2013 so far.........

Today I decided to give you a glimpse into what has been going on in my life this year.  The first 2 months have been hard, stressful, emotional, tiring, and so much more.  For most of January and a lot of February Emilee and I were sick.  That was hard enough as it was, I really began to wonder if we were ever going to feel normal again.  During all of that, fortunately during one of the few times I was feeling okay, my Dad had a heart attack.  That is never a phone call you ever want to get, it crushed me.  It was so hard to see him in the hospital, I can only imagine what my Mom and Dad where going through.  Happily he his still with us today.  Looking at it you can see tiny miracles that happened to help him survive.  A couple of weeks after that my Grandmother passed away.  I was not expecting it to happen, and it also crushed me.  It's still hard for me to think about everything that has happened and not start crying.  Which tells you a lot, my husband and a lot of my family would tell you I am not a crier.  Not everything has been bad, we celebrated 2 nieces birthdays, a nephews birthday and baptism,  my moms birthday, and Emilee's birthday (I'll tell you about hers later).  The day after my Grandma passed away we had a cute nephew join our family.  We also got to see Curtis for a few days while he was here for the funeral.  So the last 2 months have been pretty dark, with just brief moments of sunshine.  I am hoping that I have had my fill this year, and that everything will be much better for the next 10 months.   We will just have to wait and see.

One of My Favorite Things to do

I love to read.  It's such a simple statement but it's so true.  I remember in 3rd grade not being a very strong reader, something happened that year.  By the end of the year I had grown in leaps and bounds.  My love of reading has only grown since.  The last few years I have found it hard to read as much as I use to which really made me sad.  When Emilee started Kindergarten, I started volunteering an hour a day every day.  It didn't make any sense for me to drive all the way home and turn around 30 minutes later to drive back to pick her up.  I started finding things I could do, that hour that I wait has become magical to me.  I sit back and read while I wait for her, I am loving it.  Between September and December of last year I read a lot of books.  This year I decided I would keep track of the books I read, and thought there is no better place than my blog.  I am going to try to keep a list of the books I read for me to remember, and maybe if you are looking for a book to read you could look at the list I have and pick one.  If you ever feel like you have found a book that I would like to read let me know, I will more than likely read it.  With Emilee starting to read, I thought it would be a nice thing to keep track of the books she reads.  One day she can look back and see the first books she ever read by herself.

If you look at the side of my blog you will find the way to our reading list.

Another New Year

For the past few weeks I have been thinking about the goals we set in 2012 and the things that have happened.  It is exciting to know that we kept our family goal.  Because of the goal we did see some blessings come into our lives when we needed them.  It was also a year of testing our faith, there were some things that we thought would happen for us that didn't.  I know the things I wanted to happen  didn't happen for us because it wasn't time yet.  I am excited for the goals that I have set for myself this year, and the goals that Adam and I have set as a couple. It is wonderful to realize the goals that we have kept over the last few years.  I look forward to 2013 and the adventures that are awaiting our little family.

The most wonderful time of the year

 I really do love this time of year, even though everyone is a little busier and the weather can be crazy.  I love the way people remember to be kind, think of others, and to spend time with family.  The traditions that we start help form memories for years to come.  Emilee loves the countdowns that we do.  Yes I said countdowns, we have 4 different countdowns. 

We have a chocolate chain, this is a tradition from my family.  As a Child I loved getting a little piece of chocolate each day.  Now it's Emilee who reminds us every morning that we need to eat a piece of chocolate. 

 We have an Advent Calendar that I love.   Adam bought it for our family a few years ago.  It's fun and sometimes hard to think of different activities to do each day.  Emilee loves opening the doors to find what we are doing for the day.  Some of the activities we do have become traditions.

I love books, I am very lucky because my Husband also loves books.  We buy Emilee a new Christmas book every year to read on Christmas Eve. Thanks to that tradition and the books that we bought before she came into our lives we have a lot of books.  Last year, thanks to pinterest, we started a new tradition.  We wrap the books we have, place them under Emilee's tree and unwrap one each night.  It's a great way to make sure you keep reading the books you have bought in previous years. 

 

This year we wanted to do more to keep reminding us of the True Reason for Christmas.  We decided that we would buy a large picture of Christ.  We covered the picture with 24 squares a card stock with a date on them.  Every night Emilee takes down a square eventually to uncover the whole picture.  We read a scripture, sing a song and then read a story to remind us of Christ and his kindness.  Emilee has been trying to guess what the picture is since day one.  I love the traditions we have in our family.  I know that the traditions will change and grow as our family gets older.  I hope that Emilee will always have fond memories, and maybe want to carry on at least one of these traditions when she is older. 

Box Tops

Our school (like many others) collects box tops.  I knew that I wanted to help our school by collecting them, I also knew that I had two problems.

Problem #1:  I knew that I would lose track of them.  Things in our house seem to just disappear.

Problem #2:  We don't seem to buy a lot of things that have box tops.  I would need help collecting.

I made these boxes as a solution to both problems.  I keep one in the cupboard it gives me a place to store them after we cut them out.  It also serves as a reminder to Adam and I to look on the things we buy.    We also made one for Grandma and Grandpa.  They said they would help us, so we decided that we should make them a box too.

It was fun and easy to make these cute boxes.  We went to Hobby Lobby and picked up two of the Paper Mache boxes they sell.  Emilee wanted to decorate the one for Grandma so we let her pick the color of paint   and the stickers she wanted to use.  After painting we sealed it with a fun sealer with glitter in it.  Emilee did a really great job decorating Grandma box.  When I painted ours I used a stencil  I created with my Cricut.  It is great having a place to keep our box tops, we have collected more than I thought we would.

Tooth Fairy

We noticed Emilee finally had a wiggly tooth sometime in July.  She is not like other kids, she would not touch it or even wiggle it.  She kept telling us she didn't want to lose her tooth.  About a week later we noticed that her big tooth was coming in behind the baby tooth, she still wouldn't wiggle her tooth.  Around that time she had a dentist appointment so we asked about her teeth.  She was told if the tooth didn't fall out by the time she came back to fill her cavities he would pull her tooth.  Her tooth never fell out, so the dentist was kind enough to pull her tooth. 

 Unfortunately Emilee has a small mouth and big teeth, like her parents.  The dentist noticed that her new tooth was taking up the spot of 1 1/2 teeth, so she ended up having another tooth pulled to help make room.

   Moms and Dads start thinking now about the Tooth Fairy, you never know when you will get a surprise visit.  Thanks to Emilee not wanting to wiggle her tooth we had enough time to make the Tooth Fairy a door to come through.  

I still want to make a pillow for future visits, we want to make sure that tooth doesn't get lost.  If you are looking for ways to help make the Tooth Fairy visit special there are lots of ideas floating around on Pinterest. 

 A little note:  We have noticed Emilee has another tooth close to coming in, and the baby tooth is not even close to being loose.  She might have to have some more teeth pulled.  We will have to wait and keep watching.  

A New Chapter

Emilee started Kindergarten yesterday.  She was so excited, she woke up at 5:30 a.m. and would not go back to sleep.  She was so cute, she kept telling me it was time to go.  I walked her into school, they had an assembly to start the day so we found where her class was suppose to sit.  It was really cute, some of the older kids where welcoming the kids to school.

She sat down and was so brave, she kept telling me I could go home.  After the assembly was over they found where they hang up their backpacks and coats, then they went to their desks.  I was so proud of her, even though at times you could tell she was nervous, she never let it get the best of her. 

 When I finally left, I cried a little on the way home.  We went to lunch after she got out of school and she told me all about her day.  It was wonderful to see her happy and excited.  

Yes, she is wearing a uniform.  Emilee was able to get into American Preparatory Academy.  It's a charter school that we have heard great things about.  When I took the school tour I was really impressed with the way the kids behaved, what they where learning, and so much more.