Trying to be adventurous

Dustin and I both decided recently that we aren't living life to its fullest, in fact its passing us by. We have been so busy getting through school, planning life around Lily's naps and now both working and focusing on getting out of debt, we are too exhausted to be very creative. So today we decided to drive to the Newport Aquarium. Dustin and I had the day off together and in our minds Lily would be thrilled to see all the "fishies" since she loves watching them at grandma's house and at the pet store that we have visited a few times. Alas....it was not what we hoped for :) After the 2.5hr drive, Lily was more interested in running around than looking at the fish. Her favorite part was putting her hands in the water at one of the handling tanks, although she was not interested in touching any of the creatures....just splashing.

She did enjoy the bird exhibit but then it started down pouring. One of the aquarium volunteers shared her umbrella with us so we could try to get a few pictures....I emphasize try here.
Lily would have none of it, she didn't want to be held, she didn't want to hold still, she just wanted to run. When the rain just wouldn't stop and we were all soaked, we headed for the few indoor exhibits. Again Lily just wanted to run so getting decent pictures with her and the fish was nearly impossible. After a whole lot of effort and Lily finally deciding she was ready to go "bye" we headed for home. It was an adventure all right :) One we won't try to do in one day ever again. It will have to be an overnight trip next time so naps and exercise can happen so it will be more than chasing her all over the place. And hopefully the weather will cooperate next time too.

Long Overdue

Life has been so crazy these past several months. After I passed my licensing exam in July, I was at a loss as to what to do with all my "spare time". Being home with Lily was so great but it took a lot of adjustment. I've always been a go go go kind of person so staying home was challenging at times. But we found little adventures to go on together and I gradually adjusted to being full time mom. Just as I was fully enjoying and fully accepting being home, I finally got a job. It took nearly 6 months....so much for the nursing shortage. But Dustin and I had spent a lot of time praying about the right job and the right timing. As a result, I absolutely love my job and the people I work with! I'm working on the Cardiac Surgery Unit at one of the local hospitals, in other words I take care of patients after open heart surgery, lung surgery, vascular surgeries among other things. Everyone has been very supportive and welcoming. I've already been yelled at by a few doctors and been so overwhelmed I was nearly in tears....welcome to nursing I guess, but I still love my job. I miss my little girl so much but I know she's in good hands with family.

We had a great time getting our Christmas tree this year. We went to a local tree farms and cut down our tree. Lily and I were playing hide and seek in the trees and jumping out to roar Daddy and grandma and grandpa. And Lily wanted to help daddy cut down the tree



I promised myself that I would not procrastinate on buying gifts or sending out my Christmas cards this year...and somehow it still happened. I never did get my Christmas cards out but I did get all my shopping done. I was a little worried Lily would be scaling the Christmas tree this year so I bought all new ornaments that were plastic or styrofoam. I did catch her stirring a few ornaments in her pots and pans on the stove top of her play kitchen which was quite cute. But overall she was content to move the ornaments around that she could reach and stare at the lights or the "wows" as she called them.

It was our year to spend Christmas Eve with the in-laws and Christmas Day with my family. Unfortunately I had to work both days but at least I got to enjoy Christmas morning with Dustin and Lily as well as spend a little time at my parent's. Lily mastered ripping open her gifts rather quickly but it was also a slow process because each gift had to be played with before the next could be opened. She looked absolutely adorable in her Christmas dress too.
We managed to get a decent family picture in front of our tree too which I was very excited about, although the tree is kind of cut out of the picture :)
We are so blessed!

Loving my Summer!

Its been so nice to be home with my girl this summer. We've had a lot of good times and she's growing up so fast I can't believe it. She is running all over the place....walking is a thing of the past. She's my big helper too; she helped me wash my car this morning:

She washed the same spot over and over and over, it was so cute.

She loves playing peek-a-boo

And riding in her wagon

And picking flowers

Too Busy!

The weeks are flying by and life is far too busy. Thankfully the end of school is near, one week left of this term and then one final term to go. Lily is growing up so fast and getting more and more of a personality every day. Its been so fun to watch. I treasure our time together. She finally cut a tooth this last month, man that was a miserable experience for the whole house, we didn't sleep for days. It was like having a new born again. Alas she STILL isn't sleeping through the night....someday maybe.....I think I've forgotten what it is like to sleep all the way through the night myself. Lily has also decided that mommy and daddy's food is far better than baby food....that one is my fault....feeding her from my plate too much.....so we have to feed her first and then she sits in her high chair and nibbles on whatever she can from my plate while we eat.

We had a couple nice days this past week so Lily and I made a trip to the park. The swing swallows her up but she loved it despite the fact that it nearly put her to sleep.

She also out grew her infant seat already since she's so tall so we gladly accepted our cousin Jace's car seat since he moved onto a booster seat. She loves this new seat since she sits up more and can see out the back window of the car. It makes traveling in the car far less painful for all of us.

Update

Life has been pretty hectic these days....but that's nothing new. I thought for sure during Christmas Break I'd find time to post some long overdo pictures of my adorable little girl....but somehow time slipped away and here I am back to the grind of school again. 23 weeks to go and I'm done!! Yahoo! So tired of school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yeah back to my cute little girl. Here is a video of her from tonight, she just started doing this in the last few days....so cute!

Christmas was great! We celebrated Christmas Eve with my family which was chaos, with kids running everywhere and 25+ people in the house, but that's Christmas with my family and I wouldn't have it any other way. Dustin BBQed the prime rib as is customary since he's been in the family and is the king of the BBQ. Then Christmas day we had at our house. It was nice and low key. People came to us this year, we had Dustin's parent and mine over as well. I had fun decorating the house, although I kept it simple since we have limited space. I also enjoyed finally getting out some more of my china.

I made omelets for breakfast, I just discovered that I could make them this year, Dustin insists I've been holding out on him our whole marriage...but apparently all those years of working in a restaurant and watching gave me the skill. Dustin grilled tri-tip steaks in this amazing marinade for lunch/dinner. Yummy! I love that he can cook and enjoys doing it.

Lily was an absolute ham. She loved ripping the paper off of her gifts, although she just wanted to eat it. We got some great video of it. Thankfully Aunt Misty wrapped Lily's gifts in a foil wrapping paper which Lily thoroughly enjoyed the crinkling sound it made and that she was allowed to chew on it since it didn't get soggy.She was even willing to put up with wearing a santa hat
I have a cute Christmas dress for her but I haven't actually put it on her yet....yeah yeah I know it was supposed to be for Christmas but I actually bought it for pictures....which I still haven't gotten around to doing quite yet....who can fit all this stuff in? Soon though...I promise. I actually had to buy her two dresses because the first one turned into a long shirt because she had a huge growth spurt.....plus I bought it in November thinking I was planning ahead....nice.

More Pictures to come.....

Hurray for some sleep!

The last 4 months have been some trying months. Along with the excitement of Lily's arrival came some rough days in the Landreth house. Lily had colic for the first 5 weeks. It was rough seeing my little girl screaming for 3-4 hours straight every single day. Thankfully cutting dairy out of my diet cured that one. Adjusting to being a mom was definitely a challenge that I didn't expect. I was so excited to be a mom I thought it would be a smooth transition. Now I'm back in school for my final year of nursing school.....well not really my final year but its the last one before my RN anyway. Next year it will all be on-line....can't wait. I hate how much I'm away from Lily. I've struggled a lot with the guilt of always leaving her but I have to keep reminding myself that I'm doing this for the betterment of my family, I'm almost done and then I'll only have to work part time. Dustin has been amazing through this whole experience. He's done more than his fair share to keep me sane and get things done around the house. I couldn't as for a better husband or father to our little girl.
Lily is 16 weeks old already. She rolled over last week which startled her at first but then she smiled. She's sitting up with assistance and getting pretty good with her hands too. She's found my hair on a few occasions and I've stopped wearing dangly earings. She started eating cereal this week and I finally decided it was time to graduate her to her own room. I'm sleeping much better now that I don't hear every movement she makes during the night. She's also sleeping better now that she's eating cereal before bed. We were getting up 2 to 3, sometime 5 times a night. Now we are getting up once or twice and last night we didn't get up at all.....well she didn't but I woke up at least twice and went to check on her. I'm not sure if I know how to sleep through the night anymore :)

Everything goes into the mouth right now and she slobbers like crazy! Hence the bibs. Otherwise we have to change her shirt several times a day. I love her big brown eyes and her sweet dimpled smile!

She's getting big so fast!

I can't believe how fast she is growing! I know everyone says that....but its so true! She is starting to smile now and trying really hard to make noise....other than crying....she's got that one down. We have hopefully solved the colic issue. I quit eating dairy and that made a huge difference. Although the last two days she's been extra fussy so I think I'm going to have to add BBQ sauce to the do not eat list since the only thing I ate those two days that was the same was a BBQ beef sandwich. Its pretty crazy how long that do not eat list is getting. No dairy, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage (that one is easy...yuck), onions, spicy stuff and now BBQ sauce.

We're having her dedicated this weekend. I hope she doesn't cry through the whole thing. I made the mistake of thinking it would be ok to go to the chiropractor by myself today...just her and I that is....and she cried, actually screamed, through the whole appointment. It was supposed to be during her nap time. Needless to say I won't be doing that again.

I bought her Halloween outfit last week. I figured I better get it now when it was on sale and I had the time to look for it. With school starting in about 4 weeks free time will be a thing of the past. She's going to be a lady bug. I can't wait to dress her up in it :)