Tiff and her two teeth!

Well, well my baby girl is now cutting two teeth at once, this all started to show on Tuesday of this week. My baby girls is growing so fast it seems like just yesterday I was in the delivery room crying from contractions. I am amazed by her daily and cannot even express in words the absolute love I feel as a mother. I will give my life for her and now I know where that saying comes from. My mom always said I would die for you kids and now I know what she means by it. I cannot even express to her the gratitude I feel for her being such and amazing woman and mother. I am being all sentimental and mushy today for some reason. Probably because I am sick and being a big baby, well I am going to go nap with my princess.
Hugs

Let's Ride.......

Yes, yes, I am going to get a new bike this spring so I am saving my pennies. I love these new bikes that look like old bikes! I want to purchase a baby seat for the back and take long bike rides with Tiff. I'm super excited and hopefully the rest of the baby weight will come off. I'm hoping this will help Tiff enjoy the outdoors as well as biking so when she gets older we can ride together. Any other mommies out there that would like to start riding with me in the spring, please please let me know. This could be a fun way to catch up and get exercise. Something Kaly and I always did in the summer was go for walks to pick wildflowers to set the big beautiful bouqet on the kitchen counter. Ummm, yes I am a a nerd who will be purchasing a basket for the front of my bike. I can picture it now, me and Tiff on my bike with a basket on the front full of flowers to bring home and put in the kitchen. I'm cracking up at myself this very instant! Have a great day everyone!

Lets have a tea party!

Well on my constant pursuit to naturally find ways to prevent illness as well as aid in my daily gripes I have come across some fabulous tea. The Republic of Tea has amazing tea for one and for two there are so many healing and health benefits of drinking tea. Of course in my constant battle to stop buying things and never using them I have pulled out my two canisters of loose leaf tea I purchased over six months ago and made myself a cup last night. I woke up feeling amazing and have decided that a nice cup of tea will be my daily ritual from today forward. My grandmas have always drank tea but now days you don't really see woman sitting around having tea like you use to! Heck where do you think tea sets and tea parties came from. All of us have played tea party when we were little girls once or twice. Another amazing tea I must add really quick is from India and it's called Assam tea. YUMMO! Add warm milk and a little brown sugar! My friend Nidhi makes it for me when I visit, yes "For tea", it's so cool to get an invitation to come over to chat and have a cup tea! I just love it. Why don't we get back to the good old days and start inviting the girls over for tea! Cool tea cups and tea pots are fun. I think I will do it! Watch out for your next invite for a play date and a cup of tea ;)

Did you say Tupperware Party?

So I haven't heard of a tupperware party since my mom was young! I attended one this evening and I envisioned a woman like in the old adds with a red and white gingham apron on smiling and holding plastic bowls! Well I must say things in the tupperware world have really evolved, I did indulge and I ordered a lunch set. My plan of course is to start packing my lunch to save me money in the long run! I am using this excuse to justify my purchase by the way! And yes I did get sucked into having a party so let me know if you want tupperware! LOL

Guilt FREE Margarita!

I don't know about you but I love following the, "Real Housewives", series on Bravo tv. I am a big fan of all of them but a favorite is Bethenny Frankel. She has a new book out called Naturally Thin. Great book by the way! While watching the show she has come up with some guilt free drinks and one of my favorite is the skinny girl margarita! OMG it tastes just like a 500 calorie margarita but only has around 100 calories! Yumm! For those of you who don't know about it here is my version of the recipe! Enjoy guilt free:
2 Oz 100% agave tequila
1 Oz Orange flavor liquor
1 Whole Lime
Club Soda
Ice

Fill a large margarita glass with ice, pour in tequila and orange liquor, squeeze entire lime into glass and top off with club soda and a lime wedge for that sitting on a beach feel! Enjoy, I know I do when I get a chance to have one!!
Here is her website:http://www.bethenny.com/products.htm

Lets read a book!

So the cutest thing ever is watching your husband read "Moo Baa Laa Laa Laa", to your infant daughter. She thinks she is such a big girl she holds the book while you read but won't let you turn the page. I can tell she is very stubborn like her mom already. It's times like these that I almost cry because looking at both of them together melts my heart. I never imagined I would be so blessed with a husband and daughter. I will say my life feels as close to perfect as it can I think. Tiffany has completely changed my life and to all those mothers out there I will say we are AMAZING and an awesome quote I seen on facebook today is so true:

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater, give her sperm she will make a baby, give her a house she will give you a home, give her groceries she will give you a meal, give her a smile she will give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what she is given. So if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit...

Haaa haaa Ilove this! Have a great day Ladies!

A Gift Just For You.

So my dear friend Nidhi gave me a fabulous gift, it's the Quik Kutz Silhouette SD, a lot like the Cricket Machine. This machine is amazing, you can make anything from gift tags, gift boxes as seen in the picture above (crazy paper I know) to scrapbooking embelishments and cards. If you are a scrapbooker or card maker this machine is a must. Check it out at www.quickutz.com.

My New Hobby

I have always loved taking pictures and I've always wanted to learn how to edit and play with photos. My mom just bought me Photoshop and I'm realy excited. Here is my first pictures I've edited. Photoshop is very difficult and I'm not thinking it's to user friendly so If anyone out there knows how to use it please help me.

Fun Babyshower Gift

So of course I had to make Tiff's name to hang over her crib, it was so fun and so easy. I just bought some wooden letters from Michaels painted them, then put dots on them and connected some pretty ribbon with hot glue. It was so fun and so simple I make this for my friends baby showers and it always is a big hit!

Tiff's First Playdate!

So Tiffany and her new friend Shubh had fun on their first play date. I was wondering how she would interact for the first time with another child. I was surprisingly shocked to see that she was more interested in what cool toys he had to play with. Shubh was more interested in trying to get her face, it was adorable. I was happy to see though that they both did very well interacting with each other. This gives me hope that she will be a nice, friendly and good child. I will do my best as a mother to make sure she is kind to everyone as she grows. I'm excited to be able to tell her that her first friend was a young boy from India and I hope that over the years their friendship will grow and they both will learn many things from each other!

My latest project, flower barretts

So I often get very bored and start a new project or hobby! My last was making flowers to put in my hair. I love the Real Housewives Series and Gretchen has beautiful hair. She has been wearing these beautiful flowers in her hair and of course I was looking around different stores and Claires is the only place that has flowers for your hair but they are expensive and look super cheap! So I decided I will make my own. I think they are beautiful!

Recycled Crayons

So my 9 year old step-daughter Kaly and I decided to clean up her art desk this weekend. I had seen somewhere that you can recylce your old broken crayons and put them in molds to make new ones. We had so much fun sorting all her good crayons from the broken and melting them in an old pan. I had old jello molds in the shape of bunnies so that is what we ended up with. She really enjoyed this project we did together and she thinks she has to coolest crayons ever. We made some solid colors and some rainbow colors. It was so much fun and now I won't be buying new crayons for awhile.

Homemade babyfood!

Okay, so I am totally into making my daughters baby food from frozen organic veggies and fruit as well as frozen veggies that are from my garden last summer. I think I have it down to a science now. For veggies I boil until tender then put in my blender on puree with some purified water. I then place into ice cube trays and once frozen I put two cubes into ziplock breast milk storage bags. You get about 25 bags for around 6 dollars. When I need to feed I simply take out a bag sit it into a pot of hot water on the stove then put into a little bowl to feed her. I try not to use our microwave as much as possible. I feel like I give her radioactive food when I do, makes me feel guilty. If I'm going to be on the go I grab a bag out of the freezer sit out for a couple hours then throw in the diaper bag, once it's thawed I just mash the bag to mix together because once it starts to thaw you can see the water start seperating from the food. Then simply feed her from the little bag. The bags are pretty sturdy so I just save, wash and reuse. With the frozen fruits I use apple juice instead of water. I feel like such a super mom!!!

New Friend

This week I had the opportunity to help someone cross off something on their bucket list. A new dear friend of mine Nidhi is from India. She told me since she has been a young girl she has always wanted to get a tattoo. In India this is not something that is typically acceptable or common. A couple weeks ago she noticed that I had a tattoo on my wrist and asked me if I would take her to get one. I said of course no problem, so we tossed around ideas of what she would like and she decided on a beautiful butterfly with her husband and sons name. As you can see in the picture it turned out lovely and she was MORE than excited. She is so happy that now when her son is older she can say, "I have this tattoo from America to remember my time there"! I have learned so much about her culture and I still have so many questions, she is such an intersting sweet woman and I am so thankful I have had the opportunity to become her friend.

Sometimes it's crazy when you think about how people are put in your life and the life long friendships that come from it. It's amazing what can grow from a simple hello!

Will they ever learn?

So if you know me you know the history, if you don't here is a quick recap. My dad had a drinking/fighting problem for many years. He was in prison for 6 years from the time I was 12 until I turned 18. He got out just in time to see me graduate. He's not a bad man, just stubborn and very simple minded. His way or no way pretty much. I always went to visit him once a week and we remained as close as you can given the situation. Our relationship is very odd but long story short he has gotten pulled over 4 times now including this Saturday when he actually got into an accident. He fears he will go back to jail now since this is his 4th driving on a suspened liscense. Years ago I would have cried and tried everything I could possibly do to find a way to get him out of this. I think that this and other things may be cause to my serious anxiety disorder, the constant worries of will he go away again for a long time and when will I see him again, he is so unhealthy will he survive? I was constantly nagged daily with these worries which now I realize I could not prevent or control. Now that I have a daughter I would never put her thru anything like that or want to be away from her. I just don't understand how or why he would or could have allowed these thing to happen over and over. Why wasn't he worried he wouldn't see his kids, grandkids I just don't understand!

My mom!

So I have realized that without my mom I would be lost. We have had so many ups and downs but in the end she is still my best friend. Now that I'm a mother I hope I can instill the values that my mom did in me! I hope my daughter wants to tell me things and spend time with me just because! I've always told my mom everything and I pray that my daughter will do the same. My mom isn't feeling well, she is going to the Dr. today at 10:15a.m., she is having some cramping and I pray it isn't anything serious. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers!

Energy drinks and your health!

Some energy drinks have as much caffeine as 14 cans of Coca Cola. Consuming that much caffeine can put you at risk for caffeine intoxication, causing nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset and tremors!

I feel amazing!

So last night was our 2nd night of the Monavie tasting! It's amazing to meet two school teachers from Stockbridge who are now retired make a quarter of a million dollars a year just by telling there friends about a juice that will change your life! I am hooked and so is the biggest critic I know my mom. If you don't know and want to know more about it let me know! I would love to share with anyone how this amazing product will change your life!