Giving thanks

For the sake of my pathetic blogging record, I'm going to pretend like it hasn't been over 6 months since I wrote a decent post and just get with the program.

So, you know those really annoying Facebook posts that start with "I'm thankful for…" and after the 348th one, you're like, "If I see one more, I'm going to gouge my eyes out,"?  Yeah, well I'm about to get really annoying…but hopefully less so because a) this is not Facebook and b) I'm warning you beforehand, so that if you could care less about what I'm thankful for you can just move on with your life, no hard feelings.

But first, let me preface my list with why this is important to me.  My life has never been more busy and complicated and difficult but at the same time, I've never felt like I had more to be thankful for.  In the past year, and more specifically in the last couple of months I've learned this: life is hard.  Being a good wife, and a good mother, and a good friend, and a good teacher, and a good (fill in the blank) is hard.  But if you don't take time to stop and be grateful and appreciative for what you've been given, it's freaking impossible.  So, I've been trying to stop. breathe. and give thanks.  Not just during the month of November but everyday.  I've been given so much more than I deserve that it's hard to put into words the gratitude I feel but God knows because I tell Him daily.  And hopefully, some other people will read this and then they'll know too.

So, here goes my list.

1. I'm thankful for a God that loves and will continue to love me when I've done nothing to earn it.  No matter my past or my future, His love is constant and I couldn't be more grateful.

2. I'm thankful for a husband who loves and supports me unconditionally.  He is my rock and I know without a doubt he was put on this Earth for me.  I am amazed at how my love for him continues to grow each day.

3. I'm thankful for my children.  Both Weston and our little one on the way (more on that another time).  Being a mom has taught me more about myself and what I am capable of than I could have imagined.  Watching our little boy grow and learn has been one of the biggest blessings of my life.  I love him more than I ever thought possible.  So much so that I worry my heart isn't big enough to contain this much love for two.

4. I'm thankful for my family.  I am so blessed to have been raised by parents who put family first.  And to have been so close to all my grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins that they might as well have been parents and brothers and sisters.  These are the people who taught me about God, love, respect, hard work, good manners, and all those other important things that I see lacking in most of the students that come through my classroom.  I pray that my own kids will feel the same way about our family as I do.

5. I'm thankful for my church.  I am so glad to have found a church family that challenges me to love more, do more, give more.  I am growing so much in my faith and I know that is why God led us here. I can't wait to see what He has planned for us.

That's it for now.  But I encourage you, when you feel yourself get so busy that you don't know how you'll get it all done or so aggravated that you're ready to bite someone's head off.  Stop. Breathe. Give thanks for what is good in your life.  In my case, it always makes things better.

And since this has been all boring words and no cute pictures, here is one of our little turkey:

Weston - 12 months

Name Change

Just wanted to change things up a bit around here.  I feel like the new blog name is fitting for where I am right now and how I want to live my life and encourage my family to live theirs...by being grateful for this amazing life we've been given.

I'm also hoping it will encourage me to be a little better about keeping things updated.

More to come soon about recent goings on and an adorable little one-year-old (typing his age just made me tear up a little).

8 months

How does this keep happening?  I feel like he was just seven months old yesterday...and the day before that was six months.  And didn't we just bring him home from the hospital a couple weeks ago?  It seems no matter how hard a girl tries, time keeps a-movin'.

Now somehow we have a little one that I feel like is almost more toddler than baby.  He crawls and plays and dances to music and investigates every. little. thing.  Each day he is able to do something that he couldn't the day before.  It is pretty freakin' amazing to watch.  Even though now he has learned that crying=adult attention and uses it to full advantage...and every diaper change turns into a wrestling match.  Also, a little personality is emerging: sweet and sensitive, silly and playful.

Weston we love you so.  You are our favorite thing about waking up every morning and coming home at night.  Happy eight months precious boy!

Month 7 and Spring Break

Doing a little catching up today before Spring Break ends and it's back to having no time for anything.  I swear I don't know how you working moms update your blogs on the regular.  Hats off to you my friends.

So, since we left off we've celebrated Valentine's Day and a 7 month birthday with our little love bug.

Happy day of love!

A 7 month old wiggle worm.

He is growing WAY too fast.  I know that's the worst of cliches and every mother in the world says it about her child, but I don't think you truly understand it until it's yours...at least I didn't.

Motherhood has been so strange in that I'm in a constant state of wanting to see what the next stage brings and at the same time wishing he would stay this little or go back to when he was a newborn and didn't try to wiggle away every time I held him.  Bittersweet: that word doesn't seem quite right but it's the only one I can think of to describe the feeling.

My two babies.

And then, there's the love.  The most painfully happy love you've ever felt in your life that makes you want to laugh and cry all at the same time.  So, that's where I am these days longing for the past, anticipating the future, but most of all loving this amazing gift of my little family.

Enough mushiness...moving on.

Wanna know one of the great things about being a teacher?  It's called Spring. Break.  And we took full advantage of a few days off.

Starting with gorgeous spring weather and a trip to the zoo...along with everyone else within a 60 mile radius of Memphis it seemed.

Always down for a stroll.

All these folks had the same idea we had.

Mmmmm....frozen lemonade.

Cutest monkey ever.

But we had fun and Weston seemed like he was watching the animals most of the time...at least that's what I told myself.  But I'm pretty sure his favorite part was the few bites of frozen lemonade I shared with him.

Then my mom and I met up with my cousin's little girl and we headed to Branson for a few days. 

Backseat buddies

I've loved this little sweetie pie since she was smaller than Weston.  Watching the two of them together makes my heart happy.  She spent the car ride talking baby talk and offering explanations for what each little coo and babble might mean.  She also makes one heck of a babysitter.

Each other's entertainment

Checkin' out the trout at the fish hatchery

Note to self:  when you travel somewhere with a 9 year old, you're inevitably subjecting yourself to only activities that a 9 year old would find acceptable.  Examples include the indoor swimming pool, miniature golf, arcade games, and the indoor swimming pool.  Also, shopping does not fall into the category of acceptable.

Since we've made it back home it's snowed 3 inches...which may not sound like anything to some but we live in Arkansas and it's the end of March. And it was 78 degrees less than a week ago.  Crazy.

Anyway, now we're spending the last few hours of our Spring Break alternating between household chores and being completely lazy.  A perfect way to end the break I'd say.

And this is what we think of going back to work:

Happy spring everyone!

Chopped

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been thinking about hacking off the mop attached to my head.  There are two main reasons for this:  

1.  The half hour or more that it takes to dry and fix in the morning.

2.  And this:

Yanking out chunks of hair is one of Weston's favorite pastimes.  Those little baby hands love to grab and pull.  I also find my hair in the most random places...wrapped around fingers and toes, in diapers, you name it.

So, here's the picture I showed my stylist.

And here is the before and after.

   

As of the first 24 hours, I'm loving it.  Although I do feel like I just took the first step in becoming a soccer mom.  Next step: minivan.

The only one sad to see the long hair go? J.  Here is how he felt.

This makes me laugh so hard.  He actually does claim to like the short hair now.  :)

Here's to cutting my morning preparation time in half (hopefully)!

* Apologies to my friend Allison for just now updating this with pics you can actually see.

6 months, a live-in nanny, and must-see TV

For the past two weekends I've had good intentions of posting on the blog and giving everyone an overdose of cute pictures of my handsome little fella.  BUT...this happened:

I found my new TV show obsession via Netflix.  It's dramatic and beautiful and romantic and if you're not watching you should.  Plus it comes on PBS and everyone knows watching PBS makes you smart I think.  I've spent the last two weekends catching up and now I'm ready for the new epidode that comes on tonight.  I can. not. wait. 

Moving on.  This little stinker is now half a year old.  Holy cow that happened fast!

If that face doesn't make you smile I don't know what will. 

I swear the past month Weston's development has exploded.  Overnight he started eating without spitting food all over the place, rolling EVERYWHERE, actually playing with toys (as opposed to just staring at them), and picking up anything he can get his hands on.  He also has a new-found love for the dog and it's the cutest thing ever.  Both bottom teeth started coming in this week, which explains some sleepless nights and fussiness we've experienced recently.  We're hoping that will end soon.  But overall, he has still been the sweetest, best-natured baby we could ever ask for.  All you have to do is look at him to get that huge grin to appear.  Sometimes I even catch him smiling when he's just sitting by himself.  So sweet.  I don't know how it's possible to love this boy any more than I do.

Here are a few other pics from around the house.

I love the cross-eyed face here.

"I love being naked!"

"I'm not too sure about this thing...but I'm still naked, so I guess it's cool."

"My new favorite thing is brushing my teeth...clearly I'm not a normal kid."

Also, my mom's been here from Colorado this week and it has been super-duper, stupendously, wonderfully awesome.  Like having-a-live-in-nanny awesome.  A week of not having to run around like a madwoman to get myself and the baby ready in the morning = heaven.  My dad is driving in tomorrow and both parents will be here for another week.  Score!

In other news, I've 99% convinced myself to chop off 10 inches of my hair.  This is huge.  I'll post some before and after pics if I don't chicken out.

Here we grow!

Well, hello blog.  It's been a spell.  Before I start updating, I wanted to share the following which is the draft of a post I started over 2 months ago:

I know, I'm getting wwwwwaaaaayyyyy behind on updating the ol' blog, but y'all, I seriously had no idea how hard this working mommy thing was.  I barely have time to take care of the basics around here like personal hygiene and laundry.  If I have to choose between blogging and having clean underwear, clean underwear wins, hands down, every time.  I'll try to do better, but no promises.  

Soooooo...yeah.  Two months later and I'm still way behind, clean underwear is still winning, and I still can't make any promises.  I think it's safe to say I won't win the blogger of the year award, but I do want to try to set aside some time for posting in the future.  Now, enough of that.  Time to give the people what they want (that being updates on the little one).

Since my last post, we've gone through three months of "birthdays."

3 months old

4 months old

Is he not just the cutest little punkin' you ever saw?  

Things he's doing now: rolling, grabbing everything he can get his hands on, trying to sit up, chewing his toes, holding his bottle, playing with toys, babbling, and showing an amazing ability to get from one place to another and leaving me wondering how in the world he got there.

Besides getting bigger and cuter, here are just a few other things Weston has been up to.

1st Halloween costume...I'm sure he'll thank me for this later.

Attempting to get him to eat solid food is simultaneously the one of the messiest, most hilarious, most frustrating things I've ever done.  He laughs, he cries, he fights for spoon-control...it's never a dull moment.

We met Santa and loved him!

This little guy really is the happiest and sweetest baby.  I don't know how we got so lucky but I thank God every day that he is ours.

We've been enjoying all our firsts as a family of three (or four if you count the dog...and we do).  And having this little guy around has made everything this year the best it's ever been.  Even though parenting is the hardest, most exhausting, scariest, most challenging thing I've ever done I can't wait to do more of it.  I can't wait to see what new milestones, challenges, and memories await in 2013.  I have a feeling it's going to be the best yet!  And we'll ignore the fact that Weston started the new year with the stomach bug...surely it can only get better. :)