Movie & Book Reviews

Hey bloggy friends! It's been a long time since I've written about anything not pertaining to mommy-hood. Funny how that happens sometimes! So I thought I'd share some of the things that I've been reading & watching lately...and get some suggestions from y'all as well :)

True Grit:

Hmmm, where do I begin? I know a LOT of people really, really liked this movie. It was recommended by quite a few friends and family members. I; however, was not a fan. Something about Maddie...I just found her to be, well, annoying. I actually really like Westerns usually, but I just couldn't get into this one. And to me, Matt Damon just didn't fit somehow...especially as someone from Texas! When the movie ended I couldn't help feeling perplexed. Both Chris and I felt like it was a waste of 2 hours. Sad, I know.

The Company Men:

I didn't love this movie either. In it's defense, it was the 2nd movie of the night and we (I...Chris was asleep!) didn't start it until almost 11. So, maybe it's a little unfair to judge it so harshly since I could barely hold my eyes open for it! But, I'm one of those people who HAS to see the end if I start it. Worst movie ever? I'll stick it out to the credits. I just can't help it.

Anyway, back to the movie. Again, I just didn't get into it. I really liked the actors, and the previews made it look really interesting. But, in the end, I think it just fell flat. Maybe it was an accurate portrayal of how it feels to lose your job, especially as an executive...I don't know. But even so, there was no really "gripping" part. None of the characters really made you "feel" for them. One was a jerk (in the beginning), one was having an affair (sooo, jerk), and the other was just pitiful. Sad, yes. Memorable? No.

Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo:

Wow. There really are no words. It's a short book that I finished in about 1.5 days because I just couldn't put it down. It was engaging, heart-tugging and remarkable. I thought it was sincere in its message, and I just couldn't help but feel a little bit more joyful when I finished it. Death is daunting to me. I felt like this was a little glimpse of what is in store for us (in heaven), in an easy-to-understand, and vivid version. That's what this book is, I guess. Many books in the Bible explain what heaven will look like, some in great detail, but sometimes the language and wording is difficult to wrap my head around. This book, coming from a 4 year old, isn't difficult at all. It stays true to what I've read in scripture but somehow enhances the images in my mind. I'd highly recommend it to anyone :)

What I'm Currently Reading:

The Ministry of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson

Praying the Scriptures for Your Children by Jodie Berndt

Do you have any good book or movie recommendations?? I'm really not picky about movies (though my reviews might say otherwise!). I usually like anything :) And while I don't have a whole lot of time to read anymore, I LOVE to do it when I get the chance! So any suggestions would be great!

Hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Life Lately

"Mama, up peeeaaasss"!

Messy hair and sleepy eyes.

Strawberries and waffles...and a little bit of syrup for dipping ;)

Elmo books and singing the ABC's.

Puzzles, blocks and tea parties.

PB&J, blueberries and applesauce, and milk to wash it down.

Naptime...for 2 :)

Silly songs and lots of dancing.

Sippy cups and Goldfish.

Swimming, running and red-cheeked, sweaty-faced happiness.

Wooden spoons, tupperware, pots & pans & lots of laughter.

Dinner for 3, and a hearty "AMEN" from Miss E.

Bath time, bubbles, rubber duckies & lots of splashing.

Footy-PJ's, bed time stories and the best snuggles ever!

Family prayers and sweet dreams.

A thankful and very full heart.

What does your life look like lately??

19 Weeks Down...

Can I just start out by saying that I'm all kinds of screwed up with this pregnancy! I thought I was 20 weeks along (yay 1/2 way!!), and even told a few people that this week. But then I look again (just to be sure), and nope...I'm only 19 weeks preggo as of today. It doesn't help that my due date has been moved back by 8 days (which I'm pretty sure is wrong, but why listen to the mother??!!). It's just thrown me completely off because, well...I'm kind of a planner (oh, hadn't you heard that before?!).

So, here are my pregnancy stats so far!!

How far along? 19 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Zero. I know, sounds bad! But, I lost 7 lbs in the beginning and have now gained it back...so I'm even. Though if you saw me, you'd swear I'm up at least 15 big ones!

Maternity clothes? Oh yeah. Though I was pretty proud of myself for squeezing into a non-maternity shirt today. Side-view might not be so hot, but I went for it anyway :)

Sleep: GREAT...when Elli sleeps through the night!!

Best moment this week: Hearing the heartbeat again. And starting the countdown to find out the gender! T minus 11 days and counting!

Movement: I don't feel much yet...I'll have to go back and see what Elli was doing around this time.

Food cravings: Crunchy Tacos...is that weird?!

Gender: ????

Labor Signs: None.

What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach. It takes me FOREVER to get comfortable now!

What I am looking forward to this week: Nothing baby-wise, but we are hosting a BBQ on Sat., and I'm pretty pumped about that!

Weekly Wisdom: I so miss having a baby-baby in my arms. I'm sooo looking forward to holding our sweet little one :)

Ten on Thursday

I'm going to hop on the "Ten" train! Lots of my friends have been doing this lately, so I thought I'd try to come up with 10 interesting tidbits about our lives, too. Well...I said I'd TRY to make them interesting! Ha!

1) We try to take advantage of long weekends, and this one is no different! We're heading out to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA tomorrow. I'm super excited b/c there is a Sesame Street section there, and I think Elli will have a blast! PLUS, our little family gets in free thanks to our military man :)

2) Chris's dad & Donna will be joining us on our Virginia adventure...which makes me even more excited!

3) I heard Baby D's heartbeat again today. Such a sweet sound!

4) Only 3 more weeks and we find out if Baby D is a girl or a boy. WooHoo, I can't wait!

5) I made King Ranch Chicken Casserole for the first time last night, and we all LOVED it! Click on the link for the recipe :)

6) After a brief hiatus, I'm going to be turning on my sewing machine again. I know, crazy! I have so many pregnant friends right now that I just can help but drag out the fabric, scissors & thread to make some fun baby gifts!

7) It is my opinion that window treatments really "make" the house. We finally got the last ones hung last night and I can't tell you the difference it has made!! It finally feels like home.

8) We went to a "base brief" last week at Chris's squadron. We heard about the upcoming deployment schedule, and got a preview of all the bases that are available to us. I gotta say, I didn't leave that brief with warm fuzzies! These past 2 years of Chris's training have really spoiled us both (& Elli!). In 5 short months, we'll be back to the "real world" of long days, deployments, TDY's, and typical military life. I know we'll adjust, we always do...I'm just not really looking forward to it.

9) Elli's vocabulary is exploding! She is such a little mimic, and it makes me laugh. Her current favorite words are: boo boo, shoes, choo choo, up please, and Daddy. She says new ones every day, and she knows many more than just these...it's just that she says these particular ones so often that if you're not careful you'll start banging you head against the wall! And she gets louder each time she says one, until she's screaming SHOES and nearly falling down from the giggling. Who taught her that?! Cracks me up!

10) HUGE shopping weekend in store for me! Well, mainly Monday, but I think 1 day of the crazy sales will be plenty. Did you know that Gymboree has everything in stores and online for $12.95 or less? EVERYTHING! And Carter's is having a 60% off sale. Coach has everything 30% off at the outlets, Crazy8 has everything in stores and online at $10.99 and under. It's nuts I tell you...and I plan on being right in the middle of it!!

Happy Memorial Day weekend, friends!!

Well, hello again :)

Did ya miss me?? Or is anyone even still reading since I went on such a long blog hiatus?! I don't really have an excuse...time, I guess. I don't have any :) Ha! It's definitely not lack of content. I feel like our 1st eight weeks here in NC have been so busy that they have absolutely flown by. Do I say that a lot? Maybe I just feel like life is flying by at the moment. I look at my sweet daughter and wonder how she is almost 2 years old. I think about having another baby in 5 months and I'm just in shock! I try so hard to savor every moment, but sometimes I feel like they speed by so quickly that my moments seem like milliseconds. Do y'all feel that way, too? Any tips on how to slow it down?!

Let's see...where do I even begin?? Well, we decided that once we got settled in, one of the first things that we wanted to do was enroll E in Mother's Day Out. The thought was that it would give her a chance to interact with lots of other kids, and would give me a little chance to catch up on mommy things.

Here she is on her first day of "school":

She LOVES it! We chose a really well known program that is run through a local church. We love Ms. Karen, her teacher, and feel very blessed that there was a place for Elli there. I; however, haven't left E there for the full 4 hours yet!! I just can't seem to do it...weird, I know. I thought I would relish the "alone time", but truth be told...I just miss her!

Next up...Easter!! What a fun one we had this year! Had I not left the Easter eggs out all morning to be filled with ants by the time the kiddo's picked them up, it would have been a total success! Ha! Luckily, they weren't biting ants...and as soon as I realized the issue, we promptly ended the "hunt" :) I just gotta say...it's so typical of me!

My girl and I on the BEST holiday of the year. He is RISEN!!!

Elli in her Easter dress and bonnet...I just love little girls in Easter bonnets. Oh, and her daddy picked out the dress! Great job, if you ask me :)

And E hugging her friend Myla. Elli might be the hugging-est little girl I have ever seen. She LOVES a good hug! Just liker her Mama :)

Shortly after Easter, my little brother came out to visit us and we had a GREAT time just hanging out together. I think by the end of his trip he was a little overwhelmed at how tiring a toddler can be :)

Here we are at the Kinston Indians baseball game:

It was E's first one, and she was a big fan (especially of the hot dogs, ice cream & french fries!).

Over the week that Travis was here, Elli also got to go to her very first birthday party :) Happy birthday, Asher!! **She loved the bounce house until the boys wanted to play, too!**

We also went to UNC...a gorgeous campus, and a great day!

And finally, we celebrated Travis's 23rd birthday. I just love him...especially because he didn't mind that I put the candles in his birthday brownies before they had cooled. Ooops :)

So I guess that's it for March & April. I'll pick up in May...hopefully sometime soon :)

House Preview

We're finally all settled into our house, Chris has started training (again!), and we're up & rolling here in our new town. I am a little bit crazy (okay, A LOT crazy) when it comes to getting the house set up. Once our furniture has been delivered, I want it done, like yesterday! I learned that it's significantly harder to have those kinds of expectations when you're 1) running after a 19 month old, and 2) pregnant. I'm going to blame the pregnancy for most of it though b/c we had tons of help with Miss E, and she was fabulous during the entire move...so I can't really pin my slowness/lack of energy and motivation on her! Ha! We finally got everything done though (well, all but the office but that's another story!), and we're so excited to be here with such great friends!

Here are some pics of the house...thought y'all might want to see :)

I hate having that gaping hole over the mantle and it took forever to figure out what to do with it! As you can see in few pics down, we have a ginormous entertainment center that we really didn't want to get rid of, and a TV that won't fit in that hideous hole. So...conundrum. Luckily my very patient mother-in-law went to Michael's with me and helped me wander around until I found some things that I liked. I think it turned out pretty well...not exactly what I wanted, but it will do :)
LOVING our new kitchen! However, cooking with a gas oven has proven to be a little bit more difficult than I thought!

The living room...as you can see, we like Clifford at our casa :)

Our guest room...a montage of things that don't fit other places! At least it looks cozy :)

And...the best part of the house, by far!! The play room! I love it, and so does Elli. This is just one side. The other side has my desk, sewing machine, sewing closet and a big comfy chair that just begs to be read in :) We've never had a play room before. At our last house all of E's toys were in the middle of the living room...NOT ideal. I couldn't be happier with this set-up, and I'm pretty sure that Elli feels the same way!

Big News :)

A little birdie told me a secret....

I'm going to be a BIG SISTER!!!

So...in case you hadn't heard...we have some very big news in our house :) We are absolutely over-the-moon excited about a new little blessing that will be making his/her appearance in late October!! I CANNOT wait to meet our sweet 2nd child!!

Many of you know about our struggle to get pregnant with Elli. The medication that I took made me a nutcase. Seriously. C-R-A-Z-Y. Night sweats (gross!), mood swings, lots & lots (AND LOTS) of tears, cold spells, & weird cravings. Let's just say it was less than pleasant. So, when we started thinking about having another baby (when Elli was about 6 months old...yes, I'm serious), I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to go through all of that mess again. Well, it didn't work out quite like I had planned (luckily, Someone else already had it all figured out :)

My Dr. prescribed said medication about 2 months before we were scheduled to move, and I'm not going to lie, I worried about taking it every day for 2 solid months. The night before I was supposed to start the meds, Chris & I talked & prayed about it. We decided that it just wasn't a good time, that it would make the move really difficult, and we both felt like there was something pulling at our hearts telling us to wait. So, the next morning came and I didn't take the pill. I cried, but I didn't take it. I beat myself up all morning thinking that I was going to delay everything at least another 6 months (that's how long it would take to get started on the "program" again once we moved), and just really felt sorry for myself. I thought I was in control, that I had a say, that I was the one in charge. The irony of it is that I didn't take the pills because I trusted God the night before...we both did. We were so secure in His plans that we made the decision in faith. Funny how it only took about 8 hours, and the actual "act" of stepping out on that faith to trip me up. Thank you, Jesus, for Your grace in my weakness.

*Fast forward about 16 days*

I took a pregnancy test more to get rid of it (I was in my purging stage of the move) than anything else. In fact, I almost threw the test away before I realized that there was a thin blue line staring back at me! I ran out and got a digital test, one that actually says "pregnant" and took it again. Success!!! PREGNANT was displayed, crystal clear! Tears of joy ran down my face, and I immediately hit my knees.

I am not in control, I have no say, and I am definitely not the one in charge. Thankfully...because I would mess up His perfect plan, without a doubt!!

My sweet girl, waiting on daddy to get home to share the exciting news :)

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11