A Day in the Life: Week 4

Wow--we are already completing week 4 of the photo a day project! So far, the pictures are staying organized in a folder on my computer and I'm keeping up with blogging, posting the day's as they come and publishing when the week is complete. I hope I can keep it up for the next 48 weeks! :)

Monday, January 23rd: The kids climbed right up wanting to do the dishes after dinner, and daddy was helping too. Going into month 9 of pregnancy, I'll take all the help I can get! :)

Tuesday, January 24th: Reading to my sweet babies before bed (and looking like a chipmunk!)

Wednesday, January 25th: Breakfast for dinner :)

Thursday, January 26th: Someone got into the lip gloss and was very proud of themselves

Friday, January 27th: Playing Slap-jack with my kids...hilarious and so much fun!

Saturday, January 28th: He found the warm sunny spot on the stairs

Sunday, January 29th: Because of how involved I am in music at church, I'm not often able to work in the nursery. Tonight I did and it was a lot of fun :)

If any of my readers are doing this, I would love to see a link to where you post it--it's a lot of fun!

The Balancing Act, Good Coffee and Sweet Kids

It seems my photography business has taken off--which after over 2 years is a wonderful thing. I couldn't be more thrilled. However, I need to find a good balance in the whole owning a business/mothering kids/cleaning house, etc.I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with it all (I think overwhelmed is my favorite word these days) but I'll get there. And the most important thing is, my walk with God is stronger than it has been in while and that is what keeps me going most of the time!

So, because it's Wednesday, because it's raining and because this post must be more random than it already is, a few photos to share...

This coffee is absolutely amazing. My friend Feli discovered it at Wal Mart and bought it while she was here. I highly recommend it if you have a Keurig! Best part--she left me the leftovers :)

I'm branching out in the hair department these days. Oh Yes. You never knew my sweet moves were all about two-braids-connected-in-the-middle. Still don't have the whole "french" thing down yet, but we're working on it. I figure if I only have 1 girl (for now) I better get the cuteness factor down in this area.

 Brookie told me the other day I needed to get some "huger shirts." Not sure how much "huger" than this you can get--but at 34 weeks I still have at least 4-5 weeks of growing to go. Hmm. Not sure where that baby is gonna go! If it makes it any more to my face than it already has I'm sure it (my face--not the baby) will explode!

This guy continues to entertain, talk continually and call every restaurant "chik-a-lay" in the cutest voice possible. Can't believe he'll be a big brother soon!

Lastly, my kids have been playing-alone-a lot lately. I'm "working" almost every day (editing sessions) and I'm so thankful that they are best friends and play so well together!

Happy Wednesday!

A Day in the Life: Week 3

I am loving the picture a day challenge. Having a little memory from every single day, no matter how small, is really special! It hasn't even been a month, but it's already becoming a habit of something I'm conscious of doing each day.

So without further ado... Week Three!

Monday, January 16th: The kids were "drinking" coffee..and now we see where they got it :)

 Tuesday, January 17th: Happy 25th birthday to me! In my lap sits the 3 ;) most precious gifts God could have ever given me.

 Wednesday, January 18th: A birthday dinner at my favorite Mexican place and free dessert nachos...doesn't get much better than that!

Thursday, January 19th: Enjoying a beautiful, sunny, 75 degree day at the park

Friday, January 20th: All day outlet shopping--they were so good! 

Saturday, January 21st: Who can resist that tiny pink nose?

Sunday, January 22nd: Celebrating my 25th birthday with sweet friends--a great way to end the week :)

My Birthday Week

I celebrated my 25th birthday this week. 25 is a big deal to me--you know, that whole quarter of a century thing. I feel old, but then in another way, I've been married for 5 1/2 years and we have almost 3 kids. So maybe it's about time I became a little older. :) I got to celebrate for the whole week because one of my best friends, Felicia, was here for a visit!

This is what happens when friends visit for your birthday. They make chocolate butter cookies with peanut butter frosting...they were as good as they sound. No, better, actually.

 My sweetest gifts of all :). 

 My birthday itself was pretty uneventful. We shopped for few hours, had lunch, and had a little party that night. The week itself was the best part--I love having other adults around to talk to all day (which she may not have as appreciated as much;).

Another night, we made these deep dish chocolate chip cookies. Tip: make a few more than the recipe calls for, because they are better just a little thinnner. And chill the dough! It makes a diffference! They are amazing!

 Proof that I'm still trying to eat somewhat healthy, despite the previous pictures. (Hey, it was my birthday!) This "Skinny Cheeseburger soup" was awesome. (Can't find the link right now--I'll insert it later). I used part ground turkey and part 96/4 ground beef, added zuchinni,  topped it off with low fat cheese and tons of cayenne--which, of course, is optional.

 The weather here was unseasonably warm this week. We walked to the park and let the kids play while we talked and solved the worlds problems.

 When we came home for lunch, the kids had a little picnic outside. Seriously, 75 and sunny in January?! How can you beat that?!

 The day before Feli had to leave, we went out for breakfast and then a nice long day of Outlet shopping. Having Nate at breakfast with us was a real treat. :)

It was such a fun week. I have SO much to be grateful for--I'm so blessed! :) Have a great week, everyone!

Baby #3, Months 7 & 8!

Once again, I've gotten a little behind in pregnancy updates, so I'm posting 2 months in 1. :)

Month 7

28.5 weeks :)

At my 28 week glucose test I tested positive for gestational diabetes, but it's pretty common to get a false positive after the one hour test. I knew this was probably the case since I was only about 3 points over, but of course I had to test again. Since I was going out of town I had to prick my finger, read my sugar levels and record them 4 times a day for a week. This happened to be over Christmas week so I was eating more sugar than normal and I never once was high. Sometimes I was even a little lower than the "normal" range! Praise the Lord everything was normal! I grew a lot in month 7, and right around 30 weeks started noticing Braxton Hicks pretty often. I get so happy each time I have one because I know my body is preparing and practicing to get that baby out. :)

Month 8

32.5 weeks

I officially.feel.huge. :) Although I've measured 2 weeks behind for the last few months, I still feel like I'm a lot bigger than I usually am. I'm hoping that the fact that I'm measuring small might mean I'll have a small baby, but by the looks of me I can't be so sure. ;)

I'm still feeling great, besides the normal sore feet/tiredness. (I'm sure staying up until 1am doesn't help that). One thing I'm SO thankful for is that my back has not hurt more than it normally does. Two years ago at this time I was in excruciating pain with a herniated disk and the fact that I can still function like normal and even exercise on an almost daily basis at 8 months pregnant is truly a gift from God that I do not take for granted. 

Nothing else has changed much since last month, other than braxton hicks becoming occasionally crampy (which my Dr. said is fine, as long as it's not regular) and this also makes me happy to know that my body is preparing to get this baby out in a month and a half or so. The more prep it does now, the easier it will be later! :) Or at least I hope so!

Until next month...

A Day in the Life: Week 1 and 2

I wrote about my project to take a photo a day for the whole year. I titled it "A Day in the Life" because they will mostly be fun candid shots from our daily life. I'm hoping to post weekly, but since I was out of town, here are the first two weeks. Enjoy!

January 1: Michael was reaching for Granpy's hand and I happened to catch the candid moment of him leaning down to hold his hand and talk to him.

 January 2nd: Watching the snow fall at Poppy and Nonnie's

 January 3rd: Sweet, laughing Lydia

 January 4th: He wanted chocolate but had to take a bite of his salad first. This is his distraught face. Sadly, he never got the chocolate and just ended up going to bed because he wouldn't nibble on a tiny piece of lettuce. ;p

 January 5th: There was NO snow, but Poppy took us to a place that makes snow and there wasn't anyone else there! Fake snow is really icy so the kids had more fun sliding down on their rear ends. :)

 January 6th: My growing, 31.5 week belly. 

 January 7th: Our annual bestie's weekend! Full of laughs, the best talks at 4:00am, shopping, chick food...and Starbucks, of course :)

 January 8th: Dad's incredible homemade Italian bread. Accompanied by Sunday sauce of course :)

 January 9th: Dinner with my family. We are serious about our food.

 January 10th: On our way back home to Texas! We are happy that daddy is here or we might just stay at Poppy and Nonnie's forever ;)

 January 11th: I'll admit it. I forgot to take a (good) picture this day. Instead, I had taken this and texted it to one of my friends because we have a common love for hummus and sun dried tomatoes. So, needless to say, it had to become my picture of the day! ;)

 January 12th: I had actually already taken a super cute picture on my camera, but when I saw my kids waiting for daddy to come home like this, I snapped the picture on my phone and couldn't resist making it the POTD. It makes me smile.

 January 13th: After a Dr.'s appointment, we stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch before grocery shopping. The firetruck parked out front was pretty cool...and Joe insisted that his leftover chicken strips be in the picture too. Seriously, he wouldn't take the picture unless he was holding them!

January 14th: Brookie wants a picture of her, Joe and her new tea set. Joe has other plans for how the picture should turn out.

January 15th: My handsome little stud in his new fedora hat

Sure, Dude

This little guy is full of it. He is constantly coming up with new phrases and words that make me do a double take, like, "did he really just say that?" Here's a few things he said recently that I wanted to write down so I didn't forget.

 On the flights this week, the kids were really good. I can say that because it's not always the case. I even fell asleep for a few minutes while they sat quietly and read! Anyway, a lady turned around when the plane landed and commented on how good they were. Then she looked at Joe and said, "You are SO cute!"

 Without skipping a beat, he replied, "I know."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 One of our landings was a little rough and we"crashed" to the ground pretty suddenly. "I LOVE IT!" yelled my crazy 2 year old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brookie was very tired and started crying in the car at one point because she had unbuckled herself and Nate told her she needed to get buckled. She got a hold of herself pretty quickly, and Joe Joe reported, "sissy doesn't have an at-er-tude".

~~~~~~~~~~~

 Driving in the car on the way home from church, the kids and I were having a conversation about the verse "be ye kind," and what it means. I told them we needed to be kind and sweet when we talk to each other. 

 "OK?" I said.

 "OK," Joe Joe replied. And then louder, "SISSY! SAY OK!" (hmm..well that was kind)

 I told them that it makes Jesus very happy when we are sweet to each other, so God was obviously on their minds. 

After a few minutes of silence, Joe said, "Mommy I'm happy! God made me happy." Then, he talked to God about it.

 "GOD?!!" (God obviously replied, because Joey's next words were) "Sure. Sure dude."

 We may have the kindness thing down, but we might need to work on respect in the area of talking to God.

Goals for 2012

Ahh...the New Year. There is nothing like it. A fresh start, a clean slate, lots of ambitions and plans to do better and really change this year. Physically and spiritually. Time to forget the better person we didn't become and look forward to how we hope to transform our lives in the coming 365 days.

Mary and I on New Year's Eve after our festivities had died down :)

But that's just it--it is 365 days. That's a lot of days, especially if you make big plans to exercise and lose weight, or read your Bible more, pray more, memorize more, etc, etc. By January third, it's easy to get overwhelmed at the big plans you had to get healthy while stuffed full of pizza and sugar cookies. New Years resolutions usually take a lot of commitment and a real determination to truly change your daily life.

Anna and I on NYE

I've learned with myself to "aim low". That might sound awful, but if I really want to get accomplished what I promise myself I will on January 1st, I need to set realistic goals for myself. This year I have 3 things I really want to do. They aren't big things, but just a few things that I would love to accomplish this year.

The kiddo's and I on the plane, going to Poppy and Nonnie's a few weeks ago

My goals for 2012:
1) Listen to Psalms 119 each day in January. (on top of my regular reading). I was very convicted about the word of God in a message by one of my Pastor's on the last Wednesday of the year, so I thought this would be a really good way to get more of the word pumped into me. It takes about 20 minutes a day and so far I'm really enjoying it! I can do it while I clean up or do laundry, but if I can read and listen at the same time? Even better! This isn't a "yearly" goal, but I'll see how it goes for January and I may pick a different chapter/chapters for every month this year!
2) Take a photo a day and make it into an album at the end of the year. This is one of those things I've always been scared of doing because I *knew* I would fail. I've decided that this is the year and I'm going to try my very best to do it. Some days are easy, because I take dozens of pictures. Other days my camera doesn't leave the bag. However, I do always have my phone with me, so phone pictures count as well. :)

Homemade tomato soup with parmesan cheese and lots of crushed red pepper--perfect lunch on a cold day.

My third goal (but I should have written it first) is to draw closer to God so he will draw closer to me and ultimately I'll be able to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit this way. It sounds cliche', I know, because everyone wants to draw closer to the Lord, but it's a goal so I'm putting it on here no matter how similar it may be to everyone else's.

My adorable little nephew and I on Christmas Eve

I have other things I want to change, of course. I assure you I'll have big weight loss/get in shape goals starting in March. ;) I want to re-do a few things around the house and who doesn't want to be a better wife and Mom? But I'm taking it in stride, one thing at a time, to slowly change over the course of this year.

My Christmas present from my kids--Brooklynne picked out this sterling silver ring all by herself. It's now one of my most prized possessions!

Who knows--I'll probably come back next year with the same goals for 2013 because I didn't accomplish them in 2012, but good intentions are better than none, right? ;) I realize it's only January 11th, but I'm still excited about the small changes I'm working on in my life right now.

The only time I had to drive "in snow"--if you can call it that because the roads were so clear. The weather in NY has been unseasonably warm with almost no snow!

If you would like to share some of your resolutions for this coming year in a comment, I would love to read it! (As I love to read each and every one of your comments!)