Mooooo-ve Over!

Marissa had to show off her new cow print diaper over the weekend! 

Is that not too cute?  I'm still practicing my "faux-tography" skills.

I'm getting a little bit better at manipulating the poor lighting in our house.  Learning more about the settings on my camera and what works best.  I still have a lot to learn, but in the meantime, I don't think I'm doing too shabby.

Yesterday we went for a brief walk.  Marissa sat up in the stroller like a big girl.  ::Tear:: Where's my itty bitty baby?  I will have to post pictures soon of her in the stroller.

We took some cute pictures of her over the weekend. 

Where's Marissa?  I can't see her in her camo!  Marissa's "Uncle Fuzz" bought her this outfit for Christmas.

Look at those CHEEKS!

Daddy tastes good, apparently!

Daddy's girl. <3 these two!

What a goof!

<3 Mommy and Me <3

So serious!  But she is flawless. :)

Today Marissa has her 6 month well baby visit.  She will be getting some shots so she may not be feeling well this afternoon.  We will get to see how much she weighs and her current stats, so stay tuned!  I think she weighs about 16 pounds now, according to our home scale.

She is sitting up by herself more and more and she gets better at it every day.  We started giving her Puffs over the weekend.  She rakes them up into her hand and puts them to her mouth.  Even though she doesn't have teeth yet, she gums and chews on the puffs.  It's so cute!  It's really neat watching her motor skills at work, seeing her learn new things and explore the world.

How come no one ever tells you how much you will love your children?  It amazes me how much my heart grows each and every day for her!

Sold!

I think I'm officially sold on photo editing.  Even just lightening the picture some makes a huge difference!  I really need to learn more about editing. =)

Before

After

Before

After

Before

 After

It helps that I have a truly adorable subject to practice on.

Photo Editing

As some of you know, I got a new camera (Nikon D3000) for Christmas.  I've enjoyed learning more about photography, but I have a lot to learn and not a lot of time to dedicate to it.  To boot, our house gets TERRIBLE, terrible lighting.  Any reputable photographer would tell you that starting with natural light is key to great photos.  We literally live in a cave (much to my husband's delight).  Last night I was given a few tips from "a friend" (thanks, Cathie!) and so I've decided that I'm going to try and edit some of my photos to balance out the lack of natural light in our house.  Now keep in mind I do not have proper photo editing software like the pros do, but I made these few changes by using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. 

This picture is Straight off of Camera (SOOC)

A little too much?

Getting better...?

What do you think?



Play Date and Bon-bons!

Danny is out of town for the rest of the week so I invited his cousin, Marie, over for dinner.  She has a 9 month old, Aubrey, so we thought it would be nice to get the girls together for a play date.  She generously made alfredo and brought it over for dinner.  I made salad and garlic toast to go along with it!  She also brought homemade bon-bons, they were delicious.  I had never had a bon-bon before, who knew they were so yummy!  These had oreos, chocolate and cream cheese in them.  I may have to steal the recipe for a blog post. :)  Hopefully I can have enough self control be a nice little wifey and save a few for my groom.

 Marissa fell asleep on me the other day and I was soaking up all the snuggles!  I don't get to do this often. I love snuggling with her. 

 My big girl sitting up by herself and wearing her Amber teething necklace.  Miss Rosey Cheeks!

 Here's a few pictures of the girls. They were so cute together! Squealing, patting each other, trying to get a few hair pulls in and sharing toys.

Marissa and Aubrey

So I've already started getting carried away with Marissa's 1st birthday party plans (and it's still 6 months away).  I bought her a special first birthday onesie and it came in the mail the other day!  We are doing a pink and black lady bug theme and I think it will be a lot of fun.  I'm hoping that a family friend, Monika, who also did our wedding cake, will do the cake for Marissa's first birthday party.  Okay, I better stop with the details before I give everything away before the big day.

Must step away from the bon-bons...

Sorry, I'm about to put myself in a chocolate induced coma.  I had a cup of coffee while Marie was here and having coffee past 5:30 in the evening is never a good idea.  I'm sure I will be kicking myself in the butt tonight when I'm tossing and turning and unable to fall asleep.

My brother, Josh, will be celebrating his 26th birthday on Friday.  He and my parents are going to come visit and we may go out to dinner, or I'll end up cooking in.  Either way, it will be nice to see the family!  Danny won't be back until late on Friday, so it will be nice to have some company. 

Time to catch up on my trashy TV (since Danny isn't here to complain about it).  Teen Mom 2 it is!

Want to W-O-W your guests?

Head on over to my recipes tab and check out my latest addition - Crockpot Jambalaya!  Seriously, you can't go wrong with this dish.  A little bit of spice and a whole lot of comfort.  I was surprised at how delicious this recipe was.  I can't take credit for the original recipe, but I can take credit for popping some ingredients in a crockpot and serving up a hearty meal.

Serve with a french loaf of bread and you've got yourself a New Orleans favorite!

Features

This morning as I was showing my co-worker some recent pictures of Marissa, I started thinking about her features.  Right now her eyes are still blue, but they are a darker blue than Danny's.  I think she has a 50-50 chance of having blue or green eyes and I'm curious to see what they end up being.  Some people say that she has my eyes, but I don't really see it.  I still can't decide who she looks like.  I think she has Danny's ears and eyebrows.  Some people think that she has my chin and lips.  She definitely has my feet and fingers.  It's crazy to think that I grew her from just a little molecule.  It's so much fun watching her grow and learn!

Yesterday we went to Danny's parents house for a few minutes and when we were leaving we were waving "bye-bye".  Marissa was opening and closing her hand like she was trying to say bye too!  It was sooo cute.  We've been working on that for awhile with her and I think she is starting to catch on. 

I've been wanting to join a local moms group in our area, but haven't really had time to.  They do meet and greets mostly through the week.  Since I work full time, it's nearly impossible to find time to do anything during the week.  I'm hoping that a weekend event will open up soon so I can meet some other moms in the area. 

This is the week that Danny will be on travel.  He leaves for Baltimore tomorrow around mid-day.  He is going to keep Marissa in the morning to spend a little extra time with her before he goes.  Since he gets back so late on Friday, he doesn't get to see her until Saturday morning.  My parents are coming to visit this weekend and since there is a Civil War Relic show in town, you can bet where my dad will be!

There is a "Wee-Cycled" children's event coming up on the 12th - 15th of this month.  It's at our local expo center and families from all over the area come to sell baby items that they no longer need.  Last year I went when I was pregnant and was able to find a few maternity outfits at a relatively reasonable price.  I didn't know if Marissa was a boy or girl yet, so I settled on getting a few books and gender neutral baby outfits.  I'm so excited to go this year and see if I can find some outfits for Marissa.  They also sell larger ticket items like cribs, swings, strollers, bouncy seats, jumperoo's, etc.  These items typically go kind of fast, so you have to go the first day if you want in on the goodies. 

A friend of ours gave us a really nice pink swing and bouncy seat for Marissa that she had for her grand daughter.  The items were barely used and it was very generous of her to give us these items.  I had originally registered for gender neutral baby items that we could use for additional children. Since the swing and bouncy seat were given to us, we weren't going to be picky about them being pink.  I've been debating on trying to sell the swing and bouncy seat to get a more gender neutral color for when we have a second child (just in case we have a boy next).  Marissa still loves her swing though and I can't decide I want to part with it just yet.  She loves "catching" the butterflies on the mobile and I really love that it has an adapter for the wall or you can use batteries.  It seems like a lot of the swings I've seen recently only have a battery option.

A friend of mine, Sophie, who is due in August with her first child is currently researching cloth diapers!  You have no idea how excited this makes me.  =)  I posted the pictures of Marissa in her diaper on Facebook and a friend commented that her 14 month old son is already starting to use the "big boy potty" all thanks to using cloth diapers!  Did I ever mention that some children learn to use the potty faster if they are in cloth diapers?  Apparently, babies can't feel when they are wet in a disposable diaper because the gel like chemicals soak up all the liquid.  Another W-I-N for cloth!  I wish that I could challenge everyone with a new baby to try out cloth diapers.  I would be willing to bet that they would be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Well, that's enough ramblings for one day.  I'm hoping that I can start blogging more, I've been slacking big time here recently. 

Have a great day, blogger world!

Little Fluffy Butt!

This weekend I took some pictures of Marissa in one of my favorite diapers.  It is a Kawaii (which means cute in  Japanese) with daisies on it.  We had fun and Daddy joined in too!  He would make her smile for the camera, since she normally hides all of her smiles when the camera comes out.

 Sitting up like a big girl

 Such a happy girl

 Love this little monkey!

 Standing tall with daddy's help

Goodness, I don't know how Danny and I managed to have such a perfect little baby girl!  She melts my heart everyday.

This past weekend was pretty low key.  We had some friends over on Saturday to catch up over a few drinks.  Then on Sunday I had a skype date with Cierra and she got to "see" Marissa.  Later that day I had a friend over and we did some scrapbooking.  I'm trying to finish up my pregnancy album so that I can start on Marissa's baby album.  Danny watched Marissa for me which was really nice of him.  I made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner with garlic toast and salad.  After dinner we relaxed and watched a movie and called it an early night.  And here we are at another Monday....I swear the weekends fly by too fast.

Marissa sort of gets cheated out of her "six month birthday" since February only has 28 days and she was born on the 30th.  She has her 6 month well baby visit next week and I can't wait to see how much she has grown!  Stay tuned for the results. :)