It's better that way...

Lop-sided, that is!

Tomorrow is the Little Lady's 1st birthday!!!

We're celebrating it on Saturday with her big monster bash, but of course we have to celebrate it tomorrow too.

I made her a cake tonight.



After seeing the results I had to laugh at myself for one thing I considered for the briefest of moments when planning her party...
ME making the cake!!!

I am a cake decorating drop-out you know.
(My second year of 4-H cake decorating, I made it half way through my first cake... more tears and screaming took place in that half hour then during the best soap opera break-up. My Mom then decided it would be a good idea if I go ahead and drop that project.)
Needless to say, Target will be handling the cake on Saturday. Mom and I will be busy making several dozen cupcakes though, but that will be just fine...my Mom is the cupcake wizard after all.


You know I am against store bought frosting, but...there is one exception...
FUNFETTI!



I'm guessing the Little Lady (and John Wayne who the cake is currently hiding from) won't care what it looks like!

They're here!

Today we got our Girl Scout cookies from our favorite girl scout E.

When I walked in the door from work with them, not one box was opened. Throughout the course of cooking dinner, I managed to open every single box.


T helped me sample them.



Don't judge us.
Yes, I am feeding my baby cookies, and before dinner at that.
Yes, she is still in her pajamas (she had a leisurely day with her Dad today).
Again, don't judge us.





The verdict is in - the shortbread cookies are good!
So are the other three boxes : )

March 1, 2010

This day is as crystal clear in my memory as if it happened just yesterday. I had a 10AM appointment with Dr. Lalonde and after a weekend of feeling pretty yucky: blood pressure issues, gall bladder issues, nausea, I knew that he’d be inducing me and even though all along I wanted to hold out as long as possible (partly because I had my maternity leave all worked out in my head according to my due date (rookie!) and I was admittedly nervous about being induced) I was finally ready.

I told Justin not to go to work to come to my appointment with me because today was the day. My Mom and Dad already had plans to be in the Springs for another appointment. Dr. Lalonde was the doctor on call that night at the hospital. All of the stars were aligning; we were going to get to meet our baby girl soon!

As expected, Dr. Lalonde told us to go have a good lunch and be back at the hospital at 12:30PM. We went home and settled Lucy and Lacy in and after lunch with my parents, we went to the hospital and we waited. I was admitted and shown to my room where I unpacked and methodically set up for “battle.” In my carefully packed bag I had EVERYTHING that any magazine, online article or friend had ever suggested. As it turned out, I really wouldn’t have time or the need for all the fun and games I had packed.

At 2:30PM, a nurse started me on Pictocin. Shortly thereafter, informed me she was stopping it because I was having good contractions on my own (my Mom had already figured this out from the monitors). I didn’t even realize I was having contractions, that’s a good thing! I saw Dr. Lalonde at 5:00PM, he broke my water (I instantly went from not feeling anything to feeling everything, threw-up and requested my epidural). Dr. Lalonde said we were probably looking at a 2 or 3AM delivery.

My team (Mom and Dad, Katie and Will) left to get some dinner. I made the team captain say with me : ) My nurse checked me at 7 or 7:30PM and I was at 9 cm. Wahoo, everyone was so pleasantly surprised! At 9:29PM, Miss Tressie Laine made her debut. My team got back from dinner just in time to meet the Little Lady. We have been in love and in awe over her from the second we laid eyes on her.


{And second best thing about March 1, 2010…as soon as the Little Lady made her appearance, nine months of nausea came to an end!}

Goals Update

It seems like just yesterday I was reporting on my January progress, and while February is a short month, I cannot believe just how fast it has gone!

Drink more water.
I am drinking so much water I’m floating! OK, not really and I’m only drinking so much water while I’m at work – thanks in part to my fun new cup, the straw makes it easier. When I’m at home I’m still reaching for everything but water. I’ll drink water when I have bottled water on hand, silly I know, but the bottled water is a waste of money (budget…). So new approach, when I’m at home, in the morning I’ll fill my camelback with water and focus on drinking several of those throughout the day.


Stick to a budget.
Still kicking this one in the butt! This month I got my bonus, ALL of it went straight to savings and I also got a raise. While I was tempted to have a little more spending money each month, John Wayne reminded me that I had planned my budget on my previous earnings, so I knew I could live off of that, so I could put my increase in pay into my savings account. Done. I’m beginning to realize that little things like this are how people actually save money.

Oh and this is a big one…I had the opportunity to purchase two George Strait/Reba concert tickets from a friend. I discussed it with John Wayne and he left the decision in my hands. I passed on the tickets. It was going to be several hundred dollars and while I do love George and Reba, this decision helped me prove not only to John Wayne, but myself, how serious I am about this saving money thing.

Read atleast one book each month.
I finally gave up on Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It’s still on my nightstand and the Little Lady seems to have a thing for chewing on it, I guess it’s all yours T. I started the Hunger Games after being highly recommended from my friend Lori. It’s good and it’s an easy read, but I’m not just so captivated by it that I can’t put it down. I haven’t been reading at all lately on the drive to work, and our lunch crowd at work has recently grown, so I now spend my lunch hour socializing instead of reading…that really doesn’t leave me much other time for reading. So we’ll see, if I’m going to get 12 books read this year, I have a little catching up to do, all ready!

Keep my pictures organized.
Still not much going on in this department. I am anxious to tackle this project, so once I have some time, it will happen! I recently discovered Picnik, Google’s photo editing software, and it’s so much fun!

Start sewing again.
Again, the whole time issue…I need more of it! My Mom’s bag is still my number one project and I WILL have this done for her by Mother’s Day. I may dust off the machine this week for a quick project for the Little Lady’s birthday party. On several blogs, I’ve seen this adorable “ruffled crepe paper,” I’d love to get some made for Saturday’s party, but we’ll see…crepe paper is fragile material, so the whole idea of sewing it, is a little daunting to me!

Exercise.
There has been good improvement in the exercise department. I’m still not exercising as consistently as I’d like to be, sleepy girl still occasionally wins out when my alarm goes off at 5AM. But man, I love how I feel all day long on the days when I do drag myself out of bed to exercise. I try to remind myself of this at 5:05AM when sleepy girl and fit girl are battling it out.

The “d” word.”
This month I wanted to focus on cutting portion size. I’ve done pretty well with that. But there was this holiday in the middle of the month and I went on a baking spree and therefore we had sweets in the house for over a week. Not good. So I’ve managed to skim another couple of pounds off this month, but warm weather is coming, which means no more hiding under sweaters…

We’ll see if in the month of March I can’t do something in the picture and sewing departments!

The Little Lady's Latest

Almost two months ago, the Little Lady turned 10-months-old.
I did not do a 10 month post.
Fail.

Almost one month ago, the Little Lady turned 11-months-old.
I did not do an 11 month post.
Fail.

So guess what that means, in one week the Little Lady will turn 1-year-old!

So a quick recap of the past two months:

She is growing like crazy. Often, people comment on how big she is for her age. I’m not sure if she’s really that big for her age, but I think she has caught up to at least middle of the pack from the peanut she was at birth!

Jibber jabbers nonstop. Whether she’s talking to you or is in the other room by herself, she is talking. She often uses her loud voice (she is part Hammer after all), but it totally cracks me up when she whispers. Still not a whole lot of words besides Mama and Dada, sometimes we can get her to mimic us. This morning she was working on mastering “bop” (her pacifier).

Speaking of the bop, it is still an important part of her life, probably her most valued possession. :) She’d be happy to show you all the tricks she can do with it. You should see her when she gets a hold of two of them, double fisting it.

Not quite walking yet. She will stand on her own for a few seconds, almost takes that step…and then thinks better of it. It won’t be long; until then, she’ll continue to be the fastest crawler this side of the Mississippi.

We have a climber on our hands. She attempts to crawl to the top of everything, even the impossible, it doesn’t matter that something is 6 feet tall; she believes she can conquer it!

Still totally social. Many times she would prefer to be held by a new friend that she’s meeting for the very first time, rather than boring old Mama or Grandma. She often sticks her arms out and asks to be held by people that she’s meeting for the very first time, and squeals when we take her back.

I mentioned that she’s growing like crazy and that’s because she’s a great eater! She still drinks a bottle when she wakes up in the morning and when she goes to bed at night, usually with one or two more throughout the day. She’ll put away a couple of containers of baby food faster than a teenage boy can down a pizza, but her real desire is “real” food. She always asks for bites of whatever we’re eating and we’re working toward more and more of that and less and less baby food. She had her very first Taco Bell soft taco on Saturday and loved it. Yes, I realize some of you may not consider this real food, but in our house, Taco Bell is the sixth food group.

There you have it, all of the Little Lady’s latest!

Fire in February?

Last night was a crazy night.
There was tons of lightning all across the plains. (Storms like this are usually a summer thing around here).
Mom, the Little Lady and I had put a full day in in the big city. We were headed home around 6:30PM and saw five fires between Ellicott and Punkin Center. One of them was so close to John Wayne's brother's house, that from the highway I began to panic sure that their house was on fire. Thank goodness it wasn't, the fire was just a few miles north of them.

Once we began seeing all of these fires, I called John Wayne and asked him if the lightning had reached Wild Horse yet. It had not, but I told him what we were witnessing, so to be on watch.

Shortly after we got home, the lightning started. John Wayne must have had a bad feeling, he went and changed out of his gym shorts into jeans. Not five minutes later, he spotted a fire south of house.

John Wayne and my Dad jumped into the pick-up and headed to the fire. By this time there were two fires, the one to the south and one to the north. Thankfully, before the fires had a chance to do too much damage, the rain followed and put the fires out.

Grass fires in February...this just isn't normal!

My Valentine

I bet you all wish you had a hunky cowboy for a husband...


Who sends you flowers on Valentine's Day!


I had just gotten done telling the girls at the office that I am married to one of the most frugal men alive...when the flower delivery person brought me these.

I then ate my words.

I love ya John Wayne!

Hugs and Kisses from Tressie

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Baking Extravaganza

We had to make a mess...




To get these!




Happy Valentine's Day from the Trailerhood!

Boxes are fun!

The Pioneer Woman Was Supposed to Hold the Little Lady Today

Today, the Pioneer Woman was supposed to hold the Little Lady.
Today, we were supposed to go to the big city to the Pioneer Woman's book signing.


Today, instead we stayed home and nursed a sick Little Lady.
(T, I will try not to hold this against you for the rest of your life.)

Although, it did give us the chance to do a few things we otherwise wouldn't have gotten to do.

I helped John Wayne with the cows.
Ha, who am I kidding...I followed him around with the camera and got in his way.

Here is the heifer we are giving the Little Lady for her birthday.
(See T, I've already forgiven you.)


This evening we had dinner at the Trading Post with family and friends to celebrate my Grandpa's birthday.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!


The usually ultra social Little Lady wanted nothing to do with anyone except for her Grandma.


No nap and not feeling well = a bit of a crank.




So even though I didn't get to meet P-Dub today, it turned out to be a pretty good day here on the prairie.

My Mom and Dad pre-ordered me Black Heels to Tractor Wheels for Christmas and it arrived last week, maybe I can spend the day on the couch tomorrow cuddled up with a quilt reading it.
Again, ha, who am I kidding!

Tressie's First Valentine

Tressie hasn't seen her little boyfriend Kaleb for several months.




Today in the mail Tressie got a Valentine from Kaleb.




Kaleb is quite the lady's man.



He already knows the way to a girl's heart...
Cash and car keys!

Someone didn't want to go to bed tonight

Someone never wants to go to bed, but tonight when I was trying to put her jammies on, she crawled right out of them, headed over to her toy box and climbed right on in.