Babyshower

This is going to be a long post, but it is all pictures with descriptions.

My older sister Prairie Princess hosted my baby shower (she planned everything only asking my preference for things). She ordered the invitations off of here i don't have a picture of those. She came into town for a special visit just for the shower and we had a really good time with lots of friends.

The picture below is of our party favors. Its a "Candy Bar" we bought little boxes and a bunch of different kinds of candy which we put into different size wine glasses.

The next 2 pictures are of the gift table, there were so many and we really appreciate how generous everyone was. It was a lot of thank you cards that had to be written, it took me forever!

I decided cupcakes would be better then cake, so we had strawberry cupcakes with pink and yellow frosting flowers on top. My dad even helped decorate them.

The party was in the middle of the afternoon so we made a few finger foods that were easy to eat

The theme was pink and yellow so we did pink lemonade with lemon slices in it.

We had 3 games but only have pictures of this one (you hold a paper plate on your head and try to draw a baby, you are not allowed to look until time is up)

Choosing who the winner is

Opening gifts

Everyone was so generous, and it was fun getting to spend time with Jason's mom (we had never really spent time together before) after it was over we had a nice family dinner with some of our closest friends (who we consider family). Its hard to believe it was almost a year ago (December 5Th)

*** To add a little note, the camera cord has been found, there are lots of pictures to come from the last couple of months.

Hooray

This morning I dropped Kendall off at her first day of Head start, and I only have a LITTLE anxiety over it. Not really, it was a lot harder to leave then I thought it would be. Leaving her with the babysitter this last week and a half was easy cause i knew it was just her and Kendall and she would get plenty of attention. Now she is in a classroom with a teacher and a helper and 7 other kids. She is the only girl in her class so she will get lots of attention from all the little boys. It will be an adjustment for her but she will get into a better routine and make lots of friends.

We also have to get up at 6am now (currently on my second cup o coffee with a new peppermint mocha creamer in it, reminds me of Christmas), so she can be to the center by 8. It is rather dark and cold that early in the morning. I was hoping Kendall would sleep in until 7 but no such luck there, she woke up with me at 6. I am hoping now that she will be started on a consistent schedule sleeping at night time will be easier for her and she will be able to sleep better or at least want to sleep.

I miss her a lot and I cant wait to go pick her up this afternoon to see how much fun she had. Since she has to be picked up by 3 my sister will do it most days. I am picking her up today and I will on Fridays, most days it will be my lil sister DM since she is done with work earlier then I am. Who knows though, since I will now be getting to work an hour earlier i might finish earlier then i normally do. Up next look for my post about my babyshower (it was almost exactly 1 year ago)

Pictures!!!

Kendall got her Halloween pictures taken on Saturday by my friend LA who is a photographer (you can see some of her work here) She does a lot of work with babies and takes some awesome pictures. She will be putting a sneak peak of Kendall's photos up on Facebook once she gets some of them edited. I cant wait to see them they are going to be so cute, and make really great gifts.

Being Pregnant

When I was pregnant I never really got "Huge" although I felt that way. The picture above was a week give or take a few days before Kendall was born. . I do have a few more belly pictures from earlier on except they are on my phone memory card and I at the moment cant get them off, i need to get an adapter and put them onto the computer.

• I don't really recall how much weight I gained because I lost a bunch at first and then gained it all back and then some on top of that all in my belly area. If I guessed I would say between 25-30 pounds.

• I did get cravings but it wasn't all the time or anything weird (I don't think anyways) the only thing I consistently wanted and I HAD to eat one everyday was an orange, I cannot even begin to tell you how good they tasted. On several other occasions I wanted fried chicken, chocolate cake, and fruit loops. Those are the only things that really stick in my mind.

• I did get morning sickness but a very very mild case of it. In the very beginning I just didn't feel like eating so I snacked on pretzels. When I started to get my appetite back I ate whatever I want (except the things they tell you not to eat). I only got sick during my first trimester and I did throw up a handful of times, it was only when I would wait to long to eat and have an empty stomach and then fill it up with food.

• Heartburn was the worst! The old wives tail of if you have heartburn while you are pregnant your baby will come out with a full head of hair. Not in my case, Kendall was pretty much as bald as they come. Everything gave me heartburn. I ate Tums like they were candy, we bought the gigantic bottle of them and I also carried a smaller bottle around in my purse.

• Maternity clothes are expensive. As you can see in the picture above I was wearing sweatpants. With the job I have I can wear whatever I want, we don't have a retail store and customers rarely stop by. So I lived in sweatpants and had a few pairs of maternity pants and shirts for occasions when I needed to dress up a little nicer. I just couldn't see spending as much on maternity clothes as i would for regular clothes and then only wear them for a few months.

• I got health insurance through the state (thank goodness!!!) All of my doctors visits were paid for as were my ultrasounds and the delivery and my hospital stay. Since I qualified for state assistance Kendall automatically was signed up for it and had/has it since she was born.

• I was never really uncomfortable, I slept great and very rarely woke up to use the bathroom except for the last month. I slept with a body pillow. They sell pregnancy pillow that are almost exactly like a body pillow just like 4X the price and again I couldn't see myself spending that kind of money on something I would only use for a few months. I was tired all the time from the very beginning to the very end and well now I don't get sleep at all. I remember one time i went to the lake with my friend and we were laying out in the sun on the beach and i fell asleep but only for a few minutes

That is all I have for you for now. Coming soon will be the baby shower my sisters threw for me and the baby basics, things you have to have and the things you can live without.

Head Start

Today is kind of bittersweet and ironic in ways. I got the call this morning that Kendall got accepted into head start. I am ready for her to start cause she will love all the play time and interaction with other kids, but at the same time I will miss her a lot. After she was babysat by Vicki Friday afternoon and did so well for her i figured i might as well have her start watching her Monday (today) so she is there with her and loving it. I had told Vicki she would be starting head start i just didn't know when she would get accepted. What are the chances the day I start having her watched is the day I get the call she is accepted??? I have 1 more home based meeting this week on Wednesday and I will have a meeting next Monday with her teacher and my caseworker to fill out the paperwork also so Kendall can meet her teacher and then next week on Wednesday is when she will start school. I am very excited for her, this is definitely what she needs. She likes playing with other kids but we just are not around them often enough so this will give her the opportunity and also be a great way for her to make new friends and develop her social skills.

New Page Design!!!!

You may have noticed my fabulous new blog design, thanks to my very creative sister Prairie Princess, you can visit her blog here where she talks about her life living on her "Franch" as she calls it. She gets a lot of ideas from Pinterest (I tried and I have no idea how to use it yet) she has always been the creative one, I have my moments but they are few and far between and mostly spur of the moment and random like me.

Also, I think I have found a solution to the missing camera cord. My mother has the same brand camera but the newer version so I might be able to use her cord to transfer my pictures to the computer, I have so many waiting to show you from the last month.

We stayed at Jason's house last night. The last time we did was a couple weeks ago right before Kendall was sick and she slept horrible and was up so many times. She did so much better this time. At the house Jason lives his bedroom is rather small so there isn't really a lot of room for her port-a-crib. Last night, his roommate (the guy who owns the house) was out of town so we decided to just leave her crib in the living room, that way if she decided to lay in bed talking to herself it wouldn't keep us from getting sleep. I was a little hesitant at first because with the exceptions of 3 nights when i have been away from her we have always shared a room and I can hear every sound she makes, and i was worried i wouldn't be able to hear her which turned out wasn't a problem. It turned out to be a great idea, i actually think she slept a little bit better too cause she couldn't hear me moving in bed. So it was a success, which was a relief. Its nice to know when we don't live with my parents, or a bedroom frees up here she will be able to sleep in a room alone without being scared.

Babysitters

I think one of the main reasons I have only had my family watch Kendall for me is that it kind of freaks me out having a stranger watch her and its some one she is not familiar with so she will probably cry the whole time. Well its time i got over my fear and tomorrow afternoon while I get a massage I will let the girlfriend of one of my coworkers watch her. Her name is Vicki, I have met her a few times and I talk to her on the phone a lot when she calls into the office. She used to run a daycare and has offered several times to watch Kendall for me. I have kind of been putting it off and making up excuses and to why i haven't had anyone else watch her.

She loves kids and used to run a daycare so I know she is fully capable of watching Kendall. I guess my biggest fear is leaving Kendall and having her cry the whole time like a lot of other babies do. So tomorrow I am getting over my fear so I can get some quality time alone with my massage therapist who has magic hands.

Vicki also offered to watch Kendall while I am at work for the price of ......... $40 a month. Yep you heard it right and it is not a typo. Its only temporary until a spot opens up at head start, she knew Jason and I can't afford much so this will be perfect for us. So tomorrow is a trial run for Kendall to get to know Vicki and for her to get familiar to her house, I hope it all goes as planned.

Happy Monday

Kendall and I don't have to many pictures together mostly because i am the one taking all of them. This one my sister Prairie Princess got while she was visiting us for a few days. She looks kind of scared but its a good photo. Hope everyone is having a happy Monday.

BTW....the camera cord is still missing. I might have to switch back to my camera even though its kind of on the fritz.

8 Months

The search for the missing camera cord is still ongoing so i decided since Kendall is almost 8 months old (she will be in 4 days) I would do a little recap in pictures of how she has grown and changed since she was born.

Just a few hours old

1 Month Old (this is my favorite pic)


2 Months Old

3 Months Old

4 Months Old

5 Months old (1st time sitting up alone)

6 Months (happy all the time)

7 Months (You really see her personality in this one)

She is such a joy to be around and it is hard to believe that 8 months have gone by already. Every time i go back and look at the pictures from when she was born it makes me tear up, she was so small and tiny and she is growing up so fast.

Missing Camera Cable

As of lately i have been using my sisters camera for taking photos of Kendall, my camera is slowly dying. When i use my own camera i just take the memory card out and plug it into my computer to get the pictures off. Well her camera has a special memory card that is long and skinny so it is to small to fit into the computer. I think that is a flaw about the camera, not everyone wants to carry around a cord with them all the time when they want to download pictures, plus it's one more thing you have to remember where you put. I currently can't find the cord, go figure. I will have to see if she still has it tucked away somewhere in her belongings. So for now i have no pictures to post unless i take them with my phone and those are not of the best quality. Thus begins the ongoing search of the missing camera cord. Have a happy Sunday friends!