Monday, March 30, 2009

I ♥ pouty faces

Once again, I've stumbled across a really great site that gives wonderful prompts for blogs. (I actually stole the idea from another blog I follow.) This time the subject is photography. As a first time mom, I have lots and lots and lots of pictures to choose from. This week the subject is pouty faces. I thought that was perfect since Adelae has recently perfected her pouty face. Her new favorite thing to do is is to say "But Why?" when we tell her no. It is, of course, accompanied by the pouty face. Now tell me, could you resist this face?

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Wanna see more? Go to i♥faces and check out lots more fabulous pictures.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

6 Things You Would Do Naked If You Lived Alone






This is actually kind of hard for me. I practically DO live alone! Adelae and I are home alone most days, and I sort of view Ben as an extension of myself. I don't do a lot of things naked, but then I never really did...I like to have AT LEAST my robe on! I'll give it a shot though!

1. Nap in the summertime. I love to nap (who doesn't!) but in the middle of the summer, in a house with no air conditioning, it's almost impossible. I don't feel comfortable napping naked because you never know when someone is going to show up!

2. Lay in the sun. Now, I COULD do this. We do live in the country and we are far enough away from our neighbors. However, with my luck that would be the day someone decides to pop over for a visit. Can you imagine if it was my Dad?!

3. Check my email. I always check my email when I get out of the shower. I'm not sure why, I just do! In deference to Ben and the big windows in our computer room, I always put my robe on.

4. Fry bacon. Totally kidding! Can you imagine? OUCH!!!! I don't even like to fry bacon with my clothes on!

5. Read. Again on a summer day when it's boiling hot outside, it would be nice to relax with out clothes on. I love to read, so that's what I do to relax. Once again, I'm more worried about who could possibly show up! Can you imagine the look on the mail man's face?!

6. Put laundry away. It seems the only time I ever put laundry away is when I'm looking for something to wear. I don't mind washing and drying laundry, but I HATE folding it and putting it away. I especially hate putting Adelae's laundry away. It's so tiny and there seems to be so much of it! But I digress. I sometimes put laundry away while naked due to necessity. It is most often necessary for me to put it away before I can find what I'm looking for. I live in hope that the laundry fairies will come while I sleep and put away all my laundry.

So, those are 6 things...what are yours?

Friday, March 27, 2009

Cloth Update!

I am so in love with our cloth diapers. It's slowly turning into an addiction. I keep buying more and more! I have a list about a mile long of diapers, covers, and accessories that I'm dying to try! We've used ours several times and they are fantastic! Adelae loves them and immediately tells me when she needs a diaper change. She will even ask for her "new diapers" and tell me how soft they are. I recently found this website and it's quickly becoming one of my favorites! It also seems that I'm getting a lot more support than I thought I would. I love to take our cloth diapers to places and show them to people. Even my Dad was impressed!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

It's Spring!

I'm calling it. It's officially spring! I was holding off on saying the actual words for fear that Mother Nature would decide to play a cruel trick and give us another snow storm. In the last few weeks, I've taken the plastic off the windows, slowly retired the outer layer to my Columbia winter coat, spent numerous hours outside and have been in a generally better mood. In fact, we're all in better moods! The first thing Adelae says in the morning is "Doe outside Mommy!" Mommy can't go outside till she's had a few cups of coffee, so we usually wait till after lunch, but go outside we do! I'm even making plans to get my garden planted. I can't wait to have fresh vegetables again! I'm going to take full advantage of our freezer space this year. Nothing goes to waste! Even though I'll be about 9 months pregnant when it's time to "harvest" our little patch, I'm hoping to expand our garden just a little bit. There are lots of things I'd like to plant this year. Let's hope I'm not being too ambitious!

Ben and Adelae even washed the car the other day! I have some great pictures on our Shutterfly. There are WAY too many to post over here!

I'm officially past the 1/2 way mark with baby #2! This pregnancy has flown by. I feel great, have lots of energy (most days), am showing no signs of blood pressure problems and am much more even keeled this time around. The baby moves ALL the time now too. He/She sure is a squirmy little thing.I'm getting bigger day by day, bu that's ok! It means the baby is healthy and growing. Photobucket This baby already knows Adelae's voice too. When she talks to my belly, which is often, the baby kicks and kicks. She likes to inform the little bean "I Adelae, I two, I big sister!" I think she already loves the baby in her own little way.

This is one of my new favorite pictures.
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Ben got some great news this spring too! He is being moved to First Shift Leader as soon as they find and train his replacement. His long three years of working weekends is over! Hooray! It will be so nice to have a normal schedule again. It's more pressure for him since he'll have more people to manage and the demands are higher. I know he can do it though. They wouldn't have asked him if he couldn't!

The sun is up, my coffee is gone and I have a toddler that just wants to play! We'll be making the most out of another fabulous day!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Small Talk Six






This is kind of a cool blog I found. You are to post 6 things about whatever topic you are given for the week. This week it's 6 Things You Love/Hate About Spring.


1. I love to watch the birds come back, the grass turn green, and the plants and trees begin to bud.

2. I love opening the windows and airing out the house. Toward the end of winter I start to get a little claustrophobic. I think our house does too. I swear I heard it sigh in relief the first time I opened the windows!

3. This year I will love being able to put Adelae back in her own room. I love the closeness of sharing a bed with her, but I wake up every time she moves. It will be nice to sleep soundly again.

4. I'm not a big fan of all the rain. I keep telling myself that we need the rain for the flowers and plants to grow. It doesn't help that when our ditch floods we experience some plumbing problems.

5. I love getting outside!

6. I love that I always feel re-energized when spring comes. I have so many projects that I want to tackle this summer. I can't wait to plant my garden, paint some trim in the house, repaint the kitchen, mulch the landscaping, etc etc etc.

Nope, She's Not Tired!

This is a little video Ben shot of Adelae not being tired at the dinner table. She had had a long day of playing with her big cousins and didn't get a nap.

Monday, March 16, 2009

When I think of food...

...which is all the time now that I'm pregnant, I always think of my Grandma. Isn't it funny how a smell can take you back to an exact moment in time? My Grandma was always cooking something it seems like. To this day, the smell of chocolate chip cookies makes me think of her. I can remember her teaching me how to make cookies. She had this great stoneware bowl that we always used to mix the cookies in. We would have such great talks while we were baking together. And of course, she always let me eat as much cookie dough as I wanted!
She also always made the best dinners. Grandma could open her fridge and freezer and make a spectacular dinner that would feed an army. One of my favorites was Hamburger Macaroni. In actuality, it was just goulash, but it always tasted different when she made it. One time when I was in college, I asked her for her recipe. She looked at me with a surprised look and said "Oh, just a little of this and a little of that." So, I made her make if for me. I watched very carefully and wrote down exactly what she put in it. I have tried countless times over the years to make it just like Grandma's, and I just can't do it! It never tastes exactly right.
Ben says I'm a good cook, which I never thought anyone would say about me! I can honestly say that Grandma was the one that taught me how to cook. She always told me "just try it..it'll be fine." Learning to cook was probably the most valuable thing my Grandma taught me. I'm 30 now and have a family of my own, but every single time I cook, I think of her. I can hear her telling me "See, I knew you could do it!"

Monday, March 9, 2009

19 weeks and 2 days

I had my routine OB check up on Monday. My blood pressure is actually in the low range and so is my weight gain. Looks like this pregnancy will continue to be smooth sailing! The baby's heartbeat was 133 beats per minute. If you believe in old wive's tales this means we're having a boy! This particular old wives tale was accurate with Adelae, so we're hoping it's right this time. Yes, I'll admit..we're hoping for a boy this time around. My doctor has agreed to give me another ultrasound sometime around 32 weeks. Hopefully we'll be able to find out the gender at that time. It would be nice to know for sure!

Just for fun, let's see what you all think! Click on the banner below and let us know what you think the gender, weight, length and actual delivery date will be. Winner gets a prize!!!!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Going Green

Here in the Collins household we're slowly going green. I now make my own laundry detergent and cleaner. I'm trying to use more Earth friendly things like baking soda and vinegar instead of the harsh chemicals. We are going to start replacing blown light bulbs with CFL's and, of course, we recycle.
Another step in going green is cloth diapering. Now, I thought long and hard about using cloth diapers. I was really not interested in using pins and rubber pants. No thank you! But, I have several friends that use cloth diapers and I couldn't believe the innovations in cloth! They look and act almost like disposables. Gone are days of folding, pinning, leaking and rubber pants that don't fit. These new diapers are simply awesome! I have a really hard time trying to explain them to people though, so check out this website for lots of great information and some pictures.
After hours and hours of research and many IM conversations with friends, I decided to take the plunge. I bought two diapers, just to try them out. As soon as they came in the mail we got them out and messed with them a little bit. I couldn't believe how soft they were! Wow! Adelae seemed really interested in them. In fact, she kept saying "I need a new diaper. New diaper please!" We tried them out on her yesterday and she loved them! When we put it on her her she said "Oooohh Mommy...that soft!" And she actually informed us when she was wet! Needless to say, I'll definitely be investing in many more cloth diapers. We plan to use them on Adelae until she is potty trained and on the new baby. My only regret is that we didn't do this sooner!

Proudly showing off her new diaper.

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Model in the making!
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Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Monkey Dance

Every once in awhile Ben finds a video on YouTube that Adelae just loves. Since we don't have cable, we're pretty limited on the cartoons we get here. Ben and Adelae recently re-discovered The Wiggles. Now we can't get Adelae to stop watching them! This is her latest favorite video. You can check out the original video here here

And this is Adelae's version.