25 days of Christmas

For the last two years, I have come up with fun things to do for each day leading up to Christmas.  I put them on a cute card and label the envelopes 1-25. Each day there is an activity that we can do together to get in the Christmas Spirit.

Here are the ideas for this year:
-Ride around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights while drinking a hot beverage (mine will probably be mother's milk tea...see last post)

-Go see Santa

- Make hand-made gifts for grandparents

- Go see the Nutcracker (we'll be leaving Benson at home for this one). http://www.gcsu.edu/theatre/docs/gcsuseasonbrochureposterfinalfortheatrewebsite201415_1_.pdf  This is the performance at Georgia College December 12, 13, 14.

- Watch Christmas movies (this is usually more than one day)

- Read Christmas books (I need to put some on hold at the library- suggestions welcome)

- Shop for someone we adopted for Christmas

- Make ornaments http://www.pinterest.com/pin/104497653825475064/ (all you do is fill a clear ornament with marshmallows and decorate the outside)

- Make Christmas trees out of paper rings http://www.pinterest.com/pin/104497653825554514/

- Callaway Gardens drive through lights- the groupon is over in 7 hours (http://www.groupon.com/deals/callaway-gardens-4?utm_source=rvs&utm_medium=afl&utm_campaign=3125087)

- Christmas parade in Jones County (December 9th)

- Bake / decorate cookies

- Deliver a special something to the neighbors
- Make reindeer hands 
- make a marshmallow snowman 

- Lake Wildwood boat ride and Christmas lights (another one we may need to leave Benson at home for, but we'll see)- they have not released the information for this year, but here is the website for when they do post the dates http://www.lakewildwood.org/cotl/

- Gray UMC Drive-thru nativity (free hot chocolate- date is TBA)

- Make Gingerbread Houses

-breakfast with mommy and buy gifts for daddy.

- breakfast with daddy and buy gifts for mommy.

- chick-fil-a on Tom Hill to drive-thru lights

I only need 3 more, but they will probably either be a book, a movie or another craft!

What do you have planned for December?

Catching up...but this is really about lactation!

So I haven't posted in about three years, but now that I have two babies and have successfully completed my Master's degree, I'm back at it!

Today I'm going to post a few of my go-to recipes for helping with lactation.  These are three recipes that I have used in the last few weeks to try to boost my supply.  They have been somewhat successful.  My supply has been down for a few reasons, but these all seem to help.

The first, baked lactation cookies:
http://www.food.com/recipe/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-lactation-cookies-by-noel-trujillo-192346

These are pretty good.  The hubs thought they were good too.

Next, no-bake lactation cookies:
http://www.milkandbaby.com/blogs/milk-baby/15915915-no-bake-lactation-cookie-recipe

I only made 1/4 of this recipe and it lasted all week.  It was very rich since instead of nuts, I put chocolate chips!  I will say, they made me really thirsty, so that helped with drinking lots of water!

And the last, which is my breakfast all week, banana chocolate chip lactation muffins:
http://mylittlepoppyseed.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/a-recipe-chocolate-chip-banana-lactation-muffins/

They are very good, and quite satisfying.  According to my fitness pal there are 582 calories in 2 muffins.  I've been trying to reach around 2,500 calories each day, so that breakfast is good for me.

Little girls

I'm a very terrible blogger! Hopefully I'll get a little better when my little princess decides to make her appearance.

On January 31, 2012 at 10:36AM my precious little baby showed us her goods! We are so excited! The sonographer asked us if we wanted to know the gender. We of course said yes.

*I must add this little tidbit*- on the way to the doctor, I commented that I have been having TERRIBLE problems with my vision. I cannot see screens / technology that are not right up to my face. It's all terrible blur.

Back to the story...the sonographer put that dopler on my belly and said "oh, it wants you to know too". Then she typed something and everyone (mom, dad, hubby) got to read it and were smiling. I said "well, does it say boy?" The sonographer said "Are you blind?" Then she told me "It's a girl!" Then she was very nice to turn her nifty machine to where I could see it since I could not see the monitor on the wall at ALL. The very first sonogram shot that we have is of our little girl with her legs spread wide open (her daddy does not aprove).

Brandon just knew I would cry. I did not cry. I am totally excited though! Usually I cry with joy, and that's why he thought there'd be some tears. I did cry two days before our appointment just thinking about hearing "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!"

We have done almost nothing to get ready for our baby. We have received TONS of clothes and today we picked out a paint color. Next weekend we'll be working on the baby room: moving the current furniture upstairs and painting the walls.

Luckily, the baby is due 4 weeks after our last day of school, so hopefully we'll have plenty of time to think about things then.

I would like to end this post by giving a big shout out to the wonderful young man at Kroger that cleaned up my puke today. I feel terrible for you, but you didn't even bat an eye at my poor husbands request. I went 18 weeks of throwing up every day (and not ONCE in public) and although I no longer puke EVERY day...today was a different story...However, I do feel wonderful now and I am SO thankful for that dude at Kroger.

Another tradition- Stockings

I know there are tons of stocking traditions out there. I personally love the way my dad's family does stockings. We used to exchange gifts and do stockings, but now that there are at least 27 people present every year, we only do stockings.

When we were little, someone would go to the grocery store and get a bunch of brown paper sacks. They would bring them home and we would all decorate them with lots of Christmas spirit and put our names on them. Now that there are no little children, my Grandmother has opted to get the humongous gift bags and put our names on them.

You're probably thinking surely these bags don't get filled, but oh no...most years they are pretty full. Everyone is supposed to pick a small gift under $5 for everyone. We always get socks, underwear, lotion, etc. We also get lots of really fun stuff like card games, earrings, bubble bath. Sometimes these gifts are homemade and other years they are store bought. We have gotten lots of homemade scarves or ornaments.

This used to be a morning tradition, but now that we all live in the real world and have jobs and are married, it seems we are doing it at night. So, this is how it works. Before dinner, all of the stockings get lined up in the garage. They are usually grouped by "family" (this makes it easier to find your siblings). Each person takes turns going out to the garage and putting their items in the stockings. After dinner the stockings get carried in to the living room and dug in to. Last year all of the guys got styrofoam swords and had a blast outside when we were done opening.

I love these stockings! We hardly ever know who anything is from, but usually it is announced at some point. Someone may shout "who did the coffee mugs this year?" and that person would say, "me!"....of course this has to be repeated 10 times to help the old folks, but it is still lots of fun! Usually I am REALLY good at stocking up through out the year, but not this year. I have lots of things for my nephew, and I handmade some gifts for my immediate family, but that's all the good ones I have so far.

Another great thing is that this is ALWAYS celebrated after Christmas, so if you need some more things for stockings they are usually dirt cheap. I will be hitting up Bath & Body works on December 26/27 while they are having their huge 70% off sale.

Christmas Traditions- opening gifts

When families combine, you have to adapt to each other's traditions. Last year was our first "shared" Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve and up until lunch on Christmas day with Brandon's family, and then we drove to my parents. It was wonderful and different.

I've always had this thing about opening presents. If I spent the time to pick out the perfect gift for you, I want to see you open it. Last year was my first chaotic Davis family gift opening experience. Someone passes you all of your presents and you open them in a hurry and then you're done. When the little one's are done opening their gifts and parents ask "who was that from?" the response is "I don't know". I think I'm just slow when it comes to opening gifts, but I try to pay special attention to who the gift is from. I'm just glad Brandon and I sat next to each other, because we decided to exchange our gifts to each other at his family gathering as well.

This year, even though my family Christmas will be a week late, I can hardly wait to open gifts in our special way. One person sits by the tree with the santa hat on and passes out gifts. There is always a "no, they can't open that one yet" kind of thing going on. Lots of years gifts are numbered "1" to open first "2" to open after, etc. We go youngest to oldest and "santa" passes the gift to whoever's turn it is. So, if it is my turn to open, "santa" can just pass me a gift, or someone in the group can say "she needs to open mine". It is a slow process, but I thoroughly enjoy it. I get to see everyone unwrap the gifts from me and I can see what everyone got.

A little blogging break

I must admit that I LOVE to blog...but mostly I love reading other people's blogs and not writing my own.

I was totally ready to do my "thankful" blogs every day in November...however all I could think of was "I am so thankful for this amazing little life growing inside me". Since I had not gone public with this info, I just had to stop. I know there are a MILLION other things that I could say I am thankful for. God is SO great and I am thankful for all of the many blessings in my life. Since I was just busting at the seems to tell, I had to quit posting. I swear I only made like 2 posts on facebook the whole time I was waiting to tell. It was pure torture.

I'm so glad that we waited to tell though. I am very thankful for so many things and all of the supportive people I have in my life. Today I am 15 weeks and our baby's heart is thumping really well.

My very favorite season is here. I have been so unmotivated to decorate, so all we have is a red glittery "Merry Christmas" sign above our television, and a naked Christmas tree. Every day when I get home from school I throw up and then sleep, so decorating has not been on my agenda. Next year I will decorate with all the wonderful ornaments that I have and take a million pictures. I am pretty proud of myself that ALL of our shopping is done and everything is wrapped.

Our neighbors houses all look AMAZING with all of their lights. We've gotten a few gift cards lately as "late wedding presents". They are all to Lowe's or Home Depot, so I'm hoping they will have good after Christmas sales on the light up reindeer's for outside or these. One house in our neighborhood, that has a LOT of windows facing the road, has lights in the shape of Christmas ornaments in every window. I think it looks FANTASTIC!

On a really horrible note, I saw a nativity on my drive to Brandon's parents house a couple of weeks ago. It had Mary on one side, Joseph on the other and a HUGE Santa in the middle instead of a manger...It has been bothering me ever since. It has to have been the most horrid thing I have seen in a while.

Thankful day 3

Today I am thankful for massages. I had a great hour long massage today after school at the massage therapy school...it was WONDERFUL.

I am also thankful for one of my best friends in the whole world Crystal Newby. She's pretty awesome- world's best maid of honor and a GREAT friend :)