Can we take a deep breath together? Is everyone else moving at warp speed even after the holidays? Shew, I feel like I need to just inhale deeply and let my heart rate slow down for an indefinite amount of time. I shouldn’t complain - January normally creeeeeeeps by and this year it’s just whizzed right past me so that’s nice, but I’m ready to resume a fairly slow and boring life again. I don’t see that happening anytime soon so I guess I should just buckle up and enjoy it.

A few weeks ago my good friend Jen and I decided that since our boys were born only weeks a part and they have the same circle of friends that we would do a combined birthday party for them. It was so great and it worked out perfect - it was cheaper, easier on our friends, and just a fun time. I highly recommend this! We held it at an indoor play park that was FREE to rent (cha-ching!) so we got the kids all hopped up on sugar and then sent them in to play.

The play park has a water-theme to the decor, so we just extended that to the party and did everything in fish. A shot of the cuppies:

Last week we FINALLY got some snow and for once I wasn’t the only one who went nuts over it. Conner’s recently become obsessed with snow and snowballs, so as soon as he woke up I took him to the window and asked what it was and his eyes got as big as golf balls and this huge smile spread across his face as he exclaimed, “SNOW!!!” And that’s all we heard about all morning. This was Conner’s first official snow, so we bundled him up and took him out in it and holy smokes this kid had the time of his life.

He didn’t care that his cheeks were beet red and his gloves were getting packed with snow - when it was time to come inside he had a breakdown and boohoo’d for a good while. I’m so glad that Conner shares in my love of the snow.

As exciting as the snow was and celebrating my baby boy turning two (sniff, sniff), the big news around here is we bought a new house! I’ve been kind of mum about it, just because it is such a vulnerable process and once you put something “out there” you may have to do a lot of explaining if it doesn’t work out. And part of me just really wanted to protect this as much as I could. We sold our house by owner at the start of the month (totally a God-thing - we were approached by buyers and it just worked out beautifully!!) and were renting back from the buyer until we found something. We drug our poor realtor all over the map, both in house-style and price range, and finally decided on something we had looked at a few months ago and it just hung in the back of our minds. After a period of intense prayer and begging the Lord to guide us in what to do, we made our way back to this house, made an offer, it was accepted and in three weeks we will have a beautiful new home to grow our family. I would love to share pictures, but again in an effort to protect this I think I may hold off before I post any pictures. But as soon as we have keys in hand you can bet I will be showing off this gem. And I need to slap some paint on the walls to really show of it’s fabulousity.

Okay, I think we’re all caught up now! February is going to be a big month for us (closing, moving, and finding out if this baby is packing or not - pray for an exhibitionist! I want to know!) and I am just so excited. Now if I can just turn off this pregnancy insomnia and get the rest I desperately need I’ll be all set. I leave you with these pictures of our small family celebration of Conner’s second birthday.

Now that is how you should eat a cupcake.

Dear Conner,

I can not believe I am the mother of a two year old. Where did the last year…the last two years go? I feel like you were born, I blinked, and here we are twenty-four months later. There is so much I want to say to you, because I feel like time is only going to go by faster and before I know it I will be writing a letter to you that you will be reading on your way to college. Even now I struggle to find the right words to say. My heart knows how to speak them, but all I can do is try and convey the feelings to my head which leave me in awe and slightly weepy.

The last year has been one of the best years of my life. I thought you were fun before, but watching you turn into this little person…I never knew kids could be so much fun and could make me laugh so much. Watching your personality emerge has been one of the best parts of this parenting gig. From the way you talk with your hands (like me) to the way you want to listen to the same song on Dane Zanes CD over and over (like your father), you show us snippets of who you are and who you are becoming and I am still so amazed that I get to know you. You are such a treasure. You are a constant reminder to me of how much the Lord must love me to have blessed me with such an amazing child.

I can’t wait to see you step up to your role as a big brother. You are so sensitive and a natural protector. I’ll never forget the nursery worker telling me you always pick the smallest child in the room and make sure no other child takes their sippy cup. We were at the play park last week with a friend and I jokingly told you to watch over her and for the rest of our time there you were by her side. You are not easily provoked, and you draw other’s to you. These are all amazing character traits and I know the Lord is preparing you for something big and I can’t wait to see what that is.

Even tho I’ve been a mom now for two years and feel seasoned in so many ways, each new stage produces unmarked terrain where I have to make a decision and hope it is the best one for you. One of my greatest fears is wounding you, and while I hope any wounds I do inflict are superficial, it’s still something I never want you to feel. Love drives us to do crazy things that don’t always make sense, so I hope you know I do what I do because I love you so much.

Some days I can’t wait for you to be older, since I know it’ll make both our lives easier in certain ways. But most days I want to freeze you in my memory and in my heart of how you are right now. You are getting so big and soon you won’t fit in my lap anymore. You won’t want me to hold you or kiss your boo-boo’s. You won’t want to hear me tell you how much I love you. So until then I hold onto you a little longer and a little tighter. I tell you a little more tenderly how much you mean to me. And I welcome you in my arms anytime you need me, both today and fifty years from now.

Happy Birthday, my precious Conner. I love you more than you will ever know.

Love,

Mama

Vegetable beef soup in the crockpot, movies lined up to watch for Conner’s nap time, and my latest craft project ready to be started…it’s going to be a great day!

I’m not going to say I sigh heavily when I’m “tagged” on any kind of blog-meme, because who doesn’t love to see their name and blog written on someone else’s? And since I really have nothing else to blog about (okay, that was a lie, I just don’t feel right blogging about some things yet - you understand, right? No? Fine, go pout.) I’m doubling-up on two tags I’ve been sent.

The first is from Subu and she got me with one of those share weird and borderline creepy things about yourself. I’ve done this before, and it’s not that I can’t think of any, if just…well yeah I’m so used to my overall weirdness, nothing is jumping out at me except the following three things. I love diving right into the inner workings of people, don’t you? So without further ado: more reasons you should not admire me.

1) I rub paper. I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating because this is a serious addiction. I’ll take an innocent piece of paper, fold it in half, then in half again, half again, until it’s a small square and then rub the corners until they’re dull. I will then keep folding and refolding and rubbing and dulling until it’s a mass of ripped, soft paper. I’ve done this since I was little and at the ripe age of 26 I still do it, especially if I’m bored or stressed. Sometimes it gets so bad that Tim will not give me dollar bills to hang onto b/c I will start rubbing them. Some of my friends can attest to this, and thank you to those who DO NOT CALL ATTENTION TO IT.

2) I used to think the piece of furniture called chest of drawers was actually called chester drawers. Like there was a company called “chester” who trademarked this particular piece, much like how everyone calls a tissue a kleenex, whether it’s a Kleenex brand or not. I did this up until a few years back when I said it to Tim and his face contorted in this half-confused/half-entertained look and said, “chester what?” It was worsened by the fact that I repeated it to him, with certainty, like that was in fact what they are to be called. I still do it if I don’t think carefully before I say it.

3) My family loves the Dairy Queen ice cream cakes, so for one of our birthdays (can’t remember which) we had one, and I love to eat the big flowers they put on top (made of 100% crisco, you know the ones I’m taking about). So on this particular cake, I had eaten this giant red rose, loving every bite of it. The next day I had to go #2 and my poop was completely red. As in COMPLETELY. RED. I panicked, and being the hypochondriac that I was at the time, ran out of the bathroom, crying that I must have some kind of cancer since my poop was red. I made everyone come and look at it, including our innocent foreign exchange student from Norway, to confirm that I must be dying. It was a few days later before we put two-and-two together and realized that red dye #40 is a very powerful thing to ingest. It will turn your poop red.

The second tag I got was from Bee, who I *heart* and would love to meet up with eventually, and I am to name five blogs that I have to read daily. My bloglines have taken a life of their own since I don’t have time to read blogs like I used to (and NoBloPoMo screwed me really bad in making me fall farther behind), but these five were the first that jumped out at me that I really enjoy and want to spread some linky-love.

1) Will Blog for Shoes - not trying to be the “oh I love your blog, too!” b/c I really do. Bee deserves a stellar pair of shoes, a tiara and a stunning sash that reads, “Miss Congeniality, with a side of sunshine coming out of my rear” You make me laugh with your wit and I get a smidge giddy when your blog is lit up on my blog reader.

2) Oh Amanda - I loved her blog from the beginning and since meeting her in person I look forward to reading about her life and talking with her any chance I get. And never mind that her little girl is one of the prettiest I think I’ve ever seen.

3) Greenbean Baby - Ellia is an amazingly talented artist who makes the coolest things from paper. I found her blog a few months back and have enjoyed reading about her craft, and how she juggles it all with two children as well. She is certainly an inspiration!

4) Jessica Claire - while I am fascinated by photography, I’m just the hobbyist. However I love looking at photographs and Jessica’s are probably my favorite. They’re so stunning and brilliant and I feel like the colors leap from my monitor and are total eye-candy. I love looking through her gallery and if you can appreciate amazing photography, I highly recommend her site.

5) The Superficial - okay, this one is a guilty pleasure and he’s pretty crass, but if anyone can make fun of Hollywood and do it with so much wit and inappropriate suggestions, it’s this guy.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I must continue my day of running around frantically and then join the largest slumber party I’ve ever been too - eighty-five church women locked in a building for twenty-one hours. Y’all pray for me.

I. am. so. tired. I knew this day was going to kick my butt when I woke up and winced that I even had to get out of bed. I haven’t been sleeping very well and b/c of that and raging hormones I had a wicked headache that lasted from Wednesday until Saturday, and then reared it’s ugly head again this morning. Thankfully it’s going to be beautiful and warm today so we can strip off the layers we piled on from last week and be outside for awhile. Conner is dying to play with his bubbles and whiffle ball, so today we shall set out to do that.

I’ve recently begun purging my craft stash and have so much fabric and yarn that it’s ridiculous. So after doing a little research I found a charity that has a local chapter in my area that donates handmade blankets (appropriately named Project Linus) to children who have been victims of trauma. Any children’s charity tugs at my heart strings, so couple that with the fact I can crank out some blankets pretty easily and I have begun.

I made a scalloped blanket that was really easy, but would’ve came out a little cleaner if I had read the directions first. It’s amazing what that one tip can save you in trouble. The pattern I used for it can be found in this book.

This blanket I thought I would have trouble giving it away when it was done since these are the colors I have picked out for Conner’s big boy room (and the nursery if our gummy bear is a boy, which we find out February 5th - AGH!!! SO EXCITED!!!), but I want to use a different kind of yarn so to the children’s hospital it goes.

Now I must drag myself upstairs and put clothes on to go walking - eating pizza and double stuffed oreos at 10 pm last night is just sitting in my stomach, waiting to be deposited onto my thighs.

Another year - it’s so hard to believe! I know time only seems to race by the older you get, but this feels insane. My baby is turning two in a few short weeks (two, people!! when did this happen??), we’re having another baby, we sold our house and are looking to move on up (more to come on that later), and that’s just the things I know about now at the present. I tend to get a bit…tizzied when life gets crazy. Tim is so patient in dealing with me when I enter this state of extreme craziness, so knowing just how busy and insane our lives are going to get in the coming months, I’ve really resolved this year to simplify. I’m not sure exactly how I’m going to go about doing that. All I know is it’s something that I’ve been thinking about for the last few months, easy ways, every day, to simplify. Part of me is going to really struggle with this. It’s the same personality that tried to talk me into making another batch of peanut butter balls on Christmas Eve because I thought I might’ve left someone out. This personality is very rarely right and always causes strife. There are other personalities that can cause problems yet they’re fun to have around, but this one I want banished for good.

So that’s my main New Year’s Resolution. Simplify. Sounds…simple? We shall see. There are a few other’s here and there, but one that I was happy to not scribble out was losing weight - that will be a July resolution. I leave you with this picture of a new way to introduce potty training to your toddler. One of those candy-pooping animals. You push his bottom and out pops a poo. This makes Conner laugh hysterically and he claps every time the bear relieves a jellybean. I wonder if he’ll enjoy being potty trained just as much.