Once Upon A Time

Psalm really enjoys reading time. We don't get to have it every night, but I have been working on incorporating it more. These are some of the books we have read so far:

 Good Night Baby is a fun book to read right before bedtime. She enjoys the smiling babies. She smiles right back at them.

The A,B,C's of Animals is also a fun book. It has little flaps that you can pull on to see the animals that are "hiding". She really enjoys that book but I have to watch her little hands since I don't want the pages to get ripped.

We have also read "The Littlest Pumpkin", "Little Bear", "You are Special" and "My Little Bible" (maybe I can get some pictures of us reading those together and put those up sometime soon)

If you are already considering Christmas gifts books might be a good way to go (P.S. we don't mind books that are used like from Goodwill or Garage Sales or Second Hand Book Stores-in fact I prefer those, because they are cheaper, more environmentally friendly and in need of love...just wipe them down with a baby wipe or spray them with a little bit of lysol and they are good as new...or at least that's what I did with all these books, and we have no shortage here!) ; )

Morning Work Out

I know some of you have already seen this picture, but it is just so cute that I felt like I MUST post it on here:

Apparently Psalm is already working out. Maybe she gets that from her Aunt Jennifer ; ) 

I will have to watch out though! Soon she is going to be running all over the house getting into trouble and making mischief.  

Snuggle Time

Yes, this is an adorable picture of Daddy and Psalm snuggling. Sometimes on weekend mornings (when we get to sleep in) Psalm gets a little restless in her snuggle nest. But a lot of times she will go back to sleep if she can just be cuddled up next to us. (For example this morning we got a whole extra hour and a half of sleep by letting her lay next to me). This picture is a little bit older but I thought it was really cute, and let's face it no one gets pictures of me snuggling Psalm because I'm the one with the camera ; )

They are just so cute together! : ) I really think they love each other...maybe that's just me ; )

Fall Photo Shoot

Psalm, Nana Bear and me had a photo shoot with Psalm. We got 3 pictures we loved.

Psalm's outfit says "This is my little black dress"

 We propped her up against the pumpkins. She had fun posing.

This one has her blankie with her name on it : )

We Love Visitors Part 3: Grandma Rina

Psalm LOVED spending time with Grandma Rina. They had lots of fun together! 

This first picture is my absolute favorite! You can just tell they are so in love with one another! And it was so cute because it was like Psalm instantly knew when she met Grandma Rina that they were meant to be best friends (I guess I should add that was true of Papa John too)

 They especially spent lots of time together around bed time when Psalm enjoys being held the most. She is such a little cuddle bug! 

They had so much fun together! Psalm really hopes she gets to see Grandma Rina and Grandpa John soon! 

Psalm sends her love and lots of drooly kisses! : ) xoxox

We Love Visitors Part 2: Papa John

One of Psalm's favorite people to come visit was Papa John. She loved being held by him and would almost instantaneously relax and fall asleep in his arms. This was one of the best pictures we got of that:

 I love her little open mouth...so cute! He isn't wrapped around her little finger at all! ; ) 

We Love Visitors Part 1: Uncle Jacob

When Papa John and Grandma Rina came down for a visit, Uncle Jacob came up from Austin to see Psalm too. Psalm really enjoyed playing with her Uncle! 

This picture is probably my favorite one:

 These are pretty good too:

 While they were here we had to take the family to Cagle's to eat. We had a great time there! Its was so nice to finally get to have some of Cody's family in Lubbock. Hopefully we will get to have them come down again soon! *wink wink* ; )

 We also went to a few of the vineyards/wineries that are around here. We had a lot of fun and Psalm enjoyed being outdoors so much!

 If we photoshopped these 2 photos we could have everyone in the picture (except for Cody-he had to work that day)

 Us visiting Cody up at work. 

We would love to have YOU come visit us too. ; ) 

Just let us know when you would like to come and we would love to show you around Lubbock and let you spend some good quality time with Psalm. (Right now several family members are coming for Thanksgiving! You should come too! We love having large family holidays!) 

My Other Blog

I promise I haven't been cheating on you... ; )
But I do have another blog...

I just wanted to let you know that I am in the process of training to become a doula. A doula is a woman who helps emotionally support other women in labor (we are not medically trained) but we do get paid to do this and studies have shown that having a doula present greatly reduces the chances of complications and interventions during birth.

I have created a blog to advertise my services as well as give information on birth and support during birth. The blog is called the Cowgirl Doula and you can find it at www.cowgirldoula.blogspot.com . You will find some blog posts overlap, and some do not.

Please help me get the word out about my services in the Lubbock area. I will be offering my services for free for the moment. I need to have experience in many different types of births (hospital, home, birth center, c-section, vbac, hbac, etc.) before I begin charging. I also need to have experience to complete my training.

If you know of anyone who would be interested in me attending their birth please let me know. (I am fine with them hiring another doula who has more experience as well as having me there). But I am also fine with being the only doula on site.

I will be offering my services to anyone within a 2 hour drive of Lubbock and in special circumstances I will look into driving to others births.

Thanks!
Sarah

Lean on Me

Most of Psalm and Daddy time is spent with Psalm on top of Daddy while they lay on the couch. Sometimes she is sleeping...but sometimes she isn't. The funniest part is that she won't do this with me at all. I mean sure she will snuggle with me at bedtime or maybe even with the occasional nap (especially if she is eating-p.s. This has nothing to do with this post, but learning to breastfeed laying down was the best thing ever. For those of you that will be having children sometime soon I strongly recommend learning to do this!) But, with Daddy she will just sit/lay and snuggle for no reason at all. She just finds him comfy I guess ; )

I'm so jealous! 

: ) 

My Little Pumpkin

So this outfit was originally purchased for late summer early fall weather, but as luck would have it, she has ended up wearing it much closer to the October months. And I think it makes her look like a little Pumpkin.

She really enjoyed the photo shoot. We also have an old cloth book from when I was little that has the story of The Littlest Pumpkin and I have been reading it to her in the spirit of the season. The story is about a little pumpkin that thinks its too little until one day it gets taken home by a family and is the cutest little Jack-O-Lantern anyone had ever seen. We have really enjoyed reading it together and she really likes the pictures in the book. -I will have to share some other pictures we have of us reading together soon.- : ) 

Splish Splash Taking a Bath!

Bath time is probably one of Psalm's favorite times of the day! She didn't actually get her first bath until about a week after birth (baths dry out baby skin, so we decided to wait until she actually needed one). And the only reason she needed one then was because she was "saving some milk for later" underneath her chin.

We decided to use the kitchen sink since it was perfectly Psalm sized. She still has yet to have any soap used since human milk (breast milk) is water soluble. Plus living in the desert, we don't want to do anything to dry her out more...

Giving Psalm a bath is wonderful because she enjoys it so much! When I was pregnant I would take several baths a day because the water felt so good...Cody kept saying I was having a mermaid. Guess he was right! ; ) While Papa John and Grandma Rina were here they had the joy of giving her a bath too!

You can't tell it from the pictures but the little hood on that towel looks like a ducky! 

A new development with bath time is that she also loves to splish splash especially with her feet. Soon we will probably be introducing some bath toys. We already have a couple rubber duckies on stand-by for bath duty. 

Strawberry Toes

Oh look a bonus post today! 

STRAWBERRY TOES!!!! 

Thank you, that is all... : )

The Teacher and The Princess

As some of yall know Cody got a new teaching job this year. He is teaching at Harmony Science Academy (its a charter school) here in Lubbock. He originally started out the year teaching High School Math and Science Special Education. Around the 5th week of school he was promoted to doing his Special Education job for most of the day, as well as for one class period doing High School Physics. (He will probably also be teaching a High School Engineering class next semester as well-so that will mean he only does Special Education half of the day-but more on that later).

One day, before school began and while Cody's parents were in town we got to go up and see his classroom.

His classroom is upstairs in the High School wing, he shares it with the other High School Special Education teacher who does English and Social Studies.

Cody was practicing getting his stern face going...

He looks pretty handsome if you ask me ; )

Psalm was just chillin in her car seat watching everyone look at the classroom. 

Jacob (Cody's brother) was practicing his science abilities on the board. 

 More science lessons from Uncle Jacob! (Ooooh that makes you sound kind of old ; ) )

Papa John, Nana Bear and me all hanging out at the kidney bean table  

Psalm wanted to spend some time with Daddy (he had been at work all day and she really misses him while he is at work!)

Psalm enjoyed looking around at her surrounding. She really likes going places and seeing new people. Psalm is definitely an extroverted baby...I wonder if that will last?!

And while she may be extroverted there still isn't anything better then sitting and relaxing with Daddy!

Sleeping Like A Baby

Soon after we found out we were pregnant someone sent us a picture that had the quote "People who say they sleep like a baby often don't have one." 

But actually Psalm is a great sleeper! Since about week 3 our normal evening is that she falls asleep sometime between 10-midnight, then she will wake up sometime between 4-6am and eats and then falls right back to sleep until around 930/10ish am. Its great! And since Psalm sleeps in our bed (safely-thanks to the snuggle nest co-sleeper) its SOOO easy to just wake up and feed her without ever leaving bed. (Guess I'm a sleepy head too.)

Her napping habits are much more "all over the board" but that's ok, as long as we keep up those good sleeps during the night.

Psalm and Daddy enjoyed taking a nap together...there is no doubt she is Cody's daughter. They look so similar in this picture (or at least that's what I think...)

 What a cute little face...

 When Psalm was little she would take naps next to me on the couch...little cutie

 We stayed up a little too late one night, apparently...

 She really enjoyed falling asleep on Papa John's chest while they were here.

And apparently falling asleep on Grandma Rina is pretty amazing too.

Sometimes Mommy needs a nap too, and its just so wonderful to nap and cuddle with Psalmie.

So cute!

Another picture of sleeping in the Snuggle Nest. Seriously I swear by it. Worth every penny (you can find them at Babies R Us.) 

While Psalm was only a few weeks old she loved pretending she was back in my belly by curling up in a pouch sling. She no longer fits in the sling, but it was so wonderful while she did! We now use a Moby (maybe we need a post on that soon...Psalm does sure look cute in it).