St. Patty's Day

It was just 2 years ago on this day that I was hoping for my first baby girl to arrive.  Today I sit here dreaming of when my next baby girl arrives, although I don't want her to come until April.  We are so excited for her to join our family!

One of my favorite things about having a child is that we get to celebrate holidays together!  I didn't go all out with the leprechaun messing up our house or anything, but we did wear green.

She is so hard to take pictures of these days!  I have to bribe her with marshmallows just to have her sit still for 2 minutes.  She is such a little rascal, but I think she is a cute one at least! 

I think she is starting to look so much like Travis!  Not so much in his baby pictures, but like him now!  They have the same mouth and facial expressions! This is totally a Travis smile!

 I have been hard on her lately about whining and not sharing, but she really is a good, happy baby!  I realize it is part of the growing and learning process and I have to teach her how to deal with these emotions.  Luckily she is happy-go-lucky the majority of the time and loves life! She has spoiled me with how good she really is.  She is going to be such a great big sister!

Sledding

This winter has been really cold!  We have had way too many snow/calamity days!  It hasn't snowed much and honestly it has been too cold for me to want Adelyn to be out in it for too long anyways.  She begs to go out every day!  Last week we finally got a decent amount of snow and it was warm enough to go out so we took advantage!

We drove down the road a little bit to find a good sledding hill.  Adelyn was in heaven!  She loved every minute of it and did not want to go home!  It was her first time really sledding so I had to get some pictures!

The path that we followed leads down into a tunnel and comes out on the other side of the road.  We were surprised to see that it was frozen over!  We are guessing that it was about 3-4 feet deep.  We couldn't even stand.  Adelyn loved skating back and forth!  It was a great workout for my legs/bum!

Travis went up first to check things out and make a path.

 Her first ride down!  I love how she is covering her eyes!

 I even went down a few times!

 Throwing snowballs! 

We came home and tried to make a snowman, but the snow didn't pack very well so we didn't get one done.  I am hoping that Spring is here and we will have to wait and make a snowman at the end of the year! We had a blast! 

Travis and Projects

I realize last post seemed whiny so I just want to say how grateful and excited I am to be pregnant!  I really am feeling great these days.  I am just ready to meet this little lady!  

I haven't given an update on Travis lately.  That is because I mostly don't see him.  Work and church are keeping him really busy!  He is still working in Columbus so he has the hour+ commute each way that is taking up lots of time.  He loves working at the office there and doesn't mind the drive.  He just wishes he could see Adelyn more.

He is still working in the young men's program at church and is the Venturing crew captain for scouts.  They are often doing service projects and activities.  They haven't been on many campouts lately with all the snow though.  He has also been coaching the basketball team.  It has been a good experience for him to learn patience.  :)  They just had the tournament games on Saturday and his team came out the champions!  I am glad to get him back on Thursday nights and Saturdays!

When he is home, I have him busy working on projects!  Something I did not know about him when we got married is how good he is at building things.  I am taking advantage of his talents and giving him lots of projects to do.  He loves doing them, but can be somewhat of a perfectionist.  His lack of time and perfectionism means that he can't keep up with my list!  Here are just a couple of things he has done around the house!  I love them all!

This is the "dining room."   Since we never sit down formally, we have decided to make it into a sitting/music room.  Travis just finished painting the walls a taupe color and put up the wall paneling.  I love the way it turned out!  Now we just need to get some furniture to go in there!  It is pretty empty right now with the piano being the only piece of furniture. 

 

This is one of my favorite projects he has done!  We needed a kitchen table and I found one that I loved, but it was waaaaayyy out of our price range.  Travis mentioned he could build one.  I found two different sets of plans on anawhite.com that I liked.  He combined the top of one table and the bottom of another and adjusted the size to fit our wants.  I LOVE it!  It can easily fit 10 people! He also built the bench.  At some point I want to get tufted chairs instead of just using these hand-me-down chairs.  

Here is the other wall project he did for the playroom.  The great thing is that I see a vision and he follows through with it!  I usually tend to stick with neutral colors.  I figured that our kids will only be little once so this was the perfect opportunity to try something crazy.  It is bright and fun and totally different! You can't tell, but that is white trim outlining each box.  He is way more patient than me with little details like that and getting them perfectly lined up. 

 Next up on our list is the baby's room.  We want to do bead board with a chair rail.  I need to hurry up and get crib bedding so that we can decide on colors!  I think we are going to try using a textured wall paper instead of paneled wood for the beadboard.  I have found lots of tutorials and it looks pretty similar at a fraction of the cost.  I will post updates when it is done!

32 Weeks

I have only done updates on Adelyn lately so I thought I should give an update on myself. 

I am in the homestretch now!  Less than 8 weeks to go until baby!!  And I am more than ready!  This pregnancy has been so different than the first.  I don't know if it is because I am older or because my body already knows the drill or because I am chasing around a toddler, but it has been so much harder. 

I feel like with Adelyn I had a pretty typical experience.  Morning sickness the first trimester, break the second trimester and huge/sleepy the third trimester. 

This baby I feel like I have not been able to catch a break.  I am experiencing symptoms that I never did the first time.  Weight loss, extreme morning sickness, heartburn, soreness, heavy belly, early contractions, insomnia, back pain, leg cramps, etc.  I feel a lot bigger this time around as well. I am more motivated than ever to get my pre-pregnancy body back and feel pretty again.  

I am so ready to have this baby, but I feel so unprepared at the same time.  We don't have a name, the nursery is no where close to set up, I haven't gathered all the baby supplies, I haven't been reading anything about what to expect or schedules.  Travis said it will all come back and not to worry.  I do have my hospital bag packed for the most part.  I had pretty consistent contractions (every 8-10 minutes) last week that lasted 3 hours so I packed my bag the next day.

Here is a very exclusive picture of us from Sunday.  I hate pictures when I am pregnant and certainly don't like sharing them.  

My Little Munchkin

I know I say this at every stage, but the stage Adelyn is in right now is my favorite!  She is full of personality! I love watching her develop her own opinions and preferences...most of the time!  She will throw a fit every now and then when she doesn't get her way. 

Adelyn loves art!  This makes me so happy!  I hope I can continue to pass on my love for art to her.  As she gets older, I am excited to do more crafts with her!  Right now it is mostly just drawing/coloring.  The other day I let her paint for the first time and she didn't want to stop.  This picture cracks me up because she looks so dainty.  Sorry it is blurry!

 Another one of her favorite things to do is eat!  She is pretty good about trying things but is becoming a little bit picker as she is growing up.  Some days she will love something and then the next day she will refuse it.  She will never turn down fruit or sugar though!  Her favorite foods are blueberries, bananas, cheese and chocolate! 

Just a couple random things. Adelyn calls sweets (cupcakes, cookies, brownies, etc) yummies.  It is pretty adorable.  If she sees me eating something she wants, she will come up and say "bite" and open her mouth as wide as she can.  It makes me laugh every time and I can't resist sharing.

She has also had an increasing interest in helping me cook.  I am trying to let go of my obsessive need to be neat and let her try new things.  She loves to "stir" the ingredients together even though a good portion ends up on the counter.  We made energy balls the other day and I would say that she is a fan of peanut butter!  At one point she was licking the measuring cup, hence the pb on her forehead!

 She was showing me that it was all gone!

 This is another perfect depiction of her!  She doesn't care too much for toys unless a friend is over.  She would much rather do whatever we are doing!  Travis was working on a project and she kept going over to help.  It is pretty funny watching her mimic the things we do.

 When she does play on her own, this is what it looks like.  She LOVES purses!  She will get anything that resembles a purse and put it on her arm.  She has gotten to the point that when I tell her it is time to go somewhere she will put on a necklace, grab a purse and her shoes and stand by the garage door. 

While she is girly in some ways, she is spunky in others.  She loves to be outside and begs to go out every day!  Even when it is below freezing!  She still loves climbing, but she doesn't climb on random things as much as she used to.  She sticks to ladders and chairs now. She also loves to dance!  If you turn on music her body immediately starts to move.  She has learned some pretty sweet moves!  She will even sing along to "Shake it Off"  by Taylor Swift and "Roar" by Katy Perry. 

Sometimes I look at her and I feel like I am looking at my shadow!  It is scary how much kids learn from you!  Adelyn has picked up my cleanliness.  I hope to keep it going for as long as possible!  If she spills her food on the counter or gets something on her hand she has to get it cleaned up before she will continue eating.  The other day I was sweeping and she came running through the kitchen.  She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the pile and said "oh no!"  I had to sweep it up before she would leave.  She is good about cleaning up her toys too!  I just hope this lasts a while! 

I can't believe that she will be 2 in just a couple months!  I am so excited for her to be a big sister!  She has been clingy to me lately.  My theory is that she knows that something is going to happen.  I talk to her about the baby but I am not sure if she understands.  She will kiss my tummy and rub it because I tell her the baby is in there, but I just don't know how much she gets.  For now I will just enjoy all the extra cuddle time she is giving me!

Memories of Papaw

One week ago I got a phone call letting me know that my Grandfather passed away.  I honestly took it a lot harder than I expected to.  Papaw has had lots of health problems and has really gone downhill over the past year.  I had the opportunity to see him in July and he had a really great week!  He had more strength and better memory while we were there.  As I was saying bye, I remember tearing up in the car as we drove away because I felt like I was saying bye for the last time.  We all have been preparing ourselves, but nothing can really prepare you for losing someone you love.

Travis encouraged me to go down to Papaw's funeral even though he would not be able to come.  I am so glad I went.  I think anytime you lose someone, you think of what else you could have/should have done.  I was able to feel a peace come over me during the funeral service.

All of the sons and all but a few of the grandchildren were able to go to North Carolina for the funeral.  The grandchildren went to the church early to have a private viewing of Papaw.  Adelyn was with me and we got a moment alone with Papaw.  He looked really good and I know that he is out of his pain.  I was nervous about bringing Adelyn because I wasn't sure what she would do.  I took her up to the casket and told her it was Papaw and that he was with Heavenly Father now.  I truly believe that children are more sensitive to the spirit and they understand more than they can express.  I feel like she understood what was going on.  At one point, without prompting, she looked at Papaw and sweetly waved and said, "bye bye, I love you."  I think she knew that this was a spiritual, somber time.

During the funeral service at the church, one of Papaw's friends spoke.  He encouraged all of the grandchildren to write down a memory of Papaw.  I think this is a great way of healing and remembering him so this post is more for me than anyone else.

As a child, Granny and Papaw were always our young, strong grandparents.  My mom's parents were a lot older.  I remember Papaw getting out and doing things with the kids.  One of the things I think of when I think of Papaw was his love of gardening.  When we were younger, he had some land where he grew corn and beans (I think).  He also had a garden in the back yard that had tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and I am sure other things.  Papaw would drive us out to his land to pick some of his crops.  Then he, Granny and the kids would shell peas and shuck the corn out on their front porch. 

Other random things I remember from my childhood. 

Papaw loved to work on things.  He had a shop with every tool imaginable!  I remember going in the shop with him, but don't remember any specific projects.  I know he and Granny used to make a lot of wood and glass crafts.

At church, Papaw was the candy man!  He was that grandpa that gave candy to all the kids if they came and shook his hand!

Papaw was a very patriotic man!  He served in the Vietnam war.  I always loved hearing his prayers and how he included the service men and their families, the country and our leaders. 

Papaw loves college football and his family!  My cousin played for South Carolina and I don't think he would have been more proud.

I don't know who organized it, but I remember having an Easter egg hunt at his house.  We were always outside.

The most recent memory I have is of him and Adelyn.  Papaw and Adelyn had an instant connection.  When we went to visit him, Adelyn went right over and gave him a hug.  He used to hang it over Granny's head that Adelyn chose to come to him over her.  He and Granny request updated pictures and I can't tell you how many times I heard that he showed those pictures to everyone that came over to their house or he would tell granny to take the pictures when she would go out somewhere.  He is proud of his family and you can tell that they are the most important thing to them.

 I am glad that I had this last week to remember such a great man.  I learned more about him at the funeral and in the proceeding week as family reflected his life.  I am grateful that I had a good relationship with him and that I know about the plan of salvation and that we will be together again someday. 

I am also grateful for the time that I got to spend with my family.  I really do have the best family in the world.  I felt closer to them as I learned more about Papaw and as we brought each other support.  My dad has a way of knowing what we need to hear. 

All the grandson's carrying Papaw in.

Stephen, Ryan, Nathan, Stephen, Ben and Dusty.

 After they folded the flag and presented it to Granny, they played taps.  It was neat seeing the military service! I was especially impressed with these young men as they stood out in the cold and rain.  As we drove up, they were standing at attention to show their respect for Papaw.  It really touched me!

 Some of the flowers and the military vault that Papaw would be buried in. 

 

One other thing that I want to jot down so I don't forget.  Mom and dad took Adelyn up one last time to say bye.  Dad told Adelyn to say bye, she looked up past the casket pointed and said "he's there."  It may be just coincidence, but I really do believe that she could see Papaw's spirit there at the cemetery with us. 

  Granny and Adelyn the night before we left.  I am so glad that I brought her.  She helped ease the pain of losing Papaw and gave us all something to smile about.  It is amazing how little kids can help so much in the healing process.  She would go give everyone hugs, say I love you and get them to come dance with her.  She was a great distraction for me because it is during the quiet times that I have to think that are the hardest.  She was such a blessing to have with me!

Adelyn Jane phone photos

I don't carry my camera with me all the time. Even though they aren't the best quality, I like having some of the more candid, everyday events!

Sometimes I watch her and think, "what have I done?" There are times that I feel like I am watching the baby version of me. Kids really do mimic what they see their parents do!

Adelyn loves anything that has sugar in it!  Frosting, chocolate, cookies, marshmallows, anything really!

 

As rough and tumble as she can be, she is also a girly girl! Seriously, she went and got these necklaces and put them on all by herself and asked for a bow!  When she puts jewelry on she says, "pretty." She will sometimes pat my cheeks and say "pretty!" 

 

She has the greatest facial expressions!  She raises her eyebrows, acts surprised, makes a bashful/shy face, gives a flirty face, raises her shoulders and smiles when she thinks she is getting into trouble and many more!

 

She loves to play make believe lately!  I LOVE that she will go in her playroom and play on her own!  She shuts the door so I won't come in and you can hear her jabbering away! It is a beautiful thing!

 

She loves to clean!  She sweeps and wipes down everything in sight.  The other day she finished eating and noticed she got some yogurt on the counter.  She pointed to is and said, "aw, man!  Ewww!"  I gave her a wipe and she was happy! Here she is cleaning the tub at my parent's house!

 

She loves to write!  Markers and pens are her favorite!  She got this cute clipboard with her initial on it from the kindergarten teachers at my school!  I love art and hope to pass it on to her! 

 

This picture cracks me up!  She is observing the other kids playing.  I am surprised that she isn't in the middle of it! She is always posed though!

 

She is totally girly!  She loves her baby, purses, jewelry and pretending to talk on the phone! 

 

We can't go anywhere without her blankie, pacifier and cup!  She got the blanket from one of my kindergarten students when she was born!  I have to sneak it from her to wash it.  One day she caught me and literally cried in the laundry room for 30 minutes pointing to it and saying blankie as it tumbled in the dryer.  It was pretty pathetic! 

 

We took a go at potty training.  She wanted to sit on the toilet every time I went so I thought I would let her try.  She did pretty good for a couple days and then all of the sudden lost interest. We are not forcing her because she is still young, but it was a good experience for her to realize how her body works!  I just love her chunky thighs and cute bum! 

 This little girl has so much spunk and personality!  She is very social and goes and says hi to all her friends as soon as we get to church every week!  She has been super cuddly lately and gives hugs to everyone she sees!  She loves to dance and has learned some new moves.  She raises the roof, spins in circles and puts her hands on her bum and shakes it!  She also loves singing and can sing ring around the rosie, let it go and old mcdonald. 

 She has really developed in communication!  She can repeat most words but still has troubles combining words together on her own.  Some of her favorite words are help or need help, come on, I love you, see you later,  stuck and eat.  I hear each of those a thousand times a day! When she really wants to tell me something, she furrows her eyebrows, shakes her head and jabbers.  It is hard for me not to laugh.  She is trying to hard.  

Every evening as soon as she hears the garage doors she runs and hides and waits for Travis to come find her!  It is their special little game and she gets so excited!  Our special thing is cuddling!  She cuddles with me all the time.  Maybe its because I make a good pillow right now! She makes us so happy!