Since moving into our new house, we have so much more space than we used to. We have two living rooms! All of the furniture we already had went down into the basement living area, which left our main living room on the first floor completely empty. We plan to just get furniture pieces as we see them and can get a good deal on them. One day, to get out of the heat of the summer yet out of the house, Raylee and I walked the lanes at a local Peddler's Mall. Each booth is filled with furniture, household items, clothes, books, and who knows what all! There's lots to see. While there, I found an Continue Reading
No, I’m Not Ready for Baby #2.
I'm really quite surprised how often I have been asked about having another baby. The questions began really early, like when Raylee was still a newborn! By the time she was 1, it seemed most people expected us to begin trying again immediately. I'm sure that's not the case, but it was starting to feel that way! Of course, I don't mind when people really close to me ask these questions, but it does bother me when strangers or acquaintances mention it. For instance, just the other day the librarian told me I need to give Raylee a brother or sister. I know that's a normal thing to say to Continue Reading
Making Windows Private
Travis and I recently bought our first home that we will live in together. (Remember how we have bought a home before but only I lived in it and since we've sold it?) Anyways, with buying a house comes a lot of responsibility. Unless you build or buy a home brand new, there are going to be things you'll want to fix or update or change to match your preferences. I didn't realize quite how much work we'd want to do on this house. I knew we'd want to paint, and I was hoping we could get new floors ... but now that we've lived here awhile, we have a huge list of to-dos. The good news is, we have Continue Reading
Eyes Like Doves
We have now lived in Louisville for about six weeks or so. For whatever reason, this has been feeling like our hardest move yet. Maybe it's because we are no longer in the military community or we have a toddler this time. We haven't put a lot of our decorations or pictures up because we want to paint first, and I think that's making it feel like it's not home quite yet. I was feeling down and discouraged about this, plus lonely since I don't really have any friends here yet. Then we found a leak in our basement. A leak that must have been there since we moved in and we hadn't noticed Continue Reading
The Best Spots in Clarksville, Tennessee
When we found out we would be PCSing to Fort Campbell and living in Clarksville, Tennessee, I was excited because it would be fairly close to Indiana. (Four hour drive from my family) What I didn't realize, though, is how much I would love the Clarksville area. We lived there for almost two years, and now that we recently moved I've been thinking back to all the neat spots that I loved in that city. For those out there who are PCSing to Fort Campbell or maybe already live in Clarksville, I wanted to share those favorite spots. About a week before we moved, a friend took me a park that was Continue Reading
Deep Cleaning a New Home
Our little family recently bought a new home and have moved to a new state. After closing, but before unloading all the boxes of our household goods, one important thing needed to be done. Deep cleaning. The family that moved out of this home obviously didn't do any cleaning before they left -- although, I was shocked at how clean the microwave was when we moved in. Travis and I have always rented due to the frequent moves that come with military life. That means we have never had to clean before moving in. This was different. We took on the task ourselves and spent one weekend cleaning the Continue Reading
Saying Goodbye to Raylee’s First House
Last week, the packers arrived at our house in Clarksville. They packed up all our belongings into boxes. The only things left were the items we had set aside in a bathroom marked "Do Not Pack." We slept in our house for the last time, and the next morning we loaded up the car. After a quick breakfast, Raylee and I walked through her first house for the last time. I prayed over each room. I thanked God for the memories there and prayed for the people who would soon move in and make it their home. Raylee and I loaded into the car, said goodbye to Travis, and pulled out for the last time. We Continue Reading
Sunshine First Birthday Party
Wow, I can't believe I have a 1-year-old! Like I said in this post, her first birthday party was more for me than her. I did survive 9 months straight without sleeping through the night and kept all three of us alive, so a celebration was in order. We decided to do a sunshine first birthday theme because Raylee is "our little sunshine." Look at the name of my blog, how could I not use this theme? We had around 25 people come to celebrate with us, and it was a blast! I was afraid Raylee might be shy or fussy with so many people filling our house, but she was actually happy and smiley. I Continue Reading
Things to Do in Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg
It's been several months since we took our family trip to the other side of Tennessee. I just haven't gotten around to sharing about it! In the fall, we drove to Pigeon Forge and spent a few days having all kinds of fun. There is so much to do there, but we made the most of the little time we had. Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg Activities Ripley's Aquarium We loved this aquarium! I didn't think it would be that neat -- I mean a bunch of fish, who cares? But it was probably our favorite part of the whole trip! They had tons of fish and sea life to look at, not to mention penguins! My favorite part Continue Reading
Raylee’s First Birthday — Baby Update
My little spunky chick just turned one! Can you believe it? I am so glad that each month I remembered to take a photo and include all the milestones she hit. Gosh, they change so much so fast! If you want to see photos from her first six months of life -- check out this post. I used blankets that we received from people for each photo. Thank you to everyone who gave us a beautiful blanket, especially to those of you who made one! On the evening she turned seven months, Raylee started crawling! She had already been scooting like crazy and getting into a crawling position, but she finally Continue Reading
Sleep Training: Round 2 (The Ferber Method)
You may remember that I wrote a post about five months ago called What I Learned Through Sleep Training. In that post, I talk about how sleep training didn't work for us. At the time, that was true. I worked hard at it for weeks and weeks, and eventually I gave up because it was causing way too much stress for me. I found myself becoming depressed, so we stopped sleep training. But about three months later, Raylee was still waking several times a night, and although I wasn't depressed, I was definitely sleep deprived. We just couldn't take it anymore. We knew something had to change. That's Continue Reading
How I Survived the First Year of Motherhood
As I'm writing this, Raylee is around two weeks away from being a one-year-old. It seems like we were just getting the hang of life with a newborn, and now -- bam -- she's almost a toddler! The first year really went so fast. And it's got me reflecting a lot lately. I always thought it was a little silly to throw a big party for a one-year-old. It's not like they have any clue what's going on, and they won't remember the cake, presents, or decorations. What's the point? Well, can I tell you a secret? The birthday party I'm throwing for Raylee in a couple weeks is more of a party for me. It's Continue Reading
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