Raegan Grace is ONE!!!

ONE year ago today....

6:16pm September 28, 2011 I gave birth to a beautiful 7 lbs 14 oz precious baby girl!

I can't believe it's been a year, 365 days since the day you were placed on my chest and you stole my heart forever! I held you so close I still remember as soon as I saw you I kept saying over and over "oh my God, she is so beautiful, just look at her, she is so beautiful!" Beautiful life breathed inside of me, grew inside of me for a little over 37 weeks and here I am meeting you and holding you in my arms after so much anticipation of your arrival. I was in complete awe over you and I still am one year later!

And beautiful you still are my sweet blessing! Watching you over the last 12 months grow and learn so many new things has been so beautiful! Life is beautiful. You are beautiful!

Today, mommy took work off and we spent the day together. We didn't do a lot but enough to fill mommy with pride and appreciation for you my sweet baby girl! You let mommy sleep in and then we ate and played together. We read books, you sat on my lap, you let mommy rock you. You laid your head on my neck and snuggled close to me, we did do a little shopping for your party. And we went this afternoon to get your ONE year pictures taken! Then we came home and daddy and I sang Happy birthday to you and you dug into your giant cupcake mommy and daddy made you! You were so funny, talking to the cupcake and when it was all over you sat so still in the bath tub while mommy scrubbed all the pink strawberry icing off of just about every inch of your body (literally head to toe).

I tried to Rock you tonight but you weren't having it. You were quite ready for your crib and I held onto you as long as you would let me before placing you in your crib.

I remember the days when you would only let me rock you to sleep. When you felt most comfortable in my arms. When you needed me to fall asleep. When the glider was our bed and my arms were your crib. My oh my where does the time go???

And here you are now, walking around the place, climbing everything, talking, being silly, falling asleep on your own, and just having the time of your life being a baby and getting all the love in the world! I just can't believe how much you have changed in such a short time!

My newborn is now beginning the toddler stage??? How crazy is that???

I can't wait to see what God has in store for you in the years to come! You are so wonderful and I just know God is going to use you in so many ways!!!

Mommy and daddy love you sooo very much Raegan Grace! You complete us and we adore you!!!

I hope one day when you look back and read this you will know just how much your mommy loves you and truly cherishes every moment! All I can say is if Facebook is still around I don't think you will ever catch up reading about your life! :) haha!

Just know when you have you own baby one day! Take in and cherish every moment. It all goes by in a blink of an eye!!! It really does!!!

Happy FIRST birthday Raegan Grace Smallwood I truly do love you to the moon and back forever and always! You will always be my sweet blessing and my most perfect gift from God!!!

Love mommy!

Snuggles!

Dear Raegan,

It's 11:30 at night and mommy is sitting here rocking you in the glider. I had just finished school work and was about to attempt sleep when I heard you fussing in your crib.

So mommy came to the rescue and now you are safely in my arms (well my lap now that you found your comfy spot). Ohhh seeing your sweet little face with your arms and legs wrapped around me makes mommy want nothing more than to stay up late taking you in. Snuggling with you! Enjoying everything about this perfect moment with you. Makes me want to call into work tomorrow and say nope can't come mommy needs Raegan time! Haha!

I may just have to sneak you in the bed with me just to get my fix.

Ohhhh Raegan!!! Tonight it's hard to lay you back down. I think I will sit here a little longer "holding" you. Now you have rolled to your back and I can perfectly see your sweet little face with your hand behind your head looking so perfect and more and more like a big girl!

I still can't believe you are only 23 days away from being ONE year old!!!

Ohhh baby girl! I couldn't ask for a baby more perfect than you! I prayed for you and God blessed me with you! You are my perfect gift from above!

I love you to the moon and back forever and always!

Now back to our snuggles!

Love,
Mommy!

It's been a while

Well Raegan is in bed... Mommy has two seconds to herself.... My to do list is overflowing BUT of course I have no desire to do it... I want some me time and my me time tonight wants to blog so I will put off the dishes, the housework, the school work, the many to do lists laying around my house to take care of my wants.

Life has been hectic. Crazy busy. No time to hardly even take a second to enjoy it.

Being back at work makes my head spin. Between trying to balance school work, housework, all the while taking care of a very active and mobile 11 month old is whew crazy!!!

But amongst all of it, I love it! In a way I feel more accomplished. I don't have time to put off stuff so more stuff is getting done even if I don't feel like it. Yes some things are getting put on the back burner but hey that's called life. We prioritize!

I'm enjoying my every moment with Raegan Grace. I can't wait to pick her up when I get off work and see the big ole smile light up her face! And then the way she snuggles against my neck to let me know she missed me too! Or the way if I sit there talking too long holding RG to Jordan she will lean her head in front of my face and smile as big as she can as if to say I'm here too mommy let's hit the road mommy! It's really too cute!!! Our times in the evenings go by too fast! By the time she is in bed I'm completely exhausted but I just love her! She's my whole world and I can't imagine life without her! Even with all her major messes she makes for me to clean she brings joy to my life as she explores every nook and cranny in this house... And I mean all of them! Tonight she discovered she could lift the toilet seat on her own?!!! Where oh where do they learn to be such inquirers??? I love it!! My little explorer seems to be on a new mission every night and I just love watching how much joy she gets out of the simple things in life!

Work is going well too! I love my team! We work well together and the planning is really coming together! Its definitely a lot of work with all the new stuff we are learning but we are truly doing the best we can! And did I mention I love my class???!!! Blessings for sure! They are too sweet!!! They make me smile! Today they told me "NOO I don't want to go home I want to keep learning!!!" three more chimed in and said the same thing! I mean can we say heart stop beating??? Jaw dropped huge smile slapped across my face??? I'm loving it!

Home is going well! Drew is wonderful! Sweet husband! He has actually been helping around the house more which is a huge burden off my chest. Also, tomorrow he starts a bible study at church. I'm quite proud of him for taking this next step! God is good!

We are blessed... Busy but truly blessed. Some days are harder than others but when I take a step back and look at it all... It's all worth it! Happy family, happy students= happy me! God is using me to do His work and I plan to continue to glorify Him in all that I do!

Be blessed! I Hope you all take a second to thank God for the craziness of your days! Sometimes it may feel like a blessing in disguise but breath it will all be worth it! Be blessed and thanks for reading!