9 Month Update

Technically, Caden turned nine months two weeks ago, so I'm a little late posting, but I didn't want to miss out on this month!

My chunky boy is starting to slim down since he NEVER stops moving and getting into things; at his nine month appointment, he was almost 20 pounds and 29 inches. He smiles at everyone and loves trips to the grocery store now that he gets to sit in the cart. His favorite thing to do with his momma and daddy is crawl over to us, open his mouth, slam his head down, and wait for us to scream and wiggle around. We like to call him 'zombie baby.' Wait, wasn't I supposed to fit all this into those little boxes??

I saw this idea on Hooah and Hiccups. It is such a fun way to share your little one's progress and their growing personality!

Friday's Letters

 

Dear Baby Boy, You are going to be walking any day now, and I have to admit, the idea scares me. It doesn't help that your doctor told me about how all little boys constantly get hurt- busted lips, broken teeth, stitches. I'm not ready for that, nor will I ever be. Dear San Diego Weather, After spending a week back home in Phoenix, AZ during the month of July, I appreciate you all over again. Dear Big Brother Cast, You aren't all that interesting this season. Besides the second week, you are too predictable. FYI, the whole 'vote with the house' idea is pretty boring. Dear Husband, Talking about our future has always been fun, exept when it comes to re-enlistment and picking orders.

Goodbye July

Last month was crazy busy. I mentioned earlier that 95% of the month was going to be spent visiting with family. After spending time with my mom and sister (and visiting Disneyland), we had our nephew Deacon spend a whole week with us. Finally, we spent a week back home in Arizona for Chris's birthday.

 

 

 

 

 

Going back to Arizona is technically supposed to be a vacation for us, but it never feels like it to me. I don't know if it was the fact that I don't sleep well when I'm not in my own bed, the two all-nighters we had, or my fibro acting up, but I have spent the past week absolutely exhausted. It doesn't help that Caden is going through the nine month sleep regression. But after this weekend, I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

Disneyland

We lost our camera at Disneyland (which they found and are sending it to us for free!) so this is the only picture I have. I was nervous about bringing an 8 month old to Disneyland, but Caden was his normal easy going self, and we had a fun family trip with my sister, nephew, and mom. Caden was a trooper, only getting scared on the Buzz Lightyear ride (hence the reason Chris is the only one shooting), and even napped in his stroller. Plus, we found an awesome Woody hat and piggy bank for Caden's Toy Story room!

Friday's Letters

Dear July, I am so happy you are here because of all the plans we have! Dear Family, although I am super excited that I get to spend so much time with you, your really messing with my healthy eating. It's alright though, because I know my mom loves her chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting (and I had to make her the new recipe I found for the best chocolate cupcakes in the whole wide world), and it's my sisters birthday so I guess she deserves homemade strawberry shortcake. Dear Disneyland, I'm so excited to visit you! Caden isn't old enough to know what you are so I am excited for the both of us. Dear Caden, You have been so sweet to your Grandma this week. It makes me so happy to have such a sweet loving baby. Dear Husband, Thank you for dealing with my pickiness. Yes, I am a perfectionist. Thank you for loving me despite the fact.

July...

... is going to be one busy month, full of visitors and visiting!

Today, my cousin and her family are coming to San Diego for the fourth of July like they do every year, but this time they are bringing my mom! She was already planning to come down with my sister, but now we will have her to ourselves for a few days.

On the 8th, my sister is coming down for her birthday trip and to bring my nephew to Disneyland. We weren't going to go since Caden is so young, but I really don't want to miss out on my nephews first visit, so Disneyland here we come!

Everyone is leaving on Wednesday, but we aren't going to be alone long, because that weekend my brother-in-law is driving my other nephew up to spend a whole week with us!

Then, we are driving our nephew back to Arizona and spending the week there for Chris's birthday. Did someone say party and babysitter in the same sentence?

Finally, we will head back home. I couldn't be more excited to spend so much time with my family and friends. I'm even taking the month off of school! (Yes, I do go to school in the summer. But not this summer!)



source



The night I accidently served raw shrimp..

Friday night, I was trying to make dinner and dessert at the same time in my usual fashion. Before I tell the story, I have to say, in my defense, I was trying to make a new recipe, I was sick, and it had been a while since I ate. Now, on to the good stuff.

Chris, grabbing the shrimp out of the fridge because I told him dinner was ready: Are you sure the shrimp is cooked?
Me: Yeah babe, that's why it is pink.

Chris (eating the shrimp): You can tell these were frozen.
Me: Why?
Chris(flopping the shrimp around): Because they are limp. It's a limp shrimp.
Me: Hm (continue eating)


Me (taking a bite of a shrimp): Ewwww! They are soggy!
Chris: Babe, are you sure these are cooked?
Me (looking at the shrimp and discovering that they are NOT pink): no.

I was so grossed out, but I could not stop laughing about how stupid we both were. I don't know how many times I have cooked shrimp.. Heck, I even told Chris that they were pink when they were in fact grey the whole time I ran cold water over them, stuck them in the fridge, and saw them on the table. Chris even heard me tell him that they were pink as he was looking at them and just believed me. And he ate five of them. It has been a long week.

Corned beef tacos

I'm a quarter Irish; my dad's dad immigrated here to become a jockey when he was a teenager. So when Chris and I heard about Taco Tuesday at a local Irish pub, we decided to celebrate my 'roots'. If you haven't tried corned beef tacos, your missing out.

Hooley's is now a 25 min drive from our new place, so we have only gotten to go once since Caden was born. What do you do when you can't have your favorite restaurant meal? You recreate it at home, of course. 

Seriously, try it. It is simple and delicious.

Tacos:
Corned beef with seasoning packet
White corn tortillas
Shredded cabbage
Shredded cheddar cheese

Sauce:
Ranch

Your favorite hot sauce



Place the corned beef in the crock pot, add the seasoning, cover with water, and cook on low for 10 hours. If I am short on time, I cook it on high for about 4 hours, and low for another 4. It turns out just as good.

When it's done, let it sit on a plate for a few minutes, then scrape off the fat and shred the meat.
Heat up the tortillas however your heart desires. I put them right on the griddle for about 30 seconds each side.

Make the sauce as spicy as you like it. I mix ranch with a little red hot. 

Assemble these babies! Take your warm tortilla, add corned beef, a little cabbage, a little cheese, and top with your spicy ranch.

 

We've had a hard time deciding what to serve with these (Oh, to be healthy or not). In the picture, I served them with corned beef mac n cheese as another ode to our favorite pub, and I've also done salad, but french fries also sound good. Enjoy!

 

Marriage in One Year- The Hard Moments

Last week, I shared some of the funny moments from our first year of marriage. This week, it is some of the hard moments.

My grandfather passing away While Chris was at boot camp, my grandfather went into heart surgery. It was almost three months of going in and out of the hospital, and me making the road trip from Tucson to Phoenix on the weekends, before I got the phone call that said I needed to come home right then and there. Chris was in a-school at the time, and I called him crying as I ran around my dorm room trying to get my stuff together. Two days later, Chris surprisingly got approved for emergency leave and flew home just in time for the funeral. Losing my grandfather was so hard on me because he was the father figure in my life, and also because I never got the chance to tell him that I got married. Even though my grandfather liked Chris, he would never have approved of me getting married so young and so quickly, so my mom and I made the decision to not tell him. It was heartbreaking that I had to hide something so important, and that I never got a chance to tell him. I couldn't have been more grateful that my husband was there for me during the funeral.

The day of the funeral

Starting out our marriage as a long distance couple We got married while Chris was in a-school, and I flew home from Chicago after the weekend to go back to school. It was definately not the way I imagined my first few months as a newlywed. What kept me positive was the fact that all I had to do was finish the semester, just two months, and by that time Chris would have gotten his orders, and we could start planning to live together.

Deployment Chris came home for his two week leave in between a-school and his new duty station and then flew to his ship in San Diego. We planned that I would come down there in about two weeks so that he could take house hunting leave and we could go apartment hunting, then after spring two weeks with my family, we could move in. Chris called me the first night he was there and said, "The ship is getting underway tomorrow." I was not ready for this first real experience as a navy wife- we hadn't even gotten a chance to live together! He left for a week, flew home for the weekend, left for a week, and then I flew down to San Diego for five days before he left for three months. During one of his days home, he went and signed a lease for an apartment that I had found online so that I could move in before his ship got home. In our first six months of marriage, we got to spend three weeks together (split between four visits) , and most of our communication happened through email. That first homecoming was definately memorable though.

June 2010, the weekend before RIMPAC

 

Realizing that military life really was going to be as hard as I expected Experiencing a long distance relationship for the first six months of our marriage and dealing with a three month underway definately tested our limits, but at least it prepared me for what life would be like as a military life. Of course, I still struggle with military life three years later, but at least I had some idea of what I was getting into from the beginning.

San Diego Zoo 2010

 

I miss cuddling with my baby

Up until a couple weeks ago, Caden had to be sung to sleep in our arms before being put down for bed. I have avoided cry it out techniques as much as possible during our sleep training, but when he started really fighting while I tried to put him to sleep, I started putting him in the crib and walking away. Most of the time, he was asleep within 10 minutes and rarely needed me to do a check or give him his binky a second time. During this time, I was telling my mom about his new habits, and she said, "Maybe he wants to put himself to sleep now." I should have been ecstatic to hear that, but all I could think was "my baby doesn't need me anymore." (I know, I know.)

So, after four months of having Caden sleep in bed with me at least three hours every night, and then two weeks of him not wanting anything to do with cuddling or sleeping with his momma, I miss it. So much so, that I made a collage of all the sleeping with mommy or daddy pictures I had on my phone.

Funny Stuff from our First Year of Marriage

Kalyn at Love. Laughter. Happily Ever After. has started a very sweet series, Marriage in One Year that I am super excited to read about. The series features 10 brides who got married in June 2012 who are going to share their experiences from the first year of marriage, but anyone is invited to link up. This week is all about the funny moments from the first year.

In March, Chris and I celebrated our third anniversary, so we aren't too far from that newlywed mark. Our first year of marriage was an interesting one, to say the least. Here are three of my favorite funny memories from our first year:

1. This one technically happened before we were married, but it is too good not to share. After Chris graduated boot camp, we got engaged and decided that we would get married in the court house and plan our wedding later. I flew down to Chicago on a Friday, and that afternoon we went and got our marriage license. In our excitement, we walked out without our license. It wasn't until after the cab driver dropped us off at the mall (so I could find shoes) and drove away that we realized. We literally got to the vital records office as they were closing for the weekend. I was nearly in tears the whole time, but now we look back on it and laugh.

March 2010

2. Hands down our favorite story.. Chris and I were pretty broke our first year of marriage, there wasn't much room in the budget for furniture, and a credit card wasn't really an option for us. The only furniture we had for about six months was a bed, a dresser and two bar stools. We lied down a comforter and pillows in the living room and used that as a couch. When we started looking to buy one, we were not willing to spend over $500 for a couch, and I am a big germophobe, so I wouldn't buy a second hand one off of craigslist. One day, we stopped by Rent to Own next to the grocery store, and we noticed a used leather couch for $200. I didn't have a problem with buying leather used, since I could wipe it clean, plus it was comfortable, so we were ready to get it. Then we realized, it was part of a sectional, and it only had one arm. For some reason, we were okay with it. So we had that ugly one-armed couch for two and a half years. Chris even grew attached to it and begged me to let him keep it in Caden's room instead of selling it to get a nice and bigger one! Oh, the one armed couch.


Our first month in our apartment looked like this. Thank goodness we have a giant entertainment center though.

3. Speaking of furniture, our dining room set is another good story. I have a passion for antiques, which we can't afford, so I had an idea to get an old dining room set from the thrift store and fix it up (something I still want to do). Chris agreed to do the dirty work, and one day we found a set of six chairs that were super cheap ($30) because they needed new seat covers and were a little banged up. We brought them home, and they just sat in the dining room as if some little kid had been using them to play school bus. One day, Chris took the first step and unscrewed the seats from the chairs so that he could sand the wood and I could reupholster the seats. Once again, they just sat there. My in-laws planned a visit, so we decided to buy a table, but we could find one we liked in time so we just bought one of those long plastic tables.. It was embarrassing looking. Not to mention the fact that we had to tell everyone to be careful because the seat bottoms were not screwed into the seats. Only one person took a tumble that weekend! It was actually a lot of fun that we didn't have any furniture our first year because it encouraged our family to tell us their funny stories about their makeshift furniture when they were young. Don't worry, we now have a normal table that we bought from a furniture store. We are still talking about buying patio furniture though..



June Green Series: All Purpose Cleaner

In an attempt to organize my blog, I'm going to post a green series once a month with some recipes or tips that I have found.. I'm going to start with an all purpose cleaner, since it's a staple in our house that we use almost everyday!

About two years ago, I started making my own cleaner for around the house. Now that we have a little one, I am even more in favor of my chemical free cleaner. There are a ton of cleaner recipes out there, but I use a pretty simple one:

1 part water
1 part vinegar
1 part hydrogen peroxide
20 drops tea tree oil
20 drops lavender or lemongrass

In case your worried that an all-natural cleaner won't be as effective as your bleach or other chemical cleaner, here are some facts to ease your mind:

Vinegar kills most mold, bacteria and germs because of its high acid content.
Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer and disinfectant.
Tea tree oil fights bacteria, fungi, and viruses and stimulates the immune system.

I was a little nervous about the vinegar smell, but its really not an issue. The lavender and lemongrass don't completely cover up the vinegar, but it goes away as soon as it dries. Honestly, I would rather smell vinegar than a chemical bleach smell.

I usually make one big bottle and switch between the lavender and lemongrass. It's the only cleaner we use- for dusting, wiping down the sinks and kitchen counters, cleaning the bathroom. Just like any cleaner, let it sit for a few minutes so it has time to work its magic!

Oh, How Pinteresting: Frames

I've been working on putting the frames up in my living room, and these are the pins that gave me inspiration!









I can't wait to share my frame design with you!

I Do have friends, and they DO come visit me from another state

I've always wondered if I have a sticker on my forehead that says "Does not play well with girls" that I can't see. That being said, I have had two girl friends that have stuck it out with me since high school- one because we are complete opposites, and one because we are too much alike, in a good way. With both friends, I've dealt with moving away, both on their part and mine, and all these crazy turns that the real world takes (like engagements, jobs, marriages, babies). I get to see each friend once or twice a year, so when we get the opportunity, we snatch it up.

Here are some pics from my NINE day visit with my BFF Maddisen:



Hiking at Cowley Mountain

Anything is a workout with a 20 pound baby strapped to you.

Did you know that the moby doubles as a drink carrier?

 

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, my husband so graciously drove us to the Gaslamp District AND picked us up with no complaints so that I could finally have a girls night out.

 

 

I confess

I confess... I am stealing this whole 'I confess' idea from other bloggers.

I confess.. That sometimes this whole blogging thing overwhelms me.. Just like many other things in life.

I confess.. I want to be one of the 'popular blogs.'

I confess.. I don't think anyone will comment on this post.

I confess.. That I do actually have quite a few posts planned!

Mommy moments

I haven't really had a chance to get on blogger the past two weeks because so much has been going on. At the end of last month, Caden and I flew back home last minute for a family emergency. I spent a week and a half with family and said goodbye to the most wonderful aunt, who had been battling cancer. Chris drove down on the weekend to pick us up, plus my best friend from high school. She has stayed with me for us past week, and we have done some major catching up since we rarely get to see each other. Tomorrow things should be back to normal and I should be back to regular posting. This week I am a guest host for mommy moments so make sure to link up!

Hey mamas!
Welcome back for another great week of Mommy Moments Link Ups! Thank you for linking up and for spreading the word! We love all of the great posts! 

The most viewed link from last week's Mommy Moments was the post titled Parenting Mistake from This Too Shall Pass!
I'm loving on this mug she posted. I know we all can relate!


She is looking for some advice on how to get her sweet baby to crib sleep! Head over and offer your suggestions if you haven't already!

This week I'm excited to introduce a new co-host!
Meet Allie from Beautiful Family Affairs


The fun part about having Alli on our team is that now all of the co-hosts have baby girls very close in age! We need to plan a get together so they can all meet. Wouldn't that be fun!

This week we are welcoming Ashley from Love and Lighthouses as our guest host! You must stop by and meet Ashley and her adorable baby boy!


Now it's time to link up your posts! All you have to do is...

1. Follow Host: The Life Of Faith 

 Co-Hosts: The Not Quite Military Wife, Beautiful Family Affairs and The Mrs. 
Guest host: Love and Lighthouses

2. Link up your post!
Post can include anything related to mommy-hood, children, homemaking, pregnancy etc. If you aren't a mom yet, feel free to link up your preparation for motherhood, your journey as you try to conceive, or even a post that would be encouraging to the other moms in the party!

3. Add the Mommy Moments button to your post or blog so everyone knows where you are linking up!

4. Explore some of the other posts in the link-up and say hello to some new blog friends! 

5. Tweet or Share the link up on Facebook so we can all make even more friends!

Tweet

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P.S. We will be having a new guest host every week! Want to be a guest host of the Mommy Moments Blog Hop? Send Faith a message at farmprincess14{at}gmail{dot}com. We would love to have you!

Cloth Diaper Review: gDiapers

When I first started researching cloth diapers when I was pregnant, I came across gDiapers, and I stopped looking. Unlike most cloth diapers, gDiapers are reusable diaper covers with flushable inserts. I was sold on these because 1) the world of cloth diapers seemed so daunting and 2) the idea of poopy cloth diapers made me nervous. Instead of buying the expensive newborn set that only went up to 10 pounds, I bought two smalls that were for 8-14 pounds and decided that I would buy more if I liked them. Well, right around the time that Caden could fit into them, he was put into a pavlik harness for his hips (that is a story for another post) and the velcro on the diaper would stick to the velcro on the harness and make it nearly impossible to change his diaper, so we only used them a handful of times. The few times we did use them, they worked well, and they are super cute. I am definately saving them for our next baby.

gDiapers consist of a cotton diaper cover, a soft, reusable waterproof insert and disposable liners. They also have cloth liners for those who really want to be ecofriendly, or for those who are squeemish yet still want to be as ecofriendly as possible, there are cloth liners that lay over the cloth inserts.. They are like a tissue that catches the poo so you can throw it in the toilet and not have to do any rinsing. I haven't heard any reviews on them yet, but they sound like a great idea to me!

One thing that I noticed in the few times that I used these was that they don't leave the indent marks that some other cloth diapers leave on little chunky legs. I'm not sure if it is because of the style or because they come in sizes for a better fit.

I'm thinking about getting more gDiapers when I increase my stash. What do you think of the hybrid cloth diaper?

Oh, How Pinteresting: Military Spouse Quotes

Cancer

In the past year, my family has been hit with a lot. Last year, my oldest aunt was diagnosed with colon cancer. Now, as she is nearing the end of her treatment, we received more shocking news- another one of my aunts has been diagnosed with breast cancer that has spread to her lungs and brain. I've always heard the saying, "We all know someone who has been impacted by cancer" but never has it hit so close to home. I'm getting ready to make a trip back, and I'm hoping that my giggly little man will bring some smiles. Especially since my aunt Carol is the only one in my large family that actually calls and asks to see Caden when we visit.
Anyway, my family could use some prayers right now. And I'm not expecting anyone to donate to someone they don't even know, but I posted her gofundme on my sidebar just in case.

Road to pregnancy

I've had this written up for a while, and I think it is fitting to post since Caden turned six months this week!

I've always wanted to be a mom- that was all I wanted to be ‘when I grew up’. At the same time, I knew that I wanted to make something of myself; I hadn't worked my ass off in school for all those years for nothing. When I met my husband, I was getting ready to leave for college, and when we got married, I was in my second semester at UofA. We would talk about wanting to start a family, but we didn't have an answer for when we wanted it to happen, so we agreed to wait until closer to my graduation.

Our decision became a little clearer when I was diagnosed with endometriosis in March 2011 during surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. For a few months after the diagnosis, I would burst into tears at the thought of what the disease could be doing inside my body. I continued to tell myself, as well as my husband, that we weren't in the right place in our lives to have a baby, but really I think I was just terrified of the thought that I couldn't get pregnant. I kept pushing the thought to the back of my mind, but there was always some kind of reminder that would come out of nowhere. Although I had never even heard of endometriosis until the day before my surgery, somehow it was everywhere in front of me.

Things became even more clear one morning when I was watching The View while drinking coffee. The last segment was about a woman whose mom was her surrogate for her unborn child (crazy, right). The woman was in her late 20's and had been diagnosed at 22 with endometriosis. By the time she got married and began trying to start a family three years later, the disease had made her infertile. I literally felt my stomach drop. Three years. That evening, I told my husband about the story. I was too afraid to say the words I wanted to say, so when he grabbed my hand and said, "Let's have a baby," I felt like I could finally breathe.

So, I went off birth control. I felt like it was perfect timing because I had an appointment a few weeks later to follow up with my doctor after going to pelvic floor physical therapy. At the appointment, I was ready to talk to the doctor about my endometriosis and getting pregnant, but I was sideswiped with another diagnosis: fibromyalgia. At the end of the appointment, Chris and I explained our desire to want to start trying for a baby, and she tried to discourage us. First, she told me that my body wasn't ready for pregnancy- I needed to learn how to manage my fibro pain first. When I insisted that I could handle any extra pain it caused and that I was worried I would become infertile if I waited, she threw another punch: with the pain I was in and the stress of Chris's looming deployment, I would not be able to get pregnant in the next few months. I felt like I had just reached the top of a hill, and she pushed me back down. I cried on the way home because I could not wrap my head around the fact that not only did I have to accept that I have another chronic pain disorder, but I had another strike against my chances of getting pregnant.

When we got home and talked about what we just learned, Chris kept saying that he was nervous about the toll that pregnancy could put on my body, but I just kept telling him that I could handle anything.. No amount of pain could stop me from having a baby. There was no way I could even consider listening to the doctor and waiting until I got my fibro under control, because I didn't have time. Chris was leaving for deployment in 6 months, and I had no idea how long until my endo got bad enough to make me infertile (or if it had already). So we agreed to continue trying.

I knew I wasn't going to get pregnant that first month, but when aunt flo visited, I couldn't help but be upset. I had downloaded an ovulation calendar on my phone, which was really difficult to use and really inaccurate for someone who had been on continuous birth control and only had 4 periods a year, so I knew it wasn't going to work for us. About three months in, I decided to take another pregnancy test because my period was only two days late, but I knew that I was going to see a negative sign. When we were down to the last three months, I bought an at home ovulation kit, but once again we got a negative signs. I had spent the past eight months hoping and praying, and being off birth control put me into so much pain- I felt so defeated. Two weekends before Chris left for deployment, I got a positive sign on the ovulation stick, but I honestly had given up at that point.

When Chris left for deployment, we decided that he would call on the second Friday so I could tell him the news, good or bad. A week and a half passed, and on Tuesday I was standing in the living room when a terrible cramp hit me, and I doubled over onto the couch. The next few hours I spent curled up in a ball in pain, thinking that I was about to start my period. My cramps had been terribly painful the past two years; it was nothing new for me, so I took a vicodin like I normally did, but this time I was distraught because it meant I wasn’t pregnant. When my cramps went away that night, I was so confused, normally my cramps put me in bed for three or four days before they start to get better. The next two days, I couldn’t stop thinking, “What if I had been pregnant but had a miscarriage?” I knew that I was supposed to wait until Friday morning to take the pregnancy test, but something was telling me not to wait, so at about 11pm on Thursday I did. Unlike every other time I had taken a pregnancy test, this time I felt oddly calm. After the two minutes, I checked the test and saw two lines.. not pregant.. my heart dropped because I thought for sure this was it. As the tears came, something didn’t feel right, so I reread the pamphlet that came with the test, and sure enough, I had read it wrong. Two lines meant positive, I was pregnant. It was a moment of relief, happiness, and loneliness at the same time. I wanted so badly to share this amazing news with my husband, but I had to wait who knew how long for him to get the ok to call me.

When Chris finally called the next afternoon, I was bursting at the seams to tell him the news. I will never forget the way he choked up and said “I’m so happy” in the sweetest voice.

My 'I just found out I'm pregnant' mirror picture

 

If you actually made it through reading this whole thing, thank you for listening! And if you have written your ‘road to pregnancy,’ I would love to read it!

Linking up at Life of Faith