Yeah for Baby K!

Well, a while back I posted about our little one not taking well to solids. After 2 successful weeks of her finishing her cereal with either bananas or apples mixed in, we have added the second feeding back in. For so long we were wasting the baby food because she would take one bite and be done that we took a break from it. Today she ate her cereal this morning and this afternoon had 2 stage 1 jars of food. She had squash and peas. Yum!

Yeah for Baby K!

Mommy is so proud of you, darling.

My head is spinning right now

So, my sweet sister-in-law, Shea posted a few days or so ago about a blog she has been reading, Bring the Rain http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/ . It truly is an amazing testimony that will bless your heart, whatever you are going through will most likely begin to feel very small and if you are as lucky as I was today, you will experience a renewed, intense thirst to know our amazing Maker even more intimately than you know Him right now. I cried, dried my tears, read the next page, cried some more and so my day went on. Every chance I got I sat back down and continued learning of the Smith's families journey of tears, laughter (from their 3 precious, healthy girls) and love that only the Lord of Lords can provide. What an amazing peace Angie has been given by God's love for her and even more so by her understanding of his love for her. Praise God for her! I am so thankful and was truly blessed by her sharing. Please, grab a cup of coffee and prepare to settle in when you click on her link. May I suggest starting at the beginning, get as far as you can and pick it back up like a book until you are caught up?

My heart is aching tonight for my husband and the loneliness I am feeling now that he has begun a new journey with a new job. I knew deep down that this was going to be a challenge for our little family, but had no idea it would only be a few days in and I would be so ready for him to have mastered his position. I know, I have never really had patience as a strong suit, and I believe with our little one I miss him even more because I know that his long hours keep him away from his daughter and she just lights up when she sees or hears her daddy. I was told a long time ago that I needed to resign to the fact that my girl(s) would be Daddy's girl(s), but had no idea that it would happen so soon. It makes my heart smile just thinking of the way her face shines for him. I hope that I can shine for Christ in the same manner one day. I pray that through this whole experience that I will lean on Christ more each day and that I will shine for my maker, the King of Kings.

I believe that Audrey's blog has brought on all of this emotion, and I apologize for being so mushy, but I can't seem to help it right now. I feel very guilty for having a healthy, happy baby girl while Angie, Nicol and Sara (all explained in the blog I mentioned) have already seen their babies leave this Earth to be settled in Heaven with their Maker. Nicol's little boy, Luke, was born only 4 days after our little one. I will never understand why the Lord allowed me to keep my baby for so long (and I hope forever) but I am eternally grateful for the opportunity he has given me to be this child's mother. She is so amazing and such a wonderful little package that I get to dig a little deeper into each day. Every day I discover more of who she is and what makes her laugh and cry. Tonight she kept waking up for some reason, but for the first time since she was placed in my care, I rocked her. Not like I usually do, for just a couple of minutes, I mean I took her out of her crib, rocked her, laughed with her, listened and mimicked her coos and just really enjoyed the fact that she was not tired and it was past her bedtime. I am thankful that I was able to just look at her and enjoy her non-fussy state. Usually my rocking is very short-lived and usually is combined with reading her a book. Thank you Angie for that moment. I know you may not understand how you helped, but trust me, you did! We try so hard to pour out our love on our daughter, but I am so regimented that tonight was completely breaking the rules by playing with her instead of focusing on not stimulating her and getting her back to sleep. :)

My heart is also going out to Lynn tonight. I thought so many times today about your strength in Christ when your miscarriages came and went and now that baby Andi is here and she is absolutely perfect, I know that the Lord never gives us more than we can handle and you handled both of your babies journeys with a God-breathed grace. You are such a beautiful person. I hope that you know that!

My family and friends in Texas are about to experience Ike and I ask that if you hear the news or think of the hurricane that you pray for safety and wisdom for all of the residents. My parents were boarding up their home today and were unsure where they were going, if they are going. My grandparents are also undecided. Please pray for them and ALL the rest of my friends, family and residents of the great state of Texas. Thank you in advance for your faithfulness to prayer.

Thank you to all of my family and friends that have encouraged me this week, the week of change. My love goes out to all of you! I appreciate you all so much.

Pictures from last week

She was so proud of herself for hiding under the coffee table.

Trying to watch some tv!
This is the pink Bama dress I made for her before her Daddy told me he really wanted her to wear red... hence the white/red dress I made for her Monday night.... before pics Tuesday.

I made this tutu for her to wear for pics, but didn't think that we would have time, so didn't take it! Ugh! :)
My sunshine!

Just a few pics from yesterday

Well, we made our first trip as a family to take pictures. We went to Portrait Innovations in Jacksonville and they turned out pretty good.

My summer projects

Okay, so at the end of each week I often wonder where my time went. I mean, come on, I stay at home and my house is by no means dirty, but not near as clean as I would like it. (I wouldn't suggest eating off my floors or drinking from my commodes anytime soon.)

Well, to make myself feel better I thought I would post about my projects.

It seems as though since my husband and I married 3 years ago, we have been in-between this or in-between that. By that I mean that we got married and got past the wedding- thank yous, moving my stuff into his home, and adjusting to married life while we tried to sell my house. Then, we decided to list "our" house about a year later and then again a year after that. So, between moving so many times and having to keep my crafts picked up all the time b/c realtors could drop by any time, I have not "crafted" at all in the last 3 years with the exception of the nursery bedding, curtains, etc. that Mom and I worked on before the baby arrived.

So, I say all that to let you know I have returned to crafting and am loving that when Little Bit naps I can spend a little time getting to know who I am again... aside from a wife and a mother.

Here are a couple of my latest projects... I will have to wait to reveal my most current ones for a couple of weeks.... You will see. :)

My friend Anna offered us her son's car seat as he was going to a big-boy seat and we jumped at the chance to have it for our little one. I recovered the blue parts (everywhere there is pink floweredy fabric) so that she could have a "pink" seat. :) I will never recover another car seat though b/c my thumbs still have not recovered. It had to be handstitched onto the top of the seat and carseat fabric is TOUGH!!! Next time our baby will just live with blue.... or should I say I will learn to live with blue. LOL It looked so easy, but after about 10 hours and purple fingers I was determined not to give up, so here it is.

A few weeks ago our little one started getting her limbs stuck outside of the crib. I am fearful of bumpers, so this was my creation to keep her limbs in. It is still soft, but stretched so tightly due to weaving it thru the bars that it is of little risk. Also, I made sure it was long enough to tie on the outside so that she can't get it off!

Well, that's all for now. Our love to all! Have a wonderful weekend. I probably won't blog much next week b/c my husband is taking a week off before he has to start his new job. I will be back around the 8th to blog some more!

A couple of cute pics from the long weekend with Daddy

Due to Tropical Storm Fay, Daddy was home more than normal. We loved having some extra Q-time with him.

Do you want me to show you how it's done?

See, I was born ready.

"No, you're not taking it away from me! It's mine. I will hold on as long as I have to."

I guess she wanted to know what he tasted like.

First trip to the Church Nursery

Okay, so we finally took the plunge. On the way to church yesterday my husband and I had the same conversation we have had at least 3 times, probably closer to ten by now, but who's counting. It goes something like this, "Do you want to put Little Bit in the nursery today?" He used to respond, "They have too many babies to feed, we will keep her" but that has been replaced with, "I don't care, we can if you want to." LOL Okay, if only you could see the look on our faces when we are having this conversation. Complete terror!!!

So, all of our friends in Sunday School keep telling us, "I will be in the nursery today, do you want me to take her?" Each, one by one. We always answer no. Well, she is 5 1/2 mos. old and really loves to watch all the other kids, so I felt like it really was time. Two Sunday's ago she was so squirmy and wants to "talk" to us so much that I felt bad that we keep her with us when she could be having fun interacting with other kids, so he told me we could leave her next time. I was out of town last week, so this Sunday was the big day.

Okay, here's the scene. Driving to church we have the conversation and then we decide we will take her, but the big dilemma is do we take her before or after Sunday School? Well, we were running late, so we decided to take her after. We get there and everyone is just standing around talking. I get her out of her seat and pick her up to go talk to all the other ladies and decide I am taking her to nursery. My hubby was talking to the guys about our move and I decided I would take the plunge. I mean, come on, they give us a beeper, that is kind of like a substitute for our child, right? NO!!! IT ISN'T!!!!

I walk into the nursery wing and see "our usher." We lovingly call him that because he makes it a point to come and talk to us every Sunday, even if we change seats and sit in the balcony! He is so faithful to us! :) As I walk in he says, "You are going to leave her?" I fearfully said yes and started signing her in. An elderly gentleman that resembles Abe Lincoln (due to his mustache) takes her from me and passes her through the doorway. My fears were realized and I wanted to yank her back so badly, but knew we would just have to go through this all over again next week, so with the help of a loving friend (whom I had enlisted the moral support of before leaving Sunday School to drop her off) we (Leslie and I) walked back to Sunday School without a baby, only a beeper.

I walked in and my husbands mouth hit the floor when he realized what I had done, which was as soon as I handed him the beeper. He said, "A beeper for my daughter??" We bravely sat there and toughed it out like a big girl and boy that we are! :)

The drama continues....
After Sunday School we of course went down that hallway to check on her and she was fine. We tried to just stroll by and peek, but she was along the wall of the door so we had to crane our necks in to see her sitting safely in a swing watching all the other kids.

We sat down in church and what felt like a million people came up to us and asked where she was and we just pointed to our beeper and tried to grin. Our usher came by and told us he would check on her for us. So, of course, halfway through service he came to tell us she was okay.

After service he told us that he wanted to play a joke on us and make our beeper go off but the ladies in the nursery said, "You don't understand, this is their first time leaving her, please don't do that to them." I am pretty sure that was my beautiful friend Jennifer. :)

We practically plowed everyone over on the way to the nursery to get her and we tried to give everyone but the right person our beeper so we could get her back. She was fine and in the end we were too. Praise be to the Lord, our God for giving us strength to do the things we can't do on our own!

Our love to all the wonderful ladies who took great care of our baby girl yesterday.