Happy Thanksgiving

Hoping that everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We were fortunate enough to have out of state family come and stay with us for the holiday. Our daughter was so very excited to see her Aunt Kristi and Uncle Jonnie! We were very glad to have them here. We were able to enjoy their company and catch up with a nice relaxing weekend.

Now we are getting ready to start the Christmas season, we are starting by putting up our christmas tree with our daughter today. She looks too stinking cute in her Christmas outfit that she had to put on, she kept asking for her Christmas tutu!

Now we have to takle Christmas shopping which scares me every year, at this point I think the only thing we know that we are going to be getting is this from http://www.uncommongoods.com/:

 for my Brother. He loves to pay guitar is always losing his picks. He cuts his own currently but he uses an Exacto knife, this method will be a lot easier for him, and I love that we found something unique for him. Now I just have takle the rest of our shopping list and hope for the best!

HELP!!

I'm usually on here trying to pass out advice to help others, but today I come to all of you looking for advice.  My lovely 2 year old Baby Bean won't stay in her toddler bed. I am fresh out of idea's and honestly it is wearing my husband and I out. I have tried laying with her until she falls asleep, I have tried just putting her back in her bed every time that she gets up, I have tried to let her watch a movie, listen to music, or read. Nothing helps, she just won't stay in there! She ends up sleeping with us by at least 2 am everyday and we aren't getting any sleep. As much as I do love my child, I also very much so love my sleep.

PLEASE someone tell me that they have a solution to this great problem that I am having.

SNOW!

My Daughter is increasingly excited about the snow that is now falling in Michigan. She doesn't quite understand the concept that it's cold now, but she does like the snow. She asked last night if we could build a snowman. I explained that there isn't quite enough snow there for us to be doing that yet! This winter we are going to fill spray bottles with water and food coloring though and decorate the snow at our house. Baby Bean is very into coloring and painting currently and I think that this would be a great way to incorporate the things that she already loves and some quality outdoor family time. As a working mother I try to do all that I can with my child when I have the time. This is a project that is quick and fun! With a two year old I have to stick to something that she can do and that won't cause a lot of clean up after the fact. This is going to be a blast to do with her this year and I will have to get some photo's up once we actually get enough snow to try it out!

One Moment Can Melt My Heart

So after all of the craziness of our wedding weekend and our honeymoon, I'm finally back! We had some issues getting home from our AMAZING honeymoon in the Dominican Republic because of the snow in New Jersey, and I was starting to get a little distraught as I just wanted to get home to Baby Bean!

Monday night we finally got home just in enough time to take Baby Bean trick-or-treating. I'm sure glad that I was able to get home for this. My Husband was able to be with her for the first time on Halloween, so this was a special day! When we first walked in the door she was so excited to see Mommy and Daddy, but the novelty quickly wore off as more and more trick-or-treaters came to the door. She was greeting the children by their costumes. Kid dressed as Thomas the train comes to the door, she states "Hi Thomas!!" Like she has been waiting her whole life to meet him. She was way to cute for her own good. She was Minnie Mouse for Halloween and loved it. I will have to add a photo when I get them on here.

Watching her that night made me realize how important these little moments are to me. As a working mother I feel like sometimes I am just running in and out of her life. I know that on the weekends I get to spend time with her, but sometimes that is not enough for either of us. I love these moments when she is on a pure high from life, when she is discovering something for the first time. I love to just stand there and take it all in, watch her learn something new. To fully appreciate all of those moments, those are the moments that help me get through the days that I feel like a bad mom for not being with her every day. There is nothing wrong with being a working mother, I know a lot of people who do it, I do it, but there are day's that I feel like she needs more mommy time.

She has an amazing personality and a she is the smartest little thing, and I count my blessings everyday that she is so lucky to have the babysitter that she has who is teaching her so very much, and that she has my parents close and my Husband's parents close. Those people can help me to raise who into the person that I want her to be. They say it takes a village to raise a child, and until now I never truly realized how true that statement is. I don't know what I would do without those people in my life.