thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!! For thanskgiving dinner today, we are all going to share something that we are thankful for - and not allowed to just use a cheesy typical answer. As I've been thinking about it, there are so many things that I am thankful for and I thought I would share a few....

1. Jesus. Okay so this can be a typical cheesy answer but let me go on. I am nothing without God. I believe that my life would be serving no real purpose without Him. I live and breathe because of Him. I can be a good wife, mother, and friend because of Him. I have something to look forward to beyond this life because of Him. I don't have to worry because of Him. He is everything that I need. I couldn't be thankful for anything else if I didn't have this to be thankful for.

2. My husband. He makes me a better woman. He goes to work everyday to provide for our family. He loves me unconditionally. He loves God. He makes me laugh. He's the most wonderful man I could ever have asked for.

3. My daughter. I never knew how much love you could have for someone until I had Lily. I get the privilege every day of being a mother and raising her the best I can. She brings a smile to my face everyday.

4. God's provision. I worry a lot about money. And really I shouldn't because God has always proved faithful and has provided for our needs. We surely aren't the richest of families in financial terms, but we are a loving happy family. God continues to show us that he's faithful to us even when we aren't faithful to Him all the time.

5. The hard times. If I didn't experience hard times, how would I really enjoy and appreciate the good times? How would I become a better person? I am thankful for the struggles and difficulties this past year because they have taught me so many lessons.

I hope everyone takes time out today to really think about what they are thankful for. We are so blessed. Even if you might be in the darkest of times, there is always something to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!

Lily's 1st Birthday Celebrations

Wow has it been crazy busy around the Bruns' household the past few days!! As everyone knows by now, my baby turned 1 on Friday! So here's the run down on the celebrations...

Friday morning Matt was able to go in a little late to work so he could be here when Lily woke up to sing her happy birthday and give her her big present. She was so smiley when both of us came in to say good morning and we sang to her. Then she got to go out in the living room and see her big present from mommy and daddy: a big girl chair from Pottery Barn Kids with her name on it! She has since fallen in love with this thing. She knows how to climb up in it and sit and will watch her baby einsteins in it with tigger. It's SO stinkin cute! She also loved her peek-a-boo card from mommy and daddy.

Then after morning nap, grandma and grandpa arrived. They took us to lunch at Bob Evan's and then we picked up Lily's birthday balloons. I have found out that she loves balloons!! Ever since we have had them at home she always wants to go over and hit them.

Then that afternoon, my sister and her family arrived so we went over to the place they were staying at to hang out with them for awhile. Can I just say that her kids are just the cutest (besides my own that is)! Cecilia and Owen are turning in to real lively little babies and Ava is just adorable and fun as always.

Then it was back to the house for dinner. Lily's Nana, Aunt Missy, and cousin Aaron arrived next. Her Papa and Uncle Jake couldn't make it because they were sick. After dinner, we did cupcake time. We got to sing her happy birthday and blow out her first birthday candle. My wonderful creative hubby made Lily's cupcakes for her. She had a little bit of cake but wasn't really that much in to it. Then we did presents. She, of course, was excited about all her new toys and books!

Saturday morning was very busy. Basically getting ready for Lily's big birthday party. We had it down at our clubhouse thanks to the funding of the grandparents. MUCH more room and it worked out really great! Her cake was absolutely gorgeous!! My friend Alicia's friend does cakes on the side and she agreed to do one for me. I had seen Andi's birthday cake and loved it! It turned out so great!!

We had pizza for lunch and then did more presents. Lily is well stocked now and got lots of really fun neat toys! Then it was cake time. Everyone sang her happy birthday again and she dug in. Okay well she didn't dig in... she was VERY gentle and nice with the cake surprisingly. She didn't eat very much of it again - I don't think she's very in to sweets oddly enough. The cake was delicious though!!

During the party, Lily and her bff Andi migrated to each other and were just sitting in the floor sharing their snacks with each other. It was so stinkin cute:

Here's who came and made her party special - my parents, Matt's family, my sister's whole family, my best friends from college Vicky and Tara, Tara's mom, Alicia and her family, and Kathy and her husband (my good friend from work).

Everything went so incredibly well and Lily had a great birthday overall! The rest of the weekend was just spending time with family. Well, want to get off of here and go watch our movie. We're headed to Virginia Beach tomorrow for the thanksgiving holiday. To see all the pics from her birthday you can check on our picture website.

the ticker

and if you're reading this blog today (the 21st), look up at Lily's ticker. It says "Happy 1st Birthday!" Yeah!! Even my ticker is celebrating. :)

Happy 1st Birthday Lily!!!!

I went back in my blog posts to find where I had written about Lily's birth story. And in the midst of the craziness of having a baby, I realized that I didn't blog about that! So in honor of Lily's 1st birthday today, I will retell Lily's birth story. Here's what I wrote in her baby book:

I was scheduled to be induced on Wednesday November 21st but ended up going in to labor on my own that morning at 2:30AM. I woke up to contractions that were about 10 minutes apart. I at first couldn't believe that it was actually happening! By 6AM they had been coming every 4-6 minutes for awhile so we called the midwife and headed to the hospital about 6:30AM. They hooked me up to all the monitors and did a cervical check. I was only 1-2cm. I thought for sure I was at least 4 by that time! So they didn't want me to get the epidural yet until I was a little farther along. I got in the bathtub for awhile which really did help some but it was still the most incredible pain I've ever felt! I finally got the epidural at 10:30AM which was a breeze and not painful at all. DEFINITELY glad I went that route. It was wonderful not having any pain at all! Around 5cm I slowed down and wasn't progressing so the midwife broke my water. That didn't help so they started me on just a little bit of pitocin. That did the trick and started making things progress really quickly. Around 6 or 7PM I was fully dilated but my midwife was delivering a baby next door so I had to wait for her to get done. I was starting to feel pain again so they sent in the anesthesiologist to give me a booster shot and that got rid of the pain really quickly. I started pushing around 7:45PM. Matt and a nurse held my legs up for me to push and they had a mirror which helped me to see my progress and Lily's head starting to emerge. Since I had the epidural and didn't feel the contractions the mirror helped me to know I was pushing good. I pushed for about 45 minutes and she was out! I tore (level 2) because Lily's arms were crossed across her chest. Matt got to cut the cord and then for a minute they let me have her up on my chest before they took her to clean her off, do vitals, etc.

She was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. No words can describe how you feel in that very moment. Here is my beautiful baby girl when she was born and now at 1 year old!

this time last year

This time last year I was spending my last day as pregnant with Lily. Little did I know a year ago how much love you can have for your child and how holding her for the first time could be the most amazing incredible feeling you can have in this life. It really is true that when you have a child your heart is walking around outside your body. I always think back to when she came out and they laid her up on my chest. I was in awe and overwhelmed at the love I felt for her in that moment. I hope I never forget that moment and I don't think you can when it's that emotional.

How in the world did my little 6 pound 4 ounce beautiful baby girl turn in to a 23 pound beautiful toddler so fast??!! It's true that a lot of days seem to go by VERY slowly but in the scheme of things - time flies!

I may or may not post tomorrow seeing as it's Lily's 1st birthday and it's all about her tomorrow! But I guess every day is now, isn't it?

new Lily news

Before I write anything else, I just have to say that this time last year was my due date! I was very pregnant and ready to meet beautiful little Lily! Where has the past year gone?

Now some new fun things about Lily:

She knows where to go and what "bath" means. Every night I say "you wanna go get a bath Lily?" The past few nights before I even go anywhere she makes a beeline for the bathroom door. It's SO stinkin cute!

I *think* she knows the word duck and dog but not sure yet. When she's in the bath playing with her ducks she says "du" and whens he saw her laugh and learn dog today she said "dog" but with a VERY faint g. I'm definitely not sure yet if she really knows it or not but I can tell she definitely comprehends a LOT of what we say to her now.

Tonight in the bathtub she ends up ingesting some soap water - YUM. I use this thing to pour water over her hair and I think she's just looking in it. Nope, it was full of water and she was drinking some. Gross!

She LOVES to stack and sort anything. I think I've already said this before but just in case I haven't for records sake.

Final news, I think my sister's family and Tara and her mom will be coming to Lynchburg for Lily's 1st bday party this weekend!! I'm SO excited that they'll both be able to be here for this big event!! I will leave you with a few cute pics of my beautiful Lily:

Lily having fun with her "auntie" vicky:

4 days until Lily's birthday!!!

man groomer, HSN, and a yummy dinner

So yesterday we were at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and Matt saw this thing called "the man groomer." It's like a man's razor but on a long foldup arm so you can reach all down your back. I think it was one of the funniest items I have ever seen in my life. The picture on the box was HILARIOUS! If I had more money, I would get it as a joke gift for someone in my family.

Then yesterday evening while I was trying to convince Matt to watch a christmas movie with me, he had stopped on the Home Shopping Network. HSN is obviously not a new thing but for some reason yesterday it had us intrigued - basically because it was absurd. Esteben was on there and some lady trying to sell his guitars. We probably watched it for a good 20 minutes. It gave us a good laugh. Anyways.... that to say that I decided that I would like to be one of the ladies on HSN who sells crap. Yes, I might be crazy but I think it would be a hilarious job to have. So that was my reveletion.

Then last night after HSN I finally got Matt to agree to watch a christmas movie with me. So we cracked out "Elf" (one of my favorite cmas movies although I love ANY cmas movies!). Matt had made a homemade apple pie too so I warmed some up with vanilla ice cream - delicious. I absolutely LOVE that my husband is such an inventive good cook!

And speaking of cooking... Matt is making a big pork bbq for dinner along with pasta salad and some fried pickles. Yes, FRIED pickles! We had them for the first time at a restaurant down in Myrtle Beach and they were delicious! So Matt's trying it out today. Vicky and Evan (her brother) are coming over too to hang out and have dinner with us.

Only 5 days until Lily's 1st Birthday! I have to go shopping this week for decorations. I bought her this birthday crown and have been trying to get her use to wearing something on her head this week in hopes that she'll keep it on. Don't think that's gonna happen though! She loves when I put it on her head and thinks it's funny to take it off - go figure.

And finally... one of Lily's favorite new things to do is take ALL the dvd's off the rack. We have this tall metal tower that has all our dvd's in it and she is constantly taking all of them out and hurling them. I've decided that I should just leave them out on the floor instead of having to always put them back. Guess that would take her fun out of it though, huh?

lunch date, coffee date, and my ticker

Today was a rainy dreary day. I have to admit that I am currently still in my pj's that I woke up in this morning. Yes, I didn't change all day. You're allowed to do that on days like today though!

Tuesday Lily and I went to lunch at Chick-fil-A with Alicia and Andi. Lily and Andi had fun playing in the kids area there. They have a great section in the play area for toddlers too.

Then on Wednesday Vicky came over for dinner as usual and then we went out for coffee. I always look forward to our weekly coffee outings.

And then I realized today when I looked at my blog that the little girl on my ticker at the top is practically on top of the 1 year mark! Where have the past 12 months gone??!!

Lily is doing great and being her fun cute little self of course. She is officially off all bottles and formula. My big girl drinks regular cow's milk out of a sippy cup on her own!

Oh... and almost completely forgot that our power went out this morning. That's the first time I think that has happened since we have lived here. The power has flickered a few times but never fully gone out. I had just put Lily down for her nap too so I had to go back in there to turn on the sound machine (runs on batteries) which of course got her wound up again for a little bit. She sleeps/naps with the fan so that's why I turned that thing on. Well... that's all the news I think around here.

Interview Weekend

The weekend finally came! Most of you reading this will know how long we've been waiting and praying about this. So it was great to finally get to this point even though we don't know what the decision will be yet.

We left Friday and it was my parents turn to have us at their house. Saturday afternoon was Matt's interview with the youth pastor search committee. He, of course, went alone to this part. But from what he told me everything went great! He feels like he impressed the committee members and gave good answers to their questions.

That evening I had to loosen my controlling tendencies and let Grandma put Lily to bed so I could go with Matt to a hang out with the kids. It was at Jerry's house (our old youth pastor and a member of the committee). Some of the adults from the committee were there as well as about 10 youth. We had pizza, played some games, and then had q&a time for the kids. We had a great fun time! And Lily did fine going to bed.

Sunday morning was church. Then Grandma took Lily back to the house for lunch and nap while Matt and I went to lunch with Todd (pastor) and Jerry. It was supposed to be Todd and his wife but she was sick so Jerry went with us. We headed back to the house for a bit and Matt's parents came over to see Lily for a little while. Then that evening Grandma put Lily to bed yet again and we went to youth group. Youth group was a blast - brought back lots of memories! Matt did well - he taught the lesson for the evening.

All in all it went great! I'm SO thankful for all of our friends/family that have been praying for us. They were answered so far in a GREAT weekend! They are going through the process and interviewing at least one other person in two weeks but we really feel like this might happen for us. Keep praying!! We should know sometime in December what the decision is. So we might have a great christmas present!

Now I have to unpack again (seems like I'm packing unpacking a lot lately!). Then for lunch today Alicia and I are taking the girls to chick-fil-a for lunch and to play. Yeah!! Only a week and a half until Lily's 1st birthday!!!

my little turkey

Isn't she the most adorable little turkey you've ever seen?! She's all ready for thanksgiving. I can hardly believe that last year at this time we were waiting for her to get here and then having thanksgiving in the hospital! Only 2 more weeks until she turns 1! I'll probably mention that a million times between now and her birthday but hey, she's my first child.

And I woke up this morning with a sore throat... guess we'll see if I'm going to get Lily's cold or not. Hopefully it will just go away!

Off to get ready to leave for Virginia Beach! We'd appreciate your prayers for the weekend!

Wednesday fun and learning Lily

Lily is constantly learning! Yesterday she was up on the couch with me and I let her go cause she wanted to get off (while of course holding my hands right by her). She apparently knew that she couldn't go off the couch face first because she turned around and then put her legs down. Granted it wasn't perfect and one of her legs got stuck but I didn't think she realized that yet! I'm sure it won't hold true all the time as kids think they are invincible but it was fun to see her figure out something! Then yesterday evening she was playing with her socks (one of her new favorite things to do) and I noticed that she was trying to put them on her feet. It's so crazy how they figure out what things are supposed to be for! She obviously couldn't get them on but it was so cute because she would take her sock and like push on it on the top of her foot like it should magically just go on.

There's just nothing like seeing the look of amazement on your child's face either when she discovers something new but incredibly simple/easy for us. This morning Lily was playing with these play keys she has and there's a button that you push that makes them light up. Well she figures this out and as soon as she does she gets the biggest smile on her face like she's hot stuff!

Yesterday was a fun day. Alicia and Andi came over midday so Lily had a playmate for a little while. Then yesterday evening I went to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 with some friends. It was a nice change of pace for me and good to get out on my own.

And on a final note... Lily has a cold. Yesterday evening she was really irritable but I didn't really know why. This morning when she woke up she had a very runny nose! So that's probably why she was acting that way last night. Hopefully she'll get better soon! I feel like she just got over having a congested nose not too long ago. Oh well!

Today is laundry and packing day since we leave tomorrow for Virginia Beach. Yeah!!! If you haven't noticed we're very excited for Matt to have his interview! :)

election day

Today was a busy day. Matt took off today cause the kids didn't have school. This morning I did some bathroom cleaning. Then after Lily's morning nap we headed off to vote. My sister posted a link in her blog today for one of her friend's blogs regarding the election. I read the post and loved it. The woman put into words how I feel about the matter. So go check out her blog post.

Then we headed to Michael's to research cake decorating options. I was hoping to have a friend of Alicia's make the cake (she does REALLY beautiful ones)! But I don't think we're going to be able to afford it. Matt wants to try and make the cake himself so we bought a few supplies today for a test run this evening. Guess we'll see how that turns out! We treated ourselves to lunch out and then headed home for Lily's nap.

After nap was Lily's appointment at the pediatrician to get the first dose of her flu shot. Since this is her first time getting it she has to go again in a month for a booster shot. She did surprisingly well with it. When they stuck her in the leg muscle she didn't flinch at all - just watched! Then we went to the mall to look around for a few things. We had a good day - always a good day when Matt gets to stay home with us!

Lily these days LOVES to walk (with our hands of course). She still hasn't wanted to step out on her own yet but I know she wishes she could! She's really good at using the ring stacker now and likes to put things in and out of containers. She also knows how to shake her head no and yes. Well - the yes one is very rare at this point. Everything is mostly the "no" shaking of the head. Matt always takes things and hides them behind his back and creeps them out - which Lily loves. So now she will take things and go and shove them behind his back to get him to play with her. Too cute!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, the christmas season has officially started for me. My hubby and friends think I'm crazy but that's okay. Each year Matt gets me a new christmas cd on November 1st (the day I start listening to christmas music). That's pure love right there... buying me something that will make me happy but drive him crazy! So merry christmas everyone! Hope I was the first to wish you that.

We didn't end up going to see my sister and her family this weekend because her hubby and Ava are both sick. BLAH! My sister had just mentioned this past week that we had to take advantage of the weekends that everyone in our families (a total of 8 people now between me and my sister!) is well. And then what happens... someone goes and gets sick! We're hopefully going to be able to go though not this coming weekend but the next. Everyone just needs to get/stay well!

Friday evening we just stayed in for halloween. Lily had already gone to trunk or treat at church on Wednesday evening and then we were out Thursday evening for Andi's bday party so we needed a break! Yesterday we went to Sam's to get some things we needed and then that afternoon I took Lily to the park in our complex. She had lots of fun crawling around everywhere!

Vicky came over around dinnertime yesterday and hung out with me and Lily and even brought us some delicious Dairy Queen. Then I watched 27 dresses (love that movie!) while Matt watched a big football game. Yesterday night was the big time change so I put Lily down almost an hour later (a little before 9) in hopes she would wake up at her normal time (8AM). I've been loving this wake up time by the way! Well.. no luck, she woke up about 7 but since she was content and not making much noise I left her in there until 8. Then today I've kept on her normal nap times (10 and 2). So hopefully tonight will go well and she'll actually wake up tomorrow about 8. Or maybe my luxury of sleeping in more will be gone and I'll have to start getting up at 7. I know some of you other moms reading this are thinking "oh you poor thing you might have to get up at 7." Haha! I've had it good I must admit.

I tried changing out Lily's last bottle of formula (one when she wakes) today for her sippy with milk and that was a no go. She's done great with switching to sippy with cow's milk for the entire rest of the day but this one she did not want any part of. So for now I'll keep that bottle of formula in the morning. Not a big deal though because she's ahead of the game really in that department anyways. New Lily achievements: she can stack the rings on the stacker (on and off) now, puts objects in and out of things, and "throws" things for fun (intentionally will drop the ball and we'll say "bang"). She thinks that last one is hilarious!

I would also like to comment on the flu shot. I am very adamant about getting it because if there's no harm in getting it then why wouldn't you want to potentially keep yourself (or more importantly your child) from getting the flu?! Well... my husband feels quite differently on this subject. He's never had the flu shot and supposedly has never had the flu. He keeps trying to say that you can get the flu from the flu shot and that's why he doesn't get it. This is MISINFORMATION though!! I just read an article the other day on MSNBC about how people are not getting the shot because they think this but it's WRONG! It wouldn't be as big a deal to me if we didn't have Lily. But when you have kids they strongly recommend that you get the flu shot to help protect your child from it. So I'm still trying to work on my husband to get it although I don't think it's going to work.

Well... off to relax while Lily is napping. Only one more week until Matt's interview!!!!