Christmas Shopping

I've been doing most of my Christmas shopping online this year, due mostly to the fact that I have found the best deals online! I thought I'd share a few website that have helped me get the best deals besides Amazon and Store Websites.

This website gives you a $20 credit for signing up, it can also be applied to shipping. It's mostly apparel. I bought Hannah some Eric Carle Stride Rite shoes for $9 Shipped!
http://www.ruelala.com/invite/lbbledsoe

This website has mommy and children's items. They give you a $15 credit for signing up.
http://www.zulily.com/invite/lbledsoe240

OneKingsLane.com has some great deals on home decor and other misc. items. I bought a Vera Bradley gift for someone :) They don't give you a credit for signing up,but if you refer a friend and they buy, you get $25.00. If you do sign up, please input my email address, lbbledsoe@gmail.com.

Modnique is an apparel website, they only give you a $5 credit, but they do have some really good deals on brand name clothes. I also used this to buy a Christmas gift, not telling :)
http://www.modnique.com/invite/lbbledsoe@gmail.com

Gilt.com has some great deals on clothing, kids toys, and even children's books! There is no sign on credit, but you might just find a good deal! They have randomly sent me two $25 credits and I used them on Christmas gifts and wooden toys for Hannah.

Don't feel like you have to sign up for these. But if you do, please use the links I provided so I can use the credits. I only share these because I got great deals too! Happy Shopping :)

Day in the Life

Some of my friends from college are doing a "Day in the LIfe" posts on their blogs, hosted by Lacy at TatumTales blog. I really love hearing about other people's everyday life, so I thought I would join in too. Here's our day on Tuesday.

5:50 wake up to slice and pack Chocolate Pecan Pie (Pioneer Woman recipe, she beat Bobby Flay with minus the chocolate. *I would love to have her cookbook hint hint*) for Matt to take to his work's Thanksgiving luncheon. Lay back down, doze off.



6:30 Matt kisses me goodbye and I sleepily tell him to "Ha a goo dayyy, luvvv youu"

6:33 get a phone call from Matt who is locked outside (not typcial). He needs to take a untensil for the pie...of course! So I run as fast as sleepy person can to the kitchen, and all I can find in Mamaw Lizzy's utensils is a cake spatula, so it will have to do. Back to bed.

7:15 I hear Hannah's sweet voice talking in her room. I go in and pick her up, and taker her to the kitchen to get some milk. We go in the back room, open the blinds, and turn on the Today show. I either turn on the Today show or WayFM online to listen to Brant in the Morning. We watched the weather and then looked outside. Hannah heard some birds so we tried to find them.

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7:30 Breakfast: Iron skillet toast (I've found that almost everything tastes better in an iron skillet) and an orange for breakfast. Hannah LOVES oranges! She ate most of it herself. Then threw a little fit when it was all gone. First mini tantrum of the day. I will spare you pictures of that.....it only lasted about 30 seconds. We have found the best way is to ignore her and give her space. Normally she comes and sits on our lap after she is done.



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8:00-9:45 After cleaning up breakfast and recovering from the tantrum we go to Hannah's room to get her dressed and ready for the day. She watches me brush my teeth and wash my face. Then she follows me around or hides from me while I sort clothes, throw them in the washer, tidy up, and then we play and read and greet Mamaw Lizzy when she wakes up. I also gave her some applesauce, as a late morning snack...which is needed some days.




9:45 Naptime...Hannah's patience is wearing thin (as you can see) so I say "Let's go find Dolly and take a nap" She runs to her room, grabs Dolly and is ready to lay down. Turn off the lights and turn on the sound machine.

9:45-11:30 Check email. Read. Call Mamaw Bible and Leslie. Talk with Mamaw Lizzy. Do more laundry. Tidy up. Fold Laundry. Disinfect some toys. Put Dinner in the crockpot, drink- I mean taste- left over beer from the marinade, decide it's gross, throw it out. Take out recycling and trash. Sit down for a bit. Decide to wait until Hannah wakes up to shower. Watch Hot topics on The View.




11:30 Hannah is finally awake (longer nap than normal- I think it's bc of the bottom molar she is teething) Hannah drinks a tiny bit of milk on my lap, run around the house like a crazy person for a minute. Then I put her in her room for some independent play time while I get a quick shower. After I'm out of the shower, I open the bathroom door so she can watch me get ready while she plays. She usually laughs at me, because it's apparently just hilarious when I brush my teeth and dry my hair.




12:15 Warm up lunch- left over copycat Olive Garden Minestrone, pretty close to the real deal. Hannah and Mamaw Lizzy liked it so it must be good. Hannah eats fast so we were done by 12:35, I do dishes while Hannah runs around my legs and wants me to hold her. Dishes are more time consuming these days with no dish washer, so I try to do them twice a day to make things quicker. Then we play for a while, Hannah is loving hide and seek at the moment, as in I hide and she finds me. Then we vaccum and watch Mamaw shake some rugs outside. Normally we go outside or run errands at this time, but it is raining today so we have to find things to do inside. Like, walk up and down a pile of rugs, dance (which happens spontaneously throughout the day, even with no music...Hannah just loves to "dince"), read books on the bed (or climb the walls while Mommy tries to get Hannah to sit still).





2:00 Naptime again, and she is ready ready! Runs to the crib, I plop her in, play with her hair, and she is quiet as can be. I use her afternoon naptime to relax and really do whatever I want to do. Today I made a few phone calls, worked on this blog post, and laid down for a while.

3:55 Knock at the door, it's Papaw Jim and Granna! And Hannah is awake (another longer than normal nap), so I go in to get her out of her crib, and get her milk. She see's our special guests on the way to the kitchen and says "Heyyy" So we hang out while she drinks her milk. She wants to sit in Granna's lap, but is being shy around Papaw Jim. We end up just hanging out and until Matt comes home.

5:10 Matt comes home. Yay!

5:20 Hannah just can't wait any longer to eat, so Granna feeds her while I finish the dinner prep. Hannah eats a cup of the minestrone AND a whole cup of blueberry yogurt. Big Dinner! Then she plays with the spoon to try to feed herself.



5:45 We have plenty of food, so Granna and Papaw Jim decide to stay for dinner. We eat while Hannah runs around and occasionally comes to sit on my lap for a bite of bread. Somehow the pie I made did not get eaten at Matt's luncheon, so we also get to eat that with dinner. Very good, but very rich! Then we watch some news and play with Hannah until it's time for her bath.

6:50 Bathtime! We say "Let's go take a bath" and Hannah runs to the bathroom. Tonight we washed her hair, which we only do about once a week or until it looks bad, because she hates it so much and her hair stays pretty clean. But tonight she did really well. Matt usually does the hair washing, she seems to fuss less when he does it.




7:15 Hannah's clean and in her PJ's and ready for bed. She usually gives out one kiss on the cheek and blows the rest of the kisses. I lay her down and sing her "Jesus Loves You" and by that time she is quiet and ready to sleep.

7:20 Help Mamaw Lizzy clean up the kitchen and we sit and chat with her. She tells us about a story of this little boy putting a bean up his nose and it sprouted! Thank goodness Hannah's nostrils are too little to fit anything...at least I hope.

7:50 We hear Hannah talking, but she is quiet again and goes to sleep

From now until 9:30 Matt and I just hang out or watch TV. There was nothing on tonight, so we talked and he studied a bit (for the new job), I distracted him, and we talked to Mamaw Lizzy a little more. We ended up watching the end of Biggest Loser while I packed his lunch and prepared his coffee for the next day.



10:00 In bed

And that's our day!

Here in TN...

Since we've been in Tennessee...

We've been settling in and enjoying our new scenery and spending time with family and friends. But mostly, I've been trying to keep our little stinker from getting in to trouble. I won't tell you ALL the things that she has gotten into, but I will say that several things have been broken and there were dentures on the bathroom floor Friday morning. It has been a challenge for us to make Mamaw Lizzy's lovely home childproof, and just when I think there's nothing Hannah can get into, she has proved me wrong. All I did the first 5 days was follow her around. Now that we're learning what we can and can't touch and where we can and can't go, AND put up 3 gates, things are a little easier.

We are really enjoying life in Tennessee so far. Matt's job is stressful at the moment, but he is learning and growing. He is off work at 11 on Fridays, so this last week we took a short trip to a local playground that is amazing!!! It's in Warrior's Path State Park and it really is the best playground I've even seen. It has a "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" theme around the perimeter, a huge tree house, and a variety of playground equipment levels, some were easy enough for Hannah to play on at her age. There are so many outdoorsy things I've missed doing and I'm excited to be back near places that I feel comfortable exploring. We love love love our church, being able to wear our UT colors with pride, and going to our old favorite places to eat and hangout.

With all that said, we are still missing our home and life in SC. Although life here is good, there are still some challenges with the move and it's hard, but we're just trying to move on and enjoy this new chapter of life.

Today

Today has been one of those revelation days, where in the midst of roller coaster emotions and fear of the unknown, I feel God telling me that no matter what, He is going to take care of us, as He always does. This week has been exhausting for me, physically and emotionally, and I had already told myself earlier this week to enjoy these last few days here as much as possible. Even though we're moving to a place we love, with people we know, it's hard to leave here, our first home, and our first town as a married couple and as a family. I've been in a weird emotional state of excitement, anxiety, and almost mourning. As I packed Hannah's room, I just lost it. We've only been here for 2 years, but it was the first place we brought home our baby girl and started to raise her. It's hard, but it's good.

Today Hannah and I did what we've done the last 2 weeks, pack and clean (well I pack and she unpacks, and I clean and she scatters toys and tupperware all over the house :) ). But today, I truly truly lived in the moment with her. I try to do this often, but it's not always easy when there's a million things on my mind.

Today after lunch we went outside to explore as usual, but today we played like we had no cares in the world. We ran up and down the hill in the back yard and fell and rolled and giggled. We picked up leaves and one of us tried to eat one :). We straightened the pine straw and picked a few weeds. We had fun. I felt like we were close to God and heaven.

We came inside and I checked my email for anything from the Realtor and I noticed Hannah lying on the floor looking at me and smiling. I laid down beside her and I felt like God was showing me that no matter where we live, that He's taking care of us and that I could fully trust him with this move and all that goes with it. Then in that moment of pure bliss Hannah stuck her little finger in my nose. It was great. A perfect ending to a special moment.

I don't have pictures and I normally don't write so much, but this week has been a tough week and today was just too sweet not to share.

Halloween Weekend

"seriously mom"?

We kept thinking her costume reminded us of "Where the Wild Things Are", which by the way was a depressing movie. But she was the cutest spook out there :)



This weekend we made a short trip to TN to see Matt's sis, Leslie and her new baby Kylie! She is such a pretty baby, and we are so excited to be an aunt and uncle!! I cannot believe I didn't take any picture of her. I guess I was too busy trying to keep Hannah away from Lacy the cat, who does not like to be bothered. I did take a few pictures of Hannah and Matt in Papaw Jim's garage.

We had trick or treaters last night. We just stayed here and handed out candy, and Hannah greeted all the spooks until she was ready for bed. We had planned to all dress up and be Lions, Tigers, and Bears...Ohmy! from Wizard of Oz but with everything going on, It just didn't come together.

Which leads me to the big news....I had to wait until today for it to be official. Matt accepted a new job in Kingsport so we will be moving in 2 weeks!! Yikes! I have so much to do. This last week has been very stressful and very very emotional for me, but we are so so super excited to be going back to our roots and hopefully letting them grow there. We have enjoyed our time here in SC, but we've always wanted to go back. There's just nothing like TN and being closer to our families and old friends! So yes we're excited but it really is going to be hard to leave our first home AND try to sell it. Our plan is to try to sell for a few months and after that rent it out, while living with Matt's family temporarily. We live near a military base and renting is pretty easy to do around here. So that's the news and that's why blogging will be intermittent for a while.

Hope everyone else had a great Halloween :) Stefan won $100 for his Lego costume at school. I can't wait to see what it looked like!