Resolutions for a 30 Year Old

So I kind of skipped the whole New Years Resolutions thing. I guess it just slipped my mind. Well boo hoo. I know the norm is for people to be all GUNG HO in Jan and Feb then begin the slide in March, if they last even that long. So instead I'm going to do resolutions for my 30 year old self. It's basically the same thing but centered around my birthday, as all things should be. *Ahem*
So I've already got a couple on my mind.
Numero Uno: Take better care of myself. Yes I want to lose weight but I don't want to fall into that resolution trap so I'm making it different. As we all know, I'm no longer in my 20's and will not be getting any younger. I want to take better care of ME. Of my skin, teeth, hair and body. For my skin, I'm going to attempt to take my makeup off at night for once, use a really good night cream and maybe start putting some eye cream on to ward off those wrinkles. I'm already good about sunscreen in my lotion and makeup so I'm ok there.  I finally have dental insurance so I'll be making that trip soon. I'm thinking about doing a major chop on my hair. And I've decided that once the baby starts sleeping better I will get up earlier and run in the mornings. Right now, for the last few weeks she's been waking up 2-6 times a night and honestly I just can't wake up any earlier than I already too. I'm not getting enough sleep. But I do want to start jogging agin, so once I'm sleeping more than like 4 hours, I will start the Couch Potato to 5K again.
Numero Dos: FINISH two major knitting projects. This means actually complete from start to finish two projects. And a scarf doesn't count. I started a baby sweater, hopefully I can finish that. I'm the Queen of unfinished projects so I really want to have some finished projects I can show off :-)
Numero Tres: Work on my sign language. I want to use it more with Camille and I want to just learn it better all around. SO practice more.
Numero Quatro: Chip away at debt and build my credit score.

I think if I can work on these all year, I'll be doing pretty good!

The Eve of a Big Day

Tomorrow is almost here! It's a big day for us Thielmans! I am turning THIRTY and Camille is turning 6 months!
It's pretty weird to think about turning 30. It's not that I'm upset or sad about it. More like it snuck up on me! But I'm looking forward to my 30s! I think this is going to be a good year for us! I'm turning 30, taking my last class for my accounting certificate, Camille will turn one in July, we'll be taking her to Disneyland for her first time in May, I just had a store in FLorida place a huge wholesale order, and who knows what else? All the usual sadness is still there, I'm still very behind on bills, my family is still hours away, I still can't seem to finish a knitting project. But you know what? The good outshines the bad. I may not see my parents often enough but when I do it's special. Camille is laughing now and it's the most beautiful sound in the world. It just makes you smile and you can't think about anything bad!
Here's some pictures:

My Awesome Family!

 Grandma and Camille!

 First Time sitting in the grocery cart!

 Handy Hank. The most special present ever. This was my Papa's toy when he was a young boy. He's kept it all these years and I remember being little and watching it go. I've always LOVED it. My mom got it for me for my birthday. It still works and everything. Her moves his little gears and it drives. When it bumps into something he backs up and turns. It's amazing. I love it so so much!

 Yum. Fruit.

 Well hello there!

Camille has been sick for a few days so it's been rough. She's ok during the days usually but man in the evenings she'll cry for hours. We took her to the doc because she kept tugging her ear but he said her ears where fine but she had a sore throat. Getting her to go to sleep at night is basically a nightmare. I just feel so bad for her, nothing gets her to stop crying and she's just so tired. The last week or so she's woken up at least 3 times each night once 6 times. I would loooove a good nights sleep.
Funny story: This may be TMI or weird or gross but whatever. Like a week or two ago I was asleep and my mom was visiting, sleeping on the couch. We normally sleep with the door open but for some reason Brendan had closed it. I woke up and saw the door was closed and freaked out thinking I hadn't heard the baby cry. I jumped up and ran into her room. She was asleep. When I came back to bed I realized I had completely soaked my shirt with milk. I guess my sudden "BABY NEEDS ME" panic set off my internal milk making alarms haha Funny how your body works

Anyway, off to make more towels and then get to bed. Looking forward to tomorrow! :-)

Sleep, you elusive butthole

I am tired. Why is it that on days that you get little sleep, the rest of the day goes badly as well? Is it because you're not well equipped to deal with it? Or just the Universe against you?
Camille was sleeping for long stretches very early. She used to go to bed at 8 and sleep until 2ish then wake up around 7. Now she goes to sleep at 8, wakes up at 12:30ish, 3:30ish, 5 sometimes and 7. Sometimes she wants to eat, sometimes she just wakes up. The night before last was one of those nights and then I had a rough day at work. It just all around sucked. Last night was better. But I'm still tired. I've been reading up on baby sleep schedules and such and trying to just soothe her back to sleep instead of feeding her, which worked last night. Sometimes I just put her pacifier back in and all is right with the world. But it doesn't always work.
That's all for now. Just felt the need to complain a bit. I haven't gotten more than 4 hours of sleep at a time in 5 months. And I'm one of those people that sleep 8 every night. whiney whine whine!!

A new Year is Upon us!

As we can all see, blogging is falling down the list of important things to do. Work and daily life activities have taken precedence. I won't Promise for more blogging this year, but I will definitely try!
So! December!
Obviously, the most important thing, CHRISTMAS!!! Camille's first Christmas! It was great! We stayed home, Brendan's brother came to visit, we opened presents, had Christmas dinner and took the tram to the top of Mt San Jacinto and played in the snow. Carrying a baby while treading through snow is NOT easy! And neither is the damn walk back to the tram station. But we had a lot of fun and it was great to have Tyler here too.
Let's do a quick showing of our December in the random pictures I Take:
I made this for my best friends daughter for Christmas:

 I cut up my wedding dress! It was stressful:

I did it to make an awesome family Christmas tree skirt. I'm not done with it yet, but it's coming along awesome

 

 My friend Julia took some awesome picture of Camille and I. I love these two!!

 Camille enjoyed the tram ride up to the top of Mt. San Jacinto

Opening presents with Grandma!

 And playing drums with grandpa!

 Taking a Walk to Oso Flaco Lake

 Hanging ornaments on our tree. Notice the lack of regular ball ornaments. Brendan banned them.

 I made this one of Camille's hand.

 Christmas morning playing with her stocking that Auntie Christine got her!

 Brothers!

 My girl and our tree :-)

 On the top of the mountain! Cold!!

 Playing in the dune. My dad is awesome!

 I took this pic, I love it!!

 Family <3

 And our girl is 5 months old now!!

At Camille's 5 month check up, she weighed in at 14 lbs (32%), 24 inches tall (14%) and 16 3/4 head (69%). Still short with a big head. But she wears it well.
As you can tell from the pics, we spent Christmas here and then the following weekend went to my parents and had a second Christmas there with my parents and sister and her family. It was awesome. Super fun! I love hanging out with my family! I even stayed up until Midnight on New Years Ever! Brendan, my mom and I played Yatzee haha!
Here's a few pics so far this year:

She's eating a lot of new foods so I'm attempting to make some. This above is green beans. It looks gross but I tried it and it just tasted like green beans! I'm going to try some squash and some other things too. And she loves to eat melon through this mesh bag thing we got her.
I'm looking forward to what 2013 has to offer us! i'm turning 30 in 20 days. The big 3-0!!!! Crazy! School starts the end of Jan! This will be my third tax season at work so I feel good about that. Just trying to get our life in order. I don't really have an New Years Resolutions. I guess it's to be positive and kind. More positive and kind - to strangers, to loved ones, as often as I can. There's so much negativity in the world, I want to be that happy spot that can brighten someones day. I also would like to do more creative things, 2012 I slacked on that, so I'd like to sew more and expand my knitting skills. Like maybe actually finish something HA!
And that, folks, is my monthly post. Love you all!!

Uhm, where the Hell did November go?

Phew, I basically didn't blog for a whole month. TERRIBLE! Everytime I'd think about it something else came up.

Okay well let's see, where to begin? One of the biggest changes in our lives was that I went back to work on Nov. 5.  It was really hard on me to leave her but luckily for us Brendan had the first few days off so I came home at lunch and spent time with her. Thursday the 8th was her first day in day care. We found a lady named Cheryl that is pretty close to my work so it's great. brendan drops her off in the morning and I pick her up after work. It still sucks that I can't be with her every day but we've gotten into a routine so it's working out.
The day before I went back to work we got a behind the scenes giraffe feeding at the Living Desert courtesy of Kieran and Amanda. It was FREAKING AWESOME! They were so sweet and pretty up close!!

Also on the 8th, we drove to Santa Maria. We spent Friday hanging out around town with my mom then woke up early Sat the 10th and drove to Chico! It was Camille's first trip to meet her cousins and Uncle Chris! Aunty Christine met her when she was still in the hospital, so this was her first time being able to hold her without a bunch of cords in the way! The trip was good, she slept and was good in the car. Road trips with my parents are always AWESOME. Ava turned 6 years old and have a fun party at a bouncey place and we just hung out with the family up there then drove home Monday. I drove from Chico to Santa Maria, took a break in SM, then drove the rest of the way home. It was a LONG day in the care but it was good to be home by the end of it!


My mom came to visit the following weekend and we took some family pics and Camille met Santa for the first time! She even smiled in the picture!

We had Thanksgiving with Kieran and Amanda! They cooked at their house so we went over there! It was really good and we even had some new stuff, like stuffing that they eat in England. I baked some pies and a side. I'll tell you, it was nice not having to do the whole shebang!

The 24th was a book signing in Palm Springs! Amber and I went, we waited in line for a while but it was so worth it to meet Capt. Jack himself, John Barrowman! He and his sister both held Camille and John even carried her around the store, dancing and singing. It was SPECTACULAR. Seriously best moment EVER.

For her 4 month stats, she is now 13 lbs 7 ounces, has a 16 1/4 in head and is 23 3/4 inches tall. She's around 50% for weight and head but 26% for height.
The 29th was her dr appt, she had shots and the doc said we could start trying solids if we wanted to! So we got some rice cereal. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet, but she's working on it haha! She has a cold right now, she's all coughy and raspy so i'm not pushing it right now. Brendan thought it would be funny if we fed her with a silver spoon so we used this teeny silver baby spoon that he had. We now have regular baby spoons.

Well I think that's a brief breakdown of November. Hopefully I'll be better about blogging in December! Christmastime and all that jazz! Yay!!!

First Halloween!!

I love Halloween! It's the start of my favorite time of year. For the next couple months it's awesome holiday after awesome holiday! Ending in January with my birthday! And I'll be 30 this year so that's a big doozy!
Anyway, our Halloween started off with us looking for a pumpkin patch. I just wanted to take some pictures and kind of have the whole Fall feeling going on. Well apparently there are none in the valley. None that we could find and we even called the chamber of commerce/visitors center. Ridiculous! How can there be no pumpkin patches? What is wrong with this place? Jeez.
So we came home and carved our one pumpkin that I bought unceremoniously at Wal-Mart. No wonder it was so cheap, this thing was like 4 inches thick!! It was so hard to carve!!!!! And we found out B-Bop likes pumpkin guts!



We also went to a cool event at the zoo called HowlOWeen, there was candy and bouncehouses and a scary ride thing. We went with Kieran and Amanda and had a super fun time! They are the ones that got her costume, she was a zebra. Wild zebra on the loose!



 My sister sent Camille a cute halloween box with jammies a frame some candy. It was awesome!! She wore the jammies halloween night :-) She liked them



She also went to her first parade! It was the Palm Desert golf cart parade! It was fun, watched part of it with our friend Heather and her kids. her daughter is just a couple weeks older than Camille. It was a warm day but Camille had a good time! She only last for a little while though before she passed out!


I'm trying to cook more, so we eat out less. I relaly like eating out but it's expensive so time for us to start eating in. I found this amazing idea. I cooked a bunch of chicken breasts in the crock pot then I put them all in my mixer and it shredded them perfectly!! Like easiest thing EVER! So I packaged it all up and separated it to be frozen or used.

 So far with one package I made tacos one night and enchiladas then next. Tonight is spaghetti night :-)
Oh and I finally finished the bookcases! Yea!!!

Grandma Elizabeth got Camille a new wubba nub so now she has two! She loves her new caterpillar!

 And lastly just a pick that I like to call: A boy and his dog :-)