tut, tut, it looks like rain!

it's so nasty outside today.......i don't even want to go outside to do laundry....bleh. I've been totally slack here, but the holidays had us so busy that i couldn't even think straight! Bobby had almost 2 weeks off for christmas and new years/macie's birthday, so this week has been an adjustment for all of us!

there's not much to update on...macie turned 2, which is HUGE, but we didn't do much due to weather and sicknesses. She got to pick out what kind of cake she wanted, and all we heard about for days was her birthday cake! or her "beetday cake" She of course wanted a confetti cake with sprinkles! Christmas was fantastic this year, and santa was too good to all of us! Macie got a kitchen built by her Poppy, and she's been cooking up a storm ever since! I'll be sure to come back and do a post about it to show pictures!

Bobby got me a Wii Fit, and I've been using it like crazy! It's super fun, and really does give you a great workout! it's pretty entertaining to watch, too! Macie wants me to do "woga" all day, and if not that, then she wants "mama hoo hoop!"

We've been blessed with another new year, and I hope to make this one as good as possible, with the Lord's help, of course! I'm not making any resolutions, but i'm going to try setting some goals for myself. My main one is to spend more time with God. It's the most important relationship I have, yet it always seems to be the one i devote the least time to. I pray that this will change!!

it's raining, it's pouring...

i'm actually really enjoying the rain today. I have a fire in the fireplace, a cup of coffee in my hand, and Macie is napping! it's nice to have a slow day now and again......and I'm so excited that our naps are fixed. Macie went nearly 2 weeks without a real nap......that was an adventure to say the least! I think that I fixed it though....(thanks, Cookie!) i'm pretty sure that due to our nightweaning and trying to cut back/limit daytime nursings she went on a nap strike. she would go to sleep fine, but as soon as we layed down if i moved at all, she was awake and not happy for the rest of the day. so since tuesday I haven't been limiting her nursing as much, and she's back to her normal 2 hour naps!! yay! she just wasn't ready to wean, and that was her way of letting me know it. and thankfully i had a friend who nurses her babies for a long time too, to help clue me in!

Macie's vocabulary is really taking off.......yesterday she told me very clearly "it's cold in here!" and after dinner last night, she told bobby "i need to go to the bathroom." (potty training time, here we come!). she didn't go to the bathroom, but that's beside the point! I can't wait for the holidays this year with her......she's going to enjoy everything so much now that she's big enough to know what's going on! I've got to get on planning her birthday party, too. it's only 7 weeks away.......it's unbelievable! this time 2 years ago, i was huge, and finding it hard to believe that it was possible that i would be pregnant for 2 more months!

we were visited by a fairy last week!  we got macie some wings when we went to the renaissance festival a couple of weekend ago, and i thought i'd take advantage of the few remaining flowers i have around the yard and get some fun pictures!  

macie has really begun to bloom lately.  she's not quite as bashful, or as nervous about being without me anymore.  for the past month, she's been staying (and enjoying) in the church nursery!  that hasn't happened......ever, and i really needed it!  i was totally feeling the effects of not getting to hear or participate at church!  we either didn't go, or i ended up staying in the nursery with her for the entire time.  I did commit to serve in the toddler room permanently at the 11 o'clock service, so we've been getting up and going to the 9:30 service, and that's been wonderful!  not only do i get to enjoy a church service, but macie gets a few hours of play time with some other kids!  she's becoming much more social with our friends, too.  she's gotten comfortable enough with them, i guess!  it's refreshing to see her opening up!  

new!

so, it looks a little different here now!  I wanted to have a little bit of a focus and a theme here!  Our ginormous oak tree is loaded down with acorns this year, and Macie and I have become mildly obsessed!  We go acorn collecting whenever we go outside.  I've never really thought about them before, but it is truly a miracle that something so small can grow to be such an enormous tree.  Which got me thinking even further about trees and God and us.   God starts us as a tiny seed and grows us into people....it's amazing.  Of course, nothing can grow without nourishment, so that is now my main goal, to nurture and nourish Macie in to the "tree" that she will someday become.  The verse that is now posted at the top of my page says it all about why we should be so focused on God.  Imagine these huge trees that are rooted so deep where they stand that they never thirst for anything, and never worry about the storms or droughts that will come.  

God has been really working in me lately to prioritize His way, and to be the woman that He has called me to be......to live biblically......I am to fear God, be a helpmate to Bobby, and to nurture my children.  The more I try to learn about how I should be living, the more excited I get about how it will affect our lives, and glorify God.

school school school

so, i've been on the hunt to find the best fit for us and learning.  I think that Macie's ready to start having a little structured "school" time each day, and I've tried hard to think of what i want to incorporate.  Thank goodness for blogs, though........so far it seems to be the best way to find "real life" information and experiences.  I've read several sites on several different methods (montessori, waldorf, charlotte mason, etc.) while I like some of the ideas that montessori and waldorf have, I'm not so crazy about the forced independence that comes with it.  I happen to like that Macie wants me to be involved with her........and I want to have a Christian/God base to what we do, so I think that Charlotte Mason may be our way!  It's got the nature focus that I love about montessori and waldorf, but It's founded in Christianity, which is crucial in my opinion.  

I've also done some good toy purging lately.  I've donated a lot of "junk" toys, put away our loud toys for rainy/bad days, and really set everything up to focus on our classic, quality toys.  I want Macie to learn how to imagine and play, not for her toys to play for her.  It's hard now, when your only options in toy stores are plastic, battery operated headaches in boxed that require absolutely no imagination on the child's part.  She's just now starting to show more of an interest in books, so I'm really trying to encourage this........it may be a little selfish, but I want her to love reading as much as I always have!

We went to the zoo last week, and Macie had a great time.  I didn't take any pictures of her, though.....i'm so terrible.  I got a few pictures of some of the animals, and bobby took some pretty good video, so as soon as he gets that all loaded I'll get the video posted up here.  She loved the monkeys and the birds......there was an area that you could walk through and feed Lorry's (sp?), she thought it was great.  The birds land on you and eat out of your hand.  She's been talking about the birds and mommy since we went!  

bringin' it back on the road

I know i've said this in every post, but from here on out, I'm commited!  I'm going to make sure I update at least twice a week!  That's big talk, I know, but I really  want a place where everyone can keep up to date on macie's comings and goings!  

She's getting so hilarious now, and it blows my mind how smart she is.  I've recently decided to start setting up our home preschool......she's too eager to try new things to not get going with it!  I've been super inspired by several Montessori mama blogs, so I'm really thinking we'll lean that way.  I think it will fit us really well.....she's really independent already, so if I can further cultivate that and let her learn, then fantastic!  

19 months is a fun but difficult age..........her personality is really blossoming now......i get glimpses of what kind of girl she'll be every day.  She's got such a mix of me and bobby.......she's wild and loud and outgoing, but such a homebody too.  and too many kids totally overwhelm her.  she gets that from bobby.......

an entire year (plus a month!) has passed since i became a mommy, and as i write that, it's still unbelievable! i love every minute of it......even the difficult ones, and there's are many! right now, at this very moment, she's trying to eat a crayon......yeesh! I'm going to try to start keeping this up for my family and friends, as a way for everyone to keep up with macie as she grows. we have lots of videos but no time to make them into movies that we can send out, so the least i can do is try and upload some pictures at least once a week with a little update!!

she's a walking fool now, and loves to climb the stairs, so our baby gates are being put to good use! she's also picking up some sign language, which is great! bobby and i are really trying to at least get her the basics so that she can tell us what she wants before the has the words for it. She loves the baby signing time videos, so that makes it easy for her, and us to learn together.

i'm going to send this address out to everyone, so keep on me to update!! I'll do my best!!!!

 
boy oh boy, has it been a long time! down below is what i looked like about 15 months ago, and to my left is what I'm dealing with now! she's a mess! Macie's first birthday is less than a week away, and I can hardly believe it! Motherhood has been a constant adventure, and I'm loving every minute of it! I don't really guess there's an effective way to catch up with the last year of my life, so there's really not much use in trying. It's been so amazing being her mother....there aren't enough words to say how blessed I am to have her! She gets better every day....and funnier, too!

bobby and i had a fantastic weekend......we went camping waaaayyyyy back in ashe county with bobby's family. the weather held out for the most part, which was great! there wasn't any rain until our last night. it was nice to have a break from everything, but it made it that much harder to come back to daily life......especially since we came home to a leaky roof (again!), a leaky window, and the cat locked in our bedroom. of course, the cat in the bedroom meant that she hadn't eaten, drank, or had access to her litter box in oh......3 days. She did good, though.....i feel bad for having left her, though. she only peed one time all weekend. we got everything cleaned up and settled down eventually.


i'm getting bigger, and that made camping an adventure......my sleeping bag was definetley not made for people of the pregnant persuasion......all in all, i had a great time, and i'm glad we squeezed it in before the baby. hopefully, though, our kids will love sleeping outside as much as i do so it can be a regular thing for us.

ok, so this is a little late....bobby's way more on top of this than me.....he even has video up of the ultrasound. oh well. every day this whole pregnancy thing gets more and more amazing. the baby is super active now, which is fun, but crazy at the same time. today, it felt like it (he or she? i don't know!!! someone guessed girl today, though!) was doing somersaults.......actually that's still what it feels like right now! in the past couple of weeks bobby's been able to feel the movement from the outside when he's patient enough to wait for it. i'm growing quickly now, so i'm obviously pregnant.............which is far better than just looking like i have a beer gut!

it's sooooooo strange to look at myslef lately.........just in the past week or so i've started to look really pregnant, and it's very bizarre and surreal. I caught myself just staring in the mirror this morning while i was brushing my teeth, thinking that doesn't look like me at all........I love the way i look right now, though. i don't have to look at my stomach and be worried about it being flat enough anymore. i just look at it and marvel at what God is allowing to happen inside of me, and i'm just overwhelmed.......i'm so blessed, and it hasn't even really sunk in yet! i still have a tendency to kind of forget that i'm really pregnant.....i mean i look at other pregnant women, and i don't really associate myself with them yet. that'll come i guess.

working!!

so here i am, working on a saturday. it's been so dead this morning it's not even funny. oh well, i get off in 30 minutes, so i can make it! My mom's coming this afternoon, which is great. She and my sister are the reason that i get homesick......our family is so close knit, that it's like a part of me is missing since i don't get to see them every day. I grew up in a family where we saw at the bare minimum, one extended family member every day of our lives.........I can't imagine what it was like for my mom when she was married to my dad and living in texas, louisiana, and mississippi.......missing all of her holidays, and never getting to see her mom or sisters. it's bad enough for me living less than 2 hours from them. That is the only thing that saddens me about having a baby right now.....i had cousins that were close in age to me, and they were the best friends i had growing up.......none of them are even close to ready to have kids.......not, that i want them all to settle down immediately and start popping out babies, but i guess i'm just selfish in not wanting my kids to miss out on the relationships that i had with my family growing up. Hopefully by the time I'm ready for my second, my sister will be getting close to wanting her first one......surely she'll be married by then!

hmm........blogging, huh?

so, here i am..........i have succumbed to bobby's urging to join in his blog crusade! it's crazy that as addicted to blogs as i am, that i have a super hard time keeping up with one, and i do not have even the slightest idea how to work this place, but we'll see how i do!