New Year's Resolutions? Not for me.

No, I'm not into New Year's Resolutions. But this year I want to really try to have a laid back attitude. Brady is already almost 7 months old and it has FLOWN by. I want to enjoy every minute of every day with him and not worry about if he doesn't take a nap that day, or if he's throwing a fit in the middle of a store, or if he's keeping me up at night. I want to try and not sweat the small things and really enjoy these moments I have with him. I want to make sure I take the time to teach him about Jesus. I want to be an example to him. God trusted me with HIS child. I want to be the mommy that God wants me to be to Brady. I pray God helps me with that and to try and forget the other "stuff".

2010...Changes

Many bloggers are doing a "2010 in review" type posts. I guess I'm doing something similar. I'm feeling a bit emotional at the moment. Maybe not the BEST time to write, but here goes.....

This time last year I was expecting my 2nd child. But unlike the first, this child I would get to hold and love and see grow. The first child is up in Heaven waiting for me and the rest of his/her family. When I look back at the person I was on December 31, 2009, I see a pregnant woman who had no idea what was in store for her. As the song goes...a baby changes everything! A year ago I was working full time and enjoyed the freedom of not having a baby on the hip. I was able to come and go...here or there. I enjoyed the extra cash to go and spend as I pleased. And yes, I tithed also. I had the pleasure of having the extra money to give to those in need or to gift to those that needed a little something special because they were having a hard time. Now, December 31, 2010, I am changed. I won't deny that is has been challenging...these changes. Having Brady in my life is wonderful. There are no GOOD words, really, to explain how being a mommy feels. On June 10, 2010 my life was forever changed. God knew the perfect time to bring that special little guy into my life. I would soon find out that God had an even greater plan for my life than expected.

Several weeks later I was given the option to quit my job and stay home with my son. It's hard for me to explain how big of a deal that just was. I had worked at the same job for 9 years. NINE years! I started at the Oil Company when I was 20 years old, single, going to college, and living in an apartment....oh and let me just add, no grey hairs. NOW, I quit when I'm 29 years old, married, with a son and a stepson, graduated from college and living in a nice little home.....and LOTS of grey hair. But, God had the PERFECT plan for my life. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. Adjustments had to be made and still are. God is working on me, still. Thank goodness. Adjusting to not having the money to go get what I want is hard. What's that saying "money is the root of all evils"? Yeah, I hate it. I wish I didn't like having money so much. Just being honest. I think the internet plays a horrible part in my "wishing for this and that".

Ok, so I think I'm starting to lose myself here. Anyways, changes and adjustments are hard at times but God knows the perfect plans and He is changing me little by little. He is so wonderful and I could never thank Him enough for all He has done in my life, especially this year.

There are many around me who have not been as blessed as myself. They are struggling. My heart hurts for them. I want so badly to make everything better. But, it's not my job. If I were to make everything better then I would be interfering with God's plans. He is the one in control and He knows that these struggles and hard times are only allowing that person to grow and become....changed.

So to end this babbling blog post....I am going to say a prayer for all of you who read this. 2011 may be a wonderful, joyful year for you...OR it may bring hard times. But I want you to know that God is in control and He will always be there with you, in the good times and bad.

Happy New Year!

A Blessed Christmas

Well, Christmas is over and it’s time to pack the tree away. I thought I’d share some of our Christmas day with you.
The week started with a baby boy getting a pearly white tooth. You can barely see it but I placed an arrow so you could try. Poor baby. This was the making of a grouchy Christmas day.

Christmas Eve night we loaded up Logan and Brady to go see Christmas lights. Driving around to see Christmas lights has always been one of my favorite activities during the holiday season. Wes even took us to Starbucks so we could get some coffee and hot chocolate for Logan. So much fun! I can’t wait till Brady is old enough to enjoy the lights.
Christmas morning was so much fun watching the boys open their gifts. Since I am a stay at home mom, there were not as many gifts but as Logan said “It’s not about the presents…..but their a nice touch.” Ha! Gotta love him. We decided to get him one expensive gift. He is really into LEGO’s this year. He loved his gift. He wanted to go in his room right away to put it together. Of course, he had to wait till little brother opened his. Logan is at the stage where he loves to put on these goofy smiles for the camera. Lord, help me.

Here is Brady opening his gifts. He needed some help but he did rip into some of the paper.


And here he is with all his toys.

For lunch we headed over to my inlaws. That is when Brady decided to be a grumpy grump. I think it’s because of his tooth and also the lack of sleep he and I got the night before. Here is a picture we took as he was opening gifts right before he FINALLY decided to take a nap.

Haha! I can laugh about it now.
We had a great Christmas, despite the teething baby situation. I really feel so blessed this year to have him in my life. No, we may not be wealthy and can afford all the nice gifts for everyone but we have each other and we’re all healthy. That’s what matters. AND we have Jesus to thank!

I hope you all had a blessed Merry Christmas! It’s time for me to get off here and start taking the tree down.

From us to you, Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all remember the reason we have Christmas…..Jesus!

Santa, baby

I must have been a really good girl this year because Santa brought my gift early this year!!! Remember when I made a post about my Christmas Wish List? If not, here’s the post. Well….Santa brought me this on Sunday….

YES!! Seriously!!!! Wooohooo! I’m so excited. I love it. Poor little Brady is probably about blind from the flash. I love how I can put the setting on “sports” and it takes several fast pictures. It doesn’t miss anything. Last night, Wes was behind me playing peek-a-boo making Brady laugh. Brady was seriously laughing out loud. I love when he does that. We were all three cracking up. Here are 3 pictures right in a row. I’m laughing at his expressions right now. First picture, Wes was hiding behind me. 2nd picture, Wes is jumping out from behind me. 3rd picture, Brady is cracking up.

I love my camera but not NEARLY as much as this little boy.

I’m sure you can only imagine how many pictures you will be seeing from now on. Get ready for picture overload. Ha! Thank you Santa….no really….thank you honey! I love you so much.

The Stockings Were Hung

A couple of weeks ago I wrote this post. Click here if you missed it. I was talking about Christmas decorations and how I had to make a new way to hang our stockings this year since we have a new addition to our family. I got the idea from Char over at Crap I’ve Made. She made her stocking hanger using a cabinet door she got really cheap at a home improvement store. Well, I knew I didn’t have any old cabinet doors left from our kitchen remodel. (Darn it! I knew I should have kept those for something!) And I didn’t want have time to go to Home Depot or Lowes. Then it hit me. I remembered Nicky over at Momma Gets Real had turned this….

into this! It’s an advent calendar.

Well, I tried to link you to her post. For some reason blogger won't let me link the specific post. If you want to see Nicky's post. Go to her blog and find her post called Operation Christmas DIY: Take 2.

Well, I looked all over the house wondering if there was something I could refurbish. Then I remembered I had bought a wall hanging at Ross that I had never hung. So here is my transformation! I’m so excited.

BEFORE

It had red hearts on it before I took a picture. I took those off. Sanded it. Spray painted it. Added some vinyl lettering. Bought green polka dotted knobs at Hobby Lobby. Wes screwed those in for me. Here is the finished product!

AFTER

And here it is hung up on the wall with our stockings. I love it!

So thank you Char and Nicky for inspiring me. I’m so happy with the final product. What do you think?

Christmas Cards

I was looking over at OhDeeDoh and found this post. They asked if you/I liked to send out Christmas Cards. My answer was definitely yes! I love Christmas cards. Last year I sent out a card announcing my pregnancy to some of my family and friends. It was SO fun! That was my way of telling everyone at the “same” time. Here’s the card I mailed. Some people didn’t even get what I was trying to tell them at first. Hilarious! I wrote a special message on the inside telling them how thankful to God I was. I kept one for Brady’s baby book.

The previous years I sent out picture cards. My FAVORITE! I love getting picture cards. I love to look at my family and friends and see how they might have changed….or what they’re wearing. I love to look at what people are wearing. So much fun. I hope they like getting my cards as much as I enjoy getting theirs.

BUT

This year I don’t think I’ll be sending out Christmas cards. I know! SOOOO sad! I was going to have Brady’s 6 month pictures taken this weekend and was hoping to get a good picture of him to make Christmas cards. Well, we’ve both come down with a cold so the pictures are postponed. AND I didn’t want to bug the photographer friend to hurry and send me a good picture to use. It’s just too last minute. I had our his outfit all picked out too. So cute!  We He was going to wear purple and gray. Maybe it’s not too late. Maybe I can come up with something. Really, I wanted the whole family to get our picture taken for the card. This is the first year with Brady and it was going to mean a whole lot to me. Wes was not going for it. He’s such a scrooge on stuff sometimes. He didn’t like he was going to have to wear gray and purple. Purple was the killer. So macho! Anyways, I can dream about our Christmas cards I guess. Here is one I liked on Etsy.

Isn’t it cute?! I love the little birdy. This card is courtesy of SweetLifeDesigns. Click on the name and you’ll go straight to her Etsy shop.

So how do you feel about Christmas cards? Are you sending them out? Are you a procrastinator like me, this year?

Emmanuel

One of my favorite songs is this one by Francesca Battistelli. She is singing as if she were Mary and had just given birth to Jesus. Wow! Can you imagine how it would have been to Mary. I sit and look at Brady and his little hands and wonder what God has in store for him. Will he be athletic? Will he be compassionate and gentle? Will he be tall? Will he worship Jesus? All these things are great and wonderful. God knows the plans! God knows who Brady will become. For Mary it was all planned out as well. Jesus would heal. Jesus would save us from all our sins. It was such a wonderful, amazing, blessed time when I gave birth to Brady but could you imagine being Mary and giving birth to Emmanuel! She gave birth to a son who changed the world!

I Want to Make New Traditions

Now that I have Brady, I really want to start having some new traditions around the holidays. I love this time of year and having a son just makes it even more exciting. Yes, Logan is my son also but it’s different when we only have him the 1st, 3rd, and 5th weekends of the month. I would like to do things with him as well so I need to come up with some ideas for the weekends during the month of December with him. (I know I’m a little late since it’s Dec. 5th.) We need to have traditions with him as well. Maybe something special so he doesn’t feel like he’s on the back burner. I asked him last night if they have traditions at his other house. He said no. But I can’t really take his answer for all the truth….not because he’s lying, but because an 8 year old boy doesn’t always take the time to think about his answer. In fact, he may not recognize that they actually do the same thing every year at his other home and that IS a tradition. Anyways, I love traditions. Growing up, our family had a tradition of getting together with my Dad’s side of family on Christmas Eve night. Now that we’re all grown up and have our own families, that has changed.

I think the most important part of these new traditions is to incorporate Christ as much as possible. To teach our boys that Christmas is not just about all the lights, GETTING instead of giving, Santa (that’s another post), etc. but it’s about Jesus’ birth. So here are a few ideas I have for new traditions around our home. If I don’t start them this year, I will have plenty of time to get all the materials ready and the ideas made before next Christmas.

I think I mentioned last week about some of the CHRISTmas posts over at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. THIS idea she posted is by far my #1 tradition I want to start this year with my family. It was actually a guest post done by Delia. You can find her blog here.

Then Cheri (I Am Momma Hear Me Roar) came up with a Service Advent Calendar with the help of Christie (a Lemon Squeezy Home). I LOVE this also. I want an Advent Calendar in my home but I think I may try to come up with something besides the silver bucket one that Cheri did. Either way, I love the idea. I think giving to others is SO important and I think it’s great to teach this at a young age.

Some of the services listed were:

• Visit someone elderly.
• Make an ornament for grandma.
• Call an Aunt and tell her you love her.
• Leave kind notes for Daddy all over the house.
• Leave change in the vending machine for the next person.

To go along with the idea of a Service Advent Calendar, I thought what Christie mentioned over at her blog (a Lemon Squeezy Home) about a book called The Last Straw. (Found here at Amazon.) was also sweet. I would like to get a book or two, if not this one, to read with our boys. I need to go to the book store to actually read and select what is best for our family but here are a few I’ve been looking at via Amazon.

Are there any children’s books about Jesus’ birth that you enjoy?

To go along with the above ideas, I think it would be nice to pick one weekend out of the month to go get some coffee (hot chocolate for Logan) and look at Christmas lights. I would also like to find a kid friendly craft to do with Logan (and Brady when he’s older) to make for the grandparents. I think it would be fun for the boys and I to work on these crafts together and then hand deliver them. I know the grandparents would love that!

So those are a few ideas I have as far as new traditions go. I would love to hear some of your traditions! Maybe I’ll get some new ideas.

My Christmas Wish List…Santa are you looking?

I'm going to look a bit selfish for a moment. I realize these are materialistic things and I'm very grateful for everything I have already. But…a girl can dream, can’t she? These are some of the things I’d LOVE to get from Santa. Big and small. Also, these are in no particular order.

I’m really loving Lisa Leonard’s necklaces. I think if I got ANY necklace, I’d be a happy girl. But these are a couple of my favorites. I’d love to see my guys’ names on there. Wes, Brady, & Logan.

Next, if you haven’t ever heard of The Pioneer Woman then you MUST go check this woman out. She’s an amazing cook, wife, mother, rancher, photographer, etc. Well, she has written a book. I can’t wait for it to come out because I’d love to finally read this book she started writing on her blog. I already have her cookbook. I haven’t cooked much from it but what I have….the food is amazing.

Since having Brady I feel like I “need” a better camera. I have a couple of friends who are photographers; but I’m not going to be able to afford pictures of Brady as much as I would like. I think it would be a great investment. Don’t you agree?!

I really love jewelry. Before Brady came along I was really getting into Silpada jewelry. It is wonderful quality jewelry. I love it all and I’d be happy with anything. I couldn’t get a picture from their site here….but I copied this picture from a seller on ebay. I love this ring. I love it all. Did I say that already? In fact, I love it so much I would love to be a representative but I don’t know that many people who would allow me to host parties in their home.

For about 10 years I have had a CHI flat iron and have used it almost every day. Seriously. I loved it. Well, just last week it died. I relied on that thing so much. Before the CHI, I had tried a couple of cheaper versions and they just didn’t do the job. So I’m in desperate need of a new flat iron. My hairstylist has recommended another brand. I trust her. So I’m going to request Santa bring me this one by HairArt. This is probably on the top of my list because I NEED it so bad. I know, I know. The word “need” is so overrated. It’s not necessarily something I like having to put on my wish list….but again, I feel I need it. Just in case Santa is looking, I would like the 1” flat iron. Thank you. Oh, and if you need help with it, just contact Kara at Tangles. Thanks again!

A new watch would be nice. I’m behind the times but white watches are really popular now as well. Everywhere I look I see a wrist with a white watch. I would like one with a little bling around it. I love bling. I think this watch from Dillards is pretty.

I’d like to have this DVD to get me caught up with this series. I LOVE this series. It reminds me of Little House on the Prairie. Just good, wholesome television. I really wish they made more shows/movies like this today.

Finally, I’m wishing for lots of wonderful memories to be made with my little family. I want us to make new traditions and new memories together. I wish for a healthy, happy Christmas with the ones I love. I can’t think of any better gift than that. If I don’t get ANY of the materialistic gifts above, I’ll still be the happy, grateful woman I am today. If all I get for Christmas is time, love, hugs, or kisses with my family and friends then I will be so blessed! I’ve already gotten the BEST gift God or anyone could have given me this year. And that’s this little guy….

Christmas Décor Ideas

It's December 1st and it's TIME to get Christmas up in my home. I thought I was running behind but then I got to thinking that it was the same time last year that I put the tree up. Wes doesn't like me to get too ahead of myself on putting the tree up. He hates that people forget about Thanksgiving and goes straight to Christmas. He wants to enjoy Thanksgiving. I think he's so right. Well, Thanksgiving is over and now it's time for Christmas.

I'm SO enjoying some of my fellow bloggers posts about Christmas and their ideas about sprucing up their home. But my favorite blog lately has been Cheri over at I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. Cheri has been doing these WONDERFUL posts about ways to incorporate Christ in Christmas. She has 2 small boys and wanted to teach them it's not ALL about the presents. I have been wanting to begin some new traditions this year, now that Brady has come along. I thank God that he has been showing me some wonderful ideas thru Cheri and her guest bloggers. So head on over there and check out some fabulous ways to show what CHRISTmas is all about.

Next, are Christmas wreaths. Oh my goodness. There are some great wreaths out there that can be made for a fraction of the cost and look fabulous! For instance, this one was made by one of my top favorite bloggers, Lindsey, over at The Pleated Poppy. I’m hoping to steal her idea and make one of these as well. Maybe not in the same colors…but very similar. Yarn wreaths are VERY popular this year.

I’m going to have to work on a new project to hang our stockings. I don’t like to hang our stockings on the mantle because if/when we use the fireplace they get in the way. So a couple of years ago I bought wooden letters and made these. Click here to see post.

But now that we have a new addition to our family, (YAY! Praise God!) I have to do something new. So thanks to Char, from Crap I’ve Made, I’m going to make this. I’m SO excited. I can’t wait to find the time to work on it. I better hurry! Christmas will be here before I know it! Instead of using an old cabinet door, I’m going to use a little something I found around the house that is not being used. I can’t wait to show you!

These are just a few things I want to do around my house. Hopefully, I will get some time to get it accomplished. Now, will you please say a prayer that I can talk Wes into climbing into the attic to grab our tree? I’m thinking it’s going to take a lot of prayers and some sweet talking. Wish me luck! What are some of your ideas for decorating for Christmas? Is your tree and décor up already?

Stay tuned, because there are more Christmas themed post(s) coming.

I hope you’re all having a blessed day!

P.S. I didn't participate in WIWW this week because of Thanksgiving.