p.s. we moved!

If you follow me on Instagram you already know the awful story about this picture. But seriously guys, she's the CUTEST!

Dear blogland, I miss you! I have a good (or at least understandable) reason for my absence.... we moved! We are still in the same town, but we found someone who was totally willing to work with our future plans and give us freedom with the lease, yay!

Dear Mia, moving is always a pain. Always. But girl? I think you doubled our load! And I thought I'd have everything unpacked in two days... I was wrong! You need to be fed, played with, snuggled, cleaned and so much more. What I'm trying to say is, you're the BEST distraction I've ever had! Someday the boxes will be unpacked, right?

Dear Eric, you're an animal. And yes, that's totally a compliment. Sometimes I can't believe how hard you work for our little family! And then you come home and practically move by yourself and you're so good to help me unpack, hang pictures, bath Mia... anything I ask! Thank you for being just plain amazing. I love you!

Dear mom & dad C & mom and dad B, thank you SO much for your help with the move and cleaning. If you didn't notice, we wouldn't have been able to do it without you! We love you all!

Dear West Elm, thank you for having such gorgeous bedding! I sure do love you, even if my bank account doesn't! I'm just so dang excited to finally have a comforter on our bed! We held off on buying one because Mia was quite the pooping/peeing machine when she was brand new. I had to was our blankets and sheets T H R E E times in ONE day. But I hope it's safe to say that we are past that stage and our room can be cute again!

Dear Eric, please ignore that last note. I didn't mean to shop online! It just kind of.... happened?

Dear Mia, I think I forgot to mention that you're the BEST baby in the world! You truly have been an angel through this whole moving process! We love you SO much!

P.S. Don't forget to enter this giveaway. Seriously, the prizes are amazing!
linked up with Ashley

just some randoms {7}

Check out her eye lashes *swoooooooon*

I already posted a picture of Mia from her 6 month check up that melts my heart on instagram... but this one kills me as well! That little face (and the hair)!! I mean seriously, how did I get so lucky?!

One day (July 22) she just popped up on her knees and hasn't looked back since.
"she believed she could so she did"

Celebrating 7 months (and Pioneer Day) with our love bug!

The girl loves her food. And neon pink clothes.

happy Monday {group giveaway}

Is there any better way to start off a Monday than with a giveaway? Well probably.... but since we don't get to have the day off, I thought this would brighten your day :) I've got a group of generous girls giving away the best items! I'm actually really jealous I can't enter this giveaway! So do me a favor... enter as many times as you can!! If you win and don't have a baby, you can't totally send those prizes my way ;) #butseriously.

One winner takes all! Good luck and happy Monday!

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Kelsi is giving away the cutest items from her shop!

Lovestrong Shop is a baby accessory online boutique. They hand make clips, headbands, bracelets, and bottomless sandals for you little one!

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Arika is giving away a $20 giftcard to her shop!

Boykrazie is full of the cutest handmade accessories for baby boys. The hats are to die for!
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Heather is giving away the cutest pair of baby shoes from her shop!

 

The Merry Meadowlark is a shop full of handmade shoes and bows. The shoes just kill me!

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Pamela is giving away a coaster from her shop!

PRBaker has the cutest handmade accessories for your home!

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Brielle is giving away a city and state print from her shop!

elevenlove is full of the prettiest prints!

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Amberly is giving away a $5 gift card to Jamba Juice!

Her blog is so cute and full of tons of marriage advice!

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Sweet Pea's Party is giving away this cute chalkboard sign from their shop.

Sweet Pea's Party are just two best friends who love making hand crafted decor and simply want to benefit you in the process. Check out their shop and hopefully they can make your day!

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Kelly is giving away an ad space valued at $50 (!!!) on her blog.

 I don't know what to say about MessyDirtyHair except that you MUST check it out!

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

...you never know what you're gonna get

Here's part two! I wish I would have written this post months ago! You all gave the best advice... seriously! Thank you so much! It's definitely helping (and will continue to help me) as I'm finally willing to make the changes to be a better wifey! Oh and I apologize! This isn't short and sweet like I thought it would be. What can I say? I just don't know when to stop talking!

I haven't been able to admit my weakness before now because I didn't know how to change my ways. Actually, I didn't want to change my ways! I mean... I wanted to be the best wife possible, but it's always hard to admit when I'm wrong (because I'm always right ;) and because I'm stubborn) and I just didn't want to see my faults. But life has been so much happier since I made the decision to put my pride aside, and make the changes to be the wife that Eric deserves!
I briefly talked about my failing attempts to show Eric my love and appreciation for what an amazing husband and father he is when Mia was born. Being a mother was the most easy and natural thing in the world for me! (Note: being a mommy was easy. Nursing was not. But once that fell into place, I was in heaven with my baby!) I was so wrapped up in taking care of Mia that I forgot to nurture my relationship with Eric. Once we realized what was going on, Eric and I had one conversation and decided the best thing we could do was to start making a conscious effort to serve each other. I didn't realize that letting the simple thing go could totally affect our relationship! We started doing the small things again- packing Eric's lunch, making one of his favorite dinners, making time to watch a movie with him (even if I slept through the whole thing, new mommas know what I'm talking about), leaving little love notes, voicing a compliment instead of assuming Eric knew I thought he was handsome, taking the time to have conversations and actually listen to what he had to say, being conscious of not snapping at him even though I was exhausted, etc. And Eric did the same for me! It only took a couple days of working at this for it to be totally natural again! I am still trying to find new ways to surprise him and show my love for him, and I will continue to do that for the rest of forever! It's part of how you keep the marriage alive, no?
The hardest part for me (as I'm sure you noticed) was dealing with my feelings for Eric's job. I have left a ton of details out, which is to be expected considering this is public to the whole world. But that's okay! Yes, we have had to put up with a ton of crap and no, I have not handled it the way I should have... that's all I need to share. A little over a week ago I had the epiphany that I was taking the easy route. I would ask my friends/family how to forgive, how to forget, how to move on when I still had to put up with it each day? I couldn't escape from it! (Do you like how selfish I am? I was talking about Eric's job, not mine. I am so ridiculous sometimes!) It was so much easier to hang on to my anger and resentment instead of letting it all go. It truly is as simple as that. Just. let. it. go. I saw this quote on facebook the other day: "Victims focus on what they do not control. Survivors focus on what they do control." It's easier to be the victim, isn't it? I wouldn't admit that holding on to that anger was seeping into my marriage, into my relationships with others and into my sanity (ha ha). Once I set my pride aside I decided to be a survivor. For me, this means I've had to hand it over to God and let Him help me to just let it go. 
I decided to make these changes a couple weeks ago. Just a few days later I learned that someone took my words, twisted them around, gossiped, and made life difficult for Eric at work. I was so angry I literally thought my blood was boiling. I mean, I was thiiiiiis close to breathing fire (ha!). I wanted nothing more than to punch this guy in the mouth and to tell him to stay out of my business. How dare he twist what I said and use them against my husband! These thoughts consumed me as I daydreamed about beating this guy (because you know, I'm so strong) and teaching him a lesson! Then it hit me. I was doing it again! I knew I didn't want Mia to sense my anger, I didn't want Eric to know just how mad I was or to be ornery about it and take it out on him, so I had to just let it go. It was the biggest battle I've had with myself for a long time. It was so much easier to hold on to the anger, but through lots of prayer and determination I started to feel lighter inside until those awful feelings disappeared. It is going to take a long time and a whole lotta prayer before I will be able to master my self control.... but it is so much better for myself and for my family to just let it go. I don't know why it took me so long to realize what I already knew was right, but I am looking forward to a better marriage and life because of it :) This is one learning curve I hope to never experience ever again (except I will, because I'm hard headed like that)!

headband c/o Sew Much Baby

life is like a box of chocolates...

 headband c/o Sew Much Baby

I'm going to get real today. Like really real. It's scary to admit when you're struggling, when life's not fair, or when you need help, advice, love and support. And when I say " you" I really mean "I".
When we moved to this town I was depressed out of my mind! I swore I'd never live here, yet here I was. I am generally the happiest, friendliest girl but when I feel low, I feel really low. I was driving a wedge in our marriage but I just couldn't stop crying and complaining. One day it finally clicked that I was blaming Eric when it wasn't even his fault! Yes, we moved here for his job BUT we both knew this was the right move for us. We both agreed. So I worked on changing my ways and swore that as long as Eric loved his job, I would learn to love it here. Shortly after I made the changes that I needed to make to bring us back to that "good place" in our marriage, we discovered we were pregnant! Life was good. Then Eric's job started making changes that we didn't like. Shift work (days to nights, nights to days), 12 hour days, weekends and holidays. This is going to make me sound awful (because it was awful) but I went C R A Z Y! Things weren't going like promised when he was offered the job and it was so easy for me to be angry and blame it all on his job (good heavens, I needed a swift kick in the rear and a major attitude check)! Months later I got used to the awful changes (I really look up to the couples that handle these situations with grace!) and we prepared for the arrival of our sweet daughter!
When Mia was born I was sooooo grateful for my husband. Eric was so loving and helpful to me and our baby! The first few weeks I just couldn't believe how lucky I was, but I slowly stopped showing my appreciation. I think I got so wrapped up in taking care of Mia that I forgot to take care of my marriage as well. Other things like sleep deprivation, hormones and hating Eric's job definitely played into that! If you haven't noticed a pattern here... I'll point it out. Every time his job changed things up, or put Eric through the ringer, or didn't treat him how I know he deserves to be treated, I would go C R A Z Y! But what I didn't see, or rather, what I refused to see, was that I was making life harder on Eric.
Eric told me not too long ago that he just needed me to support him 100%!  I was shocked when he said that... Of course I support him! I love him! I want what's best for him! Why couldn't he see that those were the reasons I was so angry and non supportive of his job? (Has anyone noticed that something is about to click in my brain? About a year and a half too late... It's pretty horrifying for me to share how close minded and hard headed and just plain awful I've been!) Eric and I have made the decision that this is where we need to be living right now. Eric is very loyal and dedicated to his job. He is good at what he does! So my question is this. How do I support my amazing husband 100%? He needs me to support every aspect of his life. Our marriage needs it!
I've just painted an awfully dark picture of our life, but I promise it's still every bit as beautiful and happy as the picture above shows. But we (or I) have struggles like anybody else! And sometimes the simplest solution is the hardest to acknowledge. So this is where I come for advice!

Stay tuned for part 2! It will be short and sweet next time :) But until then... talk to me, people!