Fun with Anniston

Well, we are 7 months in to this parenting thing...
Are there sacrifices?  Yep
Is it all worth it and better than I could have ever dreamed?  You betcha

I laugh to myself when I think about how I used to not want to have kids, when I thought that I wasn't really built to be a good, nurturing mom, that I wasn't sure if I would like having kids- maybe I would like having teenagers, but certainly not babies...and here I am, a mom that comes completely undone by one smile from her little one.  I know I have much harder days ahead of me...but I have so many indescribably good days ahead.  Maybe, just maybe...I was made for this.

So what is my 7 month old up to?
Crawling.  Standing up in her crib.  Saying DaDa.

We went to her six month doctor appointment.  The highlight?  As I was leaving, they tell me excitedly, "We have something for your baby book!!!"  I'm thinking, but I don't say- I don't really have a baby book...instead I say "Great!"...they proceed to say "You can put this in your baby book to remember coming to see Dr. Wilson", and then they hand me this...

A sticker of Jasmine.  For some reason, I found this incredibly amusing.  They were so excited to give me a generic Disney sticker to put in my baby book to remind me of a Doctor visit.  I just loved it.  So yes, it will go in my baby book, AKA my blog.  :)

6 month stats:
Weight:  16 lbs 3 oz, 25-50%
Height:  26 inches, 50%
Head:  16.25 inches, 10-25%

We have been having a fun summer.  One Sunday morning we woke up and took a family walk to Starbucks for breakfast and coffee.

We spend a lot of days just around the house...watching Anniston explore her new world.  She's so fun.

Our little monkey all ready for bed...

I can't help but think she looks a little mischievous in this one...

It was so fun the first morning I came in to find out that she can now do this:

One of my favorite things is to come get her in the morning or when she wakes from a nap, to be greeted by a smiley baby ready to play.

We had a couple of sick days this month, which is never fun...but I have to admit, there is something sweet about cuddling with a little one that isn't feeling too well.  She just needs her mom...

 We enjoyed some Thunder basketball.  Even Anniston got into the Thunder spirit.

We got to go to the lake to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday.  It was so fun to spend time with family and to celebrate the first man of my life.  My dad is amazing- to say he's a great husband and a great dad doesn't quite do him justice.  He's pretty incredible.  I am so thankful for dad, and now Pops...I can't wait for Anniston to grow up knowing her Pops, and for her to also love her dad like I love mine.  What a blessing to have an incredible dad and also an incredible husband that is an incredible dad to our little girl.  Anyway, it was so fun to celebrate him for a weekend.  It was also fun to get the girls together.  I can't wait until they can run around and play together....they don't look like they are having too much fun here, but I promise, they had their share of smiling, hugging, playing...

Easton is getting old enough to play out on the water, which is so fun.  This is her tubing with her mom and dad.  Makes me so excited thinking of the girls tubing together.  Maybe next year.  :)

 Loving the summer!!

For Our Nannies

Just a little bit about our Nannies...

So our nanny Sara left us for the summer.  I can't say enough how thankful we were for Sara this Spring.  We really wanted someone to come to our house to watch Anniston.  We hired her before we met her, trusting a recommendation from a friend....all we wanted was someone to watch Anniston and to come home to a healthy, safe, fed baby...and what did we get?  We got someone that prays over our daughter, worships with our daughter, dances with our daughter, loves our daughter.  We were so thankful.  It's like asking the Lord for bread and getting an extravagant feast.  She was the greatest blessing during a season of transition, a season of waiting, a season of unknowns.  We love Sara.  But Sara went to serve another family this summer in Beirut.  I can't imagine what a blessing she is to their family, just as she is to ours.  We were happy (and very sad) to send her out to give away what we had been receiving....so what does that mean for us?

Enter Shannon.

Shannon is a dear friend of ours.  Jake and I love Shannon.  But most importantly, Shannon loves Anniston...and Anniston loves Shannon.  The first day Shannon watched Anniston she played me a sound clip of Anniston laughing.  Nobody can get Anniston to laugh like Shannon can.  To have someone that comes to your house and makes you feel like watching your daughter is not a job, not a burden, but is a joy, a blessing, a blast, something to look forward to....to have someone that leaves your house after a long day only to talk about your daughter to her family, someone that sends pictures of your daughter to her friends because she finds your daughter so fun, so beautiful....it's like water to my soul.  Just what this momma needs when she loads up her car and drives to the city for work.

I remember when we were beginning to pray about my work situation and asking the Lord to provide something for Anniston that we felt good about...and of course, what did He do?  He blew our expectations out of the water.  We are so so blessed to have two amazing women pouring into our daughter, loving our daughter, bringing joy, peace, laughter into our home.

Thank you Sara and Shannon.  We are overwhelmingly grateful.

Catching up with the Bauer's

Well it's been too long since I've last written.  My baby girl is six months old.  Six months.  She's a busy little bee.  She is moving all around...she's crawling.  Well I can't tell if it's a legit crawl or not.  It's like a hand, knee, elbow, scoot type of thing.  She's sitting up by herself, but never for long.  She's too interested in being on the move to sit still for too long.  She likes her veggies, but not her fruits.  She wants nothing to do with bananas or pears...but bring on the squash, carrots, green beans.  She still smiles all the time, except when you leave the room or run the vacuum...found out today she is terrified by the vacuum.  Ok by me.  :)

This is Anniston sitting in my lap, watching "her favorite show", Wheel of Fortune.  I like to think she loves this show for the lights and the colors and the sounds.

For Mother's Day, my brother, sister-in-law, and niece met us in Tulsa to spend time with the fam.  I also got the privilege of celebrating my dear friend Francie at her wedding showers that weekend.  I'm so excited about her big day coming up in October!  This is Nana Great with her Great Granddaughters.

Easton and Anniston are going to be little buddies.  I can't wait until they can run around and play together...Easton can't wait either.

Jake and I left Anniston overnight for the first time and headed up to Oklahoma City to celebrate our anniversary.  Jake's mom generously offered to watch Anniston while we had our getaway.  We had such a good time!  I am so thankful for my amazing husband and the 7 years of joy and adventure we've had.

We had a glorious day last week where Jake and I were both off work...so we had family time in bed.  Love these little cuddle buddies.

 I love this picture because I like to think she gets this from me.  I love to scoot down to the foot of the bed and hang my feet off the end...I smiled when I saw Anniston doing this.

 We spent Memorial Day at the lake.  Isn't the view beautiful from the house?

My dad and uncle Billy and Lucas enjoying their morning coffee on the lawn, looking out at the land.

 Anniston loves her Nana Great.

It was so much fun to get to spend time with the Oglesby family...and I think they had fun getting to meet our little one.  :)

We were blessed by a gift of a double stroller from one of our dear friends, so we took it to the lake to give it a try...as you can tell, she loves it!

I included this picture for two reasons- 1) I say she smiles all the time, which is mostly true.  It is very rare that she cries, but I figured I would testify to the fact that it does in fact happen.  2)  I think her cry is so cute.  This picture doesn't so much do her justice, but when she sticks her bottom lip out and starts to cry, I can't help but think how cute she looks...this picture just makes her look sad.  Oh well....

 I was in the laundry room the other day and didn't know what to do with Anniston while I folded laundry, so I stuck her in the laundry basket.  She didn't seem to mind...

Just a few more pictures of my beautiful girl...

So much to be thankful for.

Testimony Time

Well it's testimony time.

So Jake graduates in December and gets his Pediatric Nurse Practitioner certification.  He immediately hears about a job in Norman that may be coming open.  It's in a pediatrician's office in Norman.  This is what Jake would describe as his ideal job.  So we ask some friends to pray that he would get this opportunity and we begin to walk with expectant hearts and believe that the Lord has a perfect job for Jake.  We know from experience that our idea of what is perfect is not necessarily what God's idea of perfect is...so we are open and basically say Ok, whatever you have for us is what we want.  So fast forward five months.  He never heard from the Norman office and still doesn't have a job.  At this point, there are no openings, no return phone calls, no interviews, nada.  We have long forgotten about the job in Norman and at this point, he is willing to look anywhere.  It's May and to be honest we thought he would be in a job by now.

So what happens?  He gets an interview in Tulsa.  So we are thankful.  We say maybe He has something for us that we can't see.  Maybe His idea of a perfect job looks different.  Maybe commuting 4 hours a day won't be so bad.  At least he'll be doing what he loves and has dreamed of doing for so many years.  At this point, Jake is doing a much better job of being thankful and hopeful than I am.  I am saying the right words, but in my heart, I'm thinking about how much harder working in Tulsa will be than Jake realizes.  But if this is what He has for us, let's do it!  He knows better than we do, right?

But then something amazing happens.  He gets a call for a job in Oklahoma City!  This time it's not in a general clinic, it's in a more specific area of medicine.  So again, not ideal, but MUCH better than a commute to Tulsa everyday.  So we are thankful!  We get super excited.  We share with our friends about this opportunity and how hopeful we are that he will have a job and won't have to commute to Tulsa.  One of our friends, in her excitement for the new opportunity, shares that before she heard about the Oklahoma City job, she felt like the Lord told her that the job in Tulsa was just the beginning of doors opening...wow!  I'll take that.  So at this point, he has a second interview in Tulsa and an interview in Oklahoma City for the following week.  Nothing for five months and within a week he has two interviews...so this is the point in the story where I wrote my post about having a thankful heart...how in the midst of the journey, when I can't see the end, I will be thankful...because I know His plans are good and perfect even when I can't see the end.  I didn't know what would happen, would he get a job offer from Tulsa?  from OKC?  Would he like commuting?  Would he like the job that was more specific than what he wanted?  It didn't matter.  We were thankful because we knew God knew what He was doing...we have a history of His faithfulness to us that we can cling to when things seem scary (although sometimes we are quick to forget His history of faithfulness- I know I had to remind myself of our history a lot during this process)....we did our best to stand in faith and trust the one who is always good and always faithful.  So how does the story end?  When the Lord shows us the end of the journey, pulls back the curtain, and reveals His plan, what happens?

The Final Chapter- So last week, while Jake is waiting for his two interviews to happen, he gets a call from the pediatrician's office in Norman...the one that he heard about five months ago, the ideal job, the perfect job, his dream job....could this be possible?  Could the job that Jake has always dreamed of having be his?  With the perfect hours and the perfect clinical setting in the perfect location?  He hadn't heard from them since January, could it even be possible that it is still available?  So he goes to the interview....and he gets the job!!  Wow.  We are in awe of how the Lord works.  How he has a perfect plan for us.  Yes he could have gotten that job five months ago...but would we have gotten the opportunity to trust Him, to wait on Him, to seek His will as we walk through each door he opened for us?  Nope.  Would we have joyfully and enthusiastically told everyone we talked to about His goodness in providing the perfect job to Jake?  Probably not.

Boy am I glad I have a GOOD SHEPHERD that I get to follow down His path...if I were walking down my own path it wouldn't be quite as adventurous or quite as grand or quite as, well, perfect.

Life with Anniston

 

Ok, how much joy does looking at that beautiful girl give you?  If you are anything like me, A LOT!!!  We are having so much fun with our little one.  So what is she up to these days?

Well, she just started eating.  I admittedly did not want to start on solids...I love how easy it is just to feed her milk.  No messes, no food prep, no dish washing, it's quick and easy...but the fear of the doctor giving me a hard time if I went back at six months and hadn't started feeding her solids outweighed my lack of desire to change our routine, so I reluctantly started solids in time for her to get the hang of it before our next appointment....so here we are day one, attempt one.

Moms- you can tell I didn't know what I was getting myself into- notice she is fully clothed.  The bib will catch all of the liquid cereal, right?  I quickly learned...she now eats in her diaper.

In addition to our new world of solid foods (let's be real, I haven't fully entered the solid food world- we are still at once a day, rice cereal only- I'm dragging my feet here), she is on the move...I have a little area in our living room with her blanket and toys for her to play...

But why oh why would you play with your toys on your blanket, when you can grab on to this metal bar?

So since she is getting so much bigger, I thought it was time to retire her "Small" sleepsack and move up to the "Medium" sleepsack.  Think it fits?  :)

                                                 

I mean really...this is ridiculous.  I could fit in this thing.  This is seriously the next size up?  Well anyway, I get quite a kick out of putting her in this thing for her naps and to go to bed.  

So now that Anniston is so grown up, she is ready to start interacting with Lita.  I have a feeling that she likes Lita more than Lita likes her.  What do you think?

                                     

Is anyone surprised that Anniston loves her Dad?

Well that's it for the updates on Anniston.

A Thankful Heart

One of the things I've been processing lately is what it means to have a thankful heart....because I want one.  I don't want to let a single day go by without giving Him the credit, without recognizing how good and how faithful He is.  Gosh, I'm so thankful that I have a shepherd, a GOOD shepherd that leads me...the thing is, I don't want to be thankful when I get to the destination and finally realize that the shepherd knew where He was leading me all along, that he knew what he was doing, that he had it all under control, that he knew the best way to get me there in the best timing to produce the best results...I want to be thankful TODAY, in the midst of the journey when I don't see the end but I know, I TRUST that it's coming...and it's gonna be great.

I'm in the midst of two journeys.  Well, more than two, but there are two particular ones on my heart today.  One is Jake's job.  I don't know what is going to happen.  I don't know where he will work, what his hours will be, how much income he will make, will he get to do the "ideal" thing he wants to do...I don't know those things...but one thing I do know, we are on a journey and the destination is going to be far better than we can imagine.  So I am thankful today.  I'm thankful for the upcoming interviews.  I'm thankful for every step along the way that leads to His perfect plan.  When I can't see the end, I will be thankful because I know that whatever comes, it's gonna be GREAT!  The other journey I mentioned is the complete healing of a precious little one.  He has spoken it- she will be healed.  I used to come before Him every day like the persistent widow asking for her healing...until one day when I felt it in my heart- the day is coming!  The celebration is upon us!  So now I still come everyday and ask for healing...but I also thank Him.  I thank Him for what he's going to do, because I KNOW it's going to be great, it's going to be miraculous, it's going to be so perfect.  Oh Lord, hasten the day!

5 months!

Anniston is 5 months old today.

What is my 5 month old doing?

She's learning new tricks...

She's sitting in her Bumbo....



She's playing in her bouncer...



She's sitting up in her stroller, watching the world go by...



She has definitely discovered her voice, which seems especially loud in restaurants...this is her admiring her Dad while out to eat.



Again, out to eat, this time she has fallen asleep in her Daddy's arms...

 About to go on a walk...



Playing in our bed while we get ready for the day...



Just looking beautiful....





Speaking of beautiful, our dog, 6 years old, went to the groomer for the first time.  The poor thing was scraggly, matted, dirty, and in desperate need of some grooming...so we took her to get shaved for the summer...Anniston has just discovered Lita and she is fascinated by her.  I think they will be good pals in a few years.



Life is good.  I am grateful today.