Here We Go *AGAIN* (Color Update)

Well, I did it. I made a color selection. *Shudder* I think. Oh, I don't know. I am suddenly second guessing myself! Which, with a third trip to Lowes in as many days and a gallon of freshly mixed Valspar/ Allen+Roth Evening Stroll sitting in my garage, is not good! But I am going to do it. And see what happens. Worse case scenario, I just repaint. Again. Ugh....

So I tried to find a color swatch to show you, but alas, the color is new (as I guess all Allen+Roth Valspar paints are, since they were NO WHERE on the Valspar website!). So you will just get to see my sample wall #2. #1 was all rejects. Bleh.

Now these are mostly still wet in the picture, so the colors are all a little deeper except the top left. But my color choice, Evening Stroll, is top center.

I really wanted something more blue than green, but that still had green in it. I was a little worried when I posted this picture on Facebook, and my "real life" friends all picked another color. In fact, EVERY OTHER COLOR except the one I liked. But I thought to myself, "Self, it is your room, and you see it in person and not on a computer screen via an iPhone photo, so you have to decide." So I went for it. And my choice was confirmed when one of my most stylish friends, Kristin, agreed with me! Not that I don't think all of my beautiful friends are stylish, but seriously. If you saw pictures of Kristin's house, you would swear it was an episode of HGTV or some design magazine. :) Hi Kristin!

So now I just have to paint. Ugh. I considered doing it today. I may still. I have a couple of hours before Ava gets up from nap, and a few hours between her bedtime and mine. But I have been working like a dog around the house the last few days and just kind of want a break. Plus I have a ton of laundry to fold and put away, and that is an easy "sit on the couch and watch TV chore." So painting might be Sunday. Tomorrow is supposed to be super nice and not too warm (like 72) so I am going to mulch my last remaining flowerbed tomorrow. That is the plan, anyway!

Have a wonderful weekend!!! And, if you are in Arkansas, can you believe this weather?!?!?! Enjoy it!!!!!!

Oh, and by the way, I officially started weight watchers about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and I have lost SIX pounds!!! WHOO HOOOO! I still have a long way to go before I reach my overall goal, but I am so excited about this!!! Good motivation to keep going!!! Sorry, just had to celebrate!!! :)

Color Quandary...

I am in the middle of a color quandary. I would first just like to say that I am usually not a wishy washy person when it comes to color. If you have seen pictures of my house, you know that I am not afraid of color. I like it, I use it, and I go for it. And I am spot on (for what I like) 99.9% of the time. Well, I have hit a 0.1% wall. A while back (over a year ago) I painted our guest room a gray color. And it was a miss, I think. A BIG FAT MISS. It came out looking like auto primer. And while I had hoped the tan carpet would just disappear, it is very glaring (again, to me). And while we are being flat out honest, the room is uber monotone, and needs some color. I love the bedding and really don't have a reason (or budget) to redo the whole room. So I have decided to paint. Again.

Here is pretty much how the room looks now. Note: You could still smell paint fumes when I took these pictures. And it still looks just like this, except now I have a chair in the corner. We don't use the room a lot! :)

See the GLARING tan carpet. GLARING. I think because it is the only color in here.

One wall is all doors- entry and closet.

Love this bed. It is an antique iron bed (aka HEAVY) and belonged to my great grandmother, then my grandmother. It is still technically my sister's, but I have had it longer than she did at this point, so I am claiming duel ownership!!! I tried adding some pops of lime in there, but it just wasn't enough.

I guess you could say I am a little "brush shy" this time around because I am painting over a bad color choice, and I don't have a lot of time to paint and repaint, so I want this to be the last time a paint roller touches these walls while "Brewer" is still on the door!!! ;)

I have about 6 color swatches painted up on the wall, but so far this is my favorite. It is Benjamin Moore "Azores." It is one of their Pottery Barn Spring colors. I love the swatch, don't you???

But once it goes on the wall, it is very...saturated. And bold. And while the room needs color, I am just not sure that it needs that much color. Like I said, I want this to be the last paint job in there, and I do NOT want to paint to sell. That is a big requirement for me. I will give a painting allowance if I just HAVE to, but I'll be darned if I am going to paint walls and not get to enjoy them!!! LOL!!!


SO I think we are going to make run #2 to Lowes in the morning (yes I know they don't carry Ben Moore paint, but they can look it up and do the same color in Valspar. Did you know that?!?! AWESOME!!!). I think I am going to get a sample of this pretty fella...Buxton Blue. It looks like (from the picture) that it goes on a little more muted than the Azores. Plus, if you look really close, in the sample picture for Buxton Blue, there is a picture of a baby and it says "Baby Ava 1 Year" Hello?!?!?!?! Oh my word!!!!! Perfect!!!!

In other news, I picked the invitations up, addressed the envelopes, and have them pretty much ready to go. All I need to do is stamp them. I bought regular stamps, but I am tempted to go to the post office and get some cute stamps. But then I am left with 60 regular stamps. That is a lot of bills!!! But they are forever stamps, so that is good. I don't know if I will have time. I am flirting with the idea of going to a fabric store here in Little Rock that is just fabulous and looking for some curtain panels or just some fabric to make cheat curtains for my dining room. The longer I live with those in there, the more I hate them. And I spend a lot of time in that room now because of Ava. So I don't know. I have three weeks give or take until the big day, and I suddenly want the house to be perfect!!!! :) Speaking of, I am going to go clean our bedroom and bathroom now! Toodles!!!

Oh, and PLEASE feel free to suggest a color to me! Advice is always welcome!!!

Ava's Pictures and SO Much to Do!!!

Whoa. I have SOOO much to do- makes me want to just crawl in a hole somewhere and hide! Seriously, my list is so long I don't know WHERE to start! I know where. CLEAN MY HOUSE!!! I mean REALLY, it is so bad!!! But I sit here planning a worthless trip to Lowes (which I am thinking about aborting now) and writing a blog post. And Ava is napping. I really need to learn to make better use of her nap time. Especially with the "big day" coming up in just over a month! I don't want our lives to be in a crazy mess when that day comes!!! (For those of you new to my blog- something BIG in our lives is happening around mid-April. I mentioned it a few posts back, but I will spill the beans-again- when I can! And no, it isn't another baby.)

I have, no joke, three to do lists going. Yes, THREE~ UGH!!! One is people to call about getting a stump taken out, one is my house/cleaning to do list (which includes a TON of projects and project planning items), and one is Ava's birthday party to do list. Speaking of, I checked one BIGGIE off of that list last night! I finalized and ordered the invitations! YAY!!!! I am so excited! I think they turned out fabulous!!! If you spot a mistake, which I don't think there are any, please DO NOT TELL ME! I would just rather not know, since they have been ordered and I am paying a ridiculous amount, correct or not! HAHA! They are 5x7 Landscape folded cards...

Front

Top Inside

Bottom Inside

Back

It let me add text and pictures without any additional cost, so I thought WHY NOT!!! I designed them myself and used Bedford Camera to order.

I had pretty much finalized the invitation design and was just waiting on Ava's pictures, which Blakelee Bean with H&H Photography was sweet enough to do for me! We also had a studio session with Beth Martin, who has done our pictures since we got married! I get to see those adorable shots next week!

There are so many precious pictures that Blakelee took, but it would literally take me 100 years to upload them all to blogger! If you are my facebook friend, you can check them all out there. But here are just a few of my favorites. Which were so hard to decide on because they all were awesome!

Getting a little paci help from momma!

My big 1 year old!

Deep in thought....

I love that you can see all of her teeth in this one! Her top teeth are still so small that you rarely get to see them!!!

This is classic Ava. She has a thing for shoes, and will chew on any she can find. Even her own!

This one just makes me laugh! She was cracking up over something. I think the wind. She thinks wind is the funniest thing ever!!!

My beautiful girl.

I think of all of them, this is my favorite. Something about her eyes and the look on her face. I always think she is beautiful. But in this one, she just looks stunning! It just takes my breath away!!!

This is my other favorite! In fact, you will see that I used it on the front of her invitation! I love those little rosy cheeks and that sweet little tuft of hair sticking out!

This one is so Ava too! Rubbing her hair (typical for Ava!) and with her "spiky ball." She loves those balls!

Happy girl!!

Her favorite thing- Pulling mommy's hair!!!

* I don't know why my spacing is so funky. I have the hardest time with Blogger!!! I think I need a class!!!***

My Pa Jim...

Well, it is March! Spring is in the air, and my what would have been my Pa Jim's 86th birthday is March 12th. We lost my Pa Jim on May 20, 2008, and not a day goes by that I don't think about him or miss him. Some days so much, I physically hurt.

I was the "baby." The youngest grandchild, and youngest girl, so I was just a TAD spoiled by my Nana and Pa. I have so many memories of them as a child- they used to keep me in the summers or when I was sick. As his March birthday approaches, and I think about how much he loved me, how much he loved Cole, and how much he would have loved Ava, I thought it would be appropriate, if for no other reason than for Ava and our other future children to read, to share some of my fondest memories of Pa.



* Pa Jim was a proud Marine. He joined just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was just 16 at the time, but lied and said he was 18. He never talked about the war. He saw and did things I am sure he didn't want any of us to have to know. He was a Marine Sharpshooter (a metal that now resides in the case with the flag that adorned his coffin), a Purple Heart recipient, and one of the bravest and most stubborn men I have ever met! :)

*Being the proud veteran that he was, he served in the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) for many years. He worked closely with both George Bush (Sr.) and then Gov. Bill Clinton, and had photos of himself with each of them hanging in his home. Although he did take the Clinton picture down for a time because he got mad at some legislation regarding veterans that Clinton supported! :)

* I used to go to the "air base" (LRAFB) with Nana and Pa as a kid, and I LOVED it because I knew I would get at least one barbie. Usually two or three, some barbie clothes, AND clothes for me. And I would always get a bag of powdered doughnuts for the drive home. And if I was REALLY lucky, Burger King! HA!

* On those faithful trips to the air base, Pa Jim used to always get a haircut, always pick Nana out something "pretty for herself", and would always chat with the other veterans.

* One trip to the air base was especially memorable, because as we were leaving, we saw several young airmen taking the gate flag down for the day. As a proud Marine, my Pa Jim got very, VERY angry when he saw the young airmen drape the flag across some bushes to untangle the cord. He made my Nana pull into the visitors lot, and got out, and proceeded to yell at the young airmen. He yelled to us about the incident all the way home, and yelled some more on the phone to who knows who when we got back to their house!

* Pa Jim loved hunting and raising honey bees at Ramsey, our "home place." He and my daddy used to suit up and rob the beehives for honey. It was SO good! My dad is 6'6" and my mom used to have to duct tape his bee suit because the pants and sleeves didn't go all the way down.

* The Ramsey House is surrounded by the Ramsey hunting club. We used to go to church with a member of the club that told us Pa Jim was known to the hunters as "Old Man Archer" and the rumor was that he would shoot anyone who came on his property. Rumor or not, they took it seriously. Which was good, because he probably would have!!!

* I mentioned that my Pa Jim was a Marine Sharpshooter. Well, my dad tells the story of hunting with him as a teenager with some friends. And my dad said that my grandfather's gun was under the seat of the jeep, while his and his friends' guns were laying on the hood. Several deer crossed into a clearing about 300 yards away. My dad said by the time he and his friends noticed the deer, Pa Jim had his gun out and was firing. He killed two or three deer by the time my dad and the other boys had picked up their rifles.

* My Pa Jim used to hold his pinky finger in the air anytime I left. I knew exactly what this meant- He was wrapped around my finger. And I was wrapped around his...

* My dad wanted to serve in the Air Force and go to flight school, but he was too tall. I have three male cousins (there are 5 grandchildren, my sister and I and our male cousins) and none of them served in the military. So when I started dating Cole, he was the first person in our generation to be, in any real capacity, a member of our family. I think it was my dad who told Pa Jim about Cole. Dad wasn't sure how Pa would take to Cole, being that Cole is Army and Pa Jim was Semper Fi all the way. But Pa Jim thought about it for a few moments, then said "Well. James (my Nana's brother) was in the Army. So I guess he will do." :) He and Cole shared something that no one else in our family shared- the love and dedication to our country that only a combat veteran can understand. And I love that they shared that. And that Pa knew I would be taken care of because he knew that Cole is an honorable and worthy man.

* In Little Rock, there is a TV station that does a thing called "Dialing for Dollars." And during the noon broadcast, they call people and if the person knows the dollar amount and "up" amount that was shown just before the call is made, they win that dollar amount. Well, Pa Jim took dialing for dollars VERY VERY VERY seriously. When it was DfD time, we had to all be quiet and wait for "the call." Well one day my Aunt Bonnie (Pa Jim's sister) called during Dialing for Dollars. And of course when the phone rang, Pa thought it was the TV station and answered excitedly. I guess my Aunt Bonnie started talking because Pa got very red and said "Dammit Bonnie!!! It is noon! Dialing for Dollars!!!!!!" and hung up on her!!! HAHA!

* When I was in college, I used to be requested to bring Pa Jim peanut brittle (and almond and pecan and cashew) from the town where I went to school. Well, Pa Jim always paid me back. Times about 50!!! He was generous to all of his grand kids, but I think me especially, as I was his Bug.

* Pa Jim was 100% disabled during WWII, and had a pin put in his leg, so he always set of metal detectors. Well I don't recall where we would go on a regular basis that had metal detectors, but I remember several times that when he would set them off, he would tell them he had a plate in his head (which he didn't). And no one ever questioned him. I think people knew better.

* For all of his stubbornness, he was a kind and gentle and caring man too. But I have his jealousy to thank for my existence. My Nana tells the story that, after the war, she had been dating Pa off and on, but he would never commit to her. Well she was in town one day, and saw Pa Jim walking down the street. She happened to be with a friend of hers, a boy who was also a distant cousin. She decided then and there that she was going to MAKE Pa Jim decide, so she started to flirt (shamelessly, apparently) with her friend/distant cousin. Well Pa Jim saw, and did NOT like it! He marched right up to them, pushed the poor boy away, and said "that is MY girl! You stay away from her!!!" and they were together ever since. For 61 years.

* My Pa Jim was an ordained Baptist Deacon for 57 years, and a 32nd Degree Mason (which apparently is a pretty big deal). One of the only times- in fact, the ONLY time, I remember him getting onto me was during a funeral. It was at Immanuel Baptist where he was a member for 49 years. I was probably 12, had never been to a funeral, and was smacking my gum. He let me know with one quick look that I needed to "swalla" that gum. Of course, after we left, he made Nana pull into a gas station, and came out with several packs of gum for me! :)

Pa Jim, I love and miss you so very much. It breaks my heart that you never got to meet my sweet girl Ava here on earth. But I like to think that, before babies are sent to live on earth, they are with Jesus in Heaven. And if that is true, then I know that she was blessed with a Pa Jim hug and kiss before I ever saw her. And I know that we will all be reunited again someday. I love you. Love, Your Bug

Pa Jim's DAV photo

Our second to last Christmas together.

Sometimes, Simple is the Answer...

...and sometimes, it's not! :) This has been one major thing I have learned about motherhood. I could give tons of examples. But I will just share two...



Our mealtimes have changed DRASTICALLY in the last few weeks. First, we started (and now have almost completed!) our transition to whole milk. But we are also (with the exception to baby cereal which I want to do as long as she will eat it for the iron) totally off baby food! ALL big girl, table food! YAY! And a little scary. But she is enjoying it and seems to be eating well. More and more is getting into her mouth, and I have learned to love the plastic bibs with a pocket at the bottom to catch her "misses"! HA!



I used to give her food in these (although she has PINK ones!)...



There is a pad that static clings to the highchair tray, and it has a suction cup. And the plates and bowls just stick right on there. Well, that was then, before she really ate like there was no tomorrow. Now, I can't put all of her food on her tray at once. She has discovered that food tastes good, and she wants to eat it all. At the same time. And shovels it in like she is afraid I will take it away! HA! So we have started using these wonderful little plates, and mommy keeps it on the table and just feeds her off of it....


Super simple, right!? And, they are dishwasher safe! I wash them on the bottom rack, on sanitize/high heat, and so far so good! Plus, a pack of 5 costs the same as ONE of the fancy suction cup ones! Can't beat that!



So that is my example of when simple is best. Here is my example of when more really is MORE!!!



My Buggy Bagg! LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! Now I will say I have had some quality issues. The zipper broke on our first outing, and recently a part of the buckle has broken off (which I had to pay $3 to replace because I bought from Amazon.com and not a dealer, and so it doesn't have a warranty. Blah!). But we use this ALL.THE.TIME! Really! And it was great when she was tiny because I could prop her up with the pillow. Now she uses the pillow to nap when Walmart is just too boring. Usually when it is slow and no one is playing with her. :) It is padded, has lots of pockets, it easy to slip on and off- although they say you can do it while holding your baby. They have obviously never held a baby of Ava's activity level! I will say, if I have to replace my BB at some point, I think I am going to get a different fabric. White has become my nemesis (because of the aforementioned food transition...)







In other "Ava" news, I keep hoping/wishing/praying that the spit up will stop. Every one tells me that it will when she walks. That is what they said about her turning 1 too. No such luck. But I do think it is funny that I, of all people, have a kid that pukes all the time. Just because when I was growing up, and even into my 20s, I never wanted kids because I was sooooo afraid of having to clean up vomit. Like WOULD.NOT.DO.IT!!!! Ugh. Anyway... But now, her spit-up (which, take my word, is much more like vomit with each passing day. And if you have a kid who spit up while eating solids, you know I don't lie!) is NO BIG DEAL! I am like, "Oh. I have puke on me. Okay...". Seriously no biggie. I think God did this to prove a point, and to help me over my fears. I would just like to say (and I have said it to Him almost everyday for a while now...) that I am OVER MY FEAR! So she can stop aaannnnnyyyyy day now. Really. Anyday. :)



I promise to get back to updates about the party and the house (***gasp*** I found the most wonderful house! But we still are not on the market. So it will sell too....I know there is a wonderful new house out there for us. Patience. I need patience. Of Job, apparently....) soon.



By the way, do you like how I have little sidebars in ( ) all the time. Hope you can read my writing. I tend to write how I think and talk. And yes, I get off task when I think and talk too. Drives my husband bonkers because I go in 12 different directions at once!

We are getting a raise!!!!

Okay, not really. But it's going to feel like it! I took Ava in for her 1 year check-up yesterday, and the doctor said those two magical words- WHOLE MILK! YAY!!!! No more formula, no more books, no more breastfeeding Nazis' dirty looks! HAHA! I was talking to my friend Amanda today, who just switched her 7 month old from breast to formula (mostly). And she was talking about how much better her baby is and how much happier they both are now that they are using formula....

I read an article the other day in LR Family about breast vs. bottle, and the person who wrote the piece was clearly and outspokenly a breastfeeding advocate. And that is cool with me. (and I promise when I started out writing this, I didn't intend for it to be a breast vs bottle post). On the magazines FB page, they posted a link to a blog about the pro's and con's of both breastfeeding and formula feeding, which I guess was in response to the backlash they got from the article. But I thought it was funny that the blog's writer says in the first paragraph that she is an outspoken advocate of BF and only formula fed the last of her 5 children because of the death of her young child, the premature birth of her baby, and the subsequent stress involved that made her milk dry up. So much for serving up an unbiased opinion!

So here is my take: Hello. My name is Rachel. And I chose to formula feed my baby. There I said it. Now before you judge, please let me explain....

We wanted to breastfeed Ava. We had so many people tell us that it was the "right" thing to do for our child. Even had a few people tell us that we would be bad parents who didn't love their baby enough if we didn't breastfeed. But I wasn't informed and didn't understand the ins and outs of breastfeeding. I assumed that when Ava came, she would just latch right on and off we would go into this magical world of breastfeeding. After all, it is natural- right?!?! Well.... Ava came 3 weeks early. Which isn't much. But for whatever reason, she just refused to latch on. REFUSE. Like I would put my boob in her mouth and she would jerk away. The lactation consultant showed me all of her tricks. Nipple shield, football hold, rubbing my nipple on her face to trigger the routing reflex. NOTHING WORKED. The kid would not eat. So the lactation consultant suggested we just use our pump. Pump? What pump? After all, breastfeeding was natural. It is supposed to just happen. We didn't get a pump. So we left the hospital that Saturday afternoon with a new baby and a new (and VERY FREAKING EXPENSIVE TOP OF THE LINE THERE GOES HER COLLEGE FUND) breast pump.

Now the idea was to pump until she was strong enough and able to latch on, at which point we would only pump when needed. Ava, my sweet little baby, had other plans. She would never latch on. And not for a lack of trying on my part. I used to spend every waking hour (wish I was joking) just trying to get her to latch on. Maybe I tried too hard, I don't know. But she just never would. So I had to pump EVERY.SINGLE.FEEDING. Now if you have ever had a baby and pumped, you know why this is such a big deal. Not only does it add at least 30 minutes to each feeding, but it isn't the most pleasant experience. OK. IT FREAKING HURTS! Not to mention it really gives you a whole new respect for dairy cows. And our pump has like 450 different parts that must be washed after every use. So lets do the math, shall we???

24 hours in a day.
She was eating roughly every three hours, or 8 times a day.
So 8 feedings each day, and each feeding took about 30 minutes for her to eat. Plus 30 minutes to pump for the next feeding and clean up. So One hour for each feeding. That is 8 hours out of my day that was just spent feeding and pumping. That left 16 hours for other things. Like sleep. Showers. and feeding myself. Doesn't look too bad on paper, but when those 16 hours are spent in 1-2 hour increments, it is miserable.

But I was doing it. Because I loved my baby and I wanted to be a good mom. So I did it. For 7 weeks. 7 of the most exhausting and miserable weeks of my life. (That is 196 hours minimum I spent pumping, by the way. I am not bitter. But the last blister just healed a few weeks ago. FYI)

Around week 5 I started to feel bad. Like, REALLY REALLY BAD. Flu bad. Fever. Chills. Aches. And my boobs hurt. BOTH of my boobs hurt. Like Babe Ruth had used them to practice those famous home runs bad. OUCH. Yup. Double Mastitis. Don't worry. I pumped through it. DOUBLE OUCH. Because I loved my baby. Fast forward two weeks. Feeling really really bad again. Flu bad again. Fever-chills-aches. Again. And more Babe Boobs. OOOUUCH! And Cole was back to work for both of my bouts with double mastitis. So I was sick and taking care of a newborn. Not a fun time.

On top of all of that...
*** and I really didn't want to share this yet because it's not over. But if you read my blog, you know Cole is in the Army- and I just want to say for all of the freaks out there that might come across this blog, I am the granddaughter of a US Marine sharpshooter, the wife of a US Army officer, and I am well armed, have a security system, dogs, and an arsenal of weapons under my bed, and a crack shot-

Well, Ava was born in February, 2010. April 14, 2010- Cole deploys overseas.

SO, in the midst of having a baby, dealing with the BF issues and sickness, I am also trying to emotionally and physically prepare for my husband to deploy for a year. I JUST. COULDN'T.DO.IT. anymore. So after 7 weeks of pumping and breast milk, Ava switched to Similac Sensitive.

She has been a different child. And I mean that in the best way possible. I know the "old school" thought was that a baby can't be intolerant of it's mother's milk. I think that is pure crap. Because I don't care what medical school says, or what doctors say. Ava, I believe with all of my heart, was intolerant of my milk. Her reflux was better. She slept better, she was happier. She cried less...just all around better. Books may say otherwise, but I know what I saw- what happened when we switched to formula. She was better.

And honestly, so was I. The week we decided to change to formula, I must have taken 20 showers. Because that was my quiet, alone time. And I would stand in the shower and just sob and sob because I thought that I was giving up. Taking the easy way. Not loving my child enough. But really, that wasn't true. Cole and I made this decision because I was miserable and exhausted, and because as a pilot, even when he was home those first two months, he couldn't help with the nighttime feedings because he HAS to get sleep. HAS TO. So it was all me. Then when he left, it was ALLLLL me. And I needed sleep. I needed peace. I needed to be as happy as I could.

And I probably shouldn't admit this in print, but I think all moms, if they were honest, would admit to having the same feelings at one point during those first few months- I was beginning to resent my baby. Because I was SO tired and it hurt SO bad (the last few weeks, pumping was rubbing blisters on me, even with the largest cups- because I was so swollen). I won't say that I loved her more after we switched. Because that's not true. But I will say that I enjoyed her more. And still do. And for us, for our family, it was worth the switch. The money that it cost us. Because time with Ava is priceless. And that is what formula gave me.

I know everyone is different, every child is different. And for whatever reason, Ava would never latch on. And I look back now and wish I would have told those people who tried to guilt me into breastfeeding to STICK IT! ;) Will I try again with my next baby- YES. Will I know more what to expect and be better prepared- YES. Will I feel guilty about switching to formula if it doesn't work out- NO. I know breast milk is what God gave us. But he also gave us a brain. Science. The ability to improve our lives. And we, as a human race, have used those tools and done that. So if science and the ideas that come from God-given brains help me to be a better mom, I am okay with that.

I think breastfeeding gets a bad name partly because advocates use guilt and manipulation (and at times, down right lies) to try to sway new parents their way. Parents who just want to do what is best for their baby and their family. I don't think many people read this little blog. But if someone does, a new mom or mother-to-be who is trying to decide- I hope this helps you understand that you have choices. And that you are not a bad parent no matter what you decide- or at least that this particular decision doesn't make you a bad parent. :)

Whew! Sorry for that rant. Not sure where that one came from, but I feel much better!!!!!

Happy Valentines Day

***if you haven't seen it, check out my last post about Ava's first cake...the video is SO FUNNY!!!

Happy Valentines Day!!! This has always been one of my favorite days! Not just because of all the candy (YUMMY!) but because ever since I met my husband, Cole, love has a whole new meaning. He is everything to me, and I am so blessed to have him!!!

I love you Cole!!!! Happy Valentine's Day!

At my cousin's wedding in November 2010

Our rehearsal dinner, November 2007

Valentine's Day at Ft. Rucker, AL (home of Army Aviation), 2009

Kissing in a Chinook Helicopter, February 2009
(yes, we live an odd life!!!)



About to go into the Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker, 2009

(there are no pictures from Valentine's Day 2010 because that was our first full day at home with Ava, and the only pictures we were taking were of her!!! HAHA! YOu would not have wanted to see me anyway!)

My beautiful valentine's flowers from this year!!! He always does such a stellar job! And of course candy and a teddy for Ava. That has become a tradition- a teddy with any flowers for Ava. I wonder if he knows that when baby #2 comes along, he is going to have to send 2 bears???

Stunning flowers! Good job baby!!!!

"...I have found the one that my heart loves..." -Song of Solomon 3:4