Let It Out

Sometimes you just need to let it out.

Cry.
Write.
Scream.
Cry.

Just let it out.

Henry's Christmas Photos

Prepare for cuteness overload. I FINALLY got Henry a Christmas outfit (he's rockin' skinny jeans this year) and found the time to do his Christmas photos. They are cute, like C-U-T-E, cute! But you don't have to take my word on it, you can see for yourself...

This was the first attempt at photos, before the outfit. It just didn't work out...

And last but not least, have a peek at our 2012 Christmas card!

Winter

I could tell you my secrets and expect you to understand...

but you won't and I won't make you.

It's not that I'm hiding anything profound, I just find myself changing with the seasons; coming to life, bursting and dying and then stepping away completely for a little while.

It's how I work; with all things a season and a time. I truly believe that.

Baby #2

...please just happen already. I'm sick of trying and I'm sick of waiting every month to find out if this is the month and...I hate feeling ungrateful because I have one perfect baby already and I know how blessed I truly am. But really!?!

Dear Henry

My dearest Little Bit,

You aren't feeling very well today. You went to bed super early last night and woke me up at 3:30 a.m. ready to get up and play. We snuggled on the couch with a few books and your favorite blankie for a couple of hours before I finally made you lay back down. I don't know if you ever actually went back to sleep or not, you were wide awake when I woke up at eight. I'm sure you'll be ready for a long nap in just a little while - and Mommy is ready for a nap too.

I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you. You are such a perfect, amazing little boy. God really spent a lot of time making you just right for me. I pray all the time that you will have a wonderful life, full of love and magic and promises that Mommy and Daddy can keep. One day you'll understand why that is so important to me.

You are growing and changing so much every day. You listen so well (well, sometimes) and you are becoming quite the ball of energy. You never stay still! It's exhausting for Mommy to keep up sometime but that's okay, I wouldn't trade chasing you around all day for anything.

Your room is almost finished and it's going to be sooo great! Mommy painted and bought all sorts of fun things to put up there and Mammal bought you a new dresser for Christmas. I'll have to teach you how to open and close the drawers and put all your clothes away. One day you'll sleep upstairs all by yourself but it will probably be awhile from now, I want you to be excited about having your own room first.

In a couple of weeks, you will be 18 months old. That means that you're half way between being one and two. You're growing up so fast!! I can't believe how fast, really. I want you to be my little baby forever, but I know that that is selfish of me. I want you to grow up and experience all the wonderful things the life can offer to you too. It's just hard to let go sometimes.

I just wanted you to know how much I love you, always. Even while you're sitting here rubbing your sticky fingers all over my clean clothes and dumping the box of hotwheels I just picked up all over the floor. (See, you're a handful!) And that will never change, no matter what. I will always love you, butters. Always.

Your Biggest Fan,
Mommy

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

And also the most busy, it seems.

I've been 'off' lately, not necessarily in a bad way, just different from my usual self. I'm okay with it. I'm actually kind of liking this 'new' self.

I've been much more attentive to detail lately.

I've become anal about picking up the house during the day and before bed. I've found that waking up to a clean house is much nicer than tripping over hotwheels on your way to the bathroom in the morning.

I've been adamant about meal-planning. I usually try to meal-plan at least a little before I go to the grocery, but this week I have meals planned for two weeks out. Sides, drinks, everything. I've even started a list for Christmas dinner... shocking I know!!

I've also been cleaning and organizing like a mad-woman. If I were pregnant, I'd say that baby was due any day now because it's been very similar to how I felt when I was 'nesting'. Let's just say that this spring we are having one hell of a garage sale. I'm so over having so much...stuff.

I've also gotten back into the swing of putting on make-up and doing my hair pretty much every day. I haven't done this in almost two years. TWO YEARS. I think mothering is finally beginning to kick my butt a little less each day.

Mentioning, I've also been eating less. Like...forgetting to eat entire meals until it's time for the NEXT meal. This is totally unlike me. But again...totally not complaining! Haha!

Overall, I've been kicking life's butt. I've gotten things done and I've looked good doing it. It's nice. Hopefully this is a new, permanent change...and not something that's just going to fizzle out.

Peppermints Trees and an Advent Calendar

I LOVE Christmas - especially now that I have a little one to share the magic of Christmas with. I love Christmas crafts too- there are just so many fun possibilities!

So when I saw all the awesome possibilities for advent calendars this year, I just knew I had to make one. I had a whole list of inspiration, but I knew that opening a little door, box or pouch everyday would not be as exciting for Henry this year as it will be in the coming years, so I choose to make a pocket calendar. This way I could fill out things we could do as a family each day of December and it would still be something cute I could hang up year after year, even if I decide to make something a little different in the future.

It barely cost a thing too. I bought scrapbook paper on sale, 5 for $1 and and had half of  a post board laying around from a previous project. Then I bought a sheet of Christmas stickers for a dollar and added a few other little things that I had laying around to make it 'mine'.

I LOVE how it turned out. It's exactly what I was envisioning.

Another craft I tackled in the last few weeks was the peppermint Christmas trees that are floating around everyone on the internet. My friend Jessica and I got together one day last week and made these. They are super easy to make but if you can find mini-mints, I think they would turn out nicer, also - it's really hard to make the mints line up at the top so that they come to a point. BUT, with a little hot glue and a little creativity, we managed to make them look presentable (at least). I have a smaller cone and a larger cone yet to decorate, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. I think I'm going to wrap at least one of them in yarn. We will see!

What crafts have you been up to lately? Do share!

Also, if you want to keep up with me and some of my Christmas goodness - follow me on Instagram: Jenn_Ovey