Gratitude, gratitude

40 Days of Gratitude…

Day 2 – For a husband that loves me in spite of myself.

Day 3 – For full bellies and dessert before dinner. 🙂

Day 4 – For stupid TV shows that make Adam laugh. It’s one of the best sounds in the world.

Day 5 – For lazy dogs and sunshiny days.

Playing a little catch up today. See you Monday. 🙂

Until next time,

J

Nana Montana (WW#6)

Adam has started calling Savannah “Nana Montana”. 🙂

We’ve called her Nana since we brought her home, because that’s how Scarlett said Savannah. Now Scarlett corrects us and says, “It’s Sabannah, Mommy.” We are still working on B’s and V’s. Little sassy girls.

Also, teething sucks.

And finally Scarlett and Savannah have the coolest Great Aunt ever! Honey (as we call her) made this dress for Scarlett out of a shirt she had that she never wore. She and my mother-in-law are the ones that inspired me to get a sewing machine, they are so creative! ♥

It’s been quite around here. I have lots of things floating around that I want to write about. just lacking the courage and the time. I’ll get it down soon.

Until then,

J ♥

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Whirlwind and Topsy Turvy

A few days ago I was  laying in bed listening to the baby cry over the monitor wondering how long I would have to *act* like I was asleep so Adam would get up with her. As I was trying to fake my perfect snore I thought back to the time before children. The Saturday (and Sunday for that matter) mornings when we slept until 10 or even “laid” in bed all day. When our mornings didn’t revolve around Mickey Mouse or sippy cups, and our plans didn’t have to be made around nap times. We could go to the grocery store whenever we wanted without the worry that someone would throw a screaming tantrum in the middle of the store (unless of course they didn’t have my wine in stock). I wondered how our lives would be if we had never had children.

Adam and I had a whirlwind courtship. I knew he was the man I was supposed to marry on our first date. We dated for six months before we got engaged and a year later were married. We discussed starting a family but I had been told that I might not be able to conceive because of issues I had had in the past. We decided that just wasn’t what we had planned for our lives. We were going to travel, and spoil our dogs, and enjoy each other.

A month after our first anniversary I found out I was pregnant. I cried. Not because I was happy, but because I didn’t know what Adam would say. This wasn’t what we had planned, how were we going to afford this. Our world was topsy turvy, upside down. My initial shock only lasted a few days, soon I was over the moon for this little life growing inside of me. It took Adam longer to warm up to the idea. I think he mourned longer for the life that we had planned, the one that flew out the window with two little pink lines.

We finally started to settle somewhat into our new life, and a month after Scarlett’s first birthday I found out I was pregnant again. Adam’s first response was “Again?”. Seriously. I cried again, because, how were we going to afford this, this isn’t in our new plan and the new feeling of how can I love another as much as the first. When she came I knew the answer. Your love as a mother, as a parent, doesn’t divide with each child, it multiplies.

We’ve had a crazy year. Again we are starting to settle into our new life as a family of 4. But on this particular morning, the monotony of it all came crashing down on me and I began to wonder what our lives would be like if we didn’t have these girls. No sippy cups or bottles, no cartoons or tea parties, no waking up at the crack of dawn every single day. To go and do as we please. Then, in the middle of my daydream of vacationing in Italy, I hear Adam come back into the bedroom and I roll over and see this face.

And shortly after this one crawls up in the bed.

All my thoughts are washed away. I think to myself “You big idiot!”. This may not be the life we planned, but nothing ever goes as planned. Some of the best adventures are the ones you never expected. We may not travel as much as we would like or get to sleep late on the weekends, we may be on the fast train to the terrorist threes, but our lives are just the way they are meant to be. Perfect.

J ♥

Through and through (WW#3)

She is a Kent though and through…

When I posted this on FB the other day, it asked me if I wanted to tag myself. She is my clone.

Jess circa 1985

She is a Gibson through and through…

This photo take by Tracy McDaniel Photography. Check her out here and here, she’s AMAZING!

She looks so much like Adam.

Adam circa…well he won’t let me tell you 😉

It’s crazy how different and how much alike they look. Despite the comparison photos they are a perfect blend of both of us. 🙂 Love my sweet girls.

Happy Wednesday y’all.

J

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Babies don’t keep

I hate whiny posts. In fact I hate whining period (especially when it’s coming from my 2 year old). BUT I’m so tired. My husband and I work full time, and it always seems that when we get home there are a ton of things to do. Then the baby starts screaming and the toddler is crying because I didn’t fix her chocolate milk just right, or the dog looked at her, or she has just finally realized that the rock she brought in from the driveway two weeks ago is missing. Seriously.

I’m just tired, and that makes me sad. I realized that I’ve spent so much time feeling exhausted and annoyed lately that I’m missing out on my baby crawling, and all the awesome stuff that my 2 year old is learning lately. Scarlett and I actually held a conversation with each other a few days ago and it made me stop and wonder where this little person came from.

There is so much going on in the world, in our country, at work, with our families, that it’s been hard to just stop and enjoy life. To enjoy the fact that Scarlett still comes to me and asks to be held, I know that those moments will soon come to an end. To enjoy Savannah in all her chubby, yummy, sweetness. To enjoy my husband, and the amazing relationship that we share. It’s all so fleeting.

A friend shared this with me a few months ago, and it came to mind this past weekend:

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
For babies grow up, we’ve learned to our sorrow
So quiet down, cobwebs
Dust, go to sleep
I’m rocking my baby, and babies don’t keep.

~Anon

Babies don’t keep. They may be babies in our hearts forever, but physically it such a sort period of time. They grow up SO fast. By the way, NEVER say this to a parent of a newborn/infant/toddler, they will soon figure it out on their own, trust me. But for now it doesn’t help, it just makes them feel more exhausted/inadequate/angry/(insert crazy parent of a small child emotion here).

I came to a realization today that instead of feeling defeated I wanted to feel joy. I know that it’s not going to happen over night, it’s not even going to happen all the time, but I’m going to try. It’s the trying that counts. If I can say that at least ONE afternoon instead of brushing my toddler off I actually stop and listen to her and make sure that she knows how loved and important she is and I find joy in that, well then I’d say I’m doing pretty good. If I stop and play patty cake with my baby instead of rushing to finish dinner, then I am blessed, or pause to make sure that my husband knows how very much I appreciate all he does for me, then my cup is overflowing.

Find the joy, because babies don’t keep.

♥♥Jess

Halloween

Adam and I went to a Halloween party this year. I know that this post is really late!

It was the first time we had been out without the girls since Savannah was born. I don’t think I had been to a Halloween party since I was 10 or so, so I was really excited about dressing up!

We, like everyone else, are really into zombies right now. So I decided that I would be a zombie bride. I turned to Pinterest (where else?) for my zombie makeup inspiration.

I had a dress already…it was actually my dress from my first wedding, and it was pretty therapeutic to trash it!

Zombie Bride

I waited until the last minute to go out and buy my zombie blood, and the only thing I could find was this black blood. Which is black. Duh, don’t know what I was thinking. The bottle says it looks realistic, yeah not so much. Luckily I had a bottle of red gel food coloring. Added a little water and the red food coloring and voila, BLOOD! I also waited until the last minute to fix my costume, like 2 hours before the party so I didn’t get any pictures. I’ve learned that to be a blogger you really need to plan ahead and take LOTS of pictures. 😉

I splattered blood all over the dress, then my mom, sister-in-law and her mother (who was visiting from NY) proceeded to rip, burn and generally destroy this dress.  

In the mean time I went in and did my makeup. The only thing I wish I had done was to get a setting powder, because as soon as I started sweating my makeup started running. By the end of the night I looked like a hot mess, but I guess that’s what a zombie is supposed to look like right?

I promise I don’t look like this on a regular basis!

I tried to get Adam to go as my Zombie groom but couldn’t get him on board. He decided to go as Santa….Yeah you heard me right. More specifically, Billy Bob Thornton from the movie Bad Santa. 

He’s not really puking in the trash can.

 We had a great time, and I had a ton of fun planning my costume. I couldn’t wait to get home to the babies though! I told Adam that you know you’ve had a good time when you come home looking like this:

Gratuitous picture in the bathroom mirror portrait.

Thanks for putting up with my Halloween post in December. I’ll glaze over Thanksgiving and we’ll get to Christmas this weekend. 

Jess