Been a Slacker lately... :/

Soooooo I've been slacking with my blog. Nothing much has been happening... Just life! (Which I guess is something) I never posted the newborn shoot I did so I will right now. I seriously loved taking pics of sweet little Sydney soooooo much! She was such a joy and there is just something so special, so pure, about little newborns. I hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed taking! (Just a couple since I'm being lazy...)

8 MONTHS!

I CAN'T BELIEVE MY LITTLE BABY IS 8 MONTHS OLD TODAY! 

My how time flies... 

At 8 months old Lolo:

1. Still has no teeth...

2. Loves to crawl around the house right on mommy's heels

3. Can (as of today) wave hello and bye-bye :) (so fun and super cute!)

4. Say "mama" and "dada" and "hi' and loves to say "baba" although it has no meaning... just jibber jabber :)

5. Loves to pull herself up on the couch, your knees. the coffee table or anything within reach

6. Loves to turn on and off the light switch

7. LOVES babies! Pictures of babies, but preferably the real thing :) She gets super excited and squeals when she sees a fellow munchkin :)

8. Doesn't like her bouncer as much anymore.. to confining. My little free spirit!

9. Is super busy ALL the time! Especially now that she can crawl! She's just my little mover groover! 

10. Takes two, two hr naps a day

11. Is still nursing, although she LOVE LOVE LOVES baby food! And she's not picky at all!

12. Loves her mommy and daddy :)

13. Loves to talk to her Gigi on skype

14. Loves her puppies and her baby doll

15. Loves reading books with mommy

16. Loves going to church and visiting with new people. She's not very shy and smiles and laughs at just about everyone!

17. Puts herself to sleep

18. Loves to be tickled and played with, but never cuddled... :'(

19. Likes to eat anything she finds on the floor.... unfortunately! (But that's just babies eh?)

20. IS THE HAPPIEST, MOST WONDERFUL BABY EVER!

I have the sweetest girl! I just love her and she is growing up wayyyyyy to fast! At the same time I just marvel at her accomplishments and development every day! She's my dream! (Literally, that's what her name means "my dream") 

In other news, we recently got back from the most wonderful trip to Missouri to visit Ster's parentals and brothers. We had such a fun time with family and did lots of fun things! (Post to follow soon) Now it's back to real life... :/ Although it is nice to be home in my own bed! 

Peace

-Ari

Fun With Some Family, and Other Fun Things!

This last week has been so chalk full of fun things! First off... my daughter is so close to crawling! I know I say that every time I post but she is seriously going to be crawling within the week. I just love her so much! Something that is kinda fun for me is that she is starting to really love her mommy :) She will lean into me for loves and sometimes doesn't want to go to other people... which I LOVE!!! It makes me feel like a mommy :) She now identifies Sterling as Dada and sometimes at night when we're getting ready for bed and I'm feeding her she will talk to me and say Mama :) I JUST LOVE IT! I love being a mommy, and especially a mommy to such a wonderful girl! She is loving going on walks in her stroller and I am really loving it too! I can feel my body FINALLY starting to get back into shape, but there is still a lot of work to be done in that area and we wont get into that right now...

My mommy and Grandma Sharon are in town right now and we have been having so much fun! (We have been so spoiled with family lately! And we're flying to Missouri tomorrow morning and we will be there for 2 weeks!) They're loving spending time with their granddaughter/great granddaughter, and I'm loving being able to sleep in in the morning with two eager grandmas that love to get up early just to love on the babes. We've been going on walks and playing at the park and we all went shopping and my mommy got me some really cute earrings and she got some cute shirts too! I just have so much fun with my mommy and grandma and love when they come to visit!

A really fun perk of having my mommy and grandma here is that Sterling and I got to go on a date! We put Alora to sleep at 5:30 (she picked that time when  she was 3 months old, not me), and we ran out to the dunes with the puppies just in time to catch the sunset and have some light to play in. I took some pictures with my new camera and the dogs had so much fun! Here are just a few:

We had so much fun that the next morning we went out again with my mommy and our friends Audrey and Chris and their boxer Molly. They had lots of fun frolicking and exploring and I found a huge pile of fresh moose poop that I didn't get to take a picture of cause my mommy was holding my camera.

My mommy and grandma always have projects going when they come visit. My grandma Sharon actually loves to clean and so she literally has a blast at my house :) My mommy made a blanket for Lolos and my grandma tied it. My grandma also sewed some really cute cap sleeves on a dress I bought for the baby. We watched movies and ate lots of yummy foods. It was just a really amazing visit.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Missouri. I should be packing but, I am the queen of procrastination.

I also took newborn pictures on Friday! I had SO MUCH FUN! I love taking pictures, but editing them is a different story... I really need to take a basic photo shop class to find out how to more efficiently accomplish the effects I want. Regardless of my editing skills, I am really excited about how they came out! Here is some of the cuteness:

Updates

Alora, our little sunshine, is soooooooo close to crawling! Mobile is her new favorite thing to be! She loves to roll around and get into the crawling position and rock back and forth. She can push herself backward and forward and pivot and roll like a pro! She is just the cutest thing ever! We had a little photo shoot with my friend Shanna for her Etsy shop and it was so much fun! Our wittle Lolos is so photogenic and such a HAM! She loves having her pictures taken! If you want to check out Shanna's Etsy Shop go here. 

In other recent news, we purchased some asparagus from Bountiful Baskets. 15lbs of asparagus to be exact. It's way yummy but the only down side is that Sterling and I have had asparagus pee for the last 2 weeks. Totally worth it though, because I LOVE asparagus! :) My mommy and Grandma are here! Currently enjoying playing with Alora and loving seeing her beautiful smiles all day long. She already skipped out on her morning nap to play with Great Grandma Sharon :) On the 4th, they're dropping us off at the airport on their way home to Cali and we will be off to MISSOURI! So excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Green and all the rest of the Green clan! 

So now it's time for some braggin'. Since this is "The Brag Blog" and all. Sterling's birthday was on March 25th and he came home from work to a beautiful surprise from his wife and baby. We managed to scrounge up the money for a GRILL. Now just to demonstrate how much this means to him, every night since we've been married he has mentioned to me in some way shape or form: "Oh honey, If we had a grill this ___(whatever I'm cooking at the moment)___ would be soooo good." Well ladies, if you want your husband to cook more, just buy him a grill! We've had grilled everything you could think of since we got it. Anyway, this grill I've been speaking of is not just any grill. This grill is any Montana boy's dream, as demonstrated by the picture below:

The whole day he couldn't stop thanking me :) I think I did a good job!

I've also been pretty spoiled lately. My wonderful hubby bought me a Nikon D3000 DSLR Camera! I am soooooooo excited to take awesome pictures of our babies and other people's babies too! In fact, I have a newborn shoot this Friday :) I am so excited! 

My life is so blessed. I have a beautiful husband, a beautiful daughter, amazing mommies and daddies and grandmas and grandpas and a beautiful house and a cool camera and wonderful puppies that make me happy and just everything I could ever ask for! AHHH I just love my life! Soooo BLESSED!

PS My daughter is cuter

Love you!

-Arielle

Birthing in America

I am so dumbfounded right now. Here's why:
I have always wanted to have a "water birth," but was unable to with Lolo because the hospital wouldn't let me. I was in the tub for most of my labor but was not allowed to actually have her in the water. After watching a really moving and inspiring documentary about birth in America, I wanted to find out why water births weren't allowed in my particular hospital. I called up the maternity ward and the woman I called informed me that the insurance carrier for the hospital wouldn't allow water births. We talked for a bit longer and she mentioned that the insurance carrier they used to have actually didn't even allow vaginal births. I had to have her repeat herself after that statement... They didn't cover or allow vaginal births...???? That's like saying "We aren't going to allow our patients to poop out of their butt hole."
The more I research the medical intricacies of the society I live in, the more grateful I am that I have the desire and understanding to do research before I go blindly into something and trust people that don't necessarily always have my best interest at heart.
We recently had a friend whose doctor induced her 2 weeks before her due date because he said her baby was "getting to big and was ready to come out." Their baby was 6lbs. Did you know that 50% of inductions end in a C-Section? Did you know that the World Health Organization suggests that the C-Section rate of a society stays below 15%? Did you know that in America, 1 in 3 women have a C-Section? That's 33%, double what the WHO suggests... Have you ever asked yourself why?
I am so excited to have found my calling in life. I am meant to educate women on Childbirth, and specifically, natural childbirth. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to become a Doula and be a support and advocate for women! I love it already!

So Much to catch up on... Sorry Mom!!!

Current Events:
My daughter is cute.
My daughter is the cutest.

She enjoys rolling around like a rollie pollie and absolutely loves any type of cord or plug.
She loves her puppies. She gets so excited every morning when we go to get them out of their kennels. She loves her June Buggie the most because she gives her the most kisses. Sometimes I just sit her in front of the sliding glass door and she watches the dogs play :) (Don't judge my nasty windows)

Lolo is a tad conceited... not gonna lie. JK but really. She LOVES looking at the super cute baby in the mirror that's always there after bath time and whenever she gets fussy. I'm not sure if she knows it's her yet but when if you're with her she will look from the mirror to you, back and forth, as if she's thinking to herself.... "Wow I have two mommies!"

She is now drinking from a sippy and she has so much fun!!! She loves to  roll around with it and chew on the top and just chill with her sip.

She is putting herself down for naps. We just go lay her in her bed and she might talk to herself for a little or cry minimally but then falls asleep withing about five minutes. She's such a sweetie!!

We don't have to worry about her falling or anything while she's sitting up now. She can pretty much hold her own and if she does start to fall, she can catch herself and regain balance pretty quickly.
(This next part deserves to be in all caps) LOLO'S HAIR IS NOW LONG ENOUGH TO BE PUT INTO PIGGY TAILS! (OR A PIGGY TAIL)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYY! Let the fun begin :) I'm so excited!

She also loves watching her Baby Einstein video GiGi Adams got for her. And watching TV with Daddy too :)

Or cousin RaeRae for that matter.

Basically.... to sum up this post, my daughter is amazing, wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous, full of light and happiness, and everyone should be jealous.

Here be some tute videos:

Random nothings:
Last night we slept with June Bug, our boxer. She is usually a bed hog but last night was wonderful! She was my little foot warmer. Bella is now shaved bald. It's pretty freaking hilarious. I am on a diet... I hate it but I do have a lot more energy which is great! I'm getting really tired of winter. I am soooooo ready for sunshine. My favorite feeling in the entire world is when you're just starting to get a sunburn and your skin is all warm and tingly. I have not felt that feeling in so long. Last summer I was a whale and couldn't be out in the sun for more than 10 minutes before I wold overheat... so I am really looking forward to this summer. I can't wait to go to the park with Lo and the puppies and swing on  the swings and play in the splash park and eat snow cones and go to the lake and wear a swimsuit. It's going to be so fun! Especially with cousin Rae and auntie Kels. We will definitely be hanging out ALL summer! I am also really excited to go to Cali in May for my  brothers wedding! That's right my borther is engaged to the most wonderful woman and I am so excited to be able to call her my sister-in-law in a few months! I am especially excited for little milk chocolate babies!!!! Yayyy! I need to go clean my messy disaster of a house.
TTFN!
Loves!
Bye!
See Ya'!
-Ari

I wannnnnn one!

I WANT A BABY! Like so bad... I just love those cuddly little muffins. I am ready for another one of these:

I am ready for cuddles and loves and that newborn smell. I want like quadruplets. That would be sweet. Kill four birds with one stone. You know what would be even better?!?! Adopting quads! Then I wouldn't have to even be pregnant. I actually would really love to adopt. If anyone knows anyone... let me know. :)
K thanks bye.