You have to love Martha!

If you know me at all you know that I am way to organized...but for some reason I have never seemed to be organized/find a system for cleaning....until today!

A mom in a mom's group that I am in posted a link to Martha Stewart's checklists for cleaning! It is several lists, a daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal list for cleaning! The mom suggested printing them off, laminating them so you can check it off and then wipe off and reuse! I am very excited and really hope that this will help with getting me into a better system as opposed to the once or every other week crazy I am so stressed cleaning!

Hope these help you out as well!

Little Miss Attitude

So this was Peyton before I dropped her off at school...


This was her when I picked her up...only a slight difference, the ponytail at the top of her head. Her teacher put it in for her and she just looked so silly to me.


Well, with the cool kid pony tail came a serious attitude. She was watching Elmo before dinner and I decided to vacuum the house. She was fine until I made it in the living room and apparently I was too loud because she turned right at me, put up her hand and told me to "stay," just like she tells the dogs. What! Are you kidding me! As soon as I left the room she was content but apparently I was disturbing her show!

The Weekend

We had a pretty nice weekend around the Acord house!

It started with our friend Laura from the Sherman Shoutout coming over to watch Peyton so John and I could go out on a date. We went out to a wine bar here in League City called Three Oaks Wine Bar that has been open for awhile but we just haven't had the chance to check it out. The owner was our server and he helped us find a nice Merlot that we both liked and we just had a bottle of wine and some yummy appetizers and spent some nice time just talking with one another. We ended up going somewhere else for dessert and coffee and came home around 10:00 PM! It was nice late night and we are so thankful for our many friends who ask to watch Peyton for us!

Saturday morning John blessed me and a friend with watching Peyton and her son Gavin. Lindsey's husband left last week on a business trip to China for three weeks and I really wanted to get her out and have some girl time minus babies! So, John had two kids the same age and he did great and me, Lindsey and our other friend Jessica got to have brunch with each other. It was a wonderful start of my Saturday and I love spending time with those girls!

Later that afternoon Grandma Martha came to visit and we took Peyton to Kemah for ice cream. She was so excited about the boardwalk, the birds, water and boats that for the first time in forever she didn't want to eat any ice cream. Her favorite part was walking into the Christmas store and seeing all of the "ho,ho,ho's" and even better than that was the display of the missing nutcrackers! Her face beamed with excitement when she saw them and made me take each one down to talk to her. When we left I told her to say "bye bye" to them and she waved good bye and acted like she was at peace now that she knew where they all went. Silly girl!

Sunday was a very busy day with church, our small group and then we had a family celebration dinner to celebrate two great achievements in Ashley's and Shannon's life. It was a day that Peyton really would need her nap and it ended up being the day that she didn't. She did amazing for only having a 40 minute nap in the car and was hilarious at dinner. She had tons of fun and I really thought she was acting delirious from lack of sleep!

A great weekend and hopefully we will have a great Monday...off to wake up Peyton and then go and work out!

The start of a new decade...January 2010

So far this month has been full of good things!

I ran the Houston Half Marathon on the 17th! And although I did not do an amazing time by far, I finished! The last time I ran a half marathon was two years ago shortly after finding out I was pregnant. This time I wanted to prove to myself that being a mom didn't mean I could do it again. I did not have the time I wanted to train properly but I went out there and finished! It was so emotional seeing Peyton on the side line cheering for me. I couldn't believe that two years ago I was pregnant with her and now here she is a strong and vibrant little girl! I actually had essentially the same time as I did two years ago so far from a PR but a good start and a great experience! Also, this was the completion of my 7th half marathon (plus multiple other races) in 3.5 years! Pretty sweet! Here are some pictures from the day and also you can check out a video here of me running across.

I got the running bug for sure and one of my goals pre- baby #2 is to run an additional 4-5 half marathons by this time next year....but I am not able to keep on the running band wagon for now because....I started training with a personal trainer!

I have been frustrated with getting stronger and healthier since having Peyton and instead of continuing to be frustrated I have decided to train with Fitt Life Fitness who came highly recommended by a fellow mom. I have had an assessment and one session as well as a nutrition consult and am excited about it all! I am really looking forward to learning how to be healthy, how to work out, and how to eat. I am also excited about seeing my body tone up and build muscle. I will be running soon but for now I need to focus on this which I really feel will bring the most important long term success for me!

Other happenings this month was the completion of a Kindermusik class that Peyton and I have been taking for several months now. She didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would until just the end so maybe now that she is older it is more fun. I don't know. It was fun doing something together and I can see how much she has learned from it. We are going to take a break from classes right now but are looking at doing swimming in the Spring together. So stay tuned!

Finally, John and I decided to take a marriage seminar/class with our church called Dynamic Marriage. It is a eight (or nine) week class and they meet once a week. My parents offered to watch Peyton for us every week on the Monday (and they are actually doing it on Thursday) so it works out great. We are in week 2 and already learning some good tools for strengthening our marriage. It is always good to take every opportunity to grow in marriage so we are blessed that we can do this together. Please pray for continued growth through that!

Phew...I think I am caught up so now on Monday I will post about our amazing weekend and we should be good!

December 2009

Christmas was so much fun with Peyton! She loved all of the decorations and did really well with not touching them. December was full of so many fun memories with her that I will cherish forever.She learned who Santa was and refered to him as, "ho, ho, ho," when prompted. It was adorable! She LOVED the nutcrackers at my parents house and would chomp her mouth like they did to let you know she wanted you to pick her up and show her each one. They all had their own voice and she did that everytime she was over there. She loved the lights and even more so LOVED the pink tree I put in her room. Everytime I turned it on she would go, "Wow." She was very interested in the Christmas story and our manger and would always want to see baby Jesus! Our annual cookie decorating was a hit with her and she was a master at the sprinkles and eating cookies. There were so many fun times with her this month and I just treasured all of them.

We did do some fun activities for the season and went to the Dickinson Trail of Lights, the Christmas Train where we rode a train through a light display and she saw Santa (not impressed). Since she was not too fond of him the one time she saw him I never really got pictures of her and I didn't take her back to the mall to make her sit on his lap.

Christmas came quicker than we expected (of course) and Peyton was very blessed with lots of toys! We woke up in the morning and opened our presents at Granny and Papa's house. She got the idea of opening presents but would insist on playing with each one before moving on. It was the longest Christmas we have ever had! Santa brought her a play kitchen, a Little Tikes car and many more toys! She insisted on sitting in her car while we put it together which was interesting. We were all very lucky and blessed! My favorite gifts were my new Keurig coffee maker and my Sperry shoes!

We had a good Christmas but on Christmas Eve my Grandfather slipped on some ice in Canada and fell and did some significant damage to his hip/pelvis area. It was a pretty scary phone call and my mom ended up leaving the afternoon of Christmas to be with him and her mom and stayed until he had surgery several weeks later. He is still recovering but doing very well but is still in need of our prayers.

Now off to 2010....

November 2009

Hmmm....what happened in November....

Well, by November Papa had moved back to Texas! He was finished in Azerbaijan and was now around all the time which made Peyton a happy camper...us parents were pretty happy as well!

We started the month by taking a parents only trip to the wineries in Fredericksburg, Texas! It was our first time away without Peyton and it was fun. We did learn that in order to provide ultimate flexibility we need to look at refundable deals as Peyton did develop a slight cold that Granny and Papa had to deal with. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast which was very cute and then spent the first day just walking around Fredericksburg and then day two was spent visiting multiple wineries.It was so much fun to learn more about the different types of wines and the flavors and tones of them. We visited Becker Vineyards, Grape Creek, Pedernales Cellars, and one other one. My favorite of the day was Pedernales Cellars Winery. It was beautiful there and I fell in love with their Stonewall Merlot! I loved sitting out on their deck and looking at the Hill Country. I could live there! You can only buy their wines online and of course they don't offer that one online and because of that if I ever go back there I am picking up multiple bottles.

We had a great time away but missed Peyton. We are so blessed to have my parents to watch her for us and know that she had a blast with them despite feeling icky! And hopefully they enjoyed her enough to have her again soon...!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with John's family and loved seeing all of his Aunts, Uncles and cousins and Peyton loved all of the attention. Following Thanksgiving we decided to hit the Black Friday deals. This was completly random and very unlike us but we have always wanted a new TV (we had John's from about 10 years ago) but never saw the need to go and buy one when we had one that worked. So, we saw an amazing deal at Target and decided to spend our Christmas money we allocated for each other on it. So, at 1:30 AM in extremly cold (cold for Texas) weather we stood in line (Peyton was with Granny and Papa) until the store opened at 5:00 AM. We were number 17 in line and we got our TV! It was a lot more intense and more stories to share but the madness of standing in line should give you enough to go on.

After coming home and resting we hooked up our Christmas present and started Christmas preparations!

Halloween 2009

All October I was looking forward to dressing Peyton up for Halloween. She was a leopard! She didn't like getting her whiskers put on but she was a champ and had a great night!


The best part of the night was when she saw that the cow from Chick Fila (her favorite restaurant ever) made an appearance at the party we were at. She immediately ran over to him and never left his side. She also kept making a ,"mooo," sound all night! It was cute and I was surprised at how much she loved him.



After hanging out with her cow friend we went trick or treating and after a couple of houses quickly got the hang of it and had a blast.

So...that was October at the Acord household!

October 2009

So, October started with my birthday which was spent caring for my mom who had foot surgery that day. It was kind of surreal to spend it caring for my mom as I am sure that is how she spent most of her birthdays. Even with all of the craziness of surgery we still had a special day and ate dinner in Granny's bed! I got a Blackberry for my birthday which has been so much fun and also a sewing machine which I haven't used as much as I would like but it has come in handy and I am looking forward to more projects!

We then celebrated our 3 year anniversary on the 13th with a special homemade dinner (by John) at home. It has been a wild 3 years full of changes left and right! It still amazes me that we have done so much in that short amount of time. We are excited about spending this year status quo with enjoying life where we are now! Which to all those Grandparents means no more babies for a little while longer...as long as that is what God's plan is!

Also in October we took Peyton to Dewberry Farm which was so much fun! They have a real pumpkin patch, petting zoo, pony rides, hay rides and just a whole lot of fun. She had a great time and loved trying to carry all of the pumpkins. I love our little Peyton pumpkin!

After the visit to the farm we carved our pumpkin which Peyton was not very interested in and a little disgusted by the inside of the pumpkin. She observed and then ran off to play with the dogs.

Some of the biggest change/news of the month was that I started working again! While in Canada this Summer I was blessed with great periods of solitude to reflect on my roles as a follower of Christ, a wife and a mother. Among many things that were revealed to me and that I grew in one thing I realized was how much I wanted to work again. I LOVED that I got to stay home with Peyton but she is getting more independent and I need something to refill me. Also, I wanted Peyton to start a Mother's Day Out program and unless we had extra income there is no way that we could afford that. So, I told John when I got home from Canada that I wanted to look for a job at some point (no rush) that is close to home, about 15 hours a week or so, low stress, good environment, uses the skills I have and would be conducive to still being at home. John's response was supportive but Good Luck finding that dream job! Well I wasn't looking for that dream job but decided to start serving in the Senior High ministry at our church as a small group leader for girls. While talking with the pastor, he mentioned that he was looking for an assistant if I knew anyone and then later in our conversation he brought up the assistant position again and asked me what I used to do before being mom. Well, we talked some more and I ended up agreeing to look at the job description. I looked over it, prayed with John and decided to send him my resume and interview. After checking my references etc he offered me the job and I took it! I work 14 hours a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays and am loving it! It is a complete answer to prayer and fit all of my criteria and it pays exactly for Peyton's school and just a tiny bit of fun money! Peyton goes to a Lutheran churches daycare program (which I looked at originally when I went to work but their pick up time was too early...oh and she got the last spot...I think God's hand was on this!) and she had a rough time at first but is doing amazing now! I love being able to have my own thing and feel so much more effective as a mommy and wife. I am glad I stayed home for that first year and even more happy God has given me this opportunity.

Next post will be Halloween since this is getting way too long....

September 2009

Other than Peyton's birthday party, September was pretty low key!

I made some pillows for the first time ever borrowing my mom's sewing machine (I got my own for my birthday in October). Not the world's greatest quality but they work and I am sure with more practice I could do some fancy stuff! It was a true test of patience which I don't have! I still have fabric that I need to make some curtains with for the kitchen so I am not doing as much projects as I would like but it is fun!

We did take a trip to Beaumont one day and see my good friend Megan (who now lives there instead of Oregon) which was wonderful! Her husband finally got to meet Peyton and she was so good in the car. It was a lot of fun doing a girl's road trip together.

Of course it was the start of football season so we had to dress up our little Longhorn! By the end of the season she did learn to throw her hands in the air for touchdown but still hasn't mastered the Hook 'Em sign...next year!Peyton worked on improving her walking skills and we made a trip to the Children's Museum which she loved! I wasn't sure what she would do but she had a blast and really got into it. I have been meaning to take her back and just haven't had the time to do it as a family.

So that was September...now October is when things got a little more wild!

What has happened to the Acords?

Yes...I know it has been MONTHS since I have blogged. Here are my various reasons...we have been crazy busy and honestly I didn't know what to blog about and then when I had stuff we were too busy to sit down and do it! Anyways, I miss blogging, I know that there are still friends and family who want to know what is happening with us so I am going to work harder on staying current with this thing!

So..since the last post was Peyton's birthday, I am going to start working on doing a monthly update for September through January and then once you are all caught up...I can start blogging about current happenings!

Be patient and look for some new posts coming soon....