Wedding Plans

So our Wedding Day is less than 6 months away and I am starting to get really excited! Of course, I have always been excited but the wedding plans are being put into motion. I booked my photographer this past week which I am super excited about. He is so fabulous! Takes such amazing pictures and we have the same taste in pictures I feel like. I have known him for about 5 years and he was so honored to be my photographer which made me feel that much better! That was one of my biggest things was booking a photographer, so check that off the list. I also ordered my save the dates this week and I am going to try on my dress on Monday, which I hope is as perfect as it seems in the picture. Our wedding is going to be in Millington, Tn at Jonathan's families property. This place means a lot to Jonathan and myself and I am so happy to have a venue of our own and I can do anything and everything at my own pace and cost. Our theme for the wedding is, "Boots, Beer and Barbecue". It is going to be a very simple, low key celebration. I am also giving my family some odds and ends to be on the look out for, ex: mason jars, whiskey barrels, light bulbs, flowers to decorate the barn with. So Mom is excited about that. Here are a some pictures of the barn and the driveway.

                                    

My Love

So I have to take a minute and brag on my amazing soon-to-be husband! First of all, he is the most caring, considerate, loving man in the world! He hardly ever complains or has a bad day. He listens to me when I am mad, sad, crazy or crying. He loves the Lord so much and is such a positive influence for me. He will go with me to children's consignment sales, the most girliest stores, Claire's, all the places that men usually don't go with their better half. He even went with Skylar and I to her Caterpillar Club at the Botanic Gardens on Valentine's day. While the teacher was reading a book about bugs and he mouths to me, "Happy Valentine's Day" with a cute little smirk on his face. There was one other man there for him to talk to but about 15 Moms and kids. I just love being with him and want him with me all the time. He is just very supportive and goes along with where ever we decide to go and always has a good attitude about it. I could not be more lucky to have him as my life partner. THANK GOD FOR KICKBALL! We are shooting for October, 13, 2012 for our wedding day. Will keep you updated on the details as they come along......

    My soul mate, My better half, My best friend, My angel.

Commitment

Probably the hardest part about being a Mom is when a commitment someone makes to your child falls through. I have not had too many of these experiences happen to us, but enough to remember. These days people will commit to do something like going to a baby shower, birthday party, wedding, play date, etc.. then when something better comes along they choose that over what they have already commited too or they just decide not to go without notifying the person. My Mom raised my sister and I that when we agree to do something, we follow through even if we do not want to go anymore or something else sounds like more fun. If we say yes, we will be there. So when we make plans, we pretty much always follow through with them. I wish more people in the world would be this way. I always tell my daughter ahead of time what our plans are.... Skylar, tomorrow Mommy has to work so you are going to Boshi and Pop Pop's house. I just like to inform her and let her know where I will be and where she will be and who she will be with. It is a great communication tool, that way when she wakes up she is not wondering where I am. There have been a few times I have told her we are doing something with someone and she would get so excited, then something would fall through on the other persons end and we would end up not seeing that person or they were late. Time is a hard thing to explain to a child. "But Mommy they said they would be here at four o'clock, where are they?" I do not like my child to be disappointed nor to be let down. I can take it, but when you go and mess with my childs emotions, it makes me crazy. I know this is going to happen in life, my point is..if you make a commitment, follow through or let someone know.

Daisy Downer

Skylar's pomeranian, "Miss Daisy" will be one years old in April. She is the most sweetest, loving dog and our family just adores her. She is still a puppy and definitely acts like one. She likes to wake us up at 2:30 and 4:30 am to go potty then she likes to get up for the day around 7:00 am. Barks like a freaking hyena until you let her out of her cage. It is a very loud, piercing bark. She also is a pest to my baby, "Jessie" my lab. Miss Daisy likes to clean Jessie's teeth and lick her ears. She likes to play with all of Jessie's toys and take them out of her mouth, she also likes to eat Jessie's food. We finally had to combine their bowls. Miss Daisy is just a frisky, animated little dog.

Well her world got totally rocked last week. She started her period! I mean she mopes around the house like she is seriously about to croak any minute. It is so sad and heart breaking. She will not eat any food and barely drinks any water. When it is time to use the bathroom she just stares at the grass like it's going to pee for her. She will go to bed around 5 pm and sleep all the way until 7 am without barking or wanting to go outside. Oh and her little furry tail is ALWAYS perky and up and curly.... oh no, that poor tail has been hanging down and low this whole week. When Jessie went through this, it was hard for her too because she just did not understand what was happening to her body, but Jess fought it and tried really hard to be normal and act like she was okay. Not Miss Daisy, she mopes around and hides under the couch so we will all just leave her alone. It is so sad, but almost funny because we kind of like "Lazy Daisy". I am going to call the Vet Monday just to make sure it is not something else, but I just think she is being very dramatic about this whole situation. I only was able to take a couple of mopey pictures, but I think you get the idea. Poor thing!

Bedtime & Outfits

We all had a GREAT Christmas. Skylar was totally overwhelmed with presents and at one point she said she had to take a water break because she was tired. One of the best parts about Christmas was on Christmas Eve, Skylar said she was going to sleep in her bed. I was like, okay, cool. Was not sure if she would follow through with it so I did not make a big deal about it. Well bedtime came and she did in fact go in her room, I read her a story and tucked her in. Slept in there for about 2 hours then Santa came to our house and we had people on watch duty. Jonathan was watching the monitor while Mom stood by her door in case she came out. After Santa was done and went to bed, she woke up 3 minutes after Santa had came. Scared the daylights out of me. I was like oh my goodness what a close call. Long story short I ended up putting in her in our bed that night because she woke up again and I was just a nervous wreck thinking she would wake up and see all of her toys without us. So Christmas Day it was time to go to bed and she walked into her room and said, "Mommy can you read me a story?" I was like, "Sure!" She was so stinking cute getting in her bed and snuggling up under the covers. I read her a few stories and left her tv on for her. She slept in there the WHOLE night! I could not believe it! This was the first time since she was born that she had actually slept in her own bed the whole night. She slept in her bed the next night as well. However, I did not get a lick of sleep those three nights because I was just watching her on the monitor and my internal mother clock would wake up every hour to make sure she was still in her bed and breathing. She has done really well with it. I have slept in there with her one or two nights and she has slept in our bed a couple nights too. But, it's progress for sure. It is definitely bitter sweet for me. I absolutely LOVE having my better half, our two dogs and Skylar in the bed all laying on me. So this is also a big adjustment for me. But, it is better for mine and Jonathan's relationship for sure. Gives us some "us" time and we can watch something other than Nick JR and snuggle together. I knew that she would do this on her own time. She is just that way. Kind of stubborn and I will do it on my own time kind of girl. Have no clue where the heck she gets that from. So very exciting! So now that she sleeps in her big girl bed it apparently makes her a big girl she says. She dresses herself every morning. If I have something picked out that actually goes together and matches she will say, "I don't like that" and turns up her nose. She will tell me to get out of her room while she gets ready and will seriously be in there for almost thirty minutes getting dressed. Then she will come out with the cutest, most mixed match combination of clothes I have ever seen but somehow, someway it is adorable! And she will have the cutest little grin on her face and say, "So....what do you think?". I just think it is so cute how much time and effort she puts into her outfits, so most of the time I let her wear what she picks out. I mean she is three, so what if her outfits are not perfectly matched, it's all about how you wear them. I have enclosed a few of her designs so you can get a mental picture. She likes to layer her clothes and likes to take 2 different matching outfits and swap them, it's very funny.

Accomplishment!

I just paid my LAST truck note! HOORAY! It is officially paid off. This makes me feel very accomplished and proud! Sounds silly, I know. I bought this car for myself on my 21st birthday. I had a heck of a truck note, but LOVED it. When my ex-husband and I were going through our rough patch everyone was telling us to file bankruptcy and I said, "Absolutely not!" I did not want to and I was going to work my butt off to make sure we/I didn't. It was not even an option for me, especially because I did not want to loose my truck that I had been paying for this whole time. I always took care of my bills and paid them on time so why should my credit have to suffer for something that I didn't even do kind of thing. After all of that and the divorce and not getting child support, I, ME, MYSELF have paid off my truck!! It strained my bank account after I got left with nothing and I have indeed struggled to pay this thing off these past year, but I DID IT!! On my own. So now I get to drive around a truck that I love and it is ALL MINE! Can not wait to get that title. Feels so good.

Let's see what else, Christmas is only 7 days away, I can not believe it. I am so excited! I just loving giving presents to all of my friends and family. My family always gets frustrated with me because every year they will ask me what I want for Christmas and I always say, "World Peace!" and I am completely serious but they always tell me they can not give me that. I have everything I have ever wanted and needed so the material things are just things. And just being with my loved ones on Christmas is enough for me. And let's not forget what Christmas is really about. At Skylar's school this past week they were having their little Christmas party and before lunch they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and it just brings tears to my eyes! Also, Skylar has really enjoyed our little "Elf on the Shelf" this year. She wakes up every morning wondering where "Aunt Evie" is? (that is our little elf's name) It is so cute, and she always gets a kick out of her tricks and where she finds her. Every night when Sky sees it getting dark outside she will say, "It's getting dark outside Mommy, it is almost time for Aunt Evie to fly through the sky to the North Pole." It is just so cute to see her get so excited. This year is going to be a fun Christmas morning for Skylar! She is 3 and is the perfect age! Here is our cute little Elf playing with our dogs and doing some tricks.....

Hope you all have a very merry Christmas! This week is fun-filled with activities for me and my family!

Santa Claus

For the past two years Skylar has been pretty scared of the big ole guy in the red suit that comes around Christmas. Jonathan, Skylar and I decided to go to the mall and do some shopping and let Sky play on the playground and ride the carousel and jump on the trampoline and all of that fun stuff. She has a boo boo on her face that is right by her lip so Jonathan and I were not going to do Santa pictures until this went away. We get to the mall and she does the spider jump first, of course. Then we eat lunch and get some ornaments made and she notices Santa. She gets all excited and says, "I want to go see SANTA!" I said, "Okay baby, you want to sit in his lap and take a picture with him?", She is so excited and says, "YEAH!". Jonathan and I kind of look at each other like well, we should not really pass this up since she is so excited to see him. We walk straight up to the lady, no one else was in line, Jonathan and I are talking to her while Skylar just goes right over to Santa and hops up in his lap and they are just talking. She takes the absolute cutest pictures and then her and Santa are talking about what she wants for Christmas and they give each other a big hug and she waves bye and says, "Bye Santa, I love you!". I mean it was just so priceless and such a big deal because she is always terrified. Let me back track to last year real quick...... Sky was 2 so Jonathan and I took her to see Santa in Millington and there was a long line, it was cold, after she waited patiently in line, we are starting to get closer to her turn. I kept making a big deal about it and telling her he is so nice and has candy, yadda yadda. She is pretty excited, she kept saying, "I want to see Santa". So we are the last ones in line and it is her turn...Santa calls her name and she just starts screaming crying. So pitiful. I went up there with her and she did not want any part of him. She did quit crying and sat on my lap while Santa attempted to talk to her. Our picture turned out okay. I was sitting beside Santa and she was frowning in my lap. And the year before that, she was crying and I was sitting on Santa's lap. I'm sure he just loved that. So needless to say this was a HUGE deal that she sat by herself on his lap and she fell in love with him. She did not have on her perfect Christmas outfit and her boo boo was there but the whole experience of seeing Santa was so worth it that it did not even matter! We went up to pick up our ornaments on the second floor and we looked down to see Santa later on. Skylar yells out, "Santa!!", he did not hear us, she yells again, "SANTA CLAUS!!" He turns and waves so big at her and that just made her day!! It just made my day too. Good times at the mall. Meanwhile we get home and catch our little doggie eating our popcorn string off the Christmas Tree! MERRY CHRISTMAS!