something beautiful

i love these baby blues

mandap7 — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:55:16 +0000

7 months old

mandap7 — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 16:17:18 +0000

my little bundle of joy turned 7 months old this past tuesday! i can’t believe what a little lady she is becoming. it is amazing as a mother to witness your baby’s personality developing. she is definitely going to be fiesty! jason keeps reminding me that we are “going to have our hands full!” i personally, think we already do! jason is still working at the farm and we are now the proud owners of 25 head of cattle, which will be sold to a feed lot come april or so. hopefully, they bring in some nice moolah (ha) for our family. i started watching another baby a couple weeks ago…his name is colton and he is almost 4 months old. it is A LOT of work watching 2 babies…more than i could have imagined. bailey doesn’t seem to be overly thrilled about sharing her mommy either! she has had lots of tantrums lately, which i didn’t think was supposed to start until the “terrible two’s” showed its nasty face. if i’ve got 3 more years of this, i might not make it. seriously. not much else is new with our little family, besides that i became a stella & dot independent stylist…a fancy way of saying that i now sell jewelry. it hasn’t been as profitable as i had hoped, but it’s fun to get out of the house and have “grown up” time. maybe it’ll take off in the future when i can devote more time to it, but right now, i have my hands just about full.

we’re back

mandap7 — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:51:30 +0000

i am SO happy that wordpress is working again! i can’t wait to start sharing things! obviously, the dates on my last two posts are wrong, but they were drafts that i had saved and never published. ANYWAY ~ i’d like to get everyone up to date on what’s been happening in our family for the past 6 months or so!!! bailey was born june 21st at 2:03 a.m. at methodist medical center…she weighed a whopping 8 pounds 7 ounces and i seriously thought i saw jesus while giving birth to her! it was a rather tramatic experience, but she is finally here and just turned 5 months old last week and she is my pride and joy! being a mother is even more rewarding than i had initially thought it would be. i can’t even put it into words how happy she makes me! sure ~ she is a lot of work and those first 2 months, i literally cried day in and day out because it was so hard and such an adjustment…no one really tells you just HOW much of a life change it really is! things are finally starting to get easier or i am just now surrendering. ha! i will have to post some of the adorable pictures from the past FIVE months when i can find the time…but here is one from the morning she was born…look how swollen her little face is…poor baby!

gifts galore

mandap7 — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:02:08 +0000

my baby shower was a couple of weekends ago…april 10th…sorry i am just now getting around to posting pictures! amy and heather did an amazing job putting it together! it was absolutely beautiful and everyone was so gracious…bailey definitely got spoiled!

the cake was TO DIE FOR! another amazing creation from Glorious Desserts…almond and strawberry swirl…and how cute is the chick on top? (she is supposed to be ME! ha.)

i feel so grateful to have such great friends and family. i know they will be such a blessing to bailey’s life!

it took my mom and i a good 10 hours to organize and put away all her awesome goodies. i am pleased to say, the spare bedroom is beginning to look like a nursery and i think we have pretty much everything we need! all that’s left is getting my hospital bagged packed and bailey’s clothes washed and i think we are good to go!

31 weeks

mandap7 — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 03:01:01 +0000

…I’M HUGE! enough said. just joking…i actually have a lot more to say…like how freaking miserable i have become! i’m so thankful God let me have an easy first and second trimester because this third one is about killing me! i don’t even remember what it feels like to get a good night’s sleep anymore…or heck…even a little sleep without waking up with horrible heart burn, nose bleeds and the non-stop urge to pee! it’s getting ridiculous! also, my thighs have turned into tree trunks and my stomach looks like i swallowed a basketball…o yea…and that whole “feeling sexy” thing hasn’t happened for a good 6 months either so you can probably imagine how lucky jason is feeling right about now! ha. i know she will be worth all of this agony, but i am just over it and want her to be here already!!! 9 more weeks…say a prayer for me!

heather & mike’s wedding

mandap7 — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:39:43 +0000

24 weeks

mandap7 — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 17:51:41 +0000

well folks, it has been a while since i’ve been on here…lots happening in our lives right now! jason has taken on 2 more side jobs besides the farming and that is keeping him busy 7 days a week! he is such a hard worker and i am so proud of him for taking charge and doing what he can for our family!

i am now 24 weeks along and a whopping 146 pounds!!! how did that happen? OK…i think i have an idea…(dairy queen late night runs, chocolate cake, snickers bars)…you get the idea. i am praying that breastfeeding will suck the fat out of me like everyone says it will!

i started feeling Bailey moving around in there at about week 19 and she hasn’t stopped for one minute since! jason keeps saying she is going to be a little track star because she is constantly on the go. i absolutely love feeling her in there…it makes it so much more real!

words can’t even describe the love i already feel for her…every time i think about it…i seriously start crying. i just can’t wait to meet our little girl. i dream about what she will look like…if she’ll have my nose or jason’s eyes or my flat feet or jason’s huge hands. regardless, she will be absolutely perfect to me!!!!

* on a side note…we can’t decide on a middle name for this little stinker. we were thinking about “rae”, but then realized she will have a “grandma nae” and a cousin “addie mae”…maybe too much rhyming? i think grace is cute, but can’t decide if it really goes with bailey? any suggestions anyone??? *

Ladies night

mandap7 — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:00:44 +0000

Happy Friday, peeps! What is everyone up to this weekend? I am making Jason take me on a date tonight…who knows where we’ll end up, but I wouldn’t be mad with sushi for dinner and then a movie!

So…a couple of weeks ago, some of my girls and I had dinner at Plaza Mexico and while we were there, we came up with the fabulous idea of doing a “dinner night in” every other week. We threw some ideas around and I don’t think any of us honestly thought we’d follow through, although we all loved the idea…yummy food, gossip, wine, board games…whatever…BUT I am thrilled to say that we actually did end up doing it! I decided to host the first “ourladiesnight” at my house and made some delicious Mostaccioli Casserole. Kelsey brought an amazing asparagus dish, Katie brought salad with a die to for Poppyseed dressing, Julie brought Foccacia bread that made my mouth water and Jaime brought dessert! I ate just like the prego chick I am!

Jaime made a blog so we can all post our recipes… http://ourladiesnightblog.blogspot.com/ … check it out for your own dinner night ideas…

Our next ladies night in is Feb. 5th at Julie’s house…I can’t wait to hear what the main dish is so I can find a recipe to take! YUM!

Bailey Rae Haroldson

mandap7 — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:11:57 +0000

…and all i got was laid off

mandap7 — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:56:03 +0000

well folks ~ sorry i haven’t been on here for a while, but after busting my ace for 15 months at GeoLearning, Inc…all I got in return, was laid off last Wednesday morning due to an acquisition of the company! it came as a complete shock…I received an email saying there was a “mandatory meeting” at 9:30…went to the meeting thinking it was just the usual thing, but was shockingly surprised when I was told by the President of the new company that effective immediately I was no longer an employee at Geo, to grab a box outside the door, pack my belongings and exit the building. so much for this staying “stress free” thing…

the past couple of days have been a whirlwind of emotions…I was nothing more than sad for a day then it turned into pure pissed-offness and now…I am looking at it as a total blessing! i’ve heard there are many changes taking place and it feels more like going to prison than work, which I couldn’t have handled. i had an interview yesterday, which i am praying went as well as i thought it did and hopefully, i will land that job.

however cliche, times like this, really do make you stop and reevaluate your life and also make you realize what’s truly important. i realized there is no sense in worrying, freaking out or being upset. i might be job less, but i have been given one of the greatest blessings in the entire world…a baby and because of that, i just can’t feel too bad about things.

also, we had our 16 week appointment on tuesday and the ultrasound technician said she is 90% certain we are having a baby…GIRL!!!!! i am ecstatic; however, jason locked himself in the bathroom when we got home and cried like a preschooler who just got his crayons stolen. he’ll just have to get over it because there is not a whole lot either of us can do about it! ; )

staying hopeful and trusting God….