A Great Weekend

Thanksgiving has already come and gone.  It is hard to believe it is Christmas time again!  I remember this time last year, waiting on Afton to be born.  We were so excited!  She has already celebrated her first Thanksgiving with Daddy and Mommy and we are excited about her first Christmas!

Our Thanksgiving weekend was great.  Matt and I always look forward to extended holidays because he gets time off and time to spend with Afton and I.

Matt had finished tiling and grouting our back splash in the kitchen earlier in the week, so the big parts of the kitchen are finished!  We were both excited for a break from work and kitchen work and some great family time.

The kitchen project has been such a pain, little things just kept (and keep) happening that puts the little projects off.  Example, Matt was going to put the drawer pulls on but was waiting for the template to drill the holes in the drawers.  When we finally got the template, 2 weeks after ordering it, there were not holes spaced for our drawer pulls!  Then when the holes were drilled, the screws that came with the pulls were not long enough!  Sheesh!!!  It was just little things like that the whole time, that weren't really a big deal, but were so frustrating!

So Matt decided no major work on the kitchen the four days he was off for the holiday.  Thanksgiving day was spent playing, putting up Christmas decorations and cleaning the house.  We ate a late Thanksgiving dinner just the 3 of us-and stayed in our pajamas the whole day!  It was great!!  We put up two Christmas tress this year and Afton was very interested in the tree and boxes of decorations.

We also cooked Thanksgiving dinner in our new kitchen!  It was so wonderful being able to cook and not have to go to different parts of the house to find a utensil or silverwear or a pot.  I even had counters to help me!  (it is amazing what you appreciate after you don't have something for a while!)  It wasn't a huge dinner, but we enjoyed getting to eat together.

We had been debating whether to go to Albuquerque on Black Friday.  We didn't want to deal with the crazies, but we had a little shopping to do for Christmas.  We decided to go when we got up and got ready on Friday morning.  There wasn't anything that we needed a deal on, so we decided to go and have a relaxing day of shopping in ABQ.

We got to ABQ about 10:30, made a stop at Lowes and went to the mall for about 45 minutes.  It was still pretty crowded!  We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings and went to Toys R Us to see if we could find any deals for Afton's christmas present.  I wanted to get her a little table and chair set for Christmas this year and we found the one I wanted at Toys R Us and it was the last one!  I was so excited.  We spent a little while in Barnes and Noble, looking at books, drinking Starbucks and letting Afton crawl around the Children's book section.  She loved it!  We had a great day in ABQ just spending time together.

Saturday was another lazy day.  Matt hooked up the pipes for the sink and dishwasher.  We got to do our first load of dirty dishes!  How excited were we?!  (me especially!)

Afton even got in on it.  It was hard to keep her from diving into the sink!

We had some new friends come up for dinner and we had a good time with them Saturday evening.

Sunday morning we went to church and came home to our pajamas (again!).  It snowed several times this weekend and was pretty cold, perfect weather to stay in the house and just be cozy together.

Over all we had a great weekend together.  We look forward to just family time and are quite selfish with it when we do have it!

Kitchen

Oh our wonderful kitchen.  The never ending project.  Will the stupid thing ever get done?  (really this is no jab on Matt at all!)

It has been really exciting to remodel the kitchen.  I haven't really been much help, like in past projects.  Poor Matt has had the brunt of the work and he has done a wonderful job.  It just really seems like it will never end.

As I sit here typing, Matt is in the kitchen putting up our tile back splash.  What he has up so far looks so good! 

If you saw our last kitchen (the Clown Kitchen as we like to call it) you will know how much of an update we needed.  Painted royal blue counter tops (painted!), yellow and lime green cabinets, and a two by four "pantry" (I use that term loosely, and by 2x4 I mean it was 4 shelves made out of 2x4's on the wall) beside the fridge.  Now we have beautiful nice new cabinets, a granite counter top (!!), an under mount sink and soon a beautiful tile back splash!  This is the stuff of dreams (and we never thought we would have it!).

Granted there have been our share (and someone else's share too, I think) of mishaps.  Our window had to be moved because of a wrong calculation of the cabinets (an inch makes a big difference!), shelves didn't come in the cabinets like they should have, cracked crown molding, lights being not where they should be, blah blah blah.  The list goes on, but we can see the finish line!

Through all of this, the Lord has definitely taught Matt and I patience.  Little things have happened, yes, but it could have been a LOT worse.  We are very blessed to even have a new kitchen at all!  All the hard work and trials are going to more than pay off in the end.  Can't wait to finally get everything in the cabinets! 

(Pictures soon!)

Ten Months

It is time to add another picture to the First Year Frame for Afton.  She turned 10 months old today.  Every time she turns another month older I say that it is hard to believe she has.  What I can't believe now is that in two months she will be 1 year old!  I really think this year has been the fastest year of my life, where has it gone?  I thought today would be a good opportunity to update the blog while Matt is working downstairs and Afton is taking her morning nap.  I have a few minutes of alone time (and I have already taken a shower! woohoo!)

About a week after my last update post, Afton started crawling.  It didn't take her long to figure out how!  She never had a weird crawl, she always seemed to know what she was doing.  It was always on all fours and she gets around now!  Nothing is safe.  We really have tried not to rearrange things, but some stuff we had to put out of reach and now all our outlets have covers.  Those were the first things she went for!  I am not really sure why...

She is also a pro at pulling up now.  Anything she can pull herself up with she tries.  She is starting to climb on things too, mainly me or Daddy, but the other day she was standing on some toys to get something off the coffee table.  It was not placed there intentionally just for that, but I don't think that is far off.

"NO" has become the dreaded word in our house, not just for Afton but for Mommy and Daddy too.  Most times when she is told no her face crumples and she cries like we have crushed her or she lays on the floor and screams (literally).  I hate when she cries, but she is getting better at dealing with being told no.  I guess it really depends on the day.  The main "no"s are banging on the computer and pulling cords, pulling books off the shelf, cell phones, the remote, pulling magazines out of the magazine basket and wall outlets.  She has plenty of toys to occupy her, and normally they do, but those things listed are the ones she gets busted for over and over.  The computer is the main no-no.  She can't seem to stop though, so I am sure we will get to be pros at telling her no. It doesn't make it any easier.

Afton will point at things now.  Usually only with her right hand, with her thumb sticking up like a gun. When she is "reading" to herself or to us, she will point at pictures and jabber.  She can point to her nose and to Mommy and Daddy's noses.  Just in the last week we have added mouth to the list.  She is starting to point at things, but I am not sure she fully understands what pointing means yet.

She also loves to play with my hair.  She is usually pretty good about not yanking handfulls out (I really don't have much to spare) and I love for my hair to be played with, so as long as she isn't pulling, I let her play.  She does like to pull on Daddy's beard now that it is grown out a little  : )

She has also gotten her top two teeth in!  They came in within a day of each other and they still aren't fully in, but every day I can tell they are a little bigger.  I wondered when she would be getting more teeth and so far it is just the top two and the bottom two.  She has a little gap between the top, which I think is cute.  (we aren't sure where that came from though...)

Several things we have not yet gotten a picture of are the elusive kiss and playing Peek-a-boo.  Daddy gets way more kisses than I do, but she will give Daddy a big, wet, open mouthed kiss with tongue.  It's pretty cute (not sure how cute it would be for anyone else) and Matt seems to enjoy the attention.  : )  She has also started playing Peek-a-boo when we say "where is Afton?" or just "peek-a-boo!"  She will cover her eyes and laugh, it is her new favorite game!  (we did get the game and where is your nose on film though, finally, but a video)  She also lets us know she likes food (or pretty much anything she puts in her mouth) by saying "mmmmm" whenever she eats it.  I think I started that.  I am trying to get her to say "ahhh" after she takes a drink, but we haven't accomplished that yet.  Also, she loves to clap her hands when we say "Good job" or "yea!".  When she sees other people clapping or hears it on tv, she will clap along with it, too.  

Afton also celebrated her first Halloween.  She got her first pumpkin that was just her size.  She also got to help with Trunk or Treat at our church.  She loved watching the kids and enjoyed the sucker she got (even though by the end her face and hands were sticky and she had fuzz and hair all over the sucker and herself).  I made her costume this year.  She was a tree.  Brown pants as a trunk, I glued leaves to her shirt, she had a birds nest with a bird in it on her shoulder and a bird in her hair.  I really thought she would be pulling leaves off, but she was more interested in what was going on around her than her costume.  It didn't get to be out much because it got pretty cold, so it was covered up with blankets and a jacket.  Oh well.  : )

Afton still loves books.  She will sit and read to herself for long periods of time and she plays with her books more than the toys.  She has several little baskets of books upstairs and it is a great game to pull them all out one by one, read them and then leave them laying everywhere.  I hope she continues her love for books, we try to read to her every day in some form or another.

Afton has grown physically so much in 10 short months, but I think this month has been the one with the most growth.  Not just physically (she was 29 inches long and weighed 21 lbs 6 oz at her 9 month check up), but I really think this month Afton started understanding what we are saying.  If we tell her to do something or ask her something, she seems to know what we are talking about.  Matt and I are both amazed at each milestone that she has achieved.  It is so exciting for us to watch her grow and learn with her.  I know it won't be long and she will be walking!  Maybe that will be the update for next month!

Dedicated

This past Sunday, Matt and I gave Afton back to the Lord.  We had wanted to do it for a while, but it hadn't worked out before this past Sunday.  We were blessed to share it with Matt, Vail, and Mattea Woodard (Mattea is 2 months older than Afton) and the rest of our church family.

Pastor Matt (yes, there are that many Matts in our church and it is confusing) called us to the front, said a prayer over us, and then called the rest of the body to the front to surround our family and the Woodard family as we dedicated our lives to raising our children the way God wants us to.

When Matt and I were faced with the decision to move to New Mexico, we knew the move would challenge us in a lot of ways.  We would be moving away from our family and friends, from all we knew (and for Matt the only place he has ever called home).  One of our biggest worries was finding a new church home.

We visited the churches in town, but after my first service with Grants Church of Christ, I knew that we had found it.  I have never been in a church body that has shown more love and acceptance than Grants C of C.  God has blessed Matt and I so much in the short time that we have been together. The move to New Mexico was a huge act of faith on our part and finding the church was confirmation that we had followed God's Will.  If you know me, you know that it takes a while for me to open up to anyone, but being at this church I felt at home with all these people immediately.  (that is really saying something!!!)

We wish that our families could have been with us this past Sunday.  It is a huge comfort to know that even though our blood families live 2000 miles away, we have a group of people that have accepted us and loved us as their own and we could share with the them the joy of our daughter.

I don't feel like what I have written will ever adequately express the gratitude we have for these people.  They have truly become our family away from our family and have blessed us so much.  Matt and I are so grateful that we will have the support of this Body of Christ to raise Afton (and more children, if we are so blessed) in.

Reading, Writing...

I am in, what will probably be a short lived, reading kick.  I love to read, I always have.  As I have gotten older, I have started to enjoy reading non fiction as well as fiction.  I am in the middle of two or three books, a couple of magazines-all about parenting or raising children-but I wanted to read something fun.

Matt and I have several book shelves full of books in our house.  They are mostly my books.  I am a book hoarder.  I can't bring myself to get rid of any of the books I have ever had.  I love to buy books.  Even if they just sit on the shelf and look pretty, I do have the intent of reading every book I buy, even though it never works out that way.  Amazon.com is the devil for that very reason.

So night before last, I read a parenting magazine, a chapter in one of the parenting books I am in the middle of, but I still wanted to read something that wasn't so heavy and didn't require a lot of thought.  I occasionally think about books or stories I have read before, and I do like to re-read some of my favorites.  I had been telling Matt about a story I had read in college, but couldn't remember who wrote it or what the name of it was.  I was pretty sure it was in my Freshman year Literature book (that which I still have, of course) so I got it off the shelf and with a little digging found the story I had been agonizing over for sometime.  I was stoked it was in the book I had!  So as I was looking through the literature, there were plays ("Death of a Salesman" jumped out at me.  One of the worst reads I have read.  I plan to read it again, though, to see if I still don't like it), poetry (most of the ones that I loved and were forced to memorize in high school!  I wish I could still remember them!), and mainly short stories-Edgar Allen Poe, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty-names I had forgotten since that first semester of college.  My world had been open to so many new names and stories-I loved it!

I have decided to start reading that Freshman Literature book.  My mind needs a workout.  I need to expand beyond Raffi and Sesame Street again (although I love those things now).  I miss school, I realized after reading about 15 pages into that big book that I had to lug around in my book bag 3 days a week.  I miss stressing over tests, writing papers, going to the library for research and using a card catalog not a computer!  I am such a nerd!

The Lord saw fit to let me marry a nerd.  Hopefully we will pass on that nerdy-ness to our daughter...

Update

Once again, it has been awhile since I have updated our blog.  I actually just keep forgetting I have it.  I will try to get better at this!

Tomorrow is the first of October.  I can't believe this year has flown by and Afton will be 9 months old next week.  As I type this, she is sitting in our living room floor, tearing up a LL Bean Catalog and putting small pieces in her mouth.  I have one eye on her and one on the computer.  Letting her tear up the catalog is probably not the best thing to do but it is keeping her entertained.

For this update, I am going to write what I originally thought I would use this blog for.  Updating everyone on Afton's progress and telling what her "new" things are.  I really wish that I had been doing this from the beginning.  Not only for everyone else, but for me so I can have a journal of her life and her milestones.  I do take a lot of pictures, but somethings you just can't capture with a picture.

She is now able to pick up small objects with a pincher grasp.  That is why I am keeping one eye on her and the catalog because she can tear up paper into tiny pieces now.  We have been practicing the pincher grasp by eating Cheerios (which kinda scares me because she isn't the greatest chewer in the world, but I guess she needs to practice that too).  We tried Walmart brand and Gerber baby puff things that are supposed to dissolve once they are in their mouth.  She didn't like their taste too much although she did like to pick them up and launch them off her high chair tray.

She also has started in the last couple of weeks to sit with her legs crossed.  I am not sure what started this, but every time she sits on the floor or in her high chair she sits with her ankles crossed.  I think it is hilarious...maybe she will be a lady.

 Afton isn't 100% mobile either.  Just today she has been getting around on all fours and actually crawling.  She really isn't that motivated.  If she sees something that is out of her reach, she will try and if it takes too long to get to it, she just gives up.  I don't think that she is aware of how well she can scoot around though.  Most times, she does get where she wants to go.  If the realization hit her that she could get around, I think she would try a little harder to crawl.  I can't leave her alone anymore!

She has just learned to pull herself up to a stand.  She tries to pull up on everything-her toys, us, the ottoman, her pac n play, her crib, etc.  It won't be long until she is walking...

She can also put her pacifier in her mouth all by herself now.  When we point to an object and say "put this or that here" she will do that, if we ask for what she is holding she will give it to us and just in the last couple of days she has been putting little balls in the holes of her toy giraffe!  I bought that a while back and she hasn't been interested in it until this last week.  I am really excited that she is learning so many new things!

It is all really sad and exciting at the same time.  I am excited for her to grow and learn, but sad that it is going by so quickly.  I am so blessed that I get to stay home and spend so much time with her.  She is such a blessing to Matt and I!

Been a while...

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I posted my last blog!  There have been so many things that I have thought about that I could write in the last few weeks and thought I need to do that today and never got around to it.  I always feel guilty sitting and "playing" on the computer when there is laundry to do, floors to be swept, etc.  Good thing about that, they aren't going anywhere!  I can do those later.  So once again, here I am "playing" on the computer.

A lot has happened since my last post back in August, especially in the last two weeks.  Mostly it has to do with my family and it is all exciting!  First my brother-in-law came back from Iraq!  We are so excited that God kept him safe while he was overseas for a year.  I know that Sally and Kaydence are so happy to be a "whole" family again.  He didn't get to stay in the mountains of North Carolina very long.  They did get to visit family and then they had to move to Fort Polk, Louisiana.  They have been there for about 2 weeks.  I am so thankful for technology because now we get to talk to all THREE of them on Skype!  It isn't the same as in person, but I don't feel quite so far away from everyone when I can talk to them AND see them at the same time.  We are very happy for Ben, Sally and Kaydence.

Second big family happening: we gained a new sister-in-law!  Adam and Sheena got married Labor Day weekend in Ridgway, Colorado.  Since Ben, Sally and Kaydence were moving, they were not able to come to Colorado but the rest of the family did.  (it has been awhile since the whole family has been together.  I guess that is to be expected since we are scattered all over the US)  I picked up my parents from the airport in Albuquerque and we went to Colorado for almost a week before the wedding.  It was nice for Afton to get to spend time with Poppy and Grammy and Uncle Adam, Aunt Sheena and Aunt B.  It wasn't very long, unfortunately, but it is always nice to have the family together no matter what form it is in.  We did a lot of traveling, a lot of eating, and had a good time together.  The wedding was beautiful and we are so happy that Sheena is now part of the family.  We couldn't have picked someone better ourselves to marry Adam!  (as Dad said in his speech, Sheena was the only girl all 3 sisters liked, and thats the truth!)

After all the wedding festivities, Dad and Judy came to our house for a couple of days.  We went to Gallup and looked at  beads and jewelry.  We visited La Ventana and the Sandstone bluffs and ate Mexican.

Matt and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on September 10.  Grammy and Poppy watched Afton while Matt and I went out to dinner and drove around.  It was our first date since Afton had been born!  It was a really nice evening that Matt and I got to spend just the two of us, celebrating our marriage.  We both said, who would have thought that 5 years ago we would be living in New Mexico with a daughter!  The Lord truly has blessed our marriage and our life together.  I could not ask for a better man (actually Matt was everything I prayed for and God threw in a bunch of stuff I never thought to ask for!) to share my life with.

We ended our family visit with a weekend trip to Albuquerque.  We went to more bead stores, visited the Sandia Tramway (we couldn't talk Judy into riding it!), walked around Uptown ABQ, spent the night in a hotel, and Dad ran a 10K on Sunday morning before they had to fly out.

So far this month has been a huge blessing!  I am so grateful for my family, even though we don't see them as often as we like; for my wonderful husband; for a healthy and happy daughter-I truly am blessed!

New Week

Well it's Monday again.  I always hate Mondays because that means Matt has to go back to work.  It is really lonely in the house when he isn't here during the day.  Afton wakes up and looks for him-Daddy is silly in the mornings and she is looking for her morning entertainment.  I guess Mommy isn't that interesting.

We had a great weekend.  It started with a great evening Friday night.  I got my hair cut while Matt watched Afton, then we got dinner from Sonic and went to the park and had a picnic.  Afton got to sit in the grass and play in the dirt.  This was the first time she acted interested in the grass it was cute.

Saturday Matt worked on the kitchen (the never ending project).  We made our usual Saturday run to the dump to take a truck load of trash.  It is always a good time going to the dump, Afton usually takes a good nap and Mommy and Daddy go to DQ and get ice cream.  We decided to take a drive while we were eating our ice cream and drove to La Ventana.  The last time we were there, I was pregnant with Afton!  Weird!

Sunday we went to Sunday school.  Matt took Afton to her Cradle Roll Sunday School class and it was the first time that she realized that Daddy was not staying with her.  She wimpered a little, but Daddy made a quick exit.  It is great that our church has a class for her age.  It gives Matt and I a chance to go to Sunday School without trying to entertain her and listen at the same time.  AND I actually got to sit through a whole church service!  Afton had not taken a morning nap, so she was pooped and slept in the pew the whole service.  That has NEVER happened, but it was wonderful.  I had forgotten how much I enjoy listening to Matt Clark preach.  I usually don't get to hear the whole sermon!  We had a lunch of leftover spaghetti at home and relaxed at the house before we went to Afton's first birthday party.  Our Pastor's daughter, Chloe, invited Afton to her 7th birthday party.  They even made Afton a special party hat to wear!  I did not remember to take my camera : (  but Jana took a picture of her that I hope she will let me have!  The theme of the party was a Fashion Show-it was awesome!  The little girls got to decorate black t-shirts with ribbon, bows, flowers, glitter, etc and then at 4pm they put on a fashion show for all the adults!  It was great!!  I was so impressed with the party idea and cake that Jana did. I hope I can come up with good party ideas, this was a little girls dream!  We all had a great time-Matt and I got a kick out of watching the Fashion Show (and got a short glimpse at our future) while Afton watched everyone, played with balloons and was passed around by all the adults.

Over all it was a great weekend.  We are so blessed to get to spend time with each other and to have such an awesome church family!  I look forward to our weekends!!!

Friday Again

A whole week has passed, and it seems to have flown by.  That usually doesn't happen.  Today was grocery shopping day.  As I was putting Afton in the buggy at Wally World, I smelled poo.  She was wearing a cute little one piece outfit today, so of course poop shot out of the leg of her diaper and ran down her leg.  I have no idea how it didn't get all over me.  So back out to the car I go, once again, I have no clue how I didn't get it all over me, but the seat of the car is a different story.  It cracks me up that babies could care less that they smell like poo, have poo run down their leg, and sit naked in the car with the door wide open.  Thankfully this was not one of those days that I forgot her diaper bag, other wise we would have been in trouble!  The rest of the shopping trip was uneventful.  I just happen to forget my reusable shopping bags and got in the lane of Derek, the very nice Walmart cashier that likes to double bag EVERYTHING.  So I have about 136 new bags to add to our collection.

In other interesting news, Afton is 7 months old today.  I need to take her picture to add to the Year Frame that she has.  Every month on her Month Birthday, I take her picture and add it to the frame that we got at our NC baby shower.  It is already almost half full.  I am so proud of my baby and how she is growing, but every time I add a picture to it I get a little sad.  I look at the pictures of her the last months and think about how fast time has flown.  I try not to dwell on her growing up and I try to enjoy every new day and every new thing she learns, so I put off putting the pictures in the frame for a little while to avoid the sadness.  : (

Just so I don't end this blog on a depressing note, today is Friday!  Which for Afton and I that means Daddy will be home for two whole days!  He will probably be working on the kitchen, but he will be home with us nonetheless.  Happy Weekend!

The Weekend

Weekends have taken on a whole new meaning for me since I stopped "working".  Now that I stay home with Afton, I look forward to the weekend but with a new twist.  It isn't just a break from work anymore-it means family time.  I look forward to Matt being home for a whole day, not just a few hours in the evening.

Since the kitchen project started, weekends have seemed busy and they fly by even faster than normal.   I don't really do anything different, but Matt is tied up with a different kind of work.  Even though he is in the house, we still don't get to see him much.

So we were really looking forward to today... more family time and a trip to ABQ.  He worked all day yesterday on the kitchen and almost completed the wiring.  Of course some of the items we picked up on our last trip to ABQ had missing parts or were dented so we needed to get new lighting fixtures to replace those.  I also made an appointment to get family pictures done this morning thinking no one wants their pics made on a Sunday morning, so no waiting.  (yes, we missed church.  Unfortunately, something had to be sacrificed today)  After working until after 10 pm last night and a midnight call from work last night that accidentally went unanswered, we got up this morning early to get ready to go.  No it can never be that easy...  We thought Matt would have to go into work and miss our first family pictures.  After multiple calls, getting ready even though we didn't know if we were going or not, we headed out later than I thought we should.  I wanted to feed Afton before the pictures so she would be in a good mood.  She was cranky anyway from being woken up this morning.  We get to ABQ and she refused to eat.  No biggy.  We go into the portrait studio and had to wait for almost 45 minutes to get our pictures done.  Once they start we were only in there for 30 minutes tops and only got a few good pics.  To me a very disappointing portrait experience.  Then we rushed around ABQ at Lowes AND Home Depot to get home in case Matt had to go to work.  Thankfully he didn't, but I hate rushed trips to ABQ. Our trip really wasn't that relaxing today.

The good part is, even though we were rushed around, we did get to spend all day together, just the three of us.  We had good hamburgers for lunch, Afton had a good time watching everyone from her stroller, and we got Starbucks on the way home.  We even got a short family nap in this evening.  All in all, what more could I ask for?

Here Goes

Well I did it.  As if Facebook isn't enough of a life invasion I had to go and start a Blog.  As much as I enjoy Facebook, I feel blogging may be more of a personal look into our family.  I guess there are good and bad things about that.  As shocking as it is, we do know a few people who aren't on Facebook, so this will be a way for them to keep up with us. I have looked at others blog pages and figured I needed to come up with a witty title to our little blog.  So "The View From Here" won.  I chose the title partly because of our awesome view from our house (just look at the title picture!).  One of the main reasons Matt and I loved our house/property was because of the amazing views we had.  I love looking out our window and seeing God's creation.  The other reason for the title would be what is going in our life at the moment, our view from this time in our life.

Let the blogging begin...