Joie de Vivre!

Enjoying the simple joys in life with her 'SillyAunt Jen'

This afternoon this phrase just popped into my head.  I don't know where it came from, but I immediately knew where to go with it.  Here. Maybe it was God's voice in my head telling me I need it and that Emma has it.

Joie de vivre - The joy of life!

What, in life, is better than enjoying a sippy cup of milk in high heels and a tiara on Christmas morning?

Yes Emma definitley has joie de vivre.  I mean the girl loves everything!  Life is all so exciting to her and she has no problem expressing it.  She giggles and jumps up and down, throws her arms in the air, beams from ear to ear, and shouts her love for any given thing at the top of her lungs!

It's amazing to watch! Awe inspiring I'd say.  She brings a smile to other peoples faces with her declarations of love.  She makes other moms laugh when they see her run into music class or storytime absolutely giddy just to be there.

I'm not sure where it all comes from.  I need a piece of it!  I want to live my life the way she does!  I guess this is what they mean when they say parents live vicariously through their children.  I do love life when I see her loving her music teacher and participating with enthusiasm during all the songs.  And though, I'm sometimes bummed that she's the only kid who doesn't want to stay glued to mommy's lap in class, I do love life when I see her being so independent, wanting to sit up close, right in front of Miss Jeanne's guitar so she doesn't miss anything.  She certainly isn't a wall flower!

I also love life when I see her so excited about the library.  She loves books! She loves Miss Karin, her storytime leader! She loves the Kermit the Frog that hangs from the ceiling in the children's library! She loves it all! 



One of Emma's favorite of life's joys - playing in the snow!



I love life when I walk into her room in the morning and she says things like, 'Mommy, my tooth fell out.  I think the tooth fairy needs to come.' Or when I go into room at night after she's been chatting happily to herself for an hour and a half, and she says, 'Mommy, why am I still awake?' knowing already exactly why I'm there and what I'm going to ask.

So here it goes ... as of today ... I'm on a mission to live life like my beautiful girl ... with JOIE DE VIVRE!

I'm going to love life and be thankful for all the things God has given me including those things that are challenging me!  It's time to crawl out of the hole of been in for this first trimester of pregnancy and rejoin the world! Take back my life! And most importantly, it's time to get back to enjoying my husband and my daughter and to start being really excited about this new pregnancy!

If this doesn't show Joie de Vivre I don't know what does!

 My first step on my new mission ... get my daughter up from her nap and bake chocolate chip cookies!

Time to Dust Off the Old Blog ...

I know it's been almost 3 months, but it's time to start again because we have news to share ... lots of it!

First of all, Emma wanted to show you this ...

Yes in August, supposedly on the 8th, Emma will move from Only Child status to Big Sister status! Hard to believe our baby won't be our only baby anymore. She's very excited though and is very helpful with her friends' baby brothers and sisters so I'm sure we'll be a 'stupendous' (as Emma would say) big sister!

I'm 12 weeks along and heard the very strong heartbeat at the doctor yet. 150 - 160 beats per minute ... they say that means girl! The grandmas are sure it's a boy though. I guess we'll have to wait a little while longer to find out. Things have been okay, but not great. I've been pretty nauseous, had lots of headaches and lacked any energy whatsoever! I also managed to get two stomach bugs and now have a cold. Finally today I feel good aside from the cough I've developed. I'll take a cold over being nauseous anyday! Emma's been watching A LOT of TV which I, of course, have lots of mommy-guilt for, but not enough to turn it off. You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes.

Today was a good day though! Emma started swimming lessons and shouted her love for it through the whole lesson. She's a very enthusiastic girl and pretty much loves everything. Oh to be 2 1/2!

So the next part of our news is that we put our house on the market. Why? Because instead of going to Iraq in April, Jeremy will be going to Diego Garcia for a year in September. We got a call in November that the job was a possibility for him. At first, we dismissed it, but after more discussion, decided it would be a better option. Eventhough it's a longer time away, it's a safer place, better for his career and we'll hopefully be able to talk to him more often. He'll also get to come home twice while he's away. We were in Pittsburgh at the time that we heard about it, but it wasn't until we got back home that I discovered that I was pregnant. When we got the positive pregnancy test and realized he'd be home from the birth, it clinched it for us.

Did you do the math? Yes, that means I will be a (temporarily) single parent a month after the baby is born! SOOO ... I'm hightailing it out of here and heading home. I know I can handle both kids, but not without having my parents nearby. Being alone is very challenging. I have good friends here, but it's not that same has having your family down the street. Having the stomach bug a month go made me realize that there was no way I could do this alone. Letting Emma eat saltines and watch TV all day is one thing, but that doesn't work so well for a newborn! So this spring, we'll be heading to Pittsburgh.

So that's our news! Hopefully I'll be updating more often now that so much is going on. We're going to Disney World in a week and a half, so I'm sure we'll have lots to share about that!