1 year Check Up.

The twins had their 1 year old check up on Wednesday. Presley weighs 18lbs 11oz and is 27 1/2 long -- a long way from 4lbs 5oz and 16 inches long at birth. Noah weighs 19lbs 12oz and is also 27 1/2 inches long -- a long way from 4lbs 8oz and 17 3/4 inches, his birth stats. They are both on the charts for height and weight and fall in the 10th percentile. They are both perfectly healthy and have no known preemie issues. What a year! We are so blessed!

Nutrisystem

So I am tired of being fat. I am working on getting my thyroid levels normalized. And in the meantime I have decided to try Nutrisystem. Now I struggled with the idea of  Nutrisystem because it goes against some of my personal beliefs about food… which include you should eat real foods verses eating food products. Nutrisytem is made up of low calorie food products. The idea is you eat these food products for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with two snacks that you purchase from the grocery store (fruits and vegetables) and nothing else. All the nutrisystem food comes to your house, your front door, a month at a time. These food products are low calorie you, eat only these products, you take in a small amounts of calories and therefore you lose weight.

I decided to give Nutrisytem a try because I have been struggling with meal planning recently. With Mike being so busy at work I never know what to cook for just me. Going to the grocery store on a regular basis has also been a struggle with Mike being so busy all the time. Lastly this summer when I am home alone with the twins I may be tempted to snack and over-eat so I think this will help.

I decided this could be a way to jump start my weight loss.

Nutrisystem isn’t exactly cheap so I am hoping that will help in the motivation to strictly stick with it. No eating out, no drinking beer, this is game time. I’m also nervous that I have spent the money, comprised some of my food beliefs – and what if my thyroid issues still prevent me from being able to lose the weight!?

I guess there is only one way to find out.

I ordered Nutrisystem on Tuesday and it looks like it should be at my house by Friday. So I guess I will probably start Monday!  If you have any questions let me know. If you use my guy, and my name, you can save $30 bucks a month!

I will be blogging about this journey!

Being Fat is...

You know what’s fun, teaching about weigh, BMI, and nutrition when you do not feel good about yourself or your body. I definitely have some weight to lose post babies. This has been a frustrating topic and situation for me. 6 weeks postpartum I had lost about 27lbs. Little did I know… this was a result of my thyroid disease. I had swung into an extremely hyper phase which caused me to drop the weight pretty quickly, the bad thing about this is that it damage my thyroid gland even more. My thyroid gland now does not function on it’s own. This caused me to swing back into a very hypo phase and the low dose of hormone replacement I was taking did not help. Since then I have put back on about 10 of those pounds lost. My thyroid is still not regulated and now that I am switching to a natural med in the hope of feeling better again it will be a longer process.

I will do new labs in mid-June and hope to add more natural med or switch completely to natural meds after these results.

Getting my hormone levels control is the first step to losing and maintaining my pregnancy weight.

I have hashimoto. 

From webmd: In people with Hashimoto's, the immune system attacks the thyroid. This can lead to hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid does not make enough hormones for the body's needs.

Located in the front of your neck, the thyroid gland makes hormones that control metabolism. This includes your heart rate and how quickly your body uses calories from the foods you eat.

This summer I want to get tan and skinny. More to come about this…

Homemade Mac and Cheese

Homemade Mac and Cheese

This is my favorite mac and cheese recipe. I used it for the birthday party! Try it out, you will love it.

What do you need?

·         8 ounces of uncooked elbow macaroni

·         3 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese

·         1 cup grated parmesan cheese

·         3 cups milk

·         2 ½ tablespoons of flour

·         2 tablespoons butter

·         ½ cup of bread crumbs

·         1 pinch paprika

Directions

1.      Cook macaroni noodles according to the package directions.

2.      In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in flour. Add milk slowly, stirring constantly so flour does not clump. Add in cheeses, and cook until cheese is melted, stirring constantly. The sauce will be a nice orange when it is ready. Add in a little paprika.

3.      Put macaroni in a large baking dish, and pour cheese sauce over macaroni. Stir to mix in and cover all noodles.

4.      Add breadcrumbs to dish and mix in.

5.      Top with an additional handful of cheese.

6.      Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

7.       Serve.

Yum this mac and cheese recipe is soooo good! I doubled it for the birthday party!

Homemade BBQ Recipe

Homemade BBQ Recipe

This recipe couldn’t be any easier and couldn’t be any yummier. That is if Carolina style is your preference. Of course you can easily change the sauce based on personal taste.

 What do you need?

·         Pork Shoulder (I used a 8.5 lb one)

·         Apple Cider Vinegar

·         Carolina Style BBQ sauce I like the one by Sticky Fingers (I buy 3 bottles)

·         7 quart Crock Pot or larger

So here it goes… put pork shoulder in crock pot, pour apple cider vinegar in crock pot, I usually eye ball how much vinegar I use but I would say it is about 3 cups. Apple cider vinegar adds to the Carolina style-ness of the BBQ. Also vinegar is a natural meat tenderizer which is an added bonus to the goodness of this recipe. Then pour 1 bottle of Carolina Style Sauce in the crock pot. Turn crock pot on low for about 8 hours (depending on size of pork shoulder). For the birthday party I did this overnight. After 8 hours the meat should fall off the shoulder. I use a collider to drain out the juice and fat. Warning: it will be really hot, you may prefer to let it cool before doing this.  I run my knife throughout the meat making sure to break it up and clean the shoulder bone completely.  I then place the meat back in the crock pot and add a 2^nd bottle of Carolina style sauce (since I just drained all the fat and juice). I place the Crock Pot on warm and serve. The 3^rd bottle of Carolina Style sauce is for people to add to their individual sandwiches or serving.

For the birthday party, I used a 8.5lb pork shoulder in my 7 quart crock pot. It feed all 16 quests. People took some home with them and we had leftovers. We purchased 24 buns, ran out of them and still had more BBQ. So this recipe will easily feed a crowd.

As I posted in the “1^st Birthday Party” post, this is a very easy low maintenance party food. It is ready before the party and stays fresh and warm throughout the party.

The 8.5lb cost about $17. So this is awesome cost efficient.

Give it a try… it is so easy and yummy. Invite some people over to help you eat it!

1st Birthday Party!

The Birthday Party!

As you may already know, I wanted to keep the party small and simple and invite only family. I stuck with the only family thing, and one friend, who said, “Heather I want to come to their party!” So of course I said come on! In total we had 16 people in attendance… which isn’t necessarily the definition of small. Also on the simple part… I went a little over board as I tend to do with most things!

I crafted, pinned, and researched my heart out the weeks before their party. I thought long and hard about what types of birthday traditions I wanted to start for the twins. I cleaned, we landscaped, and I purchased things like mad.

I am going to break this post up in to categories so that I talk about everything I want to remember about the party!

Theme: I struggled with the idea of a theme for the party. I have boy/girl twins… and well I couldn't think of or find a gender neutral theme that felt right. I love the idea of a circus/carnival theme but didn’t want to use that theme on a 1^st birthday where fun things like games and perhaps petting zoos would be a waste. Then one night in Target when on the birthday aisle, the balloon helium tank spoke to me. I decided then and there that I wanted the “theme” to be balloons. I wanted my house to be tacky (yes tacky, it's about what they would like!) and full of colors and balloons, balloons everywhere. I thought, “how perfect for a 1 year old. They will love balloons. They will love balloons everywhere and it’s gender neutral.” I also liked the idea of a balloon “theme” because it didn’t really feel like a theme. Then I pinterested “balloon theme party” and boy oh boy is it a theme. I also was pleasantly surprised that the Dollar Tree had balloon party theme items. Here are some pictures of the balloon theme. Look Who's 1 balloons and 1st Birthday Balloons

Crafts: I made the cake bunting, the high chair bunting, the number 1 collages, the giant #1 cut out seen on the right counter in the above picture, and my mom did a birthday king and queen wall.

Food: I made all of the food with the exception of the main chocolate birthday cake and smash cakes, and coleslaw all of which came from our local grocery store Kroger. I would have made all the cakes myself but I dont own smash cake size pans. And since they were only $5.99, I just purchased them at kroger. I think making the food yourself is way more personal than paying someone else to do it. Your love as my grandmother would say goes in to preparing everything and it is enjoyable for me.The birthday menu included desserts and BBQ. At first I wanted a dessert only party but decided since the party started at 4pm that I should offer more real food. I made chocolate chip cookies, #1 shaped sugar cookies, red velvet cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, and brownie fudge cupcakes. I made Homemade BBQ Recipe  and served it with Homemade Mac and Cheese Recipe, baked beans, and coleslaw. I will post my recipes and link them in. This was prefect because it was low maintenance food. I made the BBQ overnight in the crockpot and left it in the crockpot to keep warm and serve during the party. I put the baked beans in another crockpot and left them in it to keep warm and serve during the party. I prepared the mac and cheese the night before and then put in the oven the day of the party 30 minutes before the party was to start. I set a timer on my phone so I would not forget to put it in. I baked all the baked goods the day before. This food prep was really easy. The food was yummy. The food was filling. The clean-up was easy. And this is very cost efficient and personal.

Birthday outfits: Shirts from   etsy/ Etsy, Leggins from Etsy, Hair bow from Etsy, Tutu from Tutuville Ebay, #1 Hats from Amazon, Bibs from Walmart. 

Gifts: We purchased the following gifts for the twins, Baby Stella Doll and Fisher Price Stroller, Rocking Bull, Dump Trucks, bath toys a speed boat and Little Mermaid, and Elephant Ball Shooter. All have been major hits with the twins.

Traditions: We put a giant blow up cake in the front yard. Every year on their birthday we will put it up and take a picture with it. We will do a champagne toast every year to celebrate another year of parenting. I will add many more as they get older, like ballooning them in their bedrooms! Giant Birthday Cake

Smash Cake: From Kroger. I ordered two smash cakes, with yellow inside, one with light blue icing and one with light pink icing. However this order got a little messed up and I got two smash cakes with white icing and pink and blue trim… one had chocolate inside and one had yellow inside… They loved them  none the less! 

And we need some pictures of present opening!

It was a great time!

pinit

Birthday Tradition for Parents

I celebrated my 27^th birthday just a little over 2 months after the birth of my twins. It was the first time my birthday felt weird to me. It was my first birthday as a mom. After becoming a mom myself, I started to think and feel that a birthday really should be more about the mom. Your child’s birthday is a very special day for you too. It’s a day that forever changed your life. The twins’ birthday and party was Saturday, Saturday night after the babies were down for the evening, and the guests left the house, Mike and I did a little celebration for us. This will be a tradition for us.

We popped a bottle of champagne and cheers to us for being parents for a year!

This is what my husband posted on facebook: “Now it’s time to celebrate our first year of exceptional parenting!”

A year ago today...

A year ago today, I left the hospital without my babies. It was a sad, hard, depressing day. Today my babies and I had some fun in the sun at our neighborhood pool. They loved every minute of it! What a difference a year makes ;)

Presley and Noah are One!!

On the way to a cook out! But our sweet babies turned one yesterday and we had an awesome balloon party bash for them! I will blog more about the party later! But check out these

smash cake picture ;)

Birthday planning

I have been busy planning for the big 1^stbirthday! I decided to take the low key approach to the birthday party, months ago when having some personal emotions struggles over the event. 

I think those emotions have subsided and I am excited about the day and amazed about how incredibly fast this past year went.

 

Unfortunately what they say is true… it won’t last for long, it will go by in the blink of an eye, they won’t be a baby long, they won’t be a baby forever. So cherish those long nights and days because one day you will miss them. Tear. For real tears…

Anyways I have been busy in the kitchen today.  I’m so thankful to have access to a 5 kitchen station work area. I made several desserts in only a couple of hours from start to finish, thanks to the 5 stations and a special student helpers. J

 

Our party is planned for, 4pm, based on the twins’ nap schedule. We are doing a small family birthday party and originally I wanted to do a dessert party. But felt lame only offering dessert at a 4pm party that was likely going to push into dinner time. Then we thought okay we will do a cook out. Then I vetoed that idea because I don’t want my husband to spend the whole party slaving over the grill.

 

So I am going to whip up some homemade bbq, homemade mac and chasse, store bought baked beans and coleslaw. I am going to put it in the crock pot tonight so that tomorrow there are no worries! Way easier and cheaper than a bunch of finger foods.

 

Dessert and BQ sounds good to me!

 

Here are some kitchen pictures!

Birthday Budget

The last few months we have been on strict budget and have had very little disposable money since any normal "extra" money has been going to something. It started in March with the twins' preschool enrollment fee and Mike's office moving across town, then April we had to pay federal taxes and an accountant, in May we had to pay state taxes, May is mothers day (gifts times 3 (4 if it counts something for me),  My mom's birthday, my grandmother's birthday, and my mother in law's birthday, the twins birthday, and also paying to join the pool which we are still in limbo about for this year. May is probably going to be a hard finical, budgeted month for us for a long time.

Even with a small family gathering birthday party everything adds up fast and I have tired hard to stay on a small budget... and have failed, and I am still failing huge!

It started with the 1st birthday outfits, I wanted those super cute ones from Etsy with their names, a tutu for Presley and a birthday bow. Birthday bibs, birthday cones hats, decorations galore (dollar store and ebay) and since I couldn't make up my mind I have way too much stuff. I will hopefully be able to return the left overs.  The small party alone with probably cost $250 when it is all said in done and that is on the cheap. Cake, ice-cream, food, and decorations. Their outfits with all accessories was easily probably $100.

The "theme" for the party is "balloons!" So I decided Balloons was great for 1 year olds and is gender neutral.We are just going to have a crap ton of balloons.
Then in addition to party there are presents, which I said I was only going to get them a few things. This is true but when you have two, a few things adds up super fast. I am at $140 right now and that's if I don't add anything, due to excitement, amazon internet shopping with in the next few days.

Then I am going to order two photo books from shutterfly that have all their pictures from birth to 1 years old. I played made one the other day and it was $130. Now shutterfly as great coupon codes and groupon has specials for this all the time so I will hunt out a deal. I am going to order two because this is going to be there "baby" book and I want them to each have one. I will most likely make and save the book and wait for a good deal, then buy. I may buy one at a time to get the best deal.

On Sunday after their birthday we are doing their one year photos and well those things are expensive!

So yeah even attempting to not make a big deal out of their 1st birthday it adds up fast.  It pains my frugal side/ My frugal side says, "they don't know the difference." But my mommy said says, "who cares it's their 1st birthday!"

I started buying things for their birthday in early April to help budget and spread out the cost. Trying to budget, penny pinch for their birthday, I decided to makes some extra money by selling some old stuff around the house on Ebay. I have been calling my ebay funds the birthday funds! (It's not quite enough but surely helping!)

I have been quite successful on ebay and in the last month I have made $229.35 and have another $35 coming my way this week. So seriously people sell your stuff on ebay! I use the smartphone app and it couldn't be any easier to sell your unwanted stuff and make some extra, easy, fast money.
I am sure there will be many more birthday post coming up this week. I can believe my babies will be one NEXT Saturday!

Everyone is someone's baby.

Everyone is someone's baby, someone's everything, someone's miracle. Having babies of my own has made me think about so many things in a new light. I think it has made me a better person and for sure a better teacher.

I try to remember this in situations and I try to think how would I want someone to treat my child, my baby,my everything, my miracle.

So many situations recently where I have used this and a number of times where I didn't use this and I immediately felt guilty for it.

What if that were my child, my baby, my everything, my miracle...

Baby Wipe Deals!

Baby Wipe Deals

I get my baby wipes for cheap, sometimes free, depending on the store sales. A normal daily price for me is 1.5 cent a wipe. I will explain how I get these prices in a moment. The lowest Amazon mom prime membership wipes (membership cost 79.99 a year) cost 2.3 cents a wipe. It might not sound like a big price difference to some people but when you are talking about 1000s of wipes every couple of months it adds up to a huge savings.

As I have talked about before, many times, in this blog, bigger doesn’t always mean better, and it doesn’t always mean a bigger savings. This is why I am not a fan of Wholesales clubs who offer “lower” prices when you shop and buy in bulk. If you wait for sales, unit price shop, and use coupons, you can get way better deals.

To know how good of a deal you are getting you have to compare shop, meaning you have to know what the price is at different stores and you have to know the lowest everyday price of the product. The internet and smart phones have made this task super easy. Most importantly, you have you unit price the product, meaning how much does one diaper cost or one wipe cost based on the package size and price.

$20.00 or $15.00 may sound like a good deal for a mega box of diapers. But if you unit price the wipes and if they run 3 to 4 cents a wipe it is not such a great deal.

I am getting my wipes at 1.5 cent per wipe by buying the smaller packages. I also like the small packs because they are easy to throw in the diaper bag, keep in the car, and randomly keep around the house. The bulk diapers I am familiar with, are considered refills, they come in a package that has to be placed inside the plastic wipe container in order to keep them from drying out.

The small packages of 64 wipes cost $1.99 at both of my local grocery stores, Martin’s and Kroger. Kroger just stopped their double coupon program (last day for double coupons was May 12, 2013) so I will no longer be able to get the wipe deals there. Kroger offered and lot of PG savings for example when you spent $10 on PG products you would save $5 on the products. On top of that they doubled coupons. So I would use 50 cent wipes coupons that would double to a $1.00 off of a 1.99 making the wipes 99 cents, when I spent 10 dollars I would save another 5 dollars making the wipes 49 cents a package. This unit priced out to a little more than half a cent per wipe at .007 a wipe. Even better when you only buy 6 package of wipes at 1.99 = $11.94 (over 10 dollars on PG products) save $5 then use 6- 50 cent coupons that double to 1.00 = save another $6. For a total savings of $11 dollars, so you could get 6 packages of 64 wipes a total of 384 wipes for 94 cents. This breaks down to .002 cents a wipe so you get 5 wipes for 1 cent! Okay enough about that since it is not an everyday sale and since Kroger no longer double coupons.

I have just started trying out Martin’s in the last couple of weeks when Kroger announced they were discounting their double coupon program. I am hoping they do some kind of PG sale combo like the Kroger one I mentioned above. Only time will tell and if so I will post about it. For now I know that I can get them at an everyday low of 1.5 cent with the use of coupons. Their everyday price of 64 package of wipes is a 1.99, use a 50 cent coupon that doubles to a 1.00 coupon, every day, any day, with a coupon you can get a 64 package of wipes for 99 cents which breaks down to 1.5 cent a wipe…. This is a great deal! I still have a lot to learn about Martin's coupon policy, at this moment I am unsure of how many like coupons you can use in a single transition, on the to-do list is to read their policy.

You may be wondering… well how to do you get your coupons or how to you always have a coupon for wipes. It is actually pretty easy. So here are some ways I get my coupons.

1.      Newspaper

2.      Ask family and friends for their baby coupons from their newspapers this averages about 6 coupons each time there is a baby coupon in the paper.

3.      The internet there are many printable coupons on the web and usually there is a 50 cent coupon for pampers and huggies about once a month these have a print limit but that can take your coupon total up to about 8 diaper/wipe/baby coupons a month (1 from the newspaper, about 6 from family and friends, 1 from internet)

4.      Coupon trade and swaps there are many local coupon swaps in Richmond, they happen about once a month, there are also a large number of online coupon trading groups, however I feel like they can be very hit or miss so I cannot recommend one. I have had a lot of success with these but it depends on a ton of factors. Do you have something to trade that the other person is looking for? They go fast, so you have to be online at the moment it is posted. I have found they are easy to get when someone is offering them versing posting you are in search of a certain coupon which adds to the hit or miss factor. To find the coupons you want in swaps you have to be committed to the time it takes to find them.

5.      Ebay – you can buy coupons on Ebay, I am not quite sure how I feel about this at this moment because it is one of those things I question…. Is it ethnical? I have read a couple of coupon blogs about this and it seems like many people are on the fence. The Krazy Coupon Lady says she does it. Ebay says it is okay. I have found that most people want too much money for them, and too much money to ship them, and that in turn takes away from the savings. However, I did just buy my 1^st batch of 20 pampers coupons for $1.00.  Ebay and other coupon clipping services say you are not actually paying for the coupon but the time it takes to clip, organize and ship them. See this link

Hope this post helps you to save some money on wipes!

Etiquette

Etiquette

I am not Etiquette Queen or anything like that. But I know the basics and it really bugs me that many people no longer follow some of these traditional rules. I know times are changing, but still! One of the cool things about my job is that I get to teach some of these etiquette basics.

Some basics in a random order:

·         Use the following words: Please, Thank you, Your Welcome, Excuse me, Sir, Ma’am.
      Always write thank you notes. A text message, email, or facebook message is not the same thing.

·         Hold the doors for others.

·         Do not talk on your cell phone in the check-out line.

·         For my husband do not wear a baseball hat when eating out or inside.

·         Make every effort to be on-time. If you are going to be late make a phone call.

·         Follow deadlines.

·         Do not groom yourself or your children in public (you do not need to brush your toddler’s hair and the dinner table). Go to the bathroom for grooming.

·         Baby showers are for your first child/children. I can see some rare cases where this rule could be broke…. Huge age gap between children, re-marriage, twins.  

·         Showers are not supposed to me hosted by your mother. To me you might as well host it yourself. “Hey, everyone bring me a present!”

·         Don’t smoke at the entrance of a public place. Non-smokers do not want to walk in your smoke.

·         Leave a 20% tip for food service or beauty service. If you “can’t afford” the tip don’t eat out or get the service done. There are a few times when I think this standard can be lowered but I think those are rare occasions.

Random post from an etiquette discussion today in my classroom…  

Baby Food?

My babies eat real people food and lots of it! They eat a wide variety of foods and it can vary on a daily basis depending on what we are eating or doing that day. But here is what a typical day and food schedule looks like.

We are still formula feeding 24 ounces a day. At the twin’s last check-up (9 months) the doctor said it would be okay for us to switch over to whole milk at 1 year (which is in a 11 days, ekk). However, I feel Mama knows best and I am going to keep them on the toddler formula a little longer and make the switch over to whole milk gradually verses the cold turkey approach. I also plan to use the toddler formula this summer when we travel as it will be easier to keep on a long road trip.

7:30 – 6 oz bottle of Enfamil Toddler, cheerios and, greek yogurt usually blueberry flavor (blueberries are 1 of the 10 best foods to be part of a baby’s diet). See this link for more information    . Sometimes usually weekends, they will eat scrambled cheese eggs for breakfast.

12:00 – 6 oz bottle of Enfamil Toddler, grill cheese,or cheese toast, or a opened faced sandwich which includes a slice of whole wheat bread, a slice of turkey, with a piece of cheese on top toasted in the toaster oven (cut with kitchen scissors into tiny squares), puffs or some type of other finger foods, they love baby gold fish but like to balance out the cheese so may give this with dinner. They also have organic no sugar added applesauce with lunch and depending on what other fruit we have they will eat this as well. Banana, avocado, and we still use jar fruit every now and then.

4:00-  6oz bottle of Enfamil Toddler

5:30 – Dinner, depending on what we are eating for dinner they will eat this, just cut into small pieces, if we are eating something not baby friendly (ie something spicy or convenient/ not healthy) we will feed the babies jarred baby dinners from Earth’s Best and/or whole wheat toast. This is also the time that I try to make sure that makes get a nice serving of vegetables. I make a vegetable mix, by steaming carrots, peas, green beans, and broccoli and then run them to the baby blender so they get a nice mixed serving of veggies. I have tried to steam and leave carrots and peas on their high chairs for them to self-feed but they drop most of them and spit them out of their mouths --- this is why I am still mashing them. I have also been making the babies and vegetable pizza (recipe to follow) for dinner some nights.

7/7:30 – 6oz bottle of Enfamil Toddler – sometimes if the babies are too fussy they may go to bed without this bottle, for example last night they were telling me they were ready for bed at 6pm, so I gave them a bath, put on their pjs and they were out as soon as I placed them in their cribs. They did not wake up until normal time this morning.

And that is the basics common things the babies are eating now-a-days.

Oops

I debated all day rather or not to post this.... and here I am...we had an Oops last night. Our first one ever in fact. Chances are rare since O-day isn't predicted until Friday. But I am still a little nervous. Nervous because I didn't plan for that to happen. It would be a February due date. I'm not ready to be pregnant again yet. I am not going to stress or worry about this too much, because one I think it is unlikely, two I'd get over it and be excited sooner than later. I will say the next couple weeks will go by slowly.

Our game plan was to start natural family planning this summer... so much for plans!

Baby Names

This post comes from an assignment this week in my class. This week the computer simulation babies go home. So before they take a baby home they have to name it. So the assignment that goes with this asks the student to pick three boy names and three girls names. They have to do some research on the name. What is the name’s meaning? What is the history behind the name? How popular is the name? Why do you want to name the baby this?

I love baby names, I always have. I have made lists of baby names since I was 10 years old. The actual process of naming a real baby was a lot harder than I ever thought possible. I had some baby naming rules from when I was a young girl that stuck with me, but some that didn’t actually matter when it came to naming an actual real human. Naming a real human being is a lot harder than I could have ever imagined.

Some of my rules and personal preferences

·         Spelling is important. This may sound funny coming from me since anyone reading this should know I am a horrible speller. But spelling is important, spelling a name incorrectly does not make a name unique. It just makes your child have to correct people on the spelling of their name their entire life.

·         Growing up as Heather, I did not what my children to have a common name.  This is the rule that didn’t matter in the end, both Mike and I loved the name Noah. I hated and still hate that it was so high on the popularity charts, but no other name seemed right. So despite hating over used common names… the name Noah, a handsome, strong, classic won in the end.

·         Can’t rhyme with anything that can easily be made fun of

·         Has to sound good with the last name. For example Mike loved the name McKenize,our last name McMunn. That does not go together!

·         I don’t mind, unisex, boy, names on girls.

·         I have a thing for y ending names.

·         I prefer uncommon names. This does not mean make up names.

"Presley" I found this name in a baby book a year before Mike and I got married. We both loved it and agree then that if we had a baby girl we would use the name. This name fits into the last three name preferences. 

We are already playing the name game for our future children. It is fun. 

True love

The love of a mother for her children.