Babies, Babies, Babies

Well, I have had 2 days now with 2 babies in the house.  It has been fun and trying all at the same time.  Elliana and Kaylee are only a few months apart in age and are on pretty similar schedules. This was nice in that they napped at the same time.

These two are quite a pair.

They would pass toys back and forth between them - not quite fighting over them but not quite sharing them.

They are both pulling up on things so they were all over the living room putting toys on the furniture and then standing up to get them.

Nap times were funny though because they would take turns crying until finally they both would fall asleep.

I was surprised that at meal times they did not get mad seeing each other eat.  Kaylee usually fusses when Adam and I are eating and not sharing with her so I figured it would be the same while Elliana was here.  It wasn't though. Kaylee played with the chair while Elliana was being fed. 

Kaylee is a little social butterfly and has loved having Elliana stay with us.  I am sure tomorrow she will be so sad when Elliana leaves and she is stuck here with just me and the cat.

Joyful Moment of the Day: One year ago I gave birth to my little Kaylee.  It's crazy that it has been a year already!  Happy Birthday, Kaylee!

Boardgames

I was talking to a friend about boardgames yesterday and it got me thinking that I always feel defensive when people start bashing boardgaming.  Ever since I woke up this morning my mind has been replaying the conversation and let me just say my feathers are ruffled.  She was not being a jerk or anything, in fact she was just saying it wasn't for her.

Interesting thought though.

She has never played any of our games.

Now this has really got me thinking.

I think that is why I get so defensive.

Boardgame Soapbox for one brief moment:  Boardgaming is an excellent hobby to have with your spouse.  Most men hate just sitting around and talking.  However, give them something to do and they will be more chatty than a hen.  Can you have deep meaningful conversation through a movie that neither of you have seen? NO!  During boardgames - especially ones you both have played a lot - you can have level 5 conversation and they never even realized it.  It's great!

I guess my point is - Don't knock it 'til you have tried it!

It goes that way for anything, really.  If your favorite hobby is watching sports and someone comes up to you saying, "I dunno why you always watch sports. So lame!  I just do not see how you can enjoy that!" and they themselves have never once watched any sport, then they cannot speak from experience.  They have not tasted the minute by minute action or participated in the competition of rivals in the crowd!  Their opinion is null and void.  You would jump at the chance to say, "No, you have to watch a game - better yet - Let me take you to a game!  You will love it!  You just have to be where the action is!  You will see it differently, I promise!"

If you have not experienced it - you cannot see why it is good (or bad).

So, while my feathers fall back in to place I consider trying harder not to let them get ruffled by these kind of people.

I also challenge you - try something new.  Something you may have never wanted to try before or have maybe even bashed.  (This is not encouraging anything illegal or harmful to the body.)  Better yet - consider your friend's feelings before you start talking down about something they enjoy that you have never even tried.

Joyful Moment of the Day:  This beautiful sunny morning. 

Oh and one last thing, I am not mad or angry.  I am just sharing my opinion on the matter as this is my blog and I can do so on my blog. : )

5 Years and Counting

As I said 2 blogs ago, Adam has been bringing me roses and notes all week.  In all of these notes he has shared his favorite memories from each year.  I have been reflecting on my favorite memories and with that I am going to share them with you!

1. Married student housing - loved it!  It was so fun living doors down from all of my favorite people.  Need eggs? Go next door.  It was such a fun community for us as newlyweds!

2. Seeing all of our closest friends meet their mates and marry them!  What a special blessing to see all of them fall in love and be able to attend their weddings! 

3. Starting a boardgame group in Iowa.  Starting out we really did not have many games.  Acquire was the only game that I enjoyed at the time.  It was really cool though to see our group go from about 5 people regularly to about 20 regularly by the time we left Iowa.  Our collection grew a little bit while we lived there and has grew a ton since we have lived in Indianapolis.

4. The Newlywed Game - Adam hated it.  He would always gripe and complain if we were talking of playing it.  Not because it is not a "strategic boardgame", but because he thought it would always start arguments between us.  I forget what he called it, but he usually mentioned hate, fight, and sleeping on the couch.  (Although, the only time he has slept on the couch was when I was sick all night and my coughing was keeping him awake.)  Either way, playing this with my closest friends was always fun and exciting to learn new things about each other.

5. Softball Games - Adam was on a church league and it was so fun to go with friends to watch them play.  They were the best team the league had. Adam is playing on a league this summer so it has been fun seeing him play again. 

6. Lake Red Rock was always a special place for Adam and I.  We had our first date there, our first kiss, our first dance, and got engaged there.  It was our retreat from Vennard. Public in that there were people always around us, but private in that we did not know those people.  We shared so many dreams about the future there.

7. Finding a church together when we moved to Indiana and getting involved and making friends.  This was a slow process.  We picked a church fairly quickly, but we dragged our feet on the rest of it.  We really became close during that time because we only had one another to hang out with.  We also were able to see our friend group here grow and change.  We went from being the only married couple to being among 12 married couples.  (and that is if I got everyone)  I have really enjoyed our church community here in Indiana.

8. Vacations with our college friends.  This tends to be the one thing I look forward to every year!  I love catching up and hanging out.  I also enjoy traveling with Adam because we can catch up, read together, and laugh while riding in the car!  I hope we continue doing this the rest of our lives!

9. Telling Adam I was pregnant.  It was not exactly how I had planned, but it was the best news that I have ever been able to share with anyone!

10. Having Kaylee!  Probably the best memory so far of our married life.  It was a hard experience, but beautiful beyond words.  She brings more joy to our lives than we could have ever anticipated!  

I truly could go on and on, but I will stop with 10.  It has been a great 5 years and I am excited to see what memories the rest of our lives bring us!

Joyful Moment of the Day: The awesome surprise that I have planned this evening for our anniversary!  I can't wait!

My Mom made this cute outfit for Kaylee to wear on her birthday. Thanks Mom!

Possible Love - Twu Luv

I know I have been talking a lot lately about love.  It's on my mind as our anniversary is so close.

AND it has been coming up in my devotional that I am reading.

The last few entries have been very interesting to me and have given me much to think about.  The first one talked about how unconditional love is impossible without Christ.  At first I thought, "well love is a choice.  I don't think it is immmpossible."

I was missing the key word in my thoughts.  UNCONDITIONAL.

Adam's love language is acts of service.  This means that he feels extremely loved if I do things for him, like keeping the house clean. Sure, I can wake up in the morning and choose to wash the dishes and put his clothes away instead of playing RockBand or reading, but that is just loving him.  It's not loving him unconditionally.  I secretly hope that he will see my "love" and "love" me in return.

Maybe with words of encouragement or a gift.

Loving someone unconditionally means loving someone unselfishly.  It means there are no conditions, no strings attached.  This kind of love, I am incapable of without Christ.

Let me be brutally honest and lay it out on the table for you.  I am not pleasant when it comes to fighting.  If Adam really ticks me off, my knee jerk reaction is to fight back.

I may even throw a fork.

This is my love at work.

However, Christ settles me down and reminds me that I need to listen to what Adam is saying. Hear what is truly the heart of the issue.  He helps me love Adam in spite of anything he could ever do or say that my be hurtful.

He helps me love with a limitless love.

Christ makes it possible.

Joyful Moment of the Day: Adam has been bringing me roses and poems/notes all week celebrating (so far) the last 3 years of our marriage.  So, Monday I received one red rose with a poem about our first year of marriage.  Tuesday, I received 2 roses and a letter about our second year of marriage.  Today, I received 3 roses and a poem about our third year of marriage.  He has 2 more years to cover.  I can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store.

Big Steps

Kaylee never takes small steps into things.  She just all of a sudden does things.

For instance - crawling.

She could scoot backwards for a while.  I was starting to think that there would never be a day when she would actually crawl forward.  Then, without notice, she just did it.

She acted like she had been doing it for weeks. A pro.

Well, on Sunday morning I had let Adam sleep in.  I was reading a book and Kaylee was playing on the floor with Titus and her toys.  All of a sudden I realized I was hearing this moaning sound.  Not crying. Moaning.

I looked up to see Kaylee standing by the door.

Somehow she had managed to pull herself up right next to the door.  I have no clue how, but she did it.  For the remainder of the morning she was pulling up as if she had been doing it all along. 

Since then Kaylee tried standing up without holding on to me and did so for about 10 seconds.

My little baby is quickly becoming my little toddler.  She is just growing in leaps and bounds. Taking big steps.  Quicker than I think I am ready for.

Joyful Moment of the Day: I had the joy of cuddling her last night when she woke up scared.  She is not a cuddler at all and it was nice just to hold her in my arms.  A reminder that she is still my baby. :)

Finally Able to Spill the Beans!!!

I wrote this blog the as soon as I heard my best friend Kim's news.  Now I can finally post it!  Congrats Kim and Chris!


I heard some news yesterday that I have been eagerly waiting for for a while.

My bestie Kimberly is HAVING A BABY!!!!

I am so excited for her!  She has wanted a baby for so long!  She has her first appointment Tuesday and I cannot wait to hear how it goes.  We recently have had a ton of friends have girls.  It would be nice to have a boy in there, but I secretly hope she has a girl as well.  That way we can have all sort of girly things to do when we are together like painting nails, doing hair, and playing barbies.  We would all have girls.  It's fun to think about.  If she has a boy, he will just have to put up the girls making him be the Ken doll.  Then, the girls will be fighting over which barbie Ken likes.  Either way, I am super excited for her to join the baby club.

I am looking forward to conversations about her pregnancy and all she will experience.  I can't wait to compare her pregnancy to my own and to Meggan's.  Every pregnancy is different and it effects everyone differently.  I also can't wait to hear her labor and delivery story and of course to see her little baby!

Having a baby is such a fun life-changing adventure!  I am so excited as she and Chris begin theirs!

Joyful Moment of the Day: Getting this news of course!

Ahh Joy!

Today is one of those days when joy is hard to find with Kaylee... With that being said...

Joyful Moment of the Day:  Making a schedule for myself to follow.  Hopefully, it will help me be more productive.

Can't Believe my Brother is Married

Since I have had time to contemplate the weekend, I now see that I really still can't believe my brother is married, let alone old enough to be married.  I remember when Michael was born.  It was not an exciting event for me as a 5 year old.  I remember getting to pick out my own clothes and my mom not being super excited about Dad letting me dress myself.  My least favorite thing about Michael's birth was that he was allergic to everything.  I had a cat named Ben and I LOVED him.  Michael came and that meant giving Ben away to a farmer.  I was not very happy with having a baby in the house.

Over the past 23 years we have definitely had our ups and downs.  I had a thing for scaring Michael any chance I got and he had at thing for getting me into trouble.  We fought like cats and dogs as kids.  When I left for college, Michael and I started getting along and talking more like adults.  We became fast, close friends.  We were able to attend school together for a while and sing on a praise team together.  Great memories have been made over the past several years with my brother.

As he is now a married man, I am excited to see how our relationship changes and grows.  I also look forward to getting to know Rachel better and having her as a part of the family.

Congratulations Michael and Rachel!

Joyful Moment of the Day: Watching a movie in an air conditioned house.

Michael's Big Wedding Weekend

The weekend started off early Thursday morning.  We landed in Denver at about 8 am.  We went to Michael's apartment as soon as we got into town and Michael talked me into riding with him and Daniel to pick up Lori from the airport.  Adam took Kaylee and went with my parents back to the hotel to put Kaylee down for a nap while I ran with Michael and Daniel.  Lori was so fun to meet and get to know!  She is so vibrant and exciting!  I am really happy for Daniel.  He found a really great girl!  I was really glad I went with them so I could get to know her without everyone else around.  That afternoon Adam and I took Kaylee swimming and then spent the evening with my parents, Mema and Pepa, and Nannie and Aunt Shelia.

Friday was a little bit of a crazy day.  We went to Time Well Spent's warehouse and then went to lunch with Mema and Pepa.  Friday afternoon I went with Dad to Target and then went back to the hotel and Michael and all the guys picked me up to run errands with them before the rehearsal.  It was fun to hang out with Skylar, Michael, and Daniel again!  They are goofy when they are together.  I laugh a lot with all of them!  It was also fun to see Kenyon and Matt!  I spent some time with Michael chatting about stress and what not and then we finally headed back for the rehearsal.  The rehearsal started later than expected, but was pretty quick.  There was a whole fiasco with Daniel and Skylar missing the rehearsal, but that is for another time.  After the rehearsal was dinner at Annie's Diner and it was super yummy!  Friday night ended with a great practice with our college praise team which consisted of Daniel, Skylar, Jonie, Michael, and myself.  It was a long night, but great memories were created and I will forever be grateful for that time together.

Saturday we met Uncle Joel, Aunt Pam, their kids, Papa, Grandma, Uncle David, Uncle Dennis, Mom, Dad, and Aunt Shelia for lunch.  It was fun to catch up with them.  Then, we went back to the hotel and got ready for the wedding.  The wedding was beautiful and a great example of Michael and Rachel's love for God.  After the wedding and the reception we went back to the hotel and put Kaylee to bed for the night.  Mom and Dad kept an eye on her while Adam and I played boardgames with Nic and Allison downstairs.  After a few games we went to Village Inn with Michael, Rachel, and the wedding party.  It was so much fun to hang out and have one more memorable moment before heading out the next day.

Sunday we packed up, ate a quick breakfast, and then headed home.  It was a long day ending a long weekend.  I was tired and napped as soon as we got home.

I am so happy for Michael and Rachel!  It was a fun weekend, too short, but really fun!

Joyful Moment of the Day:  My brother is a married man!