Mom Week Day 3: Our Daily Schedule

Hey Guys! Today I just wanted to share our typical daily schedule as of right now. We are getting ready to have a huge change in our schedule because I am changing jobs (more on that later). So here is a quick run down of our typical daily schedule.

730 AM: Wake up time, dishes, fix breakfast, let the dogs out
8AM-830AM: Eat breakfast, clean up breakfast, talk to JP, check computer work.
830AM-930AM: Play time for Matthew, Bible time and chore time for me.
930AM-1030AM: Play time together
1030AM-1130AM: Get ready, lunch time
1130AM-1230PM: Shower time and get ready time for me, TV time for Matthew
1230PM-130PM: Nap time!
130PM-230PM: Check the mail, get ready for work
230PM-330PM: Leave, drop Matthew off, head to work

Then after that I go to work for the night and JP takes care of Matthew. So that is a quick look into our day to day life. What kind of schedule do you have?

Mom Week Day 2: Survey About My Son

Hey Guys! Welcome to day 4 of Mom Week! Today I wanted to do a survey about Matthew! So let's get started!!

WAS YOUR PREGNANCY PLANNED?:No, my pregnancy was definitely not planned. It was a HUGE shock
WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?:
No I was not.
WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?:
I was petrified! I was so so so scared! I cried, I freaked out. And then I calmed down and was so so so ridiculously EXCITED!!
WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU?:
Never ever.
HOW OLD WERE YOU?:
I was 21 when I found out, 22 when he was born
HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT?:
It is really a funny story. I had been sick for a few weeks so we went to the doctor to see why. I have been going to the same doctor for a long time, so I call him by his first name. He said he was going to get a urine sample because UTIs are a common cause of diabetic problems. So when I came back in the room I told Matt "Wouldn't it be funny if he came back in and said you're pregnant" and we laughed about it. Well two minutes later he came in and said "Well no sinus infection and no UTI but I do know what your problem is" and I said "WHAT?!?!" because at this point I knew what was about to come out of his mouth. He said "You're pregnant" and I said "That's not funny Jack".
WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST?:
My mom
DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX?:
Yes Yes Yes. Mostly to prove to everyone that I was right. I knew it was a boy from the beginning.
DUE DATE?:
December 6th, 2009
DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS?:
I had random sickness. I would get sick at the most random and inconvenient times.
WHAT DID YOU CRAVE?:
Everything. My biggest things were fruits (all of them, including oranges which I am allergic to) and hamburgers, specifically Sonic burgers with cheese.
WHO IRRITATED YOU THE MOST?:
I was really easily irritated when I was pregnant. So everyone.
WHAT WAS YOUR CHILD'S SEX?:
He's a boy
DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING?:
Not at all.
HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY?:
around 30.
DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER?:
Yes, my mom and sister-in-law threw one for me
WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW?:
I knew.
DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY?:
I kept getting really serious bladder and urinary tract infections that kept causing me to have contractions.
WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH?:
In a hospital. ;)
HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR?:
I was in labor for 15 hours
WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL?:
Matt did the morning of my induction
WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH?:
Other than my doctor and the nurses, Matt was the only one allowed in.
WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION:
It was a C-Section, after 15 hours of labor he wouldn't budge.
DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN?:
YES I DID
HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH??:
He was 8lbs 5oz
DID YOUR CHILD HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS???:
He had a little trouble breathing in the beginning, but I was told that was totally normal for C-Section babies because they don't go through the "big squeeze" to help push the fluids out of their lungs.
WHAT DAY WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ON?:
He was born on Monday, November 23rd, 2009
WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER?:
Matthew Dakota

HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY?:
He is almost 4 and a half!!!

There you go guys. Do you have kids? If so I tag you to answer all these questions as well! Leave it as a comment below or post it on your blog and link it back here!

Mom Week Day 1: Matthew's Birth Story

Hey Guys! This week I am doing Mom week. As I am sure you know yesterday was Mother's Day, so I chose this week to be Mom Week. Today I am going to share with you Matthew's birth story. This is a story about the day my life changed FOREVER. I became a mom. It was the greatest day of my life. I wrote this just a couple days after he was born on an old blog of mine. I am editing some bits and pieces of it because of typos. I hope you enjoy.

I had my last doctor appointment on Friday, November 20th and they decided to induce me on Monday, November 23rd. I went the whole weekend mostly in bed to make sure that I didn’t go into labor on my own.

When Monday arrived, Matt, my mom and I showed up at the hospital at 5 AM. We were all excited, and I was extremely nervous. I was already dilated to 3 cm when we got there, so we were kind of hoping for a faster labor.

Within 2-3 hours I was dilated to 7 cm. I got my epidural and my pitocin and was just trying to rest. They also broke my water around 10-11 AM. But as the day progressed and they continued to check me, they noticed that Matthew still wasn’t dropping down low enough and that I was still at 7 cm. I also came down with a fever of around 102 degrees, which of course meant an infection.

After 15 hours of labor, 12-13 of which I was at 7 cm, they brought up the dreaded “C” word. I was terrified. A C-Section had been one of my biggest fears. I worried about what it would mean for Matthew and was terrified that I wouldn’t heal correctly. But, I was reassured and told that it truly was the best thing for Matthew and I. At around 9:30 PM they wheeled me into the little tiny OR. I had the shakes horribly from the fever. After a couple of minutes of getting set up they brought in Matt.

At exactly 9:47 PM on November 23rd, 2009, Matthew Dakota was born by C-Section. As soon as I heard his sweet little cry I started crying hysterically. I finally had my son, it was finally real. They brought him around to show him to me and he was so adorable. But of course they quickly took him over to get him checked on. Matt left me to take pictures of him and to take him to the nursery. As soon as they had him out they started pumping pain medicine into me. So after me getting to see him one more time before they took him to the nursery, I don’t remember much of anything.

At 2:30 AM, I finally got a chance to hold my son. I only held him for around 5 minutes because I was so drugged up and it was difficult for me to sit there without feeling like I was going to pass out. So, I sent him back to the nursery. But, he was just as adorable as the first time I saw him. In fact, he might have actually been cuter. Every time I see him I fall more and more in love with him. He is the greatest thing I have ever accomplished in my entire life.

Matthew was born at 9:47 PM on Monday November 23rd. He was 8lbs 5 oz and 21 in long.

Our Easter: Part 2

Hey Guys! Welcome to part 2 of our Easter Celebration! You can check out the last post on the blog to see why we celebrated early and what we did on day 1! For day 2, we went to Church as a family with my Mom and Step-Dad. Then, we went to JP's Mom and Step-Dad's house so Boo could do an egg hunt and open his Easter basket there!

JP got this awesome picture of Boo and I!

And I took a few really good pictures of the greatest boys EVER!

 

They got Boo a HUGE monster truck, a big pack of sidewalk chalk, an egg laying chicken (or pooping chicken as we call him) and some candies. He was super excited about everything he got!

And he had a really great time hunting for eggs the second day as well!

 

So there you have it! What did you do to celebrate Easter this year?

 

 

Our Easter: Part 1

Hey Guys! This year we had to celebrate Easter the weekend before Easter actually got here. Matthew will be at his Daddy's on Easter weekend, so we made plans to celebrate with him the weekend before. Our Easter will be posted in two different posts, one today and one on Monday. The post today is what we did on Saturday 4-12. We went to my Mom and Step-Dad's that day to do an egg hunt with them and to open Boo's Easter baskets.

First he got his basket from his Dranny and Bob Bob. He got a Power Rangers toy, a Rescue Bots memory game, Ninja Turtles bubbles, a light up cup, etc.

Then he got his Easter basket from JP and I. We got him Ninja Turtles balls, an Angry Birds game, learning games and candy!

 

And last we had the egg hunt where he proceeded to find all 47 eggs.

 

He had a great time and these are only a small few of the 155 pictures I took in just a couple of short hours. Don't forget to come back Monday and check out the pictures from our second day of Easter celebrating!

 

Quick Throwback Thursday

Hey Guys! Sorry for my tiny post today, I have been feeling really under the weather so I have been resting on the couch most of the day (other than when I was at work). So I just wanted to share a quick Throwback Thursday post. I promise I will be back to my regular posting schedule next week.

April 2012

 

 

 

April 2013

 

 

Flash Back Friday #1

Hey Guys! I know typically I do First Impression Friday, but today I wanted to do something a little bit different. Today I decided to do a quick Flash Back Friday! This week it is all about my little guys first few days of life. So here you go!

 

This was right after Matthew was born. This was the first time I got to look into his eyes. This was the moment my life changed forever.

 

This was taken in the nursery right after he was measured and weighed. If you weren't aware he was 21 inches long and 8 pounds 5 ounces.

This is my mom with Matthew. I believe this one was taken on Thanksgiving day, which is actually the day we got to go home from the hospital.

 

This is my step-dad and Matthew. This night was the first night I met Bob.

 

 

Me and my snuggle bug. I believe this was our second full day in the hospital. He and I sat in that chair almost the whole time snuggling under my big purple blanket.

 

This was less than 24 hours after he was born. <3

 

This is my dad and Matthew. I believe he was less than 24 hours old when this picture was taken. My dad was so glad to be a grandfather.

 

Alright, there you guys go. A few pictures from Matthew's first days alive. Hope you guys enjoyed!

 

Scrapbooking: History and Starting Over

Hey Guys! Today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about my scrapbooking history and how I am starting over with scrapping!

First the history! I started scrapbooking FOREVER ago! Seriously, it was before I even entered the fifth grade. I remember one of my neighbors scrapbooked and I loved going over there and making pages with her. When I visited her in Texas after sixth grade I was still into scrapping! I really remember watching QVC on their scrapbooking days all the time. I would take over my dad's tv and just dream of putting together an amazing scrapbook.

When my ex husband and I bought our house back in 2006, I got really into scrapbooking and card making. I was obsessed. I mad several mini-albums, lots of pages, and tons of cards. I continued scrapping for several years. When I had Matthew, I kind of ran out of time to be able to scrap as much as I wanted to. Then we moved in with my mom, I didn't have room for any of my scrapping supplies anymore so we packed them up. They all sadly sat in storage for over a year.

A few weeks ago, we got to get all of my stuff out of the storage unit and move it into our house. I even got my own desk to be able to scrap on again. It felt so good to have all my scrap stuff back. Yesterday I decided to start working on Matthew's scrapbook. I only had a few pages that I made before he was born and I did those over four years ago! So, I sat down at my desk and did something I hadn't done in what felt like forever. And it felt amazing! I got three pages done yesterday and one page done today! I wanted to share those pages with you.

Now please excuse the photography, the lighting in my office isn't that great, I need a lamp. Also, I don't really remember the names or makers of any of the products I used. They have all sat in storage for so long I totally forgot!

Love @ First Sight

This is the last one I did last night. It is really simple without any journaling. I love how the picture of the two of us is the main focus. The wording on the tab just says "November 23, 2009 @ 9:47 PM" which is when Matthew was born.

6 Months

The journaling on this one were just some of his likes, dislikes, height, weight, etc. I got the journaling from his 6 month update that I wrote on an old blog of mine.

MDU Birth Story

I absolutely love this one. The journaling is all on index cards in a plastic pocket. I got the journaling from this one off a blog post from an old blog as well.

MOM

I wrote the journaling for this one a while ago as well. I am not going to type out what it says because it is really personal to me. This is one of my favorite pictures of me during my pregnancy.

 

Ok, so there you have it! I really hope to get a lot more pages done soon. I really want to get his first year accomplished by May. Hope you guys enjoyed!

2013 Random Favorites

Hey guys! Today I wanted to talk to you about some more of my favorites. You can check out last week's favorites, which were my makeup favorites here. Today favorites are going to be really random: TV shows, books, blogs and some of my favorite pictures from the year. Don't forget to come back next Friday as well to check out some of my other favorites. So let's get started!

 

TV Show:

As far as TV shows go, I would have to say my favorite is still Grey's Anatomy. I am telling you, it just doesn't get better. Another one of my favorites this year was definitely sister wives. There's a new season on right now but I can't watch because I don't have cable, but you can watch older seasons of both shows on Netflix.

 

Movies:

Many of you may not know but I am horribly obsessed with sports movies. Especially true story sports movies so one of my favorites this year was definitely 42 which is the Jackie Robinson story. I got it for Christmas from my boyfriend and was so stoked. Another one of my favorite definitely had to be fast and furious 6 but I love them all of course. And then you can't go wrong with anything that has Jason Statham in it so Parker was definitely another favorite for the year.

 

Songs:

I just recently wrote a post about my top 5 current music favorites. Those songs have to be probably my most favorite for the year.

 

Apps:

I just got an Android this year and one of my favorite apps has to be the mp3 music download app. Another that I was so excited to actually get finally was Instagram and I have to say I'm pretty obsessed. And I also love the my coke reward app because you can earn free points just for drinking Diet Coke and we all know I love me some Diet Coke.

 

Blogs:

I have to say that two of my most favorite blogs this year we're definitely Beauty Broadcast and Maskcara. They are both beauty blogs but I just can't seem to stop reading them! And as much as I enjoy other blogs, they are the ones I get the most excited for every time they post.

 

Books:

I don't know if very many of you know this but, another thing that I totally love is books written by celebrities. I read all of Kendra Wilkinson's books this year (I believe she has 3). I also read a Kate Gosselin book this year that I really enjoyed. And I read Tori Spelling's Uncharted Territori that I really enjoyed as well. 

 

YouTube channels:

As far as YouTube channels I really hate to list favorites, but I did do a post last week that had some of the first ones I watched listed. You can go check those out on my resolutions tag post here.

 

Pictures:

This is a picture of our family dog Jake. He was an Akita. It devastated our family when he passed  away this year. I just adore this picture of him. To me it shows who he really was, a big huge teddy bear.

I don't know why but I love this pic of my guys. This was right before my birthday and JP and I had gone on a wheeling trip. Matthew was so excited to see the Jeep all muddy.

These two people are our best friends, S&S. They are seriously two people who are just made of gold. They are the kindest and most caring people I have ever known and they are people of huge faith. I love them!

This was taken on our trip to Windrock in June. It was taken the day after JP told me he loved me for the first time. I was so excited on this trip. I just love it up there, it is so beautiful.

This is my favorite pic of my guys. Matthew loves Jeeps, and I adore watching JP teach him more and more about them. This was at a meet for a group we were in. Matthew was walking around naming all the Jeeps. I just love watching them spend  quality time like this together.

This is a pic of Matthew's first time in the Jeep. He was so excited! We took the top off later and he loved sticking his hands out of the top. We are raising a true Jeep boy!

It is rare to get a picture of my brother with a genuine smile. I was so excited I got this picture! This was at his going away party. I am so glad they have the bond they do. Matthew is so much like his Uncle Dave.

I love this one. It is so calm and peaceful to me. We actually have this in a large black and white over our bed.

I loved all of our family pics that Sarah did for us. This one I just couldn't get over the smile on my sweet boys face!!

I see how much he has grown up in this pic. It makes me sad and proud at the same time. I love this little boy more than anything. Gosh, he just looks so big!

This one makes me smile. He is such a happy boy and I am just so blessed to get to be his Mama!!

This one is from Matthew's fourth birthday. I just love it because it is a pic of our family, and I was so proud of him and how far we have come.

I smile from ear to ear every single time I see this pic. This is JP's Dad and Matthew playing. This was the first time they had ever met, and Matthew loved him immediately! It makes me think of when Matthew saw a picture of JP's Dad on the table and he asked me who it was. I told him it was JP's Dad. He looked at me and said "So like my Grandpa?". It was just too cute.

This one is of me and Matthew from last year. We were at Monster Jam and it was our first time going. He was so excited and loved it so very much.

 

Alright, there you have it! What were your "random" favorites of the year? Don't forget to let me know and come back every Friday this month to see the rest of my 2013 favorites!!

A Bit of Thanksgiving

Hey Guys! I meant to get this post done last week, but with my shoulder injury and then forgetting my camera at the other house, it got put off. Oops!

I was so excited to get a real full Thanksgiving this year! I haven't had a real Thanksgiving since before Boo was born. This year, we got to have two Thanksgiving meals. We had lunch at my grandmother's and then dinner at JP's Mom's house. I really just wanted to share a few of my favorite pictures.

At my grandparent's house we are all really competitive (there are a lot of boys in our family). For some reason my cousin's started competing about who has the better blood pressure. I was still eating so I didn't get pictures of anyone getting their pressure checked except JP. Then my medically trained uncle decided to teach my very not medically trained uncle how to check my grandmother's blood pressure. It was quite amusing.

 

These are just a few random pictures that I took while we were at my grandparent's house. My favorite is of course the one of my son picking his nose. Very classy. :) I love the look on my grandmother's face!

 

 

After my grandparents, we went to Jason's Mom's house. Matthew got to open his birthday gifts from his Grandma. He was so excited and loved everything. Then we ate dinner, which was AMAZING.

 

 

After that, lots of play time. Matthew absolutely loved playing with his Aunt and Uncle on JP's side. He even got to play with JP's Grandma for a bit.  

 

 

And nothing says Thanksgiving quite like horse rides from everyone!

 

It really was one of the best Thanksgivings I have ever had. I am so grateful to my family for letting us spend it with them. And I am even more grateful that I got to spend it with my two favorite guys! How was your Thanksgiving?

 

 

Matthew's Jeep

 

Hey Guys! This post is all about Matthew's Jeep! I got so lucky when I stumbled across a friend's post on FB about selling a Jeep Power Wheels. It was only $75, which is a huge steal! As soon as I saw it, I snatched it up. It sat at JP's house for several months waiting on us to decide what to do with it. This is what the Jeep looked like when we started.

For some reason, I forgot to take pictures until we had already started taking out parts to paint them. Oops. But, the seat and dashboard were all tan just like the steering wheel. This thing was also super dirty! I guess it had sat in her storage for quite a while. We started out by removing all the pieces that we could that would need painting. Then wiped the whole thing clean.

 

 

The next step was painting. We painted several things on here: the seat, the dashboard, the back bumper, the steering wheel and the steps on the sides. We started off by taping everything that we couldn't take off of the Jeep and removing the things we could. Then I scratched the surface of all of the pieces we were painting and JP sprayed them down with adhesion promoter. Last step was painting them all with a silver grey paint and letting them dry.

 

 

Then, we added working lights. This was so easy! We found these lights at dollar tree and they happened to fit perfectly in the front light spot. They are pretty darn bright too! Then we went to Walmart and bought red tail light tape and added it to two of the lights to make the tail lights. The lights come with an adhesive on the back already and once we attached them, they were still easy to pull the front part off and swap the batteries out.

 

 

Lastly, we added some personal touches. We had to have a license plate with Matthew's name on it of course! And then we added several decals from Jeep companies that we love. The last thing I did was add "Lil Mudbucket" to it.

 

 

So there you have it! It really took us only a few hours to make the changes to this Jeep, but it was totally worth it and Matthew was so excited when he got it on his birthday.