exersaucer

during this past summer, as we excitedly anticipated the arrival of our little sophia, my mom and i hit the yard sales...and hit them hard!

for the first time ever, i, rachel stangland, went to a yard sale before it was supposed to be open

the newspaper said 8am, and it also said 'exersaucer'

unfortunately i had a doctor's appointment 45 minutes away at 8:30 am

so i went to the yard sale at 7:45 am and slowly walked up...since the garage was open...and asked if i could look a little early because of my appointment

well the girls running it were awesome and let me look around

and i got my exersaucer! and funny part 3 of my friends with little kids have the same exact exersaucer

we hadn't used it and it was getting annoying in the shed as it takes up so much space

since she was sitting up perfectly in the bumbo and liking it, i decided to pull it out and give it a go

well, she likes it

she loves the part on it that spins

she gets all excited and spins it and closes her eyes every time in surprise of the noise...so cute

although it was not that cute when she spit up on the spinning thing and continued to spin it, getting spit up everywhere

but at least she smiled during the whole time :)

here's one of her most frequent looks while sitting in the exersaucer

the buck

one of the many things that has happened in the last week and a half is that john shot himself a buck with his bow

he has been incredibly busy with school and work and had about two days that he could hunt

God must have known this because the second day he went out this season, he got a buck!

as he tells the story, he was in his tree stand, about to fall asleep, when he heard a noise

he looked down and saw a buck...looking at him

he had to get his bow ready, which meant he had to pull down his facemask, hook his release on his bow, and pull the arrow back...all without the buck hearing him

well, God must have been wanting john to get this buck bad...because the buck did not see or hear him at all

john shot the deer; unfortunately, he spined the buck, but john got down and shot the deer again...and killed him

so now we have good, organic, all natural deer meat filling our freezer up!

which means i now have to learn how to cook deer meat

catch-up

i have not been on here in forever...who knows why

probably between work, my baby girl, my husband, a broken dishwasher and broken car, and being a mom, i guess i've let some little things slip :)

it's been a fun few weeks since halloween

sophia is almost 4 months old...this sunday marks that event

i cannot believe that 4 months has passed

i love being sophia's mom and watching her as she grows

she is a gorgeous little girl, and i feel blessed to be her mom

john and i have so much fun with her

in fact, this week john got her to laugh

of course we didn't catch it on video...we caught the little noises that are her attempt to laugh, and then hiccup

it was so much fun and john and i were laughing even harder than she was

what a cute little girl she is! here's her laughing...or right after laughing and trying to recreate it

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

so we didn't really trick or treat at all...i guess when kids are this age, the only purpose for trick or treating is 1-because they are so darn cute in their outfits and 2-the parents want candy :)

but since she had an outfit and looked so cute in it, i dressed her up

we only went down to the boathouse, a local restaurant that both bekah and kristen work at

she made the rounds there...the kitchen, the waiters and waitresses, the busboys, random people who came in and happened to know my mom, etc

and of course, melody had some candy there for anyone who stopped by, so i stole some :)

we had fun and sophia was cute

maybe next year when she's up and walking it will be slightly entertaining for her too...still more for the cuteness but a little more for her sake

ps sophia's costume was a lion if you can't tell...and it said 'roar' on it and had a tail

cleaning

the past few days, i have been looking at the house as i walk through the rooms and noticing the dust, dirty dishes, piles of laundry, etc

so today when sophia went down for her afternoon nap, i went into attack mode

well, i got side-tracked

see, yesterday my wonderful mother-in-law got me uggs :) that i have wanted forever

it is an early birthday + Christmas present

anyway, i needed to bear grease and bake them to weather-proof them

but as i opened the stove to put them in, i realized that the oven was filthy...so i cleaned the oven

then i went on to the top of the oven

then i did the floors (sweep and mop)

then the bathrooms

then i dusted

i still have to vacuum but sophia is thinking of sleeping so i may put that off...we'll see, she likes the sound of it for some reason :)

now i just have about 10,000 loads of laundry to do...i hate folding laundry, but i will get there...time to throw in another load :)

i can sleep easy tonight

favorites

in motherhood, i have found a few things that are my favorites...little things that sophia does, intentionally or unintentially, that make me smile more than anything

here are a few: her squeals when she is on her changing table (for some reason she loves her changing table)

the way she touches me while she nurses, just very gentle and so cute

when she gets tired and is nursing, she smiles, this wide toothless grin with her eyes closed-so so cute

how her left sock always seems to come off, no matter how many times i put it back on her

her happy sounds when she talks to herself in her crib...not when she cries, but when she is happy about it

and my favorite of all, when i got home from work today and said hello to her, she got the biggest smile of all-that's right, she loves me :)

ode to moms

i know it's not mother's day or even parent's day or anything like that

however, it was my mom's birthday this past saturday, the 17th...her 50th birthday

of course that meant presents and cards...and i'm not a good one about short cards when it comes to family/loved ones

so i wrote her a long note...one i really meant too

i wrote it right after i fed sophia and put her to bed

and as i held her in my arms, i started crying...i cry easily and even easier now that i've been pregnant and a mom

i love my little girl, more than i can express

even though i've given up a lot, or it feels like i have somedays, it's all worth it for this precious little girl

and as i wrote my mom her birthday note, i realized that i don't think i ever truly appreciated my mom until i became a mom

now i understand a little of what she's done as a mom...she's given up her pre-baby body, 4 times over

she's given up hours upon hours of sleep

she's given up things she wanted because we felt that what we wanted was way more important

i've already cried for sophia for the hurt i know someday she'll go through-kids making fun of her, when she's hurt, when the first boy she likes dumps her or ignores her, when she doesn't feel she did well in school/sports/music/etc.

i can't imagine being my mom and having gone through and still probably going through 4 girls and all their hurt

so to all moms everywhere, kudos for all you do in the name of your kids

you should be honored way more often than you are...thanks for all you do, have done, and will do