Has it really been 3 1/2 months since my last post? Wow!!!
Hoping to catch up with a few things this week. So here we go....
Just a little behind...
Valentine's Day And An Update on 29 Before 29
2/17/12
We had a great Valentine's Day! Our small group had dinner together (we meet on Tuesday evenings) and it was a great evening of fellowship. We enjoyed a taco bar and dark chocolate fondue.
Currey gave me a mani/pedi for Valentines which is always a sweet treat for a pregnant momma! Looking forward to being pampered very soon. Currey and I enjoyed an evening out on Wednesday. We had a fantastic dinner of tapas at Meson Sabika. Such a great evening together! Great food, relaxing evening and several hours of uninterrupted conversation with Currey. We are trying to squeeze in as many dates as we can before Little Man's arrival!
But it got me thinking...when Currey suggested Meson Sabika for dinner he didn't realize that it was on my list of 29 before 29. And it made me realize that I have not updated my list since July. So, here's a little update:
1. Take a sewing class
2. Read a book a month (I've read Bossy Pants and Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. I've got several others on my Kindle and I'm always open for suggestions!)
3. Write a recipe a month (I've written a couple. Hopefully I'll post them soon!)
4. Host a swap party
5. Have a new friend or a family over once a month for dinner (We've been doing well with this. Hopefully we will keep it up!)
6. Send one piece of “snail mail” a month (This may be one of my favorite tasks. Oh how I love stationary!!!)
7. Plant a garden
8. Make a bow board for all of Blythe’s hair bows
9. Take Blythe to the Zoo - Check!
10. Go away for an entire weekend with just Currey (and Youth Retreats Don’t Count!)
11. Take a cooking class with Currey
12. Update my blog weekly (Hummmm...not so much!)
13. Have dinner at Meson Sebeka - Check thanks to a thoughtful husband!
14. Take cookies to a neighbor - I'm going to say Check! We delivered hot chocolate and marshmallows to most of our neighbors at Christmas
15. Purge my cookbook collection
16. Put pictures in the frame that I got for all of Blythe’s first year photo sessions
17. Cook a recipe out of every cookbook I own (Moving in the right direction on this one! Hopefully once it's purged I'll have less to cook from. :)
18. Take Blythe to pick fruit/vegetables at a farm
19. See a concert in Chicago - Check! Matisyahu in July
20. Make cloth napkins
21. Cook a meal for friend just because
22. Go to the Kane County Flea Market
23. Make Tiramisu
24. Take Blythe to the Children’s Museum
25. Spend a Girls afternoon in Downtown Geneva
26. Learn to Grill
27. Use my ice cream maker at least 6 times (We've made 1 great batch and 1 one horrible, inedible batch.)
28. Spend intentional time with 1 life giving friend monthly (OK...this is actually my favorite one. I have been so blessed with fantastic friends!)
29. Upload all of our pictures to a storage site/organize our pictures
Clearly, I've got lots to do! I am again inspired to work on this list. Only 4 months to get this list tackled and I'm sure having a new baby soon will make it an easier task! :)
Hope you had a great Valentine's Day with the one you love!!!
Happy 2nd Birthday Blythe!!!
2/24/12
It's really hard to believe that Blythe is 2! Where oh where has the time gone?!?!? Here's what our precious little one is up to these days:
She has recently started ballet. To say that she loves it is an understatement! We thought it would be a goofy little adventure but we have been amazed at the teaching. She is actually learning skills and loves interacting with other kids.
Blythe is my "mini-me" and I love it! It's amazing to me how she's all girl. She loves shoes, purses and necklaces. When I get ready in the morning, she sits in the bathroom with me. She has her own make up brush that she uses to put on "make-up". She asks for "lips" every morning. That's what she calls chap stick. She pulls it out of the bathroom drawer and has me put it on.
She also loves shoes!!! We've stopped making a big deal about her clothing choices (she's been wearing rain boots for 3 weeks) and she is developing her own sense of style. Blythe loves wearing Currey and I's shoes around the house and has an opinion about her clothing most days.
Blythe loves to read and sing. She loves Elmo and coloring. Blythe is very meticulous and loves to clean up while singing the "Clean-up" Song. We are seeing her desire for independence. She loves to do everything for herself and gets very irritated if anyone tries to assist her.
She loves to talk and her vocabulary has exploded since Christmas. She loves to use her manners! She says Please (peas) and thank you (tu-tu) without being prompted. She has lots of funny sayings too.
She's still a good eater. Currently, she loves to eat everything with a spoon. EVERYTHING. She has a funny sign for spoon where she rolls her hands together and she does it repeatedly until a spoon is provided. She also prefers to eat out of a bowl. We love her little personality quirks. She keeps us entertained to say the least!
When she gets up from nap she goes looking for Daddy. She always says "daddy, where are you?" and runs around looking for him. She's a Daddy's girl to the core and loves for Currey to chase her.
Precious Peanut,
We love you more than you will ever know. You bring us much joy!!! We love spending our days watching you grow and learn. You have taught us lots about life and love. Our lives will never be the same. We look forward to celebrating all your milestones big and small! You are a bigger blessing than we could have ever imagined. We love being your Mommy and Daddy!
What Will Baby Bee?
12/31/11
Since we live several states away we have never been able to tell our families in person that we are expecting. My sister-in-law Caley suggested that we have a gender reveal party when we were in Texas and we decided it would be a great way to include our family in this exciting season.
Caley and John visited a couple of weeks before we went to Amarillo for Thanksgiving. I am not crafty but I was so inspired by pinterest! We decided on the theme, What Will Baby Bee?, based on lots of cute pictures of other gender reveal parties. Caley and I created most of the decor for the party. I was impressed with our work and it was a fun adventure for us to work on together.
We actually had our sonogram the day Caley and John came into town, so we knew we couldn't find out baby's gender and not spill the beans while they were there. The tech wrote the gender on a card that we tucked away once we got home. (We did end up peaking before the party. We wanted to celebrate together before we celebrated with everyone else. We were very impressed that we never let baby's gender slip, even while spending the entire weekend with my family for Jeffrey's wedding.)
Now on to the pictures...
The Banner that we made. LOVED it!!!
Our table.
The theme was pregnancy cravings so we had sweet, salty, sour and crunchy treats.
Our drink station.
The adorable cake!
The Big Sister to Be! She's so cute!
The Boy Votes
The Girl Votes
The votes. We had everyone write their name suggestion under their vote.
Very Entertaining!
We wanted Caley to cut the cake since she was so instrumental in helping me plan and execute all the party details.
The cake is BLUE!!!!!
We are thrilled to announce that Bennett Edwin Blandford will be joining our little family in March. We are so excited to be having a little boy and can not wait to meet him! Only three months from today! The time is flying by!
More thoughts on the season
Precious Friends,
Thank you so much for so many words of encouragement about my thoughts on Christmas post. It always feels good to know that you aren't alone and I was amazed at how many other Mommas are struggling with finding balance when celebrating the holidays.
Since I got so much feedback, I thought that I would share my thoughts thus far...
- I don't remember where I first heard the idea but we are keeping all of our Christmas cards this year. We are going to keep them in a small bucket in Blythe's room and use them to pray with Blythe. She LOVES pictures and we thought it would be a great way to introduce praying for others.
- My sister-in-law, Megan, shared this post. I love this idea! Blythe may need to be a little bigger but I love the concept.
- I have seen this Advent Book idea on several sites. I'll be collecting books this year to do with Blythe next year.
- Ashley posted this idea which I also plan on using. (Her blog is worth reading in general. You always leave being encouraged and challenged!)
I realize that we will probably take pieces of all of these ideas to fit our families needs. I'm already looking forward to next year as we celebrate the season with 2 little ones! We are making great memories this season and hope that you too are enjoying time spent with your families!
Ramblings
If I ever figure out how to telepathically send blogs you will be blown away but how many times I post a day! :) I write what feels like millions of blog posts in my head but getting them written out seems to happen less frequently.
Here are a few of the crazy things rolling around in my head....
Are you currently involved in a Bible Study? If the answer is no, please look into BSF. I've just finished my lesson from this week and I love it. A hot cup of coffee, God's word and a sleeping Peanut! I really should begin every day like this.
I started BSF 5 years ago and took a year off when I was working foster care. My mom has done BSF most of my life and I totally understand why she loves it. I am challenged, I grow, I meet new friends and get to spend every week with other women studying God's word. It's such a blessing! And Peanut gets to come too. She hears scripture, spends time with other kids and learns songs about God. It brings joy to my heart to hear her sweet voice singing!
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I can not believe that Amarillo has now had snow TWICE!!! We've yet to have any and I'm ready to experience snow. Please remind me of this when it's mid February and the snow has been around for a month! I'm hoping that we have snow by Christmas. Always makes the holidays feel more festive.
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Since we are all friends here, I'm going to admit that I'm really struggling with how to celebrate Christmas well with Blythe. She still doesn't really "get" Christmas but I know that next year will be here before I know it. I was really encouraged and challenged by this post. I found some ideas to keep and others that weren't a fit for us. I know that what we decide for our family won't be for all families and I love that.
We are spending a lot of time in prayer and just talking through how we want to celebrate as a family. It's a new season of life. I long for Blythe to know and understand the true meaning of Christmas but I also grew up with great celebrations and traditions that I want to continue as well. I know that we will find a way to incorporate it all and I look forward to growing as a parent.
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I loaded tons of pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Texas onto Facebook. We are trying to be much more intentional with our picture taking while with family. Already, we are so glad that we challenged ourselves! We have loved looking back at our most recent trips and Peanut loves to look at pictures of herself. :) The child has very healthy self esteem!
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Because no post is complete without a picture...
Blythe was an adorable flower girl. We were thrilled that she walked down the isle! My brillant mom had an Amarillo girl who is at Baylor watch Blythe during the actual ceremony so we could enjoy the wedding. Blythe stayed at the reception dancing until the Bride and Groom Left at 10. She enjoyed herself! And all the cupcakes that she snagged my flashing that smile.
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Blythe and I went to the doctor today and got to hear Baby's heartbeat. I hope to do a post soon about our gender reveal party! Baby is growing and is healthy with a storng heartbeat. We are so grateful for a healthy baby!
Hope that you are all doing well on this Wednesday! Enjoy the rest of your week and the joy of this holiday season!
Hello Blog land!
11/7/11
Greetings Blog land! Clearly we've been missing from the blogoshpere but hope to get back on track. Here's some random snippets of life lately!
Lots has been going on but first off, I'd like to introduce you to Blandford Baby #2!
This is at 18 weeks. It was taken after a wedding rehearsal and I was tired! :) But we had yet to get a belly shot and felt it was necessary. I was horrible at taking regular pictures with Blythe and believe I'll be even worse this time around!
It's been a very different pregnancy than I had with Blythe. I've been much sicker and my sickness lasted several weeks longer. We are thankful that everything is going smoothly at this point and thrilled that we will soon be finding out the gender of this baby. We are at the half way point with this pregnancy and can't believe how fast the time is flying by! Baby is due at the end of March and we could not be more thrilled to be expanding our little family!
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Blythe is a BLAST! She's at such a fun age. She talks all the time, loves to sing and enjoys spending time with other kids (as long as Mommy isn't holding another kid!) She often points to my belly and her belly and says "Baby!" She is in for quite the shock when there's actually a baby at home! Initially she would say that the new baby was a girl not a boy. Now when asked she says that Mommy is not having a baby. :)
Here's a picture of her from Halloween.
She was so adorable as Elmo!
She didn't really understand the whole concept of Halloween. We enjoyed being in Amarillo to celebrate this year and our families enjoyed showing off their little Elmo as well.
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We are loving our new house and are finally starting to feel settled. We are slowly working on the house and if we ever get a room finished I'll get some pictures up. We had no idea how slow of a process it would be but we are really enjoying this new journey!
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I have started another job working at a local hospital in the ER. It's only a couple of shifts a month but it keeps the social work part of my brain engaged. It's a great place to work and I'm thrilled with the opportunity to use my social work skills. And it doesn't take me way from my family to do it. It's a win win situation!
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