It's my Blogoversary!

I can't believe that I've been a blogger for a whole year!  And boy... life sure has changed a lot since then!  I thought it would be fun to look at one of the first posts I wrote about me and my life to compare what has changed.  I'll compare each blue paragraph (1 year ago) to what life is like now (green text)!

Here we go!

 

Hello everyone!

The freshly married couple on our sunny wedding day.

I’d like to introduce myself.  I’m Colleen, AKA Five Foot Mama.  I’m a stay-at-home mom and I live in Small-Town Minnesota with my husband Ryan, our one year old, Brennan, and our almost four year old black lab/shar pei mix, Emmy.  Ryan and I have been married for five years, but in a couple months, on June 17th, it will be six.  I can’t believe how the time flies.  We were married young I was 19 and he was 20- a true puppy love story.  Here we are on our wedding day!

 

Now Brennan is 2, Emmy is almost 5, and the newest little member of our family, Bryleigh, is 11 days old.  Our 7th anniversary is coming up soon, in June

Our puppy, Emmy, at 6 weeks.

A lot has changed since then!  In 2007, we welcomed the furriest member of our household into our family.  Emmy, our lab mix, was tiny at 6 weeks old, but now she weighs in at a slightly overweight 75 pounds!  She is so strong and pulls this five foot mama around like crazy on walks!  At least she is starting to calm down a little bit in her ‘old age’… until we see a squirrel, that is!

After discovering an amazing dog leash, the 'Gentle Leader', Emmy walks very politely!  Walks have become much more pleasant!

 

The day we signed our purchase agreement.

In 2008, we purchased an adorable little place 3 blocks away from Lake Pepin in Minnesota.  Ryan’s commute to work from our new place is 40 minutes and we have most of our family nearby, within an hour. We spend a lot of time with our families, so having them close is absolutely crucial!

Now that Ryan had a REAL job we decided that we could FINALLY start our family!  Within one month of trying for a baby we found out that we were already pregnant!  I was shocked that it had happened so easily and so quickly.  I figured that I’d be one of those people that wanted a baby so badly, but couldn’t get pregnant… apparently that just wasn’t the case with me.  We were so excited, but really scared, too.  After all, having a baby is a scary thing!

It all became even more real after having our first ultrasound and seeing our baby’s heart beating a mile a minute.  We were relieved to see this!  We felt like we were out of the woods as far as miscarriages were concerned.  Unfortunately, we were wrong.  I had a missed miscarriage at about 12 weeks.  This was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life.  Thanks to the support of our wonderful family and friends, we got through this hard stage of our lives and moved on.  The miscarriage anniversary is still hard and every year I dread April 18th, which is right around the corner.  This year will be 3 years.

 

This year will be four years...

Flowers from Ryan... the same as we had in our wedding.

Again, we started trying for a baby.  We’d wanted one for so long, so the wait was terrible.  It took a lot longer to become pregnant this time, a year…. a long, stressful year of worrying and hoping and letdowns.  Finally it happened.  I took a test on July 1st, 2009 and it finally came back positive!  How thrilled we were!  Now the waiting got even harder and the praying increased ten-fold!  Ryan brought me home Stargazer Lilies on the day we found out…

Waiting on our miracle...

We made it past the first trimester and things were still going perfectly.  I was growing a very healthy baby and the doctor assured me that everything was going to work out this time.  I had really horrible morning sickness throughout the pregnancy and the doctor ended up putting me on a regimen of vitamin B6 and unisom.  That was the only thing that stopped the constant puking!

Maternity photo taken 10 days before Brennan's birth.

Besides the sickness, aches, and pains, I just loved being pregnant.  I loved to feel my baby kick around inside my tummy and feel so unbelievably close to it.  I couldn’t get over (and still can’t) the fact that pregnancy and babies are such an amazing thing! How can something so wonderful and amazing be created from nothing?  It truly is a miracle and I thought about it everyday.  I still do.  This passage rings so true: Psalm 139:14 – I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Brennan Bradley- February 24th, 2010

We chose to keep the sex of our baby surprise.  It was so hard not to find out!  I really wanted a girl and most people thought that’s what I’d be having.  Most of the old wives’ tales pointed that way, too.  Well, they were all wrong!  On February 24th, 2010, nine days before his due date of March 5th, Brennan Bradley entered the world!  It really was an amazing day!  I had a very rough labor and delivery, which I will go into detail on during another blog post… it’s a whole post in itself!

Brennan was a teeny tiny little boy and I was instantly in love with him.  He really was/is a beautiful baby.  I’m not one who normally says beautiful- I say nice.  But Brennan really was beautiful.  He weighed in at a whopping 6 pounds 2 ounces and 19.5  inches long.  I guess he takes after his little Mama.

Brennan is almost 14 months old and not so tiny any more!  He has just started walking and I’m hoping he gets a lot steadier soon!  He is such a heavy guy to carry around!  Don’t get me wrong- he’s slim and trim, but he’s built sturdy!  He has a mind of his own and quite the stubborn attitude to go with it!  I love him like crazy and he can be ridiculously sweet sometimes, doling out kisses as fast as he can give them, but such a stinker at other times!  He is such a challenge and a reward all at the same time!  He’s so great, we’re thinking about adding another challenge/reward to the family sometime in the near future!

 

Now Brennan is 25 months old and is a strapping young man!  He can outrun me pretty easily and jumps well beyond his years.  I thought he was heavy a year ago... now he's 30 pounds!  We're no longer thinking about adding another member to the family in the near future- we just did that!

 

I have not posted Bryleigh's birth story yet, but will be as soon as I find time to write it all up.  But, I'll give you a really fast run down...  Bryleigh was born on March 31st at 11:02 pm.  She was 7 pounds 14 ounces- quite a bit bigger than her big brother was!  I went to Mayo for a Trial of Labor after C-Section.  Luckily, it went great and I had a successful VBAC!  It was such an awesome experience!  I loved being awake to see and hear her miraculous arrival.  Plus, my cousin took amazing picture to capture these unforgettable moments for us! Bryleigh has been such a good, happy baby so far.  I'm sure hoping she stays that way!  She has not displayed any of the dairy sensitivities that Brennan had, so I haven't had to change my diet to continue nursing.  I really hope I don't have to!  I like milk too much!  Bryleigh is truly a blessing and she rounds out our family wonderfully.  Does she complete it??? I'm not sure yet. :)

OK, that was a mouthful, but that’s pretty much my story!  Believe it or not, I occasionally have a few minutes to do other things when I’m not baby-wrangling.  I absolutely love to knit and crochet.  I make a lot of baby hats and other goodies.  Currently I’m finishing up a knitted hooded cardigan for Brennan, which really is too stinking cute.  I love to sell what I make, so if you are in the market for handmade knitted or crocheted items, let me know!

I finished the cardigan and it turned out great.  It won't fit Brennan until he's 3 or 4, though!  I am still planning on opening up a blog store to sell some of my crocheted stuff.  Hopefully I'll find the time to have it up and running soon!

Photography is a passion of mine, as well.  I think that a picture is worth 1000 words and captures memories that will last a life time!  I take a ton of pictures all the time!  Outside ones are great, but since I live in snowy Minnesota, a lot of times I end up throwing a sheet over the back of a couch to make an indoor studio. 

 

I just bought myself an portable photo studio for my birthday!  I've got a backdrop stand with black, white, and green muslins, as well as three light stands!  I can't wait to try these out on my little models.

I’ve decided to start this blog to share funny Mama stories and tell other Mom’s about ideas I’ve had, products I’ve used, and give them helpful tips I’ve discovered.  I might even use the blog to vent a little here and there.  Basically, I’m going to use this blog like you would use a friend- to have conversations about anything and everything with all of my readers!  I hope you will come back often to see what I’ve got to say!  I’d love for you to leave comments for me!  Let me know what you think of what I have to say, whether you agree or disagree!  If you’d like to contact me, please email me at colleen_m_anderson@yahoo.com!  Thank you so much!  Have a great day!!!

 

Over the last year, I also got interested in doing giveaways and hosted quite a few.  I plan to host more, so check back often!

Share