A little update on our life!

It's been awhile since I've written so I figured while Brayden takes a nap I should sit down and write a little.

Brayden is 1! Plus a month :) I can't believe how fast the time has gone by (I know everyone says that). It's crazy to think about how a year ago I was so tired and dealing with the baby blues. It wasn't easy moving to a new place, Blake starting a new job, and having a baby. I felt so lonely and depressed, but I have become so much stronger and will know what to do differently next time. Now whenever I see a new mom I have a whole new level of sympathy for what she is going through. It honestly is so hard and if you aren't a mom yet, once you are you will see just how hard it is. I thought before I had kids that is was super easy and if ALL you are doing is being a stay-at-home-mom that it's much easier. That is SOOO not true. You never get a break. Ever. Sometimes I wish I had other things I could go and do without my little shadow following me around. It's gotten easier since I stopped nursing because it has given me a little more of my own space. But the fact is that no matter what kind of a mom you are, whether it's a working mom or a stay at home mom, they are each very trying in their own ways. I've learned that God keeps an extra watchful eye on mothers and I feel his love and comfort daily. I try to think about how very blessed I am that I have a little messy angel that poops way too much :) Seriously... 4 poopy diapers a day?

He is so much fun now that he's older and running around. He is starting to talk more, and is doing great with sign language. He signs eat, milk, more, thank you, and please. He says dada, mama, mo (more), ba ba (bottle), ball, hi, yeah, and no. (That's all I can think of at least). The other night he was saying "Ball! Ball!" in his sleep and it was so cute!

He also loves to clean up his own messes. This morning he gagged on a piece of apple and spit up on the floor so he promptly went and got the diaper pail refill box out of his room and smeared it all over the floor. Good thing it was a brand new one so we will be able to smell barf for months to come. I tried to clean it up and I think it helped a little. Haha sweet boy, just trying to help but just made it much worse :)

He gives Blake kisses all the time whenever he is home and hardly ever gives me kisses (so not fair!) and when he does he just licks my face?! and then laughs at me. Haha.

We had a great birthday party for him with friends and family. It was blue/gray/whale themed and I had lots of fun planning and decorating for it. Here are some pictures:

 Sorry some are sideways! 

Yay! 

We recently got back his 1 year pictures also, and they turned out really cute! We went and shot some outside first with all the pretty fall leaves and then we went back to her studio. Trying to get a toddler to stay in one spot while he gets his picture taken is no easy task. ha! 

Brayden's Nursery

I realized I haven't posted pics of Brayden's nursery, so here they are!

 

 View from the hall. The rocking chair is the same one Blake's mom used to rock him to sleep when he was a baby.

 

 Thank you Aimee for the cute pictures! The one in the middle was from Brayden's great grandma (I had the same picture in my bedroom growing up, one of my favorites.)

 His bumpers.

 I hate the video monitor receiver cords but oh well :)

 The pictures above his closet I am debating taking down and putting something else up there but for now that's what's there!

The shadow box I made him (at the entrance of his room).

 

It's nothing special by any means but just for future memories I decided I should probably post this :) Still a work in progress!

Recently in the Orleman household...

 Brayden will be 11 months old tomorrow which means in one month and one day he will be ONE! Fastest year of my life. He is quite the little busy body and keeps me on my toes. Just this morning I was eating a banana and out of nowhere he came behind me and yanked off half of my banana and then shoved it in his mouth, he's a complete stinker :) He has 4 teeth and is working on another. He has been walking for over a month now and is getting pretty fast at it. He loves to get chased around our apartment and giving kisses.

 

He is becoming very independent and doesn't like being held unless he is sleepy. He will fling himself forward or backward to get out of my arms so he can run around. He loves to closely examine anything with a motor (what a boy) like his fan, the vacuum, the dishwasher, cars, etc.

We recently bought a video monitor since our other one crapped out and it has been very entertaining to see the things Brayden does when we aren't around. Every night when he puts himself to sleep he face plants into his mattress, shakes his head no and then passes out. When he wakes up in the middle of the night he flaps one of his bent arms like he is doing the chicken dance.

Blake has now been working at Microsoft for over a year and so he had his first review (dun dun dunnn) which is what all Microsoft employees dread since they have a rating system that can be frustrating. Blake did good on his first review and had very positive feedback from his boss :) I am so proud of him! He also received a raise and a bonus. We have been wanting a new bedroom set and couch for awhile now and since he got his bonus we had a reason to go spend some of that bonus! We went to Macy's and found a leather sectional that was 50% off because of the labor day sale and it is SO comfy, I can't wait for it to get delivered next Tuesday! I have to admit, I am going to be a little sad to see our red couches go :( but they are wildly uncomfortable and aging quickly thanks to our sweet baby boy. We also bought a new bedroom set from Macy's (also 50% off) to replace our other set that Blake has had since he was 12 or 13. We moved our old set into our guest bedroom so now it looks a little nicer in there!

TIP: When you are mattress shopping, NEVER pay the asking price. Go into the store and try out all the mattresses until you find one you like then write down the brand, model, COIL COUNT, and price. Every store names the mattresses differently just to try to trick you so make sure you don't forget the coil count since that will help you find the exact mattress. Look online at other places that carry the same mattress and find the lowest price (ours was cheapest on amazon). Then call the mattress store you went to (sleep country will beat the lowest competitors price by 5%) and tell them what price you found it for. We saved over $1000 by doing this so be sure to tell your friends!! I hate that companies will rip customers off like this. The saleswoman we spoke with said we wouldn't be able to find a better price PSSHHHH, don't listen to them!

Anyway, sorry to rant about that but it's useful info!

We are loving it here in Seattle, it was a rough transition for me at first but we have grown to love it here. We've made lots of great friends and had many fun memories here. Thinking back to a year ago I was scared out of my mind to move to a new place where I didn't know anyone and start a whole new chapter of our lives. I am so glad we made the decision to move here and hope that we get to stay here for a long time!

Confidence 101: Post-Baby Body

 

 

 

Confidence isn't easy to come by. In fact, it seems pretty rare for a woman to feel comfortable calling herself beautiful. The world has set a nearly unreachable standard of what women are supposed to look like. Up until recently I have let that standard completely dominate my life.

Let me give you some background on this picture. I had been modeling for about a year and had just signed with an agency. Before every photo shoot I wouldn't eat anything unless it was a piece of fruit or a salad. I would basically starve myself before the shoot so I looked the skinniest I possibly could.

 

During the photo shoot, I mentioned how hungry I was and that I was so excited to get In-N-Out after and how I was going to stuff my face. He looked at me very concerned and said that if I wanted to look good that I shouldn't eat like that. As you can guess, that made me pretty upset but I just laughed and moved onto a different subject.

 

 

Now, if I lived my life with the thought that if I ate a burger and gained weight that I would no longer LOOK GOOD, I would be totally and completely miserable. The fact is that it does NOT matter how much you weigh. It does NOT matter what body type you have. It does NOT matter if your body is covered in stretch marks. It does NOT matter if you DON'T have big, perky boobs. It does NOT matter if you have saggy skin or a baby pooch.

 

YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! Yes, YOU! Who cares if you aren't 5'8" and 100 pounds?! Who cares if you have stretch marks?! If you let those STUPID things run your life you will live in disappointment. You will never be happy, you will always be self-conscious of who is looking at you and what so-and-so is thinking about you.

 

WHO CARES!

If anyone really does care about that, THEY are the ones with the problem.

Seriously.

 

And they will learn someday.



 

 

I've learned A LOT about myself in the past year and a half. I've learned that I am much, MUCH stronger than I thought. I've learned that I am more beautiful now than I was when I was at my skinniest. I've learned that there are many other things more important than my size. I've learned that stretch marks don't make my skin ugly, they remind me of my baby and what it took to bring him into this world. And let me tell you, it was no easy task haha.

 

I was pregnant for 41 weeks and 2 days and I was in labor for 36 hours.

I didn't know I could do that.

That was freaking HARD.

 

The fact is that until Brayden was born I did not have my priorities straight. I focused too much of my time on my body and my looks and not enough time on the things that truly matter.
 

Now don't get me wrong, it's good to care about how you look and do the best you can with what you have, but when it starts to become more of an obsession is when it's a problem.

 

Having Brayden has changed my life entirely. My outlook on life is completely different. I am SO much happier.

 

I have been struggling with body image since he was born but have recently decided I DON'T WANT TO LIVE MY LIFE BEING UNHAPPY WITH HOW I LOOK.

 

And it is a CHOICE.

 

I could go get work done, get a boob job and liposuction... OR, I could choose to LOVE MY BODY THE WAY IT IS and learn a lesson that everyone is going to have to eventually learn if they ever want to truly be happy. And that is that there is NO single definition of beauty. Everyone is beautiful in their own way, and you need to embrace your own beauty and not cut yourself down for not being a Victoria's Secret model (because, let's face it, even THEY get Photoshopped).

 

The sooner you learn to be happy with how you are, the better :) It took me having a baby to learn.

 

Now, my capacity to love him has expanded, and my paranoia of wondering what others think of me has shrunk. And let me tell you what a liberating feeling that is!

 

I know that God wants me to be happy and that He knows that I have limitless potential. I was letting my poor body image impede my potential. I also know that I can now be the best possible mother to my wonderful son, because he deserves the best.

 

 

I'm not saying I still don't struggle to see my beauty when I look in the mirror, but I do know how to overcome those destructive thoughts. I hope this post helps someone learn the lesson that has taken me so long to learn.
 



Mommy Ramblings

Oh boy, what a month March was. We had Blake's parents and Aimee visit and now it is back to just us 3, which is kind of boring, especially during nap time. It was so great having everyone visit but now we're back to the normal swing of things.

Brayden will be 6 months old on Thursday :-/ I don't want to talk about it, lol. Time for another baby, mine is growing up too fast, APRIL FOOLS. Ok now I can say I did an April Fools joke. I am not baby hungry... yet :) He is very active and so much fun. He can sit up by himself and rolls all around, he started this snake kind of crawl to get to toys he wants. He is doing much better with baby food and cereal. He puts himself down for naps and to bed at night some nights when I get bored rocking him for 30+ minutes. He is being SO good lately, I am so scared for him to get his 6 month shots to screw everything up again grr hate shots!

He says "dada" ALL the time, not fair but oh well. He only says mama when he is crying and it's hardly ever, but it's still cute and I'm still counting it as him saying mama!

We took some quick pictures of him before his nap yesterday on Easter and he was not really having it but I got a few kind of OK pictures lol.

 Obviously, the eggs don't have any candy, but I had to get them for cute Easter pictures!

 And in his mouth they go!

 The ONLY picture I got of him actually looking at the camera haha

 Trying to get him to look at the camera by bribing him with the egg but I think it just made him upset, as you can see from his face haha.

He got a new Snugamonkey toy that he loves, since he has basically every toy they make. He also got two Dr.Seuss books.

 

 

Aaaaaaand this is why I love this age, he will still cuddle with me :) well one of the many reasons.

This was while we watched the super depressing KU game :( yeah, don't get Blake started on that haha. But Brayden is wearing his basketball jersey which is super cute on him. And I know, I look super hot, what can I say, laying around the house all day really brings out the best in me (pshh).