50 First Things: Easter Friday/Saturday!!!

Hahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!


The JOKE IS ON US!!!!!!!!!!!


Our dear, sweet, joyful, happy, fun baby wanted to be filled with so much fun that he could not miss out on any excitement and wanted to stay up nearly all day friday (no naps in his bed) and last night! He would wake up about 45 minutes after we would put him to sleep in his bed. He was so sleepy, but would just wake up crying with his poor little eyes closed. It was hurtful for all of us. He has not had a fever and overall is still very happy, cheerful, and lovable so I don't think he is sick but I am still going to do a well baby visit this week for his 4 mo. check up. I hope I haven't been neglectful on anything.

What in the world happened to our little boy who would at least sleep in 2-3 hour intervals at night and sometimes even sleep for one seven hour stretch a night. Gone are those blissful nights.

Dear Sleep,

We MIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSS you! We have almost forgotten what you are like. Please make a guest appearance soon!

Love,

C, J, & J

50 First Things: Easter Friday/Saturday!!!

50 First Things: Easter Thursday

Today was a double doozy! When I began this little series to help me to just stop and enjoy the many fun milestones, I never imagined they would be happening so fast. It is like someone whispered in his ears that his momma was grasping for straws yesterday so he pulled a double doozy on me today!

First off this morning, he has been able to roll to his side for awhile now, but he intentional rolled from his back to his belly! Not once in a matter of a few minutes, but twice! He was grinning from ear to ear too! I sort of thought this was a fluke because he was in the middle of our bed when he did it. Well, it was definitely wasn't a fluke because he did it about 20 times this afternoon on the quilt on the floor. He was saying "See what a big boy I am, Momma!!" It was fun because this time my husband was here with us to celebrate.

Shortly after that, he sat up on his on using his hands for support for a few minutes at a time. Who is this kid?? I could not understand why it all had to happen so fast! I told him he does not have to be so determined to get so big so quickly, but I am not sure he heard me over his chattering.

I love you so much Joseph! You make my heart so full! I needed good feelings today! We had a rough day as a family and I am just at a loss of what to do or how to act in regard to my family. I am taking care of a growing teenage boy as well as Joseph this week and his mom just checked herself into a hospital and never told him. These are the same boys that we were ready to take in when they were around 7 and 8 years old. Now they are severly scarred from their experiences. I am told that they are on the verge of being sent into foster care because their mother is not capable to care for them anymore and the other side of the family is not who I would choose to care for them but it is not my choice. All I can do is pray and ask God to intervene and it he wills for us to take care of one of the children, he will make a way, but I am not sure how this would all fall into place and to be honest, my heart has been broken many times over this and I did not know that I would be brought back into this drama by just letting him come over for one night and then she expects us to pick up the pieces for her. Please pray for us.



As if the family drama is not enough, for some reason my husband is strongly being led to move our family and he shared this with a few people and they found us a really good possibility that we will be looking into on Saturday. The land is nice, the price feels high but not for the overall purchase, and it is much better suited for our family and closer to our family and friends. I am overwhelmed with this because I am the penny pincher and just thinking about it makes me anxious! Our current place would be paid off in the next 8 years as opposed to getting into a new 20 or 30 year loan.

So much is going on, so as you can see this day was filled with mixed emotions. This is all in additon to attening a funeral for a friend today.

Rest in Peace, Luke.

St. Gianna, we celebrate your life and love and faith today! Please, pray for us!

50 First Things: Easter Wednesday

Joseph caught his first glimpse of Sesame Street!! He watched it for a total 180 seconds!


The funny thing is that the kitty, Bailey, seemed to be much more into it than Joseph!!!

50 First Things: Easter Tuesday

Today Joseph expanded on his floor moves! He is now pushing up and straightening his elbows so that he can be the inquisitive little guy that he wants to be right now!

He is completely spinning around on the the little quilt that I put down for him. Sometimes he begins to scoot backwards off the blanket. All eyes are on him and we are spending more fun time on the floor alot more these days!

He is so much fun and so super snuggly!

Little man, you are so loved!!!

50 First Things: Easter Monday

Joseph has recently started to reach for and softly stroke our faces. He particularly loves to rub his hands on his daddy's face when he first sees him arrive home in the evenings.

My heart just melts when he reaches for my face and once he makes contact he smiles the most adorable smile. It is like he is telling me in his own way that I am making him just as happy as he is making me!

50 First Things: Easter Sunday

Joseph sat in his highchair for the first time!!!

He played with his plastic egss from the Easter Bunny while his mommy and daddy ate their scrambled eggs!



It was the best Easter of my life! Absolutely, the best.

I never imagined making a Easter basket for my son would be so much fun or that I would ever have the joy of doing that! His easter basket was filled with teething toys, a blue bunny, a stage 1 sippy cup for later, and fun plastic eggs! He dove into it and our joy was complete seeing his excitement! These are the days I dreamed about for 10 years!

50 First Things

In the spirit of Easter and celebrating new life and hope I am wantingto start a little blogger journal of new things of I see Joseph doing.

I am not doing well blogging much these days, simply because I need to have my computer worked on and it is a pain to do much on and that is when I have two free hands to operate the computer. I haven't been able to post pictures in a long time and I am hoping to get my computer worked on soon to help remedy the problems.

50 First Things is my way of celebrating the Easter season! So for each day during the Lent, I plan to write a short post on something new I am discovering about Joseph!

I am doing this more for me, in the hopes that it will help me to remember the wonder of these special days than to entertain an audience and maybe this will liven up my blog! Maybe once the computer is fixed, I can add pictures to go along with the posts!

Prayer Buddy - Lent 2011

Happy Easter C!!!

I had the honor to pray and get to know C from Patiently Waiting.

She and her husband are so generously kind to our God in that they are awaiting whatever God wills for their growing family.

I hope your Easter season is filled with so much joy, just like the joy you share with all of those around you!

Easter

The season to celebrate new life!

Our lives have been so full of joy and light and happiness.

It seems we have been living out our Easter for the last year. I will admit, it was terribly difficult to experience the 'suffering' of lent this year. I never felt like I was in the desert, but for many years before that, the desert experience seemed never ending. Our Easter has arrived and now we can share our faith, our reaching for light in darkness, our faith that God makes all things new, our joy at Jesus' resurrection and triumph over death and darkness with a new soul - our sweet Joseph.

I often find myself wondering how I will share my faith in Christ in a way that Joseph will yearn for a relationship with him as well and I am realizing that there will be moments that will be hard, but there will always be immense joy in reminding him that he is loved by his creator so much that God allowed his Son to suffer, die, and then rise for HIM.

My heart is filled with joy! Last Easter I was in the first few days carrying sweet Joseph and he was just getting snuggled in my womb. A womb that seemed hostile before was transformed to a safe haven for our miracle son. Praise God. This Easter we celebrate God and Jesus and all of their amazing gifts being poured out in our lives.

Please check out the sidebar for an Easter picture of our sweet Joseph!

Tears - of joy!

I have a passed out boy on my chest. I just read the post from the day I found out about him. 1 year and 1 day ago! I cannot believe the difference a year makes! My baby boy turned 4 mo old yesterday! Praise God!!!

Highs & Lows

It has been a roller coaster ride these days with my emotions. It is cd3 and I have moments of peace and happiness and then at 2 am there of moments not so grace-filled. Today my husband reminded me of my 2 am grumpiness and we just laughed about it! Gotta love him. It also helps that when Joseph woke up for the 3rd time last night at 5 am, my husband rocked him back to sleep. He has not rested too good the last 2 nights and we think it has to do with transitioning him from his n/ap nanny bed. We love that thing, but he is starting to sit up on his own and it is not safe for him anymore. We ALL miss it! Tonight when my husband got home right after I just feeding and changing the baby he took me out to dinner and Joseph was cooperative! It was good for me and for our marriage. Joseph attracted all kinds of good attention and I was so thankful he was in great spirits. He is a great baby, but just keeps a full tank of gas and it makes it uncomfortable for him. We use all kinds of solutions and they help, but sometimes we just have to massage his little belly and wait it out when we have done all we could for him. Today, he is 17 weeks old. He is such a big potato! He is trying to sit up on his own and pushes up on his arms when he is on his belly and we just started belly time this week. He is a snuggler and I love every moment - these are the moments we have waited so long to have with our sweet baby. These days he is loving his bumbo, thanks Stacey! It is a lifesaver for me!! Hope you are all doing well, Lent is flying by and I am enjoying praying for my prayer buddy. There is a lot being offered up as well during these moments of transition and sleeping pattern changes :) One more positive note, I have been working on a no-cry goal (really a less cry goal) and I am seeing some improvement. We have almost managed to avoid all crying at naps/bedtime and that is a HUGE accomplishment for us! I just learned a different method/position that makes him happier and that makes me thrilled! God's great love for me is being revealed everyday and I am so thankful! Prayers continue for you all reading this post, I know our days are all so different, but we are all workng toward the same goal of growing in love for Christ and showing the world his great love for them!

Not about me!

Yesterday I was writing a post in the afternoon about Joseph's great sleeping these days and was interrupted by him waking up quickly after I just put him down. I knew I should not have even thought about writing that because it seemed like we reverted back to newborn days. Since he woke up from that nap, he has not slept very well or for long periods. My husband was going out of town today to fish with his brother, but because he felt so bad for leaving me all alone again he did as much as he could during the night and rocked him back to sleep each time until he left at 4am. He is sleeping now, so I am going to hop back in bed. I love him so much, I am blown away at how big he is getting, but have been wondering why my energy just won't return lately. I thing my hormones are still nuts. In other news, I am trying to not be so self-centered in regard to my mom anymore. I am just trying to understand that what she offers in our relationship is her best. I need to accept that and be thankful (somehow) for it. It hurts my feelings a bit because of the choices she makes but she is who she is and she does have some amazing qualities and I will focus on those right now. We are different. We each came to motherhood by different roads and while the vocation is the same, we see things differently. Note to prayer buddy: My husband has been able to return to work and he is feeling better and our family is making it - God is in control of all of our days. I am hoping that Joseph's disjointed sleep pattern is not related to a possible ear infection but related to starting teething. I am completely paranoid about ear infections and try really hard to just be objective about it. Ear infections seem to plague the children in my husband's family and one our our nephews just got his 4th set of tubes. Hope you all have a happy and relaxing Saturday. I feel so disconnected from everyone lately and need to make a better effort to stay connected to the world but it seems so much easier to stay home most of the time to keep his nap schedule on time. We live so far from town that a little trip to get groceries, etc turns into a long trip. My husband mentioned moving the other day and while that has been a dream for me to live closer to friends and family, I have gotten quite happy in my small town. There are some shortcomings, yes, but I feel safe here and it is about one of the best schools in our district so I am not really ready to leave just yet. Gas prices were a reason he mentioned this, so we shall see what the future holds for us. Sorry for the lack of comments lately. I read the blogs on google reader and fail to actually click on each blog to make a comment. You are all in my prayers.

10 Random Things - Hebrews Style :))

My good blogging buddy, Hebrews, recently posted 10 random things about her and her husband so I decided to follow-up and do the same. Here goes: 1. My husband and I have the goofiest sense of humor and we are constantly able to laugh through life. Even when Joseph is crying/thrashing as we put on his pjs we giggle as we wrestle him! We had fun even before Joseph arrived, you have to be creative when you are waiting 10 years for a baby! Yet, now that we are sleep deprived and flying by the seat of our pants "newbie parents" we just think we get funnier everyday! That is not always a good thing, for example we are catching ourselves blowing raspberries even when we are not trying to console Joseph and that is both embarrassing and funny. 2. We are almost total opposites in regard to what we like to watch on tv or at the movies. My husband comes around to my favorites more than I do for his favorites. When we find something we both like, we have hit the jackpot! 3. On our first date, we went for pizza, a movie, and ADORATION. It was his first time. I remember I told him "I just want to introduce you to the love of my life." He offered me his coat because it was chilly in there, now my heart was smitten. 4. We both love kids. Nuff said. 5. We are total opposites in regard to styles of t-shirts. He hates wearing a plain shirt with no words or pictures. I would rather just a plain t-shirt. It took me years to accept this, go figure. 6. We are good in the kitchen together. We work well as a team and it helps that he is an amazing cook and he teaches me things all the time. He has helped me to learn to a variety of foods, no small feat. I am a food snob. I cannot eat anything crunchy in cooked food, primarly onions. 7. I am slightly taller than my husband and it used to bother me but it never bothered him :) 8. When we went to Omaha for my first surgery his destination wish list: Cabela's & Bass Pro Shops. My wish list: The Holy Family Shrine & the Cathedral. We both got our wishes. Thankfully we know how to make each other happy! 9. We are both incredibly competetive against one another during our Wahoo games. We love to play pairs with our friend, men against the women and the winner get the prized "championship belt" (imaginary, of course) 10. We both have amazing friends. Somehow I wonder how we are so lucky to be surrounded by such caring and amazing people. Our friends are a complete mixture of people but the amazing part is that when they all get together in one setting, everyone gets along and they immediately become friends too. I just love how our circle keeps getting bigger. We are very blessed indeed!