Hurricane Irene

This past weekend we had the first hurricane of the season. Apparently, Irene is the first hurricane in 20 years to get this close to the east coast.  For all of last week, the news seemed to think that Irene would hit very very close to us, and of course, since we live in an older trailer, we were nervous.  We packed up all our important papers (love notes, etc) and went to my Grandparent's in western NC.  Normally, it would be about a 6 hour drive, but due to everyone evacuating, it took us more than 9 hours! We were all happy to finally arrive, especially Adrian (who was quite the little trooper to be stuck in the car seat for so long!)

Being in the mountains was SO relaxing. We enjoyed our full day at the house...we played phase 10 literally all day due to Adrian's commercial breaks.  We really enjoyed it though and I'm glad my grandparents got to see Adrian.

While we were there, Adrian had his first nightmare. It really scared Nick and I so much. He wouldn't stop screaming and he wouldn't wake up - I finally filled the baby bath tub and put him in it and he immediately stopped crying and woke up. Oh it just broke my heart! He slept in between Nick and I the rest of the night but thankfully it didn't happen again. I hate to see my baby sad!

When we got back, we were really surprised to see so many trees pulled from the ground. We saw several on top of houses and barns and lots of roof and siding damage to different houses. We were really blessed that we didn't have any major damage to our house. Thankfully, the worse did NOT happen and all our friends and their houses are fine too. Thank you, Jesus!

Psalm 34:17-20     

"When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. "

More Videos!

Hope you enjoyed the ones from yesterday.

Here's some more from last night!

Here's Adrian eating lunch. Do you think he loves it?

Here is some bath time love! I love how he tries to catch the running water from the faucet :)

In other news, we are in the path of Hurricane Irene. Hopefully it will miss us, but unfortunately there will be a lot of damage north of us. We're praying for all the people who's lives will most definitely be effected! Our current plans are to run to the hills (literally) where my grandparents are for an impromptu safety visit :)

Video Day

I try to take video clips of Adrian often because he's growing so super fast! I have a lot to write but no words to say what I need to, so today will be a video day :D

Here's Adrian drinking his bottle. Since we're transitioning to solids, these sweet little moments will soon be gone in a matter of months. He covers his eyes when he drinks and it's just so stinkin' cute!

Adrian's current favorite book is "We're Going on a Bear Hunt". He LOVES it. It's so funny to read to him because he doesn't watch the pages, but watches my face instead and giggles at the silly noise. I tried to video him this morning (sorry he has a bit of an accident at the end, but it's cute).

Hope you enjoy watching my precious boy!

In response to a comment:

I'm thankful for caring friends who check up on me. Glad I have friends who are such good mommies!

Be A MAN!

One of the greatest challenges we have as mothers is the challenge to raise a man. I won't even go into (in this post) about how we as mothers have the responsibilities of protecting our son's maleness in a world where gender is a choice.

Our job gets even harder if we desire to raise a godly man.

A man who is desperately in love with the Savior, hard working but family first, humble yet willing to stand up for what he believes, faithful to his family, servant to others.

Wow, this is an honor and a privilege...but hard.

I'm only 23 years old, and three of the most important men in my life have thrown their marriage vows to the wind, losing the life they had built in the name of serving the Lord. Off the top of my head, I can think of another five or six that have been influential in my life who have fallen in the same way. I could speculate about "what went wrong" and wonder aloud about what it would take for a person to actually go that far, but there's no point.

"Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity" (Titus 2:7)

I saw the above sign on pinterest the other day and it got me thinking. Thankfully, I truly believe I have married a man who will always be faithful to me in mind, action, and body.  While I have wanted to shout to the men in my life who have defiled their marriage bed to:

"BE A MAN....".  Be a man and honor your vows.

Be a man and honor your God.

Be a man and honor your children.

Be a man and be real to the people you serve.

Be a man and GET ON YOUR KNEES and realize you

CANNOT be true to your wife if you are not true to your God first.

Unfortunately, it is socially unacceptable and inappropriate for me to yell these things at the millions of men who keep giving into Satan's plan for their failure in this way, but I can certainly pray for my husband and son. 

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth" (Psalm 119:9-16)

My desire and prayer is that Adrian (and future sibling(s)) will grow up knowing that God must come first in their life. They WILL know that I am stupid in love with my husband, and it is the Lord that is King of our relationship. I pray for protection for the lives of my children, for their future relationships and loves...the things that take up the biggest spaces in their heart.

It is not okay that I am no longer shocked when a godly man is found to have made a bigger priority out of his pants than his God.  My prayer is that we will raise a generation of MEN who will put the Lord back in His rightful place in the family....men who realize the depth of their responsibility to be faithful.

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;" (Psalm 1:1-6)

Yummy Bananas!

Today I started feeding Adrian bananas. He had a bowl of it for breakfast....he did NOT like it. I was kind of surprised because bananas are sweet and I thought he'd really like it. Most of the way through the bowl he made funny faces until I sat him in my lap and assured him it was okay.

Mama, are you sure this is okay?

For lunch, I changed the consistency a little bit and gave him banana again, but he refused to eat it, even though I know he was hungry. So I made him rice cereal and put a little bit of the banana in it. He loved it and ate a whole bowl! Apparently I'll have to perfect my baby-food skills :)  Here's a picture of him after he finished his lunch (a whole bowl)! He's only had two 4 oz bottles today so far, so I certainly have high hopes that we won't have to spend so much on formula!

In other news, Nick got a job at Dominos Pizza to help supplement our income after leaving Tar Landing. While I'm anxious about him not being home as much, I'm thankful I have such a hard-working husband who works selflessly hard to provide for his family. I hope to be an encouragement to him when he's tired. He'll only be working around 3 days a week, but he is excited because of the stress relief. 

 I feel a little nostalgic because I remember my dad working 3 jobs at one time, including Pizza Hut to help our family. I remember him always being cheerful about it.  Pizza runs in the family!  For those of you who live here in NC, he will be working at the Dominos on Piney Green Road. We are thanking the Lord for His provision once again :)

In conclusion, this is my sweet cuddle bunny sleeping here in my lap as I type. He's breathing deeply and he's so big now that his legs drape off my lap onto the couch. When I started rocking him like this, he was such a little peanut that could fit his whole body in the boppy! 5 months can change so much too fast.  He's getting too big too fast. How I LOVE my big man and my little man in my life!

Nehemiah 6:9 "They will become discouraged with the work and it will not be done.”

 But now, O God, strengthen my hands!"

Adrian is 5 months old!

Wow, time is flying so fast. I can't believe Adrian is 5 months old today!

Adrian's infamous "sad lip"

Here are the milestones he should be meeting:

-Hold head steady when upright.  Yes, he was born able to hold his head up, but now it doesn't exhaust him at all. He especially loves looking out windows.

· On stomach, raise chest, supported by arms.  Yes!

· Pay attention to an object as small as a raisin.  um.....I don't have raisins floating around the house, but I imagine he could focus on them.

· Squeal in delight.  Oh my yes.  Hes often delighted and very loud.

· Reach for an object.  Yes! He thinks he should have everything and tries to reach for everything.

· Grasp a rattle held to back or tips of fingers.  Yes! He loves his rattle, especially a little froggy rattle we have.  He rattles with a vengeance and has started banging on everything too.  He is all boy for sure. I'm thinking about looking for a plastic baby drum set for him for Christmas.

· Smile spontaneously.  Oh yes! It is so fun to try to make him smile and laugh, and sometimes we catch him smiling and staring at us until we look - it absolutely melts our hearts.  He is a very happy kid. He smiles and strangers, everything! He has the best smile and has brought so much joy to our lives.

· Smile back when you smile.  Yes! One of our favorite things is when Nick and I tickle him at the same time. We love when the three of us can laugh together!

· Keep head level with body when pulled to sitting.  Yes. He's very strong!

Helping Mama and Daddy with the laundry

He can also roll over front to back, back to front and loves standing (with support of course).  He knows a few signs, and is learning cause and effect (which makes games like peek-a-boo so much fun).  He still loves his baths and swinging with mama and daddy in the porch hammock. We are still waiting for his toofers to make their appearance (especially me!). He can hold his own sippy cup and take his own paci out and put it back in. Can you tell I'm one proud mama?

Enjoying rice cereal - can you tell he wants more?

The next big milestone is solid foods. We've decided to go with the Dr. Denmark plan from her book "Every Child Should Have a Chance" (although she recommends starting solids at 3 months, I wasn't comfortable with that)! This week we've introduced rice cereal and Adrian LOVES it.  I'm excited about introducing something sweet like banana because I don't think he'll know what to do with himself! He gobbles it right up and I have to say, I love having a baby with a full belly - happy boy and less spit-up! If anyone has any advice on solid foods (or anything), I'd welcome it. Feeding solids is much more complicated than making a bottle! I'm going to make it instead of buying it (SO much healthier, more affordable and fun - ex: 12 jars of baby food is about $9).

In conclusion, here is my little man playing with his favorite toy:

Our Weekend

I'm so at peace as I'm typing this, with my laptop in my lap, wrapped in a blanket - yes it's nice and breezy here in Jacksonville this morning! I'm SO looking forward to fall...I seriously have a near obsession with it I think. Fall, to me, means rest and romance and relief from the unbearable heat of summer. I'm definitely one of those types of people that doesn't like to be too hot or too cold.  I'm looking forward to taking Adrian to a pumpkin patch and to going on walks in the crisp weather.

This past Sunday marks our first day "church hunting" in Jacksonville. Surprisingly, there's not a whole lot of churches that really match what we're looking for.  We naively went to a free will baptist church in the morning...we didn't realize until we got there how different their beliefs were (the pillar of their denomination is that they believe that Christians can lose their salvation). We had to meet up with our TarLandingers for lunch to cheer us up :) It worked!
That night, we went to KBC and really enjoyed it. Everyone was very down to earth and seemed truly in love with Jesus. We're looking forward to attending a Sunday morning service sometime.  Next week we will visit either ECC or FB, and we're looking forward to that. We are praying for God's direction to lead us to the perfect church home for us.

On Monday I started researching tongue ties in babies because I was pretty sure Adrian was tongue tied. I was tongue tied when I was little, so I assumed it was genetic and probably one of the main causes of my nursing difficulties.  I made an appointment with the pediatrician and took him in this morning.

I've been kind of surprised that, while I haven't yet had any really negative experiences with the pediatrician, they generally seem to treat the mothers as if they don't know anything.  Nonetheless, Adrian is healthy and "off the charts" for a 4 month old at 19lbs, 14oz and 28 inches long - I knew he was big but it's nice to have a number! For 5 months, he is in at least the 95%.  The doctor suggested we start solids since he's so big (I was planning on waiting another month or two), so I'll give Adrian some rice cereal today and for the next few days and then we'll go to banana.  Nick and I are both excited about this milestone! I'm so happy to get to feed him healthy foods.

I'm one proud mama! I can't help being a little sad that Adrian is growing so fast, but I'm loving all these new changes! Mothering is soooo fun!

Adrian 20.5 Weeks

Oh, poor neglected blog! I need to remind myself to keep updating because Adrian is growing up so fast.  Currently, we are dealing with teething, and I can't wait until they actually cut through. I feel so bad for him and can't wait for him to have some relief.  Thank goodness for teethers and teething gel. He also loves frozen washcloths, so much so that even when he doesn't have one in his hand, he sucks on his blanket expecting relief.

Adrian has started reaching for things he wants, which is so cute. My heart melts when he reaches for me! He also reaches for his bottle or his toy, or my hot coffee mug (he hears a lot of "no, not for Adrian"!). 

He is sitting up almost completely by himself. When he is distracted, he can sit up without any problems, but when he is focusing on "sitting" he has a harder time with it.



I have started using baby sign language with him and I personally am loving it. He loves for me to sign and sing the ABCs, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and You are My Sunshine. Those songs along with the signs can stop his tears in a second.  I have started signing "milk", "Mama", "Change", "more" and "all done".  It's too early for him to start signing, but he does at least open his mouth and stick his tongue out when I sign "milk". 

Adrian has also discovered his voice, and screams delightedly all day long. It's hilarious, and very loud! At least he likes "talking" - he gets that from his daddy!

Altogether, he is more responsive and talkative. We feel like now that he's this old, we're getting to really know his personality more.  I'm looking forward to "showing him off" to our families this fall. Nick and I love being parents, and lay in bed at night after he's asleep laughing about the cute things he did during the day. It's so much fun! We are so blessed!

James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.