A VERY Eventful Week!

Wow...it's been quite a while since an update! Our week was absolutely wild last week, and we loved every minute of it!

Jeremy's sister, Natasha, came in to spend her Spring Break with Lorelai. She hasn't gotten to see her since she was born, so it was quite a week! Natasha got to town Monday afternoon and immediately headed to Granny & Gramps's to kidnap Lorelai for the evening. We had dinner with the Mitchells Monday night, Tash had Lo all to herself Tuesday, and I ate with them again Tuesday night while Jeremy fished with Dad.

Wednesday was a big day for Lorelai. She got to spend the day with Nanny, Tasha, and the twins! She always is in such a good mood after a day with her Nanny, but she was especially happy after a full day like that! P-Pop and D-Dar took her to dinner Wednesday night while Jeremy and I hung out at the North Wing with the students.

Thursday it was back to Nanny's! This time Nanny and Tash loaded up my baby girl and headed to Texarkana for a girls day of shopping! They told me that she sat up like a big girl in her stroller and looked around and talked quite a bit. She loves to be able to see faces and be moving in her stroller. Of course Lorelai couldn't come home empty handed! She always racks up when anybody in the family shops!

Friday was another fun day for my sweet girl. Nanny and Tash took Lo to visit Nana & Pa in Huttig. Nana got to give Lorelai her bottle and snuggle her for a little while. Lorelai has gotten to visit Nana and Pa a few times in her 3 short months, but Jeremy and I haven't actually gotten to take her yet. I look forward to our first visit with them!

Natasha headed back to Springfield Friday afternoon. We were sad to see her go, but I'm so so glad she got to come spend the week with Lorelai! Family is a huge priority for us, and anytime Lo gets to spend time getting to know family is so precious to me. Unfortunately, we were all so busy hanging out and loving on Lo that I failed to take any pictures of her exciting week. So you'll just have to take my word for it that she had a huge smile on her face most of the week!

It's here!!

I love baseball...plain and simple! I love watching games and talking about players. I love visiting the ballparks and sitting in the sunshine. I mostly love the Texas Rangers, even though they've done little more than disappoint the last few years. I knew baseball season was coming up, and I've been getting pretty excited. But I guess I didn't let it hit me that they're actually in Spring Training right now. Not until today!

My wonderful mother and I had lunch today at Pizza Hut in town. First, let me say that I find it odd that there are not 1, not 2, but THREE tvs in our tiny Pizza Hut! Why?! Okay..moving on. So Tom & Jerry is playing on the biggest tv, which, again, I find quite odd since there was no one in the place under the age of 15. And might I add that it was playing VERY loudly. So of course, my attention went there first, and of course, mom and I start complaining:) But as I slide into my seat to start eating, I glance at the back wall. And I see it...a reminder that something wonderful is about to take place! Atlanta and NYM are playing on ESPN in a Spring Training game!

Ahh...bliss! So look around. Breathe it in. Listen to the crack of the bat. It's here! Baseball season is HERE!

HELP!

Calling all professional bloggers! I decided to change my layout today to something a little more funky. I'm trying to add a few more things to make it a bit more personal, but I can't seem to find all of the fun fonts that everyone seems to be using on their blogs! I'm a newbie...so I need some help. Please and thank you! Leave your suggestions. As long as it's free, I'm willing to give it a try! I just want a nice blog...is that so much to ask?!:)

Lo & Flowers

The last week or so it has been so incredibly pleasant outside! Last week I decided that since we had a weekend coming up where we finally didn't have any plans, I wanted to take Lorelai out to Mom & Dad's to sit in the sun. It ended up being a bit overcast and pretty windy Saturday, but we still managed to get a few pictures of her in some flowers. Hopefully soon we can go to Nanny & Pappy's to take pictures in their flowers!

Still Figuring Things Out...

This blogging thing is a lot of fun for me, but I'm still learning how to do quite a few things! My sweet friend, Kelsey, as kind enough to give me the Kreative Blogger Award last week...and it's taken me this long to figure out how to post it and follow all of the rules!:) Thankfully, Ashley and Kelsey were a lot of help. So here's the award, and the rules!

1. Post the award.
Done! Finally!

2. Thank and mention the person who gave you the award!
Thanks Kelsey! Hopefully I'll get a bit better at this:)

3. Pass the award onto seven bloggers whom you think embody the spirit Kreative Blogger Award.
Skip to the bottom...

4. Name seven things about yourself that others do not know.
This should be fun! Skip to the bottom...

5. Don't forget to notify the seven other bloggers about their award and post a link to their blog.
Got it.

Ok...so 7 things you may or may not know about me...

1. I'm a terrible housekeeper. This is probably obvious to anyone who's spent any amount of time at my house lately. And the thing is, I REALLY wish I was better at it! I hate a mess, but my house never ceases to be one giant one! I have this desire to be uber organized, but my crazy schedule doesn't seem to allow it.

2. I'm afraid of tanning beds. I refuse to get back in one. Not for some self-righteous reason or skin cancer risk or blah blah blah. No, I don't lay in the tanning bed because I've been burned severely...twice. Two of the most painful experiences of my life. Never, ever again...

3. I like to paint. Not art, but walls. Stupid, I know. But I was really disappointed that I couldn't help paint our house when Jeremy was remodeling everything. They wouldn't even let me in the house if they were painting! Most people hate painting...I can't really figure out why I like it so much!

4. I really miss the ocean. I'm married to a man who loves the mountains, which is totally fine by me, because I do too! But I was raised on the beach! I need some salt water and sand in my life soon.

5. All of my friends are going skiing next week without us. That makes me sad. This is no secret, but I'm really running out of stuff to say here!

6. I'm growing my hair out. Long. Seriously...it's gonna be crazy long.

7. In making this list, I've realized I'm not very interesting. I apologize to all of my blog readers:)

Since I'm fairly new at this, I don't know many bloggers, but I do have a few that I love to follow!
1. You should check out Julie at UNTIL HE COMES. Her faith inspires me. And her kiddos are so much fun!
2. Jennifer always has something interesting to say at A Day in Jenn Jenn's Shoes. I love her honesty and humor.
3. Ashley's blog inspired me to start one of my own! I love reading about Chuck, Ashley and Karis at Everyday Blessings. Ash, I've never gotten to meet Karis, but she's such a sweet girl! We miss you guys!
4. Lauren's blog is super creative and fun. I enjoy reading your stuff, Lauren! Over the Rainbow is a really fun blog!

Honestly, that's all I follow at this point! Please, feel free to leave blog suggestions!:) Hopefully I'll get better at this blogging business as time goes on.

Glory

We serve a God who, for some reason, chooses to bless us everyday. Sometimes we don't even notice His blessings because they come in the form of things that we take for granted. Everything around us shouts to the glory of God...we just need to stop and listen sometimes. Scripture tells us that if we don't praise Him, even the rocks will cry out in praise. Shouldn't we, men and women created in His image, praise him everyday? Even for the simple things? Like the sunshine...how beautiful has the sunshine been lately?! It shouts to the glory of God! And the breeze...it's been so incredibly nice the last few days. It is singing God's glory. There are trees and flowers in bloom all around us. They are dancing to the glory of God.

My prayer is that my life would shout, sing, dance, and even be still to the glory of God. I'm not on this earth for me, my friends, my family, my happiness...I'm here to bring glory to the Father. When I forget that, I am sinning, and I deserve death. May God always be glorified in my life. I love my Savior, and my life should make that evident.

MMM Cereal!

This week we decided to start giving Lorelai cereal at night. We were hoping it would help her sleep longer during the night. She sleeps really well, but she still wakes up once to eat every night, so I usually only get 4 hours of uninterupted sleep. So far she's only had it twice, but both nights she's done really well with her sleeping. The first time we gave it to her was Tuesday night, and she wasn't too happy about it. She didn't like having to wait for every bite! We managed to get her to eat most of it, but she was still pretty messy when it was all over. She ate her cereal at 9:30, nursed for a few minutes, and was in bed by 10:30 (I know...I should put my child to bed earlier. We'll work on that next). She didn't wake up to nurse again until around 5:00 Wednesday morning, which is pretty good!

Wednesday night she didn't get cereal because we stayed at the North Wing until around 10:00. At that point I just wanted to come home, put her in her pjs, and head to bed. So she woke up around 2:30 to nurse, which is pretty normal for us.

Last night, P-Pop and D-Dar kept Lo for us while we went out to eat with Dr. Robison, so she got cereal at their house. She did MUCH better last night...they said after the first few bites she gobbled it right up! She even got mad when they stopped feeding her:) Here are a few pictures of her eating with P-Pop and D-Dar last night

She slept the same last night as she did Tuesday night...we were up again at 5:00 this morning. While that's definitely an improvement for us, I sure would like for her to sleep longer! I think the 5:00 feeding has taken the place of her 2:00 - 3:00 feeding because she goes right back to sleep when she's done, instead of waking up like she would around 7:00. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can start getting her to bed before 9:00 and weaning her off of her middle-of-the-night snack! Mommy sure would like to be able to sleep normal hours again someday!:)

Hi, Aunt Abbie!

Saturday was a great day!! We enjoyed wonderful family fellowship on the way to and from Little Rock, got to see Tyler break out a few moves, and Lorelai Roxane met her Aunt Abbie for the very first time!

Tyler and Abbie have been together for a while now, and she very quickly became part of the family. Since Lorelai was born during the holidays (she'll hate us for that later) Abbie couldn't be there to meet her. Since then, everybody's been pretty busy, and the distance between here and Fayetteville is not a short one.

In February, Abbie got a little closer to officially being part of the family. She and Tyler got engaged!! We're all super excited, but that's not the point of this post:)

I couldn't wait for Lo to meet her Aunt Abbie, and that time finally came last Saturday. Here are a few pictures from their first meeting:

I love these 2 so much. We are truly blessed to have you in our family, Abbie!!

A Sad Day for Mommy

Monday was a tough day for me. My sweet baby girl went for her 2 month check up at the doctor. Anybody who's ever had a baby knows that 2 months is a tough one...she got her first round of shots since leaving the hospital. I used to think it was sort of ridiculous that people got so bent out of shape about their kids having shots. Needles have never bothered me, so I didn't see it as that big of a deal. For all the times I've thought that, I'm sorry.

I made my mom go with me so I wouldn't have to be alone when she cried. Let me just say that I'm thankful for my mom. It was a pretty quick process; we were in and out of the exam room in less than 10 minutes. But it was a tough 10 minutes. My sweet baby girl, the one who has such a pleasant disposition and rarely cries, absolutely broke my heart! She got 3 shots in her legs, each worse than the last. I know she needed them and that they're great for her health and development, but I really just wanted to pick her up and take her home after the first one just so she wouldn't be in any more pain.

I wish I could have stayed with her for the rest of the afternoon, but I had to head back to work. That was super tough, but thankfully I have a wonderful family who really enjoys keeping Lorelai! So I dropped off a sad baby girl at Granny and Gramps's for the rest of the afternoon. There's no way in the world that I can express how grateful I am for my amazing family that God has blessed me with. Lorelai is so fortunate to have both sets of grandparents living in town, along with one set of great-grandparents. They took care of her Monday afternoon and Monday evening, and by the time we got her home, she was getting back to her old self again. Now I'm really dreading the 4 month check up...

On a much happier note, Lo is growing so well! She weighed 11 lbs. 9 oz. and was 23 inches long! I can't believe how big she is! She's starting to hold herself up really well when she's on her tummy, and her head control is improving constantly. I am so blessed. I just can't say that enough.

Dance Dance!

I love my family. We always have the best time together, no matter what's going on. Even growing up, I can remember us getting along so well...for the most part. I remember actually enjoying spending time with my parents when all of my friends were complaining about theirs. I remember my little brother being my best friend when everyone else hated their siblings. I value time with my family. It's a priority in my life. Since Tyler's gone to college, I haven't gotten to see him as much as I'd like, so I jump (or dance!) at every opportunity I get to see him and Abbie. Last weekend was no exception.

See...Abbie's sister, Amanda, owns a dance studio in Springdale. She started it in the fall of last year, so they're still getting their feet off the ground. My sweet, wonderful, fearless brother decided to help her out and take a hip hop class from her. Go ahead...I'll pause while you laugh for a couple of minutes...

Ok, got your breath? Good. I had a good laugh when I first heard too! Saturday, Mom, Dad, Lorelai and I loaded up and headed to Little Rock for the day to see Ty and Ab in his very first dance competition! Go ahead...you can laugh again. So after sitting around for a little while, they finally were about to dance. I gotta be honest, I was a bit excited to see it! I had been hearing from Amanda and Abbie that they actually were really good and that I would be impressed. Let me just say...I was impressed!

There were 3 other guys in his group, and they absolutely stole the show. I was quite proud of him when it was over! And of course all of the girls in the audience were going crazy for those 4 cute guys on the stage. It was really quite cute. After it was all over, they handed out awards. And, drumroll please......they won!! They actually won! They got a trophy and money for the studio. How crazy is that?!

Another fun weekend with my family. What a blessing. We shouldn't take these days for granted. We're not promised more with anybody. We're living in today, not next week, next month, or next year, but today. Enjoy it, because it doesn't last forever.

I forgot...

Last night I was blessed with the opportunity to speak to the 5th and 6th graders in Awana at our church. They are focusing on missions, and their director wanted younger people in the church to come and talk to them so that they didn't think missions was just for "old people."

I have to be completely honest...I totally forgot about speaking until yesterday morning, so I didn't really have too much time to prepare. But that's not the forgetting that I want to talk about...

While I was telling the group about my trip that I took in 2005 to Ghana, West Africa, I really started to get excited about missions again! I've never really lost my zeal for foreign missions, and I've especially not lost my zeal for works in Africa. But I think I forgot about the passion that I felt while I was there. I forgot about the intense desire to just love people like Jesus. I forgot about the warm, welcoming smiles of the Ghanaian people. I forgot about their desperate need for a Savior. I forgot about that precious boy that broke my heart under that huge tree on that dirt rode. I forgot how much I love them...

I can't believe it's been nearly 5 years since I visited the most wonderful place I've ever been. I miss it terribly. When I read my journal entries from my trip, I long to be back in that country among the people.

I never want to forget again.

Bows Bows Bows!

I've found a new obsession...BOWS! I don't know what started it, but I just can't get enough of them! I've placed multiple bow orders the last few weeks. Yesterday at lunch my order from http://www.itzybitzy.com/ came in the mail (see above picture). I love Itzy Bitzy's site because the proceeds from their sales go toward a great cause. Plus, they have a HUGE selection! Tons of hats, infant bows and big girl bows, plus all of the cute flowers you could ever want! Jeremy watched me pull one bow after another from the box. He very calmly said, "I think it's time for you to take a break." So I told him I would...I told him I wouldn't shop for anymore bows this week:)

Last week my order came in from Candy Lineberry. She makes the cutest hairbows and clothes! http://www.sweetascandybowtique.com/. I was like a kid at Christmas when I opened the box! I couldn't wait to clip all of the bows onto her bow hanger that Angela made her. I think I'm going to need a new one pretty soon! Here's Lorelai modeling one of her bows from Candy:

My little girl has brought out a side of me that I never knew existed. And I'm loving every second of it!

Thankful

Can I just say that I have the most wonderful husband in the world? Because I do. And let me tell you why...

When I first told him that I was planning on taking Lo out of town this weekend, he and Dustin planned a little weekend ski trip. So Jeremy worked it out so that he could be off work. Unfortunately for them, the trip didn't work out, so Jeremy had a weekend at home to himself to do whatever he wanted. He told me he was planning on getting some stuff done, but I didn't think too much of it.

When we pulled into the driveway Saturday night, I was so surprised!! See...the house we bought used to be a rental, so it was definitely lacking in curb appeal. The bottom half of the house was covered in ivy and the flower beds were overgrown. My WONDERFUL husband, even though he was coming down with the same sickness I had had all weekend, ripped out all of that ivy and cleaned out the flower beds!! My house looks SO great! It still needs a little work, but the difference is unreal.

I'm so thankful for Jeremy. It's so much fun to be married to him! And I absolutely love watching him be a daddy to Lorelai. God has been good to me, and I am so undeserving.

A Weekend of Firsts

Lorelai had a big weekend! She made her first road trip with the girls, stayed in a hotel for the first time, attended her first Feminar, shopped in a mall, and met her great aunts and uncles! Wow! Friday afternoon, Mom, Angela, Lo and I loaded up and headed to Longview for Feminar, an annual Women's Conference put on by Macedonia Baptist. After checking into the hotel, we headed for the conference to hear Mandisa sing before the speakers started. Mom was so proud of herself for getting us seats on the end of a row so that I could take Lo out if I needed to, but what the seating chart didn't show was the wall at the end of every row!! I thought surely when the women saw that I had a baby, they would just all shift down a few seats and let us sit on the aisle...no such luck! So after climbing over about 12 other women, we settled into our seats, and I took Lo out of hers to she could stretch out. That, however, didn't last long! Mandisa started singing and I quickly realized that this was going to be way too loud for my baby girl's little ears. So...I climbed over everyone yet again to go sit outside and wait for the concert to end. Once the speaker took the stage, I climbed over everyone with my baby one more time before intermission. Even after all of this, no one every offered to give us the aisle! So for the second half of the session, mom kept Lorelai outside so she wouldn't have to be scrunched up in her carseat or someone's lap.

She slept incredibly well for not being in her bed and not having her normal bedtime routine! I was VERY glad about that! Lorelai stayed with Grandma Eva and Mrs. Pat Saturday morning while we went to the last session. Here are a few pictures of her while we were getting ready.

My smiley girl!

After the conference, we all went to lunch at Olive Garden and then shopped for a while. When she'd had enough of shopping, we headed to Marshall to meet Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ron, Aunt Dena and Uncle Randy, and Uncle Ray, Chloe and Ashley! I was so glad she was awake and talking while we were there. I really enjoyed our visit with everybody!

Enjoying all of the attention

It was tough, but we got Chloe and Ashley together for a super fast picture!

Snuggle time with Uncle Randy. He put her right to sleep!

She was such a good baby this weekend! She never fussed or cried, and she let everybody love on her as much as they wanted. I'm truly blessed that she's this easy (right now!). I know the future's going to bring so many crazy moments, but today I want to enjoy my precious baby girl the way she is...perfect!:)