A Mommy Moment To Remember

This morning came along a bit earlier than usual. I woke up to a nose bleed (what?), a toddler who just wouldn't sit still (or let me lay in bed), and a serious case of, "why did I stay up so late?"

Needless to say, I wasn't in the best mood.

So when I finally decided to get by lazy bum out of bed at 7:15, I got Brooklyn dressed, and proceeded to head downstairs to make breakfast for the two of us. Brooklyn ate half of a cup of yogurt and an entire bowl of applesauce all by herself, while I made us some cheesy scrambled eggs, which she also gobbled. Boy, is she a good eater!

The two of us went into the family room to turn on her Baby Einstein animals video (which she rarely sits for 30 seconds of), and she surprised me by watching the entire thing and trying to name and kiss each of the animals that she recognized as they came on the screen. Cute, huh? Maybe she watched it because I was sitting next to her, pointing to the animals and talking to her about each of them? I decided to turn her other animal video on since she really seemed to be on a roll with learning animal names. I got the video started and sort of noticed her rummaging around in her little basket of toys that we keep in the family room. I heard her say "beebee", and heard a sweet little "mwah."

I turned to watch her as she took a couple of steps towards me. She hadn't even noticed me next to her. Her focus was entirely on her baby doll snuggled in her arms. She had one hand under the baby's bottom, and one had on the back of the baby's head, with the baby's face snuggled into her chest. She began swaying slowly, hummed softly, and just stood there for a minute or two, giving the baby love and kisses.

In that moment, I realized that my ever so busy toddler really does notice the soft, tender love that I show her everyday.

My kind words and actions towards her make a difference.

The special moments that we share together are ones that she remembers as well.

And a confirmation of something that I have always known: She has a kind, gentle, and ever so loving heart.

My darling sweet baby girl is such a wonderful example to me each day. I have learned more in the past 15 months about my Heavenly Father's love for each of his children than I could have hoped to learn in the previous 24 years.

This is about 5 minutes after the sweet snuggling. She was still holding that baby!

I have had dozens of these wonderful "mommy" moments to remember, and am kicking myself for not writing them down previously. Though, I know I will have hundreds more, and I WILL write them down. I may not share each one of them with you, but I WILL write them down for memories sake, and for my sweet daughter to read someday.

My Inspiration

My dear sweet Bee-bee,

You are a strong, determined, sweet, kind, snuggly, active, bright, and capable little girl. You figure out how to do just about everything on your first try. You have mastered using a fork. You say 35+ words. You're learning your letter sounds at bath time with me. You love to read your special nursery rhyme book from Grandma. You can climb up just about any uncovered slides and slide down them all by yourself. You can climb up onto couches, low beds, chairs, and sometimes on top of tables. You love to jump, bounce, run, dance, sing, hug, snuggle, and chat with mommy. Your eyes melt me every time you look deeply into my eyes and hum to me as I rock you. You hug and kiss your baby and say, "awww", as you do it. You are my first baby. My first little love. Your smile lights up a room. Your giggle turns heads.

I see so much of myself in you. You're stubborn like your momma. You have a will that just can't be broken, and I really don't want to break it anyways. You have a love of life and learning that will help you to achieve anything that you want. I love teaching you how to show love. I just means that I get to snuggle, hug, and kiss on you all day. You have a vivacious, happy personality that helps me to see the positive in life each day.

Thank you for showing me what true love is. Thank you for letting me love on you in return. There are plenty of days where I really need it. Thank you for being you.

And most of all, I thank my Heavenly Father each day for letting me be your mother.

Love,

Your mom

Newfound Determination

I've never been a "dedicated" blogger, or journal-writer. I have a gorgeous, bright, silly little girl. Why ever would I not write it all down somewhere?

I have been dealing with some pretty serious guilt over here, and I have decided after reading my sister-in-law, Marci's blog, its time to make a change.

Please bear with my awful writing abilities, lack of humor, and ramblings. I'm really going to give this my best shot this time! I really do have an awesome family, promise!

Brooklyn Rae Weatherspoon

February 16th, 2011
7 lbs 5 oz
20.5 inches long

She is absolutely beautiful.

"Hold your horses"

I know, I know... Brooklyn has been in this world for exactly 3 months 11 days and 13 hours. I get it. I'm behind.

Just so you know before you read on, I won't be posting any pictures for your enjoyment just yet. I'm working on organizing and editing them at the moment. Unfortunately, as soon as I get semi-caught up, I get behind again with new pictures.

But, I promise there are ADORABLE pictures headed your way. Seriously.

Patience.

Life Update

Alright, so I realize that I left the blog on a bit of a negative note...

Time to update everyone and change the tone.


So, Its a girl. We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome a cute lil' lady into our home in February. We are about 99.9% positive about her name. Brooklyn Rae Weatherspoon. Ross loves it, I like it. Pregnancy has been going MUCH better since week 15ish. Brooklyn is an INCREDIBLY active little gal. She beats up my stomach on a regular basis, jumps on my bladder, kicks right into my hip bone regularly, and all of the other lovely things that a little lady should NOT do. We'll have to work on the attitude a bit after birth, eh? ;)

Ross is staying busy with online classes, work, and helping me clear the 2nd bedroom out and organize it for the baby. I'm going to school, and working about 10 hrs a week watching the same 2 cute little girls that I was nannying for before. We're staying busy, but keeping our heads above water. Thankfully.

Okay, so I realize that I have deprived everyone of pictures for quite a while and should probably fix that.

Here goes.

Ross's 1st EVER Jiu Jitsu Tournament- 1st Place Men's Intermediate

I'm super proud of my hubby. He's pretty studly and wonderful indeed.

The boys and their hawks... studly, eh?

Yes, That's Ross looking like he's about to punch the guy...

Last picture I got of his score in the final fight... I believe it ended up being 21-0 though.

Rehydrating between the fights

Emily trying to look tough like the boys. Failing at looking tough, succeding at looking cute.

One of the very few pictures that I took from my family's camping trip in the NC Mountains. We explored around Pisgah National Forest, saw 5 waterfalls, the men+Becca went down sliding rock, 3 hr canoe/kayak trip down a river (I forgot the name of the river), made dutch oven dinners and desserts, roasted marshmallows for s'mores, and enjoyed each other's company. The better, and more thorough pictures are on my sister Becca's facebook page.

One of the many cute bows I've made for Brooklyn thus far. She also has an abundance of post-summer clearance dresses and other cute outfits in her closet. She's going to be one well-dressed little lady.

Last but not least, we flew out to visit Ross's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew for 5 days! It was a blast. Ross drove me around Baker City to show me all of his childhood sites, we went apple and peach picking in an orchard, and we went to Wallowa Lake with everyone for a night. All in all, it was a great trip.

The boys, skipping rocks on Wallowa Lake

The lovebirds.

A short (yet slippery and steep) hike we took to see the view.

Thanks for a great trip!

Life Update

I will apologize ahead of time to anyone who's not in the mood for a bit of a downer. Whoever said pregnancy is wonderful is insane. Between exhaustion, nausea, tears, and a ridiculous amount of stress, I don't see how it could be fun in any way. Besides that, I start working full-time next week. Whew. We'll see how long that lasts! Oh and my Statistics final is next week as well. Lovely :)
On a positive note... Ross has been an angel. I walked in the door from school this afternoon, and he had done the dishes and was in the middle of vaccuming for me. What a sweetheart. I think he may be the only way that I stay even half way sane right now. He's wonderful... I sure am one lucky lady.
Our next appointment is Wedn July 28th. We're excited to see how everything is progressing and we'll update you after the appointment!