2015 and The Three Bairs

2015 sure has been an amazing year! So many great changes for The Three Bairs!

We will start with Mike. This year started with Mike working in customer service for a flooring company. Fast forward to May when he received his Masters in Higher Education, stopped working at the flooring company and started coaching soccer full time. This is something Mike has been wanting to do since before he graduated with his bachelors in 2011! Soccer Camps through out the summer, acting as the Director of Goalkeeping for his club, coaching 2 club soccer teams, and assisting at Geneva, plus other individual sessions; I think he stayed busy! During his free time, Mike is an amazing Daddy to Lily. Watching the two of them together makes my heart smile.

Lily's first time bowling!

For me (Meg), I was back to the office in 2015 and loved every second of it! I grew so much as a person. Being home for 18 months with an infant was a different pace than I was used to. I loved being with my little girl but I was ready for a change. I continued to coach my club soccer team and  Olympic Development team through the spring/summer, but decided that after the season ended I would take a break from coaching. I now enjoy my free week nights and weekends (I know what is that?) supporting Mike in his various coaching roles, hanging out with our friends, and having Mommy and me time with my favorite mini me.

Lily and Mommy enjoying some ice cream.

Last but certainly not least is Miss Lily, little girl, Lil, stinky, and the many other adorable things we call her. She started walking in 2015 and now that we have to chase her everywhere I miss the crawling days. Lily started daycare this year and we have seen huge growth in her vocabulary! Every day we are amazed with what comes out of her mouth. Her singing "Jingle Bells" and "I love you, You love me" ( Barney Song) are two of our current favorites. 

Lily's personality is showing through more and more. She is a very affectionate, caring, spirited, and active little girl. Her stubbornness, smarts, and innocence make us giggle all the time. Some of Lily's favorite things are trains, Daniel Tiger, dancing, singing, Mickey Mouse, and stickers. This holiday season has been really special as Mike and I see it through a 2 year old's eyes. The smile on her face looking at Christmas lights, finding baby Jesus in every nativity scene, and getting all excited when she hear's a Santa say "ho, ho, ho."

Our 2015 Family Christmas Card Picture!

A year in review always reminds me how blessed we are. God gave us an amazing daughter who we get to love on every day and a marriage that we will be celebrating our 5th anniversary for on 1/1/16! 

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family and may God bless you for a happy and healthy 2016!

**And now enjoy some pictures of Lily from 2015**

Wait it's March?

So I feel like a slacker! I sent that nice Christmas card and sent everyone to look at our blog and then I didn't update it for 3 month! Oops. So goes the busy life of the Bair's. For those of you who are friends with us on Facebook, know that little girl is getting over her first ear infection. It is a double ear infection so we go back to the Doctors on Monday for her 18 month check up and to look at how her infection is doing.

Our 4th Anniversary

With that said I already know how much little girl weighs because of our infection appointment. A whopping 21 lbs and I think 8oz? Yea this child is a tank, not! We are starting to move into 18 month pants which we need for the length but struggle to keep them staying on her waist. Shirts depending on the brand are 12 or 18 months. As she is growing and going through more clothes I am noticing more and more the discrepancies between sizes and brands. Why can't they just all use the same template! But anyways, the consignment season is upon us so I am excited to clean out of all the old clothes and get some new ones for little girl. We get great hand me downs so thankfully the sales that I buy from are just to fill in the holes.

Lily loves eating chicken nuggets, most of the time ;)

Officially Lily started consistently walking Jan. 17th. She had taken steps before that, like in the video from our last post, but now she is a walking machine. For only walking for a total of 2 months, little girl is a pro! Ever since we found an MLS size 1 soccer ball at Target (where we do Family date night) she has been dribbling around the living room with Daddy. Here is a video of little girl walking 2 weeks after she started.

Lily is a big reader and loves Mickey & Minnie Mouse

We have also noticed that little girl is VERY focused, VERY particular (see video for proof). She is not saying a lot of words but definitely knows how to tell us she wants or needs something. We have mastered "hi", "bye bye", and "uh oh". Within the last week we have been working on "please" or like Lily says "teese" and "thank you." Unfortuntely "no" has been appearing more too. Although she doesn't say a lot of words when she wants to say something she does. For example, "ducky." We were having bath time and I showed her the rubber duckies and she repeated me instantly with "ducky." Like with walking little girl does what she wants, when she wants. I wonder where she gets this from??

Lily loves puzzles!

Lily's first snow play time, She loved it!

Mike is excited that he only has 1 class left of his masters and my job (and Jamberry) is going great. Not too much is going on besides that soccer is ramping up again. As of the second week of April the Bair family will have upwards of 5 soccer practices a week. This will be the biggest adjustment for Lily and I because I have never worked full time while coaching in the Fall or Spring with Lily. I will have to go right from work to soccer and won't get to see little girl much :( But on weekends little girl and I will hang out while Mike has 2 games and I only have 1. Please pray that God gives me the strength to make it through and know that this is only for one season of our lives! I can already feel my mom guilt levels rising just thinking about it. I think that is it for our update so Happy St. Patrick's day from our redheaded little girl :)

More puzzles!

A Kick in the Pants

So as of this month I started writing the Sunday School toddler curriculum for my church. I have only completed one month of it but I really enjoy it. I submitted my first batch on Monday. This is important so remember this :)

My favorite toddler :)

Fast forward to Wednesday when I received a phone call from the temp. agency I have been using since September 2012 to find a job. They had a job they thought I might be interested in, it sounded good to me so I said they could throw my resume over to the company. With a temp. agency you don't know who the company is until you are scheduled for an interview. Now if you read my "Year in Review" post you know I have been a stay at home mom since June. When I didn't receive the last job I went for in late October, I thought God's plan was for me to stay at home so I stopped looking and started my Jamberry business. I was content and at peace with what I thought was the plan. So receiving this phone call in the first place was a surprise.

They called me a couple hours later to say the job was at Dick's Sporting Goods Corporate (DSG) but the company I would be interviewing with is a vendor of their's who embeds their employees at the corporate building. Me and all my athletic passions just loved that I was going to get to go to DSG corporate for the interview.

So first interview goes well. An hour and a half after the company from late October calls, another position opened up and they asked for me. So in the course of 24 hours I went from being content being home with my daughter to having two really good companies interested in me. I can't make this stuff up. I was given one interview at 10am and the second at 2:30pm. The agency contacted me later on to say that the DSG vendor conveyed to them that the job was mine to lose. As long as I didn't blow the second interview I would be receiving an offer. That was great to hear but then they said I needed to be prepared to make a decision by the end business Friday.


That whole night I was talking to family and friends to weigh the pro's and con's of each job. Most of the conversations were me saying how speechless I was about the situation. One of our family friends said this, "I live by the motto 'God's never in a hurry because He's always on time.'" Well remember how I said I wrote toddler curriculum on Monday? Here was the last lesson I wrote, "With God the timing He chooses is perfect. God is never late or early. God is always on time." Copy and pasted from my word document. I wrote it Monday before I knew what Wednesday through Friday would hold.  Now don't stop reading, there is more!

So as you can imagine the next morning I was really nervous. Depending on the days events I could have a job in less than 24 hours, a life changing job. I went to DSG Corp. and sat down in their amazing lobby (Yes even their lobby is fabulous). One of the many vendors with meetings came a few minutes later and sat down with me. I was reading a Sports Illustrated magazine and probably looked jittery. He started talking to me and it took my mind off of the huge interview. He asked about why I was there and I gave him a brief synopsis of the situation. He says with a smile, "Everything will work out. But I think you should work here. It is great  and you will love it." '

The interview went better than I could have planned. It just felt perfect. The two people who met with me made me feel like I had finally found "my people." The job description combines all of my talents and includes my passion for sports even though it is just the retail products they are working around. It is as close to a dream job as a 20-something can get. With that said, it seemed pretty clear to me that the second interview of the day wasn't necessary. I filled out the necessary paper work and accepted the job offer 20 minutes later.

Now who was going to take care of our little princess? There is a daycare 30 seconds down the road from us but they weren't sure of their availability so that was out. I told that to the woman from my MOPS group who watched Lily during both interviews and she offered to watch her full time! I feel so much more comfortable with that and she has 3 children around Lily's age so that's a bonus. Within 2 minutes of having a potential crisis God had an answer. Now I am a complete control freak but this whole situation I can't even logically explain. I have been a Christian since I was in elementary school but this is the first time I can say without a doubt God did this! He gave me this opportunity, dropped it in my lap and made it all work out. He spoke through my friend Thursday night, He sent me a vendor at DSG to calm my jitters and provided childcare for our daughter in the best possible situation. This whole thing definitely gave me the kick in the pants I needed to trust God, no matter what. I might want to control everything but God does it better. If you have any doubts that God knows what He is doing remember this story, it's a good one.

Now to reward you for reading this novel..... Lily can walk! Not consistent but we will take it! And it is just  too adorable.

 

2014 in Review

To review a year in a blog post is such a weird concept. How could I possibly encompass 365 days in a post that doesn't take (days) weeks to read?

I think I will make it short and sweet this year because in about 10 minutes Lily is going to get tired of Veggie Tales and will want to play :)

2014 was filled with soccer as per usual, Mike restarting his Masters degree, and Meg becoming a stay-at-home-mom. Lily did what all infants/toddlers do which is be cute and do whatever she wants. She is our little princess and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. This year she began to talk, became a speed crawler and could probably pass as a competitive eater for the under 2 division. She loves her food and isn't too picky as long as you let her feed herself. Although tantrums and stubbornness are starting to rear their ugly heads, there is no question Lily is our child. Her favorite toy is a ball, no surprise there, and she loves her plethora of teddy bears.

This little video just cracks me up! Anyway, Mike has been working on his masters since the fall of 2011 so we are excited to have him finish up in May. Balancing a full time job, coaching 2 or 3 club teams depending on the year and assisting at the college hasn't been easy but Mike has pushed through and is pumped to have his degree. 

Meg went back to work in retail from Nov. 2013 until June 2014 and then determined the minimal hours wasn't worth the hassle. Now she works in direct sales, can challenge herself as much as she wants and still gets to stay home with Lily. The perfect setup! She also continues to coach one club team and her regional Olympic Development Program (ODP) team. 

This year we traveled much less than years prior because Mike no longer works in admissions which had a very demanding travel schedule. We have also found that like most first time parents, having a child changes everything. This is probably the first year I haven't gone to most of Mike's soccer games to support his team because let's face it, Lily can only handle so much soccer. Poor girl is at the field too much as it is. Though here is the kicker (pun totally intended) Lily can't walk yet but can intentionally kick a ball and pull a ball back with the sole of her foot. Mike is already making sure she doesn't favor one foot over the other. #coachingproblems

Lily setting up her cones.

Alright and to round out the year here a couple of pictures from Lily's first birthday party. We celebrated it over 3 weeks because why not!

2014 What a year! May God continue to bless our family in ways we could never imagine in 2015. We know we don't see friends and family as much as we would like so feel free to check back here to see what's going on. Click subscribe and enter your email address in the upper right side bar if you are lazy like Meg and just like posts to automatically come to your inbox.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!!

Love,

Mike, Meg & Lily Bair 

My New Adventure

What a crazy month it was! November 2014 wasn't filled with a lot of soccer but it was nonstop from the 1st to the 30th. On the 8th of November I took a risk and signed on as a independent consultant with a direct sales company called Jamberry Nails. They are new but growing rapidly! After a month I can say, so far, it has been one of the best business decisions I have made!

I really struggle being home with Lily some days because I feel like I am not contributing financially or doing my part besides being the best mom ever :) I love little girl with all my heart (so don't think otherwise!) but for someone who is Type A I really miss the interaction and relationships of being in an office too. 

Who couldn't love this little princess?

Jamberry has given me so many friends in less than 4 weeks and I love the community that comes with the Jamily I am now a part of. 

Mike likes to remind me of how much I hate sales and yet look what I ended up signing on to do. I like to remind him that I don't sell! I share my love of the product and it sells itself. I am an avid nail biter so I always have something on my nails. Now instead of repainting them every 5 or so days I keep Jams on for 2 weeks! I don't have the time or patience to let polish dry anyways...and neither does Lily :)

Day 1                                        Day 7

 I seriously hate confrontation and being pushy so I really dreaded my first vendor event last weekend at my sister-in-law's parent's church. The first couple of hours I just stood there smiling and saying '"hi" which I am really good at! Then I started giving free nail art samples at my booth and that is all it took for the sales to come rolling in. 

Now I am not going to make a full income off of this... at least not for a long while... but Christmas won't be so hard on our budget this year and we are planning to use this to help get rid of our debt (Yay Dave Ramsey!). I even decided (was forced by my husband) to book a bridal event for the first weekend of January. Man am I super nervous about that! Over 1200 brides PLUS whoever they bring along...the fiance, mom, bridal party. 

I was skeptical to sign up because it was quite the investment for the booth but Mike and his Dad assure me that it will pay off. I am a little bit of a perfectionist and I hate to fail so I am praying this either works out phenomenally or fails miserably so I know if it is something I can really succeed at.

If you are interested in checking Jamberry out either contact me for a free sample or just follow this link.  http://megbair.jamberrynails.net/.

A Day at the Zoo

Lily and I  went with our MOPS group today to the zoo. I was a little hesitant because it was going to be a long day with no nap but Lily was a champ. First we got to go to a short class where we pet some animals. Lily pet the humongous cockroaches, the Madagascar Tenrec, a possum, and the duck. She especially liked watching the duck walk around.

Then we made our way to the giraffes, which was the most exciting part of the day. Because of our sweet MOPS connections we got to go into another area closer to the animals. The giraffe came right over and Lily and I got to pet him!

 I was so surprised how close he got. Went back and forth along the fence so all the kids got to pet him. So awesome!

Then Lily and I found the aquarium. Lily really likes looking at the fish at Wal-Mart so I knew she would enjoy looking at the huge tanks of wildlife.

The penguin exhibit was Lily's favorite but when I went to let her stand against the glass it proved to be a little overwhelming. She did much better at the shark tank :)

Then we went through to the end of the zoo and saw the Kangaroo.

A great day all in all. Little girl loves those animals.

Bossypants

So one of my resolutions for 2014 was to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Yea that isn't going to happen unless reading board books to Lily counts :) I am happy to say that I definitely read more this year than in years past. So far I have completed 4 books!

My favorite so far was "Bossypants" by Tina Fey. I love her as a comedian so when it was time for my mom's group Book Club, I volunteered to host and voila! I had gotten it from the library before and read less than half so this time I had motivation to read the whole thing.

The book is an autobiography sort of... It doesn't have a story line in the true sense of the word but there is a beginning and end and what is in between those parts makes sense. Here are my two cents about the book.

It surprised me how much my parenting style and general thoughts on being a mom matched with Tina Fey's, despite our completely different lifestyles. I appreciated how down to earth she was. I am tired of reading "mom books" (not that "Bossypants" is really a mom book, just a book written by a mom) and talking to other moms who say all the right things. Let's be honest, half the time being a mom is a complete mess and that's okay! Fey showcased that multiple times in the book and I kept finding myself saying "I feel the same way." Woah, who knew Tina Fey and a random 25 year old SAHM could feel the same?

Anyway a good, quick read if you can get past the random curses, crass comments, and otherwise rough humor.


**Next on my reading list is something very different and the same. "Life on Planet Mom" by Lisa T. Bergen was given to me by a wonderful neighbor from my MOPS group. I just started it but so far it seems to be exactly what I need to be reading.**