Resolutions

I never did a post on my New Year's resolution's. So better late then never right? So today is the day!

I kept mine simple.

1. Be healthier: Easier said then done considering my new desire for sweets all the time. Considering how many sweets and unhealthy foods I ate when I was pregnant and then proceeding to throw majority of them up (you needed to know that, didn't you?), I'm still shocked I'm eating half that stuff. That was until the New Year. I've done *SO* much better since the New Year. Sean and I both decided that we needed to lose weight and live a healthier lifestyle. Sean gained some weight since we had Lyla and well, even though I've lost all my pregnancy weight, I still have some, ahem, a lot, to lose. So since January 1st we have both done an excellent job of working out. There is, however, some room for improvement in the eating department. Did I eat 3 donuts in one sitting this week. Why, yes I certainly did. Should I have? Probably not so much. Will I try better next time? Again, probably not. I have *NO* will power whatsoever. Example: We are having a potluck tomorrow. Will I overeat? Yup, sure will. Delicious food sitting in front of me must be ate. Didn't our parents teach us to make happy plates? I'm just making my parents proud! :)

So, to sum this up, Sean and I are making some much needed and much liked lifestyle changes. I'm starting to enjoy working out and even more importantly, I'm enjoying seeing the numbers on the scale going down. Goodbye to the blob! Hello healthier and happier me!

2. Be less judgemental: I won't go into details, but basically I can be super judgemental at times and it's something I really need to work on.

3. Continue to work hard at my marriage and as a mom. I think that pretty self-explanatory. I'll never be a super wife or a super mom, but I'm going to try my dangest to be the best one that I can be for my husband and my adorably cute daughter. Will I suck at it at times? You betcha. Good thing my hubby and daughter love me unconditionally.

Those, my friends, are my New Year's resolutions. One month down and doing pretty good so far. If you made New Years resolutions, have you kept up with them so far??

Single mom-ing it!

So I'm single mom-ing it tonight. And tomorrow night. Did you know Sean has another wife? He does. It's globe-shaped, orange, and its name is Spalding. They have a love infatuation for each other from September until about Mayish-Juneish. A love infatuation that comes before his REAL wife sometimes. If he's not playing it, he's watching it. If he's not watching it, then he's dreaming about it. If he's not dreaming it, then he's praying his children are going to play it. Get my drift!

So now that Lyla is here, my Wednesday's and Thursday's are spent single mom-ing it. Think I'm complaining? Because I'm not. I love and enjoy this one on one time with her. We play, we eat, we bathe, we nurse, we sleep. It's a great little routine we have! But I will say, it can be tough and it is tiring doing it all by myself. Sean and I have a great little system so the night time routine is generally pretty easy and quick. When it's just me, it's a little more work. Props to all the real single mom's out there that do it all day, every day by themselves!!

Even though my Prince Charming (which he hasn't been recently, hmmm) is madly in love with a ball, he is a wonderful father and husband and loves both of us to pieces. I *guess* he's worth sharing with Spalding!:)

Milestones, food, and family!

It has been a while since I've blogged. I've really been meaning too, except I'm kinda busy. Poor excuse, I know!

Let's see. Lyla and I went on another walk this weekend since it was B-e-a-u-tiful on Saturday. It made me itch for the spring time! And this time, I did get a smile out of her on our walk. Maybe it'll grow on her. At least, it better since we'll be going on a lot of walks!

Sean and I enjoyed a little night out with friends Saturday at Gella's. Man, I love their lemon ales. Even if you aren't a big fan of beer, you'll love this! It's my fav! Unfortunately we ate and drank way to much and I didn't lose my weekly weight. Well, by Saturday I actually had, but by this morning it went up 2 lbs. I guess eating out twice over the weekend and then eating a fabulous meal that I cooked could do that to a person. So now I have 4 lbs to lose this week! Fingers crossed. I've done soooo well so far so I'm hoping it keeps up. Lyla has been sleeping 7ish to about 5:30 am so after I feed her in the mornings we head downstairs to work out. It gives me more energy and I feel better all day, so I'm kinda liking it, even though I'm not thrilled to get up that early. But at least Ly is sleeping straight through (so far) so I get a good stretch of sleep. Thankfully. Have I mentioned her sleeping lately? Not sure, but we moved her bedtime from 9 to 7 and it was worked wonders for us! Seriously, the best thing!

Let's see, more about Lyla, maybe? She officially has her first tooth coming in. You can just barely feel it on the bottom right, but it's there. She was laying in bed with us early Sunday morning and Sean felt it. She had been having a runny nose so that explained that. Luckily she hasn't been to fussy either. Fussier than she normally is, but nothing to bad. She also reached for me this weekend, too. It about melted my heart! I loved it. She's done it a few times since but not for anyone else, yet (yes, I'm gloating! I loved it!) And lastly, this evening she had green beans for the first time. It took a time or two of yucky faces, but she liked it by the end! I'm making all my own baby food. Yesterday I made green beans and tonight I did broccoli. Later this week I'm going to make asparagus and carrots. But I'll do a post on that later!

Oh, and miss thing still isn't rolling over. She is trying really really hard, but just can't get it. She's getting stuck on her arm. For the longest time she has been rolling side to side and just the last week or two, she figured out how to get her hip over her but now we are waiting on getting over the arm. She is *so* close, though!

KU is playing Mizzou tonight so it's a big deal around here. I had laid out clothes for Lyla and asked Sean to dress her this morning and she came out in a totally different outfit then what I picked out. Can you guess?



Yup, KU. And here is a picture of them tonight. My KU fans! Sean also read to her The 3 Little Jayhawks before bed tonight. It's about the 3 Jayhawks and the big bad Tiger (Mizzou). Quite fitting. Every time we read to her, Sean wants to read that book. However, it is also super cute listening to him read to her! Oh, I love them!

Well I think that's the catch up. Hopefully I'll start finding more time to blog because I've missed it! I've also slacked on pictures lately and need to pick it up!!

Have a great night!

*Love*

I *love*love*love* family time! It means so much more to me now that Lyla bug is around. Since the weather outside this past weekend was beyond gorgeous compared to the weather we've had, we ventured on a walk. This was the first time Lyla got to sit up in her stroller instead of being in the carseat attached to the stroller. And to be honest, I don't think she was a fan. She most definitely wasn't a fan of her jacket (super cute!) or the stroller or the walk. She didn't make a single smile and didn't even move from the position she was in. It was actually kind of funny and I think she was happy to get out of the jacket! Other than that... all is well around here! We (Lyla and I) are getting some good sleep. I'd say Sean is getting good sleep too, but he's always had good sleep since the beginning. Reese is being a needy, over-hyper dog that may end up soon on Nex-tech classifieds if it doesn't warm up soon so she can go run off some of that energy!

Getting ready... not to excited!


Daddy pushing...Lyla still unexcited.


Momma pushing...and she's still not excited.


Me being totally wierd. Sean loves it when I always have to pose for the camera! It's a hot look, I know!


Home sweet home!


We *love* her so much!

Photography

In case you haven't figured it out by now, I started a photography business about 2 1/2 years ago, Andrea Rodger Photography (fitting, huh? :) ). Well, so far it has only been by word of mouth that I've gotten my clients and have done pretty well so far (Thank you!!!). But I'm hoping to step it up a notch this year! I've made a page on facebook and if you'd like, you are more than welcome to become a fan. You can click on the badge on the left top side of the screen. I'm in the middle of deciding on a new logo and would love your opinion!!! So come vote, if you are on facebook!! Thanks so much!

5 Months, Baby Girl!

Happy 5 month birthday, Lyla!

- You have now found your feet and love them.

- You are getting so good at sitting up with some assistance. It won't be to long before you are sitting by yourself!

- You still love to roll over side to side but not from your back to your tummy yet.

-You now go to bed between 7 and 8 and sleep until about 7 a.m. only getting up once around 2. Mommy is so happy about this!

- You still only nap about 30 mins to an hour about 3 times a day.

- You still eat cereal at night and I think you are going to be a good eater! We are starting baby foods in about a week or two!

- You have started going to the nursery at church.

- Your favorite toy right now is pretty much anything in front of you! You are definitely entering the grabbing stage! But you really love your jumperoo! You turn into a spaz whenever you get into that thing!

- You wear 3-6 months but still fit into some 0-3 stuff.

- You still have hardly any hair on your head!

- You now sleep in your crib... in your own room!

You are becoming such an independent little girl! We love you oh.so. much, Lyla!

Dreams *do* come true!

I have dreamt, prayed, begged and pleaded for sleep numerous times the past 5 months. You should know by now that I love sleep (if you didn't, you do now!). I used to sleep 12 hours and think nothing of it. I used to sleep a sweet, heavenly 12 hours of pure joy. Yes. I love sleep that much. Sean says sleep is for the dead. I say, sleep is for those that are tired, duh!

My beautiful, perfectly adorable baby girl blessed me by her sleeping 13 hours (almost) straight. A minor 2 a.m. feeding lasting 15 minutes and bang, we were both back asleep. Yes friends. I got my beloved 12 hours of sleep once again! It was beautiful and I missed it so.so.so much!

I think we have something good going on (probably jinxing myself now) around the Rodger house. Lyla bug has been sleeping oh.so. much better!! The downside is I now spend 1 1/2 hours less with her a night, but the plus is sleeping almost through the night! It's a beautiful thing! A *very* beautiful thing!

I've been fooled.

So, my hubby graciously offers to take Lyla with her to workout and said I could go blog, which I was wanting to do. I thought oh, how sweet and took him up on the offer. Well I blogged my post below and then I looked at my blog and came across the post below the one I just blogged. You know, the one about how great my hubby is.

He is great, I'll admit it. But I've been fooled by him. Because folks, I did not indeed write that. Oh, Prince charming did. I need to get smarter than him. Quick.

So, if you were wise, don't believe *everything* in that post that you read! :)

Love you bubba!

Welcome back to me. I've been out of commission, pretty much on my death bed since Saturday night. I got to be one of the non-lucky one's catching the flu right now. And I must say, it sucked. I haven't felt that bad in such a long time. I actually remember the last time I felt like that. It was March 2005 and I had the flu for 5 days. It was actually over Easter because I was actually feeling semi-better Easter day and my parents came down to Hays to see me. Yes, they love me. My momma even brought all the Easter food too!

Anyways, back to my death bed. Saturday evening a friend came over with her adorable little boy so the little lovebugs had a little play date. I had been feeling just fine all day but shortly after her leaving I started feeling yucky so I went to bed with a low temp. Well from there it was all down hill. My fever ranged 101-102 until last night at 10. I'm feeling better today, just really weak and I'm now getting a nagging cough. Here's to hoping Prince Charming and Lyla don't get it.

Here's a picture of Lyla and Dalton playing. Lyla tried giving him kisses, held his hand, and tried taking off his shirt. Her and her daddy are going to need to have some serious talks soon! :) ( And I know I said I would start taking pictures with her bows on but I keep forgetting! I know, my bad!)

Dalton is a ham! I don't think Sean has ever held 2 babies at one time! But there is 3 lbs between them (and only 8 days in age. Dalton is older) so I wanted Sean to hold them both and feel the difference!

Lyla has been sleeping so much better at night. Saturday night we decided to finally just let her sleep in her crib and let her cry out her little fits she has in the middle of the night. I know she's not hungry, because if I try to nurse her, she falls fast asleep in a second, and we've decided no more sleeping with us. She's been waking up way to often. We laid her down at 10 with no problems but at 11:30 she started fussing and cried a good while. But she eventually soothed herself back to sleep. She then slept til 4, I nursed her, and back to the crib. She then woke up around 5ish and we let her cry it out again and she soothed herself back to sleep in about 10 minutes. She then slept til 7:30 when we woke up to her talking to herself in the crib. I knew she was happy so I let her lay in there for a bit and then she actually feel back asleep til 9! Sunday night was even better and Monday night was better, and every night has been good since. She still wakes up at 4 which I'm OK with for now. She wakes up normally once before 4 and we let her cry it out but it only takes a minute or 2 for her to soothe herself back to sleep. This has been so great for Sean and and I'd recommend letting them learn to soothe them self to anyone having sleeping problems with their baby. Actually it's been great for the both of us, because she is taking better naps as well! I know this is a controversial subject but I'm VERY happy with our decision.

And as you can see, Miss Lyla is getting so big!! She'll be 5 months soon and this time I'm actually going to get around to doing a post!

And lets see, oh yes, GROTB. I have lost 5 lbs so far! Ok, so maybe some of that is related to being sick and no eating anything but soup, but still 3 of those lbs I lost without being sick! Since Jan 3rd, Sean and I have been eating much better and working out again! Prior to getting sick, I was feeling great with eating healthier foods, not snacking on swiss cakes rolls (ok, maybe I had 1...or 2... OK, 3.) and working out. I got an elliptical and I'm so happy to have one again. I'm not a runner but I can use the elliptical forever as long as I have some good music or a reality TV show on! I'm hoping to lose 2 lbs per week. I'm not picking a weight goal really, I just want to feel good in my cloths and be happy with what I'm at. More or less, I wanna get toned up. If I'm going to have to wear an old lady swimsuit instead of a bikini at the lake, I might as well look good in it, right?!?!

I Love My Husband

I love my husband so much - he's quite possibly the greatest thing ever! I love it when he plays basketball and golf. I love when he watches sports on tv. I love how big of a KU fan he is. He's a great dad and husband. He cooks some sweet steaks on the grill. I love when he plays video games. He vacuums a mean carpet and scrubs a tile floor to perfection. The dishes are clean and the laundry is done! What more could I ask for?

He's one heckuva guy - I think this summer I'll let him play golf at least twice a week (if not more). He works hard to keep the family going, and I'm very appreciative of that.

I could go on forever on how great my husband is, but I don't want you to get overly bored. :)

A congrats is in order.

My friend Becca had her baby today!! The Chinese calender said boy but I was hoping girl. You know I love bows!! :) And she indeed have a little girl much to everyone's surprise!!!!

Meet Geralyn Renee!

And since it's pretty much known I adore bows, this lil' girl couldn't go without one. Since it was a surprise what they are having, I brought the bow just in case. She'll probably need another one for the 2nd day of life!

Congrats to Becca, Jason, Claudine and Eli!! I'm so happy for you guys!

Do you ever feel like you are pulled in one to many ways? I'm sure you have. I think everyone has at some point. The last few weeks have felt like that for Sean and I. And I would even say it's a bad sort of feeling. Just a feeling of not being able to catch up. I'm ready for calmness, a weekend of not going anywhere, and energy. Oh, and I'm really ready for sleep too. I'm surprised at my own body for being able to function for 4 1/2 months on such little sleep. I'm amazed I can tell you what day it is and even more amazed that my socks matched today (though, even with sleep, they normally don't).

I still need to do Lyla's 4 month post but not sure that's going to happen. I hardly have energy to dress her up and snap away. I lack so much energy in the evenings. Right now I see a pile of stuff that I need to take to Becca, a laundry basket full of clothes that needs to go upstairs and put away (suuuuurrrreeee), a dish of hummus sitting next to me begging to be eaten (it is soo good), a glow worm on my right and lots of "stuff" just in places that they aren't supposed to be. Prince Charming has been just that recently and has been a rock star at doing the laundry. Bless his heart, because he got a mini wrath of Andrea whenever he got home today. Nothing big, just a mini. I need energy. Anyone know were I can find some?

I've started eating better and working out again so I'm hoping that helps soon. I'm also thinking this stupid cold winter weather isn't helping the mood any either. I'm not a fan of the word hate. Hardly will you ever hear me say I hate something. Because I really don't hate anything, but I do dislike lots of things. The hate list includes frogs, fish, snakes, lizards, (pretty much all amphibians to be honest with you) and winter. I hate it. Flat out hate it. I'm a sunshine girl. Bring me sunshine, puh puh puh please!!!

Let's see what else. Oh, I need some advice. Little miss thing will be starting baby food soon. Like probably next week. We started cereal on the 22nd of December and have recently started oatmeal. Boy oh boy, she loves food. After talking with my pediatrician we decided to go forward with it, even though I wasn't planning on starting it until closer to 6 months. Anyways, we are going to start with baby food soon and I am going to make my own. This is something I've wanted to do for a while. It's easy, healthy, and cheap. I know exactly what is in it and that's a good feeling to me. So tell me, where do I start? Some say green beans then carrots while others say wait on the carrots. It's all confusing so advice would be great. Where to start, when to incorporate what, how many times (though my peds said only feed once a day until about 5 1/2 months), storage ideas, recipes.... get my drift.

Also, I need car seat recs. I am planning on doing extended rear-facing until about a year and 1/2 if not a little longer. The 3-n-1's sound good to me but I've heard they aren't the safest. So what's safe and practical. Oh, and cute! :)

Well Miss thing just woke up. She makes the same face as Sean whenever she wakes up! So cute!!

Adorably Cute!

My adorably cute hubby

plus

my adorably cute hubby's cousin + adorably cute Lyla

plus

our adorably cute group at Gella's plus some Gella's beer

plus

these adorably cute "friends"

plus

2 adorably hot girls

plus staying up until 12:40 a.m.

equals

adorably cute sleeping ladies the next day!


The perfect New Years Eve!

Lagging behind.

I feel like I'm getting further and further behind on things I want to blog about. Grr... here's future topics.

Um, still have to do Lyla's 4 months including her picture with her 4 month sticker. I should really get on that.

New Year's.

New Year Resolutions

Lyla starting cereal and oatmeal.

Trouble deciding on a new carseat.

Seeing family I haven't seen in 8 years! And they are having a baby! :)

Mission : GROTB. It's BBAACCCKKK!!

New things with my photography business.

I promise to start blogging more. Hopefully tomorrow when I can figure out my silly camera.

Other than that, things are great!! I'll blog soon. Pinky swear ya!

Happy New Year!

It's weird for me to think that just last year I was pregnant with Miss Lyla. I'm thinking I was about 9 weeks along and feeling like yuck. I know I didn't even make it close to midnight and I'm pretty sure I didn't get a New Year's kiss! :)

But this year folks, I did indeed make it to midnight. Actually to about 12:40 to be exact. Whoo hoo! Look at me! Lyla managed to sleep through some screaming people at our house, thankfully!

We started with heading to Gella's for dinner and drinks. And boy was I pumped to drink me a Lemon Ale. Oh, Lemon Ale's, how I have missed you. I haven't had one of those in over a year and man it was great!!! We then headed back to our house to play some games. A little catch phrase, a little tourette's, and a little dirty minds. Tourette's was probably my favorite and hilarious to play. I have a video I'll have to post of Sean and Sonya playing each other. Dirty minds was my least favorite because we really couldn't figure it out. The clock struck 12 and kisses were given and off to bed for this mama. Sonya, Jonathan, and Seany boy stayed up for a while. I was just quite pleased I managed to stay up that late. Yes. I am an old woman.

Today we are off for lunch at Nana's (Sean's grandma), off to see some friends and Lyla's boyfriend (pics to come) and then a weinching (no idea how to spell that) party at a friends. Oh, and someone should probably clean this filthy, college looking house sometime today as well!

Hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve and start it off with a bang! I know Lyla did. She started off the New Year with peeing on me!!! :)