8 months old and 4 months from 1

HAPPY WARM 70 degree weather TUESDAY!
      i am so excited about spring and so OVER the winter. i am ready for daffodils and the pool and the sun and shorts and warm nights and windows being open. i think i am going to make a family tradition of buying a 'volcano' candle from anthropology every spring too because there is just something about that crisp smell that makes me think of spring nights. if you have never smelled that candle -go find one. smell it. i treasure these pricey candles so much that i make them last a year anyways.
ok done! spring jackson family tradition- buy a volcano candle. im totally getting ahead of myself because in reality spring is pretty far away still and there is still lots to look forward to in this season. i am so glad stephen is back from his 3 week adventures to vietnam, thailand and japan. i am so glad kiah is over her first cold. it was pitiful with her snot bubbles and cough. but she and i defiantly bonded through it as i held her and had her sleep with me one night while daddy was away from 2-4am. she remained quite happy through it all too. i am so thankful for mom mom and dad who helped me with so much more than they will know. the diapers they bought, the meals they made, the time the invested into kiah; MAN o MAN my mom coming down to charlotte with me to help me get moved back in was incredible. i would have been a mess trying to have everything ready for when stephen got home while juggling sick kiah. thanks to her, we were able to go BIG TIME grocery shopping, i was able to unpack the car, unpack our bags, put everything back were it belonged, clean the apartment, make a welcome home meal, shower and curl my hair, go to the airport to get stephen on my own, take a few hours at our fav bakery to catch up on life before going back to birchroft and kiah. with out my mom...i probably would have been really frustrated. the thing that i couldn't believe was how attached my mom and dad got to kiah while stephen was gone. they both cried their eyes out (and i haven't seen them cry in forever) when they had to say bye. i thought they would be sad but also a little glad to be able to have their free time again but NO. i learned a lot through my parents. they showed me that dishes can wait. messes can wait. play time is fun.
 stephen and i have both agreed that it needs to be a priority to allow our families to be apart of kiahs growing up as much as we can. its the best gift that we could give them.
i am now starting to think about her 1st birthday! its only 4 months away.

butterfly birthday inspiration

party colors

http://www.itsoverflowing.com/2012/02/scrap-fabric-banner-inspiration/

worth it.

      we have escaped from stuart to linville. me, my parents, my brother, his girlfriend, my nephew, and kiah packed our 2 cars full as if we were going away for 4 months and drove up here to our friends mountain house. it has been perfect weather and tons of fun as we have overcome OBSTACLE after OBSTACLE. so, snow came thursday night in the little town of stuart. it set us up for perfect weather up here. fresh powdery fluffy snow. we headed towards boone, nc grabbed a bite to eat a panera bread, bought our groceries and finally around 8:30 pm we reached the gate to where our guest passes would be and...the guard said, "there is nothing under you name. sorry" hmmm, with a tired baby in the car and no cell phone service to reach our friends all we could do was pray for some FAVOR. after some time, the guard gave us a key and let us go. then we got into the house and all the lids on the toilet were off...there was NO WATER. it had been winterized. all we could do was laugh. even though, i don't think anyone actually laughed. around midnight, a plumber came. it has just made the experience even more memorable. the next day we walked out to the snow cover golf courses and sled all day long. we all got sunburnt from the shine off of the white ground. then last night, we set off the fire alarm because i guess we didn't have the fireplace vent open all the way. man O man.
      i got to go out snowboarding by myself this morning and it just felt so amazing. to be alone. on a grand adventure. on the top of a mountain. (sigh) WORTH IT
    i thought to myself 
so so so worth it!
       stephen will be home in 6 days and i can not stop thinking about meeting him again in the airport!  so i need to think out my plans to make the time go by faster...

MONDAY: pack up here and go back to VA
TUESDAY : mommy morning!!! massage from rachels masseuse and alone time
WEDNESDAY: hmmm cook dinner for my friends and family!  LAST DINNER!
 THURSDAY: pack up the car and go back to charlotte with kiah that night
FRIDAY: go to the GYM , grocery shopping, kiahs pediatrician appointment in the afternoon
SATURDAY: 3:45 pm pick up stephen from the airport!!!!

dear stephen. snow in va.

your group! in thailand 

juan with the elephants in thailand

  MY DEAREST STEPHEN,
     it snowed here last night. so dad made a big fire and mom, kiah, dad, and i hung out down by the fire place all night with a glass of wine and watching her play. after this entire week of cold, damp depressing rain...it finally turned into slush and then snow last night. it was really beautiful in the street light. kailer was so excited. the timing is perfect too since mom, dad, eric, amber, kailer and kaih are heading to the mountains to go snowboarding this weekend! there should be double the real snow up there. it has been nice to have this to look forward to to make the time go by while your away. it is so cool that you guys got to ride elephants in thailand. when we get back to charlotte, you will have to tell Faith about that. she loves elephants. so whats, today? FRIDAY. by this time next week kiah and i will be back in charlotte going to her pediatricians app. to check to see if she is still gaining weight. from what i can see, she is. she is getting bigger. her hair is getting longer. her teether are defiantly trying to come in up top. she loves her fruits and likes broccoli and peas and pumpkin and sweet potatoes. gosh, she is just so gorgeous. GOD has been so good to me here. rachel came over the other morning around 10:00, right after i laid kiah down for a nap and she slept so well that we got to really catch up and really talk (which doesn't happen all that often). over tea and grapefruits we talked about her marriage and JEsus and and our families and our husbands and then just sat and soaked in a 17 minute worship song. then kiah woke up and rachel shared a surprise blessing with me. she said next week she wants to send me to her masseuse while she watches kiah and then give me another hour or so to myself after a massage!!!  isn't that fun!!! rachel has really been taking good care of me since i have been here. (like calling me on my parents house number+since i can't really call anyone bc my phone doesn't get any service here unless i walk to the top of the hill at the end of our road.) i'm so excited about that. which will also make the days go by faster. eric and amber have been taking great care of me too. they come over and pop in and out of the house throughout the days and that helps too. kiah loves alvin, ambers little dog. eric has been working out with me and going running with me and doing insanity workouts with me! he has been bringing kailer over to hangout and invited me to go out for sushi or has come over to eat when i am cooking something good. my parents have been amazing too. i don't know how they do it all really. they wake up, play with kiah, go to work, come home, play with kiah, cook, clean, do laundry, play with kiah, help feed her and change her and let me take naps...they are just incredible!!!  all that to say babe, im doing good but i miss you so much!!! i wish we were there with you ridding elephants and running up mountains.

   i love you,
      heather and kiah lily

look

may 29 2012

jan 15th 2013

behind.

oh dear kiah,
i am behind on tracking your life the way i had hoped to before you popped out but back then i had no idea the value that lied inside of every single minute. minutes are precious to me now that you are here. they are precious when you are awake and they are precious when you are asleep. right now, i want to talk to you about the minutes while you sleep. you have been doing EXCELLENT at taking you 10:00 and 2:00 naps. girl, i am so thankful and proud of you. when you nap, i get some of the day to myself. maybe that is where i have let the enemy trickle in and make me think i have "moved away from the LoRD" when the truth is my relationship with HIM is not based on me and i am not climbing a ladder one day closer or one day farther away from HIM. i remain in him and he remains in me. but since you came along kiah lily i crave "ME TIME"
    when you lay down for a nap i am like...ready set go, what can i do?first i have to clean up the mess from all the baby food that got everywhere, then decide what to do? cook? clean? eat? shower? read? write? i can't just run out the door and go on adventures as easily are before. like i said, time is valuable. usually, by the time i put my mind to doing something, you wake up. and then that's hard because i usually miss you a lot by then too and want to hang out with you. i do like hanging out with you kiah. laying on the floor for hours just watching you CRAWL (yes you started crawling a bit before CHRISTMAS) and play with your toys and find tiny little things in the carpet to inspect. your favorite things are plastics cups, plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, tags, diapers. you love sucking on diapers. 
    so you are on your way to becoming 8 months old! YOU...

1. sit up on your own very well now
2. love to say, "babababa"
3. laugh at everything and smile at everyone
4. love fruit and don't really like veggies
5. ARMY CRAWL
6. had you first solid POOP this morning. even your little poop was cute.
7. love the organic baby food that grammy buys in a pouch
8. hate having your face wiped
9. haven't like your pacifier lately
10. love pulling hair
11. miss your daddy
12. love all animals and squeal like a little girl every time you see one

1st real poop

this morning while it was still dark outside i had an incredible moment in the presence listening to hillsongs: lord of lords . gosh, it was the cry of my heart. every word. tears fell. my heart was overflowing with praise for JESUS and it was much needed. that's all i needed. one moment. one song. but, i want more. it's been a cold damp day so that has been a good enough excuse to not go running but i was able to do a 15 min ab exercise from youtube while i waited for you to cry yourself to sleep. you do a great job of that baby girl.

      you are so beautiful kiah. your daddy misses you so much. when he gets back we will celebrate your 8 month birthday. 

well, your awake now...here i come. thanks for taking 2 two hour naps today. KEEP IT UP!

i love you,

    mommy

12 hours difference. 20 days away from hello.

Jan. 7 2013, what a fun way to start the NEW YEAR! Stephen went to Asia.
      3 weeks +Vietnam, Thailand and Japan
     
     Monday @ 4:00am the group flew out. Thank God they made it there safe and sound. so that day just didn't feel real at all. as if it was just a normal day kind of at the last minute before i pulled out of birchcroft to head to VA i met with my friend LAURA YON. it was so great to have her come to town from michigan. what a great friend she is to me. we found each other i target. i will never forget seeing her hold KiAH for the first time.

it was breathtakingly perfect. laura, kiah and i went to the dressing room so i could feed her and i handed kiah over to laura and she just cried. so i just cried. talk about good for BOTH of our hearts. gosh, laura is one of those friends who you don't talk to for months and then when you get together an hour turns into 5 too quickly. oh how i love you laura. http://2009.usdeaflympics.com/sports/athletes/laura-yon-carlsen/ check her out! after long talks, lots a tears over each other stories, a long walk to freedom park and then a sad good bye we finally caught up on what we have missed in each others lives over the last 7 months.
    so since then i have been at my parents house. i spend most of my time cleaning. and make green monster smoothies!
but tonight has been super special. my parent took kiah on a long adventure to martinsville for the past 3 hours and it has been amazing! everyday i have been able to run thanks to them and this evening i have been able to shower, dress, light some candles, roast some tasty chickpeas, get these thoughts out and SIT. REST. BREATH. ahhhh.

    oh jesus, we exalt your name high above the heavens. you reign. oh jesus. oh jesus. oh how i love you. i love your name. i love your presence. i read my old letters to you jesus and i long to be that desperate for you again. thank you so much for your grace. wow, so much grace flows from you heart on over for me that i never have to worry about being separated from you. i am your forever and you are mine forever. i thank you that fear has no place at the sound of your great name. come in closer my jesus. come in closer. take me a little deeper. i need you. ive been in a whirlwind becoming a mommy and i am excited for the season ahead.

   Today, it has been starting to feel real that he is so far away for so long.