Brand new blog!

Well, this is my very first blog and I must say that it is well overdue! I wish I would have started it long ago but better late than never, right? The past couple years of our (now 5 year) marriage have been very exciting and have brought a lot of change into our lives including Jeff earning his Masters degree and us purchasing our first home in '08 as well as welcoming our first child, Hayden Jeffrey, on May 6th 2009. I never could have prepared myself for the great love I would have for him or the amount of pure joy that he has brought to our lives!!! I cannot express how much I love being his mommy and how thankful I am for him. I could literally sit here all day and gush about my precious baby boy, but I must move on...

Just as a quick update on our lives for those who may not know what we are up to lately. Jeff is now working as a marriage and family therapist for a community mental health center here in Knoxville. He also sees clients at a private practice after hours. He is such a hard worker and I am so grateful for that! I have been staying home with Hayden the past year and love every second of it!!! Being his mommy is the best job that I have ever had! It is also a challenging job but so worth it! We are members of a great church here where Jeff is able to play the drums as a part of the praise team ministry. We absolutely love our church and are so blessed to be a part of it!

As a stay-at-home mommy, it can get lonely at times, but I have been SOOOOO fortunate to find a group of mommy friends that I get together with as much as I can either for playdates with the kiddos or 'mommy night out' or MNO as we call it :) Our hubbies graciously watch the babies while us moms get together for some much needed girl talk, relaxation, food and fun! I don't know what I would do without these girls and I am so blessed to have them in my life!

I also (as of April) have started watching my friend's little girl who is 3 months older than Hayden. They are truly 'besties' and I'm happy that Hayden has a friend to spend time with during the week! She is such a good girl so it makes it a lot easier having the two of them during the day. We have no temper tantrums or meltdowns (believe it or not). Just days filled with playing together, naps (for all 3 of us) and eating, of course! (Now, Hayden on the other hand will have the occasional meltdown but that is usually at night if he is just beyond tired but its pretty rare.)

I could probably 'update' forever but I am trying to keep it brief so I think that sums it up pretty good for now :)

p.s. Me and Jeff just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this past weekend, so I think I will post a few pics from that along with a little tid-bit about our little 'trip' as Jeff kept calling it. I'll save that for another post, though.

Well, here's to a new blog and hoping (praying) that I can keep up with it on top of my various babysitter/mommy/wife duties around the house. :)

Kristen