I'm 25!

Today is my 25th birthday! I can't believe I have lived a quarter of a century already. This is super exciting. I thought I would feel old, and at times I do, but I feel like I have so much more, than just my age. I feel so blessed with everything. In fact, I can list 25 things I am blessed with.

1. Life. God gave my a wonderful life.
2. My Husband: I feel like the luckiest girl in the world with him. He is a wonderful man, who does so much for me and our son, and I am truly blessed to have him in my life

3. My son: I have never realized how become a mom would be such a blessing. 

For more beautiful sayings about being a mother to a little boy, please check out Disney baby's blog.

4. Winston. He stole my heart the first time I laid eyes on him, and I know he loves me. 

5. My family, my mom,step dad, dad, step mom, siblings, and my in-laws. Family is important, and I have learned in my 25 years of life, that family is more than just blood. 

6. Speaking of family being more than blood, my friends. I am blessed to have friends who I can count on. 

7. I can't keep mentioning my family, without having a special spot for my mom. I am very blessed to have her in my life. She has taught me so much; from helping me in school, to helping me learn how to cook and bake, to just talking to me about every day life, and now helping me with my motherhood journey. I am very blessed for her in my life. 

8. My siblings. With out them, I don't know what I would be. I know, even though we fight, that we all love each other and that we would do anything for each other. I hope I can bless my son with siblings. 

9. My education. Something I want to be able to instill in my son is a thirst for knowledge and to never stop learning. Having an education is a blessing, one that women weren't able to get, and one that some countries are still fighting for, so all their children can go to school. 

10. My safety. For this one, I am thinking about how blessed I am to live in a country where men and women go to war, and risk their lives just so I can have a family, pray, go to church and get an education. 

11.  Being able to love music. From my love of singing (and if I can toot my own horn, being able to sing) as well as knowing how to play the flute and dance. I am blessed with those talents. 

12. Speaking of talents, I am blessed to have a grandmother who knitted and crocheted items for me. Her love to work with her hands, and helping me learn, was and still is a blessing. 

13. My friend Becky. We have been friends since we were 7. Over half our lives. She is always there for me and I know I can count on her. I am very  blessed to have her and her family in my life. 

14.My siblings. I really want my son to grow up with siblings.

15. My friend Brit, the best friend I made in college.

                                      

16. And Joy, my best friend from camp. If you haven't worked at a camp, or gone to one, I suggest, if you ever have children, send them to camp. It is so much fun. 

17. MY step-dad. He is a wonderful man, who makes my mom happy.

18. My Dad and step mom. My step mom has been so warm and caring, it really makes me wonder where the term "evil step-mom" came from, because I know I don't have one.

19. My non-blood family. Family is not made up of just blood. IT really ins't (and I can't stress that enough) but it can range from friends, to step family to any one. Someone else who I am blessed with a women whom I am very lucky to have in my life. My old church in college did an adopt a student program and my mother through that is wonderful and great. 

20. Love. The ability to love and be loved. I am blessed for that. 

21.A roof over my head. I forget I take that for granted, but always remember it when it rains. 

22. And food on the table. Not everyone in the world is lucky enough to have that.

23. All my first world items; phone, computer,and such.

24. You readers.

25. And of course, today being my birthday. 

See, 25 reasons why I am blessed. I have lived a great 25 years and I hope to be able to live many more years. 

Ciao,

I'm a month!

So, last Thursday was my estimated due date. (Jan 30th) I was really hoping my baby would have been born on Feb 2nd, just because I think groundhogs day would be a cool birthday. But, nope. My little man was born January 3rd, making Monday a big day in his life. He turned one month!

To be Thankful

Last week I wrote about how I am thankful for my husband. This week there are three things I'm thankful for.
1. Veterans and all those who are serving in out military. I know that I missed Veteran day  as it was yesterday, but that still doesn't mean I'm not thankful for their service. Their sacrifice, everything that they do to keep us safe and protect us. I am thankful for all of that.

2. For Winston.  He is my little boy. He is there to cuddle anytime I want, he also makes me feel better  when I'm sad. He is playful, he is sweet and he is the prefect little dog for me. Plus who couldn't love this face.

3.The last thing I'm thankful for is the fact that I'm here and alive. That I wake up everyday and for all the little things I take for granted. 

November thankfulness

Can you believe that it is November already? It seems like just a year ago I was posting what I was thankful for. Instead of doing that for everyday, I will create a post once a week for what I'm thankful for. This week, being the first week of November, I want to say that I'm thankful for my husband. He is a wonderful man.

J provides for me. He works harder than any one I  have seen, just to make sure that I am taken care of. Not only that, but to make sure that my stress level is low so this baby inside me is safe. He makes sure that I am happy over his happiness, and to me, that is love. Since we have moved, I know things are tough, but by seeing how hard my wonderful husband works, I know just how loved I am. And for that, I'm extremely thankful for him.

(all of these pictures are form Mandy)

Ciao,

26 weeks.

Today I am 26 weeks.  My last week in 2nd trimester. I have 98 days left until my due date! EEEKKK!

Baby is about 1.5 to 2.5 pounds and 14 inches long. So the size of a head of lettuce, egg plant or a lunch box? Hmm, I don't think I have a baby the size of a lunch box.

The baby is moving around a lot! At the last doctors office the doctor was chasing the baby around with the doppler. He/She is practicing breathing so hiccups are happening. I haven't felt them yet, but I probably will soon. He/She is also is growing eye lashes. I hope that this baby gets my husbands eye lashes, since mine are super short and his are long.


My symptoms: Let's see, I'm still tired, and still having bouts of nausea, but this past week, I haven't been super sick. It is getting harder to fall asleep (even though I'm super tired), my back still hurts, and I have noticed I have been needed my inhaler a bit more. Otherwise, I have had a bits of energy, which is helpful to get things organized and set up for the baby. (mainly research)

Updates: I have been doing more and more research on different baby items, so that way when my husband and I can take a road trip to the "big" city where they have a Target and Babies R Us was know what we want to look at.


Gender guesses:  My husband thinks that this little one is a girl. Some of my friends and family think it's a boy. I really don't know.  I found this on Pinterest:

Let's see:

Morning sickness: YES!

Cravings: When I have them I want both sweet and salty stuff

Mood: I think I've been moody, it's kind of hard to be happy when you are working on keeping food in, and worried about a bunch of things. 

Skin: Soft? I have always had pretty soft skin and I haven't noticed a difference

Sleeping: I'm throwing you all for a loop, up until two weeks ago, I was still sleeping on my stomach. Right now, I'm trying to get comfortable on my side, and I switch between the right and left side. 

Headaches: I have had a few, so Yes.

Balance: My balance has been off. I'm going with unstable for this. 

Chinese Calender: I got boy and girl. 

Also today is October 24th. I believe the Petites link up is still going on. I am linking up this post, but it will be the only pregnancy post that I will link up. I hope those readers from it, don't mind.

It's a New Girl time....

I seriously love my Husband. This week-end has been nothing but chaos! If I go into the details, you all would need a coffee break in the middle of reading it, and then a cookies at the end. So to save your eyes, I'm just going to brag about my husband, and his awesome friends who helped us out.

Actually, we are staying with them, until our new place opens up for us. So, it's me, and three guys. In a way, I feel like Jess form New Girl

Source

So, we have all of our stuff in their apartment, along with Winston. Which makes this super fun. Of course, for me, since I couldn't really help with moving items, the first thing I do for all these men is make them dinner. (It's the least I could do, like really, my husband and his friends have been wonderful).  But, in the process of making dinner this was the only  thought going through my head

And then, if anything ends up bugigin me, I might say something like this

Anyways, I'm super excited for this next week. Of course I will be on the road again, but, soon and very soon, I will be posting about my new place. and then maybe...just maybe...we might buy some stuff for the baby. 

Ciao,

Happy Memorial Day!

Today I want to wish a Happy Memorial day to all my wonderful readers. Please thank any service men or women that you know. Today is in honor of their service.  So Thank you !

source

Source

I also just want to put a side note in: Tomorrow starts my busy time. For the next two weeks I will be working about 12 hour days. I will try to get all my post written ahead of time, but I may not be able to. I'm sorry for that. Also, since the comments on here need to be approved by me, if you post one (and I really hope you do) know that it may take me a few hours to approve it.

I'm also trying this new link up today.







Ciao,

Free Onions!

TGIF all.
Guess what- I got Free Onions.

Imagine this- it's raining out and you go into work and are just feeling ho-hum. And then, you go to the kitchen, and see a not addressed to you saying "The onions in the fridge are for you" Eeek! Free onions! It's like

And it makes your rainy day tens times brighter.  And then you stumble across this on the interwebz 

The first one- very funny. The second one just reminds me of Winston. But I'm glad yesterday was rain, because today we have

(Okay- that's not true. I love snow, I really do, just not in April)

Which leads Winston to look like

I can't go play ball outside. :(

Well, I guess that is all for now. Until next time.

Candy Buffet

I can't believe it's  been over 7 months that I've been married. I also can't believe I've been forgetting to share some of the wonderful experiences of my wedding. I have covered;  the flowers, the dress, what to do with the flowers after the wedding, the cake, shoes, and the invitations. I covered tips on how to save for a wedding and I briefly mentioned my favors.

Today I'm going to talk more about my favors.

I had the traditional Jordan Almonds in white. There were five of them all wrapped up in a small tulle bag. Attached to the bag was a small card saying

" Five Sugared Almonds for each guest to eat,

To remind us that life is both bitter and sweet. 

Five wishes for the new husband and wife, 

Health, wealth, happiness, children,

And a long life."

 For the buffet I had:

A lollipop tree
Gummi bears
Air heads
Jolly Ranchers
Salt Water Taffy
Laffy Taffy
Kisses
Twizzlers
M &Ms
Apples and Oranges
Pixie Stixs
Skittles
Reese's Pieces
Mints
Mike and Ikes
 and a mixed variety of sweets.

I know it's a lot. But at the end- there wasn't much candy left over at all (which was what Jeff and I wanted) My guests loved the variety on the Candy buffet. To let the guests know to take from the buffet we had a very cute sign

"Thank You 

for joining us on our very special day. 

Please enjoy some treats from our

Candy Buffet

Love, 

Dani & Jeff"

 And now some pictures. All the pictures are from Mandy (My Photographer)