Two Years! :)

It's funny how life has changed since this date two years ago! We've had a lot of adventure in the last two years, including the biggest adventure of them all! :

I'm sitting here with my feet up, while the baby is napping and B is making me dinne r (this is the life!!). I'm just trying to reflect on how much life has changed... I'm so blessed! It's hard to put it all into words, i think partly because my memory sucks, and partly because it has all changed SO much! I think the main thing I have to say is just that I need to be more thankful for my wonderful life! Of course, before I was married, I had a pretty wonderful

life, and I really should've been more thankful then. My sin

ner's heart got in the way, same as it does now.

When I opened up my bible today, I came across an old church bulletin that I saved (or, just never threw away...) It had this verse in it that really spoke to me, today.

Romans 15:5

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. "

Of course, Paul wasn't talking about Marriage here, so it is s ort of bad exegesis to apply it to marriage, but that's how it spoke to me today, so here goes it. :) I want to work harder at having a spirit of unity in my marriage. We are united as one, me and B, and i think most of the time we opperate as so. But I'd like to be even better at following his lead and being, well, more agreable. I have a nasty habit of needing to be right! I need to get over it! With God's help, I know I can!

And, the computer shut down without saving a lot of my post, drat! Hopefully I can recapture some of my thoughts...

I want my marriage to glorify God. But with my pesky need to be right, that certainly isn't happening! I also need to be better about spending time in the Word and in prayer. I'm writing this mostly so that my friends and family might offer me some accountability. Please pray for me and ask me how I'm doing being in the word! I so want to be in better relationship with the Lord, and I've been struggling with it lately. I think it is just too easy for me to get caught up in the work of day to day (and let's face it, Facebook...) I need to carve out special time for Him.

I'm going to close this post with a prayer for my married friends. Seems apropos on an anniversary. Please know this is my sincere prayer for you (and me!)! It always seems easier for me to pray for others, so please let me know if you have specific things you need prayer for-- it will help me delve back in to prayer time! :)

"Dear God,

I'm so thankful for this gift you have given me, my husband, B. Please help me to remember what a gift he is! Help all of us, Lord, remember what gifts our spouses are, and help us to remember to treat them as such. You view us all as valuable treasures. Help us to treasure our spouses.

God, please help us to be aware of our selfish ways. For me, one big area is feeling like i NEED to be right. For others, it may look different. But please, Lord, our hearts are for you. Help us to honor and glorify you with our marriages. Help us to die to our selfish ways and become more like you. Only you can transform our hearts!

And God, please help me to continue to be in your Word and spending time

with you. I need it more than I know!

Amen."

Leaving Port of Miami on our cruise to Grand Cayman and Jamaica

8.5 Months pregnant, visiting the "Green Monstah" in Fenway park.

10/28/07 Day after our Wedding, B surprised me with an vintage car ride! :)

First day of our Honeymoon.

Another Catch Up Post... Pumpkin Patch!

So when we returned from the OBX we had a few visitors! Our friends Tim and Brianne and their son came to visit on their way back from VT. It was an awesome time. We got to hang out with them and just catch up which was so great. We are so blessed to have so many great friends!

While they were here we decided to look for a place to pick pumpkins. I found a place and to my surprise, it was a "Harvest Hoedown" that weekend! They had hayrides as well as a bunch of other stuff that will be great when C is older.

We got some good pictures, though for some reason C had a freak out right when we were taking the pictures... Her face is pretty hilarious, even though it's so sad!

Once she cheered up, the pictures improved! :)

OBX

So week 2 of our adventures was in the Outer Banks with my Dad, step-mom, bro & sister in law, niece, hubs and C. It was such a fun trip! My Dad rents this awesome house (yay for "off" season!) and we all get to go for free- thanks Dad!



C slept through the night (as i mentioned) for the first time while we were there! Yay! I'll never forget it! It's been off and on since then, but seems to be back on right now, Huzzah! I think she slept through the night because she was so exhausted from all the fun family times. We even made it out to eat with my dad and stepmom one time! (though someone managed to foil our plans for a night out, but we will forgive her because she is soooo cute!)



I love my brother and sister in law and it was so great spending (1/2) the week with them! I hope that next year maybe they can stay the whole time! I ruled at kill dr. lucky (again!), though i may have lost the respect of certain family members (L!) when my competitive (evil!) side came out!



C got her first dip in the Atlantic Ocean... She wasn't too thrilled (it was a bit too cold, but she recovered as soon as she was out of it, so I'm thinking maybe next year she will like it!). My dad got better pictures of her little face crumbling, which i'll have to post later!



B was sweet enough to give me quite a bit of "anne" time, away from C, I love my hubs! My dad got my step-mom, L and I all facials at this posh place nearby, which i LOOOOVED. It was sooo awesome. Another day I got to take a good swim (I looove swimming and don't get to do it enough!) and another day, shopping! C gave him a hard time, unfortunately, at least one of the days! But she is getting better and better with the bottle, woot!



It was so fun to see C1 and imagine how our C (C2) is going to be so similar next year! I can't believe how much she is going to change. (only, i guess i can, because she has already changed sooo much! :::tear:::)



Here's some links to our pictures, because I can't get them to work right now (I'm writing while in TN visiting B's parents).

C's First Dip
OBX

Entering a giveaway...

Oh I know, I know, I owe several "real" posts. But I want to enter this giveaway, so I'm sharing a video!! :)

Maybe if I keep feeling awake I will blog for real. :)

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9navHC7Qo

3 Months Old!

3 Months Old!

I promise I'll post a blog about all our recent adventures to the Outer Banks and elsewhere, but today C is 3 Months old!

She is doing so well! She has started trying to sit up when we hold her reclining, so she much prefers to sit straight up now! (assisted, of course!) She also still likes us to hold her up to stand or over our shoulders to see everything! She did sleep through the night for about a week and then started having (i think!) a 3 month growth spurt. So hopefully she will go back to sleeping through the night here pretty (very!) soon!

She is definitely all smiles! People always comment on what a good baby she is! She hardly ever fusses or cries! She does get a bit sad when she's hungry or tired (which of course is to be expected- so do i! :) but it's hardly anything! She has her off days, which really throw me for a loop because normally she is so good!! :)

She is more alert and more sturdy almost every day it seems! I can't really believe it's been three months. I recently looked at some pictures from when she was a newborn and I already forget what she looked like then!! She is so chunky (in that adorable baby fat way!). I love her chunky thighs, and it really is hard not to just squeeze her!! We love her SO much!

We're gearing up for yet another trip (this time to Nan and GP's in TN!) but in her three short months she's already been to: MA, RI, MD, VA, NC, PA, CT, and NY! And before she is four months she will have added TN and IL to that list! She's quite the traveler! Hopefully I'll catch the blog up soon! :)

C is such a blessing. Really, I feel our marriage is so much stronger with her as a part of our family. I am so thankful to God for all the richness that she has brought to our lives! We certainly have our trying moments (and I usually skip blogging on those days, I guess!) , but I feel like overall, we are SO blessed. :)

Here's a family photo from our trip to the pumpkin patch... C REALLY liked it. (she did, but for some reason was freaking out when we took this!)

Two Month Stats (now that she is almost 3 months old...)

So we had C's two month appointment a bit late, and then we got REALLY busy, so I'm just getting around to posting!

So, at 2 months and one week old, her were the stats:

Weight: 12 lbs 8 oz (up from 8.11 at birth and 10.6 at one month)

23 inches (up from 20in at birth and 22 at one month)

15.9 (up from 13.75 at birth ad 15.5 at one month)

so, she's doing great! after much deliberation, we decided to delay the vaccines until her 4 month appointment. So no shots this time!

We can't believe how big she is getting! She is SO alert. She loves to look around over your shoulder and push up! around 10-11 weeks, she started to smile more in response to being tickled/having her face kissed. She smiles at things we do, rather than just smiling back at a smile, which is fun. She's also started giving more smiles to people other than me and B. She is liking tummy time a bit more, but it definitely is NOT the highlight of her day. (the highlight continues to be eating!)

Other exciting updates (most excited for Mummy!) is that she REALLY slept through the night last night. I know, I know, I shouldn't get too excited. She probably won't have a repeat performance, but a Mum can dream, right? But she went down about 830 and slept until 530 and then went back down till 9! Woohoo! ((Update, repeat performance last night! 830-620! WOOT!))

She is an amazing little traveller. She took her first plane ride with me down to Baltimore for Clare's wedding. I was hoping for an empty flight, but we were not so lucky, it was overbooked! Fortunately, the people next to me were (self-proclaimed) "baby-friendly". She didn't sleep, but she was very good! Yay for NOT being the people on the plane that everyone hated! There's a cute picture here (I can't seem to get it to work to be in the post, so you'll just have to click).

We were on the go pretty much once we hit the ground in MD.

Napping with Aunty Clare while Mum's getting a Pedicure

She did GREAT! Of course, I loved having her be admired. :) She napped on the go really well. And at the actual wedding, Genelle, the baby-whisperer, took great care of her, got her to nap AND TO TAKE A BOTTLE!! Shout out to Genelle!

Clare's wedding was so fun, I wish I could've been a part of it a bit more, but between the baby and singing in the service, i felt like i missed a lot. I know that she didn't mind, but come on, I've been planning to be in this wedding for 13 years! I wanted to see more of it!!! :)

Me and C in our matching dresses and Clare, Me and C

Partied Out!

I loved getting to see so many loved ones from the MD area the rest of the week. Between the wedding activities and my various visits the rest of the week, it made me realize just how blessed i am with such amazing friends. And though we may not see each other often, we are able to hang out like no time has passed. (And thank you twitter and facebook, for keeping us all in touch!)

Before the week was out we got to see Aaron and Jenny and meet their little one, which was sooo fun! I can't wait for him to hang out with C when they are both a bit older! I'm still pushing for Aaron to go to Gordon-Conwell for school next year! Hopefully they'll come visit the campus (and us!) soon!

We also got a visit from Shani and her new beau, which as always, was too short. (actually, i could say that about the time i had with anyone and everyone in the DC area!) It was nice to finally meet this guy! B & I liked him, so that's a bonus. :) We're hoping for a visit from them sometime soon, too.

C also got to meet her great-grandmother and all her great aunt's and uncles that she hadn't met yet at a little get together at my grandma's. Here's a pic of four generations!

We basically had a date with a friend everyday we were in the DC area, which was awesome! Even on our way out, C got to meet Katie in VA! :)

Can't leave out from the post that we stayed at my bro and sister-in-law's house in Baltimore. What gracious hosts they are- letting me borrow tons of baby items, a car, and even letting me wash cloth diapers there! Not to mention that my baby had a bad habit of waking their daughter up from her naps!! C1 and C2 (my C is C2) got along fabulously outside of nap time! C1 was infatuated with C2. C1 is definitely expanding her vocabulary, but by far her favorite word was "baby". It was so sweet!

Just for those who keep track of such things (B!!), C has now been to the following states in her less- than 3 months of life:

MA, RI, MD, VA and NC. On the way back from NC we will at least be driving through a few more!

Okay I think this blog post is long enough for today! I'll hopefully update soon about our fun in the Outer Banks!