Good...Morn...um...Night....Mornight!

That's it! Good MornNight!!! It is 2:32 AM so although I should be saying Good Night to most people, technically it is Good Morning! I have been staying up ENTIRELY too late the past few nights. I have always been a night person but this week I have taken it even further. The main reason is because I have been staying up and playing the New Mario Brothers on the Wii~lame~I know. It is a great game though and it has elements of all the past Mario Brothers from older consoles added into this one game. I have really enjoyed it AND Ben and I have been enjoying doing something together. You see, most of the time, Ben is in the living room watching tv or playing xbox and I am in the bedroom on the computer, watching tv, or snuggling with Olivia. Olivia tends to go back and forth between the both of us. So this week Ben and I have joined forces and have been spending time in the same room! What?!?! I know~shocking!

You see, in the beginning of our marriage, almost 4 years ago, I didn't think there was anything strange about the fact that we had this "set-up" I ended up pregnant after 6 weeks of marriage, so alot of the time I was napping or propping my feet up and wanted to do it in my own bed, watching what I wanted to be watching. I also went to bed earlier in those days so it just worked out better for us. After Olivia was born, I tended to stay back in the bedroom because she was very colicky and I didn't want her crying to bother Ben. He went to work all day everyday so I didn't want him to have to come home to a screaming baby. As Olivia got older, she would watch cartoons on our bedroom TV and I would stay back here with her. We never made it a priority to change our now formed habit. We didn't think anything of it anyway.

the moment I was "given" to Ben by my family
March 18, 2006

My mom was the one who pointed out that it was weird for us, as newlyweds, to spend so much time apart. I would laugh it off and just say that it worked for us. And it did. At first. Even now, it is not so much that it is not working for us but rather than we have developed separate lives. Sure we live in the same house, go to the same church, sleep in the same bed, but that is about it. We are cordial to one another and try to keep up with what is going on with each other, but we aren't really interacting with each other. I don't think I know anymore about what is going on with my husband than I do what is going on with my friends.

The happiest day of my life
March 18, 2006

It could work for us~we could continue on this way and probably be just fine. But I do not want just a "fine" marriage and relationship with the man that God has put in my life to share it with. God intended for us to know each other intimately~in more ways just one. God designed marriage for 2 to become 1. I want that in my marriage. I want Olivia to grow up knowing what that looks like. I do not want seeing her mom and dad hug and kiss each other to be the exception instead of the rule. I want to change this now.

I believe that God has started showing me this because He wants me to address it. God wants more for Ben and I's marriage than what it is currently. There is SO much more to marriage than what we are experiencing. There are levels of knowing one another that we aren't even close to understand just yet.

Neither Ben nor myself had the perfect picture of what marriage is supposed to look like shown to us by our parents. Ben's parents divorced when he was in junior high and although my parents are still together for over 35 years, they definately have had their share of ups and downs. I do not want to look back in 35 years and regret what we have taught to our children regarding marriage. I want to show my kids what a God-centered, love giving, affection showing marriage looks like. My marriage should come FIRST after God and before anything else. And let's just tell it like it is~right now it is not coming first.

Very proud to call him "husband"
March 18, 2006

I write all this as a first step. I am committing right now to pursuing a more Godly marriage. I vow to begin to take steps in making my marriage a priority in my life. I want to show Olivia what it means to love unconditionally and wholeheartedly. I ask God that right now you begin to start a new work in Ben and I. I surrender my time, thoughts, and intentions to You and ask that You direct them as You see fit. Show me the choices to make in order to start this process. Stir me on, pour me out. I want Ben to know without a shadow of a doubt that his wife loves and adores him. I want his home to be a safe haven for him and not somewhere that he dreads coming home to. I want to be the kind of wife that he dreams of having. I want to be for Ben what he needs. I love Ben and I am so thankful for the gift I have been given in him. Lord, do not let me ever take him or our relationship for granted again.

New Look

Finally! Christmas is over here at Full of Hope!! I have been wanting to have a new look but wasn't sure if I should invest in it because I don't update very often. But after Christmas I hated the thought of going back to the ol blogger headers so I contacted Faith about giving me a new look. She was awesome to work with and I am so pleased with how it all turned out. This is something I am proud of and I think it will make me want to write more. So thank you so much Faith!! If you are looking for a new look you should definately head on over to A Design of Faith! You will not be sorry!

On to other news~I have been potty training for the last couple of weeks. Olivia is doing great. I started the week she was going to turn 3 and it seemed to just click with her. I had tried about 6 months ago and she would have NO part of it. I let it go and I think that was the key to her doing so good~waiting until SHE was ready. We have had very few accidents and she pooped in her panties 2x and now she has that down too. I was afraid that might take a while but it really didn't. I am sooo very proud of her!! There are times when she wears a pull-up when we have alot of errands to run, but other than that she wears panties. The pull-ups are really because of me~I am afraid that I won't get her to the potty in time if we are out. She probably would do just fine. She has done really good at telling me and then waiting until we get to a potty. I need to have confidence in her and just put them away. She still wears a diaper at night, but I know that very soon we will be done with those too. Most nights she wakes up dry in the mornings. I never thought she would be potty trained!! Next on our list is getting her to sleep in her own bed! We are taking it one thing at a time though!! :)

Give Me Your Best Shot

First...I promise the Christmas will be gone VERY soon!! :)

I am attempting something I have never done before. I am trying to learn photography~on my own. I got a new Canon Rebel T1i for Christmas from my husband. I am IN LOVE with this camera. I don't know anything about taking pictures. I have found A TON of blogs with tutorials and that has helped tremendously and I am now attempting to get out of "full auto" mode. I know this camera has GREAT potential. So I am trying all sorts of new things.

Sooo...today I am linking up to Better in Bulk and her Give Me Your Best Shot. I took Olivia out to our playground behind our apartment this week and while she played I tried my hand at some "manual" photography. Trying out some of what I learned. I got a few good shots and I think this is one of them. I then played with it a little in Photoshop Elements. WOW there is a ton to learn with that too!!

So it's not much but I am pleased and think it was my best shot this week. Let me know what you think and any tips would be SOOO appreciated!!

Something new and 3rd birthday

So I am sure you are wondering when I was going to decide to take Christmas down around here at the blog...well I am working with Faith over at A Design of Faith and I am sooo excited to see what she comes up with! So very soon is when Christmas will come down!
Olivia turned 3!! I cannot believe my baby girl is 3. Her birthday is January 15 and we celebrated today (16th) with friends and family at Chuck E Cheese. It was crazy, but fun. I am working on the pictures from the party and will get them posted soon and tell you all about the party. That just means you will have to come back!

More to come...
Jen

Christmas and stuff

I just wanted to write really quick to document this Christmas. I don't think many people actually read this and that is ok~I don't do to good at updating~but I wanted to post some pictures and some memories so that I can look back on them in the future.

I was really excited about Christmas with Olivia this year. She is at such a fun age and really "got" the concept of Santa. We also talked alot about baby Jesus and read lots of books. Olivia asked for one specific thing this year~a purple thing with a pencil~AKA Leapster. This is ALL she has talked about since before Thanksgiving. We had told Santa about it, told EVERYONE about it. So I went Thanksgiving night at 10pm and stood in line at Toys R Us and got it 50% off! I was so excited about it and couldn't wait to see her face on Christmas morning.

Well, I wrapped this gadget and had it under the tree. Of course, I had to tell Olivia several~a million~times to leave it alone. I even went as far to say it wasn't her present, it was someone else's. On Monday or Tuesday of last week, Olivia and I were sitting in the living room playing. I got up to get the phone and right as I turned back around she had ripped the paper off the top of this "purple thing with a pencil" !!! "OOOOH!" she exclaimed!! "just what I wanted" I was speechless~on one hand it was HILARIOUS but on the other i had told her over and over to leave it alone. So I sent her to her room, put the gift in the closet, and told her I was taking it back to the store so another little girl who obeyed their mommy could have it. This broke her little heart. She cried and cried. As the week went on she mentioned several times about this gift and I told her that I took it back, but that MAYBE if she was good then Santa Claus would bring her one.

On Christmas morning, she ran to the living room to see if Santa had come and I captured this:


I guess Santa thought she was a pretty good little girl after all.

We spent lots of time with family. Olivia got tons of goodies. Her favorites are her baby doll, pink scooter, and her very first bicycle! We are having lots of fun enjoying all of it.



We will be spending lots of time outside this week I am sure~especially since Daddy is off this week and can help Olivia with her riding skills.
We did spend some time out this afternoon riding the scooter and she is getting the hang of it. I got some good pictures of it with my AWESOME Christmas gift from my hubby~the Canon Rebel T1i!!!! LOVE IT!!!
Happy New Year!!!!
Jen

Knock, Knock

IS ANYONE THERE? DOES ANYONE READ MY BLOG????

just curious! :)

An AMAZING give-a-way

You have GOT to go to www.kellyskornerblog.com and check out the awesome thing she is giving away!!!

Check this out~but only until tomorrow!!

If you want to see some super cute blog designs and look at some free ones (but only free until tomorrow) then click below!

Pumpkin Patch 2009

This was at the wagon "picture set up" where we got a nice man to take our pictures for us. Thanks nice man!! I am so glad that we got these!! Even though meemaw and mommy didn't really come prepared for pictures! :)

I wanted to write a quick post on our Pumpkin Patch trip. This was a VERY last minute trip. Olivia had not been feeling well, it had been raining all week, most patches this was the very last weekend to go before they close~so I was thinking that I just missed our chance. BUT on Saturday morning Olivia woke up feeling good and it was BEAUTIFUL outside. So I called Meemaw and asked if her and Pop wanted to go with us. Pop had some other stuff to do so Meemaw, Olivia, and I headed on over to Motley's Pumpkin Patch. It is about 15 minutes from my parents house.
It was the perfect number of people and the weather was awesome!!
We walked ~well Olivia rode since they had wagons to pull~ through their small "petting" zoo,

walked/rode up to the pumpking patch~there wasn't many pumpkins left but Olivia didn't even care~she didn't like the big ones anyway. She picked out a little one and then headed for the big haystack that had a slide going down it. That was a hit.

Then we walked back to the swings for a lil while where we had to PRY her off of them.

I said, "show me your mad face"

Next was the pig races. HILARIOUS!! I think this was our favorite thing from the entire time.

self portrait B4 pigs race can't really get them racing but this was afterwards

Meemaw and I wanted to do the hayride but at first Olivia was having NO part of it. Once we got on and sat down and she saw that other kids and mommys and daddys and Meemaws were on too then she calmed down and TRIED to enjoy herself~she is so my daughter!!

another try at a self portrait


Then a nice lady offered to take our picture for us!! Thanks nice lady!! :)

They also have a nice gift shop which already had Christmas stuff out. Lots of Ole' World ornaments which I love!!
She then got to pick out a free "mini" pumpkin and then we headed home. It was a nice trip and I got a few good pictures~I think. I am so glad that we got to go~I was afraid that we had missed our chance and that it would have been too muddy~it was not at all!!

Halloween 2009 Recap

This was definately a totally different experience than last year!!

Even down to finding her costume. Last year I knew what I wanted her to have and she really was to young to have an input. This year I had NO idea what to do and then we had decided to go camping at Devil's Den with some friends so we weren't even going to be here. Well on Monday before Halloween we decided that we were going to stay home after all. So the FRIDAY before Halloween I am scrambling to come up with a costume. Keep in mind that MOST if not ALL places are picked over. Usually I order her costume hand made from ebay~but didn't have time this year with all our plans that changed. So we headed over to Halloween Express by Best Buy. Olivia didn't care to much for the store because of all the "scary" stuff set up but we made it through. I was thinking maybe I could get her to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz or a Fairy Princess but the minute she saw the Shiny HOT PINK Super Girl costume it was all over! There was NO changing her mind. And of course, this was the most expensive one out of ALL of them I had shown her. So we got the costume and ran to Walmart and got some Hot Pink nail polish, eye shadow, body glitter, and mascara with glitter and headed home. WHew!! So thankful to have gotten that out of the way. Oh and did I mention that she had gotten her flu shot on Thursday afternoon and had been running a HIGH fever ever since~so we got all this not even knowing if she would be able to go out!!! The things we do for our kids!!

Halloween 2008 with cousin, Tyler

Last year, we went trick or treating with my brother and sister in law and her son, Tyler. Olivia was not shy at all and went up to the houses with Tyler all on her own. It was so much fun!!

This year, not so much. Daddy stayed home this year to watch the Razorback game, so Meemaw came with us. Daddy and Olivia did pose for a quick picture before we left though.

Daddy and his SuperGirl

First we went to Temple Baptist Church here in LR to their trunk or treat. It was VERY small and Olivia was having no part of it. I think we made it around to about 3 cars and then left. She has gotten very scared of costumes unless they are "fun" That makes things very difficult when stores have all their halloween decorations out. I am sooo ready for Christmas decorations ONLY to be out!! We love us some Santa Claus!!

Then we went to Otter Creek neighborhood. It was packed. I drove to a cul-de-sac and left MeeMaw in the car and Olivia and I walked up to the first house. There were lots of cute kids running around in NOT SCARY costumes but Olivia was freakin out. I carried her to the first house and she hesistantly got through it. I started to the next house and she LOST IT. Blood curling scream in the middle of the road. WTF?!?! You have got to be kidding me!! So I took her back to the car and was just going to head home. On our way out of the neighborhood we past this mini circular "neighborhood" called "Courtside" It is just one circle full of houses and it looked like about half of them had their lights on. So i asked meemaw to join us and we parked the car and took off~really talking it up~telling Olivia how much fun it is and how it is not scary at all. By the 2nd house she was running to the next ones and having so much fun. I am so glad that we tried one more time. We did kind of bribe her that if she was a big girl and did this then we would go and get her a new movie. Sooo after finishing up we went out to Best Buy and Target in Benton. We didn't find a movie but we did find an ABC's learning toy on sale that I had been wanting to get her for a while.Olivia finally at home playing with her new toy

All in all in turned out to be a good night. Started off a lil rocky but we stuck it out and had fun. I am so glad that my mom got to experience it with us. This was her first time. Here are some of the rest of the pictures from that night.

Thanks for sticking with this LONG post and checking out what our Halloween was like~we love to have visitors!!

Jenny