I love this boy something fierce. He's my one true love. The Daddy of my baby boy. The kisser of my lips. The scratcher of my back. The holder of my hand. The looker of my, "Is that a bug bite?" The supporter of my dreams. The partner of my future. The love of my whole life.
I love you, Dustin.
Happy Valentine's Day. Let's put fanny packs on and be tourists.
We warmly welcomed the New Year with some lovely friends, Matt and Natty and Kerena, Patrick and their sweet daughter K. We had snacks and sweets and drinks, drinks, drinks! The kids went to sleep around 9p.m. (late night for my baby boy!) and the adults stayed up and talked and talked and watched Dirty Dancing. We don't have cable, so there was no ball drop, BUT... amazingly enough, after chatting with the girls for over an hour, I checked the clock on the xBox at EXACTLY 12:00 am (what luck!) so we all took a moment and kissed our men. We had an awesome time!
Roman woke up around 2:30, so I changed him and fed him and snuck a picture - my first of the new year. He's taken to putting his fingers in my mouth as I give him a bottle. A cheesy little midnight snack for Mommy. SO gross but I wouldn't trade it for anything!
We woke up around 8:30 and it was New Years Day! I baked the cinnamon buns that brother made for us (from scratch!), made fruit salad, Dustin made eggs and Kerena made the frosting for the buns. We all shared our first breakfast of 2012 together and watched Tangled, too. Dustin and Natalie played Barbies with little K. Notice the Rapunzel doll in his hand? For some reason his Rapunzel speaks like a little old British lady and sounded much like Mrs. Doubtfire. I love that boy.
We all got ready, Kerena, Patrick and little K headed home and the rest of us packed up to drive out to Mom's house. My family agreed (with gusto!) to watch the baby while the four of us went to the movies, with a pit stop to In-N-Out (Chipotle was closed, boo) first. We saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie, which I enjoyed. I actually fell asleep for the first 20 minutes (hey, 5.5 hours of sleep, a dark, non-baby filled room and the shoulder of the warm man that I love? Who wouldn't take a cat nap?!), but I really liked the rest of the movie. Well, with the exception of Sherlock Holmes looking a whole lot like Iron Man. Robert Downey Jr., like Jack Black and Nicholas Cage (among others), plays himself in most of his movies. Do you know what I mean?
After the movie, we headed to Dustin's Mom's house (our parents live 5 minutes away from each other) to get ready for dinner. My sister dropped Roman off so the other Grandparents could watch him for the rest of the evening and everyone got their baby-fix for the day. Sweet deal, man.
Natty and I got dressed in the room and had lots of girl talk and make-up and, "Does this look good?" - it was so much fun getting ready with another female... I've almost forgotten what it was like! SO glad she's in my life.
We drove out to Benihana and met up with K,P & little K again, as well as our friends Marquita and Mike, for grand total of NINE people at dinner. We filled a table and had such a blast. We all shared our NewYear's resolutions and ate like fat kids at the cupcake factory.
After we finished up, said our goodbyes and went separate ways, Dustin and I decided to stop in to Barnes & Nobles for some grown-up magazine and dessert time. Yeah, by that time it was 9:30pm and we were old and tired and laughed at ourselves - we used to go to B&N at least twice a week before the baby was born, and we'd stay 'till closing time. It's funny how kids change things. :)
We spent Monday cleaning the house, loafing in Pajamas and I snuck off to the grocery store for some shopping. Grocery shopping is so much better when you stop at the bookstore first and buy a half-price calender and two books, and you get to enjoy the time all ALONE. I swear, little "mom" breaks do wonders. I am a better Mother and a better Wife when I take the time, no matter how short, to do something for me. To enjoy some solitary silence where I am in charge of no one but myself. Ahhhhh... peaceful.
With that lovely weekend behind us and a full, fresh year ahead of us, I'd like to share my resolutions and goals for 2012.
Two Thousand and Twelve:
My word of the year is:
"Courage"
I will no longer allow myself to be afraid of my life. God has got my back. Homeboy. <3
"Let it go. Rejoice and be happy with what you have in your life now." - Gary Busey
I figured that I'd make monthly goals, too. No more excuses. I will have the courage to try because doing nothing at all is WORSE than trying and failing.
January:De-clutter and Organize! Get my blog sorted and do all of the little things that I've been meaning to do for a long time. This includes getting all of my pages, series (**cough**1,300 things**cough**) and links currents, updating my blog-reader grab badge and taking an updated banner picture, updating all of my should-dos and series that I've slacked off of. Super excited!
Get all of Christmas packed up and everything back to normal. This includes getting all of our thank-you notes written and mailed, all decorations packed and put away, the cupboards cleared of junk and clutter tossed with glee. A fresh start for a new year.
Go through ALL (oh dear GOD) of the pictures on my phone AND computer. This is going to be an all day task. Save me!
February: Put my business and shop into the top priority slot (after Dustin and Roman, of course!) this month. I'm so nervous and excited at the same time! Refine my business plan and map it all out. YES!
March: I want to be one of those people that sends cards on birthdays and anniversaries. I have a little binder, book thing that I got at some memory book party (about 8 or 9 years ago... yikes) that's designed specifically for this purpose. I will fill the thing out and become "one of those people"... note to self: buy stamps.
April: I have LITERALLY been trying to think of something for the past few days. Help me out, guys.. What is a good thing to accomplish in April?
May: Mother's Day! I want to do a "Mother" feature on my blog.
June: The month of parties! I turn 28, my brother turns 21 (beer), my father-in-law turns 50 (I think! Am I right Mr. Pop-pop?) and sweet Roman turns 1!
July: Have a REAL 4th of July cook-out with friends. Hang flags, wave sparkler and be as patriotic as possible. I love my Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.
August: Take Roman to the beach. Play with water balloons (supervised!). Get a kiddy pool and splash, splash, splash!
September: Go apple picking as a family. Make pie!
October: Take Roman Trick-or-treating for the first time. Celebrate our 8 year wedding anniversary with an overnight trip somewhere.
November: I want to actually vote this year. Yup, I've been of voting age for almost ten years and I think I've only vote once? Shame on me!
2011 brought so many good thing for our Family. I have to say, this has been the most amazing, life changing year in my life even though I lived most of it in fear of everything being taken away from me. This year was about the magic of pregnancy. Unwavering love. Wishes coming true. Fulfillment. Second chances. Happy hearts and warm kisses. This year was about living life and I'd like to share my proof.
(play this first)
This time last year, I had just announced my pregnancy and had the tiniest little squid growing in my belly. What a journey we were headed towards!
We were ecstatic and yet I was more scared than I had ever been about anything. I worried and cried and I swear I gave myself wrinkles. I loafed around for much of the second half of my pregnancy and was a real lazy bum (I still am amazed that I wasted so many days doing nothing compered to all that I do now). I wandered off during the day and had mini adventures all by myself. It was beautiful.
Dustin and I spent quality time with our friends and family and really enjoyed ourselves, despite my pregnancy crankiness. We lived up the weekly (sometimes twice weekly!) Barnes & Noble coffee/magazine trips. We ate out a lot (Pregnant chicks like food) and went to movies and held hands. I went through non-stress tests and daily blood sugar pokes and did it all for the three of us. My friend Leigh-Ann came to stay with us from Canada and her love, Keith, came for a bit, too! Dustin and I enjoyed our last weeks together as a family of two and on June 19th, Father's Day, our boy joined the world.
That last picture has got to be one of my top three images of all time, including the every work by every famous artist. Nothing (NOTHING) has ever spoken to my heart as deeply as Dustin's eyes do in this picture.
This is heaven.
This is what God intended when he created love.
The last six months of the year have been the fastest and slowest of my whole life. My child is growing, daily, right before my eyes. Dustin is growing as a Father and the head of our household, daily, right before my eyes. I have never been more in love with another person than I am with my Husband. Roman has created a bond between us, a deeper attraction and it's mind blowing. When I see him hold our son, the depths of my whole soul sigh with contentment. It's the closest to God I've ever felt.
Who knows what 2012 will bring the three of us. Hopefully my mood will stay up as high as it's been these past few days and my body's chemistry will get back to normal. Hopefully my strong friendships will solidify even more and my weak friendships will mend and bloom and grow. I hope Roman continues to get bigger and more manly each day and I'd love it if he'd magically turn into a cuddle-bug. My first non-family priority this year is to get my handmade business up and running - products made, etsy stocked, samples given and blog page created. I HAVE to do it this year... Four years is far too many to put off your DREAM! I hope you all will receive it well, my line an products. I'm so nervous! It's time to be a big girl, though. As far as adventures go, we're open to anything and I know in our deepest of deeps that all Dustin and I both dream about is health, harmony and happiness for our little family. What more could anyone ask for... besides, maybe, a little girl? (We already have her name picked out... come to us, sweet girl!) I guess we'll just have to see where God leads us. I couldn't be more excited!
I hope you have a safe and happy New Year's Eve, my friends. May 2012 be fulfilling and full of wondrous things for you and yours.
(Roman in his cute Christmas clothes and Dustin at home with his boy and his lady in his arms. If the only thing I ever accomplish in my lifetime is this, I will go down in history as the luckiest woman who ever lived.)
decorations -
(beautiful vintage Christmas bulbs from Auntie Pam made the decorations so meaningful. I always tell myself that I'm going to decorate earlier next year so I can enjoy the sparkle a bit longer.)
friends and christmas eve -
( + wine, whiskey, giggles, laughs, apple-cranberry bake, holiday ice cream and Nacho Libre. We are so lucky to ahev such great people as friends.)
christmas morning -
(Lots of usable baby gift from Santa, clothes and THE BEST CAMERA EVER for me & clothes and a bike that I HUNG IN MY CLOSET BY A BELT for Dustin. I managed getting that thing home, in the house and suspended in mid-air with only one leg. LEGIT.)
visiting family -
(My parents made tamales that were amazing. Got to hang out with my siblings for a bit and watched some of Forgetting Sarah Marshall... um.. sex scenes on Christmas Morning, anyone? Awkward. Then off to Dustin's parent's house. A delicious dinner that filled me to the brim. We stayed 'till the sun set and I literally passed out on their couch and slept all cuddled up with the pups. I was SO tired. The definition of bliss is a sleeping baby, loving family and cozy dogs under the blanket. Oh, add to that the homemade cheesecake that I ate on the way home. Yes.)
A few weeks ago we took Roman to our favorite local family-run tree lot to pick out our annual Clark Family Tannenbaum. It was chilly night, so we all bundled up and I packed us hot mugs of tea for the ride. After arriving at the lot, we bundled him up in our Ergo and roamed the isles of freshly cut trees for the first time as a family of three. We found our perfect tree, Mr. Norrington, and headed home. It was sweet and simple ... I lived a blessed life.
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