Dear SAHM

I don't see myself ever being a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM). Sometimes it makes me really sad to think about it that way. For financial reasons I probably never will be. I'm pretty much ok with that because I feel blessed to be where I am at right now. But there are days when I wish I could just throw it all away and stay home with Jonah every day and not worry about how the ends would meet (or not meet) or how we would ever afford to send him to college. But this is real life and (for us) we both work outside the home so that we can give him every advantage we can afford and some little luxuries along the way. Jonah will grow up seeing both of us work hard at home and in our occupations. I absolutely know that SAHMs work their butts off too so I am under no illusions of what I would be giving up (a JOB for 24/7 job of a SAHM).

But just for fun I thought I would list out the things that I would want to do with Jonah every week or as often as possible if I was a SAHM. We will still do these things I know.....but probably mostly on weekends or days I happen to be off work.

1. Go to the playground and dig in the sand and slide down the slides and just be totally wore out by the end of the day.

2. Take off and go to the zoo once a month

3. Go to story time every week and the library and check out new books for each week.

4. Go to some type of extra class.....maybe music??

5. Go to the grocery store and out to eat lunch once a week

6. Swim in our pool here at our house in the summer time. Probably a few times a week.

7. Take lunch to Dada and see him at work.

8. Take Jonah to visit with my grandparents (his great-grandparents) at least once a month so he would know them well.

9. Of course take him to see his grandparents but they work still too.

10. Maybe join a play group. Probably would have to start one though because we live in a very rural area.

These are just some of the things I dream about doing while he is still little. A girl can dream right!?

Thankfully he stays with my Mom (Nana) and they do a lot of these things so he still gets them.....just not with me.

Lastly I leave you with some of my favorite quotes via Pinterest.

Wordless Wednesday

Feeling Blessed

For some reason I have just felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude and blessedness this week. I am not sure why but maybe it's just life is really great right now. It's like the stars have just aligned and I feel good, my family is happy and healthy and I am just feeling blessed and I have enjoyed seeing others around me being blessed as well.

Jonah is healthy and happy and learning so many new things each day. It is truly amazing to watch his personality bloom and see his growth from week to week. He is such an amazing part of my life and I love him so!

Michael and I by no means have a perfect marriage but we communicate every day with each other and we try to be more respecting of each other in the way we talk and act. I truly think just keeping the lines of communication open even if you are in a disagreement is how you "make it work." It works for us at least.

There have been a lot of my close friends and even some friends that I only keep up with on social media that have been blessed with new babies this week. It just makes me so happy to see babies born to such loving and kind people. So happy they are all healthy and doing well too!

I have attended a beautiful Christian wedding this weekend that just reminded me how truly wonderful marriage is and how it was always God's design that man and woman work together in love and harmony to raise children that will follow Him.

I know a post is no fun without pictures so here are some new pictures that I finally got from our photographer of Jonah. Sadly our photographer is moving out of state and so I was able to purchase all Jonah's pictures she took and our family one too. I am planning to use them and change up my blog header soon.

Have you felt blessed this week too?

First family portrait taken last Fall.

 Jonah was about 6 weeks old here.

 3 months old

 6 months old

 9 months old

 1 year old

Baby Girl Shower {Black & White Damask and Hot Pink}

What a busy weekend it has been, but a fun one too! Who would have known a tiny, sweet, little baby girl could throw us such a curve ball. LOL! She was totally worth it though! Here is a little rundown on what all transpired this weekend.

Sunday has been the planned shower date for my good friend that was having her first child, a girl. She was scheduled to have a C-section on May 4th so we thought Sunday was early enough for her last big shower. My friend and I met Friday night to get the decorating done at the fellowship hall at our church. Saturday morning I wake up to a text from her saying to call her. Turns out that little Miss Anna had other plans and decided to break her Mommy's water at midnight on Saturday morning!! She was safely delivered around 3 a.m. to the proud parents and both are healthy and doing well!! That is the most important part!

So anyways, Saturday morning was spent trying to decide if the shower was a go or not since the parents could not be there. It was finally decided that the two new grandmothers would stand in for the parents so that they could get any more last minute items they might need as they come home from the hospital. It turned out to be a great idea so we did not have to redecorate and the cake was already made anyways. We wish they all could have been there but I took lots of pictures for them to look through....you know...in their spare time. LOL!

I just wanted to share some of the decorations because we put a lot of hard work into it and I know lots of people just like to get ideas for showers of their own.

This is the invite that was sent out.

 Here are some of the cute gift ideas.





Love this lamp and box from one of the grandmothers.



























Inside that pretty box was the ceramic tea set that the grandmother had a child.....such a sweet gift!!










The new parents are big dog people so this book was perfect for little Anna to look through.













I hope you enjoyed the pics! Linked up here: 

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Jumping in to share some things I'm loving right now. You should join in too here.

I'm loving these frozen Kashi meals. I have tried two so far and love them. They are great for lunch and only 270 calories. They are not dinky servings either! I also love Michaelina's and Lean Cuisines but these are sooo much better and not much more expensive than those. Yummy!!

I'm loving these new flip flops I bought last Friday. It is already flip flop season in our neck of the woods and this brand (sold at Belks and probably other dept. stores) has so many cute patterns to choose from. They are not cheapo kind of flip flops either. I caught mine on a good sale too. The ones I got a brown with white polka dots but couldn't find a picture of them online.



I'm loving that we will be on the beach in less than 3 months!! We are planning a trip to Ft. Morgan, Alabama in June! Cannot wait! It has been 8 years since I went to the beach and that was our honeymoon!

Finally I'm loving that this is on it's way to my house. I am finally getting with the times (technologically speaking) and getting an e-reader. I love magazines and books so I figure it's time I cut down on the clutter that comes with all of that in our house. I have a really hard time throwing out old issues of magazines. I love to go back through and look at them. I am planning on cutting out things I want to keep from the magazines I have and from now on it's all digital!!

So what are you loving today? Anybody else try the new Kashi meals?

Our Easter {2012}

We had a great Easter weekend with friends and family! The weather could not have been any prettier and everything went smoothly. Let me back up first though and talk about my birthday, which was last Thursday. It's always right around Easter and sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.

I turned 29 (and holding) on April 5th. I worked that day but took off on Friday. We went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant that night. The next day was my shopping day! I have been planning for over a month to go shopping in our nearest big town ALL BY MYSELF! I was so pumped and I had some other stops to make while in town. The weather was great and the crowds were not too bad and I hit up some awesome sales at a department store at the mall. I have not taken a day all to myself in a long time and it was much needed. I enjoy it so much more now and appreciate it more. :) I also had to get Jonah an Easter outfit and shoes so I had a mission as well. It was a SUCCESSFUL trip!

Later that evening my friend Amanda and her daughter Neely met up with us at the preschool playground behind the elementary school so the kids could play. She is a teacher there so she got us in. It was the neatest little playground and all the stuff was low to the ground and the play set was made completely out of plastic so the kids could get up in it and play and not get hurt. We had a good time playing there and I hope we can take advantage of it some more this summer.

We had our church egg hunt earlier in the week (Wed.) and the story hour class at the library had one last week too. Below are some pictures from those of our little egg hunter. Jonah really caught on this year and it was so fun to watch him go after the eggs. He didn't really "get" that you needed to pick up the eggs quickly and find more. He just kind of wandered around and took his sweet time picking them up and shaking them. LOL I guess the competitive spirit has not developed in him yet.....but oh when it does....

Here are some pics from our Easter happenings.




Got his game face on





This was at the library egg hunt


Dada helped him at the church egg hunt











I found one!!





The tree and the apple


Tired boy


Oh what is this??





Our church bunch! I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!!