My baby girl turned one!

As you can see Chloe has some pretty proud parents. I always knew that I wanted to have children and I knew that I would love being a mother. After a year with Chloe, I found it to be more amazing than I could imagine. Everyday there is something about her that makes me realize how lucky I am to have her. Now don't get me wrong she is by no means perfect, but she is perfect to me. Chloe has her moments....especially when teething or tired, but for the most part she is a pretty good girl. She is really turning into a funny little girl which I am pretty sure she gets from me! She does little stuff that is so ornery and then just laughs. I have to admit that I love it and I am sure that there are things she does that I shouldn't laugh at but you know what, I just can't help it!

Everyday I have questions about what I am doing and what I should be doing when it comes to Chloe. I am a type of person that doesn't like to do things wrong, but that also doesn't obsess about maybe making a mistake or two. Parenting is not easy and I know when I didn't have kids I would often think "when I have kids...." This happened a lot when talking about my students or relatives or other kids I would see out and about. Well the truth is I had no idea what I was talking about then. It is so much different when you have your own. You love them so much and just want to do what is right. Now what is right is not always easy and I will be honest there are times that I take the easy route hate to admit it but I do. I am learning everyday how to handle different situations. I wouldn't change a thing about it though. Being a mother is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I love my baby girl more than anything. It is a kind of love that you cannot explain but you know it when you see your baby for the first time. AMAZING!

I wanted to share a few wonderful things about Chloe. So as a couple of my friends have done I will share 12 things about Chloe that I think are pretty great. 12 for 12 months!

1. She loves to dance. (Her favorite song is the Ipad commercial song!)
2. If she could be naked all the time I think she would be one happy camper!
3. She wakes up with a smile on her face....if she can wake up on her own time and not mommy's!
4. She loves Bronson and gets this really high pitched scream when she first sees him.
5. Bath time is a lot of fun, for one she is naked and another she really likes being in water.
6. She LOVES books.....you know that I love this!
7. She gives great kisses!
8. She jabbers a lot which can be really fun to listen to.
9. She loves to play peek-a-boo.
10. She really likes being around other kids.
11. She likes to play ball which is awesome in mom and dad's book!
12. Whenever she laughs I laugh with her. The sound is so great!

So as you can see I think that Chloe Dawn is a pretty precious little girl. I can't wait to see what the next year brings!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree...

.....you're about to drive me crazy!
I really love the way you look
but oh how long the decorating took.
Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree
when will Chloe leave you alone?
I feel like all I do is groan.
Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree
I really do enjoy your glimmering
and really Chloe deserves the memory!
Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree
I guess I will love you anyway!

So not the way the song goes, but I am trying here!

What is that you say???? Free Photo Cards????

As Christmas draws near so does the thought of decorating, buying presents, making goodies, and sending out Christmas cards. I love the holiday season and getting together with friends and family. It is such a wonderful time of year.

As I was thinking about my Christmas cards this year a friend of mine told me about what she was doing. I was super excited to hear about Shutterfly and their promotion on holiday photo cards. We just had family pictures taken at the end of September and I knew that I wanted to use a picture or two from there to make a Christmas card this year. Shutterfly is so awesome that I am going to get 50 FREE photo cards......that's right, I said FREE! So I am all about getting some free cards!

I have ordered from Shutterfly quite a bit and have always been pleased with their prints. I am super excited to make a photo book of Chloe's first year and our family pictures. I have also given gift certificates to Shutterfly as wedding presents and I am pretty sure that they have been a hit! I was also invited to a Shutterfly house party which was awesome as well!

Now when I started looking through the photo cards I was like how will I ever decide. Then I thought.....use my blog and let people vote. My friends put voting options on their blogs all the time and I think they get a lot of responses so why not me. So I have picked a few of my favorites out. Let me know what you think! I will take your vote into consideration! I know you will be anxiously awaiting for the mail to see which one I chose!!!

With a picture of Chloe in the middle of course!

Or.....

With a family picture on it.

Or........

With a bunch of different photos from the family photo day.





So what do you think???? Send me a message with your vote please!

Being a mother!

So it has been two weeks since my precious Chloe was born. I have loved becoming a mother. I always knew that I wanted to be a mommy, but never did I think I would love it this much. I really don't know if there is anything better. I loved getting married and spending time with Dan because he is wonderful. There is just something different about being a mom. You have a connection with this little person unlike any other connection you have had in your life. Other than possibly the connection you have with your own mother. Which I have a great relationship with my mom. I think it has a lot to do with her that I love being a mother so much. I don't know that I can imagine a greater mom than my mom. It is her that has taught me to love and be the person I am today. I also feel that it is because of her that I am loving motherhood so much.

Up until today I have snuggled, loved, played with, and taken care of my sweet Chloe Dawn. I decided that I needed to do a better job about a routine. Not only for me and Chloe but for the sitter that she will go to in a little over a month. I had been told that Baby Wise was a great book to read and it will help your baby sleep through the night quicker. So today we started the eat, waketime, and nap. The eating and waketime was pretty good. I had a little trouble keeping her awake, but we did it. Then came the nap. You are just suppose to put the baby in the bed and let them fall to sleep. Well in order to do this there was lots of crying, Chloe and mommy. I had been pretty good not getting stressed and being patient through motherhood. Today was a different story. I am trying so hard to be strong, but when you hear that horrid cry from your daughter you just want to run and get them. It was hard, I think I was probably crying harder than she was. The first nap time did not go to well. She cried, and so did I, but finally fell asleep. The bad thing was she only slept for about 45 minutes. The second nap time has gone better. She has been sleeping for about an hour. It will be interesting to see how tonight goes!!

I am just asking that you pray for me. I am trying so hard to be strong, but it is quite hard!!!

Call Me Crazy!

I was tagged (Thanks Whitney and Danavee!) and must share 5 compulsive obsessive traits. Honestly, I think I have a legitimate reason for all my traits so this was kind of hard! I will give it a try though.

1. When trying to fall asleep I have a little trick that helps me most of the time. I say this as I am up at 3 in the morning writing this blog! If I am having trouble I take one foot and place it on another and rub them together. It is something that soothes me a great deal and for some reason helps me go to sleep. I remember when I was younger and had to share a bed with my younger sister it would drive her crazy me moving my feet. A lot of times I can't go to sleep without moving my feet.

2. Every morning getting ready for school I have the exact same routine. If I go off of my routine it really feels like my day is just not going to go well. Here is a list of the order of my mornng: use the bathroom (for the 20th time within 7 hours!), turn on the shower water, brush my teeth, shower, make-up, dry hair, go get lunch and breakfast ready, feed Bron, straighten and fix hair, get dressed. If something gets mixed around I could almost freak out a bit. I guess that is probably going to change come next February. I will probably have to make a new routine.

3. I can't stand to be late! This is kind of an issue between Dan and I. I am really one of those people that gets to things on time. If I am suppose to be somewhere at 7, I will be there at least by 6:50. It drives me crazy to not be able to leave on time. I just think that if you know what time you need to be somewhere you should plan accordingly. And if you are going to be late, you need to let that person know. Dan is like we will get there when we get there. I do not have the same attitude. We have had many discussions about this. He knows that I kind of flip out and get stressed if I am going to be late so he has changed a little.

4. I can't stand chomping and bad manners. If someone is chewing gum and acting like a cow, I want to punch them in the face. It drives me crazy. I have really learned to try and ignore it, but I can't a lot of times. I have some people that are close to me that don't have the best manners and I have learned to just deal with it and not say anything. Although deep down I am going insane. I was just taught that you chew with your mouth shut and you don't chomp your gum. To hear that.......ughhhhhh don't even go there!

5. Now this is a nasty one and I can't believe I am sharing, but I it is 3 in the moring and I am probably a little crazy right now! I like to pop a good zit! I know, I know DISGUSTING, but I like it. There is something about seeing if you can hit the mirror with the crap that comes out! Dan doesn't understand why if he has one I want to pop it, but I do. You have to wait until they are ready to get a really good one. Don't get me wrong I don't pop everyones, just those that I am close to. Now that I have typed this I am thinking it is really gross, but oh well!

Now I want to tag Ashley and Sarah! Come on girls tell us your secrets!

Baby time soon!

This is my belly at 33 weeks. Which means that I have about 7 weeks to go or less or more! This is becoming quite a scary idea. I have always loved babies and been around them quite a bit throughout my life. I always wanted to hold babies and love on them. It is something that I truly enjoyed. Now it is time to start thinking about me actually being the one that a baby relies on. SCARY! Before I could always give the baby back to mom or dad. Now it is going to be me that is mom. Oh goodness! I know that it will be a very trying time and that I have a lot to learn. I guess the part that scares me the most is that I know that I will have so many questions. Thank goodness for family! I know that I will be making lots of phone calls. Be ready mom! I don't want you to think that I am just scared, I mean I am but I am also super excited. I have always dreamed of being a mother and I know that it will be wonderful. I just hope that I can be a great mom. So in the last few weeks of pregnancy I am beginning to stress a little, but I know that in the end it will be one of the greatest things in my life!

Life stinks sometimes!

Have you ever had one of those days when life just isn't as great as you would like? Well, today was one of those days for me. It is really hard for me to understand why it is that some people can be the way they are. I guess I have always tried to be a nice, kind person and tried not to be mean or hateful to others. Now I know that I am not perfect by any means, but I do try to be nice. Why is it that when you are trying to do good and do your job you can almost be put down by others for it? I don't understand. In many professions you get rewarded or praised for doing a good job and working hard. For some reason I feel like in education that when you work hard and put the extra effort in you get ridiculed by others. Why oh why would you want to be that way to someone? I just don't understand it at all. Can someone fill me in???