Family Pictures as 4

Just a little peek at our fun session with Alicia who has been our photographer since our engagement photos almost 6 years ago! We love that she has been able to watch our family grow.  I love our growing family and the blessing each of them are in my life, my husband for doing this crazy life with me and our sweet children for giving me the best gift of being a mother.

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours!!

Haiti with Visiting Orphans

So I just signed up for a mission trip, my first mission trip since the summer after I graduated high school. To say I'm excited is an understatement. Going and doing is something that God has been whispering to me and if I'm honest sometimes yelling at me but I kept saying not this year, maybe next year when the kids are a little older, oops I'm pregnant can't go this year or too early next year because he will be so little still. Oh my the excuses just kept coming.

I decided to start looking at 2013 dates with Visiting Orphans. I really wanted to go to Africa, since Matt and I have been looking into adoption from there but the trips there were just too long for my mamma heart to be away from my babies. So we kept looking and found a trip to Haiti right before the holidays next year.

So my sister and I (yes my best friend is coming with  me!!) will be packing up and heading to Haiti a year from now, next November 1.

my beautiful sister

I am excited to head to Haiti, my cousin went this past summer and my sister in law has been a couple times. Our World Vision child lives in Haiti, my heart is there too and I just needed to open up my mind to that possiblity and there it was the perfect time for us to go!

You will hear more as we start planning and fundraising next year but for now I am already praying for those we will be in touch with in our time there and for our team that I do not even know yet. I am nervous and excited and ready to GO and LOVE these people.

#IndyBoom

I'm not sure how far this story spread nationally but my little side of town in Indianapolis experienced quite the tragic incident this weekend. At about 11 p.m. my husband called me to see if felt that huge boom, a boom that felt like an explosion and shook our house. I was out downtown on my way to celebrate a friends bachelorette party and didn't feel what he was talking about.

We soon started hearing through instagram, facebook and twitter about an explosion in a neighborhood only a few miles from my house. TV's were on in the bars but no sound obviously so we could only watch the devistation and try and check on our friends and family through text and facebook (where would we be without social media)

This explosion was massive, completely destroying two homes (think blown to pieces and off of their foundations) and damaging many more to the point that they cannot be lived in, many will have to be torn down and rebuilt. This neighborhood has a lot of recovery ahead.

via

via

We know of many families that live in this neighborhood and in a way I feel guilty that I was gone from my family, guilty that if it had been closer to home I would not have been with them. Guilty that I was not with my husband and children when the news started coming in about what happened. It's hard to grasp just how quickly everything can change in this life. Our next breath is not guaranteed, so hug your kids a little tighter tell your husband or wife how much you love them.

The hope and comfort in all this is watching our community rally to volunteer and help in any way possible to care for these families. Praying for those mourning the loss of two lives today and for those displaced and waiting for the next steps. God does not forget us or those who are suffering.

November

November is National Adoption Month, something that was brand new to me only 2 Novembers ago, now it's something I hold close to my heart. Just for fun, here is a video I wanted to share in honor of this special month and all the special kids out there waiting for their forever family.



Could you be the answer to a prayer??

3 Months

Garrett,

You are 3 months old and oh so handsome. I love that God chose you for our family. You are growing and discovering things everyday.

We set you in your bumbo for the first time while we ate dinner the other night and you cried at first, it was weird I know, mommy took her hands away but you were still sitting up, how did that work? But then you got the hang of it for a little bit, we can't leave you in there very long because your head is kind of big and still droops after too long.

You are trying so hard to role from your tummy to your back but that dang other arm just gets in the way, it will happen soon and I hope I get to witness it because it will be so funny to see your face when your world flips over on you.

You talk talk talk to us all the time and I love it, you notice your sister so much lately, she just said the other day "mommy he laughing at me" you weren't laughing "at" her you just couldn't take your eyes off her with this huge smile on your face. I don't blame you she's pretty entertaining.

You love eating your hands now and we find them in your mouth all the time, I keep trying to introduce you to new toys but your hands are your favorite. 

You are in 3-6 month clothes and 2 diapers. You still aren't sleeping through the night which is making it kind of hard to hang in there for a full day at work but I'm still hoping you will get that figured out soon.

I love you sweet boy and can't wait to watch your personality blossom, right now you are a pretty happy little boy with a smile that can melt anyone's heart.

Love you sooooo much,
Mommy

With Time...

With time this two kids thing has gotten a million times better than when we started out. It was a rough transition, there were moments that I thought for sure I was going to go crazy and my head might spin off my body at any moment or that I might just run out the front door and keep running for a few days until I could come back to it all.

I prayed A LOT, my prayer book is full of the word patience from the last 12 weeks. Now that I head back to work a week from tomorrow I am not ready, not ready one bit to leave my sweet amazing kiddos.

Lydia has come so far while I've been home with her. She actually spoke to my mom's coworkers when they spoke to her first. She is potty trained and loves that she is not in diapers anymore like her baby brother. She hugs me at random moments and says "mom you make me so happy", she wants me to read to her sometimes at night again and we are just buddies. I am loving every hard, messy, fun-filled, hilarious minute of being her mom.

Garrett is at that stage where he's blossoming everyday. He discovers something new all the time, I can make him smile and laugh with just my voice and a little tickle on his belly. He's finally starting to nap in his crib and sometimes at the same time as big sister. I could have used that a month ago.

We have gone to the zoo, we have made crafts, we have gone to the park, we play in forts and have movie marathon days; my life as a mom could not be more fulfilling right now. Just in time to leave behind our routine and our fun to go back to work.

My heart aches every night when I lay in bed and think that it is one day closer to rushed morning drop offs and later dinner times.

These last 12 weeks have been some of the most trying, exhausting and rewarding weeks of my life. I love being a mom and thank God for this miraculous gift. That he would trust me with these two is something I don't know if I'll ever fully comprehend. 

Potty Trained

I mentioned in a post a couple weeks ago that we were starting the potty training adventure in hopes of having Lydia potty trained before I have to go back work (gasp, chokes back tears, not ready at all) anyway, this potty training adventure = SUCCESS

How we did it:

Week 1-2: Did not push her to use the potty but reintroduced it and got her excited about it since having no interest after Garrett was born. Everytime she went she got to put a sticker on her Elmo sticker chart and an M&M, she wore pull ups while we were at home and diapers while we were out (I still did not ask her if she needed to go while we were out in public during these 2 weeks) Each Saturday morning we would go buy new stickers and a blue icee at Target.

Week 3: Big Girl Panties time, she got to pick them out and then she ran around all day in her shirt and her undies. We did not do the naked thing, totally not how we roll. We made sure to stay home so we could put her on the potty every 20 min or so for the first day and then slowly started making that time longer and then switched to asking her if she needed to go. Towards the end of this week we ventured out with pull ups on but would go potty when we got places and she had NO accidents while out of the house so we quickly moved to undies all the time.

She had one day of set backs but jumped right back in the swing of things and has been perfect ever since. We are wearing a pull up at nap time and bedtime because she is still in her crib. She wakes up dry 90% of the time though.

We are so proud of our girl. She is a new girl since she became potty trained, she has a confidence about her and she listens better now, she really feels like a Big girl like the Big Sister and we turned a corner in this whole adjusting to two kiddos when she conquered potty training!

Goodbye to buying 2 cases of diapers.