Confessions

I don't even know why I am telling you all this, since it is kind of a personal, secretive kind of thing, but the truth is, we are already thinking about baby #2. That doesn't in any way at all mean that we are trying for baby #2 because we most definitely are NOT, but I'm a planner, and I am planning ahead. Way ahead.

I'm also a daydreamer. When I lie awake at night, or in the mornings after Emily has drifted back off to sleep, I like to think about the future. I know that I can't control and plan every little detail of my life, but in my dreams I can do whatever I want. And what I want is more babies. Someday. 

I've always dreamed of having four children. I definitely don't want three, because then we would have a middle child and middle child syndrome is a seriously nasty problem that I do not want to deal with any more than I already have to. My brother is a middle child and whoa! It is out. of. control. Denny agrees with me on the middle child thing, since he is a middle child too and he's got a bad case of it, but his solution to the problem is to only have two children. And that? Just does not work for me. 


I am so excited about having another baby, but I'm nervous about it too. If the next baby is another girl, then it should be no problem convincing Denny to go ahead and have another (and another). We both want a boy so badly and I am willing to keep trying until we have a son. But if the next one is a boy, it is going to be nearly impossible to get Denny to agree to a third child. 

Plus, there are always so many opinions from other people that we are given (without asking for them) and the majority opinion seems to be that once a couple has a girl and a boy, then they are done. The family is complete, end of story, your baby making years are over. And sometimes that is the opinion even if both children are the same sex. Two seems to be the limit for most people and they can't seem to understand why on earth  anybody would want more than two children, even if they have more than two themselves. In my mind, having one boy and one girl does not mean that my family is complete. It just means that we are getting warmed up! I read on another blog somewhere about a family who has four daughters, they have adopted one son, and they are planning to adopt at least one more. The mom says that everywhere she goes people comment on how she has her hands full. And the part that I absolutely love about all of this is that she comments right back that her hands are not as full as her heart. Isn't that beautiful?


Maybe people should just mind their own business. Maybe I should just quit blogging about anything other than Emily and what she does because I get way off track and I get heated up about silly things like other people's opinions and I just wish that I could pack up all of our things and move to Texas. Yes, Texas. That is where we'd go if we ever move away. 


And now I've got to go and change Emily's diaper because she decided that right now is the best time to come and stand right beside me and sling out a poop and Oh my God we are such back woods hillbillies we need to get with the times and get ourselves some disposable diapers because cloth diapers are so disgusting and hard to use blah blah blah.

Help For Haiti

I don't usually watch the news, any by don't usually, I mean never. I never watch the news unless I happen to be at my in-laws' house at news time, or if I see on Twitter that something significant is going on, like the Balloon Boy hoax. The last time I watched the news, I found out that two men that I know were arrested for child molestation. One was a teacher whose classroom I taught in while I was in college, and one was a preacher that I have known for most of my life. For the most part, the news is nothing but bad news, and I would rather just not know about any of it. Ignorance is bliss, right?

I had heard that there was an earthquake in Haiti, but I hadn't seen anything about it until this morning. I hadn't looked it up online or clicked the TV over to CNN to see what was going on. I had no idea how devastating it was, how many people had died, how much help was needed. I honestly didn't want to know, but then bloggers began to write about it, and my curiousity grew. I had to find out what all of the fuss was about, and I am so glad that I did.

I have never given to any kind of charity or cause before, especially when I don't get anything in return. I rarely even buy Girl Scout cookies because they are $3 a box. My husband has made me cheap. But today, I gave. I didn't give much, and it doesn't take much, if we all give just a little bit. Even if you only have $1 to spare, it is more than most people in Haiti have right now. They have lost everything, and they didn't have much to begin with, but you can help them to survive. Never has it been so easy to give as it is today. You can give from right where you are sitting. Here are a few ways:

You can text the word "Haiti" to 90999 and $10 will be donated to the Red Cross disaster relief fund for Haiti.

Or you can text the word "disaster" to 90999 and $10 will be donated to Compassion International's disaster relief program. The charge will appear on your next phone bill

You can also go online to donate any amount to Compassion International, the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and Samaritan's Purse.

There are also a few bloggers you can visit who will donate money for comments that you leave on their site. For every comment on this post, the Pioneer Woman will donate 10 cents to the top three mentioned charities, and also she is giving away 2 $500 donations to the winners' charity of choice.

Kelly of Kelly's Korner is urging you to donate, and if you do and leave a comment on this post that you did, she will donate $1 for every comment up to $1000.

There is also a Hope For Haiti blog which is holding tons of raffles to benefit Haiti. Each $1 donation gives you one entry to the raffle of your choice. You can enter as many times as you want, and there are some awesome prizes.

Please help in any way that you can.

New Year, New Me

Yeah, I know I'm 3 days late with this, but better late than never, right? I've decided to put my resolutions out there for all to see, so that hopefully I will follow through with them. All of them. Hold me accountable, ok?

This is the first time I have ever made any resolutions, and I think they are very much do-able. Here they are:

1. Exercise at least 4 times every week. Since we have a Wii Fit now, (which is awesome and I am already addicted to it) I have no excuse not to work out!
2. Eat 1 serving of fruit every day.
3. Pray every day.
4. Read my Bible every day.
5. Make nighttime prayers a part of Emily's bedtime routine and begin saying the blessing before every meal.
6. Make it to church every Sunday.
7. Be a better wife to Denny.
8. Spend more quality time with Emily. I am here with her every day, but I am not always with her.
9. Learn how to use the Manual setting on my camera.
10. Take pictures every day.
11. Be a better blogger. I enjoy blogging and I need to make time to do it more often.
    

So, what do you think? I'd say those are all very easy things to do and I should have no problem doing them all year long. I'll let you know how things are going in a few weeks!

A Year In Our Life

I've seen several other bloggers who are taking one picture a day, every day, this year. I love this idea and I wish that I had been doing that every day since Emily was born. I am a little late in telling you about it, but I have managed to take pictures every day so far! If you would like to follow along on our journey, you can do so here. Enjoy!

Christmas Wrap-Up

We celebrated Christmas 7 times this year, no wait, that was actually last year, and I am just that far behind. I took a boatload of pictures and I have been scared of transferring them to my computer and editing them because I knew that it would take DAYS for me to go through all of them. Nobody can accuse me of not fully documenting every. single. second of Emily's first Christmas. What made my picture taking even more excessive than it already was was that Denny surprised me on Christmas morning with a Nikon D5000. Do I have the best husband ever, or what? I have barely put that thing down since I got it and I have taken hundreds of pictures in the last week and a half.

And just to brag on Denny a little bit more, he also got me an ornament with Emily's picture on it AND all of the proofs from her Christmas photos. I wanted those so badly and I never even told him! How amazing is he?

Anyway, there are a lot of things that I could say about our Christmases but I will just leave you with a whole lotta pictures and not a whole lot of words. I really don't have time to tell you about every little detail and I seriously doubt that you have time to read all about it. I will say that it was the best Christmas of my life (so far) and having a child at Christmastime is so much fun. I loved seeing Emily ripping the paper off of her presents and playing with all of her many, many (way too many) new toys.

Christmas with Ma, Uncle Lamar and the boys (my stepmother's family)

 

 

 

 

Christmas with the Fordhams (my Mother-in-Law's family)

 

 

 

 

Just the three of us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas with my Mom, Scott, Michael and Makayla (also the point where I began using my new camera and the difference is unbelievable)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas with my Dad and Debbie (sadly I don't have very many pictures of this one because I was too busy eating and couldn't stop stuffing my face for 10 minutes. Grrrr.)

 

 

Christmas with the Hulseys (Denny's family)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas at my Grandma's (my Mom's mom)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, Christmas was wonderful. We got to see family that we do not often get to see, and we were given more gifts than we needed. Emily had a fabulous first Christmas and even if she was half-naked or only had on one sock in most of the pictures, they are priceless and I wouldn't trade them or those special memories for the world!