10 Weeks!

It's a cliche... I know; but I really can't believe it's been ten weeks since I was pushing this little baby girl out into the world! So much has changed and even though most of the change has been so much fun... there are some things I wish I could get rid of.

The most frustrating thing... PANTS! My body is weird and different, and my pants just don't fit like they use to! I'm pretty much back at my pre-pregnancy weight again; but the pants are super frustrating. THEN... when I went to go try on new ones, it makes me even more frustrated! The size I wear gives me a muffin top, but fits perfect everywhere else and the size bigger stuffs my muffin top and hides it... but they just look ridiculous on the rest of me! Grrrrrr! I know, I know... it's only been two months, but as I get ready to go back to work, I want to be comfortable (and who am I kidding.. I want to look GOOD), but seeing as I can't wear sweatpants to work every day... I NEED PANTS THAT FIT!

She loves to watch the ladybugs! And she's practicing following objects! Woot!

Tummy time! She's pretty good with holding her head up.

Secondly... is the stretch marks. I thought I was going to get through the whole pregnancy without any; and then BAM, out of nowhere in the 34 week time frame, my stomach just blew up. And this is more of just a rant about people... I hate when I ask the question "What can I do to help get rid of the stretch marks?" And people want to tell me to be proud of them, that they're my tiger stripes and proof of what I went through. Well, let me tell you people.... my BABY is proof of what I went through, and why is it so bad to want to get rid of something that I don't want to look at every day. Then people tell that my husband and child will still love me even though I have them... what is that all about? Of COURSE they will; but isn't it okay for me to want to like my own body again? Screw the tiger stripes! I've made so many sacrifices for this baby already, and I'd do it all again if I had too, but, all I want is for the stretch marks to fade. Is that too much to ask people!?!?!

She loves "Ellie" the elephant. She grips onto her like she's the greatest thing in the world!

My super star friend Kelly watched both our kids while I was at the dentist... It's still so precious! ha

Those are the only two rants I have for today. In other news... Sara is jumping into the tenth week of life and she is just getting more and more fun by the day! I'm soaking up every moment I can with her before I head back to work on Monday next week. It's going to be rough. I never thought I would want to be a stay at home mom... but right now it sounds pretty good. So, maybe after the school year is over... we'll think about trying to create a plan where I can stay home to take care of her. I've been spoiled having this much time off! Don't get me wrong, I'm actually really excited to be back at school too, and to see my other bundles of joy. But it's been fun to take her places, just sit and hold her, play with her, read to her. It's an awesome job to have! I've also gotten into making new dinners! I've been somewhat excited about food! If you know me... you know that I just hate food! We've had some pretty tasty dinners the past couple weeks.

Sara was awake during dinner, so she sat with us!

I just love how she holds her hands when she sleeps!

Jason is working hard again. His duties right now are burning him out, but he's a good little worker man and is plowing through it. With all the extreme budget cuts going on right now in the Air Force, it seems to be putting a little more pressure on the job. He's also working on writing this Historical Fiction story based on a person in his family line. It's about a drummer boy in the civil war; and Jason has been doing A LOT of research for it. He's writing it in the form of a journal and it's fun to see him get all nerdy about history. But it's a nice relaxing hobby for him... it'll probably take him the rest of the year to finish!

This was an hour or two after her shots! She's such a trooper.

We had some fun family outings the past couple weeks. One was to Fess Parker Winery. It's a winery not too far from our house, and it has this huge grassy park area that is surrounded by the vineyard. So we took Sara and some snacks and had ourselves a little picnic. She loved laying around looking at the world around her. It was nice to feel normal again.

Then this past weekend, the surf was pretty high, so we loaded up and went to our favorite cliff area to watch the waves. Then we drove up to the highest point on Vandenberg's land and the view was AAAA-mazing! So we're getting better at picking up and going on little adventures. One of these days we'll brave going to a restaurant... eeeek; it makes me nervous.

So here's to being a stay at home momma; and here's to figuring out how to balance work and motherhood AND life! We'll see how it goes.

Hello 2014!

 The holidays this year were very comforting for our little family. Despite the long drive that took an extra hour and a half, it was SO good to be around our family. It warmed my heart to see them all interacting with our little daughter and showing her so much love. It's fun to see a different side of them all now that we have her. And her big cousin Evelyn just loves her to death. Christmas itself was kind of a disaster. Sara was quite the upset little girl Christmas morning and wanted to cry for hours (like... HOURS) in the early morning. Luckily, when she finally snapped out of it, she got to open her first Christmas present and then Mommy and Daddy got a fun present of their own. We ACTUALLY got to go out and watch a movie! (The Hunger Games... which was amazing btw) This is the major joy of having family around. The evening of Christmas, Sara was much happier and we had a full house with all of us. It was just like old times. I can't wait to make fun memories with Sara and our families in the future. It was really hard to drive back to Vandenberg by ourselves. We definitely have several friends that we have made here that have made this place better, but it's not home. I always pictured us raising kids with one of our families, and it's hard sharing everything she does over the phone. I'm so happy that we have the technology we do so that we CAN share her through pictures, FaceTime and all that, but it's just not the same. I guess that's really one of the sacrifices we gave to have this life of ours.

 But moving on... Sara also had her first New Years. Which Jason and I don't usually make a big deal out of. I think we've both only been up for one midnight celebration, of which we were just watching TV. ha But it's crazy how fast time flies. This year will be my 10 year High School reunion! What the crap? This year, Jason presented the idea of having a Blessings Jar. This jar was used last year as his Anniversary present to me. He filled it with love notes and bible verses and I opened a note each week for the whole year until  our next anniversary. He's a sweetie isn't he? So this year instead of taking things OUT, we'll be putting things IN! They will be blessings. Things or people who have blessed us or things we're thankful for and at the end of the year, we'll read them all. It's a pretty good idea if I don't say so myself. I'm excited to see what's in store this year... hopefully not another baby.. HA. I just scared myself with that thought.

 I know I have my monthly Sara update page, but it's fun to share things that have been going on. At the chapel, two of our friends were also pregnant and we all had our babies around the same time. Two boys and our girl, so I made us a Harry potter trio set of onesies. Ron, Harry, and Hermione. It's fun to see our before and after pictures. Sara and I have been going on walks every morning. It's been nice just to be out of the house and to be getting a bit of exercise. We even go out of the cool, foggy mornings. And the last two are of Sara and Daddy. He's so sweet with her... don't let the fork fool you. hehe It's been quite the adventure being a temporary stay at home mama. She drives me a little crazy at times, but by the end of the day when I say "Jason... YOU take her".. all I really want to do it grab her and snuggle with her myself. People use to tell us when we were pregnant "It'll change your life and you'll never know what you ever did without her" Well, for the last 7 weeks I've thought to myself.. "I DO know what I did without her and I liked it!" I was sleeping... eating WITH Jason, and the food was hot, watching TV, going to movies, having my OWN life. Now how selfish does that sound? More recently, I look at her, and I see it. What would I do without her? It's going to be hard to go back to work. Sometimes I feel like it'll be a nice break away from her, and then I think of all those hours I'll be missing of her life and the new things she's going to do when she's away from me that I'll miss. And that makes me sad. So, who knows what will happen for the next school year. But we'll figure it out when we get there.

 Tonight, the lady who is subbing for me and taking care of my kids at school, is going to take care of Sara for us and we're heading out for a delicious night filled with good food... HOT food, made right in front of us. We're re-celebrating our anniversary with a hibachi dinner. Our real anniversary was going to be dinner and a movie on the couch when the baby was asleep. Unfortunately.. she realized we were going to have time to ourselves and cried all night. So that's exciting. It was really something to look forward to! So, we're going to have to make a point for more date nights.

It's amazing how much I can write when the baby is asleep! ;)

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a wide range of artful designs and embellishments to choose from.

I saw this idea somewhere and I thought it would be SO much fun to put together. This one by far is my favorite photo book I've put together and I just love how it turned out. I think that Sara is going to love looking at it when she's old enough. Hopefully you can view it with no problems. Enjoy our little Birth Story.