WILW - 11/30/11

Time for another What I;m Loving Wednesday! I am linking up here!

The first thing I'm loving is that my Christmas cards are made and bought and now I just have to wait until they get here to send them out!! I got 20 of them free at Shutterfly and here is what they look like below. Shutterfly has so many neat and unique cards to choose from!



The next thing I'm loving is that my little man had the best time at Thanksgiving this year. He took a little while to warm up to the crowd but before it was over he was playing outside with his older cousins. Here he is getting a ride from his cousin Aaron!

The last thing I'm loving is that our Christmas tree is up and I have enjoyed it all this week! Jonah is doing so good with not touching or bothering it too!

Be sure and link up too!

16 Months & Dr. Visit

Wow! I literally cannot believe my tiny baby boy is already 16 months old! He is growing so fast and sweetly! We just went for his well-check last Friday and he was healthy and no issues. Here are the stats from the visit.

Weight: 21 lbs 12 oz (10th percentile)
Height: 31 inches (35th percentile)
Head Circ: 47 cm. (38th percentile)

Once again the Dr. said he is petite for his age but he is proportional so there is nothing to be concerned about. He is basically short and stocky.....or compact as I like to say. I was surprised his weight was not very increased from last time but he is on the go so much and he is a strong little muscle-man so he doesn't have a lot of fat. He eats really good too but the Dr. said that weight gain will not be as frequent as it was in his first year of life.

He had to get 3 vaccines and the flu shot but he did so well and was calmed down really fast this time!

A few other things I want to jot down for my own memory are that Jonah is wearing 12 month sized clothes right now and I anticipate that he will still be in this size for most of the winter. He is wearing size 5 toddler shoes and they fit him good. He is wearing size 3 diapers still and has been for MANY months. :)

Jonah is really good at feeding himself with his hands as long as he can pick it up with his fingers. We haven't found many foods that he doesn't like and he even had some Thanksgiving foods this past weekend at his Papa and Grandma Cheatham's house! We are still feeding him the bulk of his meals by spoon but that all has to change soon :(. I am not looking forward to the messy meals but I knew it was coming. He is such a neat little eater right now and he even pokes stuff in his mouth if he feels it on his lip or chin.....I hope for my sanity he continues to be that neat at meal-time! LOL!

Jonah is getting really good at running when he wants to try to get away from us. We think he is very balanced and coordinated for his age.....but we might be biased LOL! He is still really good at playing by himself for extended time periods and he still loves to point and anything and everything so someone will tell him what it is. He especially loves pointing at anything with wheels on it!

Right now Jonah is very shy at first when we go places and if he doesn't see anyone he knows. The Dr. tells us that is normal for this age and is just a stage. He does eventually warm up but it takes him a little while. I know it may hurt some people's feeling that he is that way but I know that is how I was when I was little so he may have a little more of my personality. I am just glad that he does eventually warm up and take part. The holidays should be interesting to see how he does with large crowds. :)

Well that is about all I can think of right now. Here are some recent pics!

 

The train table at Bass Pro. He had it all to himself!

Checking out the freshwater fish at the tanks in the store.

And this is as good as it's gonna get this year LOL!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I thought I would jump in and do one of these Wednesday posts that I've been seeing around on some other blogs I follow. I may just do it this one time or I may keep it up....we will see.

 





So here is what I'm digging right now.....warning there is a little bit of bargain shopping bragging about to happen here....just go with it!

1.) I am sooo excited that the Land O Lakes hot cocoa is back on the shelves of my favorite stores!! They only put it out around the holidays so I stock up big time when they do. Michael and I both love to add them to our morning cup of coffee!! We don't even drink them as regular hot cocoa usually. We found them last year at our Sam's Club in bulk!! We are stocking up on them right now! It is the BEST hot cocoa you will ever taste. It is pretty pricey if you buy the singles (50 cents - $1)....but so worth it! Another thing I like to do is add a couple packs to my Christmas gifts as little add-ons because everyone just raves over them...and I always give them out to my mailman because they are easy to put in the mailbox.

2:) I love thrift shopping and consignment shopping. I just love when I have time to really thrift shop at my favorite local stores. I love digging through all the crappy stuff to find the hidden jems! This past Monday I had taken off work (was off Friday for Veteran's Day too :)) and I took Jonah to Nana's like usual and then I headed out for my all-day shopping day by myself. I have not had one of those days in several months and it was time for one! I could just dig and dig and my efforts did not go wasted on Monday. I hit the bedding jackpot at our local Goodwill store when I scored this little number for $40!!! (normally $100 at Target)

It is the comforter from the Simply Shabby Shic collection that is at Target right now. I have been wanting to change our bedding out for a while now (currently dark earth tones) to something lighter and more soothing. When I saw this hanging on the back row with the other comforters I knew it was calling my name! The icing on the cake is when I browsed the pillow section and found this as well....for $4!!! (part of the collection too)

I also scored a bed skirt that matches but is not the same brand for $4 too. So now all I have to do is finish painting our matching nightstands white (another thrift find a few months ago) and spray paint some old frames and find cheap new curtains......

Here is what I'm thinking on some frames.

3:) The final thing I'm loving these days is an old love that will never die.....I love Shutterfly. I've said it before on here but I'll say it again....they are a great company for picture needs! I have never been disappointed with anything I've ordered and it's great quality. I especially love that they are always running some kind of sale and offering stuff for free. Currently I have 75 free prints to use along with 20 free holiday cards! Seriously you have to check them out!

My Gratitude {November - 2nd Week}

"Gratitude turns what we have into enough."

I saw this quote somewhere in the blogosphere this week and it really spoke to me. I wish I knew who to credit it to but could not find it. It is so true! When we have a grateful heart about our circumstances, our stuff and our lives then what we have is enough and we are content. I try to conciously think about my contentment. It is hard in today's society to feel content when you are constantly bombarded on the TV and internet with companies trying to sell you stuff that will "make your life easier" when in reality just being content with what you have makes everything easier. I try to notice myself and stop myself when those feeling come on of....oh if I just had such and such then everything would be easier....if I just looked like such and such then I would be happy.....but the truth is only you can make yourself happy.

I know I am rambling so I will get to the point of what I am grateful for this week.

1. I am grateful that I got 2 somewhat decent night's sleep now that the teething horrors are dying down around our house. We had 4 nights of Jonah not wanting to lay in his bed and just hurting and running a low grade temperature ALL day! I hate seeing my baby hurting but thankful it was just teething and nothing more serious!

2. I am thankful for time off from work! I am off tomorrow and Monday and I've needed this. I hadn't taken vacation since July and work has been very stressful and busy lately.

3. I am thankful for my hubby again. He outdid himself this week with helping with Jonah at night and fixing our toilet in our main bathroom when I casually mentioned it needed some work. He got the leaves out of the gutter and he has volunteered to camp out this weekend with some of our church youth at a local campground. I am just proud to call him mine!

4. I am thankful to have got a great start on my Christmas shopping and so glad that I will actually be done early this year!

I am sure there are a lot more things I could list but this is all I can think of for now....until next week!

My Gratitute {November-1st week}

I have seen a lot of people on Facebook doing a daily post of what they are thankful for in the month of November leading up to Thanksgiving. I thought it was a great idea but I don't have the time or inclination to post something on FB every day so I thought I would put it here on the ol' blog. I am going to shoot for listing the things I'm grateful for each week in November. So here goes.....

1. I am thankful for my faith and the fact that Jesus Christ loved ME enough to go to that cross for my sins. I am thankful many days that God loves me even when I don't love me and I feel like I don't deserve anyone's love. But He is always there and wants the best for me.

2. I am thankful for my health and for my family's health. We can get out of bed each morning and function through our lives with minimal pain (hubby has bad knees) and we can accomplish what we want each day. There are so many people that struggle just to get out of bed each day....so we should be thankful!

3. I am thankful for our financial peace. This is something that we do not take for granted because we know how hard we have worked to get where we are financially and how we never want to go back to those times. I am thankful that I can go to the bank and there is money there to buy food and clothes more abundantly than is needed. I am thankful that God blesses us with some of our wants and our needs are taken care of.

4. I am thankful for my job. I am thankful to have a job. Sure there are days that I hate it and days I wish I could stay at home with Jonah every day. But I am thankful to have a great income and ability to provide for Jonah in ways we would not be able to if I stayed at home.

5. I am thankful for our families....for our Moms and Dad and that they are still here on this earth with us. They help us so much in supporting us and loving Jonah just like we do.

6. I am thankful for my Mom. We have always been like best friends, but once I became a mother I realized how much I need my Mom even more. She helps us so much with Jonah and she never complains and acts like we've asked her if she wants a million bucks every time we need her to help with Jonah. I am thankful God gave me her as a Mom!

7. Finally! I am thankful for my husband Michael. He is a hard-worker and he is a very considerate and loving man. We've had a our rough times through this first year of being parents but we're coming out on the other side and I am thankful for our love!

There are many other things I could list but I will leave it there for this week.

Trunk-or-Treat

We did not do any trick-or-treating last night (Halloween night) because my sister is in from medical school and we did an early celebration for my Granny's birthday. It was fine with us because we NEVER have any trick-or-treaters at our house and after working all day I am just not in the spirit. Jonah is still too little to know what he's missing out on anyways......and he can't even eat the candy!!! LOL

Anyhow, so our big Halloween celebration was at Church on Sunday night. Our church always does an informal Trunk-or-Treat where everyone that wants to decorates their trunks up and the Church kiddos go around and get candy. This year with our new building and parking lot, it seemed to be a larger turn-out than any year before. The kids all seemed to have a great time too.

We knew Jonah was going to be a dragon for Halloween early on. We had a few boxes of boys clothes give to us by a family member and this dragon costume from Old Navy was in there! You can't beat free costumes! So Michael and I decided to bring out our inner kid and dress up too this year. I was the princess and Michael was the knight. I used an old bridesmaid dress from 5 years ago (can't believe it still fit after having a baby) and we bought some red satin fabric to make Michael's costume. We used craft foam tomake our hats and just kind of crafted the rest of our outfits. We didn't want to spend tons of money in something that you wear for an hour or so.

Here are the pics from that night and several of the most decorated trunks.