Come Check it Out!

Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know I have mostly finished the new blog with my bracelets for sale. I don't have any pictures yet of the burp cloths so that's next on the list to do for the site, but it's up and running and I even have a Valentine's Day special if anyone wants to get something for their precious girl for V-day! Please pass the link on to your friends if you think of anyone else who might like what I do. Thanks!
http://Teeny-Tiny-Treasures.blogspot.com

So Happy!

Good Times!

Just got back in touch with some military friends on Facebook and they had pictures. Pretty fun huh? I miss those laid back days. (Haha, never thought I'd say that my military days were laid back, but boy oh boy, they're nothing compared to having two littles to take care of 24/7! I used to sleep... :( )

I Love This Blog!

So I just found this blog that I will now be following every single day of this year (and maybe even longer, we'll see)! It's a blog called MomGenerations written by a mom of 4 boys under age 4, named Audrey. This year she is going through 365 days of mom fashion and it's such a blessing to someone like me, who has absolutely NO idea how to shop for herself. I literally cannot buy clothes for myself, I don't know what to pick up off the rack, which colors or styles look good on me, or even which stores to shop. I am so thankful to have found this blog and can't wait to shop for my first few versatile mix and match peices of clothing to improve my sad wardrobe, woohoo! Anyway, here's the blog link for those of you who might need a little mom help in the wardrobe department. Happy shopping!

http://www.momgenerations.com/blogs/audrey/

New Pics

Just some pics from the last week or so...haven't really felt like blogging much, but here's the evidence we're still kicking!

It's Official!

Well, I have bronchitis and a sinus infection, yuck! I'm sure I've had both for several weeks now but I just didn't go to the doctor. It's hard with two little ones to tote along with you to a place full of other sick people where you're supposed to be fairly quiet. John did great though, I was very impressed with his obedience and manners while we were there. Jeanine was her usual pukey but grinny self, and smiled at everyone she passed just to see if she could make them stop and talk/play with her. I am now on some strong antibiotics (which I am usually opposed to, but in this case I was all for them!) since I've had the cough for 3 weeks and the sinus congestion and infection for about a week. Nothing seemed to be resolving itself so I guess I just need a little extra help getting them both GONE. I hope to be feeling much better in a couple days once the magic starts working! Now for Isaac...he's got the cough now and I need to find him an after-hours doctor to see him this evening. Wish me luck!

Winners

And the winners are...drumroll please...
Mama K from HisHandsHisFeetToday blog, and Heather from Augusta, GA! Thanks to both of you for making the suggestion of Tiny Treasures for my new blog business! Unfortunately, the name was already taken on Blogger, BUT I decided to alter it a little bit to Teeny Tiny Treasures (even though I like the other name better, lol!) and that name worked out just fine on Blogger. Thanks again, I'll be getting in touch with you both to see which items you want; you may choose either a burp cloth, baby bracelet, or bracelet for yourself if those other items aren't needed. I'll be posting the link to my new blog soon. Thanks to everyone else for your awesome suggestions, it was really hard to choose from all the great names you sent me!

School Time

So we've been having some attitude problems with John and instead of starting off with a training session to teach him what the Bible says about having a good attitude, I was getting frustrated and disciplining him instead. I finally realized that John didn't know what God says about his attitude so he could not be expected to obey yet. This morning we sat down and had a mini Bible lesson about Attitudes, the letter A, and used Phillippians 2:14 "Do All things without grumbling or complaining." John had a great time learning his verse (which will take much longer than one morning to memorize) and we're hoping to see an improved attitude with God's word hidden in his heart. Here's a picture of his poster that we made. I wrote the words with an ink pen, showed him how to trace the letter A, and he traced the rest with a marker. Can you believe how good he did tracing!? (He's 2 and a half!) He also drew all the circles himself, what a smart boy!

A Fun Visit!

Last weekend my sister came to visit with my 7 month old neice Aubrey and I just got pictures from her (finally!). We had a lot of fun and it was so great getting to hang out together and see each other's daughters for the first time. Johnny LOVED auntie Jen and even told me the next day "I just love Auntie Jen SO much!" We tried really hard to stay UN-busy for the weekend though, preparing for an awesome season premier of '24' on Sunday night, and then more again on Monday night after she left. Saturday we just went to the mall and to Michaels and Sunday to church. Other than than it was a lot of relaxing! Here's some fun pictures of the girls and of Johnny and Jen.

Having fun with Auntie Jen the night before she left

Holding Aubrey and loving every minute of it!

Isn't Aubrey the prettiest baby?!

Name That Blog Contest!

I need help coming up with a name for my new blog, which will showcase the items I will be making and selling! It will start off with just baby bracelets and cute cloth diapers (for use as burp rags)with ribbon embellishments, but there may be more products in the future.
If you suggest the blog name that I choose and have a baby girl, you will win your pick of either a bracelet or a cute cloth diaper burp rag. If you have a boy, definitely a burp rag, lol! If you don't have kids, you can take your pick (to use as a gift) or I can make you a bracelet for yourself. Please help! Just make a comment below and I'll announce what it'll be in about a week. I'm really looking forward to getting started selling the things I'm making, it's so fun!

By the way...I don't want my blog title to include the word BLING. SO many WAHMs (work at home moms) who sell their own creations use that word! I want something unique...

Chug! Chug! Chug!

Jeanine was so hungry this evening before bed that she was trying really hard to get at the formula pitcher on the counter. Isaac held it up and she kept trying to eat it! Very cute little girl, hehe!

Milk Baby

So I'm making my final donation of breastmilk in the morning. I'm a little sad to be done nursing and then again, it's all over! No more pumping, washing the pump, or having the entire top half of my freezer taken up by milk. This is my new milk baby, K (first initial only to protect her identity), and her mommy will be picking up my last stash of about 250 ounces in the morning. She's driving all the way from Portland to pick it up, so it really is liquid gold to this family! Praise God for finding a good family for this milk and please pray for baby K also, she just came down with RSV and is very ill. She could use your prayers and God's healing hand.

Sleep

Praise God! She slept last night and I got 7 uninterrupted hours of sleep. Ahhhh, bliss! Now I feel human again and not just like a crazed puke-covered mommy, lol! Looks like we're all on the mend now, thanks Lord!

Hooray for MucinexDM!

I know, I'm weird, but if I find something that works I like to share it with others! I've had a cough for almost 2 weeks now. A yucky cough, a strong cough, and a really nasty mucousy cough, icky! It finally got so bad that last night and this morning, I was coughing so hard that I gagged and threw up. I decided it was time for a serious remedy to this problem (as the cough drops seemed to do NOTHING for this type of thing) so I went to the store to get some MucinexDM. You know the stuff. If you've ever seen the commercials with the gross dirty little green booger-men that move in to your lungs, you know exactly what type of cough I have, and the best medicine around to help fight it off! I took one early this evening and was virtually cough free the entire night, and when I finally did get around to it, it ended up being quite...um...productive. I know, it's gross to talk about, but I feel so much better with that stuff in my system and can't wait to get rid of it once and for all over the next couple days. Thanks to the meds that kill little green booger-men!
Oh yeah, and Jeanine seems to be doing much better tonight than last night. I think we (ok, I) got no more than 4 hours of sleep last night since the poor kidlet just needed to be held in order to rest, but tonight she went down without a fuss at 7pm and just had her dreamfeed at 10:30pm and went right back in her bed without a problem. We'll see what happens after I get the kitchen cleaned up and climb into bed. Somehow I think her telepathy will kick in and she'll wake right up and decide to cry for 6 hours, but maybe not, lol! Thank you all for your prayers, she is getting better very quickly! (And I'm sure I'm the only mother who'll ever put this in writing for the rest of the world to see, but I actually LIKE it when my kids are pretty sick because it's when they're at their cuddliest and need me the most. It's no fun caring for the snot and the other gross things about illnesses, but the cuddles are great!)

Prayer

Please please please pray for 2 things:
1) Jeanine woke up sick again this morning with a bad cold. Tonight after bed she woke at 9pm unable to breathe, coughing, gagging, sputtering, crying, choking, and throwing up. The poor thing was a complete wreck and it took me over 40 minutes to get her calm, suck the snot out of her nose, get her calm again, comfort and hug her, and get her back in bed with her top half elevated on a Boppy pillow and a regular pillow! If that trend continues, tonight I'll get a total of about 4 hours of sleep, lol! Please just pray that our poor sweet girl will be on the mend quickly and will get the sleep she needs to recuperate. We know God will heal if it's His will.

(Did I mention that I am just plain ANGRY about infant cold medicine being recalled off the shelves? There are plenty of crazy people in this world (doctors, some mothers) who will say that it doesn't make a difference to a baby and it doesn't improve their symptoms but those people are NUTS! I am so so mad that one or two parents who overdosed and harmed their poor children with cold meds made it impossible for the rest of the children in America to get relief from their awful cold symptoms. I went to Walmart, Target, and the grocery store and of course, found no solution to make my daughter feel better besides Saline drops, which we've already tried and which don't work. Grrrrr. Hmmm, maybe you should pray for my attitude as well! I try so hard to be grateful for what we do have, but it's very hard when Big Brother is always intervening and making things just a little harder for everyone, lol!)

2) Pray for Isaac big time! He is currently going through some of the hardest days of his life during the academy. They are very long, and very physically and mentally exhausting. The academy started 1 week ago, and now he's got 9 more weeks to go! Please pray that God would supply the perseverance and strength to accomplish this task and that he would not only pass but do extremely well in his class. In this type of work it would be easy for him to get discouraged with all that is required of him and we just pray that he can strive for excellence throughout his time there, and even be a light to the other trainees. Isaac will also be staying at the academy overnights during the work week until he graduates so that he can keep focused and study as much as he needs without having to drive back and forth or have a 2 year old asking "why?" 15,000 times each evening, lol! This will be hard on John as he doesn't understand why daddy isn't home each evening, and hard on mommy too!

Thanks everyone, we know you will hold our family up in prayer during this tough time and that God will guide us through it and show us what we need to do.

Purging Stuff

Well we've decided there are several things we can DEFINITELY live without if/when we have another baby; baby gear takes up so much space! Here's what we're getting rid of. Anyone in the area, let me know if you might want any of it! It's all on craigslist but I'd rather sell it to people we know since we keep our things in excellent shape. I'll take things off of here if they sell.

Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Infant Swing ($40). John got motion sick, Jeanine didn't like it either. Doesn't look like good odds for the next baby, lol! It swings side to side and front to back, $100 new!

Baby Einstein Activity & Play Gym ($25 OBO). Jeanine and John DID both like this, but it takes up precious space in our house. We have lots of blankets and infant toys for tummy time anyway so we'll be ok without it, lol! ($40 new!)

JJ Cole Bundle Me for infant carseat or stroller ($20) I really thought I'd use this since we're in WA and it's so cold here but we have so many cute blankets that we use and I've only used it twice in the stroller. Guess it's ok though, I got it off craigslist too! ($40 new!)

Fisher Price Infant Bounce N Play Activity Dome/Travel Bed ($20). We really wanted to do some camping and outdoor stuff but it never happened. This would have been great if we had more time as a family to be outdoors! It zips closed with mesh over baby to keep bugs and weather off. (Over $50 new!)

New Hobby

So I started making bracelets, mostly for babies and kids. If you know anyone who might want one let me know! I can pretty much use any bead colors and make any size. They're $12 each! If this takes off I'll probably create a blog with the things that I make and some things I have in stock so I'm kind of excited to have something fun to do these days. I just can't think of a name for such a blog so I need ideas! This is the first one I made for Jeanine to match a cute purple outfit she has.

Hoodlum

2 New Things

So Jeanine got a glow worm for Christmas and is still madly in love with him. If she's crying inconsolably, all I have to do is get the glow worm and she calms down and talks to him. Today I got her a new sippy cup (her first!) and she loves that too. She held it all afternoon and managed to get it in her mouth a few times, though the majority of her sips came from me holding it. Aren't these so cute?!

Hugs

When Jeanine woke up today John wanted to climb in the crib with her and give her some love. It was so cute, I made him stay there to get some pictures!Hmm, I think I like my brother mom!

Chubs

Well, it's official...my little girl ISN'T little, haha! Jen visited this weekend with Aubrey (who is over 2 months older than Jeanine) and Jeanine weighs half a pound more than Aubrey! Introducing Jeanine...weighing in at 16lbs and turning 5 months old tomorrow...

Long Long Week

Well, where do I start? I've been sick all week with a cough and sore throat, and it seems to be getting worse. Luckily the children are still well and we continue to pray that Isaac stays well too! Wednesday I finally called Kathy (my MIL) and she graciously came to take care of the kids while I slept for the afternoon. After she left, the police came through the neighborhood ordering us to evacuate due to likely flooding from the nearby river. It had been raining for 3 days straight and conditions were terrible outside. Isaac left immediately to stay with a friend because he had to be on time to the academy this morning, regardless of the situation at home. I finally decided to leave (after newscastors were broadcasting from my subdivision and strongly urging us to leave) around 7pm and got out about 7:45pm. We stayed at Jim and Kathy's up in Shoreline for the night and I was able to come home around noon today. The river came within 6 inches of flooding which is a scary thought since we're only 1/4 mile from it! I drove this evening to the grocery store and had to take the road that runs parallel to the river and it was actually scary, the water was very close to the edge of the road and the trail for fishermen and joggers was completely gone.
I've very excited for tomorrow because my sister is coming to visit with the baby! We haven't seen each other's babies yet so it'll be so much fun to hang out this weekend. She's already in Washington but tonight she is staying with her friend Shilo, who recently moved up here from CA. I hope everyone else is well and I'll post some pictures from this coming weekend after Jen leaves.

Cutie Patootie

Isn't she?!

Swimming

John loves to 'swim' in the bath. He always calls me in there to show me how he can kick his legs and float, and even blow bubbles in the water. So cute!

Playing with Cars

John and Jeanine playing with cars together...John thought that was pretty cool and really wanted to share his cars with her!

Jeanine's First Food...

...and last, for a while at least! I tried giving her sweet potatoes that I made and she didn't mind the taste, but she's not ready for solids yet. She still has the tongue thrust reflex so not much got past that crazy tongue of hers, which was busy pushing all the food out, not getting it in! We'll just wait until she's 6 or 8 months and try again. She's going through a growth spurt though, and when I weighed her 2 days ago she was over 15 lbs! The bad cold/flu she had definitely didn't make her any worse for the wear, lol!

John liked the idea of feeding Jeanine real food and watched closely the whole time. I had to tell him today that he wasn't allowed to feed her himself though, just in case.

How to Get Rid of Your Baby's Eczema

Buy some expensive olive oil, slather her up, rinse and repeat! Just kidding about the rinse and repeat, but yes, we're rubbing olive oil on the kids to keep as much moisture on their skin as possible. Poor babies have bad eczema and I guess the olive oil locks in the moisture. So far it's working, so I guess my crazy book about natural cures knows what it's talking about.