Our Fall {in words and pictures} plus a few things I am thankful for

a big birthday celebration with 30 balloons and 30 great things :: a canoe down the James :: the best popcorn ever is from the boy scouts :: homestead creamery's annual farm day :: someone loved the animals :: maybe they loved her too :: we used pumpkins to make a special announcement :: then the squirrels ate them :: the leaves changed colors late this year :: my childhood friend's wedding :: a new store to love in savannah

***********

last year we started the tradition of writing down one thing we were thankful for each day for a month leading up to Thanksgiving. this year we were pretty slack about it, but we did write down a few things. to see our list from last year click here.  here's the list i came up with this year: some answers were prompted by Ann Voskamp's monthly 1000 gift prompts...

I am thankful for/that

the memories I have of my college girlfriends

another baby on the way: a sweet surprise

our house: just what we wanted

the beautiful colors of the leaves

a husband who likes things clean

the blessing of being able to stay home with my daughter

the times my daughter laughs (a gift of laughter)

the opportunities God uses to teach me to be content

the Godly heritage of our families

God reveals my sin to me

the sound of a sleeping baby (a gift of silence)

to have had my college education paid for

Jim Gaffigan and his gift for being funny (a gift of laughter)

soldiers who defend our country (a gift of rememberance)

communion (a gift of rememberance)

our home (a gift behind a door)

the clothes i have ( a gift behind a door)

the two cars we have (a gift behind a door)

that God heard my prayer and helped Matt's dirt bike start

God is true to HIS word

a healthy child

we don't have to worry about where our next meal comes from 

Monthly Review: April and May 2013

here are just a few events from the past two months...

we had one more freak snow the first week of april. the.first.week.of.april! i couldn't believe it. it was so weird - it was bright and sunny one a monday, snowy (four plus inches) on tuesday, and bright and sunny with no evidence of snow on wednesday. talk about crazy weather patterns.

but thankfully it has been slowly warming up, reaching our normal spring and summer temps. it's been nice seeing nature come to life again.

^^^we have wild strawberries growing in our yard^^^

and speaking of nature, we love that our new house provides the opportunity to see wildlife. we have a small herd of deer that frequently visit our neighborhood. and even though we've lived in this house for almost three months, seeing these animals never gets old. i always want to stop what i am doing to watch them.

in early may we took a trip down to georgia to attend our sister-in-law's med school graduation.

on the way to macon, ga we stopped near atlanta to spend a day with close friends we had not seen in several months. it was so fun to catch up on life and see our children play together. they took us to a great little place to experience frozen custard. frozen yogurt has always been a favorite treat of mine, and this custard did not disappoint.

another treat i helped myself to during a date night was this to.die.for krispy kreme donut bread pudding. i am cursed with a sweet tooth!

the year is trucking right along, and our little babe isn't slowing down either. she continues to grow and learn at an unbelievable rate. by the end of the summer, she'll be eighteen months, and that just doesn't seem possible.

i am so thankful that we are homeowners now. because this summer V is definitely more mobile, walking and running all by herself. each day we spend some time outside, and it has been nice to have our own little space to do so. she loves to splash in water.  i haven't broken down to buy a water table yet, so i just fill a couple of bowls and buckets up with water, and she seems to have fun.

here are few other cute things likes to do:
:: wave bye-bye when she closes a book
:: stop to smell flowers, outside, in the grocery store, and even pictures of flowers in books
:: one day she walked in a small circle until she got dizzy and fell down
:: although, not cute, she has walked down the stairs in our house from the living room to the foyer. yes, all by herself, while her mother was not looking.
:: she also likes to give hugs, which are so lovely to receive.

although it already feels like the middle of june, it is shaping up to be a busy month. hopefully i can be a little more prompt with my monthly review postings. but i'm not really counting on it. take care and thanks for checking in!

Monthly Review: March 2013

our babe:

her hair is getting longer and longer. i find myself trying to comb it over to one side so it's not always in her eyes. and she is getting cute little curls in the back, too!

since our move out of the apartment and into the house, i find it hard to keep up with her. i don't have a designated play area for her yet, and she seldom likes to play with her toys. she is much more into going through the house and making a mess. i really am dying to get an established routine, and maybe some baby friendly activities so she won't get so bored.

V loves to stomp her feet back and forth, kind of like doing the cha-cha-cha, when she is upset and when she is happy. it's kind of cute.

sleeping is still an issue. although we've made great strides, she will sleep for six to seven hours straight now. there's still a morning wake up call between 2 am and 4 am. this situation is really testing my faith and patience. satan would love for me to think my prayers about this challenge aren't being heard or attended to.

march - the month of illness:

march 2013 will be the month i remember that illness spread throughout our household. i refer to this illness as the plague, but we are pretty sure it was the norovirus, a highly contagious stomach virus. it all began on a wednesday when V and I were running errands. i was getting her out of her car seat when she vomited all over the back seat of my husbands car. and let me just say i am glad she was the culprit of this mess, because mr. price may be a little OCD. after cleaning up the mess and heading home, she began to vomit every 10-20 minutes for the next 5 or so hours. i was scared, because i had never experienced a stomach virus before, and didn't know if her symptoms were normal. luckily, that was the worst of it, but she still couldn't keep anything down for two more days. she was actually a couple of vomits away from needing IV fluids, but praise God, that it didn't come to that.

on friday afternoon, i came down with the illness for several hours, but felt better by the early morning hours. which was a good thing because that's when mr. price got sick. it took us a good week to recover. my parents arrived 48 hours after our symptoms disappeared, but that didn't seem to help, because they all became sick too.

whew! i am tired just reliving that. and to top it off, i now have some upper respiratory illness or severe cold. i've been battling a sore throat, cough and congestion for almost two weeks.

let's just say i am so ready for warmer weather and physical wellness.

snow in march:

so while my parents were visiting and my mom and sister were recovering with their bouts of the virus, it snowed about 4 1/2 inches. this is probably the most snow we received during this 2012/2013 winter season. i failed to document other snowfalls, mainly because it all melted the day after.  we have a gentle slope in our backyard, and the neighbors' kids were all having fun sledding down.

easter:

last easter i was very moved by the holiday. this year i just seemed to be so overwhelmed that i didn't reflect on it as much as i should have. since i got sick again with a cold, i didn't even make it to church. i did watch andy stanley like i do most every other sunday.

the saturday before easter we attended an easter eggstravagza at our church office. they had activities for the children and an easter egg hunt. for the infants they had an area with lots of plastic eggs. however, we learned that V was afraid of the grass. she was not sure about the texture under her feet, and wanted me to hold her while we were outside. she did complete one activity which is pictured just above. that's supposed to be her hand print, but it is hard to get an infant to keep their fingers spread.

last year, valrie was only a few months old when we celebrated easter. but that didn't stop me from going out and buying resurrection eggs. these eggs aren't filled with candy, but symbols of the easter story. a donkey, a chalice, a cross, leather whips, a spear, 3 coins, a die, a white cloth, a stone, and a crown. this is a useful activity to help tell the story of Jesus's death and ressurection to children. although V isn't comprehending the story, she has had a grand time playing with the eggs, as you can see in the pictures above.

that about wraps up our month. i really hope to be reporting that we are all back to good health and were able to enjoy the beginning of spring! see you in april!

Monthly Review: January and February 2013

Tonight it is 9:45 pm, I just ate french toast for supper, and I want to crawl into bed and not wake up until lunch tomorrow. I am quite certain my daughter has other plans for me though.(we are going through another phase of not sleeping well...stop the madness, please.) Plus I decided I couldn't wait any longer to write a monthly review. You may not have noticed, but I didn't write a January monthly review. We have been so busy. Doing what? I can't really remember. So I am going to do my best to write a review of the past two months.

Like we usually do, we'll start off with the interesting things our baby is doing...

She learned to take off her diaper. And not at the most opportune time. One day I found her quitely playing with her poop. I scared the poor girl by yelling "oh no" when I discovered what she was doing. But the Lord blessed me, because at least I didn't see any on her face or in her mouth!

She has also learned how to turn on the TV. We don't have a flat screen, so our heavy and bulky TV sits on an entertainment stand just within reach of V's tiny hands. It's a TV with a DVD player built in. Our babe reaches right up to press play, and presses it again and again.

In February she turned 1. What a milestone! We celebrated this occasion in Montreat, NC with all of her immediate family. That's the "adult" birthday cake pictured above. A full birthday party post to come soon, I hope.

After three long months, V is finally cutting another bottom tooth. I think I am ready for the teething phase to be complete.

January was such a busy month for us. Mr. Price was very busy with work, and worked late on several occasions. We had a visit from Mr. Price's brother and sister-in-law. January also brought a couple of snow showers, which I failed to document with my camera. And near the end of January, we made an offer on a house, and just a month later on February 28th, we closed.

The "organizer" in me was actually really looking forward to packing up our apartment. But I have found packing to be challenging with a 1 year old. So we've basically taken the grab-what-you-can-and-put-it-in- the-car approach to packing. My dream now is just to use one room of the new house to organize and plan where to put stuff. Because that's what it all feels like - just stuff!!

Hopefully we can keep you updated on the move and the new house before the next monthly review rolls around. I appreciate you hanging around. 

 

Monthly Review: December 2012

December was the month our babe turned 10 months old. She continued to improve at walking, but I think her favorite thing to do is explore and make a mess! And the sad thing is, I let her. I just hate to keep her quarantined to her small play area all day long. So I often let her be my sidekick during the day.

She loves to empty containers. If she gets a hold of the wipes, you can better believe she will pull them all out. Same with a box of Ziploc bags, box of toys, and a basket of laundry. And only just recently did she discover the fun of putting things back into boxes.

She started saying "ma-ma". Sometimes I think she is really referring to me. But then I know that is crazy because she rarely hears anyone call me that.

She also likes to bounce to the sound of music, and point at things. She has seen her father and me point the remote at the television so many times, that now when she gets her hand on the remote, she too holds it up to the TV. I really can't believe we will be celebrating her one year birthday soon.

My sister came to visit for three whole weeks! I managed to almost finish two big projects I was itching to complete. I thought I would get more done during her visit, but instead she mostly helped out with day-to-day chores. It was nice to have someone feed V while I cleaned the kitchen. Or play with her while I did laundry or even better, take a shower! We are definitely missing my sister's presence.

This year we had a small Christmas tree that we put on top of a piece of furniture in our living room. You know, so it would be out of reach from someone's tiny hands. I don't really have a good picture of it. We did attempt to read from the Advent Calendar pictured above most nights, which included our Christmas tree ornaments.

My sister was still with us on Christmas day. We had a nice breakfast and exchanged a few gifts, and then it was off to meet Pop (Mr. Price's father) and have Christmas brunch with some family in the mountains.

Mr. Price's mom and sister made a trip up to see us two days after Christmas. We took a short trip to the Hotel Roanoke to see the many decorated Christmas trees, like Mr. Price and I did last year. I can see this becoming a Christmas tradition. Then it was New Year's Eve! And oddly, after going to bed before midnight for several years - we're party animals, I tell ya - we were actually up at midnight this year!

 Now it's a new year. A new start. And I'm looking forward to it! How about you?

Monthly Review: November 2012

This monthly review is short and all about the babe. Nothing much has happened lately with me and the Mr. Plus you can check out our Thanksgiving posts here and here.

I previously mentioned that V's favorite toy was a book with flaps. It's the one thing that succeeds in occupying her time for more than a minute. However, I can to only bring it out when I know I can really watch her. Otherwise she tears the flaps off and chews on them. Just look at this book that Mr. Price's brother and sister-in-law gave her...

I've had to reach into her mouth on several occasions to retreive wads of paper. Pretty scary for this mama.

She definitely keeps me on my toes now that she is walking! Yes, you read that right. Walking at 9 1/2 months. You will pray for me, won't you? Our living room is now her playroom.  Even before she was walking, we purchased what they call a super yard. It's like a circular fence that keeps babies contained to a  certain area. Since our living room is so small, we open it to extend from one wall to another. This gives her the entire living area to play. Our living room won't be featured in any home decor magazine, that's for sure. But we were excited to find this super yard for half price at a second hand baby store!

She did cut two more teeth during the ninth month. That gives her six teeth now. Goodness. People said babies grow up fast! They weren't lying!

In December she will turn 10 months old and celebrate her first Christmas, which means cute PJs. I'm going to go shed a tear now...

Monthly Review: October 2012

Our daughter turned 8 months in early October. Not much happened this month developmentally, although I think she is very close to cutting two more teeth. This girl is going to have at least six teeth by the time she is one year old. And she may be walking. She is gaining more balance on her two feet, but I think she knows she can get around faster by crawling. We like to call it turbo mode when she takes off crawling real fast! She takes one step and then squats down to start crawling. She's getting better at walking when she is holding onto the sofa or some other object.

Valrie's speech (babbling) has always come in spurts. She'll babble and coo for a week and then two-three weeks will go by and she won't have much to say. She started making the "b" sound first. And now will occasionally say "bye-bye" after we say it about a million times as Mr. Price leaves for work. 

She loves Veggie Tales! And I just introduced her to Blues Clues. I think she has a crush on Steve. 

One of her favorite things to play with now are books with flaps! Her uncle and aunt gave her a flap book. She loves lifting and often tearing off the flaps. It really keeps her entertained.

This month she also got her first illness. One night she slept longer than normal, (yes, we still have night sleeping issues) and when she finally cried out at 3 am, she was very hot to the touch. At 6:30 am I took her temp and it was 102.6. She wasn't fussy or cyring, and seemed to be okay. The fever subsided by the late afternoon. But four days later she was showing signs of her first cold. And another four days later we are still trying to get it to wear off.

We took our first long distance trip to Georgia in the beginning of the month. We are always so busy when we go down that it doesn't feel like much of a vacation. But we love being home and spending time with family. And now it is even more special to see what joy our daugther brings to others. Sorry to those people we did not get see while we were down!

When we got back to Virginia, we were greeted by the vibrant leaf colors in shades of organge, red and yellow. It is such a nice perk to live in this part of the country during early fall!

We also took our first trip to a corn maze and pumpkin patch this year. Every month our church plans a family event. We met at Layman Family Farms. Imagaine a huge open space of land with beautiful mountain scenery. There was a small animal farm with pigs, goats and sheep, a pumpkin rocket launcher, hayrides, cow rides, and a corn maze.

This year we strolled V around to see different things. I even managed to take her down an underground slide. That's us in the picture below. I had to lay down so I wouldn't hit my head, but didn't manage to get back up when the coast was clear for Mr. Price to get a good picture.

V was a monkey for Halloween. We didn't go trick-or-treating. Just dressed her up in a costume and tried to get a decent photo.

 During the last week of October I decided to start a new family tradition.  We are writing down one thing we are thankful for each day and placing it in this bowl. On Thanksgiving Day we will take out each paper and read them aloud. It has taken some self control for me not take a sneak peek.

I can't believe it is already November! We have a busy busy month. Mr. Price more so than me. So keep us in your prayers!