I am not sure if anyone still subscribes or sees this blog... but our new blog is located at: http://theburnettblog.wordpress.com so head over there for more recent happenings in our little family!

my new favorite Christmas decoration...

so this isn't the greatest picture cause it is from my cell phone, but you can still see the thoughtfulness in this super cute snowman...

russ is way more crafty than I thought. :)

we have moved...

we haven't literally moved... but we are moving the blog...

http://theburnettblog.posterous.com

please update your bookmarks, rss feeds, and other places that you keep up with us...
this blogspot site will stay here exactly like it is, so you can come reminisce any time that you would like to, and all of our old posts have been converted to the new site as well... but any new updates/pictures/and videos will only be on our new page over at posterous.
thanks for keeping up with our family!

FREE snotty nose to whoever wants one...

This week we have passed around a nasty cold at our house.
thanks for sharing your sick school germs with us Russ... :)

Unfortunately sweet little Caedmon has it BAD today,

and hasn't slept well at ALL for the past two nights.
Her little cough is absolutely terrible, and she is so congested...

Bless her heart. I absolutely hate when she is sick.

We are TRYING to get lots of rest today, but her cough keeps waking her up
(she finally went down for a little snooze a little while ago, complete with a raspy snore... but hopefully she can sleep through it for a little while)

She hasn't had much of an appetite,
so we are just trying to get some fluids in her!

We're trying everything we know to make her feel better...

cause this sweet little strawberry :
needs to be ready tomorrow night for some halloween
"treating"
(she's not really into tricks...)

well come to think of it,
she's not really into eating treats yet either...

which is why this year,
instead of gathering "treats" from door-to-door...

our sweet strawberry will be delivering sweet
strawberry "treats" to some of her friends & family!!
YUMMY!

so here's hoping that she is feeling better by tomorrow!

she won't be this little forever...

Right after you were born i heard it over and over from so many different people...

"she won't be this little forever, so cherish every minute of it."

And they were absolutely right. It's been 14 months and 4 days, and you aren't "little" anymore. I mean, you are still 'little', but you are so big too. All the little beginnings of "growing up" have started in your little brain and you are slowly starting to figure out life on your own.

Our time together has flown by. the fastest time has ever flown in my lifetime. even though it still ticks away one minute at a time, just like it always has.
When you grow up & have kids you will know exactly what i mean.

But no matter how fast the time feels like it is passing,
I am so glad to say that i HAVE cherished every minute.
I took the one piece of advice that so many people gave me, and i used it.

Every single day of your life has held a special place in my heart, and I am beyond grateful to your daddy for letting me stay home and experience unbelievable amounts of love that I have never experienced before. Yes, at times it feels like a lot of hard work, and sometimes I am SO happy when you finally go to sleep, so that i can rest... but even then, my HEART never rests.
It still keeps on loving you more and more.

Last night I picked you up out of your crib in the middle of the night just to hold you close. I don't know why i did it, because normally I would be furious if anyone else decided to do that, cause my baby needs her sleep. (otherwise you are cranky the next day!) But thankfully you stayed asleep.

And I am glad, cause I just needed to hold you.

So I did, just like when you were a teeny tiny baby, and you let me. I just rocked you and stared at your little eyelashes, your little belly button, touched your skin, and ran my fingers through your messy head of hair... and thanked Jesus over and over again for giving me such a wonderful gift.

Caedmon, you have taught me so many things about life. I will forever be changed all because of your little beating heart.
I don't deserve you, but God decided to bless me anyway, and i will never take that for granted. ever.


i love you as the thirsty duck loves a sudden shower.

and i always will.

mealtime is a chore at our house.

i had no idea before i became a mom that i would obsess over the types of foods that my child would eat, but now that I AM a mom, and caedmon's diet fully depends on ME, and what I decide she eats, the responsibility that i feel is pretty overwhelming at times... I want her to ENJOY eating, but I also want the foods she is eating to be HEALTHY.
I solely breastfed caedmon until she was just over a year old, and then she pretty much weaned herself when she started whole milk. I had kind of planned on nursing for longer cause I really believe that is a healthy choice, but I am pretty sure she was ready, and my milk supply was slowly dwindling, and I think that her drinking as much whole milk as possible was necessary for her to put on a little more weight cause she was starting to fall off the charts at her 12 month check up.
Anyways, she has been eating homemade baby food REALLY well since she was six months old. Seriously she ate everything that i gave her and TONS of it! I made all kinds of fruit, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, eggplant, turkey, and the list goes on... sometimes she scrunched her nose at peas or carrots, but she would still eat them...
BUT since caedmon turned one and has been drinking milk and eating all kinds of real finger foods by herself, she doesn't eat baby food anymore, and I am seriously struggling with WHAT i should feed her, how MUCH to feed her, and what she will ACTUALLY eat. As of right now, I am pretty sure that she doesn't eat anywhere near the amount of vegetables she needs, (she spits most of them out) but the child can eat her WEIGHT in pretty much any kind of fruit/grain.

I have looked online at several guidelines and menu plans, to help me know what she needs, and how much to feed her... but it was so hard to fit some of the things that I found into our life/budget/schedule and so I just decided to come up with one of my own that is customized to the things that MY one year old will actually eat, plus a few foods that she doesn't enjoy but that I want to keep offering to her, in hopes that she will eventually just eat them...

I really need all the moms I know to tell me their thoughts, opinions, experiences and advice on feeding a one year old and if this menu planner is reasonable/unreasonable? too much/too little?

I just feel really clueless on all this except for the fact that caedmon's pediatrician told me that she needs at LEAST 18 ounces of whole milk a day, and all the other random things i have read/studied online! I am also terrible with math & conversions & measurements so I have no idea if what i have "guessed" is even close to the right amount of food for her... basically I just need everyone to help me fine tune this thing so that I can have a better/easier plan for meal time! Cause right now, i feel like a chicken running around with his head cut off trying to find things that she can/will eat that is GOOD for her!

you have to click on the picture of the chart to make it big enough to read!


(and if you are wondering, i intentionally left out Sunday on my chart, because that is a day where most of our meals are "on-the-go" or prepared by someone else...)

so please tell me what you think, any advice you may have, or any tips or suggestions to change this! caedmon will thank us all later when she is healthy, healthy, healthy!

a new look, and a new skill...

hi, it's dixi again.

i know i am a 'struggling blogger', but life has been
absolutely amazing with a one year old
that it's getting harder and harder to find time to blog!
I mean Caedmon is just so cute that i like looking at her
way more than i like looking at this 'new post' screen... don't you agree?


speaking of Caedmon being CUTE,
you may have noticed that we added a new "look" to the blog!
i basically did this for two reasons:
my first reason was because we had some AMAZING family pictures taken by
the*reason and i wanted to show them off!
(thanks again chris+allie, we seriously LOVE you guys!)


most of these are just little "peeks" because we have special plans to save our most favorite ones for christmas cards, and possibly special gifts for our families! woo-hoo!






my second reason for adding the new "look " was because i thought that by having something fresh and new, it might give me even more inspiration to take time to post about our always exciting life!

So I hope you like the new look, and i will TRY to post more than i have lately!


Anyways, I know Russ posted a few updates in his last post from august, but caedmon is just getting so cute & smart that i have to brag on her some more!

so far this is a complete list of words (in no particular order)
that she has ACTUALLY said out loud,
WITH meaning, AND more than once:

catch
uh-oh
dada <--daddy
da <-- dog
dat <-- that
chair
nana <--mama
(but she has recently started saying mama too! she uses them interchangably...)
arthur <-- the PBS character
ba <-- bye
heather
shoes
there she is

and then there are a few words that
she is still working on and "KIND-OF" says:

light
book
storm
color

now, i know what some of you are thinking... some of these words are pretty advanced, and there is no way that a child who barely speaks can say them, but i am not joking or "parent exaggerating" (you know those exaggerations that parents make about their kids to make them seem more advanced than their kid actually is... yeah, that's not us. These words are the real deal.)

She RARELY says any of these when we ask her to (except dada, mama and catch), but throughout a regular day at home, this girl just talks and talks and talks, and she actually says all these words in conversation with me, and then she'll say them again and again on her own!

But I swear it does get pretty funny when we try to get her to say them for other people, and she acts like we are crazy.


Now to keep you in the loop with a few things
that Caedmon has been doing recently:
gives hugs & kisses
"reads" books to herself
plays peek-a boo with her hands over her face
tries to brush her hair with a brush or a comb
pretends to put "lotion" on her arms
sticks her tongue out (SO CUTE!)
dances when she hears music
tries to color
holds on to things while standing up
cruises along the furniture
walks while we hold both of her hands...

Then just over week ago Caedmon learned how to pull herself up so she can stand. She figured this one out while she was in her crib one afternoon for a nap, and that was pretty strange/funny to see in her video monitor for the first time!


Now she does it all the time, but it still makes me smile when i walk in and she is just standing there waiting on me! After these pictures were taken I ended up having to move her monitor to a shelf beside the crib and take down the canopy over her crib... i'm sure you can all guess why i had to do that... :)

And Caedmon's brand new skill that she learned this past weekend is CRAWLING!



This sweet beautiful child... that has been standing while holding on to furniture, cruising along the side of the coffee table & couch, walking while holding our hands, and pulling herself up to stand... apparently decided she was FINALLY going to crawl! haha, she just has her own unique timing for everything...

I am still lovin' the new excitement of all this new mobility for now, cause she is still pretty slow, and cautious, but i know that eventually she will be all over the place and into everything, and i will be stressin' out. I suppose that after almost 14 months, i will finally have to "baby-proof" the house... I don't think that only having two plug protectors in the whole house will suffice for this new mobile toddler.

One more little update that is somewhat of a "milestone" to us this week:
she now cruises around town in her new "big girl" carseat...




(this is the newest air protect seat from Safety 1st, hopefully, it will be a good one for us... so far so good! oh, and i couldn't find a picture on the internet of the actual color we purchased, but caedmon's is a brown/taupe color...)

anyways, if you can't already tell, caedmon is growing up so fast, but so far that about covers all of her milestones lately...


Russ got to celebrate a little milestone of his own:

he turned 27 on September 30th!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!
(Caedmon and I had to "celebrate" with him by bringing homemade cupcakes & Zaxby's to a Quik-Trip parking lot in between him teaching school in Dallas and then going to class for his masters degree in Carrollton, i swear my husband is so stinkin' great and he never complains. i love him so much.)


and my little milestone (aka: shameless plug) for the post is...

I started a brand new business from home!


Be sure to check it out and let me know if you need
any cards, invitations, announcements, logos, or anything of the sort!

click here to go to
the burnett collection!

and one more shameless plug:
the burnett collection is on facebook too.


okay that's it from our family for now...
but we DO have some
pretty exciting things that are coming up:
A Postseason Braves game! (GO BRAVES!!!)
Carving Pumpkins!
Halloween Costumes!!


And hopefully I will get the chance to post about these fun things!!

I promise I still appreciate our faithful blog readers! Love you guys!

Baby? I don't see a baby around here.

Wow. Lots of things have happened since the last post and if I try to explain all of them in detail I would be finished at about the same time Caedmon starts college. The thing is, when we had our daughter, we loved her and knew she was amazing and wanted everyone else to know how amazing she was, too. But we (or at least I) found myself taking too much time to show her off and not taking enough time to just be in awe of this God's adorable little creation. So needless to say, I've been doing that a lot lately, and it's great. The good thing about that is, well, I spend lots and lots of time with my baby. The bad thing is that I don't share all the milestones and fun moments as often as I probably should. (On a side note, at what point is it not assumed that every time I blog it will be primarily about Caedmon?) But regardless, I am blogging tonight because the Braves are winning 10-1 and I don't have to watch every pitch, Caedmon is asleep, I have no school work to do, and my wife is busy playing dress up with the forgotten clothes in the back of our closet. So here we go...

A very important event happened in Caedmon's life. Well, important to me anyway. She went to her first Atlanta Braves game. She will obviously be a Braves fan for her entire life, so this first of many visits to Turner Field (I'm sure later in her life she will know it as "The House that Jones Built") is very special. The Braves won, which was nice. But what was even nicer was that our friend Adam Patrick gave her a ball thrown to him by Eddie Perez at the end of the game to commemorate her first game. Thanks Adam.

We got to take a tour of the field.

My daughter is now a talker. Her first word (besides babbling the random dadadada and mamamama) was "catch". Dixi was throwing a bouncy ball to her and saying "catch" when she threw it. I guess Caedmon just decided it was time to talk and after a minute of playing, she said "catch" as Dixi threw her the ball. Now she says it almost every time she sees a ball. It's pretty cute. A few weeks later, she had already graduated to sentences. Check out her saying "there she is" while playing with Dixi.









Did I mention that we no longer have a baby? That's right, no baby, just a toddler. Caedmon turned one year old on August 16 and had a birthday party under the hot, hot sun at Ridge Ferry Park. Lots of family and friends came and gave her tons of hugs and kisses and toys. Thanks for tolerating the heat to come to the party everyone. By the way, my wife did a pretty good job planning and decorating the party huh?

She enjoyed some cake at home on the day of her birthday.

I won't promise anymore posts anytime soon. I have better things to do. (see pictures above) But here are a few of my favorites from the past few months.

Caedmon loves boat rides. They put her to sleep.


One of my favorites.

the perfect life...

this post is much deeper than your average blog post, so don't expect some light reading... if you are looking for a light read, might i suggest this post instead.

this is just something that I think about often, but only since 9 1/2 months ago. So it isn't "new" this week, but still worthy of sharing, hopefully.

turns out i am not a perfect mom. i am not a perfect wife. not a perfect sister, daughter, friend, child of God, neighbor, cook, maid... gosh the list could go on.

in my mind:

the perfect mom =
someone who never lets her baby chew on the remote control (cause apparently the battery cover can come loose, and your child can then remove the batteries and chew on them,) someone who always pairs their kid's socks together, someone who doesn't ever remove her hands from a newly sitting baby in a bathtub (cause they will fall over, hit their head on the side of the tub, and land in the water,) someone who never forgets to buckle the straps on the carseat while their baby rides home completely unsafe in the event that a terrible accident were to occur. and the list goes on.

the perfect wife =
someone who actually forgives her husband in the event that he makes a mistake, someone who completely trusts her husband no matter what, someone who never teases her husband in public, someone who has a healthy meal cooked when her husband gets home from work, someone who irons her husbands clothes, someone who doesn't "nag" their husband about getting things done. and the list goes on.

the perfect sister =
someone who checks in with their siblings regularly and knows what they are doing all the time, someone who attends all of their niece's and nephews birthday parties, someone who makes an effort to do thoughtful things for their siblings "just because," someone who always remembers to tell their siblings they love them even after a disagreement. and the list goes on.

the perfect daughter =
someone who always tells their parents thank you for all the sacrifices they made, someone who always does something special for mother's day and father's day even if they don't live close by, someone who listens and takes their parent's advice (when applicable...lol) someone who never complains about what they have or don't have growing up. and the list goes on.

okay i think you get the point.

i am not perfect.

i know this.

i don't always like it, but i know it.

i believe that for most of my life i have tried to be perfect... and i don't know why. Well, actually i do know why: it is because I try to please people around me, and try to appear like i have everything in my life put together, because I feel judged by people... this is really something i started struggling with during college, i know that sounds crazy because it seems to me like that is usually when people start to not care what people think, but it was the other way around for me for some reason. the high school days were the carefree days for me, I was confident, happy, easy-going, and laid-back. things changed sometime after moving into Berry College. i didn't even realize this until college was almost over... not that it was a bad thing, cause I am who i am today because of my past.

but fortunately for all the unperfect people out there like me, there is grace. grace mostly comes from jesus, and sometimes it comes from other people around me. and that always made it easier when i failed miserably, but it didn't always take away the disappointment of failing... time and time again.

but since becoming a mom there is one thing i am slowly learning, my life and heart are changing. i actually BELIEVE that it is okay that i am not perfect, and i don't live my life concerned about being perfect anymore, or constantly being disappointed in so many areas of my life. it is okay if other unperfect people judge me, cause it happens y'all. we are all human, i get it.

it is okay that the laundry is wrinkled, if the kitchen sink holds dirty dishes for 2-3 days, if the bed doesn't get made, if i don't manage my money well, if caedmon's hair doesn't get brushed. it is okay if i don't fix my own hair, that I drive a dirty car, that my house gets dusty, that I don't have perfect teeth, that i forget things i am supposed to do or appointments, it is okay that i don't shower every day, that i forget to call people back, that i don't blog consistently, it is okay that I don't recycle... and this list could go on and on too.

All of this is okay, because I am perfect at one thing so far, and that is loving my daughter unconditionally. I choose her over everything else in the whole world. every time. To be very transparent with all of you, I don't always do that for my husband, (I am actively working on this one though, cause this one is oh-so-important) I don't always do that for my family, I don't do it for my friends, I don't do it for Jesus, I don't do it for anything else in my life. And at times I have felt guilt and shame and disappointment because I am not perfect in all these areas... but I can't be perfect. I'm a human being, born into sin, destined for a life of imperfection. Just the way it is, folks. But I have a perfect life waiting for me, and until then, I am gonna continue to fail. And that is alright with me.

But gosh people, I absolutely love Caedmon, and I have yet to fail at loving my daughter. and I really hope I never will... even if she turns out to be a rotten toddler, or an annoying kid, or a disrespecting teenager, or a distant adult.

The best part about loving her, besides the endless quality time we spend together, and the sweet giggles and grins we share, is that she has helped me to try and love other people unconditionally (yet I still fail at this, constantly.) But regardless of my shortcomings, Jesus is using my sweet beautiful girl to teach me about his unending love. He used her to show me how to love my husband in ways that I have never loved him before (like i said, i am not a perfect wife, and our marriage is still a work-in-progress, but I can proudly say that I am - correction: we are a LONG way from where we started 3 years ago.)

Jesus consistently uses Caedmon to make me "stop, and smell the roses." Cliche I know, but the point remains, I don't worry myself with all the tasks of "daily living" anymore. I understand that my time, and relationship with her is way more crucial than whether or not dinner is on the table at 6:00. Since becoming a mother, I also understand that my relationship with Jesus is so important, because prior to motherhood it was just another thing that i wasn't perfect at, so i would live in that disappointment... but now, I am not only responsible for my own spiritual health, but for my sole purpose of being a parent is to raise my child with Jesus. What a motivation. But I am not perfect at this part of parenting either, I still fail at balancing a constant spiritual life and my constant actual life. Surprising, I know. But the unconditional love for Caedmon, it's just THERE people! And because of her, I have just let go of all the other imperfections in my life, and just accepted them. I had no idea what I was missing out on earlier in life. I was missing out because I cared too much about what my friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers thought, and I lived in that. But not anymore.

Caedmon thank you for REALLY teaching me how to realize what is important in my life, Seriously, there are countless times when I THOUGHT that I knew my priorities, but those moments were always short-lived. and Jesus thank you for using Caedmon to bring my heart to this new place.

So, all that to say this: if you think my life, my house, my schedule, my laundry, or my hair isn't isn't picture perfect, then I am sorry, but I don't care what you think (gosh, that sounds so harsh, but the truth of it is, I really DON'T care). My priority is US. (Me, Jesus, Russ, & Caedmon) I understand that there are so many other things happening in my life here on earth that are important, and i will do my best to succeed at them, but I already know I will fail, time and time again, and I am okay with that. And I don't have to prove myself to anyone. Because if that were the case, I would only be able to prove to you how crappy i am at regularly mopping my floors, or getting out of debt, or procrastinating, or every other thing i do "wrong".

So I live my life now "smelling the roses", and not constantly worrying about all the tasks involved with daily life, but understanding that yes, I still have to wash clothes sometimes, and yes, I still live in this world and have to follow the practical, social, and relational rules that apply to building God's kingdom. But all that comes after the tasks that involve Jesus, my husband, and my daughter.

So judge me all you want. But I don't care, cause regardless of what the world around me thinks, my priorities are exactly where they need to be.

Family: Part Three

Oh my, it's been a while. There are more than three people in our family, I promise. We have just been a leeetle bit busy with an amazing little baby who now has a couple of sharp little teeth.

Continuing with our Family series, we're gonna head back over to the Burnett side of the family tree. Many of you may not know this, but Caedmon isn't the only adorable little person on the Burnett side of the family. She has a cousin, Malachi, (flip the channel to Comedy Central in about 15 years and I'm sure you'll see him) that is just about the coolest little man I know. He has a couple of cool parents, too (turns out that parents are an essential part of having babies): my brother, Drew, and his wife Amy. Amy is an elementary school teacher and Drew is a manager at Chick-Fil-A. Unfortunately Caedmon doesn't get to see them as much as she would like, but that's just the way it goes sometimes. So without further ado, more family for you.

Amy and Caedmon at a very familiar meeting place: Grandmom's house.

Malachi is definitely, absolutely, positively a Burnett.

Malachi loves giving Caedmon kisses.

Amy and a 5 day old Caedmon.

Drew and Malachi came to visit Caedmon. Malachi didn't understand why she wouldn't give him a high five...

Caedmon and Drew. That's Drew on the right.

One thing they can both agree on: Elmo.

Caedmon loves her Aunt Amy.