Okay so I don’t know where to begin…we have been at Andrews’ parents’ house for about two weeks now (not looking forward to going back home anytime soon) but we will be leaving Tuesday or Wednesday and I guess when we get back sometime I will do a better update. 

Macy is doing great she is 14 months and learning something new almost every day. 

My stepmom has started radiation treatments which I will have to do a better update on when we get back after I have seen her and know what all is going on. 

About the Youtube collab channel I was going to be a part of I talked to Andrew about it and he didn’t like the idea of me talking about some of the topics because of the people who feel strongly about it can be mean and threatening and stuff like that. But Kara (the lady who started the channel) said that if I wanted to I could be a guest vlogger every now and then. So that’s cool but I am kind of glad I don’t have to do it all the time because I wouldn’t have anytime for that here lately. 

So there’s that…

here’s the channel :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCrunchyLife/featured

So I haven’t been on here in awhile…so I guess I will talk about what’s been going on. We have been going out of town every weekend or so to Corsicana to Andrews’ parents’ house and it’s a little over a hundred miles from us so I am super glad to know that we are not leaving this weekend so maybe I can work on some things that need to be worked on. Saturday Macy went to her little friends 1st birthday party and had a blast. I might as well call them cousins since it’s Andrews’ brother Stephens girlfriends daughter. Confusing right? So I will just call them cousins. It was windy and a little cold so we didn’t even think about them getting sun burned. Macy didn’t get it bad just a little red but Addison (her “cousin”) is a red head so she got really burnt. :(

This upcoming Thursday is really nerve wrecking. My stepmother had surgery about a week and a half ago in her stomach so they could remove a tumor about 3 inches in diameter. I haven’t seen where but from what I have heard it was a pretty bad incision site. But Thursday is the day that they get the results back. We are all crossing our fingers that it isn’t cancerous. She has had cancer before back when I was about 14 or 15 we discovered that she had cervical cancer. They got rid of it and we were all so happy. Those were scary times. I hate cancer. It took away my Great Uncle (my mimis brother) and my papa has it currently. Which he still hasn’t told my mimi because he doesn’t want her to stress.

It is very stressful because he had it near his lip and they removed it. He went back to the doctor and they said it spread and he quit going. I understand how he doesn’t want mimi to stress over it but I just can’t imagine why he wouldn’t want to at least try to beat it. Someone told me and I am starting to think it is true is that he might not be trying to beat it because when mimi goes he wouldn’t want to stay long without her. And that sounds like my papa. They love each other so much I hope me and Andrew can be together that long and love each other that much. 

So yeah I have a lot on my mind.

On to a more positive note…I am going to be a part of a collab channel on Youtube! That is pretty cool. I am going to wait until it starts up and talk more about it. So that is pretty exciting :) it is going to be a crunchy parenting channel which is awesome!

I have been working out ALMOST every day. Friday I walked 3 miles on the treadmill I know that is nothing but it’s pretty good for me. I do yoga every day and I do body weight exercises every other day since it is pretty intense and I don’t want my milk supply to drop extremely. 

Also The Leaky Boob (website) Jessica and her family shared the live home birth online. It was her 6th baby so amazing they have 6 little girls. Watching her labor and still being so happy and smiling and joking around was amazing. I love that she had her other daughters there to watch the birth. She pushed little Arden out with one push! After an almost all day labor. It was amazing and glad that they let me and thousands of others watch it. 

This was pretty random. Should have just vlogged it but thinking about vlogging tomorrow….maybe.

Maybe! I am actually doing videos on youtube, just starting out though. I have had a few people tell me to do it so I am. I don’t know what is going to come from it so who knows! Might be something cool and then it might not get anywhere. But I’m not trying to get anywhere I am just trying to help other mothers out there and just document some of the things we do and so I can look back and see what I was feeling and that sort of thing.

 It will be like this but in video form. Right now I am still awkward in front of the camera, I’m not used to talking to one and I have always hated my voice so I am just trying to get over that part. I’m hoping for a mommy baby channel. Maybe with some crafts but mostly mommy and baby stuff.

Interested? Let me know!

Well as some of you know, and if you don’t know then you can read my other posts (there’s not many) to find out I am more of a natural mama. I try to do everything as natural as possible. I breastfeed, I don’t give Macy orajel when she is teething or medicine. I have only given her medicine when there’s a high fever that I can’t get down naturally. I do vaccinate but here lately I have been doing A LOT of research and not sure if we are going to vaccinate anymore or not. She hasn’t had a problem with them or anything it’s just some no wait ALL of the ingredients in this vaccines that worry me. I read a LONG list and I didn’t like anything I saw at all! I showed Andrew and he said she will be fine that he was vaccinated and so was I and we’re okay. Yes we are okay…right now. But what about when we’re older? We don’t know the long term effects. And there’s a lot of stuff in vaccines that I wouldn’t have wanted injected into me like, mercury, pig blood, animal and HUMAN aborted fetus!!!! Yes, you read correctly aborted human and animal babies. That is sad and makes me cringe to think that’s what they do. But not only that there are HUNDREDS of other things, worse things that are in them. So I don’t know I am just freaking out I guess I know my family (everyone in it) and same for Andrews’ would not like if I skipped out on the vaccines. And I know I don’t want Macy to get a crazy disease like Measles or Mumps or anything like that which freaks me out. So I am just torn between the two. You just can’t win I guess. 

But anyways, this post was originally going to be about how my decisions such as breastfeeding and all of that stuff is really why I don’t have friends. I did. I had a good amount and then I got pregnant. So I made friends who had kids and then realized that girls my age who have kids are going to parties, leaving their kids with their parents as often as possible and just being immature. And that is not me. I’ll admit I got involved with the wrong people when I was younger but even at 17 the whole “party” stage just went away. Once I got pregnant I stopped smoking, and started getting healthy and researching about breastfeeding and all of that stuff. These girls don’t really talk to me anymore because I don’t know I don’t want to hang out with them if their just wanting to party? I am a mother and that is all I want to be. A mother to my child. I want to look back and be able to be happy about my choices to become the best mother I can be and not look back and only remember going out with friends. I haven’t had a real friend in probably 2 years. These girls take what they have for granted. If all you care about is the next time you can dump your kid off with your parents so you can go to the club then you weren’t and still aren’t ready to be a mother.

My kind of fun is teaching my daughter new words, read her books, etc. When I get out of the house without Macy it is with Andrew to go to the movies which we only do every few months. I am with her every second of the day besides my nice 10 minute bath at the end of the day. 

I won’t regret it. These are memories I will forever hold in my heart. And if that means they won’t be friends with me because they think I’m some “breastfeeding hippy” then fine with me. I will continue to find other mothers whom I can relate to, even if they are a bit older that is fine with me. I need more women in my life that are as mature as I.

Sorry for the rant but I just get mad seeing young girls who have kids and all they do is go out. 

Holli

So my baby girl is ONE!!! She turned one on March 21, 2012 and I still can’t believe it!  It really feels like she should be about 6 or 7 months, it went by very fast like everyone told me it would. We had her birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese on March 17, I didn’t want it there but all the rec centers were full and the weather was very windy and cloudy so I was iffy about a park. But all went well she actually LOVED it! Next year we will be better prepared. And when we are in our own place we can just have it there but until then looks like rec centers and parks!

Here is what her invitation looked like. You pull the candle and that and the icing comes out and that’s where the date and location were. 

Here’s the big cake Which was very yummy!

And here is Macys’ little cake. :)

This is before we left the house. As you can tell she wasn’t feeling good. She had a fever but once we got there she started to feel better.

Here she is clapping with gigi (my mother) I am waiting for people to send me all the pictures that they took of the party since I was the one opening presents.

Here she is trying to get the butterfly off the cake.

Macy looking at one of the baby dolls she got. Can’t you tell she’s in love? :)

She doesn’t have enough toys right? Actually she has too many and doesn’t play with half of them so hopefully I will figure something out.

Macy loving her baby dolls! Oh and that big box is her new car seat :D 

My sweetness<3

It was a very good birthday! :) And she LOVED the zoo!

 Hopefully I can start writing more on here there’s SO MUCH happening (not that it would interest any of you..MAYBE!) 

I am the mother of a toddler! Woohoo!

So a lot has been going on for example yesterday my stepsister delivered her 2nd boy Gavyn Chase at 9lb 7oz. 

And then last Friday we ended up in the ER with Macy. She was sick all last week with a runny nose and a cough but around 4 in the morning we woke up because Macy kept rolling around and crying and once I felt her skin I realized she was really hot so I stripped her down and checked her temp it got to 102.5 and then she threw up so I stopped taking her temp to help her since she was choking on it. Called the doc and was told to go to the ER so spent the whole morning there. She is better now she still has a little bit of snot but not as green and not as much of it.

Her birthday party is this weekend on the 17th and since all of the rec centers were full and I don’t want to take a chance with the weather it’s going to be at Chuck E Cheese. Which I didn’t want it to be there at first but now after thinking about it with all my little sisters and soon to be 3 year old nephew I think they would love it and not be so bored. Plus I would like to play the skee ball game or whatever it’s called.

I need to start taking more pictures of Macy but here lately we haven’t really done anything besides just play with toys and watch Elmo and Barney. I have way too many home videos all ready but you can’t really have too much can you?

Anyways she has been walking a lot, she still crawls because she’s faster that way but she took her first steps February 20 (day before she turned 11 months.)

Not this weekend but next weekend Andrew and I might be taking Macy to the zoo to celebrate her birthday by ourselves as a family. I know a few people might be upset because they want to take her to the zoo too but there will be other times I’m sure and I just want to do something with my family and I for once. Since every time we do anything there’s always someone doing it their way and we are wanting to make our own memories as well.<3

Oh and I have started watching The Walking Dead…I’m kinda obsessed.

So there’s a bit of an update. Does anyone ever read these? I am really thinking I am just posting this stuff for myself to document stuff but would like to know if anyone is reading.

So…today was good until I decided to make Macy and I some lunch. There is a small (about to my hip) stool looking table. We usually put our gallon of water or tea on it until there’s room in the fridge for it…we also have our boxes of soda (24 pack of Sprite and a 24 pack of Dr Pepper) on the floor next to it. So I am on the other side of the fridge making some lunch for us not thinking anything of the table because she goes around there so often to play with the boxes I thought it was fine. I hear a loud BANG and I look and see her lying on her back with the table on top of her and the gallon of green tea all over the floor. We live with Andrews’ brother it’s his house and he wants to keep it nice otherwise I would have held my baby girl longer while she cried instead of holding her checking to see what got hurt and immediately putting her in her play pen. The green tea is every where and there’s a big puddle of it heading right for the CARPET so the first thing I do is grab some of Macys’ blankets to stop it from getting onto the carpet ( I succeed at that!) I then run to the bathroom and grab all of our clean towels and run back to kitchen and start soaking up as much green tea as I can. While the towels do that I am busy grabbing the soaked 24 packs of soda.

So when you open our fridge all you see is soda. -__- All my fruits and veggies are now hidden. That won’t be obvious at all. So I pick up the soaking wet towels and running them to our dirty towel basket (cursing along the way) and trying to get back to the kitchen to grab more. There isn’t a possibility of sweeping since the floor is COMPLETELY soaked with tea so I start mopping like a MANIAC I swear if you were to imagine someone on crack mopping I am sure that is what I looked like. So I had my workout for the day.

While the floor was drying so I can re-mop it AGAIN because it will get sticky I checked Macy who had stopped crying and started playing with her toys I see that the stupid table had scratched her pretty close to her eye so she is going to more than likely with my luck get a black eye.

So yep. Parenting fail!!!! :( I’m sure there will be more but hopefully not to that extent.

Floor is drying and I am typing this while Macy does what she does best…make a mess in our room. But at least it’s all safe :)

If it was my house I would have been more calmer and would have held her while she cried and walked with her like I usually do when she gets hurt. But this isn’t my house and I don’t have to work to help pay for it so the least I could do is to keep it looking nice. Plus I didn’t want to get bitched at.

Have you had a day like this? Where something bad happens and you go into panic mode? Any funny ones like mine? I am glad I can laugh about it now but in the moment I was saying “shit” the whole time.

xx

Holli

It drives me insane when I see someone putting their child in a car seat and their doing it wrong!!! It’s like “helloooooo!!!!!!! Did you NOT read the manual?” Especially when the person is your relative and she has been a mother longer than you and you try to tell her and she gets offensive. I’m sorry but I would gladly let someone tell me I am doing it wrong if it could save the life of my child. I let people give me advice all the time it couldn’t hurt anything but in the end I am going to make my own decisions. 

But if it is advice that could save my child’s life if we happened to get into a wreck I will listen and take notes while I’m at it. I knew someone that got in a wreck and their son would have died (they took pictures of the wreck) if the car seat wasn’t installed correctly so thank goodness it was right!

Here is a link to some car seat safety tips if you have lost your manual. 

 If for some reason you cannot figure out how to do it properly you can go to a hospital, most people are trained there especially the paramedics and also the labor and delivery section is since they help families take home newborns. Fire stations, and of course police stations. They all would be gladly to help. There are also TONS of videos on youtube that will show you. 

http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/safety-resources-by-risk-area/car-seats-boosters-seat-belts-/car-seat-safety-tips.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5AwtaQnNO8 <——-Here is a video on why it is unsafe to put a winter coat on you child while in a car seat. 

We are about to be leaving for Andrews’ parents house tonight which is 100 miles away so I always make sure everything is right and safe. I still do that even if we are just going to the store which is only 12 miles away. 

You never know when you can get into a wreck. You may be a safe driver but there are so not so safe drivers out there on the road their texting, talking on the phone, drinking, eating, maybe looking for a song on the radio, ipod, etc. No one knows how fast wrecks happen until they get into one. I have only been in one before I got pregnant with Macy and it was the scariest thing. So please drive safe and make sure your kiddos are safe.

xx

Holli

Macy is turning 11 months tomorrow! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by. Everyone always told me it goes fast I just didn’t realize how fast! It really feels like she should be 6 months old instead of almost 1!!!!!!!

So this weekend I went out with Andrew and his family and we bought a few things for her party. Cups, plates (big and small) cups, table cloth, birthday hat (those cone looking things lol) her party dress and some shoes. I would rather plan ahead and get everything instead of waiting a day or two before the party and forget a lot of stuff. 

So really I just need to find a place to make her cake. It was going to be a cupcake theme but that quickly changed to a princess theme so the invitations are probably the only thing with cupcakes on them which is fine with me. Andrews’ brothers’ girlfriend Amber is making them I just need to take a cute picture of Macy and send her that and then they will be ready.

I just need some ideas food-wise to serve. I know there is going to cake, and some cupcakes (which I need to get one of those cheap cardboard stands for. I was thinking of just bringing some koolaid  and maybe sprite and maybe making some small finger sandwiches so if any of you have suggestions for the party food or anything please let me know.

I can’t believe she is going to be 1 in a month!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!