Good hair day

We are in trouble....

I can see the active child in motion before too long....she is officially rolling over. I wanted to see her do it a few times before putting it in writing but 4 times this morning she has rolled over and in both directions. No more days of putting her in one place, or on something and running to do something. AHAHAHAHAH!!!! We will work on getting video for your viewing pleasures

The best hamburger

Sam went and had the best hamburgers in town today with Grandma and Grandpa at Bud's Bar.
Here are a couple pics of her and Grandpa having a blast at the local dive.










Also, Sam has been doing a new trick lately. Apparently she has discovered her tongue because she is constantly sticking it out. My mom caught a few action shots on her phone so excuse the blurriness.

More planning

For those who know me it will come as a great surprise that I've actually began using the calender on my computer......we'll see how that goes. I also have to-do lists in different places on the computer. I think that this all goes along with my attempt to learn how to be that SAHM. All the evilness began with the Rocks in My Dryer blog hosting the a Works for me Wednesday carnival that then led to I'm an Organizing Junkie who hosts menu plan monday which I love.

Here are my plans for the week:

Monday - rotisserie chicken; red cabbage saute

Tuesday - stir fry veggie w/ rice noodles

Wednesday - BBQ roasted Salmon; mashed potatoes and cauliflower

Thursday - Turkey Sausage pasta bake; salad

Friday - Chicken a'la king; butternut squash

Saturday - Fish; sweet potato fries; steamed veggies

Sunday - Beef Curry ; rice; cucumber salad

recipes to try: Crock pot Roast

Fun day and getting organized

It felt like spring around here the last week or so and now it is a balmy 21 outside. It is a great day to stay home, do some laundry, and take a nap with my baby girl. Yes, we both just took a 30minute nap together. I don't know why I'm so tired but I also seem unmotivated the last couple of days. I'm sure that dad going back to work after a few weeks of vacation is most of the problem. We had so much excitement over the last couple of weeks and now it's back to work!!

Sam went to her first horse show yesterday with the grand Cribleys. She was wonderful and we think she actually watched the horses and cows in the ring. Mom and baby girl also took their first bath together when we got home that night.....we had so much fun and it made me excited to start her swimming lessons next month.

Hopefully I can pull together all of the things I have going and not feel like I'm swimming in work. I've decided to start a regular schedule at work with AJ or my mom watching Sam. I'm just letting little things slip through the cracks and it's not working. Plus, I think that there isn't anything stopping me from my tree foundation getting off the ground. i need to update my to-do-list for that and get moving. Well, it seems like life is moving faster then I can control and hopefully we can just enjoy the ride:)

Mountain Fun vs. Sick Baby Girl

The battle of the 4th month......Sam is happy because she put off her shots for a few weeks.....she is sick with some respiratory virus. The doctor is impressed with how she hasn't been as sick as others and despite the fact we were staying at 10,000 ft for the last week. We say YEAH to breast milk......

plus we had a blast visiting the condo for the first time. AJ and I were able to remember the great JOY of snowboarding thanks to Aunt Amie helping out with Sam. We did lots of snowshoeing with our new shoes and went ice skating on the pond to work off all the food we ate. The weather was more than perfect.
A few firsts...
-Sam has her first virus, cough and snot included; apparently it is bad b/c the Dr. keeps calling to check on her......we LOVE Dr. Stage!!!! He was my doc a long time ago.
-She made her jungle make noise by grabbing the toy all on her own
-She is half way to flipping from her back to front
-She let Aunt Amie and Uncle Albert put her sunglasses on and kept them on
-Dad and Sam had their first evening alone (taking a bottle and all) while mom went to a business happy hour

Coming into Parenthood

It seems like confusion strikes during the holidays, especially throwing into the mix a new baby girl and families with different beliefs. It doesn't make it easier when we are trying to find our own way while attempting to please everyone; this is impossible and not fair to anyone. Well, I guess what really counts is that Kelli and myself are really thinking hard about what we believe, especially to establish a foundation for Sam. While it is important for Kelli and me to consider all our loved ones beliefs and traditions, we have realized lately that it is even more important that we form traditions and beliefs of our own. When the time comes we will explain to Sam why we don't celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever, but we will celebrate our family days. The main reason why we don't feel attached to the previous mentioned holidays is the growing pressure to celebrate or not celebrate them from every angle, including family. We are trying to find our own path and don't want our path chosen for us. We believe the holidays have lost their luster because it no longer feels like it is family oriented and more emphasis is placed on the gifts and traditions themselves. We don't truly understand the root of someone telling us to celebrate the joys in our life on certain days when we should emphasize our families and loved ones every day.

My definition of the "Holidays"
Hanging lights with my dad
seeing the joy of giving in Gram G's eyes
realizing at a young age how blessed I really am

Traditions

Kelli and I wish to establish our focus on our family. Don't get us wrong it is great to receive and give gifts. We think it would be better to give all year long not waiting for those days defined by others. For now, we think a tradition we will begin will be escaping the current December traditions by going to a condo in the mountains and concentrating on family. Of course we welcome and encourage everyone to join us. Just so there isn't any confusion, we will all be making our own plans and accommodations to alleviate any stress.

We love family and the participation that each of our family desires, especially with Sam. Please help us as we work through our new parenting decisions. Openness is our strongest ally.

Lately I've felt added pressure on myself because I have a hard time saying 'no' and want to please everyone. This brought to my attention even more that my focus must be on our new family and that may mean saying 'no' and possibly disappointing family. This could be viewed as a weakness or strength and reflects on how much I love you all but most importantly my wife and child must come first.

AJ

Starting non-profit

It is amazing to me the outpouring of love that is given by EVERYONE who knows you when you have a first child. I have never written so many thank you notes in my life as when our Sam was born. The warmth is such a rewarding experience beyond her arrival and really emphasizes that it takes a village and our village is well established.

To my surprise one of the gifts, or the process in deciding what gift to suggest to someone, provided the desire for me to take on a challenge (as if a new baby isn't enough). My best friend Sharon was in town and asked what gift her father could give Sam. In the past he gave me "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein with a hand written note inside explaining that a tree is planted in Dallas in my honor. Being such a wonderful gift A and I decided that we would love for Sam to have a tree. She now has a beautiful baby tree on his ranch in Texas. As I thought about this present though it was kind of sad to me that she has to go all the way to Texas to play under her tree. Thus the challenge to myself to start my own Tree Foundation here in Colorado.

Having never done anything other than volunteer for a non-profit I am a little intimidated by the process and structure required for such an endeavor. I have begun making great contacts in the area and am already having tons of success with people interested in participating and helping me with the tree side of the project. Now I'm struggling through the daunting chore of finding the best method to begin the non-profit piece. For anyone who reads this, any information on non-profits is welcome. My bestest friend Sharon is already such a great help and will be my guide through this fun time.

The best part is I hope to instill in my daughter the awesome things that we can do if we put our mind to it, most importantly what it will do for others and the beautiful places she will grow up in because of such organizations.

I need some help with a potential name.....anyone.....
Hopefully this inspires and motivates the other wonderful ideas in Works-for-Me-Weds.

This was one of the incredible gifts from Sam's shower. All the people who attended painted these letters to form her name. Thank you to my sister Amie for the idea and putting it together.

Menu Plan Monday

Well this week menu planning will definitely be worth it because I'm also planning for our trip to the mountains next week. This way I will have everything ready and organized for the trip. Plus the goal is to have one grocery trip for the entire two weeks....here goes.

Monday - baked fish;veggie of some kind ;brown rice

Tuesday - CAULIFLOWER AND POTATO CURRY (stolen from another blogger, sounds yummy)

Wednesday - book club, A fends for self - Banana-Black Bean Empanadas

Thursday - Chili Cheese Turnovers; Veggies from around the house

Begin week in Mountains:
Amie and Albert with us through Monday

Friday - Deer Meatloaf;Orange Roasted Asparagus

Saturday -leftover Deer meatloaf Bean Burrito's w/ rice

Sunday - Spaghetti with cheese stuffed turkey meatballs; salad

Monday - Homemade Broccoli Cheese soup (from the freezer); tortillas

Tuseday - Loaded BBQ potato casserole;Apple Ginger Coleslaw

Wednesday - Probably order in china man....coming home for the mountains

Thursday - Spinach Lentil Stew w/ corn bread

Friday - Italian Chicken and Dumplings

Dad gone:
Saturday - Sunday - whatever I feel like because planning two weeks of meals is exhausting right now!!!!

Recipe to try later: sauteed red cabbage

Drought or Flood

Well, it either feels like life is slow and has nothing going on or it runs around like a chicken...well you probably know the phrase. AJ, Sam, and I have had a VERY full couple of days. I'm sure that I will have some pictures to come. It started with going to the mountains to a snowshoeing event, it was fun but very windy and cold. Sam did very well using her snowsuit that the Grand Cribleys gave her for winter sports. She had a hard time handling the wind because it takes her breath away, but she ended up just falling asleep for the hike. We then went directly to a 'wine tasting' party with the birthing class group-again the irony of nursing mothers and a wine party. It was a blast and the babies were all wonderful. My only thing is that Sam has found her voice and it is very LOUD. She talks to everyone by yelling in a high pitched sound that noone can hear over. I'm sure she will be using it to torture us later in life.

That was all on Saturday, then we woke up Sunday to go try scuba diving at the recreation pool. My parents were going to test some equipement and asked us to come try it. It was a BLAST but my ears are still recovering from hangin out at the bottom of the pool. Brunch followed for Sam and me with the Grands, and then on to a football party that Dad was attending. The Giants lost (it was a party with all our firefighting/crimefighting friends from NY) and the party was as usual very loud. While this worked much better for Sam's new voice, it really got to my ears-still recovering.

Needless to say we are napping this afternoon and taking it very easy before the new week begins.

You cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water - Zen teaching

Bottle update

Two things that happened tonight.....our baby girl is definitely finding her fingers to suck. She has chosen them over the thumbs even though she doesn't know how many or which hand yet.
AJ was able to give Sam some bottle tonight, but I also was able to get her to eat from it!!! The biggest thing I notice is that it is really messy.

Blog Carnivals

I don't really know anything new in the form of organizing right now, I would love some ideas on organizing recycling, plus ways to organize cleaning supplies for those of you who read this at Works-for-me-Weds. I'm also recycling this for a new carnival I've found at Green Baby Guide,
Thrifty Green Thursday.

So, I really enjoy finding new avenues for keeping my new (3 1/2 month old) child safe, clean, and healthy. I have spent the last couple of months beginning my transition to becoming a SAHM, Stay-at-home-mom for those of you who don't speak tech lingo. Don't worry I didn't know the lingo a few months ago either. I'm beginning the process now of switching out my laundry detergent and dishwasher soap for home-made, we'll see how this goes. Hopefully it works because it's also a cost saver. We also started sweet Samantha with cloth diapers from day one and love them. It was even more eye opening to us when we were using some disposable while away on vacation and the first few diapers stunck soooo bad. My husband said, "I can't stand that stinky chemical stuff next to my daughters skin". Anyway, I'm really writing to say that we have LOVED a receipe for wipes that happened to end up in our pocession from a nurse.

3 cups warm water
3 tbsp baby shampoo
1 tbsp baby oil
cotton squares (I use the ones that are for removing eye makeup, they are a great size 2 at a time, the original receipe calls for cutting a roll of paper towels in half)

I purchased containers that fit the cotton squares perfectly and make 4 at a time. They are not too wet, not too dry, very natural, very clean, and VERY CHEAP!!

Bottle and Bedtime

Well, Amie has the magic touch and AJ predicted it!!! Sam, for the second night in a row, drank with Amie from a bottle. Tonight she drank 3 oz!!!! Of course a lot of it ended up on the shirt but she did GREAT!!!

Also, I had a discussion with the mommies this morning, it is so wonderful to talk with other really new moms!!! Anyway, we talked about naps and bed time. Pretty much all of them have read and are practicing going to bed between 6:30 and 8....Sam has been officially going to bed at 10. So, I'm changing things starting tonight. It hopefully won't be hard because she naps all through the evening anyway. We'll see...

Mommy group Monday

Sam and I had a great time at our mommy/baby play group today. We really do cherish the time with all the moms that were in our birthing class. Sam enjoyed seeing the other babies for the first time, she would smile at them, especially the other token girl of the group, Caroline!!! I'm sure they will be great play mates against the boys:)

This last week didn't go so well because of plans changing and us just not feeling like cooking some nights. It didn't bother me though because I'm just rolling over to this week and will have to shop for less. Starting Tuesday AJ is home for 17 days!!!

Monday - Leftovers

Tuesday - Sloppy Joes; lentils; artichokes

Wednesday - Lemon Pepper Chicken; risotto; Edamame

Thursday - CAULIFLOWER AND POTATO CURRY (stolen from another blogger, sounds yummy)

Friday - Turkey bacon and Asparagus Fritatta; tortillas

Saturday - wine tasting with birthing class group (after a day of snowshoeing!!!!)

Sunday - Soup w/ bread or grilled cheese

Challenges

Well, we've moved from wanting to sit to wanting to crawl. She really can't do either on her own, but she shows a real desire. I do believe this girl will be impossible to catch some day. She is so busy. I'm even trying no caffeine at all in the mornings AJ is gone just to see. I normally have 1-1.5 cups of coffee.


We're also trying bottle feeding. Dad started the first two nights, grandma tried the 3rd night, and hopefully Aunt Amie will help with the next couple of nights. She doesn't understand and gets frustrated along with pushing the bottle away. This is something new that she has to learn, we'll see how long we keep up with it. Our friend Brennan's parents have given up with him for the time being. It is hard to hear them scream and cry when you know how to fix the problem.

The last few nights she is trying something new with going to sleep. We have been blessed with a good sleeper so any challenges are interesting. The last few nights she will fall asleep in her cradle but within 10-30 minutes she will wake up screaming. If I pick her up she will stop crying, but she may do this 2-5 times initially. I don't know if she has upset stomach, needs cuddles or what but it is frustrating. I guess there will always be something new. My friend Jill is going through nap/bedtime problems with her son recently and he is 2+ yrs. Even with frustrations I found a cute pose though.