Tuesday 31 March 2009

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love...


My Husband!


My friend Crystal did this on her blog and I thought it was a good idea.  My husband has been amazing over these past couple of months with all of the JLP stuff.  I've been trying to think of ways to show him my appreciation and figured this was a good place to start.

10.  He makes me laugh.  I joke with him now that he has lost some of his humor in his old age, but really it's still there.  He is pretty quick witted and usually always finds a way to bring a smile to my face even on my worst of days.

9.  He is smart.  While this quality can be somewhat frustrating when we are having discussions about our finances, I know that Cory is usually right because he's so smart.  His brain works completely different than mine does, which seems to work well for us.

8.  He is very handy.  By that I mean Cory is really good a fixing things and actually does a very good job.  The other day our the leg on our ottoman broke and Cory totally repaired it just like new.  It could have cost us a pretty penny at a furniture repair shop but instead just a few minutes of Cory's time on a Friday night.

7.  He is very patient with me.  In most other aspects of his life he is the complete opposite of patient, but he never seems to mind my making us late someplace because I can't decide what to wear.  I know it does eat at him on the inside, but he never shows it to me at the time, which I think is nice.

6.  His love of sports.  I love all the little known facts Cory can spout off about sports.  I love watching anything from football, to basketball, to baseball, to golf with him.

5.  His work ethic.  Cory takes his job very seriously but also finds ways to leave it behind to spend time with us at the end of the day.  I think he has been very successful in his career so far and know that he will continue to do so in the years to come.

4.  How helpful he is.  I know I mentioned that above but seriously, I don't know what I would have done over these past couple of months without Cory.  He has really pitched in around the house and with the kids when I have had all these meetings that have lasted until 9:30 and 10:00 at night sometimes.  And he hasn't complained about it once.  To make matters worse, all of my meetings have been on Wednesdays which are the same days as his soccer games, which he has had to miss on a couple of occasions.

3.  His leadership.  Cory is a wonderful spiritual leader of our family.  I am so thankful that my children have him as their role model for what a man should do and be.  We (myself, Christopher and Lucy) are so blessed by this.

2.  He is a wonderful father.  I think most women think about what kind of dad their husband will be before they have children, and I did.  I have to say that Cory has far exceeded my expectations in this.  I knew he would be a good one, but what I don't think I was expecting is that how good he is at showing our kids that he loves them.  He genuinely loves spending time with Christopher and Lucy.  And believe me, the feeling is very mutual!

1.  Because he loves me.  Like I mentioned  before, I know I have my days, and am sure that I'm not always that likable at times.  But at the end of the day, I know Cory loves me.  We're working a little bit on speaking each others' love language a little better at times and even at that he's stepping it up right now, which really means alot to me.

Bottom line, I am so blessed to have Cory as my partner in life.  He is without a doubt my best friend, and I love him with all of my heart.

Now, if you are reading this, I encourage you to blog about your "10 Reasons Why You Love..."  Get creative and fill in the blank!   

Saturday 28 March 2009

Brrrrrrrr!

Not really what you want to be saying while you try to hunt Easter eggs but that's the way it was this morning for us at our annual church Easter Egg Hunt. We still had a good time and Christopher hunted a few eggs before he got too cold. Of course the weather spoiled my adorable coordinating outfits that I had all ready for them to wear. We're heading down to Dallas Blooms on Monday so hopefully it will be warm enough by then and they can wear them there. Stay tuned...

I just wanted to post this picture of my kids with the Easter bunny from today. Please notice that Miss LBL did not shed one tear!



Oh, and I would also like to add that exactly one week from today JLP Trinkets to Treasures will be O-V-E-R and my life will hopefully resume some form of normalcy! The countdown is ON!!

Thursday 26 March 2009

Time For a Post

So I know it's been a while...

One day last week I had a brief conversation with my mom about breastfeeding. She had seen something on the Today Show (I think) about the benefits of breastfeeding but the excerpt also included some information about bottle feeding and the positive aspects of that. Don't worry, this post is in no way a lecture about breastfeeding. I have two children, one of which was bottle fed and the other breastfed so I can easily speak about both experiences and also firmly believe that a mother has to do what works best for her baby, her, and her family and I know that situations arise where breastfeeding isn't the best thing, like in Christopher's case, but that is another story entirely. The point of my story today is that after that conversation with my mom, I began tooting my horn just a bit because it had dawned on me that Lucy, my little breastfed baby, had just about made it through her entire first year of life with a perfectly clean bill of health. The girl had not run a fever, had an ear infection, or even had to make trips to the doctor other than her well visits. This simply was not the case with Christopher. While he never had any serious illness, he had to be treated for things like croup, ear infections, and sinus infections all before his first birthday.

Well wouldn't you know it, low and behold, Miss Lucy came down with the flu last Friday (positive test results confirmed on Monday). In my almost four years of motherhood, I have not experienced one of my children being this sick. It has been awful. Her fever would spike as high as 103 and she was just completely listless at times, doing nothing but sleeping on my chest. It was heartbreaking, worrisome, and of course, exhausting. I'm happy to say that today, on what I guess would be day six of the virus, I have finally started to see a few shreds of normalcy in my baby girl. She has smiled at me, eaten some solid food, and even clapped for Christopher this morning after he sang me a song. So I can breathe a little easier knowing that she is on the mend and will return to her normal happy self again very soon.

Tuesday 3 March 2009

11 Months Old!



So we are officially one month away from Lucy's first birthday! How crazy is that? I just can't believe that my little girl is almost ONE!!! She continues to bring a smile to my face and melt my heart every day. I hesitate to say this because I don't want to jinks anything but I really think she is turning a corner with her stranger anxiety. Last week we spent some time in Abilene with my parents and she did so well with them. She was so happy showing very little anxiety towards them at all. Today when I took her to the nursery at church for my mom's group; not only did she smile at the sweet lady who works in there, but her lip did not even quiver when I handed her over!! I was elated to get to walk off without hearing my daughter's sad little cry.

She is talking, crawling, cruising, pushing, eating, smiling, waving, clapping, and kissing up a storm. This afternoon I drove in the car to the sounds of her little kisses coming from the back seat. So sweet. It is not something she does necessarily on command, but definitely a new noise she has discovered that she can make and I think it is precious. Cory told me that tonight, she "walked" all over the kitchen with the assistance of one of our little tiny "kid table" chairs, pushing it from one corner of the room to the other. The baby gates are back up and it is a good thing too because today I watched her make it all the way to the top of our stairs. She was so proud of herself and would stop periodically to smile and wave at me as I followed along beside her.

We are so blessed with this beautiful baby girl. I am hoping that this month will go by so slow so that I can soak up every last bit of this first year with her that I can.

Lucy at 11 months:
Waves all the time
Claps (will usually start clapping whenever she hears the song "When Your Happy and You Know It")
Makes adorable kissing sounds
Eats like a champ
Pulls up on all furniture
Cruises around all furniture
Will move from one piece of furniture to the next
Will walk behind toys/chairs etc.
Drinks very well from a sippy cup
Takes two naps a day (when her brother's schedule allows her to be at home)
Sleeps from about 7:00 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. (at least this week!)