Happy Birthday to ME!

Another September 30th is already here. I've always loved my birthday--the start of the school year, my birthstone, the weather, the fact that it's just a week after my mom's birthday and I share the day with my brother-in-law Gary, it's not too close to Christmas, etc...

I know it's not January 1st, but it's my birthday so I can do what I want to and this year I'm making a new year resolution. My resolution is to get more sleep. *YAWN* I seriously think I'm aging faster than normal primarily because of lack of sleep/rest. And I'm just plain ole not much fun to be around lately. I have been staying up WAY past my bedtime doing grad school work lately, so this next year I hope to some how figure out how to fit in about 6 daily hours of school work to 2 hours of free time each day. If you have any ideas, email me!

That's really all I wanted to say this year. But I'd love it if you'd go give my mom's new blog some love. She wrote up a fabulous post about my birth today. Go HERE to visit her! And for those who didn't already know: Shaye is a contraction for Shannon Rae.

Progress

August 30th

August 31st

September 10th

September 13th
September 14th

September 15th

September 16th

September 17th

September 19th

September 25th

Happy 6 Months Brighton!!!!

I cannot believe my baby is 6 months old! I will post a 6-month collage later this weekend, but I just had to upload a shot of him right around the minute he turned 6 months old this morning. He's on the move!

And below is a short video clip of him talking to us. Of course he has his sister's finger in his mouth (kinda gagging him), but he talks to us like this ALL the time. SO funny!



Brighton is still rolling everywhere, beginning to crawl, sitting up for very short time periods (always with one of us nearby), and talking our ears off. He's extremely playful and thinks EVERYTHING is funny.

We love having three children. The mix of personalities makes our lives so full. I'll be back probably tomorrow with that collage. Until then, if you haven't read his home birth story or seen the pictures of his first moments out of the womb, take a minute to click on his "birth story" button (with his picture on it) to the right. And have a blessed day!

Happy Birthday MOM/MIMI!

YAY! The big SIX--OH. I'm so sad that we can't be together today to celebrate. But if I could be there, we'd be sure to go to Goodwill together. While there we'd pick up every piece of whatchamacallit and tell each other, "Hmmm...isn't this neat?" and "I wonder why someone would throw this out." We'd try on outfits (that we'd never buy in a department store) because, hey, it's only $1. And I'm sure I'd have to remind you to never say, "Moo Moo" again. After we shopped for a hour or so we'd convince each other that we didn't really need anything after all. We'd head on over to Mr. Gattis where we've always loved the salad bar and the apple pizza because, well hmmm...because they cancel each other out, right?

I'm sure, at some point, we'd go get our hair and nails done. And while we're at it, let's go get that massage that you know we both want! Then we'd call Poppy and Daddy to see how they've fared with all the babies. Upon hearing that they'd like us to come home right away, we'd decide to just go see a movie. After all, it IS your birthday.

And good news is...we'd get to do it all over again next week for MY birthday. YAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!!!! I love you longer and longer!

If I still have any readers after being mostly away the last two weeks, then be sure to head on over to mom's new blog at http://boomerbabybliss-bfs.blogspot.com/. Welcome her to the blogosphere, leave her a "happy birthday" message and be sure to check back often (she's about to set up a subscription option for those wanting to keep up).

Mid-September Family Slideshow

To see these pictures in our Picasa album go HERE. And don't forget we try to do a post a day on Brayla's new hair blog HERE.

Brayla's NEW "Girl Hair" Blog

Okies. Brayla's new hair blog is sorta set-up and kinda running for anyone interested. http://millermanes.blogspot.com/ Come see us, become a "follower" and leave us lots of fun comments. We hope to see you!

And I've been in OVER my head in graduate work so I will probably not be blogging every single day for a while. But you can find me on email, at least. teachertools at gmail dot com

If you don't blog, then at least email me to let me know what's going on in your life these days. :)

Hair-Crazed

Alrighty. That's it. All you hair worshipping lunatics finally did it. You got me to try something fun with Brayla's long, thick hair. Even worse, she LOVED it. I mean, in the beginning (you know the 30 minutes of detangling) she wasn't so crazy about the pulls and pushes or the "turn your head this way" and "can you please stop moving while I snap a picture" requests ('cause Lord knows no one will ever believe I did this unless I document it in photos). But in the end, she was swishing her braids around, adoring herself in the mirror, and asking me if she could wear her hair this way forever. As you'll see below, she even got out her tiara to wear.

So here's how I did it... (warning: there are a TON of pictures in this post)

First, we got out our hair supplies and picked up a few new ones.
Hi Brandon! :waves:


Next, we detangled, dampened and parted the top section off for later.

Next, I frenchbraided the little side braids (to get the little side hairs over her ears) and then regular braided those down the back. Then I did one braid down the middle with different colored bands. And finally, I undid the top section of hair, made it into a pony tail and then braided that.



Then I just turned the top braid into a tight bun and fastened it with another band.






She loved it so much--she pranced around the house, flipping her braids around. Later she brought me her tiarra and said she should probably wear that with her hair.

So we put a yellow bow in it to match her yellow shirt.

And then she wanted to try a red bow. This is all so much fun!

So, I'm kinda hooked. As other mommy-daughter "hair" bloggers have shared, it gives them a good 15-20 minutes alone with their daughter each day. And I've discovered that a little pretty can go a long way. So Brayla and I set up a new blog that we're going to record our hair adventures on each week. Right now it's a private blog, but maybe one day we'll make it public for family and friends who want to see what we've been up to.

By the way, some of the hair blogs I've been following (especially for Brayla's type of hair) are:

http://hair4myprincess.blogspot.com/
http://girlydos.blogspot.com/
http://babesinhairland.blogspot.com/ (ALERT: giveaway going on right now)
http://princesscharmedhair.blogspot.com/ (I'm still new to this one)
http://shedoeshair.blogspot.com/ (also pretty new to this one)
http://littlegirlshair.blogspot.com/

I have a HICKEY on my

...CHINNY-CHIN-CHIN!

My poor little teether will put anything in his mouth to alleviate the current discomfort in his gums. While we were cuddling before bed time last night he wrapped his mouth around my chin--we were bouncing around giggling like crazy. Playing with his sister and sucking on mommy's chin were the only thing two things keeping him from crying as he was OH SO TIRED (I was purposefully keeping him awake longer than usual). He had his mouth on my chin for maybe 2 minutes while I sang funny songs which bounced his little head all over. Oh the laughter... Anyway, I didn't think anything of it at the time, but in hindsight I suppose there was a little burning sensation at the very end.

Later that night when Lee and I got back up to do school work, Lee looked at me with confused eyebrows: "You either have a bruise or an ink smudge on your chin." I went to the bathroom and, sure enough, it's a hickey.

Boy he's a strong little sucker! Literally.

Here's a quick shot of Brayla holding Brighton just moments before bed.

Giveaways in Cyberspace

One of my friends just posted this last week about a giveaway site she's become addicted to. The funny thing about her post is that I was drafting up this post on a variety of freebies or give away sites at the same time. I just wondered how many of my cyberfriends and family are aware of these thousands of giveaway blogs. Some aren't even worth the time it takes to read the blog and discover how to win, but others are really awesome (even if you're competing with 100 others to win).

Here are just 10 going on RIGHT NOW if you want to catch some of the fun:

http://deenasbooks.blogspot.com/2008/08/it-begins-september-1st.html - Going on ALL September (a book a day)

http://laurelwreathsreflections.com/i-love-fall-giveaway-day-1/ - Going on the entire first week of September

http://yourimpactmatters.com/2008/09/01/journal-giveaway/ - Ends September 15th

http://www.babysteals.com/blog/2008/09/scootababy-giveaway.html - Ends September 8th

http://www.mommymandy.com/ - Ends September 13th

http://www.ourfamilyjournal.com/2008/08/welcome-to-uptown.html - Ends September 12th

http://clintandjill.blogspot.com/2008/08/giveaway-time.html - Ends September 3rd

http://www.stylelist.com/blog/2008/09/01/styledash-giveaway-hot-prairie-new-york-top/ - Ends September 5th

http://dkmommyspot.com/contests-coupon-codes/ - Several ongoing giveaways

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/site-news/summer-giveaway-your-working-bookshelf.html - Ends September 5th

Like these kinds of things? Then let me show you a neat way to get instant access to give aways on blog posts everywhere. Start by going to Google blog search and enter a variety of terms that might be used for a give away. For example "give away OR giveaway OR freebies" entered in the blank as a catch-all. Feel free to use a general give away search by going HERE. However, as you'll see, there are currently over 6 million giveaway posts coming up. So you'll want to narrow it down by adding words of specific items you're interested in at the beginning like: "baby AND" or "beauty AND" or "scrapbook AND". Also, as you'll discover, some of these giveaways are already finished. So always check the dates, first thing (or you could include "NOT finished" in your blog search terms to see if that weeds out those posts announcing that the contest is over).

Next, be sure to read the "terms of use" on any give away site. Some require you only leave a comment on their blog while others require that you put a link to their site on your own blog. Some may require that you do an entire blog entry about their site yet some only ask you to email the blog owner (privately).

Finally, just sit back and wait to win. :)

I've been perusing a variety of give away sites for a while now (I don't enter often) just out of curiosity and am always interested in how many people get put into the drawing. It's a great way to get to know other bloggers and also a great way to advertise your blog.

With that being said, be looking for a future give away on our blog very soon...

Labor Day

Here are three incredibly inspirational videos about moms who labored and delivered naturally despite what thousands of providers would have told them. I know, totally not what you expected, eh? But what better way to celebrate some great "labors" than to do it on Labor Day!?

The first video includes a number of moms carrying twins and triplets. Can you believe the shots of those who had TWO babies naturally on the same day EACH ONE weighing about 9 to 10lbs!? 18 to 20lbs is a lot of baby to birth in one day!

The second video includes many moms who had a VBAmC (vaginal birth after multiple cesareans) or HBAmC (home birth after multiple cesareans) which is what we experienced just this year. I LOVE the music on this one! Very inspirational--my eyes burn with tears every time I watch it (we downloaded it for my labor music when Brighton was born).

The third video includes a large number of moms who were diagnosed with Cephalopelvic Disproportion (CPD) which means they were told told their pelvis was too small to deliver a baby. So their first babies were taken by cesarean. Very often, woman who are c-sectioned for "Failure to Progress" (like me) are automatically told they must have CPD. Tooooo many have forgotten that when a laboring mother is left alone (to labor in peace and without fear), pelvises stretch and baby's heads mold. As you'll see, many of these deliveries were done in privacy at home.

I wouldn't just stick any video up here (there are dozens I'd share if I, or you, had time), so I hope you'll take time to watch each one (and turn your sound on--powerful words/music).

HAPPY LABOR DAY!!!!