A project, oh and MY BABY CAN READ!

I have been trying so hard to get all of Blakely's clothes made for Spring/Summer lately since I will not be sewing for quite some time when our little buddy decides to join us! I saw something similar to this dress in a store for an obscene amount of mulah...Soooo I decided to try my hardest to recreate the fuzzy image that remained in my head.  I am happy to say that some of my college education in apparel merchandising has come to really help me in situations like this, thus saving us tons of money!

Anyways, here it is!

Yep, you read the title of my post right. Last night while I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner Blakely was sitting in the corner reading to herself (jibber jabber of course). Let me say really quick that she repeats herself often these days i.e. she will say elmo, elmo, elmo, elmo, elmo, elmo when she sees elmo, read, read, read, read, read, read if she wants you to read, strawberry, strawberry strawberry-you guessed it-if she wants a strawberry. Anyways, I kept hearing what sounded like 'all-done' over and over and glanced down at her seeing her with both her arms in the air. Confused, I looked down at the book (a My Baby Can Read Book) and saw the words 'arms up'. I started totally freaking out and ran up immediately to tell Daddy! Genius I tell you, genius! 

God's teachings

Just a warning: this post is really long and really only written for my own reflections to come back to. Feel free to read, but know you'll probably fall asleep by the end. =)

I'm gonna be brutally honest in this post today...I have been searching for contentment/peace over the past couple of years. Contentment in our barely decorated home with no yard, no privacy, and space constraints. Contentment with my body. Contentment in my job. Contentment in my clothes. Contentment in my possessions. Contentment in God... The list could go on and on, but these are definitely some major struggles.  Since I have quite a few OCD tendencies, truly being content is extremely hard for me to come by. I definitely don't come by it naturally as it takes tons of effort to fight those areas of longing for perfection.

There are many moments when I hear of death, tragedy, and poverty where my mind can get a glimpse of true perspective. Typically this time lasts around 5 minutes and then I'm right back where I started. I long for that soft heart to permanently reside in my body. This past week I've been trying to concentrate fully on thanksgiving to God. I'm reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp & for the first time actually grasping the importance of such a word as thanksgiving.

It amazes me to sit and think of all the empty moments I've sat around feeling sorry for myself. When will Clint get a job that doesn't make him miserable? When will I feel 'full' inside from all the emptiness I feel as a stay at home mom? Sure I watch over my child & teach her, clean, cook, deal with the finances, & clean some more but I'm left with feeling so meaningless.  When will we have a yard where I don't get attacked by 5 neighbors each time I open my door and Zizi can run and play? When I read the words from this book, I feel all these meaningless things fall off of my shoulders and find myself truly seeking something positive out of everything negative. Then I find peace. True peace.

God is funny sometimes how He teaches us- Just yesterday (and every day) Blakely decided to test me. She has been doing 'bad' things so that she can hear 'good girl' when she quits doing that 'bad' thing. For instance, she has been climbing on the kitchen chairs and then standing up in them. As soon as she stands up she will sit back down and tell herself 'good girl'. She doesn't understand that there is a danger factor in standing up. She doesn't see why and will probably never understand why she gets a spanking when she disobeys me for such a thing. She doesn't understand that it truly hurts me more than it hurts her when I have to discipline her. God is just like this with us. It hurts him to see us deliberately do things he has told us not to do. He has to let the discipline happen though to teach us-whether we ever understand why. We have to go through hard times and terrible emotions to mold us into who he wants us to be. I guess I'm one day closer to being that person!

Sunday Snapshots

That's right, I'm bringing back the 'Sunday Snapshots'.

Family time!

I have really let myself down when it comes to blogging these past few months so I decided I'm gonna really try something new to keep up with it! I'm gonna take at least one picture a day and blog about it at least once a week! Blakely is just growing so fast and I feel like I'm not getting enough pictures. Hopefully I can stick to this plan!

Today we had such great & much needed family time. Blakely has her 20 month molars coming in and has had a really rough week! She seemed to finally be feeling much better today & so I decided to try and take advantage of her good mood while I could. We loaded up and headed to the zoo this morning. It was beautiful outside! Such a great relief after such stormy & yucky days.

 Then we went by the house to pick up Zizi & headed to the park.

 Blakely got to ride her ATV that Mimi & Gran gave her for Christmas. She loves it!

 I love both of these girls with all my heart!

So sweet!!!

20 Month Update

20 months...Four months shy of two years old. I truly cannot believe that even as I type it. I can't really remember life before Blakely so two years should come as no surprise to me. She is really growing up these days. She has such a fun personality. Everything is really the same as in the 19 month update, she just knows more, responds to more, and can more clearly communicate. Since Christmas and all her new goodies, we have had less and less episodes of tantrums. I will not claim that they are gone however! This little girl doesn't quite know what to do with herself when you tell her no. Both those hands come up and cover her face and the noise that follows...you don't even want to know !

 Here we have the whole family eating breakfast one Saturday morning while watching Word World-Blakely's new favorite show!

 Love!

 You grow more and more every day into looking like a true little girl!

 Here we are at the park on one of the few 'pretty' days in January.

This has been such a dreary month. We have definitely developed some winter blues. Days like this however, where we were able to go to the park and run around make everything better!

Parker Thomas Lyle

Yep, we decided on a name & we are ready to tell everyone! We love it and are so excited about our little buddy's arrival! Here are some onesies that I finally finished and are just awaiting him =)

I was so excited for how they all turned out. I also made some shirts for Blakely:

For the hospital

Big girl bed!

I know it seems early for such a big milestone, but Blakely has been getting her little thighs stuck in her crib for weeks now. She was waking up every single night (multiple times) and during her daily nap screaming.  Since it seemed to be getting worse I decided she was ready for this transition.  We tried her out on it for the first time last Monday (1 week ago) and she slept through the whole night! The nap Tuesday was a total disaster! Night time Tuesday was pretty bad. By Wednesday this girl was a PRO! She has done great since then.

I guess it was a blessing in disguise since our little buddy will be here in a little over two months-ahhhh! I often wonder these days "what have I done?!?"

Here is our sweet Blakely after her first night in her big girl bed!

Longest.Day.Ever.

With about two 30 minute intervals of sleep last night, running on empty is really putting it lightly. You never realize just how much energy an almost 20 month old takes until you are hit with one of these days. Clint started feeling really sick around 9:30 last night and I'll spare you all the details and just tell you that he has a bad, bad throw up virus. I am now 28 weeks pregnant & getting up at least twice every hour to use the bathroom as is...mix that in with sick Clint & a puppy that easily takes up half our bed and you'll understand why I got those two 30 minute naps last night. So, when Blakely decided to get up this morning I seriously questioned that I was strong enough to face the day. As a mom, you aren't allowed any questioning however-you just do it.  A cup of coffee later, a lot of prayer, & some food for the belly and I was surviving.

Survive is a good word for today. I just kept telling myself  "and this too shall pass" all day.  So here we are closing the door to a pretty yucky day and hoping for some 'sunshine' tomorrow! Please pray God will spare me and Blakely from getting this terrible bug Clint had!

Here are some happy pics to brighten up this depressing post =)

19 Months...and a couple of days.

I sure have dropped the ball on getting the month updates up on time. All I have to say is that life is crazy for us and to even get them up at all is success enough for us. Blakely loves to talk and talking she does...non-stop, all day, every day!  Lately her favorite things to say are 'opigopigopig' when asked what a pig says. She successfully tells us what any other animal says (dog, cat, cow, monkey...)

She can identify most animals, asks to watch baby can read and Elmo hourly. "baby, reaaaad'. She loves Elmo, Abby, co-co, and grover. She just discovered Elmo on her diapers and will carry them around all day. She trys to put diapers on Elmo and Raffee often. She loves her baby dolls and attempts to put her diapers on them too.

She loves hiding behind her blanket and will walk around with it on her head for a while totally entertaining herself. She puts Zizi's collar on Raffee and will chase poor Zizi around yelling 'ollar, ollar'. She loves colors, LOVES her kitchen & knows so much about playing with it. She knows that her play knife cuts the fruit, licks ice cream and says 'yumm'. 

LOVES to dance (that's what we are doing here) she will get going if she hears any rhythm. Says night night to paci and throws it into her bed when she wakes up-YAY! Pats her belly when she gets full. She is obsessed with books, baths, shoes, purses, headbands, fairy wings, necklaces, rubber gloves, her chair, grocery cart...

She thinks Zizi is hilarous and chases/harasses her all day. She is a very picky eater. She will not touch cheese, meat or veggies. She naps once per day these days, usually from 11:30-2.  She goes to bed at night around 6:30 and wakes up at 8:00 most mornings.  We have been having quite a few bad temper tantrums lately (around 6-7 a day). I'm talking full out fit-throws body to floor including her head and screams out of frustration. Terrible twos are here I fear... 

We love you so very much sweet girl, fussy and all!