Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 9

Today's Prompt - My Wedding

We planned our wedding in approximately 2 months time.  We picked 7.2.05 as our wedding date, mostly because July 4th landed on Monday that year, so that meant a long weekend.  And since we were only 20 and both in new jobs we didn't have time to take extra days off.  We decided to have the ceremony and reception at the same place.  Our colors were light purple and yellow.  We went to a local balloon business and they made this pretty awesome balloon canopy that we stood under to get married and also became the dance floor.  The meal we picked out buffet style was a hot turkey meal (pretty much, as if it were Thanksgiving) and we sipped some sparkling juice since we weren't 21 yet.  Lols - although I remember my mom getting me some drinks afterwards.  We'll be celebrating 5 years this year, and I'm hoping at the 10 year mark to renew our vows and I would love to get a wedding gown.  I didn't go through any of that traditional stuff the first time around and we've always said that we'll do it all again some time down the road.

The Hubs and me after the wedding ceremony. 

Being introduced at the reception.

Our first dance to Keith Urban's "Making Memories of Us"

Cutting our yummy cake.  The Hubs was nice to me, but I did get his nose with some icing.

Garter time!

Our decorated ride after the reception.

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 8

Today's prompt - What does romance mean to me?

Romance has definitely changed over the 9 1/2 years I've been with the Hubs. Currently it means the little thoughtful things that the Hubs does for me.  It's him taking care of me, especially when I don't realize that I need it.  He supports me completely in everything and there's nothing to explain that feeling when you know someone is beside you and to back you up on everything.  He knows how to make me laugh in any situation.  When I'm out of dinner ideas or motivation - he'll go in the kitchen and whip up a meal.  He helps me with anything I ask him around the house, what a big help since we get it done faster which means more family time.  He makes sure I get anything I need/want.  He sacrifices a lot for me and the girls' and I can never express how deeply appreciative I am for it all.


*If you read yesterday's post then you can see that I sort-of got off track with these daily theme's, but here's to being back on track!*

Addicted to True Blood Anonymous, Please?

Last fall my pedicurist let me borrow the Sookie Stackhouse series.  I read them all in a weekend, what can I say, the Hubs was working crazy OT and Little One was off to the grandparents.  I fell in love with the book series.  We don't have HBO so I hadn't attempted to even try and find the Tv series to watch.   Mother-in-law's coworker lent her Season 1 and when they were done they lent it to us.  Needless to say, the Hubs and me couldn't wait for nap and bedtimes.  When we finished Season 1 we went online to watch Season 2.  Needless, to say we watched both Seasons in 5 days which led to all free time being gobbled up  (which would explain the lack of blogging/emailing/BBC sub-group/face-a-book time).  It's really interesting to see the differences and similarities between the books and show. We watched Season 3 premiere this morning, only thing is that now we're stuck waiting week to week instead of the instant gratification of being able to go to the next episode.  Anyone else into the show?

New Blog Design Transformation FINALLY Complete

I'm sure you've noticed over the past few months the changes happening around here.  If you read in a reader please swing on by to see the wonderful new transformation of Measuring My Life in Love.




April over @ April Showers did the blog design.  Her custom illustrator Lindsay did a fantastic job with the family, love how adorable she made me look!  Unfortunately, this whole process was QUITE an eye opening and it makes me have second thoughts if I'll ever hire a designer again.  As much as I love the blog design - I didn't love the lack of follow through and communication that I received when working with April.  Let's face it, when you are shelling out the kind of money it costs for a good re-design these are top needs.  My advice is to definitely research who you will be working with and read their Terms.  Hate being negative but really if you know me then you know it takes a lot for me to get to this point and I just want to warn other people so they don't have to go through what I had to.  

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 7

Today's Prompt - Senses, what are your senses sensing right now?

• Sight - Laptop on my lap, the floor cluttered with the girls' toys, the Hubs to my right, and to the left the tv with the video game that the Hubs is playing. 
• Smell - Home. 
• Taste - Iced tea. 
• Sound - The Hubs video game, the game controllers buttons, me typing on the keyboard, some crickets outside, the fans blowing, Baby Girls' monitor ticking. 
• Touch - The breeze from the ceiling fans blowing above, the laptop on my lap, the softness of the couch that I'm lounging on. 

A Sunday Reflection

This past Thursday night I logged onto Face-a-book and read the news that a little girl named Violette had passed away that afternoon.  She was born April 20, 2010 - 3 days after she was born she was diagnosed with Leukemia, she fought for 44 days.  They call her a warrior princess.  Tanya the mom I know from my online mom group from the oldest and to see a fellow mom like her go through all of this was heart wrenching, especially reading the updates of her daughter's fight against this horrible disease.

What a wake up call this was to me regarding my girls'.  I know that there have been times where I've complained when Baby Girl spends the whole day screaming and refuses to sleep for me or Little One is super whiney and exasperating.  But since reading about Violette's battle and especially the past 2 weeks when things started going bad.  Alls I kept thinking is that I will take any of that over having to see one of my babies suffer.  I forget how lucky we are to have healthy girls.  So, I've been snuggling, hugging and kissing each of them more this week, thankful for all that we are blessed with.

Want to share a couple pictures from this weekend of our wonderful blessings.

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 6

Today's Prompt - What are your favorite foods or a go to recipe?

Favorite foods:

• Homemade Chicken Corn Soup with Rivels
• BBQ & Buffalo Sauce Chicken Tacos
• Bold Party Chex Mix
• Turkey Hill, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Frozen Yogurt
• The Hubs Tuna Melts
• Grape & Peach Licorice

One of my most requested go to recipes is this yummy vegetable side dish.  Everyone on my side of the family has this recipe and it is a must have at every family gathering.  

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 5

Today's Prompt - Write a list of 10 songs you think your readers should listen to.

Oh - to only narrow it down to 10, these are my top 10 for the moment.

1. Airplanes - BOB feat Hayley Williams 
2. King of Anything - Sara Bareilles
3. Why Don't We Just Dance - Josh Turner
4. Say Hey (I Love You) - Michael Franti 
5. Lucky - Jason Mraz feat Colbie Caillat
6. Hey Soul Sister - Train
7. Unfair - Josh Kelley 
8. Daydreamer - Adele
9. Maybe - Ingrid Michaelson
10. Your Love is My Drug - Ke$ha

Do you have any songs that you'd recommend? 

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 4

Today's prompt is - Write about your favorite Holiday/Vacation.

Definitely hands down Thanksgiving to Christmas.  This is my favorite time of the year.  Thanksgiving is a wonderful day with our families and then the Hubs and me go out every year shopping on Black Friday, yes call me a crazy - but I love finding the best deals, that perfect gift for that special person, and we always have a planned route based off of varying opening times etc.  There's a science to Black Friday shopping I tell ya!  And when we get home, we wrap everything immediately, that way it's done and no fussing with it on Christmas Eve.

In preparation, I love pulling out all of my bins of Christmas stuff, it's the only time the back basement room shelves aren't bursting and are half as full as normal.  I've learned instead of trying to do it all in a weekend to take my time throughout the week doing a section at a time.  Every year I seem to have a new crafty project to try whether it be faux garlands, wreaths, or rag garlands.   As a family we each make our own gingerbread house.  We spend a day with the lady's in the family and bake, bake, bake until we can't anymore.  The Hubs and me have big families with several family Christmas's to go to.  Thankfully we are able to spread Christmas out over 2 or 3 weeks with the families so we are not overwhelmed.

L-o-v-e Christmas Eve service, my favorite part is singing Silent Night while holding our lit candles.  There's nothing more beautiful then seeing everyone's faces in candle light.  When we get home from the service we spread out some reindeer food for Santa and his reindeer to find our house more easily.  And then there's a surprise of new pj's waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs.  That's awfully nice of Santa to make a pit stop.  We get dressed in our new pj's, make up a plate for Santa and read Twas' the Night Before Christmas.

Christmas morning is so much fun.  There's nothing better than seeing Little One's excitement as she walks down the stairs and sees what all is under the tree.  I can't wait to see both girls' reactions this year.  Priceless I have no doubt.  The day is spent opening presents, playing with them and heading to 2 other family Christmas's.  Lesson learned from last year is to open all packages prior to wrapping them, remove any and all twisty ties & rubber bands,  so once they are unwrapped we can go straight to playing instead of having to wait.

I've always loved Christmas and all of the fun activities that we do, but having the girls' has renewed the spirit of it all and brings a completely different joy to it.  And I love making new family traditions that hopefully our girls' will want to do with their families also one day.

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 3

Today's Question is - What are you most proud of?

Ah - this is a tough-y. I would have to say my journey to motherhood and my daughters. It hasn't been easy and over the years I have found many other women who have struggled along the way. I'm beyond blessed to have the two beautiful daughters we have, but along the way I had 4 miscarriages. I was once in an extremely dark place but I've pushed through it all, gone through the grieving process and come out on the other side. I'm so much more appreciative of the girls'. Cherish every moment - even the moments of sleeplessness, screaming, & crying. Because I know that one day I'm going to look back on these days and wish I could snuggle with them one more time like I did when they were babies. Unfortunately, time has a way of slipping by even faster when you have kids and before you know it your baby is gone. Motherhood has been a great learning process for myself and the girls'. I'm constantly learning new things and becoming a Jane of all trades and professions.

One eskimO Review

In May I was given the opportunity to review One eskimO's CD.  Their single "Kandi" has been #1 adult alternative song for consecutive weeks.  You can check out their Facebook here.  They started their tour May 25th and are continuing through June with a couple dates in July & August.

I enjoyed listening their music.  It has a smooth sound and reminds me some of my Jack Johnson CDs.  You can download their song "Astronauts" via Twitter by going here.

This CD was give to me for free by One 2 One Network to review, the opinions expressed are mine solely, to check out my Disclosure Policy, go here.

Check out there HIT SINGLE "Kandi".

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 2

Today's Question: What does a day in your life look like - create a timeline.

• 1am-5am - wake up with Baby Girl for a feeding.  If she wakes up earlier, then wake up a 2nd time closer to 5 am to feed her. 
• 7:30-8:00am - Wake up with Little One. 
• 8:00-8:30am - Eat breakfast.
• 8:30-9:30am - Get us bathed if needed and dressed.  Make the beds. 
• 9:30-12:00pm - Get Baby Girl down for a nap, another feeding, play with Emma, clean up the house, do laundry - whatever needs done. 
• 12:00-1:00pm - Eat lunch, feed Baby Girl. 
• 1:00-3:30pm - Little One down for her nap, try and get Baby Girl down for another.  Sometimes I clean during this time, or catch up on shows, computer time. 
• 3:30-5:30pm - Playtime, feed Baby Girl, make dinner. 
• 5:30-6:30pm - Eat dinner, clean up. 
• 6:30-8:00pm - Go outside and play, play inside, any other house cleaning that might need done that day, baths if needed, feed baby girl, get ready for bed. Hopefully Baby Girl is in bed by now. 
• 8:00-9:00pm - Get both girls' to bed, if youngest isn't already. 
• 9:00-11:30pm - Time to relax and watch some tv.  Go to bed anywhere from 10-11:30pm. 

It's those Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer coming,

We had such a great time this past Memorial Weekend spent with our wonderful families.  Days of fishing/boating, picnics and games of horse shoes, volleyball, kids running around barefoot and being poolside.  We had some incredibly hot high 80 degree weather and with the humidity they were definitely scorchers.  But we managed and had a blast! Here's some pics:

Daddy & Baby Girl relaxing in the shade. 

Little One so ready to just get it - thankfully the water was 87 degrees! 

Baby Girl's first dip.

My two bathing beauties in the rafts. 

And this picture is definitely worth a 1,000 words.  It was just her and Pop-Pop in the pool and we look over and she's sticking these water squirters down her bathing suit and says to him in a deep stern voice "Pop-Pop you're going in time out!".  Seriously - where does her little mind come up with some of these things!  

Theme-A-Day Blog Journal - Day 1

Last week I was doing some blog hopping and I came across Emma @ Toddler Awesome and saw that for the month of May she was doing a daily blog post that was themed from questions.  As I'm in a rut lately figured I'd do this for June to get the juices flowing some.

Day 1 -  Introduction

Hmmm - where to begin, I'm 25 years old.  Full-time stay at home mom to, two beautiful little girls.  I'm married to my high school sweetheart and we are coming up on 5 years this July.  Crazy how time flies by!  I love making our house a home and am constantly dreaming up new projects for The Hubs and me to tackle.  Fortunately for me he's 90% of the time on board with me.  I'm still adjusting to having two kids and fitting some "me" time in.  When I used to have "me" time, I love to scrapbook/craft things, try new recipes for meals and baking, read books, listen to music, take photos of my beautiful family and our surroundings, blogging, writing, catch up with friends, enjoy a nice dinner with no kids with The Hubs or a friend.  I'm still searching for where I want my life to go career wise when I'm ready to go back full-time.  I have it narrowed down to a few possibilities, we'll just have to see where the future leads us.

Music Helps Cure Everything

Lately, I feel like I've been stuck in my own spiral downward.  I see it happening and as much as I try and stay positive, when the girls' are asleep and the house is quiet it just takes over.  The Hubs new job didn't work out, so we are back to square zero, yes I meant zero and not one like the saying.  Honestly, I know that things need to change and something work out for once, it's just frustrating, tiring, and makes me feel crappy.

Our families have been amazing and supportive through it all.  I'm so glad our parents there for anything that we need mentally/physically.  As I get older I realize how lucky we are.

When we got home tonight from a family picnic I turned on the tv and flipped on a concert special by Jason Mraz.  And suddenly as I was listening to his lyrics, it came flooding back how music gives us hope even during some of the darkest times.  I had shut this part of me off without even realizing it and now I just want to rummage through to find the artists who speak to my soul and help uplift.

One of my favorites is Sara Bareilles and thought I'd share her latest single - super catchy!

Happy 4 Months Avalynn!

Baby Girl,

Wow - I can't believe another month has flown by.  Feels like this past month has been slow and fast all at the same time.  You, my beautiful little girl have given me a challenge or two in the past few weeks.  You do not like to go down for your naps, which makes a very overtired baby who just yells and screams and takes Mommy & Daddy hours to get you to sleep.  The vacuum seems to make you stop crying, so on one really bad day I would just have it running beside your swing.  We'll have a good week and then a bad week with your naps.  I "think", ahem *hope* and *pray*, that we have it figured out,  with a routine for you and what works the best.  You are becoming a belly sleeper which scares the crap-o-la out of me, but we have a monitor the ticks with your breaths so this gives me peace of mind.  You still aren't sleeping through the night, some nights you get up once and others twice, there is no telling why it's one way or the other.

You are rolling over like a champ from your belly to your back.  And from your back you can roll to your side and almost all the way to your belly, minus getting that inner arm out from under you.  You have really started using your legs and are kicking like crazy.  You still LOVE chomping away on your fingers and hands.  Your whole face and shirts get soaked from all of the slobber you create.  It's very cute though.  You have started grabbing your feet, so I have a feeling it'll be no time at all until they start making their way to your mouth also.

Unfortunately,  this week we've decided we had to stop cloth diapering you as for the past two months you get a rash whenever we try.  I've scoured the internet and cloth diapering boards for some advice and have tried different things but to no avail none of it seems to be working.  This really saddens me.

Happy 4 Months Baby Girl - you brighten every day for us!

Foto Friday

Little One stayed over at her Great Grandparents one night this week so it was just Baby Girl and me.  Had some fun taking pictures of her goofy expressions.

A Smile to Brighten

even the darkest days.  The past two weeks have been somewhat bleak around here.  But these two little girls' are what brighten our days and push us through knowing we can overcome these obstacles.

A Whirlwind of

new beginnings in the "R" household.  Two weeks ago, on a whim the Hubs sent an email to a local motorcycle shop, he was browsing their website & saw they were hiring.  As I've said in the past year, it's been tough - he's only worked about 4 months in the past year.  He's a carpenter for the Local Union, had gone to trade school in high school for it, completed the program through the union, it's all he's ever known how to do.  So, this is a complete 180 from what he's done, but something he's interested in.

The sales manager at the shop used to work in the same union and got out for the same reasons.  The owner and him liked the Hubs and within 4 days of the email being sent they hired him.  So far, the Hubs really likes it and the interaction with people.  After 2 days they sent him for his sales license.  Needless to say it's been a huge adjustment around here.  The days are Tuesday - Saturday & the hours are open to close, plus 30 mins prior to opening and after closing.

Last week was rough, as I've gotten used to him being around to help with the girls' and we've entered into the sleep strike of hell with Avalynn the last two weeks.   Anyways, I'm getting over the overwhelmed phase and the girls' and me are getting into a groove.

'Cause if she wanna rock, she rock,

if she wanna roll, she rolls.  When trying to title this post Eric Hutchinson's Rock & Roll song popped in my head.  It's catchy, although the rest of the song doesn't apply really, but it's an up beat song.

Anyways, on to the exciting news.  Friday night we got home from running errands and I put Baby Girl on her tummy since she hadn't had any tummy time yet that day and right away she rolled over.  Unfortunately, the Hubs didn't get to see it as he was out watering the plants.  Saturday morning we decided to lay her down and see if she'd do it again and she did it 4x's!  I wasn't totally ready for this, it's like in the past week she's completely changed.  When laying on her back she rolls to her side, she loves laying like this.  And she now kicks her legs and hips up and basically moves her body in circles around the blanket on the floor.  I remember the first time, all of a sudden she was the opposite direction I had laid her down.

Amazing how fast time goes when you have kids, and I feel like it's going by even faster with her for some reason.  This is me digging my heals in and trying to get time to slow down some.