Free Dog!

So today has been the day of all days.  To start, the mail isn't being delivered because of this hellacious snow storm (or should I say storms) and I'm waiting on a fun package to get here! 

Also,  KK and I drove over to my parents' house today to borrow their snow blower while they are vacationing in Cozumel (jerks) and on the way, some dude blew a stop sign perpendicular to the way we were traveling, causing Kris to swerve our truck to miss him, and landed us high centered from the left side in a giant snow bank (thank God it was there)!  I have never seen my husband so pissed off- I was so nervous he was going to kick the guys a$$ for doing that (he was lighting a cigarette and missed the sign, apparently).  Thankfully, we were all OK- but seriously, by husband was screaming terrible things at the guy, mostly about almost hurting our baby girl, that I have never heard him say before- and my husband is NOT a fighter by any means.  So anyway, KK made the guy dig us out, with the help of some nice young guys that drove by, and thankfully the truck was fine- we went to my parents' and came home.

But oohhhhhh nooooooooooooooooo, that's not where this story ends.  Background story: we have to lock our dog, Jack, in the spare bedroom upstairs when we go anywhere. Jack has a problem being contained, but when he is out in the house, he for some reason finds it necessary to lift his leg on the walls- something he never did before Ali was born.  We have tried to lock him in his kennel- he ripped the door off- leave him in the garage and he pees/poops everywhere- and the backyard is out because we aren't fenced in yet on all 4 sides.... so we've been locking him in the guest room.  

So we get home this afternoon and KK goes up to the let dogs out, and starts repeating "oh no, oh no" and I go upstairs to find that Jack has RIPPED UP about a 5 x5 foot radius of carpet from under the door jam back.  He has also broken the bottom of the door trying to dig out from underneath it.  There is also blood everywhere from him ripping one of his nails off trying to dig out.  

Seriously, I am not a violent person, but my elbow hurts from spanking that dog.  I have never been so mad in my life- I cannot believe he did that to our house.  And we are not rich people, so here comes an unexpected expense we have to save up for.  

KK thinks he will be able to just by a portion of carpet and pad and blend it back in to what we can salvage- and the door will just have to wait- but if we didn't love that dog so much he would be out in a field somewhere left for survival.  (I think we've figured out why his first owners left him to run free in a state park!)

So anyway, that is a little taste of the wonderful day we've had.  And to top it all off, my daughter has decided not to take her afternoon nap, so I'm off to rock the precious princess.  At least looking at her angel-face makes me take a deep breath and realize what really matters and be so thankful we are safe and sound!

I wanna win this!!!!

YOU could win a KEURING PLANTINUM BREWING SYSTEM and... $50 worth of K cups!!!  

I totally wanna to win this to bring to school and set up in my classroom!  Wouldn't that be awesome!? I could have a cup o' heaven while teaching all my little lovlies- it would make my teaching day so much more enjoyable!  

Whew! 1st Christmas down!

Well the Baby's first Christmas went over without a hitch.... she of course got way too many presents for a 4-month-old... my mom discovered the Leap Frog website, so at least we got some age-appropriate, "learning" toys :)

And my mother-in-law was actually very pleasant and thoughtful this year: she gave Ali her  baby ring from when she was little- I'm not much for sentiments- but it was a very sweet gesture and I think it meant a lot to pass it down to her.  

She also gave me some cute clothes- which I was totally surprised at... but she bought me size XL!!! I usually wear a medium to a large- NEVER an XL, not even when I was pregnant!  I asked Kris if she thinks I'm fat- and he said she probably has no idea- but I still took it a little personal... I also noticed that she wrote "love, mom" or love, grandma" on all of Kris and Ali's presents, but just wrote "linda" on mine.  Maybe I'm reading into it a little bit but I swear that woman wishes she was KK's wife and Ali's mom- I'm just a mindless diversion she has to deal with or something...BUT ANYWAY- (I'm working on letting things go with her, so I don't drive myself crazy..so I'll stop talking about it now)  

My parents bought KK and I a camcorder- which I am so excited about!  I've been taping Ali's cuteness on my camera- which only allows for 2 minutes of recording.  The camcorder is one that records to a photo chip card thingy, so it will be easy to edit and download to share with family and friends- I can't wait to use it! 

Oh yeah- and the best part of Christmas... KK did 3 loads of laundry, and folded them!  I couldn't believe it!!! Man, that guy knows how to turn me on :-)=

We also started the Ferber Method with Ali last night- and it actually went pretty well, and it made me feel so happy and liberated as a parent.  Every night it takes Ali about 15-20 minutes of crying and whining to fall asleep- with KK or I holding her and rocking her and walking around the house.  She drops her binkie about 5 bazillion times during the process, and both Kris and I were getting so sick of the routine.  So last night I researched how to lovingly let our child soothe herself to sleep.  I put her to bed at 7:50, went in at 4 minutes the first time and stroked her head. I then waited 6 minutes the 2nd time and went in again. The next time I waited until 10 minutes had passed, and that was the last time I had to go in and tell her I was there- she then fell asleep, in her crib, on her own, without KK or I soothing her!  When she was crying in there it never got intense, and every time I went in I checked her eyes for tear drops (whaddya know, not a one fell!).  I did the same thing when she woke up at 3 this morning- didn't pick her up, but put the binker back in her mouth and stroked her head... that time it only took two times of me going in!

 So I think our stubborn betty is figuring out how to put herself to sleep= I layed her down for a nap this morning and she fussed for a few seconds and went out!  I'm sooo happy and I hope she keeps it up tonight- it is so much easier for the whole family and it feels good to have a method KK and I can agree on and work together with.  I think we will all be improving our sleeping habits in a few shorts days- and teaching Ali the life long skill of soothing herself to sleep :)

4 month checkup

We took Bug a Boos to her 4 month well check today, here are her stats:

Height: 25 inches (75th percentile)

Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz (90th percentile!)

Head Circumference: 40 inches (50th percentile)

We were so happy to see her head grow so much (she was in the 14th percentile at 2 months)!  She is getting so big- and the doctor said she was happy about her height to weight ratio- our little chunk a monker!

She also did pretty good with her 2nd round of shots- of course we had a big ba-ba ready and waiting :)

The doctor also confirmed that I was making the right choice by putting Ali on rice cereal- she said "if the girl's hungry, feed her!" She said to wait until next month to start in some baby food- I can't wait to watch Ali try some new foods!  She also  suggested pear juice for the poor baby's constipation- so tomorrow morning I will hit the store first thing.  We can tell she is straining so hard to poopie- that must hurt her little bootie so bad!

Now we are just settlin in and relaxin:  tomorrow my parents and brother are coming over for chili and to open up some presents- and I plan to go to the 9:00 Christmas Eve service ( I can't wait!).  On Christmas we are supposed to go over to KK's grandparents, weather permitting... but I'm kind of hoping we get snowed in and can have a nice, relaxing Christmas as just US!

Hope everyone is all ready for the madness to begin- Ali has so many presents already from just my parents- that girl could be the most spoiled 4 month old child yet!

Christmas Presents!!

Look at the awesome Christmas present we got from KK's dad!

I'm so excited to hook it up to our bikes and use it! (with all this snow, it'll be awhile, but it's still awesome!!!!!!!)   It also converts to a jogger stroller, which while I won't probably be doing much actual joggin behind it, I'm sure it will be better to push around then the graco stroller we are using now!

My mom also let Ali (me) open one of her Christmas presents early, in light of all the snow:

It's the cutest little sled we've ever seen!  Ali is going to look so cute stuffed in her snowsuit riding around in it...Unfortunately it is 10 degrees today- so a little too cold to bring sweet baby girl outside- but you can bet your sweet butt we will have her in it and draggin her around as soon as the weather allows!

And the last fun present was sent by my bestest friend, Rose.  

Look it how cute Ali is with her new buddy!

Let in SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!

our back yard

You cannot believe the amount of snow we've gotten up here in North Idaho- it's amazing! My husband was walking around in our backyard (to create a path for our wussy dogs) and it was up to his waist- I swear!  It's the most snow I've seen in my lifetime- and I've lived here for my entire life.  

We spent 2 hours this morning on our driveway(like we'll drive anywhere).  And the weirdest thing happened- we let the dogs out the back door, and there was a little black duck hiding under our bbq.  We live about 6 miles from the nearest body of water, so it must have gotten lost in the blizzard.  Poor duckie, didn't have a chance with our 2 bird dogs :(  KK had to put it out of it's misery after Jack and Matty each took a turn retrieving it.... the cycle of life I guess! (I'm just thankful Missy Pants isn't old enough to know the difference- that coulda been ugly).

The news is saying we could get up to 14 more inches by 4:00 this afternoon.... so needless to say, no school today and hopefully not tomorrow- Christmas Break started early-whooo hoooo!   

I've got plenty to do around the house to keep me busy today.... hopefully the hubster doesn't go stir crazy! 

 the front porch

Silent Night

I saw this commercial  and thought is was so precious! Totally reminded me of my sweet baby angel- who I could watch sleep for hours! ....if she would only stay asleep that long;)

Sleeping is overrated

I kidd- I kidd! I really miss sleeping through the night... which I figure I have not done since I was oh.... 8 months pregnant. Add that to the time little Miss Princess has been alive, and we're talking at least 5 months of interrupted sleeping patterns. I know I shouldn't complain- she does only get up once a night to feed and we're only awake a total of around 30 minutes, but when you are a sleep hog like myself, it sucks!

I've tried everything to get this girl to snooze for 10 hours: adding rice cereal to her diet, feeding her later, putting her to bed later, waking her up to feed at 10pm, you name it, I've done it! No matter what, she will wake up at either 1:30 or 3:30 and be a hungry hippo!

Last night she slept with us because for some reason her bedroom is really cold at night. (This totally erks me in that we live in a brand new house- and her room and the guest room right next to it will not contain heat-grrr) And in order to keep our daughter from freezing to death in her sleep, KK and I decided that until the temperature is above -14 at night, she will be sleeping with us. Which is totally fine, I sleep like the dead and she doesn't take up much space in our king-size bed. But I thought for sure that having the comfort of her mom and pop would help her snooze her way to 5:30 am but nooooooo, she was up and hungry at 1:30! I even tried rocking her and walking around, but that girl was not going back to sleep without some nummie in her tummie!

And so I've basically resolved myself to the idea that I will never sleep through the night again- and that I will have ugly bags under my eyes for the rest of my adult life. And ugly bags mixed with bad hair does not make a good combo!

Brrr!

We finally got some snow up here in North Idaho... and along with it- some super freezing temperatures! Today the high was 13 degrees- tomorrow's is forecasted to be around 2 flippin degrees! C'mon now, 2 friggin degrees - is that even possible! I guess I should get used to it being as I have lived in this area almost my entire life- but seriously- it seeps into your bones and gets downright chilly burgers! I'll be sure to bundle myself, and the Missy Pants, up tight these next few days!



-And on another note, Miss Ali is eating her way through the rice cereal!

She is still trying to figure out the whole tongue with spoon deal, but she's getting the hang of it pretty good so far. Depending on how hungry she is when you catch her, she may be patient enough to get through most of the bowl, or she may take 2 spoonfuls and be done. It's hilarious- she gets soooo messy! She tries to eat her hands and the rice cereal at the same time, so needless to say, I really need to invest in some bigger bibs!
Feeding it to her has made a huge difference in her ravenous appetite- she now eats every 4 hours, and not on demand, which is a great relief from the screaming child we used to experience at 2 hour intervals! It makes living our buys life so much easier! We made it through a 5 hour shopping trip today without even a squawk! She also slept like a dream today while we were out and about... happy baby =happy parents= super fun family day.
KK and I went to Steve and Barry's today and got some great deals on work clothes! They are going out of business and almost everything is 40-70% off- amazing! I got 4 button down shirts (that I love to wear cause they hide the baby pooch), a cute black and grey striped sweater, and a pair of navy chords- plus KK got like 5 or 6 shirts and a pair of shorts for under $80! It was amazing, and a perfect shopping trip for us not-so-rich teachers.
I'm also looking forward to a fun week - it is the last week of school before Winter Break (whoo hoo!) plus I have a cookie exchange Wednesday with some dear friends of mine, then a fun ladies only Christmas party with the gals from work on Thursday. And Friday, my little bro and his girlfriend are watching Ali so I can go watch KK's teams' basketball game baby free! I'm looking forward to some fun adult time :)

PROM DRESSES NEEDED!

I am starting a Prom Dress Rental program at Lake City High School, where I teach. The idea is to rent dresses to girls for prom, homecoming, etc. who otherwise could not afford them- the rental price will be roughly the cost to dry clean, and many girls' rentals will be scholarshiped. What I am asking from you is to donate any old prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, etc. that you have hanging in your closets and no longer need. If this is something you are interested in doing, please let me know and I will come by to pick up your donation! I would also gladly reimburse shipping :)

Please send dresses to-
Lake City High School
Attn: Kelli Knowles
6101 N. Ramsay Rd.
Coeur d Alene, ID 83815

Thank you so much ladies, you do not know how much this could change a young girl's life!

Love,
Kelli Knowles
(208)769-0769
P.S. Please forward as you see fit :)

Christmas Book!

I love to read books- and when I was little, some of my favorite memories are of being read to. One of my most favorite people from elementary school was our librarian, Mrs. Haas. She would pick the BEST stories to read to us, and she had the best reading voice. I will never forget how much I loved library time- she made it so special!
I have carried my love of reading/being read to in my own adventures of mothering. We read to our little bug as much as possible- and she seems already to enjoy it so much! I buy her books all the time... the most recent I bought was this one:


It is AMAZING! The book tells all about Santa, his sleigh, the North Pole, etc. It kind of breaks it down... it has examples of Christmas letters, a newspaper article with a Santa sighting, oh it is amazing! Please buy it for your kids- they will LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Now, I am looking for a Christmas book that tells the true meaning of Christmas- Baby Jesus! Does anyone have a good Christian Christmas book to suggest??

Cause I'm Tough Like That

So let me just say I'm pretty much a bad ass (well, not really, but the high school kiddos think so right now!)

At school on Monday (remember, I teach high school) I was walking down the hall right after the bell for 2nd lunch went off. I was just coming back to my classroom after running some worksheets, when I saw all these kids standing around watching something. I thought maybe some kids where doing a dance-off or something like that- which happens oddly enough more then you think. When I got closer, however, I realized that two boys where fighting. They were rolling around on the floor, and not one single kid watching the whole thing jumped in the break it up ! (I know, I know- why am I shocked) So being the bad-ass/idiot teacher that I am, I grabbed the kid who was on top at the moment and pulled him off the other kid. Right as I grabbed him, he swung a punch right to the poor kid on bottom's face. That kid in turn tried to punch the kid I was holding back- but instead he landed a blow right on the back of my top right hand. Let me tell you, it hurt like the devil- but of course I was so tough that I just dragged both kids down to the office without even flinching. I had to fill out an incident report, even though I really just have some bruising- kind of like if you accidentally hit the top of your hand on a counter or something.
And the best part? I broke up the fight without even losing my worksheets! Yes, that's right, I'm so tough that it only took one hand to break it up (the guys were little, thank God).

So yeah, all in a day's work I guess! Whoo hoo! And my students? They think their English teacher is pretty freakin awesome- which- hey, can you blame 'um?

Big Girl !

Missy Pants is getting bigger and better by the minute. It seems that daily she becomes less of a little bundle of baby, and more of a little person with an oh-so-fun personality!

We started adding rice cereal to her bottle yesterday- the little gal always seemed to be starving to death and was only lasting 2.75 hours between feedings! I went to Bunco on Thursday, and this girl who lives behind me and has a little boy who is 2 weeks older then Ali told me to slip in some rice cereal. She said they had been doing it and really noticing the difference- so I tried it last night. You would not believe how satisfied our little chicketty has become! She will go 4 hours between feedings, and is sooo happy and full after her ba-bas! I love it! She took great naps all day today, and didn't even finish her 2nd bottle all the way- something she has NEVER done since being born! Yay for a full baby's tummy!

I'm anxious to see what tonight brings... I don't want to jinx it, but maybe my full baby will sleep her way through the night!?

We also brought up her exersaucer from the basement and put her in that to see what she thought; and let me tell you she is in love with her fun, new toy! There is so much for her to look at, plus she gets to feel like a big girl and stand up on those big, strong legs for a bit. She's only lasting in it for about 10 minutes- but it is 10 minutes of bliss to get things done and/or relax! She squeals and laughs, then her eyes get all big and serious when she accidentally shakes or turns something with her hands- I love it!

Tagged!

I was tagged by my favorite blogging buddy sweetassbabs for this fun post!
Here's what you do:
Take a snippet from the closest book sitting near you ... page 56, the 5th sentence:

The book I grabbed off our bookshelf that I thought would add an interesting post to read was Extraordinary Uses *for ordinary things... my oh-so-practical grandmother gave it to me as a bridal shower gift- hilarious!

Ok- pg. 56, 5th sentence- use aspirin to take out perspiration stains! Here's how: crush 2 aspirin in 1/2 cup warm water and soak stain for 2-3 hours.....
Wonder if that really works?!

I tag everyone who wants to join in the silliness!

Nap Time

I'm trying to figure out how to make my daughter take an afternoon nap. Right now, during the week anyway, she sleeps at daycare from around 10-1:00- not sure how consistent that is but I'm saying that is the average. We currently do not put her down for an afternoon nap, and she goes to bed around 6:30-7:00. I'm wondering if I give her an afternoon nap, would that extend the time she is awake in the evening so I could put her to bed about 7:30 or 8:00? I'm trying to get the sweetie to sleep through the night and I'm thinking if I put her down later she might sleep longer. I tried laying her down this afternoon at 4:20, it is now 4:40, and I am just about ready to go up and get her because she is screaming from her crib :-(
She has never really taken an afternoon nap, mostly because we have had her in daycare since she was 2 months old- so a schedule was not really formed up until that point... I'm also not too sure how she sleeps at daycare from 10-1, because on the weekends she cat naps throughout the day- totally different story.... weird. Maybe I should sit down and really figure it out with my daycare provider tomorrow... but I need to make sure I'm being a good mommy and giving my gal enough sleep for her growing body!

Someone Loves Me!!!

Sweetassbabs gave me this swwwwweeeeeetttttt award!

Thanks so much deary! I love reading your blog, and having you as my blogging buddy! Muah!

So Here's the rules: I get to seven other blogs that I love reading. If your blog makes my list, you get to post your award, thank the person who gave it to you (that's me!) and then choose seven other blogs that you feel deserve this awesome award.

Here's the blogs I love (well 7 of 'um anyway)!

1. Andrea

2. Alexa

3. Liz

4. Lindsay

5. Nanette

6. Kim

7. HM

Seriously, I could not be a good momma without you gals!

The Diagnosis

After an oh so tiring day of holding Missy Pants (she would scream bloody murder every time I even thought about setting her down) the doctor squeezed us in. Well, not her real doctor, but the nurse practitioner, who was super nice and I really liked- anyway- she diagnosed A with something called gastrititus. She prescribed Prevacid and said that what probably is happening is that Missy Pants' tummy virus from 2 weeks ago probably caused some reflux that is taking awhile to work itself out. She said it would probably go away within 1 week to 10 days, but to elevate her bed and really burp her good after she eats- no laying flat or anything like that immediately after eating. I really hope that the medicine kicks into her system and that she will be a happier baby come tomorrow... today kicked momma's butt! It's 6:36 as I write this and I'm ready to fall into bed!

** Thank you so much to all the advice and well wishes- I need you gals on my speed dial !

Tummy Troubles

I'm home this morning with a very upset baby girl. Ever since she was real sick 2 weeks ago (vomiting sick) she has not really bounced back. Every time we feed Missy Pants she acts upset and kind of arches her back after she has finished her bottle and we go to burp her. She has been real irritable and not napping well. She was spitting up more then normal on Saturday, not a huge amount, but frequently and it stunk worse then normal spit up. Last night, KK got up to feed her around 2am. She ate, then went back to bed, and about 15 minutes later, started fussing. He got up to try to calm her, and she just would not calm down. I got up to try and rock her, which I did for about 3 minutes, and then she started screaming. Like something I have never heard before, really upset, something hurts baby. KK and I started to go through what could be wrong: she had not pooped yesterday (still has not pooped) and so I put her in the airplane hold and patted her tummy, which helped a lot. I had to hold her like that through the rest of the night, so I have had no sleep since 2. This morning before he went to work, KK went and bought soy-based formula and prune juice at the store. I'm wondering if she is developing a dislike or allergy of some kind to her formula? Since I stopped breastfeeding, she has been using Costco brand. Could her body be reacting poorly to it? What can I do?? I'm waiting until 8:30 to call our pediatrician's office to talk to a nurse- but I want some mommy advice too!