So Much to Say About Nothing!

I haven't blogged in a few days (a rarity for me!) so I thought I would take a few minutes to catch you all up to speed.

*Annie: We had such an amazing time last night!! Sarah couldn't go at the last minute which made me sad, but luckily my mom bailed me out and was able to fill her shoes. Though I missed Sarah, I'll admit that it was nice to get out with just my mom and my sister. We three ladies haven't ventured out on our own in AGES! It was very special:-) I was thrilled because I came home and Brooke was sleeping soundly and she didn't even wake up to eat until hours after I got there. She didn't nurse for almost 7 hours in a row. Wow! John said she was a blast when she was awake and then she went to sleep with not fuss. What a relief!

*The House Hunt Continues: We've been looking at houses and there's A LOT of crap out there right now. It seems like every house we go isn't even a possibility. However, we found a gorgeous house today that we really love. It has an all new kitchen with really nice new appliances, oak cabinets, and a ceramic tile floor. It has a 3-seasons room, a dining room, family room, and living room... BUT there are 2 major let-downs. 1, it's not an ideal location. It's a remote little town that's quaint but it's a bit more removed from everything than we would have liked. It's only 10 minutes from either of our parents but we're not sure if it would be hard living there after living here, where we're only a stone's throw from all of the stores and restaurants. 2, the bedrooms are small. There's a HUGE master bedroom, but there are only 2 other bedrooms and they're tiny. We don't want our kids to be crowded. However, this house has SO much other space.

*Brooke: She is blossoming more and more by the second. It's crazy how quickly my little baby is growing up!

~She just learned a new word, "cheese." John taught her to say that when we hold the camera up to her and with some prodding, we get the cutest little voice in the universe yelling, "cheese!"

~She can also dance on demand. She has the most adorable little dance and if we say, "Dance, Brookie," she gets so excited and shakes her little body.

~She's so close to walking... She's stands unassisted for extended periods of time and cruises all over the house, but she has yet to take her first steps. I am NOT rushing it! Once she starts walking my life will never be the same again!!

~She is devouring solid foods now! She and her 4 teeth are learning how to chew things. She'll tolerate baby foods, but unless its a flavor that she really loves (like apple-cherry, peas, blueberry-banana-granola, or sweet potatoes) she'll only have a few bites. We do a lot of yogurt and soft foods, like rice, potatoes, noodles, and fruit. It's so fun watching her learn about new foods. I love it!

~I've mastered the art of putting pig tails in her hair! They are more work than her usual bow, but they're too cute. I've decided that she won't wear them very often though because if she does they won't be special. Besides, I only have 3 different colors of bows for pigtails... For her regular bow I have endless colors. I pretty much have a bow for every outfit. Hey, if I'm gonna have a girl, I mine as well dress her up!

~She has almost completely recovered from her yeast infection and her cold! She still has a nasty cough that is sometimes waking her up at night, but other than that, I have my happy, silly baby back. Yay for me! It is such a blast.

* My birthday is on Sunday so John took a personal day from work, which gives him tomorrow and Sunday off! We're going to get our Christmas tree on my birthday. I can't wait!

Well, like I said, John's off tonight. That means that it's time for a movie! We're watching Crimson Tide. He swears I'll like it. Let's hope!

Tomorrow, Tomorrow... It's Only A Day Away!!

Tomorrow's my big outing to go see Annie with Alison and Sarah!!! I'm so excited to get out and do something for ME for a change, but I have to tell you, I'm so nervous about leaving Miss Brooke for that long.

I'm meeting up with the girls at 6:15, which means I have to leave Brookie a little bit after 6. The show then starts at 7 and with the intermission and everything I don't see it being over much before 10. By the time we get out to the car and drive home (which is about 20 minutes from the theater), I'm not going to be home until after 10. Yikes.. That's almost 4 hours. I've never been away from my girl for that long:-(

I know that John will take AMAZING care of Brooke and that they'll have a blast, but I'm apprehensive because she does NOT take a bottle. My mother-in-law gave her breast milk out of a straw last time she watched her and she did great with that, so I'm just going to have to bank on Brooke doing that again! The main problem I have is that I only have 4 ounces of breast milk left in the freezer. That's enough for maybe one feeding??? (I don't know much about ounces and stuff) My milk supply has been dwindling so I haven't been able to get much milk using my pump. I'm used to pumping and getting 5 ounces in 15 minutes and the other night I didn't even get a half an ounce. Not cool, considering I NEED milk for her. I'm going to try to pump in a minute, so hopefully that will be successful.

Brooke usually goes down around 8 so I figure that I'll feed her at 5:30, before I leave. Then if I leave her baby food dinner for her so she can eat that around 6:30- 7, to hopefully prevent her from being wicked hungry. Then John can give her a bath and then give her the breast milk right before bedtime. Do you notice that I'm trying to micro-manage this? Man, I drive myself nuts. I'm SO glad that she goes down on her own, or else I would be super, SUPER concerned. She doesn't usually wake up until after midnight so I'm hoping that she won't need anything else after she's down for the night. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

This is what I'm MOST concerned about... John has to be at work at 11, so he has to leave our house at 10:30. In case I don't get home until after 10:30, John's brother is going to come over to sit with Brooke until I arrive. I'm so worried that she'll wake up and not have her mommy and daddy and be totally freaked out. Josh is great and all, but Brookie might feel scared because she's obviously not as comfortable with him as she is with us. Ugh, hopefully I get home early enough!

OK, well I'm really, really going to try to enjoy myself. I'm being nuts about this, right? People leave their babies all the time and this is totally normal! RIGHT??? Wish me luck!

My Wish

There's another beautiful country song out there that I absolutely love. It's called My Wish, by Rascal Flats. The guys who wrote this song wrote this for his baby girl and it talks about the dreams he has for her life. Read the lyrics. They so perfectly say so many things that I want to say!

"My Wish"

I hope that the days come easy and the moments pass slow,
And each road leads you where you want to go,
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose,
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you.
And if one door opens to another door closed,
I hope you keep on walkin' till you find the window,
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile,

But more than anything, more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,
All the ones who love you, in the place you left,
I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,
And you help somebody every chance you get,
Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,
And you always give more than you take.

But more than anything, yeah, and more than anything,
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to,
Your dreams stay big, and your worries stay small,
You never need to carry more than you can hold,
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to,
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too,
Yeah, this, is my wish.

This is my wish
I hope you know somebody loves you
May all your dreams stay big

Isn't that a beautiful song? It's obviously much better when it's being sung, but the words are nice enough to be read all by themselves.

Every night when I put Brooke to bed I pray over her crib and I ask God to prepare her future husband, teachers, bosses, and friendships. I also ask that He would protect her from the many things out there that want to hurt her. I always stare at her and think of all of the wonderful things that are in her future if she follows God's will. I have so many dreams for her and I just can't wait to watch her be able to accomplish what God put her on this planet to do.

I Wish that I could Keep Nathan!!

We had an awesome night tonight! My sister and her husband had a meeting to go to so John and I offered to watch Nathan. We had a total blast together and it just made me even more excited to have another baby.

As I was getting dinner ready, John played with both Brooke and Nathan. They read stories and played with Brookie's toys. It was actually easier having Nathan there because he and Brooke play so well together (most of the time!!) that it kept both babies engaged and happy. Neither baby was fussy or anything while they played... Except for when they fought over the books! Haha:-) They can NEVER seem to share those silly books.

We then had a quick dinner and because both babies ate well we had a special treat afterwards... POPSICLES!!!!! We stripped both babies down to only diapers and gave them a few bites of Popsicle. Brooke is crazy about them so we figured that Nathan would be too. It was hilarious because he took a HUGE bite out of a Popsicle and it was so cold that he was making this really funny face. He spit it out into a napkin and then picked it back up with his mouth when he was ready to suck on it again. I wish I had it on video! It was great fun.

While I did the dishes and got us all cleaned up, John played with the babies again. When I was done in the kitchen we then headed upstairs for bath time. Bath time was great! John was doing some things downstairs and I told him to be on standby because I didn't think I could handle both kids in the tub by myself. Wrong! They were absolute angels. They played so nicely together and they really enjoyed themselves. I was soaked from all of the splashing! It was so weird to wash Brooke and then have to wash Nathan.. It just kind of hit me that it is really DOUBLE the work. Man, it's just so much fun that it doesn't seem like work.

After bath time, John and I got the babies in their jammies. I chose to dress Nathan because he doesn't run away from me while I'm changing him! Lol! I left John with Brooke, who's a tough cookie when it comes to that stuff. From that point on we played, laughed, read stories, and sang. It was the perfect night!

I've come to the conclusion that having another baby around makes things not only more exciting and more entertaining, but it makes it EASIER. I know it sounds weird, but when you have another one around they seem to occupy each other and you have more opportunities to sit back and watch them. I was sad to see Nathan go tonight because I loved having him join our family activities so very much. I wonder if Alison wouldn't notice if I took him?? Lol

I'm super excited now to have another baby. Obviously we're still waiting, but I absolutely cannot wait until my house is filled with the laughter of another baby. There are so many fun days in my future. Being a mom (and an aunt to the most beautiful baby boy ever) is just the greatest!

It's Always Something:-(

As I said the other day, Brooke has another cold. Unfortunately that same cold has now been passed on to me, leaving us where we were a few weeks ago.. Miserable and sick. Yesterday was the worst of it but today we both have the lingering cough and runny nose. I'm so annoyed that we keep getting colds!

Brooke also has a really, really awful diaper rash. I've been trying so hard to get rid of it and it's only gotten worse. It's now traveling down towards her thighs and it looks so uncomfortable for her. I feel so sad that she has to have this nasty rash. I think that it's thrush again because last time she had thrush she got a rash like this, though it wasn't nearly this bad. I also saw a few white spots in her mouth. So, it looks like we're back to the doctor on Monday to try to get her fixed yet again.

I also think that Brooke has another tooth coming in. It's hard to tell because she won't ever let me in her mouth. It's also on her top gums, which makes it even harder to be able to look. The one area is very swollen and I think that I feel an ever so slight part of a tooth. She's also gnawing on things and putting her fingers on that one spot in her mouth. Teeth are so annoying. They mess everything up!

All of these things have really done a number on our sleeping progress. For starters, she has been nursing to sleep. When she's well, she always goes down awake. I've just been wanting to snuggle with her and comfort her because I know she feels like garbage. She is also waking up A LOT. I think that it's cruel to let a sick baby with an itchy bottom, runny nose, cough, and sore gums sit in her crib to cry. Therefore I've been picking her up and giving in to her a whole lot more. I just hope that this doesn't totally undo everything that we taught her.

Brooke has even been waking up in the middle of the night and STAYING awake for hours at a time.. Something that she has NEVER done. The other night her cough woke her up at 1. It was such a bad cough that she was wide awake, causing her to want to play. It took me an hour to get her to calm down and go back to sleep. She has also been waking screaming at other times, in obvious discomfort. I know that she's sick so I'm trying to be patient, but this is SO difficult. I'm walking around like a zombie and I'm so not used to that!

Brooke also doesn't take naps. It's ridiculous. I know that she's exhausted and I've come to determine that the only way I'll be able to get her to nap is to let her cry-it-out. However, like I said before, I absolutely will not let my sick baby cry-it-out. So, it looks like we'll have to postpone trying to get Brooke to nap until she's better.

As I said a couple of days ago, John bought me tickets to go see Annie with Alison and Sarah next Thursday night. How the heck am I supposed to leave her if she won't go down without nursing??? I'm so anxious about this all. I don't even know what to do. I feel like I've been Brooke's personal pacifier lately, but is that because she's sick or is that because I've spoiled her? I just don't know. I really haven't given her much of an opportunity to go down awake lately. Hopefully she'll be all better by then and it won't even be an issue.

I want my healthy, happy, sleeping baby back. I love the sick baby just as much and I'm honored to be able to care for her, even in difficult circumstances, but my heart breaks for her when she isn't herself. Hopefully things improve.. And SOON!

The Mistaken Meaning of Christmas

Picture this... All year long you make sure that you celebrate the birthdays of your close friends and family. You make a point not to forget these special dates ind your loved ones' lives and you anually plan elaborate parties, make their favorite meals, and lavish them with cards and presents. Now, finally, it's your birthday. You come home expecting to find all those that are near and dear to your heart, but instead you find nobody. Where are they? They're all too busy preparing your birthday events that they've totally forgotten about YOU.

I stopped to think today. I wonder if Jesus feels that way sometimes... Like we've forgotten His birthday. We are too consumed with shopping, baking, decorating, present- wrapping, tree-trimming, gift-giving, family get-togethers, and sending out Christmas cards that it's SO easy to not even reflect on the birth of the saviour of the world. He shows us His life CONSTANTLY, yet we can't take time out of elaborate Christmas festivites to honor Him as the guest of honor.

I started to think about all of this today when I ventured out into the Black Friday mayhem. I wanted to go to Target to look at a few sale items and I honestly could not MOVE in the store. Every single aisle was congested with floods of people and people were running into one another. Cross words were being exchanged among strangers as they were ramming into each other. It was so packed in that stupid store that there were no more carts available. That whole scene was ridiculous.
As Alison and I took our babies out to the car, we were completely frazzled.

I'm sick of cheap prices on DVD's or toys or clothing (or whatever else it might be) carrying so much weight in the holiday season. Obviously I have people to buy for and I love getting a great deal on things, but it's not worth it to me to save a few bucks if I have to get trampled on to do it. Society as a whole has commercialized this precious holiday and it no longer seems to be about anything but materialistic junk. I'm the worst offender here. It's way too easy to give our holiday shopping and our own personal wish list precedence over the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

If it was John's birthday (or the birthday of another family member), I would drop everything to ensure that his day was as special as it could possibly be. I would never forget to acknowledge him. In fact, I would fall all over myself to tell him how special he is to me. This brings me to the final question... Am I putting forth equal (or superior) efforts to honor Jesus' birthday? I'm ashamed to say that I'm not.

I want this Christmas season to be different. I'm not going to sweat the small stuff and stress over what gifts to buy for people. Instead, I'm going to channel all of my energy into remembering the great GIFT that was ever given to all of mankind. This is so much easier said that done but I'll remember the initial question that sparked this whole post... How would I feel if everyone I love forgot MY birthday?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Today was a great day for us. We spent the morning at my parents house. The guys went to Starbucks while my mom, sister, the babies, and I went to McDonald's for breakfast. We then just hung out around the house and watched the parade and cooked... And chased Brooke and Nathan, too, of course! At about 2, John and I went over to John's aunt's house, where we shared a wonderful Thanksgiving feast with his side of the family. All in all, it was a great day that was spent with all (well, most) of the people that I love.

Let me just note that Brooke looked absolutely precious in her new Thanksgiving outfit that John bought for her. I didn't take any picture because we were so busy, but she looked very festive! We were proud to show her off to everyone.

I sure do have a lot to thankful for! My heart is so full of thankfulness and joy as I reflect on all of life's many rich and wonderful blessing. God has been so good to us!

I'm thankful for:

~Jesus dying on the cross to not only save me from eternity in hell, but to give me a meaningful life NOW. It's so awesome that He loves me and that He gave me His word to lean on.

~My amazing husband! He is my best friend and I honestly couldn't ask for a better partner in life than him. He has his priorities in check and he takes amazing care of Brooke and me. I look up to him and his great attitude so much. He's an awesome example for me in so many areas.

~My beautiful daughter. Every time I look at her I am reminded of how blessed I am to be her mother. God could have chosen anyone in the universe to raise her and somehow He chose ME. Her vibrant smile and quirky personality make life so much more fun than it ever used to be!

~My parents. They give and give so freely of their time and money to show us that they love us. I honestly don't think there's anything that they wouldn't do for me. Their friendship and love is priceless.

~John's parents. They have welcomed me into their family and loved me as if I were their own daughter. They, like my own parents, would do anything for us. I'm so thankful that I'm so close with them, unlike so many other people are at odds with their in-laws.

~My nephew, Nathan. I love that little boy so much. I would claim him as my own baby if my sister would let me:-) He honestly melts my heart every time I look at him.

~My sister, Alison. She knows me better than I know myself and she is a great help and encouragement to me. I can call her at midnight and ask her a baby question. She's ALWAYS there for me. I can always count on her to make me smile too! She shares all of my memories and laughs from my childhood.

~My DAWG (John's sister, Sarah). She's my buddy and we always laugh for hours when we're together. She's so helpful and I admire her willing spirit. I always wanted a little sister and I finally got one when she came into my life!

~All my other siblings: My big brother, Jared and his wife Amanda, My brother-in-law, Luke, and for John's brother, Josh. They all love and support us!

~To live in the great country of America where I can worship God freely and not fear be imprisoned for my religious beliefs.

~A roof over my head.

~Cars to drive.

~Food on the table.

~Clothes and shoes to wear.

~My gifts and abilities that God has given me.

I'm sure that I could sit behind this computer for hours on end and write about all of things that I'm thankful for, but time won't allow that! Life is so amazing and I just wanted to stop for a minute and count my blessings!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!!