The Russians have Arrived!

Yes, literally, the Russian's have invaded our home.




Aren't they cute! Meet Mallory's ancestors. No, she is not a Russian Nesting Doll, but each of these dolls represents 1 generation of Grandmothers on each side of her family.

My Aunt Brenda put this all together for Mallory and it's such a neat idea and cool way to be able to explain, once she is old enough, her ancestors. And although it's enclosed in Russian Nesting Dolls, I'm pretty sure there is no Russian Heritage on either side of the family. They are just the cute little carriers!

There are 6 Dolls on each side of the family. Mallory is represented by the teeny tiny one on each side. In the next size up are the names of her grandmothers on each side. Then the next size up are the Great Grandmothers Names. The next size are the names of the Great Great Grandmothers, etc, you get the point. All the way up to 5th Great Grandmothers!!

Those of you that know Aunt Brenda know she is they family heritage guru of our family and It's neat to see where our history comes from and think about what all these great women before us lived and in their own way, obviously, contributed to us being here!

I've got to sit down and really dive into all the info Aunt Brenda sent on both sides of the family, but it's very interesting. Some of Mallory's heritage includes of course American, Australian, German, Scottish, French, English and Cherokee. I'll add more tidbits as I read more.

Thank you Aunt Brenda for such a unique and cool gift that can continue to be passed down the line!

On another note, our little Bean has been diagnosed as a Happy Spitter. Sounds real technical huh? But that's what the Doctor called it.

She seems to be spitting up more and more, even with her Zantac. So I figured since our little chunk was right at 14 pounds now, she probably needed to increase her dosage. Nope, what she's taking is right for her weight. He said as long as she isn't in pain when she spits up, which she isn't, or seems like her tummy hurts, which it doesn't, then she is considered in the great medical field to be a Happy Spitter.

She actually seems to find it rather amusing when she spits up, so I guess it's a correct diagnosis, just not real technical.

Other than that, we are all well here! She keeps growing and every day just seems more and more interested in stuff and playing with her toys. She's grasping that rattle, and whacking herself on the head, but she's doing good!

Here's a few more pictures of Bean!

Widget & Whatnot Wednesday - Motion X GPS Drive

So, for today's WWW I'm going to rave once again about the iPhone app Motion X GPS Drive.

A previous review of this app is buried somewhere deep in my blog, but after last night and my continued frustration with the Fancy Smancy GPS that came in our 2010 Ford Edge, I have to give it props again.

If it isn't on blackberry, palm or other smart phones, I hope it is soon because I LOVE it.

When I downloaded it, the app was 99 cents with a free 30 day turn by turn directions trial. Once that time was up you could either use it without it speaking the directions to you or you can pay $3 to access turn by turn for a month if it's something you may only really use a couple times a year or download turn by turn for an entire year for $24.99. So basically, you get a super gps for $26 that so far, surpassses the expensive crap in my vehicle that goes with you anywhere you have your phone.

The link to their website is: http://www.motionx.com/

Last night I had our first Junior League meeting of the season. We take off during the summer and I've been away since January because of that little thing called having a baby earlier this year.....so I was excited to get back into the swing of things and our big Rummage sale is coming up, so I wanted to get all the specifics on that.

I jotted down the address of where we were going to have the meeting....but it was actually the address of the photographer who would be there to take our yearbook pictures...my vehicle gps got me to that address without issue.

I then pulled up our Junior League website on the handy dandy iphone and found the address to the home that the meeting was to be held. Plugged it into the Ford....no such address existed in it's lovely database of streets in Owensboro. THIS IS A 2010 VEHICLE!!!! The subdivision, albeit somewhat new, has probably been established for atleast oh, 5 years.....the road should have been in it's oh so new memory.

Well crap, so I figure, what the hell, lets see if my 99 cent iphone gps app can help me out here because I know I've seen Copper Creek subdivision before but I have NO CLUE where it's at. I plug in the address and voila, I'm 1.6 miles away, it takes me directly to the house where I only arrive 5 mintues late to my meeting, with absolutley no help from the Ford navigation system.

I also love it because, unlike the Ford, I can type in Target, and it will tell me where the nearest 20 Targets are located and will then oh so sweetly direct me turn by turn how to get to my favorite store.

The Ford cannot do that, alas, it doesn't recognize Target. So sad.

So my backup gps saved me from missing my meeting...I've used it quite a few times and I know wherever I go, I can always find whatever I'm looking for, unlike the piece of junk in my vehicle.

I highly advise purchasing this handy dandy app for those with an iphone and a need for occasional directions.

Football & Highchair

I didn't get to post Friday, but Mallory is up to 13 lbs 14.5 oz....just on the verge of 14 pounds and probably is now!

This weekend was exciting for several reasons. First, Grammy and Grandpa came to visit for the weekend from Sikeston, we got Bean her big girl High Chair and it's opening weekend for NFL!!

Bud and Susan arrived Friday evening and with the drizzle and cooler temps, I made a big pot of Beef Stew, my fav!!

Saturday all 5 of us treked to Evansville to get Bean's high chair. The one I had registered for was in stock at Babies-R-Us, so away we went. Of course you can't stop at BRU and not pick up other stuff along the way, so a few toys, a huge box of diapers and the high chair later, we were done and off to the Mall for Old Navy socks.

She never got a good nap in yesterday and you could tell Saturday evening....little miss cranky pants, LOL! When she finally got settled down I think she went to bed around 9pm and slept until about 7:30 this morning!

Mallory finally rolled over in front of Grammy and Grandpa Sunday at lunch. I was beginning to wonder if she was going to show off or not, but she finally did.

Bud and Susan headed back to Sikeston after lunch, Ben and I were annoyed that neither the UK football game on Saturday or the Titans game today could be seen from our crappy local channels or Directv.....ug. At least both won and I watched the poor Colts (2nd fav team) get their butts handed to them....at least they were somewhat redeeming at the end. I'm sure Payton will pull the troops for next week.

With everything that's been going on I haven't gotten to run this weekend, which is mildly annoying and it doesn't look like I'm going to get one in this evening either with Mallory sleeping on me for 2 1/2 hours this afternoon while I watched football and then tennis, gag, because the remote was across the room and after yesterdays nap disasters, I wasn't going to interrupt her sleep for the remote!

Oh well, I'll head out tomorrow at lunch or tomorrow evening on the greenbelt one. I'm hoping to run the Elkton 5K this coming Saturday if we get down to Elkton, if not, I'll be ready for the Susan B Komen race the next weekend.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend....Mallory not sure what to think of her High Chair, her trying to feed herself her bottle, Tucker on his fav spot on the couch, which now has a lovely hole and we need to replace....and just a few others!

Widget & Whatnot Wednesday - Ebates.com

I’m going to try to make it a point to share cool tech stuff, gadgets, toys, websites, and other neat stuff I happen upon once a week on what I'm naming "Widget & Whatnot Wednesday." Which is also a play on www. since most of the stuff I come across has something to do or was found on the internet. I'll label all these posts WWW. I've always like to share neat stuff I come across, so I'm going to just try to do it once a week and focus just on that "thing." It will probably help to make it a little more searchable in the future too. Hope you enjoy!

I’d love to hear about cool stuff you find too, so be sure to share!

Today I’m sharing www.ebates.com. It’s something I’ve used, and I need to use more, since I seem to order a lot of stuff online.

Basically it’s a free service that if you go through their website to a zillion merchants and buy stuff online, you get a % rebate back.

Think of it like this, you know with school fundraisers they have gift cards to sell and depending on the merchant, the school gets back like 3% of the face value of the gift card sold? It’s like that but instead of the school getting that 3% back, you get it back in a quarterly check. How cool is that? And yes it works because I’ve gotten 2 quarterly checks back.

And it’s all free. No clue how it works, why it works, but it does.

All you have to do is go online and sign up at www.ebates.com and you will be on your way. Then you can scroll through the umpteen website companies that participate in their program, and most of the ones you would want to shop with are there.

I’ve got to get back in the habit of using Ebates more often again, but whenever you want to buy something online, start at ebates and then click on the merchant from there and then it keeps up with what you buy. You can see what your % refund for that merchant will be (orbitz and travel companies are on there too, which is good when I buy flights for work and can get rebates on them!!) and you will get a check.

Pretty painless, just gotta remember to go through ebates.

Hungry Hungry Hippo....er Mallory!

I think she's either going through a growth spurt or she's just really ready to eat more now. Ever since Sunday she's been wanting to eat every 2 to 2 1/2 hours instead of every 3 hours. It first started and she would cry uncontrollably, which was odd for her since she really only cries when she's hungry, needs a diaper changed or is really sleepy, and we couldn't console her and finally gave her a bottle which she latched on quickly and then drank all 6 oz....then it would all happen again in a couple hours.



So, after making sure she didn't have a fever, not seeing any teeth coming in, noting that she wasn't tugging on her ears and was still sleeping thorugh the night, at this point we are chalking it up to a growth spurt....or maybe just getting older and eating more.



I talked to the nurse and she said we could give her up to 8 oz at a time now and maybe she would go every 4 hours now. I'm not going to hold my breath on that, but we will see if that cuts down on the every 2 hours she seems to be at now.



Other than her hunger issues, things seem to be going well. She's almost rolling from back to stomach. She gets way over on her side and you think she's just going to roll over, but just doesn't quite make it.



I've got to get her a high chair. It will not be long before she's ready for one and we will move on to cereals and other such mushy stuff.



I'm about to wrap up the organization and decorating of her nursery. I've got some cute farm pictures of home that's I've got frames for and will put up along with a few other things. I never got the chance to do all of this before I ended up in the hospital, so even though she's 5 months, she really hasn't used her room yet though since we've kept her in our room. I'm thinking we will make that transition at 6 months if WE are ready, I don't think she cares one way or the other! The Angel Care Monitor is working great, so I think Ben and I could manage withouth her in the room with us.



I still haven't really made up my mind how I feel about the bumpers. They are on her crib now, she kept cramming her head into the end of the bed and then screaming, so I put them on. After a poll on facebook I see most people still just use the regular ones, so I'll probably keep them on, but I feel better that I have the Angel Care Monitor if I'm going to use the bumpers.

Here's a few pictures of what I've been working on in the nursery:











































This weekend was for the most part relaxing. Ben went from Sikeston to my parents on Friday and I didn't go down until Saturday afternoon late. I wanted to just do things at my speed this weekend and not get in any big hurry. I worked on staining our enormous deck on Saturday morning. After almost 4 gallons of stain (which is all the local Lowes had in the color I needed) and I still wasn't done with the first coat on the floor, I left it and Bean and I went for our Week 8 Day 1 Run on the Greenbelt.

The huge deck, not even 1 coat done.....







Then we headed to Mom and Dad's. We had a pretty relaxing time there, got more stain from the Hopkinsville Lowes, and then came back Monday morning so I could work on the piles of Laundry and to work on Mallory's nursery. I got all that accomplished somehow and Ben came in around 6:30 after finishing up the corn with dad and we pretty much crashed.



Here's a picture from this morning when I had her all decked out in her cow dress, I couldn't resist a picture.....my little cow girl!!

Mallory's 5 Months Old!

I tried to get this up and posted yesterday but it wouldn't upload to youtube from mom and dads.

Bean is 5 months old on Sunday and here's a cute little video of her "talking" to us!!

Awwww, her picture proofs are in!!

I was so excited to get the call tonight, her proofs are up on the site!! I think they turned out pretty good considering I couldn't get a smile out of her to save my life!

If you would like to view the proofs, go to: http://truereflections.smugmug.com/ and scroll down to the client section. Open up that page, click on Mallory's name and type in the password: april12

They will be up until Sept. 11.

Ben's been in Sikeston Dove hunting since Tuesday night. Sounds like they had a pretty good hunt, not counting the minor issue Wednesday morning that he had with my gun, but other than that, he's bringing home meat. (Yes he took my gun, he claims he married me for my Benelli)

I took today off and have enjoyed very much spending a lazy, do things at our own pace, day with Mallory. Ben left his parents this morning but headed for Elkton to help finish up corn harvest. I'm going to try to stain the deck, or at least part of it, tomorrow since it's supposed to be cool and less windy than today. Oh what fun!

I decided I needed a hair cut this week and my beautician talked me into low lights. There's a few that are a little darker than I would like, but overall I think I like it. After a few washes it will probably be about right. It's just color, I can change it whenever I like : )

I weighed Bean this morning and she's up to 13 lbs 8.5 oz!! We have officially moved up to size 2 diapers now. I have half a pack of 1's left but they had started leaving little red marks on her thighs, I think it's time to move on.

Here's a few pictures from the week. Aunt Brenda was wanting some pictures of Mallory with the quilt she made for her, so we have some "quilt modeling" pictures.....I think she makes a pretty good quilt model!