a year in review

Since it's been over a year since I last wrote, I will give you a quick recap. In the past year-ish, we:

1) Sold our house.

2) Moved in with friends because we didn't have a new house yet (Thank you, Martins!!!).

3) Bought a new house.

4) Made lots of changes to our new house.

5) Started a new "school" year for our kiddos at Mom's Day Out.

6) Welcomed new babies to our extended family & friends' families.

7) Experienced some things within our family that I hope & pray NEVER happen again.

8) Had some pretty significant family changes - both good & bad.

9) Hosted my extended family Christmas at our new house.


10) Celebrated our kiddos' birthdays in a much-scaled down fashion from previous years.

So...there you go! Our year in review. Hopefully I will write again soon, with more detail. I've got some things I've been thinking about that y'all should hear. :-)

Keep in touch!

an update - finally.

This blog has been neglected. As if you couldn't tell.

I love to write, and I enjoy it. But it is just not a priority for me right now. What takes up my time, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Better yet, I'll show you.

I know you already knew I would say that. You already know that parenting two small children takes time away from blogging. On the other hand...I read blogs of moms of young kids all the time. I honestly don't know how they do it! I guess blogging is just more of a priority for them in what little free time they have. I also work part time at a job that I absolutely LOVE, so blogging during naps isn't usually an option since I'm at the office as much as I can be. Hopefully someday I will get back into the swing of it. I occasionally have some jumbled up thoughts come to mind, regarding adoption, or religion, or parenting...and it's usually when I'm in the shower or driving down the road, and by the time I get anywhere near a computer, I'd rather be reading or eating or napping. Such is life!

To keep some resemblance of a journal of my kids, I'll post a few pictures of them that our good friend Allena Burbage took. These are Tyson's 3-month pictures, and a few of Natalie just before she turned 3. [Oh yeah...by the way...Natalie turned 3!! Pics of her party to come. I kinda forgot to post about it. ;-)]

Have a great weekend, y'all!!

Natalie is TWO!!

So, a month ago, my kid turned two. And I forgot to tell y'all about it! Shame on me!! Here is a little synopsis of my little firecracker of a toddler:

• She is not a super picky eater, but she won't eat just anything. She loves chicken nuggets, hot dogs, pizza, and macaroni & cheese. And of course, cookies. :-) Probably her biggest obsession though, is crackers. The girl would eat her weight in crackers! And speaking of weight...
• At her 24-month checkup, she threw me for a loop when she went ballistic over being weighed & measured! I was expecting a fit when the time came for shots {which also happened, mind you}, but I did NOT expect her to go so crazy at the scales & ruler. It wasn't an easy checkup, but we did get shots & stats: 33" tall (25th percentile) and 26lb, 9oz (50th percentile). This seems backwards to me because all of her pants are either too short or too big around the waist!
• She is a chatterbox! The girl LOVES to talk. Unless, of course, you ask her to "perform" by saying something. Then she clams up. Because she is also Miss Independent. :-) She will say a few short sentences: "No Mommy, not dat ah-sauce [applesauce] - dat one!" This week she has started saying "Wow! Awesome!" Which is funny, because neither her daddy nor her mommy say "awesome" very much. Just goes to show she will pick up on anything! So please watch your language around her, haha!
• Mom's Day Out is still tons of fun for her! Most days she comes home with dirt in her hair, and in her shoes, and under her nails, and sometimes in her eyes.......
• She loves to see babies out in public & go up & talk to them. She'll say, "Awww, baby!! Awwww, sweet." I think she will make a wonderful big sister!
• Coloring, stickers, swinging, mimicking Mommy, playing with Izzie, being outside, going to "Mah-mama's house" and "Mimi's house"...these are a few of her favorite pastimes.

There is so much more I could say about her, because she is so full of personality. But she is waking up from her nap now, so I must go. :-) I will leave you with a few pictures from her birthday party & beyond.

Have a blessed day!

Nat's Stats

Ok, so I had every intention of using my blog to document Natalie's milestones, but of course, the very fact that Natalie exists sort of interfered with that. :) I used to be such an organized person, and she has totally turned my world upside down! In a good way, of course. :) The quickest & easiest way for me to keep up with what she does has been by posting pics on Facebook, so if you're friends with me over there, then you know how obsessed I am with posting pics of her. Sure, most of them are just because I think she's so darn cute, but some of them are actually so I can go back & remember the important milestones during her first year. I haven't posted any updates on the blog since she was 7 months old. Yeah, bad mom here. Holla.

Having said all that...here's a little {or not so little...} recap of the past 2.5 months of her life...

Natalie is now 9 months old {ok, almost 10. I like to round down; 10 months sounds WAY too close to 1 year}.
She sat up by herself in her crib at 7 months.
At 7.5 months old, she got her first tooth, shortly followed by her second.
Her first Thanksgiving was spent in Albany, GA, with Mimi's family. We then came back home & spent the day after Thanksgiving at Granmama's house with her side of the family.
She started pulling up at 8 months old, which is also when she started crawling!
We taught her to "gimme five" at 8 months old. {I say that like she's a dog we're teaching tricks...}
Her first Christmas was a blast! We had our "local Wishum Christmas" on December 20th at Mimi & Paparoxy's house; then Christmas at home with mommy & daddy on December 23rd; went to Americus, GA, on Christmas Eve to see Gigi & the rest of the Wishums for Christmas Day; and finally took a trip to Athens, TN for Christmas with Baron's family during New Year's. It was a busy 2-week-long Christmas & it was lots of fun!
At her 9-month check-up, she weighed 20.6 lbs & was 27.75 in tall.
We have lots of playdates with our other baby friends from church. They will have so much fun growing up together!She is now eating just about any fruit or veggie available as baby food, and she loves her oatmeal at breakfast & rice at supper. She is not a fan of meat yet, and I have yet to get her to drink juice or drink anything from a sippy cup. She loves puffs and yogurt melts & started eating them by herself at around 8 months.She loves to "talk"! She says "mama" {although she definitely does not associate that word with me :)}, "bye bye" {she will even wave, if you catch her on a good day!}, and she tries to say "puppy" when Toby is around {it comes out as "puh puh"}.She loves music, and will "dance" whenever she hears a beat.
Other than a little cold {no fever} and the usual teething symptoms, Natalie hasn't gotten sick yet. {Knock on wood}

I think I just about covered everything. :) Here are a few pics to sum up the past couple of months...of course with Thanksgiving & Christmas, there were LOTS more pics so it's hard to narrow it down. :)


Side note: Ok. These pics are in backwards order. Blogger does that. {I hate blogger.} And I have spent WAY too much time on this post, and I really need to go fix dinner, so instead of putting these in the correct order...just use your imagination. :)

{at the mall with Harris & Alexa}

{I love my daddy!}

{not so sure about this Santa fella}

{Merry Christmas!}

{photo by Shannon Grissett}

{photo by Shannon Grissett}

{playing with cousin Ean at Thanksgiving}

{first tooth!}

anyone out there?

Does anyone still read my blog? Doubtful. Sorry I've been neglecting you. It's just easier to post short snippets & pics on facebook than blogger. So, if you're on facebook & you're friends with me, check out all my pics of Natalie over there. If you're on facebook & you're not friends with me, shame on you! :) Friend request me. If I know you, congratulations. If I don't...sorry, no offense but I don't befriend strangers. :) Anyway here are just a few pics of Natalie to show how much she's grown in her short 3 months of life! {Also, I promise to eventually finish writing "The Natalie Diaries". No, really. I will.}

{2 weeks}

{4 weeks}

{6 weeks}

{8 weeks}

{9 weeks, with new cousin Izzie}

{3 months...Daddy's tickling me!}