Get to Know Me

Here are some honest facts about who I am. Get to know me.

I love Christ. I’ve accepted him as my Savior and place my faith in Him every day. I have a daily relationship with Him, not a once-a-year or as-I-need-Him relationship. He’s the first person I thank when something good happens. He’s the last person I talk to every day. He’s the reason I’m still here, in a somewhat happy state of being. I pray for each of my family to come to know Him the same way I do. To appreciate, to love, and to acknowledge His awesomeness.

I’m a prayer warrior. If someone comes to mind out of the blue, I’ll pray for them until that feeling passes. I’ve had two instances recently where I’ve had this constant urging to pray for this woman, and then recently her and her family. I don’t know them personally. In both cases I’ve asked my friend if something particular has been going on with them and told her I’ve had this constant urging to pray. In both cases something big was happening with her, and then with her family. I get chills thinking of how God used me to help them. Just such a blessing! I love how God can use anyone, anytime, as long as we are willing an open to being used.

The best parts of my day are Adalynn and Kael.

I’m the type of mom that prefers to spend every second together as we only get 2, maybe 3, hours tops together of an evening. I hate if I have to run an errand and I don’t get home until 6 and then I have to cook, eat, and somehow spend time with children before bed. This is a balancing act that I’m still learning!

I still cannot believe I have a living, breathing baby girl. I look at her every day and I’m in constant wonder of her. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t find out the gender before the birth, or because of my previous miscarriages. I just know that I cannot get enough of her. Her life is a gift from God, truly.

When I nurse Adalynn in public I find it very empowering (I’m covered!). I used to be very self-conscious of this, and sometimes I still am. Overall I know what I’m doing is healthy for Addy and even for myself.

I think it is hilarious how my son has to poop as soon as it’s time to eat dinner. I find it even funnier how my husband and son love to talk about the color, size, and quality of the poop. And sometimes insist I see it.

I was down to my pre-pregnancy weight 3 days after having Adalynn. (Holy goodness this surprised me as much as anyone else!) I’m a size smaller than before I got pregnant with her. I just need to lose my baby belly!

I have a negative body image. I’ve struggled with this through high school and college. It’s one reason why I’m obsessed with eating right and losing weight.

I have a guilty conscience. It’s a really bad one.

I hate sarcasm. Unless it’s funny. And only I can tell you if it’s funny or not.

I’m blunt. If you piss me off, chances are you know it. If you don’t know, chances are you will soon enough.

I used to smoke. But I quit. I quit for my children and because I want to live a long and healthy life for them, for myself. I want to be a good example.

I go on these weird obsessions for oatmeal and chili. In college I would eat chili for every meal (yes, every meal I ate) for weeks. Then I’d switch to oatmeal. I just remembered this the other day when I started wanting oatmeal all.the.time.

I love party planning. I get more creative with each party and I love it. I have a running list of ideas (and pins!) for Kael’s Batman party and Adalynn’s Butterfly party.

I make really good brownies and cupcakes.

I just realized that about 1.5 hours every (other) night are spent either giving baths or taking one myself.

I think seeing a therapist is needed every once in a while. I’m not ashamed to admit that I am currently going to one and in just a month my outlook on life is much brighter.

3 Months

Dear Adalynn,

Your life is rushing by. I am begging it to slow down. How are you already 3 months old? My maternity leave rushed by in a blur of late nights of watching you breathe and now I rush through my days, busying myself so I can hurry home to you and your brother.

You look just like me in one of my baby pictures here!

This month was busy for you, once again. You celebrated your first Christmas, New Year’s, and your brother’s birthday. What a month! We celebrated Christmas by getting up early that morning and letting Kael open almost everyone’s presents. He got you your first baby doll, and you smile when we push it and it says “i love you i love you i love you!” You slept through us opening our presents, but you woke up just in time for church, and the festivities at great grandma’s and then at memaw and papa’s house. You were spoiled, as usual, and have a wardrobe until you are in 18 months!

Sleeping through your first Christmas morning.

First Christmas!

You’ve learned so much. You talk all the time and it’s the sweetest little voice. You’ll put your hands together, in a prayer-warrior way, and smile and just start jabbering. You are mimicking us with your coos. You mimick “I love you” sounds and “mama” – but you only say “mama” when you are mad! I adore how you are communicating with us so early on. I can just stare at your sweet face for hours.

You are a whopping 12 pounds and just over 24 inches long. I have to leave most of your 3-6 month onesies unsnapped and none of your jeans stay on your waist. You are tall and skinny.

First day at daycare.

You started going to daycare on December 27. I am still sad about this, but it’s getting easier leaving you every day. You haven’t had any problems there, and the main teacher just loves and loves on you, so I know you are well taken care of.

You are still nursing full-time with bottled milk away from me. I’m also okay with daddy feeding you a bottle here and there so I can take bubby out. I’m so glad this has worked out so well with you. You are a perfect little eater and I’m so happy that you love nursing as much as mommy does.

Staring at your great grandpa

You are very attached to your mommy and daddy. You will go to others, but not for long periods of time, unless of course they are going to feed you. I think this is super sweet and I love it.

You love our nightly dance parties, but I’ve realized recently that you are a fan of rock and roll, particularly ACDC. You smile when a song comes on and love to be bounced and danced with.

You are finally getting the hang of tummy time and it’s now productive! You hold your head up high, push up off your chest, and wow – “I can see the world!” is what your eyes say. You have found your hands and have started grasping objects and staring at them intently. This morning you even started to take it from one hand to the other and then dropped it. You love your Bumbo and are sitting up really good in it already.

Precious baby girl

Yes, I keep you in a bow every day. Even though I know it comes off your head as soon as you are at daycare, you still wear one there and wear one often times at night. You look cute in them, so I might as well.

You are sleeping good still. It’s so weird. On the nights you sleep horribly you still only wake up 2 or 3 times. Usually you sleep from 10 until 3 or so, eat for a few minutes then fall asleep until I wake you at 7 to get you ready for daycare. You’ve developed your first cold (so much for that whole breast milk makes you healthier!) and it has made you quite congested, which means you wake up wanting to be held more. That’s okay with me. It’s not a surprise to me that you have a cold though. Every day I pick you up every child in your class has a runny nose, a cough, and there was one confirmed case of RSV. Eek! I’m praying you don’t get anything worse than what you have right now.

Productive tummy time the day you turned 3 months!

You are a sweet baby, Adalynn Rae. I love you more and more each day. I love staring into your eyes and wondering what you are thinking. I just can’t take my eyes off you. I want to soak you in every day and not forget these baby moments. You love bath time. Which is just awesome because I love giving baths to my kiddos. It’s my alone time with each of you and I love it. One day this month all four of us piled into our big jet tub and we loved it. You were safe in mommy’s arms while daddy and bubby raced dirt bikes along the water. I love dancing with you, holding you, and watching you smile and coo at your big brother.

You love to smile!

You love to smile, sweet girl. You also started laughing this month. You don’t do it often, but when you do my world lights up. You can make me smile even in my darkest hours, Addy. Thank for you for that.

This is what most evenings look like in our household. Of course, I'm usually right there with everyone!

You have been the perfect addition to our family. You’ve moved in, made your presence known, and we each love you so very much.

Thank you for coming to us.

I love you,

Mama

Kael’s Dino Riffic Party!

Kael turned 3 on January 2 and we celebrated with a DINO Riffic party this past Saturday. He was surrounded by friends and family at his party and had a lot of fun. He’s been having fun ever since playing with all his new toys and we just got done reading some of his new books. We are all excited to have an extra day off this week (Monday!) so we can spend more time playing with toys and, hopefully if the weather cooperates, going to the park.

Enjoy the pictures!

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The table!

He loves Dinosaur Train

Fruit tray = Fruit a saurus

Pretzels = Dino Bones

Strawberry Banana Jello = Lava

Goodie bags in the “prehistoric” brown lunch bags filled with dino coloring books, crayons, dino snacks, and mazes

Table with all his memory books

Little man was so spoiled.

I just realized my dad is sticking out his tongue. Nice, dad! :)

The cupcakes = Dino Droppings!

Love him SO much!!!!

Three

Dear Kael,

You are three.

And full of all sorts of attitude! Three is so big. It’s hard to believe you started off as just a tiny baby, so much like your sister, and in just three short years you’ve transformed into a little big boy.

This year was full of changes for you.

You mastered the tricycle you were given for Christmas last year in just a few short months and moved up to a big dirt bike by the summer. You love that dirt bike so much. You’ve ran papa over on it several times. You love to go to the park on the somewhat warm-winter days we have now and play on the toys and ride your bike. It has scared me, but I’ve learned to let you go and let you test your limits. I’m right there to help if you ask. Please always remember that, sweet boy. I’m always here if you need me. If one day you’ve found you’ve went too far and need help getting out, I’m here for you.

We moved to Ozark and you started a new school. This was hard on you at first. Though, I think it was harder on me. This was all quick and sudden, but I think you have adjusted well in the 7 months we’ve lived here. You’ve settled in nicely and have found a new friend, Olivia. According to the teachers you two are inseparable. You and the ladies. At Ms. Kassie’s, church, and now at your new school, you always are quick to bond with the girls.

You are a big brother!! You are a wonderful big brother, Kael. You love on your sissy and have taken her in just like me and your daddy. I couldn’t be more proud of you for how well you have adapted to her taking over the house the past few months. You are becoming more the center of attention again as we are now getting back into our old routine of me with you Saturday mornings – just us, taking two children to school, baths for two, and story time together in the floor of your room. It’s taken a few months to get here, but I’m happy with where we are as our family of four. It’s a balancing act, and you have done very good while we are learning. Thank you, sweet boy, for showing us patience.

You are potty trained. You still have accidents here and there, some days there are none and some days you go through 4 jeans in a matter of hours. But overall you are trained and no longer wear pull ups. You wake up dry 90% of the time and are very quick to say “Look! I’m DRY!” of a morning. You even wake us up in the middle of the night to go potty. You are so big!

We celebrated your big day by giving you what you wanted. White milk (so weird when there was chocolate!) and an orange for breakfast. Chick Fil A for lunch, with a water (at your request – weird once again!). Looking at toys at Toys R Us for a (long) while. You had a gift card for Christmas so you picked out a power ranger and dirt bike. No matter how many dirt bikes or power rangers you have, it’s never enough. You love them! Then to Chucky Cheese to play with the toys. It is always fun to see your brilliant smile amongst the children there. Running, carefree, and loving every minute of it. We ended the long day of fun with memaw and papa. Daddy and I fixed homemade cashew chicken, rice, and noodles – covered in cashews - just like you like it. And to top off the perfect evening, you had a chocolate ice cream sundae, covered with chocolate sauce and cherries. You were very sweet while we wished you a happy birthday. Holding your hands and smiling at each of us.

You got to open one present from us and one from my parents. You loved your train and dinosaurs. Your birthday party isn’t until January 14 this year, and no doubt you will be spoiled then. You keep trying to go into the guest room to see what toys are hiding behind the closet door.

Sweet boy, this year was so fun with you. Watching you grow and learn and thrive is something I never grow tired of. After we say our prayers of an evening, I will stay an extra few minutes each night just to stroke your hair and breathe your wonderfulness in. Knowing you a part of me. That I created YOU. Well, I don’t know that there are words to exactly portray how that feels. Every mom knows it though. It’s … love. That’s the simplest way to put it.

I can’t wait to see what happens in this fourth year of life with you. Will you start soccer class? Will you show an interest in writing? Will you continue to show an interest in letters and numbers, as you have just recently started to do? What will you learn? Where will we go on your crazy adventures? Where will we go on our summer vacation? Will you teach your sister how to walk? How to talk? You are already teaching her how to say “mama” as you no longer call me mommy. It’s one of the sweetest things you’ve started doing lately.

No matter what you do, where we go, or what you learn, I am glad that I’m your mom and can be there right beside you every step of the way. Leading you, guiding you, walking beside you, and following you at all the right times.

I love you sweet boy. Forever and always. Oodles and Oodles and Noodles.

Mama

Enjoy the recap in pictures of your third year.

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