Friday, September 28, 2012

104th Fashionable Fridays - Circus

We were lucky to model The Sunshine Shop's mini circus line: tutu, bow tie, and OTT rosette headband.

The awesome Aly Willis Photography took our photos.

I wish I could have bought balloons for the shoot, but apparently there's a shortage of helium!

I made my kids shirts and the paper top hat =)







Later I had my husband take a few more of me at home for fun =)

In Photoshop I changed my pants to blue to make them stand out with the background =)


 Side note - my  husband said that I look really skinny in these photos, but too bad not in real life. Thanks honey! It's all about the belt!

Monday, September 24, 2012

76th Mommy Mondays - Drastic Measures

Well to help wean my daughter from nursing since basically she's been nursing mostly on demand. Some days especially when we're out in public, she isn't tempted to nurse. At home, there's not enough to distract her. Since I didn't feel right about taking the birth control that will dry up my milk yet since she's nursing so much, I decided to take other drastic measure and package tape my chest so I can't easily give her access to nursing. We started it before bed last night at about 10:30pm.
We took my son's mattress to the TV room. My son and husband shared a bed in the bedroom while I dealt with a very angry toddler the rest of the night. She was tired enough that I got her to go to sleep by rocking her in our chair. She woke up again at 3:30 and threw fits and cried for a long time. I tried several things, but nothing was working. So we turned the TV on and I gave her some Cheerios. She threw fits on and off. Since she knew about the tape, she didn't attempt at my chest too much. I was getting hungry too since I wasn't asleep so I grabbed a bowl of cereal too and shared with her. She happily ate. By 5:00am, the tape was feeling too tight, probably because I was getting a little full so I cut it off and hoped to make until 6am without her noticing the tape was on. Once the last show before 6am was done, I let her nurse. Hopefully tonight, I can make her go even longer. The second fits of crying was harder than the first, but I survived without major breakdowns. I didn't feel too tired by the time I was awaken by the phone at 9:45am.

Now she's pretty mad at me this morning too because she wants to nurse. So I put the tape back on, just didn't add more so she can see the tape there, but I'm not going to give in during the day. I'm hoping to hold off until nap time and then after that bedtime. If we're really lucky since my husband is home, we can maybe skip the nap time nursing.

Wish us luck. I just don't know what else to do right now.

Read last week's Mommy Mondays to see why it's so crucial for me to get her weaned.Thanks to those who left sweet comments to me last week. They really really help!

Friday, September 21, 2012

103rd Fashionable Fridays - New Glasses

I got new glasses a couple months ago. I haven't had new ones in three years. My eyes were giving me issues and apparently I had some clogged ducts for a month or two so everything is good. I got these glasses on clearance and my insurance paid for some contacts since I had run out.

You can't tell, but these glasses have a hint of red in them. The other side of the frames are red and show through at certain angles.  Mostly I love that they're not crooked or super scratched up. I'll still be wearing my old ones, but when I want to wear glasses and I got out, I'll wear these - hopefully with less wear, my kids won't get a hold of them =)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Wellness Wednesday #4

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of My Well-Being Powered by Humana for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
I just tried this new site: mywell-being.com.My Well-Being is a pretty interesting and cool site. First thing I like about it is how it doesn't just talk about your physical well being like diet and exercise like many other health sites do, but it addresses health and wellness. I thinking addressing both aspects is extremely important in one's life. Wellness meaning financial, social, and entertainment along with health.
MWB Logo (3)
I just signed up and when you sign up you can choose to get a FREE Dummies book mailed out to you. I chose the Well-Being for Dummies book, but they also have the choice of Retirement for Dummies or Living the Boomer Life for Dummies.
Immediately after signing up, I took the little wellness assessment. The questions were really specific and insightful even. My results showed that I need to improve the money/financial aspect of my life, but my social life was pretty good. I think that's pretty accurate. I wish improving the money/financial part was so easy though! Wouldn't that be nice!?
Here's a video explaining more about the site.

About MyWell-Being from mywell-being on Vimeo.

After looking around the site, I really liked what I saw. One link even lead to the Fly Lady, a great site to help you get back on track especially with organizing your life. 
One of the main stories that intrigued me was "5 Ways of Saving Money while Staying Healthy." Lately I've been really interested in eating more fruits and vegetables, having it the biggest part of my plage. Living in a small town with little competition in shopping, prices for those things are expensive. I hope to read some helpful things in that article.
I'm really excited to explore this site more because I'm seeing a lot of great articles that could be really beneficial in my life right now. I'll definitely have to pin this site and keep it on my bookmarks toolbar for frequent reference =)
Visit Sponsor's Site

Monday, September 17, 2012

75th Mommy Mondays - Nursing Issues

 Today's post is pretty personal so hopefully no one is too judgmental when reading it. Thanks!
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I took my daughter to the dentist for the first time last week. She fell asleep on the way there and stayed asleep until we went to meet the dentist.
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A couple months ago, we noticed some yellowing on my daughter’s top 4 teeth that looked stuck on. My thought was that it was fluoride damage because that’s what happened to husband’s front teeth when he was younger due to too much fluoride in the water. I tried to prepare for the worst - her having to get her teeth pulled. Luckily it hasn’t come to that yet, but the dentist said those are cavities. Of course I felt like a bad mom, and he was super nice about everything. From what I told him (she nurses a lot, has a pacifier, usually just drinks water, sometimes milk, rarely juice, drinks from a cup/not a sippy, rarely has fruit snacks, we try to brush her teeth but she mostly chews on the tooth brush, etc.) he said that Kaelyn probably has some enamel abnormalities (due to some white white spots he saw on her teeth), that with nursing so much at night led to the cavities. I tried not to cry in front of him, but I did tear up slightly just because one I felt like a bad mom or at least that’s what people will think when I say my daughter has 4 cavities, and two because I knew she would have to be put under.
He told me that he has 5 kids of his own and 2 were colicky…he wouldn’t tell his wife to stop nursing in the middle night either because you need to be able to function and take care of other members of your family too. He explained lots of other things too and took his time with me. He was very very nice. I wish I had known about coming to a pediatric dentist before. Our dentist doesn't like taking kids until they're 2-3. I thought  you only went to a pediatric dentist if there were issues.

He recommends putting crowns on my daughter’s cavities unless the damage is too great already once they get a better look, then her teeth will have to be pulled. To do the crowns, she’ll have to be put under because it’s way too long for her to sit still even though she did so awesome letting them look at her teeth!
I was really surprised she didn’t cry at all. She isn’t so nice to us when we try to check her teeth at home. Also she had just woken up from her nap so I was surprised she wasn’t more nervous and wanting to be held.
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Because she is only 22 lbs., most likely we’ll have to go to the hospital for the procedure. Or try to get her to gain 3 lbs. by November 1st when they can do the in house procedure. She hasn’t gained much weight at all. She’s gained about 1.8 lbs. since her first birthday almost 5 months ago. She gained that much at 13 months and since then has remained about the same.

This all just stresses me out of course because that’s just how I am. I’m trying not to blame myself, but I do somewhat. I wish I was stronger or needed less sleep so I wouldn’t nurse her so much at night. I’m just so tired all the time trying to keep with everything. Maybe if we had family around, then I could have them babysit more so it would be easier to wean her. Have someone else take her at night time for a night or two. Maybe if we had a better job where we didn’t have to have government help or money didn’t have to be so tight every day, then I wouldn’t try so darn hard to do so many things like teaching “preschool,” scrapbooking/crafting to sell to others, selling oils/having classes on the oils so we can have money to pay for things like preschool, new clothes, diapers, pull-ups, garbage bags, TP, detergent, fun things, dates, etc.
What if’s, what if’s. I should be at least grateful that we are a family who loves each other, and we have the gospel, but it doesn’t make it easy. For those who read this, all I ask is that you pray that everything goes well, that my daughter will be alive and well after it’s all said and done.
This girl has given me trouble since she was in my uterus. Lots of learning opportunities and experiences to share with others though right. I wish I knew what to do with this girl sometimes. I threw up tons with her in the beginning of my pregnancy, she was super super low, almost made her daddy pass out during her birth, RSV, never has slept through the night, and now needs to be put under to get crowns on her 4 cavities because she won’t quit nursing. I’m nervous about what the future will bring, but I sure love this girl, but it definitely does not make me want anymore kids until she’s at least 3 – maybe not until she’s 5 now! =)

Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-8
7 My son, apeace be unto thy soul; thine badversity and thine afflictions shall be but a csmall moment;
8 And then, if thou aendure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy bfoes.
 
I’m really trying to “endure it well,” all these trials especially that of money, but some days are much harder than others. I need to not try and stress because my health has been a concern to me since they did that EKG and found some severe areas on my back are affecting my heart and my digestive area - both areas where my mom has had issues as well and has surgery and medication for.

Anyway, today I went for my yearly appointment with my doctor and explained all my health concerns. Everything looks fine and good right now, but if I experience any issues, just to call and they can run some further testing. It was good to get that done with.
Another thing we talked about is going back on birth control. I went off it because we just don't have the money for it (we've just been using condoms - sorry if TMI). This pill is cheaper and will dry up my milk which could be really helpful though I started to cry after my appointment feeling bad that I'm taking more drastic measures to stop my daughter from nursing. I just don't know what to do because after she gets her crowns, I don't want her to get more cavities with the continued nursing. Hopefully the process will help her and essentially me so we can both get better sleep.

I share this with my readers just for some positive thoughts to help get through it all. Thanks!

Monday, September 10, 2012

74th Mommy Mondays - Back to School

School has begun in our house! Busy busy week last week was. I'm a little nervous about my morning being so busy!

Here's a picture of my son's first day of his 2nd year of Preschool.
I was so glad there were no tears this year. It probably helped that he has the same teacher and he took gymnastics classes from her over the summer as well =)


Here's what I wore on my first week of teaching my "learning group." I have a group of 3 other kids that I teach preschool like concepts to. Since we're renting my home, I don't charge very much, and don't have a lot of room for a lot of kids, I am not licensed and thus can't call myself a preschool. I call my group Maryanne's Munchkins though =)




How was everyone else's first weeks of back to school?  Busy - happy, sad, excited?

Don't forget about my Preemie Book Giveaway - ends Saturday, September 15th.


Friday, September 7, 2012

102nd Fashionable Fridays - Paint that Nail


Hi everyone! I hope you all are having a great day!

For these I used a lot of different nail polishes so if you would like to know a specific color just let me know, and I'll be more then happy to tell you! The dark blue base color is American Apparel- Cameo Blue. Let's get started!
Start off by painting your nails with a base coat then pick any color you want, I chose dark blue.


Randomly sponge on a lighter color or the same shade as your base color. (I used Essie- Coat Azure)

Place spots of glitter randomly.


Continue that with other glitters until your nail is filled/covered to how you like it. Mainly choose glitters that are the same color or tone as your base color.


To do the swirls, start off with a straight line coming out from the corner of your nail.


Turn it into a hook by adding a curved line to the straight line.


Make another hook off of the other hook and there you have your swirl!


Repeat the process to the other side...


... and down the one side of your nail.


Make three dots in the corner of you nail, and that's it for the nail art!


Add a top coat and you're done!! If you try this let me know how it turns out and have fun with it! (:

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Fun love this dark blue and the swirls! Check out more from Kristyn at Paint that Nail!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Rocking Chair REDO

Here is my rocking chair I spray painted! This was my very first spray painting experience. I was super nervous!

Here's the chair before. Our neighbors who moved just gave it to us because they wouldn't have room in their new place.


I did lots of research and asked some favorite bloggers about spray painting before I got started. Here are my pins with tips I found - pin 1, pin 2 
I decided to do my rocking chair first because one of my favorite bloggers, Keeping it Simpleredid some chairs with spray paint so she inspired me to do my rocking chair. Pinned here.

I spray painted early in the day. Layed down the groundwork in my driveway.


I used a dark chocolate brown spray paint with primer from Krylon - I was told don't go cheap on spray paint so Krylon and Rustoleum are pretty good. I really wanted a cherry brown, but couldn't find one. I also couldn't find a separate primer spray paint so I figured the spray paint with primer would be better than one without primer. I used 2 cans of it to cover all the crevices with the chair.




I let it dry outside for the rest of the day. Then I brought it inside and put it somewhere where my kids don't go too often so it could dry some more - for about a week. Then I felt comfortable having it to sit on.

It's not perfect, but I love it! Eventually I'd like to redo the seat cushions as well in turquoise/aqua fabric. I'm  not a great sewer so that will be a while before I attempt it.


Here it is with the rest of our living area furniture. It's a small room so we don't have real couches, just benches, the rocking chair and a glider.


I'm Topsy Turvy