Oh Happy Day

This weekend marked the first of many very intentional smiles from my little Princess. Despite sickness making its way through our family, miss Raeleigh was so happy to show off her newly found smile.

This weekend I also decided I should start working on  my aim.

You know, for when those suitors come calling. ;)

One year old

My little boy is growing up, faster then I would like.

 He speaks: saying words like "mama", "dada", "baba"(bubba), "nana"(nom nom) and "Hi"

 

 

 

 He races from one end of the house to the other before I can even blink.

 

 He has a sense of humor, and finds videos of cats, and Curious George most entertaining.

 

He loves reading books, and mimicking animal noises as we turn each page. 

 

He loves music, and being held in my arms as I dance around the living room, his head against my chest, and a smile on his face; begging for more if I stop.

 

 

 

He is stubborn, strong willed, independent, and hard headed-I a mean that quite literally given the amount of times he's intentionally run his head into walls for self amusement.

 

He is sweet, gentle, kind, and has a smile that brings so much life and joy to a room.

 

 

He is growing up before my eyes, becoming a little man. I couldn't love him anymore if I tried, and I couldn't be more proud of my little boy if I wanted to.

 

Happy 1st Birthday, Caden. Your mommy and daddy love you so much, and can't wait to experience many more years with you.

 

 

Mommy's Dirty Laundry

My typical morning involves rolling out of bed, quite literally now that Im so pregnant I can't bend at the waist, getting my 9 month old out of bed, we let the dog outside, we eat breakfast, I get him dressed, we play on the floor, he lays down for a nap, I clean, he wakes up, we eats lunch, the dog picks up what is dropped on the floor, we play on the floor, he lays down for a nap, I get dressed, i clean, if I'm lucky I shower, he wakes up, we get our coats on and run errands, we get home and I cook dinner while he plays on the floor, if I forget to lock he gate so he stays in the kitchen with me and turn my back to him, he gets into something and strews it all over the floor, or breaks something, daddy comes home and plays with our son while I'm finishing dinner, we eat, I give him a bath, he goes to bed, and I'm too tired to do anything so I leave the mess till tomorrow.

I like organization, I like cleanliness, I like neat and tidy. My house is none of these things on a normal day. 

Dishes get left in the sink

Corners get left uncleaned

My bed doesn't get made

There are fingerprints all over my coffee table

There is only one usable corner on my dining table

My hutch is used to put things out of my sons reach, amongst other things

My floor has more toys than carpet covering it.

And my son likes to throw food on the floor which my dog gladly eats.

At the end of the day I am so tired of cleaning, only to have the mess pile up in some other corner. 

Then I see this messy face, covered in sauce, giving me the brightest smile, giggling at the dog eating everything he drops, and it makes everything worth it. 

Oh how I love looking at that face, and I wouldn't trade a single day of mess making with this boy for a clean house, not that I won't keep trying to have the best of both worlds. :)

 

One day I will have a clean house again, one day I won't be up until 2am cleaning the house while my tornado is sleeping, and one day will come soon enough. Until one day happens I intend to enjoy every messy day with my little messy man, and soon to be messy girl, because one day they will be grown, and I don't want to look back and have a clean house, if that means I missed out on precious memory making with them. 

Coming March 2015...

This last month has been an emotional and physical rollercoaster.

The short version:
Last month, while visiting family a few hours west of us, I ended up going to the ER due to pain in my side causing severe nausea. I was sent home the same night after receiving anti-nausea medicine, but ended up calling my midwives and getting an appointment with a local OB-GYN, because the pain was still severe. Long story short, the doctor ordered an ultrasound which revealed the placenta tearing from the uterus, and a lot of internal bleeding. I was placed on bed rest, which included NO LIFTING, until I could get back to the cities to meet with my midwives.



Once we got home we met with my midwives, who also ordered an ultrasound(4 days after all this began). They compared results, and were slightly confused. The tearing was gone, and there were no signs of bleeding. Odd considering the original report. They decided to keep me on  limited activity(still no lifting), and they ordered a level two ultrasound for 3 weeks later, just to be safe. Because I was on limited activity and could not lift my son, we decided it would be best to move in with my parents for the time being; 3 weeks is A long wait to say the least, having to watch everyone else pick up and care for my son because I was having to care for our unborn baby as best I could.

Today after a LONG month, we had our ultrasound......

Driving to our appt

 

I was a bit excited to get to this appointment, Find out how the baby and I were doing, Learn whether or not I would need to continue living with family for extra help with Caden, and find out the gender of our unborn baby.....


With that being said, We have two announcements.

 

First: The baby and I are 100% fine. No tear. No bleeding. I can return to normal activities. I can lift my son. We can go back home. We can return to normal!!

 

Second: We would like to introduce our Daughter.......

 

 

 

 Raleigh Everly Marie!!!

 

Thank you all for your prayers during this time. We can not wait to meet our little girl in March. :)

 

Boy or Girl??

Well it's that time again, and I am beyond excited! Our doctor ordered a level 2 ultrasound this time, due to some complications we have been dealing with, but they are feeling confident everything will be fine. So I get to just sit here and enjoy being excited about seeing our baby next Tuesday, and learning our babies gender so we know which name to go with. 8 days can't go fast enough. So far we have several people who have given us there guesses on gender(yes I'm positive there's only one baby), so let me know your guess and I'll add you to our board. Happy guessing! :)

Social Media Standards

Dear Friends on Social Media:

I’ve written this as a means of creating a standard  of etiquette for how I would like people to respond when you are on my social media feeds. This is not written towards any one person, rather this is written because I seem to run into the same problem on many social media sites, and I want to make myself very clear, so as not to be misunderstood in the future.

First, I am so thankful that I have so many friends and family who are different from me, who don't think like I do. Yes, I'm even thankful for those who disagree with me. I love the fact that I can discuss different things and not always get a thumbs up(though you who give me those thumbs up are also wonderful, and I absolutely need encouragement as well); but I love having people who challenge my thinking causing me to think through why I think, and believe the way I do. I'm thankful for each of you!

Second, the reason I'm writing this: with being my friend on any social media site there does come responsibility on your end. What you do on your social media feeds, I can not control, but when you come to my pages, posts, blogs etc... understand, I love hearing disagreement and engaging in conversation, I love chatting, challenging, and  encouraging,  each other, but I also expect that if you have disagreements that they will be made with respect. I expect that if you genuinely have a problem or concern that you will call me, message me, and talk to me instead of getting mad, yelling, cursing, or insulting myself or anyone else through these page/posts. If I see such behavior, your posts will be deleted(especially if I see insulting, even if it's passive aggressive, I do not condone any sort of intimidating/bullying). I will then email you, or call you, and try to work things out. If I am In The wrong, I will apologize and make things right. But If things can not be resolved in a healthy manner, I will not allow such things to go on, and will cut off any contact with you. I'm not doing this to be mean, but I want to ensure our friendships stay healthy, and that we can communicate in a healthy manner.

Third, I don't want anyone to question what I believe and stand for, so I will lay it out for you very clearly so as not to be misunderstood, I am a Bible believing, Christ following, Christian, and yes I do believe in Heaven and Hell.  When it comes to politics I am a conservative. I am 100% pro-life. I believe marriage is meant to be between one man and one women. I do not condone animal cruelty, but I do eat meat. I believe a wife is supposed to submit to the headship of her husband, and that this does not make her less than. I believe in freedom from all forms of slavery. I believe in respecting and honoring those who are older than me, even if I don't agree. And I believe many people will disagree with me on many of these topics.

I love and care for each of you, and thank you for your continued friendship. I desire that when you come to my social media feeds, that each of us feels safe to express our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs in a healthy manner, even if at the end of a conversation we all walk away disagreeing. I desire to give respect, and be given respect, even on ‘hot’ topics. Please feel free to ask questions or discuss further with me, anything I have mentioned.

Thank you!  

I Married a Superhero

I don't brag about my husband enough, and honestly, I should. Over the last several days everyone has been asking him and I, how Me and the baby have been, making sure We are ok. Im15 weeks pregnant and We found out after a long ordeal, during a week away for Gabes work, that we had a tear between the placenta and the uterus. Honestly, I'm in a bit of pain, I'm nervous about what the doctors will say, but ultimately I'm at peace with everything. But my wonderful husband has been going through the last several days with me, too, just in a different way. Weds he took me to the ER at 4am, and still woke up to work the next morning. Because I'm on bed rest, and not supposed to lift anything, including my son he has had to load and unload vehicles while we were out of town. He's done dishes, he's taken over the morning feeding shift with Caden, he's moved Caden to the floor from the couch, and anywhere else I need him to be so I don't lift our son, he's gotten me meals, glasses of water, and medication with out complaint, and with out hesitation, no matter the time. He listens to me crying, hugs me, prays over us, and comforts me as I deal with many emotional aspects of our situation. He's worked 8 hour days, and come home with a smile on his face as he transitions smoothly into changing diapers, feeding Caden, spending time on the floor with him, and putting him to bed for the night. Then, just because he can, he goes out and gets me chocolate due to a random craving, and he brings home chocolate and flowers.

You know, that's just how he is. He goes out of his way to make sure I feel loved 100% of the time. He doesn't complain, even when things are challenging, rather he asks what he can do to best help. He's selfless in his actions. And I couldn't handle this situation with out him. I'm thankful to have such a wonderful caring man by my side through everything, not just this past week. I know he's not perfect, but my husband is a superhero In more ways then one. I feel so incredibly blessed to have him in my life, and couldn't imagine going through life with out him to hold my hand.