Newborn Photo Shoot

So I was blessed this week not only with getting to witness my niece enter the world but I also was able to practice on her with my first newborn photo shoot. These light and all are loads of fun but I still have a ton to learn! Here are a *few* of my favorites of this 3 day old!

I had to get one with the bracelet that I ordered for her. Too cute huh?

Of course I to do a bit of free korker bow advertising! I think this one will be going on my website when it's up! LOVE those big bows on tiny babies!


I'd have to say not too bad for about 10 minutes worth of photos! It's a big change from the normal toddler pictures I take. I actually was able to pose her, step back and focus my picture, and her still be just laying there! It was wonderful for her not to crawl off by the time my camera focused! Oh, but that time will come...sooner than you think! Thanks Aliya for letting me take some cute newborn pictures of you!

They Never Cease to Amaze Me!

So why is it that your children are determined to embarrass their parents? No matter what circumstance you are in your children always seem to find a way to make you want to pull a blanket over your head and pretent you're not there. So we are the hospital with Hannah yesterday and Carla and David brought Maddelyn up to see Aliya while the other 2 girls were napping. The nurse is changing Aliya and she is crying because they are trying to get a urine sample from her. Well, my very "say it like it is" child states very loudly "She doesn't know what SHE'S doing!" Oh my goodness! I was ready to die. Well, then what makes it worse is that the nurse goes out to get something and brings back another nurse to help her get the urine sample. Well my first thought was...oh no....what if she thought that Maddelyn was repeating what she had already heard us say so she went to get help? You know, children always repeat exactly what their parents pray they wouldn't. So needless to say we got a good laugh out of Maddelyn.

Hannah and Aliya come home today from the hospital. I got to take some cute pictures of her yesterday at the hospital. She had her very first little photo shoot. Poor thing hates the camera flash but we told her...honey you mine as well get used to it Aunt Mandi like photos and lots of them! I was tickled that her korker headbands that I made for her look so cute. I'll definietly be using my little model in my bow advertising!

This is one of the first times in Caroline's life that she actually looks big next to someone. what a little peanut Caroline is!

she finally has her eyes open in a photo! How cute!

Uncle Jeremiah and his sweet girlfriend Emily (see Em you made the blog! HAHA!)

Welcome ot the World Aliya Ana-Jo

So obviously I made quick trip to PA yesterday for Aliya's arrival. My sister-in-law so graceous enough to ask me to be in the delivery room with her. Wow! What a marvelous miracle of God is bringing a baby into the world. I mean yeah I've done it 3 times already but to see it from the other side of the bed is such a miracle. How God has designed us women to bring life into the world will never cease to amaze me.

So here is the newest princess around!

ALIYA ANA-JO

7lbs 14 oz

19 Inches

January 26, 2008

8:48am

You Know You're Getting Old When....

You know you're getting old when your 3 year old comes in the room carrying a Strawberry Shortcake book from you childhood with a mini record in it. The record drops out on to the floor and she exclaimes..."OH! A really big CD!" Yep..that just added about 20 years on me! Oh how old I felt at that moment!

So Maddelyn is doing her school work yesterday and we were discussing how K and C have the same sound. So I ask her is she can think of anymore "K" words. She say....Cada? I was like what? You know Cada! I said Maddelyn I have no idea what you're talking about. She says you know Mom, it's a place. Ohhhh! Canada? She was like yeah! I had no clue she even knew the word Canada let alone that it was a place? But, she was right...it was a "K" sound even thought it wasn't a K. The really hard one for her was that CAT starts with a "C" and KITTENS starts with a "K". Now what genius thought that one up? Obviously not a mom!!!

Caroline is sick..yet again! She has had a real mild fever with no other signs for about 3 days. That's not totally unusual for her. Well today I get her out of her PJ's and she has a rash all over her! Poor thing! I HATE the fact that someone has been sick in our home since like Thanksgiving? We are never going to get well! I can't wait for the warm weather of Spring to come to I can open everything up to air out the house and then lysol everything! We need to sterilize the entire house! Just wrap saran wrap around it and steam all those germs out! I wish! Wouldn't that be great though...steam sanizitze your entie house in one shot? I am just itching to start my Spring cleaning although it's kinda hard to do that when it's snowing outside and you can't vent the fumes? Hurry up Spring! Mandi wants to CLEAN!!! (this would be the OCD talking! )

For those of you who are wondering about my heart and have called or sent emails with your prayers and well wishes. Thank you!!! The Electrophysiologist (sp?) called yesterday and wanted to bump up my appt to Feb 8th instead of the end of the month to review my tilt test results. I did not have a very good exprience at all that day so I guess he wants to talk about it. I also want to ask him about the headach I have had since I started the medication as well as why 3 times in the past 2 days I have been VERY light headed while totally resting? I never had anything like this at all before so now it makes think hmmmm.....I was fine before the make-you-dizzy-to see-if-you-pass-out test, I failed that obviously and now I am having dizzy spells? Wierd? Well, I will know more on the 8th.

Have a great night everyone!

Catch-up Day

I love nsational holdiay where hubby has the day off. It just happen to work out that he has off from both jobs today YEAH! So today is honey-do day and catch up day for me. I am currently about knee deep in scrapbooking supplies! It's so frustrating that when I get to busy to scap and have to take a bit of a break from the scrap world, my scrap room becomes the "dump it here because I don't have anywhere else to put it" room. Hence, I'm sorting through that silly stuff and THEN trying to clean up my scraproom...oh while doing laundry, putting away birthday presents, emailing back and forth about custom order bows, making dinner, dealing with a yet again sick baby, mediating fights with the girls and dealing with a never ending headache. And the world asks why mommies to toddlers are stressed? LOL! Let me count the reasons! MULTI-TASKING!!!

Hopefully this evening I can dig my way out of the sorting enough to watch a movie with hubby and not totally take advantage of him on the day off!

The twelvefriday's site is up and running...very cute Heather and Heidi! LOVE that design! http://www.twelvefridays.com If you click on the design team link you'll see my silly picture. Also on the left there is the more info on the design team link with our bio's. Mine is on page 2. Since I know several people will not check out the link I had to share a bit of the silly questions they had us answer on the bio page. You'll have to go to the link to see the rest! :D

Something you have always wanted to do but haven't....go on an old person bus tour...I know my husband thinks I'm crazy too but I think it would be so much fun to hear all their life experiences and enjoy the places along the road as well. Yep, I'm kinda looney!

If you could go anywhere in the world where would you go? besides a bus tour...LOL...Hawaii

What keeps you scrapbooking? My OCD tendencies! I NEED the organization and stucture you get from putting items on a layout that you want, in straight lines, and having TOTAL control over your world.....or at least for the next 10 minutes until a toddler colors on the wall.

One of my most embarrassing moments was...I was a football trainer in high school and during a freshman football game the coach looked at me and said "Get the tee." I was like "Tee?? What's a Tee?" Well because I was standing there dumbfounded they had to send a player on to the field to get it, resulting in being penalized for an extra player on the field. Yep, the coaches NEVER let me live that one down. I never said I knew anything about football...just about being a medical trainer!

So check out twelvefriday's new site and look the rest of my silly bio on the design team page!

Princess Peanut is "1" Now!

So my Princess Peanut turned "1" yesterday! We had a normal day at home and then after Daddy came home from work we went out to eat at Olive Garden with the family. This was my first photo shoot with my new lights that Nathan got me for Christmas. I'm definitely still getting used to them especially with a baby girl who runs off as soon as you get her centered in the back drop and then schoot back enough to focus the camera! Uhh!!! New walkers!!! Let's just say tension was running high during these pictures... but we ended up with some cute ones!

Tomorrow I go in for more testing with my heart. I did end up seeing the specialist on Tuesday and they said my treatment options depend on if we are planning on any more children. The medications I will need to be on are not ok during pregnancy and since pregnancy was the only time in the past I had symptoms, now that they are more sever it could be a LONG 9 months! So...the Dr is also suggesting a procedure kinda like a heart cath but once they are in there and locate exactly where the extra heartbeats are being produced at, they will burn that exact spot. When the scar tissue forms the electrical currents will not be able to pass thorugh it makeing the extra heartbeats stop. But, of course there are risks involved and they don't love doing it on someone this young. So I have ot make a descision...stay on a heart pill that is meant for elderly people with failing hearts (and makes me feel aweful), which I can not take while pregnant or nursing.......or....... go ahead with a more than likely permenant procedure that has about a 1/100 change of blood clots (stroke) or them burning the wrong spot and me needing a pacemaker! WOW! Tough one!!! Tomorrow I have more testing done and they told me I have as much time as I want to decide on what I want to do. Can I just pick none of the above and pretend it's not happening?? Do you think it will all go away if I just think positive? LOL! So needless to say I'm asking for prayer on this one!

Oh where did the year go???

Yep...she turns one tomorrow! Her are the pictures of Caroline's first birthday party this past weekend. Her "Winter ONE-derland!!!"

Miss Birthday Girl herself. Now that she's walking I couldn't get her to stand still for me to take the picture and get the hat in it. She kept walking towards me laughing so the hat would be cut out! Oh silly little girl!

My mom made these adorable snowmen out of oreos dipped in white chocolate and then decorated with candies. Aren't they just the cutest!

I had a hard time finding snowflake cupcake decorations so thanks to my CRICUT (love that thing) and a picture of Caroline I made my own! I think they turned out much cuter than store bought anyways!

Where does that cheesy grin come from??? It must be from her dad?

My twin nieces........

More twins...my cousins

Everyone loves to see the baby and her cake! This kiddo pigged out on her first cake. I think maybe it had to do with grandma making a snowman shaped one that ended up about 3 times the normal 1st cake size, mixed with mom being really careful on her sugar intake??? Well no matter what it was she ate and ate until her little belly button literally popped out!

So tomorrow she turns one! WOW! That amazes me how fast the year went! Nathan's sister is due anyday with her first and I keep telling her look at how old her baby will be next year at this time! It's hard to believe how fast it happens. I think she knows how old she's getting because over the last couple of weeks she is acting so much older! I can't really explain it but she just seems so old!

So changing the subject......I have had several people wanting to know more info on my korker hair bow business....see pictures in my older posts....so I decided to share a little about them. I sell on ebay as well as do custom orders. To see my ebay aucitons you can click here or on the link to the right in the sites I visit.... http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmandi4245

If you are interested in a custom order you can email me at glassslipper02@yahoo.com for a ribbon color chart or to place an order. I will ship anywhere you need them and as cheap as possible. My custom prices are:

$5.00 Large Single Korker
$3.00 Toddler Single Korker
$9.00 Large Korker Set of 2
$5.50 Toddler Korker Set of 2
$5.00 Single Korker Streamer

I hope to be opening a website soon with my own shopping cart so people can order and pay with paypal directly thorugh there. But...with the crazy life we lead...who knows when that will happen???

She's Not Alone!!!

So I now know that Emma is not the ONLY child in the world who is fearless and determined.....a scary mixture to any mom of a 3 year old!!! This just made me sit back and smile knowing we are NOT ALONE in the adventures of rasing toddlers! You can check out this lady's blog to the right....Dawn mom of 6 ----->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUqCmpOXOm4

Time to Breath!

So were are coming to the end of a BUSY weekend! As you know I had my cardiologist appt Thursday afternoon. Well, the short end of it that he seemed pretty concerned and is sending me to a specialist....I thought a cardiologist was a specialist...it must be a special specialist??? Anyways I will be seeing a electrocardiologist as soon as possible. He basically said my heart is having tachycardia (fast heartbeat) but is beating in the wrong area as well. He said more than likely they will be doing an EP Study which is kinda like a heart cath to see where the beats are coming form. Yep...more to do in my busy life! :D

We had a WONDERFUL time at the church elders' retreat. the bed and breakfast was beautiful and the pastor's wife ahd the rooms all decorated with candles, roses, bath and body works, fakes snow, soft music, and the fire place lit when we arrived. Yep...romantic! The retreat was a hoot and we had a blast. Nathan of course decided it was time to let the rest of the elders and pastor find out what a nut he was......he did the RAPTOR! Oh my! He does this thing...since college where he prances around like a dinosaur and screeches just like a raptor. Well everyone laughed until they cried and I was embarrassed to death! Let's just say I jokingly told the elders' wives the girls and I now had to find a new church because we were too embarrassed to show up to service Sunday! LOL! That was just the tip of my silly husband showing he true colors this weekend! We did have a lot of fun though.




Today was sweet Caroline's 1st birthday party. We had a Winter One-derland party for her after church. She was in the best mood and had so much fun. It took no time eat all for her to figure out the present thing. She ripped in to everyone of them but got pretty upset that each time she'd get one open we'd take it away and give her a new one. It kinda worried Nathan at how she'd scream at us when we'd try to take the cards and cash out of her hands. He said oh my...that could be a bad sigh of what's to come when she'd 16! She devoured her messy cake and I think ate probably 3/4 of it. It was bigger than normal because my mom did 3 little cakes to make a snowman. Well the kid ate so much that her belly was like a rock and her bellybutton popped out!


I will try and get some pictures posted of it later on tomorrow...when things calm down a bit. But, do they ever really calm down with 3 under 5 or am I just fooling myself. Wait they are all calm right now at 11:22 pm. Maybe that 's why I am always updating my blog so late. Yep! That's exactly why I post this late! LOL!

Things That Make Me Smile...

1. Weekends away with hubby and .... kiddos at their grandparents

2. Finding steals on ebay...yep I'm an addict!

3. This!!! http://www.twelvefridays.com/


Yeah! It's official! I'm on the design team! Woo-hoo! Check it out everyone! VERY cool kits Heather and Heidi! Can't wat to get to play a bit with the February one! Believe me, you're gonna LOVE this kit club! I already do and I haven't even seen anything in real life!

Okay enough for now it's way past Mandi's betime but I was too excited to wait until the morning to share with everyone!

And it Gets Even More Crazy in Our Home!

So the reason I haven't updated since Saturday was well...I was in the ER all day Sunday with chest pain. I had posted before about the murmur, irregular heartbeat, testing, heart monitor and all with tachycardia (fast heart beat). Well it has just been getting much more frequent and i started to get chest pain with it. Well only being 25 that kinda freaked me out!!! So Saturday night I started having a spell and it wouldn't go away! All through the night my heart raced and was tight with achyness (sp?). Sunday at church my nurse friends jumped me about not going to the Er to get checked so I called my mom and she jumped me as well. So.......off to the Er we went. 8 1/2 hours later I leave the ER with the same tachycardia diagnosis, a beta blocker, more testing , and another cardiologist referral. So I go in the morning to see the cardiologist. It's not hurting my heart they said or dangerous, it is just living with the fast heartbeat, mild pain, an side effects like passing out. Like the Dr said...it's not dangerous to your heart, but passing out while driving that could be dangerous. So I'm really looking forward to seeing the Dr. and discussion other options besides the beta blocker which has a mile long side effects list.

Tomorrow I also take the girls to meet their grandma in Cleveland so they can go to PA for a few days. Nathan and I have our elders retreat with church Thursday and Friday night (at a bed and breakfast in Amish country...paid for by the church! Woo-Hoo!) Time away without kids and it's paid for?? Hmmm??? Let me thing on that one...YEAH! The girls will be having fun too being spoiled rotten by their grandparents of course. They don't know it yet but they are going to see the princesses with Disney on Ice this week in Pa. They will have so much fun!

Well I need to head off of here to get some bows int he mail and birthday party planning done for Caroline's party on Sunday. Here is the invite that my talented hubby made for us!

What I've been up to......

So I've been back in the bow buisness all week. I think in the last week I've listed 48 sets of bows plus a few custom orders so that means I've made over 100 bows this week! WHEW!!!! LOL! And...the kicker is my house is pretty clean, the laundry is not that far behind, and we did homeschool this week too? How did that happen? Well, hubby was home a bit more this week so we had some help. I LOVE having a daddy who can step in! Tonight was one of those nights. We had just had a really bad day with the girls and then Caroline fought sleep for about 2 hours. She was just miserable. She has a cold so I think she was having trouble sucking her thumb, but I also wonder if today's run-in with Emma made it worse?

As many of you know Caroline has a dairy allergy so she/we have been off dairy since she was about 3 months old. I introduced it back to her while I was still nursing at about 6 months and she seemed to handle it in small doses, but we don't get to try straight dairy with her until 12 months. Well, Emma kinda bumped that up a bit. She decided that she was finished with her cheeseball and crackers so why not put them on my sister's high chair and act like I have a clean plate? Well I caught her the first time she did it, but then when I stepped out of the room the crackers when back on the high chair tray and this time Caroline grabbed them. Can you blame her? It's Grandma's cheese ball!! So I'm not sure if she was having a reaction or even how much diary she got before I found her. No matter how you look at it she had a bad night.

I wanted to share this link with all of you local gals. The store that I used to teach at which was also owned by A2Z, the design team I am on....has opened up a crop room. I know that a lot of gals were sad when the store closed their doors but now they all have a new spot to crop at their A2Z location. It was so much fun seeing all the gals form my classes at the last crop. I know that Heidi, her mom, and sister have more than a few tricks up their sleeves yet so keep a look out for more updates on here and on their crop room's new blog! Congrats girls on the beautiful new crop room!!!

http://www.norwalkscrapbookstudio.blogspot.com/

Here is a peak at one of my new creations for my bow buisness. Of course that's Miss Maddelyn playing model for me...for anyone who knows her, she of course ate up every second of playing model for me! Miss Hollywood!

Well enough for tonight I am hoping to have a scrapbooking day tomorrow since hubby is home. I think it's a fair trade off he plays wii and I scrap? Now...who watches the kids? LOL! I need to get some pages done of Missy Caroline. I wanted to have a big portion of her album done for her party next weekend. I don't know how far I'll get on that but at least I have the pregnancy done? HaHa! I guess when I do some much scrap'n and bow making for others makes my albums kinda slack. Oh how I wish there were 2 of me?

I'm Marrying Mommy!

So after a LONG busy day I am just now sitting down to update. Today was the once a month, hour and a half trip to my orthodontist. I am soooo ready for those to come off. The trip with three little ones is so beyond old now! So today they say 3-4 more months! Funny that it was this past Summer...then Chirstmas......then February...now by Summer! UHHHH! Like Nathan says, the next time I go in they will say 2016!

So last night I got my test results back on my heart scan. A brief catch-up on that is I have been having some wierd heart spells where it feels like my heart is skipping a beat and I get light headed and short of breath with sometimes my chest even hurting. So the nurse practitioner said I had an irregular heartbeat and a murmer and sent me for an ecocardiogram and a 48 hour holter (home heart monitor.) I also had several blood test run including cholesterol and my thyroid since there is major family histroy of both. Well last night I found out that my blood scans were great but the monitor shows tackycardia which just menas that my heart is beating too fast sometimes. The nurse said there were a few spells where it got up to 190 beats per minute when 60-80 beats per minute is normal. So I am not being sent to a cardiologist. So we'll see what they say. I am really not wanting to just be put on a heart perscription. I would love to do some research and see if there are any homeopathic/natural means to deal with this first. I just hate the idea of being 25 and on a beta blocker and heart pill!

Here is a funny Emma story this time....

Emma: Mommy are you and Daddy going to get married?
Me: We already are married.
Emma: I saw you and Daddy's married picture.
Me: Yep we got married a long time ago. Maybe someday you'll get married too?
Me: Emma are you going to get married and have babies?
Emma: Yep!
Me: Are you going to marry a boy someday?
Emma: Nope! I marry a girl.
Me: You can't marry a girl Emma. Girls marry boys.
Emma: ........starting to cry
Me: Why are you crying?
Emma: ....sniff....sniff....I don't like boys!
Me: But don't you want to marry a nice boy like Daddy?
Emma: No! I want to marry you!
Maddelyn: You can't marry Mommy! Daddy already did!

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful New Year and I hope everyone else did as well. We had the usual party at my parnents. This year I am pretty sure the kids 5 and under out numbered the adults??? Or at least it seemed that way? We spent yesterday ringing in the New Year cleaning up the Christmas stuff and finishing organizing the bedrooms form the big switch we did pre-Christmas. You know they say whateve you're doing in when the year comes in, you'll be doing for the year! Cleaning and organizing???? I'm okay with that! I know...freak!

Before I forget, here are my Thankful 5......

1. I am thankful for a day to play catch up around here. Yesterday we got so much done!

2. I am thankful for a WONDERFUL husband who by himself took down all my Chirstmas decorations and put them away! It was so nice to be able to get done what I needed to around the house while hubby put the decorations away! THANKS!

3. I am thankful for a wonder weekend away. I love my children to pieces but sometimes Mommy and Daddy need some time away. The hotel was wonderful...as always and free! (gotta love those Hilton honors reward points!) The dinner theater was amazing! At the end of White Christmas it really snowed! they had snow machines in the cheling that filled the room with real snow! Really cool!

4. I am thankful for New Years Party leftovers! Yum!

5. I am thankful for how much bigger and more organized our upstairs seems with the rooms switched. Wierd huh?

Here are a few more Chirstmas pictures.....these are of my grandparent's house Christmas Eve

Santa and a not very happy Mrs. Clause.

These are all Christmas Morning opening gifts and the girls finding their bunk beds.

These are a few new pictures of the girls' new room. The ballet dresses were a gift from my Aunt Donna to the girls. They are hair bow holders. Fitting huh?.....perfect for a kid whose mom has a bow buisness? LOL! Anyways we saw a picture on ebay of one similar but not a cute and Donna said she could make them. Adorable huh? She also made up these letters for the girls' room as well.

Here is my trio Christmas morning in their Chirstmas dresses. Look at those cheesy grins on Maddelyn and Emma!