Imperfect

When I became a mom, actually, the very first second I held my firstborn, I realized that I had a lot to learn and God would provide me with untold numbers of lessons during motherhood. Five and a half years in and almost three kiddos later, I am realizing that this is going to be a lifelong lesson-learning session.

In some moments more than others, the lesson is much more in my face and straightforward. Christmas time is one of those times for me. Before I had kids, our Christmas tree was perfectly decorated with beautiful, fragile ornaments and the presents piled up underneath weeks before Christmas morning. Now, even on my so-called "nice" tree, the two year old has taken down and replaced all the ornaments and garland within arms length. So, my tree is now sporting clusters of ornaments at about 3 feet high. Also, even if we didnt do the whole Santa bit, we would still have no presents under the tree until Christmas morning because little hands find it hard to leave bows, paper, etc untouched on pretty packages. All this would drive me crazy in my old pre-kid life. I've come along way, baby! Now, I shake my head, sometimes say a silent prayer for sanity, and pick up the trash or put back the Christmas decor.

This morning, we made cookies too. They are terrible looking, but as evidence of how far I've come, I actually like them more than any "perfect" cookies that I could have made alone. They are all globby, misshapen forms even though we used cookie cutters because the dough got too warm and the cookies cut too thick. But, I know that my kids made these, had fun, and, hopefully, will remember christmases when they were little as fun times. I am thankful that God keeps reminding me that there will cone a day, sooner than I know, that there will no longer be little helping hands in my kitchen to help make "imperfect" cookies and I will long for just one more time.

The dresser

I finished painting the dresser for Sloan to go in the room that he will share with Jackson. I've been done with it for over a month, but haven't taken the time to take pictures of it. Finally, I just decided to take pictures with my phone. They could be better, but they'll do. That's how I roll these days: good enough. The room is ready and waiting for Sloan. I may have to forcefully evict him though from the nursery. We tried once already, but after about 5 times of getting out of his bed and me putting him back in, HE asked to go back to his "baby room" where he promptly fell asleep.

And because I am using the blogger app for my iPad, I can't figure out how to caption each photo, so I will give a little summary here and you can reference it below. Like I said, that's how I roll these days.

First, is the dresser painted, second is the dresser when I bought it. I used the original pulls because they matched Jackson's little dresser pulls and I liked them. Third, is Jackson's dresser that I was trying to pair Sloan's new dresser with to make it seem a little more cohesive. Fourth, is the old red chair that we inherited from the Maple house when we bought and renovated it. Next, are personalized paintings I painted for the boys to emphasize the race car theme of the room. Last, is the little booger who needs to be sleeping in the room and enjoying my hard decorating work...

Her name

Drum roll please........

The girl's name will be Abigail Claire. We are excited for Abby Claire's arrival in April! Her daddy chose her first name and it's very fitting because it means "father's joy" and when he was praying way back 3 years ago, he heard that he should pray for his daughter, Abigail.

On a related note, below is a rocker that I like, but I am unsure whether I'd want a rocker or a glider like the one in my previous post. What do you think??

Nursery

Of course, as soon as I found out that I was having a girl (well, before that, actually), I have been gathering ideas for her nursery. It's so much fun! I would love to get started decorating, but I have yet to evict soon to be big brother Sloan from the current nursery. I might give it a go at Christmas break, bur I'm scared that he and Jackson will go all kinds of crazy in the same room at night. Yikes.

Anyway, the decorative side of me would love ti buy all new furniture, but the practical side of me screams NO WAY! So, I'm sticking with the same black crib, dresser, and changing table. I'll be getting a new chair because our old glider broke. I'm deciding on a glider or normal chair. I really do love a glider when nursing at night...

Well, here are some pics of ideas and my vision so far of her nursery!

Buddy: Fail

Buddy, is apparently too much responsibility for me and Jesse. We have almost forgotten to move him three different times (and we only just got him out two weeks ago), and today, or last night, we finally forgot to mov him. Jackson went downstairs this morning and saw Buddy in the same spot as yesterday and said, "hey! buddy is still in the little Christmas tree! WHAT?!". Oops.

So when Jackson went back upstairs to change his clothes, Jesse moved him to another location. He looked for Buddy again and saw that he moved. Jesse told him that Buddy must have fallen asleep last night and Jackson woke him up when he saw him the first time.

Yeah, I think the "magic" of Buddy will not last far into their childhood. Oh well.

Sloan's little birthday party

Here are the pics a few days late from Sloan's little birthday dinner/party. It's taken me a while because this time of year is super busy for us! Jesse just had his birthday yesterday too, so I have been busy making his cake and buying his gift, etc in addition to all the other daily busy-ness of life.

I was surprised that Sloan got the hang of opening his presents so quickly! Jackson only got to help him with the first one. He got an airplane car carrier from his Grammy and Papa, a new train set from Mommy and Daddy and Jackson, and a Little People Batman stunt set from his favorite non-family members: Mr. Chase and Ms. Stacy and their girls.

Buddy

Most of you have probably heard of Elf on the Shelf or have one. Ours is named Buddy. If you're on Pinterest, then you have also seen all the neat, fun things to do with the elf. I think a lot of these are super cute ideas- like setting him next to spilled sugar and making it look like he wrote his name in it or made a snow angel in it. Sadly, we can't do that at our house. My children have poor self restraint. The story goes, if you touch the elf, he can't fly back to the north pole to see Santa. I am positive that within one second of seeing Buddy within reaching distance, Buddy would be grabbed and taken and fought over and possibly unintentionally ripped apart. So, Buddy finds himself situated in high, safe, uncreative places and positions in ohr house. It works.

Disclaimer: we want our kids to focus on Jesus at Christmas and not Santa, so we make sure to explain that Santa and Buddy help us celebrate Jesus' birthday and remembering that Jesus is the best gift of all. It's still a work in progress.

Sloan turns 2!

Today, my sweet second born son turns 2! In one sense I can't believe that he is already two, but in the other sense, it seems like he's always been a part of our family. He is the biggest little stinker I've ever known, but has a sweet, sensitive heart in reality. He gets in trouble mostly because he thinks he is big enough to do most things, when in reality, he is not. You know, like cut vegetables with a chef knife or buckle himself into his carseat or discipline the dog. He's a mess and he makes me smile everyday. He ends every question or sentence with "mama". It's like he's my little duckling.

So, I've spent the day making his cake and wrapping his presents and doing a little shopping for pajamas for him. Well, the shopping kind of got out of control and I ended up buying only 2 pairs of pjs for him and about 8 articles of clothing for our baby girl. Yep, I'm already getting sucked in, but man! is there a lot of stuff that is just ridiculously cute on the girls' side of the store!! anyways... we don't do big birthday parties for the first and second birthdays. We usually have dinner with another family and a few presents. I think it's worked out well for my kiddos. Jackson is excited, i guess. He said this morning that Sloan can't blow out his candles, so he (Jackson) has to do it for him. I told him he had to give Sloan a chance first.

Happy birthday to my little meatball. I love you and your blue eyes so stinkin' much!