I made this for TopMomma.com for the fun of it.  I thought it was just plain cute (can the expressions and actions of my daughter get any cuter? Believe it or not, they can!). It may not make sense to any one but to me. But ya know, my whole motto here is that sanity is found in writing. So instead of yelling…go write (my husband is probably laughing at that, because I still manage to yell sometimes). Writing is my therapy.

That said, we got Savannah to the doctor this morning. She has bronchitis, poor girl. But now we’ve got antibiotics and (hallelujah) some cough medicine! So, she should be back to her normal, happy self soon.

School starts back tomorrow. I’m not ready to go back to the stressful world. Goodbye winter break. Hello spring semester.

Can you believe it’s already 2008?! How is it possible? We didn’t do anything fun to bring in the new year. We’re old folks, even though we’re only 20. Mark played too many video games to count, and I watched TV and worked on Savannah’s birthday invites (how is it possible that it’s time for THAT?). I did make it to see the clock turn midnight, but only because it takes forever for me to fall asleep :-/ What a way to bring in the new year, huh? I don’t even remember what I did last year, something equally boring I’m sure. I was a little over 7 months pregnant then, so I’m guessing by midnight I was fast asleep.

2007 has been quite a year with many milestones and proud accomplishments. The ending of a successful, full term pregnancy. The birth of our daughter February 22nd. Mark and I conquering the sleepless night, the yellow runny blowout diapers, the teething, the chicken pox, the many joyful moments when she learned something new, finding joy even when you think you just can’t take it any more. Discovering that we are made of A LOT and can do anything we put our mind to. Sticking with breastfeeding when I wanted to quit because it hurt so much those first few weeks, treasuring those special bonding moments, and feeling accomplished having made it to 10 months (sadly, breastfeeding is now ever. She lost interest, but that’s ok, we were ready). A first Easter, first beach trip, first Halloween, first Thanksgiving and first Christmas. Not just for Savannah, but for us as a family. A year of amazement at how fast time goes and how fast she grows with it. Another year of visits with Kaylee, watching her grow into a little girl, making connections about our adoption, and watching my Savannah and Kaylee interact.

Planning a wedding and finally becoming an official family May 19th. A wonderful honeymoon (and baby break!) with my husband at the beach. Mark getting an awesome internship for the summer that has lead to more. Myself breaking out of the house and getting a part time job for the summer, deciding to go back to school at last minute, going towards an English degree and getting straight A’s! Chopping my hair off. Mark doing equally well in school, despite a job and family to take care of. Us finding a church we love and people we connect with. Furthering my writing even more, and having my own website!

In short? It’s been a year that I define as a year that has shown what we are made of. We’ve had a lot of our plate, and we’ve done it all quite well. I’m proud of this year. Let’s hope this coming year is even better!

Our new year resolutions? Personally, I really want to get closer to God again (Mark needs this goal too…). I feel like something is always holding me back though, and I’m wondering if it’s my past. So, this year I’d like to connect with a counselor/therapist to dig those things out so I can leave it behind once and for all and move forward with Christ. Mark and I really want our family to be grounded in Christ, and for Savannah to see Him within us as she grows, but whenever we try to devote ourselves more to reading the Bible/praying it keeps falling through. What’s holding us back? WHY are other things more important than Him?

I also want to work on our marriage communication. We have too many petty arguments over nothing. We don’t have serious issues going on, but we want our marriage to last. I think dealing with these little thing now will help us in the long run from thing building and building into something bigger and scarier.

And of course, the usual goal of working out. Not to lose weight, I’m the opposite and need more weight. I do need to work this post-baby belly flab though. Mark could use a little working out, too.

Here’s to another year of growth, love, and writing. Happy New Year, folks! Here is our year in pictures:

We started our Christmas early yesterday morning at 6am when my little sister came to wake us up. Savannah woke up soon after and we headed down stairs for the Christmas day fun to officially begin. I think Savannah enjoyed playing in the wrapping paper more than the actually gifts, but what can you expect from a 10 month old? She was a very happy girl throughout the day (minus a trying-to-skip-a-nap-fight in the morning), loving the attention from family, the toys and posing for the camera. Santa brought her a push toy to help encourage walking, and she loved it until she topped over when she got too excited at her new talent. That scared her a bit but hopefully she’ll get back on the horse, er, legs and try again! She has taken up to 4 steps completely by her self in the past 2 weeks, walking is not too far away.

Mark finally, finally got the Xbox360 he’s been wanting. Along with every game he could ever want, so I don’t think I will see him until next Christmas. He got me a gorgeous green amethyst ring surrounded by diamonds (looks a lot like this one but square and cost way less!) . It’s amazing. Through, I did pick it out myself over our Thanksgiving trip to Maryland. But still, it’s a wonderful gift with special memories!

Like I posted previously, my big gift this year is my own web page. My Dad helped me pick out a good host (we went with Host Gator). But, it’s turning out to be far more complicated than I ever dreamed. Stuff just isn’t working right, I don’t understand what I’m doing and just when I think I’ve figure it out, something always goes wrong. Blah. Eventually I’ll get there. I hope.

Of course, Christmas is not all about the presents. For me, it’s about spending time with family and celebrating the life of Jesus Christ. All day my heart was filled with joy and thanks for all that He’s blessed us with. We really are lucky. My heart breaks thinking about the families that can’t even afford a ham to eat, let alone Christmas presents. I hope some how God provided for them.

Anyways, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. It’s been a wonderful season for us, filled with many firsts. Eventually pictures will be up, but I’m sure my husband didn’t think to pack the camera cord to upload pictures, so it will be a while!

We’re in the mist of exam week. Thankfully, my “exams” are just normal tests (no cumulative horrible stuff!) and I only have two, so exam week hasn’t been too stressful. Also, Mark and I have, as I like to call it, “Christmasitis.” You know, like senioritis! When your just about at the end and you just don’t care that much any more? We’ve been studying, of course, but the stress is just not getting to us. And that makes for a happier family.

We’re ready to be done. Ready to relax for 3 weeks and enjoy visits with a ton of family. And of course, we’re ready for Christmas! I can’t wait to see Savannah’s expressions and curiosity with all the extreme amounts of paper and presents galore. I absolutely love Christmas time (though I am already sick of the repeated music). This Christmas not only is Savannah’s first, but Mark and I’s as well being actually together on Christmas. I’m excited to share my family’s traditions with him and Savannah. It’s a wonderful feeling being able to share some thing so special with people you love.

We’ve got many trips lined up for our Christmas break. It should be interesting, to say the least, what effect it has on all of us. We’ll be on the go constantly until we reach my Dad’s house, where we’ll relax the longest. Savannah has been doing absolutely amazing sleep wise lately (sleeping through the entire night, or waking up just once. A blessing indeed), so I’m sure her sleep schedule will be effected in a bad way with all the unfamiliar places. Also, laundry will be interesting since we’ll have only one day or less in between trips. We’ll be borrowing the washing machine for sure.

And baby food? The girl eats like a pig. I think we may just have to buy food at each destination so we don’t have to lug everything down there (and so when we do finally get home, we have some food left without running to the store!). We are introducing more table foods and I still make some home made baby food, (and plan to do so while I’m at my Dad’s) but the jars still have their convenience, especially on trips!

So this post in part is to tell you guys I won’t be around much for the next 3 weeks. But expect some exciting news (no, not pregnant) and tons of pictures once I return :-)

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! (assuming I don’t find time to get on before then)

We’re back (and been back since Sunday) from good ol’ Maryland. It was beautiful up there. Perfect weather, besides getting a tad chilly after a blissfully odd day of 70 degrees, but hey, what else can you expect from the North (snow would have been nice)? I had a wonderful time meeting some of Mark’s family. His Aunt and Uncle are quite the funny people. We spent the whole trip laughing and poking fun at each other.

We spent some days shopping (bad idea), some days lounging around, some up town (and by up town I mean walking up the street to tiny unique, wonderful shops), letting Savannah experience the fallen leaves and taking pictures. It was a wonderful trip.

Besides the 11 hour drive packed like sardines in a can with 5 adult sized bodies and a baby. Oh, and a huge amount of stuff (guess who had the most? The baby!) And, besides that Mark, Savannah, and I had to sleep down stairs in the den, right next to the stair way. Getting Savannah to stay asleep period is a struggle. Getting her to sleep in a strange environment is even more a struggle. And then add on that we couldn’t shut out noise and beg and pray that people would be quiet on their way up stairs. Yes, we were tired. But the many laughs and joy made up for it.

Savannah enjoyed Thanksgiving with a room full of people to entertain and get attention from (she will not be shy like me, I can tell!) and she tried her first meat (guess what it was?).

This was my first holiday without my own family around. On Thanksgiving, I did miss them. I thought about them all the time (I always do!). But it wasn’t too bad, because Mark’s family honestly feels like mine, too. And that’s a great feeling :-)

Well, only 6 months. But it seems like forever ago we were married, and it seems like we’ve been together forever. It surprises me that it’s only been 6 months!

Mark brought home some beautiful flowers for me. And, a few days ago we brought out our frozen cake top. We didn’t want to wait a year, we’re impatient.

It was extremely lopsided and covered with wrinkles from the plastic wrap that was around it for the past 6 months, but still tasty. That butter cream icing and raspberry filling, yum.

Speaking of anniversaries, it’s almost been a year since I’ve started this blog! Oh, what a year it has been.

I really should be studying for a test coming up on Tuesday. Or, ya know, writing a paper about a play I didn’t even like. But, geez, that is so boring. And it’s the weekend! I don’t want to be boring!

Anyways, operation sleep was going good. For one whole week (or slightly more?) we got decent sleep with only 2 wakens a night, she was easy to put back down, we had our routine down pat, and even naps were on a consistent schedule. We were doing good, and I haven’t even read the whole book! All I did was keep a routine…it made THAT big of a difference. However, now we have an early riser (I’m not a morning person). But hey, I’ll take what I can get. Better sleep is better than sleeping later.

Until…teething hit. Again. This once a month teething thing is killing me. Even worse that it usually hits right when I’m PMSing. Therefore teething is to babies and their mommas, as PMSing is to wives and their husbands. Yes? It affects everyone.

Wednesday night out of no where (meaning, during the day and previous nights she’d be fine!), she was up THREE hours. 12-3am. Wouldn’t let herself sleep. So I didn’t get any sleep either, I spent my night rocking and rocking and rocking. I got 4 whole hours to be exact. This momma doesn’t do well on 4 hours, I don’t know how I made it, honestly. I figured out it was teething yesterday morning at breakfast where I discovered the swollen gums. Motrin is now my friend again. We still wake up a lot but that’s definitely better than 3 hours in a row.

That said, Halloween was great for us O’s. It was Savannah’s first time, obviously, as she’s only 8 months old and was gestating in my belly this time last year (sigh, time is going by too fast). I found Savannah adorable flower costume on ebay (also my new best friend) for $10 total, including shipping. It was the perfect size and in perfect condition. And it beat paying $30 for a nice costume she’ll wear ONCE. Yes, I win.

We just walked around our neighborhood, Mark and I taking turns carrying her. Let me just say that carrying her for a mile between the 2 of us, she got heavy, arms were sore and I’m out of shape. Some people got confused about her outfit and even her gender. Tell me, would you dress up your boy in a pink flower costume? I didn’t think so. Apparently I do, cause apparently I have a boy. She also got confused as wearing bunny costume, which, ya know, I can understand. It was an older man, probably not so great eye sight and her flower pedals could get droopy so only 1 or 2 would stick up. But a boy?

Oh well. We had fun and Savannah racked up some candy for us. I’m excited for next year when she can run around (less tired arms!) and get excited about things. This year she probably had no idea what was going on, but she certainly enjoyed taking in all the new sights and observing all the strange things going on.

Or maybe it was all to much for her, because she was up all night? Oh yes, that was the thrills of teething.

P.S. Check out the sky on Halloween! Quite eerily appropriate, eh? 

Well, a huge milestone (to me) has been added to Savannah’s list of things she can do.

She said “Mama” for the first time today.  She started at breakfast while eating her home made blueberries and apple sauce, and now does it whenever she pleases. Like right now. It seriously brings tears to my eyes every time.

Yes, I know she isn’t directly calling me this yet, but it’s one step closer and just to simply hear those syllables coming from my child, it melts my heart!

With Kaylee, some one else has always been her mama.  I’ve always felt I am a mother, through simply the act of birth, but never as a true Mom.  I’ve never had the role of Kaylee’s mom. Now, it’s my turn to have that title. Oh, these growing up moments are priceless.

Side note: The sleep book arrived today!  I’ve already read half the book, and I’ve learned that my daughter is actually doing well for sleep.  She gets the ‘right’ amount of sleep and naps according to the charts. We already have a routine set. I’ve heard other mother’s horror stores of 12 month olds getting up EVERY hour to nurse still.  Yes, we are doing okay.  That said, there are areas I’d like to work on, like getting her to sleep without nursing or the pacy or rocking. So, we’ll see what the second half of the book suggests :-) At some point I plan to review the whole book on here for others.

She’s offically 7 months old now, as of this past Saturday, the 22nd.  7 months. Didn’t she just turn 6 months old, like, yesterday?  How does a whole month fly by so fast?

As usual, this past month has brought about many amazing things to our world as we watch Savannah grow.  She’s added getting to a sitting position by herself, pulling up on things to a standing position (particularly on Mommy), and yes, even crawling, to her fastly expanding list of things she can do.  She’s tried her first Gerber Puffs and chews with her two cute little bottom teeth, and working on feeding herself those puffs.  She does yoga moves and tricks to impress us.  She’s added “babababa” and “dadada” to her vocabulary.  Her two top teeth will be making their way through any day. All of which, bring complete and utter joy to us as her parents and many praises are made. 

It’s so funny now to think of her as the little baby she once was, her little personality has bloomed and she’s a member of our family, not just a sleepy blob.  This past weekend Mark and I went through pictures on our digital cameras to have them printed.  Before our eyes in minutes, she went from a curled up baby in my womb, to a screaming newborn just taking her first breathes of air, to now, a little girl that is getting more independent day by day.  It’s funny how you hardly recognize the suddle changes that take place as children, or even ourselves, grow until one stage has passed. We don’t see it as it’s happening really, but at a point when it’s too late to go back. 

I try every day to treasure how Savannah is in that moment. I know these moments will  never be back to warm my heart in the way they do now, as I witness things. Sure, I’ll have my memories and pictures, but she’ll never be able to revert back to how she is today.  Before I know it, she’ll be walking and talking and making my heart fill with joy in even more ways.   

 Treasure your moments. Life goes on way too fast.

Again, I apologize the lack of posting. It’s been yet another busy week, or two, with starting college back, endless amounts of laundry and cleaning to do, teething, colds, etc.

It’s already been almost two weeks since we packed our house (or tried…) into our Toyota and made the 4 hour drive to Myrtle beach for our very first family beach trip. And it was a good first. A good way to start our beach vacation traditions, just as I treasure the beach trip memories as I grew up.

We left last Friday around lunch time, getting to our resort around 3:30. We stepped out of our car and were immediately slammed with the outrageously high humidity. Seriously, it was like we were in a sauna. Some times, our sun glasses would fog up when we got out of the car. We got checked in, unpacked and settled. Said our hellos to my Mom and Step-dad, ate dinner (note to self: no more buffets) and headed to the beach for Savannah’s first view and feel of the ocean.

It was beautiful, the sun starting to set, the water was perfect and warm (unlike our honeymoon trip, freezing!), but extremely windy. Savannah rode on her Daddy’s shoulders and made funny faces at the wind constantly blowing. She loved it. She loved her first toe dipping in the ocean and the squishy wet sand. It’s so amazing to watch your child experience something new, it’s like seeing things for the first time yourself.

The next day we spent the morning at the beach, with extra sunscreen (but apparently I forgot my own face, there for I had a burnt, peeling forehead this past week), water and umbrellas/baby tent for shade. We brought a long a Bumbo seat (light weight and easily wiped clean of the sand!) so we wouldn’t have to hold her the whole time, and ya know, enough the sand/water ourselves. We brought a baby sized swimming pool so she could play in the water without the waves (though, there was a tide pool that day, which was great to play in!). It worked out well.

The baby sun tent? I’m so glad we bought. I chose not to bring bottles to the beach, so I breastfed and it made life and privacy so much easier! It blocked the wind/sand from blowing in her face, it allowed her to not be in the direct sun, and was a great way to keep her “clean” and not so sandy. Definitely recommend.

Mark, being the big kid that he is, played in the water the whole time. Some times he’d take Savannah with him and give my mom and I a break (so I could read some HP and the Deathly Hallows!).

After we had enough sun, we took our showers and Mark and I went out for our ‘date night out.’  We decided to go to Broadway on the Beach, where we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe.  My dinner wasn’t as good as I expected, but Mark’s ribs were amazing! We walked around and looked at the shops, and found shirts that said, “I love my husband.” and “I love my wife.”  Cheesy, but it’s true. And now people on campus know we are taken, since we wore them yesterday. Ha. Then…

We went to the place we’ve been waiting for weeks to go.  MagiQuest. It was amazingly fun interactive game. And nerdy.  My Magi name was Princess Leia and Mark was Hon Solo. We bought our wands and started on our quests to get different rune powers.  We could open chests and collect money, turn crystals colors, duel each other, make things light up and talk. Quite cool.  We played for an hour and half, and when we go back, it’ll just pick up where we left off.

Then next day was filled with more fun in the sun, and then we went back to Broadway on the beach and took Savannah to the aquarium! She loved watching the fish swim around and around, some times right above us.  She’d watch in awe and occasionally try to grab them. She especially liked the gift shop where the fuzzy stuffed animals (er…fish) were.

This vacation was now only our first family beach trip, but Savannah decided to cut her first tooth!  She’s done well with teething. So far, there hasn’t been the horrors that other mommy’s tell of. She’s working on her second bottom tooth as we speak (as well as a small cold).  Still, she’s doing well and happy as can be. Though, a bit more clingy.

It was a good trip. We enjoyed experiencing things as a family and watching many of Savannah’s firsts, enjoyed being away from work and other stresses, and enjoyed the company of my Mom (and the extra hands!). We enjoyed being together.  Here’s to good times and hoping next year’s trip turns out just as well.