For those who do not know, although I think everyone pretty much does... My sister, Lelia's, sweet baby Makaio was born and went to be with Jesus on March 3rd... It was very unexpected and was a major shock to us all. It's so weird because I think I always told myself that these types of things always happen to "other" people, not to our family... Not anymore. We have felt this pain and I know that even if it gets easier over the years ahead, the years won't ever fully erase this feeling. But, our God is great and our God is good and I am SO thankful for our God! I've been writing the following for hours... Sorry if it doesn't make any sense... just trying to share some of my thoughts and jumbled feelings!
So the other day I sat down and journaled which is something I haven't done in probably a year or longer! I felt like I needed to write all my thoughts and feelings down from the past week and I didn't want to just come on here and spill things out in a way that came across wrong. I don't know what could come across wrong, but I guess in some ways I didn't want my family to read this and be reminded of all the sadness from the past week and bring them more hurt by remembering all over again. But, then I thought it through and I know that that wouldn't be the case... I know that each of my family members will never forget what happened on March 3rd, 2012, and although it was the saddest time of probably all of our lives, I also know that through remembering we are even more thankful for our amazing God and how awesome he continues to be! I am also reminded of the fact that although I have always known my family is pretty much the greatest, this past week has shown me that truth in stronger ways than ever before! I have been going through each day this week trying to really notice the things that God has blessed us with... a wonderful little boy who is almost 2 and showers us with his love and laughter each day, a growing little girl who gives the sweetest smiles and brings so much joy into our lives, an amazing husband who loves me so much and unselfishly lives his life every day for his God and his family, parents who are the most amazing and loving people and who also are amazing grandparents to all of their grandkids both living and who are with Jesus today, an older sister who gives so much of her time and energy and who is always there with a shoulder to cry on or a hug to give, a younger sister who even during the lowest days of her life gives out smiles and wants to know how we are doing because she always puts others over herself, a niece who loves with open arms and does whatever she can for all of us, and a brother-in-law who is such an amazing man who even through the hard times has loved us and has shown my sister how much she can still count on him each day... (I could go on and on...) Trying to focus on God's blessings each day has helped me get through this time much better than it would have been, but sometimes I still sit down and think back on that day and I'm faced with a million questions! I don't understand why God allows some couples to easily have child after child even when they don't want children, but then my own sister and so many others I know are not able to have the healthy baby they wanted so badly! But, I also know that we live in a sinful world and this was not God's original plan for our world! It's so sad to know that sin brought all this into our world!
I think what was the hardest with all of this was that one minute we were all so excited to meet little Makaio Boyd and then the next minute we knew something was wrong... I remember praying and praying as I heard them call for back-up nurses and I remember thinking about my sister and wondering how in the world she was getting through this! I seriously don't know what I would have done! How can you go through 41 weeks carrying a little baby inside of you who you think is perfectly healthy and then as soon as he comes out of you you realize something is very wrong?! I know there are so many questions, but that is why instead of dwelling on all of those questions, I have chosen to focus on the things we have to be thankful for! Lelia and Wayne, especially, but all the rest of us who know them were able to know about, love, and enjoy baby Makaio for 41 weeks even though he wasn't out in this world yet! We were able to talk to him, tell him how much we loved him, dream about him, see his nursery become the amazing, cute room that it still is, and see how much he brought love and life into everywhere Lelia (and therefore, Makaio) went... We thought Lelia would have him earlier after weeks and weeks of Braxton Hick contractions, but I feel like he must have known what God had planned because he knew that it wasn't yet time... He knew that his mommy needed all of those kicks and movements that he made inside her, he knew that although a 29 hour labor would be a LONG labor that she needed those hours and minutes with him, and he knew that coming at a time when his daddy, Pappy, Maw-Maw, and aunts could be there would mean the world to all of us! I'm so thankful for every moment we had with him before he came into this world and I'm so thankful for every moment we had with him afterwards! I know that he knew how much we all loved and still love him and I also know that he will never be forgotten by any of us... I just wish he could be here and still know that. I wish that he could have seen his mommy and daddy... seen his aunties... seen his Pappy and Maw-Maw... met all of his other family... But I'm so thankful that we were able to be there all day, holding him... I'm so glad that we were able to be there to see who he looked like and to see the love on my sister and brother-in-law's faces for their son! He was such a cute little boy and such an amazing blessing in all of our lives! I love him so much and am so excited to one day be able to hold him up in heaven and tell him over and over how much his Auntie Natalie loves him! :o) Thank you, God, for blessing us with little Makai! Thank you for giving us the memories we've had of him, and even though those memories are few, thank you that we will have SO many more chances to make memories one day in heaven!
I just wanted to leave with the lyrics from a song that my sister, Amanda, put on a cd that she made all of us in memory of Makaio... Listening to the cd in the car has been so great and has helped a lot with the healing this week... It's full of good words to remember!
You Wouldn't Cry - Mandisa
All you saw was pain, all you saw was rain
But you should see me now.
Moments filled with tears, lasted all those years
Disappeared somehow.
You never said goodbye
On your knees you cry
You're still asking why.
But blue has never been bluer, true has never been truer
Honey never tasted so sweet there's a song in the breeze
A million voices in praise.
A rose has never smelled redder, the sun has never been brighter
If I could find the right words to say, if you could look at my face
If you could just see this place you wouldn't cry for me today.
What you think you see, isn't really me
I'm already home.
You've got to lay it down 'cause Jesus holds me now
And I am not alone.
Your faith is wearing thin
But I am watching Him
And He is holding you too.
And blue has never been bluer, true has never been truer
Honey never tasted so sweet there's a song in the breeze
A million voices in praise.
A rose has never smelled redder, the sun has never been brighter
If I could find the right words to say, if you could look at my face
If you could just see this place you wouldn't cry for me today
You wouldn't cry for me today.
What may seem like years will just be a moment
Oh, the day will come when I'll show you where you're going
I can't wait to show you.
And blue has never been bluer, true has never been truer
Honey never tasted so sweet there's a song in the breeze
A million voices in praise.
A rose has never smelled redder, the sun has never been brighter
If I could find the right words to say, if you could look at my face
If you could just see this place you wouldn't cry for me today
You wouldn't cry for me today.
You wouldn't cry for me today
You wouldn't cry for me today
You wouldn't cry for me today.
Our Family - Nov. 2014
Sunday, March 11, 2012
6 Month Old Lydia
So it seems like I have lots I should be writing back on here, but I wanted to do an update on my big, little girl first before sharing the sad news in our family over the past week... It's hard to go through hard times in life and still remember the little blessings, but my little girl is now 6 months and 1 week old so I want to share some of the joys of the last month in her life!
It's now been like a month and a half since she started sitting up on her own and it is by far her favorite thing to do now! I LOVE watching little ones sit up! They are so adorable and it's a lot of fun to just sit her up on her blanket and give her some toys and let her play and play! Daniel loves to sit in front of her, also, and play with his toys and as I watch them interact and play with each other more and more, I'm even more thankful that we had our little girl so soon after Daniel! They are going to be the best of buds in not long at all! :o)
She is also rolling around a lot more now, which is awesome, although rolling over a lot at once in not her favorite, the same as it was with Daniel... But at least she can do it and occasionally will turn herself on her back or her front if she is not happy with where she is at!
She also got her FIRST tooth in last month! It was just shortly after turning 5 months old (Feb. 14th to be exact) and she is so adorable with her little toothie! I think she might be working on another one already, though, because she is drooling more at times again and some days she cries more when I put her down for naps. Overall, though, when it comes to naps, she has been a TROOPER! She naps amazingly well (usually at least three 2 hour naps a day, and occasionally goes through a few days in a row that she does more like four one hour naps...). She still only lasts usually 1 1/2 hours awake time in between sleeping unless we are out with friends because she loves people giving her attention! :o) She has gone to the nursery at church for two weeks in a row now and did awesome the first time (this morning she was a bit too tired because she skipped her nap with the time change and all...)
As for eating... we have tried avacado with her on my birthday and she seemed to like that okay but didn't hold much of it down at all before spitting it up... A few days ago I tried sweet potato after trying the avacado again with no luck. But, she didn't seem too interested in that either. Either she is a social eater and will need to eat around others who are eating, or she is very picky or she doesn't like the different textures yet... but hopefully we'll figure this all out soon so she can eat some real food! :o)
She is over 16 pounds now... not exactly sure how much until I take her in to her Dr. appt. again. Getting bigger and bigger though, and just wore her first 6-9 month outfit today! Her hair is still growing so long, also! So cute! :o)
I have put her up on all fours a few times to see if she has any interest in being in that position to get ready to crawl, but she doesn't seem to want to be like that at all right now which is fine by me. :o) We have a LOT of baby proofing to do before she starts crawling, but I can't believe that it could very well be sometime in the next two months! CRAZY!
Okay, I need to go for now because speaking of our little girl, she is awake and ready to sit and play for awhile! :o) I'll write more soon because I would like to share on the very sad events of the past month... the loss of my sweet little nephew Makaio... :o(
It's now been like a month and a half since she started sitting up on her own and it is by far her favorite thing to do now! I LOVE watching little ones sit up! They are so adorable and it's a lot of fun to just sit her up on her blanket and give her some toys and let her play and play! Daniel loves to sit in front of her, also, and play with his toys and as I watch them interact and play with each other more and more, I'm even more thankful that we had our little girl so soon after Daniel! They are going to be the best of buds in not long at all! :o)
She is also rolling around a lot more now, which is awesome, although rolling over a lot at once in not her favorite, the same as it was with Daniel... But at least she can do it and occasionally will turn herself on her back or her front if she is not happy with where she is at!
She also got her FIRST tooth in last month! It was just shortly after turning 5 months old (Feb. 14th to be exact) and she is so adorable with her little toothie! I think she might be working on another one already, though, because she is drooling more at times again and some days she cries more when I put her down for naps. Overall, though, when it comes to naps, she has been a TROOPER! She naps amazingly well (usually at least three 2 hour naps a day, and occasionally goes through a few days in a row that she does more like four one hour naps...). She still only lasts usually 1 1/2 hours awake time in between sleeping unless we are out with friends because she loves people giving her attention! :o) She has gone to the nursery at church for two weeks in a row now and did awesome the first time (this morning she was a bit too tired because she skipped her nap with the time change and all...)
As for eating... we have tried avacado with her on my birthday and she seemed to like that okay but didn't hold much of it down at all before spitting it up... A few days ago I tried sweet potato after trying the avacado again with no luck. But, she didn't seem too interested in that either. Either she is a social eater and will need to eat around others who are eating, or she is very picky or she doesn't like the different textures yet... but hopefully we'll figure this all out soon so she can eat some real food! :o)
She is over 16 pounds now... not exactly sure how much until I take her in to her Dr. appt. again. Getting bigger and bigger though, and just wore her first 6-9 month outfit today! Her hair is still growing so long, also! So cute! :o)
I have put her up on all fours a few times to see if she has any interest in being in that position to get ready to crawl, but she doesn't seem to want to be like that at all right now which is fine by me. :o) We have a LOT of baby proofing to do before she starts crawling, but I can't believe that it could very well be sometime in the next two months! CRAZY!
Okay, I need to go for now because speaking of our little girl, she is awake and ready to sit and play for awhile! :o) I'll write more soon because I would like to share on the very sad events of the past month... the loss of my sweet little nephew Makaio... :o(
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Waiting for my baby nephew...
So two days ago was my sister, Lelia's, due date! It came and passed and still no baby boy, but we are all getting so excited as it gets closer and closer to the time when baby Makaio Boyd will make his appearance! :o) I'm so excited to hopefully be there when he takes his first breath in this world and hold him and kiss him and make him know how much his Auntie Natalie loves him! I can't believe little Lydia is almost 6 months old already! I wonder if I'm already getting the baby fever... Lol. ;o) At least I'll soon have a little nephew to be able to help with that!
There is lots of updates I'd love to share, but It's after 10 already and who knows when our little nephew will arrive, so I should probably get to sleep soon! I wanted to share some of our precious little Lydia's pictures that we just got back from her photographer, Stephotograpy. They are all so cute! She smiled so much for almost all her pictures, and I love looking at them! Not sure how we have such a cutie pie! :o)
There is lots of updates I'd love to share, but It's after 10 already and who knows when our little nephew will arrive, so I should probably get to sleep soon! I wanted to share some of our precious little Lydia's pictures that we just got back from her photographer, Stephotograpy. They are all so cute! She smiled so much for almost all her pictures, and I love looking at them! Not sure how we have such a cutie pie! :o)
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Lydia - 5 months, wonderful weather, odds and ends!
I really wish I was able to find more time more often to sit down and write on here! Things have been going and going and life seems to be passing by so fast... I just want to sit down and enjoy each day that I have all the more! Sometimes it's been hard because although we have gotten into a good schedule and rhythm with having two kids and continuing on with our lives, sometimes I still go through times when I feel like I'm missing out on so much of Lydia's life! I don't know why and I'm trying to not let it get to me, but I really do think it has a lot to do with how content she is so much of the time even when I'm not right there with her! So, this past week especially, now that things have calmed down a bit from Christmas and from getting things ready for my sister, Lelia's, baby shower this past weekend, I have been trying to spend a lot more time with her, playing, working on her sitting up, and she now joins me for whatever I'm doing much of the time - whether that means sitting in her bouncer watching me cook or sitting in her Bumbo watching me scrapbook or whatever! It's been so much fun having her join me and although she is growing up way too fast, I'm already looking forward to having a little girl who can scrapbook and cook and do girly things with me! Oh, we have been so blessed! :o) Sometimes I don't understand why we have been blessed with so much when so many of my other friends have lost so much or have not been able to have kids! It's hard and it's hard for me to understand why God allows that to happen, but then I think more and realize that we have been blessed, and we do have two kids who are under our care and love and that there is so much we need to do to love them and train them and care for them and do all that we can to show them the love of God and how great He is! It's a big job, that's for sure, but I'm so thankful that I have a husband who is willing to be right there beside me all the way! It is so nice to know, also, that not only can I trust God with my life and all of our choices in life, but that I can also trust my husband because he is also trusting God! :o)
I'm in a very rambling mood... sorry. :o) This is what I miss, though... just being able to write and write and get things off my chest from time to time. :o) Scott and I are watching Gladiator right now... such a great movie, although it's so sad at the same time! Goodness!
Our dear little girl is 5 months and 1 day old today! I so often think back onto that night when we drove up to the hospital to have her! She has been such a blessing from the very start and I don't know what we'd do without her! She has been growing so much and has been learning so many new things this past month! About two weeks ago she actually sat up on her own for almost a minute - she was leaning way forward chewing a toy, but she didn't fall all the way over, so I'm totally counting that! :o) She LOVES to sit up as much as possible, so we will try to give her chances to sit up on her own as we watch very carefully because she does still fall over very easily, or she will sit up with her boppy pillow around her, or in her Bumbo which she also loves! I think she might be getting in a tooth, but I haven't seen one poking through yet. She has just been MUCH more into chewing on stuff and has been drooling a bit more. She still has not rolled over again since was it 2 months old?! But she definitely enjoys spinning around and rolls from side to side all the time while playing with her toys!
Lydia is getting super excited about eating in another month! Just in the past three weeks or so she has been so much more interested in food and reaches for anything we eat or drink when we are around her! :o) We need to get Daniel a little booster seat so that we can move him to that and let her start sitting up in his high chair while we eat so she will be all ready! I can't believe it's already time to start making baby food again! I can't say I'm totally excited about that, but I think it'll definitely not be as much researching as it was with Daniel since I just did all this a year ago! :o)
She is also getting so tall and a bit heavier... She is around 15 pounds (probably over because that was her weight like three or four weeks ago). Some of her 3-6 month clothes are getting too small but others still fit great! I think she'll be like her big brother in that she'll be tall and skinny, so it'll be interesting to be able to find the clothes that fit her the best! Her hair is growing and growing, too, and I finally bought some pony tails a few weeks ago so I've been able to fix her hair in one or two ponytails, which is too cute! :o) I LOVE having a little girl to pamper, that's for sure!
She also LOVES to talk and talk and talk!! ;o) This evening as we drove back from some friends where we watched the Super Bowl, she shrieked/talked almost the whole way home... we were trying to figure out why until we got home and Scott saw that she had spit up a little and it was around her neck and poor girl does NOT like spit-up all over herself! :o( Poor girl! She was completely fine and started laughing as Scott cleaned her up! Lydia's smiles are amazing and just make my day, that's for sure! Her little nose and bright blue eyes with her big smiles are so cute! Every day I see more and more expressions that she makes that are just like her big brother's which is so cute and I love seeing how much they resemble each other! :o) Gosh, we love that little girl so much!!
Sooo, on to weather! It is the 5th of February today and it felt like total spring time outside! I can't believe this weather! I keep expecting it to get colder all of a sudden, but it just seems to be getting nicer and nicer instead! It's so crazy! Don't get me wrong... I love this weather, but I really miss having some more snow days first! Poor Daniel has only had one day to play in the snow here... because it has only snowed enough for us to have to shovel the sidewalks twice, and each of those times was just enough to cover the grass and melted off by the afternoon! :o( So sad! I'm hoping that at least the Mesa will get more snow soon so that we can take the kids up to go sledding some weekend in the next month or so! I was thinking we could go on my birthday if Lelia was not having her baby boy (he is due that day...), but now I have jury duty which I'm praying will get canceled! :o)
Well, I should probably close for now! It's about bedtime here... I'm thinking we'll have to finish this movie another night! :o)
I'm in a very rambling mood... sorry. :o) This is what I miss, though... just being able to write and write and get things off my chest from time to time. :o) Scott and I are watching Gladiator right now... such a great movie, although it's so sad at the same time! Goodness!
Our dear little girl is 5 months and 1 day old today! I so often think back onto that night when we drove up to the hospital to have her! She has been such a blessing from the very start and I don't know what we'd do without her! She has been growing so much and has been learning so many new things this past month! About two weeks ago she actually sat up on her own for almost a minute - she was leaning way forward chewing a toy, but she didn't fall all the way over, so I'm totally counting that! :o) She LOVES to sit up as much as possible, so we will try to give her chances to sit up on her own as we watch very carefully because she does still fall over very easily, or she will sit up with her boppy pillow around her, or in her Bumbo which she also loves! I think she might be getting in a tooth, but I haven't seen one poking through yet. She has just been MUCH more into chewing on stuff and has been drooling a bit more. She still has not rolled over again since was it 2 months old?! But she definitely enjoys spinning around and rolls from side to side all the time while playing with her toys!
Lydia is getting super excited about eating in another month! Just in the past three weeks or so she has been so much more interested in food and reaches for anything we eat or drink when we are around her! :o) We need to get Daniel a little booster seat so that we can move him to that and let her start sitting up in his high chair while we eat so she will be all ready! I can't believe it's already time to start making baby food again! I can't say I'm totally excited about that, but I think it'll definitely not be as much researching as it was with Daniel since I just did all this a year ago! :o)
She is also getting so tall and a bit heavier... She is around 15 pounds (probably over because that was her weight like three or four weeks ago). Some of her 3-6 month clothes are getting too small but others still fit great! I think she'll be like her big brother in that she'll be tall and skinny, so it'll be interesting to be able to find the clothes that fit her the best! Her hair is growing and growing, too, and I finally bought some pony tails a few weeks ago so I've been able to fix her hair in one or two ponytails, which is too cute! :o) I LOVE having a little girl to pamper, that's for sure!
She also LOVES to talk and talk and talk!! ;o) This evening as we drove back from some friends where we watched the Super Bowl, she shrieked/talked almost the whole way home... we were trying to figure out why until we got home and Scott saw that she had spit up a little and it was around her neck and poor girl does NOT like spit-up all over herself! :o( Poor girl! She was completely fine and started laughing as Scott cleaned her up! Lydia's smiles are amazing and just make my day, that's for sure! Her little nose and bright blue eyes with her big smiles are so cute! Every day I see more and more expressions that she makes that are just like her big brother's which is so cute and I love seeing how much they resemble each other! :o) Gosh, we love that little girl so much!!
Sooo, on to weather! It is the 5th of February today and it felt like total spring time outside! I can't believe this weather! I keep expecting it to get colder all of a sudden, but it just seems to be getting nicer and nicer instead! It's so crazy! Don't get me wrong... I love this weather, but I really miss having some more snow days first! Poor Daniel has only had one day to play in the snow here... because it has only snowed enough for us to have to shovel the sidewalks twice, and each of those times was just enough to cover the grass and melted off by the afternoon! :o( So sad! I'm hoping that at least the Mesa will get more snow soon so that we can take the kids up to go sledding some weekend in the next month or so! I was thinking we could go on my birthday if Lelia was not having her baby boy (he is due that day...), but now I have jury duty which I'm praying will get canceled! :o)
Well, I should probably close for now! It's about bedtime here... I'm thinking we'll have to finish this movie another night! :o)
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Sunday Afternoons... so nice!
I am sitting here by myself watching Sesame Street! ;o) Lol. Daniel was watching it but decided he wanted to go help his daddy in the garage instead so he is in the garage with Scott and the remote is across the room, so I guess I'll just watch this while I share an update on our life! :o) Lydia is taking a nap which is a very good thing... hoping she'll take a long one because poor girl is exhausted after taking only a short little nap on Daddy this morning at church and that's about it all day! :o( We are having some friends over for dinner tonight. I'm so glad that our house is fairly clean after a busy Saturday organizing and cleaning yesterday!
This week has been really good! We have been feeling great and since things were finally getting back to normal after Christmas and New Years, I decided that I'd finally start back into Daniel's activities this last week! We started with the letter A and after quite a bit of looking around on various blogs and on Pinterest, I found some fun things to do with him three days this week! There were so many GREAT ideas... I finally had to make myself stop looking at ideas because poor Daniel would NEVER get finished with the letter A if I kept going! :o) He colored a lot of pages with the letter A on it and a page of pictures of things that start with an A. He also painted and made an apple out of a paper plate, and colored lots of apples different colors... His favorite activity of the week was definitely an Ant Puzzle that we did matching the front and back parts of various ants together by looking at their color and shapes that were on each part. He did awesome and did it over and over again! He is so funny because the things I think he'd enjoy the most like painting ends up not being his favorite, although he does enjoy that, too. Daniel is definitely a lot like me... he doesn't like getting all that messy most of the time. He got paint on his hands when he was using a cotton ball to paint his paper plate red and freaked out until I cleaned off his hands! (He used only a paint brush after that. Lol.) Anyway, we had lots of fun and I'm excited to do the letter B activities this next week! Oh, and just so you know... he is 20 months so definitely does not totally understand what starts with the letter A and all that, but basically I'm using the alphabet to help me figure out activities to do with him to help with his gross and fine motor skills and at the same time we are working in colors and his ABC's. He will occasionally point to the letter A and say "A", but doesn't always seem to know it. Oh, well. :o) It will definitely be nice once he seems to grasp the letters better!
Friday was such an awesome day! My sister, Amanda, came over so we could work on some things for my sister, Lelia's baby shower! That was a lot of fun and we are getting super excited for her shower in a few weeks! :o) Amanda ended up staying most of the day and after we had lunch and got all of our things done that we needed to, she ended up organizing my entire craft table and that area of our dining room for me! She's pretty much awesome! :o) We had bought totes for Daniel's activity supplies quite awhile ago but I hadn't gotten the chance to organize everything and put it all away, so it's so nice having everything in a place where I can see what we have collected for his activities! And, it's so nice to be able to use my table again for working on projects! RIght now I'm finally working on our 2012 Calendar! I finished the first half of it yesterday and it's so nice to be getting it finished finally... hopefully before January is over! :o) Friday afternoon a friend from church came over and brought us dinner, which was so amazing! She had called earlier in the week asking if she could bring us a meal! I thought I had heard wrong I was so surprised, but she said that she knew what it's like to have kids so close in age and knew that some days are just extra hard, so she wanted to bless us with a meal! It was so sweet of them, and the meal was DELICIOUS! :o) She made a sausage, spinach, and artichoke soup and homemade rolls and a strawberry/feta salad and homemade cookies for dessert! Yumm! After our awesome dinner we finished the wonderful day watching Finding Nemo as a family! It was Daniel's first time to see it and he thought it was awesome!
Yesterday was a great day, too! Scott worked on his truck with his brother, Bryan, most of the day while I vacuumed, cleaned both bathrooms, organized the house, and worked on my calendar. It was SO great getting that much accomplished - I LOVE a clean home! We dropped off the kids with Scott's parents around 4 and Scott and I headed out for our date night! Scott decided it was time for him to teach me how to drive a standard since his new truck is a manual so we spent awhile driving around a parking lot until I didn't kill the truck each time and then I took it out on the open country roads and drove and drove. It was a lot of fun, actually, and it was definitely the easiest vehicle I've ever learned on! :o) I'm still scared to drive it in traffic because that's when I get too nervous and mess up big time instead of focus on what I'm doing, so we'll see... After driving around we went to Red Robin for dinner and then Cold Stones for dessert! Then we went over to Hobby Lobby (one of our favorite places to go walk around together during date nights) and bought some cute hair bows and headbands for Lydia! We ran by Best Buy after that to look at stereos for a few minutes and then headed back to pick up the kids and go home!
Tomorrow Scott and I are starting Weight Watchers officially! I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, and since they have a free sign-up right now until March we decided now is as good a time as any, so we are signed up and ready to begin keeping track of points tomorrow! We are just doing the online way of keeping track instead of having another thing to go to each week... I'm so glad Scott is doing it with me so that we can help each other out and try to keep each other accountable! He just moved the treadmill out to the garage with some of our friends' help this evening so he'll start working out every morning before work. I have been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred for a week and a half now so I'll continue doing that once Daniel goes down for his daily nap, and hopefully with that exercising and eating better, I can loose all of this baby weight + some more! :o)
Well, this has taken me three different times during the day to finish, so I should probably just end it now. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
This week has been really good! We have been feeling great and since things were finally getting back to normal after Christmas and New Years, I decided that I'd finally start back into Daniel's activities this last week! We started with the letter A and after quite a bit of looking around on various blogs and on Pinterest, I found some fun things to do with him three days this week! There were so many GREAT ideas... I finally had to make myself stop looking at ideas because poor Daniel would NEVER get finished with the letter A if I kept going! :o) He colored a lot of pages with the letter A on it and a page of pictures of things that start with an A. He also painted and made an apple out of a paper plate, and colored lots of apples different colors... His favorite activity of the week was definitely an Ant Puzzle that we did matching the front and back parts of various ants together by looking at their color and shapes that were on each part. He did awesome and did it over and over again! He is so funny because the things I think he'd enjoy the most like painting ends up not being his favorite, although he does enjoy that, too. Daniel is definitely a lot like me... he doesn't like getting all that messy most of the time. He got paint on his hands when he was using a cotton ball to paint his paper plate red and freaked out until I cleaned off his hands! (He used only a paint brush after that. Lol.) Anyway, we had lots of fun and I'm excited to do the letter B activities this next week! Oh, and just so you know... he is 20 months so definitely does not totally understand what starts with the letter A and all that, but basically I'm using the alphabet to help me figure out activities to do with him to help with his gross and fine motor skills and at the same time we are working in colors and his ABC's. He will occasionally point to the letter A and say "A", but doesn't always seem to know it. Oh, well. :o) It will definitely be nice once he seems to grasp the letters better!
Friday was such an awesome day! My sister, Amanda, came over so we could work on some things for my sister, Lelia's baby shower! That was a lot of fun and we are getting super excited for her shower in a few weeks! :o) Amanda ended up staying most of the day and after we had lunch and got all of our things done that we needed to, she ended up organizing my entire craft table and that area of our dining room for me! She's pretty much awesome! :o) We had bought totes for Daniel's activity supplies quite awhile ago but I hadn't gotten the chance to organize everything and put it all away, so it's so nice having everything in a place where I can see what we have collected for his activities! And, it's so nice to be able to use my table again for working on projects! RIght now I'm finally working on our 2012 Calendar! I finished the first half of it yesterday and it's so nice to be getting it finished finally... hopefully before January is over! :o) Friday afternoon a friend from church came over and brought us dinner, which was so amazing! She had called earlier in the week asking if she could bring us a meal! I thought I had heard wrong I was so surprised, but she said that she knew what it's like to have kids so close in age and knew that some days are just extra hard, so she wanted to bless us with a meal! It was so sweet of them, and the meal was DELICIOUS! :o) She made a sausage, spinach, and artichoke soup and homemade rolls and a strawberry/feta salad and homemade cookies for dessert! Yumm! After our awesome dinner we finished the wonderful day watching Finding Nemo as a family! It was Daniel's first time to see it and he thought it was awesome!
Yesterday was a great day, too! Scott worked on his truck with his brother, Bryan, most of the day while I vacuumed, cleaned both bathrooms, organized the house, and worked on my calendar. It was SO great getting that much accomplished - I LOVE a clean home! We dropped off the kids with Scott's parents around 4 and Scott and I headed out for our date night! Scott decided it was time for him to teach me how to drive a standard since his new truck is a manual so we spent awhile driving around a parking lot until I didn't kill the truck each time and then I took it out on the open country roads and drove and drove. It was a lot of fun, actually, and it was definitely the easiest vehicle I've ever learned on! :o) I'm still scared to drive it in traffic because that's when I get too nervous and mess up big time instead of focus on what I'm doing, so we'll see... After driving around we went to Red Robin for dinner and then Cold Stones for dessert! Then we went over to Hobby Lobby (one of our favorite places to go walk around together during date nights) and bought some cute hair bows and headbands for Lydia! We ran by Best Buy after that to look at stereos for a few minutes and then headed back to pick up the kids and go home!
Tomorrow Scott and I are starting Weight Watchers officially! I've been wanting to do something like this for awhile, and since they have a free sign-up right now until March we decided now is as good a time as any, so we are signed up and ready to begin keeping track of points tomorrow! We are just doing the online way of keeping track instead of having another thing to go to each week... I'm so glad Scott is doing it with me so that we can help each other out and try to keep each other accountable! He just moved the treadmill out to the garage with some of our friends' help this evening so he'll start working out every morning before work. I have been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred for a week and a half now so I'll continue doing that once Daniel goes down for his daily nap, and hopefully with that exercising and eating better, I can loose all of this baby weight + some more! :o)
Well, this has taken me three different times during the day to finish, so I should probably just end it now. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Daniel update! :o)
Just with how busy everything has been and caring for two kids and all that fun stuff, I haven't been writing the monthly updates on Daniel... :o( That doesn't mean he hasn't been learning new things or growing, though, that's for sure! Here are a few recent pics that I took of him (he was laughing because he didn't want me to take pics of him at first but I kept sticking the camera wherever he would hide and that made him die laughing - lol)... Daniel is now 20 1/2 months old and has been growing and growing; he is such a big boy now! He is an amazing big brother and still takes care of Lydia all the time and I know he is going to have so much fun when she starts playing more and eating in a few months! :o) His biggest achievement the past three weeks or so has been his talking! He has said words from time to time quite a bit beforehand, but now it is almost constant! He LOVES repeating whatever we say and has several words he uses all the time when he points to the things or wants something, etc. His favorite words right now are "mine" (imagine that!), "box" (we have a big box with lights for him to play in), "draw", "truck" (everything that drives by outside that makes a big noise is a truck), "hi", "bye", "book", "wash", "ball", and so many other words that I couldn't even put here! It's so nice finally seeing that he really does know what things are and what they are called! I LOVE it! :o)
Other than talking he has been super busy playing with all his new toys from Christmas and loves to help Scott in the garage anytime he's able! :o) He has a few pliers inside that he will take around and "fix" everything by making a drilling noise (I know... he gets the tools mixed up sometimes) and pushing the pliers on one certain spot and then it's fixed! Lol. He has also been doing so good taking his one nap a day, and has recently started going in, picking out two books which he throws into his crib, throwing all of his stuffed animals and blankets in, and then coming to get me when he's ready for quiet time and nap time. :o) Then he will "read" to himself, or to his teddy bears, for a little while before falling asleep for a good 2 hours usually! It's so nice and I'm glad that he is getting so good at doing things by himself! :o)
Okay, I should probably post the pics and go for now. We have an appt. in a little while and I need to get Daniel up from his nap (he just woke up) and feed him some late lunch before getting Lydia up...
Happy 4 months, Lydia!
Dear Lydia,
Hello to our amazing little girl! You turned four months old yesterday, and I think it hit me when we were hanging out that you are definitely growing up! In some ways I think it's harder seeing you get so big and do so many new things all the time than it was with your brother, because I know that time passes fast enough and I don't want it to go too fast! But, at the same time, it is exciting to see you start enjoying new things and wanting to do things out of the ordinary! :o)
Just a week ago we finally put you in the Bumbo for the first time and you LOVED it! I'm not sure why we hadn't done that before, but I really think you are growing up so fast that I'm not keeping up with it! You still spit up quite a lot with your reflux, so you're not able to be in the bumbo as often as you'd like... Right now you'll just hang out in there until you spit up everywhere which you do NOT like one bit so then you get a really sad face, stick your lower lip out, and cry such sad cries! :o( It's so heartbreaking, but you are also very cute when you cry like that. It's much more of a lady-like cry than Daniel ever had. ;o) Yesterday, I pulled out the boppy pillow and sat you up against it and you had SO much fun just sitting there watching Daniel and I play and looking/playing at one of your books from Christmas! Even though you still enjoy playing on your activity mat and hitting / grabbing all the toys, I think you are slowly deciding you'd much rather sit up and see what's going on easier!
You are also realizing lately when I'm not in the room... You don't always cry about it when I go into another room, but you do enjoy it when I bring you with me and let you sit in your bouncer as I cook or clean... you love being around people to see what is going on! You also give some of the biggest smiles to anyone who comes over to see you! Lydia, you just light up our days so much!
You still have yet to roll over again... Daddy and I have decided we just don't have big rollers for kids... ;o) We are trying to get you to roll over again but you seem plenty content either lying on your back or doing tummy time, although we do need to spend more time with the tummy time... You don't mind it much at all, so that's more Mommy's fault for not letting you do it more often! Then, maybe you'll start rolling more!
You are still an amazing sleeper... we have been SO blessed by that, and it has helped Mommy be a much better Mommy during the day! You're still taking a good three naps a day and usually sleep from like 9 p.m. until 8 a.m. or so. You just got a new mobile for your crib from your grandparents and uncle Bryan, so you love looking at that when you are awake! I've also decided that you are the cutest when you are just waking up! You don't usually cry when you wake, so Mommy just goes in to check on you if I hear a few noises, and when I do I sometimes walk in seeing you looking all around with a half-sleepy expression on your face and your big, wide eyes! So sweet!
We love you so much, little girl! We had a wonderful Christmas with you and even though you took lots of naps during all the gift openings this year, you still were able to "help" open gifts or at least watch as Mommy opened them. You got so many amazing things and lots of cute outfits! It's been so much fun dressing you in all the cute outfits... you are super cute in every one of them! :o)
Oh, and you'll FINALLY be going in to the Dr. for a check-up appt. in a few weeks, but I did weigh you on our scale this morning and you weighed almost 15 pounds! Getting to be such a big girl!
Love you!
Mommy
P.S. Oh, and your hair is getting SO long! Daddy and Mommy made you a bow holder for Christmas and I have been trying to collect lots of cute hair things for you because I'm already able to do many things with your hair because you have so much of it! Such a beautiful little Lydia! :o)
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