ThingsI am thankful for today...

I feel like I have so much to be thankful for today! First of all, Brynn is doing so much better now which makes me so happy! I lovethat she is sleeping better and is finally able to play and be happy, and breath through her nose :)

I am also very thankful for Jesse's job. I found out that they laid off 32 people today, and am just thankful that he wasn't one of them. I think I will stop complaining about his lack of over-time and just be hapy that he has a place to work which can provide for us. I guess it just helps me to realize that anything can happen, and you are never really "safe" no matter how hard of a worker you are.

And last but not least, I was very happy to find out today that my mom DOES NOT have cancer! She has been having some medical problems, and after some tests they though it might be cancer. She had her biopsy last week, and it has seemed like an eternity waiting for the results. Now we just have to wait to see if she needs surgery, but Iam just so glad it's not cancer!

Sickness please be gone soon!

Brynn has been pretty sick since about last Thursday which has made it pretty much impossible to get anything done!! I spent all day Thursday and most of Friday just sitting on the couch holding Brynn as she slept on me (which is always nice to do). I just feel so bad when she is sick. Especially when she is so stuffed up that she can hardly breath! So I would just hold her all day and night, and now I am exhausted! She also has an ear infection and had a fever for a few days. And this is the craziest thing to me: on Friday night, Jesse and I noticed that Brynn was burning up. So we took her temperature and it was 103.5. We were both pretty nervous because it has never been that high. So I called the "nurse on-call" to make sure that was ok, and just see how high was too high. I was shocked by her response that I shouldn't worry at all because a fever isn't really harmful until it hits 108! Wow, never heard that before. That seemed high to me and I thought she was crazy. I have since decided to disreguard her advice, and stick to my gut and worry about anything above 103. Luckilly her temperature came down quickly, and she seems to be doing much better now. I am just so done with all of the winter sickness!

On a happy note, we refinanced our mortgage on Friday which took our payment down about $200. Anything to get that huge debt paid off sooner makes me happy! And I also threw my sister a baby shower on Saturday which was a lot of fun. I just can't believe my little sister is going to be a mom in 2 months... I am feeling old! Oh, and here are a few pictures of Brynn from the past couple days.

Advice Please!

I have a question for all of the experienced moms out there. I am just wondering at what age your child/children cut down to taking just one nap a day, Brynn usually takes a morning nap, and an afternoon nap, and has not done so well with the morning naps this week. I am just wondering if the time has come to cut that nap out, and just thought I would get some more experienced mothers to tell me what they did. Thanks for your help!

Just an update

I am trying to take advantage of Brynn's morning nap, and decided to update my blog instead of cleaning my kitchen :) I don't really have much to write about, because I haven't done anything exciting lately, but I thought I would at least post some recent pictures of Brynn. Most of them are from her little photoshoot with Jesse on Sunday morning. He likes to take random pictures of her before church while I am getting ready and they are usually pretty funny.

So I am starting to feel like my life is pretty boring, and I think it is because of the cold weather. I am starting to feel so cooped up and can't wait until spring so I can spend more time outside, and start walking again without feeling frozen the whole time. The highlight of my week was finally purchasing passes to the rec center on Saturday! That is all I have wanted for a really long time because I really miss working out and want to get in shape again. So I worked out on Monday night for the first time since Brynn was born (pretty sad since she is 8 months old). I realized just how out of shape I am, and I can't wait to get back in the routine of excercising. I will most likely have to work out in the evenings now which will be an adjustment, but it's better than nothing. I am hoping to be able to lose 6 pounds by the end of June. That's about a pound a month so I figure it's not too unrealistic. I am currently 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, and I would like to lose that three pounds along with a few more! We'll see how it goes.

8 months old

Here is a picture of Brynn standing all by herself! She actually pulled herself up for the first time this past Friday while holding on to this shelf. Another sign that she is truly growing up!


Here is Brynn with her buddy Ty eating cookies and watching Baby Einstein together.

I can't believe my little baby is 8 months old already! Time has gone by way too fast since Brynn has been born. But we are loving every second of it. We are still waiting to see if she will ever crawl, and are thinking she might start walking first. She rolls everywhere, and would much rather stand than anything else. Jesse is constantly trying to teach her new words. The most recent has been poop, and now every time we say it or ask her if she pooped she spits. Its pretty funny! I tried to get it on tape but she just wasn't wanting to perform for the camera.

This past week and a half has been great because Jesse had off work and was able to spend a lot of time with Brynn and I. Sadly, Brynn was sick most of the time, and were ended up staying at home more than we wanted to. And Jesse had to return to work yesterday which made Brynn and I very sad. I know it was so much harder for him though. I really do appreciate all the sacrifices he makes for our family. He works so hard to provide for us so that I can stay at home, and is still always helping out with things around the house after he gets home. I am going to work on getting a little more done around the house during the day so he can just relax and play with Brynn after work.

We have also been working on getting Brynn to sleep through the night. She used to do it really well when she was younger, but then she suddenly began hating her crib and screams everytime she is awake and realizes that she is in it. With her being sick for the past few weeks with colds and ear infections, I haven't been letting her cry it out very much. But now it's back to business. We started just letting her scream in there on Sunday night and it is so hard! Sunday night she screamed and tried to escape from the crib for about 50 minutes until she finally cried herself to sleep. Then she woke up about 3-4 more times during the night crying and we just had to let her cry herself to sleep. Then last night I messed up big time! I let her cry herself to sleep which took about an hour, and then at about 1 am she woke up and was screaming. I think I was still kind of asleep, and went into her room and took her out of her crib. I didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late and I was so mad at myself! So I feel like we need to start all over again tonight! If anyone has any great advice on this whole sleeping thing, I am all ears!