Being a young mom means we met a little early, but I get to love them longer.


Here are some links to helpful posts I have done in the past :)

Learn about car seat safety HERE!

Need breastfeeding advice? Click HERE for lots of helpful tips!

Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Lilypie Breastfeeding tickers

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Grace first picture with Santa :)


You can't tell here, but Grace is actually sitting on Chris' knee in front of Santa.. she was not fond of sitting o a strange mans lap, but they did GREAT cropping Chris out :) And for $25 we got a 5x7, 6 wallets, and 2 key chains!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's finally over!! I really thought my head was going to explode with eveything I had to do today, but I made it through. Everyone loved my mashed potatoes and Chris' turkey. I figured we would doawful because it is our first year, so I am really happy everything went well..
We had 14 people in our little apartment. It was very crowded, but everyone got along well (which is amazing considering last year they all hated each other). And believe it or not.. everyone took food home, and we STILL have food to last us for a week!





Now I can focus on Christmas!! YAY! I got Grace her final presents.. I got her two wooden puzzles. One animal one, and one fairytale one. And I got her some curtains. I also got her some bubble bath and a pack of balloons for her stocking.

Also, my dad got this for Grace. I really wanted to get it for her, but we had already gotten her a ton of presents, so my dad got it, and he gave it to her as an early Christmas present. I LOVE it! and so does Grace lol.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Christmas decorations :):)

I got everything up so we can show it off at Thanksgiving :)






This is the inside of our door.Grace is on the nice list, of course.
And Chris is on the naughty list  lol.
Our lights on the window :)Our family ornament for this year :)Our little halway.
Our tree :):):) I like it!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

So we made our desicion..

We actually got to go in that apartment today, and I think we have decided to just stay in our apartment..
when we really got to look at it we saw that there are wholes in the ceiling, one of the windows is cracked and doesn't lock (which would be bad since we would be one the ground floor), the mirrorin the bathroom was smaller than ours and messed up on the bottom, and there weretiny whole everywhere that they had intentionally put there to stick insense (sp?) in and burn (we know this because there were still some sticks in the wholes).. Oh and also the hardwood floors had not been taken care of so they were not as nice as we thought. It is just too much hassle and money for someting that's no better than what we already have.. But on the bright side.. I get to start decorating for Christmas!!

Today Grace and I started ourfirst craft.. I helped her do hand turkeys :) She did one for her the journal I started or her, one as a keepsake, one for my mom, one for Chris' mom, and one for my dad. That is our little Thanksgiving surprise for them :) That was her first craft and I am so proud of her :)
Pretty soon we are going to do a hand print wreath, hand print reindeer, and a Christmas countdown chain :)

Tomorrow is Chris' 22nd birthday.. we got him some Axe body wash lol. I know that isn't much, but I bought him a gamer chair awhile back as his bday present, so he's not expecting anything. We are going to his mom's because she is making him his favorite cake. I am also going to do my last bit of Christmas shopping.. I'm going to Target, Bath and Body Works, and Rue 21.. after that I will have everything except the stocking stuffers, but since hat is mostly food I am waiting until closer to Christmas for that.


UPDATE: I did a little decorating while Grace was taking a nap, and then when she got up we did the Christmas crafts I wanted to do.

Crafts..

I have seen this one somewher before, but it wasn't painted.. it was cut out handprints. I wanted her actual handprints instead of just cut outs, and we added some fingerprint berries lol.

This is Rudolph. I came up with this on my own last year.. I helped my brother and sister each make one for my mom, and now it was Grace's turn :) She moved her hand, so Rudolph looks a little on the hefty side lol, but I still love it :)


You can't see it, but I drew a number on each ring and the last ring says "Christmas!" Each day (after Thanksgiving) we will remove one ring to show that we are one day closer to Christmas. I have been doing this craft since I was a kid.

If anyone knows of any other fun Christmas crafts please let me know!

Decorating..





We don't have a mantle, so our stockings are on the wall lol. Ollie's is the Grinch one, Chris' is the Stewie one, Grace's is the pink one with the snowman, and mine is the pink with zebra.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Changes in store..

So the people below us got evicted for not paying their rent.. we are weighing the pros and cons of possibly moving down there..
pros..
It is wayyyyy nicer than our apartment. It has hard wood floors (versus our cheap, crappy carpet that he put in after he found out we had a baby)! And the painting was actually done professionally where as there is paint spots and obviously (not very effectively) patched wholes all over our apartment.
It is downstairs which is easier on us and I feel safer for the off chance that Grace got out somehow. Also, if there was a fire we could get our easier.. the door would be right there versus having to make it down the stairs.
It is right under us, so it has the same layout.. we wouldn't really be changing anything.
It is the same price for a nicer place.
And we talked to the landlord and he said it was possible for us to do that for no charge to him since he isn't losing any money.

Cons..
We would have to move everything.. but since it is the same layout we could go room by room and we wouldn't have to box everything up and take it back out. So that's not so bad..
We would have to change our address for all the places we pay bills, WIC, and my school, but that's not a huge deal either..
We will eventually have someone above us.. we're not sure how we feel about that.. the girl who lives across the hall down stairs says you can't really hear much from upstairs, and we hear things from downstairs anyway, so it shouldn't be that bad.
The biggest deciding factor.. we will have to pay to have our cable and internet switched over. They said it could be anywhere from $20-$100..

What do you guys think?? I would really like to, but do you think it would be too much of a hassle?


Also, we are going to be cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my mom, sister, dad, brother, and Chris' mom, step-dad, and brother, plus ourselves. We are going to have turkey, stuffing, macarroni, mashed potatoes, green beans, ham, orange delight, brownies, pie, rolls, and cranberry sauce. We have never done this before so wish us luck!!



And I counted today and Grace has 17 presents for Christmas at this point. I still would like to look for some curtains and maybe some wooden puzzles for her. I am going to Target this weekend to look. We found these adorable rubber ducks at Wal-Mart.. one is dressed as a snowman, one as santa, and one as a Christmas tree. They were only $1 a piece so I couldn't pass them up!
Ohh and we got our Christmas tree today!! We are decorating the day after Thanksgiving :)
We still have to get something for one of my cousins, but we are getting that this weekend too. And then all we will have left is Chris' mom and stocking stuffers, and I will be done with Christmas shopping.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Update on Grace..

She is learning things so quickly! She tried to put her shoe on the other day! It was so cute. I had no idea that she realized that is what a shoe was for lol. Speaking of shoes.. She can walk in her shoes really well now! No more fighting with that :) She is also sleeps in her bed pretty well now. Some nights she wakes up an she wants in the bed with us, but she is doing pretty well. She is also sleeping either threw the night or for at least 6 hours every night. It is so nice lol.
Other things.. she has now learned that keys go to doors. She will pick up keys and take them to the door. It is cute :)
And the other day the battery covering had come off the remote and she picked it up, walked across the room to the remote, and tried to put it on.. it is so funny to watch her try to put things where they go.
She also booty dances now lol. I will try to get a video of that because it is hilarious!
And another thing that I think is adorable is whenever Chris is leaving she will walk up to him and say "bye" but she's not telling him bye.. she's saying she wants to go "bye" lol. It's sad though because when he has to leave without her she will cry.

As far as Christmas we are doing pretty well.. I only have two things left that I want to get her.
We got her Toy Story 1 and 2, Barney: A Night BeforeChristmas, Barney: Halloween Party, an IPlay fairyland Playhouse (from Target), some Little People animals (my dad has the Little People Noah's Ark for her), a Tinker Bell sippy cup, two things of 5 small Wheel Pals, 4 single medium Wheel Pals. I still need to get the curtains and a ball for her. And the stuff for her stocking.

I always do my Christmas shopping early to make sure I get every thing I wanted. I have learned from experience that I won't if I wait.. I got Chris' present, my sister's, my brother's, my dad's, my mom's, and Chris' brother's. Besides the small things I have to get for Grace and Chris we still have to get two of my cousin's something, two of Chris' cousin's something, and something for the Chinese girft swap at Chris' family's Christmas dinner.
We got almost all our Christmas decorations.. we just need the tree now and we know which on we want :)
I am soooo excited for Christmas!! I can't wait :):)

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Party pictures!

Despite my skeptisism she actually did send us the pics andshe actually did a good job. I love some of the special effects she did.