Those Special Little Moments

One thing I have learned to cherish are those little moments with Riley. Whether it's cuddle time, nursing time or bedtime, I enjoy each moment. I know I won't have a cuddly little boy forever! They eventually grow into teenagers, don't they?

I like this blogger app for my phone! I can write about these moments as they're happening!

Riley's First Easter!

I have to say that Riley's First Easter was a lot more fun that his first Christmas. Why? Well, he's older and way more aware of things.  And he was just dang adorable in his Easter suit (which used to belong to Ethan, who is now almost 6).

The suit was just a tad too big though. It's 6-9 month size and Riley's not quite there yet. Oh well, he was the best dressed man in church. LOL

So the morning started with church. We went to Brian and Robin's church. It was a nice service. The choir sang and the kids sang (too cute!). After the service, Jonathan and I spoke to the minister about becoming members and getting Riley dedicated (or christened).

After church it was the Easter Egg Hunt. That will be even more fun next year.

Figuring out how to pick up eggs and put them in the bucket.

Checking out his find!

After that we had a yummy lunch of ham, scalloped potatoes (homemade by me) and corn and green beans. Plus bunny bread made by Mel at Daylight Donuts.

After our lunch Riley had his lunch. After that, we discovered he can sit up on his own for a little bit. Go Riley!!

Such a big boy!

Now we're home (after a  trip to Walmart). We gave Riley his Easter basket (after he took a nap).

It has a combo of stuff from me and Jonathan, his grammy Julie and Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Jeff.

I'd absolutely adore a nap right now, but I don't think that's going to happen.. LOL

Happy Easter from the Schultzs!

Coupons! And other things...

So, recently (before Extreme Couponing) Jonathan and I decided we need to really try to get into couponing. We've learned that if you do it right you can really save.  Boy has it been an adventure to get started! We're still in the middle of organizing. Probably what we need to do is just sit and spend an hour or two clipping and organizing on Sundays.  As it is, we still have clipped coupons to put in our binder.  It will be a learning process. One thing we've come across is various blogs for couponing as well as places you can print coupons from, such as coupons.com.

As far as help with couponing, you should check out my friend Stacie's blog.
http://www.motherhoodonadime.com/
As much as it embarrasses me to say, only today have I discovered her coupon database.  I am certainly more than thrilled to use it! She also lists the best deals for our local stores. You can bet I will be following her blog a LOT more closely now!

Anywho, slowly but surely we'll get it.  It's all about knowing what coupons are out there and matching them up with items on sale.
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And on to other things. As I've said before.. WHAT A WEEK!!  It's 11:44 pm and I'm not entirely sure how I'm still awake! LOL  But, I want to stay up until Jonathan gets home from work.  Poor little Riley was SO tired tonight. Because of one thing or another, he didn't really get a nap today until AFTER 5!  He got up at 10:30 or so today, which is actually earlier than normal.  He ate twice before going to Aunt Robin's. He probably should have gotten a nap right then, but I'm betting he was excited to play with her.

Well, tonight after I got to mom's to pick him up I tried to see if he wanted to nurse. Boy, was he not interested! LOL  So, we packed up and headed to Walmart. I expected him to be asleep before I got to Walmart, but of course not! He's nosy and has to know everything going on! LOL  He finally fell asleep at Walmart and stayed asleep on the way home and while I unloaded the Walmart bags.  Then he nursed and it was time for a walk.

By the way, today was BEAUTIFUL!!  We got out and headed towards Mom and Dad's.  We walked through the park and through my elementary school grounds.  We stopped in and visited with mom a little while and headed home. On the way back, Riley was enjoying looking back up at me, it was too cute!

Then of course I had to take a picture from the front. :)

Yes, this is Mommy's Major Hunk! :)

We walked a bit further and the sky caught my eye.

Such a pretty array of colors. Rather Easter like actually!

As we walked on and got closer to home, I noticed Riley's feet...

He's going to be just like Momma, riding in the car with his feet on the dash! :)


Tomorrow should prove to be a busy day. I need to visit the donut shop to pick up the bunny bread for Easter lunch. Then I want to take Riley to the Easter egg hunt to get his picture with the Easter bunny and Big Bird (and possibly Elmo, The Cookie Monster and Minnie Mouse).  Tomorrow evening is grilling at Mom and Dad's. Laura and Bob might be in town.  Then Sunday is church and lunch. Then Jonathan, Riley and I are getting away and going to Wichita for dinner.  Busy weekend, but it should be good. :)

What a Week!

It's been one of those weeks.

Not a bad week, just one of those weeks. Being tired does that to you. Granted, I wouldn't change the reason I'm tired for anything. :)

It's been a little off as Tuesday night Jonathan stayed home from work because he was having what was most likely Crohn's issues. Then he felt fine Wednesday then once he got in to work he started feeling bad, light headed and such. He got someone to come in early for him so he got home a little after 9:30 instead of midnight.  He's home tonight as well as he's still not feeling 100%. Hopefully he'll be much better tomorrow.  It is nice to spend the time with him though as he worked until 4 am both Friday and Saturday nights so I was fast asleep before he got home both nights.

Easter is on Sunday and I'm excited about it. Saturday there's an Easter egg hunt at Memorial Park. I want to take Riley. Not so he can do the hunt (he can't even crawl yet!) but so we can get pictures! I guess they will have the Easter bunny, Big Bird, Elmo, The Cookie Monster and Minnie Mouse there. I want to get his picture with Big Bird. :)  I suppose we should get one with the Easter bunny too though... LOL

Sunday at least Riley and I are planning to go to church with Brian, Robin and fam.  I have a little suit to put Riley in. Ethan wore it when he was 6 months old and Robin still had it. It's SO adorable. :)

Riley ate FIVE cubes of sweet potatoes tonight.  I'm still in shock. Jonathan texted me to tell me that.  Hopefully he's ready to nurse when I get home (which should be in about 10 minutes). 


One thing I need to start REALLY working on is losing weight.  The baby weight came off pretty fast after I had Riley, but we all know I had plenty extra when I got pregnant with him.  I want to join Weight Watchers Online. The thing I like about WW is that they have a special points plan for women who are nursing. I cannot and will not allow my supply to take a dip.  I hope this can help provide the structure I need. Plus, with it being nicer out, Riley and I can go on strolls after I get off of work most days. Except this week of course. It decided to get cloudy, cooler and windy out. I expect rain for the next couple of days at least.

Ok... I'm signing off for now.

6 month checkup and more

I wish I could find the time to blog every day!  But, I think that anyone with a baby understands that may not always happen. As Riley gets older, the chances for blogging daily should come around more often. For now I’ll try every day and if it happens, great! If not, you’ll all survive. J

Friday was a HUGE milestone for me. Besides Riley turning 6 months old, it also marked 6 full months of Riley being exclusively breastfed or bottle fed expressed breast milk.  When I first found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted to try breastfeeding.  That’s what I always said, “I want to try.”  Now I know I should have said, “I am going to breastfeed.”  You hear so many stories about women not being able to breastfeed for one reason or another but it’s rare you hear the success stories. 

For me, making it to 6 months is a huge success. I was so worried that me and my faithful pump wouldn’t be able to keep up once I went back to work. In fact, there were a couple weeks where it seemed like my freezer stash was diminishing.  But somehow, the girls kicked it into gear.  Now that Riley is 6 months, been eating solids for about a month and seemingly satisfied with the nursing and bottle feedings he gets in a day, I feel confident we’ll be able to make it to a year.  Who knows, maybe I’ll even have enough in my freezer to go a little beyond a year. Once I hit a year though, I will have reached my ultimate goal and be glad to put the pump into storage!

Another thing I’m proud of myself for doing for Riley is making his baby food.  I hope this will help with his future eating habits. I know this may be a far off dream, but I’d love to have a kid who isn’t a picky eater! Shoot, maybe if I ate like Riley I’d lose some weight! LOL

If any of you read Jonathan’s blog, you’ll see he’s considering the Army Reserves.  Yeah, I wasn’t thrilled to see two Army men at our doorstep last Tuesday. Those guys talked to him more about the GI/Post 9/11 GI bills, but they also mentioned the reserves.  So now a recruiter has called.  If this is really what Jonathan wants, I want him to go for it. And like I told him, I can handle one weekend a month and 2 weeks a year of him being gone, but I’m not sure how I’d handle a deployment.  I’ve done it once and at that time, Jonathan and I had only been dating almost 4 months. Now we’ve been married over 5 years and have a child. I know Jonathan doesn’t want to miss Riley growing up.  So, he’s going to look into this Try 1 program and work on getting himself back into shape.  I think the main thing that would keep him from trying it for a year would be him having to do basic again.

There are definitely great perks to him joining the Reserves, but do those perks outweigh the possibility of deployment?  And with deployment always comes the possibility of worse. Yes, I know that’s pessimistic thinking, but how can you not? Anyone watch Army Wives?  What happened a 

couple of episodes ago was not something that only happens on tv.

On a good note, those of you who knew mom was in the hospital for MRSA, she’s feeling better. She is super tired as she’s anemic from the chemo, but if that’s all she’s having issues with, that’s good.  She misses being able to really hold and snuggle Riley, but doc says she has to be careful around little ones.  Soon enough though!

Move to later in the day... Riley had his 6 month checkup today. He can't get his shots until next week because it hasn't been enough weeks since the last one. Apparently the state is really cracking down on that.  He looks good in all areas except his weight.  He's 14 lbs .5 oz, 25.5 inches long and his head circumference is 17 inches.  He moved from 6th percentile in weight down to 3rd percentile so Dr. Heger is a little concerned (although Dr. Grandpa says not to worry). We have to take him back in a month to get his weight checked. If he's not gaining like the doc wants to see then we may have to do something more.  Sheesh, I write all about how my baby has been totally on breast milk and I think we'll make it to a year and then the chances of formula having to be introduced smacks me in the face.  If Riley's not hungry, he won't nurse or take a bottle, it's as simple as that. He's a happy, active and otherwise healthy baby. So I guess we'll see, right?  

Right now I've got garlic bread in the oven and water boiling on the stove. It's spaghetti night.

6 months and counting!

It took me 6 months to get a mommy blog going!  Although, any mom will tell you that doesn't surprise her. The first days, heck, even weeks, at home with a baby are, while amazing, overwhelming and exhausting!  But, I wouldn't change it for a bit!

It's late and I need to get to bed, but I wanted to make sure I got my blog started sooner than later.

Riley was born on October 15th, 2010. He is the most amazing thing to ever happen to me!  It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital giving birth, yet here we are, 6 months later!

My little man has grown and changed so much in so little time. His personality shows more and more each day. I enjoy every minute with him.

Happy 6 months, little man!