Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is having a great New Years Eve! Donnie and I are over at my parents, so I'm taking advantage of the computer.

So I have a question for everyone. When Josiah was born, Donnie had the honor of cutting the imbecile cord. Then they gave us the scissors as a keepsake. They are still covered in blood, and have been sitting in a cabinet for the past three months.

Now I think this is all really gross, and I'm wanting to toss them. So what do you all think. Should we keep the scissors or throw them away? And if we do keep them, what do we do with them?

Gift

As many of you know, Donnie collects transformers. Seeing that his dad has so many, we knew we had to get the peanut one. So last week for Christmas the peanut got his very first transformer. Meet Softimus Prime. (and yes...he does transform!)

Too Funny

The other night I came into the living room and found this:
Please note that he is laying in the babies boppy with the babies blanket, and laying on top of the babies book. Too funny!

Christmas Part 2

On Christmas Eve Donnie and I traveled from West Virgina to Ohio to visit my side of the family. Christmas morning we opened presents, and I have to say it was very fun with the peanut there.

My mom and dad gave the peanut a GIANT care bear (I love care bears) and a snowman bib. I have the say that the bib did come in very handy.

After opening presents we headed to my uncle Randy's house for Christmas lunch. I was most excited when I found out my cousin Sarah had got Clue for Christmas! I LOVE that game! My grandma was able to make it over to Randy's and it was great to have her there. I think she loved seeing her great grandson!

Thanks to my cousins Preston and Jackie the peanut had the cutest Christmas sweater to wear. He looked like a little man!

Christmas Part 1

This past Saturday Donnie and I headed down to West Virgina to visit Donnie's dad. This is the first time that Donnie's dad was going to see the peanut so we knew it was going to be very exciting for everyone. Not only did we have the peanut with us, but we also had the pug. I will share our trip in pictures.

From Detroit to West Virgina is about 8 hours, and having a pug and a peanut with us we made many stops on the way. Surprisingly very few places we stopped had baby changing tables. Changing diapers in the car proved a bit hard to do. The peanut did really well in the car. We won't talk about how the pug did.

Donnie's dad was SO happy to see his grandson. (and his grandpug) He could not take his eyes off of the peanut. His dad held him every chance he got!

His dad was even happy to see Frankie. Frankie LOVES his grandpa because when ever he is eating Frankie gets some also. Frankie would even sleep in the same room as his grandpa every night.

We stayed there for four days. Leaving was hard on everyone. Donnie's dad did not want to see us go. But we had to go to continue our Christmas adventure.

Too Funny

As I posted about before, I have a nativity that I love. Donnie has issues with heartburn and he always has Tums around. Well, I noticed that the Tums kept winding up in the nativity. I kept telling Donnie to keep his Tums out of the nativity! And know what he told me? He is trusting Jesus with his heartburn. I don’t know about you, but I don’t buy it. :-)

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! I promise to have many pictures and posts up in the next few days! Have a great Christmas!

God is so Good!

Now that I'm not working, money is tight. In this economy, I'm sure many people are feeling this also. With our money being tight clothes for the peanut is not really in the budget. We did get a lot of clothes from my cousin and his wife and that has been very helpful.

However, a few weeks back I noticed that there were a few clothes items that I thought Josiah needed. So I prayed, and you know what? The clothes came! The past couple of weeks I have gotten a TON of clothes from two different people.

God is good!

Happy Three Months!

Last Saturday was the peanuts big three month birthday! Feel free to leave birthday wishes! :-) And you know what he is doing now that he is three month? Sleeping though the night! The past two nights he has slept 11 hours!! Holy Cow!!! I wonder if this will keeping going, or was if just a fluke? I REALLY hope it will keep going!

Christmas!

This past weekend my mom and dad babysat the peanut so Donnie and I could go to a Christmas party. Isn't that sweet of them?!

Before we left my mom took some pictures for her Christmas cards, so here they are for your enjoyment! The peanut is starting to smile on demand a little! How fun is that?

Smile!

The peanut is smiling! And talking! Yeah! It has been so much fun to be interacting with the peanut! The other day grandma came over, and he just smiled and smiled and smiled at her. It was so cute! Its starting to make the sleepless nights worth it! (I think) J

However, when ever I get the camera out the smiling stops. L

Changes

Change is in the air! Seeing that we are currently living on one income, we had to make some changes to the budget. We are going to use our home phone now, and only use cell phones for emergency. The biggest change is that we no longer have Internet. I will now be blogging and such from the library.

I say these are all small changes for me to be able to stay home to raise our peanut!

The Swaddle

I mentioned before about the swaddle of death. Let me just say this has been a life saver! Every time Donnie swaddles the peanut extra tight he sleeps so good! I really think he likes it! When he is wrapped tight he even sleeps in the day with no problem! Now I have been trying for days now, but I still can not get it as tight as he does!

Something to think about

So, what do you think?

Friday Fun

Friday night was my 10 year high school reunion. I did not attend, and neither did three of my dear friends from high school, so we had our own reunion. We had such a good time hanging out with each other!
Also, the peanut was looking extra cute in one of his new outfits.

So what about you all? Did anyone attend their 10 year high school reunion?

Yeah! Part 2

After my mom and I got the tree up, I set up our nativity. While I was setting it up I noticed that Jesus was missing! With the move and everything, somehow Jesus got lost. So I was running around the house saying, I can't find Jesus! I can't find Jesus! It was all rather funny.
Luckily I did find Jesus. He was in a tote in the basement. Thank goodness! Then I was going around the house saying, I've found Jesus! I've found Jesus! Once again, I found it rather funny.
So for your enjoyment here are some pictures of our nativity.

Yeah!

We have a Christmas tree!!! And its decorated and up! My wonderful mother bought us a pre lit tabletop tree for our living room. She also brought all of my childhood ornaments that she had at her house.

My mom and I had a great time decorating the tree together. (well, I decorated the tree while my mother held the peanut, and told me where to put the ornaments.)

Shall we take a tour of the tree? Here we go.
All growing up I took ballet. I loved ballet, as I still do today, so I have MANY ballerina ornaments.
Growing up I also danced in the nutcracker ballet for many, many years. So I also have many nutcracker ornaments.
In the ornaments that my mom brought there were also many babies first Christmas ornaments. I think it will be so fun to have my first ornaments on the same tree with the peanuts first ornaments.
Also, under the tree I have my first stocking.
Does anyone else have their tree up?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Did everyone have a good thanksgiving? Donnie and I headed over to his foster parents for a wonderful meal. Everyone was most excited to see the peanut.
So what is everyone thankful for? I'm thankful for all the prayers of God's people these past few months. I don't think I would have made it if it was not all the prayers of you all! Thank you!

Father Knows Best

Yesterday I was trying to get the peanut down for bed for well over an hour. Needless to say it was not going well. I asked Donnie to come and swaddle him. (Donnie does, what I like to refer to as, the death swaddle. He can swaddle the peanut SO tight, and the peanut loves it. I can't ever get it as tight as he does.)

So Donnie swaddles him, and he is still super upset, so I thought I would rock him for a bit. I started to rock him, then Donnie told me to just put him down because rocking him will just prolong the crying.

I did not tell him this, but I was thinking that he was a complete moron. I have been working with kids for the majority of my life, and I know what works and does not work. Or at least that was what I was telling myself.

Being the good, and submissive wife that I am, I put the peanut down. I only mainly did this to prove Donnie wrong. But you know what happened? I put him down, he gave a couple of whimpers and then he slept for 6 hours! 6 hours people!!!!! How crazy is that.

So I had to eat humble pie, and tell Donnie that father does know best.

Too Funny

The other day I was browsing a catalog, that we got in the mail, when I can across this add.
Please enlarge, and look at the father. He makes me laugh SO hard! It looks like he just won the Superbowl! I don't know about you, but I have NEVER seen someone so excited about kids riding bikes before.

Crying Update

I posted before that we are letting the peanut cry himself to sleep. Its been two weeks now, and he is still crying, and crying and crying.

When we went to the doctor on Friday I talked to her about it. She told us to keep doing what we are doing, and at some point he will learn to sleep. I secretly hoped that she would have some magic trick that would get him to sleep, but that was not the case.

This is what he does, we put him to bed drowsy, he is quite for about 10 min, then he starts to cry. Then the cries for 10 min, sleeps for 10 min, cries for 10 min, sleeps for 10 min, and so on. It could drive a person batty I tell you.

I keep telling myself that this is just a season that will not last forever, and that makes me feel better. I also know that the good Lord will equip me for everything that comes my way. :-)

Sad Peanut

Yesterday the peanut had his two month well baby visit. He is weighing 11 pounds 2 ounces, and is 23 inches long. The doctor is very pleased with how he is doing.

Then came the shots. We are only doing a few select shots, so he only got two yesterday. He was SO SO SO cranky ALL day after the doctor. He looked like he was in so much pain. Very sad. We held him all day long, and he was still upset!

I hope he is feeling better today!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to Donnie!

Yesterday was Donnie's half birthday. As I have talked about before half birthdays are a big deal around here. Now we don't have money in the budget for half birthday celebrations, so I had to think of something to do for free.
I made him a card that I taped on the door for him when he got home. The peanut and I were at stroller strides when he got home, so I wanted the card to greet him.
We still had Donnie's decorations up from his birthday, so I decided just to add a 1/2 to them to make them appropriate this celebration.
As you can see in the pictures, there are some little presents that are taped to the wall for him. What are they you ask? They are dark chocolate bars. Donnie LOVES dark chocolate. Now how did I get them for free, you wonder? Well, CVS had them on sale for $1, and I had a $1 extra buck, so it was free!

Does anyone else celebrate half birthdays?

Life

As I posted about before, I had been suffering with a large case of postpartum depression, and I wanted to update you all on how I have been feeling.

With the prayers of many of you, I'm happy to report that I have been feeling 200% better now. I feel that the Lord has healed me through medication, and therapy. I'm still on medication, and still seeing a therapist.

Looking back I feel that I have come along way. The first month was really hard. Donnie was doing almost ALL the child care, and taking care of me. I thought I would never be able to be alone with the peanut, but now all that has changed.

Thanks for all your prayers!

Chef Stacey

Seeing that I'm now a stay at home mom, I feel I should be cooking dinner. Now I'm not a cook by any stretch of the imagination, so it has been interesting.

I'm happy to report that cooking is going well! The other night I made lasagna, and I was shocked how well it came out. Then last night I made a veggie pot pie. (pictured above) I'm telling you, pretty soon I'll have my own restaurant. hehehehe

So how about you? Do you all like to cook?