Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

60 years ago today, my wonderful mother was born!  She is and always has been a very supportive, kind, and loving Mom who does for others more often than for herself.  She has taught Abby and I many life lessons and how to be strong, independent women while loving our families unconditionally each and every day.  I hope that I can be as wonderful of mother and friend to Matney throughout her life.

Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Elfie

I have to say that jumping on the band wagon this one time was a pretty good decision for the Crawford Family.  We decided to jump on the Elf on the Shelf wagon and see what magic it might bring to our home and to our daughter.  I barely had the elf out of the box before Matney had him named, Elfie. 



Yes, we know we aren't supposed to hold him, but we had to document
how old Matney was when Elfie arrived at our home for the first time!



Elfie has been quite the hit in our house over the last few weeks even if Matney is still a little young to understand his purpose.  Every morning one of the first things she says is, “Elfie, find Elfie?”  and off she goes to look for him.  One morning I forgot to move him, I mean, he forgot to change spots when he came back for the day and M was not happy.  Daddy and I told her that Elfie must have really liked that spot! 

Though she doesn’t understand fully that Elfie watches and reports to Santa about her behavior, it has been fun to see her eyes light up when she finds him and then report to everyone who comes in the house where Elfie is resting for the day.   I can’t wait to see how her eyes light up on Christmas morning!  This season has been so enjoyable with her and I look forward to all the Christmas’ to come.  

Braids

My little lady had her first braids a few weeks ago.  I am not sure how Ms. Sue gets her to sit still for so long, but she always comes home with her hair in ponytails and looking extra cute! 

I think the braids were making her extra ornery that evening! 

Happy 3rd Anniversary

Last Tuesday, Brandon and I celebrated 3 years of marriage.  The last 3 years haven't always been easy, but I know I have a best friend and a partner for life in him!  I love him more and more each day for all that he does for Matney and me and for how he loves us unconditionally.  He is a far better father than I could have ever dreamed of (besides my own) and he doesn't treat me too bad either!

Thanks to Nannie B and Papa G we were able to enjoy a wonderful dinner as they were so kind to watch Matney overnight.  We missed our little lady but it was so nice to have the evening to just focus on us as we often put our relationship to the side these days in order to focus on our beautiful daughter. 

I thank God every day for blessing me with my wonderful husband and I look forward to all our years to come.  Happy Anniversary, love!

Making Memories

Matney loves her Auntie Abby and called her Momma a few times that night!

Last Saturday we decided to take advantage of discount tickets to SDC and make the trip with Abby and Brian, Mom and Dad and the boys.  As I hadn't been in over 10 years, I was excited to see the lights and for Matney to experience SDC for the first time. 

It was rainy and grey the entire way there and when we pulled in to the parking lot we didn't imagine it would be full.  We debated for 10 minutes in the parking lot if we wanted to brave the weather or not, but decided that we were already there and we needed to make the most of it.  We spent a few hours in the park and enjoyed a few rides, popcorn and salt-water taffey.  We didn't get to see the lighting of the tree for the night as it was raining pretty hard so it was postponed along with the parade.  The kids were all very well behaved and we had a great time.

Kennon and Matney loved the ball house.



One last look at the tree before leaving.



Silly Saturday

Matney has started playing hide and seek with us recently and the other day she thought she would try hiding in the cabinet.  It is so cute when she hears daddy come home or when she is hiding, because she will whisper "ide, ide, ide" which completely gives her hiding spot away.

We love this little lady so much!!  It is hard to believe that in less than 4 months she will be 2!!

Baking with Momma

A few weeks ago I decided to make banana bread after looking at 3 rotting bananas for way too long.  I am trying to lessen the hold I have on my Type A personality that cringes at the thought of an uncontrolled or unnecessary mess, so I decided to let Matney help me.  We had a great time scooping ingredients and pouring them in!  She loved stirring the batter and it didn’t take long for her to figure out the best part was tasting it and then the major messes began.  Strangely enough, I was very patient through the entire project and took great joy in seeing my little girl experience the joys of baking.