Productive Chaos

I feel like the last three days have all been a blur. I've just been on the go whether it be doing my workout, cleaning, or going places with friends. Chris actually came home kind of early yesterday around dinner time which was nice. Tonight, not so much. He always calls me on his way home from work but unfortunately I left my new phone in my friends car and won't be getting that awesome phone call so who knows when he'll be here seeing how it's 8:30 already and dinners still in the crock pot. I guess one good thing about today was I bought Paisley a super sweet hat!

It was a "trying my patience" day and she wanted to be held all day and wouldn't let me put her down. This is the first time she's done this and so I carried her throughout the outlet stores unless I had to buy her some cute things then I put her down so I could pay for them. Including the hat above.

I made Paisley another hat but it doesn't quite fit her, it's a little small. Which makes me sad and I might just make the exact same one only bigger. Other than a bunch of craziness things are getting done, the house has stayed clean for a few days now minus whipping the counters down and cleaning the floors but I'm very happy about that.

I've finished making laundry detergent so I can now wash Paisley's first cloth diapers and put them to use. I can't wait to see how she does with them.

Sunday Funday

I recently read in a magazine not to workout before bed because it will give you more energy. I've worked out before bed before and never had a problem. Well, last night I did. I didn't end up going to bed until 5am. making two trips to Paisley's room at 4am and 6:30am to put her pacifier back in. Thankfully, for the first time hubby got up and fed her this morning while I got a few minutes of extra shut eye. More like an hour but I wasn't going to sleep all day. So I ended up getting about 3.5hrs. Chris had homework to do and I knew it was going to take him a while so I put in my workout dvd after breakfast and hit the showers right after to get ready for the day. Paisley decided to study some chemistry with Daddy while I was in the shower.

She felt like studying up on some physics

I then took her back so he could work some more on his assignments and we had some play time in her exersaucer. I see her getting more involved with it every day.

After some play time it was time for lunch and her big nap time. Unfortunately we had to go to Verizon, because I decided I wanted to wash my phone in the washer, so we had to wake her from her nap to put her in the car seat and get to the store before it was too late. Although while we were there I kept her occupied by swinging her in her car seat and making funny faces at her and we got a few giggles and squeals out of her. More than just the half giggle we've been getting. I can't wait until she goes into full blown giggles. We were in and out of Verizon in no time and back home so Chris could finish his work which took most of the evening. Paisley is now sound asleep in bed and it's Mommy Daddy time to hang out even though we've been researching flights home for christmas the past hour. Hopefully he will get approved quickly and we can buy our tickets soon before they get even more expensive.

The Camera adds 20lbs I Swear!

Now that Paisley is on a pretty decent schedule for naps and bedtime I have a good amount of Mommy time where I can work on my hobby among other things. One thing I've noticed is that I'm dying to work out, but you can't exactly bring your baby into the gym. So I've been walking but I still don't feel like I've done enough. I started a couple days ago with finally getting a workout routine during Paisley's nap and am loving it. I went for a run with our awesome jogger stroller during her 10am nap and I bit more than I could chew with that one. I ended up trying to run 2 miles intead of starting with 1 mile. I am certainly not in the shape I used to be in and that run certainly threw that in my face. I don't think i've sweat so much. So yesterday we went for a walk during that time at a fast pace and during her long nap I popped in a workout dvd. Although it wasn't very long and wasn't very hard, it kicked my butt.

I'll be slim in 6 in no time!

I wanted to track my progress with the dvd so what did I do, I took before pictures of myself. Let's just say gasping was an understatement and I asked my husband "Why didn't you tell me my ass was a wreck?" to which he replied "I wasn't going to tell you that! You just had a baby!" mmhmmm rrriigghttt. Well, I did just have a baby but he still could of told me! Today, I didn't get to the workout dvd until after I put Paisley to bed and fro my knees up it feels like my thighs are dead weight but I did it, with hubby peeking away from his school work on the computer. Talk about a self confidence buster! As silly as I looked in front of him I knew I had to do it. I'm already feeling great and hopefully i'll be looking good by christmas!

The Art of Bread Making

Since we are on...wait...since I am on a saving money kick. The husband thinks i'm getting a little overboard with trying to save money with my latest rant that he couldn't buy his body wash at walmart because we forgot the coupon at home. Anyway, we bought a bread maker. A friend said "prepared to get fat", I say nay! I know this bread is going to be delicious but I'm not going to sit down on the couch and stuff my face full of bread and lay there the rest of the day. I will prove her wrong. So we baked a loaf of oat bread which I found the recipe off line. We did everything according to the directions in the manual and presto our first loaf of bread.

It looked fantastic and smelled fantastic and all there was left to do was wait the agonizing 15 minutes for it to cool before we could cut it up and sink our teeth into it. Even though it was already 11 at night we couldn't resist.

Chris cutting into the warm fluffy goodness

Is that not a beautiful loaf or what

So we're super excited on how this turned out and we cannot wait to make more! Saving money by making our own bread and having it taste fantastic equals SCORE!

Diving into Needlework

I've had my time with knitting needles and making scarf upon scarf and found it quite easy to do but could never get the hang of crocheting. One day, while I was surfing the web I came across a website that I fell in love with, etsy.com. All hand made items from people. I was drawn to the infant crocheted hats and wanted all of them! after looking at the price and actually buying one and not liking the results of it when it finally came in the mail I headed to Michael's craft store and picked myself up a pack of crocheting needles and some yarn. When I had some time I sat down in front of the computer and looked up videos on how to crochet hats. It took me a couple days of playing around with it when I got the time and finally began crochet my first hat for Paisley.

My first crocheted hat for Paisley

A little big but for my first time it wasn't half bad.

After finishing my first hat I was on to the second one and was bound and determined to get the size right because the hat that came in the mail was ginormous. The apple hat I finished fits her perfectly, almost too small so pictures in this hat are a must and have to be soon before in no longer fits.

I guess third time is the charm because the last hat I made was Paisley's pumpkin hat and it fits her perfectly with room to grow, but only a little bit. I absolutely love it and so does she! We got great pictures of it today when we visited the pumpkin patch.

Paisley's pumpkin hat

a passerby said "Hey that pumpkin's moving" so cute!

So i'm in love with making hats now even though I don't have that much time I do it when I can. I love my new hobby.

Converting to Cloth

Even though she's 3 months now we've started the adventure of looking into cloth diapers. I had thought of the idea before but couldn't really wrap my head around it thinking they were still the "wrap your kids up and safety pin 'em" kind. Little did I know that they all changed when a close friend decided to go cloth with her 1 year old. So I began looking into it as well and another friend ended up throwing a cloth diaper party. I must say it was a great time and we got to play with all the cloth diapers the woman brought to show. It was a whole new world for me and my stone age mind. So I took the plunge and ended up buying one of two different kinds. I've heard rave reviews from not only the woman selling them but the two friends that bought a sample pack with four different brands liked the two kinds I bought the best.

FuzziBunz one of the diapers I purchased in Grape! These have elastic straps to help size the diaper to the child. A little weary on this one with the whole elastic straps and everything but we'll see. This was the twenty dollar diaper.

Bum Genius, a couple dollars less than Fuzzi Bunz is all snaps which I am totally smitten with. I'm hoping these work out the best because they cost less than the others and i'm lovin the snaps.

 The cost of disposable to the cost of cloth is pretty mind blowing. Spending anywhere from 2500-4000 on disposable diapers in the first year of your child's life to about 600 dollars for the cloth diapers i'm looking at. I asked the woman about how many cloth diapers I'd need and she said anywhere from 24-30. That is what she recommended for washing the diapers every two to three days. If she didn't get to them on the second day she had enough to last her into the third day. I thought that was pretty reasonable for 20 bucks I was packing for a diaper. 

Not only is it about a 600 dollar expense but that's it for diapers to last you through your child's diaper days. and not only one child I might add but for the rest of your children. Which we plan on having three. So that would be 600 dollars for diapers for three little monsters. and the best part is the diapers I got are one size and I can snap and stretch them to fit Paisley's needs. I'm totally smug with these things even though I haven't tried them yet. Unfortunately, regular detergents will ruin the absorbency of the diapers so you can buy a few types of detergents they recommend which I found to be more expensive and if we're trying to save money here why would I do that? So we have made our own detergent before and I asked the woman to see if making my own was Ok. She got in touch with the diaper company for me and instead of using the bar of soap I originally got I had to go get a different kind. Which is no big deal because bars of soap are pennies compared to liquid detergent. Now, to just get the time to make it and wash the cloth diapers and strap em on Paisley and give them a run for there money. I'm hoping it goes over well and we can convert to cloth because having possibly three children in diapers I might go crazy, our wallets will be burning with only the left over residue of cash and having to buy bulk in diapers so I am not running to the store ever day for a box would be insanity. I'll let you know how they work!

and so the fun begins

Now that we have finally settled into quite the routine with our new addition to the family, our daughter, Paisley, I can now sit down and have mommy time and tell you all the craziness of the day. It might be more like venting but since the husband's gone on a submarine most of the time, this might be the most adult interaction I get for the day.

Paisley's first sponge bath at home

We welcomed our beautiful daughter on July, 12, 2010 at 10:15pm and suddenly our once children (dogs) who we let get away with sleeping in the bed and on the couches were immediately revoked of those privileges. I must say they learned rather fast where they weren't a loud anymore but I felt terrible at the same time. I got over that feeling quickly when I pictured our 105 pound lab laying on our poor child. Seeing how he thinks he's a lap dog, Paisley's lap isn't that big yet. It was be horrifying and awkward all at the same time, Poor Bear.

Bear trying to sneak his way into staying in bed by hiding under the covers

  The excitement of having a baby in the house died down after about an hour of Paisley coming home from the hospital, it was more melodramatic than anything. The dogs sniffed her gave her a few licks and went on there way. Ok, I may have exaggerated a bit with a few licks if I am speaking on Lola's behalf. Lola is just more energetic than Bear. By energetic I mean anxiety, she's a pure freak or like my parents like to call her, obnoxious. She just likes to give you more love than you wanted from a dog that can get her tongue in your ear, nostril, mouth, and back to your ear in a matter of seconds and won't stop until you physically push her away. There's something about the word Stop with that dog that just makes her want to lick you more. Oh Lola, and not the "Lola, she was a showgirl" but the "Lola, L.o.l.a, Lola".

Yep, there's Lola, stealing the spotlight.

With the dogs finally understanding they aren't the center of our attention anymore and Paisley being the easiest baby in the world I have to say we are truly blessed. Although we have just started a new chapter in our lives we're soon going to be ending one with the Navy. Being a Submariners wife certainly isn't the easy way to go but I think it has brought my husband and I closer together and has certainly strengthened our relationship. I am looking forward to our new adventure coming this spring/summer when we make the trek back East. I can say I certainly miss working as well but wouldn't give up being a Stay at home Mom for anything. I want to teach Paisley absolutely everything and even though she might not pay attention to my silly home made flash cards I'll continue to put as much information into that little brain of hers as I can. Currently I'm working on getting back into my field from home and have started working on my own website which hopefully i'll finish soon. My business cards are in, now just to get the time to finish that website. Any extra money is always a bonus and saving money as well which is where the fun begins.