Thankful for my Husband

I know the title of this post made it sound like a serious post is coming, but all it really is is a video that I came across via a friend's facebook page and this video made me thankful for my dear husband Nathan--and thankful for his heart for music ministry :) This is funny--and while it may not be the "worst" worship ever, its pretty ridiculous.

Washington Home

Ok, for all you family out there who have been wondering where we're living, here it is. Some pictures of our home. Lots of the walls are still blank, but we do have things on the walls in the family room because thats where we spend the most time.

I thought I should start with Bella--I know you've all been missing her so much :) She has adjusted to washington quite well, however she doesn't love the drizzle. She goes from window to window looking for where I am in the house so she can beg me to be let inside :)

One view of the master bedroom (if you walk in the door the bed is to the left)

Another angle of Master Bedroom

Standing by couch looking toward doorway into kitchen.

We decided to use that corner as a play area for Makaela so we have

one of those big foam alphabet puzzles spread out and all her toys there.

Looking into the family room. We just got that sectional from a family on craigslist. It was a pretty good deal...needs a little cleaning up but was a good deal for the condition it is in :)

This is the guest room where you can stay if you come visit us :)

Office/catch all room :)

Makaela's Room

Kitchen--they painted it red which matches our dishes very nicely :)

7 Months

As always, where has the time gone??

It is so hard to believe that Makaela has already passed the halfway mark to her first birthday! C.R.A.Z.Y. I happen to be picking things up in our office and I came across the card that was placed on her little crib at the hospital with all of her information. I had a brief (and fleeting, i might add) moment of (insert cloud/bubble above head here) I want another baby. It is our hope, and plan, however to wait a while longer before we venture down the road of multiple children.
I love to go through and look at the pictures of Makaela from then until now--to see how she has changed and grown--to see how her personality has developed and how it shines through--and as I look at the pictures I am nearly brought to tears at the wonderful joy and blessing the Lord has given to us in our precious little girl. I am also convicted of the huge responsibility ahead of striving to raise a little baby into a godly woman, of living out the gospel in my life so it can be clearly displayed to her and of striving to train her in righteousness. I am convicted of the high calling of motherhood and am convicted of areas of sin in my own life. She might be little right now, but she is an observant little one and she watches my every action. She sees (even though she doesn't know it) my selfishness, my failure to be patient, my failure to be joyful always--she sees the way her mommy and daddy interact--how they love each other--how they fail to love/serve each other. I cannot think that because she is so little that this has no affect on her because it absolutely does. The way she sees me living my life is something that will be a major factor in her development and I am convicted and challenged to be living out the gospel in my life so that she may see the wonderful grace of our savior--and prayerfully that she may come to know that savior herself in a personal and intimate way one day.
Lord, thank you for your grace and for your forgiveness. Thank you for your strength which allows me to persevere. Help me to love and serve you in such a manner that our precious little girl will see you and will desire to have a relationship with you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Eph. 1:3-6)

This post started off talking about Makaela's seven months, and turned into the tuggings of my heart for a moment :) But, on a less serious note...
We got to meet Makaela's new doctor on Friday. He was very kind, and I am sure that as we develop a relationship with him we will grow to love him. He was a little soft-spoken at first (and to be honest it did make me miss our old pediatrician), but our new doctor is a believer in Christ and a Biblical Counselor. Once he found out we were associated with some other patients of his (friends from church) he opened up a lot more. We are looking forward to having Makaela grow up seeing him and having him encourage Makaela in biblical principles as well.
She gained a whopping 4 pounds 10 ounces since her last visit which puts her at 14 pounds 11 ounces. You Go Girl! (It's amazing what solids and formula will do :)). She popped back on the charts around the 11th percentile and was around the 19th-21st percentile for her length/head circumference. The doctor says her projected height at the rate she is going will be 5'2" so maybe she is just going to stay petite for the rest of her life...lucky. But she is healthy as can be and other than those stats there is nothing too new to report.
We are working on liking homemade baby food as well as water...those are the upcoming tasks :)

Squeeker

Yes, another video :) But I have a hard time believing that anyone who checks this blog out minds seeing videos of Makaela...especially since most of you are family and are not close by :)
So Makaela squeeks like this frequently, and her face is just so funny and cute when she does! She almost always blinks her eyes (sometimes harder than others) when she makes this noise...and to watch the muscles contort on her face you know she is working hard to get such a high-pitched little squeek out!!

Makaela's Laugh

This video is not quite as good as the first one I took, but I didn't realize until after I was done taking the first one that Makaela was diaperless...so we decided to try once more with the diaper on this time :) So her laughing isn't quite as spontaneous, but its still cute :)

Bella and the Spray Bottle

Oh Bella...She has adapted quite well to Washington--although we haven't had a ton of rain yet so we will see how she REALLY does when that season comes.
Typically Bella is not a big fan of the spray bottle I use when I iron. It's just a bottle filled with water, but she does not like it. However, on this night she seemed quite fond of it...
And no...our walls are not really that color green. They are green but they are a nice green...not a lime green like they look in the video. :)

The Office--Parts 1 and 2

So Makaela LOVES the office. Not the actual show...but she loves the little intro/theme song. If she hears that, she stops whatever she is doing and looks for the TV screen to see it. Whats really funny is that when I uploaded this first video on the computer, she was in our office with me. She heard the video playing and started looking around trying to find where The Office music was coming from...so I had to play the video again purposely and take another video of her looking for it. She's Hilarious!! Enjoy these videos...they are short!!

As Promised...

Here are some videos of Makaela as I promised :) Still working on getting some pics of our house (I have to catch it when its clean and I never remember to...or its never clean :) one of the two...) But for now here's what Makaela is up to:




We have a few rubber iPod covers which have turned out to make great little teething "toys" for her. She loves to play with them!!