Mother's Day 2012

This is my sweet girl on Mother's Day. Hubby and Makenzie woke me up with breakfast in bed (which I ate in the dining room). She gave me this precious card that she had written all by herself! My husband wrote on her chalkboard and she wrote it on the card. I was so impressed! Eric and Makenzie went to church while Parker and I stayed home since he was still suffering with a yucky virus. We spent time outside on a blanket in the grass and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

I gave myself a pedicure with the best fingernail polish I've ever used. I NEVER go to the salon to get my nails done. I love the look, but not the process or the price. So here's my "at home" pedi for $6(Walmart)! btw, my nails are not navy blue like the picture they're "FRUITY PETTUTIE!" Even my hubby said he liked it!

After a lovely dinner of grilled chicken sandwiches my husband and I watched "The Vow." It was a great way to finish a great day.

Joy and Fulfillment

How do you find joy and fulfillment as a stay at home mom? When my daughter was younger I found it in her milestones and in new ways I could interact with her. Now that she is three she is needing me much less and I'm having a hard time being joyful. I'm currently 29 weeks pregnant with our son. This makes it physically challenging to be the mom that I want to be. With my daughter I feel at a loss of what to do with her. She'd rather play by herself than with me. I'm not finding happiness in the mundane meal planning and house cleaning that is my life right now. I don't know if a job is the answer, but it can't be the solution right now due to me being pregnant. I went to a "mom" conference this weekend. They posed the question, "What are your dreams, goals, and aspirations?" I don't have any for myself. I used to. It used to be all about me. Now the only goals I have are for my children. I feel like "my life" is over. Now it's all about my husband and my children. This is the number one reason I said I didn't want to get married and have children. I was afraid of losing myself...and I did.

Inspired

I'm so impressed and inspired by the blogs of other mothers. Especially those that do planned weekly activities with their kids. Such as Muffin Tin Munchies and letter of the week activities. I am planning on doing these things with Makenzie as soon as I get the supplies that I need. I look forward to posting pictures and blogging about our new fun activities soon.

We are currently going through a bathroom renovation at our house. What was planned to take a weekend is maybe half way through and it's Tuesday. Looks like everyone is taking a break for today, thank goodness because we need a break too, but I really can't wait for everything to be complete! I'll post some before and after pics as soon as things are complete. I have really enjoyed meeting the many people that have assisted with this project. It's nice to talk to people that have such a close bond to other people in their community. And I appreciate them extending that to us as well.

Makenzie has been really wonderful the past few days. I believe it's for a few reasons: I've been focusing on her more and I'm appreciating her more too. I've been reading all of these blogs about these moms of sick children and I realized that I am not near grateful enough for what I have. Obviously we're not out of the woods yet, most of these kids weren't diagnosed until after the age of two, but either way their stories have caused me to be aware of what I have and the finiteness of life.

Here are a few fun pictures of Makenzie from this morning playing with playdough.

I also wanted to share some things about Makenzie at this wonderful stage of her life (23 months).

Here are some things she LOVES:

-ANNABELLE and SARA (her babies)

-COLORING

-STICKERS!!!

-ICE CREAM (as seen in a previous blog) When she pretends to feed her babies it's either ice cream or grapes :)

-FRUIT

-PLAYING OUTSIDE

-"SEEING JACK" also known as playing outside...she'll say, "I need to see Jack Bear.", but what she really means is, "I need to go outside and play in my playhouse."

-her DADDY

-BOOKS, especially her toddler bible for girls that she got at Christmas

-HELPING MOMMY

- PINK BLANKET ("pink bank, I need my pink bank!")

-MARY, her lamb

-PINK PACIFIER, she pretty much uses two pacifiers(one in the car, one in bed) and both of them are pink!

Makenzie is amazing! She is speaking in complete sentences. She says please and thank you regularly. I have to be her translator sometimes, but most of the time even strangers can understand what she's saying. She is very sweet and happy, but she doesn't smile a lot. She tends to keep a serious look on her face because she's always trying to figure something out. She is very detail oriented. If she moves something when she puts it back it has to be exactly how she found it. She follows instructions well unless it's bedtime or bathtime and then it's a little more of a challenge to get her to do what you want. Everything in our house comes with a warning to give her some sense of control over her schedule. She gets a five minute warning before bath, bed, and nap times. I often use it at other times too just to have a more favorable attitude from her. I love her so much and she provides me with purpose and joy everyday. I hope that one day she will truly know how much I love her.