Nana's Visit

In case you don't know.... I LOVE when people come visit us. Not that its happened all that often seeing as we just got into our house and are now able to have visitors. But the few that we've had... oh it just warms my soul. If I had my way, I would always have someone here visiting us. We kept it (the fact that nana was coming) a surprise from the girls... and just told them they had a surprise coming when we got home from the store. It was fun to see their reaction when she drove up. They bombarded her while she was still in the car... and from then on Nat and I were non-existent to them. :)

..and of course Nana coming means momma gets a break. It was a wonderful thing to have someone come in my house and take care of anything that related to my kids: baths, meals, diapers. I don't think I changed 1 diaper while she was here! It was a welcomed break. Living here, so far from our family has been an adjustment for me in the aspect that I've had to re-adjust to NOT having any help whatsoever from the outside world. I know that I need to find a babysitter for times when I need to go out alone, and for date nights... but honestly, I just can't bring myself to do it! My mind, and my heart can't fathom leaving my kids with someone I don't know anything about! Stupid I guess... but its true.

Nat and I got to spend a whole day together... doing stuff for his work, but we were together none the less! That was also a welcomed "date."

We really enjoyed her being here!! :)

P.S. Anyone is always more than welcome to come visit us anytime you want!!!!!!!!

8 months??

Did I really just write that? 8 months.. I just can't believe it. Time flies when your having fun... and thats just what the little man is. FUN! He's just so happy and loves life. I love that.

-He is on the move! (I think thats pretty much the most exciting thing about 8 months.)

-can go from crawling to sitting

-He is the grabbenist kid I've ever seen. He will literally lunge right out of your arms for something and if your not holding on tight he will fly out of your arms.

-loves food and wants to grab handfuls of it to eat.

-is pretty good with solids and chokes minimally.

-Still doesn't have the pincher fingers down.

-Can't get small food into his mouth... and gets very frustrated while trying.

-loves loves loves crackers.

-does extremely well with the sippy cup... downs a whole cup in a matter of minutes.

(new bunny ears from Nana)

-Loves the dogs... just about as much as they love him!

Axel sitting on Stetson's lap

-I know I say it every month... but he adores his big sisters.

I had Madelynn on one side of my lap, and Stetson on the other and he moseyed on over by his sis and laid right on her. Madelynn thought it was so funny.

-Keeps momma on her toes and reminds her to take important medicines.

(Im sorry ya'll... this is just to funny not to share!)

At 8 months I can tell that he is already such a boy! I can definitely see the difference in boys and girls its fun to have something different and learn new boy things. One things for sure... he needs a brother to do boy things with.

On the move.

We have movement!! Today the little man finally moved those precious, soft, chubby little hands in a forward motion and flopped his way forward. What did it take?? Mail. yep, thats what he crawled to... mail. Madelynn it was the paci. Payton it was the bottle. I've so enjoyed watching him move today. To me, its like a new calf thats just been born wobbling its first few steps. So sweet, so new, so fresh.

after 14 bazillion videos of "I know he's fixing to take off"... I finally got the real deal. :)...

and don't think he ain't already trying to get up and walk! Oh yes, he is!

... oh and by the way I failed to tell you that HE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!! I can't even believe it myself, but just as I thought, when he got his own, dark room he would sleep so much better! Never in a million years would I have imagined he would actually sleep all night long. Thats a record for my kids! Girls were both past 1 yr before they slept through the night. I ain't complaining tho. :)

I told Nat the other day that were so close to being on the easy sailing boat, and out of the needy, newborn stage. All we need is for him to learn to feed himself, and off formula/bottle and were free sailing. I'm excited about feeling a little more "free" as a mom cuz I've pretty much not known how that feels!

OUT to the SIDE

Oh my goodness we are loving all this outsideness!! The girls have so much fun and spend hours out there! I love being able to tell them to go outside when they need something new to keep them busy. We are still just in awe of this place that God has blessed us with. To me, us finding this house, a house that matches the EXACT description of our "dream" house is assurance that we are where God wants us to be. I just have a feeling of peace living in New Mexico now. Kinda feels like a "gift" for being obedient to where God took us.

Little man likes to be outside in his walker. He hasn't yet figured out how to go forward... but he sure goes backwards... and he backed up right to the plant... and before we knew it...

he was chowin down on dirt! The amount you see on his mouth and hands doesn't amount to how much he actually had in his mouth.

We got this little table chair set at Sams for $65! We thought it was quite a steal and we are really enjoying it! Very cute and very sturdy.

Payton loves to ride Mater! Thats her favorite outside toy.

Aussie girl.. always where the action is.

Please excuse this interruption while I show you the new tires on my suburban.

Doesn't it look beautiful?!?! I know, I'm strange... and you probably are wondering what's so great about them... just know they look so much better than the others. Sorry, but I'm a sucker for some nice tires. Must have something to do with the man I married?!?

Aussie and her pal

Daddy's make everything so much more fun!

Madelynn told him "hold on tight, daddy"

In other news.

time to lower the crib down!

He is still NOT crawling. I joked with Nat telling him were gonna have another Madelynn on our hands (crawled at 10 months. Walked at 16 months) I thought for sure he was gonna take off crawling about a month ago. Boy was I wrong! He still just rocks and rocks and rocks. Guess he is taking his sweet time. Maybe he'll walk before he crawls?!?

About 3 seconds after I posted that last post about my clumsy child... she took a face dive on the concrete outside.

Thankfully no busted lips or loose teeth, just a scraped face, nose and lips.

Sweet Madelynn just adores her bubba!

P

Payton Elizabeth.

I know I've said it before, but there's somethin special bout that girl. Nat and I often find ourselves sitting back and watching her as we shake our heads in amazement... wondering what were to do with this girl, and how we'll ever keep her safe enough to make it to her wedding day. We often joke about wrapping her in bubble wrap.

She's clumsy, trips over thin air approximately 6 times a day.

She runs into walls, tables and doors approximately 7 times a day.

She's a MESS when she eats.

She licks a battery, gets a little shock from it... and licks it again.

She's a daredevil... and pretty much has shown us no fear.

She loves to be NAKED and runs around diaper-less about 50% of the day... she just won't keep it on!

She loves life and takes it head on... and she scares us.

I, having stayed by her side pretty much 24/7 since the day she was born, have slowly become immune to her getting hurt. I know that sounds horrible, awful, and mean... but she gets hurt so many times in a day that half the time I don't even run to her side any more when I hear her cry. Horrible. I know, I even hate to admit that... but it is that bad and happens that many times a day!!

oh but I love her.

P.S.

To go along with my last post... since I forgot about half of the house. :)

Here is the other bathroom. Nat put a new sink in and fixed the toilet problem so now we have 2 fully functional bathrooms. (YAY!!!)

Its kinda smaller so kinda hard to get a good pic.. but you get the point. :)

This is the 2nd living area.

which has a (hideous) fireplace... but a fireplace none the less.

The other side. Pay no mind to the disaster of a desk in the corner. I have yet to bring myself back there to take care of it.

Kitchen

Outside

front of the house

Our back yard... bout as far as you can see is our property.

front yard

the huge ginormous round thing you see off in the distance is a huge ginormous storage shed. We put all of our "shed" stuff out there and it doesn't even put a dent in it! The little house you see to the right of the suburban is (was) like a tack room... but Nat has plans to make it like a real life doll house for the girls. I can't wait its gonna be so fun!!

side area with a picnic table.

....And as if we had any doubt about buyin this house... which we NEVER had .... this would for sure have sold it for us. We like to call this Daddy's house. Nat's always dreamed and talked about having a shop for him to work on his vehicles in so when we saw that this place had a shop it was another one of those things that makes this house made just for us!! He is thrilled about his shop, As am I.

The beast has made its way down to NM and with that, EVERYTHING we own is all here with us. Just to show how huge this shop is... blazer has a 6 in. lift on it and it doesn't even begin to take up too much space. (Don't mind the mess. We threw all boxes and trash in their and haven't yet taken it all to the dump.) (Plus Nat is still working on getting all his stuff where he wants it.)

HOME!

In a nutshell:
-Were here.

-Were in.

-Pictures are hung.

-Boxes are out of the house.

-Children are sleeping a million trillion times better in their own rooms.

*Stetson's room.

fun little fact. second shelf: the wood gun was Nat's toy that his dad made him when he was little and the rolled up belt has an "R" on it and it belonged to Nat's PawPaw.

*The girls room/play room

My sister painted these.

-I HAVE MY OWN ROOM AND BATHRROOM.

(do I sound like a 16 year old who has always wanted her own room???)

Master bathroom

Dogs are in heaven.

They (the pups) play play play all day long running around all over the property exploring and finding new things... then they come in and completely crash! Mitsy girl stays inside all day. Moving from room to room. I've decided something: there's nothing greater than an old dog who lays around all day and loves a family and doesn't pee in the house or chew on stuff. Thats our little mitsy.

-Internet and cable are hooked up and I am enjoying watching my shows that I haven't been able to watch in 7 months.... and my pictures are being uploaded 49 times faster than im used to (YAY!!!)

-We already made a trip to Lowes and the man in my life is currently doing some minor improvements... and thats why I adore him.

This is the other bathroom. It needed a new sink and some new toilet parts and now its like new! (Isn't my plumber cute????) ;)

Dining room.

(kitchen was a disaster mess at the moment of taking pictures... so pictures of kitchen will come later.)

Entertainment center... and Nat's new "item". He sooo deserves it so I couldn't tell him no when he told me what size TV he wanted... Boys will be boys. But, like I said, if anyone deserves something like that its him! He's a hard workin man who asks for nothing in return.

My little corner...oh how I missed my chair!

Love seat and the beautiful bay windows.

Couch

Hallway... looking from our bedroom to the living room

WERE BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE!!!!