Meeting with my MOPS group

Yesterday, Nataleigh & I met up with my MOPS group at the South Bend Chocolate Cafe in downtown South Bend. They have really good sandwiches, wraps, soups and deserts! We try and meet up once a month somewhere outside our using meeting place at church to just have fun, let our kiddos play and to have adult conversations. Most of us are stay-at-home moms so we all agree it's nice to get out of the house and wear other clothes besides sweatpants and t-shirts! 4 of us met up with our kids and we had a really good time! Nataleigh played with Evolette (Halee's daughter) and Cosette (Natalie's daughter). The three of them were having so much fun. Nataleigh just loves being around other babies, she is so fascinated by them. Hopefully they will inspire/teach her to crawl...she is getting close!

Here are a few pictures of our meeting!

Clean, clean, clean!

Today has been a very successful day of yup you guessed it! CLEANING!!!! I am trying to get things in order for when that days comes when we move....and it's not that far away. I thought I should be proactive about it and start small. So this afternoon I tackled the desk...check! Then I moved onto some boxes that I have kept some random stuff in since we moved here (books on child birthing, expired coupons, cards, etc) and I got rid of the expired stuff and stuff I don't need or don't want anymore..check! I am feeling lighter already! The fun part about it was having Nataleigh with me in the living room as I was trying to sort stuff into piles...hmmm....not a bright idea with a baby that is VERY curious and likes to get into anything she can get her little hands on! So lets just say I said the word "NO" about 100 times and did it work...um....NO! So I had to move my piles higher! I did get through 1 box which was amazing and I feel more organized...Another good thing is I found my ARRT card (American Registry for Radiologic Technologists) which I need for work...I got an email last week stating my boss needs a copy of my updated card. Quite a relief to know I found it in my mess!

Nataleigh has been doing so good with her schedule...she is much happier and I just love being her momma! She is so vocal and loves to say consonants especially dada, pa, mama, na, ga and fa! She is so cute! She is scooting backwards and turning in all directions on her belly....I think she is getting close to going forward and crawling! Like I said earlier she loves to get into anything. Her newest thing is she loves boxes! I will have to take a picture and add it later!

Nate has 39 days left till he graduates from Bethel! Woo hoo!!! Just an update on special dates to keep in mind & in your prayers: April 16th Nate has his second interview with Allegiance Health in Jackson, MI @ 11am; April 22 is Nate's final @ 10am; April 28 Nate is receiving an award for his academic achievements; May 1 Nate's graduation! These next 5 1/2 weeks are going to go by so fast! Thank you for your prayers...I know we both appreciate them!

Hope everyone had a wonderful day! Till next time!

7 Things Sunday

So I was reading different blogs and there was a girl who does this thing on her blog weekly and I thought that it was pretty cool! Unfortunately this isn't my idea but what I share are my thoughts/ideas/dreams/goals/ramblings and etc.

1. I am so happy MSU beat Maryland at the buzzer today(85-83)! Woo Hoo!!!!

2. I am looking forward to seeing where God is going to take us when Nate graduates from Bethel College in only 41 more days! He has a second interview sometime in April with Allegiance Health in Jackson, MI (my hometown!) He has not scheduled it yet but he will sometime this week!

3. I have a hard time drinking my daily recommended amount of water evenly though I know I should...it's hard!

4. I use cloth diapers and make my own baby food for my daughter Nataleigh!

5. I don't like wearing nail polish because when it chips it bugs me. So when it chips all of it has to come off. It only takes but a few hours for that to happen if it even takes that long.

6. My favorite Italian food is Chicken Parm! YUMMY!!!!

7. I am praying that when we move, I can clean out some of the clutter, re-organize and feel 10 lbs lighter from doing it!

Hope you enjoyed my thoughts!

And so it has become a trend!

Nataleigh fell asleep while we went for our walk...so precious..I just love this picture of her!






Nataleigh sitting in the back of the van while I clean it out..she was having a blast just looking all around!



I am so happy to share that Nataleigh has been sleeping through the night again. Her first night of sleep was 3 nights ago and has continued since then! THANK GOD!!! I would prefer her to sleep into 7am but I can manage 600 and 630 just fine...I shouldn't be picky (seeing how some babies don't sleep through the night) I would just like to start her routine at that time :D

We had MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) this morning and Nataleigh did well like usual in her class. She was suppose to take a nap but only did for about 20 minutes and then wanted to hang out with the rest of the babies in her class. The workers told me that she likes to flirt with the boys....at 8 months old already?!?! I think she just likes to be around other babies....plus there were no other little girls in her class so I can see how they might think that! For only having a 20 minute nap she was as happy as can be! She is such a joy and is using her voice a lot more...especially in the morning...she is saying Dada dada and maaa maaa it's so cute!

We're getting ready to head outside. It's in the 60's and its beautiful! I'm going to clean the van and then take Nataleigh for a walk around our apartment complex...she just loves to look around at everything going on around her!

Nate gets home around 430 and hopefully we will get to hangout as a family! We are in need of some quality time as a family! Hopefully we can go to a park or something...maybe Nataleigh will get to have her first swing ride this afternoon! I'll post some pictures later!

Till later!
Emileigh

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm really excited for today because I have set-up a surprise stay-at-home date with Nate for this afternoon! I have been planning this for several weeks now...gathering up decorations and making decorations! I have also looked at different websites/blogs to get ideas of what I could do and not spend a ton of money and so this is what I came up with!

For treats we had scones (very Irish there!), popcorn with green icing drizzled over it, mint dark chocolate kisses wrapped in kelly green foil, a variety of green colored Jelly Bellies, Pot O' Gold (rolos in a green tin) and a Clover Leaf cake with mint Oreos around the cake.

For entertainment I looked up on Grooveshark (a free website to listen to music) and found some Irish music from Celtic Women and had that on to set the Irish mood. I also looked up movies to watch online that were free but Nate didn't want to watch a movie.

For clothing I found a shirt at Walmart for Nate that cost $4! Score!!! I also went to Target and found a pair of boxers that had clover leaves all over them...they were too cute to pass up! I also found at Target in their $1 section hats for us to wear! Granted I never thought Nate would wear anything with glitter on it but to my surprise he did (but only to take a picture)

I also bought spinach pasta but left it at our babysitters house when I dropped off Nataleigh. Heidi a friend of ours that lives in the next apartment over watch Nataleigh for us so we could have a little time to spend with each other alone before Nate had to go to clinicals.

Here are a few pictures of what I did. He really enjoyed the effort and decor and especially the thoughtfulness of planning a stay at home date.

If you are interested in great cheap at home dates or themes for at home dates check out the blog Love, Actually on blogspot and you will be amazed at all the ideas that they have!

First night of many to come!

Last night Nataleigh slept from about 830 till 730 this morning! I am sooo happy! After a very hard weekend of getting basically no sleep I think we have her back on schedule! Sunday night after we got home from Dayton, Ohio, Nate & I talked about letting her cry it out that night and that's what we did. She woke up around 230 or 330 and we let her cry for around 1 to 1 1/2 hours but she did fall back asleep and she never really wailed she just wined. She found her thumb from time to time and then after awhile she gave up her fight and went to sleep! She woke up around 645 and then I nursed her and everyone was happy! I did work last night so it was up to my mom to keep her on schedule which she did a fantastic job! She put her in bed and Nataleigh never made a peep! This morning she was happy and we even got her 8 month photo shoot in before 10am! I am hoping she does well tonight again! Say some prayers! Here are a few of my favorite ones from this months photo shoot!

Sleeping & Walking

Today was a good day! Nataleigh did better last night than she has all week! Thank God! She has been waking up 2 times a night (midnight and 3 am) which is very unusual for her since she has been sleeping through the night since she was 9 weeks old! I do believe she is teething (for real this time!)...you can see little buds when her gums are not swelled up...it's kinda cute. Another reason I believe she is teething is she is drooling a ton! The final reason is when she is nursing I can feel a difference in how she nurses...she is biting down harder than before but not completely biting. Last night however, she slept till 330 and kind of fussed till 430 which I am trying to let her cry/calm herself down to fall back asleep...it worked for a little while but then Nate told me to get her up and nurse her due to the fact it had been going on a hour since she first woke up. We got on our normal schedule for the day and have done well...I am praying tonight she does even better...I think she is starting to get back on routine! I am soooo excited!

Another update on a post about getting back on track with my weight goal...well I am down to 160.4 so I am down 2 lbs and I went for a walk with Nataleigh this afternoon. It was so nice out I wanted to walk around our apartment complex and let her look around....she is so fascinated by all the noises and new scenery. She just sits back and moves her head from side to side to try and catch every little thing we pass by...it is really cute! I feel really good about how today went and I am hoping that I continue to do good. Wish me luck and say some prayers!