and closed out the night watching The Voice so we're all caught up now. Super exciting, I know! We decided our gift to each other was getting pics of our family/Bailey's newborn pics. We spend so much money in the month of December that it's always hard to justify getting each other more gifts! I can't wait for our picture wall to be complete. I ordered the pics today so hopefully next week I'll get time to work on it.

Bailey's newborn pics are coming soon. I'm hoping for a post on Monday to showcase those :)

Happy Birthday to my Hubby!

I can't believe it's already December and that my dear hubby is another year older. He loves it when I tease him about his age :)

Last night me and Bailey did a little photo shoot to create a card for my hubby. I'm thankful for a couple of things - 1) I already had the "D" and "A" letters for our last minute photo shoot idea and 2) we made it through this photo shoot without any accidents on the props (or me). All in all, a complete success!

Dear CT,
Bailey, The Monkeys and I are so very lucky to have you in our lives. You are the hardest working person I know and it drives me crazy sometimes because I wish we could hang out as a family more, but I realize that doesn't pay the bills. You are dedicated to growing successful business(es) and have proven time and time again how great you are at your jobs. You are a wonderful daddy to our Bailey bear and I see how much you love her each and every day. I can't wait to see you raise our daughter over the years, she is a lucky girl to have you as her daddy.

Love you CT!

Kharma - she's no friend of mine

I've pretty much known this day was coming for quite some time and totally do deserve what I got, but I honestly just didn't think the day would be here already.

A little short history of me and kharma. Let's take a trip back to almost 7 years ago on New Year's Eve 2005 just a month after me and husband met. He was having a big party at his house (this was the norm back then - complete with a keg and wop or jungle juice, I know - we're classy) and had invited me and some of my friends to come. I totally planned on going and told him that I was going the whole time and then about 6/7 on NYE I told him that I was going to just stay at home. He wasn't too pleased and didn't understand why all of a sudden I didn't want to come. I had also told my friends of my plan to tell him we're not going and then showing up and surprising him. My friends and I went to a nightclub for about 2 hours and then headed down to Chris's house. I had to stop at a gas station (for whatever reason) and ended up locking my keys in my running car. Crap! I had to call a locksmith to come get them out (not cheap, especially on NYE). Got keys out and continued to Chris's house. We got there, he was happy to see me but I know he was still not too happy about what I did. I guess one of my friends whose brother lived with Chris had told his brother of the plan and Chris knew we were coming. I told him about the keys being locked in my car and how I had to pay $100 to get them out and he just said it was kharma for not coming to his party.

This technically isn't from NYE 2005, but it is from about a month later. My hubby looks sooo different with facial hair and my hair was short! This is before we went to my Christmas party for work in January 2006.

Fast forward a few months later, I want to say summer 2006, where Chris and I were still in our "new couple" happiness (still love him to pieces!). We were laying around watching TV and I always tickled him since it was so easy to get him to squirm (I'm not very ticklish). He was laying on his stomach and I decided it was a brilliant idea to tickle the back of his foot, so I did and his natural reaction was to kick his foot up and nailed me in my eye/nose. He felt soooo bad and I was just laughing hysterically at it all. Turns out, I got a black eye from  his kick. Also turns out I had plans to meet with my parents the next night for dinner. I did meet my parents for dinner and despite my slight attempt to cover up my black eye they could still easily see it. My dad just asked if I deserved it (super sweet dad) and I explained what happened. I'm pretty sure nobody suspected anything, but it was still a little awkward to explain to friends, family, co-workers what had happened. I guess I deserved it since I was constantly tickling hubby then...not so much anymore :)

And now onto today's little mis-hap. Chris had just left for work and I was changing little Miss Bailey in the living room before I was going to sit down and cuddle with her to get her to sleep. Mid-diaper change a huge explosion of poop comes shooting out and sprays all over my pants, shirt, robe, carpet, and the little cloth under her. I've been warning Chris to wait before he changes her when we hear her poop because often times she will go again a few minutes later. I didn't hear her poop, just knew she needed  a change. I guess I deserved this. After my post yesterday where I noted how Bailey pooped in his hands during our photo shoot, and my comments to Andrea about pooping babies - I really deserve it. Kharma doesn't mess around.

Instagram with Andrea from this past summer

Andrea's comment on my blog post from yesterday

And I'm pretty sure this little princess is just plotting her next poop spray incident with mommy. I still love her to pieces - poop spray and all :)

yes, her little outfit does say "Little Sister." It's the only one they had at Target and she loves this style of sleeper and with a full-length zipper mommy and daddy love it too!

Happy Poopday Tuesday!

the good, the bad & the ugly

Let me start by saying that ultimately my weekend was great and I had a ton of fun seeing my family...but there were a few less than stellar moments :)

You can link-up too with Kati and Kate

The Good: We got to see my bro and his family on Thanksgiving. They make one trip to the cities/year and we make one trip to Minot, ND/year so it's always good to see them

The Bad: My niece and nephew (the younger of the 2 on that side) are great kids, but when they're amped up on a sugar high, throw in my parent's dog who barks constantly in a shrill high pitched bark and they're a little much for aunt Becky. Especially when there's a week old baby in the house...

The Ugly: To say my hubby took one for the team this weekend is probably the understatement of the year. This was how he spent his whole afternoon/evening at my parent's house on Thursday. 

Human jungle gym and favorite person to play games against

The Good: I took my bro and s-i-l to Costco to get a few things on Friday night. I also picked up a nice, comfy electric blanket. It's soooo cozy!

Hubs and Bailey testing out the new blanket,  I'd say it  passes the nap test

The Bad: I also picked up these. I had granola bars in my cart and decided that Jelly Bellys were a better option for the same price (seriously, I paid under $12 for 4lbs of jelly beans - unheard of!)

The Ugly: I can't quit eating the Jelly Bellys and my hubby doesn't seem to be as obsessed with them as I am. The only answer is to keep eating them until they're gone or maybe that's just my solution :)

The Good: We got Bailey's newborn pics done on Saturday morning. She did great and slept the whole time like little babies are supposed to during the newborn shoot. I can't wait to see/share them!

The Bad: I realized on the way to the photo shoot that we were bad parents and completely forgot the diaper bag. Whoops! Pulled into Walgreens and got diapers and wipes and shoved them in my purse. Get to photo shoot and get Bailey out, and see the diaper bag sitting on the floor under her car seat. Oh well, at least we were only a couple minutes late~

The Ugly: When we were taking a picture with Bailey, Chris was holding her and she pooped in his hand. It was pretty hilarious and I'm sure there will be some really great pics of me laughing hysterically at my husband's expense

The Good: My fridge got a squeaky clean make-over!

The Bad: Said make-over was brought on by the fridge/freezer not working on Saturday afternoon so everything had to be removed from it and brought outside which then lead to a deep cleaning session. It's working now, but I'm not sure for how long or how well. 

The Ugly: I think some water has been leaking and the wood floor near the fridge feels wavy so this may ultimately lead to replacing floors at some point in the future. 

The Good: I got to spend all day (after sleeping in until 10:00 Sunday morning!) hanging with my favorite little girl. We cleaned, did laundry, and ate way too many jelly beans had a visitor (Jen) stop by to see us

The Bad: Well, maybe only one of us did the cleaning and laundry. The other one slept, ate and pooped/peed all day. She also had company with the sleeping part. You take a guess of who did what...

Kirby loves the boppy and loves to lay by me and Bailey when we're feeding

The Ugly: Hubby had to work all day Sunday. I know he needs to work so we can continue to pay our bills, but we sure do miss him a lot when he's gone! At least he doesn't work all day today and we can all hang out together!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend and didn't have too many bad and ugly moments!

Happy Thanksgiving

 This year, my world has been turned around (for the better!) and I am so incredibly thankful for the beautiful little girl that is smiling while sleeping in her little bouncer chair next to me.

I like to have my picture taken, especially when you get my good side

My husband and I have said so many times throughout my pregnancy how we can't believe that you can love someone so much and not have even met them yet. She is here now and we are still saying the same thing (obviously we've met her). We can't quit putting everything else in life aside just to hold her, watch her make little adorable faces, kiss her, and snuggle her as much as possible. It's been a whirlwind of a week, but it's been so much fun to see our little family grow and adjust to this little 7 pound bundle of joy.

I'm ready for my turkey dinner!

 Other things that I'm thankful for this year:

-that the weather is beautiful and my brother and his family and my dad are able to travel safely 8 and a half hours to come to the cities for Thanksgiving

-that Bailey decided breastfeeding isn't so bad and has made an incredible turnaround from the first day. It was extremely stressful for the whole family, but she's feeding like a champ now :)

-that Oscar and Kirby love their baby sister and are so good around her

-for the amazing friends and family that have more than spoiled us in the last week. We've had lots of visitors, food, gifts and love brought to our home

-that my family, friends, fur babies and myself are in good health

-that I am not in the hospital over Thanksgiving (seriously one of the biggest fears I had about having a due date so close to Thanksgiving!)

-my job, home, and all of the luxuries that I am able to enjoy

-to have made great connections with fellow MN Bloggers. I love following their blogs and being able to relate to so many of them on differing levels

-to be leaving in minutes to go enjoy some amazing food, family and relaxation time!

I'm so precious!

I hope all of you have a great weekend doing whatever you're doing! I have so many things I want/need to blog about, but I just haven't had a chance to get it written. I hope next week I can get these thoughts and stories into this blog!