28 weeks

Figured I'd get this down before I forget half of whats going on because... Pregnancy Brain is real my friends!

Our halls have been decked, presents are waiting under the tree and littles are anxiously awaiting tearing open gifts in a fraction of the time it took to wrap them.

We've been more intentional about participating in the season of advent this year as a family. We've been reading a nightly advent family devotional and progressively decorating the tree and house to participate in the anticipation of the coming of Christ. The girls' are getting it and it's so precious to hear their sweet childlike faith and wisdom remind me what it's all about.

The third trimester is here.

We've taken a break from all things baby prep for the holiday season, which after the move, the new car, the new job and wanting to stay on track homeschooling is, oh so NECESSARY!! But I have spurts of nesting where I clean like a maniac and cook freezer meals to store till after baby comes. I'm anticipating the new year and getting this little girl's nursery ready and washing all the little clothes and hopefully finishing unpacking the boxes that have been neglected in our storage room.
I'm excited to know little one in there is growing and things are looking good. I've still been feeling good, although getting slightly more uncomfortable, which I'm reminded of every night when I try to get comfortable. Luckily Jared doesn't mind the 4 extra pillows that have recently taken up residence in bed.

Friday, I had a doctors appointment and 1 hour glucose test, which I found out today I failed meaning I get to return to take the 3 hour glucose test in a few hours. (BLEH) I had gestational diabetes with Addiston and it seemed terrible because I already had food aversions, but as good as I've been feeling this time I honestly don't think it would be that bad to have it again this pregnancy. Don't get me wrong I don't welcome the hundreds of finger pricks but in the big scheme of things it's manageable. And do to the excitement (anxiety) about the follow up test, I'm up at 4am blogging (not eating-even though a pb&j sounds divine) instead of sleeping-lucky you!

Sunday when we were in our regular hurry to get all four of us dressed, ready, fed and in the car for our (we've been in the new house 3 months and still cant get used to the) 30 minute drive to church. I was loading up the van with breakfast items that hadn't been finished, make-up that still needed applying and little girl hair bows when I slipped. My cute leopard print ballet flats have nearly no traction and as I was reaching to put something on the console my feet just slipped out from under mean and my belly caught my fall on the edge of the seat and van. It hurt, startled me and Jared and led to a few  hours of baby girl being chill (which is very unlike this growing little karate kid) I tried to take it easy the rest of the day sunday, but woke up Monday feeling extra sore, so I called the doctor who told me to head strait to Labor and delivery.

After a few hours of being monitored, they determined Baby and I were ok and that I should try to limit myself till the pain subsided. I had a few days of being sore and nervous but am feeling much better!

We're headed to my parent's house for Christmas and I'm super excited to see family and get to continue with our little family traditions. The girls' are at great ages for traveling and usually we can make it strait through only stopping once. I'm only a little annoyed that It's suppose to be in the 50s on Christmas day, in Cincinnati. I love that today it was 70 in Nashville and we played outside, but I go north for the holidays to get my white Christmas. (get it together mother nature) On the bright side, heavy winter clothes take up more space and require and extra suitcase, so here's to packing light for the trip!

Safe travels and Merry Christmas Friends!

We Wish you a Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year

Well we made it to 2013!

I feel like 2012 was a blur of craziness getting us here, but we had an amazing year. The high point obviously being adding Isabella to the family.

Christmas was good! We traveled to Cincinnati,  the girls (mainly Addiston) fully embraced the opening presents excitement! pictures:









Christmas eve was spent at my grandmother's house Christmas day at my parents. Jared's parents usually come down the week between Christmas and New Years but his Dad got sick so they opted to skip Christmas this year.




We got a picture of my whole family, I know we're huge!




We did all of the traditional holiday festivities. Cinnamon roll breakfast, lights at opry hotel, and Addiston even got to play with a little bit of snow-and when I say little-bit I mean about the size of her palm and then it melted! Oh and ya know, my oldest brother joined the next generation!






Sorry Tim-I was dared!

New Years was rung in at home with Chinese food and "It's a Wonderful Life" The girls stayed up and did surprisingly well. We pretended 11pm was midnight since we're both from Eastern time zone and watched the ball drop live.

We had the traditional Kielbasa and Saurkraut on New Years Day accompanied by black eyed peas since we live in the south now.

Life has finally settled down, we've put the luggage away till Easter and are in the process of getting the house back in order and catching up on laundry. Both of which were put on hiatus when I started a small fire in the kitchen last night and got to fulfill my lifelong dream of using a fire extinguisher. For those of you who haven't gotten the thrill, the ten seconds of blast aren't worth the 6+ hours of white powder clean up!!

In other news Isabella has started eating cereal and by eat I mean make a funny face when it enters her mouth and then spits it out.


And Yes! Her bib does say "my mom is hotter than your mom"

faux gingerbread

Last week I decided to be creative super mom and searched the internet for gingerbread recipes. The good kind that doesn't crack while it's cooling or crumble from the weight of a whole tub if icing slathered on the roof of a little house adorned with mini confections. I thought I had found the perfect recipe, one with tried and true reviews and advice from moms and grandmothers alike commenting on adding a tablespoon of cinnamon for aroma and to cool in the fridge as opposed to a stainless steel bowl.

Then I had reality slap me upside the head when both girls woke up from a nap needing extra mama attention and I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realized I hadn't showered in three days and my hair looked likes something out of a Dr. Seuss book. The realization that I probably didn't have time  to roll dough and print templates for walls and prop and wait all while convincing Addiston that it wasn't cool to eat giant cookies held together by a pound of frosting. So it was pinterest to the rescue and faux gingerbread christmas trees it was!



A sugar cone turned upside down on a sugar cookie covered in icing with mini M&M's for ornaments.



Excuse the putrid shade of green that became the tree. I didn't have the proper color of food coloring and mixed random other colors and sprinkles until I achieved an acceptable color.





I decided it was the holiday season and let her eat some of the candy-she almost NEVER gets chocolate, needless to say she was happy. And the little one got to work  out the jumper for the first time while we expressed our creativity through frosting.



And if we weren't prepared enough for the Christmas season Isabella got to be Jesus twice yesterday at church. We're hoping she doesn't develop a complex!

here we go again

As usual life has picked up speed as is the norm during the holiday seasons! I feel like I've seen my suitcase more in the last month and a half than in the previous 9 combined. We went to  Pumpkin fest, Niagara Falls, Homecoming at MVNU and Thanksgiving. I'm ready to be home and have a normal schedule instead of catching up on laundry and packing it again!

MVNU Homecoming



Thanksgiving





Addiston is still crazy cute and smarter than I want her to be at 2 1/2 years old, She's getting back into the potty training thing-probably because she loves her Disney Princess big girl panties! She's discovered she's strong enough to open the fridge now and gets her own sippy cup and snacks. Sometimes she pulls the wrong handle and opens the freezer!



Isabella is growing slowly but surely and amazes me at how easy of a baby she is but I don't want to jinx it so knock on wood! 



I'm done with shopping and wrapping, the halls are decked and we've enjoyed plenty evening fires, Church programs are half complete (Isabella still has to play Baby Jesus twice this coming sunday!) there are a few fun little things I'd still like to squeeze into this happiest season of all, (gingerbread houses or trees, cookie baking, and snow angels-if the south ever decides to recognize the season formerly know as winter) Cards still haven't been sent and travel plans have yet to be finalized but we're getting there.

decking of the halls



Addiston's first taste of hot cocoa


(she wanted to "taste" it about 10 times)

The Lighting of the Christmas tree downtown



Church Childrens production



Addiston was Mary


excuse the horrible washed out lighting, spotlights ruin my very meek photography skills!

Last week Addiston caught the stomach bug that seems to be making it's way through every family we know and she was nice enough to share it with me. We've both been feeling a little punky since but are on the mend. Friday night was our Sunday school christmas party to which I owe Jared props because he did 80% of what needed to done to get ready since I was bed ridded most of the day. Needless to say I pushed a little to hard trying to host a party when I wasn't back to capacity yet and saturday morning resulted in no motivation to do anything (even pour a bowl of cereal) so we finally used the IHOP giftcard my grandma sent us for our anniversary and went out to breakfast! On the way home there's a holistic pet supply store and they just happened to have an animal rescue in the parking lot hosting a pet adoption day. Since it was a redlight and we were sitting there scouting out all the cute puppies I convinced Jared we needed to go look at them. Against his better judgement he pulled a U-turn and long story short, Addiston got an early Christmas present!



but if you ask me he was excited too!



We've named him Roman and he's doing great so far! Wish us luck, because something about a 2 year old, baby, and a puppy just sounds a little crazy!!

Pumpkin fest

Please excuse any typos or crazy formatting in this post as it is being written from my phone as Jared and I drive to Canada!

This past weekend was the pumpkin fest!


It delivered the usual pumpkin fest charm! Junk food, junk to buy and family fun!

The girls adorned their pumpkin outfits even though the littlest was strapped to the daddy, hiding her jack-o-lantern romper.

Addiston proclaimed her favorite thing was the food after a failed hand painting experience that ended with a temporary tattoo and a pumpkin cookie to top off the festivities!

It's beginning to lool a lot like Christmas

Confession: Christmas is one of my least favorite holidays. There it is I said it. Don't get me wrong I love christmas, the real christmas, the bible story and the symbolism of it, but the commercial, craziness of turning a holiday into "get me this, I want that" turns my stomach.

I do believe in balance and that things can be calm and enjoyable and I strive for that at our home so hey who knows maybe I'll grow to say Christmas is my favorite holiday.

We spent the weekend decorating the house. The tree is up, the lights hung, and there is an assortment of holiday themed knickknacks around my house all of which I promise were purchased by my mother or grandmother!



Addiston's has an assortment of favorite ornaments. Topping off the list is a talking nativity that my mom bought her last year.



A close second are all of the bulb ornaments she just walks up to the trees several times a day and points to each and every one and says "ball ball" and Finally our first ornament fatality of the season, a ballerina of mine. I'm not sure how it happened but she no longer has hands!



My favorite thing was a when I was putting out the nativity my grandmother made me and telling Addiston the Christmas story as I got out each piece, she looked at me and looked to the nativity scene and looked at me and pointed to one of the camles and said "dog, woof woof"

Gobble, Gobble

Well I'm not going to lie, the last two days We spent trapped in our car the majority of the day and it is something that I dread. We try to time our trips when Addiston is sleeping and we take turns driving. Jared says I have road rage, I say most people are just idiots! When we are in confined spaces for too long things can get ugly. I get impatient and chatty, Jared (my patient introvert husband) attempts to appease my chattiness but really I know he wants to ring my neck and duck tape my mouth. It may have taken us 5 hours to make a 3 1/2 hour trip but we made and still said I love you when we went to bed so it all worked itself out!

I am methodical in how I get ready for trips, planning out coordinating outfits for our little family, packing separate bags for their designated houses, making sure we have an extra set of clothes each and double checking for each essential item. But lately my mind has been scattered, I have been planning ahead and getting lost in my head. So maybe we will only match one day this time and maybe Jared only has one pair of pants for our 5 day trip, maybe not. I'm not sayin'

We like to spend Thanksgiving at my in-laws. Nothing against my family but lets face it, Amish country=better food!


A couple of weeks ago when we were headed home I remember talking to Jared about feeling un-thankful. I know I am so blessed and that I have a beautiful healthy immediate family and an amazingly supportive extended family but for some reason I was in a little funk and felt a little guilty about it. But the last few Sunday's our pastor has spoken about some really powerful stuff that has stirred up a renewed spirit in me and I have been overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness this past week. I'm so thankful for my husband who is patient with me and prays with me, but mostly I'm thankful for my Lord and that as 1 Thessalonians says, I can give thanks in all things, not necessarily for all things, but regardless of my circumstances I will thank the Lord for my life, my family, and His grace, in all things.

Check us out: Last year and this year.

She's growing like crazy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Stream of consciousness

Sorry for the hiatus in posting as usual life has been busy.

Wednesday night our church held its annual candy parade and this year we let Addiston get dressed up and we took her. It was so sweet to see her interact with all of the other children and if I say so she was the cutest one there!


I let her sift through her bucket of candy and Intended on letting her pick out just one piece to eat. My kid is awesome and picked the Apple instead of candy!


Last Thursday Jared and I celebrated our four year wedding anniversary. My dad came into town because we were supposed to leave for the weekend but as life goes plans were changed and we stayed in town, we had a nice visit with my Dad and didn't have to worry about finding a babysitter at all this weekend. Thursday night we went out with my dad and some friends to our favorite restaurant café Bosna. We figured that we didn't get married in private so why should we celebrate in private? We are so blessed to have such great friends and family that we wanted to share this with them.

Friday Jared worked a half day, Addy and I wave goodbye to the daddy every morning. She sits in his lap while he situates his work stuff and his coffee, turns on the car and then a little longer while he just laughs at her amazement at the blinker and the horn, the windshield wipers and the gear shift.

I got a new cell phone friday afternoon which was long overdue. I was still rockin' the old-school flip phone! That night I put on my dress like I do every year but we were running late and we didn't get a picture, but it still fit...like a glove. Jared and I went out to a very nice restaurant and went and saw the movie Ides of March. It was set in Cincinnati which made me so happy but I was confused we walked out of the theater and realize that we still live in Nashville.

Saturday I coached upwards, in the morning and Jared worked on the hot tub a little bit. I love working with those girls, they are so sweet and fun and I only have one week left and I'm going to miss them so much. I told my dad he could pick out anything he wanted for dinner and I would make it. He picked out a new chicken recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks and we all ended up loving it.

Sunday we had church and we were so blessed that one of our friends spoke in our Sunday school class. It's strange that sometimes you don't know details about people in your lives and then when you hear them share their testimony you're blown away and love them even more! After church we met my aunt, uncle and grandpa for lunch and then did a little shopping! Sunday night was our churches annual fish fry and as always the food was delicious but because it was so cold we didn't stay and visit as long as we would have liked.

Monday morning my dad left and I was really bummed and so was Addiston she really liked having her papa here to entertain her!

Her with my dad's yellow cup-he will be buried with that cup!

9-11

It's been ten years since our world changed. I remember as I sure most do where I was when I got the news, what I was doing, how I felt, and the flood of emotion that filled me. I had questions, I was scared, I was embarrassed for how scared I felt-for how naive I was of world issues, politics, terrorism, relationships between people and countries.

Well it's been ten years, ten years of healing, of growing, and yesterday I felt so very blessed to be in the great New York City where yesterday there was a momentary pause, as if this metropolitan jungle was holding it's breath waiting, nervous, tense and then an exhale, releasing all the fear and pain and moving forward.

We had breakfast at an amazing little french cafe where english speakers were the minority. We celebrated life yesterday, smiled at strangers we passed on the street, embraced this opportunity and thanked God for everything we have been blessed with.


Jared has never been to this great city so I know we'll be hittin' up all the tourist spots but last night we took the staten island ferry round trip so we could capture the new skyline. It was awesome, I felt the familiar warmth of tears in my eyes but couldn't help but smile as the little girl in my lap pointed to the statue of Liberty (who I swear stood a little taller last night) and said "baby" meaning she thought it was a doll for her to play with.

Something happened between that fateful day ten years ago and yesterday's memorial that has changed the way I look at the events and effects of September 11. I had children. And everything-everything seems to matter so much more. I don't know how to make sense of it all, and it's difficult to weigh the importance of the safety of our children and our country with the greater principle of changing the world to a place of compassion and peace. But for now we are growing, learning and amongst all the fear that still exists I feel safe.

short and sweet

Life has been busy! I've been on an insane organization kick lately, sick of tripping over stuff and not knowing where stuff is, trying to streamline and be more efficient. Life is going too fast, I need a pause button. Addiston is a walking machine, climbing onto everything and fearlessly attempting to go head first in attempts of getting down. She's eating more solids and SLOWLY learning how to use the sippy cup.

I haven't taken very many pictures the past few days as good light is absent, and that vibrant inspiration that's easily ignited by the sun seems to be a little lacking these days. It felt good to force myself to take a few shots on the holiday though. We had a great fourth, celebrated with good friends and our girl was patriotic!


she learned to use an ipad and got more than enough attention as she was the youngest one by about 23 years!

she's a rockstar on gymboree day's and I must admit I love watching her with her friends, she's adventurous and reserved, confident but patient.


It's rained three days in a row and the monotony of this weather pattern is wearing on me and affecting my mood. Right now I'm missing college days, sleeping in as late as I want on a saturday, spending hours watching re-runs while claiming to study, scrapbooking through dinner then getting way to dressed up to go out. I'm feeling a burnout comin' on! The last two weeks addiston has been sleeping less and the only way that she will nap at all is if I driver around for half an hour! BLAH! In ten years I'll want her to spend more time with me so I'm going to try and be positive and enjoy then time I have with her now! Well I promised short and sweet so there you have it.