We are so blessed

I missed out on posting something around Thanksgiving expressing how thankful I am for ALL that I have, therefore I am doing it now. For two weeks we were able to visit beautiful Colorado and spend time with our families and friends. We were reminded how important families are and how fortunate we have been to have had the love and support they have given us in our transitional years. We miss being close enough to visit more often but it made this visit sweeter than ever. I am grateful for the pampering and Cap'n Crunch party, helping hands for the Princess Party, the hugs and laughter, a girls' lunch, dinner with "D", staying up late watching movies and playing games and having ALL of the family together.

I am grateful for a husband who works hard to take care of his girls; we are so proud of him and for all that he has accomplished. I am grateful for a beautiful daughter who makes me laugh and smile every day and reminds me of why I love being a mother. I am grateful for the good health we have had this year and the blessing of being pregnant and being able to bring another "princess" into this world. I know that all of these things are made possible because of the love of a Heavenly Father who watches over us and blesses us with those things that we need, and sometimes with those things we don't even know that we need.Swimming with daddy

Cuddling with uncle "D"

Best Buddies Family Picture Day My beautiful sisters
Princess/Prince Birthday Party Baby bumps

Halloween Fun

I don't know what it is about Halloween, but I love this holiday especially now that I have a child of my own; it brings out the child in me. We enjoyed a couple of activities this Halloween and made sure that we collected plenty of candy...for daddy. On Friday we went with our friends to an outdoor mall that was passing out treats to all the ghosts and goblins that visited them. I didn't want to ruin the costume we had planned to wear for the Fall Festival at the church on Satuday so we dressed the little one up in a Japanese dress we received from a friend of ours and attempted a bun with "pencils" instead of chopsticks. Because it was so cold all you can see is the jacket and good ol' Pooh bear. Oh well, it was a blast and we had a great first experience in getting candy and saying Trick-or-Treat.
On Saturday we dressed up for the Fall festival/Trunk-or-Treat at the church and enjoyed every moment even though my feet were killing me. I wore high heel boots with my costume, they looked good, but I paid the price. We were going for a family theme again this year but keeping it low budget so I was the witch, and E was my black cat and not pictured is my husband who was my broom. Well at least he held my broom for me! The festival included games situated in rooms around the church and you had to use tickets to play each game, which E loved giving to the people in charge of the games. One of the favorites was the cupcake walk because E loved running around on the colored pumpkins and dancing to the music until it stopped, and you can't go wrong when everyone ones a cupcake. We also loved watching E at the bowling game, she had great aim but not enough gusto so we had her kick the ball at the pins instead. The cutest part was her helping pick up the pins after she knocked them over which earned her a second prize, we have taught her well. The next best game was the winning of the goldfish or 3 goldfish in our case (we gave one away so we ended up with 2). The hubby wasn't too excited about it but I was so proud of her for winning them and knew she would love her first pets! They are still alive just so you all know and are being fed my "special" food until we get to the pet store to buy fish food.
On Halloween daddy carved E's pumpkin and we played games and colored Halloween pictures we got from the library. It was such a fun weekend and I already know what the family is going to be next year...all four of us!

Visits from Family

This is such old news, nevertheless, it is news. Since living out east we have been visited by many of our family members and it has been so much fun. In June we met up with my in-laws in upstate New York and visited several church history sites in Palmyra, Fayette and Pennsylvania. My favorite was the Sacred Grove and standing on the Susquehanna river.

In July we had a surprise visit from my sister and niece. The moment we picked them up the two girls were giggling and screaming with excitement. I guess they missed each other. It was fun having them around all day and night playing, watching movies, grocery shopping and the best of all was the picnic and concert in the park the night before they left. There was a country band playing that night and both the girls were up front and center dancing and singing. We sure miss them a lot!!

In August my parents came for a visit and tried to squeeze as many fun things in as we possibly could. The best part of the visit was going to Boston for the first time to see a Red Sox game as well as walk the Freedom Trail. I've missed going to baseball games with my dad during the summer so this was a treat since it was in Boston and in such a historic stadium. During the game the fans started doing the wave which our little girl loved joining in on. However, when they stopped she kept looking in the direction that it was supposed to come from and kept saying and signing "more". It was the cutest and saddest thing ever. I swear she kept looking and asking for 5 minutes so we decided to do our own little wave for her enjoyment. The Freedom Trail was incredible. The two stops that I really enjoyed were the USS Constitution and the Old North Church. We took the guided tour of the USS Constitution by an active-duty sailor in an 1812 dress uniform, it was totally worth it. We heard stories of "Old Ironsides" and how it never lost a battle. The best part was watching as my dad had the opportunity to raise and fly the American flag he had just bought over the USS Constitution, then lower it and fold it with one of the sailors. He was like a child at Christmas time. It was priceless!!

We made a couple of pitstops along the trail to enjoy some ice cream, chase pigeons and play at the splash park.

I'm still here

I am writing this post to let all of you know who do look at my blog from time to time that I am still alive and doing well. I would like to say that I am SO busy that I don't have time to post stories, pictures or recent happenings, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I am busy teaching, playing and running after my daughter, working part-time, trying to keep up with the house and my husband as well as being involved in the youth group at my church. I guess that does make me a little busy. Hopefully in the very near future I will post about the visits from my sister/niece and my parents as well as other exciting things, so stay tuned...you won't be disappointed.

Small Town Fun

Today was a proud mommy moment for me. A week ago I was told that I should enter Emmie into the 4th annual Miss Strawberry Shortcake Pageant as part of the Strawberry Festival in South Windsor, CT. Basically the idea was to dress up your kid with a strawberry theme and the winner would be chosen for the best look and appearance to go along with the theme of the festival. I'm not a super creative person but I had an idea to make a strawberry tutu and make that the main focus of her outfit. The night I finished the tutu I was giddy and super excited about how it turned out. This morning was the pageant and it was a lot of fun. There were 21 contestants in Em's age group and she was part of the top 6. I think she should of won, of course, but even though she didn't I was so proud of how well she put on her show for the judges. I literally was in tears because she was so cute. Now that I know what the competition is like I will be better prepared for next year. Enjoy the short video below of Emmie's pageant debut.

I Am A Bad Mom (we all have those days right?)

To warn all who read this, my thoughts for this post are kind of scattered and long winded....but please keep reading if you want to feel my pain and then tell me I am not alone!
Yesterday was a long, rough day for us. Ever since we moved to CT I have been working part-time from home. It has been great for me because it pushes me to think, I get to have more conversations with adults, it also gives me something fun to do (besides housework) when Em is sleeping, plus I am learning a lot. Well for some reason yesterday was not one of those fun days. Maybe it was because I worked for 7 hrs in the morning when I am only supposed to work two; the two hours while my baby is sleeping. Or maybe it was because Em was crying A LOT which she doesn't normally do, or maybe it was because there were a lot of "stupid" issues I was dealing with that shouldn't have needed dealing with. At the end of the day (after my second shift of work) and once Em was asleep, I broke down and felt SO guilty for how the day went. I can't recall spending any quality time with my baby, I worked while tears flowed down her cheeks, and I may have been a little frustrated with her. At first I thought she was just wanting attention (she should have my attention), but then I noticed that she kept biting on her fingers and pointing to the back of her mouth and she really only acts up when she is teething, but I thought she had all of her teeth in. After speaking with my wise friend Anne I realized that she could be getting her second molars, and sure enough I felt in the back of her mouth and her gums were swollen and I could feel the teeth below the surface. Wow, drive the dagger into my heart a little further. Not only was I not playing and spending precious time with my daughter but I was also making her suffer through the pain of getting teeth in! See how the guilt kept coming as I reflected on my day. I know I am not the only one that has felt this way, I guess we have these kind of days to remind us of how much we should treasure the time we have with our children; teaching them, laughing with them and watching them discover new things. I love my daughter more than I can express and made it a goal of mine for today (one day at a time) to give her all of my attention and to make it a special day for the two of us. Even though I still have to work, I have made sure to play and laugh and soak in the JOY of having my daughter around.