I've been off-schedule and unmotivated for far too long around here. I have my trusty planner but it is seeing less and less action lately. Time for a change! Crystal over at Money Saving Mom has been posting her 10 weekly goals and I love how she broke them into categories. So, with only a few category changes of my own I am shamelessly going to use her awesome outline and idea!
Family/Mothering Goals:
1. Read aloud for 15 minutes to my children every day. Play quiet music and hopefully move into a routine of read-aloud and then individual reading time that lasts a total of 30 minutes.
2. Paint pumpkins together. (Possibly carve pumpkins with daddy if evenings aren't too crazy!)
3. Go on a date with my husband. Yippee!
Personal Goals:
4. Finish re-reading Loving The Little Years.
5. Blog! Here and over at When You Rise.
Home Management Goals:
6. Begin packing up kitchen for move.
7. Continue getting address changed for companies we use.
8. Spend 10 minutes each day cleaning up bedrooms and bathrooms...make beds daily!
9. Begin gathering resources for new Home Management binder to use at new house.
Other Goals:
10. Get garage sale items priced and organized for the sale this weekend!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Happy Six Months, Easton!
Dear Easton,
Six months. SIX. MONTHS.
Son, you are half a year old. I can't believe it! I can't believe how much I love you. You are the cutest little man I have ever seen and I could just kiss those sweet chubby cheeks a million times every day and not get enough of you!
I think you are starting to look so much older. I can sort of see what you might look like in a couple of years now and it makes me sad to think of you growing so fast. You look so handsome in little button up shirts just like your daddy.
You are such a big boy! We went for your six month check up and you weigh about 18 pounds and are 27 inches long! You are in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. My arms are really getting a work out from lugging you around! I love that cuddle time with you though. :)
You are still nursing every three hours during the day, but we have also started solids with you! Right now you eat carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and some mixed fruit and cereals. You are funny about your solids though. If you don't like it, you don't like it. Period. You will close your mouth or turn your head. If you do like it, you will grunt and stick your head out toward the spoon to try to get it. Lauren loves to help feed you. Mostly though she distracts you...you can't help how much you love her and she just cracks you up too much for you to focus on eating!
Sleeping has been quite the adventure lately son. Your daddy and I decided that it was time for you to start sleeping more than three hour stretches at night so for the past two weeks we have been really working on getting a better routine going. At night, you get your bath (which you absolutely LOVE) and then its lotion and pjs time. After that I will nurse you and then lay you down to sleep when you are groggy. It seems to be helping you get in the sleep mode. When you wake in the middle of the night one of us will go in and give your binky to you and then leave. You usually get right back to sleep on your own but sometimes you have to cry a little while. You have been going eight hour stretches now at night without feeding. Now if we can just get you to go that long without multiple wake ups! You can do it!!!
You are fascinated with all of the baby toys that we brought down from the attic. You LOVE the little play house that was your sister's when she was little. You are doing great at rolling over and sitting up on your own. You haven't started crawling yet, but we don't think it will be long. You kind of scoot on your belly now and you are figuring out how to get up on your hands and knees.
You are such a happy little man. You crack up when I say, "ma-ma or da-da" to you. I don't know why it tickles you so much but I love it so I say it a lot. :) You also absolutely adore your big sister. She is so sweet to play with you and she shares her toys so well with you. I love watching the two of you "play" together now.
We have a lot of little nicknames for you. Brother. Bubby. Bubs. Chunky Monkey. Little man. Handsome. Big E. Easy E.
I love you son. I can't even begin to explain how very much. You bring such joy and laughter and light into our home. You keep us busy and exhausted (in a good way). You are teaching me more and more every day about being a mommy and dying to self. I love the way you fit so perfectly into our family. I love how your sister looks out for you and cares deeply about you. I love the way you love her. I love when you fall asleep in my arms and you cuddle right into the crook of my neck. You are a blessing. You are a gift. I am so glad I get to be your mama.
I love you to the moon and back fourteen million times.
Love,
Mommy
Six months. SIX. MONTHS.
Son, you are half a year old. I can't believe it! I can't believe how much I love you. You are the cutest little man I have ever seen and I could just kiss those sweet chubby cheeks a million times every day and not get enough of you!
I think you are starting to look so much older. I can sort of see what you might look like in a couple of years now and it makes me sad to think of you growing so fast. You look so handsome in little button up shirts just like your daddy.
You are such a big boy! We went for your six month check up and you weigh about 18 pounds and are 27 inches long! You are in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. My arms are really getting a work out from lugging you around! I love that cuddle time with you though. :)
You are still nursing every three hours during the day, but we have also started solids with you! Right now you eat carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, and some mixed fruit and cereals. You are funny about your solids though. If you don't like it, you don't like it. Period. You will close your mouth or turn your head. If you do like it, you will grunt and stick your head out toward the spoon to try to get it. Lauren loves to help feed you. Mostly though she distracts you...you can't help how much you love her and she just cracks you up too much for you to focus on eating!
Sleeping has been quite the adventure lately son. Your daddy and I decided that it was time for you to start sleeping more than three hour stretches at night so for the past two weeks we have been really working on getting a better routine going. At night, you get your bath (which you absolutely LOVE) and then its lotion and pjs time. After that I will nurse you and then lay you down to sleep when you are groggy. It seems to be helping you get in the sleep mode. When you wake in the middle of the night one of us will go in and give your binky to you and then leave. You usually get right back to sleep on your own but sometimes you have to cry a little while. You have been going eight hour stretches now at night without feeding. Now if we can just get you to go that long without multiple wake ups! You can do it!!!
You are fascinated with all of the baby toys that we brought down from the attic. You LOVE the little play house that was your sister's when she was little. You are doing great at rolling over and sitting up on your own. You haven't started crawling yet, but we don't think it will be long. You kind of scoot on your belly now and you are figuring out how to get up on your hands and knees.
You are such a happy little man. You crack up when I say, "ma-ma or da-da" to you. I don't know why it tickles you so much but I love it so I say it a lot. :) You also absolutely adore your big sister. She is so sweet to play with you and she shares her toys so well with you. I love watching the two of you "play" together now.
We have a lot of little nicknames for you. Brother. Bubby. Bubs. Chunky Monkey. Little man. Handsome. Big E. Easy E.
I love you son. I can't even begin to explain how very much. You bring such joy and laughter and light into our home. You keep us busy and exhausted (in a good way). You are teaching me more and more every day about being a mommy and dying to self. I love the way you fit so perfectly into our family. I love how your sister looks out for you and cares deeply about you. I love the way you love her. I love when you fall asleep in my arms and you cuddle right into the crook of my neck. You are a blessing. You are a gift. I am so glad I get to be your mama.
I love you to the moon and back fourteen million times.
Love,
Mommy
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Major Life Changes
So much has been happening in our little family lately but the biggest has been the sale of our home.
We decided to put our house on the market August 1st and a month and a half later we had it sold. Thankfully, we didn't have to move so we had the freedom to sort of relax through the process and wait for the right buyer. Well, God had the right buyer in mind for sure! The details are too personal to share here, but let's just say that we ended up having a LOT of freedom with the closing date and then even had the opportunity to rent from the gracious new owners if we hadn't found a new house by then. We felt that was totally and 100% from God and it gave us a peace about finding the right house and not just settling.
We had pretty much decided and come to terms with the fact that we were going to end up renting for a while. We'd looked at so many houses and the one seemed to be nowhere out there. We had a sort of hard wish list to accommodate and I am sure that didn't help, but we wanted to move to the next house and really settle in (for the long haul...no more moves in the near future) so it needed to feel right and have what we were looking for.
Some of our wish list included:
Large lot (3-10 acres) - The lot we are on has 5!!!
Neighbors nearby (Shawn wanted a retreat from the city, but I am home with the kids so while being out a bit was appealing I need neighbors so that I don't scare myself and in case something happened and I needed a human being nearby...the new house has the best of both worlds...neighbors, but the backyard goes straight to a wooded area and you can't see side neighbors so it feels like you are all alone)
Flat backyard and flat driveway (for the kids a playset & for bike riding)
Basement (the new house does not have this...but after looking and looking, I decided that basements freak me out so we are going to build a storm shelter above ground)
4 Bedrooms (the new house has only 3, but LOTS of space to add on to the house and Shawn is super excited about that possibility in the future)
Kids play room/school room (we got this!!!)
Character, character, character (our first home had TONS of character...large baseboards, original wood floors, cute exterior....and our new house has these things too plus a staircase that takes my breath away!!!)
Good school district
When we pulled up to the house I just knew it was right. The space felt right. The location felt right. Plus, I adored the look of the outside. *I want to post pics, but even though all the paperwork has been signed, we haven't closed and are working through the inspection part right now. I just don't feel right posting a pic of a house that isn't ours just yet*
I kept glancing over at Shawn as we toured it for the first time hoping and praying that he was feeling the same way I was. I don't know how to explain it, but when we walked in it automatically felt like the place we could raise our kids. I imagined us coming home from ballgames, I saw our Christmas tree set up, I imagined a play-set in the backyard and saw many family dinners on the screened in porch (MAJOR bonus that we are beyond excited about!).
The timing of finding this house was absolutely perfect. Even though we found it weeks after we sold our house, the closing date on the two is the same day! Such a God thing! Also, we think we will still have the ability to rent from the new owners of our current house for a few days to a week to help with the move as well.
I can't wait to finally post pictures and I honestly can't wait to just get over there already. :) The house inspires me and the thought of spending the holidays there makes me so happy! We have a ton of work to do before we can actually move. We need to have a garage sale, finalize all the inspection stuff on both houses, and pack! So, if I am sparse on the blog for the next month, you will know why!
We decided to put our house on the market August 1st and a month and a half later we had it sold. Thankfully, we didn't have to move so we had the freedom to sort of relax through the process and wait for the right buyer. Well, God had the right buyer in mind for sure! The details are too personal to share here, but let's just say that we ended up having a LOT of freedom with the closing date and then even had the opportunity to rent from the gracious new owners if we hadn't found a new house by then. We felt that was totally and 100% from God and it gave us a peace about finding the right house and not just settling.
We had pretty much decided and come to terms with the fact that we were going to end up renting for a while. We'd looked at so many houses and the one seemed to be nowhere out there. We had a sort of hard wish list to accommodate and I am sure that didn't help, but we wanted to move to the next house and really settle in (for the long haul...no more moves in the near future) so it needed to feel right and have what we were looking for.
Some of our wish list included:
Large lot (3-10 acres) - The lot we are on has 5!!!
Neighbors nearby (Shawn wanted a retreat from the city, but I am home with the kids so while being out a bit was appealing I need neighbors so that I don't scare myself and in case something happened and I needed a human being nearby...the new house has the best of both worlds...neighbors, but the backyard goes straight to a wooded area and you can't see side neighbors so it feels like you are all alone)
Flat backyard and flat driveway (for the kids a playset & for bike riding)
Basement (the new house does not have this...but after looking and looking, I decided that basements freak me out so we are going to build a storm shelter above ground)
4 Bedrooms (the new house has only 3, but LOTS of space to add on to the house and Shawn is super excited about that possibility in the future)
Kids play room/school room (we got this!!!)
Character, character, character (our first home had TONS of character...large baseboards, original wood floors, cute exterior....and our new house has these things too plus a staircase that takes my breath away!!!)
Good school district
When we pulled up to the house I just knew it was right. The space felt right. The location felt right. Plus, I adored the look of the outside. *I want to post pics, but even though all the paperwork has been signed, we haven't closed and are working through the inspection part right now. I just don't feel right posting a pic of a house that isn't ours just yet*
I kept glancing over at Shawn as we toured it for the first time hoping and praying that he was feeling the same way I was. I don't know how to explain it, but when we walked in it automatically felt like the place we could raise our kids. I imagined us coming home from ballgames, I saw our Christmas tree set up, I imagined a play-set in the backyard and saw many family dinners on the screened in porch (MAJOR bonus that we are beyond excited about!).
The timing of finding this house was absolutely perfect. Even though we found it weeks after we sold our house, the closing date on the two is the same day! Such a God thing! Also, we think we will still have the ability to rent from the new owners of our current house for a few days to a week to help with the move as well.
I can't wait to finally post pictures and I honestly can't wait to just get over there already. :) The house inspires me and the thought of spending the holidays there makes me so happy! We have a ton of work to do before we can actually move. We need to have a garage sale, finalize all the inspection stuff on both houses, and pack! So, if I am sparse on the blog for the next month, you will know why!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Fall Therapy
Things have been a little "off"in my life lately. I think my lack of blogging has been a pretty good indication that I just don't have a good grip on anything right now. Another post, another day, but I needed to get that down so I would remember one day when I look back on this season and see only four posts in September of 2011.
Yesterday was a beautiful FALL day!!! I knew I wanted to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and sunshine with my kiddos. Missouri has this nasty way about going straight from H.O.T. to freezing cold and I don't want to miss the few cool-ish days in between.
I called up Kelly and we decided to meet at a park close to her house (and my old one....I still miss it) and let the kids play and have a picnic lunch. The park is seriously beautiful with big old trees and lots of shade and grassy space for the kids to run around like hooligans in.
Easton was SO happy to be out in the fresh air and I thought this picture was ADORABLE until I noticed the spit up (yuck!!!) on his sleeve. I guess that is real life though. :) A couple of things to note...those cheeks! That tummy! That sweet hair that is really starting to come in! Those eyes! That smile! Those. Eyes.
I'm not sure if Lauren was happy to be there. What do you think? A few things to note about this picture: that kick! That long beautiful hair! That smile! Those eyes!
Kelly's little man, Ryan showed Lauren how to be brave and climb the BIG slide all alone! Isn't he adorable?
Easton really enjoyed his first slide ride. Right after this picture was taken I just let him go down on his own. Just kidding. But that would have been crazy. Maybe in a couple more months.
Our Baby K'Tan was perfect for our park date.
What a cute little couple!
Yesterday was such a refreshing day for me as a mama. It's been a rough patch here lately and just being out in the sunshine with my two loves (and a super good friend) helped me gain a little more perspective on my life right now.
SO thankful for my friend, Kelly! I love doing life with her. :)
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Right Now
"Trust me and refuse to worry, for I am your Strength and Song. You are feeling wobbly this morning, looking at difficult time looming ahead, measuring them against your own strength. However, they are not today's tasks - or even tomorrow's. So leave them in the future and come home to the present, where you will find Me waiting for you. Since I am your Strength, I can empower you to handle each task as it comes. Because I am your Song, I can give you Joy as you work alongside Me."
excerpt from Jesus Speaks
by Sarah Young
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Happy Five Months, Easton! (A little late!)
Dear Easton,
You are five months old! Actually today you are five months and nine days old. Every month I say the same thing, but oh my you are growing too fast! It is hard to even imagine you as a tiny newborn. You are so solid and adorably chubby.
You are a really big boy! You weigh 17 pounds and are in the 98th percentile for height! You are going to be tall like your daddy. :) You are no longer able to wear 3 to 6 month clothes...it's all 6 and 9 month stuff for you now. I just can't believe how fast you go through clothes. We haven't tried shoes on you very often, but you have loooong feet so I bet you would outgrow those fast too.
You are a super happy baby. You smile and laugh and talk to us all of the time. You are a mama's boy big time. If you are upset or tired I am usually the only one who can get you calmed down. Although it is sweet and endearing, it is also a little bit tiring on me. I know this is only a stage, though so I am trying to just embrace every single moment of it!
You have outgrown your swing, but still like to sit in the bouncy seat. We got your excersaucer down and you really love it. You have just figured out how to bounce in it and that makes you really happy. You also really like your high chair. I can put you in it with a few toys and you stay happy while I clean the kitchen or get dinner going.
You have TWO teeth! You got them right before your five month birthday. It seems really early to me, but you are a big boy so I guess it was time! You want to put everything in your mouth and you love to chew/suck on my shoulders when I carry you around.
Son, you are a joy to our family. I love how it feels like we have never been without you. I love everything about you...even your lack of sleeping skills. ;) It is so hard to believe that you are almost half a year old.
I love you to the moon and back fourteen million times!
Love,
Mama
You are five months old! Actually today you are five months and nine days old. Every month I say the same thing, but oh my you are growing too fast! It is hard to even imagine you as a tiny newborn. You are so solid and adorably chubby.
You are a really big boy! You weigh 17 pounds and are in the 98th percentile for height! You are going to be tall like your daddy. :) You are no longer able to wear 3 to 6 month clothes...it's all 6 and 9 month stuff for you now. I just can't believe how fast you go through clothes. We haven't tried shoes on you very often, but you have loooong feet so I bet you would outgrow those fast too.
You are still a really good eater. You eat pretty much every three hours around the clock...that part isn't so great. I wish you would give me longer stretches of sleep at night, but the most I can actually ever count on is three hours. Some nights you will go as long as four or five hours between eating, but those nights are few and far between. :( We are getting ready to start you on solids (this week!!!) so I am hoping that by adding that to your diet you will be able to sleep longer periods or even through the night! You are napping through the day alright. You usually take one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and then a cat-nap in the late evening. You have slept for as long as an hour and a half during a nap time but most of the time your naps are more like 30 to 45 minutes.
You are a super happy baby. You smile and laugh and talk to us all of the time. You are a mama's boy big time. If you are upset or tired I am usually the only one who can get you calmed down. Although it is sweet and endearing, it is also a little bit tiring on me. I know this is only a stage, though so I am trying to just embrace every single moment of it!
You have outgrown your swing, but still like to sit in the bouncy seat. We got your excersaucer down and you really love it. You have just figured out how to bounce in it and that makes you really happy. You also really like your high chair. I can put you in it with a few toys and you stay happy while I clean the kitchen or get dinner going.
You have TWO teeth! You got them right before your five month birthday. It seems really early to me, but you are a big boy so I guess it was time! You want to put everything in your mouth and you love to chew/suck on my shoulders when I carry you around.
Son, you are a joy to our family. I love how it feels like we have never been without you. I love everything about you...even your lack of sleeping skills. ;) It is so hard to believe that you are almost half a year old.
I love you to the moon and back fourteen million times!
Love,
Mama
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Well...Here We Go!
A while back I alluded to the fact that I had a decision to make regarding a special project a friend of mine had asked me to come on board with. Well, after much thought and prayer and too many changes of my mind, I decided to face my fears (and there are many!) and say YES!
If you feel like it, hope over to When You Rise and look around a little bit. We are super excited about the project and are praying like crazy that the site can become a blessing! I'd love to know your thoughts!
If you feel like it, hope over to When You Rise and look around a little bit. We are super excited about the project and are praying like crazy that the site can become a blessing! I'd love to know your thoughts!
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