Our Attempt at Life!

New Year New Things

2012-01-15T15:45:00.003-07:00

January is half through and I thought perhaps I should post my new years resolution. It's super simple and kind of cheating but I think I can achieve it. I'm going to make Jessa laugh everyday! Pretty easy huh?

We also hope to move this year and when we move I have a goal to bring only 'green' cleaners into our new home. They're good for the environment, better for us and also cheaper.

One other thing were working on this year is to start getting out of debt. This may take us awhile and our budget may be tight for a bit but I know this is best for us.

I also wanna be better about posting on the blog. I want Jessa to be able to read this when she's older and know what life was like when she was born. I think blogging is a very good way to do that.

So there's my late new years post. I think I should mention that on new years we went to my sisters to celebrate we brought the pack n play so Jessa could sleep there and we could stay up late playing games. Jessa had another idea and stayed up all the way until we drove home at twelve thirty. She really wanted to bring in the new year.

2011-12-24T00:19:00.000-07:00

It's already Christmas eve's eve (now its actually Christmas eve) and I haven't put up Jessa's picture with Santa. As it is a big deal to her daddy we took Jessa to her first movie "The Muppets" we made it through without a fit. Well almost, just a little one before the movie started but I just fed her real quick and it was all better. She also took a short nap through the middle but woke up for the big show. Afterwards we went and saw Santa. Guess who's Santa's little helper? Yeah Jessa. She stuck her hand in his beard and smiled for the camera. My mom says she looks like an elf.

Yeah she's bare foot and looks like she's wearing capris in Dec. but I didn't want to lose socks at the movies and she's freakishly long so you do what you can.

We also got family pics done for our Christmas card (which my crafty husband made).

So lately I've been addicted to craft blogs which make me want to craft. Which means I may have to make a few things and perhaps blog about them. Hopefully soon.

Happy Holidays!

We're Rolling

2011-11-28T12:11:00.001-07:00

For a few weeks now I've been trying to help Jessa roll over. I could tell that her muscles were getting strong enough to almost do it but she'd always get stuck on her arms. I took lots of videos of her wiggling and almost making it over but never did. All only 30 seconds long in bad quality so I could send them to show off.

And sometimes not doing anything at all

I put this one because she smiled at me.

I thought it would be really neat to get her on camera the first time she rolled over. I'd grab her fingers and help her over to teach her how to do it but still nothing. It felt like she was never gonna do it.

Monday morning I put Jessa on her belly to snap up her shirt and was just waiting around when, what do you know, she rolled right over. I was hardly paying attention. I pulled out my camera and put her back on her belly and she did it again. I had to send a video to daddy. I was so excited to see that our hard work of practicing had finally payed off.

I got her the second time.

Later that night Jessa had a dirty diaper and after taking it off I thought I'd just give her a bath so I left her naked on the floor laying on her back. I left the room to go grab her bath stuff and when I came back just a minute later she had rolled on to her tummy. Now yes I am sad I missed her rolling on to her tummy but was also so excited that she had done it and I could tell by the look on her face that she knew she accomplished something exciting. Its so amazing to have this beautiful blessing in my home. Some times I wonder how I ever lived without seeing her cute little smile everyday or watching her grow stronger and taller ( my goodness is this girl long) and more smart, she is so curious about everything. It just amazes me, everything she can already accomplish and she's not even four months old yet. I love you Jessa Isabella Harrison and I'm proud to be your mommy!

Update :)

2011-11-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

We finally had Jessa's first big holiday, Halloween! I decided to make Jessa a mummy costume which turned out to be harder than I expected, but still cute. My mom and grandma always made my sister and I costumes, so I thought I'd give it a try this year. All I did was get some white or light colored long sleeved jamies and hat and it took me five or six rolls of gauze. I used hot glue to put the gauze on the jammies and hat and after I was done my grandma told me you can use some baste stuff that I guess would have made it a lot easier. For cute little touches I made her a little spider friend that I just sewed on to a hair clip and I took some extra gause to dangle in random places and made some in to a bow at the top. Also I took some grey paint and a sponge and made it look dirty and old. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Along with Halloween Jessa also just turned three whole months old. Its crazy to think but she really has been with us for three months. I was just telling my mom that in some ways it seems like I've had her forever. I've told others that there's no way its been three months. It seems like I've had way more then three months of poop but not three months worth of cuddles. I'm so blessed that I can be able to stay home all day with Jessa. I get to see every smile every giggle and every wimper.

Recently we started putting her in the Jumparoo every once in awhile. I thought she would be a little small for it but she loves it now. She's also in love with her playmat and sits there for ever kicking and cooing. Daddy told me I should paint her nails princess pink so we painted her toe nails bright pink. She is such a joy to have. We found some old pics of me when I was younger and Jessa looks so much like me. I'll have to scan some of the pictures some time and put them on here.

So Jessa had a run in with a bully at the gym daycare. Stephen and I were running on the elliptical machine and heard screaming, we looked at each other and hoped that it wasn't Jessa screaming. So we kept going and the screaming kept going also. After a minute or two a lady came in holding a screaming baby in a pink dress. Yes, it was our lovely daughter. Turns out a little boy came in and mauled her and stole her binkie. She was not happy. Nothing calmed her down and it was like high pitched death screams. Finally I got Jessa her binkie and we cuddled really good and she calmed down. I felt so bad for the poor thing.

The last few days we've decided that Jessa needed to stop getting swaddled. It seemed to really upset her when we would and instead of just fussing a little she would full out scream. So we decided to try just putting her in those sleep sack things so its like shes zipped up in a bag. The first night she fell right to sleep in it. The next night she fell asleep pretty easily again but the next morning she woke up with war wounds. I felt so bad she got her self really bad, but they didn't seem to bother her. So far that was the only night she scratched herself hopefully she wont do it to much more.

Poop Wars

2011-10-11T15:25:00.000-06:00

Just as a fair warning yes I am going to be talking about poop. If you do not wanna hear then don't read. :)

This last Sunday I was getting Jessa ready for church. I had her in a cute little tutu dress all ready to go bow and everything when she had to poop. So I sat and talked to her for a bit while I let her finish so I wouldn't change her only to have her go again and have to rechange her. When I went to change her is when I realized that she had leaked out the top of her diaper all over her cute dress. So I change her into another cute dress for church and we left.
We got to church early so I decided to nurse Jessa in the car before going in and while I was feeding her she pooped again. I didn't think much of this because she poops all the time when I'm feeding her. So after a few minuets I felt her back and notice that she has once again leaked out the back. So I finished feeding her and took her into the bathroom to changer her into the extra clothes I keep in the diaper bag. I started wondering if she was leaking cause shes right on the cusp of size 2 diapers and we had run out of size 1 and had a couple bags of size 2 that we got as gifts so we started using them. She is less then two pounds away from the recomened weight and she's been wearing them for for awhile, she'd almost gone threw a whole bag and hadn't leaked. So I scrounge the diaper bag for a size 1 and found the last one so we strapped this one on her put her in the semi cute clothes and sat down late for church. (I used to be early for everything and then I had a baby and I don't know how but she makes us late for everything. We were even early for church and managed to sit down late.) I am glad to say that she was a little angel through church, only burping right when we went to pray :) and sleeping the rest of the time.
After church Stephen had to work on my dad's neighbor's computer so Jessa and I went to visit Grandpa Elmer and Grandma Robin. Jessa was hanging out in her car seat showing grandpa how good at pooping she had become while we visited.I guess I felt the need to jinx myself by saying you better not leak out of these cause I don't have anymore change of clothes for you. After a few minuets I took Jessa out of her car seat to notice that she had leaked out the side of her diaper. Apparently it didn't matter what size diaper she was wearing that day she wanted to be naked. At that moment I noticed that I didn't take the diaper bag out of the car. I didn't think Stephen would be much longer but who knows so my dad offered to go and get the diaper bag for me. As I was undressing her Robin said "by the look on her face it almost seems like maybe she's not done." I replied back "Probably not she hasn't stopped all morning." All I had left in the diaper bag for her to wear was a jacket so Jessa got to hang out in a jacket and a diaper. A little bit after that Stephen got done and came back and my grandma called to invite us to lunch. I told her about the blow outs and she asked what I was eating, implying that Jessa had diarrhea. I told her, "Her poop doesn't seem a different texture or anything. The only difference is that its outside the diaper instead of inside."

When we're at home Jessa wears cloth diapers most the time. They save money and they're really not that much of an inconvenience and we've only had one leak. But if were going out for awhile like church or over to watch a football game at my sisters its much easier to just use disposable diapers. There's no need to carry around a poopy diaper until we get home. Some thing I have noticed when Jessa is wearing a cloth diaper is when its time to change her we have this weird way of gageing how bad its going to be to clean up afterward. Okay so yes my daughter is only two months old and can't understand us but it still doesn't mean that we should curse in front of her, but at times it seems necessary I guess. Yes, an awful excuse. Hopefully by the time she understands we will break the habit. So there is some rap song I'm not at all sure what its called or who its by or any other lyric to the entire song but this one line "you know I wreck dis shit." I know, where do we even get this from. I don't know but Stephen one day came home from work and my cousin was here picking up her daughter. Jessa was in our room sleeping. Stephen told us he had to go to the bathroom went in our room and said "I'm gonna wreck dis shit Jessa" loud enough to hear it in the living room. So my cousin and I started laughing and decided he wanted to teach Jessa bad words at a young age. Ever since then when Jessa has a really big poop, the worst she could have, we say "she wrecked dis shit". Other times when its not as bad but still fairly bad we say "she trashed this diaper". Then it gets to "this ones not that bad". Then "oh there's just a little in here". "This ones just a skid mark." and the best one to get "she only peed".

I would like to note that I have an amazing husband that has no problem changing or spraying clean diapers and helping in the middle of the night if I need it.

In Love with the Hospital Bink

2011-10-05T15:05:00.000-06:00

There seems to be this crazy phenomena going on in my house lately. Well more then one actually, but we'll just start with this one. I never bought my daughter a single binkie. Not one, yet some how I ended up with at least ten of them. I didn't bring any to the hospital when I had her cause I didn't really want her having them, but by that second night in the hospital I had changed my mind. All Jessa wanted to do was nurse every ten minutes and a binkie was the only thing to save my poor nipples. I've regretted this on several occasions now. I'm pretty sure the absolute most coolest thing to Jessa is her binkie. As I said, I went to the hospital with no binkies but I came home with like six of them. We went back to get Jessa's hearing checked came back with more. I'm warning you now even if you don't want your child having binkies take one from home for them in case you change your mind because you don't want the addicting hospital ones. You see these hospital workers are pros at newborns and there is no better way of calming a baby then giving them a vanilla scented binkie. Yeah no joke the thing smells so good and vanilla yeah its a calming sent. You'll think there the most amazing thing in the world, trust me I did. They calm your baby right down, they make your baby smell really good too and give you the break you need. Until the second that thing falls out of your babies mouth and the calm is over. Of course popping the binkie back in calms them right back down and also starts the funnest game you'll ever play. Its called " I'm gonna be mad at you when I spit my own binkie out". Jessa and I have played this so many times you'd think we would get bored with it but no, one of us quite enjoys it.

Of course any baby will play this with any binkie, thats not the big problem. The big problem is when suddenly all your binkies are missing. Like I said before I have like eight of this kind of binkie and at the moment all I can find is two. I thought this wasnt a big deal, I have other kinds for her to use except she just chews on them and makes a funny face cause she doesnt like the shape.

Vampire teeth who wouldn't wanna suck on that?

So the reasonable thing to do would be clean my house and find them all again but that takes work so I just look on walmart.com so see how much they are, and I start cleaning my house cause there is no way im spending sixteen dollars on only four binkies. I dont care if I can get them in pink and purple instead of green no way is that happening. Although I may buy one of these for the same price.

Probably worth 12.99

Now here's my latest dilemma, the binkie hasnt been having the same affect on her. I'll pop it in her mouth and she'll keep screaming. Not always but increasingly it wont help. I should be happy she doesnt want to use her binkie cause I never wanted her having it in the first place but it turns out were both dependent on it now (her dad is worse). Maybe its time to nip it in the bud and just take them away but I know in the middle of the night I'll be popping it in hoping it helps.

How We Became.

2011-09-27T13:13:00.000-06:00

Three years ago I graduated from high school and did what a lot of confused graduates do, moved 130 miles away from pretty much everyone and everything they know. For about a month I thought it was the worst idea ever! I had not a single friend, really hard classes, and I was living with my crazy aunt. One day I got up and went to my communications class figuring it was going to be another boring class. I would pretend not to text through the lesson until this boy started talking to me before class started. I was so excited that potentially I had another friend making the count a whopping two whole people. I took five second to read a text and bam that first friend sat between us and I couldn't talk to the new one. But me being the smart college student I was had a plan, I stole her seat the next day in class. That's right I'm a seat thief and proud of it! With that problem fixed I came to my next; I was trying to tell my friends from home how how sneaky I was stealing that chair so I could sit next to..... I didn't know his name! For goodness sake this was a communications class I was to scared to ask this boy his name, but there's a way of getting around things. My aunt and I decided just to call him com boy, until I took the time to listen while our professor took roll, and he shouted out here when she said Stephen, sadly this took me a few weeks to actually pay attention and not day dream or text while I stared at the back of his head.

So for about the entire first month of school I had myself a little stalker. While I was waiting in the hall for the class room to open up, out of no where Stephen would show up. After class I would walk down stairs and guess who was there waiting to ask how I did on our assignment today. He kept popping up everywhere. One day, about a month into school, we had a com. test and got out of class early. Somehow I ended up eating lunch with Stephen and my one other friend from com. , Stephanie. We sat and talked until Stephanie and I had our next classes. We got up said see you in class and walked off, but Stephen with his stalker skills followed me and asked for my number so we could hang out after class. Finally he asked for my number or gave me some clue that he wanted to see me outside of school. We went on our first date the next day:) and two years later from that exact day we were married. Its hard to believe i've only spent three years with my husband when it feels like a life time. I love him so much and hope to spend many more years together.

Us!

2011-09-14T19:00:00.000-06:00

I suppose I should start by introducing my little family. I'm Kandice, I'm a stay at home mom doing my best not to get pooped on all day long. I get crazy thoughts in my head like, "We should use cloth diapers and spent $200 dollars on them, or that I can keep up with a blog." (I don't even have time for normal house hold chores.) I enjoy reading when I can find a good book, singing really loud and off key I'd guess, and dancing where ever I find it useful. I live for a good giggle from me or you.

I have an amazing husband Stephen. He may be six years older then me but he is a kid at heart. He tries tricking me into watching movies and cartoons all day long and if we were to listen to him we'd either be in the movie theater all day long or have netflix on in bed from the time we wake up till the time we sleep. He enjoys reading also, he also likes comic books, alot. He's super computer savvy and builds/repairs them in his spare time. He works very hard for us everyday and does everything I don't want to (like pick up a phone). He's the love of my life and it would be so lame with out him.

We just added the cutest little girl to our family Jessa. The adorable little thing was born just over a month ago and we can't get enough of her. She brightens our days and brings joy to our lives. As far as I can tell she enjoys pooping (only on her mom), crying, the binky I don't want her having, music and people talking to her.
We also have two evil cats Reltih and Teague. They use to run the house and then we let them go outside and that seemed to mellow them. They enjoy eating bugs, ganging up on squirrels and bringing dead frogs to my door.

Hopefully by keeping up with this blog I can go back and remember all my families milestones. I'm so excited to watch my beautiful daughter grow and see where life takes us.