Tuesday, August 31, 2010

5 Month Birthday






Little Miss Daisy, today you are five months old! These past five months have flown by though I'd be lying if I said you didn't wear me out:-). You are still not a great sleeper at night but, you sure love your naps and take them every hour and a half to two hours all day long! You go to sleep so easily when I bounce/rock you in my arms while we walk around your room and it only takes a minute. Lately in the morning when you wake up around 7 or 7:30 AM I can go pick you up and bring you back to bed with me and you fall back to sleep with your face pressed up against my cheek and your hand holding a fist of my hair for comfort. I love smelling your sweet baby breath, watching your tummy rise and fall while you sleep and feeling your soft baby cheek brushing against mine. You eat rice cereal mixed with a veggie in the morning and at night now before bed. You love eating!! I do feel bad though because it seems like certain veggies upset your tummy and you often will spit up after breakfast. I'm still trying to figure out what will work best for you. You are not a fan of sitting still at all. Boy, do you make it clear these days that you want someone to pick you up and walk around with you and your favorite place to explore is outside. Today your auntie walked around at the lake with you for an hour in the Bjorn carrier and you never made a peep. You were in Heaven! Daddy did the same thing yesterday and you loved it then too! You just love observing people and the things around you. You are a sharp little girl! We bought you an exersaucer off of Craigslist this week because we wanted to let you stretch out your legs and work on strengthening your neck some more. The toy overwhelmed you at first but, you are starting to warm up to it. You get tired in it fast because it's a lot of work for you at this point. I think you'll love that thing in no time! Laying on your back bores you to tears. Sometimes if we play some cartoons we can keep you distracted enough to tolerate being on your back. You'll be mobile soon baby so hang in there! Bath time is still a favorite as are walks around the block in your stroller. You like getting out of the house and going for a drive so long as you aren't tired and crabby and then the drive is no fun for any of us! You love drinking water out of my red plastic cup. Every time I try to take a sip you yank the cup out of my hand and nearly spill the water everywhere. I'm impressed at how quickly you are learning to take small sips out of the cup. What a big girl you are!! Your Daddy is soooooo in love with you. He kisses you in the morning before he goes to work and loves coming home on his lunch breaks to see you. He has been feeding you dinner at night and playing with you a lot and you ADORE him. You follow him with your eyes whenever he is in the room. You love the sound of his voice and you get so flirty and smiley when you see him. It's priceless to watch you two together!! Oh, did I mention that you don't like changing your clothes. You strongly dislike it so I try to make sure to only change you when you are in a good mood because you get so frustrated for some reason. If you didn't spit up as much as you do I promise I wouldn't change you as often as I have to! lol. You have been a little sick the past few days with a stomach bug and it makes me sad to see you not feeling well. I hope it passes quickly! You have changed our lives baby girl in a drastic yet amazing and wonderful way. Your smiles and laughs are the most rewarding gifts we could ever ask for! I love you so much Daisy boo. Happy five month birthday Princess!
Monday, August 30, 2010

Favorite



Okay, so I'll be honest...this picture is not 100% in focus and oh my gosh how I wish it was. I just LOVE this picture. I did a photo session for this family today after I got off work at a lake nearby our house. These folks were so much fun to hang out with in the sweltering humidity (seriously, they were champs!), and oh how precious their daughter is! She is just the cutest little thing ever! This Daddy adores his daughter and I think this picture captures that bond perfectly! Once I finish editing the rest of the pictures I'll be posting them on my photography blog at http://caseymartinezphotography.blogspot.com in a few days so stay tuned!!

Also, tomorrow my sweet Daisy bean is 5 months old so I will be posting her 5 month birthday post later on. Love my little punkin' girl!!
Sunday, August 29, 2010

Scavenger Hunt Sunday



I've decided to try and join up with some fellow photographers for a weekly photo challenge that is posted each Sunday and is hosted by Ashley Sisk at Ramblings and Photos. Each week we have 5 words that we are given and we have to depict them creatively through photographs. I will admit that this week I felt a bit maxed out and as a result I didn't put as much of my brain into this exercise as I could have. I hope that in the future I will challenge myself more! Click on the link above to check out other participants!

The rules are simple:
  1. Anyone can participate.
  2. You're encouraged to take five new photos this week for the challenge.
  3. If you get stumped, you may use one photo from your archive (although I'm not too strict about it - I do my best to take fresh shots).
  4. Link up here on Sunday (or Monday at the latest) - you can use the new button.
  5. Have fun!

1. Bokeh2. Business
3. Eco-Friendly - I should have been able to do better than this...next time:-)
4. Repetition
5. Music
Friday, August 27, 2010

My Sister's Handiwork


My sister is a talented gal. She is a super creative writer, she is an awesome athelete, she is a great model when I need to take pictures of her and to me, more importantly than any of these skills is that she has a deep and passionate love for Jesus. As my sister grows and matures so to does her faith and her understanding of the Lord and I am so proud of the woman she is growing up to be!

The teenage years can be tough or I should say...are tough and staying faithful to the Lord during those years is also a challenge. I remember that most of the time I felt pretty close to the Lord back then but, at the same time I felt like my relationship with the Lord made me different from a lot of my peers and made it harder for me to connect with everyone. Truthfully, I'm so glad the days of high school are a distant memory. There were good memories too of course but, I think growing older is beautiful in that it liberates us from a lot of the petty things that seem so important to us when we are younger. I'm so thankful that the Lord is patient, that he walks beside us even when we ignore him, use him, spit in his face, disobey, lie, cheat and steal. Our God is so loving, so merciful, so REAL! Sitting here today I cannot help but, give God ALL the glory for everything. He has steered my life and He has loved me through thick and thin.


I asked my sister if I could share her poem below because I think from time to time we can all relate to it and I also added a bible verse below to wrap it up with God's voice. Wherever you are at today, I hope you know how much God loves you! Happy Friday all!

I’ve dug this hole so deep,

I sit in the dirt at the bottom and weep,

When a rope is thrown down

And help is so near

I sever the line in my hurt and my fear.

And hands reach down, loving and kind

I grab them and pull, so they’re right by my side.

Why do I reject them, all the hope that they give?

I could have been saved, and on solid ground,

But I choose to remain in this pit so I drown.

Where is the redemption, and the freedom from sin?

To get rid of my guilt, how do I begin?

I pray and I cry, but the answers won’t come.

Oh Lord, why are you holding back?

I want you to give me the faith that I lack.

Maybe I’m wrong and you’re speaking to me,

But please, God, why are you doing it so quietly?

I know that you’re there,

I’ve heard you before,

Are you done with talking to me anymore?

Lord let me be satisfied,

To know that you love me and to know I can’t hide,

You know where I am, you’re always here

Let me know that, and then,

Give me hope that I’ll hear your voice once again.


"The Lord is near to the broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." Psalm 34:18



Wednesday, August 25, 2010

With More Free Time...Or Better Use of Time

My sleepy baby hanging out on her play mat whilst (lol) she sits in her bumbo seat
Sorry, I couldn't help it. Rarely does Daisy fall asleep in my arms so I just had to snap a picture of her gaping mouth and zonked out face. Love it. Below: Daisy's first time sitting in her high chair to eat instead of her bouncer. She's such a big girl now!
Thought I'd privy you to a little Martinez family time video. Welcome to our world...hubby doing yard work out back, finding black widows, baby playing and getting bored, mommy running out of ideas to keep her little girl preoccupied. Ah yes, this is the life:-)


I get about 40 minutes of down time each day shortly after I get off work when my daughter is taking her last nap of the day. Sometimes I spend this 40 minutes running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to accomplish a little of all of the things I want to get done: dusting, laundry, dishes, dinner, paying bills, vacuuming (nope, not when the baby is sleeping), cleaning the bathroom or more pleasurable things such as working on my photography challenges, watching a quick show in peace and quiet on the couch, or taking a 20 minute cat nap! Do you ever wish you had just a little more free time to get things done or do you need to learn to make better use of your time like me (or both:)? What would you want to do with that time if you had it? Last night the errand we needed to tackle was grocery shopping. Since we both work full time we try to shop together just to make life more bearable for both of us... or just more fair. We went to our current favorite store, Trader Joe's, Yum! I decided that since I don't have enough free time that I would have to multitask so I lugged my huge camera bag on my shoulder while pushing my daughter in her stroller and grabbing groceries with my other free hand. The store was packed and people were swarming all the aisles. I began to feel a trickle of perspiration dripping down my forehead. How ever would I find a place to snap a few pictures with all these people staring at me, with my daughter fussing in her stroller, with an enormous grocery list needing to be tackled?? Ahhhhhhhhhh. I waited until we were almost done grocery shopping and then I just said to myself, "yah know what, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do," and I pulled out my camera and began taking pictures of various things in the aisle ( for a photo challenge...I'm not a weirdo with a camera in the grocery store!) while also trying to keep the little one distracted and entertained. I couldn't seem to get the picture I wanted and I was getting frustrated, which only makes me more bold. Love how that works:). Finally with all my built up energy I began marching around the store and taking pictures of whatever I felt like with full confidence and fully embraced my photo challenge. Success! I got the grocery shopping done with the hubs, kept my baby from having a melt down in the store and got the picture I was hoping for. Now, that was making good use of my time. hehe

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Big Wheels

Oh my gosh I just love this picture of Daisy on our friends big wheel bike. She looks like such a big girl:-0


Daisy did not like swinging at all..she totally freaked out and froze in her Daddy's lap so they just sat instead and that seemed to be all that Daisy needed to be entertained:-)
We were all drenched in sweat at this park. It was mid 90's with super high humidity and the mosquitos were eating my feet alive. Icky. Daisy handled the heat like a champ. We were so proud of her!
My friend Elissa snapped these pics really quick for me and I enjoyed them all so I had to share them. Daisy is such a happy, smiley, silly baby girl. I could just eat her up...nicely of course:)

Daisy LOVES to flirt with her Daddy:)
funny face!


Daisy is now 15 pounds 7 ounces (though they said I could knock off a few ounces since she was uh, clogged so to speak) and 25" long GROWING and growing!! She is just a tad above the average mark in her weight and length now. Daisy also had to get to shots and boy do I hate that about her visits. They make me hold her leg down...ummm, thanks for making me look like the bad guy! Daisy cried big crocodile tears by the time the second shot was over so I scooped her up really quick and turned on the sink in the office and let her play with the water. That cheered her up almost instantaneously! Thank goodness she likes water so much:-). The doctor gave me the green light to start feeding Daisy twice a day now: once in the early morning after I nurse her and once in the evening after I nurse her. We have tried rice cereal for about a month now and Daisy LOVES it but, unfortunately it clogs her pipes really bad, poor baby:(. I also tried oatmeal two times since the doctor said it shouldn't cause constipation as bad as rice but, Daisy does not like the oatmeal at all. I'm going to work on it and see if I can't mix things into it so she'll like it more. Tonight we had rice cereal mixed with squash and Daisy devoured it! She gets to eat four tablespoons of food a day now so we eat two Tbs in the morning of cereal and mixed veggies and two more Tbs at night. Did any of you nursing mamas nurse less frequently once you started feeding solids twice a day? I'm sure this could be an area of opinion but, I wouldn't mind hearing some feedback.

I've been putting Daisy to bed between 8:30 and 8:45 every night now and she goes to sleep so easily (thus far), she is so exhausted by this time because she doesn't take a nap after 5:30 anymore. She has also returned the favor by waking up for good in the morning at around 7 or 7:30. This would be a dream of a routine if only she slept through the night which at this point she still does not do. I have noticed that she seems to sleep a little better now that she is eating solids but, she still wakes up a few times a night and then has to be nursed around 4:30 or 5:30 depending on the day. So that is the latest in the sleep department.

Daisy is SO tired of laying on her back and playing on her play mat. She gets so frustrated with us when we stick her under that thing now because she would much rather be held and walk around with us or go outside and stare at the trees and the people. She likes to bounce around on her legs while we hold her and she loves to hold whatever we have in our hands. I can't even eat in front of her anymore because it's clear that she understands what I am doing now and she reaches for my plate...I feel bad so I eat where she can't see me. lol. Daisy LOVES to talk, squeal and shriek. She is one talkative gal!! I think she prefers talking over improving on her motor skills at this point:). She's got her rolling down from tummy to back and she is doing great with tummy time now. She's such a big girl and I just can't process how much she has changed and grown!!! Oh time slow down please...
Monday, August 23, 2010

Where's Waldo?







We met up with our dear friends Mike and Elissa and their two boys Logan and Austin this past Saturday. We both drove two hours to see each other and met in a town that is pretty much the half way point for all of us. Mike is very soon to be deployed for 6 months so please keep him in prayer as he has to leave his pregnant wife and two little boys. Pray for his protection and for his wife to have lots of support and help in her hubby's absence and for a healthy pregnancy! We met these awesome folks when we lived out in California just a few months before we got married. Elissa stepped in and literally worked her booty off to help get the church set up nice for our wedding ceremony and we were such new friends at the time. Now we all have kids and have been through so much together and our friendship with this family is so special to Joey and myself. We've celebrated I think 3 or 4 Thanksgivings together (hopefully another this year!) and we love being a part of their kids lives. We'll miss you Mike!

In reference to Waldo...Elissa and I were trying to get some silly pictures together and unbeknonst to us Mike somehow managed to get himself into every picture. We didn't know why my hubby and Mike were laughing so hard and even after I looked at the pictures in my camera viewer I couldn't see Mike as he was so small and blurred....they kept laughing so I looked harder and finally saw the pattern in each picture. Oh my it was a good laugh for all of us;). Did any of you ever check out the Where's Waldo books with your kids or for yourself for fun? I always got a kick out them!

I have more pics from this super, duper hot, humid day with our friends at the park. So worth it to see them though!!
Sunday, August 22, 2010

Roll Baby Roll


Daisy rolled over quite a while ago...a couple months ago in fact, only a handful of times though and since then she has not rolled over once. I saw on someones blog a while back that their 5 day old baby was already rolling over from his tummy to his back so obviously, this happens at all different stages depending on the baby. Daisy simply likes to take her time with things evidently. LOL. This week something just clicked and Daisy remembered how to roll and now we can't keep her on her tummy for long at all. We still have to reteach her how to roll from her back to her tummy. I know you all have seen babies roll a gazillion times before but, this is truly Daisy's first day of rolling repeatedly and I know all our family is eager to see her in action.

I love that as parents we get sooooooooo excited for our babies when they accomplish little things for the firs time and more than that, I love the look on a baby's face after they do one of these things and you can tell that they are trying to piece together why their parent is clapping their hands, squealing with joy and staring at them like they are a superstar. It's awesome!
Saturday, August 21, 2010

Mommy Blahs

Above: Daisy is fascinated by Dakota now. She loves touching her, staring at her and watching her every move. I think it's great but, I can't leave the two of them alone for a second or else Dakota would lick Daisy's face off and I as much as I love my dog, I think her tongue is stinky and dirty and I don't want it all over my child's face. I love seeing babies and animals interact though. It's so neat how early the bond can begin!
Below: Her shirt says it all, "mommy loves me." Yes, I do...I love her drooly, messy, whiny, perfectly adorable, smiley, serious little face so much!
My bro just left after spending a few days with us. He actually visited us on his way back from some amazing places such as Paris, Amsterdam, Holland, Germany etc. He is a school teacher so he took a month and a half of Summer to travel the world a bit...I'm so jealous but, fortunately he took amazing pictures and documented his trip so we got to enjoy a virtual tour. I want to go there so bad now!
I love my big bro! We are totally opposite in so many ways but, we also have some things in common such as our love for Jesus, the funniest show ever "Top Gear," good food, laughter, blood (haha) and our fun brotherly/sisterly banter. I haven't seen much of my bro in the past several years due to us living on opposite coasts and being so busy. I am so thankful that he visited us and that we got to be stuck in the house together for three days. Truly, it's like we caught up on a lot of lost time plus more importantly than that I'm so glad he got to see Daisy while she is still so small. Miss you bro and love you lots!! This picture below is for you mom and I'm sure Ryan would rather that I not post it on my blog but, I will use the excuse that this is Daisy's baby book and the more pictures I post of him here the more she will see him when I get it printed up someday:). hehe

Anyways, in regards to mommy blahs....I woke up this morning and it was just one of those mornings and I'm sure you ALL can relate. I had to put on 4 shirts before I found one that didn't have a stain or defect, my hair desperately needs to be colored, my face is breaking out like a high school teenager on a really bad day, I broke my toe nail in half somehow simply by getting it caught on my sweats last night...uh, ouch and uh ugly toe nail now, I haven't had time to cover my exhausted dark eye circles and my shoulder has been hurting for a few weeks now prompting me to feel older than I should and well...I just feel BLAH.

I will admit that on days like these a good bible study or time in prayer with the Lord often refocuses my heart and my outlook and gives me the boost I need to overcome the blahs...have I done it yet, no. Why? Because I'm tired, lazy, blogging, lazy, blah, lazy and have I said lazy yet. Yes, laziness is often the reason why I slack in my quality time with the Lord and I am the one who suffers from this the most because my spiritual tank gets super dry and my mind gets inward focused instead of "heavenly focused." Plus there are plenty of other things that can distract me from this such as, hmmm, I'll get my hair or nails done today, I'll go shopping and buy a new shirt to cheer myself up, I'll put a ton of makeup on and feel pretty for the first time in lots of months, I'll watch a mind numbing drama on TV, talk to a friend for hours on the phone, or perhaps I will just wallow in this mood all day because I'm...you guessed it, feeling lazy:-). For the record, I am feeling much better and this mood was super short lived thank God..but, nonetheless I know as moms we often have these blah days because we usually put ourselves last after the countless errands, chores, children tending tasks and wifely duties. So, my question for all you ladies is this: what things help you to overcome your mommy blahs?
Thursday, August 19, 2010

Leg Warmers





My friend Elissa gave us these super cute leg warmers for Daisy and she finally fits in them:). As you can tell by how happy Daisy is...clearly she loves them! hehe. Do any of you remember wearing leg warmers to school because I do! I don't think it's exactly something I am proud of now but, hey they were very COOL back in the day. lol.

I could not possibly be more tired than I am right now. Well, I'm sure I could be, but I can't imagine what that would feel like. It is night's like these that I am ever grateful that Friday will greet me in the morning:-)

To all my blogger buddies: HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Daisy is 20 weeks old as of Wednesday of this week. My baby girl will be 5 months old in less than two weeks! The latest Daisy recap: She LOVES eating a lot of cereal every night right before bed, she does not like being in one spot for long, she enjoys variety and a plethora of activities, she likes walking outside while being held (it seems to always calm her down), loves her soft blankie and pacifier when she is getting sleepy (it soothes her), is fascinated by our dog Dakota, is STILL not a fan of tummy time...crazy, I know, is super interested in anything we are eating or holding, is such a great, sweet baby but, when she's sleepy she wants mama.

And now because I am totally rambling in this post due to my deliriousness, I will sign off...hopefully the next post will be more inspired! lol

Things I Never Thought I'd Do as a Mom

1. Love kissing my daughter's feet and rubbing them all over my face regardless of how sweaty or dirty they might be.

2. Get up over 15 times in one night because I'm too much of a softy to let my baby CIO.

3. Get so used to being spit up on that the stains on my clothes don't even bother me until someone else has to point out that I should change. hahaha

4. Become extremely aware of what my daughter's ears are being exposed to on the radio, TV, etc. since the day she was born!

5. Enjoy how loud my little girl can fart..uh, excuse me, toot. I think she has her daddy beat! hahahahah

6. Open my mouth when I am feeding Daisy her cereal. It seems to be almost uncontrollable...when I move the spoon towards her mouth...mine opens too!

7. Get grossed out by Daisy's diaper blow outs. Poop in a diaper I can handle just fine but, for some reason when it comes out and gets on things that it isn't supposed to be on...including me on a daily basis, I get a little bleh, if you know what I mean.

8. Be able to lay on the floor and play with Daisy for hours on end. I actually have a pretty short attention span for monotony but, I never seem to burn out on playing with my daughter. I surprise myself!

9. Put Daisy's pacifier back in her mouth even when it has just fallen in the street...hold on, let me explain. I don't do this frequently but, at the time we were away from home, we had no other pacifier and no way to clean the pacifier other than brushing it off...Daisy was screaming and heck, I just really didn 't care about a few measly germs at that point, GASP!!! That is SOOOO unlike me!

10. Get extremely annoyed (and in a boxing mood) when a strange man in our neighborhood who I don't even know reaches down and picks Daisy up out of her stroller when I am on a walk without even asking me if I mind....okay so maybe this one doesn't qualify (for things I never thought I do) but, I just had to share (weird people alert)!

11. Be 100% content to savor and relish every single moment with my daughter with no need for her to hurry and move on to the next milestone. I tend to look ahead a lot in life and I worried that I might miss out on things in the present with Daisy because I am too excited about what she has yet to do...this has not been a problem at all. I am loving every single second of this!!!


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Little Luxuries

Bringing these two little treats home from the store made all that boring grocery shopping SO worth it! I literally devoured the entire container of Edamame's in less than an hour and with them, I enjoyed a delicious glass of bubbly French Berry lemonade. I thought the glass bottle was so pretty that I didn't even care if the drink inside it tasted good...but oh how good it was; what a pleasant surprise! YUM! Oh and I have I mentioned before how much I LOVE Trader Joe's? That store is fabulous!! Minimal preparation required and yet so many tasty things to choose from.
Daisy tries to be patient with me and my incessant picture taking..but, sometimes as you can tell from the above picture...she is just SO over it and I truly do not blame her. She is very patient with me 99% of the time. Love my little tutu princess!!


What little luxuries do you treat yourself to on occasion?
Monday, August 16, 2010

Sophie and Silly Dreams

Our neighbor Erin spoiled Daisy with a Sophie teething toy that I had been wanting to get her....they may appear to be nothing special but, I will say that Daisy and millions of other babies absolutely love this giraffe! It is easy to hold, squeaks and is super easy to chomp on unlike a lot of the other hard teethers that make no sense to me. She loves her trendy Sophie. haha
Daisy loved looking up at Joey who was sitting on the stool next to her. It was so cute to see how happy she got whenever he looked down at her. My happy, smiley girl:)
Daisy with her Auntie Anna. I just adored these pictures!

Rocking her awesome City Mini stroller. This thing is great!

I have some catch up to do with lots of pictures now that our computer is up and running again so bear with me. :-) You will most certainly get a nice baby fix by the time I'm done! lol.
My brother is visiting us from California and he is here through Wednesday. It's nice to have family here again:).

I've been trying to put Daisy to bed a little bit earlier the past few nights...around 8:30 instead of 9:30 and I also feed her a good amount of cereal right before I put her to bed, which seems to be holding her over a tad longer at night. She has been sleeping from 8:30-2:30 without waking up which to be honest is a HUGE improvement so we'll see if this continues or if it's a fluke:).

On to silly dreams. Have you ever gotten a silly hair of an idea that seems totally random but, you just can't let it go? I'm okay with the fact that a lot of my silly ideas will only ever be mulled around in my head simply because I do not have the money, time, or energy to bring a lot of these things about to fruition. A lot of the time these things are just fun to dream about and I wouldn't even want to pursue them further. My most recent fixation is that "if" I had lots of money I think it could be highly successful to open a restaurant or cafe in our small downtown. Currently there are no places to eat in our downtown at all and in my opinion the area is just screaming for attention and appeal. I have already envisioned the decor of my little diner; TV,'s for sports, an outdoor patio with plants all around, twinkle lights at night and big colorful umbrellas during the day, music, and fans. I've also pinned down the type of food I'd love to serve..California Mexican style food, (I miss it sooooo much, though I will admit it might not be received well here in fried food country). The ironic thing is that I HATE cooking so obviously I don't envision myself in the kitchen when I think about my little restaurant...no, because I obviously have lots of money if I opened this place so I'll just hire other people to cook and I'll just supervise and reinforce top notch customer service! That's what the actors do when they open a restaurant! lol. That is the beauty of dreaming..it's easy, fun and in my dreams everything works out! Okay, I feel better now. hahaha