Woot! I'm blogging again!

Oh my! It's been over a week since I've last blogged?!? Is that so? Since I don't have too much to share, but wanted to blog anyway, this is going to be kind of random.

Well, we are all moved in to our new place! It is smaller, but actually, I like it much, much, better over here. It seems weird to say that because I didn't know how it would be, but it feels much more like a home over here. We are still slowly getting things put away, but as soon as I find a home for every little thing, then I know it's going to be great here!

We have a busy upcoming next few months. Jenna turns 2 next week!! And then after that we have JM's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and I'm sure I'll have plenty of other things to blog about by then!

Cindi gave me a neat little blog award! You are supposed to list 7 random things about yourself, so here goes:

1.) I've never broken a bone in my body.

2.) I can tear off my toenails until the whole nail comes off. I also pick my fingernails too (but not as bad as my toes.) I know this is really disgusting, and thankfully, I've actually gotten much better about not doing it. They just really bother me.

3.) My birthday is July 2 which is the very middle of the year with exactly as many days before as after. I always thought that was neat! I've always loved having a July birthday!

4.) I had my appendix out 3 weeks after Jenna was born. It was the worst pain ever.

5.) I'm really glad that we've HAD to do a little bit of traveling and experiencing life in other states. However, now I'm really hoping we are here to stay. (but if not, that will be ok too.)

6.) I really don't mind doing the laundry. This is the one thing I really don't want anyone else to touch. I usually always put it up soon afterwards. I know laundry is never-ending, but I've never really never understood why some people hate it so much.

7. ) Yellow box flip flops are my absolute favorite shoe. I don't think I wore anything else all summer time, and when we lived in Texas I got to wear them year round!

I think you're supposed to tag people, but I'm just going to leave that one detail out. The kindergarten teacher in me is afraid I'll forget someone and I don't want to do that. So, if you want to do it, feel free. :)

Why I'm not a keeper...

Well....we're moving tomorrow. We're actually moving right behind where we live now and this is going to quite possibly the easiest move we have ever and probably will ever make. Since, the distance is so close to us, I've been taking things over slowly so that I can try to organize them better and one of my goals was to get all the baby stuff grouped together. Where we are currently, the baby stuff has landed in all different rooms.

So, it's now taking up more of my new garage than I really expected it to. The sad thing is that almost everything you see here are really the necessary keep items. The things that I will definitely use again: swing (which you can't even see because there is so much stuff piled on top), high-chair, 2 bouncy chairs, a bumbo, the pack and play, breastpump, toys, bathtub, playmat, stroller and carseat (on the other side) maternity clothes (not many at all) and some of J's old clothes. Jenna's clothes are in the purple, green, and a really big plastic tub on the very bottom. And looking at this I'm actually very glad now that I haven't kept every.single.piece.of.her.clothing....I bet if I had kept every little thing, we would have had at least 10 more storage totes.

Even JM commented on how much baby stuff we have. The baby stuff just adds up like crazy. And really, a baby doesn't "need" all of this. Sure, it makes life a bit easier, but it's not even used for that long. (Let it also be said that I'm extremely thankful for everything. Almost all of this was gifts and I'm definitely not trying to sound un-grateful at all.) So, this is exactly why I'm not a pack rat. Because the stuff just ends up piling up and taking over your house (or garage in this case.) And in the end, it's all just stuff. :)

NEW coupon code for clickinmoms!

A lot of you have asked about Clickin Moms from my other post! Well, I excited to say that I got a new coupon code to share! I received this from my newsletter today:

Use coupon code CMNEWS for 10% off any subscription!

Just click on the ad below and it will take you right to CM! Just try it for a month with the code!

My little piggy!

We had a busy Halloween related day today! First, we had Gymboree in the morning and they got to wear their costumes there. Our teacher was a ladybug! They did lots of cute pumpkin activities and Jenna had a blast!

Jenna is a pig for Halloween this year. Seriously, I *love* this costume. I got it from chasing fireflies. It came with a cute little hat that she definitely would not wear at all this morning. So, I tried to put it on her this afternoon to take a picture and this is what she thought of that idea!

And then for some reason, maybe she didn't know she had it on or she forgot about it, but I managed to get it on her for a little while at our afternoon Halloween playgroup party. YAY!

And a picture from our afternoon playgroup. Jenna had so much fun all day! She better sleep extremely well tonight!

You can see my Halloween Gymboree 08 post here and the last year's playgroup here. It's crazy to think we've done both of these things twice now with the same babies included! It's been fun watching the other kiddo's grow as well!

Parenting with Love and Logic

One of my mom's groups was also having a little bookclub based on this book, so I thought I could go to that, have my book read for the month, and read something different for a change! So tonight, I met with some of the other moms (who actually read a different version of this book - the early childhood one.) and we had a nice discussion about some of the topics.

Here's what I get the main points are:

***Stay calm. Don't react with anger as it just feed the child's mis-behavior. Don't react to tantrums.
***Let the child face consequences early on so they will learn the lesson sooner instead of later.
***Don't offer empty threats that you can't follow through with. Be direct and stop the behavior as soon as it starts.
***Give the child choices. (I love this one! I've already started giving Jenna a few choices and I think it's fun for both of us! right now anyway.)
***Show empathy when talking to the child.

I think I'm just naturally this type of parent anyway. I'm really laid-back about a lot of things, yet, I know when behaviors need to be stopped, etc...

There is also a teaching with love and logic book that I wish I would have read.

Has anyone else read any of these books? Any thoughts on them?

Pumpkin Patch Take 2!

My mom got free tickets to a pumpkin patch that we've never been to, so of course we had to go there today! (JM has been in Austin, TX since all week.) Anyway, it was a nice day (Meaning we didn't have to wear a coat there like the last time!) As soon as we left though, it started raining, so I'm glad we went in the morning this time!

They had tons of fun stuff for kids to do there - like slides, cow swings, bounce houses, tires and tunnels, hay maze and all kinds of things! However, sadly, I couldn't get Jenna interested in any of it. All she was interested in was the animals! She loved them and this is probably where we spent the majority of our time.

They had pony rides there too! They were $5 and I thought she would probably just scream so we didn't even attempt it. She did like looking at the horses and we tried to pet one too! They even had *THE* cutest 2.5 month old pony! Seriously, it was so cute! I should have gotten a picture of it!

And I thought this was a cute and different idea for decorating pumpkins!

And at the end, we tried to get a pic of all of us. But of course, if Jenna knows we're trying to take a picture of her, she screams. You would think she'd be a perfect little model by now for the camera. I have a feeling it's going to be another year with screaming when she sees Santa Claus.

Hope yall had a good weekend! We have a super busy week ahead!

In my frog boots...

It rained yesterday so I had to put Jenna's frog boots on so she could splash in the water! (Yes, this is from yesterday!)

They kept getting wet and dirty so she kept trying to wipe them off! (Maybe she will be a clean freak after all! ha!)

So then we gave her a towel so she could really wipe them off! She loved that!

Splish splashing. She loved it! I think from now on, rain boots are going to have to become a staple in our house!

She had so much. She was a mess! I love some of the pictures of her that show her expressions and this is another one of them!

And what do these frog boots remind me of???

Laurie Berkner's B-O-O-T-S song!

We sang it all the time in kindergarten and now I get to sing it to my own little girl! :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!