a holiday challenge

i'm not talking about a diet challenge. i'm talking about a give-your-heart type of challenge.

since matt and i got married, we vowed to always give at christmastime. not to one another, but to someone less fortunate. this will be our seventh year of giving. typically, we choose two kiddos from the angel tree at our post office- we've always picked a boy and a girl. we go shopping, bring the goods home and wrap them up. on a special date, we deliver the gifts to a designated drop-off location. it's the best feeling ever.

sadly, last year, we didn't do any and i feel terrible about it. we were in a rough spot due to matt's injury and work situation and we didn't feel like we were in the position to do it. but now, when i think about it, we could have done something. after all, something is better than nothing.

this year will be different. we will be giving to three little ones. one for each one of us. if that means we don't buy as much for claire, that's a-okay. she has everything she needs plus so much more.

when you work in the school district, you see a lot of children in sad positions. so many of the student's clothes are tattered, dirty, and too small for their growing bodies. it breaks my heart. i tend to see a lot in the school i work in and it's something i will ever get used to.

so, friends, i challenge you to give. give to someone less fortunate this season. wether you donate time, money, food to a pantry, or gifts to a local charity {or the toys for tots}. do something. please. there are so many children who deserve to have a warm meal and something under their tree on christmas morning. you can make that happen.

things i bet you didn't know about me

who's the girl behind this blog? well you all know my name is erikka... it's at the end of every post. you know that i have a beautiful {if i may so myself} lil miss, claire, who is the center of my universe. you may also remember that i have a furry friend too, murphy. i have a husband {duh! claire didn't just appear!}. you also know that i love cloth diapering and photography. but, ladies there are some things i bet you don't know about me. for instance...

i hate cheese on my pizza. yeah, i hate it... actually i despise the idea of putting cheese on my pizza. yuck, yuck, yuck! i hate the smell, i hate the taste, but mostly i hate the texture. ugh. i'm literally gagging just thinking about it. when i make pizza {or order it} i have a portion of the pizza without cheese. if i order it the person on the other line always reiterates the fact that i don't want cheese, because {i assume} they think they heard me incorrectly. but nope, they in fact, didn't i dont like cheese on my pizza!

i sleep with a pillow over my head. full-fledged plop a pillow over my face. you would swear i was trying to suffocate myself when in fact, i'm only trying to muffle noise. before claire was born i was a very light sleeper. the tiniest peep would wake me. don't even get me started on snoring people. when claire's was first born i had to remind myself to remove my beloved feather pillow from my bed so i didn't risk it falling into her pack & play beside my bed. to be honest, i'm so exhausted at night that i rarely need to use it but i do because it's like my security blanket.

i am still in college. blah. i hate to admit it, but it's true. i'm still a student. i am happy to say that i will graduate in december {if all goes as planned}. i graduated from high school in 2005 and went straight to college. i did that for a 3 semesters when i decided that i wanted to take time to really learn what i wanted to do for the rest of my life. i went from being a physician's assistant student, to a elementary education student, to a {now} special education student. i feel like, although it's taking me forever, that God had a plan and it's really starting to make sense to me. i look forward to student teaching in the fall and graduating in the winter.

i am hoping {and secretly praying} to get pregnant this summer. matt and i are already ready to expand our family. don't get me wrong, we love our life with lil miss, but we are so in love with her that we are excited to love another lil babe h. we have our fingers crossed for a 2014 spring baby so i can be home with him/her {and claire too, of course} for a long time before another school year starts.

i am dying to experience labor again. call me crazy but it was the best thing i have ever experienced. the  love that filled the delivery room, the anticipation of a new baby being born, and the way the body allows itself to birth a little human being. i loved every moment of claire's birth and i wouldn't change it for the world because it's hers. and only hers, but i really hopeful that i will be able to go into labor naturally and experience that side of laboring.

i love people. if i hadn't fallen in love and got married at such a young age, i would have def. entered the peace corp, or became a missionary. i went on a mission trip {when i was 15} to the poorest place in america- the lakota indian reservation in south dakota. those two weeks changed my perspective of life and changed me in a way that i couldn't even begin to describe. i plan on getting our children {in the future} involved in volunteer efforts so they can learn humility and kindness like i did when i was a teenager.  i also want to do missions when i retire and our children are off and on their own... which is waay down the road!!

welp, there you have it. i'm on my computer, not my ipad, so please excuse the lack of capitalization. it's so much more fun {and easier} to type without them. auto-correct has spoiled me slightly!

if you care to know anything else about me, feel free to ask!

Perspective

Becoming a mother has been more wonderful than I could have ever imagined. Yeah, I sleep a lot less, and of course, clean laundry sits in the baskets for longer than I would ever want, but you begin to see what's really important in life.

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When I was pregnant I always told myself that I   wasn't going to be the "type of mother" who let her house get out of order. Not that I ever judged, I just knew that "that way" wasn't going to be our lifestyle, at least, if I could help it.

Truth is, I am so busy! Wow. Like, busy busy bumblebee... times ten. I get up in the morning, play with my lil miss, pump for 20 minutes, do my {5 minute} make-up, get Claire changed and cleaned up and then hope I have enough time to do my hair. Four out of the five days, I go to work with a ponytail. Once again, I always said {when I was pregnant} that I would always go the extra mile to look my best. Uhhh... nope, that doesn't happen. I'm not entirely proud of it, but it is what it is people. Not to make excuses but, Claire's in a phase where she only wants me. Only me. So spending thirty minutes on getting myself dolled up isn't high on my to-do list. Mooshing and gooshing and cuddling with my lil miss is though, because it's not a matter of choice anymore ;)

Good news is that Claire is always show-stopping beautiful! When I'm home, she's always dressed in clothes and donning a matching headband. I'm constantly lathering her in lotion and brushing her hair {or lack thereof}-- something that I VERY rarely do for myself.

Along with how things work around the house, the way I view my life, in general, has undergone an extreme makeover.

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After Matt fell, we experienced some pretty extreme financial hardship. He is, without a doubt, the bread winner in this home and him being out of work really hurt us tremendously.  To make matter worse, I was on maternity leave, which meant that I wasn't bringing home a single cent. None. Zip, zilch, zero.

But here's the silver lining... he got to go back to work. Yeah, was out of work for 5 months and only receiving 60% of his normal wages was a huge change in our monthly income {that's a lot of 'in's!!}, but that's more than others may be receiving while off of work.

Once again, there's good news!! Matt is back to work and because of his incredibly generous grandfather, we were able to stay afloat during all of this. If it weren't for him we would have had to dig into Matt's 401K to make our mortgage payments.  Scary, very scary, but once again, the fact that we had the money as a last resource was somewhat reassuring. We did learn that we need to save a little more than what we were saving prior to his accident. If you don't have long & short term disability, I would absolutely recommend looking into it. It's relativity inexpensive and it will save you tremendously if anything ever happens to your or your spouse.

Before Claire, we talked about all the things that we looked forward to. Most of the time, they were material things. For example, we really wanted to buy a boat this summer, and within the next five years, we hoped to purchase a small lake house. We looked forward to buying new vehicles and other ridiculously expensive, non-essential items. Now that our lil miss is here, we are focused solely on raising her well. We are already discussing which private school we want to send her to {we've chose to have her educated in a Catholic school} and how much we're going to save each month for her and her future sibling's college funds.

We have both completely reevaluated our relationship with God. We are doing our best to make certain that we set good examples for her so she can inherit the same love for our church and God that we both share. Going to church every.single.sunday is a MUST. To be completely honest, Matt's been going by himself for the past couple of months due to the crazy cold weather and the mighty awful flu that's been circulating.

We are 100% completely open to expanding our little family. Like today. We thought we would want to wait but after the lil miss, we are so excited to add babe #2 to our family! God has been so good to us and if we can just make some super awesome kiddos who will love him and spread His word, I think we will be doing well in His eyes, which is all that really matters. My mother-in-law always told us that "good people need to have more children". We feel that way now :)

Okay, if you read that, you are awesome and I love you! Here's a picture of the lil miss... yes a picture! Lucky you, I know ;)

It's her 5 month birthday today! And in those short {but mind blowingly fast} five months she has brought more light and love and joy and excitement into our home than we could have ever imagined, dreamed, hoped, or prayed for. 

We love you Claire Maire, our little angel.

Claire's Baptism

Matt and I are Catholic and baptism is something that is very important to us. We wanted to wait a little while because I didn't want to have her out of her carseat at church until she was a little older. So on December 9th, little Claire Marie got baptized.
When the priest poured the water over her head, she barely flinched. My grandfather-in-law spent the rest of the day saying that the priest has probably never baptized a baby who didn't cry once during the whole ceremony.
After church we had a giant feast. Matt's parents made homemade meatballs (the best!) and spaghetti sauce. Of course there was sausage and salad and delicious bread! After lunch we devoured Claire's delicious baptism cake. Seriously people, the cake was the best cake I've ever had. However, I was super ticked off when Matt brought it home the night before... the woman spelled Claire's name wrong. But, we decided that it would make for a funny story one day (that's how I'm trying to see things that I can't control and end up screwed up).
Claire received some presents and money from our overly generous family.
She wore this handmade baptism gown that was purchased on Apricot and Lolipop's etsy shop:

 I couldn't recommend that seller enough. After she shipped it to me, I realized I measured Claire incorrectly. So I immediately contacted her to let her know I goofed up. She had me send it back and she altered it and shipped it back to me free of charge. That, my friends, is good business practices!

A day of silence to remember