Third Plan Ride in 3 Months

Last week Charlotte and I traveled back to Missouri to visit family. While we were home for Christmas we only got to spend about 36 hours with my family because of work schedules etc., so when I found tickets for $150 to come back in January I jumped at the chance to come back.

This was C's third plane ride in less than 3 months. I didn't capture a photo of her on this trip, but she once again did surprisingly well and made everyone fall in love with her.

These days I only seem to take pictures with my phone, since it's so much easier, but I don't love the quality. Any who here's what we did.

I was able to catch up with my bestie, Carrie, on Thursday night. When I'm home we always try and get together and even invite the third musketeer, Jeffrey, along when he's available. He was in the Far East and by that I don't mean East St. Louis. It was so good to see her and catch up. Charlotte proceeded to have a blow out at the restaurant and went naked for the duration of dinner. She didn't mind and was the talk of the table behind us. I was a little embarrassed I didn't have another outfit on me, but oh well. Once we got home she had another blowout. It was straight to bath and bed after that, but not before C played with the kitty cat. Surprisingly enough the cat laid down and let C pet her.

Friday morning I went to coffee with our good friends from college who just happened to be in town the same weekend. Nathan and I grew up in the same church and his parents used to live in the area but have since moved away. Our friends now live in Tampa so when we get the chance to see them we take advantage of it. Ashley took photos that day and here are a few of them.

That night my brother's family came over to visit.

On Saturday me, my mom, C and Kaylin drove to Columbia to spend the weekend with my sister. We always have fun with my sister's family. We got pedicures, shopped, put a puzzle together and visited with my cousins.

C loved this Fischer Price piano Harper has. And wouldn't you know it, it's not sold anymore so it's off to Ebay we go.

On Monday we headed back home and I got ready to head back. Tuesday morning it started snowing right before we left. When we got back home it was 60+ degrees. A 50 degree swing in 6 hours was a nice welcome.

Pinterest Thursday: Sewing

My mom bought me a sewing machine for my 30th birthday and I love it. I've sewn  a number of things since I received it: pants, burp cloths, blankets, etc. I've used several tutorials I've found on Pinterest and wanted to share a few of them with you.

When I found out I was pregnant I was on a sewing rampage. Anything baby related that I thought was cute I wanted to replicate.

The first thing I tried my hand at was a diaper strap. This was the easiest project I found and I was able to use scraps of material I already had on hand. To say I got carried away was an understatement. Everyone who was pregnant received one of these. The tutorial can be found here. I have found these great for throwing in the diaper bag for keeping your wipes/diapers organized.

I also made a different diaper caddy. This one is more of a "pouch" that I like to keep in the car for emergencies. Tutorial can be found here.

I was also excited to find a burp cloth tutorial. However, I don't think the burp cloths I made work well at all. I made some for friends and after I used them myself I had to tell the people that I made them for that they didn't work well. The tutorial, if you want to take a stab at it, can be found here.

First Visitors

This past weekend we had our first non-family visitors to our new place. Our good friend D and his fiancé came down for the weekend. We have known D since college and met Dolce for the first time. I am so excited for the two of them to begin their new life together and I can't wait to attend their wedding this May.

We went to the Farmer's Market, up north to La Jolla to see the sea lions and over to Coronado Island on Saturday.

On Sunday we drove out to Julian to eat apple pies. We waited in line for about 45 minutes to eat Mom's apple pies. They were delicious. On our way back we spotted another Moms, out of the city, where we could have ordered and eaten our pies in the time we waited at the popular Moms. 

They left Sunday evening and I spent Monday recuperating from the weekend. 

Pinterest Thursday: Cleaning Solutions

I'm always interested in learning about new cleaning solutions and Pinterest has been a great place to learn new ones, so I thought I would review a couple of them today. I don't have before and after pictures of most of them, but I will link to the original posts.

Arm Pit Stains
First is getting rid of arm pits stains. None of us like to admit that some of our most beloved white shirts quickly become dingy by continuous wear and washing. Most arm pit stains are impossible to get rid of, but I found this pin to work well on stains that were not too set in. I would give it 3 Stars.

Cleaning Your Mattress
After two weeks of being transported half way across the country and stored our mattress needed to be cleaned. Not to mentioned that we have had it for 8 years. I had come across a pin on cleaning your mattress and decided to give it a try it couldn't hurt right? I can't really say if it worked or not, but it made me feel better. I'm really glad that I tried it since we are moving that mattress to our guest room.
3 Stars

Cleaning Residue off of Appliances
Again after moving our appliances needed a good deep cleaning. I remember seeing a pin on getting the grit off of appliances and decided to give it a try. Overall I think this worked extremely well and would recommended it.
4 Stars

Cleaning Your Iron
Our old iron had gotten gritty from years of use and instead of getting a new iron I wanted to try and clean our iron first. I haven't actually tried this pin, but I tried a different one that I had seen from Real Simple that did not work at all. It was a waste of 20 minutes. If you come across a pin that recommends running your iron over salt don't try it.
1 Star

Getting Your Towels Clean
Again after years of using the same towels I wanted to "deep" clean of current towels and restore them to their original absorbency. I had my doubts about this one, but I think it worked the towels felt better and I felt drier.
4 Stars

5 Months Old

Another month has gone by and you continue to grow and amaze me with how much you change.

5 Months Old

Height: 24 inches long; 50th percentile*
Weight: 12 lbs. 9 oz.; 15th percentile*
Head Size: 16 inches; 50th percentile*
Diaper Size: Cloth diapers, smallest size
Clothes: Some 0-3 month clothes, but mainly 3-6 month clothes.
Sleep: You are still going to bed around 8:00 pm, but you put up a fight most nights. After 10-15 minutes you normally fall asleep. You are sleeping through the night and waking around 8:30 am.
Eating: You still eat every 2-3 hours. We have introduced rice cereal and some veggies and fruit. You aren't too impressed yet so we are gradually introducing them.
Mommies Milestones: You are a rolling machine and have started scooting around. I thought you might be crawling by now, but you're content to roll to get what you want. You have figured out that if you pull your blanket towards you, your toys will also come. You can now hold your bottle upright by yourself, YES! When you see your bottle coming you start reaching for it and kick your legs. It's so cute. You can blow bubbles and have starting spitting, but daddy thinks your making farting sounds. She's already tuning us out. She use to turn toward us when we said her name, but now she ignores us. She can almost sit up by herself. You have a fascination with your feet. You know how to take your socks off in order to suck on your toes. You have started to reach out your arms when you want to be picked up. It.is.ADORABLE. And last, but not least you like to "make out" with your toy mirror. It's really cute and disturbing.

*Same as 4 month stats

I don't have a list of 5 month favorites this month as we were busy with the holidays and all the new toys, so I decided to post a list of cold/teething must haves since we are in that stage. These are recommendations of things to have on hand. Most of these items we purchased in the midst of fighting off the first cold. We were even those FTP that took their daughter to the pediatrician when her fever was over 102.

Here's my list of cold/teething remedies.

1. Nosefrida or some type of aspirator. 

2. Children's Tylenol

3. Sophie the Giraffe

4. Baby Vicks

5. Humidifier

New Year, New You!

We kept things simple this year and stayed in on NYE. Having a baby makes it harder to go out and party hard. We had received an invitation to attend a murder mystery dinner, which could have been fun but we stayed in, made dinner and watched a movie. Nothing could have been better.

I like to make New Year's Goals/Resolutions and this year is no different. Here is the short list.

1. Get back into running and run two Half Marathons.
2. Finally read the Bible all the way through. Any tips on accomplishing this are greatly appreciated. I've failed at this one for the past 8 years.
3. Find a church in SD and get involved.
4. Find an organization to get involved with and volunteer.
5. Finally start that Esty shop I've been dreaming about for years.
6. Be better at blogging.
7. Be the best mom and wife I can be.

What goals and/or resolutions did you make?

And one last photo of C wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Christmas Pinterest Edition: Volume 2

One of the things I've been trying to keep up with is all the Pinterest food recipes I pin. Most of the recipes I've tried over the years I've liked. Here are a few more recipes we tried over Christmas.

Spinach and Edamame Dip, similar to RA's. This recipe was delicious and a great alternative to humus. I first tried it at RA Sushi and fell in love. We also had spicy tuna sushi rolls.

Jalapeño & Bacon Mac & Cheese This mac & cheese recipe was delicious especially if you like spicy foods.

I would definitely recommend these recipes. I also tried the Nutella Gooey Butter Cake. David really liked them, but I just thought they were ok. 

Christmas Pinterest Edition: Volume 1

I had a blast decorating for the holidays this year. It was the first time since we left DC that we put up our Christmas tree. I scoured Pinterest for decorating ideas and came across a few I immediately fell in love with. Here are some pictures of the decorations and the original links to them.

FA LA LA LA LA Banner, similar - I am in love with her blog. She also has Christmas printable for next year that I will be using. 

Glitter Trees

Fischer Price Nativity Set

Similar 

Christmas Printable

Stocking from my childhood that I am passing down to Charlotte. 

I decorated our sofa table with a more Winter Wonderland holiday theme that I will post later. I had wanted to make an ornament wreath, but ran out of time. I bought extra ornaments on clearance to make the wreath next Christmas. 

Charlotte's First Christmas

I had so much fun decorating for the holidays this year and decorating my newest obsession, baby C. I love, love, love this time of year for the true meaning of Christmas and everything else that surrounds it.  This post is lengthy, but mainly due to photos. Here are some of the highlights from the month. A separate Pinterest post coming on my decorations.

We started the month off with family photos for our first Christmas card which was sent out late. C got to meet Santa for the first time, but she didn't really care too much for him.

David and I went to two of his work Christmas parties, thanks to grandma coming to babysit. (not the best photo, but the only one I have)

We had a photo shoot for Christmas. I'm glad to have an easy going baby who indulges me by letting me take her picture so much!

And best of all we were able to travel to Missouri for a few days to see family. We were able to see lots of extended family while we were home, but no friends on this trip.

My sister made the matching shirts for the girls. This is one of the only pictures of the three wee girls where they are all looking towards the camera. This was after lots of tears and crying. H looks possessed but it's cute.  

I wish I could have captured the excitement and sparkle in C's eyes when she saw the presents and started opening them. She LOVED it. 

Some more photos with the family. 

Being this cute is so hard. 

Charlotte went to visit her great grandpa, who is 99. I'm hoping he makes it to 100. I've always wanted to send in a photo for the Today Show's Smuckers recognition for those over 100.

We celebrated Christmas back here in San Diego with food and gifts from Santa. I can't wait till next year when C understands more about Christmas. I really like traditions and as much as I wanted to start some this year, we will have to wait until next year to implement most of them. 

Christmas Traditions I want to start. 

1. Elf on the Shelf

2. Standard photo with Santa

3. Christmas pjs on Christmas Eve along with Twas the Night Before Christmas. 

4. Reading the Christmas Story from the Bible Christmas morning. 

5. Dinner and beach, when we are in San Diego. 

6. Polar Bear Express idea. For more information on this check out my friend's blog. 

Here is what was on C's Christmas List this year. 

B. FunKeys

Pigeon Book

Chan Pie Gnon Teether

B. Toys Zany Zoo Wooden Activity Cube

Baby Einstein Musical Motion Activity Jumper

My new toy by B. Toys. 

FaceTime with family. Sometimes I love technology. 

We decided to head over to Coronado for the afternoon. After a photo shoot on the beach at the Hotel Del Coronado we witnessed an incredible sunset. 

And our last photo shoot for the holidays.