Happy Baby, Happy Life

 Do you know the quote "happy wife , happy life"? Well I'm here tell you they missed a part..
Happy baby, happy wife and happy wife mean a happy life. Makes alot more sense now right?!

It's amazing that such a small person has so much handle in our lives, but babies rule the world.
Without talking the make us listen.
Without lifting a finger they got us in wrap around that same little finger.
Without even taking their first breath they take ours away.
So you see, they do run the world!

But the amount of happiness these tiny humans bring us is extraordinary and that's why I'm excited to partner with Gerber® Good Start® to bring you our formula for happiness.

When Bella was a baby there are a few thing that helped us and that still help us today as my sweet girl moves from baby to toddler.

1. Naps.
Babies are unpredictable and always changing so you will have to see what works for you and tweak it a few times. For us naps are necessary and always a must. Bella needed to nap 2-3 per day as a baby, then switch to 2 times a day and once she was 15 months we went down to 1 nap a day. Now my 18 month old needs again 2 naps to have a good day! Doctors say that sleeping allows our kids to grown and it nourishes their body in many ways and this mama needs them too.

2. Play time
 Sometimes we think that since our kids are little that playtime is not as necessary but on the contrary is what helps them grow. We started playing with Bella when she was 6 weeks. We played on her mat, played music and exercise her little body and by 5 months she was crawling. Needless to say Bella has always been super active and by 9 months we had a walker and has been none stop ever since then.

3. Feeding
If you ever thought that being a new mom is an adventure try finding good, and nourishing food. Whether breastfeeding or formula feeding you as the parent know best and as a consumer your opinions matter. For years parents have asked the big companies to provide formulas with better ingredients and Gerber® Good Start® had done just that by providing us with a non-GMO's formula. As a mom nothing makes me happier that when my daughter and my needs are met.
 When Bella was baby we mixed formula and breast milk and now as a toddler we still go to Gerber® for many of our needs. Including Yogurt drops, Puffs and Gerber® Good Start® toddler formula for those long days when her teeth have bothered her too much or simply she was too picky and decided not to eat.

This is our formula for a happy baby! What is your #Formulaforhappiness?


Click here to know more about Gerber® Good Start® Formula and to share more #happiness here is a coupon just for you!

Commitment

On a daily basis we are committed to many things. 

I'm committed to being a mother, taking care of the kids in my home-daycare, being a daughter , a granddaughter, a cook, a homemaker, a christian and the list could go on and on, but to me, one of the most important commitments is to my husband.

 

Lester and I got married right out of school, high school for me that is.

YES I married my high school sweetheart at the age of 18 and never looked back!

In realty we fit perfectly in every divorce rate, got married young, from different ends of the world and an age gap.

Has that stopped us for a single sec? No

He is the man of my life, my forever partner and definitely my better half.

He works endless hours, he provides for our family and is always there to support me. He has taught me so much, from cleaning, doing laundry,and to having faith.

Yes he taught me how to clean. 

Till today, my husband cleans better and irons better than any woman I know.

 I was a mamas girl and my mom did everything for me. She did my laundry, the cleaning and even cooked. The only thing I cook to perfection is Mac and Cheese and Roman noodles. I'm not even kidding. I'm learning and the fact that he is still here and still willing to work in our marriage is only an act of God.

I still remember my first dinner. Burned ground beef, overdone spaghetti and an awesome brownie. (I CAN bake)

Needless to say I did my first load of laundry at 18 as a new wife and welcomed my hubby with tears in the bathroom ( also the laundry room) floor surrounded by 13 pink white shirts.

 Not fun at all.

To this day my husband helps with the cleaning of the house and laundry. 

 Even though I'm better now, I do still need help and he still does help!

In our church we work with marriages and we often hear young people say that they are not ready to get married, is too much work to people getting divorced because its too much work.

 I respect their opinions, and understand that the

word commitment most of the time makes us feel uncomfortable because being committed means pouring our sacred time into that one thing or in this case that one person and we are just not ready for that.

 Commitment takes time out of our days, our very short days, to invest in one person and its hard.

I have trouble with it on a weekly basis. As a mom of a toddler, a very busy toddler indeed I feel it.

And my forever partner gets the last of my time. The 15 minutes before I fall asleep or during dinner and there are times that we talked about the real things on text instead of sitting down and talking.

Simply because I put things in front of him.

I tell myself he can wait.

He'll understand and don't get me wrong he does, but does he really need to wait?
 Shouldn't he be one of my first priorities?

I think so and what's left of my year I want to focus on that. On putting him first. On celebrating us. Our love. Our story.

Our kids needs us, I understand but what kind of life am I building for my future, when my kids leave... I don't want to be one of the marriages that divorces in their old age because they had a roommate for 18-21 years and then forgot how to love each other.

I want to constantly be in love, to try my best to look good for him, to go out on dates and do something as simple as holding hands.

I want to show him I love him and that my marriage and my commitment to him means the world to me.

We constantly say that God is the + in our equation, our answer to everything and the one reason we are still together. Because everything that we have is built on  that, our love and faith on God.
I honestly think that if it wasnt for our faith and God's love statics would have won.
We would be divorce today and in separate paths.
Because loving when we are fine and dandy is easy, a piece of cake but loving in the worse situations is hard and it takes courage to choose to love.
Love is a choice.

As of today we have been married for 7 years.
Is everyday a walk in the park, a ray of sunshine?

Absolutely not!!

Do we argue? YES (Never in front of our daughter)

And as we grow in life, as things change I want to fall more in love with him daily.

I want to love him more...

That's my decision, that's my choice and my challenge.

We married under God and our marriage is a tribute to Him. To His glory. Our love is based and comes from Him.

So I ask you today what is you commitment? Who are you committed to?

And are you willing to make the change for your spouse?

I hope you do.. I hope to challenge you today to love your spouse first. To take the time to put them first and to choose to love them every single day.

Making a house a home series

 Buying our very first home was a very special process, one that had its ups and down but I believe God gave us the best home about 5 years ago!

The thing is that, as much as we love our house, our neighborhood and our area have changed so much. When we first bought our house our area was just land. There was really nothing around us. Our nearest store was about 25-30 minutes which worked good for us. We have a hospital down the road literally 7 minutes, we measured it a few times during my pregnancy. So in our minds we had it all.
No traffic but close enough to get help if need.

Fast forward 5 years.
We have a baby which means that every once in a blue moon we run out of milk and 25-30 minutes is a pain. I sometimes also ignore don't see that I'm low on gas and the nearest gas station is quite a bit of travel.
On top of that a highway was built a few miles off our house so traffic has increased alot. Not to mention that fact that more stores, gas stations and homes have been built.

Where am I going with this you ask?

To the sad truth that I'm not feeling our house any more.
A house that we picked every single thing for, the cabinets, floors and even location. As much as I love how spacious our house is  I found a few problems with the actual setup.
Now, I also feel that the house is a bit outdated from our taste today.
But guys, I feel a little ungrateful just even writing this but is the truth.

So Lester and I talked about it and after a few hours and coffee cups we decided that the best for us at the moment was staying in our house.
 I'm not a numbers person but thank God Lester is and this made us look at the investments we have made in our house and even more the list price of our house and the benefit of waiting few more years...again the fact that our community is growing at a fast pace.

Which bring me to the topic of this post!
My condition to staying in the house longer was to change it a bit and since my hubby is big on DIY he quickly said yes!

Nothing too drastic... really, just updating to our new taste.

What's our new taste? Farmhouse feel.
I just love the warmth and rustic look of it.

Can we take up a sec and thank Joanna and Chip Gaines for showing us how to live! If you haven't watched HGTV's Fixer Upper you are in for a rude awaking and will end up wanting to change your whole house!

So I invite you to not only watch Fixer Upper but to stick around as we start the Making our house a home series!
We will inlcude lots of DIYs and before and after pictures!

And just because my posts are not mine without pictures here are a few that inspire us!

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Closet Remodel

OK lets talk closets.
I hate mine what about you?
My closet is a good size walking closet but not the  biggest closet there is, but how can I put it?..... Its an absolute mess.

OK where to start?
Maybe the fact that there is just on huge long stick to hang clothes and a shelve for shoes?
Maybe the bad lighting?
Or even the weird shape?
The point is that it doesn't work for us. As much as we have tried to to make it our own and buy accessories to make it easier for us it just doesn't work, and sadly it took me 5 years to figure it out.

So this is our plan.

In the next few weeks we will be changing it to fit us. To fit our needs.
-Putting more space for shoes because apparently we have a problem.
-Adding more shelves for basic tees
-Adding a space to hang my lovely bags and display my scarves.
-Lowering the rods because I'm vertically challenged
-Adding a second row of rods to one side of the closet
-Adding light, because God made light a long time ago and our closet did not get the memo
- Figuring out what to do with our awkward corner
-And maybe (if I can get the hubby to) take the ugly carpet out and put laminate with a cute rug.

Here are a few closets we are loving!

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How cleaver is this scarf  hanger

Love this! Small but useful.

Magical!

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This has got to be my favorite

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Now this is me being realistic with the space I do have but for the sake of dreaming..lets dream!

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Builder can I get a window in my closet please?!

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Now back to reality. Ikea here we come!

"Mine" a toddlers favorite word

A few weeks ago Bella started to say, what continues to be her favorite word "Mine".

Everything is "mine" from something so simple like a crayon to my phone and her favorite blanket the Declare and Believe blanket by Oobydoobybaby.

Oobydoobybaby

As a mom I like that she is bossy decisive and knows exactly what she wants ,but we do stop her more often than not with  " it's mine but I can let you borrow it" or "it's yours but can I please use it".

 

I know that may not be what a psychologist may say and after looking at many article online everyone has a different way to handle it, and that's the best base of parenthood. Doing it your way! 

But as a daycare provider I  have to teach her that she has to share and to be amigable and a great friend and to be all that she will need to share her toys even if they are hers!

 

 

But as I watched Bella grab on to her blanket as hard as she could I couldn't help to think of the way God grabs on to us and calls us His.

 

This post was sponsored by Oobydoobybaby. I received the item in this post in exchange for and honest review. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own and Bella. :)