Life in General...

Life in General...

People always ask me what's going on new in our lives and how we're doing, since to most of our friends we've turned into people who are pictures on facebook and voices on the phone... we haven't seen most of our friends in months or even years! :(

Well, here is an update:

In General, we spend as much time together as we can as a family. We realize that this time in our lives will be over in a jiffy and we'll be in the 'real' world... where Cameron has a demanding job and Madilyn is grown up and into new things...and who knows about me? Teaching? Having another baby? The jury is still out on me :)

In General, Cameron is doing great in school. He's making excellent grades, and it is more than obvious that we heard God by him coming to med school. This was not on our agenda, but most definitely was God's divine plan. Cameron is excelling in ways we could have only dreamed. I am SO SO SO proud of him. He will be a great doctor one day.

In General, Madilyn is a fun, sassy 2 1/2 year old! She thinks she knows EVERYTHING, and she is not afraid to express her opinion on every matter including but not limited to: when Cameron and I are talking and she wants us to be quiet, when we are listening to music in the car and it's too quiet/too loud, when she wants the sunroof or windows open while we drive--even when it's raining. She is my little buddy. She is my assistant in the kitchen. She helps me set the table, do dishes and fold and put away laundry. She serenades me with BINGO and Isty Bitsy Spider while I shop through Walmart. She loves her three friends--Pierce, Autumn & Olivia-- with everything she has. French fries and ketchup are her food of choice...and she has a great day if we eat at Moe's or Steak and Shake. She reminds me how fun it is to play in the Bah-raht (back yard!). She has kept me company though what could've been the loneliest time in my life and just the smell or her hair brings immediate joy to my soul. She is such a blessing.

I'm reminded of how Cameron and I were 'surprised' when we found out I was preganant. Totally unexpected...but what a blessing God's perfect timing is! She has made this season of our lives so sweet.

Okay, back to topic :)

In General, Cameron and I find creative ways to have dates. We have two sets of friends here that we trade babysitting with once a month...so two weekends out of the month, we get dates where we get to go out someplace fun. Other than that, it's Netflix, board games, and blizzards from DQ. But, I tell you what...I wouldn't change a thing right now. I love our simple lives.

In General, I am doing well. Mind you, I've been procrastinating painting our house for months...and slowly it's getting done. I keep myself pretty busy while Madilyn is asleep with friends--making crafts or getting coffee or watching girly movies.

In General, we are good. We are amazed continually by the faithfulness of our God! Just last week, as I was laying M down for a nap, I was flooded with the thoughts of how blessed we are...to be healthy, to be safe, to be provided for. As if salvation wasn't enough...

In General, God blesses us more than we deserve. He has gone above and beyond...and He continues to each moment we live. Every moment, every sunrise, every singing bird, every light breeze, every smile, every kiss, every friendship, every moment we have to show His love...

In General, we have more than we could ask, think or imagine!

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

The Zoo Parade!

Well, it's been forever since I've updated. I've decided to try and do an updated blog post once a month... just so everyone can see what we've been up to.

Cameron is finally finished with his first year of med school! Can I get an AMEN? :) He is enjoying being out for a few weeks, and we've been soaking up every minute with him!

Lately, Madilyn has really been showing a preference for her daddy, which I just love. It's so precious to see the special love that a father and daughter can share for each other... unlike any other love. Very sweet! Everything has been, "I wanna hold Daddy's hand." "Mommy, you stay there. I wanna go with Daddy." "No, Mommy. It's Daddy's turn to get me outta my carseat!"

This morning we went to the Zoo Parade, thanks to my friend Allison who let me in on this info. I thought it would be lots of animals parading, but it wasn't. It was mostly the Shriners Temple guys riding around on all of their toys that make REALLY LOUD noises mixed in with a few animals. Nevertheless, Madilyn got some candy and waved at everyone who went by. The tootsie rolls were her favorite! She loved it! After she woke up from her nap this afternoon, she said, "Mommy, can we go to my parade now?"

Life is so blessed living with my sweet little family. I feel so honored and loved by God to have such an amazing husband and a precious little daughter. I just feel like taking a deep breath and saying, "Ahhhhhhhhh..."

Take time today to remember the blessings in your life...(another one of my blessings today was abundant sunshine!). God is faithful. His Word is true. He is LOVE and He loves you!

Shoot! :)

Okay, so I try to watch my language... as a Christian woman and as a mommy. There are times, however, that I'll stub my toe on the endless blocks or kitchen toys that are strung throughout the house (even though I pick them all up about 5 times a day!).
When I do trip or get hurt, I sometimes say, "Shoot!" Well, I think I really must say it a LOT because now my precious 20 month old is saying it! Her version is, "Shoooooo!" and she says it a lot more than I ever did!
It's doesn't sound cute coming from a little girl, so I'm trying to say, "Uh oh" when I encounter a situation that I can add it to our conversations... maybe she'll catch on to that instead??? :/
As a mommy, it's so important to remember what an example we are to our precious babies. God has entrusted us as stewards of them, and they're only in our care for 18 years. (I only have about 16 years left with this one!)
I encourage all of you mommies, be the kind of mommy you want to be today. There are always things we can worry about or busy ourselves with each day. If you've been discouraged and feeling like a bad parent, take some time today to do something that's fun with your kiddo... go to the park, build towers with blocks, make a spring picture with finger painting (those little finger prints would make great flower petals), etc. Have fun. These days go by fast and before we know it, our babies will be all grown up.
"So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:34
Have a fun day with your precious blessings!

Update and Mommy Time-Out

I can't believe it's been over a year since I last blogged. Here's some updates in our home:

1. Madilyn is now 19 months old...which explains why I haven't had lots of extra time to blog. :) She's the most precious little thing EVER. As I type, she's naming all of her body parts to me that she knows...hands, belly button, arms, eyes, nose, ears, knees, feet, etc.

2. We are in the process of moving to Erie, PA, which in and of itself is a HUGE deal! It just hit me yesterday, when we got a contract on our home, that it was actually happening... and in 8 weeks, we are set to "close." Therefore, eight more times for me to go to church. Eight more weeks of me packing lunches for Cameron to eat at the hospital. Eight more times of doing our weekly cleaning job. Eight more weeks of Comedy Wednesday on ABC in our home. Eight more times of clipping Madilyn's fingernails in her little bedroom. Kinda sad! :( Although very exciting too. I'm really going to miss our home here... it's small and kinda ugly (a rent house with plain white walls), but there are so many memories here (i.e. Telling Cameron I'm pregnant, giving Madilyn her first bath, grading papers on the living room floor, learning to cook with Madilyn in her little sling, painting and decorating a nursery, making cupcakes and finding out Cameron got an interview for medical school, etc.). I'm feeling a teeny-bit sentimental. Okay, maybe WAY sentimental! :)

3. I am starting to learn to sew. Well, I actually haven't even sewed anything yet, but I did get my sewing machine threaded, thanks to my favorite sis-in-law, Jenny! :) I'm so excited to learn, and I have lots of thoughts in my head... hoping they turn out as cute when I make them for real!

4. God has been showing me a lot about having a "Mommy Time-Out." I feel like many times I'm not the person I want to be in situations... for example, when Madilyn disobeys, I don't always respond the way I want to. When things don't look like I think they should, I get discouraged. The Lord reminded me that being a stay-at-home mommy is my ministry. Just like when I worked at the church on staff, I would never go to preach to kids without spending time in the Word each day... that would be CRAZY! In the same way, I've gotta get filled up for the ministry of my home. When you've gotten your baby all bathed and spent time to even dry her hair with a round brush where it's smooth and beautiful, all the laundry is done and put away (which sometimes is a rarity in itself) and then your sweet baby girls pukes all over her carseat, the living room carpet, and her clothes... it's easy to feel discouraged. (If you can't tell, this has happened to me a few times! ha!) But, when I draw from God's grace and mercy, it's all do-able. It's all okay. It's all just a little bump in the road. I've gotta get a storehouse set up of His grace and mercy each day or else I'm drawing from my own strength...and let me tell you ...I'm not very nice without Him. :) He makes me able to love. I am because HE IS.

So, to all you momma's out there. Hang in there. It's okay to have a Mommy Time-Out. You deserve it. You need it. Spend a little time on yourself so you can be better for those around you.

Take time to smell the roses, or just laugh!

Well, to start off, the other day we were at my parent's house, and we decided to get my baby book out to see when I got teeth...the dr. told us Madilyn would probably get teeth around the same time Cameron and I did. Turns out, we were both "late" teethers. Anyway, we found this picture of me (I was one), and it reminded me a little bit of Madilyn. She is only 7 months old, but still... What do YOU think?

The "roses" in my life are sometimes not real roses at all. They're figurative roses...go with me...the sweetest-smelling moments that I have experienced have been with my family. And, it's such a special thing when you can stop and breathe in the moments that so many times we take for granted, so this is what I've been smelling lately. :0)

First off, Madilyn now puts herself to sleep in her bed, instead of me rocking her to sleep. This makes me excited and sad at the same time. She seems like she must be pretty confident because she weens herself from things before I'm ready. LOL Like breastfeeding,...one day she decided she was done, and SHE WAS! Now, she sleeps better when I just lay her in her bed...so I DO! :0)

She now holds her own bottle, and she drinks from a sippy cup during her meals. She eats carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, prunes, applesauce, peaches, and oatmeal. Very impressive!

Madilyn also does the army crawl. She can pretty much manuever herself into any place in the house she wants...but she likes standing much more than being on her tummy. She may be a "walker before a crawler." We'll see.

It's so neat seeing her grow up and change. It's the most amazing thing to be a part of a baby's life...watching her learn and explore new things. It's such a miracle! And, as far as staying home with her goes, I'm loving EVERY minute of it! This is EXACTLY where I want to be. I told a friend who is expecting a baby today, "When you have that sweet baby and hold them in your arms, you'll think, "THIS is what I was created for." God is so amazing...and so are His little treasures.

We had a Blizzard this past weekend (Yes, in March!), and I caught some fun moments of her playing.

Here is Madilyn with her two buddies, Zoey and Maya. All three were ready to go outside and play!

Here she is, playing on our bed!

On a funny note, last night Cameron was working at the hospital (he works the night shift, 7pm to 7am), and I got up to feed Madilyn around 5 a.m., so I called him to see how his evening/early morning was going. I heard the strangest noise. Now, if you know me, I can be startled a little easy...especially when it's nighttime, and my super-strong husband isn't in bed next to me...and sometimes I'm startled even when he IS there. Even so, I heard the strangest sound. It sounded like what you hear on TV cartoons when ghosts are there...."whoooooooOOOOOO! HooooOOOOOO!" You get the point. Anyway, I didn't think I had a ghost...but I thought, "Hmmm....what is that strange sound?" It wasn't coming from the baby monitor...and I was talking to Cameron on the phone while he was working....hmmmmmm. "Cameron, what is that sound? Do you hear it?" Cameron then says, "Oh, THAT sound? That's Sally, the lady I work with who's like 60 years old. She's listening to her I-pod." LOL We both started laughing so hard...the kind of laugh that won't stop when you're exhausted...which we BOTH were. It was definitely a moment to remember. I had tears streaming down my face and I was stuffing my head in my pillow so I wouldn't wake Madilyn who shares the same wall with her bed.

Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day yesterday. First off, Cameron bought me a box of chocolates, which I love! I like trying every one of them! So, I asked him to get me a small box. Well, he got me a box, but it's a little bigger than I wish. I say this because I know I will eat the whole box...won't take me very long. I have such a weakness when it comes to yummy chocolate with assorted fillings. So, at least I only get a box of chocolates once a year...otherwise my jeans would not fit, I'm sure!

Madilyn made her daddy a card, with my help of course. It made his day. :0) He's such a great daddy! Then, Madilyn decided (LOL) that we needed to make Daddy his favorite cookies, so we baked heart shaped sugar cookies. They turned out delicious! I didn't have a recipe for them, so I went to allrecipes.com and found an excellent one! This is definitely a recipe I will use for Valentine's Days in the future.

Ahhhhhh...the day of love! LOL No, really, we decided to not take a date night on Valentine's Day because it's NOT romantic at all!!! There are always thousands of people rushing around town, crowding restaurants, and standing in lines for movies all at the same time...and the majority of this crowd are teenagers who can't keep their hands off of each other. Yuck. We decided to go on a date on Friday night instead. Say what you will, but I think it's more romantic when you are with the one you love...not with the whole city!

Baby Food...Everywhere!!!

Well, this morning Madilyn and I were playing while Cameron slept (he worked last night). I decided to scoop her up and fly her like an airplane above my head. Apparently, she wanted to let me know it was time for me to take a shower because as soon as she got up there, out came the formula...all over the chair, my hair and my glasses! It was so gross it was hilarious! I started laughing so hard, trying to be quiet, and I HAD to take a picture so Cameron could see what happened! You know you're a mom when...you get puked on, and you take a picture! LOL
Well, she definitely made her point! I took a shower, and she got a bath! She loves her bathtimes! Here is a picture of her playing in her bath towel. I caught her! :0)

We started rice cereal a couple of weeks ago. She didn't like it at first, but the dr. told us we could put a drop of Karo Syrup in it so it doesn't constipate her...and it makes it taste better! She now cries after her cereal is gone...no matter how much I feed her! I keep adding more, thinking maybe she's still hungry, but it doesn't matter how much she gets, it's not enough. She also grabs the spoon right when it gets to her mouth, so by the time she's finished eating, I have rice cereal all over my arms and she has it on her hands, face, neck, and pretty much everywhere she can get it! She's so ready to do all of her eating from a spoon! She absolutely LOVES it! I'm so proud of how she's growing and developing. She amazes us everyday! (She kinda looks like Santa Claus! LOL)