On to the next blog...

Here is a link to our new blog. 

www.jayandjami.blogspot.com

And that's a wrap...

2012 is about to end.  Tonight is the last night of this year and tomorrow begins a new one.  I like wrapping up each year on my blog but of course I will have to do that in words only. 

This was a good year.  A great year.  2008, 2010, and 2012 are by far my three favorite years so far.  2008 I married my guy, 2010 I became a mom to an amazing little man, and this year I became a mom to a beautiful little lady.  I am blessed.  I am thankful. 

Jay turned 28 at the beginning of this year and I turned 29 in May.  This is my last year in the 20's.  Carter turned 2 this year and turned from a toddler to a little boy.  His vocabulary grew immensely.  His personality began truly showing and his independence reared its ugly head.  He continued to bring true joy into our lives. 

Madelynn Grace was born this year and added more joy to our lives then we knew possible.  I learned how to be a mom of two and split my time between two precious kids. 

Jay continued to work at Rural Metro Ambulance full time and Lyons Ambulance part time.  He continued working on his prerequisites for paramedic school.  He grew as a husband and dad and works so hard to provide for us and take care of us. 

I got to become a little more of a stay at home mom this year with just a small, four hour a week learning coach gig.  I got very involved in MOPS this year and have made many new wonderful friends.  I have fallen in love with being a mom and am so thankful for this job God has blessed me with. I have continued working hard on my Master's degree and am down just four terms left (about five classes, including my thesis).

We began the huge project of knocking down the "jungle" in our backyard, thanks to a friend of Jay's mom.  He still have a ton of work to do back there but the jungle is gone!  We also put in a new front window in our living room which was on our priority list since we moved in to our house.  We still love o.ur house and look forward to more projects in 2013.  We are hoping this will be the year we finish fencing in the back yard and maybe finish up our laundry room. 

2012 was a year of growth in our marriage.  We love each other and are committed to making and keeping our marriage great.  We worked hard on date nights frequently and learned how to walk through more difficult phases in our marriage.  Marriage isn't easy but it is great!  I am thankful for my marriage and my husband!

We took the kids to Seattle this year to see Jay's family before they headed off on a cruise.  It was so fun seeing all the sights of Seattle with our kids and Jay's family.  We also flew to Iowa this year for Christmas.  That is actually where I am typing the blog right now.  We have loved every minute here in Iowa and are so thankful for the opportunity to spend some time with them for Christmas. 

I discovered Pinterest this year and feel a little addicted and overwhelmed with all of the fun things I can create!  I have started crafting on a minor scale, thanks to Pinterest.  I even tried around 35 new recipes from Pinterest and grew in my dinner making skills.  Jay appreciated that very much. 

My dreams and hopes for 2013...
I hope to use my Courthouse membership a little more and lose a few more pounds.  I hope to try lots more recipes and continue to grow in my cooking skills.  I hope to craft more and fill my home with homemade decor.  I hope to play with my kids more.  I hope to organize my house better.  I hope to teach Carter about Jesus Christ even more than ever.  I hope to love my husband more and go to Disneyland with him for our fifth wedding anniversary. 

Good-bye 2012, hello 2013!

She's 9 Months Old!

An entire month has gone by without any blogging :(  This is so not like me.  I think knowing that I can't put any pictures on here makes me less motivated to get on here and blog.  As soon as Christmas is over and we are back from Iowa I will figure out how to set up a new blog and get back on track with blogging. 

But for now I will tell you about my sweet baby girl...
There aren't words to tell you how much I love my Mady girl!  She is just precious and amazes me everyday.  I think her love for her brother is probably the sweetest thing I have ever witnessed in my life.  She is in love with Carter.  She jumps up and down in my arms when I bring her out in the living room after sleeping and she sees Carter.  She immediately begins jumping up and down with the biggest smile on her face.  She LOVES playing in his room and follows him to his room if she thinks he might be in there.  Yesterday she was crawling around on the floor and couldn't find Carter.  It was so obvious that she was looking for him.  She crawled really fast over to the small couch, looked around it, then turned around and started crawling really fast toward the hall.  She was looking for him and it made me tear up a little bit.  She loves to go in his room when he is in there and will play in his closet with him forever.  They sit there together and play with all of his toys.  I have pictures of this that I will post when I get my new blog set up.  It melts me!  And Carter is in love with her too!  His voice completely changes when he is talking to her.  "Hi Mady" sounds more like "hiiiiiiiiiiiii Maaaaaaaaaddddddddyyyyyy"  with every sound held out for a while and a higher pitched voice.  It is precious.  And she just lights up when he talks to her.  And he kisses her ALL DAY LONG.  She is the only one in this house who gets kisses without being asked, begged, pleaded with, and bribed.  Yes, we do all of those things to try and get kisses out of him for ourselves.  Not Mady though.  He gives her kisses all the time! I LOVE their relationship and more than anything hope they will always love each other, protect each other, and respect each other.  I will spend the next 18 years and probably more praying that they will always love each other.  I know they will fight some but I pray they will always passionately care about each other. 

Madelynn is silly.  She loves to dance with mama and smiles and giggles while we dance around in circles.  She loves to be thrown up in the air, tickled, and wrestled with.  She loves Carter's toys and crawls right over her toys to get to his.  I almost think she knows it annoys Carter.  Again, she is silly!  She loves her blankie and cries when I lay her down until her blankie is on her.  She then immediately rubs her face all over it.  My mom made her a blanket similiar to Carter's blanket and I have wanted her to love it just as much as Carter loves his.  I am seeing signs that this might happen.  She is starting to get a little too curious about things in the house, like doors.  She has discovered that she can move doors and loves to play with them.  She also loves the baby gate when it is just leaning against the wall behind the hall door.  She likes to pull it down and play with it.  She puts everything in her mouth so we have to make sure our floors stay clean, which isn't easy!  I have pulled many things out of her mouth already.  Thankfully so far I think I have caught everything she has tried to eat that she shouldn't.  She is great in the car and wonderful while out and about.  She loves to shop and loves sitting in the cart like a big girl.  She flirts with everyone around her and almost always flashes a beautiful smile when people acknowledge her.  She loves her daddy and gets just as excited to see him as she does to see Carter.  The boys in her life are pretty special! 

She is still little.  Her nine month appointment isn't until the beginning of January so I don't have any stats on her yet but we are guessing she is right around 15 pounds.  She is in six month clothes and size two diapers.  Everyone that asks how old she is always tells me how tiny she is.  She is a great eater though so I am not worried.  I love how little she is.  I feel like I can carry her around a lot longer than I could with Carter before my arm gets tired.  She is still nursing but is going most nights without eating...finally!  She still wakes up once or twice in the night usually but I can usually ignore her now and she will go back to sleep after a few minutes.  Last night on the other hand was a different story but that is not normal for her.  She was up so many times last night...which probably means a tooth is on the way.  She has five teeth now, three on top and two on bottom.

She still prefers to army crawl and is not pulling herself up on things yet.  I am really okay with that though!  She is capable of standing on her own while holding onto something but just hasn't attempted pulling herself up yet.  I am in no hurry for that because then we have to lower her crib. 

She eats all fruits and veggies, greek yogurt, bananas, cheese, cheerios, and avocado.  She loves to eat! 

Madelynn Grace...
You are sunshine in this world!  You are a happy little girl who brings so much joy to those around you.  We had some friends babysit you and Carter and the first thing she said when we picked you up was that you were a blessing.  I couldn't say it any better!  You are a blessing!  We love you!  Happy nine month birthday...only three more until you are one!  Wow! 

She's 8 Months!

Life as I know it just changed...
I was just told by Blogger (when trying to upload eight month pictures of Madelynn) that I have used all the picture space allowed on Blogger. 
WHAT?!?!?!? 
I'm not really sure what my plan of attack is but I will figure out a way to continue using my blog.  But for now you just get to read my ramblings without any cute pictures of my sweet kiddos.  I'll try to put more on facebook while I figure out my blog.

Now on to my sweet and spicy Madelynn Grace.  She turned eight months a few days ago and is just as sweet as ever with a little sass to add to it.  She is smily and giggly, loves her brother, loves her mama, loves her daddy, and is now crawling all over the house. 

Her crawling is still army crawling but it gets her everywhere she wants to go.  She even gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth like she is going to just take off any second.  I don't think it will be long before she is crawling officially.  But army crawling is working great for her.  I now have to sweep the living room floor daily and check the carpet for small things throughout the day because this girl can find anything and everything that she shouldn't have.  Yesterday I heard a sucking sound that sounded different than normal...she was sucking on a little bead that fell off my Christmas wreath and was on the floor.  That could have been interesting.  It was small enough that she wouldn't have choked on it but it would have been funny finding that in her diaper in a couple days.  Carter didn't really put things in his mouth much plus we didn't have a two year old leaving things around the house for him to put in his mouth.  Madelynn puts everything in her mouth and has an older brother leaving her all sorts of fun things for her to play with.  We are working really hard to keep the floors clean and teach Carter that small things aren't safe for Mady. 

She loves to eat.  Anything.  She loves to nurse and does that probably more than she needs to at eight months old.  She discovered her LOVE for turkey on Thanksgiving and ate a ton of it!  She loves any and all of the pureed baby foods that I make her...apples, bananas, strawberries, peaches, pears, green beans, carrots, zuchini, butternut squash, and sweet potato.  This week she is going to try blueberries and avocado. And boy does she love cheerios.  She could eat them all day long.  I was just reading past blog posts about Carter at this age and he wouldn't touch cheerios or puffs.  I actually remember that now that it took a long time for him to really start eating food that wasn't pureed.  And Madelynn wouldn't eat anything pureed until six months but started out with cheerios and puffs and loved them from the second I put one in her mouth.  It is so funny how different two kids with the same mommy and daddy can be.  I actually love it!  They are each their own person with a personality that I adore.   

Sleeping is improving.  She usually wakes up only once in the night now.  I know...this is one time too many at eight months old but it is so much better than what it was a month ago!  At six months old she was still waking up every hour and a half to two hours all night long.  I am now getting six to eight hours at a time from her.  I starting the process of weaning her off of any night time feedings but haven't gone hard core yet.  We have even had a few nights in a row now where she wakes up, I put her blankie back over her, rub her back, and go back to bed.  And miraculously she is actually falling back to sleep without eating!  Praise the Lord!  She is very unpredictable with naps and still naps in her swing.  I don't even like admitting that on here but I am going to anyway.  Morning nap is usually great and at least two hours long but the afternoon nap is hit and miss.  Sometimes only 30 minutes but sometimes better.  She is a cry herself to sleep kind of girl and I have just had to come to terms with that.  I hear some moms say that they can just lay their happy baby down in their crib and they fall fast asleep.  That just isn't my Madelynn and that's okay.  She fusses for a few minutes, sometimes even screams for a minute or two and then will usually crash.  Since I started this post (a few days ago) we have been doing most naps in her crib!  And she is doing pretty well napping in her crib.  Sometimes I get a great nap out of her and sometimes is is far too short.  We will keep at it though! 

She loves her brother and loves watching him play.  They even do well playing together sometimes.  She loves his toys and would actually rather play with his toys than her own.  The other day while I was getting ready I put Madelynn in his room to play.  He sat down next to her with the magnadoodle thing and started drawing her pictures.  He would draw a picture and then say "see Mady."  It was great.  I am so excited for the two of them to really play with each other. 

She is still in a size two diaper and six month clothes.  She is tiny!  Carter was already in three month diapers at this age and was already moved into a big boy carseat.  Madelynn has a ways to go in her carseat!  I am thankful for that because when she needs to move up then we have to buy another one for Carter.  I love seeing the differences in my kids though!

She isn't super snuggly.  She loves to be held and she is a happy girl but she isn't the baby that just lays her head on my shoulder all that often.  Even when I try to rock her in her rocking chair she is always sitting up checking things out. 

She gets so excited to see her daddy when he gets home from work everyday.  It really is precious.  She starts squealing and jumping up and down.

I tried standing her up next to the couch and letting go this week and she did okay.  She isn't quite there yet to just move around the furniture yet but it isn't too far down the road.  She is super fast at army crawling though.

She is so sweet when people talk to her.  She starts off a little sober and then breaks out into a sweet smile.  She has beautiful eyes that are fairly blue but a little darker than Carter's.  She has petite features.  She now has four teeth.  It is fun seeing her smile with all of her teeth showing.  She doesn't have much hair but it is starting to come in a little.  I need to get her cradle cap cleaned up and then maybe it will grow in faster.  I still love to put headbands on her head but she has started pulling them off now. 

We love you Madelynn Grace!  We are so thankful for you!  We love your sweet spirit and how much you adore your brother.  You really are beautiful! 

MIA

Seriously, I have been gone from my blog forever.  Our computer has been freaking out and I couldn't figure out how to upload any pictures to anything for a few weeks.  I couldn't put pictures on here, facebook, order Christmas cards...nothing.  So frustrating!  But I finally figured it out and felt very "I am woman, hear me roar" when I finally conquered this dumb computer!  Yes, I figured it out myself!  I kept saying we were going to have a friend look at it who knows computers but it just wasn't happening and I was so tired of not being able to do my pictures that I spent a LONG time and figured it out.  Okay, enough about that.  Can you tell I am a little proud of myself!  I am so not computer savvy!

Since the pumpkin patch outing and blog we have done quite a bit.  All of which will get put on here soon.  We are now three days away from Thanksgiving, exactly one month away from our four year anniversary, and one month and six days away from Christmas.  It amazes me every year how we end up back to the holiday season so quickly.  This is honestly my favorite time of year and I really do love that it seems to come quickly. 

Yesterday was the 18th.  Exactly five years ago (yesterday) I met Jay.  That day changed me forever.  I am so thankful for that day!  I can honestly say that marriage is not always easy but I can honestly say that saying yes to being set up with Jay was the best decision I have ever made.  I am one incredibly blessed girl to be married to my husband.  Blind dates really do work people :)  We are living proof.  Thankfully it wasn't exactly a date but rather a get together with a few people who all wanted Jay and I to meet.  So I guess it was a blind get together.  Love you babe!

I'll be back soon with lots of pictures!  But here is one to tide you over :) Carter decided a nap on top of his rocking horse was a great way to nap that day.

 

The Pumpkin Patch

The pumpkin patch is probably my favorite part of fall!  I love fall to begin with but then we get to take our kids to the pumpkin patch and have fun doing all the pumpkin patch stuff.  Carter loved every second of it this year.  His favorite part was probaby a toss up between the hay ride with the big tractor and walking through the dark maze with daddy and his flash light.  He is so brave!  I don't even like going in those dark mazes, even with a flash light.  Carter did the entire thing with Jay.  They were probably in there about 30 minutes.  He talked about that for days.  Jay said everytime they came to a dead end he would yell out "dead end."  I would have been yelling out "are you kidding me?"  I hate being in the dark like that.  I'm proud of my boy!

 

Carter wanted to wear his bike helmet in the car and then he promptly fell asleep :)  He was extra safe on this car ride.

 

He enjoyed feeding the goats and petting all of the animals. 

He did not however like the slide.  He normally likes slides but this one didn't do it for him and then he refused to go on anymore slides the rest of the day. 

Umm, do you see my family of blue eyes?  Love all of those beautiful eyes!

He is really growing up!  He just seemed so old to me sitting there on the hay ride with his flash light.  He is really changing!  We are less than four months away until his 3rd birthday.  I can't wait and I can't believe it!  

And Madelynn discovered her love for swings.  Oh man she loved this!  She was actually giggling the whole time.  This was probably my favorite part of the pumpkin patch this year.  Watching her face full of joy on her daddy's lap was priceless.

Trying to pick out the perfect pumpkin.  This is like trying to pick out the perfect Christmas tree.  I am terrible at making decisions and could pumpkin hunt and tree hunt for hours.  Thankfully Jay reigns me in and helps me decide.  Carter helped too.

He kept trying to pick them up but they were all too heavy. 

She's 7 Months!

This sweet little thing is seven months old already!  I literally just melt when I look at that precious face.  They always say that a baby girl has their daddy wrapped around their finger...I think this baby girl has her mama wrapped around her finger.  And she is also a big time mama's girl!  She loves her daddy but if I am in the room, she wants me.  As much as I love it, it can also be a bit frustrating.  Usually she will stay with daddy even if I am in the room but anyone else and she is searching for me.  She seems to do okay though if I just disappear.  She is a little stinker!  She knows what she wants and isn't easily distracted.  But then she smiles at me or laughs at me and I forget about about all of that. 

 

She is still super tiny.  People are always surprised to hear how old she is because they can't believe how little she is.  She is tiny and perfect.  We had a little visit to a couple emergency rooms this past weekend and found out that she weighs 14 pounds even.  At least she gained a few ounces since her six month check up!  Her beautiful eyes are still blue...yay!  She is now wearing mostly six month clothes with lots of room to spare but her three month clothes are just getting too short.  Tops that are not onesies still fit in three month but anything with snaps or that are pants are now six months.  She is still in size two diapers.
  

She is finally sitting up pretty well.  She still falls quite a bit but she is fully capable of sitting up and loves doing it.  This morning I had her sitting in Carter's room while I was getting ready for church.  He was playing in there and she loved sitting near him watching him play.  Sometimes he would even share one of his toys with her.  She seems to like sitting up but I am looking forward to when she is a little more steady.





She finally loves food (other than milk).  We tried feeding her homemade pureed foods for two months before she finally decided it wasn't so bad.  Again...a little stinker!  So far she loves everything I have given her...pureed apples, bananas, strawberries, peaches, pears, butternut squash, carrots, zuchini, and yellow squash.  Tonight she is going to try sweet potatoes.  I am making her baby food just like I did with Carter and I love it!  I feel like little suzy homemaker.  I know, I'm a dork!  She also LOVES cheerios and puffs.  She scarfs them down!  And she is really good at grabbing them off her tray herself and putting them in her mouth.  She stunk at that at first and now has it down.  Most days I am feeding her a fruit in the morning and a veggie around dinner time. 

  

Her sleeping habits are improving.  Not perfect, but improving.  She was basically only sleeping in her crib at night time until ladies retreat last weekend.  She was waking up usually twice to eat which is still two times too many but much better than it had been.  Then retreat happened.  I took her swing because I didn't want to deal with her crying in the night in her crib when I had a roommate.  So she slept one night in her swing and then the second night is when everything happened with her head.  After that I just couldn't stand the thought of letting her cry it out in her crib.  I had bad thoughts of her screaming and putting pressure on her soft spot and causing damage.  This was not a legitimate fear but a fear none the less.  Well, yesterday we decided to get her back in her crib.  She had an AMAZING night last night!  She went down at 7:30ish and cried for about an hour (that part wasn't good) but then slept until 2:30, ate and slept again until 7.  That is an amazing night for her!  Nap today was a disaster and she ended up back in her swing because we are going to my dad's tonight and she NEEDED a nap before that.  I was desperate!  I know that someday she won't sleep in her swing ever :)  I know we should just pack it away in the garage but I'm just not ready.  But I am going to work hard at her sleeping in her crib and sleeping through the night!



She giggles for mama, daddy, and Carter all the time.  All I have to do is tickle her belly with my nose and she giggles.  All Carter has to do is jump up and down in front of her and she giggles.  All daddy has to is make a funny noise and she giggles.  There is nothing better than that sweet giggle!

 



She loves the nursery at church and seems to do really well.  She doesn't do great at life group on Wednesday nights though.  She is just so tired and doesn't do well down with the kids.  Carter had a little phase of dealing with that too.  Sometimes my mom takes her for life group so that I can just sit and enjoy it but sometimes we take her. She just doens't do well if she is tired!  She is much better at riding in the car now and rarely cries!  She was pretty rough for the first couple of months but now she seems to enjoy being in the car.  And if she is tired she just falls asleep.  

Here is a picture of her poor soft spot.  This is what it did about 24 hours after it was bulging.  It stayed sunken for about two days and is now back to normal!  And last night I noticed that she has a tooth on top that is about to poke through.  I can see the outline of the tooth!  That explains her crankiness the last few days.  That will be her third tooth.  

She is just the sweetest thing!  I love this little lady.  Thank you God for blessing me with both a boy and a girl.  What a special gift!

 

My sweet Mady girl...

We love you so much!  You fill our lives with joy.  You are very special and so loved!  I always knew how loved you were by others but I really saw it after our visit to the ER for your head.  People were telling me all day long all week that they were praying for you and loved you very much.  I pray for you everyday that you would grow to love Jesus and always know how loved and special you are.  We love you sweet girl!