Carissa celebrates Birthday No. 2

Carissa is officially 2 years old today...so in honor of her recent birthday weekend, we will post at least one good picture of her exciting celebration...

She is so great and there is never a dull moment with her around...I can only imagine the things she will teach her little sister.

Our Newest Addition

Introducing......


Jocelyn Ainsley Mollet was born on Tuesday, November 22 at 7:52 a.m. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 21 3/4 inches long. She is beautiful, but we may be a little prejudiced...

FALL+THANKSGIVING+WINTER+CHRISTMAS

It's Friday and I just realized that within the next 4 days, we will be a family of four...it still seems so strange to think about it let alone write about it.

I haven't slept much this week and it's probably my last week to get good solid sleep for the next year of my life!!! Why does that happen...when you need something the most, it just doesn't happen! Don't get me wrong, I'm totally thrilled at the fact that we are having another little girl and it's going to be great, but I'm sure I have the same fears that most women have when they get ready for their 2nd, 3rd and so on...I fear that I won't be able to "do it all" and I have to become comfortable with that idea. I'm not going to have a clean house, like I did before kids, right?! And I'm not going to look my best for the best part of most weeks, but I'm still going to be the best I can be, and I'm going to succeed and fail from time to time. I often think that we put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect and we're not!! I know YOU ALL KNEW THAT, right? Oh, well...

On to more important things...I've started the Christmas/Winter decorating so it looks like it is half Fall/Thanksgiving and half Christmas/Winter in our house. I don't know that I'm totally into it this year, but I love seeing snowmen decorations until about March...I also have already written my Christmas letter, lost it due to a computer problem and am in the process of re-writing it. I guess I wasn't supposed to get that far ahead of the game...It just seemed like the best idea 2 weeks ago!!

Well, this will probably be it for writing blogs for a little while, but we will definitely post pics of the family...SOON!!!!!

Change is in the Air...

Well, I have to admit that yesterday I spent part of the evening watching some good/some bad TV. Whenever Joe isn't around I tend to try to watch SUPERNANNY!!! I know, I know--why, right? I think it may be that I actually feel as though I may be doing SOMETHING right with my own child by watching the destructive behavior of others' children. Last night was especially annoying. The mom kept trying to dress 3 of her four daughters the same EVERYDAY. She wanted them to "look" perfect. Sometimes, personally, I'm happy when I can get Carissa to even sit still long enough to get a brush through her hair. Other days she doesn't even know I'm doing her hair. The deal is, most of the time, at the age of 4, you're staying at home with them, aren't you?! Anyhow, the dad was a paramedic/firefighter, so he worked 2-24 hour shifts and then would be home. Now, the other key to the mom was that she was an obsessive/compulsive cleaner. Her husband said he could care less about the spotless house if he could have more time to spend with his wife. HELLO!!!!! Wake up and smell the coffee, mom? You've got to get it together...I don't think I will ever understand this show completely, but I guess all can be fixed for a family every Friday night, in about an hour...IT'S AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, on with real life...Carissa got her two year pics done this week. She totally posed for most of them. I think Grandpa (AKA PaPa) has taken too many pictures and she now knows what to do when she sees a camera! She did great and her reward was playing in the play area at the mall--she loves that germ-infested area and sometimes it breaks my heart :) I've really tried to restrain myself with the whole germ thing since she basically eats anything off the table, chair that she sits in, or even the floor!! Carissa also finally said, "Grandma" last night. The funny part is, is that she got her Noah's Ark, Moses wife, and started to play with it in her Weebles bus. She was sliding the "Grandma" figure down the slide saying, "Grandma slide! Grandma slide!" So, of course we called Grandma, formally known as "Nana" and let her hear it on the answering machine. Needless to say, she was very excited, and we aim to please here at the Mollet household.

Now, on to the rest of the month...I don't think I could think this baby to be born any quicker than I am right now. I've never been so ready to have any kind of medical procedure, but it has been alot more for me than last time. Maybe because I'm constantly chasing after a toddler around and doing everything else around the house. Carissa can say "Jocelyn" and she has a doll that she sits with sometimes. Unfortunately she also feeds her everything that she is eating or playin with--including Play-Doh!! This is her new fav. She could sit and play with Play-Doh for an hour or more. She just rolls it out and uses these cutters and other tools to make different piles of somethings!! It's funny because it's still fun at our age to play with it with her...What a cool invention-Play-Doh.

We are anticipating a pretty busy rest of November. Between youth stuff, other church stuff and a new baby as well as celebrating Carissa's 2nd birthday we'll be on our toes!!! Grandma and Papa are coming out for Thanksgiving, so everyone's excited about that trip. We also get to see Ruthann, one of the kids who is at LCC, for Thanksgiving. Rob, the guy that went, is going to TN to visit family, so we'll see him at Christmas...ALL in good time.

Well, off to do some weekend cleaning, eating, and napping...

November

November is one of my favorite months...

...Most importantly, the weather is usually finally settling into somewhat of a routine...50s and maybe even dip down into the 30s. Joe hates this weather because I still insist on keeping the heat turned down to 60-64 degrees. I grew up in a house that was usually pretty cool in temperature, so I guess that carries over to your own house when your a grown up. THANKS FOR HELPING US SAVE ON OUR GAS BILL DAD!!!!

...I know I keep talking about my family(it is MY blog), but another exciting part of November is that Carissa's birthday is on the 29th. She was our little Thanksgiving surprise almost 2 years ago!! It is so strange to think of her turning 2, but some days I can truly tell that she is a toddler. She must get all of her, "I can do it myself" stuff from Joe, because I know I've always listened carefully to instruction and advice :) She loved trick or treating this year. She would just stare into her treat pail with pure delight that people were giving HER candy and all she had to say was, "TREAT?" and then a quick HAPPY HAWOOWEEN and FANK YOU!! (How she says the words). After we finished up at one the ministers' houses from church, she crashed before the Steelers game even started at 9 p.m. She loved visiting everyone we saw last night, but slept until 8:00 this morning trying to recover from all the fun...

...Another reason I always like November is that it is the month that has Joe's favorite holiday in it. Joe has always loved Thanksgiving. I've limited my anxiousness to decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving is even over, during our marriage. I still have the fall tablecloth out and the fall-y kind of decorations up, but it's killing me to not start on Christmas in the next week or two, since I don't know how much energy I'll have later...

...This also brings us to the time of our next little bundle of joy coming into our family. We've tried to prepare for the arrival, but when I made my last 2 appointments with my doctor yesterday, it really hit me!!! I'm going to be a mother to 2 little girls, more importantly, I'm going to have to try to raise them to be GOOD GIRLS and that is the bigger fear. I don't know if Joe is really as scared as I am, but I know how I was growing up and I can only PRAY that God will help me be a good mom, because it is as scary as anything else in my mind right now...

...With all of this in the month of November, I still look forward to Christmas. We celebrate such a blessed event and enjoy our family's company and have fun reminiscing about the past year. Our families and extended families have so much to celebrate on both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year--it couldn't be more exciting for all of us to look forward to...