Dear Baby

Dear Baby: 

As I lay here trying to go to sleep you're the only thing I can think of! I love being your mommy already and you've only been hanging out in my belly for 11 weeks! Your daddy & I are so very much in love with you! We can't wait until February to hold you in our arms. You're going to LOVE your Big Brother! He is amazing! He already loves kissing Mommy's belly although he doesn't quite understand who you are. Just know that you're loved... And we can't wait to meet you <3 

Love: 

Mommy :) 

Summer Bucket List

Since I am taking the Summer off from college, I wanted to make sure our family has lots of fun things packed into this three month time period. I'm so excited because this Summer FAR is turning 2 and there are so many fun things to do with him! So here is our Summer family Bucket List :) 

- Go to Stone Mountain and not play in the snow :) 

- Have a huge party for a pretty special 2 year old. 

- Travel to the best friends house to celebrate 4th of July in her front yard! 

- Travel to the other best friends house (who doesn't blog-loser) to spend lots of time at the lake that her neighborhood is off of. 

- Weekly play dates with FAR's cousins!  

- Lots of cookouts, with watermelon! 

- Go Strawberry picking 

- Take FAR to see Monsters University in 3D 

- Take FAR back to Noah's Ark. 

Look how little he was!!! 

What NOT to do with a Toddler

So just in case this is your first time here on my side of the internet (Welcome!) I am a stay at home first time mom and a full time student, but that's a different story for a different day. 

RB and I are constantly looking for fun stuff to do with our big guy FAR who is about to be 2! My mother-in-law wanted to treat us to the Aquarium and I just knew Fletcher would LOVE it. In my head I pictured a sweet little boy who looked at the fish all day long and we had the most wonderful family day. 

Umm yeah. That DID NOT happen. He was impressed for the first oh let's say 5 minutes. and then he screamed. He cried. He pitched the biggest fit his two year old body could pitch. FAR wanted to RUN. and running in an crowded Aquarium full of schools on field trips and home school groups and whatever you could imagine just was not a possibility. 

^^How I felt. ^^

So I did what any typical Momma would do. I let him scream and pitch a fit while I enjoyed the fish with my hubby :) 

True story. But what was I supposed to do with a screaming toddler after we were gifted with these awesome expensive tickets. I got looks, I got stares, and honestly, I didn't care. So what finally calmed him down? A 4D movie. 

Fletcher, Mommy loves you so much, but we're not going back to the Aquarium until you are 12

has anyone else had an experience similar to ours? Let me know! I'll host a link-up so we can all learn from each other's mistakes ;) 

<center> <a href=”www.talesfromfar.com”><img border=”0″ src=”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aKbp8nPH5MqC3KinEx3T7FwMFavr_QfdjsgJBw72LbdY17eULPIeaLDe85HjeWgWQPDp5gNIGs69ZlWWrEAiom7dzuBqCz4bqL4OU55GXR7W_dLUawrNw9ILmM87tQUNS9kV7XvlZIj5/s1600/toddlerlinkup.png” /></a></center>

Hi... is this thing on?

Guess who's back? Yet again. I'm probably the worst blogger on the planet, haha. Life has been CRAZY around here! I'm not promising ill be around during the summer, but maybe i'll post more than once every 3 months. Anyway, so I've been a very busy girl, making deans list and all... 

I promise I took courses harder than Introduction to Film. Although that class was a joke in itsself. I was looking for an easy A. I got a well earned A instead!  

How's Mr. FAR do you ask? Well we went through a crazy time with his ears and eneded up having to have Tubes put in a month ago. 

But now he is completely better than ever, and is loving the crazy hot weather because he can splash around and eat tons of ice cream. 

If you've been following me on Instagram then you already knew all this ;) Was that a shameless plug? Yup, probably. But you will be seeing me around more on these here internets, and some changes are a comin' for this little ole blog of mine. So be ready :) 

I wanna be a cowboy baby...

Not a lot of words today, just photos. And cute ones if I do say so myself :)

It's OK

.. That I have all intentions to blog everyday but it doesn't happen. I just don't have the energy.

.. That I went blonde!

.. That I'm blogging on my iPad in my bed and not in front of a computer (So all photos are at the bottom... sorry :)

.. That I'm so sick of hearing about Reader going away.

.. That if I hear the words blog and lovin' again I may scream.

.. That I want you all to follow me via bloglovin (look for the heart in my social media links) #doublestandard

.. That I'm behind in school because FAR has been crazy sick with double ear infections.

.. That Im exhausted because I've been driving FAR back and forth to the Doctor everyday for antibiotic shots.

.. That we gave FAR his birthday present 3 months early #trampolinefun

.. That I am so proud of the fact I bought FAR 10 outfits and 2 shirts at an awesome Consignment sale #thriftynotcheep

.. That FAR has 2 BFFs like his momma #babyj #KP

Finding Family

Happy Monday!

Welcome to the Finding Family Weekly Link up. We are so glad you stopped by. While you're here, please follow the blogs of the host and co-host:

 Tales of Beauty for Ashes (host)

Tales from a Far (cohost)

 

Each week, I will be choosing a featured blogger from the previous link up. Last week's featured blogger is Encourage 101. I love the practical advice for encouragement!

• Stop by and see what other families are doing. Leave a comment, let them know you were there. 
• Grab a button to put on your blog.

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•  Don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

If you would like to co-host send Becky an email at talesofbeautyforashes@gmail.com.

Wordless Wednesday

and how much do YOU cost?

Okay I may get shunned from the blogging world for this post. But It's {currently} Saturday night, I'm  finished with my school work for the week, and there may be a glass of wine sitting beside my chair. 

This topic has been on my heart for awhile now, and if nobody agrees with me and i'm just a crazy loser that's fine but have you ever felt like you've had to purchase blog friends? 

Yup I said it. Now do not get me wrong, There are some amazing bloggers out there that I feel I really have connected with and I do stalk their blogs hourly daily. But when I first got into the blogging game I tried to reach out to some well known bloggers who I had heard from asking them if they wanted to swap buttons. {keep in mind, this was before I knew what paid sponsorships were} and do you know how many people ignored me? More than answered I can tell you that. So once I started dipping into paid sponsorship and actually sold a few ads I went to purchase some on some of my favorite blogs. Here was my experience: 

1 sponsorship was wonderful. This blogger and I still keep in contact via Twitter and e-mail even though my ad ran out. Love her and her blog. 

1 sponsorship was a great thing for my blog. The blogger did her "job" promoting mine and I was very pleased. We emailed and connected and then when my ad ran out.... *insert crickets here* Nothing. No return hey how are you emails like I had gotten before... was I paying for her friendship also?

1 sponsorship I paid and the blogger and I emailed a few times and actually had a lot in common on a personal level. I paid for a premium spot on her blog and was supposed to be given an interview, social media shout-outs, and the entire 9 yards. None of that ever happened. Believe me, I'm the first person to admit that life happens. I understand that. Life was one of the main reasons I stopped accepting paid sponsors on tales from a FAR. But really? An email would of been nice at least. But that's just my opinion... 

Am I the only one that feels this way? Please tell me i'm not... just so I can be sure, How much do you cost? ;) 

PS- Shameless plug time.. I would LOVE to have you on my sidebar.. and you don't even have to give me a dime. e-mail me {amanda[at]talesfromfar[dot]com}

disclaimer: will I ever purchase ad space again? probably  Will I think twice on who's blog it is on? You better believe it <3

Oh Baby Baby....

Everywhere I have seen people announcing they are pregnant. All of the people I was preggo with when I had FAR are announcing all over Facebook and Twitter that "they are expecting" "baby #2 is on the way" so with that being said.... 

I'm not pregnant. 

But I want to be, so very badly. Is it fertility issues? Nope. (Praise Jesus)I'm pretty sure everything is working fine. and the funny thing is, when I think about raising a newborn and a toddler my whole body cringes. I tense up. I want to vomit thinking about all the lack of sleep, Trying to teach FAR to behave around the baby, getting big as a house again, and just being overall miserable. 

But when I think about baby snuggles, nursing, cute baby girl stuff I get all warm and fuzzy inside. I want another baby. My arms ache when I think about holding another sweet gift of God in my arms. If you would of asked me a year ago if FAR would ever be a big brother you would of gotten a really fast "NO!" but now... I don't know if it's because i'm getting older, or what but I have extreme baby fever. 

Two main things have to change before we can even dream about having another baby. I have to finish school & We have to have a house of our own. We cannot raise another baby where we live, it is just not feasible for many reasons, the main one being space. So until these two things come I will continue poppin my pill, and prayin for God's will :) 

Speaking of babies... How's FAR you ask? 

Big. 

Sassy.

Loving. 

Hilarious. 

Amazing. 

PS- Linking up with Finding Family, I can't get the button to work! 

Finding Family Week 1

Hi! Remember me? :) Life has been so crazy lately that I have been very absent from the blogging world. But when my beautiful friend Becky contacted me to be apart of this special linkup I couldn't refuse. So everybody grab a button, link up, and enter the giveaway at the bottom. And I will be back soon to give you full updates on sweet FAR :) 

Happy Monday!

Welcome to the Finding Family Link up. We are so glad you stopped by. Please link up a post about family. You can link up a post about your brother's silly antics. Your daughter's birthday. Lessons on how to be a good wife. How to cope with the death of a grandparent. Really, anything family! 

While you're here, please check out the beautiful blogs of my co-hosts:

 Tales of Beauty for Ashes (host)

Phtreats (cohost)

Houtz HouseParty (cohost)

Big K Fam (cohost)

Tales from a Far (cohost)

Krystal's Kisch (cohost)

Not in Jersey (cohost)
Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles (cohost)

• Stop by and see what other families are doing. Leave a comment, let them know you were there. 
• Grab a button to put on your blog.

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•  Don't forget to enter the giveaway below!

Win a copy of Clouds, by Robin Jones Gunn
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Christmas 2012: A Recap

Instead of trying to blog out Christmas, I just thought i'd post all these photos so you can see it for yourself :) and for the record: FAR hated opening presents this year. He didn't open a single one.