Crafting Attempts

As probably everyone who wanders into this blog has figured out my husband is in the Coast Guard. For our family that means he works 24 hours on/24 hours off and everyother weekend. And by working I mean gone away from the house for a full two days. So that means pretty much half of the week its just Madeline and I, and the other have we have a husband/daddy around. I am insanely afraid of the dark and hate nights that Taylor isn't sleeping here (and of course I miss him during the day too!) but I have finally started to accept this is military life and I am getting used to it. So half of my nights I have a lot of free time (Madeline goes to sleep between 7 and 8.. I go to bed usually between 12 and 1.) I'm not a tv watcher so a lot of my time has been spent reading crafty people's blogs. So I have decided to try my hand at it and I made my very first Christmas ragamuffin garland! I am still going to hang an ornament or two on it, I just haven't decided which one yet. I tied mine around the lamp that is beside my front door. Although it isn't as full as I had hoped (I cut my strips too short evidentially) for my first attempt I am very pleased!

Note: This table would normally be filled with my little odd collections, but my 15 month old enjoys taking all of those things off this shorter table. So it is bare..

Big Cups

My little girl got off of bottles about a month ago. We just got rid of them and she adapted very quickly. She is great at using a straw, however those cups are much more messy than the sippy cups. So whenever I have given her a sippy cup, I have to tilt it for her to get drink. When she wants drink she gets her sippy cut and just wacks me with it until I tilt it into her mouth. The past few days I have refused to give it to her except at meal time in her seat. And today she started tilting her own sippy cup to get drink! Wohoo!! I feel like I finally have an independent big girl!

November Nor'Easter

As you have probably have seen on the news the Outer Banks and the Hampton Roads area got pounded by a November Nor'Easter this week. Virginia Beach got the brunt of it, the water was up above their car's windows! Here the Beach Rd in many places is so flooded it looks like a river! The worst part for me was that Madeline and I were at home alone since Taylor was on duty! I was so paranoid I roof would blow off or we would lose power and I would panic ha. It is pretty amazing how much damage mother nature can do!

Madeline and I got home on Monday from spending the week at my parents house! I got my hair cut a little above my shoulders and a bit blonder.. I am learning to love it. Madeline has been constantly saying "uh-oh" to everything "bad" that happens. She will hit the dog and go "uh-oh" as if it were an accident! She is lucky he is so patient with her because she pretty much abuses the poor thing.

Lynchburg, Lynchburg

Madeline and I have been at home in Lynchburg since Monday. I must admit it is hard staying at anyone's house other than my own, even my parents! We are headed home Monday morning and we are ready! Poor Taylor had a horrible day at work, he recovered his first dead body! Ick! And he managed to lose his wedding ring on the beach, he was so irritated! Hopefully tomorrow will be better for him!

Madeline and I have been all over this week. She stayed two days with her Grandma Sharon. My mom works all of the time now, so the rest of the week I went around spending times with old friends. It was a much needed breather from "real life!" I love our life in the Outer Banks, but it is nice to come home and relax with friends who I have known for years!

Eventful Days

We got back home on the beautiful Outer Banks on Wednesday evening. I have been battling allergies since last Monday and it has been horrible! Madeline hasn't had a bottle in about a week and a half! She fussed the first two nights but has been fine since. She was digging through her diaper bag this morning and spotted a bottle and immediately stuck it in her mouth, so I quickly replaced it with a sippy cup filled with apple juice. She was more than happy to exchange!

Last Saturday we went to Taylor's cousin Steve's wedding. It was pouring all day and since it was an outside wedding I was dreading the 45 minute trip to stand in the rain! It rained until we got there, but once we got out of the car the clouds cleared up and it was beautiful and sunny! It was an adorable ceremony and Taylors uncle Brian took a bunch of beautiful pictures. Madeline sat quietly in the grass during the vows, occupied with her little basket of roses and my mom's David Yurman bangles. She wore a beautiful "princess dress" my mother-in-law bought her with cream ballet flats. She was such a doll baby!

Tonight we went to the North Carolina Aquarium for their Trick or Treat Under the Sea party. It was a lot of fun! I coulnd't believe they had sold 1,500 tickets! It was packed and hard for our little family because Madeline wasn't really interested in what was going on, she was just trying to run away haha. All of those people made it difficult, so we ended up leaving about an hour before it ended. She had her first few lollipops and was an adorable bee. I will be sure to post plenty of pictures very soon!

What a Day!

This morning Taylor had to head back to work! He leaves the house around 6:30 and usually ends up waking up Madeline, but this morning she went right back to sleep! I had to be at the doctor at 10, and the doctor is an hour away from my house. I got up, took a shower, packed Madeline a lunch, got her dressed, walked Otis and we were out of the door at 8:35. I had a good doctors visit, she suggested a few reasons my blood pressure and other issues may be happening. Hopefully my family doctor will be able to look into some of those suggestions and my health concerns can be resolved! If anything comes of this of course I will be blogging about it. Already on some of the preeclampsia blog sites I am a member of I have gotten so great feed back about similar stories. Thats why I love reading blogs. Most blogs I don't comment on, I just read. It is a form of story telling. Just like I am telling you my story, I enjoy reading other peoples stories. One thing that excites me about writing this is that one day I know Madeline will sit down and read all of my blogs!

Madeline was a handful today! She is getting her 7th tooth on the bottom right side of her mouth. That and taking her bottles away have made her very very cranky. Today the doctors trip was right at her nap time, plus she was in the car for two hours. So she was just off all day. Hopefully tomorrow she will return to her sweet loving self!

Winter is on the Way

Burrrr it is chilly outside today! I have spent the last two days day dreaming of remodeling an old farmhouse in Savanah, Georgie..we can dream can't we?!

Yesterday we went to Virginia Beach and did some winter clothes shopping. The only winter clothes Madeline had was a few outfits my mother-in-law gave us. She is constantly picking up something for us, we are so blessed haha. For Madeline's summer clothes she had so many she wore a lot of them just once because I bought so many and so did my mother-in-law, so I hadn't bought her anything yet. She got a few sweaters and fleece tops. My mom had got her a heavy jacket which is already used almost daily in this freezing weather! Next week we get to go home! We are so excited to eat some Japanese food (and obviously spend some time with our family!)