swiss miss and her mammals

Well it has been a while folks! But you will have to forgive me because this post isn't going to be just about my adorable family because frankly not much has been happening around here. The last two days I have stumbled across two to me kind of ridiculous articles:   The first one is this one about not calling your pets babies: http://www.yourtango.com/2015275999/your-dog-is-not-one-of-your-kids-insult-to-moms And this one about covering up while nursing: http://shejustglows.com/2015/06/dear-breastfeeding-moms-really-hard-cover/ Both of these articles made me chuckle because they are absolutely absurd to me. I love our balou and I do call him my fur baby and guess what it is not meant as an insult to mom's! and yes I have given birth too ( except that I had a c-section which some other article said that that is not really giving birth- even though I dilated to a 10 and pushed for 2 hours but what do I know). And I'm sorry but if you are offended by

Today I had my usual wake up. At least somewhat usual I woke up to ezra snuggling next to me nudging to get out of bed and getting our day started. I stumbled over the toys that were scattered all over the living room floor as I was caring ezra to his room to get him changed. My feet were sticking a little bit to my way too dirty kitchen floor as I sat ezra on his just as dirty highchair looking for a knife in between all the dirty dishes to get him some breakfast ready. Bottom line is my whole family including me make a mess faster than I can clean it up and that is exhausting and frustrating sometime. But than a thought passed through my mind that made me so sad that I cheered up immediately. One day I will wake up to a laundry basket that is only half full instead of overflowing since it is only me and Tj. One day I won't have tiny sticky fingerprints to wipe of my cabinets or at least not as much on a regular basis as now. One day I won't have a hungry baby wake me up anymo

Hey there. I have started work at the gallery I interviewed for and it is actually a lot of fun. I only work every other evening from 4-6 right now and every other saturday till summer will start and I will work longer hours. It is a lot of fun getting to know my co-workers, talking to costumers and learning the ropes of working in a retail store. Ezra cried pretty hard the first time I left him with his new babysitter. It made me sad since I had fun going to work and getting some me time. Last Monday I left him with my friend kristen who has a 10 month and 4 year old and he was happy there. I'm sure it just takes him some time to get adjusted and I know it is so good for him to play with those other kiddos. Yesterday was a super fun family day for us. Tj was off work so we went to the pool for the first time with Ezra and he had an absolute blast. Pool trips are definitely on our monthly activity list now. We had the missionaries from our church over for lunch and at 4 I had to l

First of all can I say that I can't believe Ezra is 8 months today?? Time has flown by This was him in february (I took this one for valentines but never got around to upload it) He is such a little stud muffin. This post will be super picture heavy courtesy of my dad! It was so good to have him here for almost 4 weeks and he took a ton of pictures! I need to get that good at taking pictures! Back to Ezra and his 8 month stats: He still loves bathtime (can you tell?) (seriously look at the happy face!!) and yes I do bath him in the kitchen sink since our apartment only has a shower stall. He loves the swings: again happy, happy baby...I can't get enough of his smiles and giggles! He likes hanging out in the ergo baby on walks and the backpack on hikes He loves daddy time:  So glad for these two! How did I get so lucky??? Tj is such an awesome daddy and Ezra adores him. What Ezra doesn't like: That one waitress at a loca

Well it has been a busy couple weeks here in the northcraft residence and already a whole month has passed since my last post. I have a couple ones in the works right now that will update you on the things that have been going on this blog will be dedicated to my first stitchfix experience. I have been on a mission to update my frumpy mom wardrobe and decided to give stitchfix a try. It is a personal styling website. You fill out a styling profile with your measurements preferences and such pay a 20$ styling fee (that can be used towards your first purchase), create a pinterest board to inspire your personal stylist and within a few weeks you get a package with 5 personalized items picked just for you. You keep the ones that you like and put the rest into the prepaid envelope to send back. I was super critical about this whole thing. I knew that there clothing items averaged at 50$ a piece which is pretty steep for my budget but I have read so many good reviews about and how it

First of all thanks for all the positive feedback on my mommy guilt post- It is so nice to know we are all in this together and that I'm not the only one who feels that way. It's been super busy the last couple weeks in between diaper changing, running errands, feeding the little monster, doing laundry and dishes and and and and... it's been hard finding time for myself. Ezra has been skipping his afternoon naps since he has started teething bad again so that leaves this exhausted momma with a 1 hour period to really get stuff done. Which means I had to set priorities which I hate doing because I love to do everything and all at the same time and I just pretty much want to be super woman and sometimes I feel like I am exactly that and most of the time I feel like I'm closer to the opposite.  But on a positive note We have been having so much fun exploring juneau! I can't believe that we will have been here already 4 months the middle of this month. Time is flying

It is 12:08 am and I'm sitting here in the living room trying to convince Ezra to go to sleep. Right now he is rolling around the floor babbling processing  the events of the day. Just a minute ago I held him in my arms his chubby cheek pressed against mine, his little fingers holding me tight. Slowly rocking back and forth in the recliner enjoying the quietness of the night just him and me. Yes I am tired but tonight that doesn't  matter all that is on my mind is that sweet baby and how what feels like just a glimpse of a second ago he was this little newborn that needed me every minute every day, and now he is mobile rolling wherever he wants to go, he has gotten pretty good at showing me what he wants, he eats solids and the snuggles have gotten fewer since now he is constantly  on the move. Tonight I will cherish the snuggles  and enjoy the quietness...Tonight I'm wishing on a star wanting him to stay little, needing him to not loose that look of complete admiration  li

Today was one of the days that mommy guilt completely overwhelmed me. It's something I haven't thought about before having a baby and didn't expect to have to deal with. It all started when Ezra was born. I was planning on a natural birth with minimal intervention. I was getting induced since I had gestational diabetes but was still committed to keep things as natural as possible. Well things didn't go quiet as planned. I ended up getting an epidural since I was already in labor for a few hours and had very strong contractions with very short breaks in between. I had trouble breathing and was throwing up a lot and since I had only progressed to 1.5 cm till then I opted for the epidural. After 2 hours of pushing I agreed to using the vacuum to try and get him out and after that failed Ezra's heart rate dropped and they had to get him out fast after all that pushing it was pretty devastating to get a c-section. For days after that I felt guilty and still do sometimes

I'm a someone that likes to constantly work on myself and try to improve myself and I achieve that best by setting goals. I have set a few for this year and a lot of them are very long-term goals that require some good financial back up. I would like to start online school by the beginning of next year and get my masters done but I have to start all over since none of my schooling from switzerland will transfer- that is a long shot from now so I will take this step by step. My a little bit more in reach goal is to get in shape tj and I are starting a low carb diet and I want to start running and doing pilates again. I LOVE LOVE LOVE  pilates besides riding horses and snowboarding it's one of the few fitness tools that is a lot of fun to me and it makes me feel amazing and so in controll of my body. I also want to start my own online shop for baby quilts since I love making them and it's something I can do for myself during naptime they don't take too long to make and

This past saturday poor ezra got sick. My brother in law jesse had the flu the beginning of last week and we tried to be out of the house as much as possible so we wouldn't catch it. Sadly it didn't work. Ezra woke up cranky and was feeling pretty hot by 10. We took his temp and it was at a 100.1. I called my sister in law bethany who is  a doctor and she advised me to go ahead and take him in to get tested for influenza. Since ezra isn't quiet 6 months yet he hasn't gotten the flu shot and it can be pretty crucial for a little guy like him. We went to bethany's office (my old pediatrician jessica works there) and dr. Larsen was working the saturday shift. By then ezra's fever had gone up tp 101.4 and he was super miserable. It broke my heart to see him so uncomfortable.  He did test positive for influenza so the Dr fixed us up with some meds and we gave ezra some Tylenol to keep the fever down. His fever continued to climb to 103.6 and I started to get super wo

I can't believe ezra will turn 6 months on the 5th of february! It still feels like he was just born yesterday  and I'm just having so much fun getting to know him and his little quirks and seeing him grow and change! We will have his 6 month check up right after we get home so I'll put his updated statuses up then He loves.... - eating frozen fruit out of his mesh feeder it literally keeps him busy for half an hour - rolling all over the place...I will turn around for 5 min to get stuff done and he will be under a chair or a corner somewhere on the opposite side of the room I left him at - sweet potatoe and fennel puree they are his favourite and he makes little happy noises while he is eating them just like his me when I get a treat:) - bath time...he refuses to lay down in the bathtub now and wants to sit up and splash around -being naked and baby massages...this is something we have started while we were here. When I change him into his pj's I massage him wit

Hey there- we are here in oly WA and enjoying sometime with family and friends. Flying alone with Ezra was great. He was such a little trooper and it helped that the seat next to me was empty so he had some room to play. We arrived tuesday a week ago and then had our appointment at seattle children's on friday. My dear friend karen offered to give us a ride up there so I could entertain ezra which turned out to be a huge blessing since it took us 3 hours to get home in traffic which is normally a 1 hour drive. We arrived there an hour before our appointment and grabbed some lunch really quick. After check in at the hospital I was quite nervous but once the nurse called ezra's name I was just glad to get some answers. We have been worried about his flatspot (plagiocephaly) since birth. The nurse was funny and quirky which made me feel comfortable immediately- yay for awesome nurses!! They took all of ezra's statuses which were 66.71cm/ 26.26 in for his height (44.7%), 9.7

Tomorrow Ezra and I are leaving for a little adventure. We are flying back home to olympia to visit with family and friends after a month of being here in juneau. Visiting everyone has an alterior motive. On the 23rd of January Ezra has an appointment at seattle children's to get evaluated. They will check if he meets the criteria to wear a helmet that helps with his flat spot (plagiocephaly) that he has had since birth. His flat spot has improved over the last few months but not quite as much as we would have liked it to. Poor little guy got quite banged up during the birth process.  As you can see his head got all red and swollen from a haematoma he got on his head when he was born and he ended up developing some persistent jaundice from it too which prolonged our hospital stay... but seriously aren't those cheeks the cutest? I can't believe how much he has already changed in the last 5 1/2 months! So we will see what they have to say about it and if he will need a

Hey there this blog is all about me, my little family and our everyday life! I'm Jasmine and grew up in st. gallen switzerland and lived there until I came here to the US to improve my englisch and met this handsome guy: TJ is my husband of almost 3 years now. He swept me of my feet and whisked me away to live permanently in the states with him, He works as an assistant manager for les schwab tires and is pretty much the most laid back, easy going, goofy, fun person a girl could wish for. A year after we got married this little monster jumped into our life; Meet Balou our pitbull beagle mix. He is turning 3 in March and is just about the most lovey dog I have ever met. He will always be our first baby eventhough this adorable creature  was born on the 5th of august last year and made our life complete for now. Little Ezra made us parents and me a stay-at-home-mommy. He is a blast to be around and for sure gets his goofy personality from his awesome daddy. My life h