Mommy Musings

My first official giveaway is closed! I will be posting the winner tomorrow. A *huge* thanks to all who entered!

I will give you all until 11:00 pm EST to enter my giveaway...get your comments in!

My little girl is 14 months old today, so I thought it was a good time to do an update post on her! - She is growing like a weed. She hasn't been to the doctor since her 12 month visit, so I'm not sure how big she is but it's definitely over 20 lbs. - She has officially become a toddler....walking, running, and getting into EVERYTHING! - She sleeps from 7:00 pm until between 7:30 and 8:30 am { yay !} but only takes a one hour nap once a day from 2:00 pm till 3:00 pm - When she climbs the stairs she puts her feet down, not her knees anymore. And if you hold her hand she walks up them just like a big girl! - She babbles all day long! We can't figure out most of what she says but her official list of words is as follows: Dada Mama Yay Yea Hello {or something like that} Taaan {her version of thanks} What's this? Who's this? Who is it?{she only said it once, but it counts!} Uh oh -She says ' Mmmmm ' when she wants you to give her a

I am very excited to announce my very first giveaway! Without further ado, I am giving away not one, but FOUR items! Four different people will win one of these beautiful little signs. I am obsessed with these. I have a few around my house. They are a simple way to dress up any spot in your house. I have one on top of my oven even! Anyways, I purchased each of these and hand-painted them myself! {because I love you all so dearly!} See, proof I painted them! Here are the ways you can win one of these beauties {Shipping is included, so unfortunately I can only open this up to U.S. blogger} 1. {mandatory} Leave me a comment saying which sign you want to win 2. Follow my blog publicly 3. Follow me on Twitter....mommusings 4. Tweet about the giveaway {just once and make sure to include @mommusings 5. Blog about the giveaway Each one is worth one entry. Make sure to leave a different comment for each one! The giveaway will stay open until Sunday night. Good luck everyone!

Today is another milestone in my life as a blogger...my one year blogging anniversary! I began this blog one year ago today at the urging of my big sister L. She had been telling me for years to start a blog about football {my obsession} I never thought I would have the time or that people would care what I had to say. I obviously did not make this blog all about football, but instead decided to dedicate it to the 10 week old baby girl I was at home with, struggling to be a good mom to. As the first in my family and of my friends to have a child I felt like I had no where to turn for good advice. Until I 'met' all of you! I love all the advice and support I have gotten over the year...it really made me feel like I wasn't alone! Another reason I love my blog is I love have a record of Little M's life. I'm not very good at recording these things in her baby book or a scrap book, but I have it all on here...the good and bad. I think it will be a great record fo

I've seen this on a bunch of blogs recently, and even though I don't think it's the 'official' delurking week, I'm making it mine! I'd love to get to know all of my readers better so leave a comment to say hi, ask me a question, or tell me who you think is going to win the Superbowl! {It's the Indianapolis Colts vs. the New Orleans Saints in case you didn't know} Hope to hear from all of you soon!

After I got married I developed a love of cooking. I don't really get to do it that much because one, I am like the *pickiest* eater in the world and I have trouble finding recipes I'll actually eat, and two, Skip's schedule is such that he is only home for dinner every other week. It's nice that I don't always have to cook a big dinner, but I also get lazy and don't want to make a whole dinner for myself. But this year I would like to start cooking more regularly and expand my recipes. It also helps that Little M is eating regular food so I want to be cooking good meals for her! I'm going to start out slow and just make planned menus for the weeks that Skip will be home with us for dinner, and just wing it while he's working. Just taking it one step at a time. So here's my menu for the week! Sunday: Ordering pizza while watching playoffs! Monday: Homemade chicken fajitas with rice Tuesday: Tomato-Sausage Lasagna Wednesday: Leftovers Thursday:

I want a give a *huge* thank you to The First Year Wife for bestowing on me not one, but two awards!!!! The first is the Beautiful Blogger Award and here are the rules: 1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award 2. Copy the award and place it on your blog 3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award 4. Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself 5. Nominate 7 bloggers 6. Post links to the 7 blogs I nominate So here are 7 interesting things about myself 1. I went to an all-girls Catholic high school and I love {almost} every minute of it 2. My high school won a radio station concert my junior year and we got a concert with Christina Aguilera and LFO in our gym! 3. My toe nails are never not painted 4. My first car was an old blue mini van 5. I worked in a school uniform store for three years and met my best friend there 6. I really wish I liked coffee, but I just hate it....and that is disappointed 7. I have achieved all the goals I had ever set for myself growi

Juliana over at A Blond Walks Into a Blog did this in a post and I thought it was so fun I tagged myself! If you want to do this, feel free to tag yourself and let me know so I can check it out! 8 TV Shows I Watch • Secret Life of the American Teenager • The Biggest Loser • Grey’s Anatomy • Gilmore Girls {reruns} • My First Place • Spice Up my Kitchen • Property Virgins • Bang for your Buck {I *love* me some HGTV !!} 8 Favorite Places to Eat and Drink: • Granita Grill • The Melting Pot • Pompilios • Mount Fuji • Olive Garden • Panzones • Howards • Sonic 8 Things I Look Forward To: Sleep Finishing up my 30 Day Shred commitment Football Date Night with my husband on February 5 th {dinner and Dear John!!} New episodes of my favorite TV shows Little M's smiling face in the morning Warm weather Our trip to Florida in March 8 Things That Happened Yesterday : Got to sleep in We treated ourselves to Burger King for lunch because we hadn't had fast food in MONTHS Day 15 of the Shred

So after hearing a lot of good things from all of you and my real life friends, I jumped on the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred bandwagon a couple weeks ago and I am LOVING it! Okay, so I don't love actually doing the workouts, but I love how I feel after. I did 10 days of Level 1 and then took one day off {the day of the incident my husband had at work...I had more important things going on that day} I started Level 2 the next day and just finished up day 3 of that tonight. Level 2 is definitely much harder than 1, but thankfully I have not been too sore yet. I am already noticing more definition in my legs and arms. I would probably notice some more changes if I could just put down the brownies, but I'm still working on that:) I'm hoping to do 10 days total of Level 2 and then immediately start 10 days of Level 3. I wish I had taken a 'before' picture, but I forgot. I will post an 'after' though! I love that the workouts are only 20 minutes. Even

I was not sad when my little girl turned one. I was excited and loving each new stage she was entering. But today I got very sad...my Little M is not so little anymore. My baby is growing up and officially more of a toddler now than a baby. Today my baby officially gave up her bottle:( After my previous post, Skip and I decided to take the plunge and ween Little M off the bottle. She has been drinking water out of a sippy cup for months, and after doing some research, we realize she should also be drinking he milk out of one as well. I told Skip last night that we should make the switch. I was nervous about doing it, only because that was one more step away from babyhood. But Skip let me sleep in this morning and when I woke up he said that he gave Little M her morning milk in a sippy cup. And she drank all of it! I wanted to cry:( My big girl. She did well the rest of the day as well...she really didn't seem to miss the bottle. I'm happy that the transition is going well, and

Today was a very special birthday in my family...my dad's birthday! It was a milestone birthday and we had a special party to celebrate. It was a British theme! My dad was born and raised in England and so we had British food, music, decorations, and an English Jack cake {made by my husband!! I'll post pictures later} I know alot of people say this, but my dad is really the best dad in the world. He has always worked so hard to make sure we had everything we needed. He is always willing to stop whatever he is doing to help all of us with anything we need. He loves us without judging or expectations. And the love he has for Little M is so wonderful. She is so lucky to have such an amazing Grandad. Happy Birthday Dad!!!!

Little M is a very busy girl these days {I promise an update post on her soon!} Here are just a few pictures of her favorite ways to spend the day Hanging out with her buddy Mr. B Watching TV Playing and dancing with Elmo Eating pizza {no, she really doesn't eat it every day!} Texting {and ignoring her baby} And making some very important phone calls {and still ignoring her baby} Looking mischievous Sounds like a pretty good life to me!!

This is a question for all your mommies out there. When do you take away your child's bottle? Little M drinks water out of her sippy cup, and has for a few months {she only drinks water because she doesn't like juice...any kind....I still can't figure that one out} But we are still giving her milk in her bottle. She gets a bottle in the morning when she wakes up, another when she gets up from her afternoon nap, and one more before bed. Should we try and give them to her in her sippy cup? I haven't even attempted it yet because I'm just not sure.

I blog alot about the fact that Skip was a Marine and in Iraq and how happy and lucky I am that he came home safe to me. But my husband's career is being a cop. And that can be dangerous too. There are things that can happen at his job, that are scary, but are almost expected to happen sometime during a areer . I know that and he knows that {maybe more than me} But when it happens...and you get a phone call one morning { umm , like yesterday morning if you're me} that it has happened to YOUR husband...your heart still stops. My husband is fine and he will be fine, and I will be fine. But yesterday was a long day for our family and it was a reminder that while he is no longer being shot at or mortared, he is still in danger. He still straps on a bullet proof vest everyday, works with some of the worst people in society, {the bad guys, not his fellow officers} and has dedicated his life to making the world a safer place for the rest of us. I could not be prouder to be his

I rang in the new year with some friends at a local bar Skip had to work but made it there just before midnight!! We had a bowling party for Skip's 26 th birthday We nervously watched the Giant's continue on each week of the playoffs Celebrated when THE GIANT'S WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! Skip and I rejoiced when we discovered WE WERE GOING TO HAVE A BABY!!!! {this is not actually my picture...i just got it from google....but I did take the same tests!} We sold our condo and said goodbye to it before moving into our very first house! We went on a wonderful {though I would never do it 10 weeks pregnant again} trip to Paris...it had always been my dream! I got to see the Lombardi Trophy up close and personal at Draft Day I said goodbye to my kids and fellow staff and 'retired' from teaching My belly started to grow! My big sis L and I went on a trip to Florida To celebrate the wedding of one of my military boys And my belly got bigger there too When I got home, Skip and I a

I rang in the new year with my husband and some friends at our local bar Skip turned 25!! Skip and I went away to the beach during my Easter break {it was fun but FREEZING!!} Of course we went to Draft Day again My whole family attended a gala dinner for my dad's business on Ellis Island Skip taught me how to fish in a lake One of my 'Marine's Girls' got engaged!!! We went down the shore for the most perfect vacation ever to celebrate our second wedding anniversary I repainted and organized our condo and we put it on the market {right as the market started tanking!} I moved up at school and became a fifth and sixth grade teacher I fulfilled my life-long dream and met TIKI BARBER!!!!!!!! I got to go to some Giant's games I turned the big 2-5 and my wonderful husband threw me the most amazing party with all my family and friends Hugh Hefner and his g/f Holly made an appearance at Halloween The first of my friends had a baby And we had one final Christmas party at the