the past week

Like I said in the last post, this past week has been a very busy one! Let's see if I can remember everything...

Last weekend Matt's parents came to visit us and they brought Aaron, our nephew. It was a crowded house but we had lots of fun! Saturday we went walking on Percival's Island, part of the Blackwater Creek Trail in Lynchburg. It was a gorgeous beautiful day for it except for the fact that a VERY loud train blew it's horn repeatedly going by and woke my sleeping Lily up! How dare that train! :)

On Sunday, Matt's mom and I went shopping at the mall and then later we went walking around Wyndhurst with everyone and got ice cream at the DELICIOUS Mountain Frost Creamery. It's my favorite place for ice cream and their grapefruit sorbet is AMAZING! Then on Monday we went and had a big breakfast at Bob Evans. Lily got to sit in a restaurant high chair for the first time! She did great except for the fact that she gets bored very easily and didn't want to sit in there for very long. That afternoon we went to the pool for the first time this summer and Lily had her first pool experience! She did surprisingly well. Our pool is heated so the water wasn't too cold for her. She wasn't a big fan of the float because I think it made her feel very unstable, but she did great when we were holding her. This stupid kids kept coming over near us though and splashing around!
Lily has also tried some new foods - carrots and sweet potatoes so far. She loved both! She also is eating food with two of her meals - the new tasty food at one and rice cereal at the other.Tuesday was recovery day from the busy weekend and cleaning up. Wednesday I didn't feel so hot - scratchy throat and runny nose, but I feel better now. It might just be the weather since it was so nasty that day. Thursday Lily and I went out to a few stores and of course for our daily walk. And today is.... FRIDAY!! Yeah for Friday!!! I'm going to go for a walk and then Lily and I are going to head down to the pool for a dip.

We have another busy weekend planned. Tomorrow we are going to meet Tara and Anthony in Charlottesville for the day - do a little shopping, have lunch, check out a car seat I think might be the winner. By the way, if anyone said that choosing a convertible car seat would be easy - they are WRONG. Who knew that something seemingly so simple could be so complex if you really research! We're also going to try and catch up later that afternoon with Calie and Daniel (Calie is a friend of ours from high school). She just found out she's having a girl! Everyone I know is having girls!!! I love having a girl - it's so much fun!

Also, for those of you who haven't heard.... Tara (my best friend from college) is PREGNANT!!! Yeah!!!!!!!! I am SO excited for her and can't wait to share the experience of being a mother with her. She is going to be such a great mom. They went for their first official appointment this past week and got to hear the baby's heartbeat - so amazing. I remember how crazy that was and realizing that there was a living little human being inside of me. What a GREAT God we have!!

And finally (if you think it can't get anymore exciting, it can!).... my sister's babies (boy/girl twins) will be delivered by c-section this MONDAY!! Only 3 more days! I can hardly believe the time is already here. I can't wait to meet them and hold them!! We'll be going down next weekend to see them. I can't believe her Ava (my niece and dawn's little girl) is already 4 years old!! When did she grow up so fast?! Look at how GREAT she looks for full term with twins:

Well, that's a lot for you to take in. I'm going to get ready for the pool and our fun weekend! For your enjoyment... Daddy's little eagles fan (SO CUTE):

I'm alive

I have not forgotten my blog. I have had a busy past week. Matt's parents were in town visiting for memorial day weekend, then recovery day, and today I haven't been feeling so great. So needless to say, this is just a post to say "i'm still here" but will post later once I feel better. Hopefully in the next day or two! I will have lots to write about then!!

6 month check-up

Lily went for her 6 month check up today.

Here is her stats:
Weight: 17 pounds 13 ounces (75-90th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (75th percentile)
Head Circum: 17.5 (90th percentile)

A brief synopsis: We can move on to other foods (fruits/veggies) in a few days introducing one new one every 4-7 days. For the constipation, she said that most likely eating the fruits and veggies will help her go better but I can also add in the brown sugar to her bottle (which I've tried) or prune juice. No water or juices are necessary and it's really better to just use formula the first year. Then after that juice really should only be a treat - milk and water should be the staples. Sunscreen is okay to use now so we can hit the pool! Whenever we want to try a sippy cup in the next few months with her formula we can. Once she hits 1 year, that's when the cut off is - no more bottles and she HAS to drink from sippy cup. She got 3 shots and one oral vaccine today (same ones as before). Her next checkup at 9 months she won't have to get any. We can also give her motrin now for pain/fever, etc. I think that was about it. She's doing great!!

The rest of the day was ROUGH. I pretty much had to stand up and hold her for most of the day. She was crying this pitiful "i hurt" cry. It was so sad! It wore me out but I had to take care of my poor little baby! She all of a sudden must have started feeling better though right before bed. Cause I had her laughing hysterically from like 6:45 to 7:15! And usually by 7:00 she has HAD it and is very ready for bed. It was a good ending to the day though to see her laughing so much!

Happy Half Birthday Lily!!!

My little baby girl is 6 months old today. 6 months ago I was in the hospital pushing. She would be born at 8:22PM My little 6 pound 4 ounce sweet baby girl. I could get all sappy right about now but I shall refrain since most of you know just how much I love this little girl! To reminisce, 2 pictures of my brand spankin newborn Lily and to celebrate, a picture of my 6 month Lily:

I wanted to tell about two things before I get off here and watch the finale of American Idol!! First, we had to have one of the maintenance guys come look at our bathroom because there was a leak with water in the floor. Well he started talking to me and Lily and asked if she had a piggy bank. I said yes, she does. So he gave her a dollar for her piggy bank. I know this might sound silly to some of you but I thought it was so sweet of him.

Then when the two of us were walking this afternoon I saw a car with DEER WHISTLES on it!! If you don't know why that is a hilarious statement, then you must not know Matt very well. :) Ask him to tell you the deer whistle story if you haven't heard it yet!

Okay, time for American Idol!

P.S. - My sister's babies both weigh 5 pounds now!!! Only 12 more days until they get here!!!

haircut and a few other things

The big news for today... I got my haircut! And.... I LOVE it!!! The girl did such a great job just like Alicia said she would. She put in layers which I don't think I have ever had and they look great! I always thought that layers would make your hair more voluminous (which I definitely DON'T need). But I was wrong, she said they actually help to cut some of the volume. I think it looks great and Matt LOVES it too! :) I took one picture but it definitely doesn't do the haircut justice. Oh well, you can get the jist. If you know my hair, you should be amazed at how thin it looks!! Alicia said I had to promote her on my friend list since she did such a good job recommending me to the hairstylist. :) She's already pretty high up on the list but for what it's worth, Alicia - you can consider yourself promoted - haha. She got her hair cut too and we took turns watching the girls. They both did good considering they were cooped up in once place for about an hour!

After that we had lunch at Hickory Farms - YUMMM! If you live in Lynchburg and you've never had a pita from that place, you are missing out and need to go ASAP! They are so delicious. Unfortunately, today was not as good a day there because our pita breads were both broken at the bottom and falling apart. :( Oh well, still good in my mouth!!

Then Lily and I went to Target to do a little shopping and I got her a baby float with a sunshade for the pool! Yeah!! Don't know if I mentioned this or not, but as long as the pool isn't too cold, we're going to try and take her this weekend. Our pool here is supposedly heated so we'll see. Then we headed home and went for a walk later this afternoon.

Lily did a great job today in working on the whole crawling thing. The past few days she's really been working to try and get her legs up under her so she can get on all fours. It's so funny because as soon as she gets her legs under her and then tries to push up on her arms, the legs go back down. :) She's trying though! We also played musical intruments today too - haha. My sister got me this Bee Bop Band music toy that will last as a toy for a long time. It has a bunch of different things in it - drumsticks, tambourine, shaker, etc. Ava (my niece) has gotten great use out of it. So Lily attempted to play the drums today. :)

I know I said I was going to blog today about something spiritual that's been on my mind lately but I want to spend some time with the hubby and American Idol comes on in 6 minutes!! Yeah!!! But be on the lookout, I will do it soon!!

funny knee/jeans

So Lily thought either my knee or jeans was worthy of laughing her little head off today! It was SO funny. I was on the floor playing with her and I moved my leg/knee up and she just started giggling! I kept doing it and it just got funnier and funnier! The things that little babies find funny!

Today I cleared out some of Lily's clothes that don't fit and then we went on a walk with Alicia and Andi. It was gorgeous sunny weather outside. Tomorrow is hair cut day - AAHH! :) I have just a little fear of getting my haircut if you can't tell! I'm trying someone new this time that Alicia goes too so I guess we'll see how it goes. I haven't completely decided yet how much I want to cut.

And before I go watch Jon and Kate Plus 8, I just have to say that I'm SO excited to meet my new nephew and niece in exactly TWO WEEKS! Well, I won't meet them that day but they will be born that day. We're planning to go down the following weekend so we'll have more time and Matt won't have to use as much time off. Sometimes I still can't believe that my sister is going to have twins and thus will have 3 CHILDREN! Wow - when did we grow up? She is going to be (and already is) a GREAT mom by the way. Ava is such a smart beautiful wonderful little girl (despite the typical 4 year old little girl drama) and I know that these two little babies are going to be just as great!

Now off to relax and watch my show. I will try to update tomorrow with my haircut story and hopefully a little spiritual segment about a topic I've been wanting to blog about for a few days!

Wyndfest and church nursery

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day! So we headed out to Wyndfest (a big festival in Wyndhurst - a nice "planned" community in Lynchburg with housing/stores, etc.). Lily wore the most adorable little hat - SO cute!! We had a great time and Lily had fun. The only part she didn't like was the VERY loud music up on the stage. She freaked out about that - but loved everything else. We had lunch, got free snow cones, looked around at all the booths set up outside, and Lily got her picture with the batman car. :) So it was a very fun day.

Today I finally got up the courage to put Lily in the nursery for church. She is at the point now that she's just too distracting for me to get anything out of church. She's not just a tiny newborn that sleeps the whole time!! Vicky and the two other girls in the baby room today were all people I knew and felt comfortable with so I thought it would be a good first week to try it out. Lily did great - had her bottle and played. I also did good - yeah for me! Lily took her nap in the car and then we had lunch at Olive Garden with a gift card we still had from my birthday. Tonight Vicky is coming over after Lily goes to bed to stay with her so Matt and I can go out just the two of us.

Lily's updates: She is sitting up really well now on her own! We juts put a pillow behind her so if she topples it's a soft landing. Hopefully soon we can start doing a highchair when we go out!

So that's all about our fun weekend! Unfortunately it's always over too soon but next weekend is a long one! Yeah!!

what kind of mother am I?

My sister did this test on her blog and I wanted to find out what mine would say too! It's funny because my sister and I had the same results except for the 3rd letter. I am feeling and my sister was thinking. Funny because in personality tests like this that aren't related to "motherhood" I would definitely be the thinker just like my sister is. But the description for feeling in the motherhood test fit me better I think. I always struggle with the "introvert/extrovert" category. It really depends on the situation I think for which I am more like. I definitely like my social time but I also need the quiet alone time as well. I asked Matt what he thought and he said that I sounded more like the introvert in the "motherhood" test. Anyways... here is who the test says I am as a mother:

ISFJ —The “Tender Loving Care” Mother

“I want my children to feel they have an ally, someone who knows them completely. I want to be a haven for them.”

Gentle and kind, the ISFJ mother provides her children with generous amounts of tenderness, affection, and the comfort of daily routine. Her aim is to “be there” for her children, physically and emotionally. She is sensitive to their feelings, offering closeness, understanding, and quiet support.

Loyal and devoted, the ISFJ mother has a strong sense of duty and consistently puts her children’s needs first. She delights in taking care of the little things that matter to a child, making each one feel loved and special.

To provide her family with security and warmth, the ISFJ mother tends to the practical and domestic, aiming for a smooth-running household and an attractive home. She also observes and conveys the value and importance of family traditions.

What do you think? Does this fit me if you know me as a mother? I think it does because I obviously chose the answers that I thought were most like me. Here is the link for the test if you want to do it too!

lots to say, little time

Things are finally settling down from the past week so I have a chance to blog now! There's so much I have wanted to talk about but I probably won't remember half of it. That's the problem with not blogging for a week!

Saturday morning we headed out for our weekend trip to Va Beach. The trip went well and Lily slept for a good portion of it. That afternoon Matt's mom, me, and Lily went to Babies'R'Us. I LOVE that store. I sure wish we had one here cause it's baby heaven!! There's so many more things/options there then just at a regular store or even baby depot (which we have). Matt's mom got Lily a bunch of cute new clothes, diapers, and a SWEET new diaper bag. I have been looking for a new diaper bag and this one is AMAZING. It has a bunch of pockets for everything you could think of which I LOVE. I am a very organized person as most of you know, so having all those pockets for things is very exciting. It also has hooks that attach to your stroller so when you pull you stroller out you just clip the bag on to them - way cool. Anyways, I'm VERY satisfied so far with that purchase. That evening and pretty much the rest of the weekend we were all playing Mario Kart Wii. That is a sweet game and so much fun!

Sunday was, of course, Mother's Day. We had a GREAT one. Matt preached for both services at Suburban and did a great job of course. I'm very proud of him and see how God flows through him when he's speaking. It was very special for him to be able to do that on my first mother's day. Lily actually konked out on my shoulder during the invitation - SO adorable. She usually never does that as she's very interested in her surroundings - so it was a special mother's day treat for me to hold my sleeping baby. Then we went to lunch with Matt's family and my parents. It was great getting to be with all our extended family. That afternoon we did gifts - Lily (with the help of Matt) got me the most adorable card and "signed" her name and then got me this BEAUTIFUL necklace that says "mom" on it. He actually had also gotten me a Vera Bradley diaper bag in mod floral pink (which was what I had been saying I really wanted but then found the one at babies'r'us). So sweet that he remembered!! It was a GREAT mother's day.

On Monday, Matt's mom babysat Lily in the morning so Matt and I could go and meet up with Jerry Flug for breakfast (our old youth pastor and now friend). It was great cause we haven't had a chance to sit down and talk with him in a long time. I couldn't believe how old his kids are getting!! Then we went to lunch with Matt's mom (she took off since we were in town) and then to a few stores. Another great fun day!

Tuesday morning I packed up while Matt had lunch with Todd Haynes (youth pastor at SCC), saw my parents for a bit to say goodbye, and then headed for home. The trip home was NOT good!! The few days before that Lily had been grunting/pushing like she had to poop but hardly anything was coming out. Well, I *think* she was constipated and all of a sudden midway through the trip in no-man's land, she starts screaming and crying really really hard. Nothing we were doing would calm her down. It was nuts cause we were trying to figure out what was wrong on the side of the road. I started freaking out cause I didn't know if something was REALLY wrong with her. I called the pediatrician and they said we could put brown sugar in her bottle or for immediate relief we could use "babylax" (a glycerin suppository for babies). Well, we found a gas station and got directions to the nearest pharmacy/walmart. On the way to walmart though Lily finally konked out probably from all the crying. So we got the babylax and just kept driving cause we didn't want to disturb her. After we finally got home, we gave it to her and she went probably 15-20 minutes later. Yesterday she was still out of sorts though and had spells of the hard crying like something was wrong. She was a bit better today so I'm hoping whatever was wrong is going away?? It's hard not being able to have your baby tell you exactly what's wrong sometimes.

Yesterday was recuperation day. Unpacked, did some laundry, rested. Today Vicky came over for awhile which is always a treat and then Lily and I went on a walk. I LOVE the warmer weather so we can go out and walk. We pretty much go walking any day that it is nice. Tonight is the season finale of The Office. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that show!!! And tonight we get an hour of it!

Lily's Accomplishments: She can now stand up by herself holding on to something (the couch, etc.). I also tried rice cereal again today and this time she definitely LOVED it! She opened up her mouth for every bite and ate the whole thing that I made. So we finally have success in the eating from a spoon department!!

Well, I'm sure you are tired of reading now and I am tired of typing. So I will now wait patiently for the office to come on while eating my delicious cheese danish!

P.S. - This was originally written last night but pics wouldn't upload until this morning!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to me! It's been a great first mother's day but I will tell all about it later since I am going to enjoy my day. Being a mom is the greatest thing ever!!!

The weekend is here!

So we've had a busy weekend already and it's only half over. :) We left this morning for virginia beach and got here around lunch time. We had lunch out and then Matt's mom, Lily, and me went to babies'r'us. Babies'r'us is like heaven! Especially since we don't have one in Lynchburg. Toys'r'us SUCKS in comparison. Anyways - so I spent a long time in there and Matt's mom got Lily a bunch of new clothes and some other things. Yeah!! Then we finally came home and before I knew it it was time for Lily to go to bed.

It's been a good day so far and I'm excited about my first mother's day tomorrow and getting to hear my hubby preach! Off to relax some before bed. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

hump day

Well, not too much going on this week (which is good because I needed some down time!). Monday was recovery day from the weekend. Yesterday Lily and I went to a few stores and I tried out a new recipe for dinner - Taco Bake. It was pretty good. Today we ran a few errands and took a walk. Then this afternoon we met Alicia and Andi at the mall for awhile.

I've been trying this week to make new recipes or at least something not boxed. I have found that it's easiest to make recipes where you combine things together that can be predone and put in the fridge. Then just take it out right before I put Lily to bed and put it in the oven. Tonight I made broccoli-chedder chicken - delicious! The recipe is off the back of the campbell's broccoli-chedder cheese soup.

Tomorrow is laundry day since we are going away for the weekend to Virginia Beach. I'm looking forward to it. Matt is going to be preaching on Sunday too - he's been hard at work preparing.

I also put up some new videos of Lily tonight on youtube. Check them out at www.youtube.com/bruns924.

Since I don't have much "fun" stuff to blog about. I will leave you with a cute picture of Lily waking up from her nap today and a sweet picture I took of her yesterday morning:

a fun weekend!

Wow - this weekend felt VERY busy but it was VERY fun!!

Friday evening Tara and Anthony got here just in time to tell Lily goodnight. Then the rest of the evening we had a chance to just catch up and eat a good dinner together (yes, I can cook!). I have to say thank you though to Alicia for her delicious chicken pot pie recipe!

Saturday morning we went to Sears to get some pictures taken of her. We got a sitting up pose, propped up on her hands, and then one standing up in her dress. She was of course very cute although by the time the dress picture came time, she was starting to get fussier since we had been messing with her so much. We should get them back in about a week. Picking out pictures is usually VERY difficult for me though. We also had to pick out stuff for family too. Pictures (even at cheaper places) are definitely not cheap! It's worth it though cause she's only little once.

Saturday afternoon we had a big cookout at Peak's View Park with all my girl friends from college and our families. It was a big more difficult having a baby at the park especially since she is not supposed to be in direct sunlight yet (can't wear sunscreen) for extended periods of time. We were able to find some shade though to sit in and we had brought her pack-n-play so she could sprawl out and explore which she loves to do. We also bought this umbrella that could attach over the pack-n-play to keep her in the shade. All in all, it was a very fun time and we had some delicious cook out food. YUM!! Lily did really good too.

Afterwards, we convinced Tara and Anthony to stay another night since it was later and we were all tired - plus we enjoy their company. :) So last night we had "the office" marathon on tv since we have all the seasons. I was so pooped though that I got on the air mattress with Tara and I think we both fell asleep!

Today was just a relax day from the weekend! We skipped church and then this afternoon went to Old Navy and a few other stores. Now I am just enjoying being at home!

In a Lily update - the past two nights she has woken up once in the middle of the night with *i think* reflux. She has these times where it's like milk comes up her nose or something and it freaks her out. So I just went in and held her up for a few minutes while she settled down and she fell right back asleep. I have started using diaper doublers (they look like maxi pads - ha) in her diapers at night to alleviate the peeing out her diaper every night problem. We tried all the brands and nothing worked since she doesn't get it changed for 12 hours while she's sleeping at night. I read about the doublers on a mom forum and they worked like a charm! Like I said, it's just like a maxi pad and you put it inside the regular diaper for more absorbency. WONDERFUL!!

Next weekend will be another busy one - we're headed to virginia beach. So for now I'm going to enjoy some down time at home with just us!

a busy few days

Lots to talk about!! First I will recap our last two days. Yesterday we went with Alicia and Andi to the mall. Alicia is going to Mexico for a wedding and she needed to find a dress. So we had fun shopping and then had lunch. Then today Lily and I went to a few stores together and this afternoon went walking in Wyndhurst with Alicia and Andi. While we were walking, this girl who was walking her little boy stopped and asked us if Lily and Andi were twins. HA! That's funny. They look NOTHING alike! Anyways, it gave us a good laugh.

Yesterday Matt got a letter from his work saying that due to a budget deficit at the agency, they are going to be cutting out some of their sick leave and all personal leave as well as only giving a 1% increase in pay (they usually get 4% a year). ARGH! Anyways it made us both very not happy. We were planning on using his increase this year to pay for his school loan payments which will be starting again once he graduates from seminary (August). I guess God will provide. He always has so far and I just have to trust that it's going to work out.

My sister has a scheduled due date. I don't know if I already talked about this, but if not her official c-section date and babies birthday is going to be June 2nd! Yeah!!! As always, that is pending that nothing happens sooner!

We have a busy weekends coming up that I am very excited about!! Tomorrow, Tara and Anthony are coming in to town and will be staying the night with us. Then on Saturday Lily is going to get her pictures done at Sears! I'm so excited because it's been too long since she had them done last and she's a different little baby now! Saturday afternoon all my girl friends from college and our families are having a cookout at Peaks View Park. It will be so great to have everyone together again and a bunch of them haven't seen Lily in awhile either.

Lily has been doing quite a few new things too. I know for sure that she really recognizes her name now. It's SO cute how she turns and looks for us whenever we call her name. By the way, I LOVE her name. I'm so happy that we picked that and it just fits her so good. She's also figuring out that you can actually jump in the jumperoo. She won't do two feet at a time but she wobbles back and forth alternating between the two legs. It's hilarious seeing how excited she gets! Last night we put Lily in her big girl bathtub for the first time. It's one of the inflatable kind that you can put in the bathtub. She did great and I think really loved it since she had more freedom to explore!

As I said, lots of news! We've had a great week and I'm excited for the weekend to start!