Ugh Videos.

I have tried to upload this video a thousand times already!  Okay maybe not a thousand… but dang close.  I used the program I used last time – well they no longer offer it.  So then I tried using blogger and had to let it run all night – crash, there was an error.  Then I tried making the file size smaller and came back and my computer had restarted itself.  So now I am back to trying it with youtube.

<< Rant over! >> 

Here is little Mal-Mal all clean from her bath!  She is really good with baths, but hates the drying off part and screams and cries until you pick her up and snuggle her. 

Office Done – Check!

Jesse and I headed into the city on Friday to return some stain that we bought and he needed to go to Radio Shack.  Oh and Buffalo Wild Wings was calling our name.  Anyway, we went to check and see if (just by chance) our countertops came in… and they did!!!

Jesse is already working in our new office.

We had a huge industrial shelving rack in here and it didn’t feel right.  It really took away from the ‘cozy’ feeling of an office. Out to the garage it went.  One of the many perks of a Jeep – they are short, therefore you can use your garage as a warehouse!  (There is another rack behind this one.)

This is looking into the living room area.  I haven’t organized this yet, but you can look.

Here is a special look at the tile.  A couple pieces are laid out so we could see them and try to figure out a style.

Here is how you get all this work done and have a newborn! 

I dug this sling back up on Friday.  We used this when she was first born.  Jesse would walk around with her in the mornings like this so I could get some more sleep.  I didn’t really like it because she was so tiny in it that she looked like she couldn’t breath.  But now that she is bigger she fits so much better!!  It was just hot out today so I left her feet hanging out so she didn’t overheat.  Otherwise she snuggles right in there.

Don’t tell anyone, but I am kind of excited to go to work tomorrow in my new office!  : )

Baby Friends

Last night our friends came over and I just had to get a picture of the babies next to each other. 

Coy (in the orange) is 3.  Jude is just about 2 weeks old.  And Mallory is just about 7 weeks old. 

We gave our friends a hard time when they told us they were pregnant with Jude.  She wanted another baby for a really long time but her husband wasn’t on board yet and he told her “When Lynn and Jesse have a baby then we can have one.”  (I think he thought that would buy him some time.)  She held him to it!  Soon after we told them we were pregnant… they were too!!  Ms. Mallory has a little boyfriend already!  Wait… no boyfriends Mallory!!  Boys are yucky!!  They have boy germs!!  ; )

Its Friday!!!  So far I have made it a whole week of this work stuff.  Well, I haven’t started my work day today yet – but I’m pretty sure I’ll make it.  Mally has been awesome!  She has slept threw the night the past 3 nights!!!  This morning I woke up on my own at 6:50ish and she was still sleeping!  When she sleeps all night she is the happiest baby during the day!  She must take after her Mommy and needs her sleep!  She sleeps most of the morning while I am working and wakes up right before I take lunch.  During my lunch hour I can play with her and get her good and sleepy again so she can take an afternoon nap.  That nap is much shorter, only an hour or so.  Then she is awake most of the afternoon, but Jesse is home by then so I have an extra pair of hands to help out.  She’ll stay awake (after this afternoon nap) until about 8pm where she takes a quick nap before I give her a dream feeding.  My mornings are my busiest time at work, so it is awesome that she takes her longest nap then.

Our basement is almost complete.  We are waiting for our countertops to come in… actually hoping I get a call today that they are in and we can go pick them up tonight so we can install them tonight.  I don’t want to show you pictures until the countertops are in – so once that is in I can show the after pictures.

We have the bathroom tile in our possession!  The guy we were going to have install the tile (a neighbor) wasn’t 100% confident he would be able to do what we wanted (too many angles) so now we are back to waiting on this tile guy (who we bought it from).  For sure this bathroom will be done before Mallory turns 18 and moves out of the house!  ; )

Maggie La’ Phew

Have you all been missing my naughty puppy stories?  If you have, here is another one for the books!  Seriously I am beginning to think we could write a book about this dog… oh wait… one was already written and made into a movie – Marley and Me!! 

One of Jesse’s fears is that Maggie would get sprayed by a skunk!  When he takes her for walks out in the woods behind the house he is on the constant look out for skunks.  He has had two close encounters on his walks so far, but was able to get Maggie’s attention and book it out of there before Maggie spotted the sunk herself and took off after it. 

Last night… we weren’t so lucky!  It was about 10:30 at night and Jesse took her outside.  It’s dark out.  He can’t see where she’s at.  All of sudden he hears her growl and he calls for her to come back.  Maggie comes back and she is acting really funny.  She won’t come by him and she is blowing air out her nose.  Then Jesse smells it!!!  He comes flying into the house and says – IT HAPPENED!!  SHE GOT SPRAYED!! 

We had no idea what to do with her.  She is a dog that sleeps inside the house – but there was no way she was coming in!!  We paced around the kitchen trying to think what to do.  Then we googled what to do.  We needed an unopened bottle of peroxide, which we didn’t have and our grocery store closes at 9am.  Maggie was going to have to wait until morning. 

We put her in her kennel outside and told her to blow the stink off and she could come back inside.  Did your parents ever tell you that – ‘go outside and blow the stink off’? 

This morning came and Jesse went to the store to get his skunk magic… and it worked!  She no longer smells like skunk!  Now lets hope she learned her lesson and won’t mess with the skunks!

Back to Work

I knew my time would run up and it ran up today – I went back to work.  I have never been gone from my job for more then a week – so being gone six weeks really made me not want to go back.  I was out of my work routine for so long that I forgot how to do it… and I didn’t want to do it.

I have to say it went way better then I thought.  She got a little fussy towards the end of the day, but by that time Jesse was home from work.

Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes today!  It went very well!!

I’ll leave you with some pictures that my Mom took a couple weeks ago for Mallory’s One Month…

Friday… Operation Organization

I’m down to only two more days left before I go back to work.  Six weeks went way too fast and I’m not ready to go back.  I could do this stay at home mom stuff easily!

Anyway – Jesse took today off so that we could finish off our basement.  Hang the rest of the curtains.  Move the furniture around.  Put up shelving in the office.  Clean out the warehouse… I mean our spare bedroom.  Except Jesse is over at the neighbors right now helping him learn how to use a GPS.  So… I’m going to show you some before pictures while I wait for him to come back to do some heavy lifting. 

Here is a corner of the living room that shows you the curtains, wall color, and my splash of color. 

Here is where a big majority of our focus will be today… on our office area.  Last night we went and got industrial type shelving so we can move Jesse’s products in here and organize them nicely.  We also ordered counter top!  Where are desks are on the left – we are going to put a huge piece of counter top there and have shelving underneath it.  We will have two work stations there.  Then we ordered another piece of counter top to have like an island – so we can package and do shipment for Jesse’s business.  The ‘island’ will go about where you see that couch sitting. 

I am very excited about this island – because when Mally gets older she can sit there and color, do puzzles, etc. while I am working!! 

Here is the warehouse… aka: the spare room.  All of this stuff is product for Jesse’s business and believe it or not we are completely out of two of his products so this actually looks good.  By the end of the day this room should be cleared and ready to be turned into a guest room.  

Our tile is in and we can go pick it up.  If time allows (depending on how quickly we work and how long it takes to teach a guy how to use a GPS… it is still too early for beer this morning so that won’t delay him) we may be able to go pick it up and start that!!  Here is what the bathroom looks like.  Very ready for tile.  Shower installed.  Walls painted.  Ceiling painted. 

Yup, we burnt out a light bulb already and we haven’t even been able to use the bathroom!! 

Lets just hope that sweet little Mally does a lot of this today, so we can get lots done.  Lets also hope that her mommy pushes away all instincts to pick her up and snuggle – she has lots of work to do today.  This is when I love that I am nursing… because I have to hold her and snuggle her and talk to her and make her smile & coo and oh yeah, feed her!  : )

Alright I better go get this mission started.  I’ll be back with the after pictures soon… I hope.  That GPS must be tricky… he is still MIA.  Maybe they need a girl to show them!  ; ) 

Just a Swinging

We had a Frey family reunion at the park on Saturday and I just had to take little Mally for her first swing on the swings! 

It may look like she is about to fall… but she isn’t!  I promise! 

Then we came home to take a nap… but does it look like she wants to let her Momma and Daddy take a nap?!!?  Nope!

Sneak Peek

One of my goals for my maternity leave was to finish our basement.  I started to paint it while I was pregnant, but my legs and feet didn’t like it.  (They would swell to unpleasant sizes.)  And if I am going to be honest… I lost my drive and energy!  : ) 

Well my drive and energy came back in full force at the end of last week and I dug up my paint brushes and rollers and decided to finish this project off before I go back to work.  This way I’ll have a fresh work environment!  Plus I’ll have a “play room” for Mally.

Today my Mom came over to go garage sailing… except we only found 2 garage sales!!  We didn’t have enough shopping so we decided to head into the city… and we would look for garage sales on the way!  ; )  Um… we found Walmart!!  She was my personal interior decorator and we found so many fun things to finish off my project!!  I am too excited about it so I have to share with you…

The wall on the left is the before.  The wall on the right is what I am painting.  I have that wood all the way around the room and this house has too much wood for a girl in her 20s!!  I decided to paint it!  Right now I have all the wood painted and the room already looks and feels brighter!

We circled Walmart until we found the pop of color that would work best with my wall colors.  It had to be blue!!  I am not usually a blue girl, but I really liked this blue today and thought it would be perfect in this room. 

We got curtains, curtain rods, pillows, a throw blanket, blue accessories… all at Walmart!  Who knew you could decorate your house at Walmart!

Yes, we are still working on that bathroom project.  My goodness, I never would of guessed that would of taken 7 + months!  Our tile is suppose to be here tomorrow!!  Once the tile is installed we can put in the sink and put the faucets on the tub… and I think it will be functional!

Alright, I must go wake up my snoring baby!  For some crazy reason I stopped doing my “dream feeding schedule” because she extended to 3 hours – so I thought she didn’t need it anymore.  Wrong-o!  This whole week she has been a restless sleeper.  Last night I unconsciously did the dream feed schedule and she slept awesome!!  Seriously – my pregnant friends out there – Use this!!  Feed them at 6, 8 and then at 10!  The 10 feeding they should be really sleepy and almost sleep threw the feeding!

One Month!

Mallory turned one month old today.  Lately I hear a lot of… enjoy this time, she is going to grow up quick.  They are so right!!  She is growing up quick!

I took a video of her tonight for one month.  We don’t have a video camera – I just use my digital camera that takes videos – so they are not the best! 

She’s starting to smile!  I tried to catch it on video.  This video was actually 3 minutes long – I just cut out the smile part. 

When I watch this all I hear is my sister talking.  I did not realize I sounded so much like her! 

A few things have changed now that she is a month old:

~ She has stretched out her feedings to about every 3 hours.  Just when I thought I had a schedule last week she went and changed it this week. 

~ The dirty diapers are getting… dirtier!  Holy man I did not know a little tiny baby girl could smell like that!  What is your momma feeding you?!

~ She is very alert and is awake a good amount of time during the day.  Still waking up about once in the middle of the night too. 

~ I think she is getting addicted to the pacifier already!  Naughty Naughty!  Although she can’t seem to keep it in her mouth at the moment and keeps spitting it at my keyboard.

Here is the first video I tried taking of her… all she did was cry at me.

The 4th Festivities

Either I am getting old – or – I am a new Mom.  These holiday weekends are exhausting!!  Right now I am doing everything I can to keep my eyes open for just a bit longer before I crash!  Of course we do it to ourselves – Friday night we went into the city for some quick shopping and our first dining out experience with a baby!!  It wasn’t a fancy meal – yet our kind of meal… nachos on the outdoor patio of Burrachos!!  Yum!

Yesterday for the 4th we decided to be productive in the morning so I painted walls in the basement and Jesse mowed lawn.  Then we headed over to my Aunt & Uncle’s where a mean game of bean-bag-toss went down.

Here is Jesse focusing – he was paired up with my Uncle Ron and I think they were undefeated for a long time!! 

Jesse and Adam playing it cool.

Here is Mally in her 4th of July outfit.  Her big cousin Ellyn wore this same outfit 6 years ago at our Wedding Shower which was on the 4th!!  I can’t even believe it has been 6 years!!  Someone told me today that she looks like Ellyn – I’ll have to dig up a picture of Ellyn in this outfit and see if they look alike.

Then we had to quick stop in at a wedding.

While we were leaving the wedding and heading to our next destination we saw this really neat cloud…

We stopped at our friends Jason & Lacy’s for their 4th of July party.

Lacy is due with their 2nd baby on Tuesday!!  She was hoping for a 4th of July baby… but no such luck!

We were then going to go meet my parents at the park to watch the fireworks, but we were done running and just stayed at Jason & Lacy’s and watched the show from their backyard.

And Mallory slept threw the entire show.  Even the grand finale when it was really loud… never even flinched!

She even slept when their neighbors were shooting off fireworks right over our heads!  Now that is what they call – sleeping like a baby.

We didn’t get home until 1am!!  What are we thinking!  This is the 2nd weekend in a row where we got home this late!  (Last weekend my cousin got married.)

Then this morning we decided that we would go to church.  Our first time going to church!  We were first service goers (8:30) before having a baby, but we may have switched over to second service for a while (10:45).  Mallory’s first time in church today and during the first prayer… she decides it is prime to let one rip!!  Ohmygoodness!  Jesse and I both were trying to silent our giggles!

Alright it is now after 8 and this Momma is going to get an ice cream sandwich and crawling onto the couch for a little R & R!!

5 Hours!!

I got 5 straight hours of sleep last night!!!  It was heavenly!  This is the most sleep I have had since… oh… about June 5th!!!  I’m a girl who loves her sleep, so this is all very exciting to me!

I’m really starting to think this ‘dream feeding’ is so the key to sleeping!!  I have done it all week (except the one night where she wouldn’t) and we have only woke up once and then not again until 6:30. 

When she woke up at 3:30 this morning and I looked at the clock to see what time it was - I about jumped out of bed to go get the little squirt and give her tons of praises, hugs, and kisses for sleeping so good!  Except during these night time feedings – I don’t say a word to her.  I want her to know that this is not a time for fun – just changing diapers (yes diapers!  I’ll change her and she’ll dirty another one before I even get back to bed in that hour!) feeding and back to sleep as quickly as we can!

The perks of working at home… baby can sleep on your desk!!

The Friday before Mallory was born my sister came with me to my Dr. appointment.  On the way home from the appointment we drove past the prison (where Jesse works) and my sister says “So, when it is take your child to work day… who will Blueberry go with?”  I don’t think Jesse can put little Mallory on his desk… and I can… so she’ll come with me!  : )

Creating a Schedule

I’m a routine kind of girl, so that means I would love it if Mallory was a routine kind of baby!  This week I am trying to create that in her.  Jesse went back to work and I thought it would be perfect timing to start our own little routine here at home.

I asked my friend about how she put her kids on a schedule and she said she used BabyWise and said it worked out great for them.  I don’t have the book – so I googled BabyWise and found a blog on it!  Of course the first thing I clicked on was how to get your baby to sleep longer at nights and sleep threw the night!!

One of the things they tell you to do is to feed them at night at 6, 8 and dream feed them at 10.  Dream feed is where you feed them and they are not fully awake.  So I tried this the last couple of nights.  The first night worked great with only waking up once!  The second night, not so great!  I couldn’t get her to wake up enough to have her dream feeding!  She seriously pressed her lips together and would not open her mouth!!  I even changed her diaper and she still didn’t wake up!  So I put her to bed and she woke up twice that night!!  Last night I was able to give her a dream feeding and she only woke up once again.  So I think they are onto something with this dream feeding business!! 

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What’s a post without pictures?  Last night we took Miss Mallory for a walk out in the woods.  Jesse has taken her a couple of times and he puts her in this little sling that we bought.  But I don’t really like our sling because she looks like a ball in there and it doesn’t look comfortable.  So I tried out this other carrier thing that I found in my sister’s stuff at my parents house.  (Shannon did you even know you had this?)  Mally was so stinkin cute in it that I just had to take some pictures!!

It went from 90 degrees hot and humid weather to barely 50 degrees windy and cold weather!  So she had to buddle up in her little hat and I had to put a blanket around her!

I wanted her to stay awake on our walk – but she must of been too comfy in there because she fell asleep.

But she woke up when I was getting her out of it.  She is so alert these days and she just checks every thing out.  She is also starting to give us big smiles!  And while she is sleeping some times it sounds like she is giggling!  Little baby noises are too cute!!