A Look at Lucy - 1 Year

What a big year, filled with so many firsts!  Time has flown by, as it always does when we're having fun.  Being a girl mom is amazing, and you really balance this family out, Lucy.  I love you and thank God for allowing me to be your momma.  

One-year old pics and stats:

(Pictures taken by the talented Ashley Miller Photography)

Height - 33 inches (95 %ile) Weight - 22.5 lbs (65%ile)

Walking like a champ

Still big-time attached to Momma.

If you're not in bed by 7:00, it's a total pumpkin transformation.

Eating habits: pretty picky.  You would live on bread alone.

Finally coming around to almond milk.

"Dada" is pretty much your name for everything, or "uh-oh."

You will pick up a book and read to yourself; babbling, turning the pages and all.

You call out from your bed each morning, and your brother gets up and crawls in your crib with you.

You're a biter.  You bit three different classmates all in the same day, recently.

Turns out, you are a big fan of cake, but ice-cream, not so much.  

Keeping a bow on on your head for more than 2 seconds is a miracle; you hate them.

Saturday morning pancakes are a big hit with you and your brother.

You love, love, love playtime outside.

And, you made a pretty cute Batgirl at our friend, Kelten's, super hero birthday party.  

Shine Your Light Day

Lucy was born on a Monday evening, April 15th, 2013.  No complications, full-term, smooth delivery.  Her name had been set for months. It was her daddy's favorite.  It means "light."  Family came to visit, and we all took turns holding her.  All was right in my world. Visions of my chubby little cherub had became reality.  She was even red-headed.  Perfect.  My heart was full.  There was no way, in those moments, I could have imagined the difficulty the next days would bring.

I blogged about those days here, but this post is not about reliving those days.  This post is about what I learned through that refinement period and how I plan to REJOICE in Lucy's first year...

I've often wondered what Jesus really looks like, and it was in those days that I found out.  Jesus looks like my small group members and leaders who came to the hospital to love on us and pray for Lucy.   He looks like each of my family members who pulled together and used their God-given talents and resources to meet the demands of our extended hospital stay.  Jesus is our friends, neighbors and coworkers that brought pink boxes from Julia's, meals, and meal cards, so we didn't have to think about food while we were commuting back and forth to the hospital.  He is Missy and Fran and all the other compassionate NICU nurses and doctors who cared for my girl as if she were their own.  Jesus is the complete stranger standing in the waiting room who shared her story and gave me hope. Or Stacy, the hospital chaplain, who found me every day to check on Lucy's progress and pray. He looks like Nikki, the fifth floor nurse that bought my lunch in the cafe', sat with me while I ate, and just listened.  He was with us every step of the way, and he used people to be His hands and feet on this Earth.  To all those people who were faithful to His leading, thank you.  But, a simple "thank you" just doesn't seem to cover it.  It doesn't accurately show how grateful I still am, to this day, for every little act of kindness that reassured me and spoke a message from God saying, "I am with you."  

So, we are declaring April 15th, Lucy's 1st birthday, as "Shine Your Light" day and asking you to join us!

We hope you will prayerfully consider ways you can intentionally shine your light for Him on this day too.  Know someone who needs a pink box from Julia's?  How about buying the person's lunch behind you in the drive through?  Cookies for coworkers?  A handwritten note?  Donations to a local charity? Volunteer work? Whatever your "light" is, SHINE IT.

You may have received cards,  but if not, you can print the image here and attach to your "act of kindness" for your recipient to see.  Hopefully, they will pass it on, and it just keeps going.

 

And, if you have given or received a little extra "light" today, I want to hear about it.  

One day, I'd like to put it all together for little Lucy and show her how her 1st birthday lit up the world!

Shine your light and share your story by:
 *Commenting to this post
*Emailing me here
*Messaging here on Facebook.
*Post pics on Instagram #shineyourlight415

*Send me a letter in the mail.
Whatever your preferred media method is, spread the word! 

Help us celebrate our healthy girl, a God who still does miracles, and the kindness of His people.
You are the LIGHT of the world. Let your light SHINE before others, that they may see your good deeds and GLORIFY your father in Heaven.  Matthew 5:14-16

Spring Break 2014

Spring break started with a mid-day training at central office followed by a quaint lunch with Suszane, which is where we planned this...

A "mommas and their boys" double date to the zoo!  

The dino trek was all new since the last time we went, and the boys were a bit reluctant at times because they all seemed so real.  Moving parts, spitting water, roaring, what's not to love?!

The elephants!

Just like out elephant sandwiches we packed for a zoo picnic.

Speak of zoo picnic...

We had all kinds of little visitors come to survey our lunch inventory at this park blanket picnic lunch.

The kangaroo exhibit!
We got to walk around WITH the kangaroos and pet the ones on the path.  We even got to witness and kangaroo stampede, which was pretty cool but very intimidating.

And, what's a trip to the zoo without flamingos!?

Our "moms and boys" date was so very much fun.

The next day involved a quick trip to Birmingham for a little time with the BFF and some outlet mall shopping with Nani.  Sam asked me to take this picture of him after he posed himself with the Banana Republic mannequin.  Love this boy and his sense of humor.  Lucy was just in it for the food and the lego table at Carters.  Love her.

Quick return home just to pack my bags again for a SALT team retreat at New Frontiers.  Midnight mountain climbing (blind-folded), bonfire talks with s'mores, extreme games and giant swings off the side of a mountain.  It's the most experiential way to seek God.  It's scary and awesome and amazing.  That's me (and my climbing partner, sweet Eli) at the top of a 60 ft. pencil pole.  Let me tell ya, none but Jesus could make that one possible.  

Finally, we closed out the week with piles of laundry and some rockin' horse riding lessons.  Sam started off the session with some advanced skill riding, and finally, Lucy joined the club and rode the horse all by herself for the very first time.  She was so proud of herself.  

 

I'm tired but thankful for such a wonderful week.  

Now it's back to work to finish out these last 34 days with style!

Craft Night - Success!

Y'all, craft night was sooo much fun.  I don't even know where to start. Everything about the evening was special and inspired and joyful and soul-filling.  There's something to be said about quality time spent laughing with friends and creating something beautiful.

Our crafting spot was perfect!  Hand-picked flowers in mason jars and a little burlap invited all my girls to come in and create!  A special THANKS to CedarRock for allowing us to use your space.

A "Shine Your Light" parting gift for all the ladies.  Thanks Julia's Bakery.

This group got a sneak peek on our upcoming celebration plan for lil' Lu's first birthday.  

More on that tomorrow...

Handmade name tags for all

The supply table filled with fabrics, scraps, ribbons, yarns and all things embellishment

And my beautiful crafters

When I got home, it was baths for the kids, highlights for the hubs, and bedtime.  But, I couldn't sleep.  I kept thinking about all the different wreaths.  How each wreath perfectly suited its owner.  How beautiful they all were.  It reminded me of one of my favorite songs right now, Beautiful Things.  The melody is unique and the chorus lyrics are:

You make beautiful things, 

you make beautiful things out of dust.

You make beautiful things,

you make beautiful things out of us.

Remnants.  Scraps.  Ripped and frayed pieces of fabric.  Leftovers from other completed projects.  Twine.  Fancy strings.  Ribbon.  Old barn wood.  Made beautiful by crafty hands. 

I didn't get pics of all, but here's a few of our masterpieces…

Thankful for this night.  For good friends.  And, for a God who uses ALL things to make something beautiful.  

A Look at Lucy - 11 months

We are nearing the big 1-YEAR mark, and Lucy is growing and changing so rapidly now.  

Our girl is a definite handful but so much fun.

11 month stats:

20 pounds even, not sure how tall this month (too wiggly)

6 teeth (two bottom and four across the top)

weened herself off the pacifier, just quit cold turkey one day

walking is the preferred method of locomotion

brings items I ask for like shoes or a book

blows kisses (so cute), waves, and repeats sounds

has her momma's dance skills :)

nearly jumps out of my arms each morning when we get to school (makes my heart happy)

eats mostly table food, projectile spits baby food

plays in the toilet every chance she gets

Official pics:

Here we go again with the chair and the monthly stickers.  We'll see how long this lasts.  

Immediate detachment of said sticker...

then examined and celebrated for, yet again, 

removing before posed picture could be taken...

…crumpled and chewed on to ensure complete destruction...

…and finally independent removal of oneself 

from picture spot because she was not in the mood.  

She's sassy, that's for sure.  

She has a definite soft spot for Daddy.  They are big buddies.

We have big plans to celebrate Lucy's first year!  

Info coming soon on our "Shine Your Light" celebration.

Streaming with Sam

Here's a short stream of consciousness post on what it's like 

playing and pretending with our boy these days:

Quietly playing in his room.

We walk back to check on him and find this…

To the untrained eye, this looks like a kid holding a cd case near the backside of a dairy cow night light, but that is not so.  It's actually a camp fire (the night light), and he's roasting marshmallows on his marshmallow roasting stick.  Flaming and burned until they are black, just the way he likes them.  Oh, and no one can go to a campfire without a cowboy hat, so the hat is necessary to the scenario and all who attend.

So, of course, Daddy and I put our hats on and attended the camp out too.

 We got our books out and read scary stories by the fire.  Who knew that Elmo could be so spooky?

And all the animals also wanted to gather around the campfire, so they were neatly arranged so that everyone made a perfect and equidistant circle around the cow, I mean campfire.

 Then, we took turns asking everyone about their day.  Apparently, things didn't go well today for Denny, the elephant, because he didn't make good choices and had to go to the sad board.  Monkey had to do some extra jumping jacks today, and penguin got to be first for Show-And-Tell.  

Never a dull moment!