What can happen in a year?

Wow. I can not keep a blog up to save my life. 

So what has happened since I graduated? 

Well, I've been enjoying being a stay-at-home mom. 

Sadly, that will be coming to an end soon because 

Jon and I want to get a nice house out in the country. 

The city life is just not for us! I've applied for a few jobs 

but haven't found anything that I want to do yet. 

It will happen-- in time.

What else has happened? 

Liam is a 2-year-old! 

He is such a dare devil! He is such an amazing 

little guy with a huge personality. 

Oh yeah! I almost forgot! 

Liam became a BIG brother! 

Adelyn was born in late March and she is the 

sweetest little baby. At three months, she only

 cries when she is hungry and sleeping

 through the night in her own bed. :)

She recently started smiling. My heart swells each time she does.

 

I love my kids so much. SOOOOO much!!

may-hem

I did it! I did it!



I graduated from college. Many people doubted me but here I am, an alumni of The University of Toledo. 3 1/2 years ago I was told that it would never happen after Jon and I got married. Again, when we found out we were pregnant, I was reminded how "impossible" it was to being full-time mom and a full-time student. Well, I must have done something right because I made it through. I am NOT a statistic.

Also, my little Liam is ONE!! That just boggles my mind! He has grown to be such a little character.


It is amazing to see how much he has changed over the last year! :)
I'm so glad I took these!
We love you very much Liam!

March Madness

Sometimes I just feel like I'm running on auto-pilot. Half the time, I reach the end of the day and wonder how I got there. I feel like I juggle so many roles of wife, mother, housekeeper, student, chef, financial organizer, secretary, personal assistant, zombie, etc. and I feel like I have lost myself. I have to question how other moms do it?! How do you balance all the plates without dropping one. I try to handle to the stress the best I can but what do I do when I feel that I am about to break?

BUT --- there is a light ahead! about 41 days ahead! I GRADUATE MAY 8th! I just did a backflip with excitement!

Liam has been keeping me and Jon SOOOO BUSY. He loves walking behind toys around the living room. It would be swell if he didn't walk for a few more months, at least until I graduate. He can climb up our stairs to the second floor and get on top of the coffee table. (We have made adjustments to prevent this any more). His babbling consists of mama, dada, gaga, and baba. He loves to point to things when we look at books and I think it is so adorable. I try to get him to hold up his pointed finger and say "mama is #1!" but he hasn't gotten there yet. He goes down at night without being rocked to sleep. That doesn't sound like that big of deal but for a while there when he was smaller, I LOVED rocking him to sleep but I wanted to break the habit before he required it to go to sleep and we have been successful. His teeth are so funny. He has to the two bottom middle teeth and two really cute vampire fangs on top. I've never seen anything like it!

Other than that, he's just a normal ornery boy!

Jon and I have recently "revamped" our budget and have made major cuts. Our biggest downfall is going out to eat. We live in a city where there is a restaurant on every corner. We really want to pay down our debt so we can stop worrying and start living! Money is a difficult subject. Jon and I don't really fight about it though. (Thank goodness!) I know that money is one of the top subject couples fight about.

A hobby that I've taken up is couponing. It is AMAZING how much you can save if you just took the time to do it! I get coupons in the Sunday paper, online, and sometimes off ebay. I have saved a TONNNN this year. I have stocked up on many personal items for this year but when stuff is FREE, I get it!

Examples:

3 Old Spice Body Washes
3 Old Spice Deodorants
3 Secret Deodorants
2 Herbal Essences Shampoos
1 Aussie Shampoo
5 Boxes of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese
3 Boxes Hamburger Helper
2 Packs of Sausage
1 Mozzarella Cheese
1 Pampers Wipes
TOTAL: $7.01 after coupons!!

24 cans of Chunky Soup for $6.16 after coupons!!

It is such a thrill when I score some good deals! I usually save about 65% on my shopping bill! :)

Speaking of shopping bill.. I need to make up my shopping list for this week! It usually takes about 30-45 minutes to surf the coupon blogs I follow and scan Kroger's ad to figure it out but like I said, It is totally worth it!

Happy Holidays

Blogs are tough to keep up with anymore! I kept one in high school and seriously updated at least once, if not more, every day!

Things is Toledo are going well. We got quite a bit of snow last night. It started out at rain and then turned to snow and then froze. Jon couldn't get his truck doors open this morning at 6:30-something this morning so he had to take my car. Liam and I have been cooped up all snuggly and warm today.

This is a picture of Liam and his cousins. :)



Liam has been running a low fever these past few days. Last night was the worst at 102* but it broke shortly after we gave him a little Ibuprofen. I'm wondering if it is his teeth or what his deal is. I've busted out the humidifier in his room because of how dry the air feels. He is really growing quickly despite his "not-feeling-so-good" mood. He has been army crawling around the house and getting into everything. Jon did an experiment of putting something he is allowed to have and something he isn't allowed to have in front of him and he always goes for the more dangerous thing. Last week, he started pulling himself up on the furniture. I walked into his room one morning and he was standing in his crib so we had to put the mattress down a bit. He is going to run me ragged. I'm a nervous wreck as I try to prevent bumps and bruises but he's quick! Jon encourages his advancements but I'd rather him stay a baby. :)



Jon and I have been trying to decide when #2 should come. We will need to plan for this one more financially since our insurance is different and doesn't cover all the stuff our old plan did. He thinks it would be awesome to have our kids close together because they could be on the same little league team and we wouldn't have to worry about taking different kids to different activities. Sadly, he thinks all of our kids will be boys and athletic boys at that. And of course, the convenience of not having to drive a few extra miles is totally worth it, right?! I'm not completely sold on the idea as I don't think I could handle multiple little little ones at once. Plus, I'd really like to move out of the house we are in before we have another baby. This one is not child friendly at all. I'm not looking forward to potty training due to the fact we only have one bathroom and it is on the 2nd floor. That's how all the houses are in our neighborhood unless they have renovated and added one. We might just have to put a bucket in the dining room. ;)

This semester is winding down to a close. Actually, tomorrow is my last day. January 10th will be the first day of my last semester ever! I can hardly believe it! It will only have taken be 6 years to obtain a 4 year degree. I guess that's what I get for getting married early and starting a family, right? It's okay though. It will be a HUGE weight off my shoulders! May 8th is my graduation date! :) I can almost taste it! A delicious piece of paper that is worth thousands and thousands of dollars. Yummy.

Be safe in this snow and have a Happy Holidays! :)
Remember that Christ is the reason for the season!!

Liam and I went to the park for the first time by ourselves today. We have many different parks here in Toledo and I have yet to go to all of them but I'm sure that will change as he gets older. This one is just down the road from us. There are a few different playgrounds and many awesome trails. Most times, you are able to see deer passing through. It's quite amazing to find deer in the middle of the city. I took the opportunity to take my camera with me to see if I could get a few cute pictures of Liam. Photography has always been an interest of mine and I'm kind of disappointed in myself for not doing this sooner. I was very please with the results! :)





Until next time....

2 months have flown by!

HOLY SMOKES! It is amazing how fast time goes after having a child. Liam is such a little stinker! I learn more and more about him every day. He has so many little quirks. Examples - smiling almost every time he spits up on me. When I make a "motorcycle sound" by blowing air through my lips, his eyes get really really wide. And no matter what time of day it is, if I lay with him all nestled in my arm as we lay in my bed, he WILL take a nap. I just love him. Best of all, he isn't a clingy or whiny baby. He is perfectly content laying on the floor. He loves looking around and taking in the sites around him. He doesn't cry unless something is wrong. Although, it sometimes takes mom and dad a while to figure it out. I love my boy... but what mother doesn't?!

Majority of my friends and family have called me crazy for this but I've been doing some research on cloth diapering and I must say.. I've been flirting with the idea for weeks. The mothers that I have talked to have been so helpful and positive about the subject that most flat out said that they would never go back. There are so many reasons to go to cloth! They are better for your pocketbook. They are better for the environment. They are better for your baby! Yes, they are a pain in the butt to have to wash but once you get into a routine of washing your diapers, it will be easy-peasy! Listen to me, I'm talking like I've done it for years. Here's the scoop..

FINANCIALLY:

Did you know that if I were to put Liam in a store-brand diaper such as Target brand Up&up diapers, within 3 years, I would spend about $1400 on something that he pees/poops in and I throw it in the garbage? The cost would be about $1800 if I used a name brand like Pampers. I'm not even going to do the math if I would use a "Green" brand. That would be over $2000 in diapers alone! Not to mention wipes, powders, and creams! Now multiply that number by how many children you have/plan to have! GAH! Luckily, cloth diapers can be passed down through siblings. Money saver!!

Sorry Liam, but I don't want to put a pile of $20 bills on the ground and let you do your biznass all over them.

Now, when it comes to cloth diapers, they can get a little expensive. I'm planning to use BumGenius 3.0 One-Size diapers. The brand just release a "4.0" version so the 3.0s are now cheaper! :) The initial cost of a diaper supply is a bit high. You must pay one large lump sum but then you can have them forever. And the nice thing is, if you keep good care of your diapers, you can usually sell them on ebay for 50% of what you paid for them. Once I have all the diapers I need, I plan to have spent around $250 - $300.

What would you rather pay? $300 or $1400 - $2000?!

ENVIRONMENTALLY:

I'm not an environmental freak but I do think it is an added bonus that the thousands of diapers I would use aren't going into a landfill. I hear baby poop gets quite smelly in direct sunlight.. I feel bad for the people living near one of those! I did a quick google search and an estimated 27.4 BILLION disposable diapers are used each year in the United States alone. That is a possible 3.4 MILLION TONS of dirty diapers in landfills across the country. SICK!

Yes, cloth diapers means more laundry and more water being used but washing your diapers every 3 days is about the equivalent of 5 extra toilet flushes a day.

HEALTHY:

There are so many things in disposable diapers that I can't pronounce the majority of them! Pampers Dry Max has been under attack because they are responsible for blistering and leaving severe rashes on thousands of babies. A chemical in the diaper reacted with the babies skin and a rash began and continued to get worse. That is scary! Liam is currently in Pampers but I got rid of all the Dry Max ones we received as gifts. Cloth diapers are made from natural and safe materials like cotton, fleece, hemp, and wool. They can be used in all kinds of combos to create the amount of absorbency for your baby. With natural fibers such as these, it makes diaper rash a lot less frequent. I've talked to mothers who CD and their baby has never had a single sign of a rash. One pointed out that many of her friends had made the change to "safe and natural" cleaning products but then continued to put the same types of chemicals around their children's most sensitive area 24 hours a day.

If anyone is interested in the knowledge about CDing I have acquired over the last few weeks, let me know! It can get a little overwhelming if you research with no idea what you are looking for!

TRUST ME!

Has it really been 5 weeks?!

Without a doubt, being a mother is the most exhausting, emotional, exciting, awesome, and rewarding thing I've ever done. I love my son with such intensity I never knew existed. Liam is such a good baby! :) He eats 3 oz. of formula every 3-4 hours and sleeps in 2 hour blocks during the day and 4 hour blocks at night. I will be so excited when he starts sleeping through the night. I started out breastfeeding while supplementing with formula due to my milk taking a few days to come in and then it went well for about a week then I started pumping to make night-feedings going quicker. Sadly, my supply was enough in the beginning but little piglet wanted more than what I could give. I had some nights where we would nurse for an hour and he'd cry for more. It broke my heart because I felt like I wasn't doing something right but we did start giving him formula. I tried pumping so he'd get a little breast milk but I'd only get 1/2 oz combined so I don't even bother.

As for Liam, he is holding his head up so well and follows things with his eyes. I swear I saw him flash a smile at me today. And he definitely has Jon wrapped around his little itty bitty finger.

I love my new family of three.