Birth Announcement

I wanted to share the birth announcement we sent a couple weeks ago for Landon. (A tip to expecting mamas - choose and set up your announcement before the baby comes so all you have to do is add a picture!) I didn't get them out as soon as I wanted but I figured 6 weeks wasn't too bad. I think I addressed them two at a time - when I could sit Landon down for five minutes here and there.

We used the seller westwillow from Etsy. I think she did a fabulous job! The pictures were taken at a one week shoot we set up at our house with our photographer friend Katie. I can't tell you how nice it was to have someone come to our house to take pictures that soon after leaving the hospital. I don't think I could have done a traditional studio shoot. I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to get (or keep) him asleep for the pictures but he did great!

I'm planning on framing an announcement for his nursery - I thought it would make a nice keepsake :)

Pictures

Happy Saturday from my little night owl ;-)

Wednesday

I'm typing this on my phone with one hand and sssshhing a sleepy Landon. Joe is on call tonight so we are on our own! I feel like I've mentioned 74578 times I'm ready for fall but I just can't get over it. I usually soak up every minute of summer but having just had a baby I can't really enjoy summer like usual because I spend about 23.9 hours out of the day in the rocking chair. I really want a pair of new boots for fall this year. I like these because they still seem easy to walk in with a baby because they have a wedge that's only 3 inches. I think I'll order them for myself as a little treat!

I have also read the funniest book on my iPad while rocking the little man. It's Bossypants by Tina Fey. Such a fun quick read and I think she has a great attitude about a lot of things!




I will leave you with a picture of the little guy that kept me up all night last night. I think eye bags are going to be the hottest fashion accessory this fall besides those cute boots I showed you! Haha!

Random Thoughts

I don't really have the energy to put all my thoughts into an organized fashion so here is my brain dump! Hah!
I know it's very early but I have been anticipating fall for a while now and I'm so excited to finally have a child to dress up for Halloween. I've been doing a little "research", trying to pick a costume for Landon.

He's definitely got the hair to pull off Elvis.

Just like daddy?

I think this little golfer is SO cute!

What are you dressing your kiddos up for Halloween? I remember one year my mom had me wear a box with dots drawn on the sides so I could be a playing dice. Haha!

I am very disappointed because I just found out Borders is going out of business. I know I must have been living under a rock because Joe said he had known for a while (?) I went last Friday to get a bunch of books for Landon at 30-50% off but I didn't stop there. I saw signs that they were selling the fixtures in the store and I actually managed to buy one of these bookshelves. It's lighted and I love the display area at the top. I think I'll paint it to go in his room. Score!!

I have not been good at all about taking pictures of Landon with my nice camera. Most of the time I manage to snap a picture or two on my phone to send to my mom and Joe each day but I want to get better about getting nice shots! When I got my SLR I totally thought I could dress up my baby and have a little photo shoot every day. Now I think that's pretty hilarious!! LOL LOL

I really don't want to forget how tiny he is and all of his little features. He's growing so fast!

Can you spot the tired mama? Look at the natural makeup she's featuring. Oh wait. She doesn't have makeup on. Or clean hair. Ha!

Did you know mohawks are naturally occurring in nature?  No products were used in the making of this mohawk. Landon's hair honestly grows like this!! We think it's adorable :)

Happy Tuesday!
(I'm going to get back into daily blogging if it kills me!!)

Outing

I've been getting a little stir crazy so yesterday I decided to pack up (and don't you pack up when you have a baby - I had no idea before I had a little one!) and go to TJMaxx and Babies 'R Us. Joe says Babies 'R Us is my "safe zone". It's the easiest store for me to visit because I feel like the other mothers there won't give me the stink eye if my baby starts crying and they also have an awesome Mother's Room with comfy chairs and nice lighting. I could take a serious nap in the Mother's Room. Well. Landon did awesome. Slept the entire time. In and out of the car, into the cart and all around both stores. I timed it so he ate right before and we pulled into the driveway at home as he started to get fussy for his next meal. I was a pro at this!

And then he made a little liar out of me.

Because today I got brave again. It was so easy yesterday, I said to myself! I needed to go to Target for some groceries, a birthday card and a few other things. I wasn't even down the first aisle when he started to wail. Pacifier? NO. Ssshhhing? NO. Rolling the cart back and forth? NO. I finally resorted to pulling off in the pet section (which luckily isn't busy at 2pm) and pulling him totally out of his carseat and carrying him around with one hand while pushing the cart with the other hand. Did not know that was possible. But I feel like I made it through some kind of mama rite of passage.

I think tomorrow I'll just stick around the house though. ;-)

And a bonus pic of our first big boy bath. We had been using the little tub the hospital gave us but we decided to break out the big whirlpool fancy schmancy baby tub. For the record, he didn't like bath time any better. Hah!

Happy Thursday!!!

Wednesday

We've Had Help

July was a crazy insane month for us. When Joe got back from paternity leave he had to work even harder the rest of the month to make up. That means he had nine calls in a little over two weeks. When he is on call he goes to work like a normal day (around 5am) and works until noon. Then they give him four hours off to take a "nap" or rest because he has to be back at the hospital that afternoon from 4pm and work until the following morning at 6am. A lot of those nights he doesn't sleep at all because he has to be in surgery for any trauma or incident that happens in the hospital. Unfortunately, there always seems to be crazy people who want to cut each other with box cutters or shoot each other so they keep the hospital pretty busy. All this to say, I've already done nine nights totally by myself. Trial by fire!! Hah! But I have had A LOT of help this month.

Joe worked the last two weekends solid so our parents divided up the time and came to stay with me to keep me company and give me some help. When my parents come to visit I always have to have a list of "honey-dos" for my stepdad to work on. He can't just sit in the house and talk about babies. So he did everything from knocking down birds nests on our porch to cleaning our windows. Then, Joe's parents came last weekend and cleaned our entire garage (what a JOB that was) and bought us a deep freeze and stocked it with meals. My friend Rachael had already given us a bunch of freezer meals while I was pregnant and we were plowing through those pretty fast!

My mom also hired a sweet lady to come clean my house once a week for the next couple months so I don't get overwhelmed. (She knows I'm OCD and a clean house is really my love language! Hah!)

This month has been really hard without Joe's help. We don't have any family in town and most of our friends here have small children themselves so I hate to ask for their help. I'm so glad our parents are able and willing (haha!) to come down and work all weekend to help. How do military wives do it without help!?! I have so much respect for them and single mamas now!!!!

What kind of help did you have when you had your babies?