Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Daddy day

I know, you want to see pictures of Emma :)  Here are a few...Back in February, on Tyler's day off after returning from Las Vegas I tried to keep in the background so that he and Emma both could enjoy some Emma/Daddy time.  Here are a few shots from their day :)

Little girl loves her daddy so much!  She sure does miss him when he's not home...even when he's gone to work during the day :)

Here we go!

SO, I had to keep going back through all my ramblings to see when the last legit (complete with photos) post was...and I think it was when the little princess turned 6 months :)  Which was about a month and a half ago.  


Here I go with getting back to sharing the happs and photos of our fun little lives.  My 33rd birthday was on 2/12.  Back in November, I decided I wanted a cocktail party for my birthday. I figured it was a Saturday, so why not have a little fun night ON my actual bday?  I was one of those loved the dress-up events in HS, and since my bridesmaid days are over this would be the only other way to get to have an excuse to get all dolled up.  


First up is my bff Ginger ;0

She's just beautiful!  Once I told her what I wanted to do for my birthday (we were out together that night), she took over with the planning and she and Tyler made it a beautiful night.

not one detail was overlooked from the decor to the cocktail menu for the evening. 

gorgeous roses from Tyler that were a beautiful addition to the decor of candles and colors...

our theme for the night were these 4 colors, so we picked 1 drink in each color.

THE BAR...

from the second we started to talk about it, Tyler was determined to borrow my sister Diana's bar and wanted to be the bartender!

we thought it would be fun to get these chalkboards and ask everyone to write down to snap a photo with

Purple Haze was the hit of the night!  (see recipe above).  Steph (below) has been making them for all occasions since then - they even had the office taste them the following Monday at work!  (every now and then office drinks are had - but on RARE occasion.  I think the last time was when Tyler and I got engaged we all had mimosas for breakfast to celebrate :)  Usually it's only 5'oclock wine when you're in for a long night)...back to the party!

for those with a date, we had them write something to place as the other person's thought, just to be silly :)

and got some little crowns for some photo fun :)

We tried to get pics of everyone as they were leaving, but some of you escaped!  We'll get you next time :) 

...I started to play with my friend Kimmy.  She's always ready to pose/smile for the camera

she had no clue about the chalkboard 'comments' I was writing :)  

Such an awesome day and night to reflect on ;0  Thanks to the best hubby and friend for such a great party!! Love you guys!

And thanks to everyone who was able to make it and hang with us for a bit.

Siesta Scripture Memory

Verse 6:
Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips.
Psalm 141:3 (NLT)

...CLEAR!

the above is the sound effect that came to mind when I thought of the title ;)  


AAHHHHHHHHH...I'm breathing again.  and it feels absolutely incredibly WONDERFUL.


SO...the happs with me over the past 2 months or so:  as you may have been able to tell by the couple of posts i have been able to throw up here (literally just toss up in a few minutes and I'm off to something else), I've been exhausted. Little Miss Emma started to fight naps and waking up 2+ times during the night.  It was the broken sleep that was putting me over.  In addition to having Tyler gone for 16 or so days within 30 :(  (yes, break out the violin to continue to read or bypass today all together if you're not interested :) ).  My thoughts are that Emma went through a growth spurt, she started to do new things (which I've read have an effect on their sleep patterns) had daddy gone too long which broke our daily routine and had company at home which also didn't make for 'routine' happenings - my mom stayed with us while Tyler was gone, then Nani and Popi came to visit Emma (maybe the rest of us too?!:) ) a few days after Tyler came back from round 2.


I thought I was having a 'rough time' waking up just once a night at about 4 am. :)  Ha.  That will teach me to not be content!! :)


Seriously though, what that sleep pattern did to me was just make me feel insane.  As many of you know, I have an autoimmune disease.  Tyler and I believe I have fibromyalgia, although I've never been diagnosed.  When I don't get a good amount of (consistent) sleep, my body/joints ache and hurt.  Tylenol has been my friend, yet hasn't been working too well.  But I can't take stronger stuff since I'm nursing.  In addition, I've still been 'dealing' with different stages of leaving my job, adjusting to being a mom and staying at home all day, and feeling overwhelmed in trying to have our home in order and care for Emma all day every day.  I would have a meltdown periodically, feel better and move forward, however, with how things have been recovery hadn't happened.  So I wouldn't get to feeling better before another came on.


THEN, the not good sleep factor has had me in a haze.  I would go through each day on automatic, but actually using my brain was not an option.  Maybe once a week, after a couple good nights of sleep (thanks to help!!) I'd feel great - like today! - then I feel like I'm on crack (I guess what I'd assume being on crack feels like) because my mind's actually working and there's so much I haven't been able to do during my hazes that I want to take advantage of my day and get stuff done.  Usually I stay up too late on a day like this, trying to get MORE done and that usually happened on a night that Emma didn't sleep well so then I was back where I started but worse because I wasn't completely 'better'.


When I think of my life vs others, I always tell myself to suck it up because I have it so much easier than so many (like this - sorry sister!).


I had been asking for our life group to pray for me since they'd get to see the zombie me.  Then a couple of weeks back during my Bible study I spoke up and asked for prayer which lead to a discussion and sharing time about some of the ladies that had experienced PPD.  I promised them I'd call my obgyn the next day to set up an appt -and I did. But the doc thought it sounded nothing like PPD and more like a mental health department issue.  I guess the tipper on that was feeling 'disconnected'  I told her that I would feel like I was in the middle and my world was spinning around me and all i could do was just sit there and it made my head hurt to watch it spin by me.


Last week, I had a turn around.  I was listening to a sermon on the radio and thought that I should be looking to what God is trying to teach me through this experience.  I had been praying for so much: sleep, patience, attitude adjustment, but never for others or what I was to get out of this.  During my awake times in the middle of the night I began to pour in to prayer for each and every one of you that came to mind.  I started to pray for myself differently, asking for the Lord to be my strength for each day asking for joy and peace in my heart.


I've also had some great encouragement from some friends and an appointment with a counselor last week, as well as my amazing husband waking up with Emma Saturday and Sunday mornings so that I could sleep in to the mid/late morning.


A few nights ago, Emma started to go back to her old sleep pattern of waking up at 3/4 am (after going to bed at 7/8) and I would stay up trying to get a jump start on my quiet time:)  This morning my break through came when I went back to bed instead and got some real rest waking up to Tyler getting in to the shower to go to work.  AHHH...I feel so refreshed today! My mind feels CLEAR!!  and a little crack-like just wanting to get so much accomplished :)  


In the midst of this all, we have tons of pics that we want to share with everyone, so I will be getting to that, but I'm thinking I will either be scheduling posts to go up periodically or I will just not post as often (I had tried to do 3xs a week) so as to spread the sane minutes in to different things I want to get done.


Now you know how to pray for me :)  And if you could pray for Emma's health - she's got a little chest congestion and cough (runny nose is gone), and for her continued progress with sleeping, that would be much appreciated!


Have an incredible day!

music to an insanely tired mama's ears

if your baby is night waking again all of a sudden, consider whether she is overtired at bedtime.
This is a reminder that even if YOU haven't changed anything in your baby or toddler's life pertaining to sleep, it doesn't mean something isn't making him extra tired such as learning to roll, walk, talk, or how to count to twenty, and you might need to consider a schedule or routine change to combat the over-tiredness.


I was up with Emma every 2-3 hours this morning, after a random 11:30 pm feeding that she dropped long ago...thank goodness we can cling to the Lord's strength, peace and comfort and not lean on our own because I ain't got none left....


that's all for today as Emma is napping I'm going to head to the couch for a little rest myself :)


Prayerfully, I can be a little more 'myself' and have some energy to share the last month or so through pics!

Emma's 7 months!

While mamma's still trying to work with our new phase (which has pretty much left me drained, brain dead and highly emotional...sounds so exciting doesn't it?!), little girl is growing and learning new tricks left and right here...CRAZY.  So, I'm a couch potato today, only after laying awake from 2-4:30AM, realized with a sleeping baby and 3 adults sleeping that could hear her should she happen to scream before her projected time I could slip away to the gym for an hour... came home, showered, did my hair and had coffee made by 6:20 AM...THEN mom took Emma for 3 hours and I slept...and then I became a couch potato cuddling with my baby girl until I put her down to go about and do her thing some more ;0 - thought I would share a little bit of our day thus far :)


Enjoy ;0
Still shots...
Emma was put down for a nap this am (b/c she was showing what I thought were clear signs of being tired) and I went in to check on her and this is what I found ;)

she loves to sit up now!

and move about

and she ends up in the splits quite often ;0

Emma on the move!

BTW - I started this post yesterday, on the day that she turned 7 months but had some technical difficulties ;0