A quick peek

Part of the reason I took a little blog break was because.....

A NEW HOUSE WAS IN THE WORKS!

House hunting, loan shopping, paperwork signing, emails, and phone calls galore were all a part of the last two weeks. It's not completely a done deal yet, but we are SO EXCITED.


I can't wait to get in there and make it a home!

BIG, BIG, BIG thanks to Andrew and Taylor who let us stay with them while we were looking. We can't wait to be close to such great friends. Taylor was PRICELESS during the hunt, as you can see.




Speaking of....
I just would like to say I think a 'Turtle' rematch is in order.

What's Black and white and pink all over?

Emma's nursery, of course!

(I actually had this post ready about 8 months ago and just never put pictures with it. I feel kinda silly posting it now since we're moving, but I thought you might enjoy it anyway.)

Well it took who knows how many months to complete, but I finally feel like Emma has a mostly finished nursery. When I was pregnant I had no idea whether my precious cargo was male or female so I decided to use black and white to decorate the nursery. My mom had a blast finding all kinds of fun black and white prints and making various pieces for the room. I had full intentions to accessorize in appropriate accent colors once Baby Boully arrived. Back in December when Emma was born, however, we were still in an apartment that forbid us to paint or hang things on the wall. Needless to say the room was a little flat. Now that we've moved into a more permanent place I was able hang some things and add lots and lots of pink!

I never got around to hanging everything I had, which included some wooden letters that spelled her name and a photo collage from her 4 month portraits. In spite of that, I thought the room was pretty cute. I can't wait to do some REAL decorating in our new place.

More about that tomorrow!

Moving!

We'll folks, our time here in Louisiana is finished. (For now anyway.) We are officially moving and Robert is starting a new job.

It's been in the works for a few months now and God has really put the pieces together in a way we couldn't have imagined.

You see, two years ago, Robert applied for two jobs. One with a company in Georgia and one with Schlumberger. He REALLY wanted the job in Georgia. God had other plans. So we found ourselves in Louisiana. And now we're heading to Georgia for the exact same job Robert applied for two years ago.

It couldn't have come at a better time. With a new baby on the way and some family health issues, we really needed something that would allow Robert to be more available. And while he didn't go looking for the new job, it was nice that God gave us this opportunity when we needed it.

I wouldn't trade the past two years for anything. Just as I explained in this earlier post, God knew exactly what he was doing.

Was it hard? yes
Did I complain? haha-yep
Did I grow up a little? oh yeah
Am I a better wife and mother than I would have been? I like to think so.
Are we SUPER EXCITED about moving on to a new chapter in our lives?

YOU BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR!

Parenting by the Book- A Review

Ok sorry about such a HUGE cover picture. I couldn't find anything else.



If you are a parent, this is a MUST read. I devoured this book. The minute Emma starting throwing temper tantrums, I thought, "Oh boy, I better get my act together." I needed a game plan. In my opinion the best place to find your game plan is from God's word. But since I'm not a bible scholar, I opted for a little help.

John Rosemond uses the basic principles for parenting and discipline from the Bible to give parents a practical application in today's world. Given his psycholgy background and work history, he has an interesting take on all the current theories of parenting. The entire first section of the book is devoted to completely discrediting any parenting theory that does not have God's principles at it's core.

As a teacher with some experience in the current public school systems of America, I found myself muttering a few 'Amens' along the way. In Rosemond's opinion (and mine), children these days have no respect for authority and absolutely no work-ethic. Rosemond contends that this is largely due to the complete lack of consistancy in parenting. He says there is so much "psycho-babble" going around that parents these days are confused about the "right" way to discipline.

Rosemond breaks down a child's life into three distinct "seasons" that each have a different style of parenting associated with them. This was the most helpful section of the book for me, because it helped me create a framework in my mind when thinking about appropriate responses to situations with my child.

Without giving too much more away, I highly recommend reading this book if you're a parent with children still in the raising stage. You won't be dissappointed.

A Pumpkin Patch after thought.

I am about the furthest thing from a typical first time momma. At least I feel that way. I forget to take Emma for portraits, I let her eat paper (and dog food), and I seem to forget about all the traditional photo opportunities there are for babies. I totally didn't even think about taking Emma to a pumpkin patch until I just happen to drive by one the other night.

So being the opportunistic girl that I am....ahem....

We stopped the car and jumped out for pictures. Never mind it was past 7:00 pm (notice the hours posted on the board behind us) and approaching dark fast or that my pitiful point and shoot camera is worthless in low light on moving targets. (I give you exhibit A and B)

A

B


On the bright side, I did get a few good shots and Emma absolutely LOVED the pumpkins.

Score one for the a-typical momma.

Happy Halloween

Ladybugs all dressed in red

Strolling through the flowerbed.

If I were tiny just like you

I'd creep among the flowers too!
Maria Fleming

Play Date

While we were in Auburn we also got to see some friends of ours from high school and college. They had a little girl, Charlotte, just a month and a half before Emma was born. She is an absolute doll and it was fun to see them interact, however small that interaction might have been. :) They are doing a lot of the same things right now so it was also fun to get to swap stories with another momma.

We were doing so much story swapping we didn't take any pictures until right before time to leave. Trying to photograph two babies under a year old was....a feat.

If you'll notice, cell phones are now the object of choice when it comes to distraction and appeasement. Apparently Charlotte was more interested in Robert's phone than my phone. Go figure.


We got Emma's attention first while Charlotte was still deciding about which phone was the coolest.



I think these were the best shots we got and they were the only ones because shortly after this next picture they decided they were tired of being on the couch. Actually I think Charlotte had already decided that.



So we resorted to the ultimate containment.....



walkers and excersaucers. Mom's best friend.

She slept the whole way home, which was saying something since she SCREAMED the whole way there. I hope we get together again soon!