My blue eye'd girl

First off, i never thought i'd have a blue eye'd girl. Jeff's eyes are green and mine are brown and seeing as how brown is a dominant gene (if it's passed), i thought it'd be a miracle for my kids to have even green eyes, much less BLUE! But Rhyan got some Ford genes passed along and so there you have it :-)

Yesterday was gorgeous weather. Such a tease for spring (which i ALREADY have spring fever) but i was SO grateful for it! I got to dress Rhyan in a cute little spring dress that will likely be too small for her by the time it's warm enough to wear. So I thought i'd share some cute pics!

I posted this one just for my friend Brian... this is her oscar winning response: "what? me?!" :-)

I, also, just HAD to share this one. Rhyan and i went to Target Sat. morning and on the way home she was super tired. Her teeth have been bothering her some lately (bottom canines coming all the way in... those boogers are sharp and long!) so some nights she doesnt sleep really well (she doesnt wake up crying or anything, just seems to toss and turn more). Anyways, when we got home i tried to wake her up since it wasnt really naptime but she was OUT. So i put her on the couch while i got in groceries thinking spud could wake her up, but nope! I guess she needed the sleep. She still took a good nap, so no harm, no foul :-)

My sweet, sleepy angel!

Hope everyone has a great week. I'm off to a productive one! I just wish this rain would go AWAY!

Random Sweetness :-)

Mommie, Mama, Elizabeth, Trevor and myself trecked to Ellenwood yesterday to visit with some family for a housewarming shower for a relative who is "leaving the nest". We had a great time eating, talking, laughing and eating some more. It was great to see Mommie get to have such a great time with her family (this group we were visiting are her neices and beyond so they become fairly distant cousins for me...). It was totally worth the hike for that, if nothing else :-)

While we were sitting around talking, the conversation somehow got directed at how lazy i was as a kid. How i never put my clothes away, but now am a freak about Jeff putting his away. How i somehow had a stomach ache after every meal that seemingly lasted until the last dish was put away (um, i DO have i.b.s., yo!), etc... We had some good laughs talking about how awful of a kid I was (seriously, i didnt ever get into trouble, but i was a tad bit lazy...). It was all in jest and I was happy for anyone who thought it was funny to get a laugh at my expense.

But then today, after church, Mommie stopped by my house. She was dropping off a couple of dollars for gas money for yesterday (which i told her was NOT needed). But while she was here she said something to the extent that no matter how lazy i was, how many times i hid out in the bathroom and how often i left clothes out, she loved me then and loves me now. Then she gave me a big kiss. :-) Seriously, i about cried! It was so sweet of her to say that. If you know my mommie, you know she's not mushy AT ALL! So it was really, really sweet.

So, why am i sharing our special moment with the whole blog world? Well, besides wanting to have it in my blog book (this is, after all, my online journal that i "let" the world read), I wanted to say that THAT is the kind of Mommy I want to be to Rhyan. That while i know that her teen years are likely to bring heartache and separation in our relationship (dont all mom's of teen daughters go through that to some extent?), that we, like Mommy and I, will get through it and be fine. I want to remember how important it is to be able to laugh at her "shortcomings" in her adult years and let her know that no matter what she may do/not do, I love her.

Just like my Mommie loves me. And that love, my friends, does more for the soul than anything I've ever known :-)

Rhyan: 21 Months Old!

Every time i turn around, Rhyan is another month old and that much closer to being TWO! Ahhh.
I swear, this past month has been so much fun with her. Trying, at times, but overall we've really seen a lot of personality from her this month. Her vocab has really grown this month. Everyone told me that around 20ish months or so she would start to pick up more words and not to worry if she wasnt talking much before then, but as any 1st time parent knows, its so hard to believe what others tell you until you see it for yourself. So, i'm just going to try to list some things i can remember about her....

• Theres no way i can remember exactly which words are new, but she now says "NO NO", "baby", "mommy", "cuse me", "MINE", "baahh-neee" (barney), "tay-tuuu" (thank you), "dink" (drink), "nana" (banana), "juice", "papa" (i show her pics of Daddy), "giiin" (again), "i pussssh", "i eat", "sish" (fish), "bosh" (bath), "bella" (mamas dog), "Tracy" very clearly now!, "wowers" (flowers), "ower" (shower), and can do noises for LOTS of animals including a chicken, rooster, lion, sheep, pig, cow, dog, duck, horse, cat, and i'm sure i'm leaving some out!
• She has gotten her lower canines this past month. The lower right one came in the day after Christmas and the lower right on Jan 13th. The canines seem to have bothered her a good bit. She's drooling like a faucet and whining a good bit with them...
• Naps are going fine. The afternoon nap has moved to 1pm most days (because one of the little girls that stays with her at Tracy's house has gone to one nap a day and it starts at 1 so its easier to just put all the girls down at once... because Rhyan started noticing that she was getting laid down sooner than Shelby and Taylor and wasnt happy with that! lol). She sleeps from 1-3:30 most days. Some days she wakes up a few minutes before that, and there are lots of days we have to wake her up at that time. Otherwise she has a hard time going to bed at night.
• Over the Christmas crazyness we moved her bedtime to 7:30. On the days that I work, in particular, this is very helpful. I get to see her 30 extra minutes which is huge, considering i'm gone from her from 7:30-6:15ish those days...
• Her eczema is a little worse in the cold winter months, so we're trying to keep it under control with every other day baths, cortisone cream on flare ups, lotion daily and a humidifier in her room to keep moisture in the air.
• She's eating well, although she goes through spurts of liking/not liking stuff. For example, after months of not even tasting chili or veggie soup, she now loves it. And after months of loving PB&J's for lunch (not daily, of course), she wont touch them. She's picked up yogurt again, but that is really more of a day to day questionable food :-) Point being, she shares her opinions about food quite effectively, these days.
• She is in her "big girl" room now and LOVES it! The transition was un-remarkable. She didnt mind at all. She seemed to know it was her new room and has treated it as such from day one. It's slightly larger so we put some toys in there, which she loves.
• She loves the t.v. and knows how to turn it on with the remote. We limit t.v. to one 30 minute show a day (unless she's sick or we're sick or all just tired or something) which she sometimes takes better than others.
• Rhyan is very into climbing right now.
  
• She is testing boundaries. She has had a few days of balling her head off if we told her "no" about anything. We completely ignore any tantrums and do NOT give in (or even give her any attention for it) which keeps them to a minimum. She goes through spurts with these like anything else... i guess she wants to see if they start working :-)
• Rhyan is very, very playful lately. She loves to be chased!
• We re-instituted "room time" this month. All was going well and she was up to 25 minutes at a time... and then sickness came. And we're kinda back at square one. We do it at 10am each morning.

Schedule is flexible, but generally it is:
7:15ish wake up, brush teeth
8am breakfast
8:30 help mommy clean up
8:45-10am free play or run errands/ clean the house. I am "with" her but not necessarily playing with her the entire time. We play, i do a chore, we play, i clean...
10am t.v. time
10:30 independent play time in her room
11am craft time with mommy (playdough, coloring, puzzles, etc...)
11:30 free play (so i can fix lunch)
12 lunch
12:30 help mommy clean up, reading time and ready for nap
1pm nap
3:30 up from nap, snack
4-6 play time as a family/free play/ play with daddy (outside time if its pretty enough)
6pm dinner (This comes later if i'm working)
6:30 bath (this is switched w/ dinner if i'm working...)
7pm family time
7:30 bed

I'll reiterate that i live on a very flexible schedule. When we have no where to go, this is pretty much the way the day goes. But generally, we have an errand to run either in the morning or afternoon. And there are lots of times that we spend part of the late morning visiting a family member and in this case, we do more structured stuff earlier in the day and use the late morning as free play. I'm not overly concerned with making sure every minute of the day has a purpose, but i do want to make sure that she is 1. capable of playing independently of others and 2. increasing her attention span so that she doesnt flit from one activity to another every 2-3 minutes.

She seriously is a doll. Some of my very favorite things about rhyan right now are 1. her "singing" 2. her dancing 3. the way she hides in our closet and jumps out and says "boo!" 4. the way she says please (she basically says "p" and follows it with her tongue spitting on you... hard to explain, but imagine blowing a raspberry with a "p" in front) and 5. the way she calles "daaahhdeee" and "puhhhhh" at night before she goes to bed so she can love on them and tell them "nigh nigh".

Gosh, this age is precious :-)

It's a........

BOY!!!!

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday! Jeff was able to come along, which was exciting (but who am i kidding, i would have killed him if he didnt!).

First off, let me just say that the ultrasound showed that everything is developing perfectly and our baby is very healthy, if not slightly large. Ugg. And we are SO grateful for his health!

Jeff has, since day one, wanted another girl. He loves having a girl! I think that he's a little afraid of having a hyper-active boy like himself :-) Actually, when the lady said "its a boy", Jeff asked if she was sure and she replied "yeah, i dont think that's gonna fall off". You'll see what i'm talking about in the pic below! lol.

I, on the other hand have known (as much as you can know with nothing scientific to prove it) since day one that it was a boy... and I've been STOKED about it!

So one of us was going to be surprised by whatever the news was. Needless to say, it was Jeff who was surprised. Actually, i think he's still grieving a little (haha) but he's warming up to the idea. I keep telling him how GREAT it's going to be to have one of each! How adorable and easy going little boys are, etc. I absolutely thought my little cousin, Tyler, was the cutest thing ever growing up. We both grew up in our grandparents house (until he and his mom and sister moved next door! haha) and he is 13 years younger than me so i really remember him as a baby. He was scrumptious!

Now, dont get me wrong, I LOVE having a girl. But I am equally excited to have a little boy, now!

The baby is facing the ultrasound. His right arm is up by his face and his left is in front of his left eye. He wasnt positioned in a way that we could get a profile pic :-(

DEFINITELY a boy :-)

Little baby feet!

My ever-growing self at 20 weeks!

So far, I've gained about 10ish pounds. At this rate, i may explode by 40 weeks. :-( I'm carrying more all over my stomach as opposed to with Rhyan when i carried very, very low. This is because the baby is laying in a transverse position. His head is on my lower left side and his feet on the upper right. He's just shy of one pound and is measuring a little large. Dr Pohl said he doesnt like to induce boys very early b/c they have a tendency to have more lung issues. So it looks like he's gonna be in there for the duration...

Dr Pohl also asked us if we want him to do the circumcision or if we would not want it done... um, yes, please. Which immediately brought me to the reality that there are things about boys that i totally have not thought about! Oh, well... we'll figure it out.

So, overall, things are GREAT! I've GOT to work on drinking more water b/c i'm already getting a little bit of swelling in my feet (mostly related to working more than usual). But I'm feeling good and super grateful.

Names to come!!!

Love and War

We started a marriage class at church this past Sunday. There are 4 couples, including our fearless leaders, our Pastor and his Wife. I didnt even have to "drag" Jeff to it. Not that things are "bad" at all, but I think we're both interested to see if we can make this thing called marriage any easier for the two of us.

I thought I'd share a paragraph from the 1st chapter.

Because marriage is hard, sometimes painfully hard, your first Great Battle is not to lose heart. That begins with recovering desire- the desire for the love that is written on your heart. Let desire return. Let it remind you of all that you wanted, all that you were created for.
And then consider this- what if God could bring you your heart's desire? It's not too late. It isn't too hard. You are not too far along nor are you and your spouse too set in your ways. God is the God of all hope. He is, after all, the God of the Resurrection. Nothing is impossible for Him. So give your heart's desire some room to breathe.
What if the two of you could find your way to something beautiful?
THAT would be worth fighting for.

I dont know about you, but i know that i want the best marriage I can have. For me. For our children. For Jeff.

But most of all, I know that this relationship is the one that is most closely relates to my relationship with Christ. We (his children, his church) are referred to as his "bride" so often in the New Testament. And i know that my relationship with Jeff and how i treat him will either bring God glory, or it wont. It will either please my Heavenly Father (and build up my husband) or it wont. Either way, it is a relationship I will answer to Him for.

So for these, and may other reasons, I am excited to start this journey of growing in a closer relationship with my husband, and the Lord.

The Life of Rhyan

I found some random pics of Rhyan I wanted to post. None of them really fit into a themed post, though, so this will just be all about the life of Rhyan and all she's busy doing these days:

Climbing, Climbing, Climbing...

Having play dates with friends!

Cleaning up messes that she makes... "uh-ohhhh"

Helping Mommy Blog

Talking to all her friends...

Checking to make sure her toes are clean....

and making sure Daddy's are clean, too... (ick!)

Sitting in anything she can fit into...

wearing all kinds of strange (but clean) apparel as hats

and just being plain CUTE!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday: New Favorite Hiding Spot

Me: "Ok, baby girl... time to clean up!"
Rhyan: "uh-ohhhh" and walked away.

She did help clean up, but only after she tried to sit in every bowl before putting it back....

Zaxbys....

has never tasted as good as it did tonight when we ventured out for a bit. Rhyan actually put her hands in the air and yelled "YAY!" when she saw the all to familiar fried food on her plate! haha. I also insisted on grabbing a blizzard on the way home. So just so you know, life is good again here.

The Quiet...

3 Snow days now. The first one was pretty great. I was excited to have Jeff home with Rhyan and I for an extra day! We ventured out a couple of times and tried to "play", although that's a little difficult to do with a toddler who looks at the snow and says "burrr" and doesnt want to touch it. We relaxed. I cooked. We watched tv and relaxed some more.
Day 2 we cleaned some. I mopped floors, vacuumed and cooked some more. Jeff cleaned out all of his drawers and found some things for the kidney foundation. We flipped the mattress and washed sheets.
Day 3 we cleaned some more. I removed all of the caulk from the fiberglass shower and re-caulked it so it might actually look clean again (man, that stuff gets DISGUSTING! even if you do scrub it with bleach...). I dusted pretty much everything in the house. I vacuumed some more floors.

But there are two things that i'm always complaining that i dont have time for but really want to do. The first is to spend time with the Lord. To just be quiet and spend daily quality time with Him. The second is to exercise. Even if only for 20 minutes on the elleptical. But have I done either? No. And this really breaks my heart. It makes me question my priorities and realize that the fact is, these two things are easy to complain about not having time to do, but in reality, we all have time to do exactly what we want to do.

Now, dont get me wrong. Some days are crazy. Some days you get up early with great intentions and mid devotion your kid wakes up and is ready to start the day 30 minutes early. Or an emergency distracts you. Whatever. But this week, i've had none of that. I've had nothing but time, and i've used it to clean my home.

Now if the old saying "cleanliness is next to godliness", i'd for sure be on my way to being my own little goddess. But it's just a saying, and there's nothing biblical about it. In fact, God desires just the opposite from me. Remember the story of Mary and Martha? Yeah, something tells me I would have been chastised for cleaning the house when Jesus was there to visit just as badly then as I feel i am now.

I dont know if its guilt that is keeping me away from pursuing a deeper relationship with Him or what. I do feel badly. Shameful, even. And perhaps this is part of why i find all sorts of unimportant things to keep me busy rather than dealing with my own issues and repenting. Or maybe it's because life is going smoothly right now and I feel i have no "need" to pursue Jesus. I dont know which to be more ashamed of. I know that i ALWAYS have need of Jesus. That my very breath and life comes from Him. But its so easy to be distracted by life and to only pursue Him when things are in a downward spiral. And for now, my life is just the opposite. Yes, i know this is because of His blessings. But geez, its easy to over look that. Or, maybe i just dont know where to start. Its so hard to know where to pick up. Um, i'm thinking "i'm so sorry" would be a good place to begin a conversation with Him.

And exercising... I'll just say right now that there is not a bone in my body that wants to actually do that. What i really want is to have a desire to work out. And i dont. And there is nothing magical that is going to make me want to. There is no easy place to start.

Ok, so i have a point. The point is, both of these things are important. Having a strong relationship with the Lord and being physically fit ARE desirable things for me. But i lack motivation to get started. And the fact is, it's not going to be easy. I'm not used to denying my flesh and disciplining my body to do what is right over what is easy. But these are the options:
1. Give in to my flesh and continue to be lazy in two of the most important areas in life and regret it, all of my life (and therefore set and example for my kid(s) that being undisciplined is ok) OR
2. Fight my flesh. ASk the Lord to grant me a little willpower and walk in the Spirit. I've lived this way before and it was delightful. What made me fall off the wagon, so to speak? Who can remember?!

All i know is that I dont want to dream of what might have been, physically or spiritually. Both are conquerable things to work on. Both work hand in hand. And I truly believe that while it really sucks to be in my position right now (spiritually infantile and physically weak), there is forgiveness in Christ and strength in His Spirit.

I'm sure i'm not the only one struggling in these cold winter days to take care of body and spirit... will you join me in working to discipline our bodies to do what we WANT them to do instead of our flesh ruling over us?! I hope so. I do love accountability!

Wordless Wednesday: Mommy's little helper!

AND there's another new post below!

The Clock

My friend Rachael had commented on Rhyan's room and thought I should share about the clock I had put in her room... I had not thought of doing this, but after she mentioned it I thought, "brilliant!".

My Daddy was a great woodworker. He loved working with different kinds of woods. Poplar wood was a favorite of his along with oak, cherry, etc... the "real" stuff if you know what i mean. Mommie became quite good at painting and so the two of them together made some of my favorite, most sentimental things that I have in my possession. This clock falls into that category.

I dont remember if it was for Christmas or our birthdays or what, but one year when we were young, Daddy made these clocks for us cousins (Lindy, Tracy and Myself... Ashley and Tyler hadn't come along yet). He got a picture of each of us and made it a part of the clock along with our names. My clock has a picture from the little miss dacula pageant I was in when i was FIVE! (No worries, it was nothing like toddlers and tiara's!) It has been hanging in our extra bedroom for years and while I've loved having it displayed, I've always assumed it no longer worked. Well, when we were getting Rhyan's new room ready, Jeff said he thought it'd be cute to use it in her room so he got a new battery for it and voila! it worked!!!! WHO KNEW?!

So we decided that even though it is 25ish years old and not really Rhyans, it was a perfect way to share her "Papa" with her as she gets older. She also has a dresser that sits below it that was mine growing up and the changing table is a piece made by Jeff's "Pepere" who was another fabulously talented craftsman.

We just hope to be able to share our grandfather's legacy's with our kids the way our parents have with us. We are so blessed!

Rhyans Big Girl Room

Jeff has worked so hard over the last week to empty out our guest bedroom, move all of the furniture to the bonus room, empty our the closet in her "new" room and paint it! By the way, in the process of cleaning out the closet, he took it upon himself to take my wedding dress to the cleaners and have it cleaned and preserved. Are y'all jealous that my husband was totally showing off how awesome he is?!

Let me 1st say that I had to pick a paint color in about 5 minutes at home depot. I prefer Ralph Lauren paints normally but they dont carry it anymore so I browsed through the Martha Stewart paint and was automatically drawn to one called Garden Shed. It is a light greenish color and exactly what I had in mind for her room! I wanted her room to be like a garden :-) Soothing and calming and with little bits of color. I'm thrilled that it turned out so well given our time constraints.

Let me also say that we've not yet hung her curtains and I need to move one picture AND I'm looking for a smaller club chair to put in there (maybe pink and green plaid or something like that) but it's as done as it will be for a while :-)






She seemed to pick up on the idea of this being her new room very easily! The very first night when we told her it was time to go "night night" she walked right into her new room. No hesitation! Sadly, she was sick that night and actually vomited in her bed, but hey, i guess its all broken in :-(. Anyhoo, here are the pics! What do y'all think?!