We're off to see the Wizard...and Handmade gifts

Ok, well, we aren't really off to see any so-called wizard, but we are off to visit my father in the hospital tomorrow. He's having elbow surgery...and if you know my dad, you know that this is a big deal for him. The only reason he ever...and I mean EVER...goes to see a doctor is to get a yearly physical so that he can still carry the special drivers license that allows him to drive the big caterpillar machinery, back hoes and dump trucks for his job.

So, you know what this means...yup, no blog for another week probably. So, to make up for the lack of blogs for the next week, each time you visit my blog you can look at a picture of Raleigh and a handmade gift that he received from friends and family. Enjoy!

Raleigh is lying on a crocheted afghan that my sister-in-law's mother made for him.

Raleigh is lying on an amazing quilt that my friend Chelsea made for him. One side is made of these beautiful squares and the other side is made of this amazing fuzzy baby fabric. She also made him a toy blanket that has different textured ribbons all around it...And she made a mini quilt with the cutest monkeys on it.

My best friend Jamie made this fleece tie blanket for Raleigh.

Mary, a very dear family friend knit this wonderful wool hat.

The blue elephant fleece tie blanket was made by my cousin Kayla.

This afghan was crocheted by a friend of mine from work.

This tie quilt and knit blanket were made by my sister-in-law who is about to have her own little baby boy and day now.

The Knit blaket and cute knit baby stuffed animals were made by my mother-in-law. I am just in love with those animals! They are too darn cute!

It doesn't fit just yet, but this adorable apple hat was made by another friend from work.

I have so many talented people in my life! Thank you everyone for sharing your talents with us!

Cutest outfit ever...and more baptism pictures

Hi all,

Yes, I am finally posting again. Today, it finally dawned on me that whenever I am about to post or want to post, I get gruff from my husband. I told him that I don't give him gruff when he plays his video games so he should leave me alone on this subject. I'm pretty sure I won this one :)

The outfit that Raleigh wore to church today is by far my favorite, I think. But for the life of me, I cannot remember who we got it from. So, if you gave us this outfit, please write me an e-mail to tell me it was you.

I don't think that I've ever been so overwhelmed with gifts before. I have a hard time remembering who gave what gift. I know, it's awful.

Enjoy the pictures.

Cutest outfit ever.

Raleigh and Daddy sleeping in yesterday morning.

Raleigh, Auntie Jenna, and Grandma Deb

Raleigh and his sponsors: Great Grandma Sarah, and Great Auntie Soni

Raleigh's Baptism

Off to the In-Laws

We're having Raleigh baptised this weekend, I'm not sure how long we'll be staying at our in-laws but I probably will not be able to update the blog until after Monday.

But I'll have video and pictures to post after we get back. So feel free to take a break from reading this blog, and treat your self to something nice, like maybe 30 seconds of inner peace, or something :).

We'll be back soon!

Video of Happy Raleigh

A cool new blanket

In the past week, I've been trying to piece together a bunch of knitted squares that I had been working on since high school. Today, or last night, I can't remember now...I finished piecing them together. Now, I have to crochet a cool border on the blanket.

By sheer coincidence...Daddy dressed him today...Raleigh's outfit matched the blanket perfectly making for a wonderful photo op.

Happyness

For those of you who attempted to correct my spelling of the word happiness...cough...Joel...in my post titled "A date for Josh and I," I'd like to note that "Happyness" is the spelling used in the title of the movie.

If you don't believe me, click here:

http://movies.msn.com/movies/movie.aspx?m=587209

On a similar note, a wonderful and very literate friend of mine sent me an e-mail recently that asked me for my opinion on the subject of correcting people's grammar. And here is what I said in reply to her.

Correcting someone's grammar must always be handled delicately as the act of doing so will no doubt make the person who you are correcting feel like you think they are stupid.

So, here are some rules that I always try to follow:

1. Never correct a stranger's, your boss', or fellow employees' grammar usage unless you are very close to them.
2. Feel free to correct friends', spouse's, or any relative's grammar when you feel that their mood allows for it.
3. Always correct a child's grammar usage, they are still young and it needs to be "beaten" into them somehow. We know that schools don't do a very good job at it.
4. Feel free to write a letter to the editor of any publication to inform them of incorrect grammar usage. They'll probably be happy to be corrected and happy that you read their article.On a personal note, my husband corrects my grammar usage weekly, if not daily sometimes. And even though the act of the correction sometimes puts me in to a sour mood, I am happy to be corrected. I know that there are plenty of people who don't understand or care about proper grammar. An argument for the other side could be that the act of talking is to communicate. A message must be correctly relayed from one party to the next for communication to occur properly. And whether you say "He and I went to the park," or "He and me went to the park," I still understand the message you are trying to relay...you went to the park with him.

However, speaking properly in your day to day language use helps you to be a better writer, and if you want to convey any message in writing, proper grammar is necessary for others to be able to read what you wrote without stumbling through your words to figure out what your message is.

I could go on and on, but I won't.

Tummy Time

Raleigh and I enjoyed some tummy time this morning, and I happened to catch Raleigh's part of it on camera. He holds his head up so well, and he has started smiling back at us now.

He has also started sleeping on a schedule. He naps periodically throughout the day, and then around 11 pm, we put him down in his crib to sleep, or he sleeps in his swing right next to Josh as he playes video games. He wakes up between 3 am and 4 am to feed, and then immediately falls back to sleep and then he wakes up between 6-8 am.




Now, a little about me:

I'm am finally feeling like I have recovered from giving birth, and I've been able to attend 3 water aerobics classes in the past three weeks. This upcoming week, I'll start attending 3x/week. I'm only 6 lbs over what I weighed when I first found out I was pregnant. I had more stretch marks than I thought I would, but I'm already to the point of being proud of them when I look down instead of disgusted, which I was at first.

Josh and I have also started doing yoga together when we can. Organizing our house for efficiency is going slowly so far. I've rearranged our kitchen cupboards, Josh and I rearranged our living room, we dropped some items off at a local thrift store, however we still have clutter every where and we are not caught up on our laundry.

We are having a blast though! I knew that motherhood would be fun, but I had never imagined exactly how much fun it has been.

Bear Hat

Don't you wonder what I blogged about before I had Raleigh. :)

A date for Josh and I

Yesterday, Josh and I went on our first date since Raleigh was born. Josh's sister watched Raleigh while Josh and I went out to lunch and to see the "Pursuit of Happyness."

I had a wonderful time, but I was still ever so happy to get home to see my baby boy.

Here is a picture of him that I took today.

OMG! it's been a whole week since I've posted last!

I'm a horrible blogger :(

I should never go a week with out blogging...I'm ashamed...I usually try to be really good at posting often.

To make up for it, here is a catch-up blog about what's been going on this past week.

I've decided to take advantages of the few times when Raleigh is sleeping and I'm not tired to reorganize our house. I know...that's a big task! So far, I've reorganized our hallway closet that holds our bath towels, toiletries and other stuff; I feel it was a success.

Josh and I drove to my home town last Thursday evening to spend time with family and to attend my Sister-in-law's baby shower yesterday. It was fun to be home.

My brothers, David and Corey, took Josh ice fishing on Friday, and my brother Ryan took Josh fishing early (5 am) Saturday morning. Both times they didn't catch many fish. However, Josh still had a blast. He really likes it when my brothers take him fishing.

We drove home after Barb's baby shower and Raleigh ALMOST slept the whole 3.5 hours...we had to stop about 60 miles from home so I could breast feed him and so Josh could change his diaper.

Picture this- Josh, Winnie, Raleigh and myself parked in a empty church parking lot under a big light...I'm breast feeding Raleigh...Josh is petting Winnie to calm her...and this is all happing in our little two has outgrown our little car.

Anyway, we arrived home last night around 9 pm and I finally listened to my messages on my phone... we don't get service in my home town...I figured it was too late to return phone calls at that time, but if you're a friend of mine and you are reading this blog and you've recently called me...I promise that I'll call you soon.

Raleigh didn't sleep more than 1.5 hours at a time last night so I was tired all day today. Right before this blog, I napped for an hour and a half...it felt great!

Below is a picture that I took when I woke up from my nap, Raleigh and Josh wer lying on the couch watching football. Josh put Raleigh in one of his sweatshirts instead of getting up to get his blanket. It made for a great picture!

This is of Raleigh propped up in our boppy pillow...tip for anyone buying a baby shower gift: if the mom-to-be is going to breastfeed, get her a Boppy pillow, I use it every time I feed Raleigh.

Note: I only placed Raleigh in this pillow so I could take this darling picture; babies Raleigh's age and size should never be left unattended in a boppy pillow.

This is how Raleigh usually spends an hour or two every night while I sleep...resting on the boppy pillow on his Daddy's lap while Daddy plays the X-box.