I’ve been really slacking with this blog over the past couple of months…went back to doing a regular journal, but then realized that it’s becoming hard to find time to do that either. The summer is just really busy, but I’m not mad about it…it’s been great! We just moved to Lititz about 2 weeks ago, and we are settling in. We are about 90% done with the unpacking…and we are REALLY taking our time with that last 10%—haha, I think we are just so tired of packing/unpacking so we choose neither one! I’m going to post pictures soon though!!
We had a yard sale on Saturday and I made over $200!! I was so excited! We got rid of so much junk–and whatever is left is going to Goodwill tonight!! While I was doing the yard sale, Ryan was up in the mountains for Randy’s Bachelor Weekend!! Ryan had so much fun and it was nice to have the house to myself too…not gonna lie 
But I sure was glad to see him yesterday–he looked so “rugged” with a beard and dirty clothes! haha, it was a different side of Ryan, that’s for sure!
We’ve got another busy week ahead of us–Randy’s Rehearsal Dinner on Friday night and the wedding all day Sunday! Not sure how Ethan is going to hold up, but I pray he handles it well! It’ll be all on my shoulders too, because Ryan is in the wedding and therefore won’t be able to help me. Shoot! Ah well, I will be fine and usually if I stay cool, so does Ethan!
Today we are going to make a Target run for boring stuff–diapers and such– and then head over to Children’s Place and get Ethan a cute new outfit for the wedding!
My goal for the week: Get E’s scrapbook caught up! I decided that I wanted to do a page for every month. My sister has organized her’s like that and it is awesome to flip through them in chronological order! So I want to try and have it done by his first birthday. I think it’s doable…if I work on it every night!!
Filed under: Ethan, new mom | Tags: Ally, baby food, circumcision, Ethan, God, homemade, Marriage, stay-at-home mom
So I have been totally obsessed lately with making baby food! It is so easy and it makes me wonder why I ever started buying the Gerber stuff in the first place!? Anyway, so far Ethan loves that stuff! The only thing he was kinda ‘iffy’ about was the avocado–but he could have been taking cues from me, because I tasted it first and almost gagged—I just don’t like the stuff! Because Ethan is 9 months old now, I have been leaving the food a little chunkier so that he learns to chew. I doubt we’ll be doing baby food for very much longer! He’s doing great! With our next child, I will start with homemade stuff at 4 months!
There are even recipes on the site wholesomebabyfood.com that are easy and tell you when you should start certain foods and what foods offer nutritionally. TONS OF GREAT INFO THERE! Even if you don’t make your own food, it gives great information on nutrition and what is the best as far as store-bought foods go too! They also have some toddler foods that I might try out–for nights when I don’t cook for me and Ryan and Ethan can’t eat Chinese Takeout yet Oh and also Ethan is all healed up from his surgery! Thank you, Lord!
It’s been a long time since I posted last, but it seems like time is just flying by! Me and Ryan celebrated our 5 year anniversary this past Friday (may 8)–doesn’ seem like we’ve been married that long! Especially since we’ve had Ethan, because sometimes (and by that I mean all the time…) I can’t remember how life was before him! Sounds cliche’ but our lives just began in August 2008!
I hear people without kids saying all the time–”I want X number of kids…” or “We only want X number of kids” and it’s funny to hear that now, because Ethan is a reality, not just a number. I mean I WANT more kids, but they are so real to me now–even before they are here. I understand the amount of love that will pour out of me with each child, I want to get beyond the number…I want more kids so I can meet them–not just to say that I met some kind of goal! I am guilty of this too–claiming that I wanted 3 kids..2 boys and 1 girl! As if I had a choice!! First I know that it’s not up to me–it’s in God’s hands and he blessed me with this wonderful little boy! And there is no second…it’s in God’s hands and that is final! Children are more than a number and more than just a placeholder in a family.
Ok, I will step down off my pedastle now
I’m working 4 days this week–give me some motivation to do something other than play with Ethan! I have major cleaning to do before Ryan gets home from his business trip!
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On a more serious note…check out http://www.kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/ You will seriously cry your eyes out! Just say a prayer for this little angel’s family tonight and squeeze your own kids extra tight! Thanks to the Freeman family for sharing their story!!
Filed under: Other | Tags: adhesion, Ally, circumcision, Ethan, family, struggles
I have been so frustrated lately by family. Am I the only one? It seems like things are never great….like everything is either falling to pieces or just ok. Now I have never been the type to hold ANY feelings inside, most of the time you can tell how I am feeling just by the look on my face. I’m not really sure what I want to say on here, but I just want everyone reading to think about how they are treating their families…step outside of yourself and your own life and check on each other! I know that everyone’s lives are busy…heck, mine is too!! But I was raised that family comes first–no matter what. We celebrate together and we cry together!
When I married Ryan, I married his family and I have tried very hard to connect with them and treat them the same way I would treat my family. The worst thing I could do is alienate him from his family–it just wouldn’t be right–and there would come a day when he’d resent me for it!
From what I’ve seen, it’s natural for the couple to lean towards the woman’s family…but does the man’s family just get left behind? I can understand these tendencies, because I miss my family every single day and I often wonder that if there were better job opportunities out in Indiana–would we live there?! I hope that one day, when Ethan gets married, his wife will encourage him to include us in his life…but more than that, I hope he will have the good sense to keep us in his life. That will be a long time from now…I know I’m jumping WAY ahead!
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Keep little Ethan in your prayers, he has some adhesions on his little privates from his circumcision and now he has to have surgery to correct it. I feel so bad because we weren’t pulling the skin back far enough and it started to reattach. Sounds gross, but it’s the truth about little boys that nobody ever tells you! I will tell every new mom who is having a boy! So anyway, his surgery is on the 21st and it will take a very short time. Our doctor said he could fix it while Ethan was awake, but that he wouldn’t do it to his own son! I said, “…then you’re not doing it to mine.” So now he’s going under!
I’m so glad it’s the weekend!
I finally made some baby food for Ethan!
I’m so excited about it too! I really expected it to take a lot more time than it actually did. So far I made peas, bananas, and pears–I froze the peas, but the bananas and pears don’t do well when frozen, so I just made enough to last the week and kept them in the refrigerator. Ethan loves everything too!! I was kind of nervous that it would hurt his belly or make him constipated, but there weren’t any major changes. Also, I think the homemade food is more filling for him too. I am feeding him the same amount of solids per meal, but he’s not finishing his bottles afterward like he did when eating the store-bought food. I guess it makes sense–maybe I kept the foods a little thicker or something. Either way, he likes them and it is so much cheaper. I would encourage anyone to at least give it a try. I’m not saying that I am going to make every single one of his meals in my own kitchen, but even if I did half–that would shave a huge chunck off of Ethan’s weekly costs! It makes me feel like I’m doing something really great for my son, because I wasn’t able to breastfeed him and give him that nutrtion–this maybe makes up for that? Eh, maybe I’m reading too far into it all, but I am proud of myself!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: baby food, Ethan, homemade, stay-at-home mom, Thrifty, Young Married's Group
My son, Ethan; has been eating baby food since he was about 5 1/2 months old. I have been spending probably about $20 a week on just the solid food–that doesn’t include his formula either! I usually buy a ton of it when it’s on sale so I don’t end up actually buying it every week. But no matter how you look at it–baby food is expensive! I would love to feed E. off my plate now that he is 8 months old, but he just doesn’t understand how to “chew” or “mash” his food, so I’m not totally comfortable with that yet.
So I think what I’m going to do instead is—start making my own baby food!
Why didn’t I think of this before?!!?
Now I am totally NOT a healt nut or “crunchy” but I am trying to get better at being thrifty.
And of course along with saving our family money, it would be better for E. to eat fresher foods with less additives! I’m excited to go to the grocery store tomorrow and shop around for new and interesting things to mash up for him! I have been doing my “homework” tonight on what I can and cannot feed him.
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On another note–I did end up making chili for our Young Married’s Group and it was a huge hit–everyone seemed to like it! Someone else was supposed to bring a side dish item, but they ended up not showing up, so the only thing that we had was the chili–thank God I brought the macaroni noodles too!
Tomorrow:
Grocery Shopping
BABY FOOD MAKING!!
The second and fourth Saturdays of every month the “young marrieds” group meets. Right now we are reading a book called, ‘Men Are Like Waffles and Women Are Like Spaghetti” It is basically a Christian spin on the Men are from mars book–for the most part I think the book is OK, haven’t really gotten that far into it. It is definitely a fun book to discuss with a large group of 20-something couples though! I know that I am getting insight into my husband’s mind I bring up this group because we are supposed to take the main dish.
My mom showed me how to make chili last week when she was here and so I was kind of excited to try out that recipe. Maybe I could do a chili-mac and take macaroni noodles, cheese, and sour cream. But would that be too much work?! Not too much for me, but that is kind of a lot of stuff to take with us–plus Ethan! I really enjoy cooking for other people and seeing them enjoying the food I made. That is very fulfilling!
I could make like a casserole or something like that, but I kind of need a lot of food because there are quite a few couples and then most of them have children too! Maybe I’ll take some pictures and post the recipe too That will be Saturday though!
Tomorrow:
Jason & Karen’s wedding
Filed under: crafts | Tags: Art, crafts, crafty, free time, new year's resolution
I USED TO BE SO CRAFTY!
I wonder what happened to me?! I would love to blame it all on having a baby and being pregnant…blah blah blah….but my loss of desire for crafting starting to dwindle long before Ethan was in the picture! If anything, Ethan helped me get back into it for a brief moment–just enough time to decorate his room:
Wall hanging in Ethan's room
Hand painted wooden alphabet pictures! An alternative to alphabet blocks!
Top of Dresser!
See–I do know how to be crafty, I just don’t feel the drive to do it. I got a ton of scrapbooking stuff for baby shower gifts and for Christmas, but all I did was buy a storage container for it all–haven’t touched it since! What’s frustrating is that Ethan allows me plenty of time in the evening to do these types of projects; afterall, he goes to bed at 7:30 and doesn’t wake up until the next morning. We have taken thousands of pictures, so that’s not the issue either.
My original New Year’s Resolution was to not use anymore credit cards (so far, so good on that front!!!!) but I think I’m going to add on and say that my “first quarter resolution” is to become more crafty. To take on an art project. SOMETHING!
Wish me luck
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ally, Baxter, Ethan, grocery shopping, Schedule, stay-at-home mom, struggles
Yesterday my mom called me and said, “are you missing your phone?” I had no clue what she was talking about. Apparently when I got my hair cut on Monday night, my phone fell out of my purse. I just assumed it was in the bottom of my purse somewhere and I just hadn’t gotten any phone calls or texts.
So that leads into my day today–
What I planned to do:
Get up at 7–feed Ethan
7-9–Play w/ Ethan, make bottles, clean kitchen
9-11–Ethan naps and I would make a grocery list, clean the LR
11-?–Feed Ethan, go get my phone, grocery shop
and then be back home by 1pm for another nap and so on…
What I actually did:
3:45–get up and feed Ethan
4:00–Put Ethan and myself back to bed
7:00–Feed Ethan again
7-9–Sat on the floor and made sure E. didn’t get into anything. We need a baby gate system BADLY in our house!
9:00–E sleeps for 1/2 hour (I started to clean the kitchen…didn’t get that far)
9:30-10–Ethan whines unless I’m holding him.
10–Feed Ethan
10-11–Ethan naps and I don’t make a peep for fear he’d wake up
11:00–E wakes up starving just as I remember that Baxter has been outside on his leash for way too long and he’s howling and yelping at the backdoor.
12-100–Strap Ethan in his seat and head over to Cost Cutters to pick up my phone–E cries the whole time so I choose to skip grocery shopping and go home and put him back to bed.
I guess that is all part of being a stay-at-home mom. I have never been the type of person to rely on a schedule and a plan so much, but since having Ethan I live and die by our schedule and I’m afraid that Ethan does too. Everyone makes such a HUGE deal about “training” your child to have a schedule…so we did that–and in a way it’s been a struggle. Whenever we get off schedule just a little bit, Ethan falls apart and then I fall apart right after him! haha….it’s something we’re working on!
Oh my gosh…I am so glad that it is finally starting to get un-gray out! I’m loving the sun shine and the cool breezes. Today I actually got both myself and Ethan dressed before noon today–which is rare! Haha, but anyway, we went outside in the backyard and I sat him down in the grass for the first time ever. He didn’t really know what to think of the grass as it was dry and kind of ‘pokey’ on his little hands. He did not even try to move–he just sat in the same spot the whole time.
Here are some pictures:
Ethan grass!
Well it was a great day and I sure am glad I remembered we had this awesome camera on a day like today! I need to do this kind of thing more often. Kind of like last night, we all took a nice long walk and it was great. Ethan was kind of cranky but it wasn’t quite time for bed, so we strapped him in the stroller and off we went. He immediately calmed down. He was very tired by the time we got back and he slept like a log until early this morning. Normally I would have just given him a bottle and put him to bed, but not this time. He wasn’t hungry…maybe he just wanted a change of scenery! He’s such a good little boy. We are very blessed!
Finally! I’ve got our blog all set up and it only took me 8 months!! I’m excited about this because I think it’ll be a great way for me to keep in touch with family and friends and for them to also check in and see how we’re doing! We will try to update as often as possible and post many pictures too!
