How to keep a husband out of trouble...

Step 1:  Have him powerwash the WHOLE house.

Oops... there is no step 2.  ;)  Just step 1.... Poor Jonathan!

For Granted.

There are just certain things in life that I know that I take for granted.  Honestly, the ones I realize that I just assume will always be there are the physical things in life... a roof over my head, food on the table, good cars to drive, etc.  I could go on forever.  I know that they are there but I often forget how lucky I am to have them until I hear of others not being nearly as fortunate as myself.  But these things are all just physical - they may be there today and be gone tomorrow and you know what?  Life will still go on.  If all of these were to just disappear, what I really want to be able to dwell on and remember are the wonderful moments in life that make my life so blessed by God.  God has blessed me with such a wonderful family - a very loving and faithful husband and a wonderfully beautiful energetic little girl (and in a couple of months a handsome little boy!)  May I never forget the things in life that are so much more important than physical comforts!

I love the feeling I get when I tell my daughter "I love you." and she in return says "I love you." back to me.  But what really melts my heart is when she runs up to me and out of no where says, "I love you, Mom!"  May I never forget the wonderfulness of a love from a daughter to a mother.  I am so blessed.

I don't ever want to forget the memory of my daughter getting out her fake nail polish and demanding I hold my feet just so, so that she can "paint" them and make them "pretty." 

I love it when my daughter attempts to help me fold clothes and makes sure she holds the article of clothing underneath her chin, just like Momma. 

I love seeing Emma helping her dad empty out the dishwasher... putting together the cups and plates, and being such a good little helper. 

I love hearing my daughter's exclamations of "I did it!  I did it!" when she is so proud of something she did.  May she always have such pride in her work and life!

I love still getting the butterfly feeling in my stomach when my husband comes home from being away, calling me, or texting me.  I sure do love that man!

I love when my husband and I act like kids and the looks we get from Emma.  I think she often thinks we're just so goofy!

I love looking at our family picture of Jonathan, Emma, and myself, and picturing a little boy in the picture in it a year from now and how thankful I am that God has blessed us with such a wonderful family. 

"From the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another."  -John 1:16

What I've Learned...

In my 27 years of being an adult/teenager/child/baby, I have learned more in my 3+ years of pregnancy and parenthood than I ever did in my 17 years of school and college.  As a woman going into the wonderful years of parenthood, I am a little embarrassed to say that I was one of those that always said, "Oh, I'll never do that..." or "I will never be that type of parent...", etc, etc.  But now that I'm an experienced semi-knowledgable err... slightly above reading "Parenting for Idiots" parent of a 2+ year old with another one on the way, I thought I would share my wonderful words of wisdom that just happen to inspire me to write this morning. 

I've learned...
That no matter how hard I try to hide those gosh darn rain boots, my daughter will somehow find them and put them on with EVERY outfit - pajama tops (yes, she takes off the bottoms and walks around in a pajama top, diaper, and boots), dresses, shorts, basically every outfit that does NOT go with rain boots.... lol.  I should just give up the fight.

I've learned...
That even if I try my darn hardest to make my daughter look nice for an outing, when I get out of the car to in turn get Emma out of her carseat, she no longer looks like the beautiful little girl I placed in her seat 1/2 an hour ago.  Most usually she has pulled off any socks or shoes she's had on, put the shoes back on the wrong feet, pulled the laces out of the sneakers, pulled any type of hair clip, bow, or tie out of her hair, and most likely spilled juice or some other type of snack down the front of her outfit.  I've decided that the best look is the natural look ;)

I've learned...
That my daughter can stay up until ALL hours of the night and will still wake up at the crack of dawn even after being served a dose of tylenol, blackened out all of her windows, all toys taken out, and the noisemaker on to blend out any other noises from the road or from the house.  How does she do it on so little sleep and still have a pretty good attitude throughout the day?  In my personal experience, if I don't receive at least 12 hours of sleep - yep, that's right - I'm a grouch. 

I've learned...
That as hard as you try to make sure your first child is not spoiled, a whiner, a crier, or any other type of bad malady, she most likely will be at least 5 of them... lol.  And as easy or hard as you thought it would be before parenthood to tell that beautiful child you created "no" and spank them, it is oftentimes way more harder to keep a straight face than to punish them!

Well, since I'm just so full of wisdom, and have therefore left my child free and roaming throughout the house for the last 30 minutes, I should save some for next week and go clean up the mess that my beautiful little girl has undoubtably left for her loving and ungrumpy mother at 9am in the morning. 

May you all have a wonderfully warm spring day!

Not Me Monday...

So, unfortunately with pregnancy, the allowance of "Not Me's" that can happen in a week has tripled...  Too bad for some reason, I cannot ever remember them.  :)  However, there were a few that stuck out in my mind and I thought I would share them with you to give you a smile on this (hopefully) warm Monday morning!

1.  At my last doctor's appointment, I realized while I was in the bathroom that I definitely did NOT put my underwear on completely backwards.  I was NOT completely embarrassed at the thought that I had almost missed this fact, but consoled myself with the thought , "Who would've seen my underwear and known anyhow?"  However, during my ultrasound, the technician told me to unbutton my pants and move them down a bit, which unfortunately showed my underwear.  I also did NOT thank my lucky stars that I had happened to notice it and change them before the ultrasound tech noticed! 

2.  While filling my daughter's sippy cup with apple juice and attempting to dilute it with water, I did NOT "mistakenly" grab the milk container and continue to fill sippy cup of juice with milk.  Not me!

3.  I did NOT threaten to kill my husband this morning when he woke up at 7am, went downstairs, banged on the hot water heater, ran the vacuum cleaner, came back upstairs and emptied some dishes from the dish drainer, clean out his coffee pot, run the coffee pot AND coffee grinder, and in succession - wake up both myself and my 2 year old.  I did NOT want to throttle my husband!  Not me!  I would NEVER be a grouch in the morning!! 

4.  I did NOT almost cry yesterday on the way back from church when I found out that Coldstone Creamery was closed because of the Easter holiday.  I did NOT let my emotions make the best of me and definitely did NOT blame it on pregnancy hormones.  I was definitely a princess and lovingly told my husband that a McDonald's ice cream sundae would be fine... lol.  :) 

5.  I have NOT cried at the drop of a hat for the last couple of weeks over the darndest things.  The other night, I did NOT have an almost mental breakdown because I had no very little summer maternity clothes to wear.  I will NOT tell you, that I realized in the end, that I do actually have a couple of shirts to wear and that they were hidden beneath a pile of clothes in the closet that I had definitely been putting off in putting away... to the utter annoyance of my husband.  ;)

Hope all of you have a wonderful Monday! 

An Easter Celebration!

Getting ready to head out front for our first annual Dickinson Easter Egg Hunt...

My little girl is starting to look so grown up!

Enjoying the spoils of the hunt!

Coloring Easter eggs on the back deck with Momma and Dadda.

The finished product.

Even Fudge got into the spirit with her paws... lol. 

Easter Sunday Morning. 

My little lady.