Spring Time

Spring is finally springing around the Crawford household. The grass is turning green and our first of two babies has arrived. Yesterday, on a cold and windy day, our Momma cow "Red" gave birth to a little bull. Brayden says we should name him "Sonny". Brandon and I both wonder if this is due to the calf being born on a rainy day. We are still undecided on the name, but he sure is cute and spunky.


While preparing a few final things for our second impending arrival, I had let the cat in the room. I walked out and went to eat dinner and a while later went back in the room, thinking to myself "hmmm, I know the cat was in here, I just heard her." As I got to looking I noticed there were socks all over the floor and the bedding was messed up. After I saw the bedding, I knew where I would find Bella. You see, she has this obsession with socks (she empties Brandon's laundry basket every night and brings his dirty socks to our bedroom) and she is obsessed with sleeping under the covers. Sometimes we wonder if she is a cat or some other possessed creature. Thus, knowing our friskey feline's habits, I looked under the covers (after grabbing the camera) and this is what I found...

Good thing her daddy wasn't home or he would have hung her by her tail. He doesn't like it when she is in the nursery. He is very worried she will hurt our little Matney.


Here are a few shots of the baby calf from the day he was born and today once he was all cleaned up. I love spring time and babies!!!

Great memories

Above are just a few shots of what the last several weeks have entailed in the Crawford household. We have had a wonderful time at baby showers and Matney has received more than we could have ever imagined.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend the day with Mom and Abby being pampered with a pedicure and lunch. We had a wonderful time being together! Mom even learned what you mean when you tell the coffee shop that you want a non fat skinny half caf vanilla latte! She wrote it down so she would know what to bring to the hospital when Abby has Baby No Name Biggers. :)

We are down to about two weeks until baby Matney makes her arrival (unless she chooses to just stay in and continue baking)! We are so excited and counting the days!

21 days and counting...

I never thought I would be 3 weeks out from having my first child. As a young girl and young woman I dreamed of one day being a mother, but now that it is time for this experience in my life, I am full of more anticipation, excitement, and anxiety than I ever knew possible. My husband is too!

We are both to the point that we want to meet our little girl so much that we aren't sure what to do every night. We can often be found opening the door to her room to peek in or making plans for when she arrives. In the last few days Brandon has taken to talking to my belly or rubbing my belly and saying "Baby Matney come out, I want to meet you." I never thought that my husband who is very much a mans man could be so cute and loveable when it comes to a little baby that he hasn't even met yet. He even made the comment tonight that if I wanted to go and do something out of town after Matney arrives, that he could watch the her while I was gone. He hasn't even changed a diaper, so we will see if that promise lasts!

I am on my weekly appointments now and continue to see how much wonderful weight I have gained (Brandon says I have a lot of work to do once she gets here...). Today, the LNP took my vitals and told me I could wait if I wanted to see the doctor who was gone to a delivery. I am so excited to have little Matney and would love to just go in to labor that I just told the nurse I would leave and be back next week. I didn't want really want the disappointment of finding out nothing was happening. Heck, if something is happening and I don't know it, won't Daddy be excited when I wake him up in the middle of the night?

As a pre-birth treat to myself, I am going for a spa pedicure tomorrow with my Mom and sister. My little piggies have to be in good shape and pretty for our hospital stay :) Abby has pointed out that any mother should have a pedicure before birth as you will have lots of shots of your toes while in labor! (I am still not sure who is supposed to be holding this camera to get these "shots" but I doubt it will be me) I guess she should know however since she is on her third baby; so we are following her advice and getting pampered. Yippy for a girls day!

PS: This blog update is brought to you in part by my big sister who keeps telling me my blog is out of date! Once we have internet again at our house I will update more and update with photos of all of Matney's goodies she has gotten at all of our showers. Boy do we have some wonderful friends and family--little Matney is set for a long time with lots of wonderful and beautiful things.

Baby Shower #1

This past weekend, my wonderful cousins Martha and Sarah hosted Matney's first baby shower. They did such a wonderful job (as they always do)! Everything looked so pretty and they made everyone feel so welcome, not to mention the yummy food they made.

Martha opened up her house to a large group of women (and a few guys) so that we could celebrate the upcoming birth of our little girl. We received so many wonderful gifts that I am still in awe of all the goodies in Matney's room. I must admit, I have been in there several times in the last few days to check everything out or just hold it up and look at it. A special thanks goes out to Kelby who got on his little tractor and plowed the driveway so everyone could make it. I think I even heard there was a little clean-up on the garage!

Here are a few pictures of the exciting event. Thank you to everyone who came to share in this special day for Matney and for all the wonderful gifts!

Gratitude

Merriam Webster defines gratitude as the following:

Main Entry: grat·i·tude
Pronunciation: \ˈgra-tə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Medieval Latin; Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin gratitudo, from Latin gratus grateful Date: 1523
: the state of being grateful : thankfulness

The last several days I have been remind of all the things I have to be grateful for and have sent up several prayers, thanking God for all of my blessings in life. Here are just a few of the things I am grateful/thankful for.

• A wonderful, loving husband who laughs at my jokes, always listens even when I ramble on (or according to him, start to mumble and make no sense), and supports me in everything I do. I know it sounds cliche to say that we don't often fight, but we don't and that makes me love him even more. I cannot express how grateful I am that we lead a mostly uncomplicate, simple life that is for the most part free of drama.
• My job that I go to every day to help support my family. Even though I often grumble about it, there are days like today that I come home feeling good about what I accomplished for the day--or maybe it is feeling good about finally putting the screws to someone who is trying to pull the wool over our eyes?
• My family and friends who have been more than supportive in all ways over the last 30+ weeks as we have progressed through our first pregnancy. The weeks have gone by so quickly and I cannot believe we are down to 8 weeks until our little girl arrives.
• For a healthy, morning sickness free, uneventful pregnancy. I believe it is a fear of any first time mother that something will go wrong while you are caring your precious gift from God and I am thankful that He has sent us on this journey and made it a great experience to this point, all the while protecting me and my little girl.

Mmmmmm Mmmmm Good

As many of you know I attempted cinnamon rolls for the first time last Sunday. I decided it was a good day to make them since I was going to be home all afternoon with nothing big planned. Once I told Brandon that I wanted to make them, he refused to let me back out. Thank you to Pioneer Woman for writing a wonderful cookbook with such yummy, delicious recipes. Thank you to Abby for buying me the cookbook for Christmas. It is so good I have read it cover to cover (yes I know this makes me sound nerdy). I am sharing photos of my first attempt so that I can proove I actually made them. There is a picture of Brandon and his little love, Bella included. This is what they did the entire time I cooked. Big helpers, huh?

I hope you all enjoy the cinnamon rolls if you choose to make them. Here is the website for The Pioneer Woman if you do not have access to her cookbook. If you like to cook, I suggest making the purchase.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

The cold and snow has finally made it to Missouri, making the weather outside very frightful and frigid, but the inside of our home is so warm and cozy and Matney's room is starting to look very delightful!


Daddy (Brandon) and Papa G (Gary) painted her room on Friday, January 1st. We painted it a fun shade of green--Pesto according to the paint can. It turned out so pretty and cheerful. I cannot wait to bring my little one home to her room and to sit in there with her and look out the windows at our beautiful property. Daddy says she has the best room in the house with the best view, I say "There are two windows in here..we need to start looking for window bars for when she turns 16 so she can't sneak out."



Tuesday night we got her bed all put together. I say we, but really mean he, as Brandon did all the work and I watched while rubbing my belly and telling Matney what was going on. We are so thankful and greatful to Nanny B and Papa G for buying Matney her first bed. We will be able to tell her that her bed came from her Nanny and Papa and was bought with lots of love. (Nanny and Papa are coming over tonight to see exactly what they bought! Gotta love the internet)



Nanny and I are going shopping tomorrow after my doctors appointment to buy material to make Matney's quilt and get some possible decorating ideas.


I am so excited how things are coming together and as Nanny said this evening, maybe she is grinding her head into your ribs to let you know she is in there and getting ready for her arrival since you are setting up everything in her room. We got our first baby shower invitiation in the mail today and they are so cute. I cannot wait for it!! Only a few more weeks and we get to share the joy of our new arrival with our family. I am very greatful for the wonderful, sweet, caring cousins who are hosting the shower for us.