Playdate

I realized while I was giving Graham a bath at the end of the day that the day had been absolutely wonderful! Alicia and Trenton came over to play for a little while and have lunch (pb&js!) with us. The weather was nice so the boys were able to enjoy running around in the back yard. Trenton found Graham's green snake and it became one of his favorite toys at our house and Graham played in the dirt...all was well. They did really well together and it was nice to have Alicia over to visit. Graham took a good nap and then we played with Daddy when he got back up. He ate a ton for dinner and we took a bath and then back to bed!

Babysitting Diaries Contd...

So an update on our next date night- we put Graham to bed before our babysitter arrived on Friday night. I wanted my mind to be put at ease before we left for the night which is almost was. Unfortunately it wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated. Graham had a harder time falling asleep and was trying to climb/fall out of his crib. I’ve never seen him be so brave before while I was watching him on our baby monitor. He was wide awake so we stayed for a little while longer in hopes that he would settle down. Once we decided it was okay for us to leave, we noticed a burning smell on our stairs. Mike searched around for it and found that our door bell had stuck when Chanel rang it and the plastic door bell box was overheating. Seriously thank the Lord that He showed us that before we left….that could have been a problem! We had a very nice time with our friends once we arrived at Buca di Beppo in Grapevine! I finally met Jenny’s boyfriend, Joel and it was always great to see the Hiltons and the Reeds made it from out of town! Love my girl friends!

Oh and we plan on using Chanel again for New Year's Eve!

Babysitting Diaries

Mike has really wanted to have a date night for a while now and we finally set one up! One day while Graham and I were out walking on the other side of our neighborhood I met a young girl and her mom. The 15 year old daugher babysits so we arranged for her to stay at our house for a few hours while we went to see the new movie'The Blind Side'. All she really had to do was put Graham to bed and then sit and watch t.v. She was so sweet and really enjoyed seeing Graham when she came over so I showed her how to take him up to his room and put him to bed and then we left the house. We got home after the movie around 10:30 and Chennel told me that he had only been asleep for about 30 minutes. My immediate reaction was 'what?!?' First of all, most of you know that Graham is in bed by 7:30 each night and asleep by 8, so 10pm is late for our Bud. She told me that he kept trying to escape his crib and that was it. I walked upstairs and noticed she had left his light on and that his floor fan that is used for white noise was turned to heat and blasting out on high. Graham was snoring with his head buried under his bumper to shut out the light from his face. He didn't hear me come in his room and rearrange things back to normal. I surely thought I had told her to turn off his light before putting him to bed, but maybe I didn't. Either way his light was on and I understand why he had a hard time going to sleep. Yes, I was irritated at first thinking, 'who doesn't turn off the light?', but Mike settled me down and helped me see that it really wasn't a big deal. Funny thing is - we are going to use her again to babysit on Friday the 18th! Let you know how it goes!!

Been a While...

We've had a lot going on since my last post!

• Graham got the first round of the H1N1 vaccine.


• Mike's step-dad, Kenny, passed away the Friday before Thanksgiving after a long battle with Alzheimer's...so we were in & out of Tyler with family for a few days...especially Mike. That's been crazy in itself.


• Worked in the church nursery with the babies.
  


• All 3 of us got bit by the yucky stomach bug right after that and before we headed to Shreveport for Thanksgiving...which we may or may not have given to the majority of our family (even though we thought we were well!)


• I slept in the same room with Graham for the first time when we were at Mom & Dad's house because he was having a hard time sleeping away from home.


• Had our Thanksgiving meal at my parents house which I believe is the first time we've done that since we've been married.
  


• Got my Christmas cards completed and partially mailed.
  


• Had dinner with my best friend, Beki and her family in Shreveport. It has been a very long time since I've seen her last!


• Booked Graham's 2nd birthday party which isn't until January!

Wow, that was a lot of stuff! It's officially cold here now and our daily walks with Graham and his red wagon are fewer and far between. I'm trying to come up with things to entertain all of us while we are cozy indoors. It isn't easy! He is definitely into everything now and trying to push more boundaries with us. He is so curious and inquisitive! I love that part about him though. He's saying a few more words, "black, kick, cool, cracker" - these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Today, I'll be cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning...and then re-organizing a few things in the house because we are having my sweet friend, Alicia's babies' shower at my house in the morning. I am excited to celebrate the upcoming arrival of her precious babies- Cameron and Sophia. They truly are sweet miracle gifts from God that bring a smile to my face even though I've not met them yet.
Oh and Mike and I are planning a date for Saturday night! That is always huge for us!

Happenings

Had a great Friday night hanging out with our friends, the Kinards at Uncle Julio's in Fort Worth. They are sweet friends that are dear to us which we don't get to see all that often. They have 2 adorable littles- Olivia and Alex. Thankfully Widad and I are planning a shower for a friend of ours so we will be able to do that together.

Mike participated in his 3rd Annual Mud Run on Saturday. He hadn't prepared this year like he has the past 2 years, but he finished with a personal best time! He had a blast and Graham was my little trooper out there! He held on tightly to his wagon while I ran around trying to catch a few shots of Mike in the mud. No blisters for Mike's feet this year too! Bad boots is one of the toughest battles people face out there, so that was praise report. Afterwards Mike wasn't feeling well and we finally decided he got a little dehydrated, but it didn't last too long thankfully.

Today my little Bud has been very busy! He received his H1N1 vaccine this morning and then headed off to Mother's Day Out. He is wearing his Christmas shirt because they are taking pictures today. Hopefully a few of those came out well! Can't believe it's already time for that! I'm trying to make a dent in my Christmas shopping so I won't have to think about it for too much longer I hope. I love internet shopping! I'm happy it's available since running around to the malls is not my idea of fun these days!

We finally made a decision about Thanksgiving plans...we are heading to spend the weekend at my parent's house. It will be nice to have lunch with Memaw especially and it will be Brynn's first Thanksgiving too. My cousin Carley will also be in town which is nice since she won't be able to get off for Christmas this year.

Harvest Weekend

Mike and I dressed our little monkey on Friday night and took him to Lakewood Country Church's Harvest Festival. My Mama was able to make it in town just in time to go along with us. The church did a really nice job with the event and there were tons of kids there. Graham experienced his first 'pony ride' with Neena! He really did enjoy everything there...just running around listening to the live music, watching boys ride their skate boards, and mostly just watch other kids. He played a few games with the help of Daddy, but overall we enjoyed it and will go back next year. Mike left to go camping in Mineral Wells on Saturday so Mama, Graham, and I enjoyed our day together. We ran to Babies and Toy's R Us for a few things and had a little lunch at Which Wich. It was nice having her in town to just spend time with her. The Sprowls came over with Trenton, the frog, and we took some pictures and walked around to a few houses on our street to 'Trick or Treet' with them. Afterwards, Mom and I just passed out candy until it was all gone at our house.

Tired Tantrums

I picked Graham up from MDO yesterday and his red hair was kinky and sweaty because they had just woken him up. He slept for 20 minutes at school and he was still pretty tired. He was so sweet and cozy on the way home in his car seat. I tried to lay him down once we got home knowing he could use the extra rest. He played for awhile in his bed until I finally got him up knowing he wasn’t going to sleep anymore. His Aunt Jamie had given him a Halloween bag full of goodies at the reunion that had things we don’t usually have in the house. I gave him some of the peach gerber treats. Well he couldn’t get enough of them and so to avoid feeding him all of them to him in a sitting I gave him some other things along with it that he usually likes just fine. Well not yesterday. He proceeded to throw a tantrum about it…throwing everything off his picnic table and crying hysterically. Anytime I tried to get on his level and talk to him, he screamed and flailed even louder. I chose to ignore him until he could gain control over himself…which took a long time. I actually wet upstairs, grabbed some ear plugs for my ears, came back where he was and just emptied our dishwasher while he screamed. I felt so bad because I knew he was SOOO tired, but I didn’t want to give in to his tantrum either. Finally he calmed down and we went for a very long walk outside in his wagon. We stopped briefly at the playground and then came back home.

On a good note- he had his "best day in chapel" at Mother's Day Out

and our neighbors, Alicia & Trenton came over and played for a little bit too :)

Wow- That was exhausting!

We drove to Tyler State Park this morning for the 3rd Annual Strickland Family Reunion. We stopped in Duncanville to pick Aunt Nancy to ride along with us. It was a smooth drive there and back. The park was so beautiful right on the lake and the weather couldn't have been more perfect...the breeze and the sun really was glistening on the water. We unloaded ourselves from the car and walked up to the open reserved pavilion for the family. Graham immediately wanted to run to the street where all the cars were passing by and there was a 4 foot drop off ledge between the picnic area and our parked cars. After we had a quick lunch I took my restless warrior down to the play ground so we could escape the problem spots we had already encountered. Well, the playground wasn't made for children younger than 3 and it was pretty obvious by the open ledges and high slides on it...not to mention the 10 year old boys running rampant all over and even asking me to 'please hurry' as they chased each other on it. I wasn't even able to really supervise Graham on it. We got off and he started throwing some lovely tantrums as he tried to run straight for the lake. I finally felt embarrassed enough and just picked him up and walked away from everything. Thankfully Mike came down pretty soon after that and we just walked hand in hand with Graham through a few pretty trails. That was really nice and I think we could have done that for awhile if we hadn't driven all that way to spend time with other family that we never get to see! Between keeping him from falling off the drop off, running to the street, and all the rest of it- we were all exhausted! Graham stayed awake all the way home until we turned into our neighborhood. We just layed that tuckered out little guy on our couch and thanked the Lord for getting us all home safe and sound.

The Cutest Thing

We've gotten to where we will sing 'Clean Up, Clean Up Everybody Everywhere' when we put away Graham's toys before bed time so it will encourage him to partcipate with us. So far he might pick up a few things in and put them in his toy box, but mostly he pulls toys back outof his toy box. We don't do this consistently either because we haven't been too sure if was sinking in or not, but last night we started to sing it and he surprised us. A light switch went off in that little boy's head and he started running through the house, picking up every toy he could find, and putting it in his toy box. He definitely knew what was going on! He tried to put his play cardboard box that is twice as big as him in his little toy box too. Everything went in his toy box last night. We were so proud and it was funny to watch him get so excited about it.

Mommy Time

I really enjoyed getting together with some of my mommy friends for a laid back dinner at Chilis the other night! I haven't gotten together with any of them without our children EVER, so it was nice. It's funny that we spent the entire time exchanging stories of our own mommy experiences. I guess that is what is always on our minds and what we find in common with each other. I do hope to do it again soon and this time invite a few more friends and maybe add a movie into the mix too. I miss going to see movies - especially girlie ones. So hopefully this will start a pattern of girl time even though the next few months are busy with the holidays, but I want to stay connected and hopefully some of my friends will make some new connections too!

Pumpkin Patch

We met our friends the Sprowls and Kinards at the Pumpkin Patch in Flower Mound this Saturday which was so much fun! The drive there was only 30 minutes and they pumpkin patch itself was huge! When we first walked in the entrance, it was full of cut outs of any cartoon character you could imagine with pumpkins all around. It was pretty congested with parents and kids wondering through out with some smaller hale mazes for the kids to explore. Graham had a little bit of a melt down because he wanted to wander freely without keeping up with us. Thankfully we had brought his wagon and he and Trenton got to ride it in together. After we got through the entrance area, there was a lot more room to spread out and and enjoy. They had all kinds of bounce houses and inflatable slides with a field full of as many pumpkins anybody could ever wish to take pictures with! We really enjoyed going on the hayride with all our friends - minus Widad and little Alex! Hopefully we'll get them on there next year though :) I enjoyed riding the 'train' with Graham which went really fast and only one parent could ride in it with one child. All in all, it was so fun and it was all free! I know we will do this again next year!

Mother's Day Out - October

Graham is in his second month of MDO and things there are going great. His Tuesday note this week said his mood was 'happy' and that 'he is becoming friendlier every day!' He is sleeping for about an hour now while he's there. He has a little girl that has become his friend and her name is Lila. His teacher says they talk all the time and are great friends. Thursday his note said his mood was 'cooperative' and that 'he had a great day!'
We are so happy to get these reports back from his teachers.

Taco Soup

Here's a yummy taco soup recipe we made the other night!
Enjoy!
2 Lbs lean hamburger or turkey meat
1 can of diced regular roteil
1 16 oz jar chunky mild picante sauce
2 cans of pinto beans
1 10 oz can of whole kernel corn
1 package of taco seasoning
1 package of dry Ranch dressing mix
1 bag corn chips (fritos are best)
1 8 oz bag shredded mild cheddar

Brown the meat, crumbling as you cook. Drain the fatty liquid. Add the Roteil, Picante Sauce, Beans, Corn, and seasoning mixes. Add 2-3 cups of water to get a soupy consistency. You can add more water as needed or as desired. Let the soup simmer about an hour to absorb all the seasoning. Serve hot in soup bowl over some of the corn chips. Top with a little sprinkle of mild cheddar cheese.

Recipe makes approximately 8-10 bowls. For smaller pot of soup, ½ the ingredients.

This morning Mike took Graham to his first 'Story Time' at Saginaw's Library. They had to sit in the back because they got there right when it started. Graham was so excited to see all the other kids and was immediately ready to play with everyone and running around. He wasn't interested in sitting still and listening to the story teller ask questions about the weather and what object she was holding up, etc. So we will try story time again probably when he is about 2 years old. In the mean time, Let's Jump - here we come!!
Tonight will be the first night that I've been home without 'to do' since last Thursday, so I'm looking forward to being home and hopefully finishing up a baby quilt I started working on last week. Too bad Mike will be working late so I won't have that time with him too, but we will be together tomorrow night!!
It was great to spend some time with our dear friends, the Martins, in our home on Tuesday night. We all enjoyed good company and taco soup- which was yummy now that's its fall! You can check out their blog here.

Our Weekend

So it’s Tuesday and I’m now back at work for the week! We had a fun and very busy weekend. On Friday Graham and I had the morning together so we headed off to try to catch a story time at the Haltom City Library, but thanks to our GPS- it wasn’t where it said it was supposed to be! It really was frustrating, but what could I do?! So we decided to go by and pick up some overnight diapers at Toy’s R Us and get some fabric in Joann’s which didn’t take long since I knew what I needed in both places. Since Aunt Nancy and Uncle Norman were coming over to keep Graham for us (just like they do two Fridays each month) and Mom and Dad were staying with us Saturday night, I cleaned up the house while Graham took his nap. That night we had our Home Group meeting at the Olsen’s which is always good for both of us. Saturday morning we all bundled up a little bit and headed out to the Botanical Gardens for their semi-annual plant sale. Mike was really excited about that because he had been told by a Home Depot employee that that was the best place to get plants because they have things that are local and will actual grow in our soil here. We didn’t realize how helpful it would have been to have had our wagon there, but we pushed Graham in his umbrella stroller while we borrowed one of the B.G.’s wagons to put our plants in. I am not a green thumb and couldn’t tell you exactly what we bought, but it was mostly vines and Mike was excited J That afternoon was really crazy and I hesitate to even tell this, but Graham pretty much finger painted his diaper contents all over his crib while he was supposed to be taking a nap before Neena and Papa arrived at our house. It took Mike and me a good hour to get it all cleaned up including the crib, the floor, all his bedding and clothes, and Graham too :) It was definitely a memory I will always have. We did enjoy having Mama and Daddy over for the day though. We took them out to eat at Joe T. Garcia’s which is Fort Worth’s most popular Mexican restaurant. It was cool to take them somewhere like that and we all enjoyed our food and the atmosphere. They left on Sunday morning and then the 3 of us headed over to Duncanville to meet up with Nancy and Norman to car pool with them to Emily’s wedding (Mike’s cousin) outside of Longview. It was really great to have them to talk to on the way there and back and Graham was a great little traveler that day…watching his baby Einstein DVDs and eating his snacks:). Last night we had Kimber babysit Graham while we had our own date to see U2 at the new Cowboy stadium. It was pretty cool I must say –and I never go to concerts.

Words, Wagons, and the Playground :)

Lately Graham has been saying 'circle' like crazy! He find circles every where...in the fire alarm unit on the ceiling, on the very tiny buttons on the oven, and every where else you could or couldn't imagine. It's very cute. Sometimes he does call other shapes circles too, but I did hear him say 'sqa' for square yesterday :) There is something about the words that sound similar to 'circle' that he is learning easily right now- like: 'purple', 'Bible', and 'bubble'. It's really fun to watch him get so excited about doing something new! We all get so excited about every little thing. He is saying 'ball', 'ca' (for car), and 'go' really well too.
We are all enjoying the break from the hot sunshine and have been taking our treasured neighborhood walks together. Graham is loving being in his red wagon and is as content as can be. Every once in a while he tries to stand up in it, but overall he rides around like a champ.

He's also doing so much better at the playground. Mike has taught me that when he starts to run outside of the play area and onto the sidewalk and pavement, he will just come up behind him and tell him to hold his hand and reach down and grab his little hand to walk with him. Graham usually lets us do that and then will steer himself right back in to the play area. For those of you wondering about this, it's been a challenge for a while to get him to stay close and not run off at full speed when there aren't any physical barriers to restrict him.

Fun with your Toddler

Here are some Fun and Inexpensive or Free Activities I've found for Toddlers in the Fort Worth area:
(1) Children 2 and under can play free at 'Let's Jump' in Keller. This place has been a life saver for us...especially Mike and Graham to get out of the house and just have some fun together. Graham loves sliding down the big slide in the toddler room (ages 5 and under)! BTW, I recommend calling before you go each time because they do close down for special parties and they are usually not open on the weekends for general admission. Bring a pair of socks!
(2) Glenview Treehouse - indoor play area
take 820 east to Haltom Rd. exit; go over the bridge, Glenview Baptist Church is there next to the water tower. Everyone must wear socks. Open to the public on certain Mondays of the month.
(3) There are lots of story times at libraries and Barnes and Nobles around town. I would get on Barnes and Nobles website to check them out and check your local libraries times as well.
(4) FW Zoo calendar of events (info for 'Boo at the Zoo')
(5) FW Museum of Science museum school info for kids at least 3 years old.
(6) FW Stockyards Station calendar of events; these seem to always be free (info on 'Treat Street' actvities)
(7) Kidgits Club ($5/yr) at Northeast Mall in Hurst.
(8) FW Botanical Gardens calendar of events (info on 'Japanese Garden Fall Festival')

Diapers and Veggie Booty

Okay, calling all moms who are struggling to get their kids to eat vegetables! My friend Shannon share a bag of Veggie Booty with me to give Graham to try and honestly the first time I introduced them to him, he wouldn't try them. After a few days, I offered them again and he almost devoured the entire bag. He really likes them now! I've been having a hard time getting him to try veggies, so at least with this I know he's getting some! I think the cheapest place to buy them would be off the internet, I'm about to place an order on amazon.com. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FF9DVM) I did see them in Babies R Us today, but I know they were more expensive. Also, I've been pureeing some veggies last week (carrots and brocoli) and starting to come up with creative ways to 'hide' them or incorporate them in meals. Tonight I'm making taco soup and thought about putting some pureed carrots in their as well. This helps me too since I'm not a big vegetable eater either. BTW, I didn't come up with that either! I heard about it from a cookbook written by Jessica Seinfeld before I was pregnant with Graham. I'm thinking about getting my own copy though. Her book is called 'Deceptively Delicious.' http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/

I am always looking for ways to save money and will probably share some of our family finds from time to time. I keep a stash of baby item coupons in a ziploc bag in my purse just in case I run across a good deal somewhere. I have a pretty good bit of Huggie diaper coupons right now that I've gotten off the internet, the Sunday paper, or from Huggie home mailers. Today I was at Babies R Us to specifically purchase diapers since they are running a Huggie and Pamper diaper special with a $5 coupon for each value sized diaper purchase. They good thing about store coupons is you can combine them with manufacturer coupons (my purse stash!). So today I bought one value sized box of Huggie diapers and used my store coupons for $5 off and then used a handful of $2 off mfg coupons to get my price down fairly low. BTW, this is the only store that I know of that will let you use more than one mfg coupon on a single transaction... in other words, I don't think there is a limit on how many coupons you can use. If you know of another place, let me know! I know Target and Walmart won't let you. So really that is a pretty good deal on diapers. So this is just a FYI for those of you buying lots of diapers and don't purchase them at bulk stores like Sams or Costco. I'd encourage you start looking for coupons on the internet, in the paper, and by signing up on websites. I think it has paid off for me to do the extra research on saving some money on them.

The Weekend

So I got to stay with my sister and her family for 2 nights this weekend while Mike and Graham hung out back home. I must admit that I actually got sleepy driving the 3.5 hour drive there by myself. I can't remember a car ride being that quiet and peaceful since before I was a mommy. It was pretty relaxing. I really enjoyed getting to see and spend some time at Leigh and Cory's house. They are doing such a great job adjusting to having a bigger family with Brynn being the newest addition this last month. It did bring back memories of how big of an adjustment becoming Graham's mommy was for me the first few months after we brought him home. I'm not sure how it is by the time you have your third, but there are still things that have to shift a little especially when there are other kids involved. All three of those kids are so special though. Each one of them has their own personality full of life and wonderment. I am very blessed to have them in my life.
I missed Graham and Mike so much though...even for just 2 nights. While I was gone they had their own adventures which included buying a bicycle trailer off Craig's list, then realizing our bikes aren't compatible for the trailer, buying an extra attachment at Walmart for it, testing it out in the neighborhood, having some minor issues with it and having to basically push it on the side while peddling your own bike back to the house while getting a flat tire! Graham also got his flu shot and was a real trooper with no fussing really. They had a boy's night Saturday and ate yummy Papa John's pizza where Graham ate 3 whole slices and probably would have eaten more if Daddy didn't cut him off.

Something I'm pondering today...

^21-26 Dear friend, guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life;
don't for a minute lose sight of them.
They'll keep your soul alive and well,
they'll keep you fit and attractive.
You'll travel safely,
you'll neither tire nor trip.
You'll take afternoon naps without a worry,
you'll enjoy a good night's sleep.
No need to panic over alarms or surprises,
or predictions that doomsday's just around the corner,
Because God will be right there with you;
he'll keep you safe and sound. Proverbs 3:21-26

Food Battles

Okay, so I'm admitting that we've started a bad habit of letting Graham dictate to us what he wants to eat at dinner time. For some reason that meal is the hardest meal to get him to be content eating. The routine we've fallen into is to offer him up to 3 options just trying to figure out what he will eat because more than likely, he doesn't want the first few suggestions. It is nothing for me to get up several times during the meal and pull something else out of the fridge or cabinet to heat up, etc to try to please him with. It has finally started to get to me so I'm trying to stand my ground. I know that I'm raising a picky eater if I let him make me into a 'short order cook' with whatever he wants. My friend Kelly has encouraged me to stick to offering him one thing and that be it. She has been doing that with her little girl and it is paying off. So last night I fixed Graham some tasty garden veggie rice with some yummy turkey with cheese and crushed chips like a taco salad...well, the only thing he would even open his mouth to try were the little chips. Mind you, he's eaten things like this before and enjoyed them just fine. He wanted something else, but that is all I would give him and I must say it felt a little empowering this morning to know he slept through the night without waking up hungry (like he's an infant or something! ha!) There are other things I would like to do to make our dinner time together more special- starting off with us sitting down as much as possible all 3 of us together which we aren't consistent with now. So this is just the first step in helping Graham try new things! Please pray that I can stick witht it!

Adventures of Mother's Day Out

As some of you know, our little Bud started MDO 2 days a week at the beginning of the month. Mike has been taking care of Graham on Tues, Wed, and Thursdays for the past year and a half while I work those days and stay home with Graham on Mondays and Fridays. So this has been a big and exciting change for all 3 of us. He has 3 teachers with a total of only 8 kids to his 'ladybug class'. We were both really nervous about leaving him there during nap time for fear that he wouldn't nap at all. He's been doing pretty well with it so far. He actually napped 'well' the teacher said yesterday while the time before he 'chatted' with the little girl in the crib next to him during the entire nap time. I laughed though because I was happy he was enjoying being social with 'friends' in his class. He got to see a fire truck for the first time yesterday up close. He definitely wasn't too sure what to think about it though. They've been learning about people who help us for example: the mailman, fireman, and police officers, etc. It's been great though and we're looking forward to all that this year holds for Graham in 'school'.

I have been getting spoiled with the notes that Graham has been receiving on his MDO days from his teachers for Mike and I that let me know exactly how the day went...what type of mood he was in, if he ate well at lunch, if he slept and for how long...but he hasn't gotten them the last few days. Mike asked his teachers about it and they said they didn't fill them out today...that was the only explanation. It's definitely not a big deal...I just wish that when I asked Graham about his day that he could actually tell me all about it. Oh I know one day he will and everyone says I'll be wishing he didn't talk to much, but honestly I can't imagine that! I can't wait for him to tell me all that is in his little red head. I see those wills turning and he does talk to me, but it will be heavenly to hear him say 'Mommy, I love you so much' one day.

The Beginning

Yesterday I felt strongly that the Lord was encouraging me to start making notes on my daily life. I've always wanted to write children's books someday and starting with something as simple as a blog could prove to myself that I have the ability to write things that people will enjoy reading. Plus, I don't want to forget the little things that fill up my days especially while Graham is still young. So here is my shot at journaling my life that consists of being a part-time stay at home mom to Graham while working 20 hours a week for the same company for 4 years, being Michael's wife of 6 years now, and everything else that makes me who I am at the place in time of my life. I'm encouraged today. I hope you are too to take a shot at your dreams.
2 Thessalonians 2:16 says:
15-17So, friends, take a firm stand, feet on the ground and head high. Keep a tight grip on what you were taught, whether in personal conversation or by our letter. May Jesus himself and God our Father, who reached out in love and surprised you with gifts of unending help and confidence, put a fresh heart in you, invigorate your work, enliven your speech.