Holiday Slim Down

Time for the weekly weigh in for the Holiday Slim Down! I was a little afraid to weigh in this morning because #1 - Charlotte had a growth spurt this week so while she was eating all the time I was eating all the time and #2 - a new cupcake store opened up and I found it on Saturday and MIGHT have bought a few too many cupcakes for just me and Jason. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the scale stop at the pound that I was almost too last week. So, while that means I only lost about 1/4 of a pound this week, I still lost. So that brings my total loss down to 3 pounds in 4 weeks. Not too bad!

Natalie's challenge for the week is to go 48 hours without sweets. Sweets are definitely my downfall so this is going to be hard but I'm going to go for it. We do almost exclusively (except when I find a new cupcake store) eat 100 calorie packs for dessert but still, if I cut those out that's an extra 100 calories that I have. It's going to be a struggle to fit in 3 walks a week now that football season is starting and we'll be traveling to games a lot. I've been walking with my Mom on Saturday morning's while Jason plays golf but that's out at least for the next few weeks until I have a Saturday morning free again. So I'm rededicating myself to walking three times a week and if I can't walk, I'll make sure and get some sort of exercise. I have the 30 Day Shred in my house but I'm pretty terrified to try and start that!

We're Rolling!

Just a few minutes ago Charlotte rolled over from her tummy to her back by herself!

We were/are playing on the couch in her activity gym. She had rolled away from me onto her left side and so I rolled her the rest of the way to her tummy so she could see what it feels like. She pushed herself up onto her elbows and sat like that for a little while. Then she stuck out her right arm and kind of threw herself backwards until she had rolled over onto her back!

Sadly, I didn't have the camera with me so this is after the fact. At this point I think she's thinking, "Why has my Mommy gone crazy and started screaming and telling me how good of a job I did??"

She's also not really concerned with us anymore! As long as her star is singing to her and she can play with her friends on her activity gym she's happy.

This is a reenactment of what she was like right before she rolled over. I'm sure it will be a while until we see this consistently since she was on a soft surface that I'm sure helped her roll over. However, the cushions are pretty flat so it's not like she rolled down into a dip in the couch. She was trying to roll from her back to her tummy the opposite way of how she eventually rolled over.

I hope your Sunday is as happy as ours is!

Sewing Project

When I was at Hobby Lobby the other day getting materials for Charlotte's Halloween costume I found this cute knit fabric 1/2 off and so I had an idea to make skirted onesies for Charlotte. My Mom is a master sewer and I had to get her to explain how to gather the fabric about, oh, 15 times, but I finally caught on and this is the finished product! I have the brown polka dot fabric to make some also but this is all I had time for this week. I think it turned out pretty cute! And it was one of the outfits that the photographer yesterday liked enough to photograph her in so that was fun.

Update on our week

This week has been more than a little stressful due to a continued growth spurt and my worries over Charlotte being ok. Since this is my first time at the whole "being a mother" thing I kind of flip out every time something changes and I'm afraid she's sick and I'm missing it or I'm not doing something that I'm supposed to. Aren't all Mom's like this the first time? Please say yes so I don't feel like I'm crazy! :) Anyway, she's been eating and sleeping in weird patterns this week and our schedule has totally been thrown for a loop. I think today she's started getting back to normal with a more normal schedule and eating/sleeping habits. Let's hope those continue because getting up at 4 am to feed again when she's been sleeping through the night for about 6 weeks is no fun!

BUT, Charlotte is definitely growing which makes it all worth it. We weighed her today on an infant scale at her three month pictures and she weighed 11 pounds and 12 ounces! That means she's gained almost 2 pounds in five weeks! She is definitely a growing girl.

Since our schedule has been off this week we haven't gotten out as much as usual. I did run into Hobby Lobby for their 1/2 price frame sale. We have tons of book shelves in this house and I needed more frames to fill them. I finished the bookshelves in the den today and I'm really happy with them for the time being. Now I just have to tackle the bookshelves in the study! Which have a lot more shelves than the den!

Anyway, I didn't take too many pictures this week because of all of the craziness but we did get this one last weekend when we first propped Charlotte up on the couch. She did fine sitting up by herself but didn't really like us being near her but not touching her. She sat up for most of her pictures today and did good until she got tired and fussy so I think she's definitely starting to get the hang of sitting propped up!



If you are reading my tweets you probably saw the pictures of Charlotte in her cute monkey pj's/outfit. I thought this picture was particularly precious! Look at those eyes!

I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend where I get a lot done around the house. We're about to be super busy on the weekend due to the start of football season and so I need to get as much done this week as I can. I'm hoping to get Charlotte's room finished. We'll see how that goes!

I've been working on a little sewing project also. I'll try and post about it tomorrow! I'm so happy with the first finished product! Enjoy your Friday night!

Recipe Wednesday - Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

This is another recipe from Cotton Country. It was SO EASY to make and it was SO GOOD!

Sweet and Sour Pork Chops

6 Pork Chops

Salt and Pepper to taste

6 slices Lemon

6 teaspoons Brown Sugar

1 cup Ketchup

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1. Place pork chops in deep baking pan; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

2. On each pork chop place a slice of lemon and a teaspoon of brown sugar.

3. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over pork chops.

4. Cover baking pan with foil. Seal to make airtight.

5. Bake in 350 degree oven for one hour.

Growing Girl

It seems like our little monkey is having a growth spurt. She went from consistently sleeping through the night to waking up anywhere between 4 and 6. She is eating a lot more than usual each feeding and sometimes she's eating a lot more frequently also. The other night when I was up feeding her at 4 I remembered how perplexed I would get previously when she had a growth spurt and all of a sudden she was crying all night. So I googled "typical baby growth spurt" and was greeted with lots of articles saying that a typical growth spurt is at 3 months. So there you go. Hopefully our sweet baby will go back to not fussy and sleeping through the night soon! But in the meantime here she is in one of her sweet monkey pj's. Charlotte's hands get cold when she sleeps at night so I always put her in nightgowns that have the mittens built in to them. But then I hate that she isn't getting to wear her sweet footie pj's. So today, since it was kind of cool in the house and not really hot enough outside to warm the house up quickly I decided she would have a pj's at outfit kind of day. Wearing them though makes me realize how tiny she really is. This outfit is 0-3 months and her feet don't get down into the footie part!

Holiday Slim Down Weigh In

Based on my scale I lost approximately 3/4 pound this week. I had a huge milestone when I was able to put on my pre-maternity jeans. I also was able to actually wear some capri's and linen pants that were pre-maternity! That pretty much made my week and made me forget how far I still have to go to be where I want to.

This week I did walk three times and I stayed away from carbonated beverages but I succumbed to the food court lack of choices and had Chick Fil A Friday night. Just nuggets, no fries or anything, but I was very disappointed with myself. With all the msg in Chinese Food I tried to tell myself that the fried chicken might be a little better for me but it still wasn't the right decision. We also had some delicious homemade cookies brought to us as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift and I've never been good at only eating one. I also didn't increase my water intake as much as I wanted. I probably drank one extra glass a day but that's it.

So this week, the cookies are gone and I am going to make sure to not put myself in a position near Chick Fil A again. I will continue to walk and will keep working on drinking more water. I liked Natalie's goal for the week which was to eat your meals on a smaller plate. We have huge dinner plates and I definitely think eating on the small salad plates will help me control my portions.

Ben and Christen's Wedding

Last night our friends Ben and Christen got married in a beautiful ceremony. We took Charlotte at Christen's insistence but I was too nervous to let her stay through the ceremony so Jason took her out right before it started. I could just imagine her crying or something during the vows. Christen was always nice enough to say that it wouldn't matter but it would matter to me so I sent them out. :) It was a beautiful ceremony and I'm sure that God will bless their marriage. I absolutely loved the song that was sung while they lit the unity candle. It was called "This Kind of Love" and I'm about to go find it on iTunes because I loved it!

After the ceremony there was a super fun reception at a local farm with a beautiful tent with chandeliers and lots of flowers. It was gorgeous! And thankfully the weather couldn't have been better! It was actually cool when the wind blew which was totally unexpected for a wedding in the south in August. Charlotte was a little overwhelmed with all of the people and music but she behaved great and we got to show her off to all of our friends. She finally crashed in Mom's arms! We left a little early because she started getting fussy, but it was a beautiful reception. Christen, could you give me the name of the song that y'all danced your first dance to? It was great too! And the Father/Daughter dance was so sweet! It was a song called, I think, "Daddy's Angel".

We are so excited for you Ben and Christen! We hope you have a fantastic honeymoon and enjoy married life! Congratulations!

Charlotte wants an iPhone!

Her daddy is teaching her the ropes!

Three Months!

Three months. One fourth of a year. Where has my little newborn gone?!?! Three months ago Charlotte would barely open her eyes, slept all the time, and couldn't hold her head up. Now, she's a wide eyed little girl who loves to play and is getting close to rolling over and loves to sit up in our laps. I do apologize up front for the number of pictures and the length of this post! But hey, I am a momma so I have to do posts like this, right?!?!

Here is her picture from her 3 month birthday. Too bad we can't find her bear in her boxes! We're going to go on a bear hunt today and hopefully take some more pictures with her and her bear before the week is out!

Charlotte, this month you went out a lot. We strolled with Memma and with Daddy. We went shopping. We went to lunch and dinner. And you always loved it. You have never once minded being in your stroller and that is such a blessing to us! Last night we took you shopping for hours and you didn't make one peep. Sometimes you would open your eyes to look around and look at us and sometimes you slept. I can tell that we're going to have many, many fun shopping outings ahead of us!

Charlotte, you are a great sleeper and you wake up so happy! You are sleeping between 8 and 10 hours in a night and your Daddy and I think that's just wonderful! We love putting you to bed at night after you eat. We put on a nightgown and swaddle you up tight (you still can't sleep without being swaddled) and kiss your forehead and lay you down. You are still wide awake when we put you in your crib and yet you just chatter to yourself for a little while and then go to sleep. You are sleeping in your crib after about a week in our closet due to the move, not getting your crib put up, and a monitor that wouldn't reach from your room to ours. Now we've got all of that straightened out and you're back in your crib and you never acted like there was a difference at all. One of the best parts is seeing your smiling face when we go to wake you up or get you up in the morning. You daddy told me this morning that it would be hard to be mad at anything in the world when we see your smiling face in the morning.

You went to church for the first time this month. We still haven't made it to big church or left you in the nursery but you've been to Sunday School with us twice. During Sunday School you've been content to look around you and sleep which has been really nice. I'm not sure when we're going to get up the courage to leave you in the nursery but maybe soon!

Charlotte, this month you had your first non-family babysitters (although the Dixon's are basically family). Kelly, Tripp, and Caroline kept you while we went to Mac and Ruth's wedding and as far as they told us you did great. I am so thankful that Caroline is so close in age to you so that y'all can be friends while you are growing up. It will also be nice when we take trips together since y'all will each have a built in playmate!

You are very close to rolling over. You can get perpendicular but can't get over your shoulder yet. I would bet that by next month you'll be rolling around all over the place!

You really discovered your hands this month. You love sticking your thumb and fingers in your mouth. One day last week I saw you and you had three fingers AND your paci in your mouth! :) You love putting your hands together and staring at them. You are learning to grab the items on you activity gym and not just bat them with your fist.

You love not only your hands but your small blankies and rattles. You will bring them up to your mouth and suck on them also! It's so sweet when you fall asleep with one on your cheek or under your chin.

You are great with your neck control! You lift your head up while you are on your tummy and you don't really bobble it anymore when we hold you. You also love standing up in our laps while we hold you! If we put you down with your feet on our laps you will push up until you're standing. Then, you'll just look all around you! If you're on your activity gym on the couch with your feet against the back cushions you'll also push against them! That's why we put you with your feet facing out! Those little legs are strong! You love "running" while you're on your back also!

Charlotte, you are mesmerized by the tv! You love watching the Braves with your Daddy and even like watching golf! It doesn't keep your attention for very long, but you do love watching it and would rather be turned towards it than away from it when we're holding you with it on.

You also love watching Luca! You've started to notice him and can just sit and stare at him. He hasn't noticed you noticing him yet which is good because I'm sure he would just try and lick you all over the place, but you love watching him!

Charlotte, you are all smiles these days! You love smiling at us and really at anyone that will pay you attention. You gurgle and coo and act like you're trying to laugh at us. I love watching your face turn into one big smile. Those toothy grins make my day! You also will wake from sleep and turn your head towards us with a big grin if you hear us talking. That makes us feel so special! You also LOVE getting your diaper changed and grin up at us the whole time and squeal in delight. I find it so funny that you love that so much but you do! I hope that continues since now that you're a lot squirmier diaper changes are getting more difficult!

The other thing that cracks me up is when you furrow your forehead and eyebrows when you're mad or upset. You just look so cute! When you are screaming because your tummy hurts and you're doing it it's not so fun but when you are just aggravated because we put you down or something then it's cute!

I'm hoping to have a weight for you when we take you to your 3 month pictures next week but based on my estimate with our digital scale you are weighing 11 pounds! You are still in size one diapers and they're still pretty roomy on you. I don't anticipate moving up anytime soon. You are in 3 month clothes exactly. Unless a 6 month is really small you can't wear it but you've outgrown anything smaller than a 3 month size.

You are the best baby ever Charlotte and your Daddy and I are so blessed to be your parents. You make every day a new adventure. Although we wish time would slow down and you would stay little forever we are looking forward to watching you grow each day!

Ben and Christen are getting married!

Ben and Christen are getting married tonight! We are so excited for them! I have known Ben since he was born and met Christen in high school (or maybe younger?). They are both so sweet and perfect for each other. We are so honored to be going to their wedding tonight so we can watch them join their lives! I'm hoping to have my camera and post pictures from the wedding tomorrow but on their wedding day I wanted to post and wish them the absolute best in their marriage. We will be praying for them as they start their new life together. We are so happy for both of you! Congratulations and Best Wishes!

PS I "borrowed" this picture from Christen's facebook. Thanks Christen! :)

Week Thirteen

Thirteen weeks?!?! Where has time gone! I'm going to do her three month post tomorrow on her birthday but I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from this week. Happy Friday!

Show Us Your Life - Baby Showers

Kelly at Kelly's Korner does a "Show Us Your Life" every Friday and today it's Baby Showers! So I thought I'd share some of the baby shower pictures that I have on this computer. Sadly, the pictures from Kelly's baby shower are on my other computer that isn't hooked up yet or I'd share those too because it was so cute!

These pictures are from the baby shower that Kelly, Jenni, and Leigh threw for me before Charlotte was born. It was the perfect southern shower. Everything was so beautiful and so girlie! We had so much food and it was so good! There was a beautiful cake, chocolate covered strawberries, fruit, spinach dip, cheese straw, sugar cookies... yumm! They had delicious fruit tea which is one of my favorites! For napkins Kelly rolled up burp cloths and used teething rings and other rings to play with as napkin rings. And Kelly made a cute diaper cake that I have appreciated even more as Charlotte has been here! Then I got to keep all of those items for Charlotte! It was so beautiful and I loved it!

This is the cake that my friend April made for my shower at work. I love monograms and she did such a great job on the cake! It was beautiful and yummy!

This is the diaper cake that Kelly and I made for one of our friends, Candy's, baby shower. I thought it turned out so cute!

Recipe Wednesday - Wild Rice and Shrimp

It's back! After a maternity leave I've started Recipe Wednesday again. This is where I'll share some of my favorite recipe's with you. Today, I'm sharing one of my go-to recipes. It's pretty easy to put together (when you use frozen shrimp), makes a ton of food, and tastes great! If you have Cotton Country you can find the recipe in there but for those of you who don't have that cook book here it is.

Wild Rice and Shrimp

Serves 10-12 (One 9x12 casserole or two square pans)

1 1/2 pounds cooked Shrimp

1/2 cup Margarine

1/2 large Chopped Onion

1/2 large chopped Bell Pepper

1 large can sliced Mushrooms (I only use about half of this due to Jason's distaste of mushrooms)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire

6 drops Tabasco

1 can Cream of Chicken Soup

2 tablespoons Cream

Buttered Bread Crumbs

1 small box Wild Rice cooked as directed

1. Saute onion, pepper, and mushrooms in margarine.

2. Add shrimp, Worcestershire, and Tabasco.

3. Heat soup with cream.

4. Fold all together with cooked rice.

5. Pour in greased casserole.

6. Cover with bread crumbs.

7. Bake at 325 for 30 minutes.

You can check out all of my recipes by going to the Cooking with Tales of a Peanut blog. I will put each recipe both places since it will probably be easier for you to find recipes on the recipe blog. I will also be putting my recipes from my previous recipe blog up there also.

Golf with Daddy

Yesterday, while I went to the grocery store, Charlotte got to spend some quality time bonding with her Daddy watching golf. As you can see she's a little baffled at all of these men hitting a small white ball around a big green course, but I'm sure she enjoyed it as much as her daddy did. :)

Judgment Day...aka Holiday Slim Down Week 2 Weigh In

So today marks the beginning of week three of the Holiday Slim Down which means that I have to weigh in for week two. Uh oh. Since we moved last Monday and my scale was in a box and I had no where to actually weigh in I didn't do it last week. So I was a little terrified to get on the scale this morning. I hadn't weighed myself in two weeks! Who knows what it would tell me. But I braved it to get on. And to my surprise I was down two pounds just like I'm supposed to be! Yay! Apparently cutting out fried foods and taking a few walks really does help!

So, here's how I feel like I'm doing in the Holiday Slim Down with my goals:

1 - Walk/Stroll at least 3 times a week - This past week I went on two walks. One was for 45 minutes, one was shorter and only ended up being about 30 minutes because we met a new neighbor who wanted to chat. But I did get out and walk/stroll. I counted moving day as my third walk because I walked up the steep grass that used to be our front yard at least 20 times carrying loads of stuff that were very heavy! So, I'd say that this goal was met moderately successfully.

2 - Eliminate carbonated beverages - I've done good! Not one drink and believe me, I've wanted one! This one turned out pretty difficult do to all the eating take out that we did this week while our fridge was bare. But I prevailed. I drank lemonade, tea, water, or milk. I know that lemonade and tea still have those liquid calories that I'm trying to get rid of but I'll wait to cut those out until I'm truly desperate. This goal was extremely successful!

3 - Eat no fried foods - Other than a fry or two that I stole from Jason's plate I met this goal also. Although on Saturday all I wanted was Chick-Fil-A. Jason tried to tell me that their chicken nuggets were baked. Lindsey, please help me and tell me they're baked so that I can eat them occasionally! :) This was also hard since we ate out so much this week but I did manage to prevail. Hopefully since I'll be cooking this week this one will be easier to manage.

So this week I'm going to add a fourth goal. Drink at least two glasses of water a day. I know that this sounds pitiful but I so detest plain water that this is probably going to be the hardest goal for me. Mix it in something and I'm fine but plain water is just not something I'd love to drink. But I think this will be easier since it's August and so hot so when I walk I'll want water when I come back in.

Go check out Natalie's Holiday Slim Down and see how the other participants are doing in their goal!

Grandaddy's Birthday

Last night, we got together with Jason's Dad's extended family to celebrate Grandaddy's birthday. We enjoyed dinner and seeing everyone immensely. Here are some of the pictures from last night.

Sunday Morning Photo Shoot

This morning I desperately wanted to get some pictures of Charlotte in this beautiful blue dress before we went to church. So I laid her down and with Jason's help I finally caught some genuine smile pictures! I love these pictures because they show her personality so accurately and the dress is one that was mine when I was a baby. Oh, and the last picture? It's mid-sneeze. I thought y'all might enjoy seeing it also!

We're moved!

Well, we got moved. There are still tons of boxes of course, but we're here and we are loving it! I'm still super busy unpacking and one of my friends is having a Pampered Chef party tonight and I'm getting out of the house to go, but I wanted to show you what Charlotte has been up to recently.

She still loves her activity gym!


And has found her thumb and loves it even though she usually pokes her eye with her other fingers!


And she's trying to roll over! Her arm is still getting in the way but she's getting close!

Happy Thursday!

Life at Our House

So sorry that all I'm showing you is an iPhone picture of our guest room but it's been all about the packing here recently. We're in a countdown in hours until the move and we are thisclose to being fully packed. Charlotte is napping right now and pretty much everything left on my list is either something that has to be done tomorrow morning or something in/around her room so I'm taking a break.

As an update on the sleeping situation it's gotten MUCH better. I guess just blogging about it solved the problem. The morning I blogged about it I kept the curtains shut in her room while she napped and she napped 1 1/2 to 2 hours each feeding cycle! It was bliss! Especially since I was packing so much and didn't feel great. Since then she's been napping pretty consistently as long as we keep her on a schedule. And the best news is that last night she slept 8 1/2 hours! Wooo hooo!! We had been feeding her at 11 each night because that seemed to be the magic time about a month ago that would allow her to sleep until between 5 and 6 in the morning. But I realized this week that she's a whole month older now and probably can sleep longer if we would just put her to bed earlier. So the last three nights we've put her to bed 30 minutes earlier and last night she went to bed at 10:30 and slept until 7! Here's to hoping that changing rooms over the next few nights isn't going to mess up our pattern! I could get used to sleeping 8 hours a night again!

It's kind of sad looking at the house all empty with nothing on the walls. We are SO excited to be moving to our new house because it is basically our dream house and in a fantastic location, but it is still a little bittersweet to leave here. After all, it was the first house that we bought. It was where we first really entertained friends as a couple and hosted our first Christmas parties. It was where we brought Charlotte home and where we spent so much time setting up her nursery and dreaming about what it would be like to be parents. Like everyone's first house, I'm sure this one will always hold a special place in our hearts.

But we're excited to be moving on to our new house and this next chapter in our lives! Who knows what will happen at the new house to make us remember it! We will set up Charlotte's nursery again and get to watch her grow older and discover new things. We'll probably get to see her first steps in this house and watch her play outside. She'll ride her first bike there and make friends to play outside with. We might even bring another baby home there (in a VERY long time!) and get to set up another nursery. In the end, what makes a house special is the people that live there with you. The special memories about our current house are only special because of Jason, Charlotte and Luca. And I get to take them with me tomorrow!

So please pray for us as we go through the stresses of moving tomorrow. I'm so thankful that we hired movers because I know I don't have the energy to try and move ourselves. I am feeling so much better but am still really sniffly and congested. It's too bad you can't take a decongestant when you're nursing because I bet that would knock this out really quickly. But, hopefully it will be gone on it's own in a few days and I'll get back to 100% in order to unpack, which is the really fun part! Nothing can excite me more than having a WHOLE HOUSE that needs to be organized! :) I doubt I'll be back until at least Tuesday or Wednesday but I'll be tweeting!

Houston, We have a problem!

We're in trouble. Jason and I, I mean. We're in serious trouble.

This morning Charlotte woke up at 5 and so Jason went to put her passy in so she'd go back to sleep. She doesn't sleep at night with her passy because she tends to be an un-happy camper when she spits it out in the middle of the night, but in order to get her back to sleep until a decent hour he put it in. So then she started crying again around 6:30. Being sick and super exhausted I tried to wait her out since her cries were very small and not frantic at all. But around 6:45 they turned a little more frantic so I got up to go in there. Jason walked in with me and that's when we knew that we were in trouble. I wish I had had my camera so that you could see the predicament that we're in but since I didn't my description will have to suffice.

Charlotte had her passy in! And when we walked in she quit crying and started smiling...all WITH her passy IN! Uh oh! It appears that she has learned that when she cries we come. So she didn't even sacrifice her comfort of spitting out her passy to call to us. I think it's not a good thing that she's learned how to play us in oh...12 weeks!

So now I'm in a predicament. I've done a modified Babywise approach for the most part. We used to let her cry herself to sleep until she just started going to sleep no crying. I also used to let her cry herself to sleep for naps only now she just goes to sleep for naps without crying. So there isn't a whole lot of crying going on in our house most of the time before naps or bedtime. Our biggest problem is about an hour into naptime. At that point Charlotte wakes up and starts crying, hysterically. Babywise tells you to let them cry unless it's high pitched and frantic and so I let her go for a little while but it usually turns high pitched and frantic. So I go in and she smiles at me. Nothing's the matter, she's just awake. So I'll figure she just sleeps for an hour and I'll pick her up and try and entertain her only (most times) to have her fall asleep!

I talked to our pediatrician about this schedule because it definitely goes against the Babywise eat, play, sleep schedule and he wasn't worried. He said her waking up again before eating wasn't a problem. But since she falls back asleep somewhere other than her crib I'm thinking that I'm just not letting her cry it out long enough to go back to sleep in her crib. But when I go in there she is so wide awake that I hate to leave her in there. Thus, my predicament. She's obviously learned that when she cries I come, but should I leave her crying in her crib when she's awake just so that she sleeps the remainder of the feeding cycle? I'm afraid that would have her sleeping too much!

So, I'm curious and going to ask for some feedback from some of you momma's who have little one's or remember the sleeping patterns of your children when they were little. How much does a two month (almost three month) old sleep? I know that every child will differ, but if she's supposed to still be taking two hour naps each feeding cycle I'll let her cry it out. But if four one hour naps (approximately) are plenty or too much sleep I'll work harder (next week after the move!) to keep her awake. Any ideas? Suggestions? Advice? Encouragement? I'd appreciate any and all feedback! I don't want her to get used to us picking her up every time she cries because I know she needs to soothe herself back to sleep but when is it appropriate to pick her up and when should I let her cry it out? Thanks in advance!

Natalie's Holiday Slim Down

Natalie at Natalie's Sentiments has a son who was born the same day as Charlotte. So, like me, she's almost three months in to loosing her baby weight. So she's devised this new blog/program/support group called the Holiday Slim Down. Her premise is that there are 15 weeks until the week of Thanksgiving so if she looses one pound a week then she'll be back to normal or better for the holiday season. Sounds like a good plan to me! I'm thankful that I've lost most of my baby weight but I need to loose even more than I put on with Charlotte in order to feel really good about myself. So, I've decided to join Natalie in this quest to loose our weight in a healthy way and in a pace that won't negatively impact Charlotte since she's still nursing.

I've put Natalie's button on my sidebar if you want to go and check out our progress. She is starting everyone at zero and each week we'll report on how much we've lost each week. I wanted to include some of my goals for the next 15 weeks (and beyond!) here also so that y'all can help hold me accountable also!

1 - Walk/Stroll at least three times a week for 45 minutes. If I don't meet this goal I have to write in my planner that I didn't meet it which, for a planner like me who loves having a neat calendar this will be good motivation! (I saw this idea -- the writing down if you don't do it in your planner idea -- in one of my parenting magazines)

2 - Eliminate all carbonated beverages. I've already stopped drinking caffeinated drinks because they seemed to upset Charlotte's tummy but I will still drink Sprite or caffeine free drinks occasionally. Those are a real weakness of mine and have so many "liquid calories" that I want to get rid of them once and for all!

3 - No fried foods! My best friend, Kelly, eliminated most if not all friend foods during a weigh down challenge at work this spring and I thought that was a great way to eat healthier and less calories. Plus, she looks fantastic so maybe if I do this my results will be the same! :)

That's where I'm starting. I'll be posting occasionally about my progress so you can keep up. If you have any weight loss tips please leave them for me!

Welcome!

So we are up and running! Some of you might have come from our previous blog and so you know all about us. Others might just be joining us for the first time. Because of that I thought I'd introduce ourselves!


This is Charlotte. I thought that she looked like a peanut in one of her newborn pictures and thus the name of this blog was born. She was born in May and is going to be three months next week! How time flies! She is a precious little girl who is making our life so much more fun and enjoyable! We love listening to her gurgle and coo and hearing her squeal. She is a really good sleeper and is (most nights) sleeping 6 to 7 hours which we consider a full night.

This is our first child, Luca. He was my one month anniversary present to Jason. He showed us at that point how NOT ready for parenthood we were. He sleeps in the bed with us every night and loves playing tug of war with his toys. Poor thing isn't getting as much attention now as he used to and sometimes it stresses him out. But we love him so much and are so thankful that we have such a wonderful puppy who is such a people person!

This is Jason, the love of my life. We have been married for three years and dating for 8 1/2 I can honestly say that our relationship keeps getting better and better. He is my rock and makes me so happy! He is a wonderful husband and a fantastic dad. Charlotte already has him wrapped around her finger. I know that he would do anything for us.

And this is me with my baby. Just to tell you a little about me I love blogging. And cooking (or at least I used to before I had a baby). I'm an avid reader who could sit with my nose in a book for days if I didn't have other responsibilities. I am super organized and love for everything to have a place. I'm a planner and am loving my new planner that I got a few weeks ago. I love lists so that I can feel like I accomplished something when I cross something off. And, just to be honest, sometimes I put things on lists that I've already done that day just so that I can cross them off! :) I am so excited to be sharing our lives with you. I hope that you'll enjoy hearing about Charlotte's adventures.

Wake Up!

I'm resting during nap time on my Mom's orders so that my sore throat doesn't escalate into a huge cold or worse. So I thought I'd post pictures showing you how I found Charlotte when I went to get her up this morning. She had done this in her pack and play but this is the first time that she's done it in her crib.

On another note, I am loving "meeting" all of you when you comment to ask me to share the new blog address with you! I should have had a post for everyone to introduce themselves much sooner!

Moving

I'm still packing but with the move in homes we're going to move blog addresses. We want to protect Charlotte's privacy and feel like removing our last name will afford us a little more security. I'll still be posting about our family and including pictures, we just won't be using our last name and possibly not our first names (you know, like MckMama? Only I can't come up with something that clever).

The blog won't be private so anyone can read it but I am not going to just post the new blog address because I want to limit the people that know our last name to people that I know in life or in blog world. So, in order to make sure everyone who wants to continue following us can, I'm going to ask you to leave me a comment with your email address (so that I can email you the new address) along with your blog if you have one or a little about yourself if you don't. Like I said, anyone is welcome, I would just like to know who I'm giving the address to.

I'm going to make the comments private so the comments won't be published so don't worry about your private information becoming public. I look forward to continuing our "bloggy" friendship as we move to this new blog!

First Trip to Church

We had been waiting to go back to church until Charlotte had her first round of shots. Since she got those week before last today was Charlotte's first Sunday! We decided to start back slowly and just went to Sunday School. She was wide awake and happy when we got there and drifted off during the lesson. She never made a peep! It was nice to be back and see everyone in our class. There have been so many babies recently that Charlotte wasn't the only one in class with us. I'm not sure when we'll be ready to leave her in the nursery, but we'll see.

Saturday afternoon

Since I'm busy packing (I really am! We've done so much today!) I'm just posting the pictures. Enjoy!