Amanda's first snowman

Amanda and I woke up last week to the shock of our lives........SNOW! I had heard it might snow last week but I didn't expect it that particular day so we were so excited. We enjoyed watching it fall and I told her we could go out once the ground was covered:)

We wanted to make a snowman so before we went out we gathered our supplies. Amanda said, "we need a carrot for a nose" we had one. But we didn't have any coal for the eyes so we looked in the pantry and all I could come up with was crumpling up aluminum foil, she was fine with it. We found some stale licorice for the mouth.

She finally got to use her sled we bought last year when it was snowing but it took us forever to find one that by the time we got home the snow had melted!

The first thing she wanted to do was make snow angels, she has been making them all winter inside.

She hugged and talked to her snowman after we built him!I hope she doesn't get upset when he melts away... I almost brought him inside to put in the freezer ( just kidding, I am not that nutty)

Those trees that I didn't appreciate the workman planting have really grown on me......especially with snow on them:) So pretty!

We bought a snow suit last year and never got to wear it. I looked for one this year but couldn't find one and figured I wouldn't probably need it...I know last year the poor child had no sled when it snowed and this year no snow suit, maybe next year I can be more together when it snows, although it is highly unlikely:)

Let's go mom! I am ready! At least she had snow boots:)

Since it was still snowing when we went out she had her tongue out most of the time eating the snow! I told her it was fine to eat snow as long as it wasn't yellow!

Getting warm again after a tiring day out in the snow! What fun we had! Thank you God for the snow, please give us some more real soon:)

More husband talk.....

Amanda woke up this morning with her future husband on her mind once again!

Amanda-"When I get all grown up I am going to find the perfect husband, well, (pause) not too perfect! I am going to have kids and go to your church."

Last year, we went to a show called "Elmo grows up" in the show Elmo doesn't know what he wants to be and all of the characters have an idea of what they want to be. It was a cute show! Amanda wanted to be a doctor for a long time after that, now she says she just wants to be a mommy:) I think that is the best choice. Once she told me she was going to be a mommy and a doctor. Then she looked at me and said, "but how will I make everyone well and who will watch my kids?" She does love playing with her doctor's kit, but whatever she wants to do will make this woman proud as long as she is happy!

Favorite TV show

I have recently become addicted to 2 shows:) The first one is about a family with 18 kids. I watched it last night and just really felt for the older children. Seeing how they step into the parenting roles since their parents can't parent everyone just really makes me feel for them. They should be out enjoying their childhood! The mom on the show talks in this quiet mousy voice which drives me nuts yet I can't stop watching. What's wrong with me? I have also started watching another show where they have 8 kids. They had twins and then sextuplets! I really find the show intriguing! But again, the mother drives me nuts! She is the most disrespectful wife I have ever watched:) I really can't believe her husband allows her to talk to him the way she does, she may be stressed as I am sure she is......although she does get a lot for free including a free tummy tuck! So I was watching the show one day and Amanda came and started watching, she loved watching the kids. So now that she has seen the show she said wanted to watch it again, "let's watch the show with all those kids mommy!" Yikes! When I did let her watch part of it and the mom was nasty to her husband I told Amanda that wasn't nice to talk to your husband that! I guess that made her think about her future husband because the other morning she said, "When I grow all up, I am going to find the perfect husband, have kids and come see you every day mommy and then go to meetings." I told her I already have the "perfect husband" :) I am thankful she has finally understood that when she gets married she must marry a man. This has taken some time for her since she wanted to marry daddy...then one of her girlfriends......now she told us, "boys don't marry boys and girls don't marry girls!" (at least that she is aware of and prayerfully it will be outlawed everywhere someday but I guess it will be at least four more years for that one:)

Best waiter ever!

Today we went to church, it was a great service! We love the music at our church! My sweet hubby was getting a little worried we would miss the music since we were a few minutes behind...so glad we didn't since I was the reason we were behind and missing the music puts hubby in a bit of a bad mood:) We have the most wonderful choir and our favorite trio sang:)

My husband and I learned something new about Noah. It took him 120 years to build the ark, that really amazed us:) I really look forward to meeting Noah in heaven one day and talking to him. He really had a lot of faith to do exactly what God told him to do even though people thought he was crazy. I feel like that a lot sometimes around friends who don't have a relationship with God. I think they think some of things my husband and I do are nuts simply because they don't know God or have placed their faith in him. (Boy are they missing out on a joy filled life!)
Life will never be perfect for anyone since we all experience those wonderful periods where things are just fabulous and couldn't be better (we call them mountain top times) Then there are those times in everyone's life where we go through things we don't quite understand the purpose of or how any good could ever come from them, hurts and loss, we call those the (Valley times) But I have to say I just don't think I could make it through those Valley times without my relationship with God, knowing he is in control and will be there bringing us through whatever we go through. And I know those mountaintop experiences sure wouldn't be as happy without God to share them with! I know I regressed from our story...........

After church we generally eat lunch out with mamaw and papaw. But since papaw has a hurt back, mamaw went home to be with her man so it was just us. I wanted a baked potato so we went to Ruby Tuesday's (they have great baked potatoes there:) We had one of the most wonderful dining experiences EVER! I still can't get over how wonderful our waiter was, I guess that's why I am blogging about it because I am just impressed! It was like he had been trained in a five star restaurant-attentive yet not buggin you so much that you can't eat! Truly amazing! I told him so and he smiled and told us to come back for dessert in a few hours! ha ha I think we stay home though because I want to see the Duggar's family wedding. They are a family with 18 kids and their first child just got married. Apparently, he didn't kiss his girlfriend prior to their wedding and I find this a bit odd so I can't wait to see it:) I saw the family interviewed on TV the other day and am just a little intrigued by them since I can't understand ANYONE having a desire for 18 kids! I mean come on, that's a class not a family:)

Listening to hubby:)

Well, I try not to tell him too much since I don't want him to lose his humble manner...........but my husband was once again right:) As most of you know, I took a tumble while carrying presents to wrap, down the stairs right before Christmas. I have had to stay off it and now just have this little black brace that I can wear and tuck into tennis shoes. Well, I guess you could say I am just over all this and ready for my foot to be totally healed........so when we went to church on Sunday I wore my high heeled boots, but I still wore the brace. My husband saw me come out to the car and about died that I was wearing those heels and not my tennis shoes:) I told him it was fine! Well, afterwards I had to admit to him that he was right as he often is.......my foot has been killing ever since. It is amazing how it seems like it is just taking forever to heal! The doctor said it would take a while for all of the ligaments to heal. So for a little longer I think I will listen to my hubby and wear those tennis shoes:)

American Idol!

We aren't big TV show watchers other than Noggin and Disney shows but my sweet husband was watching American Idol when we first got married. I would leave the room and do other stuff because I thought it was annoying. But, his addiction has become mine, I guess when the preacher said, "the 2 shall become one" at our wedding he wasn't kidding!

I really like the show now and last night we made the mistake of being bad parents and letting Amanda watch part of the show. It wasn't five minutes until she was "acting it out" she pretended to audition a song she made up and it was actually quite good, and would say, "am I good?" We told her "yes" and she yelled, "I am going to Honeywood" I told her it was Hollywood but she prefers Honeywood!

I will see if I can get this on tape it is absolutely hysterical to me even though I know it probably wasn't a good parenting decision to let her watch it, at least it made us laugh! Sometimes, laughter is needed more than being the "perfect parent" which is something we stopped trying to be a long time ago when we realized there was just no way!

New Year's resolution

Well, after feeling like the world's worst mom last night, I decided I need to add to my list of New Year's resolutions and take a refresher Child CPR class. We gave Amanda a small candy cane last night after dinner (her first actually this year) I sat right next to her because I was worried about choking! She did fine with it and ran off to wash her hands. I didn't realize she still had some in her mouth so when she ran she started coughing like she was choking and it freaked me out because I couldn't get to her very fast (I sprained my ankle so I am slow at getting around lately) so she started running to me causing more of the choking sound, I totally forgot everything I have ever learned in any of my CPR classes that I proudly took every year to keep up on it while teaching.........however, I haven't taught since Amanda's birth so I didn't keep up on the CPR. I starting screaming for my husband to come and he did and thinking she was choking because of my screaming, picked her and hit her on her back! The poor child just had some stuck in her teeth at that point! She was so upset because she thought she did something wrong and her daddy was spanking her on her back! AHHHH! We both feel so bad and have hugged and kissed her and assured it wasn't her fault. Mommy just needs to stay calm at times like this, I always did teaching with other people's kids but it is so different with my own! So anyone want to take a class with me?

End of the year review- Jan/February

February was full of fun-we enjoyed date night with some friends to see a basketball game

Amanda discovered how much she loved to clean

Amanda helped to make daddy a very special Valentine's day dinner and then enjoyed opening her Valentine's day presents

Amanda made a very sugary cookie for daddy

We had a fun party to enjoy the superbowl

We enjoyed some snow




Had a fun visit with a friend that came to town

Celebrated her future husband's birthday

End of year review-March

March brought lots of egg hunts one at a friend's house and one a mamaw's. We also celebrated Palm Sunday but Amanda was sick and couldn't attend services so M and P brought her a Palm branch from the service. She kept it for several months she loved it so much.

We painted pottery at the pottery place, she chose a monkey and a tile to paint

Emmie and Amanda finding eggs at mamaw and papaw's

Easter was fun with the cousins but we never could get Ethan to smile for a pic with his cousin and big sis

We celebrated Sam's birthday at the same gym Amanda had her party at. That was the reason she wanted it at that gym because she had so much fun at Sam's party and sure didn't forget about it!

She enjoyed dyeing eggs for the first time

We also made our traditional bunny cake-

Daddy loved dyeing eggs too

The final product couldn't be eaten until the next day but she didn't complain

She loves stirring!

I love this silly face!

March was fun but sad too because we knew we would be saying bye to Sam soon

End of the year-April and May

April and May brought a visit from friends of daddy's from college. Both families have one boy each and Amanda enjoyed playing with them both!

Amanda hit her first pinata at her cousins graduation party!

We took our first trip to Great Wolf Lodge which is an indoor water park-we loved it and can't wait to go again.

Amanda loved the water park and craft room

She didn't like the big green slide! But she keeps telling us she is going to try it when we go back. We shall see....................

This girl really got into the arcade and "winning" tickets almost as much as her mommy. It is a good thing we don't gamble.

We enjoyed picnics with friends at a local farm twice in May

We took a trip to DC with our friends and the kids played soccer on the mall only Amanda kept picking the ball up when they were trying to kick it.

We ordered a heart shaped pizza for Mother's day dinner (we had lunch out) at our favorite family restaurant with our moms. The night before Amanda and daddy took out to my favorite restaurant! She spoiled me!

Holding hands with boys at 2 already!

Amanda's first trip to the zoo

We had to say goodbye to another friend who moved all the way to Japan

I hate saying good bye to people I love!

Amanda found a dress for her and one to match her doll while out shopping-she's a pretty good shopper but I have given a lot of opportunities to practice!

The next month we had to say good bye to this other friend so we celebrated both of them with a big cookie at bible club

We talked about a wee little man this month at bible club

Good bye luncheon and play date with Sam

We enjoyed the nice weather and Amanda got a chance to ride the bike she got months earlier for her birthday finally!

Fun at the farm with Sam

riding the metro in DC

We enjoyed The Doodle Bops concert as a family but not as much as the others we have been too. The Doodle Bops are nothing like Mickey and Friends!

Amanda loved the Air and Space Museum we went to on our trip to DC -here she is showing the astronaut her baby doll

She started to really like ice cream cones this year and is getting good at licking all around so the ice cream doesn't drip:)

Saying goodbye to friends is always tough, why they can't live closer is hard for Amanda to understand. She had to deal with six different playmates moving away within the past year! Now every time we go to a playground she says, "I am going to make a new friend" or "I played with a new friend"

We enjoyed a play date with baby Ethan-he and Amanda really love playing together

Amanda loved this hayless hay ride around a farm she loves watching other people....not sure where she gets that from! She will tell me "You are staring mommy, that is rude!" If I watch people too much!

Another tractor! She loves them, maybe she will enjoy mowing the lawn one day?

Amanda took her first pony ride in April at a party and wasn't scared at all. She waved to us, I worried she would fall off but she had no fear.

Cowgirl fun! She loves this little friend too!

We hosted a final four party in April that was fun

This is the first time she ate an entire 1/2 of a peanut butter sandwich-we had been at the farm a long time and the girl was hungry





April and May were full of fun but I think our most favorite activity was The Great Wolf Lodge trip-she is still talking about going back and just the other day said, "we can go to Great Wolf Lodge even if it is cold outside because it is inside!"