Josh & Shana

I was talking to a friend the other day about contests. Man it would be nice to win some free stuff at contests. Well, here is my first attempt. I read about this blog on my friend Jennifer's blog. It is the Modest Mom Shop. A very cute name. Well, they are giving away a free clothing item. There are some really cute skirts. I really like them, I will let you know if I win something. You should check it out if you would like to enter to win, although I am sure that will narrow my chances.

Ok, I got a hot piece of information yesterday from a friend while working up at the seminary. Talking about saving money, which is a hot topic around here, a friend suggested Christian Healthcare Ministries and Medi-Share for healthcare choices. We are currently on the Seminarian plan with the school. Well, these plans are non-profit christian organizations. Has anybody used or currently using these companies for health insurance? If we were to switch over to one of them, if approved, we could save tons of money. Any feedback anybody has would be much appreciated.

First, I apologize to everybody for thinking we are pregnant again. I know Josh is hilarious right. He says he did that on purpose. So, if you would like give him a hard time about it. :)

Second, I am extremely proud of my Martha abilities lately. I have mastered one of Judy's biscuit recipes. As you can see below. This is really exciting for me. As you know, my husband is a great cook and it was his idea to get Judy's recipe. Well, he attempted it many times and they never would rise up. Well, I did it once and had that touchdown emotion overwhelm me as they came out of the oven perfect. Since then they have come out perfect every time.

Third, this was my adventure for today. I love having a wreath on my door. Not just for Christmas either. Growing up my grandma would make her own festive wreaths for her door every month. I remember helping pick stuff out to put them together as a little girl. So, I guess you could say that it stayed with me. I would love to have a wreath for my door for every month. Where would I store them all right? One thing at a time. Well, my girlfriends at home in GA will be happy to know that I finally exhausted my Micheals giftcard they gave me over a year ago for my birthday. Yeah I know, I guess you would say I milked it. Well, technically I still have like 25 cents on it. I went the other day to see what I could find for a wreath for our door. Well, I only had 8 dollars left on my giftcard and all the premade wreaths were way more then that. With coupon in hand I wondered around the store with Truett in Ergo trying to figure out what to do. Just my luck (well if I believed in it) there was a women in the store making wreaths. I sat there and gleaned some ideas from her for a minute, and then off I was to accomplish my idea. With 8 bucks left and a coupon from the Sunday paper, I could only afford a wreath base (with no decor on it). So, I decided to bring it home and try and pull something together. If it didn't work I could always take it back. I had these flowers. They were a gift many years ago from Judy. They used to live in a pottery vase, then they were revamped into a door hanger wreath thing (i have no clue what to call this thing). If you have seen any of our video tours of our apartment you have probably seen them hanging on the door. So, it was time to reuse them again. I cut off the stems and hot glued them into my wreath. The ribbon I had in my wrapping stuff. I bought a ton of ribbon like this in the gift wrapping section after Christmas one year. I got it for 90 percent off. I believe I got this stuff the first year we were married. Can you say it has lasted me. One day when I run out of stuff, I will go restock (after Christmas of course). You probably are asking how I got this stuff hot glued into the wreath. This by far is probably my proudest moment, bread bag ties. Whenever I get bread I take the ties off and put my pampered chef clips on the bag. For some reason I have been collecting the ties in my kitchen drawer. Not knowing what I might use them for. Well, they came in super awesome handy today. I am super proud of my gorgeous wreath that I made on a dime. Please if you think it is ugly, keep it to yourself because I am on cloud nine :)

P.S. A special shout out to Rachel L. (my neighbor) for letting me borrow her cordless hot glue gun, I literally couldn't have done it with out you. That thing is awesome I have to get one, one day.


Lastly, I made brownies from scratch last night. We have been dwindling down our sweets stock because we were going to try and loose some weight and get fit again. I especially would like to before I get pregnant again. At least get my abs back. Well, all that to say there were no sweets left. Josh was craving so I decided to check my favorite cooking website allrecipes.com to see if I had all the ingredients for any good brownie recipes. Sure enough I did. They turned out awesome. I also got to try out my new brownie pan that we got for Christmas from one of our students. Yeah you guess it, it is the brownie pan with the divider thing that was all over the infomercials. It is really cool. I have to say that I like it.

Well, that is all for my update now. It is really long.

P.S. still wanting a snuggie

Ok, I know this is going to be one of those weird random posts, but here goes nothing.

It was a big gift item pushed this season for Christmas, and I am sure lots of you got them for Christmas or other gifts. If you got one and have no clue what to do with it or don't want it, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give it to me. I really want a snuggie.

Ok, so this was my blog plea for a snuggie. Thanks or listening.

So....it is really late and for some reason I can't really get to sleep. Both my favorite men are fast asleep tucked in their beds (or cradle). I have been in Atlanta for over a week now, and I am so excited I still have over a week left till we go back to Louisville. I had a great past week, until I got sick. I was throwing up all night one night, then it faded away pretty fast. It was pretty crazy. Everybody that I hung out with on Sunday pretty much went through it this week, crazy!! That was no fun. Christmas was great as well. It was so cute watching Truett on Christmas, obviously he doesn't have a clue what was going on, but he did get his hands on some wrapping paper (pictures to follow shortly). Today was another great day. The boys all went to see Avatar while Judy and I (Truett too) stayed home and lazied around. We did a puzzle, laundry, ate good food, and started a sewing project. I am trying to build my confidence with my sewing machine one project at a time. Right now I am working on place mats for my dining room table. We'll see how they turn out. Then I am moving on to a curtains, and then an apron.

Dean and Judy came up for the week of Thanksgiving. We had a really great time. Truett was definitely the main event because all we did was hang out pretty much. We had a really good time. As always really good food too. Here are some videos from the week. Truett was always our center piece at the table and we all had a lot of fun with him. As you can see two of the videos are him in the bumbo on the dining room table.


Here is one with Dean playing with Truett. Dean seems to have the touch to always make Truett laugh.



Here is Judy with Truett talking his head off.


Truett at the dinner table again.

Most of you who know me that I am a fan of Toby Mac's music. Well, we took our students to the Winter Slam where he was playing along with some other great artists. We had a really great time. We even took Truett. No worries his head was full of cotton, but I am sure I got a few crazy looks from people wondering why I had a baby there. I only saw one other baby there besides mine.


Right now this is my favorite song of his. You can hear me jamming to this while driving down the street occasionally. Or hear me jamming with this in the ipod as I clean house.


You can see all of us jamming.

P.s. I said jamming a lot. :)

Truett is doing amazingly well with his sleep this week. I started reading the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution." It is packed full of ideas on how to get your babies to sleep longer, go to bed easier, and nap better. I was worried a little bit because Truett doesn't nap by the book (6 hours a day), I am lucky if he sleeps 4, but he is a good night sleeper. Which after doing my logs realized that he sleeps more at night then the books says. So, that makes me feel better. Also, seeing that he isn't fussy and doesn't seem to be exhausted all the time. I guess my baby is ok. Well, I implemented a few of the ideas from this book and Truett is sleeping longer in between feeding now at night which is great for mommy. I am now getting between 3 and 5 hours of sleep at a time, as before I was getting 1 to 3 hours. Mommy is better rested which makes daddy happy too.

You are probably wondering why I say I am giving up the books for now. Well, my gracious husband has helped point out to me that Truett has slid into my number one spot of priorities of my life right now, giving God and my husband whatever is leftover at the end of the day. This was really easy to do. Also, I have been consumed in my parenting books trying a new idea almost everyday, and what Josh, many friends, and one of my books pointed out you have to give things time. Well, I have been driving Josh crazy with no stability in this. So, I am giving up the books for the rest of the year. We are going to stay on this course and see where it takes us.

I feel a huge burden to make sure we raise Truett right and so I consume myself with books. I think my friends have probably even gotten sick of hanging out with me and talking to me because all I ever talk about is Truett and ask parenting questions. Well, this is me asking forgiveness and asking for your help to stop this. There is more to me then being a mom, I am a child of God (number 1) and Josh's wife (number 2). I need to cultivate those a little bit more.

P.S. Dean and Judy are on there way to Louisville as we speak, SO EXCITED!

Here is a picture of Truett fresh out of the womb. Moments later the camera crashed to the floor. He is so precious i would do it all over again.

I just found these pictures on my computer. Thought I would share them with the world.

This is my labor and delivery room. That bed was like a transformer into all different kinds of positions. I absolutely loved my experience at this hospital.

I hated this position, but had to do it every couple of hours so they got a read on Truett.
In between contractions. This was in my room.

Made a new label called Truett Videos, mostly with grandparents in mind. So if you scroll down on the right you'll see a label called Truett Videos. When you click on that it will pull up all the videos on Truett on the blog. Enjoy.

I love watching my husband be a dad. Last night and this morning he was the sweetest ever. The past week Truett's sleeping patterns got all out of wack. After talking to Jennifer, he is most likely going through a growth spurt. I went to bed last night early when Truett went to sleep while Josh took care of Zoe and a few other things after he came home from work, which was after a full day of classes. He really is the best. Well, this morning when I woke up Josh was making a homemade breakfast. Homemade pancakes and sausage. It was really yummy. Then after breakfast he cleaned up the kitchen (even better) while I took a shower. When I got out of the shower this is what I saw. I thought it was adorable my man cleaning the kitchen with Truett strapped to him. Truett is really growing up these days and recognizing Josh recently. So, I think Josh is having a lot more fun with him. Truett googled at Josh in the ergo this morning, they had a good time laughing at each other.

This is one of Truett's new play spots while mommy is on the computer. He is growing up so fast that now he is starting to entertain himself. Obviously mommy is helping out a bit here.

This is Truett and I walking down Hillcrest the day before Halloween. You can see Zoe down there too. Josh had never gotten to see it all decked out in their Halloween garb. They are pretty crazy about their Halloween decorations. Well anyways, this is me in my Mobe type wrap. It isn't exactly a Mobe, but it is just like one. This one is from Target. It is one of my favorite things. Seriously!! After finally getting the hang of it watching tons of youtube video on how to use it, it seriously is one of my favorite baby gifts. I never leave home with out it, no joke. It is always in my diaper bag. Since it is just 5 yards of material it fits nicely in my bag. Truett takes at least one nap in it a day about. He likes it a ton, sometimes when he is really cranky/tired I can put him in it and he goes right to sleep. Not to mention he takes way better naps when I wear him in it. As you can see here he is fast asleep.

A couple of weeks ago I attempted to go get my haircut and had my first breakdown. I had Truett snug in his car seat walking into my appointment when they said sorry we can't see you unless someone is watching Truett. I was like what. I thought surely they won't not see me maybe a warning, nope. I went home with the same hair I walked in with. I was so mad and sad. I cried all the way back home. I was having a bad body image day that day too. The weather had just dropped and I threw on a jacket that has never been snug since I purchased it. Well on the way there I noticed it was really snug in my shoulders. Needless to say on the way home I was feeling really down about myself. I could careless most of the time if I wore makeup or not, but I care a lot about my hair. I felt so down, I came home and cried to Josh and saying I was fat and ugly and of course he was floored. Well that day finally passed and we figured something out. So my husband was an awesome husband last week. He met me at the hair salon so that I could get my hair cut and waited in the car with Truett. I was there for about an hour. What a trooper he was. Now I feel pretty again. Next week I will start to work my gym schedule back into my daily routine. Need to get my belly back to normal. We'll see about that.

This is one of my favorite sites. Josh likes to spend time with Truett in the morning in our bed. This is Josh teaching Truett how to lift his neck on his tummy. They are so cute together.
Trying to get as many more wears of his coke shirt as possible. He wore this on Sunday to church. Josh thought his diaper looked like shorts and that he looked funny, so he wanted me to take a picture. Look at those chubby legs he is so adorable. I absolutely love his little converse socks though. I had just changed his diaper, no worries we had some little jeans on him. SOO cute.

So I can't resist just posting really super cute pictures of my son.