"But since I came here felt the joy and the fear...

...finding myself making every possible mistake." New Soul by Yael Naim.

Hello lovelies!

Image via Free Pretty Things For You

Sorry (again!) for the extended absence! We made it safely to our new hometown - thanks for all your prayers and support!

I'm seven weeks out from baby Charlie's due date, and we're in the midst of buying a house, getting all the new insurance/car registration/choosing doctors/etc. that comes with a new move, and my sweet husband is working crazy hours with his new job and doing all the paperwork for the various things listed above (since if I did them at this point I may not even spell my name correctly. Helloooo, pregnancy brain!).

I've got a couple projects going on (ha.) beside the moving and baby stuff, so I'm afraid this blog may have to go on hold a little longer. Rest assured that I will bring you all up to speed once we get back into a regular schedule and a house of our own. :)

Thanks for sticking with me!

Love!

"I painted stripes on the family cat, broke two teeth only yesterday...

...I'm the angel in the Christmas play." Angel in the Christmas Play by Gayla Peevey.

Apparently our little baby face doesn't think so much of my Christmas list for him, so he wrote a letter to Santa to correct it. :)

Dear Santa
I'm sure you are aware that my mother has sent out "my" list of presents and while the intentions are good, I really am not interested in footy-sleepers or a lightweight travel stroller. I am 14 months old now, and I've been VERY good,  barring a few incidents when I was teething; but no one could hold that against me, right? There are the usual things I'd prefer - wrapping paper and boxes, naturally - but I have a few other things I would really like for Christmas this year which are listed below. Thank you so much, Santa, and Merry Christmas!

1. I would like quality time with THIS cat. She doesn't like me. I can have the other anytime I want, so naturally I am much more interested in this one. 

2. I would love a few of these refillable wall-mounted entertainment devices. For some reason, although there seem to be an endless supply of the white papery things, I am forever thwarted in my attempts to utilize this fascinating device. 

3. Time under here. It's obviously a doorway into Narnia, or my parents wouldn't be so desperate to keep me from it.

4. Open access to this drawer. Obviously it's full of candy.

5. This computer cord, to chew and play with to my heart's content.

6. A selection of these. Not sure what they are, but they are the perfect size to stick my little fingers in that hole. 

7. This Interactive Entertainment System (which is also self-cleaning!). All those little pieces and parts and things to take out and throw on the floor and sort! And yet my parents are forever hoarding the pleasures of this device for themselves. Rude.

8. These. They magically contain people sometimes, I've distinctly heard my dad talking in one and I often hear from a variety of Grandmas, Grandpas, and Aunts. I would like to have my own personal human miniaturization convenience device, but I would also like access to everyone else's whenever I happen to notice one.

9. A crate of these. Do you have any idea how fun it is to take all the separate tissues out and tear them up? Hours of wholesome family fun.

10. Access to this. Again, so many individual pieces, all so shiny, and with convenient cabinet doors that I can already open and close myself. And yet for some reason mom shrieks every time I come near it. 

11. These. Dad's "work" rattle. Not sure why it's so special to him, but you'd think he could share. 

12. Three words: Cords and buttons. Look at all the lovely buttons and delightful cords to push and pull! I know for a fact that some of them cause MOVIES to play on that big screen, and they make fun little beeping noises, too. Also, there's a cool little drawer that goes in and out. What's not to love?

13. This. It's not like anyone else wants it! I just want to go through it and maybe create some original art with whatever is in there. But my parents are forever stifling my creativity in this area. I don't know why. Half the stuff in there came from me anyway.

Thank you so much, Santa, and Merry Christmas!
Love,
James

So there you have it. :P

"From Atlantic to Pacific...

...Gee, the traffic is terrific." There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays by Perry Como

Hello lovelies!

Baby-boo and his Great-Grampa

Apologies for the extended absence! We have had a full and delightful autumn season with birthdays, anniversaries, family visits, morning sickness, job interviews (everything went well; still waiting to hear a decision!), the holidays beginning, and my sweet offspring getting two new teeth this week and on the verge of walking! He is getting to be such a big little boy, and such a clever child, if I do say so myself. I fear that he will outsmart me before too long.

I have a whole slew of posts I can't WAIT to share with you, among them my DIY advent calendar ESPECIALLY for Mamas with little ones! Naturally it's not completely done yet (um, I got the first two finished so I have two more days to complete the set, right?) and it will only take one more trip to the dollar store plus my sweet husband doing a tiny little spray paint project for me.

On a more personal note, regarding jobs, my husband has had two interviews back in my homeland, and both of them went well, and pending final tests/background checks/supervisor approval we have been told that we might move as soon as Christmas, and definitely (if accepted) by mid-January. Naturally this is thrilling news since we've been apply for jobs and pounding the pavement for over a year, now! Back on the east coast, he also has one definite job lead, with similar holdups pending, and they would be ready for us in April! There's a lot of uncertainties about all of these options, so any prayers you could spare for wisdom and the right job to work out in God's good time would be such a blessing! We would love to move as soon as possible, because the longer we wait, the bigger I get with our new baby...and the harder it will be for me to do anything with the move! (Oh yeah, I did mention that we're expecting again, right? Yup. Due in May. Woohoo!)

With all this indecision and possibilities in then next few weeks or months, it begs the question, to decorate, or not to decorate?

Those of you who know me, know that my year is divided into the usual four seasons: Christmas, post-Christmas, un-Christmas, and pre-Christmas. ;) The possibility of living a year of my life where I don't decorate never even entered my mind! At least we have to go get some mistletoe...and put up one of the little trees...and maybe a garland or two...candles...centerpieces...

And speaking of finding out NEWS, on Friday we will have an ultrasound and find out if this baby is a boy or a girl! Too exciting!!!

I hope your holidays are less in limbo than mine, and you get to slow waaaaaaay down and enjoy the season! But even if you feel as hectic about all the details as I do at present, don't miss all the joy coming your way as we celebrate the birth of the King!

"We're on parade! We're on parade!...

...We are marching, marching through your living room!" The Uninvited Parade by Sandra Boynton.

Hello, lovelies! During this last absence, I've been traveling with family, seeing my brand-new niece, and planning a birthday party for our very own little man! If you are on Facebook you no doubt saw the pictures, but I'm thought I'd post them here as well. Baby-face turned one amidst friends, food, and heaps of lovely presents in our autumn woodland themed party!. :)

Outside decorations and firepit.

Streamers! 

See that lucky little boy's pile of presents on the left?

Smores for the fire pit! Also, bug spray.

My amazing mother-in-law did all the cooking, creating every last crazy idea I had!

Party bags!

Party bags had hats, noisemakers, glowstick bracelets, candy, and party poppers.

Dirt pudding! Grandpa gathered all the pinecones and acorns for table decor from our woods! 

I made of list of all the autumny and woodland foods I could think of...and my amazing mother-in-law made all of them, right down to the miniature apple pies!

Hand-dipped caramel apples! (I had to search EVERYWHERE for little apples!)

I was so mad at myself when I saw this in ALL the pictures?!? Also, I forgot to uncover the cupcakes forever! :/

Special cake for baby to smash! Grandmama made loooooovely homemade buttercream frosting.

Birthday boy and Grandpa ("Pop-pop")

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And the party begins!

Gift-opening chaos of happiness!

Me and the kidlet. Amazingly, he LOVED his party hat.

Mummy, Baby, Daddy! 

Ready to blow out his first candle!

First taste of cake!

Sharing with Gem's little girl!

He liked feeding it to her more than eating it himself!

He even got a little birthday kiss from her later!

So, all in all, I think it was a success! The kiddos got put down around 8 (waaaaay past bedtime!) and we grownups enjoyed the firepit and smores. (Babies enjoyed it too, earlier on. My son threw one of his new presents, a light-up ball, into the fire where it promptly exploded. He thought it was pretty cool, so I hope there won't be any psychological damage from that one...)

Love!

"Sent from up above...

...you are the one I love." Endangered Love from Veggie Tales - Silly Songs with Larry.

Hello, lovelies!

The big news around here is, our old (um, only 2 years?!) blue-ray/dvd player died, so my sweet husband scoured sales and web deals and found us a new one! And this one is ever and ever so much better. One amazing upgrade...Youtube, straight to our TV!

But why do I care so much?

Because of this channel!

That's right, instead of exclusively watching classic Winnie-the-Pooh (which is still his favorite, by the way) James has branched out to Veggie Tales! So now when we're tired of rumblies in our tumblies, we can switch to water buffaloes, Barbara Manitee, and Kilts and Stilts. Previously, a computer was hooked up to the TV for this, but the full screen feature didn't carry through a playlist.

It is very heartwarming to see my 10-month old dancing and singing gibberish along to the Veggie Theme Song--his favorite.

Another exciting development with our little baby-face, is that he has stopped chewing on his board books and realizes that there is a story that goes with them. He brings me books to read him now, and sits and watches and turns pages. And he spends a good amount of time just flipping through them on his own, which completely delights me! He especially loves his "Touch and Feel" books (one Winnie the Pooh and one Beatrix Potter) and any of the Sandra Boyntons that have a song associated with them. (He just doesn't get tired of mom and dad singing Perfect Piggies.)

So that's fun. It's so exciting to see him comprehending more and more every day!

This isn't just impacting his playtime (but who am I kidding? It's all playtime). He's also developing in response to Mommy and Daddy telling him things. For several months now, when we would say "No!" He would freeze - pausing in what he was doing - and then we could get over to wherever he was and take the cord out of his hand, pull him away from the DVD player, pull the cat's tail out of his mouth, etc. Also, we'd taught him to not grab at the spoon when we fed him, roll on the changing table, and other simple things like that, and he reliably could be expected to obey.

But in the last few weeks, Jamesy was getting into EVERYTHING and doing all the stuff we'd so painstakingly taught him not to do! It was like he'd totally forgotten, and we started to question if he was really old enough to comprehend it anyway. But at the same time, his comprehension was rocketing up in other areas, so we decided to just consistently correct, explain, discipline--and the last few days have almost reverted back to his prior level of obedience. He's still prone to try to do things he knows he shouldn't...but I know he knows, because he watches me when he starts to reach for, say, an electrical outlet, and when I say no, he smiles and rolls away as if to say, "Yeah, I figured." So I suppose he's just testing us, bless his sinful little heart.

And now when we say, "Yay, good job!" he claps and says "Yay!" along with us. Which makes eating very cheerful, as I praise him frequently for eating well and neatly. And when that palls, we start singing Barbara Ann. It works for everybody, but let's just say we won't be going to any quite and fancy restaurants any time soon. Unless they have a special cheering section.

So that's the news from "Helm's Deep," as my mom calls our little estate.  ;)

Love!

"Ba-ba-ba ba-barbara-ann...

...take my hand." Barbara Ann by The Beach Boys

James and Me performing his favorite song right now:

Love!

"The catfish is a dancin' man...

...but he can't Cancan like the sardine can!" At the Codfish Ball by performed by Shirley Temple in Captain January.

Baby Boo and Daddy at our weekly pilgrimage to our local catfish joint. So yummy!

Have a happy Tuesday!

"Jump in your car; drive into the city...

...buy a jug of milk for your nauseated kitty." The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps from Veggie Tales.

I just realized that today is this handsome fella's birthday!

Izzy-boo!

Charisma is two years old!

Happy Birthday Izzy.

My two boys playing with the closet door.

Love!

"We were sailing, sailing, over the bounding main...

...but now we're not." Cabin Fever from Muppet Treasure Island (1996). 

Wow, July went by me in a flash! I can't believe the summer is winding down...and the beginning of the end was marked (in our part of the world!) by the World's Longest Yard Sale on route 127!

Baby and I hopped in and out of the car all along the nearest 20 miles of 127, and we found several treasures, one of which is this darling antique silver sugar bowl.

Not being used for sugar, as you can see.

And Irony is dismayed in the background (James was hollering "Kitty!") Also, on the shelf just below the cat, onions from some amazing (green thumbed) neighbors! 

The house is a general disaster right now, as I bought a bunch of bulk stuff and we're in the throes of canning from our fruit 'n veggie bonanza (thanks again to those neighbors!) so there's crates of tomatoes and squash scattered throughout the house amongst huge packages of paper towels and boxes of water bottles, but after this weekend hopefully order will be restored and we'll have more pretties (and baby) to show you!

For now, this will have to do. Baby is practicing his in-line-skating skills.

Love!

"In the dark times and the hard questions...

...let some sunshine in your mind." Love The World You Find by The Flaming Lips

So you know how I hate working out? Well, I'm working out these days to pay for all those pregnancy cravings. Perhaps we'll go into more detail later (if it ever makes any kind of difference!) but in the meantime, I'm more interested in a related issue.

Ok people. Let's talk standards here.

Some girls toss their hair up and go work out and don't care what they look like (and some girls end up looking awesome doing it.) But some of us just...can't. I have told you before how I cannot leave the house without doing something to my face/hair/etc. When I ran cross country in high school (Ugh, I do regret not trying a little harder--thanks for pushing me, Mr. F, I'm paying for my lethargy now!) I remember that the mother of a fellow runner made some comments about me wearing eyeliner whenever we ran, even at 5 in the morning. She said something about how I have a problem if I can't just roll out of bed and go running without worrying how I look (and I mean, I didn't put on a ton of makeup or anything, just a little smear of eyeliner and mascara to keep from looking...gross).

Add to that memes like this, and I've always felt guilty after that for trying to look nice when I exercised. Which adds to my dislike of exercise all together. Which makes me not like how I look, which makes it harder to look nice...and so the vicious cycle goes. So I finally told myself that it is fine to care about how I look when I work out, and that makes me more inclined to do so.

Perhaps it's vanity but...I don't want to go out in public looking like death. I mean, if I'm exercising to lose weight/look good/be healthy, why would I spend all that time looking AWFUL? Doesn't that seem counter productive? I mean, I know some people love running or love exercising just for the activity's sake, but I loathe sweat. And I hate being ugly - there is enough ugly in the world without me adding to it.

Surely I'm not the only one.

Regardless, here's a quick sweat-proof hairstyle that I wear whenever I exercise...or if I'm hanging out with a hair-grabbing baby and I only have a minute to do my hair. (Bonus: pictures of aforesaid wiggly, hair-grabbing baby!)

All you do is part your hair deep on one side, french braid just the top and clip with bobby pins to secure, then add a messy bun or twisted pony-tail and you're done! I've also seen someone french braid it and that looks awesome on some girls (not on me). This style works best with textured or dirty hair, so if you're hair is too straight, I'd highly recommend some of this to give it a little personality.

Happy crunching, ya'll. Mwah!

"I am, I am, I am...

...the luckiest." Luckiest by Ben Folds.

Ok, I have about ten seconds before my weepy, clinging baby needs me again, so let's make this quick.

James has his first teeth! (Hense the weeps and clings)

He has requested no photographs till they're a little more visible, however, so I will respect his wishes. (Ok, he has refused to open his mouth for a picture, but I figure, he can't talk, so how else is he going to nicely request me not to take pictures?)

So here's some pictures of him with teeth hidden.

Gotta love that crazy hair!

Loves!