Real life

It hit me the other day when I was getting ready to go out that this is it: my life! Like all of a sudden something clicked, poof, lightbulb, and wham, I realized how blessed I am and how this is my life and dude this is way better than I imagined. Ya know when you're little and you make believe what it'll be like to be a grown up, all ponies and tea parties, and then you grow up a little and you get a slight little glimpse at a sliver of reality, and you figure out that you can't spend your whole paycheck on toys and gummy worms. Then you start plan for your life; go to college, save, move, mingle. Then all of a sudden one day you're standing there putting on eyeliner and you realize that all the stuff you'd been prepping for is here, not really, because you haven't had a tea party in over a decade and you've realized that gummy worms aren't made of anything even remotely resembling real food but your life is here.

Saturday night I went out. My first girls night since before the babe was born and oh buddy was it long overdue! Typically I get Addy all dressed up and take a billion pictures of her and I look like death warmed over so the one time that I went all out and she was bummin' it I decided to document it!

I've got some of the greatest friends I could have ever asked for, honest, uplifting, positive, and funny to all get out, like seriously you couldn't have hand picked better people to surround yourself with than these girls! They appeased my type A planning self and RSVPed to a night out (I know, right?) got dressed up, went out in the POURing rain, walked 2 blocks in squishy wet shoes, (or maybe I was the only one with the squishy shoes) to a fabulous restaurant downtown where we picked out which couples were getting engaged and which were just coming from their wedding-we totally saw a bride and groom leaving, wedding dress still on and everything!

I love that people feel comfortable hanging out here and so what if there are wires running in every which direction all over my den so that Jared and his friends could set up two tv's to play video games, because really one isn't enough.
We got back to tired husbands that had been planted in front of flat screens for 5+ hours and had little regard for greeting their pumped up, energetic wives.


Addiston is officially six months old and for her 1/2 birthday we celebrated by giving her a taste of solid food. Carrots. I hate 'em, no seriously like loathe the texture, the flavor and the smell, it makes me gag a little. I don't know what why but I always have and as far as I know I always will. I give them a try every so often just to see if I still detest them and yep, still do! Well my girl didn't think too highly of them either, but that's normal and we'll try again.





The perfect mom that I am in my head eats all organic food, a ton of veggies and drinks water non stop. The mom I am in real life binges on Oreo's now and again, needs coffee in life and is slightly addicted to chip dip. Well the mom I am in my head peaked through with homemade organic baby food!

Jared's mom bought me this lil contraption, and it's super easy to use and clean up. Score!

I don't know if I've already mentioned it but she has discovered the cats. She'll be playing on the floor or in her little jenny-jumper and one will walk by and she'll just freeze and stare. When they get too far away without acknowledging her she'll just yell at them. demanding their attention. One runs from her every time he realizes that he's even in her vicinity, the other is more curious. (We all know what they say about curiosity and cats) He comes close, sniffs her, lets her grab at him and chase him in slow motion army crawl way. However if she ever happens to get a good grip he wrigles and this look of panic flashes in his eyes as if he would be willing to sacrifice the chunk of hair she as captured in order to be free.



So here's to tea parties on the living room floor, splurging on a shiny new toy (or pair of boots) eating a whole bowl of puppy chow and living life!

Talking diapers

Last night was rough,

about 2 am (not a normal hour for us) Addiston started whimpering, not crying or acting hungry but making sad little noises to let us know she was up. Jared went in, and when he couldn't get her to go back to sleep we did the normal feeding routine, he was about to put her back down when I recommended a temperature check and sure enough, it was the highest it has ever been. I did panic a little but gave her some medicine, and let her snuggle up next to me for an hour or so. Jared reached over to hold her hand and as he fell asleep and she lay there zoning in and out, I just rubbed her head, praying, and hoping that the heat would slip away so that she could rest. Soon enough it did and we put her back in her own room.

She is much better today, laughing, jumping and doing this new thing where she flails her arms up and down like a windmill.


Today holds another memorable experience. I used the last of my love-letter diapers. At one of my baby showers my oldest sister threw in what was meant to be a sweet little twist. There was a pack of diapers and a slue of magic markers passed around. Each attendee was to take a diaper and write a heartfelt note or catchy sarcastic antidote for me to read when it was my turn to take a nightly changing, ya know a little pick me up at 2am.

Being the eager person that I am I read all the diapers the night of the shower. I didn't think so but I was informed that it was sort of ruining the surprise. To be truthful I have a very sweet husband who took almost every single diaper changing during the middle of the night. It was our way of being fair. I was breast feeding so he burped and changed the diaper, I did the other stuff, so I really just wanted to be sure I'd get to see all the lil talking diapers!

I wish I would have taken pictures or recorded more of the, but I saved my favorites till the end and today I used the last one.


From two of my nieces, one of whom happened to be a flower girl at my wedding.


From the sister whose idea it was.


And from Grandma


Some of my other favorites were mainly about how, babies grow up so fast so cherish the time you have with them while their little. A few had little puns like $h!t happens and of course the one that actually brought a smile to my face (every time I read it), "get Jared's butt for this one!"

I stretched out the fun just about as long as I could, she really is in the next size of diapers but I just didn't want it to end.

So tomorrow Addiston will be 6 months old and while I know that is only a drop in the bucket in the big scheme of things I'm sort of sad about it. She's crawling, sitting up by herself, eating, and doesn't like to be held like a baby anymore, but rather up looking over your shoulder. I know that there is so much more to come but sometimes I just want to stop myself, slow down, and remember that I love this time, teaching her, watching her discover, grow, and learn. I want her to stay little long enough for me to take in every perfect little thing about her, the way she pulls in her bottom lip when she's scared, lights up when Jared walks through the door, and imitates us chewing at dinner time. She's the best thing that has ever happened to me!

They really do grow so fast!

the in-between

This morning was my repeat blood glucose test. I was suppose to have one sooner than now but somewhere along the line it fell through the cracks. It was less than thrilling to say the least, but necessary so, eh, it happened. I don't do well with needles and had to go it alone so that someone could stay with the babe, so there were watery eyes and lots of deep breathing. My only hope is that this doesn't come back into my life.


Lately it seems like every time I turn around I am slapped in the face with something to be thankful for. Like when I had to ask a friend to watch Addiston last minute and, even though she is not a morning person, she acted like it was no big deal. Or that yesterday we had a group of friends over for no apparent reason and our home was bursting with love, laughter, and slight hint competitiveness, which in my opinion is the perfect combination. I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am that that Addy is almost six months old, and perfectly healthy. We have been blessed and with the reminders flashing in my eyes like vegas lights I feel like I need to pay it forward in some way, and I think I may have an opportunity to do so coming up. The associate pastor at our church has asked me to speak at a rally in early february and while I'm excited and hopeful that my story can reach others I am shakin' in my boots about it, and I am in no way scared of public speaking, so I'm taking it as a sign that something in me realizes that this is big and I need to be prepared.

It's the in between times that get ya, the ones that really have no glitz or glamor, the normal days that so many of us forget to realize are a miracle in and of themselves. This weekend was wonderful, the perfect balance of running about and relaxation. Having people over to try new food, deepen our friendships and then an in-prompt-to afternoon of video games, deep conversation, and appples to apples topped off with frozen pizza.


Saturday morning Jared bought an antique grandfather clock at an estate sale, and I'm pretty excited. It looks great in our table-less dinning room. :) We're still filling this house, but we did cross another room off the the to-do list that virtually came along with the house. The Foyer. It's big and open and has some killer angles!

One of our cats made sure the ladder was safe for us! 15 feet up, no fear!
For some reason the only before picture I have is awful, I'm not sure I even meant to take this picture, but you get an idea of the bland wall color, and 80's drapery!

but now It's much better!


well, except for that stellar brass fixture, which we realize needs to be replaced, no worries.


This afternoon I spent a little time in the kitchen accompanied by my little sous chef whose favorite kitchen utensil is obviously my spatula.


Carpe Diem.

swimming on dry land

It's been a week since thanksgiving, also translated into 52341790845 loads of laundry 795728863 dirty diapers, and 1 exhausted family! We haven't quite caught up from the 20+ hours of driving, and in true being spoiled by the grandparents fashion Addiston has insisted on being held much more, for the last few days, than allows for anything productive to be done around this house.




The car rides were horrendous, traffic this as anything and a baby's temperament to match the traffic. On the way home we saw this.

That's a building folks, people work in there, shop in there and it just looks like the jolly green giant left his picnic basket sittin' there in the middle of the countryside.

We ate way too much food, listen, you haven't lived till you've tasted my mother-in-law's dressing, I could live off of it! We almost died of heat exhaustion from playing dancing games, and of course there was the pie contest. Regretfully I didn't win. But there's always next year.


Addiston got to meet more family and attempt to attack many cousins and second cousins around her age. It was adorable even when some of the literally brushed her off.




This little booger is learning to crawl and after much conversation of it Jared and I have decided that it is a perfect combination between an army man and an inchworm which unfortunately doesn't translate to an armyworm but more of an image of a wee little girl trying to swim on dry land.




Jared's dad came through town last night and even though we just saw him 3 days ago it is oh so nice when he is able to stop by. In Jared's words, "It makes nashville not seem so far from home." oh and here is the four-generation picture from that part of the family. YES as a matter of fact Jared does look identical to his father!


Ok well the baby is fussing to be picked up and I need to start dinner but there is so much more to say so we'll be back soon.

stream of consciousness

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs;
Dust go to sleep!

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.
-Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Last night she fell asleep before bath time, and, the daddy, instead of putting her down just held her. It was precious. She's getting bigger, literally and figuratively, learning new things every day and getting better at crawling that we know in no time at all she'll be fully mobile, running around the house, not wanted to be cuddled and so while we can we just hold her a little longer.


We find ourselves going from 0 to 60 on the weekends, stuffing in as much as they can fit and this weekend was no exception, two more birthday celebrations to add to the list and thanksgiving #1. Addiston succeeded at scaring the life out of me for the first time and I didn't like it. We were at a friends house and she was sleeping in their spare bedroom and rolled off the bed. She has slept there safely before and is fine, but none the less I was an instant wreck and Jared had to console me as much as her. She bounced back in no time and enjoyed me holding her the rest of the evening. Sunday evening we got to hear her laugh harder than she ever has before, to a friend dancing in his kitchen and singing about cottage cheese. She laughed so hard that yesterday she was slightly horse and sounded like an old man whenever she babbled. Love it!


I try to get stuff done, be productive, stay positive. I am fueled by the satisfaction of crossing things off of the to-do list. I love to surprise Jared with little odds and ends I pick up while I'm running errands. I find myself walking him around the house at night saying, "hey look what I did" like a kid showing off my latest art project. I love the weeks where I get everything crossed of my hypothetical lists, and then some. Then there are the days and weeks that I just don't care if the laundry all gets folded and put away or if we eat home cooked meals every night. I find myself wanting to stay in sweats all day, or just holding Addistion because she's a lil fussy and starting to teeth.

Well the last few days have been the latter.

It's taking much longer than I wanted to paint the foyer of our house so I'm gonna admit I'm over it, the insanely high vaulted ceilings over a double stairwell are just gonna have one coat of paint for the foreseeable future and I don't care. The laundry from last week finally got folded today and honestly I don't know why, because it was so wrinkly from sitting in the dryer over the weekend, it probably should have been washed again. Addiston is a breath of fresh air. When I don't really feel like being super mom, she's cool with that, she totally doesn't mind if we just hang out at home and drink coffee till noon, and truth be told, it's happened more than once in the past week.


I am needing this holiday weekend to come. I miss my family. The chaotic way that the kids run in and out of rooms chasing one another and "sharing" toys. The way that there are four conversations going on at a single dinning table and somehow one manages to keep track of and be involved in each of them. The passing around of babies and catching up on the happenings of our individual lives. I'm starting to plant roots here in Nashville, get involved in the community, form meaningful friendships, let people in and while I'm so grateful for a home away from home I have to admit that sometimes it scares me. I always swore that I'd move home, live near my sister and my parents, see them once a week. And while that still may happen Jared and I find ourselves realizing that what we have here is rare. That finding people that love you and pray for you, people who love your baby like one of their own and would go out of their way to help you, isn't something you can duplicate. So Que Sera, Se la Vie who knows what the future holds so for now we're so very thankful for the people who have become our family.


Oh and another book from Dolly!


Enjoy your holiday!

Birthday Birthday Birthday

This little girl is becoming a pro at eating cereal.

The other night I was feeding her dinner and she kept grabbing at the spoon full of food, creating a super-fun game of distract the baby and dodge the sticky fingers. So being the genius person that I am I gave her a spoon of her very own and you'd thought that I'd given her a brand new car judging by the way her face lit up and she held onto it with both hands staring at it so hard that, well, she stopped everything: moving, eating, paying attention to her mama. Like I said, "genius!" so the game of dodge the sticky fingers became; try to get the baby to ignore her new toy long enough to open her mouth so I can put food in it. But she loved her spoon for the few minutes she had it, then

And there was no way I was givin' it back!

There are so many times that I sit down and words flow through me, everything is as it should be in the world and I end up typing faster than I can think and when I've finally completed a thought I look up at the previous paragraph and there are red squiggly lines under every other word because well my hands just can't keep up with the rest of me, and then there are nights like tonight when my mind is boggled and there is so much I want to say that I just can't seem to get it all out and my fingers are stuttering.

The weekend was lovely, the perfect mixture of committed excitement and the kind of excitement that we got to choose. We celebrated four Birthday's in one weekend, leading to a slight sugar overdose, great memories, and seeing the hours of the night that I haven't seen since our little on was a newborn; but the lack of sleep was worth it to get to hang out with these lovely ladies,

Yeah we totally rocked old prom gowns at midnight!

And this lil six year old rockin' a roller skating party, like the diva she is. It was quite amusing to see a dozen or so twenty-somethings slowly wobbling on wheels in their vain attempts not to fall and bruise their ego. I looped the floor twice and departed successfully without bruising my bottom or my pride.

Happy Birthday Zoe.

It's the middle of November.

The Holidays are knocking at our door and I'm rushing trying to get all of my around-the-house projects finished so that when we go out of town I'm relaxed and when we host our 2nd annual New Years Party there isn't blue tape accenting the half painted walls and artwork carefully propped against the wall which it is intended to be hung on.

Who am I kidding I'll finish my current projects in time to formulate new one's as soon as 2011 rolls in!

However it is our first holiday season with the babe and I am beyond eager to slather it with new family traditions, mounded atop of our current festivities; which all together should make for a slightly chaotic, albeit exciting season, filled with stories and christmas lights on the house, fresh cut trees, way too many cookies, and of course frilly dresses on the little one!

Speaking of which someone, I'm not naming names, learned that if you yell into the mic of the baby monitor mom comes fast. The daddy refers to it as her room service beckoning.

Gray Days & a challenge

The last few days have been gloomy.
A constant blanket of clouds has created a lack of motivation to get much done this week leaving me grateful for my marathon cleaning day on Monday, with the house straitened and all the laundry put away I had the perfect excuse for laying around the house in sweats, making cider, and cuddling with my little girl more than normal in the afternoons. I'm not gonna lie I love the rain, the gloom and dreariness that give the world the relaxed pause that it needs so often.

So instead of going out we found a way to amuse ourselves indoors!

With hot air balloon rides,

Laundry,

and the attack of Baby Kong!


In other news the gauntlet has been thrown!
*Story time*
When I was in high school I decided to learn to bake cheesecakes, not just make one and be done, but perfect the art, and I did. Jump ahead a few years, Jared and I were just starting to date and I had stayed up well into the morning hours on the phone with him and had to make a cheesecake for my family christmas the day. Needless to say I was less than motivated to complete the task and did so half heartedly. My Uncle was less than thrilled at my mediocre dessert and challenged me to a cheesecake competition the following Thanksgiving. I accepted the challenge and nearly a year later I got a full nights rest and kicked his butt! He demanded a rematch: apple pie, and sadly I lot my title as champion. Last year I redeemed myself and won with a boston cream pie, and well this year we are battling it out over (drum-roll) pecan pie! Neither of us has ever baked a pecan pie before so the playing field has been leveled and it's on! I plan on resourcing my ex-amish mother-in-law's Pie recipe but if any of you have a good one, please feel free to share!

I'll take Productive Monday for $100 Alex

We kissed October farewell last night, hosting only a few dozen trick-or-treaters, or as my comic of a husband likes to say treat-or-trickers (because if you don't give them the treat they'll play a trick on you and therefore the treat part should come first) I was grossly disappointed with the miniscule number of children who graced our front steps last night. We live in the burbs people, and in my opinion there should have been at least a hundred little costumed creatures asking for candy until we ran out and had to give then granola bars and apples. But no there were only those few who came and so what if I didn't answer the door anytime it was a little boy dressed up as something scarey but called for Jared as soon as I was close enough to see the black cape or Scream mask. I gave up on the festivities half an hour before trick-or-treating was do to end and we gave the little one her bath. I left the front lights on just in case and sure enough when we were in her room lotion-ing her up and picking out which footie pj's to use there was a knock on the door and there stood two girls, probably in middle school, and man did they think they hit the mother load, I dumped the rest of the candy into their pillow cases. They looked at me like I was crazy and I said, "I don't want to eat it so you're taking it." Jared had already picked out all the good candy and it was sitting on our kitchen table. So really they got the rejects of all the other kids from the evening but hey they still got more than the three pieces we had been handing out.


It's November folks.
I love November.
Chills in the Air, the first fire in the fireplace, Thanksgiving, Sweaters. Ah blessed November.

So It's monday and the first of the month all at once so I decided we were going to be productive and boy were we: 4 loads of laundry, dishes, clean house, dinner, raked leaves, and nails done! How 'bout that for a Monday?

It's not that it's hard to get stuff done, She's a good baby, and trust me I've seen the spectrum and I know how lucky we are, but there are these perfect moments when she's tummy timin' it, scootin' along the blanket reaching for toys, flipping over to keep herself occupied, but really she's just wondering when someone's gonna to come hold her. And right when she's just to that point of boredom where she's gonna scream for something more exciting, than a plastic ring I'll walk by. And she sees me. And she lights up like she just won a trip to Hawaii, and we'll stop and look at each other, her with her legs all a kickin' and me with my heart all a racin' and then it starts the seriously-can-I-bottle-this-feeling? kind of way. And I usually say to heck with the dishes and who really cares if all the laundry gets done in one day and sit and play with her till she's so tired she buries her head in her hands like she's beggin' for me to just leave her alone.



This Weekend flew by, Friday was a carnival at Church, Jared and I were in Charge of the Cake Walk, there were no cakes-don't even get me started! We took turns running the game and appeasing the baby. These sweet little grandmas stop you at things like this, with their sympathetic smiles and their eyes that hold memories and the way they pat their chest like it holds a treasure. They say, "I remember those days and they go by all too fast."

The final round of games for the evening instead of choosing one kid to win a prize he let everyone that was playing pick one "because he wanted to make sure everyone went home with something" (like any kid who had been playing free games for the past 2 hours hadn't won at least one prize) and the kids who weren't even playing but just walking by saw what was going on and ran up to get a prize too, and you bet he gave 'em one. And that's when I realized he's gone soft on me and she's not only got him wrapped around her little finger but she's transformed him into one of those dad's that totally breaks the rules and lets the kids have cookies before dinner and stay up way past bed time till they hear the garage door open and know mom's coming home and rush to put the kids to bed and tell them to pretend to be asleep.

Once upon a time he was scared of kids, seriously, totally cold around 'em, had no idea what to say, how to act or what to do, but you better believe he can hold a conversation with a 3 year old now! He's a daddy now through and through.

Saturday we drove around for 2 hours in the afternoon looking for just the right kind of Donut for my crazy self, and someone else got her first taste of cereal!



I would just like to point out the bib, compliments of my good friend Ashley!



So here's to getting everything done today so that tomorrow I can just play with my little till she can't stand her toys anymore.


Letting my girl lick pumpkins just to see the look on her face.


And to husbands transforming into daddies right before your eyes.