Time Flies....

One year ago today.

Ella Madelynn was born at 3:32pm, weighing 8lbs.

And now....

Our little baby is growing right before our eyes!

Happy 1st Birthday, Princess!

The Princess...

My baby girl will be one year old in less than 2 weeks. She is walking--truly walking, from one room to the next, without holding onto anything or anyone. When she makes eye contact with anyone, she squeals in delight, because she knows she's pretty cool. She walks around like a mini Frankenstein--arms stretched out in front of her for balance.

We've started cutting out one of her most prized possessions: the "ba-ba". Girlfriend LOVES her ba-ba, but it's gotta go! What a break our wallet will have when we stop buying formula! The only problem so far is she doesn't seem to care for the taste of regular milk. If it comes down to it, I will gladly buy her a different form of milk--whether it be soy, or almond, or whatever. Anything to keep the little princess happy--but no more formula! So I figured while we cut out the formula, we might as well cut out the ba-ba's too. Milk in sippy cups only.

Chris is worried about her having her "nuk," but I figured if we can get rid of it by age 3, we are good to go. Right now Ella is cutting her 2 top front teeth, so there is NO WAY IN HELL I'm going to take the nuk away from her right now! Those things have been a blessing!

We are in the midst of planning her first birthday bash. We are doing a general princess theme--because Ella is certainly the princess in this house!

Last night Chris said he hopes her big blue eyes change color, because if they stay so big and so beautifully blue, he will never be able to say "no" to her! :) I agree. That girl looks at you, and she melts your heart....

It's like crack

Facebook, that is. It's so damn addicting. I can easily waste time away checking out my friend's status, and pics they've uploaded, and their notes. I jump online and check it out multiple times a day. It's not right! I can get a little insight into different people's daily lives, which I find totally interesting. Sometimes I feel like I'm spying on people...reading their comments to other people and stuff. But it's not REALLY spying...they are fully aware that everyone can read their stuff. If there's something that needs to be said privately, there is the private mail feature. Beyond all that, Facebook has allowed me to get back into contact with some long-lost friends and people I knew in high school. I love it.

The News Headlines....Staci style! :)

~Miley Cyrus Apologizes for Controversial Photos. Really? How many times will that dumb whore have to apologize to the world due to her poor judgement? You don't want to get "attacked" by the media, keep your photos private, and don't do dumb stuff in public.

~Bill Gates playfully frees swarm of mosquitoes. How nice of him! He assured the mosquitoes were Malaria-free. But were they blood-sucking-free?!? I wouldn't have wanted to be in that audience. Mosquitoes flock to me like white on rice!

~Home of man linked to 1982 Tylenol deaths searched. Wow. Finally, after all these years!

~Pranks involving electronic road signs stir worry. Seems as though hackers in a few states thought it would be funny to change road signs to read warnings of zombies and raptors. Funny, huh?!

~Man boldly robs Colo. store with Star Trek Sword. Seriously? That's the best weapon he could come up with?! Dude should get a refund from his "How to be a criminal" class.

~Police say Ohio woman set fires out of anger. This chick set 10 fires to homes and garages because she was "angry." Makes me look like an angel! 0:)

That's all for now, folks!

My week in numbers

32: pages in a book that Cole read to me on Monday. Of course it was a Spongebob book....

4: times I tried (unsuccessfully) to text Chris while he was in New York on Tuesday for work. I have no idea what that was about. Thankfully he has a BlackBerry and got my email message instead.

20: minutes to remove the snow and ice from the van and the driveway so we could go to Target on Wednesday.

14: times the boys asked to go sledding....before it was even noon.

48: minutes the boys went sledding w/the neighbors before I had to pull them in cause I was freezing!

100: dollar gift card I got from work....WOOHOO! (our store won a contest)

1758: times I've wiped poor Ella's snotty nose during the past week.

102: degree fever Ella had Thursday night.

3: hours of sleep I got Thursday night....while holding a sick baby.

13: minutes on the phone w/the nurse at the Pediatrician

2: ear infections my Princess was diagnosed with at the Drs.

10: days of antibiotics for her.

9: loads of laundry to do. *yawn*

My week in numbers

1: days Cole has slept in later than me. If only he'd do it on a weekend!

23.5: Pounds Ella currently weighs!

3: days the boys had school this week. They both had off Monday for MLK day, and Cole had off today for a teacher in-service day.

3,596: Rice Krispies I've vacuumed up off my floors. Ella is learning to self-feed, but sometimes they just don't make it into her mouth!

97: The percentile Ella is in for her weight.

19: times Cole has asked to play the Wii today alone. Also the number of times I've told him no, we will play tonight after dinner.

60: dollars raised for the March of Dimes walk I'm participating in!

8: days since Ella fell in love with her pacifiers.

100: tokens used at Chuck E. Cheese

7: loads of laundry I'm currently working on.

48: total minutes spent on hold with Verizon before speaking with a live person for less than 5 minutes.

70: degrees in my house, yet I still feel cold.

131: dollars in the bank account until next Friday. Thank you, Dave Ramsey for making my life miserable!

Moo....!

Yesterday we took our annual trip to the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Fun times had by all.

First, we park the car, and get a bus ride over to the Farm Show Complex. Sure beats walking! The boys love the bus ride. They think it's so cool. Then after dodging all the smokers standing outside the entrance, we finally arrive inside and we are instantly greeted by the sweet smell of animal poop! "What's that smell?" the boys ask. "It's poop!" we answer. Then we ride the escalator up, and then down to enter the area where they have the cows displayed. The boys love to pet the cows. I had Ella in a carrier, facing outwards so she could see the sights. She wasn't very interested in the cows.
Then we went to the goat and sheep area. We had to stop at every pen that had a goat within touching distance so the boys could pet them. Owen announced that we needed to buy a goat. We asked him where we'd keep it, and he never came up with an answer, so the conversation was dropped. Then it was off to the rabbit exhibit. This was where Ella finally got VERY interested in what she was seeing! She loved looking at the bunnies (I think she may have thought they were cats, which she adores!) and tried to reach out and touch them! It was very sweet to watch her expressions and hear her noises! After the bunnies, we went to see the chickens/ducks. We hit that arena just in time to watch the baby duck show...baby ducks go up a ramp that's set in a water table, get some food, and go down a slide. The kids just love it! And those little ducklings are just so cute, you wanna squeeze them! We also saw the "peeps" in the incubator hatching. Ella got to go face-to-face with a rooster, and Cole got to feed a chicken by hand. Owen was too scared to feed the chicken, but Cole thought that was the best part of the whole day.
Then we walked around the exhibits, and the boys got to play with some recycled plastic and create waterways with it. They love anything that involves getting messy! Afterwards we had some lunch and caught the bus ride back to the parking lot to go home.
I'm sure later today or sometime in the very near future, the boys will begin asking when we can go back to the Farm Show. Maybe we have some future FFAs in our house?!

Life's wake-up call

This afternoon I found out that a local boy had died after losing his battle with a rare form of cancer. He was just 2 years old. I didn't know him or his family, but my heart aches for them no less. I can't imagine the pain they must be feeling. No parent should ever have to bury their own child. It's just not right.
It makes me even more thankful that my family is healthy. I realize even more that the little things in life just don't matter. I am very blessed.

A no-good, totally rotten, crappy kind of day....

UGH! You know those days when you wish you would have just stayed in bed? Yep, I'm havin' one! First of all, I got up and got the boys ready for school. Checked outside and realized I'd have to warm the van up cause there was ice covering it. So out the door we go...about 15 minutes before Cole has to get the bus. I'm thinking I'm doing all right. Until I try to scrape some of the ice off the windshield. I'm not getting anywhere. Matter of fact, Cole missed the bus and was late getting to school. By the time I got the ice off the car well enough to see while driving, over 40 minutes had passed. Yes, that's right 40 friggin minutes!!! And I was soaked because it was raining. Yay! So I dropped Cole off at school, and then straight to preschool for Owen.

Then I get home and open the fridge for something, and see gross meat blood EVERYWHERE. Seriously, it looked like an animal exploded in the fridge! On the door, on the shelves, and on the bins as well as on the "floor" of the fridge. Bleh! Apparently my husband got a roast out to thaw for dinner this week. Well, it wasn't on a plate/in a bowl, so when it thawed out completely, the "juice" leaked out of the freezer bag. Damn. I HATE cleaning out the fridge!

THEN, I go pick Owen up from school. We get home and as we come in the house I realize I smell something funky. What's that smell? The trash went out last night, so it's not that. The sink only has a few dishes in it, so that's out. What could it be? So Owen goes over to the pantry to get out the stuff he'd like for lunch, and tells me that someone spilled soda on the floor. Huh? Look, he says. I walk over to the pantry, and there is the horror. A rogue potato must have been hidden in the back corner and has totally rotted to the point where it's leaking "juice." Yum. One more nasty mess I get to clean up.

THEN we get lunch taken care of, and the phone rings. Caller ID says it's Cole's school. Oh shit! I answer and it's the principal calling. Apparently Cole decided to "share" his hand sanitizer by putting it in 2 boy's lunches. WHAT?!?!? The principal actually thought the whole event was sort of funny, and knew that Cole didn't understand that the sanitizer could potentially harm the kids. She said everything/everyone is fine, but she just needed me to be aware of the situation. Ugh!!

So all this crap, and it's not even 2pm yet. Add that to the fact that it's supposed to snow tonight and I have to work. Someone shoot me, please!

The list...

Well, I've been working on making a 101 things in 1001 days list. I got inspired by some other people, and I think it's an awesome idea. My problem? I'm not getting very far on the list. Maybe I should make #1 on the list completing the list!
The amazing thing, is that I told Chris about the list and he didn't laugh at me. He actually thought it was a cool idea. So we are dividing the list in half (minus 1) and coming up with a list of stuff that we both want to accomplish--even if the items are geared more towards personal goal. The point is, we hope to get stuff done! So hopefully we can complete the list this week, so we can begin to cross items off the list!
Be on the lookout for the list to post in the near future!

It's a new year!

And my husband has announced that we will be following an EXTREMELY strict budget (thank you, Dave Ramsey!). I asked him if that meant no beach trip this year. Nope, not gonna happen. I almost cried. Seriously.
I'm going to beg him (at a later date) to at least make a weekend trip to OCNJ or something. This girl's gotta have her toes in the sand and ocean at least once a year, or I might truly die! Plus, this year will mark our 10 year wedding anniversary. I'm pretty sure we should celebrate the occasion at the beach!!! :)
Anyway, he then announced that if we follow his strict budget for the year, we will not only go to the beach next year, but we will take a trip to Disney as well. Ok, the man def. made my ears perk up! I've never been to Disney, and have been wanting to go since we got married. Now that we have 3 kids, I REALLY want to go!
So, I have a strong feeling that part of the strict budget includes me working more. Let me just say that I do enjoy going to work. My job is kinda fun, my co-workers are cool, and I get to interact with adults--some of who are very interesting to say the least! The only thing that I don't like about working, is that I miss my baby. She's about to turn 9 months old, and is learning new things everyday! Just this week she learned how to crawl! I would have been beyond devastated if I would have missed that precious moment! I'm worried that I'll be working when she takes her first step, or says her first real word (besides the baby babble she's currently chatting). I tried telling Chris that I have a good part of the rest of my life to make a few bucks, but those first moments with Ella we will never get back. Plus, not only is she my baby girl that I dreamed I'd have since Chris and I first started dating, but she's my LAST baby. And I cherish every second of her. So I'm torn. I want to work more hours to get some extra income to help out paying off bills so we can have a blast next year, but at the same time I don't want to leave my baby girl's side for fear I'm going to miss something important.
I think we need to start playing the lottery....