18 month check-up

Lily went for her 18 month check-up this past Tuesday. She weighed 25 pounds 8 ounces and height was 34". I think the height is a little more than she really is though because she would not lay still laying on that paper and it was crumpled up underneath her for the markings. Lily did NOT like the doctor this visit at all - getting weighed, seeing/talking to the doctor, or getting her shots. My mom came with me to help me out since I figured she would not do well with this visit. We had to literally hold her down for the shots. It was really sad. :( This was the last of shots for awhile though. She got the last hepA and the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine. She's right on track and meeting all her milestones. The doctor seemed impressed that she has about 50 words she knows now. She also passed this checklist with flying colors that I believe was for autism screening. So I have a wonderful healthy beautiful little girl!

Here's a few things about Lily these days. She has been saying thank you and please a lot more lately. When I open up the computer she comes and sits next to me, puts her face right up to mine, and says in this little sweet voice "gabba please gabba please." It's SO incredibly cute and of course I let her watch it because she's so convincing! She loves to wear my shoes around the house now. She's using a fork and spoon pretty well now. She loves to be chased. The past few days she has been wanting to sleep with this bigger pink blanket rather than just her little taggie blanket. I pulled it out the other day for her to wrap her baby up in and ever since she's been attached to it. She plays with things how they are meant to be played with (for example - feeding/rocking her baby, combing her hair, etc.). She loves to climb and jump on things - especially the bed! She can kick and attempt to throw a ball. She tries to brush her teeth herself - but I always go behind her since she doesn't really get them all. She loves hip hop music and will shake her butt better than I can! She does well with shape sorters. She'll say "bed" now when we're in her room reading books and she's ready to go to bed.

Well... that's all I can think of even though that's a lot! She's a growing healthy hilarious passionate independent sensitive fiery beautiful 18 month old little girl!

i hear you God

This past week has been a whirlwind - and I don't mean a good whirlwind where you're just busy. I've had several health things going on this past week and I think I'm finally getting everything under control. Oh wait... that was the lesson I was probably supposed to be learning - I'm NOT in control at all. God's in control and is taking care of me. I am finally feeling for the most part back to normal. The medicine I am on is still making me a little off but not like it was this past weekend.

Didn't really want to go in to details about all of that, plus it would take too long. But my real objective in writing is to focus on how God speaks to us in bad and hard times. I didn't go to church on Sunday and for some reason I decided to try and find a church service on tv to watch. I normally don't do that and most church services on tv aren't very interesting for me. But... Andy Stanley who is the pastor of Northpoint Community Church was on at the time. I don't think I've ever heard him speak although Matt has mentioned him to me before. And guess what the message was on.... "why worry." It was EXACTLY what I needed to hear from God. It was like he purposed that just for me. I would definitely recommend you check out the messages online and listen to them. If you have any problems with worrying, you'll want to hear it! I haven't listened to the other one yet but I am planning to.

Then... I subscribe to this devotional thing from Walk in the Word and find this message in my inbox the other day. Once again - talking about God being in control and trusting Him.

And finally God really must have known I'm very hard headed in this area so I read this post today on a blog that I follow by Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church. All about... what else but anxiety.

So there you have it. God speaks to us in many different ways but almost audibly sometimes when we have multiple things like this occur at just the time we need it. Putting my worries in God's hands and trusting Him versus being anxious will always be a struggle for me. I hope though that God has used this to make me a little bit better in this area.

What do you struggle with today? What is your ongoing battle? Keep asking God to speak to you about it - He'll show up. He did for me.

18 months and pictures

Tomorrow my little baby girl turns 18 months old! I can't believe I have a toddler running around the house now! The last 18 months have definitely been the best of my life. I absolutely LOVE being a mom. Have I ever said that before? :)And I just have to add that I LOVE being a wife too. I don't brag about him as much as I do Lily but Matt is a wonderful husband and father and I'm so glad that he's mine! Can hardly believe this September we will be celebrating 4 wonderful years of marriage! I love this man!
Lily's coming up with more two word phrases it seems like - thank you, come here, i got it, where's grandma (yes, she said that today). I'm sure there's more that I can't think of at the moment. She's also turning into a polite little girl, at least sometimes that is. She's been saying please and thank you a lot without even having to be prompted. That is one thing (among many) that I really hope to instill in my children - good manners.

Random side note.... did anyone else out there that reads my blog know that kids in school don't learn multiplication and division the way we use to?! We took one of the youth group girls out for coffee this evening and somehow got on the topic. She showed us how they taught her to do it - something called "lattice" for multiplication. It was WEIRD and crazy! I'm gonna have to learn all over again to be able to help my kids when they're in school.

And finally... we got pictures done today at Botanical Gardens with Michael Lupino. Check him and his work out! He generously did the photo shoot free for us and we just have to pay for pictures. I think there's gonna be some really good ones!! I LOVE photojournalistic pictures (i think that's what it's called) versus your traditional studio portraits. Plus Lily is a much happier camper because she is free to run around and not be cooped up in a studio! He said that he would put a few highlight pics up on his blog fairly soon and then we should be able to check out all of them online within 2 weeks. I'll let everyone know once they're up! Poor little Lily got a bunch of scrapes and cuts on her knee/shin though. :( She fell several times. I guess that happens to all kids when they're young.

my sister's house, mother's day and D.C.

We had a great time at my sister's house last week. Lily didn't nap in the car on the way down like I thought she might (since if we're in the car in the morning she will at times doze off). So the car ride down was a long one. We watched 4 episodes of Yo Gabba Gabba. Hey I didn't care as long as it made her happy! Lily LOVED her cousins this time! They all did so well together. Lily would always ask where the babies were when they were sleeping. She loved them. Ava and Lily had a dance party together which was absolutely adorable and then they were racing each other across the living room while scooching on their butts. We even managed to go out to dinner once with all 4 kids! Friday night we put them all in the bathtub together. Lily had the look on her face the whole time of "why are all these kids in my bath?!"
I had a great Mother's Day. Just did normal busy church stuff in the morning, had a quick lunch, then naptime for Lily. After that we had our families over to the house and had a cookout. It was a gorgeous day for it and Lily and Aaron had a blast playing out in the yard. Lily (with the help of her dad) made me a homemade card that I found in Lily's crib and they also got me some gorgeous flowers. Plus Lily decided to take a 2.5 hour nap that afternoon! Happy Mother's Day to me!On Monday Matt headed up to D.C. with Jon and Steve to try and get Jon's passport fixed. It was supposed to be a "short" trip and they would be back in the evening. That, of course, didn't happen. They ended up having to stay overnight and then didn't get to leave Tuesday until after dinner. So Matt finally got home around 11 last night. Lily and I went to my mom's house for dinner on Monday and then my parents took us out to eat for dinner last night. That way I had some company and didn't have to deal with meals for the 2 of us. Matt was very ready to get back to see me and of course his sweet little Lily...

10 Reasons I Love Being a Mom

To celebrate Mother's Day on my blog, I would like to share 10 of the reasons I love being a mom!

1) I love getting to experience the love I have for Lily. Before becoming a mom, I had absolutely no clue what the love of a mother felt like. I love and absolutely adore my husband. I love my sister. I love my parents. I love my in-laws. I love my friends. But none of those loves can capture what it feels like to love your child. My love for Lily is indescribable.

2) I love that I now have a better glimpse of God's love for me as His child - even though His love for us far surpasses the love a mother has for her own child.

3) I love the random and unrandom kisses that Lily gives me. Whether it's before bed, when I'm leaving, or just out of the blue, her kisses melt my heart. Especially when she gives them and says "mmmm" afterwards like they are delicious! :)

4) I love to watch Lily sleeping. It's so peaceful and beautiful. And putting her to bed is such a sweet time. I love sitting in the rocking chair with her, reading books, saying prayers, and cuddling before bedtime. It's such a beautiful thing.

5) I love watching my wonderful husband be an amazing father. Seeing my husband hold our brand new little girl for the first time made me love him even more deeply than I could ever imagine. And watching him and Lily play around together makes me the happiest mom and wife.

6) I love seeing Lily do something new that I have taught her. I'm sure there will be plenty of things that she sees me do or say that I won't be glad she learned from me but I try my hardest to be the best example I can be. I want her to ultimately see Jesus in my life and to want to serve Him when she grows up too.

7) I love holidays as a mom, especially Christmas. It's amazing how once you have a child, your perspective on things and what matters completely changes. I could care less about presents for myself anymore. Holidays are just more magical and wonderful when you have kids to share them with.

8) I love hearing Lily say "go gabba gabba." It might just be one of the cutest things ever. She absolutely loves that show and gets all excited yelling "gabba gabba!"

9) I love hearing her say "ooooooo" in awe or excitement when she sees something new for the first time or something that she loves.

10) I love getting to play with Lily. Whether it's the park, going for a wagon ride, dancing, chase, or just hanging out at the house - she's such a joy to be around and to watch her do the most hilarious things. Which by the way she can shake her booty while she's dancing better than any other 17 month old out there!

I could think of so many more reasons I love being a mom but there's some of the top ones. And being able to stay at home full time with her makes it all the better! I love spending time with my beautiful precious baby girl!! If you're a blogger mom, I'd love to hear about some of the reasons you love being a mom! Happy Mother's Day to all my mom friends!

3 Months In

I wanted to write an evaluation of life in Virginia Beach now that I'm 3 months in to this whole thing. Life has been a whirlwind. It feels like we've been here a lot longer than just 3 months. I think that's partly because we grew up here and we are at our old home church so it's all familiar territory.

I first want to say that I think Matt is doing an incredible job as youth pastor. And I am SO happy that he is happy and enjoying this phase of our lives. It's a great thing to be able to be doing the exact thing that God put the desire in your heart to do. We prayed about this for a very long time and God blessed us tremendously with this opportunity. We already have several kids that are coming to youth group now that weren't before we got here so that's good news! And be sure to check out the new AYM website!

The first month was really hard for me. Having to leave my 2 good friends in Lynchburg was NOT fun and I will always miss their company even though I will never lose their friendship. I guess that's how all of life is for the most part. The first time was when my sister moved to Georgia when she got married. The second time was my best friend from college, Tara, moving back to her hometown after graduation. And then there was moving away from Vicky and Alicia. I feel very blessed though that God put such wonderful best friends (including a sister!) in to my life. And I know that God is going to surround me with just the right close christian friends here in Virginia Beach too. That is my prayer that God will again bless me in that area.

And God has already answered my prayers for "mommy" friends and friends for Lily. I've been able to reconnect with Lyz, a friend of mine from high school. She has a little girl who is a few months older than Lily. And I've also been able to conect with Mary who was in AYM youth group with me and still goes to Suburban. She also has a little girl, Abby, who is several months older than Lily. I've really enjoyed their company and I know Lily has fun playing with her new friends. We try to get together at least once a week.

I'm helping out with the youth group and try to get to as many things as I can. I'm usually always at youth group because one of the grandparents comes over to watch Lily for me. I'm also very excited about the small group that Matt and I are starting up at our house. It's going to be for 20 somethings and we'll meet once a week here for fellowship and bible study. The church really needs outlets like this to be able to reach our age group so I'm glad that we can be a part of that. We're hopefully starting either next week or the week after.

I love the Virginia Beach area so definitely no problem there! And having a house to live in is a HUGE blessing. It's so great to have a lot more space and a front and back yard to play in! Plus we have the added bonus of a playground literally right across the street!

All in all, 3 months in and I'm doing good. Our day to day life is much different. Matt's "work" hours are much more varied but he still gets plenty of good time to spend with us. And like I've said before, it seems like there's always something going on. Most of the time this is good because I do like having things to do, but there are some times where it does become overwhelming and we just have to take a step back and spend a day just us not doing anything.

Thank you God for all the blessings you have given me and my family!

this week

It's been a busy week so far. Sunday's are always crazy but good. Yesterday we went to take care of some financial matters with our financial planner. We're currently working on buying life insurance since Matt doesn't have that through his work anymore. That's one complicated subject. I don't like decisions that have a TON of options. And buying life insurance is one of those. Lily fell asleep in the car in the morning so we went out to Costco afterwards since she would nap later in the afternoon.

Today Lily and I went over to Mary and Abby's house for a playdate. The girls had fun together and got to watch the garbage truck. Yes - that's exciting stuff for them! Now I'm working on laundry and then packing tomorrow. We're going to see my sister and her family from Thursday to Saturday. Yay!!! It's been almost 5 months since I last saw them! That is WAY too long. We've been really busy though mostly because of the transition of moving from Lynchburg to Virginia Beach. Plus Matt can't get away as easily now because he has to be here on Sunday's for church stuff and youth group. I'm very excited and can't wait to see my beautiful nieces and nephew. And I think Lily will have a blast playing with all of them!

I'm still doing one nap for Lily. She's handling it okay although I know she really needs a little bit more sleep during the day. If she would start napping longer then that wouldn't be a problem! She still only sleeps about an hour though in the afternoon. We also tried not putting the sock on her hand for naptime and bedtime yesterday to see if she was broken of sucking her thumb yet or not. And it's been okay so far! No thumb sucking!

videos

Here's Lily reading books and talking up a storm. Pardon her attire - she still had on pj pants and she always hikes them up on her legs!



And here's Lily saying what we hear all day now.... "gabba." She's obssessed with yo gabba gabba right now!!