Let's Talk Pictures

Ok mommies I need your help again so I am going to post another poll. It's two questions so PLEASE take just a second and vote. I thank you in advance. Which picture should I bring as Liam's most photogenic contest part of the pageant this weekend....
Choice 1

Choice 2

What do you mommies think? I just love both of them and cannot decide which one to choose. I am so excited about this weekend though!
Anyway, today has been a very lazy day for the Comer family. Liam and me woke up, and within an hour we took a nap. Then we got bath/shower and got ready and went grocery shopping. After that we came home and napped again. lol. We were very tired today. I stayed up way to late watching the Olympics last night. After our second nap we decided to go test out my new camera. I pretty much waited to late to leave, because it was about thirty minutes from sunset, but I did score a few good shots and I just love my new camera. I see a LOT of great pictures of Liam being posted soon! I found some really good spots I want to try out soon too! I need to take some in Liam's outfit his Nana made him soon. (Maybe tomorrow).
Really the only other fun thing we did today was Liam made an Olympic metal! It is to cute. However, the picture of it is on my phone and it is dead so I will have to let you see how cute it is tomorrow. Try to get some sleep tonight mommies.
Mommy on,
Liam's Mommy

Say Cheese!

Miscellany Monday time yay! Today has been great! Liam and me slept in and so many fun things have happened! Now for what's on my mind.

1.This is Liam's red, whit, and blue/camo wear for his pageant this weekend. I am so thrilled with this outfit. Liam's awesome Nana made it and the pattern is from The Cottage Mama. You should check out her Fb page, she has some great patterns. Hopefully I can get some cute pictures of this actually on Liam tomorrow. 

2. So I went to an awesome photography class called SLR Mamma's hosted by http://www.facebook.com/classiccreationsphotography. I had a blast and I learned so much. Unfortunately I also learned that the lens on my Sony DSLR was broken. I was crushed when I found out. It will just not focus anymore. Well when I came home and told Ben he was upset for me too. Shortly after I got home Ben and Liam left to go to the library together and I was just going to chill out and read after my bad news. About two hours later my boys came home and surprised me with a Nikon camera with two lenses and a camera bag, and filter and memory card. I was probably more surprised then when I got engaged lol. I am so in love with this camera. It is my dream camera and I FINALLY have it. No need to upgrade ever again haha, because this is what I have been working towards. I plan on getting to shoot with it tomorrow and I am so stoked. 

3.This is today's art project for our "KEEP CALM AND ALPHA ON" book. E is for Earth. I love this one so much.

4. Baby stuff... need I say more. I absolutely LOVE babies and I love spoiling them even more. This is a wipes case I made for my bff's big sister. Her baby Irish's room is going to be in Grimms Fairy Tales and Edgar Allan Poe so I thought this print was perfect for them! 

5. The daycare crisis has been solved. I don't know what Ben went and did, but we mysteriously went from number 36 on the list to a spot being open for us overnight. Liam starts daycare on the 6th. I went to view the facility today and I am in love with it. I'm so happy that we found, and got into a good place that I truly like and get good vibes about. 

*I hope you mommies have a good rest of the night! 

Mommy on, 

Liam's Mommy

Keep Calm and Alpha On!

Happy Sunday! Today has been a good day for Liam and me. Daddy went on a man date to shoot guns with his friends today and Liam and me went to play and watch the OC at Darci's house. Let me start by saying that when Liam and Cael play it is so stinking cute. I cannot wait for Liam to have his own little brother or sister to play with one day, (after I reach that goal weight). 

Now about this alphabet book, I am still so excited about it. I think that we have done enough that I can go ahead and post pictures and show you what we have been working on. I think we have even encouraged some friends to start alphabet books too. In Liam's book we are doing a mixture of hand prints, footprints and finger prints. We are doing one print for every letter of the alphabet. A lot are animals, but not all will be. 

So far we have done A, B, C, D,and O. 

*Here is the cover to Liam's Alpha book and I love it! 

 A is for Alligator (you could also do astronaut finger prints, or American flag)

 B is for Bird (you could also do a beaver footprint, or a bumblebee hand print, or bull fingerprint)

 C is for Cow ( you could also do crane footprint, or cheetah hand print)

 D is for Duck (you could also do dinosaur finger prints or hand print)

 We just had to go ahead and do O since it is Olympic time right now. (you could also do an octopus hand print)

We have a lot of neat alphabet ideas for our future letters and I hope to see more mommies jumping on board to do this too! 

Mommy on, 

Liam's Mommy

Keep Calm and Olympics On!

Today started off very good and then a lot of things started going wrong. It was not my best mommy day ever, but I did pretty good at redeeming the rest of the night. This morning Liam and me worked on him walking(which we finally have on video and some very blurry pictures of), and just played and folded laundry. Once Ben got home from work we ran some errands. I still needed to get the fabric for Liam's red, white and blue/camo wear and a bedazzler. I had no luck on the bedazzler and found some really cute fabric,but it was not what I wanted. They only had two 18X22 inch pieces in the whole store of the fabric I really wanted and that will definitely not be enough so I had to go to plan B.  I did get Liam's tux shirt in the mail though and I am really excited about that...and we have shoes for him to wear now too! The pageant wear is starting to come together. Pam is going to actually sew his fun wear on Monday and we will be ready for the weekend.
Things got even worse when we got home from errands and I tried to package the gift I made for one of my friends who just had an adorable baby, and I ruined it, Now I have to find time to redo that and get new materials for it. Low and behold I had to cancel going to see baby and will reschedule soon. Then to top it all off I have been taking practice test for my state exam and bombing them and that has caused a lot of stress. Luckily things started to turn around when I was able to reschedule my state test for September so I can be more prepared. I am so thankful. It was the best $30 I've ever spent lol.
After that crisis was averted we had dinner and started watching the 2012 Olympic games opening. I also decided to make some USA cupcakes (which I iced to soon so it immediately started to melt)  with my dangerous two cupcakes recipe and an Olympic craft with Liam. I'm so glad the night got much better for me. My favorite part of the opening was when they had those precious second in honor of all the world's fallen soldiers since WWI.

 In the mean time:

and enjoy this DANGEROUS cupcakes for two recipe!

One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two

serves 2

1 egg white

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla (yes, a full teaspoon – they are super vanilla-y!)

1/4 cup flour

1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder

pinch of salt

1 1/2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.

In a bowl, add egg white and sugar and whisk until combined. Add in vanilla and melted butter and stir until mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk. Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost as desired.

Mommy on, 

Liam's Mommy

P.s. Thank you so much to the few people who took my poll. My first poll was an epic fail, but hey you win some and you loose some right?

Bouquets On My Mind.

Today has been a pretty good day. Nothing special has happened, but I've been in a good mood. Little Jack came over to play again today and it was so much fun. Having him here the past two days make's me realize I definitely want at least one more baby, and would even love to have that baby NOW, but I HAVE to reach my goal weight first. (come on and work with me already body bahhaha). Anyway, the boys and me danced (which Jack thought was hilarious), and watched Disney Jr., and made a B craft. Like I said yesterday I will post pictures of the alphabet book once there are more pictures of it to post. (lol). It is SOOOO cute though. Ok here's a sneak peek of today at least I can't resist the cuteness....

Those boys are just too cute together. Once Jack left we went on a mission to find some old brooches to make a bouquet with and found no such luck. So I have been researching some online ever since Liam went down for a late nap. I need your help... you can find a pollP on the left hand side of my blog... please vote and help me choose this bouquet. Here are some pictures of my favorite one's I've found so far....
1.

2.On this one, it would not be this exact bouquet, but something very similar to it. 

3.This one would look like this, but with a few purple brooches added. 

and the bottom of the above picture would look the same as the bottom in the picture below these words.

So what do you mommies think? I need some serious help here. PLEASE vote. Hopefully my post tomorrow will be a little more interesting. All I can think about tonight are these dang bouquets.

Mommy on,
Liam's Mommy

P.s. I'm pretty positive I will be working for the paper again this semester . EEEPPPPP!!!!!!!

BIG News!

Proud Mommy moment....... Liam started standing on his own from the ground without help yesterday night. I have always told him if he stands then I'll give him ice cream and he did it last night so we had to leave and go get ice cream from Baskin Robbins. (sorry body... please forgive me.)

He got a rainbow sherbet cone and LOVED it. This morning we had to get up early for Liam's post Iron appointment (He had low iron the last time we went to get shots), only to wait for two hours before we were seen. I love Liam's doctor, but the forever long waits are not appreciated and really make me want to switch doctors. Liam's iron was up, but still not quite where they want it to be so we are going to keep taking iron drops for another month. 

After Liam's appointment we rushed home, because his bff Jack was suppose to be at the house at noon. Liam and Jack always seem to have so much fun together. Aside from switching paci's and not wanting to share for the first few minutes, they had a blast. We did a little craft (that I will post tomorrow), and we rode in the wagon outside in the shade for a few minutes, which is all the heat would allow, and before we knew it Jack's mommy was here to pick him up. We cannot wait to see him again tomorrow though. 

BIG NEWS! While Jack was here Liam took FOUR steps. Ben and me were so excited. A few hours later he took a couple more steps again in his bedroom. There is hope lol. Liam is so advanced in so many things, but he just loves being held and has not wanted to walk lol. I think we are on the fast track to walking now though. (Let's hope, his 23 ibs self is HEAVY).

The only other new news is that yesterday Liam's daycare insurance called and told me that he is now number 36 instead of 26 on the post daycare waiting list, so low and behold we will not get in there before my classes start at the end of August. Now I am talking the task of viewing facilities and finding a good part week daycare in Clarksville that accepts our daycare insurance. Not an easy task so far, but I just need to trust God that he will get into the right place. 

We also started an alphabet art book yesterday. We did an alligator hand print for the A and a ranch scene with bulls for B. Once there are a few more pages done I will post pictures and show you guys how its constructed. For now I am going to get off here though and clean and work on Liam's pageant outfit and read the Word! 

Mommy On, 

Liam's Mommy

Miscellany Monday!

http://www.carissagraham.com

As any mommy knows time to do anything for yourself is sparse. I love keeping up with this blog, but some days I almost feel like it's a chore and I get mad at myself if I miss a day. In an effort to give myself a little break I am going to start participating in Carissa Graham's Miscellany Monday, where it doesn't matter if your post is organized or put together, because complete randomness is what is expected. I will probably include favorite pictures of the week, scriptures I'm liking that week, books I'm reading... just completely random mommy day: ) Ok let's get started with what's on my mind this week.

1. My heart goes out to the victims of the shooting in Colorado. I just cannot believe how cruel people in today's society can be. I feel sorry for people who get in such a messed up state of mind, but there is absolutely no excuse for their behavior. I pray that God be with the families who are grieving right now. I absolutely hate that Liam is growing up in such a twisted society right now.

2. I heard a tragic story on the news this morning. There is a family who has five kids and every one of them have a heart problem. Their oldest daughter underwent a heart transplant when she was seven and their son, and middle daughter have had heart surgery. At the moment they are waiting on a heart for their middle child and dealing with the recent discovery that every one of their five children have some sort of heart problem, and most likely will all need new hearts eventually. It was so heartbreaking to watch. I was in tears the whole time. It is reasons like this that make it impossible for me to not want to be an organ donor. When I die I don't need my organs anymore, so why not save one or more lives. 

3. These are the scriptures that I have been meditating on this week so far. I made up these cute little notes in Photoshop and I am going to try and frame them tomorrow and put them up in the kitchen so I can speak them over selling my house every time I walk by them. We will sell our house in Jesus name! 

4. Liam was in one pageant and my inbox has been flooded with invites to more ever since. I am game (I think), but Ben is still skeptical. We are going to take it one step and one pageant at a time. We have decided to attend one that supports the Wounded Warriors next month and I'm pretty excited about it. The only problem is I cannot find a tux shirt to go with Liam's tux. HELP! 

5. After my final tonight we decided to take our babies on a walk to the park. It was adorable when Liam decided to "walk" Hannah himself, and he did such a good job. Also, he thought that it was hilarious when Hannah got a turn in the swing! We had fun and got some exercise in. 

I hope you all have a great week. I hope that the new Monday format isn't to weird lol. Check out Carissa's blog when you get a chance, because it is great. 

Mommy on,

Liam's Mommy 

Friends Are the Family We Choose

In any circumstance being a good wife is never a piece of cake, but being an Army wife is a whole new level of difficult. I am lucky that our first (and only duty station) was to Ft. Campbell, which is really close to our hometown, and I'm thrilled that our first PCS will be out of the Army and to the town of OUR choosing. The problem is sometimes I feel like I haven't spent my time wisely.
Living close to home is great, but such a tease. It's close enough that I am willing to visit friends, but rarely do any travel to visit me. I'm only two hours away, but it's just far enough that if I'm having a bad day and need a friends shoulder to cry on the drive is just far enough to not feel like making. I have met some amazing Army wives in my three years here, but that's just the thing... they're Army wives and they all eventually move away. The emotional toll finally got the best of me to the point that I have started to guard my heart and would rather not have friends then loose friends to a different state. (I mean I can only afford so many plane tickets to visit them all lol). I fell like I have wasted to much time with wives who didn't really care about me, and not spent enough time with the one's who really do. I feel like I wasted precious girl time to silly things like sleeping in, and being sick, and reading books all day. When I was sick while I was pregnant with Liam my friendship statuses really changed. I learned who the girls were that just befriended me for an image and the ones who truly cared about me. Then no sooner then I got better I lost the wife who probably cared the very most about me. I feel like there are so many ladies that I just didn't get to know enough before they pcs'd and I really regret it.
Then there are the wives who I truly cared about who ditched me, or moved and never kept in contact. That almost hurts the most. I even went through the emotional toll of being with a friend during a surgery who stopped breathing and I had a nervous break down about it and felt closer than ever when I found out she was ok and now we never speak. I know the phone goes both ways, but you also know when to just take a step back. Finally there are the wives who you adore, but they have wicked friends who treat you like dirt and bully you, so you have to just give up a valued friendship to keep your own dignity.
Taking on the status of Army Wife is tough. I would never trade the past three years, because there have been good times and I have grown and learned so much, but I am glad that this status in my life will be laid to rest soon. I am ready to be a "has been" instead of an "is."

My point to all this, is that mommies need friends and support sometimes, but in this day and age they are harder and harder to come by. Friends are the family you choose and that is a vital thing to teach your children. I just feel like I have failed a little in this area. I definitely choose my friends more wisely now, but wish so much that I still had some of the true ones close by instead of hundreds of miles away. I am fixing to loose my only really close Army wife left to a different state and I am really upset about it, but so thankful I met her and already have a visit lined up (even though she hasn't even moved yet haha).

I want Liam to choose his friends wisely and to always trust mommy and daddy if we think that he has made a bad choice. Not only that though, but I want him to be a good friend and to value his friendships. You need friends and you also never are guaranteed tomorrow with them. I personally have lost my fair share of freinds    starting in just the sixth grade, so I want Liam to cherish his friends and the moments they spend together. I don't want a terrible fight or argument to end a good thing. Teach your babies well mommies. We have lived and learned and now it's our time to teach.
Mommy on,
Liam's Mommy

Fairs and Recipes!

Hey mommies. I hope everyone has had a great weekend so far, mine has been pretty good. Yesterday we got a call asking if our house could be showed today between 10 and 11. I was so stoked and determined that it was the same family who viewed it the day before. I spent all yesterday cleaning and preparing for the showing and then we took Liam to Illinois for his Youth Fair appearance to hand out ribbons to the winners at the cat show. Liam did so good. I am just such a proud mommy. 

When we woke up this morning we did a little last minute prep for the showing and then Liam's Nana got here and we left so the house could be shown. Well I HATE selling a house. I am trying to keep optimistic and really trust in God for this sell, but you can't help being a little discouraged when this time the people were in and out in three minutes flat and it was not the same family who viewed it before. Oh well though, we made up for the disappointment by going to the Opry Mills mall in Nashville today with Nana. We had a lot of fun and got some good deals. 

On to more important things, what do you feed your babies? I have a toddler meals cookbook called the "Mommy Rescue Guide" and I love it. Some of Liam's favorite meals lately have been a tortilla with cream cheese spread on it and shredded cheddar cheese sprawled on top of the cream cheese... I roll it up and cut it into sliced and Liam munches away. Another is pork with green peppers and pineapple! 

I also really like trying new meal ideas for Liam. One that I recently ran into and tried was an oatmeal muffin. I'm going to list the recipe below so you can all try it on your little ones. 

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups applesauce, unsweetened
• 1 banana, mashed
• 6 packets of Sweetleaf Stevia or 1 1/2 teaspoons stevia powder or use 1/2 cup honey
• 5 cups, Old Fashioned rolled oats { I used Bob’s Red Mill}
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk (I used 1%)
• Optional toppings: raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips

Nutrition Info (without toppings)

Servings: 18* Calories: 143* Fat: 4g* Cholesterol: 25mg* Sodium: 32mg* Fiber: 4g* Sugars: 4g* Carbs: 23g* Protein: 6g*

*I opted to use the honey instead of the stevia. 

Here was our final product! They were delicious and I cannot wait to make them again. What are some of your favorite recipes to make for your babies? I always love new ideas!!!!!!

Mommy On,

Liam's Mommy

Operation Get Life Organized.

Boy oh boy, what a day. I want to start by bragging on Liam a little bit. He has learned his first sentence... it is "I did it". He doesn't say it a lot, but he has six or seven times on different days starting in Florida when he said it three times in a row. He also has grasped the concept of bouncing a ball, and playing "roll the ball" with mommy. Ben videoed it tonight and it was SOOOOO cute. I am a proud mama. Now if he will just walk already : (.
So on to my not so great day. Liam woke up around seven so I decided to make us a special breakfast (I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.) Well at 8:58 (when my breakfast is still in the oven, and I'm doing dishes) my cell rang. It was a Realtor wanting to know if they could show my house at 9:00. Yes you read that right, they gave me two minutes notice. I was in a panic. I asked if I could have thirty minutes and I started high tailing it to get things more straightened up. We have only been back from vacation for three days, and I have been studying every extra second those three days and had to grocery shop and go to class. Needless to say I was not prepared to have my house shown. It didn't look terrible at all, but it was not "I want to sell this thing ready." I really should have just told them no, that I wasn't given enough notice, but I am new to this and was to chicken to tell someone I don't even know no. Low and behold I ended up leaving the house barely able to breath in my pj's and no bra just to be embarrassed when I realized that the family was in and out in eight minutes.
I WILL make sure that this doesn't happen again though. I try to keep a clean house, but as anyone with kids knows, it can never really be spotless if the kids are home. In an effort to resolve this problem I have started operation get life organized. My first step was to make a weekly chore list for myself so that I can get  vital cleaning done a little each day. That way if I get another call, everything has been kept up with and I may only need to go over one or two quick things before the Realtor gets here instead of everything. I got a print off from this blog http://pinterest.com/pin/253960866456707396/, then I made up my list and framed it so it can hang on the wall in my kitchen and I can check off what gets done everyday with dry erase markers.

I think it's pretty cute. The next thing I did was buy another storage tote for Liam's room for clothes that don't fit him yet/ clothes for next season to go into, and I got a storage caddy for all my cleaning supplies to go into. I even made a cute little "Mommy's Storage Caddy" label for it.

I really am on a serious mission to get things more presentable and organized around here. One thing I already had down was my storage shelf in my laundry room, but other than that it's pretty unorganized around here. In my laundry room I have storage containers, one with laundry stuff in it, and the other with room sprays in it. Now I just need to get the rest of the house organized. Any tips would be so helpful. My next step as of now is to figure out a good mail/filing system. What are your favorite organization tips? I NEED them.
Mommy on,
Liam's Mommy

Gadget Alert!

Gadget alert. I LOVE baby gadgets. The only thing I don't like about baby gadgets is that there are to many options, and choices, and colors to choose from. When I was pregnant it had been 15 years since my mom was last pregnant so baby gadgets were WAY different and I needed help haha. I did a ton of research before we registered for stuff and/or bought stuff ourselves. Some things came easily and some did not. I learned through this process, and even today there are so many things I wish I would have known about while I was pregnant. I am going to list some of our favorite gadgets and things that we just couldn't live without for Liam's first year.

 First up is the Summer video infant monitor. I pretty much refused to have Liam without having this device first. It was my top "want" item on my baby registry and thank the Lord my granny got it for us. This monitor provided me such peace of mind in those first weeks, and still does to this day. I do not know what I would have done without it.

 Next up is a cart/highchair cover. These are wonderful. It gives me an added peace of mind that I am doing everything that I can possibly do to keep Liam germ free, and prevent him from getting sick. We take this thing everywhere.

 This is a newer cant live without item. The one pictured above is a little different then ours though. We have the crab sippy and it has a straw. You get it from Walmart and the straw makes a noise when liquid is coming out of it so I know when Liam is actually drinking and when he is just chewing or playing with the sippy.

 Tommee Tippee Paci's. LOVE, there is no other explanation needed on this one.

 Glow seahorse. We did not start out with this item. My friend Tanya gave this to me on a trip to D.C. and although Liam doesn't completely depend on it anymore he did for several months after we got it. He simply would not go to sleep unless this seahorse was playing music in his crib. It was a godsend! Thanks Tanya.

 Of course we love Liam's organic deer bedding. I looked up bedding the week I found out I was pregnant and picked this one right off. Once I showed Ben he was sold and refused to look at any other bedding. He said there was no need, because this was IT. Isn't it so cute.

 Tommee Tippee bottles. They are absolutely the best bottle out there, especially if you are a breast feeding mommy. The nipple is most like a real one.

 The lamb swing. This was Liam's favorite possession until he could no longer fit in it. (that was a sad day). He would sleep and cuddle in this for hours during his first few months.

 Huggies diapers. I have tried them all (besides pampers... I despise them, they are ugly and sag to the  ground... gross.) and these are the only diaper that has continually held up for us.

 Parent's Choice SENSITIVE wipes. I have tried all the wipes. I started off with several tubs of huggies wipes and I just didn't like them at all. Parents choice sensitive ( and it has to be that specific kind or I go crazy) are the only wipes that hold up good enough for me.

 The Brest Friend. This pillow was the ONLY way I could comfortably breast feed Liam. I was just about to give up when he was 6 days old until this pillow was introduced into my life.

 The wonder bug. This saucer can be found at Walmart and Liam just loved it.

Plum Organics consisted of Liam's first baby food. We try to do organic whenever we can and he just loves these pouches... especially now.

So these were some of our first year must have items... what were yours? I am constantly looking for new items now that Liam is getting older. It is truly a never ending cycle and help is always welcome. Every mommy always wants the best for their babies and getting advice from other mommies is ALWAYS helpful. If you don't like the advice they give you then just simply don't take it. Ultimately every mommy has to make their own decisions on what they think is best for their baby, but sometimes you simply don't know about certain things unless you are introduced to them by someone else. I really hope that this blog can help a pregnant or new mommy, and I really hope that some feed back comes in on toddler must haves to add to my ever growing list.
Mommy On,
Liam's Mommy