One reason why you shouldn't spend a lot of money on a crib...

Yes, some people may think this crib is tacky, or way too bright, or just plain ugly, but we LOVE it. It's totally us - it's so different. How many people you know have a bright green crib? We spent alot of money on this crib - in fact, way too much money. And this is the reason why we shouldn't have:

Dang teeth!

I actually think it's kinda funny. White cribs, black cribs, stained cribs are all easy to fix. A green crib - not so much.

Best. Scent. Ever.

I was at my friends house a few months back and she had this candle burning. It smelled oh so yummy. I asked her what it was and she told me it was a Salt City candle and the scent was Home Sweet Home. I seriously wanted to buy it. I went to buy it but for a candle it was $20.00! There is no way I wanted to spend that much for a candle - especially since I have 2 candle warmers that I hardly ever use. Reason being? Because I have always bought the Scentsational wax from Walmart. Side note: Don't ever buy those. They are WAY TOO STRONG. Seriously, every time I would burn one - ANY scent for that matter, both me and Kelly would get a headache. A bad headache. They are only $2.00 but so not worth it.

Last week I was at Quilted Bear and came across a booth with Salt City candles .. AND wax! Oh, I was so excited! For only $4.00 I could get 6 tiles of wax to melt and they last 50-60 hours. Don't you worry, I definitely bought it. And the scent isn't too strong - AT ALL. I can have my warmer on for hours and it never smells too strong. My house smells SOOO good now! I am excited to try other scents as well, but for now - I am pretty sure this is the best scent ever.Well, for a candle at least. Besides this, the best scent ever is Baby Magic.

Dang blogger!

Does anyone else have issues with spacing on blogger? It's quite annoying if I do say so myself. When editing it I space it the way I want it, but when I view the post it's all over the place! Any suggestions??

Rylee's First Easter

Easter was fun this year – it will be a lot more fun when Rylee can hunt for eggs though! Next year.. Rylee got a cute new dress, swimsuit, books, a fun toy, a toothbrush, and some puffs! She also got lots of goodies from both grandma’s and grandpa’s! Lucky girl!

Brushing her teeth!

Looking cute in her new dress!

Me and my baby girl

Our attempt at a family picture!

Church wore her out that's for sure!

TEN Months

Yes, it’s true. Rylee is ten months old today. Shocking isn’t it? 2 more months till she is a YEAR OLD! I am getting so excited to have a birthday party for her. My sweet baby is slowly – yet quickly turning into a toddler. She is getting so big. Everything I don’t think she should or would be doing now she is doing .. like throwing tantrums. Haha. A couple days ago she was getting into the cabinet and Kelly pulled her away. She threw her entire body back onto the floor and got mad. We both look at each other just shocked. Does she really do that now?

She is still climbing stairs – lots of stairs. She is so fast. We turn around for just a second and she has already climbed up four or five stairs. We finally had to buy a gate. She loves climbing. She pulls herself up on things and then tries to climb up them. When we are holding her she starts climbing up our stomach.

She dances ALL THE TIME. To music she hears on the radio, ipod, tv, etc. even when you sing she dances. It is adorable!

A couple months ago I said she was saying “Dada” and “Mama.” Well, I was trying to make myself believe she knew what she was saying. Although maybe she does (haha) she hasn’t straight up looked at one of us and said it. Maybe soon. She does, however, say “hi” ALL THE TIME now. She looks straight at you and says “hi.” She says it to me all day long. And we discovered she learned it from Daddy. He comes home from work for lunch and in the evening and says, “hi!!” A couple mornings ago Kelly went in and got Rylee when she woke up. He put her on our bed and my back was facing her. She started crawling towards me and climbed on me and said, “hi.”

She can now wave bye-bye as of last night.

She has 6 teeth and is working on her 7th.

She loves loves food – I could feed her all day long and she’d be happy.

She sleeps ALL night long now. She goes to sleep at 7:30 p.m. – wakes up at 5 or 6 to nurse and is back down till 8.

She is so busy-busy. She crawls so fast, tries to get down when you're holding, is up and down .. just everywhere all day long!

She gives us kisses all the time! They are the cutest open mouthed wet kisses ever!

She loves holding things in both of her hands and turns them over and looks at new things at every side and every angle – she has some amazing dexterity.

She does her cheese all the time – she even now does it when she is mad. She really only cheeses just to make you laugh. She will be completely straight faced and then cheeses – back to straight face and cheeses again. It is so funny it cracks us up every time.

She shakes her head no - sometimes she'll crawl to the stairs or up to something and turn around and shake her head no. Maybe we should stop saying no-no to her? Yikes!

She loves being outside and going for jogs - maybe someday it will really warm up so we can go on walks and jogs everyday!

She has grown so much the past couple weeks. Suddenly her size 2 shoes that were too big are almost too small? And her 6-12 month clothes don't seem like they'll fit for much longer!

She still loves the bath .. of course, what baby doesn't? BUT she only enjoys it for a couple minutes and is ready to get out! She is too busy to just relax and play in the bath!

She loves to crawl up to me and grab onto my legs and hold on whenever I am cooking, cleaning, doing laundry, etc. I love that she loves me so much. :)

The FUNNIEST picture of her sleeping. She sleeps in the funnies positions. This one her top teeth are showing. We were laughing so hard. Oh, and don't mind the 4 binkies you see - I put a bunch in her crib so she can always find one. :)

Rylee's first pig tails! Please note this is a COMPLETE joke - I would never do her hair like this when she doesn't have hardly any hair. I was laughing pretty hard!

The sweetest picture! I went in to check on Rylee and she was cuddling her stuffed lamb! It was the cutest thing ever!

Happy 10 months baby girl!

Extreme Couponing

I have been watching this show on TLC -- you may have heard of it: Extreme Couponing. Well, I have been watching that show -- I am almost becoming addicted to it. It has really made me want to start couponing! To save some money, and also to have something to do. A hobby I guess you could call it. Of course I don't want to be an EXTREME couponer (some of these people are a bit crazy and obsessed .. if obsessed is even descriptive enough. I don't think it is.) I just want to be a good couponer. These people are saving some mega bucks I can't believe it! Their bill is close to $400.00 before the coupons and they are leaving only paying $6.00.

How do they do it? I just have all these questions floating around in my head. Where do they get stacks of coupons? (besides sifting through dumpsters or paying a lot for them) Don't the coupons expire? How do they save coupons when they usually expire pretty quick? I really need some imput from people -- ANYONE who is a couponer. HOW do you do it?

I would love nothing more than to save hundreds and hundreds of dollars on groceries, cleaning supplies, and bathroom supplies.

I am Happy to Say...

Well, it has been 3 weeks since my post about me going nuts cause my baby was up half the night most nights. I am now happy to say... she is SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. All I had to do was let her cry herself to sleep and now she has learned -- when I put her in bed at night it's bedtime and I'm not gonna go in and get her. Now when I put her down she only cries for a couple minutes -- sometimes even goes right to sleep without making a peep. Bedtime is at 7:30. Most nights she gets up at about 6 to eat and goes right back to sleep till around 8:30 or 9. Rylee is now an angel sleeper. And I am getting more sleep and we are both happy campers! Next baby I am definitely teaching them good sleep habits earlier -- big mistake to wait as long as I did! So for all you Mom's reading this and your babies won't sleep very good: All you need to do is let them cry themselves to sleep. They will sleep longer and learn to sleep better. I am so happy she is a good sleeper now! Plus, the time I have in the evening to myself and to spend with my husband is WONDERFUL. Oh, and the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child -- SUCH a good book. Definitely recommend reading it. A couple pictures of my sweet little sleeper!

And a CUTE picture of my 2 favorite people in the entire world! I wonder who's ears Rylee has? HAHA.

Oh Happy Day

I get excited and happy about the littlest things - I am just a nerd like that.

Today there are 3 things that made me happy.

First - RUNNING. I went running tonight! 1.5 miles. I will work on going longer distances like I did before but I am so happy and proud of myself. I LOVE running. Seriously love it. It feels so good. I am so happy the weather is changing so I can go all the nights I don't go to Zumba!

Second - SPRING CLEANING. Today I mopped the floor, dusted all the baseboards, and cleaned all the blinds downstairs. Tomorrow I am doing the upstairs blinds. I love spring cleaning! My house is already feeling better.

Third - PROBLEM SOLVING. When Rylee was brand new she got eczema pretty bad. I used Eucerin lotion and it sort of helped, not a ton. Finally it just went away. Not completely, but pretty close. We decided we needed to get a water softener - mainly for her. We got a smokin' deal on one and it cleared up her skin completely! Hallelujah. Well, all the sudden it came back - really bad. I was thinking it was maybe the weather changing. And then I realized I washed all her clothes with regular laundry detergent. I have always used Dreft or Tide Free and Clear to wash her laundry but I had run out. So I used our regular laundry detergent. I thought that might have something to do with it all the sudden coming back. So yesterday I ran to the store and bought more Tide Free and Clear and washed all her laundry. Today it is COMPLETELY gone. I was shocked. And I am happy.

Today has been a good day. What are some of the little things that make YOU happy?

My Little Cheeser

Remember that mega cheesy scrunched up face grin I was telling you about? Well, here it is. She does it all the time now. Yesterday she was doing it ALL DAY LONG. You didn't have to try really hard to get her to do it - she would just look at you and do it. It is the cutest little cheese! She is so silly!