It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I seriously can't believe that Christmas is but one week away. I am so not ready! It seems like once Halloween hit, time just went into warp speed. Despite all that needs to be done this week, I am so very excited to see my kiddos on Christmas morning. Sophie is at a great age where she finally "gets it". She knows what's going on and she can't wait for Christmas. William will be so excited to have boxes and wrapping paper to play with (and eat). :-) Sophie told Santa that William wants a box of tags for Christmas. It's been our running joke because no matter what he's playing with, he always finds the tag on it and plays with that instead of the toy. We'll see what Santa comes up with I guess. :)

We went to see Santa at a bank in Franklin where Matt's friends work. The progression of pics. cracks me up. this is the first one.....and william is pretty ok with it

until he turns around to see who's holding him

and then he starts to lose it. :-) after that, he was done with santa

this is one of MANY outtakes from our christmas card photo. this one would have been great had Sophie not been eating her bottom lip. oh, and do you like her necklace? I finally just gave up and put a pretty awful pic. on our cards. oh well. there's always next year I guess.

Oh my. I could just eat him UP!

I just had to post this because it cracks me up!

our stockings, minus William's. mine was handmade by my great-grandmother. I have used that stocking every year of my life!  my mom carried on the tradition and made Matt and Sophie's, and I am eagerly awaiting William's in the mail. This is a tradition I plan to carry on for my grandchildren.



our gigantic tree.



my sweet little snow angel. she really loved the snow this year. too bad we couldn't stay out for more than a few minutes. It was soooo cold!

 I hope everyone has a wonderful, joy-filled Christmas!!!

Mission Accomplished

Before William was born, Matt and I bought an old (antique?) sideboard at an antique store to use in William's room as a changing table/dresser combo. It needed a bit of TLC and a fresh coat of paint, but it was beautiful. And for the price we paid, it was a steal. Well, life tends to happen and before I knew it almost a year had passed and I still hadn't gotten around to painting it. I'm really glad I waited though because after some rearranging, I decided to paint it black, distress it, and put it in the dining room instead.



and here she is, ready to be painted

With absolutely no knowledge of how to paint or distress a piece of furniture, I turned to my oh-so-talented friend Lyla who just happens to be an interior decorator. Lyla armed me with all the info. I needed and off I went. After two weekends of work, I'm finally finished and I'm thrilled with the result. It's certainly not professional-quality but I think I did alright for a novice. I enjoyed it so much I'm already thinking of the next project. :-)

And for the end result.....



my photography skills leave much to be desired, but I tried my best to take a closeup of these fabulous knobs I found at Anthropologie love, love, LOVE them!

Lyla, thanks again for your help. You're way better than Google. :-) Can't wait to put this to use on Thanksgiving!!

Change

I'm thinking I need a change. Something drastic. I'm tired of looking like a tired housewife, darnit! So. What should it be? I'm thinking hair color. Anyone remember when I went super short and red? I don't think I really want to chop it all off again but I do want to change the color. Comments? Suggestions? I want to hear from all three of you who read this blog, so leave your comment! Maybe I'll just let y'all decide. :-)

okay, so you can't really tell it's red in this pic. but it was! when I left to get my hair done, it was shoulder length and blonde. and this is what it looked like when I came home. Matt thought it was a wig. :-)

Wild Wonderful West Virginia

Our very first trip as a family of four was to West Virginia at the beginning of October to celebrate Matt's grandma's 90th birthday. Sometime last year, we reserved two cabins at a beautiful state park so that we could make a vacation out of it with all the family. We shared a cabin with matt's sister Lisa and her family, and his brother David and his wife Trudy. I must say, I believe the kids had the most fun of all. Sophie LOVES her cousins so much and she was so excited for the trip.

We set out on a Sunday morning for the 8 hour drive. Sophie got to ride with her Uncle Brent, Aunt Lisa and cousins the WHOLE way and Matt, William and I enjoyed some much needed quiet time in our van. William did great the entire way and Matt and I got to have 8 hours of uninterrupted conversation which I don't belive has happened in almost 4 years! :-)

The plan was to spend Sunday through Friday there but due to both children basically keeping us up 24/7, we decided to cut the trip a bit short and ended up leaving for home on Wednesday. As much as I loved being there with all the family, I literally wanted to kiss our driveway when we finally arrived home. We definitely learned that a week long vacation is probably not going to happen again until our children are a bit older. :-)

We were so glad to be able to celebrate great gram's 90th birthday with her. I know it meant a lot to her to have all of her great grandchildren together at the same time.


group shot



grandma, aunt Wilda and all the kids

we had her birthday dinner at the state park's lodge. not sure how she felt about the sign. :-)

the cake and tablecloth that everyone signed along with a tracing of their hands. :-)

on our way out of town we went to visit Matt's dad. He took all the kids for a ride on his ATV which they thought was pretty cool. :-)

William and granddaddy Casto

A Vent

Whew. I don't know what's wrong with me lately, but I have been having a seriously hard time with this parenting business. I keep telling myself that it will get better, and that if God didn't believe that we could handle the world's most strong-willed, defiant, flatout stubborn child, he would not have blessed us with her dear little soul. But seriously? I fall short each and every day of what I'd like to be as a mother and it is wearing me down, people! Don't get me wrong, I feel incredibly blessed to be able to be at home with my children (because if anyone is going to mess them up, it will be me goshdarnit!) and I do realize that there are  people in this world with MUCH bigger problems than I could even think of having. I just hate feeling sometimes like I am failing at the most important job anyone could ever give me. I don't want to be perfect. I don't need to be supermom. Just better. That's all. Just better. Oh, and more sane. That would be good too. :-)

New Trick

I have sooo much I need to post on right now, but very little time to do it. So for now, here's a little clip of William's latest trick. Never mind the horrendous singing and jumpy camera....just focus on the adorable little chunk and what he's learned to do. :-)

He did it

He finally slept through the night. Only took him nearly 7 months, but last night William slept from 6:30pm until 6:30am without a PEEP. Seriously. I couldn't even hear the occasional sucking of his paci over the monitor. So, even though he had a great night's sleep I did not! I got up twice to check on him and once to pump because I seriously thought I was going to burst. I'm pretty sure this is just a completely random occurrence, but definitely worth noting in the baby book. :-)

Oh, the good ol' days

Matt and I celebrated six years of marriage the end of August. I cannot believe it's already been that long. It has gone by so incredibly fast. In those few years, we have had two babies, sold a house, bought another and have seen several jobs come and go. Six years ago I was blessed with a wonderful husband and a brand new life far from the home I had known for most of my life. It has been a crazy ride to be sure, but I wouldn't change a thing. I like to think we've done pretty well for two people who were crazy enough to marry a person they met on the internet. :-) Matt, I love you and look forward to many, many years ahead!

so hilarious. this is us on our first anniversary. nice hair, huh? nope, it's not a perm...that's all me. :-) why did no one ever tell me how bad it looked?!!

and this is where we went. the biltmore. Soooo beautiful! before we had sophie we celebrated our anniversaries with a trip somewhere and a nice B&B. nowadays we're lucky to get a dinner out without kids!

Months five and six

Yes, I'm a little behind on posting, but having two kiddos and trying to keep some kind of order and cleanliness in my home has definitely been keeping me busy lately! William is changing and growing so fast, I can hardly keep up! The first year is so full of milestones it just all goes by so quickly. Here are some of the things our sweet boy accomplished in his fifth month:

2. by the end of his fifth month, sitting up without any support.
3. started eating rice cereal. this took several attempts before he actually decided he liked it, but now he's very enthusiastic while being fed. :-)
4. moved from the infant carseat to the big boy carseat.....I just couldn't haul that thing anymore!
5. had to start wearing size FOUR diapers. I am still in mourning about this. He is way too young to be wearing that size!

And for month six. William has really found his voice these past few weeks. He is practicing all kinds of consanant/vowel combos and loves to babble all the time. He lets us know when he's not happy, like when he's being dressed or undressed. This is definitely not his favorite and he will screetch (I call it his teradactyl cry) at the top of his lungs. It's pretty funny, but he doesn't think so! Here are a few milestones for this month so far:

1. started eating baby food. likes it all. enough said. :-)
2. now taking baths in the big tub, and has even enjoyed one with big sister. I think she enjoyed it more than he did, though.
3. changed his favorite sleeping position from his side to his belly. still not sleeping through the night, but he will usually give me at least one five hour stretch.
4. LOVES big sister and tolerates all kinds of indignities by her hand, as long as she is giving him attention.

and last but not least, his stats: weight is a whopping 21 lbs. 2 oz. (92 percentile) height is 26 1/4 (25 percentile) and head circumfrence is 44 1/2 cm (60 percentile). I believe he is at serious risk of his weight number surpassing his height number very soon! :-)



and this would be one of the indignities as mentioned above :-)



I just think this is the sweetest picture



oh yes, and he is standing up holding on to things. he is crazy early doing this and I can't believe those short stumpy legs can support that load!!


  William, you are the sweetest, happiest, funniest, most adorable little chunk of love! We love you sooooooo much!!!

Rollin' big boy style

Now that William is sitting up really well, I decided it was time to take him out of his infant carseat and move him to the big one. He has gotten so heavy that I just couldn't haul him around in that carrier anymore. I was literally pulling muscles hefting him around and couldn't wait to get him out of that thing! Today was our first trip to the grocery store without the carrier, and as you can see he thought it was a really great thing. :-)

"hey everybody, look at me! I'm a big boy!"

I could not get him to look at me. he was way too busy checking everything out

and here's another new development. I just started letting sophie push her own cart. she loves it....me not so much. we had to stop in an isle for about 10 min. today while she talked to a little girl who also had her own cart AND her own barbie doll (can you see hers tucked under her arm?) needless to say, grocery shopping now takes a loooooong time.

Wilson County Fair - Part 2

After the wild (and rushed) trip to the fair on Thursday, we decided to take Sophie back on Saturday when we could get there earlier and spend more time. We ended up inviting our friend Dawn along since her husband was working that night, and it turned out to be such an awesome time! Not only did we get to catch up with her but it was like having a nanny along to watch William while Matt and I rode rides with Sophie (thanks, Dawn!). We all had a blast, and Dawn's daughter Briana was even able to meet up with us for a few hours which Sophie loved. We didn't even really do anything other than hang out in kiddie land (I don't think we could have torn Sophie away from the rides if we wanted to anyway!) but the time just flew. We ended up being there for over six hours! We definitely have a little daredevil on our hands....the girl loved all the rides, including the ones that made Matt and I squeamish!

being silly - terrible quality on the pic but we took them all with our phones!

look at that smile. she had it plastered on her face the whole night. Matt and I are pretty sure we've never seen her have as much fun as she did that night!

not sure what I'm saying here but would you look at her expression? so sweet

okay. I realize this was a "kiddie" ride but this one freaked me out a bit. It went really high and I was struggling to keep my cool about halfway through!

sophie with her entourage. matt was so good about taking her around everywhere and sweet briana rode whatever sophie wanted to ride even if they freaked her out a bit, too. :-)

sweet boy. he was SO tired but would not go to sleep for fear of missing something

wanna take a guess on what this is? folks, it's a fried oreo. I know, sounds gross but much to my suprise it was quite tasty! Dawn described it perfectly when she said it tasted like a soft oreo wrapped in a funnel cake. what's NOT to love?!!

Wilson County Fair - Part 1

We went to the fair last Thursday night, which we had been planning all week. The only variation from our plan is that we took 3 extra kids with us at the last minute. If you've never taken 5 kids to the fair, you just haven't lived! ha! It was crazy and a bit stressful (keeping up with that many in such a crowded place is not so easy) but the kids had a blast being together riding rides and just being silly. Sophie adores her cousins and it was fun just watching her have fun with them. Here are a few pics. from our wild and crazy night:

the whole crew minus william, who at this point finally passed out cold in his stroller

and here he is. he was a trooper, and I think he really enjoyed watching all the action!

and here they are on the frog hopper BEFORE sophie started screaming and they stopped the ride to let her off :-)

all four of them crammed on this one. I love the look on Maggie's face!

the stickers read, "I milked a cow at the county fair" anyone see the irony in her choice of placement here?

Sweetness

William has discovered that sleeping on his belly is pretty comfy. The only problem is that once he's rolled onto his belly, he has trouble getting off of it! This is where he finished his afternoon nap yesterday after I heard him fussing and found him in a puddle of spitup in his crib. He was OUT!

I just loved this pic. sophie has finally started to play nice with william and they are so sweet together. He definitely thinks big sis is the coolest person he knows!

Just for fun

I pulled up a pic. of Sophie at exactly 5 months to compare to William at 5 months. What do you think? Can you see the resemblance?? Matt swears they look exactly the same but I can definitely see differences. I do know one thing though....I love chunky babies! :-) 

Thankful

Tonight I am filled with thankfulness. I am thankful that my two precious children are sleeping peacefully in their beds. I am thankful for my sweet husband, who always does what's best for our family. I am thankful for the life that I have and all of my loved ones. But most of all, I am thankful for my God. I truly believe that he saved us from certain tragedy this afternoon during a very bad rainstorm while driving on the interstate. All I could think of during our TWO near collisions were our babies in the back seat, and all I could do was pray out loud for Him to protect us. And he did. God is so good and I am thankful.

I guess I'd better go ahead and give Matt some props for his quick reaction time and expert driving. Babe, you'll probably never hear me say that again so soak it up. But we both know who was really in control, don't we? :-)

Four months!!

William, I can't believe you are just days away from turning 5 months old. You get sweeter and more fun each and every day, and I am so thankful that God gave us such a sweet, precious boy to be a part of our family. Your fourth month has been quite a busy one! Here are just some of the new things you've added to your bag of tricks this month:
1. you can roll over both ways and like to practice it anytime you are laying down
2. you grab at EVERYTHING and anything you get your hands on goes straight to your mouth
3. your sister makes you laugh just by being around you and you adore her
4. you can sit up pretty well, but still lean forward for support

5. the last time we were at the dr. you weighed 17 lbs. 11 oz with an average weight gain of almost an ounce a day. you certainly don't like to miss a meal!

6. you are wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers
7. you still aren't sleeping through the night, but you have learned to put yourself to sleep and don't really even let me rock you when you're tired (boo!)
8. you are a total momma's boy and I love it. :-)

We tried cereal last week and again this week and you definitely do not like it. I am posting pictures as proof of that. I think we'll probably hold off on that until you are six months anyway because you certainly don't need any extra calories! We love you, sweet boy and we can't wait to see what you do next.