Monday, November 15, 2010

Shutterfly!

I love Shutterfly! I have loved it for about 5 years now and have used any excuse (in the past when we had more money) to make a photo book. If it was a holiday I was off of work, I wanted to make a photo book about it - not quite that bad, but pretty bad...I love everything Shutterfly! I have bought their photo books mainly, but I've also purchased greeting cards and other gifts. I cannot wait to get my Christmas cards through them this year - but I have to wait to see what pictures we're going to use when Joy takes our pictures in a couple of weeks! One of my favorite cards right now says "Rejoice the Lord is King" but I'm not sure which one I'm really going to end up choosing. All the holiday cards are here. A couple of my other favorites are these!


Ooooh...and I'm thinking this calendar below would be a great present - I could put pictures of James on every single page!!! That link is here.


And then, while I was looking around on there, I just found these invitations - oh my word, how sweet! Before I know it I'll be getting invitations for James' 1st birthday. I found them here.
Basically, I'm a Shutterfly lover. Have you checked out Shutterfly? I LOVE, LOVE to make stuff on there. Just go to here to get your creative juices flowing...try not to get too obsessed like I have though! And, watch for my Christmas card in the mail this year!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Most Exciting Thing EVER

Alright. This is it. I am so excited about this. I love the website Southern Savers - they always post the grocery coupons, specials deals, etc. I saw this deal about games at Toys R Us, and I GOT IT!!!! Okay, let me tell you what I did. If you spent $35 before tax on Hasbro games at Toy R Us, you got a $10 gift card to the store. Well, when I went, there was something going on with the promotion and the register at the store, so they just had to take $10 off my total - what a shame. So, then I'm down to $28 including tax for all these games. Then, Hasbro has a rebate right now where you can get a couple of dollars off of each Hasbro game you get - so, I got $15 off on my rebate I sent in...so....I GOT THESE 7 GAMES BELOW FOR $13. Is that a greal deal or what??? I was so excited. I remember playing Trouble, Chutes and Ladders, Candyland, Hi Ho Cherry-o, Memory and Kooties - I don't remember Don't Break the Ice. I made Landon take my picture with the games because I was SO EXCITED. Did I mention I was excited about this?? Landon didn't seem to care all that much - I don't think he must've been a big game player as a child. But...don't worry James, Mommy has the games ready!!!!

2 New Toys

We put together a new toy for James this past week! It's the Baby Einstein Jumper - I think it's called a Jumper - I can't remember right now...anyway, he seems to really like it. While the exersaucer says that a supported sitter can play in it, this Jumper thing says that they should be a sitter....so uh, oh well. But, I haven't been leaving him alone to play in it - I've been sitting there while he plays. He seems to think it's really fun. He doesn't have the hang of how you can turn around in it and play with the different sides...he just tried to lean his body over and play with the things on the sides.


Then, I've been trying to figure out how he might like tummy time better. I saw this thing and thought it might help. He LOVES to look in the mirror, so I ordered this floor mirror from Walmart.com. Okay, it works, but unless you strap it to the crib, it is very cheap. It falls over unless I hold it on the floor, but so far, he seems to love it - and forgets for a few minutes that he's on his stomach.


Eating "Real" Food

Boy, I was excited about James starting to eat real food. I could not wait to feed it to him! Even though he eats rice cereal in all his bottles because of his reflux, I couldn't wait to mix it up and feed him with a SPOON! Um, didn't quite go like I anticipated. I thought he was going to just gobble it right down. He didn't. These first two pictures are our first try at real food. Here's the before:

Here's the during:
He'd much rather eat the straps of his high chair in the picture above than his cereal. So, I got some tips. First of all, I know it's not that he needs the nutrition. So, no real pressure about whether or not he eats it. Also, I got some good advice about when to feed him so he'd be hungrier, etc. AND, it worked. So...slowly...after about two weeks of trying the rice cereal (with some applesauce mixed in), twice a day, he's really gotten the hang of it! He now eats oatmeal with bananas in the mornings (then his milk), a veggie for lunch (then his milk), and some rice cereal for dinner (then his milk) and two extra milk times in there :) He is doing great! Here he is yesterday...about to eat some carrots.
Here are the carrots:
Yum!
Eating is a messy job. The first time I gave him the carrots he sort of ate them and then turned his head and fake coughed a couple of times. Then, he kept eating them.
I think eating is going well. Next week we're going to try a new veggie...I'm thinking....maybe squash. :)

Friday, November 12, 2010

Vaccines

I forgot this picture in James' 4 month update, but I wanted to take his picture with all his bandaids after his check up. He got 4 shots - 2 bandaids on each leg!! What a trooper!


Our First Trip to the (Sort of) Zoo

A few weeks ago, my HR Team at work had a fun event we got to bring our families to. I was excited that they invited me to come - since I'm working from home now only 10 hours per week, I don't expect to get to do all the extra stuff, but they asked us to come! We went to Dahlonega to this Reserve place that had some animals, then out to eat at the Smith House. It was GREAT. The Fudge Factory was the greatest!! Here is Landon feeding the camel...remember, camels are my favorite...

Here's James and me...the camel is watching us. For the most part, James didn't care any about the animals. The camel was the one we got the closest to, so he was at least interested in it a little. He mainly just got mad if we were in the sun and the sun was in his eyes.
Here we are with the Robinson family :) Shannon, Mandy, and sweet Isabelle. Mandy is my co-worker, but also my great, great friend. They go to our church now, and I am so excited about it. I really love their family. Mandy has a personality kind of like Steph - that dry humor that totally cracks me up. I survived many RB&Co. days because of her helping keep me sane :)
We had a great time together! James was really good, so that was a great blessing.

My First Holiday Failure

Well, I failed on two accounts for Halloween. First of all, the costume. James was supposed to be Albert, our mascot. Well, I tried and tried to find an alligator costume I thought looked plush, like Albert, but I could not find one! Finally, I found this dragon costume and thought if I put this jersey over it, it would hide the dragon spikes and look like an alligator. It sort of did, but it made Albert look really fat. Ha, like fat Albert...but clearly not the real Fat Albert. I also got James the cutest monogrammed trick or treat bag from Pottery Barn (which we can keep using year after year).






My second failure came on the actual Halloween date, and it technically was not my fault, but still....Halloween was on Sunday. We had to drive down to Costco and Chuck E Cheese to get giftcards as prizes for our Trunk or Treat at the church that night. Well, on the way back home, on I-85, there was a RED ALERT. I am not even kidding. We sat for like almost 2 hours on the interstate just sitting there - James slept most of the time, but thank goodness I had extra food for him because I had to feed him after a while - it was crazy! That right there showed me why you should always be prepared with a baby. By the time we got back to the church, it was time for the trunk or treat. I had to run home and get Landon a change of clothes and then get back to the church immediately so that he could change. I didn't get to put James' costume on him or get his trick or treat MONOGRAMMED bag....it was yuck! The trunk or treat was a great success, so that was good, but I was really disappointed in our first Halloween...not that I ever have high expectations that NEVER live up to what I hope they'll be...
OH WELL! At least he is a baby - he has no idea there was anything. :)