Singing Happy Birthday from Jillian Shaw on Vimeo.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Singing Happy Birthday
One of Marley's favorite things to do is the Happy Birthday Game. All that means is that we pass the birthday hat around and sing to the person with it on! And she loves it! Here is a video of that and a few other things she has done recently!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Letters
Marley loves practicing her letters! She will bring me a notebook and a crayon and ask, "We practice letters now?" I am so happy my girl loves to learn! Once we got to the letter E while I was filming this, I realized that I was subconsciously holding my mouth like I was about to say the letter. But evidently Marley had already caught onto that, as you can tell in the video!
Practicing Letters from Jillian Shaw on Vimeo.
Maggie
For Christmas, Marley got a new baby doll. We discussed what to name her as soon as she was out of the box. Marley suggested Bebe, as she does anytime we ask her what her dolls and stuffed animals are named. I suggested Sally, which is what I used to name every single one of my dolls growing up. But Marley has trouble with the "s" sound, so it sounds more like Tally. Next, I mentioned the name Maggie, which I have always thought was a cute name. And that one stuck!
She loved Maggie from the moment she saw her, and has taken very good care of her since her unwrapping. She gives her the pacifier, feeds her milk (and occasionally pizza and ice cream), and snuggles with her at every nap time and bed time. Two days after Christmas, Marley and Maggie had their first separation period, though. We accidentally forgot to bring her in the car to San Antonio with us! They both survived without each other, but they have been inseparable ever since!
She loved Maggie from the moment she saw her, and has taken very good care of her since her unwrapping. She gives her the pacifier, feeds her milk (and occasionally pizza and ice cream), and snuggles with her at every nap time and bed time. Two days after Christmas, Marley and Maggie had their first separation period, though. We accidentally forgot to bring her in the car to San Antonio with us! They both survived without each other, but they have been inseparable ever since!
Winter Sucks
I think I'm a better blogger in the summer. I was looking back at all of our fantastic pictures from last summer and all the fun things we did together. We were always busy and doing things outside. I don't think I was meant to live in a place with winter. Marley and I literally spend 95% of our time at home, inside. And that makes me crazy! I have been trying to think of places we can go or things we can do, but there is just nothing to do around here when it's cold. There's isn't even a mall to wander around in for exercise or a place for kids to play indoors. It makes me wish for spring and summer to hurry up and arrive because we are so bored. Maybe, one day we can move our family to Florida and enjoy flip flop weather all year long! Winter is so depressing!
So, how do I fix this? Well, today I will work on finishing some blogs to keep myself busy! Hopefully it works!
So, how do I fix this? Well, today I will work on finishing some blogs to keep myself busy! Hopefully it works!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Christmas 2010
Christmas was a blast! Marley's first Christmas was okay, her second Christmas was fun, but this one was by far the best! She actually got it this year! She understood the cookies for Santa, him filling our stockings, giving gifts to other people, and the anticipation of Christmas morning. And all of that was so much fun to experience with her!
She was in charge of passing out the stockings, which she was so proud of. She and Mimi had been practicing for days so that Marley knew who each stocking belonged to. So, after she had examined all of the things around her stocking, she loved giving everyone else theirs.
She squealed about each thing she pulled out of her stocking. "Candy! Dora Panties! Candy! Fork! Straws! Candy! Bubbles!"
There were three gifts that we could wrap, so they were covered in a big red table cloth. I did the big reveal and showed her all three of them, which we actually should have done last. Since they were out of the box and ready to play with, we couldn't ger away from them to open her presents!
She really got into boiling us pizza and making coffee for everyone!
She also got a lot of Dora items! She got two cups, a plate, a bowl, and even six pairs of panties!
And she got a new baby doll, who we eventually named Maggie. And she was in love with her. Isn't her proud mommy face adorable?!
Unfortunately, I was pretty sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My throat was killing me and I had a slight fever, but it was easy to forget about in all the fun we were having. However, I did not get as many pictures of things as I normally would have. I didn't even take a single picture at Asa's mom's or dad's houses, which now makes me so pissed at myself! Maybe I can find some people who did and post them later. Anyway, this is the only family picture we got at Christmas! (Maggie's paying more attention than Marley is!)
Mimi 2 and Pawpaw Gene were also there to spend Christmas with us, which was wonderful. Marley loved the special Mimi 2 attention!
Later that night, after we got back from Christmas and Asa's dad's house, we got to relax and play with all of our gifts. Emily got a hairbrush that doubles as a microphone from Chris and Caiti, so Emily and Marley sang Beyonce and Disney songs for what felt like hours. I have videos of it, but I don't think Emily would appreciate me posting them!
We had such a fantastic Christmas. I hate that Christmas goes by so quickly! I wish it could last all year long! Well, actually for us it might. We are still singing Jingle Bells and talking about Santa!
She was in charge of passing out the stockings, which she was so proud of. She and Mimi had been practicing for days so that Marley knew who each stocking belonged to. So, after she had examined all of the things around her stocking, she loved giving everyone else theirs.
She squealed about each thing she pulled out of her stocking. "Candy! Dora Panties! Candy! Fork! Straws! Candy! Bubbles!"
There were three gifts that we could wrap, so they were covered in a big red table cloth. I did the big reveal and showed her all three of them, which we actually should have done last. Since they were out of the box and ready to play with, we couldn't ger away from them to open her presents!
She really got into boiling us pizza and making coffee for everyone!
She also got a lot of Dora items! She got two cups, a plate, a bowl, and even six pairs of panties!
And she got a new baby doll, who we eventually named Maggie. And she was in love with her. Isn't her proud mommy face adorable?!
Unfortunately, I was pretty sick on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My throat was killing me and I had a slight fever, but it was easy to forget about in all the fun we were having. However, I did not get as many pictures of things as I normally would have. I didn't even take a single picture at Asa's mom's or dad's houses, which now makes me so pissed at myself! Maybe I can find some people who did and post them later. Anyway, this is the only family picture we got at Christmas! (Maggie's paying more attention than Marley is!)
Mimi 2 and Pawpaw Gene were also there to spend Christmas with us, which was wonderful. Marley loved the special Mimi 2 attention!
Later that night, after we got back from Christmas and Asa's dad's house, we got to relax and play with all of our gifts. Emily got a hairbrush that doubles as a microphone from Chris and Caiti, so Emily and Marley sang Beyonce and Disney songs for what felt like hours. I have videos of it, but I don't think Emily would appreciate me posting them!
We had such a fantastic Christmas. I hate that Christmas goes by so quickly! I wish it could last all year long! Well, actually for us it might. We are still singing Jingle Bells and talking about Santa!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
2011
Every New Year's Eve, Asa and his friends have a party at his friend's lake property. They have a big bonfire with everyone's Christmas trees, they do fireworks, shoot guns, and whatever else they can come up with until 2 or 3 in the morning. He always goes and that always means that I'm home with Marley when it turns midnight. It's never really bothered me before, but this year was different. It was like all of the sudden I turned into the monster who didn't want her husband to see anybody or spend time with anyone other than her. I wondered why for days leading up to it. He had already made all the plans and it was his last night to see his friends. Why did I have to be so grumpy about something is usually fine?
He ended up going and I pouted at home alone for a few hours. At 11:30 pm, he came in the door. I was so happy to see him for the last 30 minutes of 2010, and he was so proud that he had surprised me. It suddenly hit me why I was so upset. We are going to spend 10 months of 2011 apart. Why would I want to start off the year that way? Alone, at home.
Midnight came, we did a "Welcome, 2011" kiss, and then I burst into tears. I wasn't ready for 2011 to be here.
I have so much to look forward to this year. I get to see Marley grow, welcome our new baby, watch Marley be an awesome big sister, spend time with my family, and adjust to life with two babies. Thinking about the Spring and Summer in Texas makes me excited about all of the things we will get to do.
But, then there is a huge dark cloud looming over my 2011 also. My husband will miss all of that. As happy as I will be to meet our new baby and watch Marley swim all summer, I will also be thinking about the fact that Asa is missing it. I will be a slave to my Nikon and Flip, trying to capture everything on film for him to see, but it just won't be the same as having him here.
My tears lasted for a while as I hated 2011 for coming so soon. When I could say that he deploys "next year" it wasn't so bad. But, 2011 had to come and change all of that.
I am feeling much better now, a few weeks later. Obviously, I don't want Asa to leave but I am determined to look on the bright side. And I am also determined to make 2011 a good year, even if I have to fake it until I believe it. I am not really the kind of person who make New Year's Resolutions. I made an unofficial one last year to get healthy, which I accomplished. But this year I am documenting them, and when I am down in the dumps in a few months I will have something to remind me about my goals for the year.
1. Have this baby. That seems pretty simple and obvious, but I have a lot of work to do before that happens, which will hopefully distract me a little bit. I have many books to read about VBACs, and I have to really work on keeping myself very healthy for the next 6 months. I have baby things to buy and rooms to get ready, and the best little two-year-old helper by my side eager to get involved.
2. Save Money. We have a credit card and truck to pay off, and various savings accounts to start. I already have a lot of excitement thinking about the financial aspect of this deployment.
3. Stay Busy. I have all the baby-related things I mentioned in resolution #1, but I also have a lot of other things I want to do this year. I want to enroll Marley in some gymnastics classes, sign myself up to be able to swim somewhere regularly, watch all seasons of Gilmore Girls, catch up on TONS of scrapbooks I want to make, and my mom and I have a few projects planned that she needs my help with. Not to mention, I will be updating my blog as much as possible for Asa to see what is going on with our babies.
4. Stay Positive. I'm not really sure how that will get accomplished yet. I don't think I'll really know what will help me stay positive until I get there. But recently, I have been oddly motivated about this year. I feel like I will have things to do and hopefully the days won't drag on like I originally thought they would. How ever it happens, I really think that staying positive will help even more than staying busy.
To the people reading this, if you see my depressed during the next year remind me to go back and read this. Hopefully then I will feel motivated all over again!
And to 2011, when you arrived I was dreading you more than anything. But I promise to try my hardest to make this a year full of good things. And hopefully one day I will be very glad you came!
He ended up going and I pouted at home alone for a few hours. At 11:30 pm, he came in the door. I was so happy to see him for the last 30 minutes of 2010, and he was so proud that he had surprised me. It suddenly hit me why I was so upset. We are going to spend 10 months of 2011 apart. Why would I want to start off the year that way? Alone, at home.
Midnight came, we did a "Welcome, 2011" kiss, and then I burst into tears. I wasn't ready for 2011 to be here.
I have so much to look forward to this year. I get to see Marley grow, welcome our new baby, watch Marley be an awesome big sister, spend time with my family, and adjust to life with two babies. Thinking about the Spring and Summer in Texas makes me excited about all of the things we will get to do.
But, then there is a huge dark cloud looming over my 2011 also. My husband will miss all of that. As happy as I will be to meet our new baby and watch Marley swim all summer, I will also be thinking about the fact that Asa is missing it. I will be a slave to my Nikon and Flip, trying to capture everything on film for him to see, but it just won't be the same as having him here.
My tears lasted for a while as I hated 2011 for coming so soon. When I could say that he deploys "next year" it wasn't so bad. But, 2011 had to come and change all of that.
I am feeling much better now, a few weeks later. Obviously, I don't want Asa to leave but I am determined to look on the bright side. And I am also determined to make 2011 a good year, even if I have to fake it until I believe it. I am not really the kind of person who make New Year's Resolutions. I made an unofficial one last year to get healthy, which I accomplished. But this year I am documenting them, and when I am down in the dumps in a few months I will have something to remind me about my goals for the year.
1. Have this baby. That seems pretty simple and obvious, but I have a lot of work to do before that happens, which will hopefully distract me a little bit. I have many books to read about VBACs, and I have to really work on keeping myself very healthy for the next 6 months. I have baby things to buy and rooms to get ready, and the best little two-year-old helper by my side eager to get involved.
2. Save Money. We have a credit card and truck to pay off, and various savings accounts to start. I already have a lot of excitement thinking about the financial aspect of this deployment.
3. Stay Busy. I have all the baby-related things I mentioned in resolution #1, but I also have a lot of other things I want to do this year. I want to enroll Marley in some gymnastics classes, sign myself up to be able to swim somewhere regularly, watch all seasons of Gilmore Girls, catch up on TONS of scrapbooks I want to make, and my mom and I have a few projects planned that she needs my help with. Not to mention, I will be updating my blog as much as possible for Asa to see what is going on with our babies.
4. Stay Positive. I'm not really sure how that will get accomplished yet. I don't think I'll really know what will help me stay positive until I get there. But recently, I have been oddly motivated about this year. I feel like I will have things to do and hopefully the days won't drag on like I originally thought they would. How ever it happens, I really think that staying positive will help even more than staying busy.
To the people reading this, if you see my depressed during the next year remind me to go back and read this. Hopefully then I will feel motivated all over again!
And to 2011, when you arrived I was dreading you more than anything. But I promise to try my hardest to make this a year full of good things. And hopefully one day I will be very glad you came!
Learning with Straws
So, I know a looooong time ago I said that I was going to start writing posts about activities that Marley and I do during the day. And I didn't make any more posts after that! But, with the weather so incredibly cold and Marley and I spending so much time inside, we have had to go back to our books and find some new ideas! We do crafts a lot, sing songs, color with crayons, and since Christmas she has had a whole new room of toys to play with. But she still comes to me and says she wants to play "games." That really just means that she wants me to come up with something for us to do together!
So, a few months ago I bought a book called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I don't remember how much it was, but I bought it used on Amazon for very little. It has weekly activities for you to do with your kids from birth to age 5, and I love it! Some of them involve a lot of equipment and preparation, so I don't usually do a lot of those. But the easy ones are great.
Today we did some practice with sorting and patterns. All I had to do was get 18 straws, and cut 6 of them in half. We talked about tall versus short, counted all the straws, sorted them into piles, and then tried practicing patterns. She was ready to do something else by the time we got to the pattern part. so she wasn't very into it. But I asked her to get a baggy, we put all the straws in the baggy, and then we can do it again another day!
So, a few months ago I bought a book called Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June R. Oberlander. I don't remember how much it was, but I bought it used on Amazon for very little. It has weekly activities for you to do with your kids from birth to age 5, and I love it! Some of them involve a lot of equipment and preparation, so I don't usually do a lot of those. But the easy ones are great.
Today we did some practice with sorting and patterns. All I had to do was get 18 straws, and cut 6 of them in half. We talked about tall versus short, counted all the straws, sorted them into piles, and then tried practicing patterns. She was ready to do something else by the time we got to the pattern part. so she wasn't very into it. But I asked her to get a baggy, we put all the straws in the baggy, and then we can do it again another day!
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Making Cocoa with Mimi
While we were in Nacogdoches for Christmas, Marley and Mimi made some cocoa mix for a few people! Marley was a big helper, of course, and a fabulous stirrer.
She even got her own (very diluted) cup of warm cocoa to enjoy when they were done.
It's so much yummier when you take part in making it!
Gingerbread Train
Over Christmas, Marley and Daddy made a gingerbread train! For some reason I thought it was something Asa liked to do because he had made a gingerbread house with his sister before. But evidently I was wrong, and he enjoys for of the eating the candy part instead of the actual making it part. But he was still a good sport! And Marley loved "helping"!
Marley was a pro at eating the candy also. But Asa did convince her to actually put some on the train, and it turned out awesome!
After all that work, they needed a serious nap under the Christmas tree!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Marley's Fliming Debut
Marley took her first video the night before we left Nacogdoches. In the video, she shares some of her favorite Christmas presents, her "stuff", Maggie the baby doll, and a blanket. It may make you dizzy, but it makes me smile every time I watch it, so I thought I would share it! I love this girl!
Marley's Video from Jillian Shaw on Vimeo.
Yes, I am just now posting pictures from Thanksgiving!
Here are some long-overdue pictures from our Thanksgiving in Texas! It was a busy day (as most holidays are) but it was an awesome one! Complete with a moon bounce!
This was literally our first family picture since Asa, Marley, and Caiti have been in the family! Crazy, huh?
Happy Thanksgiving from the Vermeulens!
This was literally our first family picture since Asa, Marley, and Caiti have been in the family! Crazy, huh?
Happy Thanksgiving from the Vermeulens!
We're Back
I have obviously been MIA for three weeks... but I am going to blame it on the holidays! I honestly didn't even bring my computer with us to Texas, as I knew I wouldn't have any time to be blogging anyway! So, I feel very out of the loop with the people I follow and I feel like I have about a hundred things that I would like to remember that will now never get recorded to my blog.
We had a fabulous time in Texas visiting with everyone and enjoying the holidays. We got to spend time with our families and friends, take a little trip together just the three of us, and we also got to spend my favorite holiday together! We had an awesome Christmas. It is always a little bit stressful for us because we have so many different people to see and we never want to hurt anyone's feelings. But Christmas is still such a magical time, and Marley was so into it this year which made it even more fun.
Two days after Christmas, Asa, Marley and I left Nacogdoches and spent 4 days in San Antonio. We stayed in an awesome hotel, ate fabulous food, and mainly just got to relax together. We did a few sight-seeing things, but I will post a blog later with pictures and details.
We left San Antonio and drove back to Nacogdoches for a few days to spend New Year's Eve and Day with our friends and family. We even had everyone over for lunch the day before we left so that we could say goodbye to everyone. We will get to come back on the 22nd of January for a week, and then that is probably the last time anyone in Nacogdoches will see Asa before he deploys.
We got back to Missouri on Sunday, and Marley and I have barely left the house since! We needed some time to do nothing, and we have gotten it! Asa had Monday off, so we went grocery shopping and ran a few errands. We also rearranged the living room, which I am so excited about! I love rearranging rooms, I used to do it all the time in high school. And now every time I walk in the living room I can't help but smile! It is so much bigger the way we have it and so much more welcoming.
Asa will be out in the field for two days starting tomorrow, and he has been super busy at work the past two days. They are actually packing some things up for the deployment, which is a big wake-up call. There are still so many things we want to do that I wonder if we can do it all before he leaves. The next two months before he leaves will be hectic and stressful and sad. But at the same time we will be working to make it fun and memorable and happy.
It will take me a few days to get all of our pictures up, but I promise I will! There may be more than you want to look at though!
We had a fabulous time in Texas visiting with everyone and enjoying the holidays. We got to spend time with our families and friends, take a little trip together just the three of us, and we also got to spend my favorite holiday together! We had an awesome Christmas. It is always a little bit stressful for us because we have so many different people to see and we never want to hurt anyone's feelings. But Christmas is still such a magical time, and Marley was so into it this year which made it even more fun.
Two days after Christmas, Asa, Marley and I left Nacogdoches and spent 4 days in San Antonio. We stayed in an awesome hotel, ate fabulous food, and mainly just got to relax together. We did a few sight-seeing things, but I will post a blog later with pictures and details.
We left San Antonio and drove back to Nacogdoches for a few days to spend New Year's Eve and Day with our friends and family. We even had everyone over for lunch the day before we left so that we could say goodbye to everyone. We will get to come back on the 22nd of January for a week, and then that is probably the last time anyone in Nacogdoches will see Asa before he deploys.
We got back to Missouri on Sunday, and Marley and I have barely left the house since! We needed some time to do nothing, and we have gotten it! Asa had Monday off, so we went grocery shopping and ran a few errands. We also rearranged the living room, which I am so excited about! I love rearranging rooms, I used to do it all the time in high school. And now every time I walk in the living room I can't help but smile! It is so much bigger the way we have it and so much more welcoming.
Asa will be out in the field for two days starting tomorrow, and he has been super busy at work the past two days. They are actually packing some things up for the deployment, which is a big wake-up call. There are still so many things we want to do that I wonder if we can do it all before he leaves. The next two months before he leaves will be hectic and stressful and sad. But at the same time we will be working to make it fun and memorable and happy.
It will take me a few days to get all of our pictures up, but I promise I will! There may be more than you want to look at though!
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