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Ahhh, Christmas has come and gone already. I honestly can’t believe it’s over! I must say, one of the things I was most excited about on Christmas day was gearing up to give my dad his awesome gift. I wrote about giving my dad his first smartphone from Walmart mobile in November. Plus, I’m giving him three months of free phone service!

The phone sat in the top of my pantry just waiting to be opened and admired! I was a little nervous with what my dad’s reaction would be. My parents have both been talking about upgrading their old-fashioned flip phones for forever! I think new technology is a little bit intimidating for them. But I was ready to assure my dad that I would help him get it all set up.

I love my parents but man, do they need to upgrade their cell phones. They’ve been talking about it for over a year now. Right now they have very basic phones through their service provider. I’m not even sure they can take pictures with them, which is sad since they have five grandchildren (soon to be six!).  And they are old phone versions too that don’t work very well. So when I signed up for the Walmart Family Mobile campaign I knew exactly who would be getting a new smart phone for Christmas!

I know, I know, it’s November! Why in the world am I talking about baby swimming tips in November? Well, let’s just say we’ve had swimming on our minds. We are planning on taking our first summer vacation to the beach as a family of five (!!!) next summer. By that time our little baby will be nearing six months and I’m sure we’ll have her in the pool (and maybe even a dip in the ocean) wherever we go. So I was happy to read and share these tips about swimming with babies provided to me by www.zoggs.com!

I participated in this program on behalf of Seventh Generation and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own.

I’ll admit, I am not the “greenest” mama out there. I try my best to stay up-to-date on things that might harm my children and make decisions that are in line with their best health. Sometimes I choose convenience over going green – like using paper plates and paper towels (sorry, mother earth). But I am always interested in hearing more about how I can make our home healthier.

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client.

Yesterday night I invited my mom over to enjoy a new show on NickMom called Instant Mom with actress Tia Mowry-Hardrict. The kids always go to bed around 8:00 p.m. and I’m left with a couple hours of “me” time. Um, is this girl drop dead gorgeous or what?

You know how I was in an amazing show called Listen to Your Mother? Well, the video of me reading my story is up (has been for months actually, oops). I meant to post it right away but you know, it’s kind of strange watching yourself read something to 250 people. But some of my readers asked to see it so I thought I would put it up in case you want to watch it.

As I said before, we were able to find out very early whether we are having a boy or a girl. First and foremost the test showed that we have a healthy baby baking away in there! That is really the most important thing of all so I was happy to hear that and very relieved. And then we got to find out the BIG news!

Here is a video of the boys finding out! We put either pink slippers for a girl or sneakers for a boy and they opened the bag to find out! They were sooooooooo excited!

Our family has some important news to share with you . . .

Yep, that’s right! Baby #3 is on the way!

I cannot tell you how excited the boys are to have a new brother or sister!

Eight years ago today, in this very spot, Naaman got down on one knee and promised to love me forever. And now, eight years later, we stand in this spot and announce the final addition to our family. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this life for us. But I’m so glad it’s our reality.

So I may have inadvertently made a huge lifestyle change last week.

I went paleo.

I know. I’m shocked too.

You see, I am addicted to processed foods. Absolutely, 100% addicted. Sugar and carbs? Come to mama. I could not get enough.

The thing about writing about this is I’m afraid I’ll jinx it. I’ve written about making lifestyle changes before. And I may have kept it up for a week and then quit. So I don’t even really want to say it aloud. But I feel like I have to because, well, this is huge for me.

We all lined up waiting to walk out on stage. Fourteen of us. All beautiful in our own ways, inside and out. Then we started walking. I held my breath. I wasn’t really nervous. Just excited to finally share my story. One of my favorites I have ever written on this blog.

The Random Placement of People is something I wrote in 2010. Landon was two-years-old and Brigham was five-months-old. It was a challenging time in our lives, which is putting it lightly. Brigham was constantly sick and Landon, well, he was two. You catch my drift, mothers.

When I first became pregnant with Brigham, one of the foremost thoughts I had was, “How will I survive off of my medications?”

At the time I was taking medication for bipolar disorder, which had been declared unsafe for pregnancy. So I immediately stopped my medications when I saw the positive pregnancy test. I didn’t want to risk it.

I was a part of an online forum and so I went there to “talk” things out and express my worries. Would I be okay without taking medications? How would I manage if I had a depressive episode?

Today I’m excited to be over at The Happiest Mom sharing a more in-depth look at Landon’s birth. I’ve written his birth story but this goes into much more detail of how that most important day played out. It certainly wasn’t the birth I pictured but I am thankful every day that Landon is here with us, alive and healthy. His birth shaped who I am as a mother, that day and forever.