Santa Claus

Wednesday before Thanksgiving we took Reese to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. She told me all day that she did not want to sit in his lap. She wasn't lying. When we got there she was mostly excited about the carousal, but she falsely gave the impression that she wanted to see Santa. The closer she got to him the tighter she held on to her Daddy.

Personally, I wanted Adam to make her sit in his lap while I got a picture of her screaming. Since he is a big push over he wouldn't make her sit with him.

Here she is last year... I love this picture. Love it.

She rode the carousal a grand total of 4 times before we pried her from the store. Thankfully Bass Pro was nice enough to let us see Santa, ride the carousal, and make a craft all for free. (Which goes completely against what I preach to the kids at school every. single. day. Nothing in life is free. Well Bass Pro you have proven me wrong. We spent exactly $0 that night, but rest assured we have, in the past, done our part to keep that company in business.)

And her personal favorite, the carousal.

Oh how this face makes my life complete!

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. Isaiah 55: 8

Sadly, the Friday after Thanksgiving was truly a black Friday for us. I knew something was going wrong  late Thursday night, and by Friday afternoon around 2 we had a miscarriage. 

We are sad beyond words, but also at peace because we know that God has a far greater plan than we can ever understand.

 Kip Moore sings a song called Hey Pretty Girl and in the song he says, "Life's a long and winding ride. Better have the right one by your side." I can tell you that because of this I love Adam  more than I ever have. He stepped up to the plate Friday and took care of me when I physically could not take care of myself. Not that I ever doubted that he would do that, but when actually faced with a situation you realize how far people will actually go for you. 

 We have one precious, healthy baby and that is far more than a lot of people get. She is more precious to us than ever. 

We hear of people having miscarriages everyday, but until it happens to you it's hard to really grasp. I would have been somewhat expecting this at 6 or 8 weeks, but at 14 weeks it took me completely off guard.  I thought we were in the clear, but this is just another reminder that we are not in control. 

Thank you all for your phone calls, text, and emails. We have a great family, and a wonderful group of friends. 

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Jeremiah 1:5 

Long weekend and preggo update

Sunday morning I walked into the bathroom and Adam said, "Momma, we need one of those hicky-do's." That is code for ponytail holder. I love to see men raising daughters;) Particularly this pair. 

 I splurged a couple weeks ago and bought myself a Nikon DSLR. I had buyers remorse for a second until I started reading blogs about how to use the more technical aspects of it. Plus a big thanks to Abby Butler for giving my a personal lesson. I've got a lot to learn, but I love it!

Friday night and Saturday morning we cleaned out Reese's closet and moved her toys into her room from the playroom. The following is a conversation we had:
Reese: Uh doin Momma? (What are you doing Momma)
Me: Cleaning out your closet to make room for your baby brother or sister.
Reese: (very loudly and very annoyed)  Uggggh.

There is a common consensus among those who know her best that she is going to struggle with this adjustment.

She found an old photo album from when Adam and I were dating. She kept asking in a really confused voice, "That Momma? That Daddy?" I know baby. Momma used to not look so tired all the time;) Motherhood ages a girl.

 She found this little ensemble and insisted on wearing it.

She wears panties a lot at daycare, and when she comes home she often takes her diaper off by herself. She does pretty good until she gets busy and forgets to go to the potty. If I'm not in there with her she will come find me and say, "Momma com ere" while she motions with her hands for me to follow her. Then she proudly shows me that she tee teed in the potty. I always tell her how proud I am,and clap, and go on and on about it. Yesterday I forgot to tell her I was proud and she said, "You poud Momma?" We are just letting the potty training come as it will. I am too tired to try and force that on her, but she is ready. I just can't imagine the first time we leave the house with her in panties. I think I need one of these car seat protectors I saw on Pinterest.

 She found my flat iron in the floor and started "pixin" her hair. Disclaimer to the grandparents: It was NOT plugged in. There was a 0% chance she could burn herself so PeePaw save your speech. (Not that PeePaw would have any clue as to how one would log on to the world wide web and find our blog, but I bet MeeMaw will show him.)

 Sunday she took us for a ride on the golf cart.

 Monday afternoon I decided we would put up her tree. She was so amazed by the lights.

 And this is how amazed she was when I introduced her to Mickey's First Christmas.

Pregnancy Update: I know now why 2nd, 3rd, 4th children say there aren't as many pictures etc of them as there are the 1st baby. BECAUSE MOMMA IS TIRED! I really wanted to do weekly pictures with Reese holding the chalkboard, but as it turns out Reese was napping when we made this picture. And it looks like the weekly picture updates may turn into monthly updates...or trimester updates.

For about 2 weeks now Reese has said that she is having a "baby bruter." It has really caused me to question my earlier prediction that it's a girl. To me the strangest thing about a 2nd pregnancy is how fast it goes. With Reese I knew exactly how many weeks, day, minutes, and seconds pregnant I was. This time the weeks fly by! We will find out at our next appointment what it is. I am hoping to do some kind of gender reveal party...We'll see if I can make it happen. If we know before Christmas (which we should) I would love for the ultrasound lady to seal it up in an envelope and us open it Christmas morning, but Adam shot me down on that one. He said he couldn't wait that long, but wouldn't that be the ultimate Christmas present!

Anyway, here we are at 12 weeks. 



Halloween 2012

Halloween with a toddler is exhausting. (I can't even imagine what having 2 will be like next year.) I started trying to get her into her Minnie dress around 3:40. I think I finally got it on her at 4:00, but she absolutely refused to have her nose painted black.

 

We headed over to BFF Addie's house because she was also going to be Minnie Mouse, and we couldn't miss an opportunity to get pictures. It was a challenge, but so worth it because Allison and I have big plans of it being in their senior yearbook one day. 

 When I finally forced her into her car seat Halloween Meltdown #1 began. We went home to meet with her Daddy and head out to get some candy. Our first stop was MeeMaw and PeePaw's where she took time to play in the leaves.

 The sun was about to go down and it was the perfect opportunity to make one of those silouette pictures I keep seeing on Pinterest, but I wasn't quite successful. I still love it though!

 She wasn't impressed with PeePaw's candy. She kept taking it out of her bucket and giving it back to him.

 We ran into Dorothy and her soldier brother Little Red.

 We made our second stop at Adam's Granny's where Reese took every single one of their Smarties.

 And then our final stop at DD and Big Daddy's where she got an entire box of popcicles.

She promptly took her Minnie ears out, pulled down her pig tails, and requested her dress be taken off. So Meemaw, it should make you feel good that all that hard work on the dress got put to use for about 2 hours.