Counting our BLESSINGS

As we approach Christmas I can't help but think about all we have been blessed with over the years. We are so lucky in so many ways... here's to counting our blessings...

1. Our beautiful, healthy and vibrant daughter. She is our whole world! We are so blessed to have a "good" baby. Easton's is such a happy and loving baby. It will be her first Christmas this year and we are SO excited to share all our traditions with her.

2. My husband. He is such a great husband and father. There is no way I could have made it through my pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding or raising Easton without him! Not to mention is cooks 99% of the time. He is a wonderful man that adores is daughter!

3. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such a supportive and wonderful family. They have helped us out so much over the years and continue as we expand our family. A special blessing is Nana. She has helped us with Easton with advice, babysitting and so much more.

4. Are friends are just awesome! They all have had such a HUGE impact on our lives. They love Easton so much. They have been there for us through the crazy, sad and hysterical times!

5. Mrs. Mandy has become such a big part of our lives. She gives Easton so much love while we are at work. Not to mention her two kids, Ethan and Ava, love to hug and kiss on Easton. We are so thankful and blessed to have person to give Easton one on one attention!

6. In times like these our jobs are such a blessing. We are lucky enough to bring a paycheck home to live our dream! L.G Barcus is such a wonderful company to work for especially with working with me while I am still nursing. Not to mention we have great co-workers!

7. A home. Josh and I have a beautiful home that keeps us warm and dry. I love our house and though I grumble about cleaning it, I a lucky to have a house to clean.

8. Nursing. At times I feel like all I do is nurse and pump, but then I remind myself that 1. this is best for Easton, 2. it has saved us money and 3. not everyone is blessed with ability to do this. I should count my lucky stars that Easton and I just clicked when it came to nursing.

9. Garage! I love my garage. I mean I LOVE my garage. It is such a simple thing, but when it is raining, snowing, sleeting or 31 degrees outside I do not have to walk out into it with a baby. I love it! It makes loading up for the day so much easier! It is truly a blessing for me!

No. 10 is brought to you by Josh Bosley:

10. My wife she is great even when things get a little hectic and crazy she keeps us all inline. She is a awesome and loving wife and mother. I don't think I can put it all into words but she ROCKS! She keeps our house up and running as smooth as possible most of the time. I love her and she is my world, well at least my #1.5....lol

Picture Perfect!

Well at least I think so! Last Saturday before headed out for my brothers birthday lunch we snapped a few family photos in front of our tree. I think they turned out great!

FIVE months and Frisky!

Today our little girl is 5 months old! She will never know just how much joy she has brought us the past five months!

As of 12/22/10:

Weight 12 lbs. 15 oz.

Length: 25"

• At daycare Easton drinks two 6 oz. bottles and 3-4 tbsp. of cereal. She can even holder her bottle!
• She can flip from her back to her belly and from her belly to her back.
• She is a screamer. She will shriek like it is no ones business.
• She is still wearing size 1 diapers.
• She is still able to wear most of her 3 month pants, but can also rock 3-6 month clothes.
• When Mommy or Daddy walks into the room she lights up and will follow us with her eyes.
• She throws toys! Especially her pacifier. She loves that game.
• Her eyes are still blue as ever and her hair still seems to be a red/light brown color.
• She is totally distracted by everthing. I call her our little nosy rosey.
• Pulling off her socks is alway a good time for her.
• Bath time is still a blast and she is loves to kick and splash.
• Razzberries are a favorite sound. She even does them with cereal in her mouth. Needless to say Daddy ends up with cereal all over him.
• She doesn't always sleep through the night, but she is headed in the right direction. On average she will sleep through the night three days out of the week.
• We have a giggle box! She loves when you make crazy noises, move her arms like she is dancing, and well pretty much anything makes her laugh these days.
• She can't keep her feet out of her mouth or her hands.
• When you lay a blanket on the floor she wiggles and scoots all over it.
• Majority of the items she gets her hands on goes straight to her mouth.
• No teeth yet, but she is drowling like crazy!

Below are some of her 5 month/Christmas pictures. Once again she did fabulous! I love her Christmas dress, but I the other outfits didn't turn out so cute. Oh well, her smile is what makes the picture!

Santa meet Easton

This past Saturday was a busy one for us. Mid-morning we headed out to find Santa so he could meet Easton. First stop Cabelas. After Josh dropped us off at the front door and parked, we headed back to the African Animal section to check Santa out. Santa sucked! He wasn't smiling, never said a thing to the kids and looked liked he was going to eat them! Josh said we aren't taking her up there. Lets go find another one. So off we went to the Bass Pro shop, but just as we were headed out the door a Cabelas employee stopped us and asked us if we found everything ok and if we took her to see Santa. I told her we didn't take her to see Santa because he looked pissed and wasn't very friendly with the kids. We are actually headed to Bass Pro to see their Santa. She said that she was sorry and not to head that far, because there was a Santa at Nebraska Furniture Mart. So Josh and I head over NFM. On the way over there I asked my husband if he had Santa standards? He said yeah and that wasn't it! When we got to NFM we changed Easton into her Christmas dress and got in line. There were only 7 people in front of us and we moved along very quickly. It was finally Easton's turn and she did fantastic. She just chilled with Santa. But when Josh went to pick her up off Santa's lap she latched on to his beard and yanked some hairs out. This beard was the real deal. Not the fake polyester crap. Now Easton will have to wait and see if Santa brings her lots of goodies! We also had Christmas pictures/ 5 month pictures done that afternoon, but I will show you those later!


Merry Christmas Santa! Tongue hanging out and all!


Can you see the white hair! This is just a piece from the chunk she pulled out.

Mission: Christmas Tree

Last Christmas was so special to Josh and I. We had a lot of firsts since it was our first Christmas in our first home. The Sunday after Thanksgiving last year we headed out to cut down our first Christmas tree. Not just any Christmas tree, but the perfect Christmas tree. We decorated our house with lights, stockings and garland. We hosted Christmas for the first time in our home. With all the first you would think that would make last years Christmas so special, but it wasn't. Surprising our family with news that they would be grandparents and a uncle was what made last years Christmas so special to us. I can remember it like it was yesterday... We handed out our homemade cards with our 8 week sonogram picture and our due date. My dad thought we were going on a trip to some cave because he was looking at Chris' (Josh's step-mom) card instead of opening his own and Chris was the first one to open hers and realize what was going on. All she could get out was Oh, my God. My Mom could only say :Oh, Melissa!" over and over. Tears started streaming down my face and my Dad smiled and gave me the tightest, biggest most loving hug ever. Josh's Dad said "Well I am done with Christmas. This is the best present ever!" My brother just smiled at me and gave me a hug! Last year's Christmas was such a magical one, but this year's Christmas will be just as special. We once again we are doing a lot of firsts!

This past weekend we took Easton to cut down her first Christmas tree. We headed to Bishop Farms. With Eaton in her Eskimo Coat (this is what Josh calls it) and "My First Christmas" Santa hat we headed out in search of the perfect tree. Only to NOT find any kind of tree much less the perfect tree. We walked all over that dang farm. Me toting Easton and Josh toting the saw and measuring pipe. We eventually got so frustrated with the tree selection we called it quits and headed to lunch. After lunch we decided we would check out the tree farm down the street from us just off parallel. We got there made one lap around the farm and fount it! The perfect Christmas tree. Well we thought until we got home. It was so large they couldn't shake it. So they attempted to remove all the dead pine needles by hand. Then they were not able to net it since, once again, it was too large. So thank God we only lived a mile down the road, because we were those people in the big red truck with a Christmas tree hanging out the back and pine needles falling out as we went 2o miles down the road. We get home and Josh tried to shake some of the needles out himself, but the tree is too big and heavy. Next... Mission: get HUGE UN-NETTED tree through the front door! Josh disconnects our storm door, grabs the massive tree by the trunk and tugs away. The tree eventually does make it through the the front door. Leaving behind a ridiculously amount of pine needles! Josh gets the tree up and shop vacs all the needles up. Then we can finally decorate it! By this time Easton is down for the count! She slept through the entire decorating process. Maybe next year she can help us out. As we are decorating it we realized this wasn't a soft needle tree. Crap!!! Poky, Poky, Poky... the entire time we put ornaments on it! It wasn't until we had the tree all decorated that we really noticed how many flippin' loose pine needles there really are hanging out in this tree. Needless to say come December 26 this tree is headed to the Tongie farm to RIP.

Like I said earlier, this year will be just as special, because we are able to share all our current family Christmas traditions and new ones with our daughter. We are hosting Christmas for our family at our house again this year and I can't wait for Easton's first Christmas!!!

Daddy and Easton on the hunt for the perfect tree in her Eskimo Coat!




Family picture in front of our Christmas Tree.


Daddy putting the tree up.

Decorated, but no gifts are wrapped yet!

Can you see all the dead needles in this tree!


Garland on banister.

Mantle decorations. All our stockings hung with care!

Nook above the fire place decorated with Christmas boxes!

This is my Christmas tree when I was growing up. My Aunt Rita bought them for us and every year we would get a new Christmas ornament. The ornament would have to do with something that went on that year. Needless to say I received a lot of basketball ornaments.

Santa we are ready for you!

Easton's FIRST ADVENT CALENDAR!

December 1st Easton received her first Advent Calendar with a sweet note from her Aunt Vern (aka Lexie Manning)! She is so lucky to have such a cool Aunt!

As you can see she was in total shock of this gift!

Funny story- The other night we had a garbage disposal scare.... I was feeding Easton her cereal and Josh was making dinner. He put the egg shells in the sink, turned on the water and flipped the switch to the garbage disposal. It barely made a sound. Hmmm... he tired again... nothing again.... He busted out the alan wrench turned it in hopes to unclog it. Nope that didn't do anything except twist the alan wrench.

Josh: Dang it twisted the alan wrench...

Me: Really!?

Josh: Yeah

Me: Why don't you just put your hand down the garbage disposal and see what is jamming it up. I used it when I got home from work and it worked just fine.

Josh: No....

Me: Do you think it is possessed and it will just come on and cut your fingers off?

Josh: Uh.. Yeah!

Josh then takes a kitchen utensil and starts digging in the garbage disposal. Out comes a baby wash cloth from the night before.... shredded... dirty... and unusable.

Me: Welp that is the first time and I am sure it won't be the last...

Open MOUTH... Insert BIG TOE!

We have officially moved Easton into her bathroom for bath time. We had been putting her whale across the kitchen sinks to do bath, but with the temperature dropping and having a window right above our sink we thought is was time to move to a warmer location. Also we have been filling the whale up with more water and she LOVES it! She kicks her little legs and splashes around like a fish. I think she will be a water baby! SPF 500 here we come! Especially if she keeps that red tinted hair. Below are two pictures from last nights bath time.

I can barely get a spike going.

Easton has recently started sucking her big toe. It is so funny. Sometimes she will stick her whole dang foot in her mouth. This brings a whole new meaning to open mouth insert foot!

Daddy's camera work...