The Hairiest Month of the Year!

I can't believe it, it is already becoming the end of 2013. 2014 is on the brink and I swear looking back at the year its gone by so fast, unbelievable!

So, lets take a look at what has been happening this past month:

• Marley celebrated her 4th month of being in our family :)

And we have noticed that she really is high maintenance.

What a cool cat!

• Halloween happened:

Marley was Princess Leia this year. What a cutie she is!

TJ and I were going to go as Darth Vader and Queen Amidala but we couldn't find costumes in time. So I decided to go as Harry Potter after drinking Polly juice potion and TJ was a sociopath...haha just kidding, he went as a werewolf awaiting a full moon. 

See: he did such a great job with his costume. It literally took zero effort at all!

• Marley was such a good trooper and allowed us to pierce her ears so I won't have to deal with taking her later on in life. I can imagine my experience all over again....nope not gonna happen!

• TJ got his hand smashed under my moms car; luckily there was no damage done to his hand, we count our lucky stars and thank goodness for his Carney blood. He didn't cry, he sat there and took it like a champ...or sat there patiently and tried to keep ME calm, what a man I have :) 

• And a trip to Rexburg for the blessing of our cute little nephew Benji! We even had some family photo's taken so we could put more pictures on our wall!

These two became best pals!

So that has basically been the extent of our month. Super long and short at the same time; TJ has been really busy with work and that unfortunately makes time go by slower but we are so appreciative of all the hours he spends at work to support us!

No shave November is upon us and TJ is not very happy...I hid his razor so he has to participate! HAHAHAHA what an evil wife I am ;) But he told me if he can't shave I can't take any pictures of him until he can. Luckily I can watch him while he sleeps and snap some then ;) But all the pictures we ever take no days are of Marley so it really doesn't bother me...looks like TJ is going to be one hairy guy! (I will get one of him before he shaves it all off, though)

Marley Milestones: She laughs! Its not fully there but she is getting better at it and we love listening and getting those precious laughs out of her. She smiles A TON! She recognizes who mommy and daddy are and smiles at us all the time, but she loves staring and smiling at her daddy :) 

My two hero's

Conversations and nursing have become a hoot; she likes to know what is happening all the time. If she is nursing and I start talking she will stop, look up at me, watch me talk, and smile. Then when I stop she goes back to eating ;) little nosy girl!

But that is about it for this month. She is almost sitting up but doesn't really get it yet...that's okay, just another sign I get to keep my little girl, little for a while longer! :)

Until next time!

A dress I made for my Marzy pants ;)

Here's to three months!

Holy cow! Three months have gone by like the wind! I seriously cannot believe our little munchkin is growing into such a beautiful happy princess. What a blessing she has been in our lives and we adore her so much. We often stare at her in awe at what we created. How are we so blessed? I am so glad Heavenly Father has entrusted us with one of His children; I just hope I can teach her all that I am able to and have her become a wonderful mother someday (Like in 25 years! Haha)

Speaking of teaching; as many of you know I LOVE skating. Now there is a difference between Roller BLADING and Roller SKATING. Its all in the wheels. (*Its all in the hips* haha, sorry that song came to mind when I typed that) So, my wonderful and talented mother-in-law made Marley a little Roller Derby outfit to match her Mama. I would have joined in the picture but she had all the cuteness covered on her own ;)

I decided to start popping out some 3-6 month clothing and it was to my joy that they are still a little lot too big for her; so I get to put her in her 0-3 month clothing a little longer. But it does make me sad when something doesn't fit her but also some excitement if I have cute outfits that are bigger. She has TONS of darling clothes, its so hard not to play barbie and dress her in all her outfits all day!

These are for Grandma (Leslie) Carney  (it really is weird referring your own parents as grandparents)
Anybody who has children, I give you props. How you get your children to hold still during a picture is beyond me. Though she is an active three month old girl so I can't really hold it against her, but seriously, all those photographers who capture such GREAT photos of infants have a ton more patience than I do!

 Her full blown derby girl outfit! LOVE!

 Glazed over from milk! 

 Seriously, she melts my heart

 I tried getting a shot of her hat. It really is so cute and the picture cannot do it justice

 Mommy and Me skates

So much detail and hard work put into these little skates. One word: Adorb!

I never realized though, how much children change your life, I went ahead and said goodbye to sleeping in or going to bed when you are tired, or running into this place real quick and leave the car running for a second, or carrying in all the groceries at once...yeah I am now one of those "pansy's" who have to make multiple trips ;) So if you are thinking about a baby....might as well read up on the things that will never be the same. Haha I am just kidding, you should not base your child bearing on my silly list. Mater of fact, procreate all you want. You have my blessing :)

Marley Milestones: She is *this* close to sitting up on her own. She isn't too much of a fan of the Bumbo and when I put her in it she twists and turns so its not really helping her learn to sit right, haha. She is becoming more alert and recognizes her name, she will look at you when you talk to her and her responses are amazing. I wish I captured a video of her and TJ having a conversation, she was being really quiet with me and TJ walked in the room and started talking to her and BAM full blown conversations. She is such a daddy's girl. I cannot say it enough, she loves him so much! (And visa versa) 

The other night we were playing super hero and she-as you all know from previous blog- is a drooler. She happened to get a drool string in.my.mouth. Luckily she is mine and cute because I wouldn't laugh if it weren't my child, but she kinda giggled with us and we tried getting her to do it again but I think she knew we had a camera watching her and she decided to go all shy on us. :( Maybe next time.

My goodness, she is such a good sleeper! She has been sick-ish the past few days and wants to be held and snuggled so much (my first clue she was not feeling to hot-no pun intended- she doesn't like to cuddle a lot.) She was having a hard time sleeping during the day and would only take a 15-30 minute nap. I thought for sure I would be up all night with her, but surprisingly she has started sleeping from 9 or 10-5 o'clock! And she is feeling better now but the real bonus is she is still sleeping all night til 5-ish! I used to be so tired from getting up at 2-3 and then 5-7. Funny thing is now she is sleeping all night I am more tired than I was when she gets up more during the night!

Like mother, like daughter; I have a stubborn princess. Who likes to suck her fingers. I try so hard to get those fingers out of her mouth by substituting with a soothie, or her baby (Bear blanket) that nothing works. So, I know one good thing from this is she will be such a fighter and determined to do anything she thinks of...though I know I am in so much trouble! (I know TJ was a very mischievous kid and could sneak his way around anything. Which is going to make disciplining difficult if she has his sense of humor/personality)

Well that is all, until next time! 

Remember, remember, the month of September...or something like that

Well, not to much has happened since I blogged last. Oh, wait...Just kidding! You would be crazy if you really thought not a lot has been going on (haha).

So since our last blog we have had a few changes; for one, we moved into our new place and we really love it! We live in a four-plex so it is a lot quieter and it really helps when you have a light-sleeper in the house. Also, this is a non-smoking four-plex so its really nice to be able to walk outside and not inhale the smoke (something I have been so worried about since Marley was born). TJ and I decided this would be a 'fresh start' and its been a really good beginning for our little family.

Since I am home all day and I have some spare time when Marley is napping I decided I really wanted to keep up on the housework and make the load not so crazy. I used to get so overwhelmed at our old place trying to balance being a mom and keeping the place clean and making meals--it really is tough work and hard to adjust too. When I lived in Rexburg we had "clean-checks" on Wednesdays and basically that was the day that the apartment got clean everywhere and our 'RA' would come and check off our duties and basically make sure it was clean and we weren't creating a place for pigs to live.

I wanted to have something like that mindset to have a 'cleaning day' but it is still too much to do in one day with an infant and it got really frustrating; so I looked up this chart for keeping the place clean and it is so amazing I love it. It has made my workload so light and I often feel so lazy because I used to be so behind and with this chart I use I am done pretty quickly. I guess I have just forgotten how to relax!

This is the chart if anybody is interested in making their workload easier. I really am glad I found it, but the best part is, it makes TJ so happy the place is always clean and I am not frustrated with how much I have to do. Hey, I guess the saying is true "If mamma's not happy, nobody's happy"

Normally I think it is weird to show pictures of our place because its just an apartment and our last one was...well...it was a ghetto old looking thing and it was an....interesting first place haha. But we were both so excited about this new place that we want to share it with others and not ashamed of where we live. We really enjoy it here. So here is a picture tour!

It is so nice and clean in here I had to take a picture. Our Bedroom finally looks and feels like an adult/parent bedroom! 

This is an amazing canvas my mother-in-law made for us for our wedding. It is so beautiful (she does amazing work!)

This is part of Marley's room. Since we found out we were having a girl I wanted to get something that I could put her bows since I was going to get tons of them! I actually found something like this on Pinterest and decided to make it! Most of the bows on them I made as well! Go me!

She finally has a closet of her own to put her clothes and blankets in. (In our last place we basically put all this stuff anywhere it would fit and be out of the way. Its nice its all in one place now)

We haven't finished her room yet but its getting there. It gets really bright even with the blinds so I tried to make the room darker by putting the blanket up (since we are slacking on putting the drapes up) and all it does is make the room all pink. Its appropriate, I think ;)

Low and behold, we finally have a dishwasher (that isn't me!) AND our table fits in our kitchen now!

So before in our old place the washer and dryer consumed out kitchen, but they were on opposite sides of our kitchen so its nice they are hidden and together not taking up space in our kitchen!

So spacey in here its so nice!

A good wife hangs up her husbands sombrero for others to see (TJ was happy I put it up)

Our well-put-together wall. TJ says it describes our personalities (Love, Family, and Rock-n-Roll)

This wall is probably TJ's favorite wall. He worked so hard on trying to make it look good and cool!

So, our little Marley isn't so little anymore. She is now 2 1/2 months old and she is still our joy (I say that like she might not be someday? Haha that sounds terrible! We love her always)

Its crazy how much she has changed and grown in these past two months! (We are even getting less and less tired...Or getting used to the lack of sleep ;) )

But news on Marley: At her two month check up she weighed in at 13 lbs! I'm sure she has packed on a little more since then. She is a Carney and Carney's like to eat! She was in the 95 percentile in everything and above the charts for her age group in height so we are going to be battling a really tall girl! As far as what she likes and dislikes: She loves the outdoors. She can be crying and we cannot get her to calm down and the moment we open the front door she goes quiet. So either she is going to be an outdoor lover or she is just really shy ;) Oddly, she loves her diaper changed. She used to fuss and squirm but now she will smile and talk when we change her, its so cute! She loves water, so baths, showers of swimming, she is for it! The only thing we can manage to find she doesn't like are: When her headbands get in her eyes, being scared (doesn't every child?) and being burped. Its so funny she will push back and doesn't really like me burping her but she will tolerate it when dad does the job. She lets out long and loud burps its hard not to laugh at them (this is going to be bad when she is older and thinks its okay because we laugh). She used to not be such a fan on car rides (odd, right?) Well, we invested in a mirror for us to be able to look at her and check on her while we are on the road. Best.Investment.Ever. She is a girl and girls naturally like to look at themselves, right? She used to scream in the car even though she was fine, since we got this mirror she no longer cries but sits and looks at herself. Sometimes I will catch her smiling at herself and it is so darn cute! 

She has been so smiley lately, it just melts my heart every time I catch her smiling. I work so hard everyday to get her to smile and when she does it is so amazing. My favorites have to be when I feed her and she stops and looks at me with her big blue eyes and long lashes and just sits and looks at me then cracks me a dimple smile. Talk about melting your heart. This is the best! 

Oh and what an over-achiever she is! She has already started sitting up! 

It's not the best but she is sitting up on her own.

Other achievements are she is grabbing things, such as my hair, fingers, shirts...did I mention my hair? She has started looking at her mobile toys and smiles at them (She hasn't reached out and tried to touch them yet--I think she is afraid because when I try to help her to show her she gives me this terrified look). She loves looking at pictures, I am sure she could look at them for hours if she didn't get distracted by other noises. Ummm, she drools...a lot. A lot as in, she can drench her shirt and my sleeve and my arm will be soaked. (We always joke about how we don't need to shower since Marley showers us with her drool) And she loves to smile and talk, she makes sure to speak up if the attention isn't on her...I wonder where she got that from? ;) (cough*cough* TJ cough*cough)

Well, that is basically what we have been up to that I can think of at the moment. Right now we are just waiting ever so patiently for her little cousin to make his arrival!

Oh, and does anybody know any good sprays to get baby stains out? The one I use now doesn't seem to get those baby poop stains out and I am afraid to even dress her and ruin her clothing. Sometimes I feel like when I know she is about to go I want to quickly take off her clothes so when the diaper explodes it doesn't get all over them. Any tips or advice on how to make them not stain would be much appreciated! 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

Wow, it's been some time since I even thought about posting on the blog! We have been so busy being new parents that this has been the farthest thing from my mind. But I thought it would be okay to take a minute while the house is quiet to update all you eager folks to what has been going on in the Carney household.


First off, Marley is 7 weeks old! (tomorrow) Wow, time sure has gone by so fast that I really don't know what to do with myself. I swear time went by so slow while I was pregnant and I look back and it went by super fast (crazy how that works out). She has been an amazing addition to our family, and so excelling in everything. She has rolled over from her stomach to her back and vise verse (she hasn't mastered it but she has done it a few times to make me wish she would stop and be little a while longer. We call her our 'over-achiever') She has also started talking a lot more, and it is just so cute! She seems to smile more for daddy than anybody else which goes to show how much of a daddy's girl she is; I am so content with this fact and it just makes my love for both of them that much more.

I have started the whole 'no-fingers-in-the-mouth' discipline so it doesn't become a habit (I'm not hurting her by the way, I realize discipline sounds so harsh, I just remove her hands from her mouth and put her soothie -pacifier- in instead) and, well, she is a stubborn little gal and wont have it! And much to surprise (especially to all those who really know me) I have myself a drooler; she drools all the time and not once have I even gagged! (Huge accomplishment for me)

So anyways that has been the update for our princess as of now, I just hope she can stay little for a while longer so I can procrastinate on baby proofing the place!

We recently had all our family out and it was such a great time we got to spend with them, I truly cherished each moment I got with my in-laws and relationships blossomed! I love them all so much.

On August 4th we had the privilege to have our friends and family gather as TJ blessed our precious Marley. Those who are not of the LDS faith; a baby blessing is a blessing given by a priesthood holder (normally the father of the child or another significant priesthood holder to the family) to the baby. In this blessing the priesthood holder communicates with our Heavenly Father and asking for certain blessings for that child in their life; they are also given their name and we blessed our baby with the name of Marley Marie Carney. We gathered for a fun picnic afterwards and we really enjoyed spending that time with everyone.

Also, the dress we blessed Marley in was my blessing dress my mom made for me over 21 years ago. This was so sentimental to me and I was glad my mom still had it after all these years!

I started creating these movies that are kind of like scrap booking. For those that know me know that I really don't have too much patience for scrap booking (something I will have to work on) so I started making these movies so we can still have those memories of a scrapbook but all digital. It really is fun and time consuming so when I get a moment I can pass the time away. The songs that I chose have so much meaning to me; the first song I heard when I was in Young Women's -between 15-17- and I fell in love with it. I always wanted a little sister and was mad when I didn't get one. I realized that I could have a daughter of my own and how amazing that would be. I also played this song a for TJ a few months before Marley was born and he expressed how excited he was and how much he loved both of us. It really touched me and brought so much joy to me knowing I was creating such a wonderful miracle, I loved the song so much I listened to it while I was in labor and it brought so much peace and serenity  knowing it was going to be all worth it. And well the second song explains itself :)

(sorry for the long video there were tons of pictures!)

So, after the blessing we had a busy schedule for the next little bit. We attended two family reunions and had a blast at each. Our little Marley wasn't feeling too hot so that was a hectic few days on getting her back on her schedule and back to normal. Then lastly, I didn't want to announce this until it was set in stone, we are moving! We found a nicer place that is all in all a better environment for our family and we are truly so excited about it.

Things are going good with TJ's work, he recently got a raise and it was a true blessing since it would balance out to counter what I made when I was working so now I can be a stay at home mom full time (Which is a blessing within itself).

We sold my car and with that money we were able to fix Dora the Explorer; it is nice to have our family car and be able to have it just in time to move all our big stuff.

We have been so very grateful for all our family members and friends who have been so much help to us in every aspect of our lives and especially these past few months, we really do not have enough words to truly express our gratitude and hope that someday we can repay it to you when you are in time of need.

Well, that is pretty much the jist of our life right now, just being busy with packing and moving and living the everyday life. I really wonder how the women of the 50's did it, its such a strange transition from working all the time to being a full time stay-at-home wife and mother!