Favorite Foto Friday

Over at Safe in His Arms, Tonya has a Favorite Foto Friday. This week she shared photos of her beautiful new niece Allie Grace. She is gorgeous! Go and comment on her post! :D
I'm off for this week. I'm going to go visit my sister Jennifer! I'm so excited! It's supposed to be in the 70s this week, so it'll be warm enough for a trip to the park! Yay! That just reminded me that we should pack the cameras!
Now, I'm going to look through my computer and search for some of my favorite photos to share..... let's see......

These are Anna's 4 month photos, taken by my husband Paul at home. We bought black sheets that were on sale at Walmart and bought 800 film for excellent photos. I also used Photoshop to make the photos a little more sharp. I loved how they turned out. There are more of course, but these are a few of my faves. Aren't they adorable? It shows you how chubby Anna was and also how much she loves to smile!!! :D
Edit: Forgot to share what the watermarks mean. I watermarked these a while back ago... well, over a year ago now that she's almost 17 months old, with my nickname Gussie for a forum. :) And Anna Daisy, that's her first and middle name. I'll share the story of her name another time. ;)

*edited to remove photos*

April is Autism Awareness Month

Autism is the third most common developmental disorder. 1 in 150 children born have autism. 1 to 1.5 million Americans have Autism. Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability at 10-17% annual growth.
I'm sure that you know someone who has Autism or someone that has been effected by Autism in some way. My own nephew, Tell has a severe form of Autism. At age twelve, he is not potty trained and has never told his mother that he loves her. In fact he cannot speak at all. When he was about six months old he could say two words: ball and mama. Soon after that he began regressing and could no longer speak. It is so sad to know that I will never know my nephew emotionally... never have a conversation with him. But I can honestly say that he is a very joyful little boy. He laughs every day. He loves to be tickled. He loves to watch movies. He is very good at figuring out electronics and how to turn up the volume or change the channel. He can also match written words to pictures. He is a wonderful child and nobody has regretted having him in our lives.

Photo: Auntie Sarah and Telly on the slide. We love going down the slide together. As you can see from this earlier photo. The funny thing is, we never planned to take these two photos for comparison or anything like that. It was just random that it turned out that way! :)


For more information on Autism, you can go to the Autism Society of America website.
If you would like to follow a step-by-step symptom screening, please go to the Autism Screening site. Some of the symptoms to look for include not responding to his/her name, lack of eye contact, and delayed language skills.
If you would like to donate, you can go to the Autism Speaks website for more information.

She Drank By Herself!!!

We were sitting at the couch just a moment ago and Anna grabbed my glass of water from the side table and took a drink from it by herself. She did it three more times after that, too! I'm so proud of my little girl!

New Layout

I created a new header so I had to redo my layout. Man, I wish I knew how to create custom layouts. :( Wah! Anybody want to teach me? Anyone? No? Yes? You? OK! :D

First Review on Behalf of a Company

Today I was excited to get an email M80 Parents Blog who contacted me on behalf of Kimberly Clark. They asked me to do a review of Huggies products. This is pretty perfect, really. I've been wanting to do a review and on top of that I'm NOT a Huggies customer.... Perhaps I will be converted? We shall see!!!

Biggest Loser: USA Decides!!!

My Mother in Law is a little addicted to watching The Biggest Loser. And so am I. For the finale, the viewers get to decide who wins! For this season we have a HUGE chance at getting our FIRST female Biggest Loser winner! So, please go to this website: http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser_5/vote/register.shtml and vote for MARK. By voting for MARK, you are voting in a guy who already weighs 169 pounds. He hardly has anything to lose now. WHICH MEANS the other two women who are in the finale, Ali and Kelly, HAVE A HUGE CHANCE AT WINNING AND BEING THE FIRST FEMALE BIGGEST LOSER!!! So please go to that web address simply by clicking HERE and voting for MARK (yes, I'm being repetitive because I want Mark voted on so Kelly or Ali can win!!! :D

2 Weeks of Toys

5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a new toy (or toys) every day for the next two weeks! Go ahead and go over there and check it out. I hope I win the Rose Petal Cottage. It's so adorable! :)

Wordless Wednesday: Growing Belly Weeks 5-39

This is a collage of my pregnancy pictures, weeks 5-39, with my daughter Anna, born November 06.
Photo Watermarked at http://www.bump-and-beyond.com

Good Morning

Anna woke up just fine this morning with the exception of waking up at 6AM crying uncontrollably. She did that the day before and then threw up all over, so I thought that was going to be a repeat of that day, but thankfully it wasn't. Hopefully if it was a bug then it is gone. She is a bit of a picky eater so maybe her tummy was upset from only wanting to nurse and refusing to eat on the 6th? But on the 7th she had spaghetti and that was pretty yucky vomit. I don't know what to think of it. I stayed up pretty late (er, early) this morning praying for her. I'm sure that helped a lot!

Hmmm Still Sick?

Unfortunately, after we thought Anna was well the other day she woke up yesterday morning and this morning vomiting again. Still no fever. She only vomits in the morning.... either she is awoken by vomiting or she wakes up then vomits. I'm a little confused about all of this. It's unusual for her to be sick without a fever, first of all, but it's also odd that she is only sick in the morning. So if she is still sick when she wakes up in the morning, I'm going to call for an appointment for her.

So memory's sake, she woke up on the 2nd vomiting and again on the 6th and 7th. Hopefully not this morning (it's 3AM on the 8th). All three times without fever and always in the morning.

Free Rolll of Film Printing

Walgreens is offering on Wednesday, April 9th only, the printing of one roll of film, free. That means the cost of printing is free, not the film itself. You'll have to buy your film. ;)
Click here to see the ad.

Experiencing the Resurrection

I'd like to thank Sarah at Sassyfrazz for my latest and greatest win, Experiencing the Resurrection by Henry and Melvin Blackaby. I'm really looking forward to reading this book! I showed my mother in law the book and she said, "Oooh! I've heard good things about Henry Blackaby!" My mother in law is a huge book fanatic, so if she said something good immediately, then it must be good!

The Shape of a Mother

One woman wrote, "Motherhood is not for the faint of heart or the vain." How many times have you stood in front of the mirror and mourned the loss of your pre-pregnancy body? It's so sad that in today's society we think that when we have a child we must "bounce back" immediately just like celebrities do. Of course celebrities bounce back like that. For one they have plastic surgeons, trainers, dieticians, the safety of a mansion to hide behind until they look good, and last but certainly not least, airbrush technicians to hide all of those "flaws" that a mother's body might acquire after childbirth. I, for one, do not want my daughter to grow up thinking that she must look a certain way to be accepted by everyone. I want to tell her when I look in the mirror, "I am so beautiful" and not "I'm so fat! I need to lose weight!" I admit I've said or thought these things since having my daughter, but I assure you that I am training myself very hard to say the things she needs to hear. I am the woman that she will look up to as she grows older. I know, not only from personal experience, that if a girl hears her mother say negative things about her body, that girl will wonder why her beautiful, flawless mother would say such things--and if she says those things about herself, then when she says I am beautiful then she must mean the opposite! Mothers, you are not alone in your sagging breasts, your stretchmarks and cellulite. Guess what? It is absolutely normal and common! I've found this wonderful website called The Shape of a Mother. On this blog, women post photos of their bodies post baby. They have stretchmarks, sagging breasts, but each and every one is so incredibly beautiful. I've posted my own photos on this website. I won't direct you straight to them, but the photo on this post is an edited version of the photos I submitted. Be forewarned that there is NUDITY on this website, so please make sure that your children do not see it. It's not sexual nudity, however. It's the nudity of real, flawed, perfectly beautiful mothers. Go ahead and check out TSOAM and encourage your fellow mother. Tell her she is beautiful, because she is. I love this website. I think it's changing the confidence and self image of mothers all over the world. One photo at a time.

Scripture Sunday

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

Don't Let Her Chubbiness Fool You...

Anna is such a picky little eater! Argh! I wish I could get her to eat better. This has only started in the past few months. She will sit in her high chair and eat for maybe a couple of minutes (pick is more like it) and then she wants down! She self feeds. She has always self fed herself. We started with baby food at six months and she gagged and cried and gagged and cried so we started with things she could feed herself with and that has always worked with her. Until lately. Now she just prefers to nurse or drink milk (rarely) or water (rarely) but even more rare... she feeds herself. She seems to take a bite or two and then she wants down!

And so begins the era of picky toddler eating habits!!!