Busy, Busy Foreman's

Since I went back to work, our days have been...... busy!  Brinleigh wakes up right before I leave the house to go to work and when I get home from work, Kolt has to start getting ready to go to work himself almost right away.  I try to wait up for Kolt to get home but sometimes I end up falling asleep on the couch.  Between waking up early, taking care of the baby, keeping up with the housework, and working out... I am exhausted and ready to pass out by 10pm.  I will admit that it is nice being back at work.  I enjoy waking up with a purpose, actually showering and getting dressed in something other than yoga pants and tank tops, getting out of the house on a daily basis, and having adult conversations with other people.  Even if it usually consists of me talking about the baby.  The paychecks will be nice too and we are looking forward to having that extra money.

 

Kolt and I have gotten pretty serious about working out and trying to eat a lot healthier.  We are both working on our own individual goals to lose some weight.  I work out at home when Brinleigh is taking her afternoon nap and Kolt takes a sports lunch and gets to work out during his lunch break.

 

With our new plans to stay in Sitka for Christmas, I am entertaining myself with ideas and plans to make the Holiday season special for our little family.  I'm not sure if it's because we have a baby now or the fact that living in Sitka can be extremely boring.... especially in the winter time.... but I have developed an exciting urge to celebrate and decorate for every holiday possible.  Holidays are just so much more fun when you have kids to celebrate with and you get to start your own little family traditions.  

I have already ordered and received Brinleigh's Halloween Costume and I can not wait to see it on her.  There will be trick-or-treating downtown at all the local businesses, along with trick-or-treating within the community as well.  The Coast Guard Cutter Maple crew will be setting up a haunted house on the boat that will be open for one night to walk though and I'm still waiting to hear if the Air Station will be putting together a Haunted House inside the hangar like they did last year.  Kolt of course, has to work Halloween night.... AGAIN!  Ugh!  They have a plane down for heavy maintenance for the whole month of October so nobody can take leave.

We also have Alaska Day coming up in a couple weeks which includes a parade that the Coast Guard will march in.  These have become more fun now that Brinleigh watches and seems somewhat entertained by all the commotion.  So Brinleigh and I, along with our parade partner, Kate, will go watch the boys march downtown.

Thanksgiving will be celebrated as it has been for the previous two years that we have been in Sitka.  We will go all out, cooking our traditional Thanksgiving dinner and our friends Kate and Cooper will come over to eat and hang out.

I am planning a bake day with a couple of my close girl friends here in Sitka.  A few weeks before Christmas we are going to spend the day baking yummy Holiday treats while the husbands hang out and watch the babies for us.  We are also planning a Christmas dinner and gift exchange with our close friends.  Of course, I have already started making Brinleigh's Christmas Wish List on Amazon.com.

 

Changes in the Foreman House

I feel like it's been forever since I posted last.

Brinleigh is now 13 1/2 months old and she has the sass to prove it!  She is officially wearing her 12 month size clothes and talking A LOT more these days.  Her vocabulary still only consists of the same few words, which almost sound just alike.  She does say "yes" now, but only if repeating it after me and it's really just the "sssss" sound that she makes.  She mostly just wanders around the house babbling to herself and sometimes throwing out a high pitched screech here and there.  She is a pro at walking now and is getting faster and faster every day.  She is such an animated little thing with such a big personality and we are having so much fun helping her learn grow.

I have decided...... to go back to work.  Part Time Only.  The bank has a few open positions and Kolt and I talked about it and decided that the extra income would be nice to have.  We are coming down to less than a year left in Sitka before we PCS and we would really love to have all of our credit card debt paid and a nice cushion in the savings accounts.  We never know exactly how Kolt's paychecks are going to look when we get to a new place and since I won't be working again at the next duty station, we are going to take advantage of our opportunities here.  Kolt works the night shift (3pm-12am) and so that makes it much easier for me to go back to work.  I will be working from 10am-2pm five days a week so Kolt will be able to stay home with Brinleigh and then once I am home from work he will then go to work.  We won't have as much time together on the days we both work, but again, the situation is temporary.  AND this is also, of course, if it suits our family.  If it ends up not working well with us and our schedules, then I will quit again.  But as of right now, we don't see why it will be a problem.  Brinleigh will be taking her morning nap while I am at work so even though I will be gone four hours a day, it will only be two hours out of her day.  I am hoping that this also helps keep the wintertime blues at bay for myself.  Since we will have much less daylight and it will be colder we won't be able to get out of the house as much, so hopefully working will give me a little break so that I can keep my sanity.

With that being said, here is the bad news........

We probably will NOT be coming home to Arizona for Christmas this year.

The plan has been to come home, however, Kolt and I both think that it would just be much more relaxing and a lot easier to stay in Sitka this year.  This might be our last chance for a real white wintery Christmas since we move next summer.  Brinleigh will be old enough to open gifts and have fun with it and we have a nice little "Sitka Family" here now so that we can have a nice Christmas dinner and it not be so lonely.  Even though I would love to come home and see the family and our friends and enjoy all of our Christmas traditions, I think it will just be easier on us as a family to stay here. And, a lot cheaper!  However, we will be coming to Tucson when we move next summer.  The plan is to leave Sitka, pass through San Diego stopping for a couple days (maybe) to take Brinleigh to the San Diego Zoo, and then come to Tucson for a week (maybe two).  We will then be going to Texas for a few days so Kolt can hunt a little and then continuing on to our next duty station.  Which will hopefully be somewhere between Alabama and North Carolina.

Kolt puts in his "picks" next month for where he would like to go for his next duty station.  I think as of right now the list is:  Clearwater, Florida - Mobile, Alabama - Elizabeth City, North Carolina - Cape Cod, Massachusetts - San Diego, California - Astoria, Oregon.  This is all subject to change of course and this is only his 60 picks.  He can list other locations if he wants to try to switch to C130's or H-65's.  We should find out where we are going for sure in the beginning of January, hopefully.

Brinleigh's 1 Year Photo's

I finally got Brinleigh's 1 year pictures CD from the photographer this week and I have to say, I am very happy with how they turned out.  I know I'm a little obsessed with documenting everything Brinleigh does and it seems like I am constantly wanting family/Brinleigh pictures done, and I can only thank God that Kolt allows this and puts up with my madness.  He is such a good man.  

Here are some of my favorites but the pictures are also uploaded to Smugmug (photo sharing website) where you can order prints and have them mailed to you.  If any of you want to view/order these photos, email me at Foreman112005@yahoo.com and I will send you the link.

 

12 Month Favorites

Brinleigh's 12 Month Favorites

Favorite Toys:  Baby Doll, Lego Blocks, Tupperware (especially the salad shaker bowl)

Favorite Games:  Peek-a-boo

Favorite Books:  Pretty Princess Pig, Ladybug Girl

Favorite Foods:  Green Beans, Mac & Cheese, Apples, Bananas, Cheerios, Blueberry Muffins, Strawberry Yogurt

Favorite Activities:  Copying/Mimicking Mommy & Daddy, Running (walking fast) or chasing Mommy & Daddy, Swinging, Dancing, Bath Time
Favorite Words:  Doggie "dah dah", not to be confused with her second favorite word, "Dada", and of course "no".

Other Favorites:  Dogs (especially Gunner), Music, but more specifically The Song "Get Your Shine On"
Least Favorite Things:  Diaper changes, Peas & Carrots

 

Momma's 12 Month Favorites

We ordered Brinleigh a new convertible car seat when we came home from North Carolina.  Brinleigh wasn't a fan of her infant seat and after some extensive research, I settled on this Diono Radian RXT.  We both love it!
We received a grocery cart cover at our baby shower and I absolutely love it.  I have been using it ever since Brinleigh was able to sit up on her own.  I keep it in the car so that I have it any time we go to the store.  Brinleigh likes it, I think it's more comfortable for her, and I like it because it helps eliminate the amount of germs she comes in contact with.  It actually helps me too since it covers the cart handles that I touch.
I have seen these food pouches around for a while, but here in Sitka I didn't think I had much need for them.  I bought a few while we were in NC along with the spoon tips that you can screw on and off of the pouches.  These were extremely convenient when we were traveling home.  I bought a few when we were out and about one day and I couldn't feed Brinleigh because I was pushing the stroller.  I took the top off and gave her the pouch and she just ate right from the pouch.  These have now become one of my favorites for when we are out running around or go out to eat.
Once Brinleigh started walking, I knew I had to order her some shoes with rubber soles.  After shopping around online, I decided to go with these cute baby Nikes from Kohls.  I was worried that they would make it harder for Brinleigh to walk since they aren't as soft and flexible, but surprisingly, she walked perfectly fine in them.  I love the velcro straps on these much better than the shoe laces I was having to tie on her soft crib shoes. 

Grocery Cart Cover
Diono Convertible Car Seat
Food Pouch Spoon Tips

Baby Food Pouches
Baby Nikes 

12 Month Update

Last week we had Brinleigh's twelve month check up.  Our little love bug weighed in at 21.5 lbs and is 27 3/4 inches tall, although I'm going to recheck this since those measurements would mean that she hasn't grown at all in the last two months.  She is in the 10th percentile for height (she's a shorty) and in the 75th percentile for weight (she's also a little chunk).  They seem pleased with her growth and development and didn't have any concerns or problems.  Brinleigh was also due to get her 12 month vaccines.  All together there are six shots and so they gave her three at this appointment and then we will go back in a month to get the other three.  She was not a happy baby (understandably) and I hated having to hold her down and watch those crocodile tears stream down her face.  Especially because she got so upset after the first shot and I knew there were still two more to go.  My poor baby was practically hyperventilating she was crying so hard, it made my heart hurt.  But when Daddy came back in the room (he doesn't stay in the room during her shots) he held her and got her calmed down again.  We had to wait about twenty minutes for the nurse to make sure she didn't have any reactions and she passed out in Daddy's arms.  It didn't help that the appointment ended up lasting two and half hours and well into her nap time.

We are also in the process of transitioning Brinleigh from formula to cows milk.  When she was about eight months old I started supplementing with formula and by her birthday I had completely weaned her from breastfeeding all together.  She was strictly getting formula for a couple weeks and now we are slowly adding cows milk to her formula.  We have one more can of formula to get through and then she will be solely on cows milk.

Ever since Brinleigh first started drinking breast milk from bottles (at about a month old) I have made it a point to only give her milk in her bottles.  I introduced her to juice at about nine months old in a sippy cup.  I'm hoping that this will help us in weaning her off the bottle around eighteen months.

We still have a cabinet full of baby food, but once that is all gone we will be completely done with the pureed baby food, with the exception of the fruit pouches which are awesome while on the go.

Brinleigh's Birthday Party

This past Sunday we had Brinleigh's Birthday Party at the house.  On her actual birthday, half of the close friends that we planned to invite were out of town.  And since my sister and her boyfriend were going to be visiting, we planned it for a couple weeks after.

I have spent months planning this party and spent numerous hours making the decorations and I have to say, I'm quite proud of how everything turned out.

The only decorations that I did not make myself were the balloons, plastic table cloths, and paper crepe streamers.  There were also some foil type swirly streamers that I bought online that aren't pictured.

 I used a plastic table cloth to frame the doorway in the dining room into the kitchen and then tied the corners with light pink ribbon.

 I cut the number 1 out of a cardboard box and then used the eraser end of a pencil to stick square pieces of crepe paper on with glue.

 I wanted a wreath that I could use for Brinleigh's Birthday Parties for years to come so I cut pieces of fabric into small squares and then pushed them into a straw wreath with a phillips head screwdriver.  I used a long piece of ribbon to loop through the wreath, tied the ends in a knot and it is hung by an upside down sticky hook on the inside of the door, so the ribbon goes all the way over the door.  I made the number 1 out of scrapbook paper, glue, and glitter and then hung it onto the ribbon with a small piece of balloon ribbon.

 The Happy Birthday Banner was made out of scrapbook paper using letter stencils and then I applied glitter with elmers glue.  For the paper garland I used scrapbook paper & cut out the holes using a fiskars stencil and shape cutter. Then I just used regular sewing thread, (doubled over so that I had a hook at the top to hang) & glued it with elmers glue. I used a paint brush to apply the glue so that it covered all of the string and then dried flat.

 Don't judge my lopsided cake! I'm still trying to perfect the baking and layering of cakes.  These were my 4th and 5th cakes so I have been practicing.  After my first attempt of baking the cake from scratch, I decided it wasn't worth it and stuck with boxed cake mix.  The big cake is white cake mix consisting of three layers, each a different shade of pink.  The smash cake is a three layer strawberry cake.  I did make the butter cream frosting from scratch and dyed the frosting different shades of pink on the big cake.  I left the frosting white on the smash cake.

For the pretzels, I melted white chocolate chips, added a drop or two of pink food coloring and dipped the pretzels and then laid them on cookie sheets to dry.  I used my new cake plate for the pretzels since I put the cake on a cake stand.

 The highchair banner was made from scrapbook paper.  The wicker basket is full of the party favors which are baby food jars filled with starburst jellybeans and the lids are painted pink with sparkles.  I painted the inside of a mason jar and the outside of a formula can to hold the plastic utensils.

My favorite piece that I made, out of everything, was the cake topper.  I used this in the smash cake for Brinleigh's One Year Photo's as well.  I used scrapbook paper for the pennants, used letter stickers for the Happy Birthday letters, bought some rope string from the craft store & tied it around wooden kabob sticks. I then put glue over the knot in the string & under the knot so that it was glued to the stick & couldn't slide down. I also glued the pennants to the string.  This is something I've decided I will hold onto for Brinleigh's  future birthday parties.

 

I ordered all the balloons, plastic cups and table cloths from amazon.com and bought the pink plates and napkins from a party store here in town.

We also grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and I just realized that I didn't get pictures of the balloons we had outside.  In the front yard and the backyard, we stuck pink golf tee's into the ground and had balloons tied to them so that balloons were floating around the yard.

Brinleigh's outfit was a Birthday gift from her Grandma Deana, which she opened on her actual Birthday.  A cute little carter's dress with a matching cardigan.  I added the white leggings and let her run around most of the day without the cardigan on.  That outfit was the cutest thing ever and I'm going to try and dress her in it as much as I can before the weather cools off and she grows out of it.  And Yes!  It also matched my shirt.

Thank You to everyone who sent gifts or cards or were able to be here and celebrate with us.  We had a blast celebrating Brinleigh's 1st Birthday numerous times over the last couple weeks.  She is absolutely loving all of her new toys and of course, Momma can't wait to doll her up in her new outfits.  Thank You all so much!