My little mustache

two ER visits

2012-03-04T09:16:00.000-08:00

I'm forcing myself to sit down and blog about this, because right now Judah is napping and I want to Lysol/scrub my house but I would just be running in circles with my Lysol can because I am exhausted and I just don't know what to do first because I have the events of last night all jumbled up in my brain. I wanted my next blog post to be about our fun daytime family date at Reston Town Center yesterday. I wanted to share how after I ran 2.6 miles we decided to get Froyo, I tried on some things at Anthropology, Judah laughed hysterically at each dog he saw and cried woefully as we left each one, how Scott finally tried this burger place that he has been eyeing for years and how I was good and didn't eat any, how we walked around for two hours and ended up at Barnes and Nobles and let Judah play with the trains and how we ended the night with one of the best dinners I have made in my married life (baked salmon and potatoes). But around midnight Scott came downstairs, I was staying up late to catch up on some crochet orders. He told me that he has really bad food poisoning and that I might have to give him his glucagon because his blood sugars kept dropping. I was on alert, Scott never ever suggests the glucagon unless he is seriously sick. So I went upstairs and started packing Judah a mini hospital bag of diapers/cloths/toys ect in case Scott had to go to the ER. I suggested that I call Kaiser and ask them when I should take Scott to the Drs., as I was on the phone with the nurse I heard Judah screaming, I ran into the room and said "its okay, mommy and daddy are here". Judah is still co-sleeping and I thought he woke up and was scared because we were not around. But when I got closer I noticed chunks of white stuff on his face and nose, I turned on the light and Judah had saturated our pillows, sheets and comforter in vomit. I have never seen so much vomit in my life, he had it up his nose and it was still coming up. So I started freaking out. They don't train you on what to do if your baby is puking. He kept choking on his puke and it was allot. Scott took the phone and talked to Kaiser. They were not super clear on when I should take either Scott or Judah to Kaisers walk in clinic. They told us to wait for an hour to give Judah anything to drink. I didn't think that was right, he couldn't stop puking and I kept thinking he is going to get really dehydrated because he is so little. In one hour Judah puked 15 times and it was turning yellow (bile).

So we decided to go ahead and go to Kaiser. In the car Scott was in the backseat with Judah as I drove. A few mins into the drive I hear Scott yelling"Judah! Judah! Wake up!! Judah!, Jess he is not responding!" So I called Kaiser who told me to call 911. I called 911 and they asked me to pull over so they can send the EMT's to us. We pulled over at the 7/11 off of 123. The EMTS arrived and decided they wanted to take both Scott and Judah in. I followed behind them to Fairfax hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital the EMT and nurse were trying to convince Scott to check in which he finally decided to do so after he was sick again in the hospital bathroom. I was helping the nurse check in Judah. He was pretty much listless, like a baby rag doll and he was so pale that he had a blue line above his mouth. He looked scary. It took the nurses over an hour to give him his IV and take his blood. His veins were not as visible because he was so dehydrated. I was angry at myself for listening to Kaiser for not giving him fluids for awhile and my heart was breaking over my little boy who was screaming, then roll his eyes to fall asleep and then scream again because of all the poking around.

After about 30 mins of the IV Judah started becoming his normal self, smiling, flirting, talking. The nurse came in and she was shocked at how fast Judah was turning around. I was still confused as to what made him so sick. She thought it was a stomach virus going around.

They kept him a bit longer, gave him 3 units of the IV.

And because the nurses fell in love with my sweet boy he scored his first Popsicle.

Judah was released and we checked in on Scott. I've never seen my husband so sick. His whole body was in agony, he couldn't stop throwing up and the meds the drs were giving him were not working. The nurse came in and suggested that Judah and I go home, that the hospital is full of germs and we would get sicker if we hung around. I didn't want Scott to be alone so I begged him to at least call his dad to see if he would sit with him for a bit.

Once I got Judah home I changed him out of his puke stained cloths into a PJs. Gave him the rest of his pedialite and made a bed for both of us on the living room flood while I stuck the sheets from the upstairs bed into the wash. Judah was crawling around, talking to me and his toys and then he looked straight at me and puked everything up, the Popsicle the pedialite, everything. I felt so alone because I had no idea what to do and didn't have anyone to ask. Judah ended up falling right to sleep and I just snuggled right next to him and watched him. I maybe slept for an hour, woke up thinking that maybe Scott was already released but he was still really sick.

Thankfully one of my friends Laura was able to stop by with some diapers/wipes/Gatorade and pick up Judah's prescription for us. I wasn't able to leave the house with Judah still sick.

So here it is...a few hours later. Scott is still at the hospital, they admitted him and I really don't have any information on him because people are with holding it from me. Instead of being totally stressed about it I am going to focus on getting Judah well and making sure our home is clean of puke for when Scott finally comes home to us.

Please keep us in your prayers, the last few hours have been pretty nightmarish for our family and honestly I have never felt more alone and scared in my life.

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creating pretty things

2012-03-02T09:24:00.000-08:00

March is the month for creating pretty things. Ever since my husband and I were dating I dreamt of transforming his backyard to a gorgeous flower garden. The first year we were married I was pregnant and was to sick to do any major planting out back, so Scott just put up a fence in our backyard, last year I was to busy raising an infant so Scott built flower boxes around the walls of the fence. This year I am prepared to tackle the backyard and transform it into something quite heavenly.
Part of todays project is to paint these adorable tiny bird houses I found on sale at Michael's last summer. Judah wanted to help so I cut out the back of a cheerios box and put some watercolor paint on a brush for him.

Judah kept trying to eat the paint brush so I gave him his binky to chew on. He never uses his binky, its only recently he likes to chew on it and pull it out of his mouth. I think he is teething again.

When ever I go to home depot I always check their sale section. I still have this mini canister of blue paint that I bought for 25 cents two summers ago. Its great for the birdhouses.

One tiny birdhouse done....ten more to go.

This was a fun way to have Judah paint for the first time and I'll be able to frame his little painting and hang our little bird houses.

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March Sponsors

2012-03-01T08:30:00.000-08:00

Oh hi there! Happy first glorious day of March!

I'm so excited about this month! Not only is March one of my favorite months for so many reasons, but this month My Little Mustache is being sponsored on some of my all time favorite blogs! I've read most of these blogs for years and I am so excited to be sponsored on them this month.

Drea and her lovely daughter Marlowe. The sweet Floridian lifestyle that I miss and I now crave things on toast.>-blog-<

Little Chief Honeybee, this woman's blog is like rainbows and sunshine will always put a smile on your face and inspiration in your heart.>-blog-<

Does Katie even need an introduction. She is adorable, her life, her daughters, her cute little creations.>-blog-<
This woman has me laughing every time I read a post. >-blog-<
I wanted to thank each of you for your uplifting words of encouragement yesterday when I wrote my honest post about my weight loss. Just this morning I was thinking how easy it would be for me to skip my run and just hang out inside with Judah. But then, my heart stopped, I remembered I posted my numbers online, I can't stay where I am at now. So thank you for the encouragement and thank you for allowing me to put the fear in my heart of finally changing my lifestyle for good.xo
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time for a change

2012-02-29T15:50:00.002-08:00

I was a little hesitant to post this but I want to be honest and authentic with my readers and friends. I also wanted to be able to celebrate my victories with you all and I can't do that unless I am honest with you. I wanted to share with you my weight gain/loss and why I think its time for a change. When I first started working at McLean Bible Church 7 years ago I weighed 120 pounds, I was at this weight for years before I started working at the church and I was very active with a Golds gym membership and loved running outside. Working at a church that had 13,000 members can be stressful and I found myself working overtime and volunteering allot with my students. I didn't have as much time for the gym as I did before and when I met Scott 3 years ago I weighed 140 pounds.

When Scott and I got engaged I entered one of the most stressful seasons of my life. I was preparing for a marriage essentially on my own and knew I wasn't going to have any financial help from my family. I had to figure out a way to invite everyone to the wedding on a very small budget. I preferred to just have a small wedding but Scott wasn't able to cut down his side of the guest list. To cut down the costs I suggested we do an open/potluck wedding and we managed to get 350+ guests. The months before our wedding I was constantly overwhelmed and stressed. I also had a major fall out with one of my best friends who was also my gym buddy, so instead of hitting up the gym and possibly running into each other I was at home preparing for this massive open wedding. While doing this I of course snacked and because I have the sweetest tooth ever I always had a bag of sour skittles in my desk drawer or my car. Our 7 month engagement flew by and the night before our wedding I weighed close to 160! I wasn't to excited that I wasn't going to look like the bride I wanted to look like when I walked down that aisle the next morning.

After the wedding we spent two glorious weeks in Hawaii. My husband loved his new wife's body, but I still had issues with my weight and I wanted to lose all the "engagement weight" as soon as we got home to be an even hotter wife for my husband.

When we came back from our honeymoon I started my running routine. I was running 6 miles every other day and at least 2-3 miles on my regular workouts. I was also still going to Golds to lift weights/take the classes. But I noticed that I started feeling really sick on my runs and things would start to smell really bad to me. Scott had a business trip to LA and after a night of painting our downstairs bathroom and drinking a glass of wine I realized "I think I'm pregnant!". Sure enough we found out that we were pregnant with a honeymoon baby. I asked my OB if I could still work out and she said I could as long as my heart rate doesn't reach over 140. I ran outside for another month or two, but I was so clumsy I was afraid I would fall down and injure Judah.

I did however still go to the gym all the way up to my 8 month of pregnancy. I was going at least four times a week and I was lifting some weights, doing the elliptical for an hour and walking on the treadmill. I did get mean glances and comments from people saying I was injuring my baby. Judah turned out just fine and I think working out actually helped me during my pregnancy. But my weight crept up to 199 pounds. Judah was born almost a month early.

I did lose a bit after I first had him. I thought that I was going to continue to lose weight over the past year especially since I was breastfeeding. But my milk dried up by 5 months and I hit a wall with my weight loss last summer when Scott's work travel got really crazy. We were all over the place and it was hard to have a consistent work out schedule and easier to just order pizza while we were on the road. Also family stress and the stress of raising a child with no real support in the area has hit us pretty hard this past year and I wouldn't make good eating choices.

Since our wedding anniversary is next week I've decided its time for a change, no more excuses I can get back to my pre-engagement weight. Yesterday I started Couch to 5K, is a free Apple app for your phone and it teaches you how to slowly get back into running. When I start things I like to go all the way and with running if you haven't' been running for awhile you can't just go out and run 3 miles or you might get an injury. This application is teaching me how to get back into running slowly.

Yesterday we ran/walked 2.5 miles.

We stopped by the park in our backyard so Judah can play and walk around while I stretched. Normally I just take him inside after my run but when I do that I have to change his diaper, feed him and put him down for a nap. Then I realize hours later when my muscles start to ache that I never stretched. At least at the park I have a few mins to stretch while he inspects the park and gets his energy out so he can come in and have a nap.

Also, Scott and I also started juicing a few weeks ago. I've noticed a change in my attitude after drinking a juice in replacement for my lunch. I also take fish oil to make sure my body is able to absorb all the nutrients from the juicing.

So here it is. Its time for a change. I am going to work this weight off and feel better about myself. I'm letting you all know so you will be able to hopefully celebrate with me in my journey and feel victorious with me when I hit that 160's in my weight loss, my goal is to get to the 140s or even lower but I want to celebrate when I finally get into the 160s. I know it will be a hard, but I think once I start consistently losing weight I will feel encouraged and start to really stay focused on my goal instead of wanting to just give up because its taking to long. Right now Judah is now almost 15 months and I'm feeling pretty discouraged that I still weight in the 170s, but that will change and I can't sit in my discouragement, I need to do something about it.

Today since it was raining I burned 639 calories on the elliptical at home. Maybe one day I will be brave enough to post full body pictures of me in my workout cloths.

Today's weight in 175.5. (Ugh I hate sharing this online) but thank you for joining me in my journey and hopefully I can share lower numbers soon so we can all celebrate and do fist pumps in the air (hey that burns calories)

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colorful things

2012-02-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

I love color and when I thrift my eyes scan the aisle for colorful things. I think that this is the only reason why I spotted this rare vintage GE clown record player at Unique this weekend for only $20! I screamed and almost cried. We found an outlet and some records to test it out and it works! Later on the drive home I did some research and found out that this record player is rare and the ones that have been sold online don't even work because they need a new needle. The one I found works and doesn't need anything. Just some records to play.

The record player is the perfect addition to my little crochet office that is right next to my kitchen and living room.

This morning, I drank coffee while Judah munched on some homemade blueberry muffins I made over the weekend and we danced to the soundtrack of the "west side story".

After our morning Library trip and Judah's afternoon nap we went on a 2 mile walk. Judah held on tightly to his little dinosaur, occasionally dropping it to frantically wave at people and scream "Hey!' I think everyone in our neighborhood thinks that Judah is their best friend. Just this weekend at Home Depot I had a woman approach us and said "Hey you got bigger from last week" and she started talking directly to Judah. I explained that we don't know her and she said she lives in our neighborhood, after we left home depot I remembered who she was.

Took Judah to an ER Dr's visit this afternoon. While changing his diaper I found this weird bump/cut on him. The Dr said its a cyst and she wasn't able to drain it so she prescribed some antibiotics. If it doesn't go away in about three weeks then I have to take Judah back in. We also found out that he is still in the 90th percentile for height and average for weight. Looks like he will be tall and skinny like his daddy. He was such a flirt and kept saying "HEY!" to all the nurses and blowing kisses to some.

Afterwards I grabbed Starbucks (I needed it badly today) while Scott and Judah grabbed a burger.

Have I told you that I started a new project called "granny square a day". I wanted to make something really pretty each day and decided that I will make colorful, floral granny squares. I'll keep making at least one a day till December then stitch some up for Christmas gifts for some of my family members. I think they will make beautiful throws.

I have so many colorful spring projects that I am starting up in the next few days! I can't wait to share them all with you!
Hopefully I get a good nights sleep tonight, we have someone from animal control coming over tomorrow because something has been "thumping" in our attic for the past few nights waking both Scott and I up. I'm to scared to let Scott go up by himself, images of a raccoon attacking his face like Elf come to mind. I would rather have the raccoon or whatever it is attack a professional while Judah and I are out of the house.
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how to rest

2012-02-25T19:59:00.000-08:00

I have a problem....I don't know how to rest and I've had this problem for as long as I could remember. My husband actually offers to pay me to take naps and he is serious about giving me money for taking one. Maybe the reason why I don't know how to rest is from the years of working in full time ministry, I always had my emails sent to my phone and allowed myself to essentially be "on call" at all times. I would receive around 200+ emails over the weekends. Then I think my rest issues progressed even more when I became a full time mom to Judah. I didn't sleep well while I was pregnant with him and after he arrived I would use the times he took naps or when he went down for the night to accomplish a million other things. Today was pretty brutal, my husband woke us all up at 7:30 am because he thought we had a spider in the bed, after we frantically searched the entire room, shook out the blankets and sheets we were to wound up to go back to sleep.
We went downstairs, I made breakfast and some extra strong coffee. After playing with Judah for a bit I told Scott that I was going to go upstairs to take a mini nap since I was dragging extra hard. I try to make sure our bedroom is a place of comfort with our california king bed, super comfy comforter and lots and lots of pillows. I wanted to make sure I can "rest" in my room. As I was trying to fall back to sleep I was watching the trees bend and sway in the wind and noticed snow flakes. I got excited, jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to tell Scott and Judah. My nap quickly forgotten, I had a temporary burst of energy like I do when I get the opportunity to actually rest and forgot about rest till I was dragging again a few hours later.
Im jealous of both my husband and son. They know how to rest. Thank God Judah inherited this from his father.

I dont understand how this concept of rest is so hard for me. My husband can close his eyes anywhere and with in 5 mins he is snoring, we could be in the middle of a hurricane/tornado/end of the world and he could still fall asleep. For me I can "think Im asleep" but realize hours later that I was just so focused on all my thoughts that I was lying down awake in deep thought.

My rest issues don't even start and end with sleep. Its also with trying to sit still and not feel like I have to always do something. During the weekends my husband tells me to rest, relax, to go upstairs and take a nap. But I always feel the need to organize/clean/cook/crochet or take care of Judah.

Maybe one day I will actually figure out this whole be still and rest thing, but until then Im sure I will be personally keeping Starbucks in business.

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Giveaway on the Anderson Crew Blog

2012-02-24T13:53:00.000-08:00

I am sponsoring a giveaway today on The Anderson Crew's Blog. Go check it out to win a free custom made hat!
Also, spring fever has hit my shop, make sure you stop on by to see the newly listed items. I'm kinda in love with daises and my sons silly smile.

I have a few "Daisy" the Elephant hats in the store.

Since I love encouraging people so much I thought I would add daisy friendship bracelets to my shop. They come 2 in a pack and you are able to keep one for yourself and give the other to someone else. They are perfect for spring.

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embrace the camera - trust

2012-02-23T09:50:00.002-08:00

I haven't really blogged in the past few days. Yesterday was part 2 of my 4 part visit to fix the nightmare root canal I had a few years ago. I'll be honest. Even though I am seeing the best dentist in the Northern Virginia area I am still terrified of sitting in that seat. I know this greatly has to do with my past, people hurting me over and over again so I just assume with each situation that I would get hurt, so instead of bringing on more hurt I would rather just endure the pain I am in. But what I am learning is to trust, trust that the Lord is not going to bring hurt out of every situation in my life. Even my dental situation. Yesterday my Dentist took out the medicine that they put in my root canal, filled it and did this cotton cap till I am able to see my other Dentist for a permanent cap. I decided I was going to trust him and I was so calm with my dentist I even had my eyes open right before they were going to numb me. I stopped him and said "wait what am I doing?! lets do this all over again I need to close my eyes because that's a BIG needle!"After I was numb they started the procedure, he even apologized in the middle of it because they kept taking extra x-rays, he said "because of my past dental experience he wanted to be extra anal about this procedure to make sure I am not longer in pain". He didn't make me feel shame or stupid because of my past, instead he affirmed what happened to me with my previous nightmare experience and assured me he was going to be meticulous about taking care of me. I could feel some barriers around my heart start to come down.

Its the next day and I was going to take Judah to DC but we let the morning slip by. We were hanging out at home and having to much fun because for the first time in years I don't feel any major pain in my mouth and I am not on any medication. I trusted my dentist and he was able to fix me.

We decided to have a mini snack picnic outside by the park.

Judah is really this happy all the time.

Although he does get a little serious when he eats.

Does anyone know how to get grass stains out? He push himself backwards down this mini hill, while kicking off his shoes and has grass and mud all over his jeans. He was moving pretty fast and I couldn't stop laughing at him laughing at himself.

I love how Judah has a heart that trusts me. That his heart is not yet tainted by the world and hasn't been hurt so bad where he has to distrust everyone he sees. He instead blows kisses, shares his toothy smile and will hug anyone he sees. I as his parent am teaching him boundaries and how to be careful with strangers. I l really love his innocence. Scott always tells me that Judah is a mini version of who I would have been if I wasn't tainted by my parents abuse. This thought brings joy to my heart, and I know I will always continually make sure I am that healthy, loving mom that will not let her son have the same past that she did and to protect him from people that will hurt him.

For now I don't have to worry as much, since he is around me 98% of the day. For now all I have to do it enjoy my sons sweet smile, his happy heart and his wonderful snuggles.
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thrifted goodness

2012-02-20T07:52:00.000-08:00

Who said you can't have fun dressing up a boy! One of my favorite things is finding cute cheap and sometimes if I am lucky vintage outfits for my son. On Saturday when I was thrifting I picked up a thermal long sleeved shirt and one of those clip on ties. The plastic part of the clip on was poking out so after I washed both items I decide I was going to take the tie apart and create my own dress up shirt for Judah.

All you need is a tie, it doesn't have to be clip on, a shirt, some embroidery thread and a sharpe embroidery needle. I bought the shirt and tie for 99 cents each and already had the rest of the supplies at home. I took apart the tie and just stitched it onto the shirt, took me 10 mins.

Also many of you know that Judahs beloved push buggy was stolen from our front yard a few weeks ago. We use this buggy for everything, post office runs, our daily walks and I take him to the park in it. Its one of our most used toys for Judah. We decided this weekend we were going to find one on Craigslist since I already visited the local thrift stores for a whole week and wasn't finding anything. Found five buggy's for sale and they were all asking $25+ for them. Finally I heard back from someone who was willing to take $20 for it and we jumped on the offer, Scott texted me once he picked it up saying "Its brand new!"We took it out for a neighborhood walk yesterday and Judah was all smiles.

He gave us some extra smiles when we stopped by our park.

So thankful for the thrifted shirt/tie combo (I was able to pick up a few more things) and that we were able to score the buggy for Judah off of Craigslist. I love being able to thrift/search craigslist or even yard sales to find good deals.

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weekend jealousy

2012-02-18T20:45:00.000-08:00

On the weekends I get jealous. I'm jealous that Judah is all of a sudden my husbands best friend. Normally I am Judah's world, he is a natural mamas boy and he loves to play with me, cuddle with me before naps, talk to me and want me to carry him around. But during the weekends I sometimes feel that I'm the third wheel or that Judah doesn't notice me. He will throw a fit if Scott walks out of the room with out him, even if its to go to the bathroom. Today Judah actually broke the other baby gate we had bolted into the wall because he was trying to open it to get Scott who walked downstairs for a few minutes. He is very much a daddys boy on the weekends. Like this morning, when Judah just wanted to sit on Scotts lap and he was tugging at his shirt and talking to him in his sweet little baby voice. The whole scene was tugging at my heart as I sat there thinking, Judah tug at my shirt, talk to me.

Later after a fun afternoon of thrifting with my friend Laura, I came home and tried to take some pictures of Judah and I on the couch. He snuck off it before the first picture. Judahs new favorite ething is to quickly cannon ball off the couch onto the floor.

Then he decided he wanted to play with my hair.

Right when I was giving up all hope on a nice picture with Judah, my sweet boy decided to give me a hug. My heart just melted and I forgot all about how jealous I get of him and Scott.

Scott took Judah on a walk this afternoon while I caught up on some crochet orders.

Then tonight I tried out one of Scott's many juicers. I guess before we were even dating Scott used to have "juicing" parties at the house. He has several juicers and all his friends would bring over weird things to juice and try out. Like onions....gross.

I wanted to try it out since I used to drink Robeks all the time. I looked in our fridge and found some granny smith apples, kale and carrots. Juiced it all up, used a bit to much Kale but I was able to even out the taste with some extra granny smith apples slices. I told Scott I would like to be ale to switch out a lunch or breakfast meal with one of my juicer concoctions.

I used the handheld juicer tonight. Its allot of work but lots of fun. Took me 20 mins to juice about 16 ozs. Tomorrow we are going to Wegmans to pick up more apples, kale, carrots, ginger root, lemons, pears, celery and beets. Do you juice? Have any good recipes? We have several juicers, blenders and a food processor and are able to make just about anything.

Both my guys passed out early tonight. Tomorrow I'll write a post on some of my thrift finds and also a great craigslist find we were able to snag today!!

goodnight

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we did it!

2012-02-17T18:51:00.000-08:00

We actually had a game night with some adults over! Scott and I have been married for 2 years this March and have talked about having people over on a consistent basis for "game nights". So we invited the people that actually set us up, Paul and Laura, they also have a 3 year old son who loves guitars just as much as Judah does, well maybe Toph loves guitars a bit more.
First Scott surprised me and came home early! I took advantage of this and had both him and Judah go with met to Target to pick up some game night treats. Judah loves these dogs, they walk/wag their tales and sing "who let the dogs out". I'm secretly waiting for them to go on sale for under $2. To make Judah laugh I stuck a bunch in his cart and turned them all on. He was in doggie heaven.

When Laura and Paul came over with Toph we set up for Settlers of Catan. Laura brought her famous guacamole and we ordered pizza.

Paul and Laura are pretty serious about the game, they have the best strategies. Toph was helping to build bridges out of the roads.

The boys had a blast playing guitars, drinking water, eating green beans and just playing. We had easy access to see them wherever they roamed on the first floor. Judah was literally bubbling over with excitement with squeals of laughter and screams because he had a friend over to play with. We didn't plan on the boys matching tonight.

After our game (Scott won) the guys set up in the living room to play their guitars. Paul actually crafted and handmade both of these guitars (they are acoustic). Scott who has been singing/playing for over 15 years says his guitar that Paul made him is the most beautiful sounding guitar he has ever owned.

After awhile the boys were getting tired and were ready for bed. I am really really grateful that we were all able to hang out tonight and looking forward to more game nights with this wonderful family that we can call our friends. The great thing that they live 2 miles from our home!

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When things are a mess

2012-02-17T12:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight we were supposed to have our first "real" game night at the house. I've been trying to clean the house, make sure it smells good and was going to bake some zucchini bread then realized I don't have enough time to do that because I wanted to take Judah outside. Instead I'll just throw some brownies in the oven after my mini play date with Judah. Having him spend as much time as possible outside in the fresh air while we have good weather is way more important than baking homemade zucchini bread for guests.
A boys skateboard and his shadow

Found someones basketball that was left behind and is showing off to some girls on the swings that he can pick it up.

Being extra cute.

Taking the basketball over to the girls as a gift offering for their friendship.

Trying to get into peoples yards.

running

Judah had a mini meltdown during his walk so I took him inside for lunch, he started snotting up while he was eating his lunch and he was in obvious protest to the world around him. Nothing was making him happy so after I knew he had enough to eat I put him down. Start cleaning up lunch and I hear him getting into things. He found my hidden stash of yarn, a roll of paper towels, left over puffs and decided to have a mini "Judah tornado" thru my living room that I just cleaned. Normally I don't mind, just chalk it up to having a baby. But my cell phone is going off with texts from my husband telling me he is not sure when he can come home tonight.

Then I just want to cancel. I know game night would be fun for us, but honestly what do you do when your home feels like its in a constant mess, my husband has been working so many hours he is exhausted when he comes home and you have to keep canceling things like finishing up your root canal and your sons 1 year check up because of all the hours your husband is working.

I feel like I am doing something wrong, their must be some way moms are able to manage all of this. That they can get their home super clean, keep it clean, getting time away from their kids (I still haven't had a break....I'm starting to really feel it) and making sure their child doesn't have an afternoon of meltdowns and turning the house upside-down so they don't cancel all the time on friends. I feel like I am always canceling on someone and I know it would be nice to hang out with adults so I am not constantly talking to a child.

What do you do? How do you manage to get time away, or go on appointments during the day (like the dentist) or keep your house clean. I know I am focusing allot on keeping the house clean, I feel like I can not think clearly when the house is so messy.

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Kindred Spirits and playing nice in the blogging world

2012-02-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

The friendships I've made in the blogging world are on my heart daily. I became involved in the online community over 10 years ago when I joined a list serve called DCraves. When I was younger I loved the club scene and I love meeting new people. When I was in this community a bunch of us started live journals and we would talk about our daily lives, what made us laugh, wrote out party reviews, upcoming meet ups and uploaded allot of pictures. Every Monday morning people would email out their weekend review on which parties they attended with shootouts. It was something that was fun to us, we were not trying to "become famous" we all knew each other. I ended up leaving the club scene and started a wordpress journal. On this journal I spoke about my relationship with the Lord, how I started working at McLean Bible Church, my heart breaking while I stayed with children living in the garbage slums in Cairo, my journey with being a student leader with the High School and Jr High Students, people walked with me through my breakup of of my last boyfriend, witnessed my journey of meeting my husband, my social media community was the first to know when my husband proposed to me in the butterfly exhibit in DC (yes I immediately tweeted and updated my Facebook), I made sure we had an "open potluck wedding" so I was able to invite all these people who have impacted my life and we had a little over 350 people show up. These friends have walked with me, knew the heartbreak and trauma of my childhood, how much I wanted to become a mother and not be my mother and I was struggling with being pregnant. They know the day I became Judah's mom changed my heart, I wrote out that the moment I held my son I knew he was a gift. I've made some pretty close friends in the blogging world. But I've also had my blog used against me. I had a few "mean girls" twist my words on my blog and throw them in my face. My husband has seen my heart break, has hugged me when I couldn't stop crying over "mean girls", he was there when I decided to delete my live journal and make my wordpress private. Years of written memories hidden now from the world because someone used them to break my heart.
I don't understand the blogger meanness, I saw it in the DCraves, live journal and wordpress communities and I see it now. Everyone has a different blogging styles and they share differently. Honestly if we were all the same I would just get bored with reading blogs. I'm a mama to a very active toddler and some days I only have time to read a few sentences and look at a photo dump of IG pictures. Other days when Judah is napping I have time to read long well thought out posts. I want to get to know my friends, I get excited to read the stories, I want to celebrate with what brings you joy and and my heart empathizes with what hurts yours. Your blog help me know you more. But it hurts my heart when I read a post that someone has made talking about how they don't like different blogging styles, but what hurts my heart more is when they actually raise their blog up to be better than the person they are referring to. You really can't write that post that makes your blog look better than another in a non offensive way, if you have readers then someone may just have the writing style that may annoy you. Its okay if you don't care for a certain writing style, just don't publicly share that information or dedicate blog posts on hurting another blogger. Keep it in your heart and know that its just a personal preference. If you feel like it still bothers you and you just want to vent to the world about it, then read another blog that doesn't make you want to bash another blogger for their writing style. The writing style of that blogger that annoys you so much, may be the only style they feel comfortable with right now. I was transparent on my live journal and wordpress and I was hurt a little over a year ago by some "mean girls" and right now my photo dump of my son is what I am comfortable with. I'm slowly getting around to really sharing my heart, but I'm not going to stop posting pictures of my son.
I personally know in this online world you will meet a few people who will hurt your heart. You will also meet people that you knew you were always supposed to be friends with and by chance you happened to meet on Twitter, IG or stumbled upon their blog. These are kindred spirits of the blogging world. These sweet kindred spirits make the occasional social media heartaches worth it. I love that my husband knows of my online mamas, that I get to exchange Christmas, Valentines day and Birthday cards. My social media support has encouraged me to take steps of faith in opening my business "My Charming Colors"and I've had several mamas encourage me to try crocheting something that I thought I couldn't do. These are friends that my heart wishes they lived closer so I can go meet up at Starbucks, go on thrift adventures or have play dates with our kids. These ladies are the first to celebrate with me when I'm having a great day or when something amazing happens in my life and they are also the first to respond when its not so good. They fight for my friendship and heart like I fight for theirs. Its something worth fighting for and a friendship worth investing in.
In keeping up with an old DCrave tradition....I will share with you some shootouts of some of my favorite blogs, ones that are dear friends and others that just make my heart happy.

Pamplemousse!The Vintage SoulsBuggie and JellybeanPrairie HenSometimes SweetAdventures of a New MomCaitlin +1Lola BirdieThis Little Life of MineLittle Chief HoneybeeOhdeardreaaway we goSmall(ish) Thingslast train to pooksvilleHarper's HappeningsThe Paper MamaYellow Finch Designsoana befortthe anderson crewFrecklewonderBleubird VintageSkunkboy Creaturesher lovely liferockstar diaries
I have a huge blog list I read, but right now these are the ones that I currently find myself commenting on, getting lost in the pictures or the words, being inspired by and truly building friendships with some of these lovely bloggers.
I hope in no way anyone took this post as an attack, believe me I am guilty as the next person for wanting to publicly vent about things But when it comes to bloggers, I just feel that our bond is somewhat sacred and we should be encouraging each other instead of tearing each other down.xoxo

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Raising a boy... lessons from a park

2012-02-15T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today I took Judah to one of our favorite parks. As he was running around I was learning that my baby boy was becoming more independent. He was testing the waters of not being so close to mama and running out into the world.

I also learned that he still can't stay to far away from his mama, and he loves to just "talk and swing".

I learned when I least expect it my son will do something daring and unexpected. Like flipping over for the first time to slide on his belly and then laughing that "he did it".

Or crawling through a tunnel by himself. For 20 mins he walked around the park and keep coming back to the train tunnel, finally when all the kids have left it he decided to try crawling through by himself.

He is always drawn to things that make loud noises, especially if its a musical noise.

He likes to stand up in cars to make them go faster.

Judah is fascinated by anything cars or trucks and likes to play with steering wheels all the time.

Even though Judah is all boy, loves his cars, trucks, getting dirty, is very adventurous and daring, he is still a little sweet heart and loves to display his affections towards others. Like blowing kisses at all the kids in the park.

Judah loves his daddy time.

But at the end of the night he still loves to cuddle with his mama.

I really love having a son and learning all the daily lessons of being his mom.

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Will you be "our" Valentine

2012-02-14T11:27:00.000-08:00

Its not secret I love Valentines day. What you may not know, Scott and I "meet" in November 3 years ago, and had our first date (game night at a friends night) on Jan 1st and that entire month of January he invited me to several events with friends. I always wondered with my girlfriends if Scott really liked me because we never went on a real date. The week of Valentines approached and Scott actually asked me out on a real dinner date with just the two of us. Scott asking me out was all the excitement in the Women's and Small Groups ministry at my old job at McLean Bible Church. We as any normal group of girls being asked out on a date by a very attractive and incredibly sweet guy were trying to figure out if he "really liked me" and he must because he asked me out on the week of Valentines day. Since Scott was picking me up at my job, I brought in several dresses to try on for my girlfriends to see which one would be the "cutest" for our first real date. After that date we had another date on Valentines day where we babysat a friends baby and watched finding memo together and that was the start of Scott asking me out on real dates. My husband, best friend, the man who woo'd me over Gregorian chants, gifting me a huge stuffed goat and trying to beat me at settlers of catan. Will you be my valentine?

Also Judah "mustache" everyone a question....

Will you be "our" valentine, Judah is holding out his heart for you.

Have a wonderful Valentines day everyone!!

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Monday laughs with a dance video

2012-02-13T11:25:00.000-08:00

I feel like the past three months have been the season of tummy bugs for me. Last night I spent most of the night in the bathroom and haven't been able to hold down fluids all morning. Scott and I figured it was probably from the eggs I bought at Target before we left for our beach vacation and the massive amounts of amoxicillin I have been on with my tooth. They put me on two rounds of the treatment in just one month. The eggs from Target looked kinda funny but I wanted a protein snack yesterday and ate a boiled one. A few hours later my body hated me.
Scott went to the office for a few hours and was able to come back to work from home today. My two guys have been doing a wonderful job of making me laugh....first off with this dance video.... I don't know where my husband learned his dance moves but I am pretty sure if I saw him out on the dance floor back in my club/rave days I probably would have befriended him because he is hysterical.
(Im not even kidding this video will bring tears to your eyes)

Judahs pants no longer fit him, meaning he actually is starting to really thin out like his daddy and grow tall so his pants that used to fit him are to big. But he likes to walk around with saggy paints. Oh and don't mind the mess in the background, Judah was all about throwing puffs and playing with his toys.

Early this morning (7:30 am) watching a Youtube Lullaby. Judah now wants to get up at 7:30 am. I thought this would be a phase the would go away once we were back from the beach but it looks like its Judahs new schedule. I actually don't mind it because he goes to bed in his crib earlier at night.

Wearing his wig and playing his piano.

Daddy hugs.

Praying my stomach bug goes away soon and that I enter a season where I don't have any stomach bugs for a very very very long time. They are the worst. I feel like I am pregnant all over again with throwing up.

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We are finally home...

2012-02-12T07:35:00.000-08:00

We are finally home from Virginia Beach! We actually came home on Friday but I was busy cleaning the house, doing laundry, crocheting for the shop and grocery shopping.
My shop mycharmingcolors.etsy.com is now updated!Also become a fan on Facebook if you are not already to see the latest deals.

Friday morning Judah was being super cute during breakfast at the hotel. We had to rush to get out of the place. I'll explain the details in a later post.

I took a picture of a local starbucks, only because I wanted to remember this moment. I ran in real quick while Scott stayed with Judah in the car, while I was fixing Scotts drink I encouraged the sweetest woman. She just started talking to me like we were old friends and had me leaving the place with a smile on my face and in my heart.

On the drive up home we stopped at several thrift stores. I love how tiny Judah looks amongst the boxes of toys.

Then Judah had his first Chick Fil A children's meal all by himself. I normally give him 90% water with 10% juice but since we were having a rough morning with trying to get out of the hotel I just let him have the juice box. He looks so grown up here.

Played in the play ground outside before we got back into the car.

After a few hours we arrived home and I received my homemade valentines day card from my Strumpets valentines exchange. I love it!

We have been hanging out around the house this weekend. Today I am by my phone all day because my sister Kaylee is currently in labor with her second baby. She is finally having her girl! Also my other sister Rhonda is running her half marathon in Florida. Im truly amazed by both of my sisters and wish we just all lived in the same town.

Be sure to check out my shop! I will be adding more items this week.

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Cheerio lesson

2012-02-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

Being a mom you think your going to teach your child allot of lessons in life, which you do, but you also find out that you learn allot of life lessons. For instance the very important one I learned today. This morning started out like yesterday morning, just a little earlier. I think Judah was well rested because he slept the entire night in his pack and play and he decided to get up at 7:30 am instead of his typical 9. After a quick hotel breakfast I wanted to take Judah to the beach playground, I grabbed a extra box of cheerios and opened the top to let him munch on them while we walked. He of course ended up covering his body with cheerios. He likes to pick them off his shirt and eat them.
We stopped by my all time favorite coffee shop. The doors were open and two guys and a dog were sitting inside, I peaked in and asked if they were open. They asked if I just wanted a cup of coffee and I said I said that I did and this was my favorite little coffee place. They let me know that the shop was closed but they wanted to give me a cup of coffee for free. They know the owner and she gives them the keys to her shop so they can come in every morning and enjoy a cup of coffee and hang out. This absolutely made my day.

While I fixed my cup of coffee their dog "ralph" kept Judah entertained. I love this small coffee shop even more after the guys were chit chatting away on how they have been going to this shop for years and its their morning ritual to hang out and have a cup of coffee with their friends. What a great little community and shop.

Judah and I started walking towards the park. It was a bit chillier than yesterday but Judah was layered up with a t-shirt, sweater, hoodie and poncho.

I decided to try walking on the beach and we were greeted by a bunch of seagulls. I thought nothing of it and continued walking towards the park.

I put Judah up on the slide, and noticed he was grinning from ear to ear at something behind us. I heard what sounded like a flock of seagulls.....

and sure enough the heavens opened up and it was raining seagulls!!!

I freaked and started screaming "get away!!", Judah started laughing because we were being engulfed by birds. I grabbed him and shoo'd the seagulls away from his stroller. As I was walking away they were flying and swooping towards us because JUDAH WAS COVERED IN CHEERIOS!

They could smell it!

Thank goodness a local woman with her two dogs came over and scared all the birds away. Judah and I were going to hang out at the park for a little bit longer since it looked like we were safe from the birds, but the wind started really picking up and although Judah was layered up and seemed to be having fun, I started to really get cold. Then Judah looked off in the distance and we saw...the seagulls were waiting.

Judah wasn't sure if he was happy to see his seagull friends or worried that his mama might started running and screaming. So I decided it was time to head back to the hotel.

My lesson learned....don't let your son have cheerios on him while he is visiting a beach park. You may get attacked by a swarm of seagulls and believe me its pretty scary.

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Embrace the camera, the beach is good for my soul

2012-02-09T06:01:00.000-08:00

Something about the Ocean
Resonates deeply with in my soul.

The sound of the waves thunder in my heart.

Washing away all the hurt stored in it.

Leaving only peace.

I am happy.

My son is silly.

I love his eyes. They are peaceful, like the ocean.

Last night I met up with a mama friend I met on IG last summer. I am so grateful for the friendship I have with her, and how I've gotten several opportunities to hang out with her and her son.

I think they are going to be best buds.

This morning I didn't even mind Judahs unusual 7 am wake up, because we got to look at this...

From our hotel bed under warm fluffy blankets we just snuggled and laughed at the sound of the ocean.

Now to spend more time with my son on the beach, listening to the peaceful thunderous healing sound of the Ocean.

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Wordless wednesday morning at the beach

2012-02-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

Hotel breakfast and watered down juice.

Beach walking.

Found a Starbucks on the beach 2 miles away.

Picked up Judahs first skateboard and some beach toys.

Almost walked 4 miles.

Wearing a toddler out for a nap, letting him run the hotel hallways.

Judah was really excited about the hallway.

Saying "hi" to people walking below.

Finally fell asleep. I think the sound of the ocean and mamas pillow helped him out.

Now its time for a snack and to crochet with the ocean as my view.

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Why I love Virginia Beach

2012-02-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

I'm literally over the moon every time my husband has to travel to Virginia Beach for work. Its not to far from where we live so Judah and I can always drive down with him to spend a few days or weeks on the beach. My husband was asking me on the way down today "Why do you love Virginia Beach so much?" and I started thinking why this place gives me the warm fuzzies.
We vacationed in Virginia Beach when I was pregnant with Judah, and it was the first time in my pregnancy that I felt Judah move. I found out the day we got back from our vacation that I was having a baby boy and knew his name was going to be Judah.
Virginia Beach is the first work vacation we took Judah on. He was so tiny and it was still really cold outside so I stayed holed up in the hotel with him the entire time.

Judah's first time seeing the ocean.

Judah just wanted to snuggle and nurse that entire week.

The third time we visited Virginia Beach. Judah turned 5 months, this trip was bitter sweet because it was the last time Judah would nurse . I still beat myself up over being to stressed over family issues and thinking I should have tried harder to make sure I could keep my milk.

But tears were turned into smiles because of my son. That week Judah started to show his true sweet personality.

He also saw his first Monster Truck

This is also the trip that Judah rolled over for the first time. I remember watching him in his pack and play as he rolled over and over and over and would laugh at himself.

That weekend I spent my first mothers day with my husband and son on Virginia Beach

Today I almost cancelled out on going with my husband to the beach. Judah has been teething, I'm still recovering from my root canal and I was dreading the drive thinking Judah would scream the entire time. But I remembered all our wonderful first milestones as a family at Virginia Beach and knew that we would have so much fun here this week.

As soon as we pulled into the hotel parking area, I told Scott "lets go see the ocean before we checked in, I have a treat for Judah!". So we woke Judah up from his nap (he napped the entire drive) and ran out to the beach. I handed Judah his first Starbucks Cake Pop.

When we settled in the hotel room I laughed at Judah thinking the room was full of babies. He kept running to all the mirrors and was trying to talk to his reflection.

Then he spent a good 20 mins screaming at the ocean.

Virginia Beach has a special place in my heart. So many family memories are intertwined in this place and I am looking forward to spending the week here with those I love the most and also seeing some sweet friends of mine.

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Playdates and a Challenge

2012-02-06T15:21:00.000-08:00

Today I was finally able to host a play date at my house. I've been wanting to do this for awhile because our home is perfect for play dates. Not only does my house sometimes resemble "Toys R Us" from all the thrifted and donated toys I have, but I also have a really cute park in our backyard and a community swimming pool with in walking distance. So last night I made a batch of funfetti cupcakes with pink frosting. I love baking for people, so if you ever come over for a play date be prepared to be fed some sort of baked treat.

Judah waiting for his friends by the front door this morning. He didn't understand that people were coming over to see him today. I left the front door open so he could scream at all the George Mason students walking to and from class. He wants everyone to be his friend and he doesn't understand that people don't like screaming babies. Once he saw Mina and Bryce he had the biggest smile on his face.

Playing in the front living room. I love how Mina can climb over/on top or around everything.

I think they look like they could be cousins. They are only a month apart.

Judah is in love with Bryce, he would just follow her around and try to play with each toy she was playing with or just stare at her if he got really close. Hanging out with other kids helps me teach Judah about "sharing".

The after picture of one of my living rooms.

Living room 2. I love that it looked like a "kid tornado" came through. Toys are really not that bad to pick up, especially since Judah fell right to sleep for his nap after his friends left. He was exhausted from all the fun he had.

When Judah got up from his nap I decided to take him on a walk. Last week I read about Mandy's Mom walk challenge. We didn't have that much time before Scott came home from work but I decided that's not going to stop us from getting some exercise. Plus Judah loves our walks.

We walked 2 miles in 34 mins. We did have plenty of "dog petting" stops along the way. When we leave for Virginia Beach tomorrow my plan is to take Judah on walks every single day.

You can join in on the mom walks by visiting Mandy's blog below. Let me know if you decide to do the "Mom Walk Challenge" I know I always feel a million times better when I come back from a walk/run with Judah. Its a great way to kick those winter blues.

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My Charming Colors Closing

2012-02-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

My Charming Colors will be closed for a week while we are in Virginia Beach, don't worry I'll be back! While we are Oceanside I'll be crocheting all kinds of sweet goodies for the shop. First on my list is making a bunch of these adorable elephant hats.

Also I wanted to introduce you to some charming children whose parents so kindly sent me pictures of modeling hats from my shop. .

Maryam's daughter wearing a Sweet Bluebird hat.

Danielle's son wearing a Brown Bear hat.

Amy's daughter wearing a Sleepy Owl hat.

Stayed turned this week, I may post sneak peaks of whats coming to the shop. I will definitely be posting some pictures of our adventures on the beach.

Also want to be the first to see whats going in my shop and the first to know the special deals I offer? Make sure you become a fan of my shop on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/mycharmingcolors

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Lazy Saturday

2012-02-04T20:18:00.000-08:00

I love the weekends, spending time with my family, staying up late on a Friday night and being able to sleep in waking up to my two guys spending some father son time together.
Scott's newest thing with Judah is teaching him how to eat cereal with a little bit of milk.

This afternoon Judah just wanted to lay down on top of me. I was laying on the floor and his head was propped up on my knees while his feet almost touched my face. We hung out like this for awhile.

Scott was teaching Judah how to rub my back.

"Cheers!" having a drink together.

I love my Saturdays.

We hung out around the house because my root canal is still hurting quite a bit, mainly when I eat. Today I tried to add some cereal to my "soft food" diet of bananas, jello and scrambled eggs. Bad move on my part, I felt like I ripped the side of my jaw. Hopefully it will start feeling better by tomorrow.

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Baby fever!

2012-02-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

One of my good friends Sarah Jane stopped by today with her newborn son Holden. We've bent trying to meet up forever but with the flu/cold season, my root canal and Sarah having a baby things have been a bit crazy. Today she was able to bring by this little sweet bundle of joy.
I took out some of my crochet items from my shop My Charming Colors and we snapped some pictures of Holden. He loved laying in the guitar case.

Almost started to fall asleep towards the end. Holden is just the sweetest little baby.

He loves his mom so much, Sarah is such a good mom and it comes natural to her. Also she looks amazing and I am kinda jealous.

Trying to escape the cocoon.

Holden meeting Judah. Judah kept saying "Bayybee".

My little mustache friends.

Holden is such a sweet boy, the type that gives you baby fever. I can't wait to take more pictures of these two buddies in the future.
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Embrace the Camera - Spring

2012-02-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

This morning the groundhog woke up and saw his shadow claiming to the world that we still have 6 more weeks of winter. Well I am in revolt of this claim and I wore my pretty thrifted spring dress and took some pictures outside in this beautiful overcast springlike day.
Judah wore his vintage paid shirt. I'm pretty fond of my cute son.

I never know what to do with my hands when a picture is being taken of me and I always forget my hair tie on my arm.

Time to go and enjoy this beautiful overcast spring day.

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2.5 Hour Root Canal

2012-02-01T19:33:00.000-08:00

Remember how I told you how I found out that my previous dentist left a broken part of her tool in my mouth 2.5 years ago when she did my first root canal. Well today was the day I was scheduled to see a new dentist to redo my root canal. Let me tell you, I was scared out of my mind, meaning I arrived early, really felt comfortable about the place, but as soon as I finished my paperwork I could feel my palms start to sweat, my heart was racing and my stomach started to hurt. Then they called my name. Scott sent me these pictures right when I walked in.

I knew I couldn't run away, I had to get fixed at least for my son Judah. The dental assistant was wonderful, she walked me to my chair and I nervously told her how scared I was. She reassured me that Dr. Ngo is one of the best. That I'll probably be bored during the procedure....Um bored... no this is a root canal I am not going to be bored.
She took my x-rays (I really wish I snapped a picture of my tooth but I was afraid to get the Drs annoyed with me). You could see everything, the break where the instrument was, the gunk, everything. Finally Dr Ngo came in and we talked. He said that the procedure will be hard since I have curved roots but it shouldn't take to long.
He was great at numbing my mouth. My bad dentist actually was upset with me because it took awhile for me to numb and I had to stop her at one point to go and cry in the bathroom. But this time Dr Ngo and his assistant sat with me, talked about Judah, my blog and my crochet business. After about 10 mins he had me run some tests to make sure my mouth was numb. I was impressed, my bad dentist was so rushed and she didn't bother to run these simple tests with me. When they put the dam in my mouth they also put this little wedge on the other side of my mouth. The wedge was to help me relax my mouth and not have to hold it open the entire time because the wedge kept it open.
My feet were shaking and my entire body was tense when the procedure started. He had "Adele" playing on repeat and he was humming along and talking to me. After awhile I started to hum along! I was at ease, my foot stopped shaking and I was relaxed, I even stopped sitting on my hands. They were right I was bored, but I was better than bored, I felt safe and I knew I was getting repaired. The procedure was only supposed to take about an hour but since my old dentist used some really bad filling material that was hard to get out the procedure took 2.5 hours. At one point the Dr asked if I wanted to stop and start another day. I asked could we keep going and he said he would prefer to but wanted to make sure I was okay with it. I just wanted to get it done. My tooth is finally cleaned, all the gunk is out and right now I have some antibiotics in my roots. That will hold till we get back from Virginia beach in about two weeks. Then I will go in for the filling.
This is me after the 2.5 hour procedure waiting for my medication, my mouth felt like it was a billion times bigger than this.

Scott and Judah are my heroes today. Scott took today off and I was able to have peace of mind with someone being with Judah. He also brought me some mashed potatoes.

I'm now about to head to bed. My mouth is pretty sore and the Dr has me on two different pain meds for the first few days. He said that normal people feel better after 2 days, but since my root canal was so bad and it took him so long to fix it that it might take 4-5 days with me.

If anyone is in the DC area and wants this Dr's information leave me a comment, I will be more than happy to share. Also he called me today and had me run some tests on my tooth to make sure that it was okay. My previous dentist never called me afterwards. I'm so grateful that I am on the road to recovery with my tooth. It has been hurting for over 5 years now.

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Meet the Ladies

2012-02-01T15:00:00.000-08:00

I wanted to introduce you to the lovely ladies I am doing an "ad swap" for the month of February. Please stop by their blogs, Facebook or shops and say hello. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how beautifully they capture life on their blogs.

Adventures of Ash and Rowe

blog / twitter

The Adventures of Ash and Rowe are the Tales of a Working Single Mama, Ash and my Mini Me, Roweyn, living in the Sierra Nevada Foothills in Northern California. This blog is all about our daily adventures, trips, my life as a hairstylist, some passions like cloth diapers and breastfeeding, the occasional DIY and crafting when I can find the time, as well as the not so hardships of being a Single Mama, living with our amazing family. We are a photo happy blog just trying to save every memory we can in this crazy, beautiful, not so ordinary life we are living.

Letters to Mo

Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Hi there! I'm Annie and I blog over at Letters to Mo. Letters to Mo is a modern day baby book for my 11 month old son Cash Trenton (nope, his name isn't actually Mo!). I write typical first time mama stuff (though I draw the line at posting about poop), our adventures as an interracial family, faith, and keeping a solid relationship with my husband without losing myself in mamahood! You can find me on Twitter and Facebook! Come by and say hello!

Livy Love Designs

blog / shop / twitter

My name is Diana Smith and I am a mother of two little kids and wife. I run a small Etsy Shop called Livy Love Designs where I create graphic design prints for home, nursery, decor, office.

As We Grow

blog / twitter

Hi! My name is Kaity, and I am the proud owner of my little blogging corner called As We Grow!

I am an army wife and SAHM to an almost 1 year old, and due with our baby boy #2 in May.

I love every moment of being home with my son and being able to watch him grow.

I love to write about my family, green living, DIY projects, and organization, recipes and more.

So come on over and say hello! I love meeting and interacting with new people!

This Little Life of Mine
blog

Hi! My name is Maggie, creator of This Little Life of Mine.

I am mama to a sweet little spitfire named Josie (aka "Buggy, Buster, Miss Thang"), and wife

to Brian (aka "The Hubster") I am a complete country girl at heart, lover of all animals, and wide open spaces. Currently I call home smack-dab-in the middle of town... behind an outlet mall... but our 1 acre is full of love, laughter, and each new day holds something NEW! That's what I love about blogging! It's a place for me to let loose and share what's making me SMILE these days! Feel free to stop over, and let me know what you think! I love hearing from new people and cherish the wonderful friendships that I have created and ones that are waiting out there, ready to be made!

Be BLESSED!

Hi Baby Blog

blog / twitter / facebook

Pacific northwest born and raised; photographing my way through the day till bed time, doing my best to raise three little ladies with teenager tendencies. all the while, studying to be a doula and navigating this new life as wife to my damn hot husband.
who says you can't have your cake and eat it too? on hi, baby you will find the running monologue of the misadventures that are our life.

This Enchanted Pixie

blog / shop / twitter / facebook

Hey, I’m Polly – a full time crafty mama to three home schooled girls. I blog about our lives, my crafts and a little bit of inspition. I design and create bohemian jewellery that i sell in my etsy shop. i’d love it if you stopped by and said hello!

Last but not least I am being sponsored on The Anderson Crews blog this month and will be offering a giveaway from My Charming Colors on Emily's sweet blog.

Also feel free to leave your blog in my comments, I am always looking for new friends.

(please keep our blog in the top 100 and double click to vote for us!)

My vow to my son Judah

2012-01-31T11:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a nice long phone conversation with my step mom Dyan. We were catching up on daily life and how much Judah has grown when eventually the conversation was led to my paternal parents. My step mom was encouraging me how I was "Breaking the cycle" in my family with Judah. That he will never experience the childhood I had. She kept talking and was telling me how my father and mother never wanted me and how they displayed that in their actions, words and fists. She just was thinking out loud about how could some parents put their children through horrific nightmares just because they don't want their children and they viewed them as mistakes. That they should let people who want and would love them raise them in a good family environment. This wasn't new news to me. I knew I grew up with a bad home life, and having Judah brings out memories of my childhood that I don't care to recall. I do catch myself wondering how in the world could my mother have abandoned us, I could never abandon Judah. How in the world did my father think to ever raise his fist against us, I would never raise my fist against Judah. Did they cuddle us when we cried or scream at us to shut up. Did they watch us while we slept and wonder to themselves "how did I create this perfect human being" or where their hearts full of resentment. Did they share pictures of us with everyone they knew, or did they just regret the "mistakes" they made.
I don't have allot of good memories of my childhood.My mom locking us in the bathroom with her as my father drunkenly beat down the door.My father arguing with my mom and giving us his wedding ring.My father screaming out the window my mom is a whore and the MP coming to arrest him.My mom cutting herself in front of us and telling us later its our fault.My parents divorcing and my mom dating/marrying abusive men.My mom waking us up in the middle of the night to go to a safe home because one of her husbands beat her.My father drinking and doing drugs in front of us.I don't have allot of good memories of my childhood.I sometimes wish my brain would erase most of my these memories.
But I do have some good memories. My father married my step mom Dyan when I was 8.She mainly married him because her heart hurt for his three children.She changed our life.She loved us.She showed us how to laugh and have fun.She taught us about thrifting, painting, drawing, going on hikes in the woods.She taught us the value in friendships, loyalty and loving others especially in need.She has a great family and they loved on us like we were their own.She was a mom, they were our family.
Even though my paternal parents were a child's nightmare.That's not going to stop me from giving my son the best childhood I can provide. My son knows I love him.I watch his sweet face when he sleeps. I also share 1-3 pictures of his sweet sleeping face a night on IG. I ask my husband every day "How is Judah so perfect, he is just so sweet and beautiful".My heart swells when I see my son.I hug him every day and tell him how he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I vow to not be my parents to him.
I'm breaking the chain in my family. Its not by my strength but the Lords. He has put this desire in my heart to be a mommy.He has given me to tools to break the chains of my past. I don't see my son as a burden, but a blessing.He will have a life full of love, laughter and he will know that we wanted him.
Now I don't need to dwell on the past, or make my blog become the focus on things that have been done to me. Instead I choose to look to the future and cling onto the hopes and promises that I have in the Lord and live daily in the joy of being Judahs mom. To record our wonderful life as a family here. So he will always remember...we wanted him.

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Self Photo Challenge

2012-01-30T16:23:00.000-08:00

I'm linking up with The Paper Mama today on her self photo challenge. I haven't liked the way I looked as of recent. My dark bags under my eyes won't seem to go away, my hair is a mess and I need to get back into shape. But I'm planning on taking more self photos this year! Not all pictures of Judah and Scott and some more of Judah.

This is me on almost zero sleep for days. About to drink my starbucks "blonde" coffee. I'm addicted.

Walking around the neighborhood.

Shadow chasing Judah.

Stopping to listen to the squirrels that were running nearby.

Hanging out with mama.

3rd day in a row sleeping in his crib for naps with out any crying!

He is very frustrated with the lady in front of us at Target. She was taking to long for him. It was actually quite funny.

Obsessing over…

My root canal I'm getting thisWednesday. I have to get a root canal I had done 2.5 years ago redone becausemy previous dentist accidentally broke off one of her instruments in my root andleft it there. I have a high pain tolerance and an even higher fright ofdentists hence me not going. But got x-rays before Scott went to London and myroot canal is scheduled….praying for no more pain.

Working on…

Custom orders for my shopmycharmingcolors.etsy.com, some guest posts on blogs and crocheting morevalentines hearts for Judah’s friends.

Thinking about…

How fast Judah is growing and becominga mini man, and how he is starting to understand things more and how he hasthis fantastic sense of humor and he is only almost 14 months.

Anticipating…

Virginia beach next week!!! Yes Iam meeting up with one of my IG now IRL mama friends Paige and her sweet son J.Judah and J are going to hit up the playground on the beach and the skate parks.

Listening to…

At this moment….Baby Einstein.Judah is teething and it makes him happy. But in the car we have one of ourShane and Shane CDs playing.

Eating…

Judah’s puffs. Hey they are appleflavored and I am not hungry for dinner.

Wishing…

Copying the Paper mama on this one.I wish I could live closer to my IG/Blog/Twitter mamas. Thank goodness I get totag along with my husbands work travel so I can meet a bunch of ya’ll this yearxo

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In Love with Old Lucketts

2012-01-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

Today we decided to visit this adorable little shop called Old Lucketts. I've been wanting to visit for some time now and was pretty excited about todays trip.

The trip was a very short 30 min drive to a quaint little town outside of leesburg called Lucketts

I LOVE this tub!!! Im tempted to get one just to put in our backyard to plant some lavender in. Although, my dream house comes with cast-iron claw foot tub extra deep so I can take extra long baths in them.

Also this couch! I am dying and not even in the front door.

I think this couch would look perfect in our front sitting room.

Love the 3rd floor bedroom!! I might incorporate some of the ideas and colors into my own bedroom.

Judah loved the fake doggie.

I love what they did with old books, they took off the covers and wrapped twin around them.

Family picture! We kept trying to take pictures with every vintage mirror we saw but their were so many people around. This was one of the only empty rooms. Also please don't mind Scotts crazy eye, he had eye surgery yesterday and is still recovering.

Grabbed some wood fire pizza outside before we took off.

If your local and you haven't been to Old Lucketts you have to check it out. Next weekend they have their biggest and only sale of the year. I would totally check it out but unfortunately I get my root canal done this week and I am pretty sure I'l be out of commission for the weekend. But I will be at one of their future design house weekends in the spring. Any local ladies want to go with? I would love to go sans Judah next time, or am willing to take Judah during the weekday when the crowds are not to bad.

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The winner is...

2012-01-28T12:27:00.000-08:00

The winner of the My Charming Colors Giveaway is

Thank you everyone who participated in my giveaway. Be sure to keep checking the blog because I will be doing another giveaway on another blog next month and will post all the fabulous details here!

Amanda be sure to email me so I can start working on your custom order

jessica.a.west (at) gmail.com

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Hipster Baby Judah

2012-01-27T18:07:00.000-08:00

My son is such a ham. He loves wearing these cute hipster sun glasses I thrifted for him yesterday and doesn't mind keeping them on his face. I kind of secretly hope he needs glasses when he has to start going to school. He looks so cute with them!

Helping us pick up some Friday night snacks.

Here is a video of Judah on the swings at our local park.

I'll announce the Giveaway winner tomorrow. You still have a few hours to sign up! My Charming Colors Giveaway
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Daddy is home!!!

2012-01-27T08:52:00.000-08:00

Did you know that today is the last day to enter the My Charming Colors Giveaway? I will announce the winner tomorrow!
Scott texted me while Judah and I were thrifting at Unique yesterday saying "I'll see you at 7:30!". I frantically tried calling, texting and sent him a message on twitter to see what he was talking about, he wasn't supposed to be back till Friday and I wasn't sure if I missed something. I finally reached him (its hard trying to get someone on their cell phone across seas) and he said he was able to get an early flight home and was boarding. I was thrilled!
Judah and I finished our thrifting then headed to Home Depot to get some spray paint for some DIY projects I have around the home. It was so hard to choose because they have so many pretty bright colors. While I was at Home Deport I received a phone call from my "spiritual dad" Dr Tim Tatum, I took Judah to the garden area and carted him around while I talked to Dr Tim for a bit.

Took Judah to Chick Fil A for a special lunch, I wanted to keep him out as much as possible. He had fun playing in the kids area while the bigger kids were jumping on the slide.

Judah went down for a nap and I took this beautiful mirror I thrifted for $2 from good will and prepped it outside to spray paint. I didn't realize that the mirror had a chip on the side of it until right after I bought it. You can't even tell its been chipped after I spray painted it.

Judah got up and we went on a long walk around the neighborhood. He even wore his cute glasses I thrifted for him at unique earlier in the day.

My body felt like it could barely move. I was exhausted. So we made a trip to Starbucks and then went to Target to walk around before Scott's flight landed.

Judah was being super cute in the back seat while I was driving to the airport. I was excited in anticipation that he was about to see his daddy. He was excited! A sweet excitement he kept putting his hand on Scotts mouth and just started saying "dada! Dada!!!!"

Went to Red Robin for dinner. Figured it was a place we could quickly leave if Judah had a meltdown. Also Judah is a huge fan of their steak fries. Scott had fun showing Judah all his presents from London.

Judah would sit and wait for Scott to come back when ever he left the room and if Scott took longer than 2 mins then Judah would walk around to seek him out.

Our night ended with family snuggles and watching missed shows on Hulu. Then we all ended up falling asleep because our hearts and minds were at peace because we were back together as a family. Scott said he woke up early this morning and Judah and I didn't budge, that we must have been really tired.

Make sure to enter the giveaway if you haven't done so already!!

Happy Friday Everyone!!!

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yesterday

2012-01-26T10:49:00.000-08:00

I didn't blog yesterday because I was exhausted and while I am typing this during Judah's nap I'm looking at my words and they seem all sorts of funny to me. The good news is that Scott comes home tonight! He took an early flight and left London this morning! Yesterday morning I couldn't drink my hot coffee fast enough because I was chasing Judah all over the place. This week I feel like life has been in the fast lane, maybe its because I'm exhausted and Judah now resembles a baby roadrunner zooming around the house laughing and screaming because he wants his mommy to catch him. I know in a few weeks I'll look back and smile, my son is like me, he is feisty, he is the baby roadrunner who laughs.
Plotting which direction he wants to run in.

Succesfully drank one hot cup of coffee and was onto my second cup. I think when Scott comes home I may need a coffee intervention.

Trying to run past me while I'm trying to tickle him, its a game we play.

Taking a break to show me the treats in his mouth.

Taking his dinosaur out on a walk.

I sent these doggie pictures to Scott telling him I think we really need to get a dog. Just look at the pure joy in Judahs face from petting our neighbors dog, he kept hugging her saying "auggie!".

Library visit, I'm sure we will be back sometime this weekend.

Scott's valentines gift from me came in. Its another wall scripture art from one of my favorite Etsy stores Old Barnyard Rescue Company. We are going to put this verse in our family room so we are daily reminded to be brave and not to be discouraged by people who want to bully you. I really want to eventually get the Zephaniah 3:17 verse because this verse has spoken to my heart many times.

Finally got this wiggle worm to fall asleep at 10:30 last night! That's huge! He is such a night owl and and normally sleeps at 11 or a bit later which I normally don't mind because Im a night owl, its just really hard when Scott is out of town.

This morning I didn't let Judah sleep in and woke him up early so maybe he can go to bed earlier tonight.
I apologize for my discombobulated thoughts. I'll get it together in a day or two. Life is in the fast lane this week, everything is a blur, including my roadrunner son zooming around the house.
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the third day

2012-01-24T21:08:00.000-08:00

Today in comparison to the past two days has been a great day for Judah and I. This morning when he woke up I made us a quick breakfast, didn't bother sweeping the floors, straightening up or making sure the dishes were done. Instead I made sure his shoes and socks were on (he loves ripping them off), that he had a clean diaper and bag full of snacks with his water. Then I took him to look at yarn and to the mall. We were going to "build a bear" but Judah knocked over a display and was to distracted by all the bear options. I think we will wait till Scott gets back to build Judah a bear as a family. I took him over to the children's play area. Judah was having a blast till a boy with a nasty deep chest cough who was also sneezing tried to hug on him. The mom was sitting next to me and I asked if her son had a cold and she said he did. So I picked up Judah and left.
After his nap I took him with me to good will, we found some cute vintage children's books, a huge mirror frame that I am spray painting and a cute Strawberry Shortcake wallet for my friend Natalie's daughter (Judahs pen pale). Then I took Judah to the skate park. If I ever want to calm my son down, I either have to give him a bath or take him to the skate park. We spent an hour at the park and most of it was spent watching the skateboarders. I was even able to video tape Judah laughing at them while they were doing tricks with their boards. I love his little laugh.

He was wearing his mustache and he didn't even notice it was on his face because he was so enamored with the skateboarders.

Then we went to the playground area in the park. Judah rode the animals, watched other kids play, waved and smiled at everyone and played on the swings. But he kept looking over at the skate park.

So I walked him over and we watched for another 20 mins. He just kept laughing and was waving at the skateboarders. I may have to get him a mini skateboard and take him to the park when its empty.

Judah wasn't to happy when we left, but he immediately cheered up when I took him to another park near our house. I'm doing what ever I can to keep this boy happy, and wear him out so he can sleep well tonight.

A bunch of kids were playing basketball at the park and Judah just wanted to sit on the slide and watch them.

Then he realized that he can slide down the slide by himself! We did this about two dozen times. I can't believe my baby can slide!!!!

Tonight we ordered pizza, Judah likes his with extra black olives, and we watched some Yo Gabba Gabba. After hanging out for a good bit I gave Judah the biggest bubble bath ever! I used the California Baby "relaxation" bath. It was supposed to help him calm down and get really tired.

He was pretty excited about all the bubbles.

He didn't sleep until well past 11:30, but he was in a better mood tonight than he was last night.

We just have a few more days! Then we will have our happy family reunion.

Thank you all for your sweet words of encouragement. I truly love how us mamas stick together and lift one another up.

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In not a perfect mom...

2012-01-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

I think in our culture where everyone has a blog about their baby, an IG account or a Facebook its easy to portray yourself as being the perfect mom. You know the one who has everything together and whose children never ever screams, throws a tantrum and all your days are perfect bliss. Well I am here to tell you, I am not one of those women. If you think you can calm my screaming baby while my husband is out of town, I invite you to come over and show off your perfect mothering skills while I take a bath or maybe have that warm cup of coffee.
But seriously....what has gotten into my kid? Last night Judah and I had some fun with the photo booth application on the computer. I wanted to send Scott some silly pictures of us, I won't post the scary but funny alien looking pictures of us. Right after this Judah was playing with my hair, he likes to pretend brush it. Then all of a sudden he puked his entire dinner onto my hair, down my tank top and back. It smelled awful. I felt like Chunk from the goonies, that story he tells about fake puke and how it got everyone puking...I had to take a quick shower before I gave him a bath or I was going to be puking.

I had Judah in the pack and play while I took a quick shower. I know I may not be winning mom of the year award but I am sure Judah is grateful I didn't puke on him because I had his puke dripping down my back while I was giving him a bath.

After bath time Judah just wanted to snuggle before he fell asleep. He didn't puke again that night.

This morning he woke up in a great mood, super cute and talking to his doggie.

Was Mr Independent and wanted to try to walk to the car on his own this morning.

Was a great little post office helper and was smiling and waving at his friends behind the counter.

I thought I would take him on a Starbucks date and we would be able to sit down. Judah can drink his water and have his food and I can have some coffee....wrong idea...Judah had one of the biggest in public tantrums ever! He was flinging is straw everywhere, throwing himself off the couch, trying to climb into the fireplace and screaming...I mean screaming like it was his job to bust some eardrums. After a few annoyed glances from the college students using the free wi-fi I decided it was time to take this Starbucks party home.

Naps today = 20 mins

I did give Judah his first taste of nutella, it was my first time having it as well. If you haven't had it already you have to try it!

This face below....is what he has looked like from 4-8:30pm, so upset, he didn't' want dinner in his highchair, he didn't want me to feed him, like literally would spit the food out onto his shirt when I tried to feed him and he only wanted to be in this walker so he could run me down with it. Seriously I am not even kidding. Judah was not having a good day/good night.

I'm so exhausted at this point. I feel like a failure of a mother and I just want to hide in the bathroom (the only place I can find peace these days) turn on the fan or the faucet and cry. But Judah hasn't finished his dinner and I haven't eaten yet and I didn't want to freak him out even more and just "disappear" into the bathroom for 3 mins.

While I was still coaxing my little guy to calm down and eat or at least hang with mama I thought I heard a knock on the door. I wasn't completely sure so I didn't answer and to be honest I couldn't hear that much over the screams. I found out later that my friend Laura Slingerland stopped by and dropped off a dozen white roses with a sweet note. Her and her husband set Scott and I up a few years ago. It was the sweetest thing, especially since I have been feeling so alone in this area since I've been married and more so since I've become a mom.

Its almost 11, Judah is finally winding down after he had another bath, some milk and had me read him a bunch of stories. Praying for a better day tomorrow. We have to get at least one out of three right.

I am so grateful for those who have sent me some encouragement either via IG, Twitter or Facebook. Believe me this mama needs all the encouragement she can get, especially this week.

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Single Mommy Day 1

2012-01-22T17:39:00.000-08:00

Well I guess now I know what it means to be a single mom to a sick boy on almost no sleep. I couldn't sleep last night because Scott wasn't here and although we have a California king bed Judah kept wanting to sleep in whatever space I was trying to sleep in.
Judah woke up saying "dada, dada?" when he realized Scott wasn't hiding his demeanor quickly changed and he lost his cute morning smile.

I've been making him scrambled eggs each morning with some pancakes and bananas. Today I decided to skip the eggs so I can drink my coffee as I waited for the pancakes to heat up. When I placed this delicious bowl of pancakes and bananas in front of Judah he took one look at it and threw the entire contents of the bowl on the ground and started crying. He even smeared some banana on the floor. I figured out he wanted eggs and he was grabbing my leg while I made him some. I'm pretty sure some people will say I am spoiling Judah with giving him eggs after his fit this morning. I don't care, he is 13 months and doesn't understand his daddy went on a business trip. Plus I've recently figured out how to make the perfect scrambled egg and didn't mind making them for him.

Judah did decide he wanted to help me sweep up the floor after his monstrous mess. I was grateful he wasn't trying to eat the swept up food.

Scott uploaded a bunch of shirts on IG that he got Judah today. I am pretty excited about each of them.

Judah had spaghetti o's for lunch and managed to shove one up his nose. I had the honor of sucking it out with the nose suction thingy. It was pretty gross....at least its not a Lego or a crayon.

After lunch I decided to give him a bath because he was pretty gross. The whole bath process today was pretty funny. He was sad at the sad baby in the mirror, then he realized that the bath water was on and started running towards the tub. When I took off his diaper he managed to grab it from my hand as I was putting him into the tub and in his excitement he threw it into the water. This boy loves his baths.

After a long day of both of us missing daddy pretty bad I made us some good ol' comfort food for dinner. I made us Some Ramen noodles! I like to boil till all the water is gone and all that is left are some yummy noodles that taste like they have been saturated in the special ramen seasoning. For Judah's meal I stuck his cooked noodles in a bowl with an ice-cube, stirred it around to make sure all the noodles were cool, then I took out the ice-cubes and cut up the noodles. Judah is a pretty big fan and ate his entire dinner.

Tomorrow I am planning on taking Judah out to find some fun adventures. Hopefully this will get my sweet little boy to smile. He just misses his dad so much he just doesn't seem himself today.
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It's so hard to say goodbye...

2012-01-21T19:24:00.000-08:00

First I wanted to let you know if you haven't already heard on twitter/facebook or IG the Giveaway for My Charming Colors ends next Friday January 27th, not last night. I apologize, I've been a bit discombobulated this week due to Scott leaving today on an international work trip. The good news is that you still get one more week to enter if you haven't done so already. You can enter here.
That being said Judah is still not feeling well. All he wanted to do today was snuggle and read his books and sleep allot. I think its still a combination of him having a cold and also he is teething. He is chewing on anything he can get his hands on.

Since Scott was leaving today we decided to "triple child proof" our house. Especially now since Judah is walking and getting into everything! He can also break some of my child locks on my cabinets! So we bought better baby gates for the stairs. These open so I don't trip over them when I am taking down the laundry and try to hop over so I don't wake up Judah from a nap. Scott decided to put up the crib bumper along the stairwell because the gaps are spaced pretty wide. Although I would never leave Judah alone in the hall way we just wanted to be extra safe while Scott is gone.

When Judah woke up from his nap this afternoon he was beside himself because Scott was packing. He kept trying to take things out of Scott's suitcase or tried crawling inside of it. I took him downstairs and he wanted nothing to do with me, or food, or water, he just wanted his daddy. He was so upset and still pretty sick so he started blowing these huge snot bubbles.

I think he knew Scott was leaving and at this point I was crying. Since 9/11 I hate flying, I knew the pilot of the plane that went down in our area and I don't like talking about it. So by Judah freaking out made me freak out and we were just all crying. This was really hard.

Before we dropped Scott off at the airport we had a family Chick Fil A dinner date night. Gave Judah some of the vanilla milkshake since it was a special night.

Judah was content teething on the cheerio containers and eating the occasional nugget or cheerio.

Drove Scott to the airport and he quietly got out, grabbed his bags and went inside. We didn't want to make a big deal so Judah wouldn't have a huge meltdown. The ride home after dropping someone off at the airport is the longest drive....

Praying time will fly by quickly....Judah is being extra feisty tonight and jumping/running/ doing back flips everywhere. He is also being extra cuddly and not wanting me to leave the room.

Its really hard to say goodbye, even if its just for a little while.

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Discouragement

2012-01-20T17:01:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day to sign up for the My Charming Giveaway. If you haven't done so yet click here to sign up and I'll announce the winner here on my blog tomorrow evening.
You know one of those nights where you just feel like your a horrible mom? That was me last night. I was overwhelmed, extra tired, getting prepared for Scott to go out of town for work, Judah was sick and started coughing wet coughs, we found what looked like a tiny piece of glass in my eye and I missed my family horribly.
After talking to Kaiser, I was in tears the entire time which they said was good because it could wash out the glass, I made an appointment for this morning.
Judah finally fell asleep.

He was extra sweet looking.

Then he started coughing and it sounded bad, Scott went to go prepare the humidifier. I'm at the end of my rope emotionally I text my step mom and tell her how discouraged I am. She calls me, its 3 am and she is out plowing the snow with my Aunt Dorothy (aka uncle dirt). They both kept handing the phone off to each other and just loved on me. Loved on me hard, encouraged my heart and had me laughing and believing I was a good mom and a great wife. I finally get off the phone and in case I forgot how much they wanted to encourage my heart my step mom texts me. Judah ends up waking up because he heard us laughing and stays up till around 5:30am chattering away.

I ended up missing my eye appointment this morning, either I turned the alarm off in my sleep or forgot to set it. But the humidifier and my exhaustion (hard sleeping) helped my eye because the glass was gone and my eye felt 100% better. Thank God because I didn't want to waste a $40 co-pay. Gave Judah a bath and had the hot water going on in the sink to make sure the bathroom would get all steamy to help his nose.

Went to Target to pick up some encouragement things for Scott for when he leaves on travel. Judah likes to chew on a mum mum wrapper w a mum mum in it (it feels good on his gums) and I open up a separate wrapper so he can eat the mum mum if he wants.

Today was definitely a Starbucks day.

Packing Scott's suitcase full of these goodies.

I kept asking Judah "where is the doggie?" and he pulls out his shirt to look at Scooby Doo.

Once Scott came home from work we went to Wegmans to stock up on groceries for when he is gone. Judah was being really quite and I looked down and he somehow snatched the cheese spray bottle from a shelf and was chewing on it. I have no idea how he managed to grab this since it was on a pretty high self.

Judah scoring on some free cheese from the Deli lady who fell in love with him.

Today was such a long day...praying for an easier week.
I'll be announcing the My Charming Colors giveaway tomorrow night!!! Stay turned!!

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Sick Day

2012-01-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

Since my husband is going on travel soon he went into work a little late today. I am grateful for some extra time off before he takes off because sometimes I get overwhelmed thinking I have to be a single mom while Scott is on travel. I end up surprising myself in the end an realize that I can do this and it will be a great fun adventure for Judah and myself.
I think its cute that Judah wants to drink from Scott's water. I normally let Judah drink from mine but I have been adding the Emergen-C packets to my water so I don't catch Judah's cold.

Judah posing for Renee's belated birthday picture. Judah was to snotty to take the picture yesterday and was even more snotty today but I didn't want to miss out on my friends birthday.

This morning was a eat your puffs from a huge bowl kinda morning.

Judah thinks its the funniest thing in the world to run away from me when I change his diaper. Hopefully this doesn't happen while we are in public.

He went to sleep an hour before his usual nap time (he kept rubbing his eyes and was really sad) but as soon as I put him down he fell asleep. When he woke up I went into the room and I heard him smacking his lips. My son ripped open that pillow below and was acting like he was Elf and was eating the cotton balls in it! I took as much cotton as I could out of his mouth and called Scott laughing.

Being my hat model and teething.

I think if Scott and I ever had a girl she might just be cute.

Scott went to work for a few hours and when he came back home we made a quick trip to the library. I think I went a little overboard on checking out books. The Burke Library is way better than the Fairfax Library when it comes to having children's board books. They have two huge shelves on them. The Fairfax Library only had a box. Also the Burke Library has all these cute stuffed animals all over the place. Judah likes to snuggle with them.

What are you favorite children's board books? Some can be really lame and I've found a few hidden gems. Tomorrow is the last day to register for my giveaway! Make sure you register before you forget, or you might miss out on winning an adorable custom made hat from my shop. Sign up here!

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Wordish Wednesday

2012-01-18T18:49:00.000-08:00

Here is today's Wordish Wednesday

Judah's cold has gotten a bit worse. This morning he didn't even mind that I used the nose squeegee thing to take snot out of his nose. His nose was so bad that puffs would get stuck on his face from all the snot.

Modeling one of my toddler slouch hats.

Being super adorable in his amazing batman shirt I thrifted last week and smiling at daddy.

We like to sing "Judah!!! He likes to have fun!!!" its from Yo Gabba Gabba. Tonight Judah ran up to the dishwasher because "he likes to have fun". This boy of ours is all over the place, and I love it.

What do you think of my new blog design? Also have you signed up for my giveaway here? The last day to sign up is Friday and I announce the winner this Saturday.
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February Ad Swap

2012-01-18T13:42:00.000-08:00

February is the month of love and what better way to spread the online love than to host an Ad Swap on my blog. I have been sponsoring my blog on several different blogs this year and decided since February is a shorter month that I am going to pay for sponsorship on one blog. For the rest of my spots I wanted to see if anyone would be interested in an "Ad Swap". Essentially what that means is you sponsor my blog free of charge for the month of February while I sponsor your blog free of charge for the month of February. What I can offer is, I will have your blog on my right side toolbar for the entire month of February and I will do a paragraph write up on you and your blog or shop.
Currently I have around 250-300 views a day on my blog.104 Google followers61 Network Blog followers178 followers on My Charming Colors (Facebook page)267 Twitter followers761 IG followers
Also for the month of February I will have a giveaway on the Anderson Crew blog so this should bring in more traffic to my blog.
Are you are interested? Want to discuss details? Email me at jessica.a.west (at) gmail.com. I will periodically be offering Ad Swaps through out the year.

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Cold coffee

2012-01-17T20:36:00.000-08:00

This morning I tweeted out "I could write a book on all the things I do as a mom b4 my first sip of coffee that's now cold". Before I was a mom I used to treasure my morning cups of hot coffee and I even used to asked the baristas at starbucks to make my drink "extra hot". Scott swears I've burned off some of my taste buds or nerves on my tongue and thats why I can eat really hot food. But since I've become a mom....I am used to drinking my coffee cold in the morning.

My typical morning with Judah

Judah wakes up, if I am not up already then he plays with my hair, giggles or sings to me till I get up (we co-sleep)

Then I take him with me as I throw on cloths, brush our teeths, put my hair in a mom bun, open all the shades in my bedroom and curtains then we sing a song to each other in the big mirror by my bedroom door.

Get Judah dressed, change Diaper 1, sing another song in the other bathroom mirror

Take Judah downstairs put on some Shane and Shane, the CD player is next to his stack of books. While he "reads" I then make him breakfast

Lately Judah wants scrambled eggs, mini pancakes and bananas.

While Im making his breakfast I brew my coffee. Make a cup and set it aside.

Judah around this time walks into the kitchen and grabs at my legs and I put him into his highchair.

He eats breakfast while I wash the dishes. Sometimes I eat with him but most times I skip breakfast.

When he finishes breakfast I wash his face/change Diaper 2.

Then I quickly sweep up the floor. I have to do this fast because Judah likes to try to pick "goodies" out of my dirt pile to eat.

We then hang out in the guitar room for a bit and play songs.

Then we go to the other living room, I bring out some puffs and put him in his walker while I vacuum.

I read to him form his stack of library books till he pushes off my lap.

Two hours have passed since Ive made my coffee and at this time I am able to take a "sip".

Sometimes I just gulp it down because its already cold and I know I'll be running after Judah.

This is why I've been drinking cold coffee. If I still have some left when Judah goes down for his morning nap then I'll heat it up in the microwave.

Here are some pictures from the past two days. I've been making allot of adult and child sized slouchy hats (that I will be selling in my shop this week). Also Judah has been teething badly again. Its 11:30 and he finally fell asleep. My ears are ringing from his screams, and he has a runny nose.

Judah eating breakfast while we listen to Shane and Shane. I seriously love this album Scott got for me. Its so uplifting and makes my heart so happy.

Yesterday we spied a hawk in our backyard, so Judah and I took a walk outside to investigate. Judah is in mid-happy-dance because we are outside.

Post nap teething tears

Adult sized slouchy that I will be listing soon in my shop.

Judah and Scott doing banana "cheers". I am "cheersing" everything with Judah. Yes I want him to be that boy that says "cheers" all the time.

Judah in a mustard slouchy hat I made.

seriously I love his sweet face.

Today we went to the Library again, Judah is now running and pulling books down. Its so cute its hard not to laugh. Hopefully they won't kick us out.

Stopped by the skatepark. I think I may have a future skateboarder. He just stared and stared at the guy skateboarding and was sad when we walked away.

Walking around the park. I still can't get over how he walks all over the place now.

playing with sticks.

Trying to walk back to the skateboarder.

Being a model for my 2nd toddler slouchy hat.

I hope Judah doesn't really have a cold and its just part of his teething. I did get some hylands infant cold tablets just in case. Tomorrow I will be doing a shop update and hopefully I can take my son on a Starbucks date to get some hot coffee.

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Our Weekend

2012-01-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

Saturday we spent the morning hanging out at the house, drinking our freshly brewed Starbucks Blonde blend coffee (the best coffee they carry!), listing items in the shop and watching Judah walk all over the place. After Judah got up from his morning nap we went thrifting and stopped by Einstein Bagels for lunch. Judah had his first blueberry bagel.

Afterwards we walked over to the pets store check out the dogs. Judah was being so cute we were halfway tempted to get one but decided that it would be hard to have a dog with all the traveling we do. Last night before bed we all hung out and watched an episode of Psych. Scott cuddled Scout while Judah was jumping on the bed and pulling my hair.

Getting ready for church!

Judah was wearing his cute hat I got from Rachael.

We were excited to bring Judah to his first day of Sunday School well its the nursery till he is 24 months. I was excited because I was trying to keep him away from a bunch of kids till after the flu season because we decided not to give Judah the flu shot. After speaking to my friend Rachael and how she manages to keep her kids healthy while bringing them to church she informed me to just stay on top of keeping Judahs hands sanatized. Judah loved the nursery and playing with the other kids his age, I also enjoyed hanging out with the other moms in the room and look forward to spending more tieme with them and cultivating relationships since I'm going to stay with Judah in the nursery for awhile.

After nap snacks of goldfish. Judah is teething again and was pretty miserable this afternoon.

But once he had himself a toy to chew on and a mustache he was able to turn that sad teething frown upside down.

He figured out how to get into the toilet paper.

Then he decided he wanted to help us put away the dishes. I guess he forgot he had a bunch of toilet paper still stuck to him. I am praying that Judah breaks our dishwasher so we can get a new one.

Then ended the night of Judah just walking around in circles in the living room.

How was your weekend?

Make sure you remember to sign up for my custom order giveaway contest here, you only have a few more days to enter.

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DIY Mason Jar Silhouette Flower Holder

2012-01-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

Ever since I did this DIY Silhouette tutorial back in December I've been wanting to create more items to decorate my home. Last week I found this idea on Pinterest, its written in French or Italian so I had to figure out on my own how to put the Silhouette onto some mason jars. I didn't do it correctly the first time but I made it work the second time around.

- What you need -

A Silhouette cutout

Mason Jar (I thrifted mine for $1 today)

Tape

white spray paint

Black paint

brush

yarn

I used the cut out silhouette I had left over from the tutorial I did back in December and I taped the back of it onto the Mason Jar.

Spray painted it outside in a box and let it dry (it takes 2-3 hours to dry spray paint on glass).

It didn't come out to well. The paint dripped behind the silhouette leaving it unrecognizable. But I wasn't going to let that stop me from making a flower holder tonight. I put the silhouette on an paper bag and sketched the outline so it was larger. Then I cut it out.

Tapped the paper bag onto the jar. You can see below where I almost had the previous silhouette but the paint dripped/smeared. I wanted to make sure this was covered so I tapped the cut out over it so I was able to paint over my mistake.

I used a sponge brush and painted over the cut out.

Waited till it was dried and took the paper bag off the mason jar.

Then I took some really durable yarn and tied it around the neck of the mason jar once/double knotted, tied around again/double knotted and tied around a third time double knotting it and leaving a loop so I can hang the jar. Went to Wegmans tonight and bought some Heather flowers and stuck in the jar with a little bit of water.

Im planning on perfecting this so I can have a bunch of these outside on the brick wall near my garden this spring.

Let me know if you have tried this and what tips you may have for the silhouette.

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My Charming Colors Shop Update

2012-01-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

I wanted to let everyone know that Ive added a few new items to my shop this weekend and I also wanted to let you know that I have a few hats on sale here.

The adorable hats I added today will fit any girl ages 1-4 years old and are selling at $12 a hat.

Here is a peak of what I have left in the shop, I will be adding more each week. If you are interested in something I do not have listed please contact me because I do accept custom orders for $3 additional per hat.

Also don't forget about my custom order giveaway here. It ends next week so you don't want to forget to sign up!

mycharmingcolors.etsy.com

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The dreaded Dentist and Judahs first kiss

2012-01-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

This morning started off great! Judah was full of cuddles and when he finally woke up for the day all he wanted to do was play guitars/piano in the guitar room. He didn't even mind the mustache I put on his face.

He is seriously such a cheese ball.

Scott came home from work around 10:30 so I could finally see my new dentist. I have bad and good news. The bad news is that it appears the previous dentist of mine must have broken off a part of the tool they use to clean out your root canal. It appears from the x-rays that the tip of the tool is lodged at the very end of my root canal, she said you can tell by the way it breaks off on the x-ray. Also I have an infection in my tooth because when my old dentist placed my porcelain crown on she broke the side of it, its only cosmetic if the top was broke/chipped, not the side because that's how food gets trapped. I have to get a whole new root canal and see a specialist who will be able to tell me if he can do the root canal or if I lose the tooth because he can't get the tool particle out of my root. Thats the bad news. The good news is she was able to grind down some of my porcelain cap and it relieved some pressure so it doesn't hurt to bad right now, although since she messed with it today my face is throbbing. I'm also on penicillin to get rid of the infection and I should be feeling better in just a few days. I can't schedule my root canal just yet because Scott is still waiting to hear back on work travel and I want to make sure he is here when I have my root canal. This is the main reason why I want to live closer to my sister in Florida, because then I wouldn't have to worry about Scott's travel and could just stay at her house with Judah for help. Or she can come with me for moral support since I am even more terrified of the dentist now that I've found out my previous one broke her tool in my mouth. But everything will work its self out and I will be in less pain once this is all taken care of. I can't even imagine how wonderful that day will be where I won't be in constant pain.

Now on to some cute things from today. We visited the library again today and Judah fell in love with some new doggie books we found.

He picked out six books, my favorite is the "we belong together book". Its adorable and would make the perfect valentines gift.

We were going to stop by the park but it was 30 degrees out and very windy. So we had a mini Chik Fil A date. Judah tried out his very first vanilla milk shake and.....

A certain little girl was completely smitten by Judah. She kept walking up to our table while Judah was eating and tried to grab his fingers or wave hi. Once I took him to the play area she was showing him how everything works and then.....

She walked right up to him grabbed his face and kissed him right on the cheek!

It happened so fast I think both Judah and I were stunned. Judah just stood there for a few seconds and stared off into space. It was the cutest thing ever.

Tonight is a laid back night for the Judkins family. Scott currently has Judah and is on his way to Wegmans to pick us up some sushi for dinner.

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Resolutions and Adventures

2012-01-12T18:15:00.000-08:00

One of my 2012 resolutions was to take Judah out on more adventures, even if its going to a park or like today going to the Rocknoceros concert at the Dulles Town Center. Its a cute children's band, the guys dress up like farmers and play some really catchy fun songs and its free on Thursdays at the mall.

I thought today was going to start off with out a hitch, that it can't be that bad to get ready and take off for the mall, boy was I wrong. This morning when Judah woke up I realized that he peed the bed, he co-sleeps with us and I guess his diaper didn't hold very well last night. After I stripped the bed, I totally forgot that I had to shower, instead got Judah ready and made him breakfast. He had a pretty big diaper blow out before breakfast and one right when I was about to leave the house. Finally after throwing on some cloths, a head band for my dirty hair and totally forgetting my breakfast because I finally found his sock we were able to leave.

He looks so cute and ready to go on an "Adventure".

I drove a few miles down the road and realized, I think I left my stove on. I turned around and drove back home and saw that I actually turned it off. At this point I was going to change plans and just take Judah with me to Unique to thrift, but decided to stick with the plan and take him to the mall.

We arrived 15 mins late and were only able to hang out in the back with the other late moms. It's okay because Judah was totally zoning out on the band. After awhile he got out of his car and started walking around or holding onto the car so he can shake his booty. I even remembered to bring his maraca and he shook that in one hand while he danced.

Then he got distracted by a mirror in a store right next to the concert and took off walking towards it.

We hung out at the indoor playground and they had a good amount of kids crawling all over the place. Two girls even tried to kiss Judah's cheeks, but he would push them away and kept trying to walk around. I did bath him in purell once we left.

Headed to Nordstroms because I saw a bunch of kids with balloons and asked where they got them. I guess Nordstroms hands out balloons to kids. After walking around for a bit Judah was tired.

Took him to their bathroom to change him. They have the best bathrooms! If your ever in a mall that has a Nordstroms and you have to change your child's diaper, go to Nordstroms instead of the food court bathroom. Its a billion times nicer and you feel like your in a fancy hotel. Judah especially loved the picture of the two doggies.

He kept trying to look at them.

He thought the doggies (Judah calls them auggies) were going to chase after him so he ran away laughing.

Headed to Dulles Wegmans afterwards to pick up some tea, carrots, honey and Judah grabbed puffs from the aisle, I didn't even realize it till we were in line. He is becoming very sneaky.

I guess today's adventures wore him out because when we arrived home he napped for almost 4 hours!

I hope to take him to the Library again tomorrow and if the weather is nice I want to take him to a local park afterwards. But this will all take place after my dreaded Dentist appointment. If you can please pray for me tomorrow. I'm finally seeing a new dentist who my best friend referred to me. We both ended up going to the same dentist 2.5 years ago who messed up both of our root canals pretty bad. My old dentist literally cracked my tooth she was working on but said its something I shouldn't worry about because it was just cosmetic. 2.5 years later with a constant burning mouth and sore jaw I'm finally going to trust another Dentist to take a look at it and fix it. I'm terrified, but I know its something that I need to take care of and once its done I believe I'll be able to sleep better because I won't be in constant pain.

If you haven't done so already make sure you sign up for the My Charming Colors giveaway. The winner will be announced next week!

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