Resolutions...

So I admit we are a little behind in making our resolutions for the new year, but better late than not at all, right? :) I actually have been thinking a lot about resolutions this whole month, so I haven't completely put them on the back burner. I usually start out well, but as the year progresses... well you know what happens. So this year, I thought I'd write a monthly blog about my progress for a few of my goals, to keep me going. I figured if I knew I needed to write a blog post about my goals, I'd have an incentive to work on them. :)
Every year I feel like I make the same goals... work out, eat better, go to bed earlier, blah blah blah. Those are still on my resolution list, but for this blog post I'm going to focus on just these 3 goals:

1. Complete a project every month
2. Cook something new every month
3. Do a photo shoot every month

Hopefully what I've heard is true... practice makes perfect... I'll learn more and get better in these areas. :)

I've recently found this blog that I love reading, called Enjoying the Small Things. I love the pictures, I love her optimism and her writing and her stories from her life. I was reading one of her blogs from awhile ago and read this,

"No one really does it all. We all just try like heck to prioritize, be with our kids, fulfill our hobbies, make a living, etc. We all do it differently, and every time you see a mama shining in one area, I promise you, there's shadowy areas that she'll need to tend to later. And I love the fact that every day is a clean slate. Even on the busiest, craziest days, there are small fueling moments that allow the bulk of life to rise to the top."

I thought about this as I was setting my goals for the year. I see others and think wow, they're so good at keeping their house clean, or making clothes and crafts, or actually starting businesses, or inviting family and friends over for dinners and being more social, etc. I find myself wanting to be like them. But I can't do it all all the time, I can try little by little to improve in certain areas though.

So now on to my January goals...

1. Complete a project. I've actually completed 3 and a half projects this month... go me! :) Scott got me a sewing machine for Christmas and so I was able to first make this jean skirt for Claire out of a pair of baby jeans.


I'm not sure how long they'll last before the stitching totally falls apart, and if you look really close you would totally see how uneven and funky they are, but I don't care. I made something for my baby! :)
Actually all 3 of my projects are for my baby. The second thing I made was a crinkle toy. She loved it for a total of 1 day... now she'll grab it occasionally, but it's not as fascinating to her. :)


The third project I finished was a bow and headband holder for all of Claire's bows. :) I just got a frame from d.i., glued on fabric and ribbon and screwed in some hooks into the sides. Now I just have to remember to actually put headbands and bows on Claire. She usually only wears them to church. :)


2. Cook something new. So I have to admit, I'm not the best cook and it's not something I really love doing either. I enjoy cooking with people, especially with Scott. It's fun being in the kitchen together making dinner or some goody. It's just not something I would do as a past-time by myself. I would like to learn how to make some new dishes though so we're not always making the same things. However, this month I have to admit, since I put it off until today I just kept it simple. So last minute I found a quick easy recipe for peanut butter fudge. It was a fun yummy ending to our FHE tonight. :)


3. Do a photo shoot. Scott had a friend from work who asked if I'd take pictures of their family for them. It was fun learning and practicing on people other than my family, although somewhat scarier too. You can look here though if you want to see the pictures from that photo shoot. By the way, since I'll be wanting to do a photo shoot a month, I need people willing to let me take pictures of them... let me know if you want to help me out with that! :)

Well that's it for this month. Wow, this is a long post! Usually Scott's the writer and I just post pictures. Hope I didn't bore you, but this is basically for my own benefit. Thanks for reading though if you did. :)

Sick Baby

This last week Claire has just about had all she can take of these...

She's gotten so mad at me this last week (for trying to make it easier for her to breathe!). She's done everything in her power to keep them away from her, crying, screaming, wiggling, shaking her head, kicking and pushing me away... but I always know she's forgiven me cuz she still manages to give me the best smiles afterward. :)

And today she actually took her naps like normal so the end of this cold is in sight (I hope)! :)

A Typical Day

I thought it'd be interesting to write a blog about our typical day, more for our sake than for our readers. Claire's schedule is going to be changing soon I'm sure, she'll either start taking shorter or fewer naps and our activities will probably change and so it'll be fun to look back and see how we spent our time at this stage in her life. :)

7:15 Scott comes home from work

7:30-8:00 Claire wakes up and Scott plays with her for a bit to let me sleep in a little longer.

8:00 I get up and feed Claire

8:20 Scott goes to bed

8:30-9:00 I try to get Claire to play in her jumper while I eat breakfast and then pump. If she doesn't want to play in her jumper, I usually wait to do those things until she goes down for a nap. And then I'll sing silly songs with her and play with her in my lap instead.

9:15-9:30 Claire gets grumpy and I put her down for her first nap

9:30-11:30 Claire usually sleeps the whole 2 hours and I get things done... showering, cleaning, sometimes a work out on the wii, sometimes I work on a project or craft (at the moment I'm working on crocheting a little purse) or on my really lazy days I end up playing on the computer the whole time and wonder why she's already awake. I try to remember to eat lunch before she wakes up too. :)

11:30-12:00 Feed Claire and get her dressed.

12:00-1:00 Play. I usually put her on the floor with all her toys and try to give her as much tummy time as she'll let me. Now that she's figured out how to roll from her tummy to her back she'll flip as soon as she's put down so I have to lay with her and keep flipping her back. Sometimes we'll go out and run errands or visit family but since it's so cold outside we usually stay inside where it's warm.

1:00 Claire starts getting grumpy so I put her down for her second nap. This nap varies, but it's usually about an hour or an hour and a half long. While she sleeps I'll try to do whatever I didn't get done the first time.

2:30 Claire wakes up and I feed her.

3:00 Scott usually wakes up around this time and gets ready for the day/night.

3:00-5:00 Depending on the day and if Scott has class, we'll either play until he leaves for class or go and run errands if he doesn't have class.

5:00 Scott goes to class, Claire goes down for another nap. I usually relax and play on the computer or watch a show (right now I've been watching Eureka), and I have a pre dinner snack. (If Scott doesn't have class we'll usually start making dinner together around 5:30)

6:00 I maybe start on dinner, Claire usually wakes up and I feed her first. I nurse her and then feed her a little solids. (If Scott didn't have class we'll eat all together at the table, Claire in her bumbo.)

7:00 Scott gets home from class and he usually finishes making what I started, or makes it all while I give Claire a bath, or plays with Claire so I can finish making dinner.

7:30 We eat dinner and then I feed Claire

8:00 I put Claire to bed. I put her pajamas on, read her a story, rock her and sing a song and lay her down and leave the room. I'll sometimes need to go back in after to return her pacifier to her mouth, and pat her until she's calm. She usually falls asleep pretty quickly though.

8:30-9:45 Cuddle time with Scott (love this time!)

9:45-10:10 Pray, read scriptures together and make Scott's lunch.

10:10 Scott goes to work and I get ready for bed. Scott and I text each other a little before I fall asleep.

11:00 Sleep! :)

and because every blog post needs a picture...

Please Mom...Can I Have Some More?

A couple days after Christmas we decided to feed Claire her first bit of rice cereal. As you can see, we think she liked it! :)

fiddler on the roof

i love traditions. there is just something about them that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. and, in my opinion, there is absolutely no better time for traditions then Christmas. i look back fondly at the many Christmas traditions of my family - pizza on Christmas eve, calling your spot around the tree, reading 'the polar express', and many more. i was saddened to recently learn that these "traditions" are only a few years old and that they don't date back to the dawn of time as i imagined them to. but traditions have to start sometime, and what better time to start new traditions then now with our small, but growing family.

unfortunately, one growing tradition for us seems to be working on Christmas eve. amber worked til 6 and i had to go in at 10 that night and wouldn't get off til 9 in the morning. this meant a Christmas day wasted away sleeping instead of with my family, which did not sound fun at all. as soon as amber got off work, we headed down to my brother's house for dinner (we had pizza by the way, so tradition = check). we then headed home to squeeze in a few more traditions before i had to get off to work.
we gathered our young family around the tree and started our Christmas by reading luke chapter 2, the story of the birth of our Savior. we then read part of 'the polar express'. we then opened one present each. and between the activities, we made sure to sing a Christmas carol or two. it was a wonderful evening. we then put claire to sleep because word on the street was that santa was on his way.
well i was off to work, but fortunately was back home 30 minutes later because my bosses love me. so having actually slept during the night, i was ready for a day full of Christmas fun. presents were a bit different this year. instead of trying to surprise each other, we sort of just told each other what we wanted, in some cases helping to actually buy it. while this did eliminate most of the surprise factor, we knew for sure that we'd like everything we got. :) among other presents, i got some movies, a video game, and a filing cabinet! (i'm so ocd.) amber got a tripod for her camera, a knitting and crocheting kit, and a sewing machine! (so she could, to quote amber, "get her craft on!") and claire got a mobile, a tray for her bumbo, and a couple bowls and spoons to go along with her brand new box of rice cereal! we are so excited to feed her solid-ish foods for the first time.
after presents, we headed over to amber's parents' house for Christmas dinner. we were joined by daniel, amber's sister lindy and her family of 9, and heidi, who brought along not 1, but 2 boys to dinner. what a player. :) it was a wonderful dinner, followed by plenty of games and good times. later that evening we headed back to my brother's house for some cake and ice cream to celebrate my niece's Christmas birthday.
this Christmas marked our 4th Christmas as a couple, but this was our first as a family. i'm sure our beautiful daughter claire won't remember a single moment of this Christmas, but amber and i have found so much joy in sharing every little tradition with her.
tradition!

"there was ten in the bed and the little one said..."

what kind of parents would we be if we didn't boast of every little thing our little girl did? :)

our little claire is discovering all the little noises she can make. she just loves sitting and talking to herself. she also has recently discovered her mouth, so everything she can pick up heads straight there. she loves sucking on her fist and it is amazing how far she can get it in her mouth. :)

and now, for claire's latest trick...

amber had tried for days to get a video of her rolling over, but the stars were never quite aligned right. but on this day, she was a rolling machine. she seriously rolled over 5 or 6 times in a row as we were trying to take this video. as soon as we put her on her stomach, she was on her back again. you can see at the beginning that i had to force her not to roll over til we were ready to record it. :) we love that she's learned that if she throws that little arm of hers in the air, her momentum takes her over. this will not help with tummy time. :)

and just for a good laugh... :)

Feeling Crafty?

So every once in a while I just get that urge to make something or be crafty in some way. A couple weeks ago Scott and I were talking about some wall decorations for Claire's room. We could have bought something, but figured we could save money by making something ourselves. Plus, it would be something fun to do together and to pass time while Claire's napping. So we decided to paint our own canvas pictures. :) We bought the canvas at Joann's for like 4 dollars each, bought some paint and brushes and went to work!

We drew the pictures of the animals using pictures online as guides but then changing them a little more to how we liked.

We cut them out, traced them onto the canvas, painted them, and outlined them with a sharpie

Voila! The first finished project! :)

I didn't take pictures of the rest, but you get the idea...

I like how they turned out, I hope Claire enjoys looking at them! :)

And speaking of crafts... Every Christmas since we got married (so this is only the third) we've put up an ornament with a family picture in it. We thought it'd be a fun tradition and we could see our family grow with our ornaments. The last two years we bought ornaments and just put a picture in them. This year I decided to put together my own ornament. It was a little more difficult and didn't quite turn out exactly how I wanted, but I think it'll work. :)

I just got a clear plastic ornament from Michaels, put some red berries and our picture inside (tricky business!) and put little snowflake stickers on the outside and a ribbon on top. :)

Now that I'm done with these I need a new project...I'm thinking maybe crib bedding to match the canvas pictures or learning how to crochet a hat for Claire...I don't know yet. :)