Our week

Merry almost Christmas!

It has been quite the last few weeks here at the Jewell house. Casey caught the flu and had to miss a few days of work. Naturally I started getting it so I got on meds asap and then Rylee caught a cold so she's been on Tylenol. Were all finally starting to feel better thanks be to God because it's almost Christmas!! It would break my heart to miss our first Christmas as a family of three.

Rylee had her 3 month dr visit last week. She is doing so well! She weighs 15 pounds and is 25 1/2 inches tall. She is in the 99th percentile for height!! That's my girl. She is also above average for weight, which isn't unusual since she likes to eat. The Dr was super impressed with her and how much she smiles and talks and how well she can hold her head steady and her upper back muscles. She didn't get her shots because my husband and I have decided to not vaccinate. We have really concrete reasons and personal experiences why we chose this option. It's a choice each parent has to make for there child. Our doctor was very understanding and respectful of our decision. Thanks be to God again because we've all heard those horror stories and I was very nervous about that part of her appointment. Rylee's just hitting milestone after milestone. She now tries to grab stuff and hold it to chew on. I can't wait til she can sit up on her own and we can play together. 

All around a very good doctor appointment.

We also got to spend some time with family for a few days. My youngest brother and sister are only 2 and 4 years older than Rylee so they love to play with her and take baths together, you betcha I got a picture of that. Rylee also had her first piano lesson! My mom has an exact picture of me as a baby sitting with my nana playing the piano and when my nana did the same thing when my daughter I had to get a picture of it. 

I did all my Christmas baking this past weekend to! Rylee joined in for a few cut outs, she could really care less as you can tell. But Momma loved it!

Lastly we did all our Christmas shopping and are officially done! I really wanted to stick with the 4 gift rule with Rylee and I think we did a good job at it. She of course got a stocking to go along with that. 

I can't wait to post about Rylee's first Christmas and all the details and festiveness that comes along with!!

3 months update

Baby girl is three months old today! I love everyday with her. I love watching her grow and learn knew things. Her smile is my favorite thing and that pouty lip is absolutely adorable. 

It took me forever to get her to smile for this picture, as you can see it started out with a pouty lip and then turned into laughing and smiling.

Rylee is weighing in at 15 pounds and a little over 24" tall. She loves being in the water and splashing around during bath time. But if she is too tired for bath time she quickly looses her marbles and that lip gets a going. Usually we can make her happy enough to finish bath time but it becomes a full blown melt down when we lather her with lotion. 

She is always smiling and hardly ever cries. Her big brown eyes light up every time she sees us. We just love her so much!!! I couldn't picture my life without her! 

Happy three months baby girl!!

Books!

One thing I want for Rylee more than anything is to be well rounded in a variety of things. I want her to be well read and love to read. I want her to be involved in as many extra curricular activities as she can manage. I want her to learn sign language, Spanish and French. I want her to be everything she wants to be. I feel all that stems from books and diving into a whole new world and other cultures. There is so much rich knowledge out there that I want her to get her chubby little hands on. 

I've been buying books for Rylee since I found  out I was pregnant. I want her to have her own personal library. I wanted to make sure she had all the classics that I loved growing up, but I don't have the money to pay $17.99 for those books. Which is why I love used book stores. I can get all these books for $2 a piece. Score!

Once we finish remodeling her play room I plan on putting some cute picture ledges on the wall to make her a cozy reading space. 

A few of the books were loving right now are

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

The Rainbow Fish

A Turkey for Thanksgiving

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Swimmy

I have a ton of books from when I was young that I can't wait to share with her! 

A Christmas post

This past weekend we were finally able to put up our tree and do a little Christmas shopping.

There is nothing I love more than glitter, I am seriously considering sprinkling some around my house, the baby, and the hedge hog. I loved the floors at the newest craft store at our mall.

This is what I ended up coming home with. The beauty! I've come to realize that I don't like characterish Christmas decorations... Santa, the snowman...

I prefer woodsy Christmas decor.

Naturally Rylee had a Christmas dress to wear to all the festive parties. I decided to try it on her a few nights ago to make sure it will still fit and it doesn't. I had a feeling it wouldn't because she has outgrown all her 3 month sizes. Sad.

So I went hunting for a new outfit for her to s wear and I found this beautiful skirt. I plan on pairing it with black tights, black onsie, and a big glitter red bow. Gorgeous!

Have you guys seen these? I started on rylees but have to paint and seal it still. Definitely won't be painting it a Santa. Obvi!

Christmas heart

I always have such outrageously high hopes and expectations for the Christmas season. I so desperately look for that Christmas magic that was around when I was little. I cling to certain events as what Christmas is all about and the excitement that leads to the big night.
Christmas tree chopping ;-)
Decorating the tree, the house, the hedgehog.
Listening to Christmas music on repeat.
Drinking hot chocolate by the fire.
Driving around looking at lights.
Watching every Christmas movie on hallmark.
Getting glitzed up for parties.
Celebrating Christmas "firsts" with Ry.
Gift shopping.
Baking.
Milking every last festive drop of egg nog right out of the Christmas season, but some how every year is the same. Barely getting the tree up in time to make it worth being up, no decorations, no music, no movies, baking once out twice, and no driving around to look at lights. No Christmas cheer.
So far this year is turning out no different and it's sad, but then maybe I need to realize that Christmas doesn't come from a store, perhaps Christmas means a bit more. And it does! The only reason Christmas exists is because Jesus was born. That's what I should be looking forward to and excited about because without Him, what's the point of life. Yet somehow I'm still dragged down by "societies" Christmas and the need to make it the best for Rylee.

Let the praying and heart changing begin.

Rylee's first Thanksgiving

Sadly this was the only picture I was able to capture on Turkey day. But I think it sums up how our day went perfectly. We went to my mom's for dinner and had the best line up ever! Thanksgiving is quite easily my favorite holiday because I get all my favorite food at once. My mom makes this amazing ham gravy that I could just eat by itself and then my nanas sweet potato casserole is like a party in your mouth. I also got to play some fun family games. Disney's Parents vs. Kids is by far a great one especially since I rock Disney everything. 

Hope you all had a great thanksgiving with your families!

Teething rage monster

My sweet little babe has started teething. I didn't think it was possible to start teething at just 3 months old. None the less she is drooling like a Rottweiler, chewing on everything and will not sleep. Last night was the first good night's sleep I have gotten all week and it is because i kicked my husband to the couch. I put her in my bed at 11, nursed her and she slept great till 10:20 this morning. She only barely woke up twice to eat.

I woke up feeling so refreshed. Which is nice because the lack of sleep has had me pretty cranky the last few days.

Santa: to do or not to do

With Christmas just around the corner, there is Santa stuff popping up every where. Figurines, placemats, and soap bottles, etc.
I always dreamed of waking up Christmas morning with my children excited to see what Santa brought them. But now that I'm a mother, I'm not so into Santa anymore. I definitely don't like Santa "stuff"and will not decorate my house with that gaudy-ness.
I loved seeing what Santa brought me when I was little and am not one of those kids who was upset with there parents for lying about Santa, but I'm just not sure how I want to play this. Casey says we have to do Santa because it's a childhood memory.
I just feel like Christmas is already blown out of proportion and has nothing to do with the true meaning. I want Rylee to be excited to celebrate Jesus birthday and not Santa coming.

I suppose we will see..

Cosleeping and the 12 week growth spurt

She may look all sweet and innocent here sleeping, but this was taken last week when she still slept. Monday night turned into a whole new ball game. She would fall asleep and as soon as I laid her down would wake up screaming. She wanted to be on my boob non stop. When I say non stop I mean like even if she wasn't hungry. Human pacifier over here folks! Yes, I tried a real paci. She would take it after much debate, fall asleep, spit it out and wake back up. 

We co-sleep every night which is normal for us, but usually she is put to bed in her crib at 8pm and then I get her out around 1am when she wakes to feed. Lately, she has been in our bed from the get go. I am dying for just four hours of my own sleep where I can sprawl out and not have to worry about her in bed with me. My poor husband I literally kicked him out of bed as soon as his alarm went off. I look forward to 3:30am every night now so that I can get some sleep comfortably. However, right now she is obviously needing something from me and it might just be emotional reassurance which she gets by sleeping with me and comfort nursing or it is about time for another growth spurt since she will 12 weeks on Saturday. Where had the time gone?

 Praying tonight is better for all of us.