5 Question Friday and Happy New Year!

1. How long does your Christmas tree stay up?

Our tree came down the very next day after Christmas this year. We needed the space for toys!
2. Do you have plans for New Year's Eve?
We do! We're heading out to the woods!
3. Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
Actually, nothing set in stone. I'm just looking forward to all of the things that 2011 will bring us.
4. How did you spend New Year's Eve when you were younger?
Younger as in 5? In bed.
Younger as in 21? Out with friends!

5. What was the best way you've ever spent New Year's Eve?

Some of my best New Year's Eves have been spent with close friends just relaxing at their house. I did, however, have one NYE where we went away with a bunch of friends to Baltimore and that was really fun.

The Phrase That Pays

Braydon is finally starting to put together his words to make phrases. I was really worried for awhile that he wasn't on track for speech, but he's more than  made up for it lately in my opinion. Even though he's still not speaking very clearly, he's working on it! I also think now that we've dropped the Nuk we should see an even bigger difference soon! Here are some of the words/phrases that are his favorite:

Where's Dada?
Dada home?
We're home!
Bye Steeler!
I wanna go!
I go!
And Mama/Dada/Steeler go?
See ya!
I want some.
Yo Gabba Gabba!
Fresh Beats
Dino Dan
Done
Stuck
Yea
Go Go Go!

Again, these are just a few that he says a lot and they're not 100% clear but I know what he's saying!

Say Goodbye to Nuk - Day 2

I have to admit, the day went much better than I expected. He woke up around 5:30 this morning asking for it, but I reminded him that it was gone now and took him back into bed with me. He fell back asleep until about 7:30 and then we got up for the day. He didn't ask for it once...all day.

I was really impressed.

I just put him down to bed now and he's currently up there yelling. He's not asking for his nuk, he's just sort of yelling. This is what he did for his nap yesterday before he passed out.

It seems like he was ready to let go of the nuk, it's just that we weren't. I hope this lasts!

27 Weeks Pregnant

How far along: 27 Weeks...Third Tri Baby!!


Baby's size: An Eggplant...about 2lbs now.

Symptoms: Backaches, night sweats, bottomless pit for a stomach.
Sleep: It's been interesting. I'm having a hard time rolling over and what not so I wake up quite frequently
Maternity clothes: All.the.way.

Best moment this week: Christmas Cookies and very little guilt.

Movement: I keep getting kicked in my butt. It's a very interesting feeling!

Food cravings: Of course cereal: Apple Cinnamon Cherrios this week.

Gender: Still a boy!
What I miss: Normal shirts. Even my maternity shirts feel short on me...
What I'm looking forward to: Waddling. Ok, not really. I'm really looking forward to not running to the bathroom every hour!

Weekly Wisdom (aka what I learned this week): I'm totally ready to get this nursery in gear. We got it painted last night!

Say Goodbye to Nuk - Day 1

Ah, the life of a teacher. There's nothing like having the week off between Christmas and the New Year. I'm loving every second of every day...wait...

What's that?

Is that the sound of Karen doing something completely absurd on her time off?

Why, I think it is...

I think it's the sound a screaming child asking over and over again where his "guk" (this is what B calls his nuk) is!

You might be asking yourself why I've decided to take on this challenge. Mainly, it's because I'm sick of people giving me flack about my child relying on a pacifier to fall asleep at night or in the car or maybe it's the sideways glances I'm sick of getting when I give my child a pacifier after he's fell down and crying.

As a mother, we get tend to get judged by all sorts of people when we're making our parenting decisions. For some reason, the pacifier is one that people tend to be the most outspoken about.

"His teeth won't grow in right."

His teeth are just fine, mind you.

"He'll develop an oral fixation."

I'll fix that with lollipops and then we'll see how bad his teeth get.

"Do you want him to be 4 walking around with that thing?"

No, but better that than a nipple.

Oops, there I go judging...

Anyway, I suppose it is an appropriate time to take the darn thing away. With our new little one on the way I'd like to get rid of it and make it clear to him that only babies have nuks and that he's a big boy and no longer is in need of one.

We were down to only one nuk anyway and it was pretty banged up. Yesterday he actually poked a hole in the tip with his thumb. He was no longer about to really suck on it so it just kept falling out of his mouth. This morning I looked at him and said, "Braydon this thing is gross. You should just throw it in the trash."

And that's what he did.

Just like that, he walked over to the trash can, and threw it away.

SUCCESS!

For about an hour.

He started to ask for it and I had to remind him that he threw it away in the trash and that he was a big boy now.

Mind you, I began to panic and went to Kmart to pick up a spare just in case I (I mean he) couldn't handle the torment.

He asked for it a few more times, but I just kept reminding him about the trash. He attempted to get it out of the trash, but thankfully it must have fallen to the bottom and there was no way to retrieve it.

I was worried for naptime, but decided that we could do it without the nuk and put him down. He preceeded to cry for about 10 minutes and fell right to sleep! YAY!

When he woke up, he asked where Dada was, and then asked where "guk" was and I said to him, "You know where it is." He responded with "trash" and acted like he was throwing it away again.

Again, YAY!

Tonight he kept asking for it over and over and explained to him over and over that he threw it in the trash, he's a big boy, yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill. When I laid him down tonight in his crib I was sure we would have a battle, but he's up there right now, not making a peep. Let's see how the rest of the night goes...

I would have to say that Day = SUCCESS! :) Wish us luck!

I just had to share this picture. It's snowing here and Braydon wanted to swing in the snow!

As The Snow Falls...

We've just been hanging around the house organizing all of the chaos of the last few days. Sadly, our tree is already gone, thrown off to the side of the house, awaiting it's destiny with the trash man.

The space where our tree once occupied is now filled with generous amounts of new toys, all for our little man. There are lots of tractors. tools, wheelbarrows, puzzles, books...

and fun things to throw.

I'm loving having this day after Christmas to have my husband home. It's even better that it's started to snow outside and I got to enjoy to look of anticipation on his face waiting for it to come.

Later tonight we'll head out into the cold and play but until then we'll be huddled up, watching Harry Potter, eating our dog bones and sipping on hot beverages.

It's time to relax!

Oh, I got my Rebel for Christmas. I'll be taking a class to help me use it this week, but all I can say for now is that it's a million times better than my point and shoot!

26 Weeks

Just look at the difference!

Thinking Back

One of the common themes that has been arising lately in conversations between my husband and myself is about how fast this past year has gone. It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating Braydon's first birthday and coming up in a month is his 2nd. One of the things I love doing around the holidays is taking the time to reflect over the last year and plan for the upcoming new year.

This past year has been filled with many ups and downs, as always. We got to watch our son grow up into a little boy with a personality that screams for attention. He's loves being the center of everyone's focus and will put on a show for anyone who will watch him.

We took some time to work on things around our house. Dustin refinished our basement so we had plenty of room for all of the extra toys and a special space for our family to enjoy each other. Our outside patio was expanded to add comfort to our yard. I worked hard on keeping my garden weed free and filled with living flowers that would add to the peace of our outside space.

We also decided to create a new life and in about 3 months we'll get to meet our newest addition.

Needless to say, we've been busy.

This next year will bring us new life, more home projects (coughneedtostartnurserycough), and lots of new friendships and love. I've decided to once again not make a new year's resolution. As I've said in the past, I never really stick to them. I do, however, plan on continuing to live my life to the fullest and remember to live in the moment. A few things that make me who I am: (in no paticular order):

Reading
Watching movies
Getting my craft on
Getting back into my old workout routine as well as my old jeans (after April)
Blogging
Marriage
Motherhood

I may not be around too much during the next few weeks but I will return with renewed spirit! Enjoy your family, friends and whatever traditions await you!

I iz Crafty

I got a little cravin' for some crafts this week and put a little feeler out on Twitter asking for some crafty blogs. Morgan over at Mrs. Priss helped me out and sent me to One Pretty Thing where I found this!

Here's my version!

It's still drying and edges need trimmed and hopefully it doesn't fall apart, but I'm excited to try some different fabric combinations. I wish I would have started this sooner because I could have made some sweet Christmas gifts!

I'm thinking of doing a giveaway so stay tuned!

In Pregnancy news...

I had an appointment today and our little guy's heart beat was a solid 131. The Midwife said everything looked great and I made all of my appointments for the next 3 months!

Here's my 25 week pic!

I Made It To 50!

If you look to your right ---------->
You'll notice I made it 50 books in 2010! I finished #50 this past weekend!



















This is the first book in a 3 part trilogy. I just picked up


















in the Library today and plan to work on that this week!

I'm so proud of myself for reaching my goal. Orginally, I thought I could make it to 75, but that was a stretch when you're chasing a toddler and husband around most of the time. I'm going to continue my list for the rest of this year, but I'm not sure I'll make a goal number for next year. I may just see how many I can read!

I hope you all reach your goal too!

Freezing Our Bazingas Off

My mother and I thought it would be fun to take Braydon to one of our local theme parks to see the lights. We went early when it was still in the 40s in the hopes that we would get to ride most of the rides before it got too cold. We didn't make it too long after sunset, but we had fun while we were there!

This was his favorite. He was way serious about it. Check out the vid at the end!

Mommy and B

After freezing at the park, we thought it might be a good idea to go to Friendly's for milkshakes!

 Nana and B. He's saying cheese but of course not looking!

This is a cute video of the bulldozers. He must have shook those things the entire time!

5 Question Friday

Since I had so much fun last week!

1. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?


Both, actually. We have Christmas with D's dad on Christmas Eve and open presents there and then we open presents again with my family and his mom on Christmas Day. It's a whole lotta present opening!


2. What is your favorite Christmas cookie (or candy)?

Well, my mom makes these stellar chocolate cookies that I can devour in .8 seconds, but I usually make my S'mores Sandwich cookies around the holiday and those are bangin' too. My Aunts have an entire weekend devoted to cookie baking and make about 15 different kinds of cookies and they're all amazing. I can't pick just one!


3. What's the worst Christmas gift you've ever received?

One year I recieved a nightshirt with weiner dogs on it. I think that qualifies.


4. Christmas song that you love?

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" LOVE IT!


5. How many trees do you put up?

We put up just one, although at the end of this season I'm going to get a small one for the boys next year to decorate with all of their ornaments they make at the sitters! They need their own little tree for them!

Our First "Official" Haircut

Yes, we've cut B's hair before, but this is the first time we actually took him somewhere to get it cut.

What are you going to do to me?

Here is our cut...from hehind, lol!

This is a little video from when we got home. I couldn't get him to say "Yes," even though, ironically, it's his favorite word. I did get him to admit to having a girlfriend named Lilah. She's a little girl that my Sister-In-Law babysits for and Braydon loves. 

24 Weeks

Not much to say this week. Feeling very good. The baby kicks like crazy, especially after my cereal fix. My weight gain is right on track where I was with Braydon. And there you have it! I can't believe I'm this far along!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Ok, so there was no blood involved in my Sunday, I just like that song and it's Sunday so they went together.

Anyway...

Today was one of the days where I feel accomplished. I cleaned, grocery shopped, baked not only banana bread, but made brownies...but mostly, I got my husband to hang our flatscreen on our bedroom wall. That, my friends, is like amazing.

Our previous tv was a big honkin' old thing that sat on top of my dresser and took up way too much space in our room. For awhile now I've wanted something that took up less space and when all of those black Friday deals rolled around, I couldn't resist. I bought a small tv and a wall mount. It's only a 22 incher, but we really don't watch too much tv up there anyway so I didn't want to spend a ton. I put our bookcase underneath and moved my dresser to the other wall. I wish I would have taken some before pics, but I totally forgot.

Here's what it looks like now.

I hate that the wires hang down, but it will have to do. I'm not spending the money to get them put behind the wall. 

The bonus is that this bookcase came from the new nursery so that's one thing I got moved out of that cluttered room. Now I just have to rehouse a chest and a few other small items before we can paint! YAY!

An extra bonus is that the Steelers are going to kick some Raven arse tonight! Here We Go!

O Christmas Tree

Last night we went and got our tree. We wanted to do one of those sleigh rides where you be all manly and chop down your own tree, but we realized how much it cost and there's a nursery right up the road with precut trees and that was a little more up our alley.

I love getting out all of our decorations and spending time decorating the tree. This year my mom came over and we ordered some pizza. There was also a really quick visit from Uncle Ben but that was because he wanted help slaughtering the squirrels he had shot earlier in the day.

Welcome to my life.

Seriously.

Anyway, I wanted to show you some of my favorite ornaments. When I was growing up, my Nana used to buy me an ornament every Thanksgiving. By the time I was 18, I had enough to fill a small tree. Here are a few of my favorites from when I was little.

My mom has continued the tradition with Braydon and now he has 2 ornaments on the tree this year! I also caved and bought him an ornament. I also picked one out for our new little one.

Here's for our newest little guy, since he's still a tiny peanut. 

Braydon's nickname at the sitter is Sweet Pea so I thought this was fitting.

I didn't really get any good shots of B putting ornaments on the tree because he didn't really seem to care, lol, and amazingly enough he hasn't touched it since it's been up. 

Today we also received our letter from Santa (sent courtesy of our amazing sitter) and it's hanging on the fridge. B gets really excited to get mail, so that was a big deal for him! 

We're officially in the Christmas spirit now!

*On a side note, just to make you aware, I had no part in gutting those squirrels. That is totally the H. He loves that crap! Oh, and Ben planned on eating the squirrels..I wonder how that went?!

5 Question Friday

I decided to join in with My Little Life's 5 Question Friday! I figured it's Friday, why the heck not answer some fun questions!

1. What's on the top of your holiday wish list and why?!

source

Ok, so this is no surprise, seriously. I've wanted of of these for a long time. I have the Canon Powershot and that works well but I think my pictures are just missing that "crisp" factor. I also want to take a photography class so I can learn how to use it so I can take really cute pictures of my children!

2. What is your favorite Christmas gift from the past?

Hmmm, good question. I had to skip over this one orginally because I couldn't really think of anything and honestly I'm struggling now. I've gotten some really nice jewelry in the past and some other items that I still use, but I can't think of something I would call my "favorite!" That's sad, isn't it!?

3. If you had life to do over, what would you be when you grow up?

I would totally be a marine biologist. I always wanted to work with dolphins and whales, although I have no desire to eaten by a killer whale.

4. When do you put up your tree?
Tonight baby.

5. What is your favorite Holiday?

I think probably Christmas. I love all of the build up, I love all of the giving, I love all of the songs, I just love it all in general! I'm looking forward to it this year!

The Name Game

We've spent a lot of time playing the name game this time around. Even though we still have awhile to go, we're looking to get something set in stone pretty soon. Here is a look at our ongoing list on the fridge. You can see my mother has added in her thoughts. I will tell you that one of these names has pretty much already been chosen, but we need to have the "final name discussion." Sounds scary, right? I know I'm scared!

And for good measure, here I am at 23 weeks! Whoa baby!