{So Much} Jane and Eugene

Reading more.

2018-01-03T09:09:00.001-08:00

Last January, I decided that I wanted to read more. I'm mainly neutral to reading, but being a stay at home mom with little ones, I felt like my world was feeling pretty small and my brain was getting in a rut. I decided to try to change that by reading more and adding a news source. (I typically avoided the news because it's depressing and stirs up strife, but I found a news podcast that I like.)

I set the goal of reading 12 books in a year (one per month), including reading the full Bible chronologically. That may sound like a low goal, but for me this felt like a lofty one. I've never been an avid reader because I was always nervous I'd not get the book finished, and I didn't feel like I had any buffer time to read. In actuality, I realized that I just spent/wasted my buffer time on a Netflix show or scrolling social media (hence my feeling of having my brain in a rut.) To my surprise, I exceeded my goal and read 13 books plus the Bible!

Here's my list:

1) The Bible

Regardless of your beliefs, I totally think everyone should read the Bible from beginning to end... this was my first time completing it chronologically. Amazing experience. It's a commitment definitely, but worth more than you'll ever imagine.
I got this beautiful single column, ESV journal Bible for Christmas last year. It was a different feeling reading through an unmarked, brand-new Bible. (My other Bibles are written all over from years of use.) It's a heavy Bible, but I love the single column feature along with the lines for notes.
This is the daily plan I used.
Also, a local group, "Dayton Women in the Word" is doing a yearly reading plan too. So if you want accountability, or insight for others, or even just community, look them up on Facebook, Instagram, or at their website here.

2) The Red Sea Road by Robert J. Morgan

I HIGHLY recommend this small book to anyone facing an especially challenging time! This was my 2nd time reading it. Seriously, get this book.

3) ‎The Lucky Few by Heather Avis

This was a super fast and easy read, loved her style of writing, and loved her life story. I've recommended this to friends already.

4) ‎Dear Birthmother by Silver and Speedlin

If you're thinking about adoption, I recommend this. Very interesting and enlightening to read letters written by birthmothers.

5) ‎The Magnolia Story by Chip and Joanna Gaines

I finished it in two days - neat to see how far they've come. It was a nice, light read.

6) The Unveiled Wife by Jennifer Smith

This was very interesting, especially if you have a chronic pain or illness, but I felt like it was much too drawn out.

7) The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

This is not an easy read, but very thought-provoking. I feel like I need to read this one 3 more times to get the full message, ha!

8) Don't Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman

I don't agree with absolutely everything in this book, but it offered some really good parenting principles and framework.
I like the chart that is a companion to this. It lists the issue the child is doing (i.e. hitting, complaining, tattling, etc.) and then some helpful verses, questions, and encouragement to address the issues. It's on amazon here.

9) Twenty Things Adoptive Parents Need to Succeed by Sherrie Eldridge

Written by an adoptee, so it's a helpful resource for sure if you're interested in adoption

10) Gracelaced: Discovering Timeless Truth Through Seasons of the Heart by Ruth Chou Simons

I love her art, all she stands for, her heart for God. This is a beautiful book, and I gave it to 3 different people for Christmas. I've also purchased several prints of her paintings.
If you don't follow her (@gracelaced) on Instagram, you should.

11) The Broken Way by Ann Voskamp

Ann Voskamp's writing is poetic and powerful. She has a gift. Her book, "One Thousand Gifts" is one of my absolute favorite books ever. All that to say, this wasn't my favorite book but I did enjoy the overarching concepts.

12) The Best Yes by Lysa TerKeurst

I liked this one. If you feel over-booked, stressed, or struggle to say no, this is a great choice.

13) Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequest

I've heard such good stuff about this book, and I really wanted to love it, but I didn't at all. Speaking from a theological perspective, it falls quite short (and incorrect in some portions of it, in my opinion.) I don't recommend this.

14) Audacious by Beth Moore

This was good, not super elaborate, but had some great thinking points.

This year, I want to keep the same goal of 12 books. I plan to go through the New Testament slowly and dig a little deeper using commentary, while continuing my BSF and inductive study of Romans. I also want to make sure I read a couple fictional books, since I tend to naturally gravitate to non-fiction. I'd love any recommendations you have!

FAQs

2017-11-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

We've noticed that people have a lot of questions regarding our adoption. It has been neat how many nurses get rolling on questions for us once we tell them we welcome the questions. Quite a few of them tell us they're really interested in adoption. It's not so surprising given all the brokenness they see at the hospital. I thought I'd post some of the main questions and our answers here.

Q: What made you decide to adopt? (Also worded, have you always wanted to adopt?)
A: The story of what led us to adoption is in the blogpost: A new journey.

Q: How long did your adoption process take?
A: From our first introduction meeting with the agency where we received the stack of papers to begin filling out was exactly one year from our first post-placement visit. It took us 2-3 months to complete all the paperwork, background checks, safety regulations, and home study visits. Then the remaining 9-10 months were spent waiting for a birth mom to pick our family.

Q: Did you already know the birth mom?
A: No. We met her a week before baby boy was born, and then she selected us the night before her induction. We were blessed with the huge gift of her asking us to sit in her room during the labor while she was still comfortable, so for a few hours we got to get to know her more, and she us.

Q: Will your adoption be open or closed?
A: The plan is for it to be open.

Here's the biggest question we get from the nursers...
Q: Did you know about his medical condition before you decided to adopt him?
A: Yes.

Q: Is your adoption final?
A: Not yet. We currently have monthly post-placement visits with our social worker. In about 5-6 months we should have a court appearance to finalize the adoption with a judge. We can't wait for that great day!

We welcome (most, ha!) questions so feel free to call or message us directly. :)

He's here.

2017-10-21T10:05:00.002-07:00

We are beyond excited to introduce to our family and friends: our sweet son!

It's a long story - one with God's handiwork all over it, and I'll likely share more later, but for now we just wanted to share our joyful news of gaining a son this week! He was born on the day that marked our 14th year together as a couple, Wednesday, October 18. He was only 34.5 weeks, but we praise God for his solid birthweight of 5 lbs. and 5 oz!

Along with announcing his birth and the start of his official adoption into our family, we are also asking for prayers for him. He was born with Gastroschisis, a condition where basically his small intestines are outside his body. Even in just is his first few days of life, our feisty guy is making amazing progress. He's off the ventilator, has a successful PICC line in place, had his intestines lowered quite a bit, and is breathing well on his own. But our son will have a long journey of healing, and we're expecting him to be in the NICU for possibly up to three months.

We would love prayer for this journey, and if you prefer specifics, here are some right now:

PRAISE GOD for his amazing life and connecting it to ours!! (There are a million more praises along with this too, but that's for another post.)
his intestines to lower successfully into his body and for them to be fully functioning soon
his stomach to be closed without surgery
his agitation and pain level to subside
his birth mom
our family, especially the kids, as they adjust to having a new baby brother and having mom and dad gone at the NICU often, and not being able to meet baby brother for a while
God's continued provision for all the needs that are coming

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21

Far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Thank you God, for this incredible gift!

A new journey.

2017-01-28T15:51:00.005-08:00

So, I've thought a lot about returning to this blog, but honestly, it hasn't felt right yet. Crazy that it's been three years since I last posted! Now that the kids are getting older, I've found myself wanting to protect their privacy. I still share some of our wondrous things on Instagram and a few on Facebook (I think Instagram is a much happier, more peaceful social media place in general, so I usually camp there for my public sharing), but majority of our details are saved sweetly within our family. And it feels right.

But... now, we have a new journey to share, and keeping it within our own family just isn't enough for such a big, exciting, scary, amazing story that God's writing.

So here goes:

We are, Lord willing, going to adopt a baby.

Bear with me through this; it's hard to write confidently about such an uncontrolled thing. Well, it's controlled, I guess, just not by us. I have a lump in my throat even as I type these words -- stating that we're adopting seems like such a big claim. What if we never get "picked?" Yet, God has without a doubt called us to take these steps. There's no other way you can frame it. God led us to this. And we really trust, we believe, that He has a baby for us through adoption.

Eugene and I were faced with a very likely possibility of infertility issues early on in our marriage when I was diagnosed with endometriosis, had a surgical procedure for it, tried to conceive for a while unsuccessfully, conceived but resulted in a miscarriage, then had another bout of waiting until finally we were blessed with sweet "big sister." The point of sharing all that pretty private info is that through that entire time of wondering daily - sometimes, hourly - whether or not I could carry a sweet healthy baby in me, Eugene and I had an honest conversation about adoption. It was a simple one. (Those of you who know Eugene aren't shocked...man of few words when it comes to serious topics!) I asked him if he felt like we should consider adoption, especially given our struggles and odds of having a child biologically. He said he didn't really feel like that's what we should do. He asked me the same questions, and my answer was the same. We didn't have anything against adoption, but for some reason (aka God), neither of us felt like pursuing adoption was the right thing at that time for us.

We pressed on through what was probably the toughest time for me personally and for our marriage, and God knocked our socks off with His plan in His time: our sweet little girl was born. Two years, two months later, enter "little brother." This kid is silly, and sensitive, and so ridiculously sweet. And God again knows just what He's doing. Parenthood has refined us in ways we never knew we needed refining. I've watched Eugene grow into a complete leader of our family, a fun, solid, intentional father to our children, a sacrificing, hardworking husband for me. I've since willingly killed my career in Events, trading angry mothers-of-the-brides for giggling toddlers. Staying at home with them has been the hardest job I've ever done - dare I say, ever will do. Hard, not because my kids are tough, but because it highlights every ounce of selfishness, pride, and identity issues in me. I've grown so much. And my kids are awesome. Best job ever, seriously.

Fast forward to about six months ago... Eugene took a new job as an Athletic Director in a new area. We bought a huge house (that's a whole other God-story to tell.) We moved from our hometown, and started new with our family of four. But right after we bought our house, I suddenly - strangely - felt that adoption/fostering might be something we needed to consider. It seemed super weird to me because we were already talking about growing our family the "traditional" way soon, going for around three years of an age gap. Adoption wasn't on our radar at all, so to think of adoption was not my timing and not my idea.

A week or so later, after thinking about adoption/fostering constantly, I brought it up to Eugene. I told him that I had no clue why I couldn't shake thinking about it, but I asked that he would pray about it. He said, "sure." A few days later, I went to one of my Norwex demos (I sell Norwex which is basically cleaning products that only use water and microfiber with silver in it.) At my demo, I began to chat with the first guest to arrive. I don't normally chat much with guests because I'm busy setting up, but I did this time, and she told me she was a retired social worker from our county for foster and adoption. She still works as a social worker for a Christian private foster agency. Next guest enters, and it's a woman with her 18 month old foster child. She shared that she was planning on adopting him when he turned two. Now this might not feel like much to you, but to me it was huge. I felt like God was waving a massive banner in front of my face saying, "I'm working on something here. Follow along!"

A few days later, my mind was still spinning. I didn't know why this whole adoption/fostering thing kept pressing on me. It didn't make sense for our "plan," but it was really intriguing to me. And the more I thought about it, them more my heart began to ache for the idea that adoption might be in His plan for our family. The biggest moment of this story was when I went to take a shower. I was kind of at a breaking moment. Eugene hadn't really said much about it yet; he listened to me when I shared bits of my encounters and thoughts, but I didn't really feel like he was feeling like it was much more than interesting. I headed to shower, and through tears, I prayed honestly - almost desperately - in my confusion of what God wanted me to do with everything, "Lord, I'm willing, but if You want us to adopt, You need to have Eugene bring it up." I absolutely did not want to jump into such a massive family decision based solely on my hunch, but I also couldn't stop feeling like it was something we needed to pursue.

Eugene is amazing, and I know he would be on board with it if he felt I was called to it, but that wasn't enough for me. I wanted Him to be called too. I wanted him to feel it on his own, as strongly as I felt it on my own. So I got out of the shower, got dressed, wrapped my hair in a towel to dry and headed downstairs to plop next to Eugene who was watching TV on the couch. I kid you not, at that moment he looked at me - unprompted by me - and told me he thought we should adopt. (WHAT!?) My hair was still wet, and HE brought it up. Those of you who know him, know it is very out of character of him to bring up anything serious ever. He brought it up! I teared up and shared with him all about my prayer, and from that moment on, we've been trying to simply take the next step in this journey while praying we are walking in God's will. That's the only place we ever want to be.

God's done a bunch of other small crazy things to keep shouting at us, for which I'm so thankful. Eugene and I put on a random Doc McStuffins show for the kids to watch, and low and behold, Doc's parents are adopting a baby! (What?!) We meet a family at the pool in our new community, non-social Eugene starts chatting it up with the dad (what?!), and the dad soon shares that they have two biological kids, and adopted son, and a foster daughter who will likely be adopted soon. We walked away from the pool unsure of whether we should laugh or cry! Other moments like God working out a meeting with our only friends who have adopted who just so happen to be where Eugene was, willing to meet at that time, and had a great experience using the only agency we had really researched at that point.

I think I'll keep some updates of our journey here, for my sake mainly, but also because I like to think that there are family, friends, maybe even strangers who might be intrigued to hear our story and see how it unfolds. I know I'm so anxious to see what God's going to do. I just have a feeling, it's something big and maybe even beautiful.

We are feeling quite the same way as we did when we first found out we were pregnant - giddy, excited, thankful, scared, slightly overwhelmed, and resting in our full hearts.

We've gotten quite a few questions from the few people we've told. So here's a quick rundown of the basics. We're using a private, local agency. We've completed the mounds of paperwork, had all the inspections, background checks, physicals, profiles, etc. We just finished the interview and home study, and our social worker will be working on inputting all our home study information into their system over the next few months. Our agency mainly does infant adoptions, so ours will be a domestic (Ohio), newborn, but we're leaving pretty much all the parameters open in terms of gender, race, drug use, incarceration, mental and physical background, etc. We could get a call regarding a birth mom at the hospital in labor, or we could be matched with a birth mom only a few months into her pregnancy. We have no idea what the timeline will look like - could be one call and a new child all in a day, or we could be on the wait list for over a year. God knows.

Pray with us, please? Pray for us to walk in God's will. Pray for birthparent(s) who are making quite possibly one of the most heroic decisions I can even comprehend. Pray for us to make wise decisions in this process. Pray for God to provide for the very large financial need we're facing. Pray for us to have opportunities to share God's love in lots of ways through all of this. Pray with thanks that God's at work and doing something big, and graciously allowing us to be a part of it all. Pray with us for a sweet little baby to grow our family in love.

We're so excited!

Ephesians 1:4-6 (English Standard Version)

...He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:4-6 (The Message Version)

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

Changes.

2014-11-06T19:33:00.001-08:00

The past three months have been growing months for me. Growing months, with growing pains. But at the same time, I’ve also had a calmness, hopefulness, and odd sort of peace through the whole process too. A ton has changed for my family in the last three months.

Obviously, the biggest change has been adding little brother to our family. Big sister took that change the hardest. I’ll be honest, the first two weeks weren’t pretty at my house. She struggled to accept the fact that momma just couldn’t play with her and focus on her all day…in fact, momma was stuck on the couch one out of every three hours trying to nurse baby brother. That’s not an easy thing for a two-year-old to adjust to! However, after two weeks or so, she started to understand the routine and began to return to her joyful self. Since then, we’ve certainly had our fair share of tough days, but I’m happy to say that we have more good days than bad. ;) {It’s tough being a toddler, isn’t it?!}

{The kids with Eugene while he covered a HS volleyball match. Big sister is playing with a mini volleyball she was given.}

It wasn’t just our family that changed. Eugene took a new job at a new school and is now an Athletic Director and teaches a couple classes, instead of a full time teacher who coaches two sports. We really miss his old school {just 5 min from our house} and his friends there, but he truly enjoys his job now. He said for the first time, he looks forward to doing his job. He loves students and the school atmosphere, but he just didn’t love teaching. Now, he can still be around students and teachers, but with a sports focus; it’s perfect for him.

It’s a huge blessing to see him happy with his work, but it hasn’t come without sacrifices too. He was hired and started his job just a week or so before baby brother was born. He had a ton of catch-up work to do since he was hired so late, and instead of his plan {prior to this new job} of taking off 2-3 full weeks to stay home with me after the delivery, he no longer was able to do that. He only stayed home a couple days rather than a few weeks. Thankfully, he had some flexibility in his hours, which helped, but it was a much different circumstance than when we had big sister {it was the summer so he was off for a full month with us.} In addition, the AD job requires many evening hours, especially for Fall season which started right when little brother was born. It’s been a personal challenge for me to be supportive and encouraging to him as he works such long days, when I’m equally exhausted from lack of sleep and just the wearing nature of being on my own all day and night with a toddler and a newborn and trying to nurse. I’ve really been feeling God working on my selfish nature and also on my interactions and words towards Eugene. I’m trying to think over my words instead of just spilling them everywhere, encouraging him in action and words, and really trying to see his true intentions before my fatigued self assumes the negative. I won’t pretend that I’ve done well at this, but I’m aware of my incredible ineptness, and I’m trying to improve each day. It’s been a personal refining process for sure, and I’m thankful that his job change has challenged me to be a better wife. I will say, Eugene has been so kind to get home after 17 hours of working and go straight to the sink to wash dishes or immediately do a load of laundry or do bath time so I can have a break. He has been working so hard in the office and then coming home and working just as hard. He’s clearly put our family as his first priority – supporting us with his job, and doing his best to make us his focus when he isn’t working. I appreciate how hard he’s working at being a husband and father, and I wouldn’t want to walk through all this change with anyone else.

Another huge change for us is that I am no longer a full-time Event Coordinator and Department Manager who splits time at the office and at home with a toddler. I recently walked through one of the hardest decisions in my life to actually to implement: I quit my job. Gah, even typing that stirs up some tears of sadness. We planned for me to become a stay-at-home mom when I was pregnant with big sister, well, actually way back when we first talked about getting married. We purposely bought a foreclosed {read: cheaper} house, focused hard on paying off debt, and made other decisions to set us up to be able to survive {barely} on one income. But once I told my employer I didn’t plan on coming back to work after having big sister, God led us a different direction with my job and the offer to work from home a few days a week. Two years later, with this pregnancy, we were pretty certain {unless God showed us a different way again} that I should leave my job once little brother was born. I know it’s what’s best for my family, but it didn’t make it any easier to actually do. I love my job and my employer. I would be happy doing that job until I retire, which I know is a rare thing. I love my coworkers. They’re my friends, and to leave them without a manager during the busy season just broke my heart. However, countering all those feelings was an even stronger feeling on certainty that for right now, in this phase of life, for my family, I need to be home with my children, 100% available to them, and focused on pouring into their lives. Now, just because I knew it was the right decision, didn’t mean it wasn’t a sacrifice to actually make it. It’s a scary thing to quit a job you love and one in which you’ve worked so hard. Selfishly, on the surface I wanted to keep working; however, I just knew deep down it was the best choice for me or my family right now for me to quit…even if it didn’t necessarily feel right every second along the way.

When I actually had my meeting to resign, God graciously confirmed my decision with very positive feedback and affirmation from my CEO and other coworkers. Despite others telling me it was a good choice, once the decision was final, I really struggled mentally with no longer working outside of being a mom. I’m a type A personality. I like having clear expectations, clear measurements for success, clear feedback, and comfortable finances. Also, {I don’t mean this to sound conceited}, but I like doing a job I’m good at. All of those things, they just don’t exist in the SAHM world. I don’t feel like I’m ever doing a good job as a mom. {I’m pretty sure most mom’s experience that feeling too.} I don’t have any clear measurements for success or feedback. My two-year-old can’t tell me I did a good job at the end of the day, and honestly, neither can my husband. I’m learning to try to find my affirmation from my relationship with Christ, but it’s a hard thing for me right now.

My friend gave me good advice of setting goals for the day, like to keep my cool and not lose my temper, prioritize my kids above my to-do list, teach them something new each day, etc. That has helped me stay motivated and focused. And honestly, I’m so busy and involved with two right now, I can’t even imagine working. I always said that I wanted to do my job well, and I would quit my job if I felt like I wasn’t doing my job in the office well or my job at home as a mom well. As humbling as it has been to experience this, I’m completely sure I cannot do both jobs well. Even doing one {being a mom} is a stretch! I’ve been both a working mom and a SAHM, and let me tell you, both are incredibly hard. I Right now, being a stay at home mom is the hardest job I’ve ever done. It’s also the most important job I’ve ever done, so perhaps that’s why it seems so hard to me…I put lots of pressure on myself with the immense responsibility I feel for my kiddos.

It’s been a big change, but with the loss of my job, I’ve also added in other very positive things that I wasn’t able to fit in while working. We go to playgrounds, we play with friends, we go to a weekly Bible Study {BSF}, we hike at the park, we have coffee dates with family, I do a small group with church friends, etc. We stay very busy, but it’s a quality, focused busy, not just preoccupied busy, answering calls and emails while trying to keep little sister distracted. This new kind of busy makes my heart much happier.

I miss work. I miss lots of things about work. But I’m truly happy with the change. I realize I’m so blessed to even have the opportunity to choose not to work. Financially, it’ll be tight, but I’d rather scrimp, live on little for a few years, and even dip into our savings if we have to. I’m okay with being poor. It’ll be a sacrifice for us, but one we’re happy to make. As cliché as it sounds, even if we’re poor financially, because we’re living how we want to and how we think God wants us to, in my eyes, that means we are pretty rich! I may take on a part-time job later on, but for now, this is where we are – Eugene working his tail off at a new school, and me working my tail off at home with the kids. I’m learning so much about myself and humbly seeing many areas in which I need to grow. We are adapting. We are maturing. We are showing each other grace through the sometimes painful process of change. And we are most certainly blessed.

Makeshift family pictures.

2014-10-27T17:39:00.001-07:00

Okay, in case you were wondering, I’m still alive…despite my lack of presence on this blog. It’s a little time-consuming keeping up with a two-year-old and feeding an infant! I have a lot of pictures from the past two and a half months that I hope to post on here sometime soon. Maybe when my kids are 20 and 22 I’ll get around to posting them. ;)

Anyway, here’s some makeshift family pictures. As hard as it is to take a shower, squeeze into my too-small jeans, get the kids dressed/fed/groomed, and drive to a park before it’s time to feed little brother again – I pushed to get these pictures because I know I’ll want to see my little ones and our sweet family at this stage in life. Exhausting, but probably worth it.

I asked Eugene’s sister to take some pictures for me. Basically I posed us and told here where to put the focus dot, and then she’d snap it for us. It was more challenging than I expected to pose a picture that I’m supposed to be in –just kind of odd. I’m really appreciative to Rita {and Mark} for their willingness to tag along with us and help us out. Not surprisingly, I think I look gross in all these pictures, but I still think we got a few good ones of everyone else. {It’s really tough to adjust to the constantly changing body of pregnancy/post-pregnancy fluctuations. Not fun. I miss my volleyball days when my body was that of an athlete.} Okay, I’m off topic. Blame it on the lack of sleep. Enough rambling – here are the pictures.

Life as a family of four sure has been different. It’s been a growing season for me especially. I’ll try to share more on that later too. I look at these pictures and see two complete miracles. I’m so humbled to see the pictures of us. It’s still surreal to me. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to the idea that I’ve been gifted two sweet babies and a husband who loves us. Truly a gift.

Backyard photo session for little brother.

2014-09-06T11:52:00.001-07:00

I captured a handful of photos of little brother in our backyard while he was napping. I’m pretty sure I’ll cherish these forever. I love this sweet little guy and his big sister too.

That last pic. Oh my, love.

Pictures from the hospital.

2014-09-05T05:04:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling most of my posts are going to be pretty much all pictures for a while. It’s much quicker to skip the writing part – plus sleep deprivation doesn’t go well with attempting to write anything coherent! Below are some pictures we took while in the hospital after the birth of little brother. Big sister absolutely loved getting to hold her brother.

I love my little family of four. God is so good.

Baby brother’s birth.

2014-08-30T05:38:00.001-07:00

I’m two weeks late on this, but Eugene & I are overflowing with joy to announce the birth of our son!

His birth story is quite a bit different from his sister’s. Although, similar to his sister, he decided to come after I attended a Bible study. Guess the Spirit really moves my kiddos! ;) I went to a Bible study at 7pm on Monday night. I was having some contractions, enough to where I decided to start timing them. During the Bible study they were anywhere from 10 to 20 min apart and starting to get more intense and regular. The whole day I was feeling a little weird. I told Eugene that I thought I felt off, and I even predicted that I’d have the baby on Tuesday because I worked a LONG and HOT outdoor event on Sunday. When I had big sister, she also came two days after a huge military event I coordinated.

Like I said, during my Bible Study from 7-9pm, I was having semi-regular contractions…enough that I started to time them. I didn’t really think much of them because I had tons of contractions the last month or so of my pregnancy. It was just normal to have them off and on throughout the day. When I got home from Bible Study, I talked to Eugene a little about our days, then got ready for bed. We laid down around 10:30pm, read a chapter from Psalms together, prayed together, then turned off the light. Eugene usually falls asleep way faster than I do, so try to use that quiet time to have some personal prayer myself. I kid you not – I was praying to God, “I trust your timing, Lord, but if it’s your will, please let the baby come in the next day or two.” During that exact prayer, I felt a pop/small burst, and I knew my water had broken. I told Eugene and he jumped out of bed and began packing. {He isn’t one to pack bags ahead of time…luckily, I had already packed my bag and big sister’s bag.} I told Eugene I didn’t want to leave right away and I wanted time to make sure it was my water breaking. Last time, my water broke around 4pm, and I didn’t have the baby until almost 7am. I didn’t see the need to rush to the hospital just to hang out walking the halls again.

Eugene’s mom came over to sleep at our house so we didn’t have to wake up big sister. {Thank you, Lori!} I got my stuff together, washed my hair, {yes, I wasn’t about to have greasy hair for 2 days in the hospital!}, and we headed in to the hospital about 30 minutes after my water initially broke.

When we got there, we checked in, and headed to triage. I answered 2,000 questions, and then they checked my progress. The nurses kept saying how difficult it was to tell because the baby was so incredibly low. Eventually they told me I was already at 6 cm and having regular contractions. This was going to be much quicker than the first time!

I asked for a nurse who was comfortable with a birth without pain medicine, and God gave me an absolutely amazing nurse. Complete blessing! Nicole, my nurse, got me on antibiotics {I tested positive for Group B Strep}, and then she kindly suggested a few tips to get the labor moving even quicker – rocking my hips on my birthing ball, moving to all fours on the bed, and relaxing my lower muscles with each contraction. She was helpful but not forceful or overbearing. I cannot praise her enough – she made my whole labor experience so much better than my first!

My sister and Eugene were there to help me through the painful contractions. My sister played with my hair, got me water {I was ridiculously thirsty the whole time}, and massaged/put pressure on my back during the contractions. Eugene stood in front of me while I would lean all my weight on him and bear hug him with each contraction. He would talk me through them and let me know when the contraction was almost over by watching the monitor. That was really helpful for me to know when each one was almost over. I just remember saying how sleepy and tired I was. I seriously wanted to fall asleep while sitting on the birthing ball. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, and I could hardly hold myself up {which is why I wanted to lean on Eugene.} Without Nicole, Eugene, and my sister, I couldn't have made it through the labor and delivery without pain medication or without keeping my sanity! ;)

My water broke around 10:40pm, and little brother arrived a short 4 hours and 40 some minutes later. Waaay faster this time! It was intense. Very strong contractions, but thankfully I didn’t have back labor this time. That back labor and pitocin last time was AWFUL. I am so thankful that I didn’t experience either of those this time around.

This time around the doctor was already at the hospital, which is a good thing because I transition to being ready to push ridiculously fast. Once it was time to push, it only took 15 minutes or less to meet little brother. I think the labor was easier this time around, but delivery and after delivery was much more painful this time. Perhaps the epidural I got way too late last time actually kicked in ever so slightly to take the edge off of the after delivery part. This time, not so much…I’ll spare you details on that. ;)

As painful and unpleasant as this delivery was, I had a great labor and delivery. Little brother was surprisingly extremely active through the whole labor so I never had to worry if he was okay. I made it through it as I wanted to, without an epidural. I had an awesome nurse and support, enough time to get a full dose of antibiotics in, and it went much faster this time…without pitocin or back labor! Seriously, God was all over every aspect of baby brother’s birth. Thank you, Lord!

We are so in love with this little guy. What an absolute blessing he is.

A quick get-away.

2014-07-25T03:25:00.000-07:00

We’ve been really busy. We’re always busy, but lately, it’s been even more-so than usual. Neither of us had time to plan a vacation, but we had ONE weekend in all of June/July/August that wasn’t already busy with some obligation for one of us. I knew I really wanted to go somewhere to reconnect with Eugene, and also to give the little one some special attention before she’s no longer an only child. My hormonal, indecisive self couldn’t function enough to plan a trip, but thankfully, Eugene saved the day {or my summer} by booking a hotel and buying zoo tickets on a Friday night, just in time for us to leave the next morning.

We woke up at normal time {read: early, thanks to a certain two-year-old}, ate breakfast, got our stuff together and headed 2.5 hours away to Toledo. The little one napped in the car, thankfully. So the trip there wasn’t too bad, other than construction. We stayed one night at a hotel that had an indoor pool so the little one could swim, and then we woke up and headed to the Toledo Zoo. {I didn’t know until Eugene told me, but the Toledo Zoo is ranked #1 in the Nation by USA Today.} We stayed as long as the little one could handle, which worked out to be perfect. She reached her max right around 2pm, and we had finished almost all of the exhibits in that 4 hours, so we headed home and she napped before we pulled out of the parking lot!

Our hotel room had a nice view of the river…

Not surprisingly, she loved swimming with Dada – mainly jumping in nonstop…

We walked across the river and enjoyed a nice dinner at a restaurant on the river. {Pardon the blurry phone pic.}

She was so enthralled with the boats. It didn’t matter whether the boat was moving full speed or docked!

She and her daddy got some really good time together on this trip. He’s been working some crazy hours lately, so it made my heart so happy to see them get such quality time.

And here begins the zoo pictures. Quick family photo before we entered the zoo. {BIIG ole belly! Only 4 weeks to go!}

We got to see them feed the penguins first…

There was a nice playground right next to the penguin exhibit, so we couldn’t escape without a few rides down the slide “all by myself!” {She’s getting so independent!}

Since she loves Curious George, I figured she’d like the primate exhibits. She was so focused the whole time, not even smiling, but I could tell she was just taking it all in. Later on, she talked with excitement about how the monkeys were eating fruit and swinging.

I like the picture above to the right. Two sets of gorillas in love, ha!

I have had a longstanding fear of birds, but I faced that fear and willingly walked into the free-flying Parakeet exhibit. I can’t say I really enjoyed it, but I survived. ;)

She loved the elephant exhibit, kept wanting to go back to that one.

The picture above is her mimicking the horns.

I think her favorite exhibit was the seals. It was really the only time she broke her intense focus with a laugh. The seal would zoom by her and she’d just smile and giggle.

Eugene & I both liked the polar bear exhibit. This guy was so playful and active, jumping off the ledge and diving after a bucket….

You can tell by her tightening grip around her daddy’s neck that she wasn’t as big of a fan as we were. I guess it is a little scary to see a huge bear flopping around right in front of you!

The zoo was great. It had an incredible interactive kids area that would have been perfect if the little one were even just a year older. The zoo was reasonably priced, was clean, contained well-communicated exhibits and paths, had lots of places to sit and enjoy a picnic lunch, had a fun playground area and ample restroom facilities {which is important with a potty trained toddler & a pregnant lady!}, and had interactive experiences to enjoy throughout the day. I’d recommend the Toledo Zoo for sure.

We had a great little get-away, and I’m so thankful that we got to experience it together. I love my family. {So much.}

Flower girls.

2014-07-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

I shared pictures from the wedding, but I had a ton of flower girl pics still left to share. So, here ya go – a post full of mint tulle and blonde curls! ;)

The picture above is just the girls coloring while we waited for photos to begin. They were troopers the whole day; so proud of them!

Cate was much better at smiling for the camera than my little one. Cate looks angelic to me in the photo below!

With the beautiful bride…

And this one was not staged. They just grabbed each other’s hand and went walking. {Love it.}

Oh, by the way, my sister & I made their tutu dresses using this tutorial, but we didn’t tie the tulle again for the waist. I just put the ribbon on them the day-of. The dresses turned out to be more see-through than I expected, mainly when the girls would twirl in them or sit down. I sewed some liner fabric {part of a ribbed tank top actually} and had her wear some white spandex shorts too. When they were in the ceremony, you couldn’t tell one bit, but once they got dancing you could definitely see the shorts/lining.

They made it down the aisle with no tears…and no shoes! {Their shoes gave them blisters.} I’ll take the trade of no shoes for two happy flower girls any day!

The rest of the pictures were taken after the ceremony.

Sisters. Cousins. Two sets of best friends.

This was towards the end of the night – what an ornery smile.

The girls loved sitting in the big picture window right behind the head table. By this point, I was really picking my battles, plus it was pretty cute to watch Eugene entertain them!

Once the DJ started playing some upbeat music, the little one got a whole new burst of energy. She was running around and dancing NONSTOP.

Both girls were dancing machines from the start of dinner until my sister and I pulled them off the dance floor to put on PJs.

I think it’s safe to say they had a blast. I love these little flower girls!

Dillan and Kelsey’s wedding.

2014-07-19T06:54:00.001-07:00

We spent last weekend celebrating the wedding of Eugene’s brother & now sister-in-law. Eugene was the best man, the little one & Cate were flower girls, and I had a reading in the ceremony; we were honored to play a part in their special day. I took lots of photos {especially of the flower girls}, so I’ll post another blog of mainly just flower girl shots later.

This shot’s a little blurry, but I still love it. Cate colored a picture for Kelsey, and the little one gave it to her. So precious…

I was so proud of our little flower girls! They made it down the aisle like pros!

I love it when the bride & groom save the “first look” until the walk down the aisle…

The weather for the ceremony was perfect, and the rain held off until just after cocktail hour…

Beautiful Aunties & cousins…

What a sharp looking bridal party!

The new Mr. & Mrs…

I know I’m partial, but I’ve also heard a TON of bridal party speeches {being an Event Coordinator and all}, but Eugene’s Best Man speech just might have been the best one I’ve ever heard. He did such an amazing job – talked about making a list of memories with your best friend, the challenge of being selfless in your marriage, and the ultimate example we have of selfless love in Christ, our groom. {So good.}

Kelsey’s dress looked just as beautiful inside at night with a flower crown as it did outside with the veil for the ceremony. Gorgeous…

I’m so happy we stole the newlyweds for a quick pic of the four of us…well five if you count my 8-month belly bump. ;)

Eugene’s sisters looked gorgeous too. I love these girls!

Caught a parent pic at the end of dinner…

The girls LOVED dancing. That’s an understatement actually. They danced nonstop from dinner time until 9:30 – way past bedtime! I managed to grab a little family photo for our own too. And let me tell you, it wasn’t easy to tear the little one away from the dance floor!

Rehearsal dinner.

2014-07-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

Eugene’s brother got married this weekend. It was a beautiful weekend, and we were honored to be a part of it. Eugene was the best man, the little one and her cousin were flower girls, and I did a reading during the ceremony. Here are a few pics from the rehearsal dinner night…

I posted the photo above yesterday in black & white, but I like the color version too, so I figured I’d share this one too. I absolutely love the picture above of my sister with the two girls. So much beautiful love!

The girls did a fantastic job at rehearsal! We were all hoping and praying they did just as well for the real deal the next day. :)

Just one maternity photo.

2014-07-13T10:30:00.001-07:00

Last time I was pregnant, I just wanted one to capture one picture as my maternity pic. This was it:

I love the simplicity of a silhouette, the focus on the round, growing belly, rather than me.

This time around wasn’t much different. Again, there was only one photo that I really wanted to get as a maternity picture this time around…and this is it:

We arrived a little early to Eugene’s brother’s wedding rehearsal, and there was a perfect overhang that overlooked a beautiful golf course. It was the perfect setting to try for my one maternity photo. Eugene snapped this pic. of the little one reaching for my belly, again as a slight silhouette. I love this picture. She’s going to be such a great big sister, and we are all so anxious to meet the little guy!

Baby boy’s nursery.

2014-06-24T13:49:00.001-07:00

Back when I originally planned this room’s paint color, I didn’t know whether the little one was going to be a boy or a girl. I loved the idea of a navy blue with bright white accents, regardless of the gender of the baby. Well, that decision played to my advantage this time around as well. If you remember, this is what the bedroom looked like when we bought the house, and then what the little one’s nursery looked like after some work:

I loved how her room turned out. It fit her well – bright, colorful, and happy. Once we found out we were having baby boy, we decided to keep the nursery as a nursery and move the little one into her own new big girl room. We had two main reasons for this: the bathroom in the nursery is really convenient because we use cloth diapers, and because we wouldn’t have to repaint, rebuild the crib, or re-do much of anything for that room. I love the navy, orange color scheme for a boy, so I was excited to get to use it this time around. I added in some grey and green too.

Here is baby’s boy nursery in its current state…

My mom bought new rugs, so I scored her old one for this room. It’s so nice having a soft rug in there…especially since the old wood floors are super creaky without it! I removed the button crib skirt I made and opted for no crib skirt this time around. I bought the little trash can at Big Lots for like $6 because it was perfect colors. We’ll use that for wipes, and we’ll keep the bigger white trash cans for the used cloth diapers. I also swapped out the Katie Daisy prints that I based the little one’s whole nursery on, and I used clip boards and prints I found either online or made myself.

I bought the kelly green pendant light from Ikea for – get this – just $14.99. I was nervous it’d be too green, tut I think it adds nice variety to the space.

I kept the same orange changing table that I originally found on the side of the rode & painted. I used new scrapbook paper and modge podge to update the shelves to from flowery to stripes.

I loved how the little one’s colorful mobile turned out, but this time around I used scrapbook paper to make pinwheels, glued them to some twine, and created a new mobile for our little guy. {Just Google how to make a pinwheel. It was super easy!}

I had some extra pinwheels, so I made a little garland with them. I still need a lamp and some new decor items on the shelf.

I still have some ideas of things I’d like to add to the room, but for now, I’m happy with the results so far. :)

We are getting quite excited to meet baby boy. I can’t wait to see what kind of personality he has, how he looks, and how he and his big sister will interact. We have some exciting times ahead of us, that’s for sure!

A bridal shower brunch.

2014-06-22T18:48:00.001-07:00

This weekend we threw Eugene’s brother’s fiancé, Kelsey, a bridal shower brunch. This shower was definitely a team effort. I had great help from Eugene’s family with the food, Eugene’s mom graciously allowed us to use her house, and his sisters helped me decorate. Whenever I get to help plan a shower, I usually try to have it in the morning as a brunch. First, breakfast is my favorite meal – the food’s amazing, and there’s something special about enjoying the first meal of the day with friends and family, starting completely fresh. Second, it’s really nice to still have most of your day free after a shower. Many showers are in the early afternoon – twoish – and that usually means you can’t really do much before the shower, and afterwards it’s too late to have any other plans. As an Event Planner, I think it’s nice to your guests (and you usually get a better turn out) if your event is at a convenient time. I know not everyone’s a morning person, but most women I talk to love and appreciate early showers. Just my own little opinion on that! ;)

Here are some of the details from the bridal shower brunch…

I used some chalkboard paint to make the wine glass favors for everyone. I had some extras which went home with the bride for her party stock. We filled the glasses with Mock Mimosas, which I made using orange juice and ginger ale. Turned out pretty yummy!

Eugene’s grandma stepped up to the plate to make us a donut cake for the shower, and she hit a homerun! How deliciously amazing does that look? I imagine heaven may look {and taste} a little like that!

I got a little creative with weddingchick.com “sweet love” wedding template and used it for a menu, invites, and food labels. You can find the info on how to make tissue paper flowers on my blog here. {Super easy!}

We had a coffee bar, egg casserole {this recipe except with a few modifications, mainly doubling the eggs}, banana bread, and the fixings for fresh yogurt parfaits.

The rest of the decor was pretty simple with Circut cut hearts made using paint chips, a monogram, tissue paper balls.

We played a game with movie quotes from famous romance movies. Most of our guests failed miserably at this game, so we thought it might be better to have a word bank of sorts to make it a little easier. It was still a fun game and gave us lots of laughs as everyone tried to figure out the answers.

I love this picture of the little one and my mom. She really wanted to just spend the whole morning showing Grandma the baby birds that are in the nest outside her Nana’s house.

The bride-to-be opened some lovely gifts, while answering questions her about her fiancé as she thought he would answer, i.e. what did Dillan say his pet peeve is? We hoped the questions would be a fun distraction during the opening of the gifts {which can get uncomfortable for the bride with all that attention!}

The other activity we had involved a Jenga game. The instructions for the active were as follows: “Grab a block from the tower, sign it, and write a special message to the soon-to-be newlyweds. Return the block to the bowl. Your happy thoughts, advice, and date night ideas will help them BUILD their lives together as husband & wife!” We had Kelsey draw a couple blocks and gave prizes to the winners. We also offered the opportunity to share the message with the group. We had some very wise advice ranging from working to be selfless in marriage, each spouse giving 100% {not each giving 50% to make 100%}, writing down the little things you love most about your spouse regularly so you don’t take those for granted and remember to be thankful for it all, and more. Now when the couple has a game night, they can be reminded of advice/date ideas/people who love and support them.

It was kind of a lot going on for the little one, but all things considered, she did pretty well through the shower.

Eugene’s sisters, mom, and Kelsey & me. I love these women…even if I am way taller than everyone else! Kelsey and I are certainly blessed to get to marry into this amazing family! :)

I hope Kelsey enjoyed her shower and felt super loved and encouraged. We’re excited for her to begin her new journey as a wifey!

Curious George Second Birthday.

2014-06-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

The little one enjoyed a fun Curious George themed birthday party a week or so ago. She loves Curious George so she was pretty excited when she found out her party was about the “hoo hoo haa haa, Goge.” I got a lot of ideas from Pinterest and pbs.com actually had a whole bunch of printables and ideas for the party too {link is here.} I printed some coloring pages, George cut-out masks, and DIY party hats from the PBS site for the kids at the party to play with/take home.

Here’s a bunch of pics from the day…

We served Hundley’s hot dogs, Chef Pisghetti’s mac and cheese, Farmer Renkin’s veggie salsa {recipe here}, popcorn, Curious George gushers, Twizzlers, The Man In The Yellow Hat lemonade, red velvet cupcakes, and George’s banana split bar {with homemade ice cream…thanks, Mom!}

She had all her favorite people there…

And she kept sneaking Twizzlers. I made a pillow case dress for her using some Curious George fabric I found from – of all places – Wal-Mart. {If you want to make a similar dress, just Google pillow case dress; there are tons of tutorials online.} Ironically, I thought she would love the dress, but she actually hated it. I may or may not have had to bribe her with a Twizzler to get her to let me put it on her. So odd!

The pic below about sums up her attitude about the dress. Grrr.

I had a little extra fabric, and the pup was much more willing to wear it as a bandana than the little one was to wear her dress. Go figure.

Her buddies showed up dressed perfectly themed with the party!

I managed to sneak in one quick photo with my two-year-old. Love her.

Even though the invites said gifts weren’t necessary, she received loads of lovely things from her friends and family…

As a side note, my best friend & I are both due with baby boys just 11 days apart. This will be her 3rd boy, so she’s the expert I’ll call as I try to navigate the unchartered territory!

The little one was on her new “cell phone” the whole time everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. Go figure. She’s two and already using the phone too much! Silly girl.

I love that I have a similar picture of her on her Daddy’s lap with her birthday cupcake one year ago at her Cute as a Button party. Gosh, how quickly time flies!

She seemed to enjoy her party…mainly the people who were there. Below is our 91 year old neighbor, Miss Ruth. The little one and Miss Ruth have a very special bond. They both look for each other outside all the time. The little one yells “Miss Roof!!” from inside our house, and I know that simply means she spotted the very active neighbor doing yard work again. It’s a necessary follow-up to put our shoes on and head over to her house to say hi. Miss Ruth loves the little one dearly; you can just see the joy on her face the moment she gets a hug from my girl. I’m telling you, these two have something very special going on.

It makes me so happy that the little one’s favorite part of the party was the people there. It’s a beautiful thing watching her get so happy to see her family and friends. She is so loved, and so loves others too.

Happy birthday to my sweet little monkey! :)

Not the birthday we planned.

2014-06-14T19:31:00.001-07:00

We had a 2 year pediatrician check up for the little one scheduled for the day before her birthday. She did great, held it together for her shot, and walked out of the doctor’s office with a sticker, confidence, and an overall “okay” feeling about the pediatrician’s office. {Winning.} Later that afternoon, we heard her yelling and crying slightly from her bedroom saying, “Mamma, hurt!” I rushed back to her room, and she was laying on her bed holding her arm. When I asked her how she hurt her arm, she said she rolled on it. She didn’t fall off the bed and wasn’t jumping or roughhousing. So odd. We decided to give her the evening to forget about the boo-boo, because often a little distraction goes a long way in forgetting what was hurt. However, she didn’t sleep well that night, and woke up on her birthday still complaining about her hurt elbow/arm.

I sang her Happy Birthday, and she kindly stopped me mid-lyric and told me to use her full name, rather than just her first name in the song. ;) We woke up, and I made her some pancakes with sprinkles and whip cream. She ate the whole thing with her left {non-dominant} hand, smiling one second and then crying the next about her hurt arm.

Our pediatrician squeezed us in that morning after breakfast, and he originally thought she had nursemaid’s elbow. However, after he tried to physically adjust the elbow, she didn’t get better. Typically, after about 15 minutes, the pain will be gone, but this wasn’t the case.

Our pediatrician scheduled us an appointment with a orthopedic specialist for the next day. In the meantime, we scrapped our plans for a fun morning at Young’s {a local ice cream, farm, putt-putt, restaurant place.} We instead, stayed home and watched our two-year-old hold her arm at her side, not using it for any reason. She cried and didn’t want to open any of her gifts. {Her big gift was a children’s table set, which she actually does like…just not at the time.} Poor thing. It was pitiful to watch. Later the evening of her birthday, she started to perk up and even used her right arm to bat around a balloon. We thought maybe the adjustment did the trick, but it was short lived as she was up all night in pain and didn’t use the arm in the morning.

The orthopedic specialist took x-rays of her arm and saw no breaks in her bones. He examined her arm, moving it in different positions, watching her grimace at a few spots. He told Eugene & me that typically they put a cast on the toddler even if they don’t see a fracture. It’s very much a precautionary approach. He said that sometimes fractures show up on x-rays after they remove the cast 2-3 weeks later. Her bones are so little, it’s really hard to see if anything is broken.

I wanted to cry {okay, maybe I did cry for a quick second when the Dr. left the room}, but the little one was super brave and did so great with it all. She didn’t cry for the x-rays, and held really still the whole time the cast was being placed on her arm. I was so impressed with her!

We asked her what color she wanted off of a swatch page, and she picked the brightest color possible: florescent, high-lighter yellow. She picked it 3 times. Finally, in an effort to try to dissuade her from the brightest possible color, Eugene said “how about the pink?!” And she surprisingly jumped onboard happily. She’ll have this lovely pink thing on her arm for 2.5 weeks, and we’re hoping after that she’ll be good-to-go and cast-free.

All things considered, she is handling it all really well. Once the cast was on, she was a different little girl. We could tell she was no longer in pain. She’s only had it a couple days, but she is not letting it slow her down too much. Sleeping is tough though. She likes to sleep on her belly with her arms tucked under her, so a hard cast is far from ideal. I spent the first night on the couch with her, and following nights have been spent side by side with her. Nights have been the toughest for sure.

I’m so proud of how well she’s handling it all. Her cast is completely waterproof. She can swim, take a bath, even soak her whole arm in water – pretty awesome. The cast is really heavy, so it’s throwing her balance off and causes her to fall more often. She shows her “big band-aid” off to everyone around, and for the most part, it doesn’t seem to be holding her back too much.

She’s such a brave, resilient little girl. Kids are really amazing. All this for just simply rolling on her arm! It’s so odd. I think we’ll just pretend her birthday is another day later this month so she can actually enjoy the day. Let’s all just pray that the cast is off for good in 2.5 weeks and we can celebrate!

My little one is two today.

2014-06-11T03:19:00.000-07:00

They say time goes faster when you have kids. I never understood that, but now I’m living it. She’s two. Already, two.

And it’s true- time does fly and unrecognizable speeds as you watch your little one change before your very eyes from a tiny, needy newborn to a spunky, joyful toddler in what feels like mere hours. I really try hard not to wish for her to stay the same, to not to grow up, to never change. I’ve loved every stage so far, and after losing a friend at 16, I also try really hard not to take a day for granted. It’s easy to think that our children will be around long past us, but you see, even for children, tomorrow is never a sure thing. As sad as it may sound, I have no guarantee that I’ll get to have the little one with me for years and years, so I pray a thank-you prayer for each night that God blesses me with her company. And I also pray for many more years with her, but all the while, I want to absolutely cherish the moments I get with her. Two years with my girl, and she has blessed me immensely.

She is silly and smart and spunky and doesn’t miss a thing. She is talking lots these days, mainly in phrases, but she throws out a few sentences here and there. She’ll attempt any word you ask her, and she rarely forgets a word once it’s shared with her. My favorite phrase is when she’s misplaced something; it’s always her yelling down hall, “Are you, baby?!” or “Ball, are you?” She also asks, “Dada, doing?” and “Mama is?” when she wants to know where I am or what Eugene is doing. The most used phrase is definitely, “Mama, what is it?” I can’t do it justice without you hearing it, but trust me when I say she enunciates this to an extreme! Oh, and she mixes up her pronouns pretty much every time {although she’s getting a little better the last few days.} Usually when she speaks about herself she says “you” instead of “me.” For instance, if we ask her who went to Nana’s today, she answers “You!” meaning “me,” which – you have to admit – that’s a tricky concept since Eugene and I always say “you” to her referring to her. Or she’ll say “You hungry” meaning that she is hungry. Gah, English is complicated.

She knows basic colors really well already: red, yellow, purple, orange, black, white, pink, green, blue. She mixes up brown and black occasionally, but other than that, she has her colors down pat! She can count to ten on her own, with the exception of missing five every time.

She loves when the school bus passes our house, likes pointing out stop signs and stop lights, loves “whimming” {swimming}, flip flops, and doing anything outside. She loves books, band aids, songs {in particular Oh Happy Day from Sister Act II and Take Me Out to the Ball Game}, Curious George, slides and swings, balloons, baseball games, and carbs. {Ha!}

She’s brave and obedient, as long as she understands the reasoning behind something. If I can explain why or how something needs to happen, she usually does really well with it. She gives great hugs…if she’s in the right mood. She has recently transitioned to a big girl bed and room {I’ll post photos of her room later.} And believe it or not, she is fully potty trained – even at night. She’s been daytime potty trained for about 3 months, and nighttime for at least 1 month. At church, we’re told she’s the welcome committee for the other toddlers in the nursery. And she has great manners {so far}, usually saying “tank tu” at appropriate times and even when it’s appropriate but I don’t expect it. For instance, she thanked me the other day for taking out the trash! ;)

She’s not afraid to get dirty, but then wants to be cleaned up right when she’s finished. She loves to wrestle on the bed with her Dada, and gets thrilled when he takes her to visit his “doof” {aka school…not sure why she says doof, but always has.} She’s strong-willed at times, while totally laid-back others. We’ve experienced our fair share of tantrums lately, but usually they’re a result of her being overly tired, hungry, or teething. We all have our bad days; it’s only fair that she does too. She’s also testing her independence and control more lately. I expect this to be a theme over the next few months/year, but we’ll survive. :)

From the day she was born, she would play with her hair or my hair when she was tired and falling asleep, and this hasn’t changed two years later. {Something about a sleeping child is just so special, isn’t it?} She still takes a daily nap, about 1.5 hours on average. We’ve gotten rid of the paci for bedtime, but she won’t nap without one, so in an effort not to get rid of her still much-needed nap, we keep the paci only for naptime.

The best way I can describe her is that she is an absolute JOY. Eugene & I prayed while I was pregnant with her that she would be full of joy and would bring others joy. God answered that prayer magnificently. She is such a joy.

She’s not going to be the little one much longer. In a couple months, she’ll transition to being a big sister, and I think she’ll love that role as well. She’s already talking about how she will kiss her baby brother, rock him, sit with him, and love him. It’s hard to believe we’ve had two amazing years with her in our family already. I am so grateful that God chose me to be her Momma. What a privilege and a blessing!

Happy birthday to my sweet little one! You are so special to us, and so very loved.

Her second Easter.

2014-04-21T19:10:00.001-07:00

We had a very full, and very happy Easter yesterday. All week, the little one had a particular reply anytime she heard the word “Easter,” and it melted my heart every time!

We started the morning out with some simple eggs and gifts for her. I’m not really into the over-the-top big Easter baskets overflowing with candy and tons of toys. I’m that way about Christmas too; I want my kids to remember the reason we’re celebrating, not the stuff they get. Anyway, she had some eggs filled with cereal, fruit leather, raisins, and fruit snacks. She got a couple t-shirts, a jumbo coloring book, and some fun new sunglasses. Simple, but she liked it.

I mean, really, is there anything cuter than a kid just after waking up happily with messy, bedhead? Gosh, she’s cute. :)

I found a fun, colorful “twirly” dress for a good price online at The Children’s Place for her, and she loved spinning in it. I’m not a real girly-girl, but I love bright colors and everyone needs a twirl or two every now and then!

Her braids lasted about half the day, which is much longer than I anticipated…

Our little family of 3.5, ready to head to church on the best Sunday of the year. It’s hard to believe that next year our Easter picture will have two little ones!

After a great time at church, we headed to my Aunt Jane’s and Judy’s house for a potluck, swings, and an Easter egg hunt…

Another family photo…

My gorgeous sister & niece…

The little one was so tired towards the end. Little girl needed her nap!

Her favorite part of the egg hunt was peeling off the stickers that were holding the eggs shut…

After the egg hunt concluded, she got her kite and bubbles {a tradition I loved growing up too}, and we headed to Great Gary & Great Dottie’s. She snuck in a little cat nap on the way, thankfully…

She enjoyed round two of food & egg hunting. Gosh I love these two…

With these eggs, she was very insistent on cracking each one open before putting it in her basket…

Once she decided she was too tired to keep hunting, Great Gary took her inside to get her bag of goodies. Is the picture below so special? It’s really such a blessing that she gets to have such close relationship with not one, but three great grandparents. Amazing.

My favorite part of the day though, was waking up at 4am – well, correction, waking up that early wasn’t my favorite part – but getting up early enough to have a couple quiet hours alone, reading John 20 while my husband & baby girl slept soundly, watching the sun rise paint the sky and declare His faithfulness yet again. I’m so thankful – filled to the brim with gratitude – that God didn’t leave us alone, broken. That we have real hope. True hope. That Jesus didn’t just die. He has risen indeed forever, and that changes everything.

Oh what a glorious day!

It’s a…

2014-04-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

Today, Eugene and I went to the 20 week ultrasound. I prayed a few very specific things late last night while trying to fall asleep. God was so gracious and answered each exactly! It was a morning chock full of wondrous things. And the best thing? Without a doubt, watching my healthy baby baby wave and turn and roll.

Eugene’s evening baseball game was cancelled for bad weather, so that gave us an unexpected free evening. We decide to let our family in on the “secret” this evening, rather than our original plan of later this week. They were pretty anxious to know whether they can expect a boy or another girl. The reveal was nothing nearly as planned or big as the little one’s gender reveal, but I still wanted to make it exciting and fun. This baby is definitely worth celebrating. :)

P.S. Can we just take a moment to look at the last gender reveal and notice how much my house has changed? And I just love how excited everyone was. Oh what love!

This time around, we went to Eugene’s parents’ house, followed by dinner with my family at our house {potato soup & my new favorite cornbread recipe – I’ll share it here soon.} I figured it’d be fun to let the little one do the revealing. I saw an idea online of putting food dye inside homemade white play dough to reveal the baby’s gender. Seemed easy enough…other than the fact that the little one isn’t quite as aggressive as needed to work the color out quickly. But after a little help and encouragement, everyone finally saw a peak of a color…

Can you tell yet? It’s a..

It’s a…

Baby is a…

…

Yep – little one will have a baby BROTHER in August!

We did the same thing with my niece and the little one later in the evening when my family came over…

My sister wanted to watch the ultrasound DVD, but the girls really just wanted to make snowmen with their play dough. ;)

Eugene and I are thrilled to welcome a baby boy into our family. {Although, please pass on boy advice to me! Coming from a family with two girls, I’m a serious boy rookie!}

My prayer is that God will use us to raise a true Godly man. Such a responsibility and a privilege. We are blessed beyond measure. I’m still in shock – oh boy, oh boy!

Ball.

2014-04-01T02:55:00.000-07:00

It was a bit cold for my preference, but the little one loved spending a few innings outside watching Dadda’s baseball team play…

Someone stole my sunglasses…and put them on upside-down…

Crazy girl!

She worked up an appetite there – ate a huge dinner at the ballpark. :)

She got so excited that he came over to say hello to her. {Love.}

Potty Training Gold.

2014-03-30T17:31:00.001-07:00

So I’m a bit hesitant to post this out of fear of jinxing a good thing, but I feel like I’ve struck potty training gold. About 2 or 3 weeks ago, out of the blue, the little one decided she was ready to begin using the potty regularly…and she was good at it immediately!

Eugene & I have intentionally talked about the potty, let her have free access to the bathroom {as awkward as that can get}, and we even sat her on the toilet daily from a very very early age – like way before she could even understand what was going on! We’d just have her sit on the toilet before bath time every night. Every now and then for the past 4 months or so, she’s gone on the potty when I’ve asked her to or when she’s been in the mood, and it’s worked occasionally, but she never really wanted to do it on her own regularlyreguarly. Well, that is until a couple weeks ago when something just clicked!

Once I realized she decided that she was ready for it, I jumped on the bandwagon wholeheartedly. I’d remind her every hour, and when it’d been a while, I’d pester her every hour while being careful not to make it sound like she had to or it was a punishment. I didn’t use any sticker or food reward; I simply went absolutely nuts when she had a successful try. I’m talking clapping, jumping, dancing, singing personalized upbeat potty songs in celebration. She thought it was so funny and special to see me cheer like a crazy woman for her, I think that was motivation enough to keep going. So when I’d remind her that it was time to try to potty, I’d remind her also that I’d sing and dance and we’d clap together afterwards. This seemed to work well for us. Also, as weird as it may be, she really thought it was neat to dump the little potty into the toilet. So the celebration combined with dumping was just the fun she needed to keep forging ahead.

And, amazingly, there’s been no turning back. Even when she’s wearing a diaper, she will still tell me she needs to potty. I’d be as bold as to say that it’s seeming like she is completely “day” potty trained at 21 months. She hasn’t mastered naptime {although she’s doing pretty well with it}, and bedtime hasn’t been tackled yet. She will wake up at 1am sometimes yelling, “poppy!” but it’s usually a little too late. I’m in no rush for the bedtime training. I’m thinking that might just have to wait until she’s a little older and her bladder’s more developed. We’ll see though – she continually surprises me! {P.S. I think every toy we have has been on the potty at some point. It’s so cute to watch her sing and jump for her stuffed animals, pretending they’ve had a successful time with it!}

I’ve waited to post anything on this topic because a) it’s a little awkward and I want to respect her, and b) I wanted to make sure it wasn’t just a fluke, but I finally decided to post it because I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a development worthy of celebrating! {That is, without the awkward naked baby private parts or poo photos…I’ll pass on those.} I’m truly proud of her, and this newest phase certainly depicts her character – something I want to remember for sure. She is my little independent, joy-full, intelligent, confident one. I knew she would have to just decide to be potty trained; I just had no idea it’d be so soon and with such sudden success! I’m so proud of her little spirit!

Pregnancy update.

2014-03-23T18:39:00.001-07:00

I feel like I need to introduce myself again. I’ve been a little {a lot} absent on this blog lately…or the last two years. I’m not going to apologize, because I’ve been busy living and loving life, but I’m going to attempt to hop back into posting here a bit more regularly as baby’s due date gets closer.

I’ve avoided taking any dreaded “selfies” so far this pregnancy, which is a far cry from my chalkboard monthly pregnancy last time around. However, to do a pregnancy update without posting a picture seemed a bit criminal. So here ya go…

I feel like I look huge already – way bigger than last time, but I guess that’s normal with round two. It really depends on the day. Some days I don’t have a big belly, but others {like today} are all bump. I can still kinda look not pregnant if I wear certain outfits, but when I put on a tight maternity shirt, there’s no hiding the bulging belly. Here’s another pic I tried to take with my phone, and it captures my life perfectly right now…

She’s my little blur, running circles around me. And yes, I’m barefoot and pregnant – hardy har har. Okay, onto some of the usual questions. If this bores you, sorry; feel free to move on.

How far along are you now?
I’m just a few days away from 19 weeks. I feel like it’s going quickly, probably because I’m so busy being a SAHM who works from home and in the office some too.

How are you feeling?
I’m finally feeling better. I’ve been MIA on the blog through the first half of this pregnancy because I pretty much felt like crap the whole time. I may be wrong, but I feel like this pregnancy has been much different {so far} from my last pregnancy. Last time, my biggest symptom was dizziness; this time, I haven’t experienced hardly an dizziness, but had much more nausea and fatigue. It’s pretty much every night that I wake up around 10pm on the couch to Eugene telling me it’s time to go to bed. I can’t fight it. I just fall asleep daily between 8:30 and 9:30…I’m so exhausted. Around 16 or 17 weeks along, my nasty nausea seemed to dissipate, {thank goodness!} which was perfect timing because Eugene was out of town for a few days right around that time.

Have you had any cravings?
Yes, and they usually change from week to week. For a while, I was craving soups, vegetable soup mainly. I craved tuna salad a few times, and Mexican food this week. I craved milkshakes a couple weeks ago. Contrary to last time, I haven’t craved my two previously biggest cravings popsicles or McDonald’s {ew} at all this time around. Perhaps it will come, but my indigestion has been super bad this time, so the idea of McDonald’s is a total turn off.

Are you going to find out the gender?
Yep. And I’m pretty stinkin excited about it. I don’t like surprises, and I really like planning {hints my career as an Event Planner/Manager.} Eugene likes stats; any info that’s available to him, he wants to know it. So, while I know some people love waiting until birth to find out the gender {I admire you!}, I just don’t think that’s for us right now. I’m not sure if we’ll do a gender reveal party like last time. The timing isn’t great with Eugene’s baseball schedule, and I just don’t know if I have the energy to throw it all together. We’ll see. We had a much more fun announcement with this pregnancy compared to last time {because we were pretty scared last time following the miscarriage,} so I won’t be super disappointed if I can’t pull together another gender party. At the very least, I’d like to at least tell both our families at the same time if possible.

Do you have plans figured out for when baby comes?
Hmm, nope, not really. A lot is hinging on the gender. I purposely picked a room color/scheme that would work with either gender, so we plan to move the little one {who will need to get a new “blog nickname” soon!} into a new big girl room and let baby take the current nursery. As far as work goes, we’re going to keep praying on it. I have a fantastic situation of being able to work from home most of the week, while heading into the office a few days. It’s been a huge God-thing, allowing us to pay off all our debt, but we want to be wise and open to what God wants as our future changes. We’d love to get a bigger vehicle so that I can take my niece places – meaning 3 car seats, but it’s probably doubtful that we can swing that. We’ll continue to use cloth diapers, and I won’t have to purchase any additional ones. Other than all that, I think we’re pretty set – well, that is unless it’s a boy. Then we need manly clothes for sure.

What has you most excited?
Probably the thought of the little one having a sibling. She’s going to absolutely love her baby brother or sister; she’s such a friendly and joyful person, so having a built-in sidekick is going to be awesome for her. I’m also super excited to see Eugene become a dad again. That just might be my favorite part about being a mom – watching him love as a dad – and I cannot wait to see him form that bond again. I’m also really excited to welcome another little being into our family. I think I’ll be able to enjoy the newborn stage more this time around. Last time, I had no concept of the light at the end of the tunnel. We had serious feeding issues, and now I’m aware and prepared for those again. I also wasn’t confident in my mothering skills {although I doubt myself plenty still, don’t get me wrong}, but my fear and anxiety really affected the little one’s demeanor the first few weeks/months. I know it’s tough now. I know the first months are really REALLY rough, but I also know now how absolutely beautiful parenthood gets. I’m not one of those moms who falls instantly in love the second the baby is placed on her chest. I take time to form relationships and bonds. Maybe that’s bad, or maybe it’s taboo to say, but now that I’ve experienced the incredible bond that I have with the little one, I know the sweetness that’s ahead with this baby. The pure joy that grows is unparalleled. And I am so excited for that.

New favorite soup.

2014-03-15T11:59:00.001-07:00

I tried a new recipe, well actually two. But one is definitely worth sharing. This Creamy Chicken Soup recipe on thecookierookie.com, is unlike any other soup I’ve made or tasted. It was SO good. I’ve actually made it twice in the past 3 weeks. My first batch I gave to Eugene’s family because they watched the little one during one of my late-night events. The second batch was for me, but I also shared some with my mom, grandma, and sister. The reviews were unanimously positive. Everyone loved it.

I followed the recipe pretty closely; however I made a few substitutions to better fit with what I had in my pantry. For instance, I boiled a whole chicken the first batch I made, along with making my own chicken stock. The second batch, I used the rotisserie chicken as it calls for, and both batches were delicious. I used Italian Seasoning instead of the Herbs of Provence. I also used shredded parmesan instead of gruyere cheese as the topping. SO good. {Did I already say that?}

If you’ve never boiled a whole chicken, this blog post on prettyhungryblog.com is really helpful. I usually hate to boil whole chickens because I get grossed out pulling the meat off the bone. This time around, I followed my mom’s advice of letting it boil until the meat started falling off the bones. This made it really easy to “pick” off the meat {and I could even use tongs to do most of it} which made it much less gross.

One chicken gave me a whole bowl of shredded meat and two large containers of stock/broth.

Unlike most of the soups I make, this recipe doesn’t require hours of boiling and cooking on the stove. This one {other than boiling the chicken} only takes about an hour or less.

I made some crusty French bread, but I didn’t love the recipe enough to share it. I like my Italian Herb Bread recipe much better.

This soup was super good reheated the next day too. The recipe says you can freeze it, but I didn’t have leftovers long enough to freeze. I will definitely make this recipe again, and probably double it to share again. :)