Thursday, November 15, 2012

Small World.

Lately with the teeth and the ear infection my world has felt very small. Today it felt like the end of the world would the Little One would not nap, at all. Then I lost my patience with more than one thing, the pulling things out of the trash can, the dumping and eating of the dog food, I just wanted to call it a day and go to sleep....at 5:45 in the afternoon.


Then, while waiting for the water to boil for the rice she started fussing and whining. I asked what she wanted and she said 'Momma', melted my heart. I picked her up and she gave me the sweetest hug and patted my back...how could I be frustrated with someone so full of sweetness?


Not too long after that she was off doing something else that made me want to yell and I was agitated all over again. This parenting thing is full of ups and downs isn't it? She repeated her sweet hugs several times this evening and I am so glad she did.





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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Molars.

It is nap time for the Little One, but instead of quiet I am listening to her babble and whine on the baby monitor. My muscles are achy and my eyes are tired. These past few weeks have been trying as a Momma. The Little One has been getting her molars and they are coming in fast and furious. She has been a ball of fussiness who rarely sleeps. In addition to the wicked teething she now has an ear infection that sent us to the ER in the wee hours of the morning while we were away for the weekend.


I am thankful that I have a partner to do this with or I might have lost my mind about a week ago. Though in those early morning hours we lose all of our courtesies and become a version of ourselves that nobody likes, but at least we are not doing this alone and know that we both are in need of grace from the other.


I am praying hard that a good nights rest is in store for all of us tonight.





A little late but here she is all dressed up for Halloween. She had the best time trick or treating!





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Monday, October 22, 2012

Farm Tour!

This weekend we participated in New Leaf's yearly farm tour. I was so excited, I had been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks, and it was so fun!
This year we headed to Monticello and visited four different farms. The weather was cool and sunny making for a perfect day to be outdoors. We drove to Golden Acres Ranch first where we took a hay ride, met lots of chickens, sheep and goats and the Little One even got to ride on the horse tire swing. Our Little One was so excited about those chickens! She would touch one and get so excited, it was pretty cute.

Hay ride

Meeting the chicken!

After the ranch we made our way to Green Meadows farm There we saw a really neat greenhouse, vegetable gardens and lots of blueberry bushes.
Our next stop was the Monticello Vineyard and Winery . We set up our picnic blanket and ate lunch on the grounds and took a tour. It is such a beautiful piece of land.


Our last stop of the day was Caney Branch Farm. I think this may have been my favorite, there were turkeys, ducks, chickens, geese, horses, cows, sheep and bees! The Little One LOVED the turkeys and every time they gobbled she would get so tickled. They make their own honey from the bees and yarn from the wool, it was just a neat place.




Here the Little One is signing 'more'...she wanted more gobbling!
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Friday, October 5, 2012

Oh nap time

Friends, this Mommy thing is hard! The Little One was woken up from her nap only 5 minutes in and refused to go back to sleep. There was lots of screaming, crying, rocking and bouncing but there was no going back to sleep. It reminded me of these early weeks where there was lots of crying for no apparent reason and nothing seemed to help. Though we have made it to sleeping through the night, eating solids and becoming mobile we now have new challenges. I am praying that I remember that though I am her mom, the Little One really belongs to her Heavenly Father and we Daddy and are blessed with the opportunity to raise her. She really is a blessing to us and has brought so much joy and laughter into our home.






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Saturday, September 29, 2012

What we've been up to.

It's gotten busy around here, but then slow at the same time. I have started back to work part-time (very part-time, like 9-12 hours a week) and it has been lovely. However it seems to make the days where I don't have work go very slowly, this also may be due to the Little One refusing her second nap three days this week. I thought she was dropping that nap then she went a whole week and a half with two naps and now for three days just one. So who knows.
Here are a few pictures of what we have been up to.

The laundry basket car was a huge hit, she cried when I got too tired of pulling it.

We took the kids I work with to the local art center, man this was so fun! We did an art project and toured one of the galleries. Watching their wonder and excitement made me tear up a little ( I have become such a cryer after having the Little One!).

She has pretty much decided that books are way better than toys and asks me to read her books all day long, there are quite a few I have memorized.

I got to take more pictures of our new niece and learned very quickly that is more difficult to take pictures of other people's babies than your own. We still got some good stuff and had some fun.

The hubs has made some more sweet wooden animals that have gone up in the etsy shop, I love them!
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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

The Bug and the Shop.

Oh friends, I have had the stomach bug something fierce. I cannot tell you have thankful I am that it was a 24 hour bug...for the most part. Today I am still recovering, but I have been able to keep down the few things I have eaten and can walk from one room to another without having to sit down on the floor and rest. I was so thankful that my mother-in-law was able to take the Little One for the day and the hubs came home from work early because this girl was good for a whole lot of nothin'.


Before the bug hit I was working on a few things for the Etsy shop since it has been awhile. I even had a request for a custom order, those always make me feel good! So here are a few pictures, I haven't gotten the headbands up on the store yet because there is no way to get pictures onto your Etsy shop from the iPad...they really should fix that.















Aren't they sweet? I wanted the Little One to model them, but they are a little big for her and she rips off everything I put on her head now anyways.





This is a newborn hat that will be up in the shop too, it's made from organic cotton yarn and is so soft and cuddly.








I love how this ear flap hat turned out, and the Little One kept it on long enough for me to get a picture (notice I am holding one of her hands and her other hand is poised for the pull). This was the custom order I did and it's already on its way to the customer. I hope they love it!



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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Welcome Little One.

Just a few days after we celebrated our Little One's birthday we helped to welcome another Little One to our family. The hubs's sister gave birth to a healthy baby girl in the wee hours of the morning. We are so overjoyed to have another little girl in the family. This Little One is their fifth, the other four all boys. Let me tell you those boys were some kind of excited when we met them at the hospital, that little girl is going to be looked after very well.


I got to take some pictures of her and her mommy and daddy. Getting the chance to capture a little bit of the wonderfulness of a brand new baby and the love struck parents is something good. It was a joy and then going back and looking over them gives me that warm fuzzy feeling.







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Isn't she beautiful?


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Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Party!

With the Little One turning one, it was cause for a little party. We were not only celebrating her birthday but the fact that her Daddy and I survived our first year of parenting. I heard (or saw on Pinterest) someone say that just because motherhood is common, doesn't make it easy. That has stuck with me this year because I have felt overwhelmed at this massive responsibility more than a few times.


I am not too much of a party girl, large amounts of people tend to suck the energy right out of me, but I do love to decorate for one! So I spent some time paper crafting weeks before our little shindig. Since our budget doesn't have party supplies included in it I had to figure out how to create some cuteness out of a few dollars. Let me say that I am thankful for those 40% off coupons that JoAnns sends out! I also spread out my spending so it didn't take away but a tiny bit away from the bank account at a time.


I only used a few supplies:

ribbon, scrapbook paper, dowels, pushpins, paint, balloons and a paper bag


I already had a lot of ribbon left over from other projects and I even used some that had been attached to gift bags when I was really getting low. The biggest expense was the pack of scrapbook paper which was $19.99, but I used that lovely 40% off coupon for that! So here is what I was able to do:













Don't those cupcakes look yummy? Oh they were. My sister, who is a master cupcaketress made those for us. The sweet hubs was really into making the Little One's cake. He worked really hard to make a cake shaped like our dog, since the Little One is so in love with him.




Didn't he do such a great job? She smashed that cake to bits though!





We also had balloons on the chandelier and in the doorways in addition to her high hair, but I didn't get any pictures of those.


After the cake was smashed we went outside to get clean, it was good fun!




Our family crammed into our little house to celebrate with us, and showered the Little One with gifts and lots of love. We thoroughly enjoyed celebrating this special occasion!



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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

One year.

What a difference a year makes. This time last year we were spending our first night home with our newborn. I do not remember that first night, heck I really don't remember much of the first few weeks at all. It is all a blur of doctors visits, spit up, sore breasts and late nights. I have been told that you forget the pain of labor and the crazy person you become when you haven't slept, showered or left the house in days. I do admit that it is hazy now, but not at all forgotten.




Somewhere between six and nine months we turned a corner and I felt like we were both getting settled and figuring out how to do this thing, at least a little bit. I am learning to go with my gut and let me Little One tell me what she needs and it sure does work better than trying to guess what she needs or giving her something she doesn't need.




She is learning the world at an incredible rate and it's hard to believe that she has taken in so much in one years time. Her personality is showing more and more and I find myself just in awe of this little person whom I had a part in creating.




On her birthday my husband was unexpectedly sad, commenting that we wouldn't get to relive those moments, that there was no going back. I had a twinge of sadness, but I am happy we made it! I am excited for what is to come. I am not ready for major sleep deprivation and all that comes with having a newborn just quite yet.



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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Sharing.

The house is quiet except for the crickets coming through the baby monitor. We have one of those giraffes that lulls your baby to sleep with different soothing sounds, the Little One likes the crickets the best.


I am sitting here in the quietness wandering what to write about. I am not sure if I have ever shared why I started this little blog. A little over a year ago I started a little Etsy shop of a few crochet items. I love yarn and I love the feeling I get when I have created an item that will be treasured and loved on. I love to create in general. Creating something lovely stirs something inside me like nothing else. Now I am not wildly talented at any form of art but I love it. I do think that is one of the reasons I enjoy working with kids, they are always imagining and creating. The Etsy market is quite saturated and I thought a blog might help with getting my little shop out there. Well I cannot say that the blog has been successful at that aspect of it. However it has provided an outlet for me to share pieces of this new life I am now living, the life where someone calls me "momma".




I keep imagining different routes I could go with this little space that I have to share... I could try my hand at creating recipes, I could share in detail the steps we have taken as a family to minimize our exposure to chemicals and pesticides, I could post crafts...but so many others are doing that. I am not sure I have any thing new to add to those topics. Maybe I'll just stick with what I've been doing, sharing my experiences.



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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Lazy days of Summer.

So it's been awhile. I really don't have any excuses besides it's summer and I have given into it's lazy days.
Our days have't consisted of much and we have no schedule...this makes it hard to for me to get motivated to do much other than what is absolutely necessary.
I have been doing a good amount of cooking, especially recipes from pinterest, I have way too much fun finding recipes there! My husband, mister routine, is getting tired of trying new things. If he had it his way we would eat the same 7 meals over and over.

I made this yummy pasta last week. It was the perfect summer meal, I even made my own pasta!

I have also been doing a little crafting for the Little Ones birthday that is fast approaching! We aren't having a grand birthday party, just a little family celebration but I can't help myself when it comes to party decorating!


The Little One is staying busy getting into everything imaginable and WALKING everywhere! I guess it's time to get some shoes. How is this all happening so fast?! The mister has next week off so we are planning for more laziness, and maybe a day trip to the beach! We will be soaking up this last bit of summer that's for sure!
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Saturday, July 7, 2012

A Little Crafty Fun.

Yesterday the Little One and I were having one of those days. I didn't want to take her outside in the morning because the mosquitos have been so bad, and in the afternoon it was muggy and overcast so I didn't want to get the pool out. We did go out for a bit and play in our makeshift water table which ends up being a mini pool for her since she insists on climbing in it.


I was watching her play with the empty water bottle that she has been carting around ever since the Fourth of July and got the idea to make her one of those ocean in a bottle things. I just used the Fourth of July bottle, some baby oil I had gotten at a baby shower and had never used, food coloring, water and some beads I had from some long ago craft. I hot glued the top on and I was done!





This bottle has been the best toy!




This is what was going on while I was assembling the ocean in a bottle.




The completed project!




One happy baby! She only played with her new toy for about 2 minutes and was onto something else.


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Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Fourth Festivities!

Yesterday we had a fun day celebrating the Fourth of July. It was the first for the Little One and think she enjoyed herself. We headed over to visit with the Hubby's side of the family. We participated in the golf cart parade that their neighborhood holds and the golf cart even won for the best decorated!










We did a little swimming and hanging out and then headed home. We didn't watch fireworks anywhere but did some sparklers at home before bedtime with the Little One. She really liked them!








Today we are relaxing and taking it easy. We are having a great summer!


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