April update

I'm really good at this whole updating thing, you guys.

Here are our April updates!

15 weeks

16  Weeks

17 weeks

4 Months- almost sitting up on his own!

Almost. 

18 Weeks in his Mickey Onesie. Just missing ears!

19 weeks and we just started cloth diapering! I think he looks extra cute with the fluffy butt. 

Nolan Update!

Warning: ridiculous cuteness ahead. 

Here are the past few weeks of Nolan.  He is so stinkin cute!

9 Weeks old!

2 months (2/16)

10 Weeks

11 Weeks

12 Weeks

13 Weeks

3 Months and not super pumped about me taking his pictures

14 weeks!

He has recently begun drooling up a storm and can fit his entire hand in his mouth (how impressive!).  We got his first (kind of) chuckle the other day- here it is. 

Ok that's it for today.

See you next time!

♥ EM

Growing Boy!

I tried the other day to upload a bunch of pics of N, but they didn't all want to work.
Let's try this again! I'm currently trying to take a picture of him every Monday (on the same blanket, yes) so we can watch him grow!
I have been taking them on my phone and moving them around into different folders, but not all will upload to my blogger thingy, so here's what we have!

1 week old, super squishr and balled up!

2 weeks old- ready to party for New Year's Eve



I can't find 3 & 4 weeks, so here's 1 month!

5 Weeks old!



6 weeks old- he might be a dancer!

7 weeks!

8 weeks! Such a sweet little giggly boy!

 I am LOVING this new thing Google+ does to my photos of him when I snap them in a row!
Yahoo! There's your update!
Enjoy
♥ EM

So many updates!

It has been OVER a year since I have blogged!! WHAT?!

Some updates for you:
- I got pregnant last March/Aprilish
- I turned 27 in March... that sounds so much older than it is.
- Got a new job in July
- Went to DC in September/October
- Had a WAY TOO CUTE baby in December

That's about what you've missed!

I will try to catch up little by little about these things, but for starters, here are some pics of Nolan Raymond that I've taken.
I'm trying to take a pic of him in the same place every Monday so we can see how much he grows over his first year. So far we're only on week 7 and he IS MASSIVE (in a good way!)
Enjoy!!

Day 1: 

 

And I can't get any others to upload--- so maybe tomorrow?

We'll see.

 

 

♥ EM

 

 

Books since the new year

Today is January 8th and I am almost done with my third book of the year.
Yes, you read that right. THIRD BOOK of the YEAR.

1.  Love Does by Bob Goff

For starters- the foreword? Holy cow. I normally skip forewords in books because they're just fluff... and sometimes confusing (like my Alice in Wonderland foreword. I was so confused by the time I got 3 pages into it, I had to skip), but this one is amazing. Maybe it's Donald Miller, but it is by far the best foreword I've ever read.  All I know about it is this: when I write a book one day - hey, it could happen! - I would hope someone could write something like this about me--- and it be TRUE! I guess that's the most important part.  I hope that something like this could be said of me. Even if only by one friend. 

For the most part, the entire book is personal stories of things that have happened in Bob's life- which are amazing, hilarious, engaging, and wonderful- and how he ties those things in to spirituality.  He paints pictures with words like few that I have ever read.  He also sees things in a way that I would love to.  He doesn't spend the whole book telling you how you need to go to church and pray more and be holier- I like that. 

Also, it appears that his favorite word might just be WHIMSY. 

Photo Credit Here
Yes. Whimsy. Go ahead, let that float off the page in 3D glitter letters made of clouds and feathers. 

Some of my favorite quotes:

"It has always seemed to me that broken things, just like broken people, get used more; it's probably because God has more pieces to work with." 

"You know what it is about someone that makes them a friend? A friend doesn't just say things; a friend does." 

"Words of encouragement are like that.  They have their own power.  And when they are said by the right people, they can change everything.  What I've found in following Jesus is that most of the time, when it comes to who says it, we each are the right people.  And I've concluded something else.  That the words people say to us not only have shelf life but have the ability to shape life." 

"For those who resonate with formulas, here it is: add your whole life, your loves, your passions, and your interests together with what God said He wants us to be about, and that's your answer. If you want to know the answer to the bigger question -- what's God's plan for the whole world? -- buckle up: it's us."

" People who take huge risks aren't afraid to fail.  In fact, they love to fail.  It's because failing means they found the edge."

"We need to make our faith our very own love story" 

"Pick something you aren't just able to do; instead, pick something you feel like you were made to do and then do lots of that." 

OK, so that's pretty much the whole book... Not really, but you get the idea. I literally have 4 pages of highlighted stuff in my kindle from this book because I want to be able to find it all again when I come upon a situation that needs these words.

Love this book. 

Read it.

Seriously.



2.  Then Just Stay Fat by Shannon Sorrels 

Yeah. That's the title. The book is as no-nonsense as one would expect. I liked that she didn't just say, "Work out more. Eat Less" (Although that was the majority of it...) but explained the chemical and mathematical sides of losing weight. I think that nerds would really enjoy this book... you know, like me.  Apparently, you're supposed to take in fewer calories than you use in order to lose weight... who knew? 

Favorite quotes from this book:

"Want is a relative term.  Wen someone says, "I eat what I want," they might "want" one slice of pizza or some steamed broccoli.  When I say, "eat what I want," I mean a whole pizza and a bag of M&Ms.  A lot of thin people probably do "eat what they want." They just don't want what I want."

"Action is where the finite constraints of time meet stated priorities.  We must act our way toward our goals.  We can't just keep talking about them."  

"...say, "No, thank you" when the temptations surround you.  If you mess up and give in, see the first bullet."  

From what I've read, this gluten free cookie brownie would probably be frowned upon.
Or at least the amount of it I ingested would be.

3.  Permanently Beat PCOS: The Complete Solution by Caroline D. Greene

There's really nothing exciting about this book. I would definitely only recommend it if you have PCOS and give a crap about this stuff.  Lots of info on vitamins to take, foods to eat, exercise to do, etc to improve "Fertility, Weight Loss and Clear Skin through Simple Diet, Exercise and Lifestyle Changes." 

So what next? I think 3 non-fictions in the first 2 weeks of the year earns me a fluffy fiction fantasy read, right?  I'm thinking about finally starting The Mortal Instruments series... City of Bones is up first! I've read 3 pages so far, but I have to finish Book #3 up there first. I don't like to make it 84% through something and give up! That's something of which Shannon Sorrels would totes disapprove. 

OK now for the good stuff!! 

PICTURES of the PUPPIES! 

Aren't they the cutest things? 

Carmen San Diego was sleepy yesterday. Welcome to Cuddle Town!

Tini thinks she's sexy. Haaay boys check out mah hurr cut!  I'm so dainty and lady like with my feets crossed! 

That's all I have for now

Have fun, kiddos!

♥ EM

Update schmupdate

So some 101 updates (For my 101 in 1001 list, please click here)

1. Go to the beach (we went to Daytona Beach before Disney)

11. Finish painting our bathroom (I paid someone... no worries!) And then we tiled the floor and did all the metal in brushed bronze. SO PRETTY

21. GO TO DISNEY WORLD. YES. CHECK

34. Eat no gluten for one month. Done it. It was boring, but I felt good :)

46. Donate old shoes (and I donated 29 teeshirts, 3 hoodies, 6 pairs of pants, 3 dresses, and a few other things.)

80. Buy bright colored shoes. I bought cobalt blue shoes and wore them to D's Christmas party... did I take them back swiftly after? Yes. They were the most terribly uncomfortable shoes and I only wore them for 20 minutes while at the party. Horrible. But beautiful! Still counting it!

91. Host a game night- this also happened to be NYE. We played Apples to Apples and Mario Cart and Just Dance


TAADAAAAAA!
Oh, and we'll be doing #39 on March 6th. WHAT is UP!

♥ EM

Thankful for the fog

  Do you ever have one of those days where you just don't know how you feel? Honestly, the past few days if people have asked me how I am doing, I haven't had a clue how to respond. I want to say, "Great! How are you?!" But that's a lie. I think, "I should tell them how I'm really doing, not great. Not excited. All I want to do is lay in bed and watch sad movies."  I want to be honest... waah wahhhh Debbie Downer.  But the truth is, I have no idea.  Apparently there are these things called hormones, and I hear they've got a strong hold on me. I can go from happy and fine to upset and angry and sad and anything else at the drop of a hat. One word in conversation sends my brain from candycanes and snowflakes to wanting to put on my comfy pants and lay back on the couch while giving everyone the finger.  Happy news shared by others just reminds me of the happy news we were planning on sharing yesterday.
You see, the plan was to make a really cute pregnancy announcement and stuff it in christmas cards that all of D's family would open at Christmas together and they would all be excited. Instead they each got nothing.  I guess I could have still sent them all cards, but I didn't.

I have a lot of stories like that recently. "We could have done this, but we didn't." "I thought about doing that, but I didn't." I'm really good at telling stories.

I just feel like I'm walking through a thick fog. It's not sunny, it's not rainy, it's not pretty, it's not ugly. It's just blah.  I keep thinking, "All I need is a good cry, that'll help." But it's like I've run out of tears and not been able to rebuild my supply.  I guess this is one of those in-between stages where progress is being made? Yeah?  Anywho, I think I'll go over some more things for which I am thankful, since I can't come up with anything else uplifting to write...

At first, I was really upset with my (former) doctor because he did an u/s at 5.5 weeks. YOU CAN'T SEE ANYTHING at 5.5 weeks. Just a couple of bubbles. At this time, he saw the 2 sacs, 1 with 1 and 1 with 2.  I was furious because of the unnecessary stress this potentially put on the two of us. Most Drs won't U/S until at least 7 weeks, but he just "likes to".  And told me over and over that it could end up just being 1 or 2 by week 7-8, and I was mad because I could have been perfectly NOT KNOWING that I potentially lost a baby. Not an embryo. Not a yolk sac, I'm sorry if you disagree, but It's a baby. However, looking back, I still am furious at him for his lack of compassion and understanding, but I am incredibly thankful now that I knew each of them. Yes, I had a few weeks of straight up FREAKING OUT about "how are we going to afford three babies? How will we feed them?! How will we cart them around?! We're going to have to BUY A VAN! How will they fit in our house?! What will we do with the dogs?" But more than that, I had a few weeks of knowing three different babies were there. I was able to lay around and talk to them (even though their ears were still developing) and pray for them each individually.  I think it might have been easier to think that I just lost 1 (right? Surely? No? Who knows), but I am glad to have known them all individually.

I'm thankful for people who don't know what to say.  Some people have provided comic relief by saying such outlandish and inappropriate things that the only thing I could do was store them in my bank and laugh to keep from crying (or assaulting them...?) and others have just been honest and told me they have no idea what to say. That's fine. There is nothing to say. Nothing makes it better or takes it away. However, I think my favorite so far is that they just obviously weren't ready for such awesome parents. Because let me tell you, that is the truth. Awesome parents we shall be.  Clueless and lost and sleep deprived and crazy out of our minds in love with the baby(ies) we are meant to have.

I'm thankful for this foggy funkiness that's going on. The pain is no longer so sharp and fresh. It has turned into a dull nagging pain I know "it gets better" and all, and I guess I assumed that I would be sad one day and perfectly fine the next. Apparently I thought I was tougher than this, that I could handle this and it wouldn't affect me as much as it appears to have affected other people I have seen go through this.   Y'all, I was wrong. But I know that it gets better and I think sometimes it's ok to be foggy.

And you know what I think about fog?  Yes, fog can be dangerous. No one wants to drive in fog, people don't want to get stuck out in it, all that. But when I think about fog, I think about spring/fall morning fog.  You wake up, it's foggy, it's nasty, you can't see the other side, but then it slowly lifts.  It goes from thick muck nasty fog to a light, fluffy fog, and eventually the sun comes in and burns it all up. Some of the prettiest days I can remember have started out super crazy foggy.  All you can do on those days is sit and wait for the sun to come and the fog to lift.

That's what I'll be doing.


Well, that and packing up all the Christmas stuff and vacuuming the pine needles and sorting through presents/putting them away and putting away everything christmassy... because I'm off today and I am tired of the mess in this house.

And then I'm going to take a nap.

♥ Em