|{ Guest Post- Our Little Fam }|

Today I have my first guest post for you!!! Ashlee over at Our Little Fam is such a sweetheart and I'm excited for you to meet her!!

Hey there bloggers,

I am Ashlee, over at Our Little Fam. I am so happy to be guest posting for Shalay! She is so sweet and I adore her blog! She is super woman =)

Meet my family

Since this last family picture our sweet little boy has arrived. I am now a wife and mother to two sweet little boys.

My husband, call him J, is a busy man. He works full time and is currently in the military. (He is also a full time student, YAY school! Haha) He was deployed to Iraq during the summer of 2010 for a 12 month tour and returned in 2011. Can’t believe it’s now 2012. His time away from home seemed to last forever, and his time home with us always goes by so fast.  

He loves the outdoors, especially running. Is a computer nerd and loves bacon. =)

I am a full time mama and student. Although, this semester since our new little one arrived and I am adjusting to being a mother of two, I am going part time. Next semester is back to full time again. I am working on my pre nursing reqs. One day I will see the light at the end of the tunnel and I will be finished and happy with my career as an RN ;) Eventually my goal is to work in L&D.

I enjoy blogging, crafting, cooking (this is something new to me though haha), playing with my little boys, and time with my hubby.

This is “Little E”, our little stud and the older brother. He will be turning 3 in April. He sure keeps me on my toes. He is always teaching me something new. He is full of laughter, generosity, and of course attitude. Haha. I am so blessed to be a mama, absolutely love it!

Here is “Baby G”, he arrived on 12/30/2011. He was full term, but was born with fluid in his lungs and couldn’t seem to get the breathing part down. When he was born he was life flighted to a different hospital and spent 12 days in the NICU. He was sent home on oxygen. After his first month of life on oxygen we were able to ditch it (except for when he uses his car seat). He is our little fighter, he has already endured a lot within his first month and a half of life.

Come visit us and get to know us more over at Our Little Fam, I would love to get to know all of you and follow your blogs! I blog about life as a mom, wife, student, and whatever else I feel like writing about. Recently it has been crafts and food since I am a newbie when it comes to cooking. (P.s., if you have any fun crafts or recipes come share them with me!)

Thank you Shalay for hosting me on your blog! You are so awesome and your readers are so lucky to get to know you through your blog!!

Xoxo,

Ashlee

|{ Overwhelmed }|

I have been doing a lot of research and reading lately about pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and babies and while I feel like I have learned some good and valuable information and I am also starting to feel really overwhelmed.  I need to start writing down what I need to remember in a readable way because I know I've forgotten at least half of what I've read!

The lovely Elena from The Art Of Making A Baby had her baby girl a few days ago and I decided today that I really need to stop reading all the comments from her readers... They make my head spin and there are a lot of judgmental people who are being much to negative and rude to her.  I feel bad for her but she's pretty awesome and is taking it all well!  They sure are making me feel even more overwhelmed though and often talk about things that I haven't even thought about.  Sometimes I don't even know what they are talking about!! Lol!

I feel like I have so much more research to do, I feel like I don't know anything about babies and I worry that I won't be a good mom because of it.  So for right now I think I just need to take a step back for a few days and get my mind re-wired so I can come at this in a new and better way! I know to some people it may seem like I am going overboard but I just want to be as informed as I can so that I can better know what to expect and how I can have the healthiest baby possible!

|{ Early Valentines Day }|

Valentines day is going to be pretty busy for us this year.  I have school and then work a long shift and Jon will be busy with school as well so we won't get to see each other much that day.

So I decided that we should celebrate Valentines Day early! So on Saturday I set up a surprise Valentines Day for Jon.  He spent most of the day at school studying with some classmates so while he was gone I got everything set up!

I made a fort in our living room, using the cushions from the couch, it was pretty comfy actually! I made fried rice for dinner and put it into some take out containers and put it into the fort.  When Jon got home he was so surprised! I had him climb inside and waiting for him was dinner, a dozen yellow roses, and his favorite black licorice! We had dinner and watched the Big Bang Theory on my computer.  It was very relaxing and so much fun! We spent all night in there! We even played Killer Bunnies! It was a wonderful way to celebrate Valentines Day!!

Pardon the bad photos, it was dark and I suck at taking dark indoor photos in a hurry..

|{ Analyze Me (Well My Blog Anyway) }|

So I've been thinking about what makes blogs popular and wondering what I could do to make mine more interesting to general readers.

Are my posts too long?

Do I have too many photos?

Are my posts too centered around just my life so they are uninteresting?


Also, I would really like to add links to my blog so it can more easily be navigated, links like the ones they have at The Art Of Making A Baby and Rockstar Diaries.  I want to make my blog more accessible and professional looking in that way.

I would like to do giveaway's sometimes as well but I have no earthy idea how to even go about doing that...



I could definitely use some honest opinions and tips here, I won't be offended!  I would really be grateful for any tips and constructive criticism.

|{ Biorhythms- Phlomax }|

Do you remember when my awesome hubs did a rap for 'Biorhythms' a few months ago?

If not, I talked about it HERE!!

Biorhythms is a show that the medical school puts on where students get to perform dances, songs, and things of that nature.  Last time Jon's rap group was called 'Phlomax' and this time they got the group back together (with a few new members) and wrote a new rap! It was even better than last time! They did great!! Everyone thought it was hilarious (even though I personally did not understand some of the jokes!)

It's about pathologists (doctors who work in a lab) versus internists (doctors who work directly with patients).

Gangsta- Dr. Agon

This following photos were not taken by me!

|{ Photo Shoots }|

For Christmas we gave Jon's sister and her husband, Sarah and Adam, a photo shoot for their family for their gift!

Here are some of my favorites!

Also, while we were in Utah I had my sister, Kira, take some photos of Jon and I!

|{ 2011 In Review }|

January

Niagara Falls

February

The largest grocery store in the US, us in Cincinatti

Black and White party, Valentines Day

March

St. Patrick's Day, Jon's volleyball team

My brother's wedding

April

Jon's scooter, Easter dinner

May

The new Lady Gaga CD

Jon's biorhythms rap group, Jon's birthday

June

Chicago

July

Getting ready to go and see Harry Potter 7, part 2

Painting our new home, my friend Katie's baby shower

Trip to Chicago for Travis and Larisa's wedding, all dressed up for a wedding!

Camping with Ember, Niagara Falls with Ember

August

Detroit Zoo:  Red Panda, Tiger

My surprise party:  Tiger cake, walking in the door

My actual birthday:  Harry Potter presents, raspberry picked with the mosquitoes 

September

Sleeping Bear Dunes

Michigan Football

Raspberry picking

October

Class 1 Killers sand volleyball- Winning the championship!

Edwin Cider Mill with my mom

Bronner's Christmas Wonderland with my mom, fall leaves

Rowing

Halloween:  Pumkins, Angela and Dwight costumes

Our nephew Ethan is born!

November

Movember mustache 

First fire of the season on our anniversary!

Thanksgiving dinner

Decorating for Christmas

December

Italian dinner

Temple Square

Skyping with Ben

Christmas morning

So, in a quick review, this was 2011! It was a really great year and a lot of wonderful things happened!! I'm am thrilled for 2012, I think it's going to be our best year yet! There are lots of exciting things that are coming up!

And, just for fun, here is a random photo that Jon took!

Jon was throwing cards at the cat and this card landed in the space of our floorboards, it was crazy!