Jenna's 2 Year Checkup!

Usually, this is where I would write Jenna's stat's and her percentile and all that good stuff....but I can't! LOL! Last night, we went to her doctor's appointment. In the car, I kept gearing it up, making it sound exciting and when we got there, Jenna was ready to go! She walked down the hall like a big girl and into the office where she went right over to the toys as I signed her in. Everything was fine....until they called us back.

She just stood there. Looking at me, looking at the nurse.

We then attempt to put her on the big girl scale. Mommy showed her how to do it first and then when it was Jenna's turn, she wanted NO parts of it! Screaming, kicking, crying, yelling for me to take her bye-bye's. What we had to do was weight me holding her, and then weight just me and then take the difference and use that as her approximate weight.

She's approximately 27 pounds. LOL!

The height came next. They wanted her to stand up against the wall so they could see how tall she was. Right...she wouldn't stand on the scale, what makes you think she's going to stand up against the wall and let this thing come down and rest on her head?? LOL!

She's approximately as tall as the middle of my thigh. LOL!

Next came the undressing so her doctor could take a look at her. That went fine, she was alright at this point just as long as we didn't put her on a scale or put her up against a wall! I'm telling you, her pediatrician is so great with her! She talks to her the entire time and let's Jenna be active with her checkup, asking her where her eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, ears, and belly were. Then she told her about her heart. The only concern that we had was her finger sucking, but she said that we're doing right by remind her to take her finger out of her mouth and eventually she'll forget about it. Hoping that eventually is soon!

Overall, no shots and there are no concerns and Jenna is a healthy 2 year old!

Jenna's 2 Year Pictures!!

Here are the proofs from Jenna's 2 year pictures! How I'm going to choose, I have NO idea! But a special thanks to Cara from Crane Photography (http://www.mycranephotography.com/) for doing a fantastic job on Jenna's pictures! Just so that you know, none of this was posed by us, it was all just Jenna being free and doing what she wants and occasionally us saying her name to get her to look at the camera.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jenna!!!!!

Happy 2nd birthday to my beautiful daughter!!! I can't believe that she's 2 years old already! Instead of me going on and on and on about how wonderful of a daughter she is and getting all sappy and tear-ting-a-linging, I'm just going to post some of my favorite pictures of her from the past 2 years. These are just SOME, if I were to post them all, we'd be here for hours!! LOL! I haven't gotten her 2 year pictures back yet, but as soon as I do, I'll be sure to post them!

Jenna - January 24th, 2006

Look at that little face!

Sucking on what Tom and I named "Mr. Binks" (we wanted it to sound cool! LOL!)

My little princess striking a pose!

Daddy and Jenna sleeping!

"Mom...are you almost done?!?"

"Stop taking pictures and FEED ME!"

Mommy and her angel!

This is what happens when Mommy gets bored!

Jenna in her baptism gown - which happens to be made from my wedding dress!

Daddy and his little Eagles fan! (notice the black eye?)

Jenna at her 1 year pictures having a chit-chat with the bear!

Our little strawberry!

And the happy sunflower!

"What do you mean I can't have any more Peeps?!?"

Tinkerbell with her pumpkin hat on!


Making her silly face!

My 2 year old daughter! :-)

This time exactly....2 years ago.....

I was sitting in my doctor's office, telling my midwife that I wanted to be induced THAT NIGHT! She then told me that I was only a fingertip dialated and gave me the option of waiting another week. I told her no and that I would pack my bags when I got home and see her at the hospital that night. :-) Pleasant, wasn't I?


Keeping this short today because you KNOW tomorrow is going to be my long post WIFF PICT-CHARS!

This time exactly....2 years ago.....

I was sitting at home, heating up a jar of salsa, putting cheese over it, sitting my pregnant ass on the couch and eating it with a spoon determined to kick start labor. It didn't work. I was debating on whether or not to drive around and find a trampoline and jump on it.

Don't worry, you'll get the sappy "Happy Birthday to Jenna even though Mommy is taking it hard that you're another year old and I'm going to try to not cry on your cake this year" post. LOL!!!

And yes - this picture was taken in the bathroom here at work....I didn't have larger mirrors at home! LMAO! LMAO!

The time has come...

The time has come for me to quit smoking. Before I go on further, I'm not knocking those that do smoke and I'm not preaching about how bad smoking is - I personally love it. But, I've just come to this conclusion after hearing myself laugh and cough and its not pretty. I'm 27 years old with a smoker's laugh and a smoker's cough. I can't continue at the rate that I'm going, as of right now, I'm up to 3/4 of a pack a day. I started smoking when I was roughly around 13 or 14 years old. My sister did it and my best friend did it, so because I was the youngest between those two, I decided that I would start so I could fit in! I'm not placing blame on them because it was 100% my fault, it was just my thinking at the time, I could have not started, but you know how it is when you're that age especially when you have a "cool" older sister! I remember my first time too, right after the first 2 drags or so, I felt very light-headed and sick to my stomach. I though "why the hell would someone like doing this?!" Little did I know, I was going to be that someone.

After a while, we would start to steal them from my Mom, or anyone else's parent or family member that smoked. I was addicted. I found ways of hiding it from my parent's - I would smoke out my bedroom window, have a cup of water for the ashtray and hide all old butts in an old tin can that was on the top shelf in my closet. I thought it was fool proof, I thought no one would ever find out. Wrong! I didn't take into consideration that my sister was a smoker and let's face it, she wasn't all that good at hiding things from my parents. One day, after many instances that seemed odd to my parent's, my Dad decided to search our rooms to see what we were hiding. Low and behold, my Dad found my can. *gasp* Ok, ok, I know, that can was nasty, but when you're 14/15 years old, you think it works just fine!

I didn't get caught again until I was about17, my Mom caught me with my pack next to me and told me that I was to tell my Dad that now I'm a smoker, no more hiding, no more sneaking around, and of course, no more tin cans filled with months and months worth of old butts.

So there you have it folks, that's how my smoking career started. I will admit, I loved smoking, still do! Its just time for me to quit. I've tried quitting before, I quit when I was pregnant with Jenna, but 1 day after having here, there I was, waddling my sore butt outside to have that first drag again - which felt the same that it did when I was 14 - I felt sick and dizzy, but boy did I miss it. I tried quitting cold turkey, I've tried cutting down to eventually quit, I've tried smoking only half, but with smokers, you find any and every excuse as to why you didn't stick with it. Something bad happened, you're stressed, you had a bad day, etc. People ask me why I don't do the gum or the patch or take any of the oral meds that help with quitting, and to be honest, its because I would purposely forget. I know myself, I know that I would walk out that door without putting the patch on or taking the pill and have to buy a pack. Then say "Oh, as soon as I'm done this pack, I'll go right back to quitting." Riiiiiight.

Starting next Wednesday, at 6pm, I will be going to a hypnotherapist to finally kick this habit once and for all. I'm hoping that this works, I have an open mind about it. I talked to the hypnotherapist already over the phone and he talked about how smokers have rituals. I can name off all of the times throughout the day that I have a cigarette and when I'm driving, at what spot I light up that cigarette. I surround my life around smoking - as bad as it sounds, its true. If I have to drive somewhere with someone, I make sure I can smoke in their car, or I drive myself. If they drive with me, I make sure they know I'm going to smoke and not hold off until we get there. Its time to stop, if not for me, then for Jenna. I don't want to be smoking for the rest of my life, I want to watch her grow up and get married and have kids of her own.

After I hung up the phone with him, I decided to have a positive outlook on this and to have an open mind about this and finally come to the conclusion that I'm not going to be a smoker anymore and I'm not going to let other people around me that smoke have an effect on me. Hopefully one day I can look at them and say that even though I loved smoking and could probably love it again, finally say that I won't need it anymore.

Wish me luck, this will probably be one of the biggest obstacles that I'm going to overcome!

Weekend Fun!

This past weekend was quite the busy one!! I was at my parent's house on Friday until 3am (Saturday) hanging out with my family and my Uncle, who has now gone back to Florida *tear*, then had to be up 3 hours later to watch the twins so Steph could get ready for their birthday party (pictures below). Then yesterday was spent just hanging out around the house in our PJ's all day - well, Jenna and I. Tom hung out with us too, but then decided to do some work around the house when she went down for a nap. I had NO issues with keeping us in our PJ's all day! LOL!

Saturday was Leann and Brittany's 3rd birthday party (actual birthday on the 10th). It was a lot of fun and what I thought was the best part was that we first lit the candles and sang to Leann and then after she blew them out, we lit them again and sang to Brittany! They both were so excited that they got sang to individually and they got the chance to sing to their sister! You'll see in the pictures how excited they were for that!

I can't believe that they are 3 already!! I remember Steph being pregnant, I remember the day in the hospital waiting for them to be born and I remember holding them for the first time. They have turned out to be the greatest little girls, they keep me entertained each time I'm with them! Now that Jenna is becoming the independent girl, its great watching Brittany, Leann and Jenna all play together with Leann and Jenna being the partners-in-crime and Brittany being the mother hen to them. Soon enough, Anthony will get in on the mix and then we're all in trouble! LOL! I can only hope that how close they all are now, that they will remain that close growing up. I can honestly say that along with being blessed with such an amazing daughter, I am truly blessed to have Leann, Brittany and Anthony in my life and I know Tom feels the same way. Just to be able to watch them all grow and become the child that they are is absolutely amazing!

Here are some pictures from the birthday party!

Jenna with her "Unnel Bi-nan"

The birthday girls!

Jenna with her "Unnel Bi-nan", she's waiting for him to give her cake!

Leann opening her gifts

Brittany opening her gifts

Jenna and Leann waiting for cake!

Their yummy birthday cake!

Singing to Leann first!

Then singing to Brittany!

Not sure what Jenna is doing here...I think she's telling me she pooped! LOL!

"Unnel Bi-nan's" two best friends!