August 7 Edition of Being Thankful

Today, I am thankful...

• that my mom made it out safely to keep me company for the next few days. Thanks Mom!
• that I got 5 gallons of paint for only $40, which is the cost of 1.5 gallons at the store! Yeah for deals! I could paint half that house with that (although, I don't think I want all the rooms to be the same).
• for my sweet jabbering baby behind me in her swing. Love hearing her "talk." :)

August 6 Edition of Being Thankful

Last night I started reading through my blog and really enjoyed reading my "thankful" posts. So, I'm going to attempt to write them again.

Today, I am thankful...

• for our new (to us) house. We are enjoying the space, which is about 3 times as much as we had before. It's a fixer-upper, which means we get to make it ours, right?! It might take a few years, but we'll get there. I'll try posting pics soon with more details on where we'll be spending the next many years of our lives.
• for a visit from one of my best friends, Tara, and her almost 3 year old, Autumn. They came out last week and we had a ton of fun hanging out. Plus, it was fun to see Tara 7+ months pregnant.
• that my mom is coming out tomorrow to keep me company while Ryan is out of town. She'll have fun with Briella and hopefully, I'll get some painting done in our torn apart living room so that Ryan can install the flooring when he gets home.
• for my wonderful little family of 3!

4 Months Old!

So, once again I am delayed in getting this written, but hey that’s ok. We were in the process of moving to a new house right around Briella’s 4 month birthday and so most of my time has been spent packing and then unpacking. As well, I packed the little calendar I am using to write down her firsts, so hopefully I remember everything.

Life is flying by, my sweet baby girl! You are changing so much!

Life in General

You really, really like to suck your thumb and it is so stinkin’ cute! This means that you don’t want anything to do with binkys any more. Mostly, you suck your thumb when you are tired, which helps me know that it’s time for a nap or to go to bed. Although, you also love to suck on your hands and can almost get your whole fist in your mouth. Pretty amazing! This isn’t a sign of a tiredness, but just something you enjoy. All that sucking means lots of drooling, which means wet, drooly tops.

When we meet strangers and after they have commented on just how darn cute you are (which you are if I do say so myself), they ask how old you are. Almost every time I tell them how old you are, I get responses of “Wow, she’s so tiny!” I guess you are, but you don’t feel tiny to me as you are growing so fast.

This month, you have started to grab things intentionally and play with them. And , yep, 9 times out ten into your mouth they go. Watching you learn to focus and grab toys, clothing, etc has been so much fun for me to watch. I am utterly amazed at what a gift you are and get a thrill out of seeing you learn and develop.

Your smiles turned into real giggles this month. What a sweet and cute giggle it is! Your mouth smiles so big when you are giggling and your whole face lights up. Every day I enjoy figuring out what is going to make you giggle that day. Seems like its never the same. Although, the dropping sensation is usually a winner. Just holding you under your arms and “dropping” you a few inches gets big giggles most of the time.

We discovered that you are really in to TV. Whenever we have it on, you tune into it and it’s hard to draw your attention away. Not good! We decided that it’s best to turn it off for now since TV is a too passive of an activity and not interactive enough. I will admit that every now and again, I’ll turn on the Baby Channel for you to sit in your Bumbo and watch if I need to get something done. I try not to do that too often and most the time prefer to put you in your Bumbo or swing with some toys to play with.

You met your cousin (well, my cousin, Kristy had a baby. Not sure exactly what relation that makes you two,  so we’re just going to go with cousins), Ciara, for the first time. She was born just shy of 6 weeks after you. We had fun seeing the two of you together and the difference 6 weeks makes! Grandma bought you matching outfits and we took some pictures.

Overall, you are still an extremely happy baby who is content if fed and rested.

Firsts

• Giggle at Grandma and Grandpa’s house while sitting in your swing just a couple of days after you turned 3 months. It was a couple of weeks before you giggled again, but when you did you really did!
• Long road trip. Daddy had to go to Farmington, NM for work so we went with him and did wonderfully – sleeping a lot and staying content in your carseat.
• Hotel stay – also in Farmington
• Trip to a mall (and Ross). I know, the important things, right? Ha ha.

Pictures from Month 4

Jensen and Briella 

Ciara and Briella meeting for the first time. Love their expressions!

The new mommies with our babies.

Sweet babies.

Holding hands. :)

Such a big girl having fun in my bumbo!

Drool!

Sucking my thumb. :)

Two Thoughts

Two thoughts from a couple of books, one that I've read and one that I'm currently reading, have stuck with me and keep whirling around in my head. I have not come to any conclusions, but they are good food for thought. Hoping that God can use them to lead me in my life in the area of giving and blessing others.
I don't have quotes, rather the ideas:

1. What if the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" means to give 50% of our income away to the church, to the poor and needy, organizations that meet the physical and spiritual needs of others, etc? I'm not thinking that 50% is a magical number or exactly what loving your neighbor as yourself means, rather how much is God calling us to give? I don't want to be confined by the thinking that we give our 10% and so we're good to go. I want to be open and sensitive to God's leading when it comes to giving.
2. Why am I blessing the already blessed? I'm surrounded for the most part by people who are already blessed and so it is easy to bless those people because they are near. Don't get me wrong. I don't think it's wrong to bless those people. It's a privilege. More that I need to step outside of that and let God's blessings flow through me to those who really need it. It could be in any form: my time, financially, help with difficult tasks, transportaion, a meal or groceries, etc. Who does God want to use me to bless?

I know these thoughts may not make any sense without the context of the books, but hopefully a little bit.

Here are the books for anyone interested, both by Jen Hatmaker:

• "7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" (Excellent and I highly recommend!) 
• "Interrupted" (I haven't actually finished this one yet)

100th Post

I'm such a blogger...it only took me just shy of 4 years to reach my 100th post! Ha ha ha! Ok, so I'm not the world's biggest or best blogger, but I enjoy writing and blogging. And as bad as I was at blogging before Briella was born, now I'm even worse since most of my time is not my own anymore. :) I'm sure it will get easier (and I'm sure all you moms out there are just laughing to yourselves over this comment :)).

I don't have anything profound to say in this the almighty 100th post. I just noticed that I had posted 99 posts before and had to, you know, acknowledge this feat.

So, here's to the first 100 posts and to the next 100 posts (maybe in less than another 4 years and perhaps in more...guess we'll see)!

3 Months Old!

So, I am way, way behind on this since Briella turned 3 months old 2 weeks ago (June 12)...oh well. Never too late to write about it. :)

Briella, this month was a really fun month!
Life in General

• At your two month mark I talked about how in to the ceiling fan and your monitor you were. Well, it was only a couple days later when your interest in those things waned and you became much more interested in looking at people. So, fun! When changing your diaper, instead of staring at your monitor like before, you now look and smile at whomever is changing you.
• Your first real smiles in response to people began this month and now you smile A LOT...lots of really big smiles. I love it!
• Being in your changing pad is still one of your favorite places. I'm not sure why, but you are just so happy there (well, unless you are hungry, but that's the only time it isn't a happy place. Ha!).
• You are still wearing 0-3 month clothing except for pajamas, which you are now wearing 3-6 months.
• You are a wonderful night sleeper, most nights sleeping between 9-12 hours in a row! That makes your momma happy since she likes her sleep, too. Daytime sleeping is still sporadic. I'm not sure why it's so hard for you to sleep during the day. Most days you take cat naps, but don't sleep for too long. Although every now and then you'll take a good long nap during the day. The not sleeping during the day makes it hard for me to get stuff done some days, but since you sleep during the night so well, I won't complain. Starting soon we'll work on a better daytime sleeping schedule. :)
• You moved in to size 1 diapers early this month. You probably could have a little sooner, but we had a bunch of newborn diapers to use. :)
• You are growing and growing! We had to remove the newborn insert out of your car seat so you could fit in there better.
• You wake up SO happy! I enjoy going in to your room when you've woken up and watching you just looking around. As soon as you see me (or whoever is getting you up) you get a gigantic smile.
• You really don't like tummy time very much. 5-10 minutes at a time is about all we can get you to do before you are unhappy, but we'll keep working on it.

Firsts

• You made your first trip to the mountains on Mother's Day
• Air Show! You slept right through the Thunderbirds even as loud as they were. :)
• You slept in your crib in your own room for the first time! I was able to move you in there a lot sooner than I thought, but daddy put you down in there one night and you slept wonderfully. I didn't sleep as well at first, but with the video monitor, I was ok. :)
• First real smiles in response to people. So darn cute!
• Daddy put together your bouncer and we sat you in it. You aren't quite ready for it, but you sat in it for a few minutes with a blanket around you so you wouldn't tip over.
• At Grandpa and Grandma's you got to sit in a sit up swing for the first time, too and you loved it!

 Pictures from Month 3

  All her hair! Haven't ever taken a pic of the back of her head showing all the (crazy) hair she has (and has had since the day she was born) :)

Daddy and B sporting their Broncos shirts.

All cuddled up (and sleeping) in daddy's arms at the air show.

The dreaded tummy time. Ha ha!

Well, maybe tummy time isn't so bad...

Just love her expression in this one.

Smiley!

Swinging!

Happy 3 months baby girl!!!

June 4 Edition of Being Thankful

Wow, I haven't posted one of these for a while, a LONG while. Finding the time to blog is difficult sometimes even for just a short post.

Today, I am thankful...

• for all the unexpected blessings lately. And now the opportunity to bless others from those blessings!
• that my mom is coming out tomorrow for a couple days while Ryan is gone.
• for the opportunity to grow as a person, even though it is painful at times.
• that next week I get to spend the week in Salt Lake (even though that means Ryan is going to be gone again...sad!).
• and of course for:

 All Smiles!

 

 First Broncos Shirt! Notice Ryan has his Broncos shirt on too. :)

Growing!

Briella had her two month check-up and she is a happy, healthy baby!

She weighed in at 9 lbs 11 oz, which is the 25th percentile (up from 20% last time) and 22 inches long, which is the 30th percentile (up from 25% last time). So, she is still little, but she is gaining some ground and growing well! Yeah!

2 Months Old!

It's hard to believe another month has passed! As I sit here typing this, my beautiful 2 month old baby girl is in my arms fast asleep after having finished eating. And while that makes for slow, one-handed typing, it is a wonderful thing!

Baby girl, this is what I want us both to know and remember about the second month of your life.

Life in General

• You are so alert when you are awake, looking around at everything, following people as they walk by, etc.
• As I mentioned last month, you enjoy staring at the ceiling fan and that is still true. You stare at it all the time. I'm not sure whether you like that more or staring at your monitor while having your diaper changed. I think you like talking to your monitor more than anything else. Oftentimes, you are so content in your changing pad - kicking, cooing, staring at your monitor - that we hang out in there for a while after your diaper has been changed. After all, there's no sense in moving you while you are happy. Plus it has given me a chance to go through your drawers and pull out the clothes that no longer fit.
• You have outgrown your newborn clothes and now wear 0-3 month clothing.
• You sleep so well! At night, you sleep around 6 hours before waking up to eat. And a lot of times you sleep over 7 hours, which your momma appreciates. :) 

Firsts

• trip to Salt Lake with Momma and Grandma Karla
• fishin' trip with Daddy, Grandpa Bob, and Momma
• dinner out at a sit down restaurant
• bottle fed to you by Daddy
• trip to grandparents' houses
• trip to the driving range

Pictures from this Month

 Happy girl!

  Briella, you are so sweet!

 Momma and Briella

Daddy and Briella

Happy Retirement!

When I was in Salt Lake a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of attending my dad's retirement ceremony. What a joy and honor it was to meet all the people my dad has worked with over the past 34+ years, as well as to hear how much they enjoyed working with him and what a pleasure it was to work with him. Person after person would comment to my mom and I about how he was often the bright spot in their days, would keep things light (which in a government job isn't easy to do...ha), and what a wonderful person he is. I couldn't agree more! I know all of these things about my daddy, but I'm glad to see how special he is to everyone he knows. Love you, dadda!

This picture was taken of my dad and mom after the retirement ceremony. He received this American flag that had been flown in an F-16 along with a certificate and a letter recognizing and thanking him for his 34 years of service to the US Air Force. My mom also received these flowers and a certificate along with a letter for her support of my dad's service during that time. As well, both my brother and I each received a letter for supporting him in his work. I thought that was all pretty cool! And lastly, he will also be receiving a letter in the mail from the President thanking him for his service. Not bad for a 34 year career!

Happy Retirement!