temporary memory lapse

I am "home" this weekend. It feels good to be here. It's been about three weeks since we've had a chance to make it this way. We're staying at our home away from home- The Wachsmann's Place. I'm thankful for their home. This weekend they are out of town so it's just me and my little family. Anna-Kate is sleeping in Moe's crib and all of her tiny clothes, shoes and hair supplies are all nicely organized in Bear's crib. It sure is a nice little set up ;-). She had a bit of a hard time going to sleep tonight. I think she was too excited about all of the toys, or the cat, or dog, or it could've been that she just didn't want to sleep in someone else's bed-whatever it was, she finally fell asleep. Praise Jesus.

I am feeling a bit anxious. Anxious because I have close to two full days to do all I want while I'm here and I feel like it's not enough. It's so hard for me to prioritize visits. I guess I'm putting too much pressure on myself because I know my mom misses AK a super duper lot and I usually spend most of my weekend at her house but this weekend I have other things I want to do. I'm having lunch with a friend tomorrow, very soon-almost immediately after that she is due for a nap. My little sister just moved into a new place and I want to help her with that. My aunt just moved into a new house also and of course, I'd like to help her too. I want to run AK by my dad's house. I want to see my friend Rachel. I want to go to Sally's Beauty Supply. We are hoping to attend a Super Bowl party on Sunday....and that's all I can think of for now. Life would be so much easier if I could just go with the flow but I'm more uptight that I'd like to be. Gggrrrrr.

Bri, if you're reading this, THANK YOU so much for letting us stay at your house and for allowing me to use your car! I don't know what I'd do without your wonderful self. I've been trying to call you a lot today-from your house phone- and I accidentally left a 56 minute message without knowing it. HAHAHA. AND I talked to one of your friends for close to a minute before I realized that it wasn't you I was talking to. HAHAHAHAHAHA! Good thing she was nice. Whew. Call me when you can.

Anyways, I was going to tell you all something about Anna-Kate but I can't remember for the life of me what it was. She's definitely getting big and I love her :). Her personality is like no other that I know. She's hilarious! She's 17 months old now. I took her to the doctor a couple of weeks ago for a diaper rash check and she weighed 21lbs. I was SO happy to FINALLY have her over 20lbs. It's been a journey. She says a lot more words now. Words like: Papa Cha (Papa Chad), bear, book, outsi (outside), bath, ball, baooo (balloon), nack (snack), bye bye, daddee & dada, momma..... there are a lot more but my memory is failing me at this time. She naps from 1pm-4pm whether she's actually napping or not. I started putting two books in bed with her during naptime and she LOVES it. I don't hear a peep out of her when I put her down. I pull back a little piece of her curtain to allow some light in and she just hangs out until she goes to sleep. It's also a relief for me because I know that I have atleast 2.5-3 hours a day where I can do things I want to do. Most recently I've been reading for a lot of her nap and then working out on the rebounder (aka-mini trampoline). Honestly, I never knew how good of a work out it was. It's easy on the ankles and knees and it gets the heart rate going. It's been nice for me.

I guess I'm going to go now until I can remember more things I want to say.

photo update

^^^I like to call this one the Wild Haired Wonder^^^


^^^grandios cheeser^^^


^^^swinging at her cousin's house^^^


^^^her pappi is silly^^^


^^^perfecting the cutest little fishy face ever^^^


^^^SO CUTE!!!^^^


^^^getting to see her pappi after not seeing him since she was two days old!^^^

belated new years

Happy Belated New Years to all.
P.S. I love this little girl located to the left of this text.

I'm "in town" this weekend seeing family and friends. I feel as though I've been getting a touch of home sickness lately. With PMS and no friends in my area I'm sure that explains it all. Shoot, PMS alone explains it all but that's besides the point. I'm bored of having no friends to hang out with :(. It's definitely time to get out and find some acquaintances. I've been considering finding a church but it's a tad bit hard to do that when my husband works out of town all weekend (and with our only vehicle). I could probably go with my MIL except I don't think her church is for us. It's small and....small. I guess that's not bad but seriously, we've gone a few times and honestly I'm pretty much bored to tears. Maybe I should give it a few more chances and open up my mind a little bit. I'm just so used to flat out, clear as day preaching. All the mumbo jumbo doesn't suit my fancy.

Anyways, with a new year already in gear I assume it's that time to make some new personal goes for myself and my family. It's so hard for me to make such goals because I usually forget about them within a weeks time. It's bad, I know. And almost every year I state something to do with fitness or health and every year I have a lapse in memory and consume thousands of calories in carbonated beverages and my share of sweets. Sad sad. I really do want to quit drinking soda but I can't! It's not the caffeine, it's the carbonation that I crave. So, what is there for a carbonation junkie to do?? The drink is not good if it doesn't instantly give me hiccups. RIDICULOUS!!! And the sweets, ooooh my sweets. As I've mentioned before, PMS! It comes with the package, ya know. I could ramble on for days about this. So basically, I really do want to start being more healthy and active. I have a one year old, how exactly am I dodging the active bullet??

So, the other night I was talking to Sean about baby names. This is the moment where he rolls his eyes and turns over and starts ignoring me. HAHA. NO, we're not expecting and NO we're not planning on expecting any time soon. Before AK was even thought of we knew her name. I like that. I like knowing the name of our babies before they're even thought of. Whatever, I know there are some out there who do it. Anyways, I've been trying to get this one name in Sean's ear for a while so he'll hopefully be used to it by the time we (I) want to use it. Hahaha. The name is Zellie. My MIL's grandma's name was Zella. At first it took some getting used to but I really think I like the name Zellie. It's definitely different but it's not an awful different. I think it's cute. I think the full name would be Zellie Grace. The more I think about and type about it the more I like it.

Well, I guess I'll go now. I'm super duper tired and my child is running a muck.

new words

Like of the day: free time and Phil Wickham's Divine Romance
Dislike of the day: obnoxious phonecalls

I'm glad to announce that this post is under no time restrictions. I am free to type what I want in the amount of time it takes. Yay. All that to say, I am at work and it could be a while before I actually get this post completed.

I am presently alone in this office and clueless as how to run it. Thankfully the program used here is the same program used at my other job so I know how to post payments and things of that nature. Now as far as renting out units and such I'm definitely at a loss. FYI: I'm working for my mother-in-law at this very moment in one of the largest storage facilities in the US. Intimidating. Good thing this isn't my main job because it's more work than I know what to do with, atleast compared to my storage facility which includes a whopping 110 units versus the almost 3000 here. Whoa.

So, my lovely little bundle of joy has been saying so many words lately. It's AMAZING when you hear them talk. I didn't know if would so magnificent. Why didn't anyone tell me! I get so excited when I hear her sweet little voice say a real word. It's the sweetest thing I've ever heard. Yesterday my mother-in-law showed her a picture of a car and said, "look, a car", and she said, "caaar". It was SO CUTE! She also says bath, ball, baby, Dadda, hey, hi, pease (for please), sit and she tries to sing jingle bells. Hahaha. Now THAT is cute! She's also trying to say Sean but it sounds more like shaw. Her daddy was teaching her that one himself-why? I have nooo idea!

Christmas is in 2 days!!! Oh my goodness. I can't believe it still. I'm excited to see everyone, hang out and just sit around. It'll be good fun. :)

picture update

Warning: lots of pictures in progress

^^^AK's room at our new home^^^

^^^reading books, double lovies and learning to sign please^^^

^^^this year's Christmas tree and the product of stealing bows off the presents^^^

^^^funny face and she climbed onto her table from her drum-crazy girl^^^

^^^inspecting and enjoying her horse^^^

^^^visiting Raleigh and climbing stairs^^^

^^^my beautiful "fall-like" baby, hahaha^^^

^^^I found her like that in the first pic and having fun with daddy^^^

^^^my little snow bunny^^^

^^^that broccoli and cheese soup I was telling you about-before & after^^^

Whew, I'm glad all of that is over. I've been working on this post for about an hour or more. I'm at work with my MIL for the time being. She needed me here to help her out today and I've been running around doing things in the middle of posting this. I'm a muli-tasker.

I'm soooooo happy to have pictures to post FINALLY! Yay! Hope you all enjoy.

The Christmas party was a success and my mom DID make it. It was exciting to have her there. Anna-Kate was very very happy to see her grandma. It was cute.

On another note, I CANNOT believe we are about to enter into another year. It's crazy! '08 went by super duper quick. It will always be a special year for our little family as it was the first full year with our little princess. Awww.

Well, I must go. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!