3 Years

Lydia Rose,

Today you are 3 years old. I cannot believe that you sweet girl who made me a mommy are now a Big Sister and a 3 year old. I still remember the exciting and exhausting day that I spent trying to get you into this world. I remember the struggle after and the heartache as I healed a part from you and left you in the care of your grandma's and aunt Laura. The pain is a little fuzzy but the emotion is still clear as day. I don't think as a mom you ever forget the feeling of those first moments and days with your baby. I was just so in awe of you and still am to this day.

squishy newborn in the hospital

My sweet girl you are so smart, so beautiful, so funny and so loving. (mix in some stubborn and feisty in there while we are at it) You speak so well and amaze me everyday by the conversations we have. You can count, you know your colors, you know a lot of your letters, you can put your shoes on the right feet, you read us books and you are learning more and more everyday. You love to sing songs, especially the Veggie Tales theme song, John Jacob Jingleheimershcmidt, Wheels on the Bus, and some Lady A "Downtown". You love icees, anything sweet, apples, pizza, spaghetti, and nuggets; you are still my picky eater. You love going to Mexico City Grill and having our Friday dinners with our family. You can navigate a kindle and an iphone like nobody's business.

6 months old

You are becoming the good big sister I knew you would be, you check on Garrett if he is fussy or crying to help him sit back up or give him more puffs, you are one of his biggest cheerleaders putting something just out of reach and encouraging him to crawl for it. You don't like it when we leave him behind because you want it to be all 4 of us.

You are doing so well in your dance class and cannot wait to dance in your recital at the big school on the big stage.You are so brave and continue to conquere your nerves and fears. I love the way you look to me after you are done to see if I am proud and sweet girl I will always be proud of you!

1 year old

This past year you moved out of the only home you have ever known and moved into your new house and have done so well. We keep your sleeping bag close by in our room in case you come in in the middle of the night. You are always putting two and two together and never forget a thing. You have such a memory and we can't ever hope that you will forget anything...so we better not let anything slip.



2nd Bday Party


Lydia Rose I love your spirit, I love your everyday antics and the hugs you give me on a daily basis. I love that you help me put on my makeup in the morning, I love that you whisper "I love you mom" when you see me walk by your bedroom and you aren't asleep yet, I love when you can't sleep so you sing your songs, I love that you love having me paint your nails while wearing your ball cap.

I could keep going and going because I don't want to forget a thing but I'll wrap it up...


2 1/2 years old

You my sweet girl are everything I never knew I wanted or needed in my life. You are an answer to a prayer that I never knew I prayed, you are a gift and a treasure, I hope you feel loved everyday of your life.
Love you more and more with every passing day,

Your mommy

Foster Family Once Again

So back in the young days of our marriage we adopted a puppy. We then wanted to adopt another puppy but weren't sure we were ready for that so we opened our home to foster through the organization  we rescued our puppy Layla from. We had 3 fosters through this organization and then ultimately decided on adopting a 3rd permament member when we met our Bentley.

After Bentley passed and we moved into our new home (post to come soon about our new home, it's been a whirlwind of God opening doors for us the past 2 months) we decided we could probably foster again because we have more room and we don't want a 3rd permament doggy friend but we knew we wanted to help again.

So in comes facebook and Aly if you know her from the blogsphere she loves her labs that she rescued through Love of Labs Indiana. I became friends with them on facebook and they had a request for foster homes for 3 dogs that were coming from a puppy mill in Illinois. 2 males, one was 5 years old and one was 2 years old and a female who was 7. We emailed offering to be a foster home for one of these babies and sure enough the next day I got an email asking us if we were in.

So I went to pick up our foster 2 Sundays ago at a gas station off the interstate not far from our house. These sweet dogs were so smelly and so scared. We took in the 5 year old male pure bred yellow lab. You could tell he had not ever been in a house because our house scared him, he would barely walk on a leash he kept freezing up, he wasn't sure about the grass and he had an obvious ear infection going on.



He has now been with us for 2 weeks and he is making strides! He comes into our home every night for a few hours to learn what it's like to be in a family home environment (we have to help him with the stairs which is why we only do this one time a day) and he stays in his crate in our walk out basement during the day because he will walk in and out that way. He walks ok on a leash but still freezes up at times. However he walks right beside us out to the pen every day to go outside. He loves our daughter and wags his tail when he hears her voice, he lets her hug him and yesterday she piled a jean jacket, a cell phone and a baby toy on his back and he did nothing, she used him as a tunnel and he stood there basking in the attention.

We are waiting to find out the treatment plan for his ear infection next week and then he will most likely be listed for adoption after that. I know he will make someone a fantastic family member if they give him the chance to warm up. He is so sweet and happy when he is with us and so calm and loving with the kids.

I hope by us welcoming these broken animals into our home and watching them recover and learn to trust humans and be a happy member of the family we are starting to plant that seed in our kids hearts to help others to love the broken and scared. A lot that we learn from our pets and our animals can be carried out into how we treat others. These innocent dogs didn't asked to be kept in a pen and bread litter after litter of puppies and have their health ignored but they were stuck and we can only love them and hope they learn to trust again.

By the way his name is Lloyd, isn't that a fantastic name :) Lydia calles him Woyd!

Easter Came, it Went and We Celebrated

Remember that time that Jesus rose after 3 days as he promised and rocked all our faces off for all eternity?? Well we did celebrate that this year we just were super busy moving into our new house the week before that I am finally putting everything back together. Including unloading my camera and processing our little guys first Easter.

It was a great day, so fantastic and spent at Church and breakfast with my family then in Brownsburg with Matt's family. We are so lucky that most of our family is so close to us, only a quick drive away.

Lydia loves Duke's house (that is one of Matt's Aunt and Uncle's dogs) she does not know it as anyone elses home but Duke's.

Our little guy enjoyed his first bite of real greenbeans, not the mushy babyfood kind and LOVED them. He was fantastic in church and I swear the kid gets something from it already he's such an angel there. My sister-in-law says she thinks he might be a priest one day. Which I would be ok with, I would mourn grandkids but love him no matter what.

Lydia had a small Easter Egg hunt and I can't wait until there is some "friendly" competition between Garrett and Lydia over the eggs.

I hope you all had such a blessed Easter as we did. 

8 Months

Garrett,

You are a BIG 8 months old now, sometimes I have to pinch myself that you are my son, that God blessed us with you. You have the most fantastic smile, you smile with your whole face and make everyone around you smile the minute you flash us those dimples and the eyebrow raise?? Where did you learn that and how have you already managed to turn ladies of all ages into mush when you give us that look.

You now have 3 1/2 teeth, I say that because right now you kind of have this cute hillbilly look going on because when you smile you only see one full tooth on the top, the other has broken through it's just not moved all the way down yet, don't worry you can pull it off!

Having teeth has lead to new and fun food choices... you recently had a pancake, mac and cheese, bananas, green beans, tortillas at our favorite Friday night Mexican Place and potatoes. You love love love real food and your baby food, it's getting hard to make you focus for your bottle unless it's night time and you are ready for bed then you let me rock you and give you your last bottle of the day. I love that time we get together.

You can now imitate us when we clap and you get so excited trying to clap your little hands together, you are pretty good at it! You now wave (it's kind of a sideways backwards mix of a wave) but it's stinkin adorable.

You love it when I stand you up on the back of the couch, the ottamans or the pews at church but you have yet to actually move to get anywhere and do it yourself. I'm trying not to compare you so I'm going to enjoy you not being mobile and I'm going to trust that when you are good and ready you will start moving. You do practically leap out of arms when there is something you want so your will to move is in there somewhere.

Little guy you make me so happy, I wish I could spend more days and hours with you but know how much I love you and how much I think of you and your sister when I am working.

You my little one are sweet and precious and happy and the most fantastic little boy I have ever met. I love you to the moon and back again.

Love,
Mommy

Our First Home

Here it is, our first ever home. The first house that I was able to buy with my first job out of college after living at home for a year with my parents and planning a wedding. I moved in on April 30, 2008 and Matt joined me a couple months later after our wedding.

This home was the site of many get togethers and parties with old and new friends, the mixing of my college friends, my high school friends and my new work friends. We opened and put away our wedding gifts in this house. We brought home our Layla puppy to this house, we hosted 3 foster pups in this house and had our big Golden boy Bentley with us for 4 years in this house.

 

We became parents in this house, brining home our sweet girl Lydia to her new room in this home. We lost a baby in this house, we let a balloon go in that back yard on that babys due date. We rejoiced at a positive pregnancy test 1 month later and brought home our handsome boy Garrett to this house. I never imagined I would bring two kids home here. It's not big, only 1256 square feet. We sure squeezed the life out of those 1256 square feet though. We put in new floors, we replaced appliances, we became adults in this house.

We moved in as babies, ready to start a life together whatever that life may look like and today we are parents, Matt has his MBA, we both have new jobs, we have 2 children and those same two doggies (although Matt would not be able to pick up Layla anymore). This week we pack up this little house and move onto the next chapter, one with more space and more room to dream and grow as a family!

Being a Young Mom

Sometimes being a mom at 24 was hard, I felt older and so far separated from what others my age were doing especially my friends. If I said all of my friendships lasted and are still strong I'd be lying, my little family moved to the top of my priority list (where they still stand), we started hanging out on Friday and Saturday nights with our immediate family's letting grandma and grandpas pass around the baby and just enjoy some time using both my hands.

We started leaving Lydia with my parents more often, they basically had a nursery set up in my old room so Lydia slept well there and was comfortable there, we never had any guilt about leaving her. She had a blast with my mom and dad. However, we would make plans to actually go out meet up with people and by midnight matt and I are looking at each other across the table with "when can we leave and go home to sleep" looks. We aged a lot when Lydia was born. We didn't have to necessarily give up social functions but there comes a time that you want to give those up and you want to be in your comfortable environment of family.

We are now on our 2nd baby at only 27 years old. (That feels old to me but I know it's not) my friends are just starting to have babies or are thinking about that next step. Soon they will understand why we left the bar at 11:30 or why we stopped having parties and get togethers at our house. I'm hoping we can start to see them all more often as babies play on floors together and get passed from one set of arms to the other. It has started and it makes me happy to not be alone in the world as a parent in our circle of friends.

I think about how my sister and brother won't be having babies soon, I'm sad my kids won't have cousins their age like I did growing up. But I think about how this is an opportunity to raise my kids to be good examples, to love others, to be good big cousins to their baby cousins one day. I think about how when we no longer have a baby to snuggle, our family and friends they will be having baby's that I can snuggle.

The world as a young mom is something I never saw myself being a part of. I thought we would wait 5 years or so to start a family but 1 1/2 years later I had the bug and we had Lydia. It was by far the best decision of my life. I like being the go to mom for my friends because I've been there (twice) and lived to tell about it. I love that my body was able to take pregnancy and all of the changes with no problem, I love that I have the energy to get on the floor and to chase them around, to play big airplane with Lydia.

What else do I love?? That Matt and I will have all of our children out of college, out of the home in time for us to enjoy some alone time again. To enjoy the later 1/2 of our lives together and experience life with hopefully better funds then we started this life together with.

God is good and everything happens for a reason, being a young mom is hard but so worth it. I love that I listened to that itch and that calling that we were supposed to start our family when we did. My babies are a blessing, being a mom changed me at the right time in my life, it put things into perspective and gave me a purpose when sometimes life can be the hardest.

Come to think of it...my life pretty much rocks and God is totally a show off, I love that about him!!

7 Months

Garrett,

Oh my sweet boy, I think this has been the biggest month for you so far. You seemed to have grown and developed so much this past month.

You are now sitting up like a champ and this makes you so happy, you can now play with your toys, interact with your sister and dance along with fresh beat band (yes they are back in our home again) We were also able to get rid of your newborn sling in your bath tub so now you get to sit up and splash and play in your bath tub, you love bath time now.

You can now eat and feed yourself the yummy little baby puffs. This makes for a much happier boy while the rest of us our eating our dinner, I think you were feeling left out once I was done feeding you your dinner. Not anymore! The dogs also love that these little yummies are back in our home, they wait right under your feet for you to push a few off the side of your high chair for them.

You are now a big wiggle worm when I change your diaper or clothes, trying to reach back and see who might walk through your door. Never wanting to miss a moment.

You smile with your whole face, moving your eyebrows and wrinkling your nose, it might just be the cutest thing in my life right now. You love your sister and still think she is way cooler than anyone else in the room. I can make you laugh by making monkey noises. You love to reach out and try and grab the dogs.

You are something special and I love being your mommy!!

Love you always,
Mommy