Mother's Day 2014

Happy Mother's Day! My own mother is so special, sweet, loving, friendly, kind, and caring. I try to model those traits after her. I love you so much Mom!!
Being a mother is such a sacred and special vocation. I feel so blessed and grateful every day to have these kids of mine. I call on those feelings when I'm most annoyed with something my kids might be doing; whether they are being messy, loud, fighting, naughty, etc. LOL! Remembering my blessings has saved me from many a time when I wanted to scream or lose my temper. They are wonderful beautiful children that God has entrusted me with. I know that I am doing my best and I should be proud of that; even on my worst days when I feel like the biggest failure and drag of a mom.
Every day is a different challenge and different set of tools are used to navigate and get through the day with love and success. I like that; when it seems like being a stay at home mom might be mundane it is truly the opposite. There is always a different problem to solve, a different joy to witness, a different plan to forge.
I love being a Mom and today I remember how lucky I am. I love you Noah and Paige.

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Holiday bonanza!

I can't believe I didn't post favorite pictures from the past holidays we had!
So, here's a crapload of pictures from Halloween 2013, Thanksgiving 2013, and Christmas 2013.
Now, I can rest assured these photos or on the blog for our future perusal. Phew!

Halloween 2013:
Paige wanted to be a "pegasus unicorn." Of course, in true New England style, she had a winter coat on below her costume so she looked like a marshmallow with wings and a horn. A cute marshmallow.
Paige proclaimed she wanted Noah to be her trusty dragon friend, so we agreed (since it would be cute.)
 














Thanksgiving 2013:
Speaks for itself! That bow-tie and vest kill me.









Christmas 2013:
Cute jammies, cute church outfits, anticipation...what's not to love about Christmas fun and kids?

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Happy First Birthday Noah!

Dearest Little Noah-Nut,

You are ONE today! The big OH-ONE! My beautiful boy is growing up. My goodness, this past year went by so fast! Much too fast for me.
I love you so very much my sweet. You delight me with your glorious smile and your plump cheeks every day.
You are made of smiles and sweetness. Such a gift you have!

This year has been filled with wonderful, fabulous you. And YOU have brought us all (Mommy, Daddy, and Paigey) so much happiness, sunshine, and love. What a blessing God has given us. Straight from heaven, you are an angel of happiness and peace.

I could go on about all the things you've done this year; but I won't. I will simply say Happy Birthday my sweet angel. The day you came to us is a day that made my life mean something.
I love you always and forever my precious.

Love you always and forever more,
Mama

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New Year, New Goals 2013

Happy New Year!!!!! I love a fresh start. Of course, it's not so fresh since I'm coming off of having the flu for several days, but I'll take it. How were your holidays? Ours were awesome. So much fun!

I'll post some photos of our Christmas highlights later on (just because I want to save them here in my "journal" for memory's sake.)

But today I wanted to write down and share my goals for the year. I'm thinking it's all fine and good to have some improvement goals but I also wanted to include FUN goals.

So, I went and got a ukulele. Yep. I want to learn to play ukulele. Not to be great at it, but to have fun with and to maybe sing some songs with the kids and such. It's totally just for me though.
1. Learn a whole song on ukulele and sing along while I play. Perhaps record myself playing and post it here so I have someone (you) to answer to. I have till the end of the year, but will likely do it before hand.
Bonus goal: write an original little ditty to sing and play.

My other plan is to lose my remaining 8 pounds of baby weight and try to get rid of my belly fat pouch that I have to suck in all the time in my photos. When I let it go, I look 5/6 months pregnant (I get asked if I'm pregnant ALL THE TIME). SOOOOO I have to get working on getting rid of it.

2. Start jogging and work my way up to at LEAST 6 miles by the end of the year. I made it attainable. I don't run or exercise, so I have to start slowly and see what happens.

And here are the rest of my little goal wishes:
3. Sew at least 3 projects on my new sewing machine (I got the super-awesome machine for Christmas before Noah was born, but then he came along and there's been no time to use it! But now I intend to carve some time out).

4. Attend church more regularly and participate in groups there/volunteer

5.Do a full year of "Deliberate Motherhood" blogging to focus on the beauty of motherhood and the challenges we must overcome.
Our first month's topic (for January) is "Acceptance."I plan to do several posts on this theme throughout the month. You can follow along with the book "Deliberate Motherhood: 12 Key Powers of Peace, Purpose, Order & Joy" and share your own thoughts in the comments or on your own blogs if you'd like. I love this book!

And along the blogging lines:
6. Blog on more of a regular schedule.
So, those are my goals for the year (aside from home decor improvement projects and other things house-related). I'm looking forward to working my way toward them!  Do you want to share your goals? Feel free! When you write them down, you are more likely to think of a plan for making them happen, right?

Happy New Year!! Let's DO this thang!

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Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas 2012! We wish you a peaceful and joyous holiday!
Don't forget why we celebrate...Jesus was born with the purpose of saving us all from our sins so we can join God in Heaven one day and be close to Him. Wow, right???!!! He died for ALL of us...the righteous, the weak, the sick, the lost...
Happy Birthday, Jesus...Thank You for the blessings and the glory you bring us, not matter what we have done.

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Thanksgiving 2012

Hi friends!
We've been away for the holiday and then we've been sick! Well, I have anyway. Add in a lack of sleep thanks to SOMEONE wanting to get up all hours of the night to "eat." His name rhymes with Shmoa. Also, poor Little P slipped on the kitchen floor the other day and hit her eyebrow bone on the kitchen island. She is now sporting 3 stitches, a bruised eye, and a bandage. She just picked out some new Disney "Cars" band aids so she's quite excited about the whole deal. Here she is:


It was so scary, but she's ok (Thank God!) and so am I. After my initial freak-out of course!

We had a great Thanksgiving. *Burp*
I'm so thankful for our family. Everyone plays such a special role and boy, are we lucky. 
Here's a couple favorite Thanksgiving pictures from our wonderful time: (when did Paige start looking so grown up?) P.S. I'll be back soon, I've got a lot going on in my head to share here in my journal. Maybe you'll be able to relate to me?

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Halloween 2012

Trick or Treating was postponed until last night in our town; due to Hurricane Sandy. The kids (Paige) was crazy-excited. She'd decided to be a Peacock long ago. I decided Noah needed to be Yoda because the costume was beyond cute. I was proud how she wasn't afraid to go right up to each door and yell "Trick or Treat!" in her best voice. She even said "thank you" after each treat. Score! And I'm not the least bit worried about what to do with all the candy. We're going to eat every last bit of it. Boo-yaaaah! Here's a slew of photos; you can tell what's happening in them so I'll spare you the play-by-play! See you here soon!  

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Mother's Day activities

I wanted to tell you about our Mother's Day! Chris took all Noah's feedings during the night and day. I got to sleep in until 8:30 in the morning! Heaven! Then, the fam brought me breakfast in bed. Heaven 2.0! After some fun gift time, we went over to a local farm/hiking place and saw some animals. And then, we headed over to the local ice cream mecca and enjoyed some treats and Paige had her very first pony ride. Follow all that up with me having time to myself in the afternoon and it was a perfect day! Score! I hope all you who plan to be Moms, are pregnant, or already ARE Moms had a great Mother's Day.  I know I did!

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Christmas 2011

This past Christmas was our first time staying home. We wanted to begin our own special traditions now that Paige is old enough to understand the things going on around her. It was so much fun! What made it even more special is that my parents came to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with us; and my brother came down with his girlfriend on Christmas Day.
Christmas Eve found us decorating cookies and going to Christmas Mass.





During the Mass, the priest had his pregnant niece "due in 4 weeks" and her husband bring the little baby Jesus figure to the Nativity Scene. I leaned forward intently to see what his niece looked like...did she look to be due any day? Nope. She was tiny. Her belly looked like she'd had a big meal! The lady next to me goes "didn't you say you were due in another 5 weeks or so?" She looked down at my belly and we grinned; realizing that my stomach looked like a zeppelin in comparison to this girl. Everyone I encounter insists I'm having twins and overdue. LOL. *sigh* I'm definitely defying gravity.







Christmas Day was so fun and P was so well behaved. She was so excited about everything going on...no tantrums for fussies. Everything went as planned and it was a beautiful day. All ended with a delicious meal: a filet Chris cooked with lots of yummy sides and desserts. Such a treat! After everyone left and P went to bed we looked at pictures and videos from the day and got teary. We are so very blessed and lucky. Not a day goes by where I don't appreciate what we have and the wonders in our lives. It's funny to think that next year at this time we'll have a son; Paige will have a brother. He will almost be a year old. What a difference a year will make!
You can view all the pictures of the fun here.

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