I cant remember the last time I dressed up for Halloween, but now that we have Penny, I could NOT wait to do it!  We were definitely inspired by this cute little fam bam over at Jen loves Kev.  We got together with some of our friends with littles and took them around town for a little trick o treatin.  Of course Penny had NO idea what the heck was going on…and was looking at me like “mom, what the eff is this thing you have put on my head…and why do you keep laughing at me?”

Its amazing how having a little one breathes new life into things.  I remember how much fun it was to dress up all ridiculous and run around getting candy and getting to see all the fun costumes.  No “adult” costumes all up in yo face and going out to parties…just good clean childlike innocent fun.  Penny makes things magical again…I like it : ).  As if the day wasn’t magical enough…Penny slept from 10pm to 5am!  She was probably tuckered out from all the fun she didn’t know she was having.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!

Id like to take a moment to talk about how amazing grandparents are.  Oh how I love them.  They are so calm and loving, so willing to help clean dishes or hold babys while you nap.  They also have this sweet sweet gift where your baby can cry in their face for as long as they want and the grandparents are not phased.  They may even laugh a little and think its cute.  Its amazing.

Bretts mom so lovingly stayed the night last night and watched penny the whole entire evening while Brett and I got a full 8 hours of sleep!  It was the best gift anyone could have ever given us.  Its so much easier to deal with the fuss when you haven’t dealt with the fuss all night long.  As If the full nights sleep wasn’t enough…this little one decided to deliver some amazing smiles to her mom and dad this morning.  Ive never seen her smile like this.  It was like crack…I could’ve sat there booping her nose and tickling her tummy all day if I got those sweet smiles in return!

Having a baby is totally hard…but having people who love us and are so willing to help in any way is amazing…and having our baby look us straight in the eye and smile wide has seriously filled me with more joy than I thought possible.

Goodness.

Its so funny the things we do with a baby that has NO idea what the heck is going on.  When I realized that we were going to have Penny in september…my first thought was…oh god…summer.  The second thought I had was… goodness the HOLIDAYS!  Who doesn’t love this time of year?  I was so excited that Pennys first moments in life were going to be fall…Halloween…Thanksgiving…and ohmysweetgoodness CHRISTMAS!  Even though I know that she is super tiny…I love that her first experiences in life are my favorite time of year.  So when we decided to take a little trip to a small pumpkin patch with our friends…I was beeming with excitement.

My daughter can barely hold her head up, but oh man…she is gonna love pumpkins!  (parents are ridiculous).

Some of our good friends met  with us at the patch and we got to meet their new baby girl Joy.  She is so dang cute!  I have to admit…I spent most of my life a step or two behind all of my friends.  For example…I was single and attended about 9 of my dear friends weddings in one summer.  So its so strange to me that we all are having kids at the same time.  I feel like I finally caught up and its so special to share this stage in life with so many of my friends that I love so much.  Seriously…like 7 of us had babies this year…its pretty crazy and so much fun!

I cant wait to take Penny to see Christmas lights with these fools!  Yay for starting family traditions!

So there are small spurts of time where my daughter so graciously naps.  In these times ive started to clean up a bit, catch up on blogs, and venture on over to etsy…

I’ve found some super cute things, and I thought I’d start to share the little treasures im finding.  Here are some little goodies im in love with these days (most of which are for penny, but some things for me and brett get in the mix too.)  Visit these shops and let the cuteness over take you!

How cute are these pillow cases from Elephant and Bird! i’m pretty sure that the mr and I need these in our room.

There are SO many adorable baby leggings from Little Nugget Noggins.  I’m really tempted to buy them all and put them on Pennys little buns!  Thanks for the tip Sabrina!

I love putting Penny in cute little baby t-shirts.  Nell Smith has fantastic little simple baby t’s.  I love it!

More baby t’s from Printed Palette.  I have a bit of a thing for teepees : ).

Now go…get etsy with yo bad self!

What a journey this thing called parenthood is.  Our baby girl is a month old!  The first few weeks of her life were pretty brutal.  Our little Penny-kins had her days and nights flipped for a while…which meant that she would be a beautiful little sleepy bug all day long, and then scream and cry from about 11pm to 6am.

Those were dark days in the Lemster home.  I knew this baby thing was not going to be easy, but after a week or two of no sleep and a crying baby we were in a bit of a dark hole of new born-dom.  Things are still a bit tough, but we are learning.

Another thing that was really difficult was the dreaded breast feeding (DUN DUN DUN!)  First off…that stuff is not easy.  It may come naturally for some moms, but for most people (which I learned through struggling with it)  its a lot of work and actually really difficult.  Penny and I had a few issues that were stressing me out.  We had many days and nights of screaming and crying and her taking FOREVER to latch on for a brief moment and then back into screaming.  I was starting to feel like every time she was with me she was freaking out and crying and then Brett would swoop in and feed her a bottle and she would be all happy and comforted.  I felt like it was driving a wedge between me and her instead of bonding us.  I wanted to stop so bad but  there is this super intense pressure from other moms that breast feeding is the only way, so I felt super trapped.    Honestly, to each their own.  I, personally, took the route of what worked best for me.  I decided to just pump for her, and it works really well for us.  It took a lot of stress off of me and her, and it allows Brett to help a lot.  She is still getting breast milk, and the occasional formula, but she is growing and we are MUCH happier with each other.   If we do have more children, I will definitely try again, but I wanted to share that little tidbit just in case there was anyone feeling bad about not being able to feed their child in a specific way.  Do what works best for you.  Having a baby is super hard, and there is so much pressure (from yourself, and others) to do things right.  There is no universal right.  Do what is best for you and your family.

All that being said…I freaking love our daughter.  She is so amazing and I just stare at her all the time in awe that she grew inside of me and is so perfectly part Brett and part me.  i’m so excited to get to watch her grow up.  I cant wait to get to know her and to see her little personality form.  I cant wait to hear her talk about her favorite things and even though she is super tiny I cannot wait to take her trick or treating this year, and to go Christmas tree shopping and looking at Christmas lights.  It’s such a privaledge to get to share the moments with her where she learns things for the first time.

Its all so difficult and amazing.  We are so tired, and so happy : ).

Today is our anniversary!

I love our wedding day.  It was perfect.  It was just the way we wanted it to go and it was filled with joy and dancing and booze!  It was the best way to kick of our life together as husband and wife.

So much has changed in these last 2 years.  New jobs, new apartment, baby on the way.  We aren’t on our game 100% of the time, but our home is FULL of everything we had on our wedding day.  Joy, dancing, laughter, silliness, and yes…sometimes booze : ).

Im so incredibly thankful that Brett is my husband and I am so lucky that I get to see him be a father.  He is an amazing husband to me, and I know that he is going to be an even more amazing father to Penny.

So cheers Mr. Lemster.  These last two years have been the best! I cant wait to see what this next year brings : ).  I love you.  Everyday.