My Mommy-Must-Haves

I am going to follow in my sister, Gelsey's, lead and post the things that I could not live without now that I am a mom! Sorry Gels....many of these are repeats from yours, but that just means that they are DOUBLE necessary! :)

1.) Boppy - This is a major necessity, not just when it comes to feeding, but also for tummy time, and in helping to sit up. This has been our major use for it lately. But seriously, I have fed Miley without it when I have traveled, and it is so nice to have it to rest your arms on and to hold your baby.

2.) A travel system stroller and car seat with stay-in-car base - I know this is a no brainer anymore, but besides the legal and safety factors of needing a car seat, the travel system is the best thing ever. Being able to just pop the car seat in the base in the car, and then take it out and put it right in the stroller has saved many wake-ups for my sleeping baby. Plus, this system as a whole is one of Miley's favorite thing. Take her for a walk, or a drive in the car and she is happy. I know one day she won't love her car seat as much, but for now, it is one of the things that helps calm her down!

3.) Boudreaux's Butt Paste - We put this on Miley after every bath, more as a preventitive measure than anything, and it is great. It smells good, considering where it goes, and Miley has had no diaper rash to date.

4.) Fisher Price Nature's Touch Papasan Cradle Swing - This was definitely necessary in the first couple months of Miley's life. She doesn't like it as much now, but she will still sit in it and it will keep her occupied for a while. However, when she was younger, before she was on any kind of sleep schedule, she would sleep in this for 3-4 hours at a time during the day. It was wonderful.

5.) JJ Cole Original Bundle Me - This is something I wasn't completely convinced that I needed. Now that winter has officially arrived here in the tundra of Minnesota, this is one of Cameron's and my favorite things. The car seat straps can stay snug around the baby, which is the safest thing because there are no blankets stuffed in there. Then you just zip it up, and when you are going to and from the car you can pull it over their face to keep them nice and toasty! A definite must if you live in a cold climate!

6.) Baby Einstein Activity Mat and Baby Einstein DVD's - Both of these are wonderful for entertaining Miley when I need a few extra minutes to do something. She can spend an endless amount of time on her mat, and she loves the DVD's....I use the Baby Mozart DVD in the morning to watch before her nap, and then it sort of signals to her that it is time to go to sleep.

7.) Baby Bjorn - This is wonderful for when Miley just wants to be carried, or when we are going somewhere that the car seat is a little inconvenient, such as Minnesota Twins games, Wyoming Cowboy football games, or Mount Rushmore. :) It leaves your hands free, and Miley always seems to pass out when she is in hers.

8.) Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child - This one is thanks to Lindsey for recommending it, and Gelsey for buying it for me. Any success we have had with Miley sleeping, I attribute to this book and the suggestions the author gives!

And that is my list of mommy-must-haves....at least for the age that Miley is now! I am sure there will be MANY more things to add to this list in the years to come!

Saturday Shenanigans

Today has been one of those days where we have just kind of "laid low." We are all still getting over colds, and Miley has been sleeping like crazy today....a two hour nap this morning, and a two and a half hour nap this afternoon! Wow! So during her awake times, we were keeping her pretty busy.

She loves her Baby Einstein playmat....and now that she is REALLY rolling over all the time (started doing it all the time on November 11....4 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days old!), this is the view she gets of it most of the time.

Cameron and I have been working with Miley on sitting up...probably a little early, but she isn't doing too bad, although most of these pictures are assisted. This first one, although it is hard to tell, she is not being supported by anything!

But of course, the Boppy is a huge help!

After all of that sittng, Miley decided she would rather stand and stretch her little legs. :)

Then she decided that she would rather try to eat her feet. Yummy!!

I guess all of this work really wore her out. I was able to get these pictures of her, flash and everything, without her even flinching!! Ah. I love Saturdays. :)

Ho Hum

Well, if you couldn't tell, there hasn't been a whole lot going on in our lives the past week or so. However, I decided to just post some pictures I took of Miley the other day while she was doing some tummy time in her Boppy. We are all suffering from colds right now, so hopefully we can get over that and start having some fun again! I am also trying to figure out how to post some videos from our video camera on this....so maybe there will be another post soon. Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures....I think they are pretty dang cute.

Happy Halloween! Well, We Tried Anyway....

Happy Halloween Everyone! We had a pretty mellow day. Miley was not at all thrilled about the skunk costume we had for her, so the only pictures of her in the costume are of her looking pretty mad. However, she was perfectly happy the rest of the day in her cute little Halloween outfit from Grammy! Here are some random pictures from the day....including our Jack-O-Lantern we carved the night before. Also, forgive Miley's hair in most of these pictures. She had just waken up from a nap, and it definitely shows. :)

Here we are trying to get her to smile in her skunk outfit....we did not have much success.

Well, she was not having it, so we decided to give her a little break, and she could not have been more thrilled....

She was looking pretty happy, so we thought we would give the costume one more shot...

Oh well. Maybe next year, right? :)

T-Wolves!

Last night, I got to go to my first pro basketball game, to watch the Minnesota Timberwolves in their season opener against the Sacramento Kings. Cameron always gets tickets to sporting events from people at work. On his birthday, we got to go to a Twins game against the White Sox and sit in the front row behind home plate! I unfortunately didn't have my camera with me that night, so I made sure to bring it last night, as we were in the fourth row. It was awesome!

Cameron and I before the game

My friend Erin and I

This guy, Kevin Love, is a rookie and the nephew of a Beach Boy!

Target sponsored the halftime show, and it was this lady called the Red Panda. She rode around on this really tall unicycle, and while doing this would flip bowls off of her feet onto the top of her head! It was pretty impressive!

The game came down to the last minute, and the Timberwolves ended up beating the Kings 98-96. It was a great game! And it helped that we could both sit down and watch the game because we left Miley at Cameron's brother and sister-in-law's house. It was wonderful! Hopefully this is just the first of a few NBA games this year!

I got tagged....not once, but twice!

This one's about my husband, Cameron (from Carolyn!):

1. Where did you meet your husband? Most people assume we met through football and dance, but we actually met when my friend Alexia and I asked Cameron to tutor us in our Business Calculus class. He had just aced a test that I had achieved a 33% on. I needed some serious help.

2. How long did you date before you were married? We started "officially" dating on August 28th, 2005. We got married on May 12th, 2007. So a little over a year a half before we got married. But we were really good friends for a while before that.

3. How long have you been married? Almost a year and a half.

4. What does he do that surprises you? There are lots of things, but a funny thing....most of you know Cameron is quite the penny pincher. So it always surprises me when HE suggests going shopping and buying pretty much anything we want.

5. What is his favorite feature? My favorite feature on him is his smile and his laugh. It is rare to see Cameron looking anything but happy.

6. What is his favorite quality? My favorite quality of his is his ease around anyone and everyone. As opposed to me, who is shy around new people, Cameron can talk to someone he has just met and is completely comfortable with it. Probably a huge reason he found a job so easily and I didn't!

7. Does he have a nickname for you? Oh tons. His original name though is Puddger. No, not like pudgy, or fat, but a play on the word "Puddin". Yeah, I still don't get it sometimes either.

8. What is his favorite food? He loves food. But if I had to say a favorite, probably just plain ol' steak.

9. What is his favorite sport? Any and all?? Probably football though.

10. When and where was your first kiss? August 28th outside my friend Tara's apartment.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Go on walks and just talk or play games.

12. Do you have any children? Miley

13. Does he have any hidden talents? Hidden?? Hmmm...he is a very good "househusband" when he wants to be. All of my sister-in-laws and I have decided this is a Clark trait. He can cook and clean like no other when he really wants to.

14. How old is he? 25

15. Who said I love you first? Me.

16. What is his favorite music? Classic rock...such as Def Leppard and Journey, and Pink Floyd. But he really like any kind of music...from musicals to rap.

17. What do you admire most about him? Cameron manages to EXCEL (is that how you spell that? I get it confused with the computer program...ha ha!) at everything he does, from sports, to work, to family life. I don't know how he does it. I have seriously never seen him fail at anything. And he works hard to keep it that way.

18. What is his favorite color? He likes blue and green (same as Carolyn's Kip!).

19. Will he read this? Nope

20. Who do you tag? Lindsey, Gelsey, and Annie. :)

Numero Dos....from Lindsey

The second one...Lindsey tagged me with this.

So here are my 7 random or weird facts!

1. Kind of based off of one of Lindsey's random facts, I have been to 12 different countries, on 4 continents. These countries are...the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, England, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, China, and Australia.

2. I had six-pack abs from the time I was in sixth grade through just last year. It has been one of the few features on myself throughout those years that I really liked and was really proud of. I would like to say that this was the result of a lot of hard workouts and dedication, but it really wasn't. However, my awesome stomach is now long gone after having Miley!

3. I kind of have a crazy obsession with celebrities. I can't get enough of US Weekly magazines, E! News, and if you have ever heard of names I like for kids, most happen to be celebrity names. I swear this is not intentional. I definitely do not plan on naming my kinds after celebrities (Miley is NOT named after Miley Cyrus!), it just happens to be that I think these names are really cute. Maybe due to the fact that I am reading about them all the time.

4. This is the first time in my life that I have lived away from my parents. From 0-21 years, I lived with, or very near to my parents. This move to Minnesota has been very hard because of that. I miss being able to go home anytime I want to.

5. I have a very one-tracked mind. If I get into something, I can't stop. Whether it is cleaning, working on a craft, reading a book, or watching a TV show, I can't stop until it is done. This really annoys Cameron sometimes, like when I can't put down a book from the time he is home at night till long after he has gone to bed.

6. I was on the dance team at the University of Wyoming. I know most of you know this, but what you may not know, is that the three years that I was on that team probably built more confidence in myself than any other experience in my whole life. Between performing in front of thousands of people, and making some of the best friends I have ever had, it helped me find my niche and is probably what will always make up the biggest portion of my best (and worst at some times!) college memories.

7. I, along with the other members of my family, have the nicest handwriting anyone has probably seen in their entire life. I get more comments on my handwriting from people than anything else. I am pretty sure that is one of the reasons teachers liked me so much in college.

OK. I just don't know that many people on here yet, so I am only going to tag as many people as I can that haven't already been tagged. This includes Carolyn, Erica, Annie, Rachel, Caralee, Darci, and Kimberly.