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

Thanskgivings

I was tempted this year to follow the Facebook trend of posting daily what I am thankful for but I resisted, I resisted because this time next year I cannot return to a list and see all that I was thankful for the year before like I can if I just post a full list here.  Jeremy and I have sat down in the past and created a 'thankful' list, but considering that both he and Henry are passed out on the couch (I'm assuming it was the homemade pancakes I made for them this morning and the soothing band music from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that did them in) I am taking it upon myself to do it alone. I must say, however, that my list will be lacking. I have so much to be thankful for, so very very much!

I am thankful for God and His guidance in our lives, His mercy, love and for salvation.
I am thankful for Jeremy and his willingness to put up with my moody butt.
I am thankful for Henry and the joy he brings to my life every single day.
I am thankful for two pain-in-the-butt dogs who keep me company and are the best of listeners.
I am thankful that I live in America, where I am free to do and believe what I please without persecution or worry.
I am thankful for American soldiers who serve to keep our country free, especially my brother.
I am thankful for my grandmother, who taught me how to be a respectful human-being.
I am thankful for my dad, for trying his best.
I am thankful for Jeremy's parents for treating me like one of their own (and often taking my side on things).
I am thankful that Jeremy and I both have jobs that pay our bills and allow us to live comfortably.
I am thankful for clean water to drink and fresh food to eat.
I am thankful for a reliable vehicle.
I am thankful for the quiet, easiness of Pleasant Hill, Ohio.
I am thankful for family and friends to share good times and memories with.
I am thankful for a warm house that is my own.
I am thankful for the ability to make weekly trips to Miamisburg.
I am thankful for quiet moments spent between just Jeremy and I.
I am thankful for my little business, even if I've had to push it to the side a bit lately.
I am thankful that Jeremy has only a couple weeks of college left.
I am thankful for holidays and the warm feeling that it brings to be surrounded by your family.

I am thankful that I can be me. I can create, and live and laugh freely without concern and I know that I have an amazing support-system and family that love me regardless.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope it brings you as much joy as it's bringing me!

So What!

I'm not going to lie, I need this SWW this week. I have a lot of things to SW about! So on to it, So What! if this week -
-I was available for an upgrade and instead of moving up to an iPhone 5, I stuck with the 4. It was free and the accessories will be cheaper and I'm okay with being 'behind' in the technology world.
-I put all of my Thanksgiving and fall decorations away on Sunday. I can't wait to decorate for Christmas and although I haven't put a lot of Christmas decorations out yet, there are a few.
-I'm peeved about my schedule on black Friday. I'm working 10 to 7, which is ALL flippin' day. I was okay with coming in at the crack of dawn, I never go out shopping anyway, but coming in AFTER the rush to a dead store for 9 hours just sounds excruciating.
-Mentioning work, we're also having a carry-in on Friday in which I have not the slightest clue what I'm going to make and take. Why couldn't our company just provide a meal? Wouldn't that have been easier? It IS Thanksgiving after all!
-I have been the most unproductive person this week and I feel like it's not my fault. Henry has been especially destructive and into things so cleaning up after him is pointless, the dogs have chewed up several things and left them all over the house for me, my dishwasher leaked all over the floor and when I went to renew my license at the BMV, their computer system was down.
-The only productive thing I've done this week is start making an advent calendar for Christmas. It's going to be amazingly cute too!
-I'm not looking forward to Thanksgiving at all. We could skip it and go straight to Christmas. Everyone is always crammed into my mother-in-law's home like sardine cans and we always end up waiting an hour for my sister-in-law and it just doesn't sound like fun.
-I have no idea what I'm going to get anyone for Christmas. Well, except for Henry.
-Henry's list for Christmas is a mile long. It's going to be pretty hard to narrow it down.
-I haven't cooked an actual meal yet this week. It's been Tuna Helper, grilled cheese and easy stuff all week.
-I'm still upset about my missed date night. It's tradition in my husband's home-town to meet at a club there the night before Thanksgiving, so maybe we'll go out tonight?

Prayer

Do you believe in the power of prayer?

I do.

I have had a migraine for 16 hours straight now and it's the third time in the last week alone that I've been crippled by these horrible headaches. I don't know if it's stress, the weather or something more serious but I'm asking for my blog friends prayers.

I really can't afford to go to the doctor right now. With a $5,000 deductible per person, we're already drowning in Henry's doctor bills from this year. I really just need for them to go away, or at least be less intense. I couldn't even sleep last night because the pain was so intense and yet being up and moving about just seems to make things worse.

So if you could just whisper a little prayer for me today, I would really appreciate it. I just want this pain to go away.

My Little Rocker

 Between mohawks and drums, I think I may have me a little rocker on my hands!