One Year Update

 We celebrated Anne's birthday today.  We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.  Anne is so blessed to have so many amazing friends in her life.  My parent's house was just full of people that love Anne.  

Thank you to everyone who came.  I can't believe she is one year old.

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Weight: 17 lbs, 9 oz
Height: 27.5 inches

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Eating: She loves to eat.  There isn't many foods that we haven't fed her that she hasn't liked.  She prefers to feed herself over purees now.  She still nurses around the clock, getting up several times a night. 

So far:
Thumbs Up: sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce, avocado, peas, squash, carrots, bananas, whole wheat cereal, guava, watermelon, pasta with sauce, meatballs, yogurt with any fruit, BBQ anything, kidney beans, eggplant, meatballs, bread, hot pretzels, hummus, cabbage, brussel sprouts, ice cream

Thumbs Down: oatmeal cereal, spinach, peaches, any pureed meats (but she will eat chicken right off the bone cut into pieces)

Sleeping: We are starting to some sleep training.  I started reading the book The No Cry Sleep Solution.  Hopefully, the book will give us some give tips to help her sleep better. 

At first, she just looked at the pretty cake. She wasn't sure what to do with it.  After her dad and Grandma showed her to taste it, she happily ate some.

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Milestones:
* She can say: dada, mama, mommy, uh oh, hug

* She can sign: more, all done

* She is growing and changing everyday.  She just loves to explore and learn new things.

* She is crawling and climbing everywhere and getting into everything.

*Anne has 7 teeth now. 

* Her favorite way to start her day is to hug her bears.

The party wore her out.  Sweet girl snuggled up with her dad and took a nap.

Happy Birthday Anne

It's 2am and you are probably wondering why I would want to be awake this early.  Actually, if you know my little girl, you might not be wondering since she loves to wake up in the middle of the night for fun.  Tonight though, I think she just wanted to reminisce.  Exactly one year ago, at about 2am, our little girl decided it was time to enter the world.  She had chose her birthday and needed to break her mommy's water to make it happen.

I have to say though that when my water broke, it was probably the most relaxed I had been the entire pregnancy.  I think it was because I knew that by the end of the day, I would likely be holding our rainbow baby.  Our two and half year journey to becoming parents would finally end with a baby in our arms. 

This last year has gone by so fast.  I just nursed her and rocked her back to sleep.  I am just as in love with her little face now as when I saw it for the first time.  We have such a fun day planned.

Our beautiful miracle turns one today.

Happy Birthday, Anne!

Goodbye 30...Hello 31

So it looks like I survived another year. This last year is not everything that I wanted it to be. There are just a few things that I would change. I would love to say that overall it was a good year, but the stress-filled parts seem to over shadow all the good parts. There are dates that will be stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. No matter what, God is still in charge and I am ready for whatever year 31 decides to throw at us.

I did have a great birthday weekend. Sunday, we went to a friend's small group and talked about our journey to Cameroon. We definitely enjoyed ourselves. Thank you Matt and Stacey for inviting us.  Then back at home, we took a nap and then went to my parent's house for Father's Day dinner.

Thank you to everyone that thought of me on my birthday. My phone died on Saturday, so if you tried to call me I will be getting a new phone this week. I didn't ignore the call, I promise.

I Survived Turning 30

I turned 30 over the weekend on Saturday.  It was a beautiful weekend.  Steve and I went out for my birthday dinner on Friday night after I got off work.  We decided to try somewhere that we had never been before.  We tried The Flat Top Grill in Mishawaka.  It was pretty good.  Basically, they give you a bowl and you fill it up with all the veggies and meat that you want and pour some sauce on top and they stir-fry it all up for you.  I actually decided to live a little and get strawberry lemonade, instead of my normal water.  Hey, you only turn 30 once. :o)
Since we were in the mall, we walked around Barnes and Noble and looked at the clearance tables and see if there are any books that we want to read.   I wanted to try the new yogurt shop in Granger, but it wasn't open yet.

Friday and Saturday was my parent's neighborhood garage sale.  Friday I sat at my parent's in the morning, but then I had to go to work at Sears until 7.  Saturday, I requested off from Sears so I sat at the sale all day with my mom and our friend, Sue.  Steve and I love to go garage saleing.  We were pretty successful at our sale.  We seemed busier on Friday, then on Saturday but Steve and I sold a bunch of stuff.  My mom said between all the families involved in our sale we made over $400.  Steve and I walked around the blocks to see what everyone else was sellling.  We didn't find much to buy, but Steve did find some tools.  It was a beautiful weekend for a garage sale.  We heard that it rained in other areas on Mishawaka, but it didn't rain at all in Reverewood.

Sunday was Father's Day.  Since I took Saturday off work for the garage sale, I had to work on Sunday.  We were kind of busy with shoppers, possible some last minute Father's Day presents.  I got off work at 4 and when I got home Steve was doing yard work.  Then we went over to my parent's for Father's Day dinner.  I love having such a tight-nit family that live so close to each other, so we can get together so often.  I saw my family on Thursday when I was bringing things over for the garage sale, Friday and Saturday during the sale, and on Sunday for Father's Day.  I will see them tonight at Trivia Night too.
I'm looking forward to the next decade.  It should full of new and exciting adventures.  Bring it on!

2011 Reverewood Neighborhood Garage Sale

Steve and I (and a few other families) are having a garage sale at my parent's house in Reverewood.  Saturday the 18th is my 30th birthday, so you should come and celebrate with me at our garage sale.  On the map below, the house is actually a little farther down the street from the marker, but it's close.  The house is actually at the "d" in Medford.

View Larger Map

Happy Birthday to Steve!

Steve eating his Hacienda cake!  It was really good cake.

Sears Hometown Store Grand Opening Weekend

This weekend was a great weekend.  Saturday was the South Bend Sears Hometown Store's Grand Opening.  I worked from 9am to almost 6:30pm.  We were really busy, which is great.  I loved watching all the people supporting the new store.  I was surprised that I didn't see anyone from the other Sears come and support the new.  It's privately owned family business, so when you shop at the Hometown Store you are supporting a local family and the couple that owns the store is super-nice.  Anything that is available at the mall Sears can be ordered into the Hometown Store, so instead of going to the mall you should come to the Hometown Store on South Michigan. :o)  I was pretty exhausted when I got off work.  I thought the day went really smoothly.  After work on Saturday, I had to babysit for the girls.  Saturday was also my dad's birthday, so I picked up the girls and brought them to my parent's house and we had some dinner and birthday brownie. 

Sunday was another busy work day for me.  We got up and went to small group before church.  Then Steve stayed at church, but I had to go to work at Sears.  Steve decided on Saturday night that he wanted to have a cookout on Sunday for his birthday, so while I was at work he had to invite people and get things set up.  We had to babysit again on Sunday and since I had to work till 4 and Shere has to leave for work at 2, Steve volunteered to watch the girls for a few hours all by himself until I got off work.  He survived the craziness of two little girls just fine.  When I got home, I took the girls and we did some cookout shopping while Steve went to go pick up Damian from the airport.  The girls and I bought some chicken, hot dogs, and chips.  We even got some cake and ice cream.  I think were excited to help pick out what we were going to eat.  We got home and I cleaned up the house and got it ready for the cookout and girls played outside in the front yard.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day yesterday.  It was a perfect day for a cookout. 

Today is Steve's birthday!  Happy Birthday to my amazing husband!

Six Months to Thirty (30)

Well, I'm sitting here listening to Christmas music and it occurred to me when I looked at the calendar that six months from tommorrow I am going to be 30.  I know to many people 30 doesn't seem like that old, but I remember thinking when I turned 20 of all the things that I wanted to do before I turned 30.  Back then 30 seemed so old, but it's funny how it doesn't seem that old to me now.  When I turned 20 I remember thinking that I wanted to married and at least have a child by the time I'm thirty, but I think that goes back to the fact that I thought 30 was really old.  When I got married at 25, I thought, "I want to be debt free by the time I'm thirty."  Well, we are still working on that.  Maybe by 40, we will be.  :o)
Well, in just six short little months, I will reach to milestone of 30 years old.  As I look back on the last decade, I think I did pretty good.  There may be a few things that I would do differently if I could go back and do them over again, but not many.  I consider myself to be very blessed.  I will be celebrating my half-birthday tommorrow by making Christmas cookies after work.  Yum!

29th Birthday Weekend

This year was a great birthday.  Steve and I went to the Bethel College Desert Theater play, "Christmas Belles."  It's a Christmas comedy and it was hilarious.  The deserts were great, of course, too.  My friend, Stacy, was the director and he did a great job on the show.

We actually showed up at the play about an hour early and we were going to walk around the Bethel campus for a little beforehand, but the weather had other plans.  We decided instead to stand under the safety of the dining commons porch and watch the storm.  It was actually cool to watch and the rain misting us felt really good.  We watched several tree branches fall on the Bethel campus.  This made me really nervous that we would come home to fallen branches in our yard (or on our house.) Luckily, we did not lose power at the dining commons though or we would not have been able to watch the play.  That would have been sad.  When we got home, we noticed that all our clocks were blinking, so we must have lost power at some point.  Many people in Michiana are still out power three days later and many had trees/branches come down, so I am very thankful that they tree in our front yard did not fall.  Our neighbor lost the massive tree in his back yard.  If it would have fallen at an angle, it would have crushed his house.

Saturday was my cousin Joe's wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding. Carrie is so awesome. I'm so glad she is officially part of our family now. 

Sunday was Father's Day.  We went over to parents for dinner for the Father's Day/Our Birthday celebration.  Fun times were had by all.