eating a teething cookie

so i take after my uncle bill... yes meme i went straight to the bath after these pictures and the high chair cover had to be washed~ for these reasons mama does not give me these cookies very often!




so im a little smartie pants... i pulled the nipple out of the bottle of water mama gave me... so not only did i have cookie all over me and the high chair i thought it would be fun to splash around in all the water and make a bigger mess!

having fun & getting big

my dada is teaching me how to play the guitar since i love music so much


i know i am NOT supposed to play back here, but its sooo much fun!


eli was desperately trying to put his outfit back on, ALL BY HIMSELF! mr independent

he was yelling for his dada to come home, seriously


still waiting, despite that its only 1pm and he has a few more hours til dada is home

too much time to think

so last night at work (for those of you who may not know... i work at the hospital from 9pm-6am) i had way too much time to think and thats not a good thing.

the emotions are bombarding me, but i will try my best to convey my thoughts in words without rambling too much.

i am such a "WHY" person... always have been... and sorry chris i probably always will be. im sure i drove my parents crazy with all of my "but why mommy". i guess that character trait has followed me in my walk with the Lord... not that i necessarily question His character, judgement, or grace... but sometimes i just want to know the reason behind the situation... and last night was one of those times.

a girl delivered at 19 weeks... too early for modern technology to be able to save the sweet baby boy's life. he came out kicking and even had a heartbeat for a few minutes, but just as fast as he came into this world, he was gone again.

throughout the night there was a HUGE lump in my throat and i had to push back the tears more times than i could count. after she delivered they placed the baby in a basket in the room in which i delivered eli, room 407, until the mom was ready to see her sweet son.

my heart ached for this sweet mama... i wanted to go sit next to her and hold her hand and just cry and utter a prayer to God on her behalf... but im not sure the rules and i personally just couldnt find it in me to knock on her door. maybe the fact that i do have a sweet son who took his first breath in the vary room her son was lying peacefully with Jesus. then on the flip side it made me miss the babies i never got to meet.

so here are some of my questions... i know they do not have a concrete answer...

GOD WHY...
...are 50% of the pregnant girls we see under 20, and act like their baby is an inconvenience for them, while so many other women desire so deeply to become a mother, yet cant get or stay pregnant
...can drug babies go home with their drug addicted mothers
...why do so many pregnancies end in tragedy
WHY GOD???

Christen's Wedding... more pics to come

Eli & Abigail

The Greenwood's & The Steyne's

Friends from Ben Lippen

Meme was a huge help all weekend... thanks Meme!

a minute to myself

in the passing days a spare minute has been hard to come by... hints only the picture updates. as you can see Eli is OFFICIALLY getting into EVERYTHING. he has begun the adventures of walking a few steps here and a few there and enjoys standing up for minutes at a time... its only a matter of a few days before he realizes that he can walk EVERYWHERE and thus get into trouble, i mean everything, faster!

i feel like i need to catch you up on our new adventures...

this upcoming week will be my first week working full time at the hospital... that means i will be working from 9pm-6am four nights a week (normally Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday)

Chris is still working like crazy. but he is also really plugging into our church by helping out with the sound/lights/tech stuff with the hopes of being able to play music at some point soon. our church, gateway baptist, is starting to go to three services in just a couple weeks so there will be more slots to fill and more opportunities to serve.

our lives have added a new adventure this week... our dear friends whom we moved to Charlotte for, have now moved back to Columbia as well, and are actually living with us. we are blessed to live in a huge 4 bedroom 2 bath house... so they get our 2 spare rooms and extra bathroom. their oldest son started school today which was a blessing as we just filled out all of the paper work this week. another blessing is the fact that the mom had an interview last night and started working in our school district this morning. please continue to pray for:
a job for the father
a preschool for the younger son
a temporary place for their dog
a place to live (don't worry we aren't kicking them out)

it has been so long since i have written anything that i'm having a hard time articulating all the words and thoughts in my head. until next time. thanks for your love, devotion, prayers, and words of wisdom~

sneaking food

watchin mama from the window

MORE TROUBLE

BUSTED

when i say that eli is into everything... here are just a few examples of what i mean! all i had to do was turn around for one minute and this is what i found.

 

eli and bono are double trouble when it comes to getting into things... what am i going to do with these two? notice that eli is on top of the pretzel box

big boy potty

 

so many of you have asked how i get eli to poop and peepeep on the potty... well its actually quite simple! eli HATES diapers with an utter passion and i am not so fond of washing the poop out of the cloth diapers we use, so we (as in eli and i) had a nice little chit-chat and came to the conclusion that we should try being a big boy. it seems to be working quite well for us. i put him on the potty during every diaper change, when he wakes up and right before he goes to sleep/naps, and every time i have to go to the bathroom. dont get me wrong he is not "potty trained" but he is learning to use the potty!